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Not all that hot

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 13, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Not all that crazy about it. Same goes for the next one, Wings over Europe. Of all the flight sims I have, the only one I truly enjoy is Microsoft's Flight Simulator Deluxe, and the accelerator makes it truly awesome.

Way too much of an arcade-styled game, and far from the real deal

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 1
Date: April 30, 2008
Author: Amazon User

The main merit of this combat flight sim is actually double:
- it enables any aviation enthusiast to get to fly such rare yet remarkable aircraft as the Intruder, Corsair II or Thunderchief.
- it gets its users to take part in an under-covered air conflict: the Vietnam war.

... but then, that's pretty much it! The terrain rendition is terrible poor. The vibes and buffeting of the A/C structure, which is a nice thing in itself, is at times unrealistic as hell: the whole front cockpit section of an A-6 shakes and vibrates, whereas the fixed refueling probe is perfectly still! Also, aircraft flight modeling is far from realistic. A/C in general, be they on your side or the other's, are way too maneuverable. The ground effect is inexistent. Try to get any of the A/C to stall, for fun: I wish you good luck.

Armed A/C gun shells are too powerful too, with only a few direct hits being necessary to send the opponent into tiny burning shrapnels... The radio chatter becomes quickly a drag.

Obviously, this game uses the same graphic engine as its predessor, Strike Fighters. Although the moves are smooth and fluids, the terrain looks like a flat thing, with hardly any depth rendition at all.

I have found myself regretting having purchased this game. For consolation, I turned back to my good old Lock-On which, after many years of being out there for us, is still so remarkable in many aspects that it still provides me with a sense of pilot fulfillment each time I use it. Go for Lock-On instead of Wings Over Vietnam.

JUST OK...............................

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: March 14, 2008
Author: Amazon User

I think the game overall is ok but it should have a tutorial which it doesn't. If you've never played a flight sims before I think you might have a problem........My game doesn't allow me to continue if i die.....i have to start all over and reopen the game.Over all I would give this game 2 stars and a half.......It's just not worth 29.95.....If it drops to 19.99 buy it......the graphics are good though.

Super flight sim....needs better manual.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: August 08, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The graphics and gameplay for this one are great. The flight model really seems to have the 'ring of truth'. Very good in terms of options to "fine tune" the difficulty of the game to suit individual tastes. Only complaint is the manual...not enough info in terms of advice on how to successfully complete mission with the aircraft/weapons in the game (e.g., how to employ air-to-ground ordnance effectively in an F-4).

FUN

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 0
Date: July 23, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Very fun game. A little old compared to the newer flight sims, but the graphics are really good, almost great and the gameplay is really fun. If you are looking for a not so complicated flight sim that you can just get into the air and start flying, killing stuff and having fun, then this is the perfect game.

Best sim in the series

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: March 08, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I just want to add some details beyond what some have already said:

Wings Over Vietnam was the second of a series of combat flight sims based on the same core engine with an architecture very open to user modifications. The series is intended to provide a modern equivalent to Jane's Fighters Anthology via its fun gameplay and a large variety of flyable aircraft. The aircraft, weapons, and terrains are interchangeable between the various games in the series, which currently includes: the original Strike Fighters Project 1, its European market refresh Strike Fighters Gold, Wings Over Vietnam, Wings Over Europe, and First Eagles.

Over the years, countless user addons have been created. Addons available include hundreds of aircraft, several terrains, weapons, and much more. Most of the addons are completely free to download. Someone new to this series will be overwhelmed by all of the options availble. Instead of trying to download the many addons to enhance the realism and detail of Wings Over Vietnam, you can buy the payware addon Yankee Air Pirate. This addon provides very detailed historical missions which incorporates many of the available addons plus some new aircraft and ground objects available only through this addon.

Each time a new game is released, patches are released to bring the other games up to the same core engine version level so that any features added to the new game are available in the older games. For example, Wings Over Vietnam added aircraft carrier operations and Wings Over Europe added 3d clouds, now both of those features are possible in a fully patched installation of Strike Fighters Project 1 which originally had neither of those features.

So, besides being fun and fairly realistic, this sim series has the advantage of expanding every year with the full support of the original developer and a devoted group of modders. The latest release, First Eagles, officially expanded this sim series into WWI biplanes. User addons cover WW2 and Korea since the rest of the games focus on jets from the 1960s and 1970s.

There is simply no better sim for recreating Vietnam air combat and no better combat flight sim series covering aircraft from WWI to the present.

Wings over Vietnam

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: January 11, 2007
Author: Amazon User

For the most part this was a great product, unfortunately the flight patterns of the AI are so erratic that the game becomes nearly unplayable. In every instance it seemed that the AI pilot deliberatly set up for maximal deflection, making the geometry completely untenable. Of course that may be that I didn't put enough hours in on it, but I'm spoiled by Falcon 4.0 : )

Graphics: Awesome.
Stability: Awesome.
Modabiltiy: Very Good.
Concept: Awesome.
Campaign: Acceptable (no real ground attack in historical context).
Actual Gameplay: Annoying.

Wings Over Vietnam

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 9 / 9
Date: August 21, 2006
Author: Amazon User

At first you don't know where to start, I mean it has so many options that you don't know where to begin. But this flight sim is very user friendly. I've played with prop sims for a long time I felt it was time for a change. The forums for this flight sim is very usefull too. The members there are only too happy to help you in any endevers about this flight sim. They also have a very good subject about on getting started if the manual that comes with the flight sim seems to complicated. Installing the sim is quite self explanitory too. That's why I give this flight sim a high rating because of its easy installation and dedicated players that can help you out in any situation at the forum's. I never had to contact customer support for this item. The graphics are good, sounds are so life like, and it can get intense at times flying in enemy territory. But the bottom line is just plain out having fun, that is if you like flight sims. But at the same time it gives you an idea on how much it was like back then. So you could say it's educational too, on just how brave our pilots were then and now.By the way, did I mention with this sim you could add skins to your aircraft? Also missions and objects that didn't come with the sim? And you can also create a mission and a campane from scratch too. Theres also extra aircrafts that you can add-on for free ( at the forums ). So this sim has hours and hours of fun and adventure to boot. I hope this information is usefull, Best Regards, Archer Onouye

Read the manual, dudes!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 11 / 11
Date: July 08, 2006
Author: Amazon User

It's a shame to run down this game just because you can't / don't want to read. No wonder your plane doesn't stall if the model's set at easy. Same for always-hitting missiles. Try hard and your plane will stall with every hard pull on the joystick... and you will be thankful for the gunpod after your missiles missed their target.
The missions are too long? Hit alt-N.
All the things you don't like about this game are a matter of setting it up / use it correctly. Ok, the graphics can't be improved, but they're not that bad.
I won't write out what I like about this simulation - just read the other 5- and 4-star reviews.
I just want to point out the few downsides I consider a pitty:

- The manual is a bit too short when it comes to radar and weapon useage. I still don't know if you can lock on ground targets, and if so - how, if not: what's the radar good for and what about the radar-guided air-to-ground missiles?
- Wingmen are kind of useless.
- A list about which squadron flies which aircraft could be helpful when starting a campaign.
- Did you really get no replacement for shot down pilots in your squadron??
- all told the immersion could be better. movie-clips (what about a game-intro at all?!!), greater briefings, something else than just a screen saying "the campaing is over"...

--- by the way: please email me if you have some good bombing-techniques. it's hard to find anything about this game in the net.

not very stimulating simulation

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 6 / 14
Date: June 22, 2006
Author: Amazon User

"Wings Over Vietnam" is a lackluster survey sim that kept the Rotten Review guessing - mostly shifting from extreme fun to extreme disappointment. WOVN uses the tried-yet-not-quite-true flight-sim engine pioneered in "Strike Fighters: Project 1", a visually stunning display of cold-war era fighter jets at war. WOVN would fill the wide gap in flight sims unoccupied by even half-way definitive attempts to depict the air war over Viet Nam. However, in its attempts to be a lite-flight-sim, WOVN kills virtually any attempt to make a good try of that particular conflict.

"Saigon; I was back in Saigon."
WOVN allows you to fly for either the big air services at work flying combat from the Yankee end - fly for either the USAF or the Navy (including the Marines). The game allows you to fly missions in the markings of any of a number of airforces, or fly "careers" for the USAF or USN. In its stock form, however, you cannot fly for the enemy. Flyable aircraft are those that can be expected by anybody who's read the slightest about Viet Nam - the Crusader, Phantom, Skyhawk or Intruder for the USN (or Marines); Thunderchiefs, Super Sabres and more Phantoms for the USAF. The flight-sim engine here is very flexible, allowing for tweaking and modding by a dedicated community of SFP1/WOVN fliers for whom "Falcon:AF" offers either nothing or too much. Thus, WOVN amounts to MS/CFS for fans of supersonic air combat - a virtually open source simulator as flexible to the needs of simmers as the effort that those simmers are willing to expend to mod it. Want to try other "century series" fighters? If somebody's done it, you can fly it. South Vietnamese fighters like the F-5? And while you're at it, why stop at 1969 - go for an F-14, maybe even an F-16. You can add planes to MS Combat Flight Simulator, but that game doesn't allow for smart weapons or much in avionics. Graphics are gorgeous - with Phantoms in both USAF camo, and USN gull-grey; Super Sabers in natural metal; Control surfaces move; weapons like rockets and missiles are satisfyingly fiery, as is in the end of anything they hit. However, all that flexibility and accessibility comes with a price.

"The horror, the horror...it ain't that scary".
WoVN is hobbled by its stalwart unwillingness not to challenge those who play it. Aerodynamics are simple - planes don't stall, and maneuver pretty much as you'd like them to. This isn't just dumbed-down, but positively brain-dead. Would it have taken that much to give us at least recoverable spins? Instead, the jets of WoVN are cooperative - each carries gobs of excess thrust, and benignly maintains altitude during prolonged ACM, allowing Phantoms, Crusaders & Super Sabers the ability to duke it out "F-16 Style". Take-offs and landings are a snap, even those on aircraft carriers - would it have been that difficult to model at least challenging carrier "traps" like those in the "Jetfighter" series? And weapons? Forget all that talk of the Sparrow missile as a cranky underperformer that required the launching aircraft to maintain constant illumination of targets it couldn't hit anyway; the Sparrows of WoVN can hit whatever they're pointed at, even if you're not (pointed at them, that is) - basically, these are 1990's fire-and-forget AIM-120's dressed up as cold-war era SARH AIM-7's. To give some balance though, the Sparrow was theoretically effective against non-maneuvering bombers - and if the MiG-21's and -17's that fought our fighters in VN were as non-maneuvering as the ones in the game, then even the real Sparrows might have stood a better chance. While Migs in WoVN may get into some serious dogfighting, those at stand-off distances will do their own impression of "The Light Brigade" and gamely charge into your waiting missiles. The internals are also a mixed bag - systems aren't comprehensively modeled. I liked how the pad-lock fleshed out the interiors of each plane - but nothing inside actually works. Guages and screens are mostly for show. Targeting data and your vital flight data are represented by simplified readouts (course, speed, alt) at different ends of the screen. Early on, I grew confused as to which of the two data streams represented my plane. In the end, their both just numbers, as opposed to analog gauges that are easier to read using peripheral vision. There's something wrong about a flight sim that defies even the laws of simulated physics; as much, there's something wrong with a simulation of combat that's so eager to please.

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