In fact, the major reason that Gunship! should be considered a flight action game is that its strengths parallel those of a good first-person shooter: It looks pretty, and it's easy to blow things up. The terrain is particularly impressive, and it conveys a great sense of being airborne. While Gunship! has serious realism problems, it has absolutely gorgeous graphics. This will cause crash after crash for experienced helicopter-sim pilots because collective control is so instinctive. The collective (akin to the throttle in a jet) cannot be reversed, so the helicopter must be flown like an airplane. Besides the unrealistic weapons and flight model, there is the awkward view panning, which through either fault or design is so slow as to be virtually useless. There are a million things about Gunship! that will annoy veteran helo-sim pilots. This is apparently in keeping with the game's focus, which seems squarely aimed at producing a fun fly-around, shoot-'em-up experience.
The 30mm cannon on the Apache can shred enemy tanks on even the toughest setting, and in general all the weapons seem too deadly. Even on the most realistic settings, the weapons are incredibly effective. The game's weapons modeling is even more lightweight. Fortunately, the training missions are very good, and novice pilots should have no trouble getting into the game quickly.
Gunship iii manual#
The manual spends very little time on avionics and a lot of time on flying instructions, which seems appropriate given that the avionics are clearly watered down. The game is also extremely tolerant of rough landings, which is further evidence that it is aimed at accommodating more-casual pilots. Helicopters in Gunship! are extremely sensitive to control input, which makes it far too easy to oversteer. The easiest mode barely resembles a rotary-wing aircraft, and even realistic mode leaves a great deal of leeway for mistakes. There are three flight modes: easy, enhanced, and realistic. Unfortunately, in the case of the flight model, the simplifications will cause serious frustration among those who know how helicopters should fly. In short, keyboard function in Gunship! is intermittent rather than reliable.Įverything about Gunship! is clearly designed to give inexperienced flight-simulation players the least possible fuss, although the absence of takeoffs in the campaign (all missions start with you already airborne) seems excessive. The autopilot also doesn't consistently respond to some commands, and that goes for other keystrokes as well. You can play as the pilot or as the gunner, although when playing as the gunner it's necessary to use the autopilot, which has a tendency to crash the aircraft. Gunship! gives you the chance to fly the AH-64 Apache, the Eurocopter Tiger, and the Mi-28 Havoc in a variety of single-mission or campaign modes. In fact, if you're into hard-core simulations, you'll find that Gunship! has absolutely nothing to offer you except a big headache, and there are less expensive ways of getting one of those. However, nothing about Gunship! will appeal to hard-core flight-simulation fans. The box boasts of "selectable play modes for the pure Sim fanatics and Action addicts," but this is only true in the most technical sense. While Gunship! is nominally a flight simulator, it's really a flight action game. For a game that's supposed to be the final installment of a venerable series, it's about as anticlimactic as possible. The new Gunship! was originally entitled Gunship III, but despite its name, the game preserves little of the spirit of its predecessors.
Both sims were quite advanced for their time and took flight simulation to new levels. Five years later, MicroProse released Gunship 2000. The original game was designed by Sid Meier and Andy Hollis and was released by MicroProse way back in 1986. To provide additional power, the AC-119K also had two underwing-mounted jet engines.Īs the war came to a close, the USAF transferred its AC-119Gs and AC-119Ks to the South Vietnamese Air Force.Ĭlick here to return to the Gunships Overview."Gunship" is a legendary name in the flight-sim community. Armed with four 7.62mm miniguns and two 20 mm cannons, the AC-119K carried many of the same sophisticated sensors as the larger AC-130. The first combat mission took place in November 1969. Armed with four 7.62mm miniguns and additional sensors, the Shadow gunship was more capable than its Spooky predecessor.ĪC-119K Stinger crews destroyed trucks on the Ho Chi Minh Trail and performed close air support, especially during large enemy offenses. The AC-119G Shadow replaced the AC-47, and it entered combat in January 1969 with the 71st Special Operations Squadron. The Gunship III program had two versions, the AC-119G Shadow and the AC-119K Stinger. With few C-130s available for gunship conversion, the Air Force turned to the Korean War-era C-119 transport.
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