Chris "BeachAV8R" Frishmuth starts a new series of articles about the best of the bargain bin. First up is his review of Apache Air Assault / Apache Longbow Assault.

http://www.simhq.com/_air13/air_424a.html

fun article. I wish more sims would have 'little people' in them, even if only around airbases and stuff. really just adds that 'extra something' I think. the low poly kind, the cardboard cutout looking kind, just something so every place doesn't seem like such a ghost town.

Graphics look a lot better than I thought they would, although I have been playing a lot of Jane's stuff lately so my eyes are a little 'behind the times' so to speak.

OMFREAKIN'G! Dude, Chris, you sold me!!!! Searching the Internet right now looking for those puppies! Thanks a bunch!

Good info, nice series... I remember getting that budget game upon release, and really enjoying it... just not telling anyone, lol... it's still in my closet somewhere.

I couldn't spot it - what OS did you play this game on? Need to know if it works on Vista.

Come out of the closet Magnum! And bring your budget games with you!!


I was using Windows XP - I did not try it out on Vista or Windows 7.. If someone does could they report back. You bring up a good point - with 3 heavily used operating systems (XP, Vista, W7) we'll probably start getting more questions about platforms for our articles. I'll try to include that in future articles, or at least mention which platform the game was played on.

Thanks for the comments guys..

BeachAV8R

BTW - One of the best things about this sim are some of the sound effects. While the helo rotor sound could be better (be nice to hear some rotor slapping)..the interesting thing is that they seemed to engineer a proper sound effect based on distance from the explosion. So you'll see the explosion, and then a second later (depending on distance) you'll actually hear the boom. One of the few sims that models that speed of sound. Now..I didn't empirically test it out to see if they are truly modeling the actual speed of sound..but it has a good effect!



One other thing worth mentioning - beware of repackaged versions of Apache Longbow Assault. I've seen it variously packaged as Apache Air Assault 2 and some other things.

BeachAV8R

Good review, glad to see budget software getting some love. I hate to admit it, but a lot of my favorite games are/were budget titles. The Search and Rescue series mentioned in the review is a great series of games and a totally different focus then a combat sim.

-Jenrick

For fans of the Search & Rescue series (of which I'm obviously one!) we did do a "Read It: Do It" article based on the Search & Rescue Vietnam Medevac title about 2 years ago:

http://www.simhq.com/_air10/air_322a.html

Including some gameplay video: http://simhq.tv/downloads/_air_combat/vietnam_med_evac/vietnam.zip



BeachAV8R

Great concept.