if so...i'd love to hear first impressions etc..

Yesterday was the shipping day, not the release date. It will be available in the US on July 14th.

Mine is in the mail. Ordered from GraphSim store. Arriving today hopefully.

Give us your impressions ASAP please .

I received my copy at my office a few minutes ago. Damn work!
Oh, wait a minute... I started feeling sick...

As soon as I can go home and install it I will give you some impressions.

cant you just install it and play during lunch?

No m8, I have a Macintosh and a control-freak boss at work.
Last night I installed and got my first impressions on it. I played only 1 hour, so my perspective is totally incomplete and even it could be wrong in many aspects.
My rig:
AMD 1.33 GHz
512 MB DDR RAM
ATI Radeon 9000 128 MB
Myself:
Played before: Jane's F/A 18 for only 4 hours maybe
Played before: F/A 18 PSF for only 2 hours
(My point is that I am not a Hornet specialist as many as you are; I play Falcon 4.0 and Flanker 2.5 a lot)

-Insallation was long as hell.
-The user interface has been changed, more adequate to the 21st century
-The intro video starts with President Bush addressing the nation about the start of hostilities in Iraq. Then there is a slide show with gorgeous pictures on carrier ops.
-The menu (you surely have seen it) is very simple. No campaign! As with F/A 18 PSF.
-I flyed all the training missions. It runs smooth as a baby's back in my rig. The desert terrain adds a lot of immersion because the rivers and other geographical features look very authentic. The different colors of the water are remarkable. Thumbs up for the terrain. Surprisingly, low flying doesn't degrade the terrain appearance as much as I should have thought. Enjoyable.
-The F/A 18 from outside view: looks significantly better than in PSF. The paint color has been modified and looks better now. I still have to tweak anisotropic filtering in my card. BTW, the game ships with DX 9.0.
-The views have been modified a bit, specially the ones that you use in combat. As far as I could see there are not labels option, so I better start fighting like a man. There is something I alwasys liked in PSF and it is better now: you spot missile launchs with ease (SAMs or AAMs). Maybe is the sky or the desert terrain, I don't know but I love it. I am a bit confused on how to padlock missiles, the key is not listed as such (as the old Ctrl-F4), but you can padlock air and ground targets. That's the way I spoofed some SAMs and AAMs. The missiles are no joke as in PSF. But my training in F4 and F2.5 paid off!
-The 3-D cockpit: what did they mean with 3-D? Maybe I am not using it right, but my concept of 3-D cockpit is a bit different. Compared with PSF: you now press F1 and you get the old PSF 1 view. Then now you press F1 again and you can see a both the MFDs and the map display in the same view (as if you were looking downward). This is it. Maybe I am missing something here.
-Carrier ops: The carrier appears to be moving now because I could see a trail in the water. Two or three destructors are scorting the carrier. The deck appeared to be desert in the training missions and in the first mission I played. I was enjoying it so much that I could be overlooking something new there.
Overall impression:
At least for me it is worth the money. It delivered what it promised. Graphics have been improved from PSF. They don't look as LOMAC of IL-2FB but I can't care less. Everything looks polished enough to be a keeper for me. Having played only a bit of the two sims mentioned before, is difficult for me to compare. But for some reason I foresee myself playing this one more than the two previous ones.
So, this is it for now. I am looking forward to get back home and play again.

Nice review Chelco. That's good news about the terrain. I was afraid it would look like crap down low. Looks like I'll probably buy this one when it hits the stores here.

Thanks! The 3D cockpit should work though . I guess this version is lacking a key reference manual as well? The 3D cockpit should allow to pan around the view. I think the key layout is on the CD as a pdf file.
You said there is no campaign. I think they said they have a series of single missions which are the campaign, around 30 or so. But i think they are going to add a real campaign later.

Can you please post some nice screenshots?

Btw, how is the sound?

Yeah, I was a bit dizzy yesterday when I loaded the sim (12:30 am). I think I will learn more in the next load. Also, I didn't have the chance to see the manual in detail. Is around 130 pages, very printer-friendly and has some good readings about the F/A18 and air combat in general.
The key layout is in the cover of the jewel case. Maybe too in the manual.
Regarding the campaign, well I don't care too much. I am just convinced that the campaign in F4.0SP3 will not be repeated never. The missions in F/A18OIF sound good, but this is from just reading the briefing. I flyed only one which was to destroy Iraqis UAVs bonded for Kuwait city. It was a blast! More challenges are ahead (there were not enemies in this mission).
The enemy AI looks very aggressive (in a training mission) and works the vertical plane with skill. My usual trick of the scissors maneuver failed to put the bandit in my 12. Looking forward to get the little ******* again in a match.
Regarding screenshots: How do you take them? I will also need a host.

Chelco:

Thanks so much for your review. You answered almost all my questions in advance. Thanks for taking time out from your new game to clue us in, it was a very nice thing to do.

Only question I have, and it's not a really important one. Are the control surfaces on the airplane animated ? I.E. do they now move ?

Boy howdy I'm psyched about this title now. Will call EB on the 14th, and shag @$$ down there and get me one.

Thanks again.

Hoo-ah!

Cannot coment about the sound because I was using some very lousy headphones last night.
Other thing: the mission editor looks almost the same than in F/A 18 PSF. However, it now shows the actuall terrain. I was hoping new capabilities like triggers. Not there.

Ah!
There is an in-game FPS counter, the "`" key. Guess what value shows ALL THE TIME? Yep, 20 indeed. How do they do that? I wasn't able to catch ANY SINGLE stutter or hicup.
Another nice touch: the cockpit shudders when you are in those maneuvers that stress your aircraft.
Another nice touch: if you change the HUD color, the glass becames slightly stained in the color of the HUD as when you point a laser in a piece of glass.
Another nice touch: I don't know how to explain this, but I have seen it in real footage of the Hornet taken from a camera mounted in the helmet of the pilot. When the real pilots roll their aircraft, their heads keep vertical for some time (not following the movement of the cockpit). In this way you see from the camera like the cockpit alone is rolling for some time. I think than when you roll the aircraft in OIF this kind of thing is imitated, not to a great degree, but the cockpit starts rolling a bit before than the camera.

Well, now some bad things, thing I am not sure will be questions:
-You cannot zoom the maps during briefing?
-The briefing doesn't allow you to modify waypoints?
-Low scalabiltiy: only three graphic options (low, medium, high), only three realism options.
-No fly-by view. I love that view, dang!
-zooming your view works very well, but it takes too much time. In the heat of the battle, you know...

Porkchop: I think the control surfaces are animated. Let me double check. I am sure about the flaps and elevators. Not sure about aleirons and air-brake (this last thing I couldn't find the key for last night).

I want to say another word about graphics. Let's face it, this is not LOMAC or IL2. But I can imagine the Jane's naysayers claiming Jane's graphics are better. I have loaded Jane's F/A 18 many times in the past just to see what was so great about them. And I couldn't find anything outstanding about Jane's F/A 18 graphics. I think that this sim has better graphics than Jane's, at least the unmodded, out-of-the-box version I do have. I mean that graphics shouldn't be a reason to keep a Jane's fan out of F/A 18 OIF. Now regarding realism in avionics and in weapons delivery systems, well, I am not an specialist and I welcome the discussion.

You mean head movement . I like that too. Can you post some screenshots?
How many training missions are there and what about the missions which are meant to be the campaign or something similar to a scripted campaign. I guess there is also a tour of duty and the game isn't only about flying training missions.

Btw, how difficult are carrier landings and is there some traffic on the deck?

Head movement, that's what I meant. Be aware that is kind of small in OIF, but I could see it! I don't think it was the result of the beers I had during installation.
Regarding screenshots, I don't know how to take them, and I also gonna need a host.
Regarding the campaign, there is none. There is a directory with a lot of missions that you play in any order you want. Yeah, there are more than training missions .
Carrier landings: already scored 2! You have to call the ball and the LSO will lead you into the deck. I was a bit nervous and I didn't call the ball but I could land safely. Difficult? Yes, at least for me. But I think that all these years of simming are paying off, man.
Traffic in the deck? I couldn't see. The first carrier landing was in a training mission. The second was returning from the mission that I mentioned before. After hooking in the deck I just jumped out of my chair and wanted to smoke a cigarette. I didn't pay attention. I will tell you later.

The missiles look OK too. A bandit escaped from one of my AIM-120s just by running away. I saw the missile to lost thrust and desperatly trying to glide to get in target. It finally went down and exploded seconds later. It was my fault, I launched it from a lower altitude than the bandit. That's how good I am!

What about the AI? Are they any good?

For screenshots, use the "Screensaver" tool or hit the print key and go to paint and insert them (crtl+v). But the print key works only with one screenshot at a time. I recomment a real screenshot tool. I think the latest version Fraps makes screenshots too.

The enemy's AI: I want to check them in more "controlled experimental conditions". Thank God for the mission editor!
So far, in the training mission I played, the enemy AI pilot was agressive enough to put me to think carefully my next move. As soon I took him off my six (had to spoof a couple of missiles and gun bursts from him) he started using the vertical plane. This is the kind of maneuvering I hate while being in an F/A18. I don't know, I don't manage my energy very well in any of the F/A 18 sims (will have to practice). After around 5 minutes in the fight I could force him into my plane by making him "think" I was disengaging and leaving the fight. When he started chasing me, I cutted the throtle (wanted to brake too, but couldn't find the key) and we engaged in a marvelous "out of a textbook" scissors duel. As soon as he started loosing advantage he zoomed out and then I quited the mission (enough for a taste about the AI, I tought).
I will try what you said about the screenshots. When I get home.

Chelco,

great work mate...very useful for us who dont have it yet...the carrier may not actually be moving even if it trails white-water..psf was the same..but it's not a biggie for me.

im really interested to know if the control surfaces are animated...rudder, airbrake, and also wheels rotating on rollout?

Good on ya mate...

Agree about the carrier. I flyed by the carrier at very low speed with a vector perpendicular to the supposed carrier's path. Appears to be inmobile in that way. Sorry.
Animated surfaces:
Rudder: will check
wheels rotating: will check, unlikely the case I tell ya because they don't turn when taxiing.
airbrake: couldn't find the damn key for it.

Nice story Chelco .

That the carrier is stationary is a bit weird cause i thought Jets need a moving carrier in order to have enough wind over the deck for take off and landing.

I don't care about moving wheels cause that is something for the screenshot brigade and eye candy fanatics. If the FM is plausible, the visuals good enough for a sense of flight and good AI, i am a happy camper. I wanna fly air planes and not watch at animated wheels and air brakes .