Mig Alley- Full length episode. Mig Alley is Rowan Software's latest foray into the simulator market. Their last sim, Flying Corps Gold, set the standard for WWI Air. MiG Alley is a historical simulation which focuses on early jet fighter combat in the Korean War - specifically, the so-called MiG Alley in northwestern. Feb 09, 2018 In the early 1950s, epic battles unfolded in the skies over North Korea as American and Russian fighters.

Let's get down to brass tacks: is the best flight sim of the year. In fact, it's among the best flight sims of any year. It's a solid sim with a vivid historical background, sleek gameplay, and one of the best dynamic campaigns since Digital Integration's classic Tornado. Is set in the Korean War, which will probably elicit a big 'so what?' From most people.

I suspect The Korean War ranks second only to the Crimean War on the scale of Least Sexy World Conflicts. But students of aviation history know that this was arguably one of the most significant moments for air combat since it began in World War I. The Korean War fell across the cusp between propeller driven aircraft and jet engines, a transition that changed the nature of aviation forever.

Suddenly, aircraft had more power than they knew what to do with. Previous limits on speed, altitude, and maneuverability were shattered. Furthermore, the way was paved for missiles to enter the fray. But not until the North Koreans, Chinese, and Russians had one last duel with the Americans, and fought with good old-fashioned bullets. This is one of the main reasons for MiG Alley's considerable charm. Although it's mainly a jet sim, it's an up-close-and-personal jet sim.

You simply keep an eye out for the other guy and shoot him with your guns. You don't have to master any radar modes or missile launch parameters.

You won't be getting any of those coldly removed BVR (beyond visual range) kills. You can tone the realism levels down to make it a simple point and shoot game, a sort of 'Hot Time in the Cold War Tonight' first person shooter with wings. Although this makes MiG Alley an ideal candidate for the I-just-want-to-blow-stuff-up crowd, there are enough realism settings to also make it a bear-and-a-half for the hardcore realism crowd. Early jets were twitchy birds, giddy with their newfound freedom from gravity. At full realism, MiG Alley demands a gentle hand: you must come to the flight model, it will not come to you. But once you're in the groove, it feels fluid and smooth. The game offers great visual and aural cues as you approach the limits of an aircraft's capability.

Mig

Unlike some games that suddenly send you into a fatal spin or unexpected stall, you know when you're pushing your luck in MiG Alley. When you depart controlled flight (the polite and technically correct term for losing control), you'll be kicking yourself because you saw it coming and didn't let up. The developers of MiG Alley, Rowan, have been notorious for unconventional viewing systems. But they've finally settled on a system in MiG Alley that offers a number of different options to help you keep track of your target in a dogfight.

Although it's still unconventional, it's a flexible and powerful mix of sticky and scrolling views, internal and external views, padlocking targets, and helpful HUD displays. There's even a radar disk identical to the one from the space combat game Elite that works wonders for establishing three-dimensional situational awareness. And it's particularly helpful that you can pause the game at any time to take a look around. MiG Alley has great AI, both friendly and enemy.

There's a comprehensive radio menu that allows you to interact with your squadron in any number of situations. When you encounter enemy aircraft, your squadron will even present you with a list of possible tactics and ask you which one you'd like them to use.

The degree of interaction with friendly planes successfully creates the illusion of flying with living breathing wingmen, which comes to life even more during pilot management in the dynamic campaign. The enemy AI is good not because it's so difficult to beat, but because it varies so much. Sometimes you'll go up against untrained North Korean pilots, but there's also the danger of MiGs flown by Russians who knew how to press their aircraft's capabilities to their advantage.

Unlike some sims, the AI seems to draw from a big bag of tricks (if I had a nickel for every split-S the AI pulled in European Air War.). This also means that sometimes it does the exact wrong thing.

But MiG Alley is among the latest generwation of games (Unreal Tournament, SWAT 3) that teaches us that AIs don't need to be more precise, but more human and therefore sometimes fallible. There's a great damage model that offers not only visual feedback (you can clip wings, rip holes into a fuselage, or hit an oil line and cause a trail of black smoke), but also has a corresponding effect on handling. It's a real pleasure to hobble your target before you kill him, unlike some sims where an airplane flies perfectly until you administer the killing blow. Similarly, it's immensely rewarding to land a damaged bird after nursing it through the tense flight home.

MiG Alley makes a historical effort to model ground attacks. Since the North Koreans and their Chinese and Russian cohorts weren't always eager to engage in air to air combat, UN aircraft were often used as close air support for ground troops. In MiG Alley, you can drop napalm on columns of infantry, fire rockets at tanks, or bomb bridges. There's a targeting diamond to help you, but it's far more fun to interact with the forward air controller, a spotting aircraft that lingers over the target and marks it with smoke rockets to help you find it. There are some fine graphics effects when it comes to the rocket effect, the shockwaves from the explosions, and the scattering infantry. Rowan can be forgiven the goofy napalm effect, which looks like a polygonal explosion from Quake II.

Mig Alley Game

The ground attacks alternate between being tedious (lining up a rocket shot is like using a BB gun to shoot at ants in a shag carpet) and deadly (anti-aircraft fire can be murderous, especially when your escorts can't keep enemy aircraft off your butt). Although it doesn't approach the thrill of dogfighting, Rowan should be commended for including full-fledged air-to-ground combat for anyone who prefers the vagaries of ground pounding to the clean precision of dogfighting in the open sky.

There are four canned campaigns designed to walk players through a career with a particular aircraft, but the fifth campaign is fully dynamic. MiG Alley is the second effort we've seen this year at modeling a dynamic campaign on the Korean peninsula. But it's the first successful effort. Unlike Falcon 4.0's mystifying and buggy campaign, MiG Alley works like you'd expect it to, with just as much detail and activity. Although the manual is awfully shy with campaign info, there's a lot of online context-sensitive help available on the map and mission planning screens. The wealth of detail in the game is deliciously intimidating, although there's always a handy question mark nearby you can click to spell out anything you may not understand.

Once you're ready to really get your hands dirty with all the minutiae, MiG Alley lets you take command of as much or as little detail as you like. This is really what makes MiG Alley such a great sim. Rowan has finally marshaled all their experience and know-how to make a game that plays the way you want it to play. Air-to-air combat?

Ground attacks? Ultra realistic? Arcade action?

Gunship 3 Heroes Of Mig Alley

Canned missions? Dynamic campaign? Lone wolf dogfighting? Squadron teamwork? Come on down to MiG Alley and fly it your way. Tom Chick. 7 Presentation Some sleepy shell screens are more than made up for with a comprehensive mission planner.

But the cockpit graphics aren't terribly immersive, relying more on an info bar along the screen's bottom. 8 Graphics Detailed aircraft that can suffer any number of visible damage effects make dogfighting a real joy. The ground attacks are sprinkled with plenty of special effects. 7.5 Sound It's a little quiet in the cockpit (rightfully so) and the guns won't exactly rattle your teeth (again, rightfully so), but the effect of a jet flying by will put a grin on anyone's face. 9 Gameplay MiG Alley hits that sweet spot between the extremes of complexity and simplicity, realism and playability, history and fun.

Whether you're a hard-core simmer or a neophyte, this game will satisfy. 10 Lasting Appeal Nothing like a fully dynamic campaign to keep you coming back for more.

Mig Alley is simulation from the creator of Flying Corps. Set during the Korean War, it lets you command P-51 Mustangs and F-86 Sabrejets against the MiG-15's and MiG-17's. You can plan solely as a pilot and fly your missions, or be the 'air boss' and plan/execute the air war along the entire Korean front.

There are multiple aircraft to master, from props to jets. A wide variety of missions are featured, from dogfights and sweeps to close air support and bombing runs. Do well and you'll SEE results from your efforts reflected in the dynamic campaign. Online players can join multiplayer dogfights of up to 12 players. At times there are up to 100 aircraft in the air simultaneously.

All terrain graphics and topography are based on actual photos (aerial or satellite). You can customize your plane's paint job with the built-in paintshop.