Janes Attack Squadron (flight combat simulator)

[DZNUTZ]

Xicat Interactive is very happy to announce that they have reached an agreement with Jane’s Information group, the leading authority on Military information. Xicat Interactive will be the sole Licensor of the name Jane’s and use of Jane’s abundant Library of resources.

Xicat will continue the excellent heritage of military games left off from Electronic arts with titles already in the pipeline that will accurately and fully capture the realism and drama of military conflict.

Steve Brown, Director of European Sales said… “This I believe adds even more weight to our claims that we intend to be a serious player within the Interactive Games Arena. Jane’s is by far the biggest license to be working with in the field of Combat simulations and with a developer like Mad Doc alongside for the first title I am sure we have the first hit of many in this exciting new partnership.”

Xicat Interactive is very happy to announce that they have reached an agreement with Jane’s Information group, the leading authority on Military information. Xicat Interactive will be the sole Licensor of the name Jane’s and use of Jane’s abundant Library of resources.

Xicat will continue the excellent heritage of military games left off from Electronic arts with titles already in the pipeline that will accurately and fully capture the realism and drama of military conflict.

Steve Brown, Director of European Sales said… “This I believe adds even more weight to our claims that we intend to be a serious player within the Interactive Games Arena. Jane’s is by far the biggest license to be working with in the field of Combat simulations and with a developer like Mad Doc alongside for the first title I am sure we have the first hit of many in this exciting new partnership.”



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The game is set for a release on the PC shortly, and the Xbox verion is slated for September of this year.


http://www.teamxbox.com/news.php?id=2884

DZ- not really my bag baby...but maybe some of u other xba's might have interest

[Kraft]

'bout freakin time. but like I said before, you'd have to get a joystick to make this game fun, it would suck with the normal controller.

[JJaX]

i love flight sims. But im not big on that time Era. If there werer modern fighter jets i would have to peep this out.

F-22 by DID Is my current favorite flight sim.

[Xtopia]

I love ALL flight sims! Military or recreational sims, makes no difference.

[FlyBoy]

Jane's makes some awesome airplane recognition books, but I don't know about incorporating it into a combat flight sim. I still use Flight Sim 2000 Pro on my comp. Its kinda like flying the real thing. I'll keep an eye out for this one, but I doubt it will be much of a hit (especially considering most people have never even heard of Jane's).

THANKS FOR THE HEADS UP!

[l Maximus l]

Originally posted by FlyBoy
Jane's makes some awesome airplane recognition books, but I don't know about incorporating it into a combat flight sim. I still use Flight Sim 2000 Pro on my comp. Its kinda like flying the real thing. I'll keep an eye out for this one, but I doubt it will be much of a hit (especially considering most people have never even heard of Jane's).

THANKS FOR THE HEADS UP!

Man, I was wondering when you were going to reply to this! lol

[FlyBoy]

Originally posted by Maximus


Man, I was wondering when you were going to reply to this! lol

HAHA... I was chillin' over in the Off Topic Lounge.

[Huckleberry]

i'm intruiged by this and some of the other flight sims slated for xbox, but i have yet to see a decent console flight sim. i sure hope this rocks.

hey, flyboy...i'm about 1/4 done with my pursuit of my private license. then, hopefully in a few years, there'll be a 80% scale wwii fighter in my future!

[l Maximus l]

I understand that there is a bad ass flight simulator on PS2. I hear that it is an F-15 Fighter jet type game. I don't recall the name, however, I heard that it's awesome.

It's not that I truly care because I don't own a PS2, but, I hope that this game does for the XBox what I have heard what this other game does for the PS2.

[FlyBoy]

Originally posted by Huckleberry
i'm intruiged by this and some of the other flight sims slated for xbox, but i have yet to see a decent console flight sim. i sure hope this rocks.

hey, flyboy...i'm about 1/4 done with my pursuit of my private license. then, hopefully in a few years, there'll be a 80% scale wwii fighter in my future!

Thats awesome man! Keep it up and make sure you practice those landings! If you ever have questions about anything with your flying, flight planning, anything... just IM me or hit me up with a PM.

BTW, what 80% scale WW2 fighter do you speak of? HEHE, you'll probably have to pick up a few more ratings after your private certificate (high performance rating-for anything over 200 horse power, complex rating-for retractable landing gear, etc.). Fill me in, I'm interested.

[Xtopia]

Dude Flyboy! Couple months ago I told you that I was going to start flying...well I have logged 3 hours in a Cessna 172. It is sweet! Im only 14 so I cant solo till im 16 but flying is awesome!

[Hugh_Jass]

I thought Janes went out of business. Maybe I'm thinking of somebody else.

[FlyBoy]

Originally posted by xtopia
Dude Flyboy! Couple months ago I told you that I was going to start flying...well I have logged 3 hours in a Cessna 172. It is sweet! Im only 14 so I cant solo till im 16 but flying is awesome!

Oh yeah man! HAHA, I have an official co-pilot... thats badass! I remember you were saying you didn't want to fly the 172, I'll betcha love it now! Keep me posted on your training, my best friend is doing his checkride today to get his license. If ya' ever need any help, just drop me a PM.

BTW, thats really awesome you're starting flying so young... you'll be such a pimp when you get your private license and you're still in high school! Takin' girls on "flying dates"... flying makes them turn into puddy in your hands!

[DZNUTZ]

man ya'll some crazy kats....i only fly when i have to..ie. vegas,hawiai,mexico...i'm surprised to see so me people in here are into that. as for me...i'll keep my squinted red blurred vision right here on good ol mother earth unless i gotta make a long trip.

[Nola]

So did this game (or one like it from Jane's) ever ever make it to XBOX?

[JJaX]

I dont believe so...

Flight sims shouldnt be on consoles. Period.

[Nola]

Why not?

[JJaX]

Because the console is limited to buttons on a controller.

A flight sim should be played with a flight stick, and some sort of ****pit. The closest thing is the keyboard substituting for the c0ckpit.

This is just my opinion though. Did you ever notice the lack of flight sims on consoles?

Games like Crimson Skies and Starfox dont count

Id say the closest thing to a sim on the console is Steel Battalion. A game which required you to purchase a 150 button controller.

Can you please explain to me why they belong on a console?

[Nola]

I did notice the lack of flight sims... that's precisely why I was asking about this game. But I hear you on the lack of buttons, it does look like a limitation (more on that later). However, I'm interested in air combat itself... you know, seat of the pants flying, but with realistic machinery (more arcade like I guess). I'm more than willing to let the AI take care of the boring stuff (and please, no references to SWON and AFDS)

On the other hand, is the steel batallion controller proprietary? Could other game developers use it?

BTW, I did find more than a few websites with chatter on this game being released this week in the UK (PAL format)... so apparently someone does think it belongs on XBOX. Don't know if it's true or just hype.

As to how to pull off a flight sim on a console?... probably through multiple screens... in real-world flying (I'm not a pilot so I'm just guessing), the HUD gives you the vital information to stay airborne. You look down to your instrument panel only when not much is happening outside! So potentially you could pull up an instrument panel screen on demand to deal with all that. It would just be a matter of harnessing the controller for flight control surfaces, throttle, afterburner, weapons systems and a few others that probably escape me right now. In fact, WWII planes had much less instrumentation and would be perfect for this. Anyway, I agree with you there's a reason why there aren't any... but I don't think not enough buttons is the reason. I mean, if you can drive a Mech into Battle and fly an X-wing fighter, I'm sure a P-51 Mustang is not a problem!

[Seawolf1]

Well Jax as a beta tester for Lock On Modern air Combat for the PC I can tell you that building a Flight sim for the Console would be much easier than for the PC. Besides the fact that input devices like Joysticks are already available for the Xbox the set hardware in the Xbox makes building a sim much easier. You dont need to worry about different hardware setups, drivers, etc.
Maybe 5% of the flight sim community actually go as far as building ****pits in thier home. The majority of us have a HOTAS and keyboard.
Personally I would love to play my flight sims at 16:9 on a HDTV and THX theatre sound.

The only limited factor in building flight sims for consoles is interest by those who own consoles. There isn't a big market for flight sims on the PC and consoles would be even less. People (kids) want quick to start, jump right into the action type of games. They aren't interested in a learning curve like what happens with trying to learn avionics, flight dynamics, weapons systems, etc.

While I may agree that we may never see a truly realistic flight sim on the consoles, it isn't intirely impossible and technically easier to do thatn on a PC.