Lock On Platinum

This is a great sim for more hardcore simulators players. It has a steep learning curve but is very rewarding after you learn the sim.

This is NOT a game. This truly qualifies as a SIMULATION. If you want a "game", look elsewhere. You will be disappointed. This is an adult simulation and requires patience, focus, and a great deal of effort. No instant gratification here. That being said, I taught my pre-teen nephew to fly, land, and operate the basic radar modes and weapons controls. He can find and shoot down the simple bad guys and is progressing well.I have played LOMAC since its original release many years ago. This is a full-fledged, HARD CORE, as real as it gets, civilian side PC based flight simulator of real military aircraft.If you have a wimpy PC with a low end graphics card, this will not work. If you think mario cart is real driving, this is not for you. If you are a military aircraft geek, you will be in hog heaven.If you have a CH products F-16 Fighterstick paired with a Pro Throttle, you will be thrilled. If you add a TrackIR head pointing device, you will be simply AMAZED.To play on full realism it helps to actually know how to fly. If you don't, you will have to learn how. Even more so than Flight Sim X and Combat flight sim -which this sim leaves in the dust for its better modelling of the combat flight environment. To be able to compete, you will have to study REAL military fighter tactics and understand how to employ them.You WILL have to patch the software up to current spec, software this complex is ALWAYS buggy on the first release. Configure your stick and throttle, learn to operate the sim, fly the training missions and you will be happy.If you're allergic to studying, you will be one of the "trash can" reviews posted. This is not a lazy person's simulation. You'll get a small taste of how a REAL pilot trains to learn to fly these aircraft effectively.(Rudder can be assigned to rudder pedals, but I use the horizontal axis on the micro joystick on the pro throttles for that function) Some of the complaints posted just amaze me.

Game sucks

I played this game for a number of hours before I finally gave up on it.I originally purchased it because it labeled itself as a flight sim, which is exactly what I was looking for. I'm used to playing the likes of Falcon 4.0 and its successors, so I expect a complex simulation with a steep learning curve. I also expect it to work properly.Well, it lives up to the complexity, but fairs poorly in the working properly department. Keyboard and joystick button mapping doesn't work, or works inconsistently, in some cases leaving the game unplayable because it loses all mappings. Some tutorials have voice-overs that don't stay in sync with what's on the screen. The engine sound effects are horrible. Attempting to use the "hat" on the joystick to change the point of view works intermittently, leaving you looking out the side of the cockpit and unable to look forward again. In-cockpit graphics are blurry in many cases, even with the cockpit detail set to the highest level. World detail is primitive (trees, for example. look more like stick figures than trees).It's a good concept which, unfortunately, is executed poorly.Not recommended for any age.

Lock On Platinum ...this is a two cd distribution, "lock-on", and "flaming cliffs2". the latter, is said to augment and improve the former. when installed, both seem "playable", for lack of a better term. this 'simulation' includes assets from 'russian', and 'american' aircraft inventories.as an aside. my initial interest here, was the "A-10", as my system not up to the rigors of "DCS A-10C" flight simulator; specifically, a 2.4GHz Celeron, with 2GB memory, and a 500MB Nvidia 6200 video card. having said that, LOP seems to do fairly well, everything considered.there is substantial documentation included, and the tendency to fly, rather than read, understandable, for a while. from my perspective, it seems like, discovery of 'other' sources of information adds to the experience. for instance, "[...]", and if you grok programming, "lua" is a path into another universe within the sim environment.mentioned elsewhere, this is a complex software package, and there are signs of that, from time to time. my favorite, is a successful landing, with "three green", but the wheels up.this sim appeals to a certain mindset. one, that finds mindless entertainment in using it, where mastery more than rote practice. i think it's great ...

The simulator is in fact fantastic in most ways. To me personally it causes huge problems since I have found no way to move important functions to my joystick that has more than 10 buttons. I have flown Falcon 4 and Microsoft Flightsimulator in the past and fly Microsoft Flightsimulator X today and in them I can select what to control from the joystick and what functions to control from the keyboard. I do not know if I am stupid and there in fact is a way to move some controls to the joystick....? If there is a way, then I give the simulator 5 stars, if there is no way then it will get only 3 stars from me.