Stuck at the AirportPage 3
Airport 2000 Volume 2
by Bob "Groucho" Marks
OK, let’s take this one step at a time. It’s called Airport 2000 Vol. 2, right? Incredibly enough, the airports are the best part of this package. Some of the world’s busiest airports are represented here: London’s Heathrow (EGLL), Chicago’s O’Hare (KORD), Amsterdam’s Schipol (EHAM), and four others. All are executed in stunning detail. Passenger terminals, gates, and operating aircraft in proper livery dominate the landscape. Really, very well done--but there’s a catch.
Your frame rate drops to the level of a filmstrip show run by a Quaalude fiend should you fail to avert your eyes from the spectacle. Look, FS2K has never been known for its silky-smooth redraws in the best of circumstances, and the added bloat of detail code presented by Airport 2K to your CPU will have it hanging out the "Standing Room Only" sign. Hey, look at the detail on those loading gates as we taxi past . . .chug . . .chug . . .(imagine your CPU trying to suck a Buick through a coffee stirrer and you'll understand what I mean).
Loading gates and terminals
Perhaps the greatest crime in this is that most of this scenery is not really there. Huh? Allow me to explain. I was attempting to fly one of the canned adventures that come with AP2K. This particular one involved flying a DHL cargo 767 from Boston’s Logan airport (KBOS)---quite stunningly rendered, actually, with its architectural wonder of a control tower---to Miami International (KMIA). In a cheesy attempt at “interactivity”, ATC clearances must be obtained through an annoying system of listening to a robotic chant of a clearance and read back. However, being an intrepid reviewer simulating a Highly-Trained Professional Pilot, I play along.
Sure, it’s much akin to a space monkey hitting the right buttons when a picture of a banana is lit up, but like I said, I play along. I play along right up to where I’m cleared to line-up on the active runway, 15R, and get stuck in an idiotic loop: "contact ground at 121.9," says the tower. "OK" I say, muttering to myself and press the acknowledge keys. Ground Control: "They’re looking for you on the tower frequency . . ." Tower Control: "contact ground at . . ." Back and forth I switch and read back (yes, master: ctrl-K, ctrl-O) like the good lab monkey I am.
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