Yes, we go into the night as brave men go,
Though our faces be often streaked with woe;
Yet we're hard as cats to kill,
And our hearts are reckless still,
And we've danced with death
a dozen times or so.
Robert Service

Along with everyone else in the entertainment industry, I was looking forward to E3. E3 presents everything we want to see. With 37 football fields of floor space, there is more E3 than any group can adequately cover in 4 days.

But even more than the games and hardware, there are those events we just can't wait for. For myself and some of my colleagues, the Falcon 4 H2H Competition was such an event.

Falcon 4's anticipation has been so overwhelming that Microprose decided a to sponsor a competition for those attending. I was notified like my fellow Combatsim writers about the competition and that we needed to sign up before we left for Atlanta if we wanted to participate. I thought this was an excellent marketing tool for Microprose: not only does it give us access to the game but also we get to see how the game is laid out in terms of multiplayer, campaign, quick action and combinations of each during actual gameplay.

The rules for the F4 competition were laid out as follows: 5 minutes of instant action (just like the DEMO) with unlimited AMRAAMS, Sidewinders and guns. Just like one can do in the demo, the level of competition was set at Rookie and with various options set. I did not look at all the options but a couple of noticeable options that were selected were simple radar coupled with a realistic flight model (I urged Pete to push all the options to REALISTIC but the decision had already been made).

An excellent weapon and luck had been on my side. To be successful the best fighter pilot needs both.
Lt. General Rudolph Galland
General of the Fighter Arm, Luftwaffe, 1941-45
104 Victories

All participants played with the same two computers and options (there were a total of four computers showing Falcon 4 while the two used for the competition were linked for multiplay) and no changes were made by any players to keep play fair and equal. I would guess that a total of 50 people played the five-minute instant action mission on Thursday. The top eight players would then go Head to Head on Friday in a bracket system, guns only with some specific ROE. At the end of the day I had qualified 2nd overall.

The Microprose room was bristling with activity all day. I was not due for my instant action flight until 4 PM but we (Combatsim.com writers) had a meeting with Microprose at 1 PM so I happily marched down to get my first look at Falcon 4 and everything else Microprose had to offer us. Upon entering the room we were met by various Microprose designers and press personnel. Eric "Snacko" Marlow and I immediately went straight to the F4 booth and watched a couple of my fellow competitors try to qualify for the Head to Head play the next day. Len "Viking1" Hjalmarson took a quick peek at F4 and continued on to the EAW booth.

Just as Eric and I were gawking at F4, someone whispered in my ear that Pete Bonanni was also standing at the booth helping the competitors. For those who do not know, Pete is a current F-16 pilot and is VERY well respected as one of the best in the USAF. In fact, according to a friend of mine and a former F16 pilot, Mr. R. Price, Pete had actually saved a couple of F-16's whose engines had "flamed out". Saving an F-16 with no engine is an AMAZING feat once, but twice? That is stupendous. I got Pete's attention shortly thereafter and introduced myself.

Meeting Pete Bonanni is one of my E3 highlights. He is just as I would picture a perfect F16 pilot. Stocky, intelligent, honest, full of integrity and pride, VERY passionate and abounding with personality. Pete is the kind of guy that after five minutes of contact makes you feel like he is your best friend.

Probably what is most amazing is that he is chock-full of energy. And his enthusiasm for Falcon 4 is boundless. He could not describe the game and it's plethora of features fast enough. After a few minutes of small talk about the game in general, he grabbed one of the machines, sat me down and proceeded to go straight into the heart of Falcon 4: the real time dynamic campaign.

After a minute of explaining the background story behind the Korea campaign, Pete went right to the meat and began showing me the complete ATO that F4 evolved around. People were swarming all around us and as you can imagine Pete's name was being called almost continuously. He furiously answered questions and almost between breaths continued to explain what I was seeing.

First there was a list of all the flights scheduled for the day and where the planes were, whether they were in Briefing, enroute to the target area, or egressing back from the target. There was a map showing the route of the flight selected and if that flight selected is airborne, the map shows how far along the F16's are. And then there was a clock displayed in Falcon time so players can keep track of the war in terms of actual game hours. Players can jump into ANY F16 whether it is enroute or not similar to F22 ADF using the AWACS mode.

Pete began the unenviable task of trying to compress the F16's entire inventory of weapons, options and capabilities into a very short period of time before finally prompting me to selecting a SEAD strike mission from the ATO. This flight was still on the ground and was awaiting its briefing.

Take off time was still two hours away in Falcon time so when Pete clicked "Fly" the Falcon clock quickly proceeded to the scheduled briefing time where I was prompted by a FULL briefing: more than I could ever regurgitate here. It was a COMPLETE briefing: more than any game I have ever seen including Janes F15.

After taking 10 seconds to scan the briefing (Pete, like me, wanted INTO the cockpit) we moved on to the mission itself. We started on the runway and after moving the throttle to full (MPS was using a Thrustmaster HOTAS with an FLCS and TQS), I rotated the jet off the runway at 160 knots (as Pete suggested). Quickly we were airborne and Pete was calling that I needed to quickly raise the gear or risk damage with my rapidly increasing speed. We were off the ground and Falcon 4 made had suddenly made a very attractive impact on me.

For those of you who are worried about framerates, let me put your fears to rest. Falcon 4's framerate was AWESOME. Granted, during my entire stay at E3 I never saw a computer slower than a PII 300 (clearly there were a LOT more PII 333, 350s and 400s though).

Microprose was no different. They had F4 running on a PII 300 with 64 MEGs of RAM and a 1st generation Voodoo card. Based on what I saw, I cannot imagine any reason that anyone with a P166 and a Voodoo card (Glide only for 3D acceleration) could not enjoy very satisfying framerates with F4. Given all the CPU was having to do to monitor the real time campaign, AI (both enemy and allied planes and ground movements) flight model and everything else, it was clear to see that this was indeed a VERY mature game. Graphics were like the demo but appeared much sharper.

Click for larger..

Unfortunately, Pete had many responsibilities and kept getting pulled away from me. I was only one of many who wanted his undivided attention and there was only so much of Pete to go around. Not long after I was in the air, it was decided that the line for the competition was getting long and the second computer I was on was needed. Thus, I quit my campaign and conceded my computer to another competitor. But, I had gotten a big taste of what Falcon 4 had to offer.

To say that I was impressed would be a gross understatement. By the end of E3 I had accumulated quite a bit of stick time with F4, enough that I can confidently make the following BOLD statement; what I played was clearly the best modern flight simulation ever made PERIOD. Microprose made a huge commitment to offering us the best flight simulation we have ever seen and assuming MPS releases F4 with everything I saw and can get the code stable, Falcon 4 is going to meet every goal set forth and wipe the floor with awards.

There are only two types of aircraft - fighters and targets.
Major Doyle "Wahoo" Nicholson, USMC
Fighter Pilot

The flight model of F4 immediately brought back memories of my many hours in the real F16 simulator I fly occasionally at an air base near my home. Pete has the model tweaked to what felt like perfection to me (VERY different from the DEMO). I hung around for a bit longer watching competitors come and go during the meet and finally, after playing my instant action mission, I reluctantly forced myself to leave.

The next day (Friday) I knew the competition started at 12 noon. I forced myself to stay away from the Microprose booth until 1130 to continue with my responsibilities for the magazine. The morning tended to drag a bit and finally at 1130 I moved to the MPS flat. As I proceeded into the MPS suite, there were many people around the table awaiting the competition and in the middle, as usual, was Pete giving quick pro advice to those who were flying practice Head to Head.

The Rules of Engagement for the event were as follows: players would head toward each other and would merge. As both planes were exactly passing each other, a judge (Victor Zaveduk) would call out "Fight's On!" and players would begin manouevering.

More specifically, there was not to be any firing until after the merge and no lead turning into the merge. IMO, the rule of no lead turning "evened out" the field a bit because an experienced pilot can turn a well done lead turn into a quick victory (which I executed in my one practice fight, quickly sending my opponent to flames in one pass). Thus all players were left to fight based on one mans' "announcement".

The no firing before the merge was smart because actual planes merging at near 1000 knots will not fire before merging. Trying to line up a shot head-on like that would be utter suicide. The eight players were split up into slots with the 1st place player flying versus the 8th place player, and 2nd place versus 7th place and so on. In addition, each bracket would get two practice rounds to help adjust to the new gameplay. Rounds would be played best two out of three.

In my first match I lost the two practice rounds to my opponent who was quite good. However, I used the time during the practice to figure out how my opponent fights. Taking this information, he lost the round to me once the "real" fights began, 2-0. I watched the other rounds play out after mine as the number 1 competitor fell in the first round leaving me the top finisher for the remainder of the competition.

Pete was standing behind each of us quietly watching his students' battle each other. He simply smiled the whole time. As the remaining parts of the 1st round came to a close I knew who my opponent was and how he flew the F16. He enjoyed working in the vertical like a lot of people.

This is a VERY risky move, but nevertheless, VERY popular. In fact a number of my squadron mates flew this way in EF2000 and found out very quickly that in Head to Head, a skilled opponent seeing one move to the vertical was always delighted due to the obvious lack of energy from having to push the plane into a climb. My second opponent lost 2-1 in what turned out to be a closer match than I would have liked. We both succeeded in getting guns hits on each other but he managed to get a few more. =)

During the first two matches I was particularly impressed with Falcon 4's stability, especially knowing the code was not quite ready for "beta" yet. Competitors were moving in and out of the Dogfight screens and no one lost packets or stability. The F16's didn't seem to have the greatest sense of speed but our starting altitude was 10,000 feet so it's hard to complain about that.

I particularly love the sound effects of the bullets bouncing off the planes. The sounds, flames and explosions were very similar to the DEMO. Damage modeling was very impressive, with individual systems capable of being knocked out. In my second match, one of my fuel lines apparently got hit because as my engine was shutting down and I was floating to my death, I noticed my fuel was dropping at a horrendous rate even through the turbine was almost finished completely "whining" down. Seconds later my plane blew into thousands of parts. Very impressive!

Before the finals, the decision was made to reboot both machines and the match became the best 3 out of 5. After Falcon 4 had been started again and the correct options set for both machines, the finals began! This time my opponent seemed to understand BFM very well. He watched his speed closely, controlled his energy and I knew if would be a tough fight. After wishing each other well, the match started.

As we pulled along side each other and "Fights On" was called out we both broke hard. Seconds later we were both falling to the Earth with heavily damaged F16's. Neither of us had any control of our jets and thus, the 1st fight was a draw. So we began again. This time my opponent managed to get a few more hits on me than I did on him. I had no control and hit the ground. His plane had "Bitchin Betty" screaming all about various warnings but he was able to fly away and went up 1-0. To that point, I had been in control of my previous matches because I always seemed to win the 1st fight. After losing the first fight in the finals, I got a little nervous.

The third fight went a lot like the first fight. I hit the ground after a hard break with heavy damage. I ALMOST pulled out of my fall but had no real control inputs. His plane was completely damaged and exploded in midair a few seconds before mine hit the ground. I realized at this point I was going to have to concentrate hard on keeping my energy just perfect or I was going to lose. Thus, I took the next 2 fights with clean kills.

As we played what became the final battle, I made what I felt was a near perfect break and caught my opponent still trying to pull over toward me. I squeezed off a few rounds which he saw and instead of trying to force me to overshoot he made a fatal error and broke back in front of me putting me right on his "six".

As he broke, I could see the glow of his afterburner completely engaged. I really thought I would finish him off in just a few seconds but I was dead wrong. My opponent was skilled and managed to trade altitude for energy and extend away from me. Being careful not to allow him to get me into a vertical or horizontal scissors, I held my speed back a bit and allowed him to extend to almost 1.5 miles and out of my gun range before I knew it.

I got a little nervous when I saw his range because he was picking up room to maneuver and although he was still pulling pretty heavily to avoid my gunfire, he managed to get his energy back up to a comfortable level. I decided to move in and be more aggressive. He encouraged my aggressiveness by announcing his intention to fly into a nearby canal. Realizing that I might actually lose sight of him (something else Falcon 4 models very well is the difficulty of seeing planes against the ground under VFR) I got nervous and kicked my F16 into afterburner to try and close the distance.

By this time, I had shot off all my rounds and was having to wait 10 seconds for the guns to reload. This option was set under the game rules for the dogfight. I knew I was taking a big risk because I thought he might try and force me into overshooting. I was watching our closure rate carefully and sure enough, he popped his brakes and broke vertical about ½ a mile away from me. My guns by this time had just returned and I noticed the drop on my closure rate, popped my brakes and was able to get my "snake" all over his plane and was awarded with a huge fireball.

Few of the fights during the day lasted more than 10-15 seconds. My last dogfight lasted about 2 minutes. I felt that once I got on his tail it was all over, but he managed to frustrate me by evading all my rounds. Eventually his opening mistake forced him to pay and I got showered with beautiful women asking me to take them to Hawaii with the 1st class tickets I won. =)

Now came the real fun. Before the matches were over, Pete had agreed to play the winner in some Head to Head. I quickly grabbed him by the arm and motioned him to the chair. Our first fight (we had six total Head to Head) was the best by far. After we merged Pete broke high and I went low. Both of us maneuvered to gain an advantage and I felt I had the upper hand. After breaking low to catch me and with me breaking high to catch him, I had managed to lose a lot of energy as we merged for the second time. He broke RIGHT IN FRONT of my plane and was climbing quickly.

The F16 is no nose-authority champion but I tried to squeak the last inch of nose authority out of the jet to get a quick flash shot at him as he roared above and to the left of my jet. I just didn't have the energy and my nose started to swoop straight down as he continued to work the vertical. Well, I knew I was dead and sure enough just a few seconds later, I was dead.

Although I had much better success in the next five dogfights versus Pete, (I actually won a few) this one was the most memorable. Immediately after killing me, Pete was passionately explaining the dogfight just as every fighter pilot does, with his hands. Pete was saying, "As I pulled up and over you, you should not have followed me Bubba! Bubba, you didn't have the energy, push past me and pull over. Push past me and pull over he repeated more and more fervently as if we had just gotten back on the ground from actually doing the fight.

To emphasize the point he kept thrusting his hands one under the other. I could see the love of the fight in his eyes. It was a great feeling and I felt awesome. I was forced to leave shortly thereafter due to a previous engagement but promised Pete I would return to get more into the campaign.

Click this picture to go to Dan Crenshaw's BFM series. True to my word, I returned (twist my arm) and Pete grabbed me and again sat me down at a computer and immediately went straight back into the campaign as promised. We spent more time looking over the ATO and studying each mission.

Most F16s were only a small part of a bigger package. Some were being tasked as CAPs, GBU strikes, Escorts, and Battlefield interdiction. Many F16's were acting as Weasels for larger strikes. I knew this to be VERY accurate. With the retirement of the F4G's there are no dedicated Wild Weasels in the USAF. The Navy still uses the very capable EA-6B's (which the USAF now flies on loan for the USN) but they are few in number. The F16s equipped with LANTIRN (newer blocks) are left with the job.

Another term that requires definition is "fighter." These days ever military airplane jockey, whether he straps on a helo or a trash-hauling transport, thinks he's flying a fighter. "Fighter," in this book, will mean an aircraft whose mission is destroying other airborne aircraft... Regardless of the designation, as long as that aircraft is assigned to drop things in the dirt, its a target, not a fighter. Once it has jettisoned that air-to-mud stuff and goes looking for trouble, THEN it's a fighter. Robert Shaw.

This time, however, we selected a GBU strike and after taking in full afterburner, proceeded to the target area. By my own fault, both Pete and I were so anxious to get into the cockpit that I failed to see how much flexibility there was in selecting ordnance, deciding the number of wingmen, and assigning individual targets (for wingmen and other parts of the overall strike package) and other info that we have become accustomed to seeing in EF2000 and F15. A lot of the information was in the briefing and I saw option boxes but proceeded straight to the runway. I should have spent more time looking at the options, but at that time I was happy just getting to work with the simulation.

Once in the air, Pete proceeded to show me how to work the tracking for the GBU's, something I had never seen before on the F16. I can tell you that as expected, it was complicated. As we were flying we switched to the HARM targeting POD (we were also carrying 2 HARMS) and saw quite a few SA-6's lighting up on our expected path. As I stated, my wingman and I were part of a larger package. We had some other F16s dedicated as Wild Weasels, so I left the SAM hunting to them.

When we switched on the Air to Air radar (RWS) we saw A BUNCH of planes in the air; some were allied, some were enemy. Off in the distance I saw a TON of ground movement. Pete started talking and asked me to do some general looking, as there was something he wanted me to see.

As I turned the F16 from almost due north to a heading of 290 degrees, Pete started REALLY smiling. Off in the distance (about 15-20 miles away) I could see an actual artillery duel happening before my eyes! Pete stated that often times spotting a tank, truck convoy or artillery piece from 15-20 miles away is actually quite easy. He said that during Desert Storm they could spot vehicles moving up to about 30 miles away all the time!

As we pushed closer my RWR started to chirp and as I pointed my radar low (had to change my elevation to see the 2 MiG-29's closing on my position), I saw four planes charging in. Off to my right was a CAP flight of F15's who were closing to engage. Soon the MiG-29's had turned to engage BVR with the F-15's while two other planes closed on my position. Pete actually got a little ticked because he wanted me to fly over the artillery duel so I could appreciate the detail they had added to the ground war.

Pete motioned me to continue on and not worry about the incoming planes. I proceeded and we pasted over the artillery pieces unabated. It looked AWESOME. I could see individual pieces firing and the explosions from enemy artillery as well. We had target ID tags turned on in the options, so I knew they were allied ground units we were flying over.

We decided to make a turn for the East to see what they were firing at when I realized that the two planes heading our way were Su-25's coming to bomb the allied artillery pieces I had JUST flown over! They flew very low and were about 7 miles distant when they passed a couple of miles West of me.

I told Pete I wanted to splash them so I made a quick Immelman and engaged the two Sue's with my Aim-9's, One went down with the pilot ejecting and the other took a hit, lost an engine and while appearing to be very unstable, started firing rockets at my troops! He died quickly with some 20mm fire to his rear and his plane exploded. Meanwhile my CAP F15's had downed both MiG's with AMRAAMS and were again back on course.

Pete motioned me to continue my flight toward the enemy ground units, which I did. As we came within 15 miles of the enemy units I could see tens of tanks, artillery, AAA and trucks all spread around. A few were still smoking from being hit by Allied artillery. It looked spectacular. I popped my brakes to get a closer look at the enemy units (I am sure they must have been wondering who the idiot was in my F16) and slowly "coasted" over the units.

As I came within 3 miles or so my RWR went insane! I had ZSU's lighting me up from all over the place and I personally witnessed about 6 SAMS (must have been heat seekers cause radar SAMS would have downed me LONG ago) zoom climb up to my airplane. Needless to say I went down in HEAVY flames. Pete started laughing and after seeing the amount of chaos that was taking place, I started laughing too. It was bad. =)

After I died came what I felt was almost the BEST part of what I saw (if you can believe it got better!) The debriefing had details for EVERYTHING. It was so extensive it was almost SICK. I only got a 5 second look because Pete clicked me out of the campaign (we had been there for about 45 minutes and others wanted to play too) and I was reluctant to ask him to take me back to it. I noticed options for who shot what, who killed what, what who killed, total ordnance expended, what ordnance was used to kill what, and tons more I could not see due to the gross amount of options offered. This was by FAR the most extensive debrief I have EVER seen; a sim enthusiast's dreams come true.

As much time as I spent with F4 I wanted a LOT more. It was a hard game to leave not only because there was more to see but also because of the sense of immersion the game offered. After all the time that people have speculated and moaned about Falcon 4 never coming out, I can confidently state that soon it will be in hand. Just as important, do not be afraid to get hyped on Falcon 4. From what I saw, it is all that and more. This may be the first time in simulation history that a company delivers on even the most ambitious promises!

On a personal note, I would like to thank Microprose for sponsoring the competition. Winning a trip to Hawaii is great, for sure, but the true pleasure was getting to know Pete and having the opportunity to fly Falcon 4 before others have that chance. Falcon 4 exists, it's majestic, and if you don't watch out, you will be seeking therapy to try and stop playing! Is there an antidote for this addictive new drug? I hope not! Thanks again to Gil, Angela, Kathy, Jennifer and Pete!