Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Pratt & Whitney, and I proudly present - The F-22 Raptor Air Superiority Fighter review!

Incorporating cutting edge avionics, weapon systems, and stealth technology - the F-22 promises to be the air dominance fighter for the 21st century. The Westinghouse AN/APG-77 radar with its one hundred-twenty degree field of view enables the Raptor to acquire and track multiple targets beyond visual range. Its on-board computer system can identify and classify targets at a rate of seven hundred million instructions per second.

Providing power for the F-22 are two Pratt & Whitney F119 turbofan engines. Rated at thirty-five thousand pounds of thrust each, the engines allow the Raptor to supercruise at MACH 1.58 without the use of afterburners, greatly reducing the F-22's heat signature. The F119's engines also feature a two-dimensional thrust vectoring system giving the Raptor superior agility in combat.

In its air superiority role the Raptor carries two AIM-9X SIDEWINDER's, and six AIM-120C AMRAAM's. For deep strike missions four AMRAAM's can be replaced with two one thousand pound Joint Direct Attack Munitions. The JDAM is a GPS guided "smart bomb" which can strike at target without active lasing allowing the F-22 to remain undetected.

Designed with stealth as a primary goal, the F-22's titanium and composite superstructure is both lightweight, and strong - with the addition of radar absorbing materials, the frontal radar cross section is over one hundred times smaller than the F-15C's.

The rules of war have changed, the battles of tomorrow will be won not by those with the largest armies, but by those who can attack without being seen. The only armor will be the cloak of invisibility. Achieving air superiority will be the task of the only aircraft capable of striking at the heart of the enemy. It is a warplane light years ahead in its design, a supersonic killing machine.

The F-22 RAPTOR!

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NOVALOGIC is a war game making machine, and a decent one, I might add. I'm a lucky owner of their many titles, and right now I'm gonna tell you what you're getting for your buck. Novalogic's games usually follow the same code in terms of quality. You get a game that is a military simulator in lighter category, but it still contains a balance of realism, and fun gameplay at the same time. You have a simplified, but well scripted voice-over tutorials with small showcases thrown on the side containing short educational facts. So, whether you are a hardcore simulator freak or more of a casual pilot, please continue reading this last bit.

I consider myself as a space, and aviation enthusiast. Nothing is more rewarding than using your own enthusiasm, and experience to figure out things on your own in a professional simulator. Back in the good old days a proper flight simulator was often shipped with a hefty 500 page manual. It required a keen eye, a lot of patience, and a lot of comprehension to overcome the challenges of learning the way of a fighter pilot.

The F-22 Lightning 3 however does not come close to a hardcore flight simulator, but then again it's not even trying to. In fact I find this game to be very enjoyable despite its easy flight modeling, and entertaining realism. Surely the F-22 uses a lot of computer assistance to make flying, and the use of instruments fast, and easy to manage, but in this game everything is piss-easy. Basically if you want to fly a straight line, you can most likely do it without a sweat, because this bird is rock solid, and she holds the AoA regardless if you go grab something cold in the meantime. If you can actually manage to stall the plane, and crash in flames, you deserve a medal! Hell, even with the "fun option" of a full additional external loadout of AMRAAM's, Fuel Tanks, Thermonuclear bombs, and whatnot, the F-22 will fly a straight line. If a simulator is done properly, the payload will affect your flight characteristics, and fuel usage tremendously. The F-22 Lightning 3 does not model this, and it literally just flies over that aspect. In a realistic flight simulator (DCS for example) depending on the load you carry, a lot of jets require constant manual rudder, and pitch adjusting in order to maintain level flight.

The main campaign consist of six regions with over 46 missions in total. You get a nice variety of all sort mission types including air, land, and sea. During your campaign you will learn how to use the F-22 effectively, silently, and deadly. The air-superiority is established the moment you pull your gear up. A lot of the missions are pretty straightforward, and even easy, but some are hard as nails (thanks to enemy placement). Most of the time you know what to do immediately, but some of those escort missions can get really frustrating. It's not an easy task to protect your mission target when you're approaching the party from a bad angle. Yes, a bad angle! The problem lies in the missile trajectories, they're all wrong, and this is where the challenge lies in the game. Instead of guidance, and at least a bit of prediction where the target is be heading, the missiles attempt to aim directly on the target itself like a beam trail. Getting used to how the cheating (almost unlimited missiles), and fishy AI works, and for your missiles to have a good hit ratio is required. A proper cooperation with your wingman is a lifesaver, and together you can overcome a lot of difficult situations.

Visually the game is starting to show its age. Low resolution satellite textures look blurry, but they're tolerable. Thanks to the ATC / Allied Force voice-overs, their gibberish keep up the fun going.

So, when it comes to dedication, and maintaining some standard, I think Novalogic does its job well. Despite the game's small bugs, it's still a very rewarding, and entertaining game to play. If you always wanted to pilot an F-22, and you don't want to spend weeks of learning the controls, this is the game for you to start with.