TFX: Tactical Fighter Experiment

From the Database of Home of the Underdogs

GAME DESIGNER:Martin Kenwright
GAME DEVELOPER:Digital Image Design (DID)
GAME PUBLISHER:OCEAN
Copyright 1993, Digital Image Design (DID)

Ah the 3rd member of the 1994 ruling triumvirate of military flight sims (the other two being F-14 Flight Defender and Tornado, TFX sported the best graphics around at the time, with lots of detail in those polygons. In TFX you are a UN pilot that is placed in several campaigns. There are three flyable aircraft, the Eurofighter, the F-22 and the F-117. There are a lot of missions, adjusting to these three planes as needed. The VGA graphics are pretty good, being excellent sometimes. The sounds is also very good, with the annoying exception of the lizard family (every time you lock an enemy fighter the game goes off with Traaaacking looks like a lizard by their sheer numbers, obviously lizards rule the Earth in TFX). The music isnt bad, but very annoying. The CD version only increased the sampling quality of the music, making it less annoying, unless you have a personal distaste for anything techno or sampler based.

Flight modelling is good, while not true to life. The EF burns up his fuel in a second, which isnt really realistic, while the American aircraft can fly all day long. Many weapons are modelled (including a treat for the real pyros among you the air launched version of the Tomahawk) and they perform reasonably well. Bear in mind that you maybe stuck on one of the training mission, which will prevent you from entering the campaign. Just look around the Web for cheats and youll know how to skip the infantry mission. Recent similar games include EF2000 (which was its direct descendant), Tatcom, and F-22 ADF.

Note: The first release of the game is a bit buggy, but fortunately DID released 3 patches to perfect the sim. Get them from The Patches Scroll.


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