E3 2002: Lock On: Modern Air Combat preshow report

Lock On: Modern Air Combat, the upcoming Ubi Soft-published air combat simulation, will be playable at the publisher's booth at E3 later this week. The game allows you to pilot nine different combat aircraft of both US and Russian origins in a series of 35-plus scenarios set in front of the backdrop of the Black Sea. The selection of aircraft available to you will include the A-10A Warthog, the F-15C Eagle, the Su-27 Flanker B, the MiG-29 Fulcrum A, the MiG-29 Fulcrum C, the Su-25 Frogfoot, the Su-39 Frogfoot, and the Su-33 Flanker D. Many other planes will be in the game, though they won't be modeled for player-controlled flight. Rather, they'll be strictly AI-driven. There are 49 in all, and they include the F-16C, the F-14A, the E-2C, the MiG-31, the Tu-160, the A-50, and the Mi-24D, among many others. SAMs, ground vehicles, and other sorts of threats will also await you throughout the game, and you and your enemies will have access to 140 different types of missiles, bombs, and rockets.

Several measures were taken by the developer to make sure that Lock On would remain accessible to players of all skill levels. Firstly, the game's radar can be set to either a forgiving god's-eye view of the environments, or a view that's less forgivingly modeled. Secondly, you'll have the option of choosing a simplified flight dynamic that will automatically maintain airspeed, aid in spin recovery, and simplify landing. Finally, you can opt to have the game "label" targets for you on the air and the ground, in order to relieve you of the difficulty of visually identifying them.

The game's world will consist of 20,000 square kilometers of fully rendered land, including 16,000-plus kilometers of road, more than 2,400 kilometers of railways, 21 cities, 18 airfields, and eight naval bases. Various countries will take part in the game's scenario, mostly in regard to contributing munitions and craft. These include Russia, Spain, Denmark, Canada, the United States, and others.

Ubi Soft is promising a slew of special effects in Lock On as well, including environmental bump mapping, volumetric bodies such as clouds and explosions, and specular lighting, among others. Weather will also be modeled in real time, and its effects will reportedly be felt as well as seen. Turbulence will take its toll on your craft, depending on your altitude and the prevailing atmospheric conditions, and temperature will effect your plane's systems. Fog and cloud cover will also obstruct your vision.

In any event, we'll have hands-on impressions of Lock On for you from the E3 show floor. For more information on the game right now, check out our previous coverage .