Flanker 2 and Flanker 1.5

SSI's Flanker 2.0

Now that we have given you some history of the Flanker and why it is such a great aircraft for SSI to model, lets talk about what Flanker 2.0 will bring to the table for those interested in flying an excellent looking flight simulation. First off, Flanker 2.0 will simulate both the Su-27 and the navalized Su-33. For those interested in doing carrier traps, this is excellent news. In fact, most missions in Flanker 2.0 will begin with your Su-33 taking off from the Russian carrier Admiral Kuznetsov.

Whoa this is fun!

WOW - a B1

That is a flight simulation? No way!

One of my biggest criticisms with Su-27 1.5 was that the graphics were just downright ugly. I am all for flight model and options over graphics, but Flanker 1.5 concentrated on the flight model over visuals a little too much for my taste. Flanker 2.0 doesn't make the same mistake; graphics in Flanker 2.0 are absolutely exquisite. The amount of detail given to aircraft, airbases, ships and ground units is unsurpassed. While resolution choices are not overwhelming, the game can scale these options up from 640x480 to 1024x768. SSI chose support OpenGL and D3D for Flanker 2.0. Color depth can run up to 32-bit. Running Flanker 2.0 on my P3 600 with 256 MB Ram and TNT2 Ultra showed excellent colors but frame rates were greatly inferior to running the same system with a Voodoo3 3000 card. Framerate hits were as high as 50% from TNT2 Ultra to Voodoo3 in 16-bit color. This slowdown was worse when running in 32-bit color as opposed to the 22-bit color output of the Voodoo3 3000. Either way, simmers can't lose because SSI has made graphical "appearance" in Flanker 2.0 a major strength of the game.

Flankers in Formation

Get that gear up!