Which way to the danger zone?
Carrier Strike Fighter is perhaps not the best known combat flight sim on the market and while it's worth checking out for the hardcore genre fan, it's a little lacking in visual flash and other elements to make it a must play, so you might be better off with F-29 Retaliator. It's a pretty traditional flight sim that features all the usual options but it looked a little underpowered at the time of its release, so looks even less impressive today. The game puts you in the tight confines of a Hornet super fighter and gives you two campaigns to play through, one in the Aegean fighting against the Turks, and the other in the Persian Gulf which sees you facing off against Iran and Iraq. You also have training flights, a mission generator, quick missions and a couple of other bits and bobs. In the campaign, the missions are generated for your squadron based around the status of the current campaign, giving the game a nicely unpredictable feel to it and which makes you believe that your actions are having a real effect. Carrier Strike Fighter isn't a bad sim, it's just a very average one. It certainly looks less impressive than other releases of the period, with under detailed visuals that look pretty dated now. It's a pretty realistic game, with detailed physics and complex controls, meaning it requires a lot of patience and dedication to get the most out of it, so consider this before trying. The missions are quite exciting and varied but ultimately this is a bit too much like hard work to be truly enjoyable.
