Jane’s Fighters Anthology, Electronic Arts, San Mateo, Calif., $54.95.
Jane’s Fighters Anthology collects the mission and aircraft offerings from an armful of products, including Jane’s U.S. Navy Fighters 97 and Jane’s Advanced Tactical Fighters, and spools its venerable simulation engine up for one last hurrah.
Despite now-dated graphics, Fighters Anthology is still eminently playable and may be one of the best values available. Users can fly in extensive campaigns spanning eras from the 1950s to today, or they can build their own scenarios using the included mission builder. Within the canned missions, a limited selection of aircraft is available for user control, but in the player-constructed missions more than 100 planes are available to fly in roles from air superiority and escort to bombing and close air support.
Not all the planes are given equal attention. Some of the propeller-driven aircraft, for example, have engines that sound like jets. Yet in what other simulation can you fly aircraft such as the Lockheed AC-130 Spectre gunship or the Vought A-7 Corsair II, planes considered too bland for most contemporary simulations?
Included in this extensive package is an excellent 340-page manual and the ability to play online with other users at no cost via the Jane’s Combat Simulations web site (www.janes.ea.com). Fighters Anthology requires Windows 95, a Pentium 90 or faster PC, and 16MB RAM.
Bernard Dy
