With a game like Thunderhawk: Operation Phoenix
it's a great feeling to have the power of a high-powered US Army helicopter
at your disposal.
As you'd expect there are missions aplenty starting with trips to Eastern Europe,
Alaska, Africa and the Middle East, which include blowing up passenger trains
carrying dangerous cargo and attacking oil sea platforms.
Also included is a Test Range, which has an obvious purpose and gives you a
chance to get to grips with the controls, which do take quite a lot of getting
used to, especially when trying to fire rockets and bullets whilst pitching
and yawing around the terrain.
The game looks very good as you head over hills and mountains, fire rockets
into the distance and watch their smoke trails as they zoom off towards their
target. Sonically it's a bit of a let-down as it's stereo at best, but just a
lot of rat-tat-tat and explosions, along with the occasional chatter over your
headset when you do something wrong.
It's another case of "try-before-you-buy", depending on whether military games
are your bag of if you'd just like to pretend to be in Airwolf returning
fire at anything that shoots you first.
GRAPHICS SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC PLAYABILITY ORIGINALITY ENJOYMENT
OVERALL
If you're after some more info on Eidos Interactive's games, you can check
out their official Website at
EidosInteractive.co.uk
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
The game looks very good as you head over hills and mountains, fire rockets
into the distance and watch their smoke trails as they zoom off towards their
target. Sonically it's a bit of a let-down as it's stereo at best, but just a
lot of rat-tat-tat and explosions, along with the occasional chatter over your
headset when you do something wrong.
