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More News About Hellfire: Apache vs Hind
Zodiac-compatible next week, Zodiac-optimized later
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by David Eaton, Staff Writer - 4/22/2004 - 1:12am EST
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Make sure your 5-point harness is secure and get ready for the ride of your life because “Hellfire: Apache vs. Hind” is on its way.
Astraware and Pazzazz, who have teamed up in the past to release such games as GTS Racing Challenge, are poised to release a great looking 3D helicopter combat game called "Hellfire: Apache vs. Hind." I have been involved in the beta testing process and can verify that the 3D graphics are smooth and the game play is absolutely stunning.
The game offers a variety of environments such as over the water, the desert, frozen arctic conditions, and grass and trees. In addition to the environment that you fly over, however, is beautiful backgrounds on the horizon such as mountains and glaciers.
The game will feature dozens of missions with multiple objectives for each and you will be able to choose a variety of weapons, depending on whether you choose to fly the AH64A/D Longbow Apache or the Mi-24 D Hind helicopter.
When the game first starts you are offered a menu with which you can choose to play a trial mission, become a “career pilot” by choosing a campaign in which you fly all the missions in order, select a particular mission to fly, or to fly a random mission. As soon as you make your choice you are immediately given the option of which army you wish to fly for: the United States or the USSR. The helicopter you fly will be based on this choice. While the Apache may be more nimble and quick, the Hind carries much more firepower.
Once you choose which country to fight for you are given a selection of missions from which to choose – depending on the options you have chosen to this point. There are a total of 32 different missions to fly which are broken into two primary groups (based on which helicopter you are flying) and four difficulty levels based on your rank. Once you choose a mission you are given a screen with a rotating globe and map overlay with your destination marked and a scrolling mission overview. This is just another example of the attention to detail and interactive graphics that are indicative of the quality of this game.
One of the features that I like best about this game is that, even though this release features a display of 320x320, the program already features the ability to map your game controls to the analog joystick and other gaming-oriented buttons available on the Tapwave Zodiac. Flying the Apache with the joystick on my Zodiac is so very reminiscent of flying Comanche with my Thrustmaster joystick on the PC years ago.
The initial release will include support for all Palm OS5 (Hi-Res color) devices as well as a version for Pocket PCs. Future releases will support the full screen landscape graphics and optimization for the Tapwave Zodiac whose controls make playing this game a dream.
This is easily the best 3D flight simulator for the Palm OS that I have ever played on my Zodiac. It is a must-have game that will be on my Zodiac for a long time to come. The Palm OS and PPC versions will be released some time next week. Keep your eye on their preview page for details. While they have no firm idea on the Zodiac release of the game, they do plan on releasing one (possibly as early as late Q3 or early Q4 although it is still a little early to forecast) that will offer landscape, analog controls and rumble effects.
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