Attic of the Underdogs

Review by Underdogs:

One of the best flight simulators ever made for the PC, Falcon 3.0 became an instant classic upon its release in 1991, and the benchmark against which all later "hard-core" modern flight sims would be judged. Before anyone protests the inclusion of this game on the site, let me just say this: it's definitely not an "underdog" on the absolute basis due to both commercial and critical success. But arguably flight sims as a genre has been quite underrated, and many pilots will tell you that Falcon 3.0 can't be rated highly enough. Whatever the reason, here it is-- a proud entrant into our Hall of Belated Fame. I'll let MiGMan's thorough review speak to how excellent the game is:

Falcon 3.0 was published in 1991 by Spectrum Holobyte. It was the sequel to Falcon [and later Falcon AT]. Falcon 3.0 pushed the boundaries of Air Combat Sims its release. It had all the features anyone could dream of at the time and the gameplay was riveting. It was also demanding on hardware, needing a 486 to run the "High-Fidelity Flight Model". Even today it's a hoot, and if you only have a 486 you really can't get much more excitement than what's available in the Falcon battleground. Luckily you can adjust the AI of the SAM operators, AAA and enemy pilots because on the higher settings they are murderous!"

Suffice is to say that Falcon 3.0 will forever go down in history as one of the very best computer flight sims ever made. Fortunately, MicroProse's recent Falcon 4.0 largely lives up to the pedigree, with numerous improvements over this much-loved classic. Two thumbs up, but be prepared to fiddle with your memory settings for a bit to get this oldie to run on new computers.

Note: Spectrum Holobyte later released several add-ons for the game, all of which are included as part of MicroProse's 1994 Falcon Gold collection. You can now download these add-ons below. Last but not least, G2 Interactive purchased copyrights to the entire Falcon series from Hasbro, current owner of MicroProse, in 2001.

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Screenshots © The Good Old Days