military and espionage

I am fourteen years old and I absoulutely LOVE this game. There are eight different planes( actually, one of them is a helicopter, and I haven't unlocked that yet), all with great piloting. There are four different piloting controls, #3 being most like flying a REAL plane. The graphics are VERY realistic. If you get close enough to the ground and fire, you can hear your rounds pinging off the ground. GREAT graphics; on some levels with water you can see ripples in the water when you fire. I don't know if this is with EVERY game, but somehow my game has gotten erased twice. When I got on, it told me the data was corrupt. I'm pretty sure it was just my memory card, though. Many other reviewers told everyone to rent it, but I strongly suggest that you don't. You will not have enough time to unlock all of the extras, and what fun is that? There is also a QUICKSTART option, where you can choose air2air or air2ground, etc. You choose how many opponents, and what map you will play, and PRESTO! You've designed your own war. Overall a GREAT game, and I strongly suggest to anyone that liked Rouge Squadron or X-wing alliance (PC) to buy it. Thanx! <><

This game is just not that fun. I go in on hard and the game is still easy. On top of that, you have to fly in specified war zones. If you leave? Game over... Get a real flight game for like the computer because this game is stupid. On top of that, this game has some nice graphics, but that is only in the clouds. Everything else is way too boring. Another thing, the models on the planes are a little too big because sometimes you can hit your tail on the ground and not even really touch it.

Top Gun: Combat Zones is a game that, on the back cover, claims to allow you to master the Navy's top 5 planes, which I disagree with. First, four of the planes available aren't in the Navy. The MV-22 and AV-8 are Marine aircraft. The F-22 Raptor is Air Force, and the YF-23 lost the contract to the F-22, and isn't in any branch of the military. Second, This game only seems to focus on fighter/attack roles. Combat Zones failed horribly in capturing different aspects of Naval aviation. A good selection of Navy aircraft would probably include the F-14D, F/A-18C, E-2C Hawkeye, S-3B Viking, EA-6B Prowler, HH-60H Seahawk, and P-3C Orion. This would've allowed mission variety, including air to air combat, special forces insertion, anti-surface and anti-sub roles, AWACS (Airborne Warning and Control System), and the ever-popular air-to-air combat. But, unfortuneately, the designers made a game that gets old after a while because the only thing different in each mission is the scenery.
I loved the control setup for this game, though. That is, I loved the Expert controls. Expert controls allow you to control the airplanes with realistic three-axis movement (pitch, roll, and yaw). One big flaw, though, was throttle controls. The throttle controls really stunk.
While the control setup was near-perfect, the way the aircraft handled was very unrealistic. I mean, paint dries faster than the time it takes for you to roll completely around one time. Another complaint I have is that you can't really dive inless you roll on your back and pull up. Nothing like real aircraft.
Sound effects were okay, although the explosions sound muted. My favorite sound in this game was your 20mm cannon. The gun in the game almost sounds like the gun in real life (believe me, the real life guns sound a lot different than in the movies.
I did appreciate the graphics. The planes were very detailed, right down to the markings. Everything was in the right spot.
One thing is, I like to play flight sims from a cockpit view that actually looks like a cockpit, and I also like to be able to take off and land. This game didn't have any of that. Half the challenge of flying is taking off and landing, especially for a Navy pilot. IT's been said over and over that it is incredibly unnerving to have to land a 50,000 pound jet on a floating airfield moving away at 30 knots, no matter how experienced you are. This game failed terribly in even giving you an inkling of what flying in the Navy feels like. Anyone can just slap together a "fly in and blow everything up" game. Tsk, tsk.
Overall, this was an okay game. You have to give it a lot of credit because it is the only semi-realistic flight sim for GameCube (hint, hint, Nintendo bigwigs), but I really felt that it didn't do naval aviators justice.
Only buy it if you really truly want a flight sim for GameCube. Otherwise, rent it or wait for a realistic sim to come out.