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All around the world, people think they can do as they please. You wouldn't have got that in the days of Ronnie and Maggie. That was a time when little countries spoke when they were spoken to, and not before. Now war, genocide and lippy waiters seem to be an ingrained feature of going abroad.

But Americans (who are very touchy about poor restaurant service) are ready to take action. They've spent billions developing the Stealth bomber, and its updated fighter/bomber cousin, the F-117. With its radar invisibility, the Americans can show the world that they're willing to add power to their convictions. And also trash things and escape before being identified (tee hee).

The format of F-117 is geared towards fast, arcade play and not involved flight sim action. This makes it more like EA's F22 rather than LHX. Before each mission, the Squadron Commander gives you a background to the conflict and an overview of the targets. There's no need to take off or land, as the missions commence a short distance from the target area.

Radio links between the squadron and the base play an important part in the game. They serve to create the atmosphere of a war 'drama' being acted out. A lot of the time idle tittle tattle is displayed, but sometimes notice comes of a change in targets, or approaching air defences.

Apart from specific training missions, the munitions screen gives you discretion to load whatever weapons you wish. Only Sidewinders may be loaded on the outer wing, and cannons must be centrally positioned.

1. Paveway III This heavy duty bomb packs 2,000lbs worth of explosive. The bomb is targeted with a remote bombsight, located on the plane. This means the target must remain in sight, even after the missile is released.

2. Maverick There are two versions of this light, laser-guided weapon. This first is auto-targeted by computer. The second reaches the target with the aid of an on-board TV camera. They are both less powerful than the Paveway.

3. 20mm Gatling Gun Traditionalists will simply love this return to good old-fashioned dog-fighting and ground strafing. Of course, you need to employ your own skill to target this heavy calibre machine gun, but it does have 900 rounds of ammo.

4. Sidewinder A sophisticated update of the old heat-seeking weapon of the '70s. Up to six may be carried at one time, giving the F-117 a new role as an air combat fighter.

As you play through the missions, the F-117 goes through a series of updates. The original F117 becomes the F117A and later F117C. The first improvement is allowing the craft to carry air-to-air missiles on its wingtips. Previously you were vulnerable to a surprise air attack. The second update expands the bomb payload to take another two missiles, allowing longer missions with more ground targets.

As with previous sims, there's a veritable panorama of views. The most interesting are the missile views. Certain missiles must be steered into their targets. Since many of the missions take place at night, you might prefer to view in infra-red or night vision. Four different magnifications are also offered.

When picking missions, EA didn't beat around the bush. In the missions up to 1993, they chose recognisable global situations. The first action for the F-117 takes place in Grenada. Then comes the Noriega incident in Panama.

Further short missions cover American policy issues like Bosnia - actions for the UN Peace accord, and drugs barons in Peru. This adds up to a wide range of mission types and enemy hardware.

A strange mystery persists throughout the game about a plane that appear out of nowhere...

Night Storm is a flight sim of the Stealth Fighter/Bomber. The presentation is similar to EA's F22.

Complete each of thirty short missions by destroying the designated targets, and staying in one piece.

I thought the harsh words that the rest of the MMS boys were directing at F-117 were just because they aren't usually that keen on this "type" of game. I, on the other hand, am usually well into flight sims, especially the EA ones like F22 and LHX Attack Chopper, so I expected to be defending the game.

But, after a solid weekend of tortuous playing, I find that it's all sadly too true. This is a very annoying game. The main problem is that everything is soooo slooowwwww, and the control response if so bad it makes you wonder who has been pouring treacle into your joypad.

Even the simple but essential action of selecting a target is fraught with frustration. When you're toggling through the targets the computer never selects the one you want first time, even if it's the nearest one to you, and it's right in the centre of the windshield.

To make matters worse, the target display update always lags about a second behind your keypresses so you have to take everything equally slowly.

Other transgressions against the Laws Of Good Game Production include a very scantily-written manual which skips details which would have beginners mystified. And let's not forget the fact that the missions are mostly very similar bombing runs which are so simple that the only difficulty I encountered was wrestling with those damned controls. Bah! Rubbish!

What goes around comes around. In EA's case, everything they do gets a further update. F-117 certainly looks and plays quite like LHX Attack Chopper and F22 Interceptor, but I'm dismayed to find it's inferior to both. The graphics engine looks quite dated, with hardly any detail to the landscape, and it seems even slower than the previous games.

The handling of the F-117 is quite poor, and I'm astounded that there's no way to alter the plane's speed! Problems with targeting make this trickier to control than the average EA game. However, things buck up after the first few tedious missions are out of the way.

Some of the dog-fighting action is quite fun, and the scenarios are interesting. However, enjoying F-117 requires milking it of every last drop of playbility, and turning a blind eye to the game's obvious weaknesses.

Presentation 80%
P. Nice scenarios and presentational graphics, lots of plane views, and an arcade mode.
N. The range of options is more limited than usual, and the control set-up is poor.

Graphics 72%
P. The on-board cameras on missiles are clever.
N. The graphics are distinctly unimpressive, when both moving and static. Low detail and infrequent update of the 3D.

Sound 70%
P. Military music on the briefings screens, and reasonable place and speech effects.
N. Not much variety in the sonics throughout the game.

Playability 73%
P. Controls are kept to a bare minimum. Some of the later missions are quite involved.
N. F-117 doesn't have as much action as it should. Bombing is the dullest department in the airforce (after catering).

Lastability 70%
P. Thirty odd missions, and some of them have strict time restrictions.
N. The missions are simple, making F-117 rather too easy to wing through.

Overall 72%
Some meaty nuggets of air combat action, and a few good game ideas, but the EA flying team needs a major overhaul, not just an annual update.