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War! What is it good for? Endless cash-ins and cultivating a blase attitude to death and destruction? Neil Jackson ignores Rules of Enagement and asks who wants to die.

Created by the same team which brought you Falcon, Rowan Software, Flight Of The Intruder is based on the book of the same name by Stephen Coonts, a former Intruder pilot. Just as in Falcon, you first enter your name in the duty roster before moving on to choose your mission. You can leap straight in by selecting the Scramble option which takes you directly to the pilot's seat of an F-4 Phantom waiting on the deck of a carrier. Alternatively, you can take a few more precautions and head for the briefing rooms. There are two: one for Phantom missions and one for A6 Intruder missions. Beginners are advised to opt for the Intruder briefing, since that plane is a lot easier to fly than its superfast, afterburning counterpart.

Whatever plane you select, the briefing rooms are the same. There you find the operations, sub-divided into missions for each plane type. Most planes fly in pairs, with you controlling one and the ST controlling your wingman. You can take whichever mission most appeals to you. Some are easier than others, even on the same operation. For example, on a bombing operation, two phantoms handle the MigCAP (Mig Combat Air Patrol), circling around over the sea waiting to engage any enemy aircraft. Another two phantoms fly the Wild Weasel - a dangerous Surface-to-Air (SAM) suppression mission. Here the phantoms encourage the enemy to fire SAMs at them, rather than at the bombers. The Intruders are responsible for bombing the targets. One target is engaged by each pair of Intruders and there are often more than two targets. Consequently the air becomes pretty thick with friendlies and it's up to you to hit the right planes in a fire-fight.

There is a wealth of other things to check and re-check before you even get near to a plane. You need to know the exact location of the target, what the enemy activity is like in that area and which type of bomb or gun is the best in the circumstances. These details are accessed using an icon display with keyboard shortcuts. Each icon brings up a separate sub-screen showing the topic in detail. Large maps show the waypoints and enable you to get Intelligence reports on specific areas. Close-ups of the planes show all the various bomb-types and give you information on their capabilities. You may even need to check a photograph of the target, just so you can be sure of hitting the right building when you do your dirty work.

After you're finished in the briefing room, you hit another icon to go to the carrier deck. You appear behind the controls of your chosen plane, facing out to sea at the end of the catapault. Five sedonds later you're jettisoned into the air and your work starts in earnest. Landing gear up, wait for the speed to rise before climbing too hard, retract the flaps and then pull back the nose to soar into the sky.

Then comes the long haul to the target with only the noise of the engines and the chatter of the radio for company. Messages are constantly relayed to you from other aircraft on the operation, the carrier and the Early Warning planes. Their comments appear in the top left of the screen, colour-coded so you know what's from who. A sampled voice is triggered every time a message comes in, but all it says is "graagy-flump-graa-blah-click" which can be a bit annoying. Luckily you can turn it off, as you can the engine's drone.

There is an abundance of options within FOTI. You can fly at five ranks, each one causing more and deadlier enemies to come searching for you than the last. You can enjoy the effects of negative G red-out and blackout, or employ a super-engine which is unaffected by atmospherics. Even the infamous Rules of Engagement can be temporarily forgotten. Weather too can be controlled to a degree, as can the rate of fuel and ammo use. There's even an option to record your flight with an on-board camera and watch it later (assuming you land).

FOTI is a massive game, with massive potential. It won't appeal to everyone, since it's fairly technical. The manual is 215 (!) pages long and it explains everything you need to know, but it's no light read. There are oodles of key commands to memorise and some highly complex bombing procedures to work in mid-flight. Not a game for ditherers!

Graphically, FOTI rivals F-19 Stealth Fighter and Falcon. There are some neat effects, especially when you down an enemy aircraft. However, there are occasional glitches where the 3D gets momentarily confused. These, thankfully, are few and far between and don't detract from the excellent gameplay.

You'd be forgiven if you thought that all flight-sims are the same - most of them are. FOTI is sufficiently different and has enough new elements to make it an exciting, pulse-heightening experience. With a bit of practice, you'll get a great deal from it and enjoy yourself immensely. You may, however, need to take a spare pair of trousers for the first few carrier landings.

1. First 15,000 limited edition with novel by Stephen Coonts
2. Many new features which improve on Falcon
3. Great sound and fast graphics
4. Lots of variation in gameplay and realism
5. Tough at first, but worth staying with