There's an excellent scene in Monty Python's quest for the holy grail, Prince Herbert's father is telling his son about the kingdom he will one day inherit:

Listen, lad. I built this kingdom up from nothing. When I started here, all there was was swamp. Other kings said I was daft to build a castle on a swamp, but I built it all the same, just to show 'em. It sank into the swamp. So, I built a second one. That sank into the swamp. So, I built a third one. That burned down, fell over, then sank into the swamp, but the fourth one... stayed up! And that's what you're gonna get, lad: the strongest castle in these islands.

This review is a natural progression of our LOCK-ON 1.02 review.

New Features distinct from 1.02 (from the official site):
1. The Su-25T has been included with advanced flight dynamics.
2. There has been a significant modernization of the Russian Su-27, Su-33, and MiG-29 avionics systems.
3. The angular dimensions of each aircraft are now faithful to the real ones.
4. Parameters of various weapon types have been adjusted.
5. New weapons and missiles models have been created.
6. New bomb and missile launch devices have been included.
7. Fortifications, checkpoints, blockhouses, command centers, weapon storage bunkers have been introduced.
8. Three new campaigns have been created, with a total of 76 missions.
9. A new training course syllabus has been provided to instruct the player in the use of the Su-25T.
10. The manual has been significantly broadened in scope and adjusted.

Calling #'s 3 and 4 'New Features'...more fix than distinct features....

System Requirements:
As far as I can tell the same as LOMAC.

Availability:
Web site download: Download the add-on to Lock On: Modern Air Combat (Lock On: Modern Air Combat required). -- The English version can be downloaded from www.LockOn.ru. Payment will be via PayPal and the download will be approximately 250 MB. The add will works with English, German and French versions of Lock On;

My experience was relatively painless. It was annoying to have to register an account on the official website to be able to purchase their product though. It took about 40 minutes to download. Your activation key that you need to put into the starforce copy protection utility is displayed on the site when you purchase. If you forget or lose your serial it is obtainable again by logging onto the website. It is unusual that the purchaser isn't sent their key in an email.

Naturalpoint have announced that they will be offering the simulation on CD. I have yet to find out if it will include the CD version's starforce or the online version that only allows the 5 activations.

Installation:
The installation is fairly straight forward - prominently displayed is the use of starforce copy protection - a good idea considering the backlash when the demo was released without it being mentioned. An unfortunate oversight that was rectified with a patch.

There was nothing much unusual in the License agreement beyond besides being allowed to make a back up of the program.

Upon first Launch of the sim the starforce activation program kicks in. You enter your registry key and the sim associates it with a system checksum created by the software.

Now the biggest issue with the installation is starforce - ED released a FAQ and the following info was included:

1. If automatic activation was failed, do not use it again – use the manual activation. Numerous attempts of automatic activation may cause the decreasing of number of activations, which is set up as 5 in the beginning. - Every Serial Number have only 5 (five) activations.
2. Every hardware changing, MS Windows © reinstalling, Lock On reinstalling may cause the necessity of new activation of Star Force protection system.
3. We strongly recommend you to make a backup for “Lock On v.1.1: Flaming Cliffs” folder after installation and successful activation. You may use this backup in case when “Lock On v.1.1: Flaming Cliffs” was critically damaged (for example by third-party utilities). Every damage of “Lock On v.1.1: Flaming Cliffs” files may cause the necessity of Lock On reinstallation and new activation of Star Force protection system.

This system is absolutely horrible for the consumer and many people are complaining on the official forums that they've had to use multiple activations to get the sim running or have run out of activations altogether. Starforce technical support have given some people an extra 2 activations when they've run out.

I emailed the developer asking what does a consumer do after they've used their 5 activations - the reply was "First of all you need to contact us. Next step - you buy a new serial number for the game". This seems too wrong to be right so I've asked for a further clarification. If I get one i'll post it here.

Update: I never did get a clarification - however the number of activations has been increased to 15.

First Impressions:
Not much has changed.

Interface Improvements:
None. All of the issues present in 1.02 still exist.

Training section:
Some extra training missions have been included. They are complete and done to the same good standards as in 1.02.

Mission Editor:
Same problems as in 1.02

The game engine:
Graphics: The graphics engine seems to have been tidied up somewhat. Flashing textures that were present for me in 1.02 are not present in 1.1. After 3 hours of benchmarking various track files and creation of test missions it's apparent that the engine is SLIGHTLY slower, averaging around 3%. The crippling effects problems are still present. Why the replacement components created by the community to address framerate issues weren't included in 1.1 is anyone's guess.

There have been quite a few eyecandy additions. Instead of generic crashes aircraft now break up on impact in a realistic manner.

Sound: There has been some progress with the sound engine with the framerate hit reduced by about 30% over 1.02.

Multiplayer: I spent some time playing online on hyperlobby with 'the Mighty 44th's' - one of the few active online squads I see frequenting hyperlobby and operating a dedicated server.

Whilst I noticed some initial warping while the player's connections stabilised in game I observed none. One of the dev's mentioned that they moved from a multiplayer methodology that was suitable only for LAN play (synchronous) to a much more acceptable method (asynchronous). This is however not mentioned in the readme of changes and I haven't had enough time to get more than a half dozen hours in (not including troubleshooting a weird connection issue another player was having).

I did experience a weird control issue in multiplayer that I did not experience in single player, the axis for my sticks were working but not the buttons, and none of the game keyboard functions besides ctrl+backspace seemed to be working. I could alt+tab out and I could confirm that everything was functioning correctly outside of the sim. Two of the guys I was flying with - one a Flaming Cliffs beta tester - confirmed that similar issues had occurred to them. While I am typing this the beta tester is having some issues of his own with his hat switch. Exiting to windows he confirms his stick is working fine. Another player just said his game has crashed. Another guy has found himself half in the game. He saw one of the other players just land his aircraft but the server says he is not in the game. OK - I guess it's safe to say that multiplayer still doesn't work right.

Artificial Intelligence:
From the readme it looks like a lot of AI bugs have been addressed. It's too early to tell if any of the crippling bugs are still present as no reference to issues such as AI landing at enemy airfields or being unrealistically aware of enemy units are made in the 1.1 readme file.

Flight Modeling:
Flaming Cliffs finally sees the inclusion of a Hi-Fidelity flight model for the Su-25's. The flight model feels much like the flight model of IL-2 - much more inertia.

Manual:
The manual is an improvement on the 1.00 manual and is well organised. The translation is a bit dodgy in places and some of the information in the reference sections are irrelevant, whilst relevant information is missing. For example the AMRAAM reference contains a lot of information on the weight of components etc. but does not include the range of the weapon. Otherwise the manual is excellent.

Longevity:
Same as before - there isn't any, for all of the same reasons.

Conclusion:
Flaming Cliffs isn't that strongest castle in the land Herbert's father talked about, it's another set of foundations for something better.

The artwork is unmatched. As a source for movie making it is excellent. The product is a 'medium fidelity' simulation, sacrificing complexity for playability whilst still retaining the fundamentals of air combat. A good stepping stone to more complex jet sims.

Is it worth the full price of a regular game for what it adds? definitely not if you compare it to other products. Coupled with the fact that the bug fixes are not being made available as a separate patch this is not much more than a money grab to fund further development.

1.1 doesn't really add much in the way of gameplay improvements over 1.02 and it certainly doesn't seem to be any more stable. If you were happy with 1.02 and don't mind the price tag you won't be disappointed, if you were unhappy with 1.02 there's a good chance you won't be happy with 1.1. Try before you buy if you have the opportunity.

UPDATE:
Flaming Cliffs was included in the Lock-On:Gold package retailed to the western world. Unfortunately the Flaming-Cliffs cd shipped is faulty and you will need a replacement CD before you will be able to play the expansion.

Since inital writing of this review Eagle Dynamics have patched the game sufficiently to allow it to run smoothly on cutting edge systems. Unfortunately they still have not released a non-payware patch to fix the problems they did not fix for purchasers of the original product.

The policy of forcing purchasers of their products to pay for fixes (NOT enhancements) is unacceptable, and their continued use of starforce firmly establishes that Eagle Dynamics cannot be relied upon to do the right thing for their consumers.