Q&A – Whirlwind of Vietnam: UH-1

Helicopters are a b***h to fly – anyone who’s spent time flying one in real-life or in Flight Simulator can tell you that. But that’s also the reason why they’re so versatile, as an attack and transport platform. That one chopper, the UH-1 Huey, became an icon of the Vietnam War. Even if that was one heck of a machine to fly.

The Huey is the star of 1C Company‘s chopper sim Whirlwind of Vietnam: UH-1. In an interview with AG.ru, lead designer Nikita Gerasimov explains the game’s historical background and how it shapes the gameplay the player will have to endure. As it’s a rather long interview, and in Russian, too (thank goodness 1C decided to translate it to English for the non-Russky press), we’ll summarize the details with the ever-handy bullet points.

• Takes place during the Vietnam War, specifically in operations in Ia Drang Valley.
• The game’s not only about flying the Huey, but using it to support and help direct infantry on the ground – as it was used in real life.
• The player will have to interact with air and ground units – not to mention his own crew. Speaking of which, the player can also take over a gunner position, letting the autopilot take over flying the chopper for him.
• The level of simulation is scalable. Inexperienced chopper pilots can hand off a lot of the tasks involved with flying a Vietnam-era chopper to the computer. Experienced pilots – or masochists – can choose to take on the simulation unassisted.
• Damage modeling and simulation is very, very thorough. Each system of the Huey is modeled to its real-life counterpart, down to turbine shafts and lubrication fluid.
• Unfortunately there won’t be any multiplayer mode, because being faithfully set in Vietnam, “there wasn’t anyone to fight in the air.” Pity.
• Minimum specs required: Intel Pentium 4 2.4GHz, 128MB RAM (min. Radeon 9600 or GeForce 6600). Gerasimov says that a computer that low-end won’t be able to enjoy these screens, though:

(These screenshots date back to late October. This is the latest media they have on Whirlwind of Vietnam. We’ve decided to include them to give you an idea of how the game would look).

More Hueys at the full article.

Helicopters are a b***h to fly – anyone who’s spent time flying one in real-life or in Flight Simulator can tell you that. But that’s also the reason why they’re so versatile, as an attack and transport platform. That one chopper, the UH-1 Huey, became an icon of the Vietnam War. Even if that was one heck of a machine to fly.

The Huey is the star of 1C Company‘s chopper sim Whirlwind of Vietnam: UH-1. In an interview with AG.ru, lead designer Nikita Gerasimov explains the game’s historical background and how it shapes the gameplay the player will have to endure. As it’s a rather long interview, and in Russian, too (thank goodness 1C decided to translate it to English for the non-Russky press), we’ll summarize the details with the ever-handy bullet points.

• Takes place during the Vietnam War, specifically in operations in Ia Drang Valley.
• The game’s not only about flying the Huey, but using it to support and help direct infantry on the ground – as it was used in real life.
• The player will have to interact with air and ground units – not to mention his own crew. Speaking of which, the player can also take over a gunner position, letting the autopilot take over flying the chopper for him.
• The level of simulation is scalable. Inexperienced chopper pilots can hand off a lot of the tasks involved with flying a Vietnam-era chopper to the computer. Experienced pilots – or masochists – can choose to take on the simulation unassisted.
• Damage modeling and simulation is very, very thorough. Each system of the Huey is modeled to its real-life counterpart, down to turbine shafts and lubrication fluid.
• Unfortunately there won’t be any multiplayer mode, because being faithfully set in Vietnam, “there wasn’t anyone to fight in the air.” Pity.
• Minimum specs required: Intel Pentium 4 2.4GHz, 128MB RAM (min. Radeon 9600 or GeForce 6600). Gerasimov says that a computer that low-end won’t be able to enjoy these screens, though:

(These screenshots date back to late October. This is the latest media they have on Whirlwind of Vietnam. We’ve decided to include them to give you an idea of how the game would look).