Have you ever seen the simulator rounds on The Krypton Factor? The bit where Kenneth the systems analyst from Chelmsford has to sit in a Boeing Simulator and attempt to land it at Hong Kong International. He sweats, gnashes his teeth and grimaces until he's crashed into the Hilton Hotel just to the left, shrugs and hopes for better luck on the manual dexterity round. The whole process looks fiendishly complicated but somehow you won't mind a go yourself.

JetPilot gives the opportunity to do just this. It would be safe to say that what Vulcan is offering here is pretty much the most realistic flight simulator written for the Amiga. Needless to say this means it requires patience, skill, intelligence and above five hands.

Almost every aspect of flying a modern jet has been reproduced here including flight parameters that come within 10 per cent of real aircraft, changing weather conditions and 27 air bases from the Easter Mediterranean to Scotland. JetPilot is absolutely packed full of options - there are three planes you can fly: The Lightning, Starfighter or MiG 21, on a huge variety of missions from formation flying to combat intercept missions.

To be honest, JetPilot is something you will either love or hate, it really depends on what you look for in a computer game. It isn't something you can just play for 15 minutes while waiting for Neighbours to start. Because of the complexity of the simulation you really need to get to know the game and practice flying the jets and using features such as the radio communications and ground tracking.

Because of the inherent realism, the planes despite being quite easy to handle, aren't as forgiving as in other less realistic sims - take off too steeply and the tail will drag on the ground and destroy the plane. Land too fast and the tyres will burst. Jetpilot is a very impressive product and flight sim buffs will be happy as pigs in mud, however I do get the feeling the game will appear too complicated and perhaps intimidating for those who aren't as well acquainted with sims.

This said, JetPilot is a step forward for the Amiga. Spec wise theg ame is pretty hungry but it shows the strengths of the computer - there isn't, to my knowledge, a game that comes near it on the PC in terms of realism and detail. The graphics are excellent, the planes are realistic right down to the smallest detail with even individual markings visible.

The geography is completely detailed and realistic - take off from a North Wales air base and you'll be able to see Anglesey in one direction and the Wirral in the other. JetPilot will run on pretty much any Amiga but, like many of Vulcan't new products, favours higher spec machines.

On a 1Mb or 2Mb system some features will have to be disabled. However, on a souped up A1200 or A4000 the simulation will run like a dream. If you have a fairly high spec Amiga and are a flight sim buff this game is tailor made for you.

Some mention also has to be made of the price - at £16.99 JetPilot is very competitively priced for such a high quality game, you will certainly get your moneys worth out of this one. The simplest missions, such as just taking off and circling are complicated enough to master, so with 20 qualification missions and loads of combat missions there is more than enough to keep you occupied for donkey years.

Vulcan's 'Mini Series' is becoming a bit of a saga actually, but that's besides the point. The point is that this game is far too fiddly to be any fun for anyone other than very serious and dedicated fans of fiddly flight simulators. Anyone who liked B17 or anything that has some life and action would, most likely, not enjoy the experience quite as much.

What is it all about though? You've got two main aircraft: The Lockheed F-104 and the English Electric Lightning (you could earn the chance to have a little tinker about in a MiG but that's going to take some serious hard work) and Vulcan - quite rightly - are very proud of the fact that all the performance facts from the main aircraft have been studied and implemented so the game mimics the real planes' performances to within 10%;

Obviously, unless you've ever flown an F104 or English Electric Lightning that's going to mean very little apart from the fact that Vulcan claim it sorta, kinda, acts the way the real things do. But hey! I've never driven a Group C sports car before and thoroughly enjoyed games that claimed they sorta, kinda, acted in the same way, so we're all agreed that this is probably a good thing.

And that's where we start to get intro trouble. The game manual is dire. Fine, there's an in-game manual you can refer to. But even here there's a huge amount of assumed knowledge and lack of direction.

Once you've tried working through the text (bright yellow on dull grey is remarkably difficult to read chaps) - with no idea what the terms relate to - you can try moving a mouse pointer round the cockpit to determine what on earth the gauges are. How am I supposed to know what a Tacan Offset 'Engaged' indicator is? And do I need it?

OK, so the manual's not that helpful, that doesn't have to reflect on the game, so let's stick to the point. Actually the point is it's still all such hard work. Controlling your plane is a nightmare - it's going to take you all day to complete the first exercise mission (landing. On an airfield directly ahead of you. With no Wind. And CHA - that's got you hasn't it?).

Move the mouse a tiny bit and you'll struggle to get your plane back in level flight. And with all the details turned on (bring out Format's trusty accelerated A1200, complete with 6Mb RAM and a whole host of other bits that Ben reckons makes it a poky little number) you'll find it takes an age to react to your mouse manipulations.

I'm sounding like I'm having a real downer with this aren't I? I don't want to take it apart for the hell of it - as I said at the beginning, this is going to appeal to people who like over-fiddly jet simulations. I'm not one of them though because I like to be able to play games.

And sure, I understand that some games take a while to get used to - often that's the sign of a very good game. Civ took an age to get used to but it's an all-time classic because it makes itself as available as possible to even a complete novice. But even after a few days trying very hard not to buy the farm after two minutes, Jet Pilot leaves me cold.

But let's suppose you are keen as mustard for these sorts of games, what then have you got to look forward to? A total of 60 Practice, Exercise and Combat missions that will take you from Scotland to the Med. You'll be flying with wingmen, chatting to control towers and generally getting as close to being a real jet pilot as is feasibly possible. All good stuff then.

There's one thing I want to get absolutely clear here. Vulcan have prided themselves on getting as close to reality as possible. For that they are to be commended. All I wish to do is point out that you're going to have to be a person who wants as much reality in a flight-sim as possible.

Casual game players who don't mind jumping into a jet for a quick dog-fight round the skies of Britain, Libya or anywhere else are going to find this far too dry and high-brow.

Which is why I'm only giving this 65%. The only way you're going to get the satisfaction the game could provide is by sheer hard work and dedication. Unless you're actually interested in the difference between the total drag and thrust of the Lightning compared to the F104 I'd go for something a little more erm, 'arcade experience' orientated.