Flight simulators are often thought of as, well, a little boring. This is largely down to the history of flight simulation games, which began life nearly as far back as computer games themselves.

The earliest flight-sims, such as Microsoft Flight Simulator, were thoroughly boring affairs, mixing archaic graphics with lifeless controls that ultimately culminated in a gaming experience akin to the excitement of Olympic curling. However, that was then - back in the days when computers were no fun whatsoever. Fortunately, a lot has changed since then. We take a look at F.A.S.T to see how the new generation of flight-sims measure up.

F.A.S.T, which stands for Fleet Air Superiority Training, is a flight simulation game that lets you take part in dogfights, either online or against the CPU - over a variety of terrains and in number of different fighter jets. On first impressions, F.A.S.T is a visually stunning game that incorporates some of the best graphics we’ve seen to date on the iPhone format - it’s also received raved reviews by many publications.

Single player mode is basic training for honing your dogfighting skills, such as getting to grips with the weapons, practicing complex maneuvers, and generally learning what it takes to blow an assailant out of the sky. For this reason, the single player option is slightly limited in scope, and generally focusses on you picking up vital skills that you can use against opponents when playing online.

The plane, sorry, fighter jet, is controlled via the accelerometer, which you tilt according to which direction you want to turn, be it left, right, up, or down - although, to make an actual turn requires both turning and tilting. In addition, all your weapons, rudders, guns and missile deterrents are operated by touching the screen. In this sense, F.A.S.T is quite realistic, and you do actually feel like you’re sat in the cockpit of a jet fighter plane.

Nevertheless, the online mode is where F.A.S.T really comes into its own, giving you the option to play up to four people at once from all over the world, as well as set up your own tournaments. You can additionally play via bluetooth if one of your friends has a copy of the game. Both modes have their merits, and certainly add something rather special to the game itself - something nearly all flight-sims lack.

On paper, F.A.S.T does look like one hell of a game. However, during testing we really struggled to see what all the fuss was about. Granted, the graphics are impressive, the controls are very effective, and the ability to play online is a nice feature. Overall, though, this just isn’t enough, and F.A.S.T lacks the essential elements that make a game great: Fun, and overall playability. Needless to say, we felt slightly let down by it, particularly as it looked so impressive from the adverts and opening shots of the game.

If you need a type of metaphor for F.A.S.T, think of any Michael Bay film you’ve ever seen - Transformers, Pearl Harbour, Armageddon - and you’ll have a pretty good idea of how disappointing this game actually is.

The game play, while featuring some brilliant controls and physics, is hardly engaging, and you’ll spend most of your time flying around aimlessly attempting to find a boogie to engage. Obviously, this could be down to us not being very good at the actual game itself, but we did give it the benefit of the doubt, putting a lot of hours in, and still found it to be dull, and generally not much fun.

Overall, F.A.S.T does have some extremely positive aspects, such as the graphics, controls, and online gaming modes. However, on the whole we found the general feel of it to be quite lifeless, and no way near as good as we expected it to.

Unfortunately, F.A.S.T really doesn’t live up to the hype surrounding it, and in that sense, it’s a little bit like X-Factor.