Eagle Lander 3D

Combining impressive graphics, decent sound, and a realistic-feeling simulation, Eagle Lander 3D lets you try for a smooth moon landing, but it's a bit rough around the edges. As with realistic flight sims, you must practice quite a bit before you can avoid crash landing. However, accessing the detailed help files may help you hone your skills. The trial version puts you in control of the Apollo 11 spacecraft; you must guide it to a smooth landing spot using pitch, yaw, and roll controls. A tutorial would be nice for the mission, as it's extremely difficult. Still, viewing a succesful landing using the app's Replay mode may provde some assistance.

The lander is nicely modeled, and the moonscape looks as if it were created from real photos. You get multiple cockpit views, plus external views of the lander, which you can rotate and move around. The audio in the simulation sounds like radio communications from the original moon missions. We like the variety in video and audio settings, especially the ability to play in window mode. Customizing keyboard and mouse controls is rough, requiring you to edit text files. For a smooth-running simulation, you also will need a recent, gamer-quality graphics card. People who enjoy hard-core, realistic, vehicle simulations will appreciate the level of detail in Eagle Lander 3D.