Some DCS World community members, those with some of the bigger YouTube channels, have an early Alpha preview of the early access F/A-18C: Hornet and the new Persian Gulf map. The embargo must have dropped today because we have a whole bunch of new videos coming out and this post is a round-up of all of the new ones.

A swarm of Hornet videos

Let’s go from factual and by the book to salty and colorful with these videos by starting with MagzTV’s fantastic YouTube channel which posted the first of the videos that I saw today. Magz covers a lot of material in 11 minutes with a preview of the Hornet itself, some air to air combat and a short tour around Persian Gulf.

Next up, DevilDogGamer gets pretty excited with flying the Hornet in his preview. DevilDog does a startup sequence, taxi tour, and a small tour of the map. DevilDog does what I would probably do which is fly through the streets of Dubai at high speed dodging buildings and maxing our the jet at low altitude. The Hornet can really move!

Finally, Crash Laobi does the most colourful of first flights complete with rain, low altitude flying, and a really quick look at the systems, the flying experience, and how the F/A-18 fleets in the air. Crash makes some good points too about what the F/A-18 means for the DCS community and for the many new players who may be coming in because of it. All good in the end.

More are coming, launch is close

These are all the first of which there will probably be many coming from these YouTube content creators and perhaps more so if you felt at all starved for info in the last couple of weeks, fear not.

This is also I think an indication that we are getting close. The AV-8B was released to YouTube contributors only a few weeks before it became available in Early Access. With Eagle Dynamics’ stated goal of releasing before the 31st of May, we’re just weeks away from the likely launch of the Hornet to early access.

The F/A-18C is still available for pre-order but please keep in mind that the Hornet will be launching in only an early access state when it arrives. What you saw in the videos above will be pretty much what the Hornet will offer and not much more. A lot of weapons and systems will not be functional at the start of the early access period – so don’t expect the full experience right away.

For someone like me who needs some time to get into this and learn the systems, a slow release of features will be just fine giving me a chance to keep up. I’m sure at least some of you will feel similarly.

The Hornet is nearly here! Let the hype begin!