Flight Sims: The Good, The Bad And The Ugly

Axleuk

Axleuk

Axleuk

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I'm in the market for a good flight sim. I do like the look of Take-On Helicopter. I think that would be fun without being too arcade like but I also wouldn't mind one of the traditional flight sims.

I'm not a fan of unrealistic graphics. Something that has great scenery, great models and has a purpose (not just something you use to take off and land without there being any real target to the game).

Have you got any experience with this genre. Which ones are best and which ones should I avoid?
 
X-Plane 10? MS Flight when it's out. IL-2 Cliffs of Dover/Wings of Prey, DCS A-10C/Black Shark/Black Shark 2, Lock On: FC2. Or you could get FSX and spend money on good scenery and aircraft
 
Take on helicopters is fun, they've got a great balance between being a game and a pure sim. It's not perfect but BIS are always dedicated to their games so the patches will keep coming I'm sure. I'm enjoying it a lot.

FSX is obviously the classic. Just been doing a few little flights in my C337H Skymaster around Washington state with the awesome Orbx scenery this evening. Combine with REX weather and it looks cracking. It doesn't really have many goals but it's amazingly satisfying!

For combat personally nothing beats DCS A-10C, very fun plane to fly and super detailed systems but still reasonably easy to pickup due the good tutorials and youtube videos. Tons of user created missions/campaigns to keep you busy.
 
Axleuk said:
I'm not a fan of unrealistic graphics. Something that has great scenery, great models and has a purpose (not just something you use to take off and land without there being any real target to the game).
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While not possessing the prettiest scenery and ground-based models I think the sim that best fits the "target" aspect of your specification is going to be Falcon 4.0, an F-16 simulator originally released by MicroProse in 1998. The reason for this is the dynamic campaign engine which tops the scripted missions found in FSX and the DCS titles and is the underlying reason for its longevity.

Continued community driven development currently peaks with Benchmark Sims' Falcon BMS 4.32. This is a combat study sim in the truest sense; aircraft operation, performance, avionics, ground operations, flight management, combat tactics, weapon delivery and more. Then there is the multiplayer aspect. The return on investment may end up providing entertainment measured in years not hours.

And then there's just the feel of it. Probably the most advanced flight model available on a PC. Despite the availability of a whole series of articles on its development I don't have the engineering knowledge to translate it; you just have to try it out.

Here's an overview of some of the notable features,


Falcon BMS is a complete release rather than a patch and only requires the original disc for confirmation during installation.
 
ncjok said:
While not possessing the prettiest scenery and ground-based models I think the sim that best fits the "target" aspect of your specification is going to be Falcon 4.0, an F-16 simulator originally released by MicroProse in 1998. The reason for this is the dynamic campaign engine which tops the scripted missions found in FSX and the DCS titles and is the underlying reason for its longevity.

Continued community driven development currently peaks with Benchmark Sims' Falcon BMS 4.32. This is a combat study sim in the truest sense; aircraft operation, performance, avionics, ground operations, flight management, combat tactics, weapon delivery and more. Then there is the multiplayer aspect. The return on investment may end up providing entertainment measured in years not hours.

And then there's just the feel of it. Probably the most advanced flight model available on a PC. Despite the availability of a whole series of articles on its development I don't have the engineering knowledge to translate it; you just have to try it out.

Here's an overview of some of the notable features,


Falcon BMS is a complete release rather than a patch and only requires the original disc for confirmation during installation.
Click to expand...

Exactly what I was going to say. DCS may be much prettier, and have even more detail (not by much though!) you simply can't beat the real time dynamic campaign engine. DCS missions are scripted and repetitive. Every time you launch the falcon campaign it's different as the war effort depends entirely on attrition etc. At 13 mins into that vid you'll see an brief overview of it.
 
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I found Lock On FC2 good for those who don't want to spend days reading through internet tutorials.

It's still not "easy" exactly but there isn't so much to remember as DCS etc...
 
DCS A-10 is more about %100 faithfully re-creating the A-10 to the finest detail. I don't think anything has ever come close to the level of detail. Falcon is a very good game but I feel DCS beats it in terms of aircraft simulation.
 
MOOGLEYS said:
DCS A-10 is more about %100 faithfully re-creating the A-10 to the finest detail. I don't think anything has ever come close to the level of detail. Falcon is a very good game but I feel DCS beats it in terms of aircraft simulation.
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yeah it does. Falcon is hard to get perfectly right as there are ridiculous amounts of variation of the F-16C alone. One has HMCS, others don't, some have PW engines, other GE, not mention different versions and capabilites of the RADAR in each block etc. It is still very close to the real thing according to real viper pilots, and any detail it lacks is more than made up for by the dynamic campaign IMO. Everyone has their own favourites though, and Falcon has been mine for 13 years now :D
 
DCS is cheaper direct from the DCS website than steam, so very tempted but I know I just wont have the time to do much more than practice taking off landing :(

I'd certainly go DCS over Falcon, Cliffs of Dover can be had for £6.99 and is worth it, Rise of Flight can be played for free, again worth it and I just noticed that Take on Helicopters has a demo available which I'll be downloading later :)
 
Looking for a flight combat to dip my toe in the genre but I dont have a flight stick yet. Should I go with Wings of prey for it's sim-lite gameplay or dive into the sims like Cliff of Dover or A10-Warthog?

Anyone here tried Free Track also? Im going to give it a go, TrackIR is well over a hundred notes.

http://www.free-track.net/english/
 
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Rise of Flight is free,but you only get 2 planes.Try that first as it is a great starting point to learn the basics.Other planes cost extra.
A10c is a study sim and not really a dip your toe in sort of game.
Cliffs of dover is good but buggy and the multiplayer is not really populated enough.
I found wings of prey a little souless but has great graphics.
 
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