Best Flight Sim?

peanutismint · 21 Oct 2012 at 22:59

I'd love to get back into flight sims but there seem to be quite a few strong contenders nowadays. Obviously there's Microsoft's Flight Sim (of which I believe the latest is called 'Flight Sim X'?) and also just 'Flight' which looks like an amateur version of Flight Sim - or am I wrong?

I've also seen 'X-Plane' which I tried on my Mac and seems to have some very realistic planes and landscapes, and also 'Aerofly FS' which although only Switzerland seems to also have some very detailed planes.....

I'd like to be able to fly in many different planes and countries and environments and in many different ways - some days I might just want to 'mess about', other days I might decide I want to learn to fly a commercial jetliner (!!). Not massively bothered about 'combat' sims (although if anyone has any good suggestions, let me hear 'em - last flight sim I played was probably 'Jane's ATF Gold' back in like 1995!!)

peanutismint · 22 Oct 2012 at 18:25

Thanks for all the responses everybody - those combat ones (esp. the A-10 Warthog sim!) look great. I'm hearing a general love for FSX so perhaps I'll give that a go. Also found this absolutely breathtakingly realistic video which makes me want to play it!!

Not to sound like an amateur but part of me thinks the sim I'd enjoy most would be whichever was the best 'looking'

so do people think FSX has the best graphics? Are they as good as that video from install or will I have to download high-res scenery/models etc as an afterthought?? If so I'll have a go at the demo (if I get into it I'll come join you guys in the FSX thread!)

peanutismint · 22 Oct 2012 at 20:27

Oxy said:
How boring is FSX, get A10 and be a man.

hahah!!

Ok.......

peanutismint · 22 Oct 2012 at 20:42

Shashman said:
I'll echo the majority, and recommend FSX, even consider FS2004 which still has a very strong (if not stronger) community (in terms of addons).

Just a word of warning: in that video, absolutely everything is 3rd party (i.e. not vanilla FSX), so be prepared to spend hours tweaking, modding and searching for addons before you get your FSX running and looking exactly the way you want it to

So you reckon I'll be able to get better looking visuals on FS2004? And any ideas what 3rd party apps I'll need to get mine looking as good as that video??

Also my other query was - I don't yet have a flight stick - will I still be able to control (albeit very awkwardly!) with keyboard/mouse?

peanutismint · 24 Oct 2012 at 00:46

So I bit the bullet and bought Aerofly FS and the previous poster was right - it is a bit arcadey - but perhaps this is what I was looking for! I enjoyed trashing planes around the place (not literally 'trashing'....well......) and the textures/models are really good. Might check out some of the others once I've bought a flight stick.

Thanks!

peanutismint · 25 Oct 2012 at 14:44

!bluetonic! said:
Now you've got the bug for flying, give FSX a go.

The default Cessna 172 is a great starting point.

I'd love to give FXS; the demo was good and looked very in-depth, but I'll probably wait til I get a flight stick.... also I'm a bit confused as to which mods etc to get to make it look its absolute best....and I'm not sure I'd want to spend out hundreds on add-ons either!! Any suggestions?

peanutismint · 25 Oct 2012 at 17:28

Xordium said:
Glad you enjoyed it!

It's a good one to find your feet on. Keep your eye on members market for the stick and trackir as they sometimes pop up on there.

Firstly - I'm in work so can't really watch that video at the mo but I did see an A-10 video (might even be this one!) which was hilarious- basically three guys on headsets with one guy controlling the plane and one reading the pre-flight checklist from the manual. It was really funny - they didn't even make it off the runway for about the first 20 minutes - they managed to get all the power switched on and then the instruments, and then when trying to engage the engines they turned around to see that one of their engines was like totally ablaze :-D

Secondly, I'm not sure whether I'd actually use a TrackIR type system enough to warrant getting one...are they really that good? I've had a look around for flight sticks and have found a massively cheap one - now I know all the flight sim nuts will probably say it's cheap for a reason, but I'm thinking it might be okay for me starting out? It's a Speedlink Black Widow which is only like £30. Reviews seem to be good, although I'm quite aware that it's probably not AMAAAZING for only £30. Has all of the controls I'd probably need for a beginner; throttle, rudder, hat button for looking around etc... Says it has 'force vibration' but I assume that's not the same as the 'force feedback' found in Microsoft's SideWinder etc (sorry if that's showing my age - my friend had a SideWinder II when they first came out in like 1998 and it was mental! Truly difficult to control sometimes but made it very realistic!). So I'm wondering if anyone's had any experience with this cheap flight stick or any other beginners-sticks that they would recommend? I'd expect I could probably get a fairly cheap SideWinder or similar on eBay?? But for the amount I'm gonna use it, I'd rather pay like £40-50 than like £200!

Hope that makes sense....

peanutismint · 25 Oct 2012 at 23:43

Hahah, good advice! Thanks! :-)