Decent flight sims

Mike1983 · 30 Apr 2008 at 20:22

Hello

Can anyone suggest any good flight sim games out at the moment? I've not played any in years as I've been using the PS2 for games and the PC for applications so I'm out of the loop as far as pc gaming goes. Modern combat flight sims would be more my thing as I remember playing a game called TFX about 10 years ago on my 486!

Thanks

Azagoth · 30 Apr 2008 at 20:30

LO-MAC
Falcon 4.0: Allied Force
Microsoft Flight Simulator
Microsoft CFS 3
IL2: 1946

Should cover the all the basics.

silversurfer · 1 May 2008 at 02:37

I remember TFX, preferred F29 tbh! If you want to just mess around online you could try bf2 or one of its mods

Scania · 1 May 2008 at 05:41

silversurfer said:
I remember TFX, preferred F29 tbh! If you want to just mess around online you could try bf2 or one of its mods

He said "Decent Flight Sims" BF2 is a great laugh for Chopper & Jet antics, but, its hardly a Sim.

Combat Flight Sim 2 & 3 are my favourite sims - guns essential as far as planes & I am concerned.

Mike1983 · 1 May 2008 at 07:05

Thanks guys.

That LO-MAC looks pretty cool, think I'll give that a try. Seems like there aren't any recent sims around though, like produced last year for example, seems kinda strange.

So on combat flight sim 3 can you fly modern fighter jets or is it just WW1 & 2 stuff. Keep seeing clips of vintage planes but no jets.

Would love something like a modern day equivalent of TFX where you have missions and kit out your plane with your choice of bombs etc

Dano · 1 May 2008 at 10:11

Mike1983 said:
Seems like there aren't any recent sims around though, like produced last year for example, seems kinda strange.

Yeh, we're just waiting on them all, IIRC coming up are:

Storm of War, Battle of Britain - 1C Maddox Games, Battle of Britain Sim.
Jet Thuner - Thunderworks, Falklands Harrier Sim.
Black Shark - DCS, Russian KA50 Heli Sim.
Fighter Ops - I know nothing about this one, only that it is modern stuff.
Knights of the Sky - Gennandich Team, WW1 Sim.

I also believe there is something in the works from TK Thirdwire and 777 Studios but again I am lacking in information.

Also there is a Korea sim in development that will run on the new SoW:BoB engine from 1c Maddox games but I'm having a hell of a time remembering who is doing it, they did the 1946 and Sturmoviks over Manchura addons for IL2 though.

So there are good times ahead for us sim junkies

Scania · 1 May 2008 at 13:45

Mike1983 said:
Thanks guys.

That LO-MAC looks pretty cool, think I'll give that a try. Seems like there aren't any recent sims around though, like produced last year for example, seems kinda strange.

So on combat flight sim 3 can you fly modern fighter jets or is it just WW1 & 2 stuff. Keep seeing clips of vintage planes but no jets.

Would love something like a modern day equivalent of TFX where you have missions and kit out your plane with your choice of bombs etc

WW2 & Korean War era, a few Jets (ME262 etc) but nothing that modern iirc.

Visage · 1 May 2008 at 14:05

Are there any sims about that are a little less hardcore?

i.e where you can just start the game, whack the throttle to full and go off blowing stuff up?

I dont necessarily want to have to spend 3 hours going though pre-flight checks and learning ATC protocols

wordy · 1 May 2008 at 14:30

Theres Echelon and Echelon II Wind Warriors, based in the future pretty much a Arcade flight sim. Also Crimson Skies thats another great arcade flight sim.

They are pretty old, but really enjoyed them.

pdw8 · 1 May 2008 at 14:33

Whatvever happened to Microprose? I loved playing Gunship and F19 Stealth Fighter.........those were the days

Visage · 1 May 2008 at 14:40

F19 stealth fighter was awesome.....just blowing up loads of stuff and then landing on fumes because you took a huge detour to blow up a few more...

Datamonkey · 1 May 2008 at 15:36

Have you got any dates on when these are coming out?

Stuck at work so canna look myself

Knights of the Sky - Gennandich Team, WW1 Sim. Would be my main interest, used to love an old game which was wwI based, which came with a book on the red barron, christ canna remember the name of the game, have still got the book, Was by ROWAN, they used to do some really good flightsims.

Storm of War, Battle of Britain - 1C Maddox Games, Battle of Britain Sim.
Jet Thuner - Thunderworks, Falklands Harrier Sim.
Black Shark - DCS, Russian KA50 Heli Sim.

Ogs · 1 May 2008 at 15:38

Did nobody play F22 Lightning 3 ? NUKES !

Vern1961 · 1 May 2008 at 15:55

Unfortunately the heady days of the 1990's flight sims don't seem set to return. Know what you mean re the compromise between playability and complexity. Titles like USNF and Longbow 2 were among my favourite along with Tornado. I quite like Falcon 4 but as recently posted in another OC flight sim thread, lacks a middle ground between the rather arcadey simplified avionics and the head scratching realistic mode.

These days I tend to stick with the civilian stuff, specifically FS2004 and now switching to FSX in anticipation of the new version of FS Passengers being released.

Re Lo-Mac - slight word of caution. I believe this installs Starforce copy protection and after installing on my computer, this "anti-piracy" measure is so blooming good it wouldn't even start the game. Lo-Mac and the malware uninstalled, returned for refund...

Azagoth · 1 May 2008 at 16:27

R124/LA420 said:
WW2 & Korean War era, a few Jets (ME262 etc) but nothing that modern iirc.

Sorry about the rubbish quality, but these were taken way back just after the release of CFS3 and none of the decent "visual tips" had been worked out properly.

Mike1983 · 1 May 2008 at 20:16

Dano said:
Storm of War, Battle of Britain - 1C Maddox Games, Battle of Britain Sim.
Jet Thuner - Thunderworks, Falklands Harrier Sim.
Black Shark - DCS, Russian KA50 Heli Sim.
Fighter Ops - I know nothing about this one, only that it is modern stuff.
Knights of the Sky - Gennandich Team, WW1 Sim.

Just did some research on that Fighter Ops title that you suggest. Looks like that's going to be something special when it gets released. Development screenshots going back to 2005

http://www.fighterops.com/

Scania · 2 May 2008 at 06:26

Azagoth said:
Sorry about the rubbish quality, but these were taken way back just after the release of CFS3 and none of the decent "visual tips" had been worked out properly.

Wow!

Got any links for that Tornado? - PLEASE!!!

timbob · 2 May 2008 at 16:02

Vern1961 said:
Re Lo-Mac - slight word of caution. I believe this installs Starforce copy protection and after installing on my computer, this "anti-piracy" measure is so blooming good it wouldn't even start the game. Lo-Mac and the malware uninstalled, returned for refund...

That's only the Flaming Cliffs expansion. The original version of Lock On doesn't use starforce.

I had the same issue with the game not starting after installing Flaming Cliffs, and it was due to me using an old DVD drive. A newer drive gave no problems, so there is a workaround. Great sim!

B@Th*nG · 2 May 2008 at 17:43

is there anything like x-wing about these days? cos that was awesome!

B@Th*nG

mark66 · 2 May 2008 at 17:58

pdw8 said:
Whatvever happened to Microprose? I loved playing Gunship and F19 Stealth Fighter.........those were the days

Visage said:
F19 stealth fighter was awesome.....just blowing up loads of stuff and then landing on fumes because you took a huge detour to blow up a few more...

Yep F19 and then the later F117A were just awesome! Probably one of my most played games, certainly on the PC...

Plotting your mission around the enemy radars and re-routing it to make sure every weapon carried was put to good use, limping home with all the warning lights on and getting the Purple Heart. Great gaming memories

It was also nice having a game that came with a proper manual, detailing all the weapon and target specs. It still absolutely amazes me that the game (F-117A) fitted onto 3 x 1.44mb floppy discs :eek: