Flight sim for older pc and younger kid

Skidder

Skidder

Skidder

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Hi, I'm looking for a flight sim for my 8 year old. He loves planes and is interested only in commercial / private rather than combat.

My PC is in my office and i dont want him playing in there so it is an older pc he has access to with a radeon 7600a series, 8gb ram amd an i53330s @2.7ghz. Its a dell all in one.

What sims woukd you recommend? It would be good if there is an easier mode to get rolling.


Also any recommendation of a joystick for max £70?

Thanks!
 
I have doubts that FSX would be ok for an eight-year-old; in fact I think he'll lose interest pretty quickly. Flying over the endless samey and (frankly) boring scenery of vanilla FSX isn't something that's likely to hold his attention for long.

Although my suggestion does contain a slight bit of combat (in a very harmless way), the cutesy scenarios and the simplified flight model of 'Airfix Dogfighter' might be something for him. It's pretty old, but you can still buy it, as far as I know. And the very simple scenario editor will probably keep him satisfied.
 
npjnpj said:
I have doubts that FSX would be ok for an eight-year-old; in fact I think he'll lose interest pretty quickly. Flying over the endless samey and (frankly) boring scenery of vanilla FSX isn't something that's likely to hold his attention for long.

Although my suggestion does contain a slight bit of combat (in a very harmless way), the cutesy scenarios and the simplified flight model of 'Airfix Dogfighter' might be something for him. It's pretty old, but you can still buy it, as far as I know. And the very simple scenario editor will probably keep him satisfied.
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Thanks for that, may be I should get both. Since I'll be buying a joystick either way might be worth getting two options.
 
Zethor, Are you having a bad day or are you always that rude???


FSX

He will get on just fine with it. The PC will run it well and he can download as many commercial planes as he likes.

As for a joystick, 70 is a good budget. I would show him what you find (throttle is a must) and let him pick the one he likes as they go from boring to quite funky looking.

Take him to flightsim.com and there is everything he could possible want to fly to down load for free...

My daughter go on just fine with FS when she was 8...[/QUOTE]
 
Ever considered Kerbal Space Program? Almost a flight sim, good creative sandbox style game with a good educational/entertaining slant.
 
FSX contains a good amount of missions that start off easy to teach you the basics and get progressively harder. So it's not just about aimlessly flying around. Also buried away is the flying school which is pretty good at teaching the basics of navigation and using the instruments.

The Thrustmaster T1600M is a pretty good joystick.
 
digitalx said:
Woodsta, what FSX stuff was at £2 ?!

Ahh damn it.
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All of it!!!! Every add on was £2. I dont fly sims but I saw all FSX stuff was £2.

Keep your eye on here as all R.A.T mice were half price.

I got randolph sunglasees half price.

Any simmer should have this company as a fave
 
il2 1946, you can pick it up for peanuts, blows the crap out of fsx for feel of flying, graphics and not whack physics if you push the limit

does have bombs and guns and rockets and canons tho.
 
Skidder said:
Also any recommendation of a joystick for max £70?

Thanks!
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Hi Skidder i recently spent a few months researching sticks for a purchase of my own. What i would really recommend is let him fly a bit without a stick first, and see if he really enjoys it. IF he does maybe save a little bit more ( get him to work for it????? doing the dishes ect ) As in reality any flight controllers you buy in that price range are not going to be particularly enjoyable OR well constructed sorry to be bit of a bad stick. But the T Flight Hotas X by thrustmaster is going to be about as good as you can get in that price range. But it's still not something i would recommend.

A none pro X52 will be around £40-£50 over your budget but will be a much better experience.

Also my niece is the same age as your boy and she absolutely adores coming onto Microsoft flight simulator ( i have the steam version but don't think there is any difference ) but she does enjoy it each time she visits she comes and asks if we can fly planes. ( scary having a 8 y/o with control of a 747 )
 
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