Flight Sims

[MIGMaster]

I'm looking at spending some time getting into a decent fixed-wing sim with some legs. I also want some variety. I was surprsied at how I liked the civilian aspect of Take on Helicopters and it led me to start looking at sims like FSX. From some preliminary research I see that MS Combat Flight Simulator seems to end at 4 and from a lot of the add on's I've been looking at (those at JustFlight.com or Flightsim.com) I want to have a decent selection of aircraft.

In the past I've played a ton of survey sims - Jane's ATF, Jane's USAF, Strike Fighter (first release + platches), in addition to some more detailed sims such as Tornado, Graphsim's F/A-18 Korea and MIG Alley

So am I better off getting into the latest sims from Thidwire and saying screw the civilian side, look at MS Combat Flights Sim 3 0r 4 and the additional aircraft avilable as 3rd party downloads or is a FSX with add-on aircraft a route I should explore?

If anybody can magically answer this I would appreciate it - I know it's a real wide spectrum - Please take pity I've been out of the sim scene for years - as I suspected you notice from the last sims I played  ;)

[Shelldrake]

Thirdwire sims are accessible but sim-lite. If you really want to get into the cockpit why not try BMS Falcon 4?

http://www.lockonfiles.com/index.php/topic/36936-falcon-4-bms-info-and-download-link/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ECIj35JCNXQ

I am sure that Toonces will have some other suggestions.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Give Rise of Flight a whirl.  It's free to play now and what could be simpler than a biplane with one MG and a lawn mower engine?

I mean, if the jackasses at GiantBonb can play it, anyone can.

http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-rise-of-flight/17-5746/?full_site=true

By way of contrast, look what happens when they try DCS A-10 Warthog.
http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-digital-combat-simulator-a-10c-warthog/17-5490/

[Toonces]

It could be that I have some ideas...

I'm going to throw this out there, even though I don't have first hand experience with it.  If you're leaning towards FSX, you may want to strongly consider getting an add-on aircraft for it from PMDG.  I have been eyeballing their products for years and now that I have a computer that will run FSX I am definitely going to pick up a plane eventually, for example, the 737, 747, or SH-60.  I think they have an MD-11 or DC-10 also- I may lean towards one of those since I've always thought the DC-10 was the most kick-ass comercial jet ever.  There was one other add-on, not sure if it's PMDG or A2A (I think A2A) called "Queen of the Skies" or something like that.  It was an add-on for this older prop airliner, not the Electra but something similar with 4 engines.  Anyway, the add-on added stewardesses, a co-pilot, announcements in the cabin, all sorts of stuff.  The Youtube video for it totally sold me...but it's a bit of an investment, like $70 or something for both add-ons (the plane and then the additional content).  My point, though, is that if you really want to fly like a real airline pilot there are some insane things you can do with FSX...add VATSIM and you can fly with real (simulated) air traffic control all over the place in a plane that is modeled to an extremely high degree of accuracy.

On the military side, there are two sims that are obvious and highly recommended.  The first is DCS:A-10.  I still don't have this yet.  However, I really like the direction DCS is going with their simulation.  They are putting together a full land war component that, when implemented, will really give players a very powerful wargame engine under the simulation engine.  From what I understand the A-10 is modeled extremely accurately and if you want to do it "right" you will have to invest a significant amount of time to learn the jet and its systems.  DCS: Blackshark 2 is also an option if you want to go the egg beater route.  I have BS1 and it is pretty impressive, but I really didn't invest the proper amount of time to learn it properly.

The second sim I would highly recommend in BMS Falcon 4.  I've been putting some time into it lately and I am very impressed.  The F-16 is modeled extremely accurately, almost to DCS standards.  A lot of the pesky bugs from previous iterations of Falcon- like air-air refueling for example- have been fixed.  It is very stable.  Multiplayer is rock solid.  They have been putting together persistent "player vs. player" campaigns where you join a team and then can fly for your side on a persistent campaign that runs 24/7 for a week.  In fact, I'm joining a virtual fighter squad for the first time for this particular reason.  I think that says a lot about the sim considering I've been flying Falcon for going on 13 years and have never really considered going multiplayer.  There is a lot of meat in BMS and I think they have some very interesting things in the work for the future...so if you invest the time to properly learn the sim I think you will find it is time well spent. 

DCS:A-10 can be downloaded from Steam for $40 for immediate gratification.
BMS Falcon requires the original Falcon 4 CD.  If  you don't have it, and you definitely want to give Falcon a try, let me know and I might be able to hook you up with what you need from the CD.

Both DCS and BMS presume you have a decent HOTAS.  If you're using a little twisty stick, I can't really encourage you to try either.  You really need to have a lot of buttons at your fingertips to play those games properly.

If you are into WW1/2, or don't have a HOTAS, two really good-looking games are Cliffs of Dover and Rise of Flight.  I haven't played either, although I'm eyeballing RoF and will probably get it going this weekend.  RoF is free to download and play, and comes with two planes free.  It has a robust DLC market where you can pay and download anything from new planes to gunsights, to paint jobs.  Since it's free to get into and try, you might want to give it a go and see how you feel about it before spending any money.  I understand that it is fairly difficult to get proficient in, so I think it meets your criteria.

Cliffs of Dover (CloD) has a ton of potential, but has been absolutely blasted for all of the bugs in it.  I can't really encourage you to try it unless you have a real passion for the Battle of Britain, and you have enough faith in Oleg to support CloD until it meets its potential.

Thirdwire makes some decent sims with a ton of user-mods available.  My favorite is Strike Fighters 2: Vietnam with the complete air and ground war expansion.  It doesn't even compare to something like BMS, but can be fun if you're looking for something you can start playing right away.  BMS really does require an investment of time before it becomes fun.

I hope that gets you started.  With the exception of BMS, I think you can download all of the sims I mentioned so you can get some immediate gratification.  A good gameplan might be to download both BMS and RoF so you have two sims you can try for free and evaluate...sort of see if they're what you're looking for.

[bob48]

I've only recently got FSX having used FS9 since it first came out. Its ok, but I'm really waiting to see how well X-Plane10 does.
http://www.x-plane.com/desktop/landing/

If its as good as the hype, then it promises to topple MSFS off the top. A nice mixture of default aircraft available with it as well.

[Staggerwing]

I've been tempted to try Rise of Flight's Gotha but the $15 price tag keeps me at bay. Has anyone tried any
bombing missions? Is there any kind of scoring if one wanted to have a BUFF career WW1 style?

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Don't bother with the Gotha unless you have a split throttle.  Taking off and landing are murder.
There is a career option but it's pretty generic.

[Staggerwing]

I have a flight yoke with several levers as well as a trim wheel. I'll have to try and find it in my storage area.
Is there any kind of damage recording for score as far as where your bombs land?

[MIGMaster]

Thanks for the help guys.... I have a good starting point now anyway. I may need to upgrade my hardware though - my last serious flight stick was a SUNCOM F-15 Talon and a CH throttle unti - I forget what it was called, regardless both are probably long outta service for the lastest sims and drivers.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I have a flight yoke with several levers as well as a trim wheel. I'll have to try and find it in my storage area.
Is there any kind of damage recording for score as far as where your bombs land?

Its binary.  Either you hit something hard enough to kill it or it doesn't count.

[Gusington]

I know you originally mentioned fixed-wing but Take on Helicopters is releasing a Hind expansion soon. I haven't played a modern air sim in 20+ years but I may get that because I love Hind helicopters.

[MIGMaster]

I know - I'm on the fence about ToH.....I liked the demo and it looks like fun, but I'm worried about long-term playability. On the upside, what could be better than a HIND !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ;D

[Nefaro]

DCS:A-10 can be downloaded from Steam for $40 for immediate gratification.

I recall reading that DCS A-10 was originally created as a 64-bit program but the Steam version is 32-bit since it has to be integrated with Steam's 32-bit software.   So you have to purchase A-10 directly from DCS to get the improved 64-bit version.

Is this true?

[jomni]

FSX is still currently better than X-Plane10. 
XP10 needs more development to match FSX in some aspects... namely:
1) Making the world more alive with AI aircraft and ATC (they have these now but they are not functioning properly)
2) Better flight planning options.  There's no interface for this and you have to type the way point names manually when you file a flight plan or program the ATC.
3) Quality of add-ons.  X-Plane has loads of freeware and payware but their quality is not as good as what you can find for MSFS.
4) Make the scenery more realistic.  Majority of airports have no buildings.  And cities look like suburbs.

Here's an alternative idea.
Give Microsoft Flight a spin.  It only has a small map and is mission-based like Take-On helicopters.
The base game is free but very limited and the planes are not too serious.  You need to buy the Maul M-7 and/or the Hawaii adventure pack to make the gaming experience more substatial.  An Alaska pack has also been announced.

Take note that a lot of hardcore simmers hate Flight because of the limited world and some kiddy missions (going through hoops and coin collecting).  But I kinda like it since it has other serious stuff as well like ferrying people and cargo.

There are still lots of missing stuff in MS Flight.  Like ATC, AI, real-world weather, autopilot, and jets.

I have a post about this in my blog.  jomnisgames.blogspot.com

[Toonces]

I downloaded and installed the demo of Rise of Flight today.  Wow, it looks amazing!  I can see what some people mean by Rise of Flight gives you a better sense of what it is like to fly a WW1 plane than Over Flanders Fields.  It's hard for me to quantify, but I did prefer the feeling of flight better in RoF over OFF.

Anyway, I missed the Amazon.com sale on Cross of Iron edition, but I found it at fspilotshop.com for $10 and I can definitely see me spending a lot more time with this game so I picked it up before it goes back to $40 again.

OFF is a real hassle to run on multi-core machines so unfortunately I think RoF is likely to completely replace it on my new computer.  I highly recommend giving it a look if you haven't already.