[Closed] Flight simulator game

I use x plane, it cost around £40, I bought a joystick at the same time, internet reviews said the one I bought was the best budget one (can't remember the name of it).
Both work well, im on a mac but windows version available too i believe.
[url= http://www.x-plane.com/desktop/system-requirements/ ]Linky[/url]

Big forum too, loads of free user created planes, ive tried a few and they mostly work very well.

Flight Simulator X is available on Steam, bought it last week. Absolutely needs a decent flight stick, but not hugely resource intensive, I'm using it on my laptop with settings turned up and it's fine.

There's epic amounts of downloadable content including every plane ever, scenery, weather etc.

Could try FlightGear, its free, can do a lot of stuff. http://www.flightgear.org/

They might like this

http://store.steampowered.com/app/63950/

Sorry silly question

STEAM ?

Does it just mean older games still available?

I think I've found flight sim x stream edition on Amazon for about £15 and our laptop would run it , maybe with a monitor attached for better picture.

Will check out others. Thanks

[img] [/img]

Captain slow that video is stunning. I'll check out the other from klunk when it's not bed time!

Flight Sims - the very reason I got into computers 😆 😳 😥

A genre that was at the leading edge (pun intended) of gaming 20 or so years ago, but has become a niche market abandoned by most publishers and gamers...

IMHO the ability and desire to replicate every button and function killed it off. If it takes x years to train a real F16 pilot, then the clue is there that mist armchair drivers aren't going to have the time / inclination to learn the systems...

Anyway, I've always found Microsoft FS to be boring, despite having flow som excellent add one from the likes of Just Flight (Mosquito, Hawk, Lancaster, Vulcan) and A2A Simulations (various US warbirds)

Personally, combat sims are more "engaging", but not everyone want that...
As above ^^^, the Il-2 franchise is worth a look (Battle of Britain, Stalingrad). IIRC thes can be relatively accessible for new players

Beware, a joystick is a must, then you'll find a throttle would be good, and possibly even rudder pedals 😯 (WW2 aircraft need a fair bit of rudder input 😉 )

And then, if you / your kids really get into it, there are the so called "study sims"

Have a look at videos posted by Eagle Dynamics, DCS World, Razbam, VEAO Simulations etc. Jaw dropping attention to detail 😮

Microsoft "Flight" (Not Flight Simulator) X" is free, and quite accessible as a starter. The inital download gives you Hawaii to fly aroumd, and there are certain tasks/things to do.

I think it was supposed to be the replacement for FSx but got canned shortly after release, and so free to download. Well, it was, I've not played it for a couple of years...

Isozone
http://www.theisozone.com/downloads/pc/windows-games/

Retro pc stuff..... combat flight sim 2 or 3.

Abandonware.

njee20 - Member 
Flight Simulator X is available on Steam, bought it last week

Nearly bought it myself as it went down to £6 but back up to £20 at the moment. It's the 'Steam' Edition so while X is technically old now being from 2006, it's been patched up a bit. It keeps dropping in price though.

Last MS Flight Sim I played was back in 2000 I think!

I've only skim read the above, but it looks like no-ones mentioned DCS World (Digital Combat Simulator World).
Free to play with a civilian P-51 mustang (wheeeeeeee!) and a modern russian tankbuster.

Largely clickable cockpits, and you can use "game" or "simulation" modes.
Unlike the MS Flight Simularor, its still in devlopment.
You can then buy more aircraft which is where they make money.

Pays to get a decent hotas setup, but also to get a headtracker, (facetracknoir or opentrack).

Flight sims can be pretty difficult to learn. 100 page manuals and hours of tutorial and so on.

Have you tried Google Earth in flight sim mode? Good for a laugh.

Whilst we're here, I had a joystick that I recently binned due to a fault - can someone recommend me something cheap or flog me one s/h?

e_t_p, those vids ^^^ are DCS 🙂

As are these...

Cliffs of Dover was terrible unless modded.

Il2: Battle for Moscow/Stalingrad/Kursk is where it is at.

DCS World for modern stuff

Rise of Flight for WW1 hilarity.

And topically, seeing as Kuznetsov was down our way

Microsoft "Flight" (Not Flight Simulator) X" is free

Google does not seem to be able to find such a thing?

Rise of Flight is partly free, two planes and 1 map.

MS Flight Simulator 98 was my first real experience of "realistic" sims, and that coupled with the photo-realistic scenery, a good airport add-on bundle and the original traffic gave a decent understanding of the mechanics of cheap sims, and it was tailored to the UK.

Back then it cost a lot of money for the scenery for the UK, but I'd imagine that you could find it fairly cheaply now. With the original FS Traffic you could record flight between airports, doing circuits etc and the recording would then play themselves giving a more realistic feel to the airport environments. There are loads of freeware aircraft to pick from, ranging from very poor characteristics to all singing replicas, but the bog standard Cessna 182 was a good trainer.

You should be able to put something together which on a modern PC will run brilliantly with all of the settings turned up for very little outlay. A decent throttle and stick/yoke would enhance it further.

Sorry silly question
STEAM ?
Does it just mean older games still available?
I think I've found flight sim x stream edition on Amazon for about £15 and our laptop would run it , maybe with a monitor attached for better picture.
Will check out others. Thanks

Steam are an online game host, who sell a lot of games and downloadable content for them. Not all old, they've got current stuff too. As DK noted, Flight Simulator X was £6 last week, so I took a punt. Even for £20 it's not bad as a 'base purchase', because the catalogue of DLC is colossal. I immediately downloaded (for free) Concorde, a Eurofighter and an A380, as well as new skins for existing aircraft, plus enhanced scenery for Heathrow and Gatwick. Trying to use the keyboard is a total disaster though, but I fear the wife will think I'm a complete moron if I buy a joystick for it. Not quite so "playing slyly on the sofa of an evening" friendly either.

Thanks all. I've got sucked into checking out gaming pc's...
If I suddenly stop posting Mrs G-D has caught me and decided to lay a new pa.............[digging sounds]......[cement mixer].....[slabs being laid]....[silence]

Sorry can I just check is this "Steam" that's been referenced above?[url= http://store.steampowered.com/app/314160/ ][/url]

http://store.steampowered.com/app/314160/

Looks like the laptop won't quite take the requirements (low video memory) so I think a cheap gaming box to attach to the telly through HDMI is going to be on the cards.

Falcon 4.0 the pinnacle of flight sims

117A stealth fighter - Microprose stuff was class.

The last flight sim game I played was this:

[img] [/img]

Looks like the laptop won't quite take the requirements (low video memory) so I think a cheap gaming box to attach to the telly through HDMI is going to be on the cards.

That's the one, but why not get it first and find out? It's quite an old game, buying a PC speculatively seems a bit daft. I'd expect any laptop in the last 10 years to be fine. If you need a new PC you can download it on multiple machines.

If you're on a really crap-spec PC, I'd recommend [url= https://www.dosbox.com/download.php?main=1 ]DOSBox[/url] and a copy of [url= http://www.lucas-abandonware.fr/r.html ]Reach For The Skies[/url].
I think you're

Imagine IL2 but with 320x200 EGA graphics and digitised sound out of the crap built-in PC speaker cos you can't afford an AdLib soundcard.

@rkk01 .. Sorry, I see that now 🙂 The power of skim reading! :O)

Both my lads use fsx. One has a Saitek AV8R stick and the other has a Speedlink Black Widow. Both do the job well but the AV8R is probably the better option, if you can find one. As for your PC, if you're planning on playing other games, get the best spec for your budget, as ever.

thrustmaster is a decent hotas joystick for the money IMO.
seems to work pretty well for elite.
think of steam as the itunes of gaming.

If the pcs a bit dated get IL2 1946 - hundreds of planes....dozens of theatres....passable graphics....decent flight model. pretty much set the bar for ww2 combat flight sims.

I keep dipping into World of Warplanes - free to play.

Arcadey even in comparison to the older 1946 though, and probably doesn't run as well on a low end machine.

Ms Flightsim X exist as Lockheed Martins Prepar3d and there is some really nicely detailed terrain out for this.
I have got UK, Norway and the Pacific Northwest and have got a tour going airport hopping my way round Norway.
And love flying out of Seattle/Vancouver Island Island hopping to San Juan island etc

Cheers all. There's a budget flight stick option for about £30 somewhere I can buy at the weekend so I'll probably grab one of them and try a download of MS Flight Sim X steam edition and see how it goes. Will be popping back to the you tube stuff i haven't seen later.

Has anyone ever done anything half decent for console? Seems like a gap in the market there, be well happy with a WW2 air combat sim on PS3.

There's a version of Il-2 Battle of Btitain / Stalingrad on the PS

IL2 Birds of Prey i think there is a newer as well.

Ooo, thank you both! Gonna grab me one of them. 🙂

Yup, Falcon4.0, still playing it after nearly 20 years, with the BMS addon. available on Steam. It has the best dynamic campaign in a combat sim which makes it endlessly replayable

[url= http://store.steampowered.com/app/429530/ ]Steam linky[/url]

BMS stuff....

Heh Falcon 4, I had an F18 pilot once tell me in my teens that if I could wrap my head around that I could probably just go and steal an actual F16.

Didnt it used to come with something like a 600 page textbook as a manual?

pondo - Member
Ooo, thank you both! Gonna grab me one of them.

Tom is correct "Birds of Prey" is the correct name...!

[img] [/img]

Didnt it used to come with something like a 600 page textbook as a manual?

Nah it's only about 200. You can be done with the tutorials in about 6 months.