[Closed] what "gamey" PC flight combat sim

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This.

Goodbye life, hello Il2.
More addictive than Championship Manager, or cake.

Of course you'll need a joystick and some pedals - the CH ones are amazingly bombproof.

[url= http://www.flightstore.co.uk/ ]This place is good. [/url]

Lots of good info. 😀

IL2 Sturmovik 1946 or Rise of Flight. Rise of flight is a WW1 sim and much more modern than the former game.

There is a much more modern game by the makers of IL2 Sturmovik but you need a hefty hefty pc to run it, it's called IL2: Cliffs of Dover.

http://warthunder.com/

There used to be a fantastic game called Apache something or other, helicoptor gunship game. I loved that game.

They've never reproduced that for modern computers/consoles.

I got one which was a proper simulator, took about an hour to get off the ground. And another which was insanely hard to play.

Make that please.

There is a much more modern game by the makers of IL2 Sturmovik but you need a hefty hefty pc to run it, it's called IL2: Cliffs of Dover.

Yep, and it might be OK when it's finished.
It's a right old mess at the mo and I really wouldn't recommend it.

Il2 1946 is the finished, patched, fully working real deal.
You can make it as simple or complicated as you like - it's just brilliant.

It's not going to be finished either, 1C and the Rise of Flight team merged and are working on a new title.

I got one which was a proper simulator, took about an hour to get off the ground. And another which was insanely hard to play.

Make that please.

Blackshark is for you - but unless you're an anal retentive ex helicopter pilot it will do your head in. It makes Falcon 4 seem easy.

Something like DCS A-10 is hard to play, will occupy you for a while.

IL2 Cliffs of Dover was awful when it came out, its been patches a fiar bit since and seems to have players/servers available.

ROF is WWI but seems popular.

Non combat, Microsoft Flight is free to play although they've discontinued development now, so few planes areas to play but its entertainng enough for a few hours, and for free what more do you want.

There used to be a fantastic game called Apache something or other, helicoptor gunship game. I loved that game.

Gunship?

Was brilliant game, there was another too come to think of that'll be the one you were thinking of they had a tank one too using the same engine.

No wait it is Gunship.

If you want a more arcadey 'Afterburner' style game, maybe try Ace Combat Assault Horizon?

Or maybe H.A.W.X 2

battlefield though not a flight sim, has aircraft in it, is the most "gamey".

Original HAWX is better than HAWX 2 and available on the pc. AC Assault Horizon is utter crap, which is a shame as the older Ace Combat games are great but none are on the PC.

Cool - loads to go on here. Almost downloaded that warthunder, but it needs 8GB of HDD space!

Anyone rate Lock On?

the new Lock on Flaming Cliffs 2.0 or is it 3.0 now? Was pretty good. It's a proper sim though but not quite as hard as Falcon 4 - better graphics than the non-modded Falcon 4 as well.

It doesn't have a decent stock campaign though - however the difficulty is pretty scalable.

Warthunder is made by the same company that made a slightly arcadier update of the IL2 series with revamped graphics called Birds of Prey.

I've got Birds of Prey on the xbox ... not really impressed, its a bit slow to get anywhere and all the battles seam to be over se/flat land. I like something with a bit of landscape to fly around.

That's because WW2 fighter aircraft don't do mach 3 and the topography of southern England isn't exactly the alps and most significant air battles in WW2 occurred over flatish ground.

It's derived from a game for people who were actually interested in air combat and the tactics involved - eg combat maneuvering (lead, lag and pure pursuit etc etc), deflection shooting, energy states (keeping your aircraft's energy higher than your opponents by having an advantage in height and speed). I used to play the original game at quite a high level in multiplayer matches when I was a teenager.

etc etc yadda yadda

You can see how this guy (who I used to tangle with lot) uses tactics (big sweep maneuvers with high deflection shots) to engage instead of turning with his opponents and losing energy. This massive 30mm cannons he's using helps to shed the targets in split second shots.

It depends whether you like arcadey games or whether you want to commit to learning something during your indoor leisure time instead of spending rainy evenings watching tv.

Yeah its a bit too sim for me, even with the controls in arcade mode. Playing it with sim controls is a good challenge but feels a bit poor without a decent joystick. It defiantly felt like one of those games that wasn't suited to playing it on my couch on the 360.

I have to warn you off Ace Combat Assault Horizon, especially if you have a PC...it's absolutely dire. The controls are awful and the dogfight mode is a distraction. It's fallen a long way since Ace Combat 4, which was, erm, ace.

Cool - loads to go on here. Almost downloaded that warthunder, but it needs 8GB of HDD space!

Many games do now, 8Gb is nothing in comparison to others.

http://www.gog.com/gamecard/freespace_2

http://www.hard-light.net/forums/index.php?topic=42854.0

You're welcome.

Freespace 2 is the winner.

World of Planes looks interesting although still in beta, it's freemium (although if it's anything like Word of Tanks you could end spending a load of cash if you're impatient :p ).

Some above might be thinking of the Commanche and Armoured Fist series?

Wings of Prey for a good arcadey WW2 flight sim although the voice acting is terrible. For something a bit more modern HAWX is far far better than HAWX 2.

DCS World is a free download (on this months PC Pilot too) and includes an SU-25 frogfoot. The other DCS sims you can buy (A-10C, P-51, LOMAC 2) all then plug into it.

I have the Mustang plugin and think it is brilliant but it is a full on sim and getting the engine started and the aircraft off the ground is a lot harder than in il-2. The downsides is that there are no other WW2 aircraft available and if you want to engage ground targets they are modern too. This poses some interesting challenges like how to use cloud cover to position your self in order to attack gunship helicopters armed with A2A missiles...

Cliffs of Dover is OK now that it is patched, especially if you use some of the on line guides to configure it properly for your PC. My main gripe is that the AI is very poor and dog-fights get boring.

You still can't beat the re-works of Falcon 4 if fast jet combat is your thing and DCS does not have want you want or your PC is getting old. Falcon BMS is the one to go for.

I just wish I had more time for these.

How does MiG Alley look these days? It might have aged ok. Very detailed sim, but fortunately the planes are from the era of "kick the tyres and light the fires".

(I think Chuck Yeager's air combat is probably too long in the tooth, these days..?)