Flight sims?

[doanster]

Recently found a brand new joystick in my old hardware stash. Apparently I thought I would use it one day.

Anyway, what are some good yet not-difficult flight sims or flying games? Just want to have some fun with this thing.

 

[shortylickens]

As a matter of fact, there is a nice looking one on Steam right now. Just came out. Dunno if its any good or not. Recommend you check out Steam. They have at least a few.

 

[fatpat268]

As a matter of fact, there is a nice looking one on Steam right now. Just came out. Dunno if its any good or not. Recommend you check out Steam. They have at least a few.

What game would that be?

To the OP, depends what you like. Do you want a combat flight sim or a general aviation type sim?

If you want a realistic combat flight sim, get IL-2 Sturmovik 1946. It has a pretty steep learning curve, but it's pretty fun.

There's some other realistic combat flight sims, but most of them are getting pretty old now. Some others you may want to check out are Falcon 4.0 and Lock on Modern Air Combat.

There's some more arcadey flight combat games... kind of like Wings of Prey, HAWX, and Blazing Angels. Those are pretty good games if you don't care much about the realism.

And lastly, if you don't want to do combat at all and just want to fly a Cessna or a 747 (or pretty much anything), go with Microsoft Flight Simulator X (or the 2004 version if your computer can't handle X). There's also X-Plane 9, which is a pretty good flight sim, but it's not as polished and user friendly as MS Flight Sim X.

There's a few choices out there for you, hope it helps.

 

[brandonb]

I'd suggest Wings of Prey.

It's not for die hard flight simmers, but it has enough difficulty to make it feel realistic enough, and it's brand spanking new, so you'll have good graphics, etc. It also has some ambience, meaning, you'll hear (pre recorded) audio chatter that repeats from time to time, so break up some of the boring parts of flight simming and makes it feel a bit more alive, the missions will have alots of "action" that seems to be going on, but most flight sim die hards will shake their head at for seeming Call of Duty like, etc. I'd say this game is the call of duty version of a flight sim.

Here is a sample of what I mean

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0YpfD7WhM8&feature=PlayList&p=A4E86EDA2545D63E&index=2

 

[WildW]

If you can get it to run, and can stand older games, Crimson Skies.

 

[Lonyo]

http://riseofflight.com/

Never played it myself, but someone I know who's into IL-2 likes it a lot.
WW1 based, might be a bit too much of a sim rather than something to pick up and play though.

 

[TBSN]

Hmm, I've been looking around for some flight sims too. I tried Wings of Prey and it seemed too unrealistic. I'm not into flight sims or anything, but I know an old WWII plane can't fly straight up in the air without stalling.

I tried the demo of X-Plane. Weird interface, impossible to get into without knowing how to fly a plane already. Extremely discouraging.

 

[Ns1]

Funny, after DL'ing HAWX on my iPhone I was just about to post a similar thread.

 

[fatpat268]

Hmm, I've been looking around for some flight sims too. I tried Wings of Prey and it seemed too unrealistic. I'm not into flight sims or anything, but I know an old WWII plane can't fly straight up in the air without stalling.

I tried the demo of X-Plane. Weird interface, impossible to get into without knowing how to fly a plane already. Extremely discouraging.

Try out the demo for Flight Simulator X. Much much more user friendly than X Plane 9. Also, if you want realism in WWII flight sim, IL-2 1946 is the best bet.

 

[shortylickens]

Hmm, I've been looking around for some flight sims too. I tried Wings of Prey and it seemed too unrealistic. I'm not into flight sims or anything, but I know an old WWII plane can't fly straight up in the air without stalling.

I tried the demo of X-Plane. Weird interface, impossible to get into without knowing how to fly a plane already. Extremely discouraging.

When I play Wings Of Prey the planes stall quite easily.
Take it off easy mode, man.

 

[TBSN]

^^^Ohhhh, oops^^^

 

[mmntech]

Try out the demo for Flight Simulator X. Much much more user friendly than X Plane 9. Also, if you want realism in WWII flight sim, IL-2 1946 is the best bet.

X Plane 9 is considerably outdated IMO. It's definitely overhyped. FS2004 (aka FS9) is the best of the Microsoft games.

Rise of Flight IIRC had a lot of DRM issues when it first came out. Something to do with the servers not working properly. Too bad because it looks like a fairly solid game. IGN gave it a 7.9. It's not on Steam though. Good luck finding any boxed PC games these days.

 

[fatpat268]

X Plane 9 is considerably outdated IMO. It's definitely overhyped. FS2004 (aka FS9) is the best of the Microsoft games.

Rise of Flight IIRC had a lot of DRM issues when it first came out. Something to do with the servers not working properly. Too bad because it looks like a fairly solid game. IGN gave it a 7.9. It's not on Steam though. Good luck finding any boxed PC games these days.

Overhyped? Yes. Outdated? Nah.

X-Plane does a few things well and better than MS Flight Sim. X-Planes major drawback is that it's not really designed to be a consumer flight simulator. The interface flat out sucks, controls are a bitch to configure, and it's too "hardcore" for its own good.

FS9 is good too, but I've since moved on to FSX... I can't fly without a 3D cockpit anymore. It's too bad MS axed Flight Simulator, but hopefully the team that made will resurface with their own flight simulator.

 

[Mike Gayner]

Can someone please explain the appeal of FSX and the like? I haven't been a flight simmer for a while (I used to played a Janes sims years ago), and now whenever someone asks for a flight sim, people always recommend FSX etc. I don't understand what's exciting about flying 18 hours accross the ocean - but maybe I'm missing the point.

 

[fatpat268]

Can someone please explain the appeal of FSX and the like? I haven't been a flight simmer for a while (I used to played a Janes sims years ago), and now whenever someone asks for a flight sim, people always recommend FSX etc. I don't understand what's exciting about flying 18 hours accross the ocean - but maybe I'm missing the point.

Well first there's two flight simmers: Civil and Combat.

FSX gets mentioned because it's more than just flying heavies across the ocean (admittedly, that is pretty boring... I've only done it once). The fun in FSX, for most people, isn't flying the big planes, it's flying the small ones, and loading up different scenarios, practicing landings, doing carrier landings, etc.

Not only that, FSX is a great gateway into real flying. While, it's not a substitute for real flight training, it does prepare you.

It's not for everyone. A lot of people buy FS9 or FSX just to fly a 747, and while that's fun to do occasionally, it's not that exciting overall.

 

[videopho]

Make sure you get a decent rig/video-card in order to really enjoy the game of FSX.
Otherwise you'd be in for a long slide show.
If you're into chopper flight sim.
I'd recommend the DCS Black Shark which is what I've been playing these days more so than other flight sim games like FSx or LockOn.

 

[Mike Gayner]

Well first there's two flight simmers: Civil and Combat.

FSX gets mentioned because it's more than just flying heavies across the ocean (admittedly, that is pretty boring... I've only done it once). The fun in FSX, for most people, isn't flying the big planes, it's flying the small ones, and loading up different scenarios, practicing landings, doing carrier landings, etc.

Not only that, FSX is a great gateway into real flying. While, it's not a substitute for real flight training, it does prepare you.

It's not for everyone. A lot of people buy FS9 or FSX just to fly a 747, and while that's fun to do occasionally, it's not that exciting overall.

Do these games offer scenarios like engine failures or other similar events? If so, I could get into that, for sure.

 

[fatpat268]

Do these games offer scenarios like engine failures or other similar events? If so, I could get into that, for sure.

Yea, there's a bunch of premade missions. Some involve engine failures, flying in severe weather, landing a stunt plane on a moving bus, etc. There's quite a bit of variety.

Not only that, in free flight mode, you can set things up so they'll randomly fail at a certain time in the flight.

 

[ichy]

Do these games offer scenarios like engine failures or other similar events? If so, I could get into that, for sure.

Yep, you can set up all kinds of failures. If I want to have fun in MS Flight Sim I take up a commercial airliner, hit the fuel cut-off switch to one of the engines and then try to land it.

 

[Genx87]

Well first there's two flight simmers: Civil and Combat.

FSX gets mentioned because it's more than just flying heavies across the ocean (admittedly, that is pretty boring... I've only done it once). The fun in FSX, for most people, isn't flying the big planes, it's flying the small ones, and loading up different scenarios, practicing landings, doing carrier landings, etc.

Not only that, FSX is a great gateway into real flying. While, it's not a substitute for real flight training, it does prepare you.

It's not for everyone. A lot of people buy FS9 or FSX just to fly a 747, and while that's fun to do occasionally, it's not that exciting overall.

Yup, I bust out the King Air and hop across northern MN airports. Really quite fun.

 

[marmasatt]

Not to hijack this but these "flight sim" threads are starting to get some play again. How do I a) get up in the air in X-plane 9 and b) can anyone get Flight Sim X to work w/ W7. I keep getting that it is not compatible w/ this OS. Even tried administrator and UAC "run as if previous edition of windows" jive....

 

[fatpat268]

How do I a) get up in the air in X-plane 9 and b) can anyone get Flight Sim X to work w/ W7. I keep getting that it is not compatible w/ this OS. Even tried administrator and UAC "run as if previous edition of windows" jive....

Works fine for me in win 7. Didn't have to change a thing.

 

[Genx87]

Not to hijack this but these "flight sim" threads are starting to get some play again. How do I a) get up in the air in X-plane 9 and b) can anyone get Flight Sim X to work w/ W7. I keep getting that it is not compatible w/ this OS. Even tried administrator and UAC "run as if previous edition of windows" jive....

I just resintalled it lastnight on Win7 without any major problems. I am getting some flickering on some textures. But I attribute that to piss poor Anistrophic filtering by my ATI video card.

 

[Infohawk]

I just resintalled it lastnight on Win7 without any major problems. I am getting some flickering on some textures. But I attribute that to piss poor Anistrophic filtering by my ATI video card.

Apparently Nvidia cards work better with FSX. I increased performance with my ATI card by having the advanced processing go through ATIcatalyst rather than the application.

 

[Genx87]

Apparently Nvidia cards work better with FSX. I increased performance with my ATI card by having the advanced processing go through ATIcatalyst rather than the application.

Crap, that requires CCC be installed correct? CCC and my card dont mix.