Best Computer Flight Sim

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I've always been hooked on flight sims(like falcon 4) for the pc but have used the xbox exclusively(because of the hassle & cost of upgrading the pc to play new games) for gaming.

I've been considering buying a new pc rig.

I need your help for recommendations on the best flight sims.

[VF-19]

Best combat flight sim: IL-2 Forgotten Battles + Ace Expansion Pack + Pacific Fighters (Installed as an expansion pack, but can be installed as a standalone.)

You get a huge selection of WW2 fighters, Russian, German, Italian, British, American and Japanese. Not only that, the patches are free, and they often add new planes to the mix for FREE!

Jet sim... Hmm... Not as big a fan, but Lock-On should do nicely.

[hellohikaru]

I played IL-2 only a few times. I find the AI a bit too good in situation awareness. They can see you when you are below them. But i think it is a fine flight sim.

Lock-On is a bit of a resource hog. I doubt we have a spec that can run it with all its features on.

SF p1/WoV is a good choice too. SF is especially cheap too but will need several more patches to bring all of its features to working order.

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Cool. I'll check those out.

How about modern jet sims? I guess i'll pass on LOMAC bec of the high system requirements, anything else worth considering? Anything in the works?

[Shin Densetsu Kai 7.0]

JAnes' F-15

Janes IAF

Jane's USAF

Before my old pc crashed and my dad banned me from playing anymore flight sims(did that instead of schoolwork and chores lol), those were my FAV sims. I hear Flanker 2.0 is awesome but the flight model from flanker 1 is better.

F-15 is SWEET. If you are used to flanker, this one sends you back to the books. It's much harder since it does not have AOA or G limiters. You can pull real fast and immediately do a 12 g turn but at the same time loose a TON of airspeed within one seccond and stall. You have to discipline yourself to fly an fight in it, it is very hard compared to those used to the FBW flight control systems of the F-22, F-16, F-18, MIG-29 and typhoon. But that makes it very fun at the same time. Dynamic campaign and AI is pretty good. Being ambushed by 12 MIG-29s SUCKS. Especially if they got Adder missles.

F-22 TAW and Eurofighter 2000 V2.0 are real sweet also.

[Hiriyu]

Best combat flight sim: IL-2 Forgotten Battles + Ace Expansion Pack + Pacific Fighters (Installed as an expansion pack, but can be installed as a standalone.)

You get a huge selection of WW2 fighters, Russian, German, Italian, British, American and Japanese. Not only that, the patches are free, and they often add new planes to the mix for FREE!

Jet sim... Hmm... Not as big a fan, but Lock-On should do nicely.

Ditto that, in it's entirety. The IL2 series is great.

[Commander McBride]

The PC sim world isn't what it should be at the moment. It's pretty sad that Saitek keeps coming out with more and more kickass versions of their HOTAS (Now the X52), and there aren't really any appropriate games for it.

[Dangaioh]

I don't know if there is anything better than Falcon 4.0...

Last great sim... imo was the falcon f15 strike eagle series.... and that's b4 all those 3D acceleration mumbo jumbo cards.

[Skull Leader]

If you just wanna fly and you wanna be able to go anywhere in the world, it doesn't get much better than Microsoft FS2004. Virtually every aircraft in existence has been recreated by some group or another (all available for download, most of them free).

IF you want combat, Falcon 4.0 seems to be the way to go. My last flight combat sim was F/A-18 Precision Strike Fighter (by Xicat) and it was pretty detailed, but limited in scope (your F-18 looks GREAT, the rest of the airplane models suck nuts)

[Retracting Head Ter Ter]

Its not the best or even anywhere near the most accurately modelled but I had the MOST FUN in my flight sim life with

Jetfighter 2!!!!

They had the F-23 , F14, F16 and F18 .Neat carrier landings (fun dropping the F-16 without arrestor hooks on deck! IIRC, you had to stall the bird just as you reach/hit the carrier's aft).

I remember they modelled the F-23 with so much thrust you could pull nutty aerobatics.

Graphics were great for its time too. And the 80's synth style intro music.

[Radd]

The PC sim world isn't what it should be at the moment. It's pretty sad that Saitek keeps coming out with more and more kickass versions of their HOTAS (Now the X52), and there aren't really any appropriate games for it.

Yeah, seems all anyone makes these days are arcade style flight games. Aside from straight up simulators, the X-Wing franchise has been my favourite flight style game, it has dissapointed me to no end that Lucasarts keeps pumping out Rogue Squadrons and Jedi Starfighters, but has abandoned the more sim-style gameplay of the X-Wing franchise. I need more excuses to break out my old Saitek X45, other than getting around to Alliance and the original Crimson Skies (another great franchise that was abandoned to arcade shooter gameplay) so many years later.

[GobotFool]

The PC sim world isn't what it should be at the moment. It's pretty sad that Saitek keeps coming out with more and more kickass versions of their HOTAS (Now the X52), and there aren't really any appropriate games for it.

Yeah, seems all anyone makes these days are arcade style flight games. Aside from straight up simulators, the X-Wing franchise has been my favourite flight style game, it has dissapointed me to no end that Lucasarts keeps pumping out Rogue Squadrons and Jedi Starfighters, but has abandoned the more sim-style gameplay of the X-Wing franchise. I need more excuses to break out my old Saitek X45, other than getting around to Alliance and the original Crimson Skies (another great franchise that was abandoned to arcade shooter gameplay) so many years later.

Sadly in the gaming world simplicity and accessibility is king, more sophisticated and involved sims are out. While not exactly a flight sim, look at what they have done to Mechwarrior with that disgustingly oversimplified excuse for a mech game, mech assault.

Edited December 9, 2004 by GobotFool

[Chronocidal]

If you're really up for a detailed challenge, try and find a copy of Jane's F/A-18... most detailed stinking sim I ever saw... models aren't great, but the completely 3d cockpit is incredible.. right down to manually targeting things with the laser designator, and firing off a maverick to wipe em out. But it's VERY detailed, as in, you can program your own JDAM weapons programs, and dispersion patterns.. yeah, far beyond what I ever did. Shoot, never did figure out what half the buttons did.

Right now the only real jet-capable sim out there seems to be LOMAC. FS2004 just isn't meant for military aircraft (some very essential things are missing... actual working afterburners for one ) although freeware and payware ones abound. The sim is just obviously made for commercial and private aviation. CFS3 is okay, but nothing compared to IL2 as far as I've heard.. but yeah, nothing has come out for modern (or even relatively modern in a long time. Closest thing you're likely to find to a semi-modern combat sim outside of LOMAC right now is probably Battlefield Vietnam.

Mostly, as far as combat games go, I've been sticking to CFS3 for lack of anything better (can't afford LOMAC or IL2 at the moment) and playing the X-Wing series games when that gets old. I'm also heavily into modding planes for FS2004, so I spend a lot of time just flying around doing plain old flight testing in new planes. There just hasn't been anything new for a long time now.. I personally think it's high time for a detailed F-14 sim, since it's coming up on retirement. Never did see it represented decently in a sim (Janes Navy Fighters version was pretty hideous looking. )

Edited December 9, 2004 by Chronocidal

[VF-19]

I played IL-2 only a few times. I find the AI a bit too good in situation awareness. They can see you when you are below them. But i think it is a fine flight sim.

Yah, that's one of the two major problems with IL-2. The AI can see you through clouds. But they can't see you when you come up from underneath. I've done it a few times. They only break when you start shooting on them.

The other major "problem" with IL-2 is the fact that the AI uses simplified flight models, thus, rendering the major tactics that you could use in a Corsair vs a Zero useless (for example).

But all in all, it's a fine flight sim, and a heck of a lot of fun to fly.

You even get to fly the Me-163 the rocket plane!

[hellohikaru]

F-14 Fleet Defender was one of the few dedicated Tomcat flight sims. Quite old now. Played it way back in '94. It was fun albeit unrealistic/unpolished in certain areas. I had a good laugh when i came across a dragon in the Kola Peninsula campaign. You can't land at friendly airfields and missiles fired become as large as your aircraft.

At least it had a realistic representation of the AWG-9 radar and that was hard to use.

There was another F-14 flight sim but that was quite bad that it isn't worth mentioning.

Strike Fighters Project 1/Wings Over Vietnam is a fairly competent jet flight sim that has expended to include prop aircraft modelling. A recent patch added thrust vectoring for the Harrier. SFp1 has simple avionic representation(you don't have to push this and that button for something) but flight modelling is realistic.

The series is still a bit broken but seeing TK's continued commitment to improving it and the low cost of SF and WoV(only $25) i think it is worthwhile investment.

A flight sim i liked alot was Flight Commander by Origin. You commanded a merc F-16 squadron operating out of Turkey. You really had to pick your missions carefully balancing between risk and gain, managing your pilots and buying weapons.

Too bad Falcon V got canned, the company doing it is now working on something different more akin to a LOMAC lite.

We also have Jet Thunder coming up. The initial release will feature the Sea Harrier Falklands campaign. From what i read it will feature a detailed avionics and flight modelling. It will also feature some features like dizziness and other pilot related fenomenas to add to the immersiveness of the sim.

[hellohikaru]

And so the people were suppose to make Falcon V came up with Fighter Ops

http://www.fighterops.com/index1.htm

Don't expect to see this one in the near future though.

[GreatMoose]

I gotta vote for the Il-2 series and Strike Fighters/Wings over Vietnam series. Great planes, FANTASTIC mods and add-ons, realistic flight models, will not rape your system.

[GreatMoose]

Also, there is a GREAT looking Falklands war sim coming out, but I can't remember the name!

EIDT: Jet Thunder! That's it! Thanks HelloHikaru. It helps to read all the posts, I have come to realize. You can check it out at www.thunder-works.com. Watch the video. They have captured the sense of motion flying at low-level PERFECTLY.

Edited December 9, 2004 by GreatMoose

[Raptor]

If you're really up for a detailed challenge, try and find a copy of Jane's F/A-18...

Actually, I tried to find a copy a while back since I wanted to get back into flight sims (I played Jane's USAF like a mofo years ago... I have Falcon 4.0 and MS Flight Sim 2002, but I never really played them. F4 was too hard and MSFS has no explosions. I think I lost too much patience due to PC FPS games... lol), but it's not something you can just walk into the average game or PC store and pick up... especially if you want a manual and keyboard map.

Online pirated copies (well, Jane's doesn't make flight sims any more, and they don't sell it any more either, so who cares) seem to be few and far between as well.

Edited December 9, 2004 by Raptor

[Coota0]

I warn you that while I've played most of these sims, I can't play most on my current PC. Not becuase my PC is crummy,but because the sims can't deal with newer technology. Jane's F/A-18 (which I loved) won't fly, USAF will load but looks like crap on my PC all kinds of weird stuff happens there.

[Hiriyu]

One more tip for a great semi-modern jet fighting sim would be EF2000 v2.0 by DID (R.I.P. ). Great sim, but doesn't work well with current computer systems. Last time I tried to fire it up on my P4 Win2K rig, I experienced a total lack of aerodynamic modelling - planes couldn't take off from the ground, and fell like a brick if started in flight.

Still, if you have an old Win98 machine sitting around, it is well worth the purchase or download (EF2000 is now abandonware, and can be dl'd from Home of the Underdogs free).

[Nied]

EF2000 was what finally convinced me to buy my Thrustmaster FLCS setup (F22 and TQS stick and throttle combo plus a set of CH pro-peddels). In flight re-fueling was just too hard using the keyboard to manually enter throttle settings. For my money though I had the most fun flying the Janes Air Force series (IAF and USAF). The avionics was horribly simplified (and A-10 with a fully functioning air to air radar? Come on!) but the flight models weren't bad and the dogfights were loads of fun.

I just got LOMAC for my birthday, but I haven't loaded it yet since I'm still playing through Half Life 2 (put my computer through an extensive upgrade specifically to handle both games).

[Coota0]

I really enjoyed Janes USAF, I always wished they had done a Navy version of the sim. One sim I really enjoyed was Janes Anthology; there were so many aircraft to fly and so many options!

I want a sim that has a descent carrier landing, I want a fresnal lense!

[hellohikaru]

Haven't any of you tried Microprose Fleet Defender ?

And Dynamix had a sim-lite by the name of F-14 Tomcat.

http://www.the-underdogs.org/game.php?id=2383

[wm cheng]

Hey all, I hope this isn't off-topic, but what about a flight sim thats simple, more arcade like - with plenty of eye candy. Any suggestions?

Something like Ace Combat 5 but for the PC?

[hellohikaru]

There aren't many arcade flight shooter times. I can only think of Topgun:Fire at Will and its sequel. Maybe Fair Strike and Eurofighter Typhoon(stay away from this one) and crimson skies.

[Coota0]

Crimson Skies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[hellohikaru]

Any ever tried Domark's AV-8B Harrier Assault/SVGA Harrier ? I heard this game was even asked to be banned by the catholic teacher federation. Mainly you fly for the UN invading East Timor. Enemies include indonesian A-4 Skyhawks, F-5s and F-16s.

[Coota0]

Any Helicopter sims?

[Agent ONE]

RowBoatTek Battlecry

LOL

[hellohikaru]

There are tons are good helo sims there.

Longbow 2 is my firm favourite. The prequel Longbow 1+Flashpoint is also a great choice. Both had TK Kawahito and Andy Hollis in the crew if i am not mistaken.

Comanche Hokum and apache Havoc Enemy Engaged are the more recent high fidelity flight sims. Lots of detail including animated pilots with hands that manipulate the switches and buttons inside a cockpit. The airfields also look alive. Planes have cargo doors that open. Fighters have canopies that open, vehicle detail is awesome.

DI's Hind is also a great sim albeit old. Remember the days of unshaded 3d polygons ?

And Novalogic also released a series of action based sim-lite of the Commanche.

[Nied]

Hey all, I hope this isn't off-topic, but what about a flight sim thats simple, more arcade like - with plenty of eye candy. Any suggestions?

Something like Ace Combat 5 but for the PC?

Most of us PC sim players shun simplistic stuff like AC5. I think the most recent equivelent would have to be Jet Fighter 5, though that was not recieved well (and not just because of the relaxed realism).

[Radd]

There aren't many arcade flight shooter times. I can only think of Topgun:Fire at Will and its sequel. Maybe Fair Strike and Eurofighter Typhoon(stay away from this one) and crimson skies.

It really depends on what is meant by "simpler, arcade shooter-like". I tend to lump games like X-Wing, Wing Commander, Freespace, the first Crimson Skies, and their ilk in with flight sims. I know they are much simpler, but the games I consider 'arcade style shooters', such as Star Fox, Rogue Squadron, Jedi Starfighter, Crimson Skies 2, and whatnot are all far more simple in premise and execution.

Weapon loadouts are often non-customizable, or even upgraded by finding powerups in the levels. The levels are often smaller in size, whereas in the games I consider sims, the level size is virtually unlimited. There are usually no boundaries that will bounce you back into the set game arena. The flight controls are often much more simple. You cannot, for example, shift power from one shield to another, or make use of a Saitek X45 flight stick to it's full potential.

[Uxi]

To this date, I think I like ATF Gold the best. Could fly around in just about everything out there.

Just wish they'd do something like that with today's CPU's and graphics cards in mind...

I, also, have a Saitek (older X35T/X36F) that never gets much use these days. At least the poor selection of games means I won't lust after a Thrustmaster Cougar anymore.

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when will today's pc mature enough to play lock on: modern air combat with all details on. A year?

Any news on the team developing falcon V? I've been craving for a jet flight sim with a dynamic battlefield.

Edited December 13, 2004 by arrow