Best Computer Flight Sim

[Chronocidal]

Hehe.. it'll probably be a least a year. I think games are leaping ahead in terms of graphics enough that it's taking the average computer gamer a year to catch up. I bought MS Combat Sim 3 a while ago now, and I just recently got a computer that can run it at full speed.

I think flight simulation is somehow kind of going through a retro stage... seems like we've been seeing a LOT of stuff from WWII, which isn't bad.. it's where the the largest dogfights in history took place. Once you get into the jet age, dogfighting kind of gets lost in the translation with the introduction of the missile... nothing is really close range combat anymore, and you have to shift the focus to ground attack to keep the sims interesting. So, for combat sims, at least in terms of dogfighting, WWII is the prime time period to do it for... you can extend it pretty well to Korea, but it seems there's no love for F-86 Sabres and Mig-15s anymore.

Personally, to me, the period between the 50s and 80s is kind of the golden age of military jet aviation... I mean look at all that came out then.. the Century Series, the fighters used in Vietnam, all the way up to the F-14 to F-18. The planes that flew in that era were designed for specific roles, and they did them WELL. But... alas, the Cold War stayed cold, and they never saw serious action.... that's what we need. We need an alternate reality simulator, like C&C: Red Alert did for RTS ..where the Cold War warms up, and all those beautiful planes from that era actually see some action. I really want to see an extended Vietnam scenario where the Tomcat gets let loose on the Vietcong (F-14s actually WERE in Vietnam, they covered the evacuation proceedings when the US forces bailed out.. no one felt like fighting when they were there though. ) All those planes were designed to combat the Russian threat.. and the war never happened. What if someone designed a sim where Korea didn't end, branched into Vietnam, and shortly after became a full on US/Russian brawl? Now THERE'S a campaign I'd really like to see done.. throw in a dynamic storyline like the Wing Commander series had, where you determine the outcome (and whether the final battle takes place over Moscow or Washington D.C.) and you'd have possibly one of the greatest sims of all time. It wouldn't have to be horribly realistic, since you'd be flying a lot of planes, but say you break up the story into sections, maybe 1950-1970, and 1970-1990, each with about 10-15 reasonably accurate planes to fly, then re-write history so that the cold war still ends around '89, just your actions determine if the Berlin Wall falls again, or if Russia invades the US.

That's really one thing I've never seen actually (well, never played anyway, closest thing was Strike Commander, and that's ancient now).. a detailed realistic flight sim with a really good storyline. Heck, sure flying missions is fun, but it can be a LOT of fun if you're given a good storyline to back up why you're flying them in the first place.

[Skull Leader]

well what are you waiting for, Chrono? Get to it, we want to play this mythical sim when you finish it!

(I,for one, would LOVE to play a sim like that)

[hellohikaru]

Strike Commander was a tough act to follow. F-16 Aggressor is hardly Strike Commander although it did have the certain look. I love the mercenary story behind SC.

Maybe they should make an Area 88 Flight sim based on the OAV/manga(not that crap 12 episode tv series). Perhaps you get to play as on one of other the mercs like Campbell, Jess or even Kim Abba.

You start out in 1978 by choosing one of several "free" planes(F-8E, F-100, F-5A.etc) to start out. If you lose it you need to buy a new one or do compulsory missions to earn enough money to buy your own plane.

Between missions you get your plane fitted out by visiting McCoy and as your reputation grows you get to negotiate discounts with that land shark.

You get to pick your missions but if you don't have enough money to pay the $5000 fine for rejecting a mission be prepared to get dragged out and shot.

Missions consist of milkrun bombing and intercept missions as well as canned missions like attacking the fang, destroying the land carrier and mixing it out with the wolfpack mig-27 unit.

I see lots of potential for good story telling here.

[Prime]

I tend to lump games like X-Wing...

sigh I'd love to see a new addition to that series...

[hellohikaru]

I see dark clouds ahead.

http://www.simhq.com/simhq3/sims/boards/bb...;f=121;t=002011

Looks like the hobby is being killed by greedy corporations like Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman. Even Ace Combat 5 and AFDS had to pay the licensing fees for using the names. What ever happen to free publicity ?

[Nied]

I seem to remember something like this coming up several years back over the depiction of the F-22 in sims. Lockheed sued several companies it even ended up in court, I do beilieve that the judge threw out the case ruling that the game manufacturers were making depictions of government property which are free to all. This sounds like more of a harrasment suit, if it weren't for the fact that Maddox was releasing these fighters for free I bet UBI soft would have challenged the aircraft manufacturers and won very quickly, but since there's no money involved...