Combat Flight Simulator

[RosannaGroove]

I'm looking to buy a combat flight simulator game for my pc and really have no clue what to get. I don't have any other flight simulator games and have never played one before, so I'm not looking for a really technical game, although I don't mind learning basic stuff.

I saw Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator at Best Buy, but it was all WW2 planes. I think I'd like something that has more modern jet fighters. Any suggestions? I'll also need to get a decent joystick, I guess.

Thanks!

 

[7out]

Best one there is imo.
The Link

 

[Craigcito]

The site is down right now, but check out The Link. I know Jane's is thought of pretty highly in the flight simulation crowd.

 

[RiceHorn04]

IL-2 Forgotten Battles is the best I've ever played, but it's a WWII sim. It's still a bazillion times better than that Microsoft piece of crap. Pacific Fighters is by the same team but the Pacific Theatre, I'm not sure if it's any good. Both are going to be pretty hardcore.

As far as modern flight sims, I can't think of any stellar ones. Jane's F-15, Longbow, and Longbow II were pretty sweet, but those are like 8 years old now. If you're looking for something more of an 'arcade' flight simulator, maybe you should check out the Jetfighter series. I know those used to be fun.

 

[RosannaGroove]

I don't know that I really want an "arcade" game. I actually would like to have to actually learn some of the basics of controlling an aircraft while doing this, I'd just think I would get bored unless it was a military/combat sim. Maybe not... I'll look into this IL-2. I saw some reviews of it on amazon and they were all great.

I am somewhat concerned about my computer though. I have a 2.3 GHz Celeron with 768 MB of RAM. It's a lower end Dell laptop that I've upgraded, though, and I have no idea what sort of video card or whatever I have. I know that's important.

 

[TexasOwnzYou]

i tried pacific fighters couple months back, but it's really my style. i'm not into flying for 20 minutes for a 20 second combat scene

Jane's USAF from a couple years back is pretty good. (at least it was my style =D)

 

[lowery21]

I had Janes Advanced Tactical Fighters many years ago...on my PI 166....it was badass.

As far as your 'puter goes...it should be more than enough for many games. That Russian game says it wants 800mhz for best case....maybe I'll check that one out.

Go get a microsoft force feedback II. Should be pretty cheap now.

 

[schnarkle]

Falcon 4 was always the greatest but the game was abandoned by the previous publishers, but still lives on through hard core fan boys.

Now I see they have come out with a new one here.

 

[RiceHorn04]

In reply to:

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[upset_horn]

Jet era sims:
Lock On: Modern Air Combat - hard core
Wings Over Vietnam - 'lite' core
Jetfighter - arcadish
Precision Strike Fighter - mid/hard core

You can find all these at CompUSA.

Falcon 4 is being re-released as Falcon 4 Allied Force sometime in June.

For WW2 you have MS Combat simulator, Il2 Forgotten Battles/Pacific Fighters. On the horizon is Battle of Britian 2 Wings of Victory.

I am sort of biased since I have done some of the artwork in Wings Over Vietnam and Pacific Fighters. Wings over Vietnam was done right here in Austin. Having said that, you might enjoy Wings Over Vietnam if you like 60s eras jets. If you want the A-10 or F-15 go with Lomac, or hold out till Falcon 4 is re-released.

 

[RosannaGroove]

Okay, I just bought a joystick and Lock On - Modern Air Combat b/c it looked pretty cool and evidently my laptop doesn't have a very good video accelerator or whatever (I mostly have no clue about computer hardware). My processor and RAM should easily be enough to run this game, but it kept locking up and I never had a smooth flight even at the lowest graphics settings.

Is Wings Over Vietnam less graphics intensive? Since you worked on it, do you know if a generic default video/graphics device would be good enough to play Wings Over Vietnam if my other hardware is pretty good (see above post)?

 

[upset_horn]

Well, Wings Over 'nam should work with GeforceMX 4 on up to the 500 dollar nVidia cards. It should work well with ATI mid-high end cards as well. It all depends on how much you want to spend and how well you want the graphics to look.

Lock On is a pig and takes a ton of GFX and CPU power and even then, the frame rates are spotty at best. You pay a heavy price for all the eye candy.