The flight simulators thread (large images)

[HorseArcher]

I'm opening this thread, because....I feel like, plus because there just aren't many fans of this anymore. I'm currently playing Lock On, since being the only one on the market as a somewhat decent flight sim.

It looks like the game companies are abandoning the real flight sim (no BF2 airplane to apply here) with realistic handling/physics/radar and difficulty.
I think it comes off because of high cost versus low sale numbers in recent times, people just don't want to read a 400 page manual and neither flip and click things for minutes to fire a missile.
Civilian flight sim are even more limited, since there is no shooting and war involved, only to take off and fly from point A to point B while flipping and switching things and enjoying the scenery.

Sounds kinda boring doesn't it? That's what I thought, but somehow that feeling you get, that you are closely doing what most pilots do in real life, gives off a satisfying feel when you first able to land your plane in one piece and say, if this would've been real, I could have done it.

Of course, it can never be as real as the "real deal" but it comes damn close imitating of what pilots have to deal with while flying or actually going into combat or make the decision to drop a bomb which can kill thousands of people.

So, I'm trying to give some of my own moments here, possibly post some screenies and see if any of you might get inspired or have a change of mind about flight sims and put down some of your words for what you think of.

Ok, let me post a few screens, from lock:on , this was a training mission for the A-10 and i felt quite satisfied after doing this on my own with "veteran" difficulty.

I cut right to the point where i took the controls from the instructor and begun my own attack runs.
There isn't much going on on these screens, since this was a training mission, but i'll go into action with the A-10 soon and post more screenies later.

I won't post screenies from other aircrafts yet, since each aircraft (A10/F15/SU25/SU27) requires to be learned separately, since they all feature different controls and require different tactics to be used effectively.

Lock:On (and other good flight sims) has tremendous replayability and depth compare to any other type of games, since each mission can be played infinite numbers and give you a different outcome. Add more than one aircraft and multiple it by the number of missions and you have an infinite replayability and infinite length (limited by your interest and time).

I flew over the target area, you see all the red tags below me are the ones to be destroyed:



I turn in for the attack run, followed by my wingman on my tail, who can be instructed to attack certain targets or stay off.


Before i turn all the way around, I notice a lonely MI 26 (chopper) and I decide to take him out first:


That convoy below is on fire and destroyed. Sorry I couldn't take any screenshots in the middle of the attack, since everything becomes hectic when I start attacking and there is little time for everything to be set, let alone hitting the screenshot button, so you can only see the results:


I will post more screenies soon, trying to get some more exciting action going on...

[Kanaric]

Well the things is that their are MANY fans for Sims of all kinds. Space sims, flight sims, etc. The problem is that not enough companies make them, and the ones that do either dont have a good publisher or dont market their products well. I can EASILY say that NO western europeon country (aside from Germany) produces these games and only small 3rd party developers distribute them and they dont advertise.

I wouldn't doubt if they make the same sales they did in the 90s. Thats the problem though, they dont make mega money like these clone RTS, FPS, etc. games make so Atari and EA dont pick these games up. The same goes for non D2 clone and non mmo RPGs, turn based games, any RTS that isn't like CNC or Warcraft 3, and old-style lucasarts adventure games. Its kind of surprising that even RPGs now are becoming like this, but they are hard to make (as you have to have a storyline) so they simply milk other genres for easy and quick cash.

Flavor of the month, games to tide you over until the next release, that is all what the industry is now.

[Ulyaoth]

I liked this combat flight simulator game from a while ago, which was a WWII flight sim. I never got good at it, the plane would always be falling no matter how I flew. I might try Lock On, though. Is there a lot of combat in them? Or is it pretty much flying for hours, see an enemy, then fly back?

[HorseArcher]

I liked this combat flight simulator game from a while ago, which was a WWII flight sim. I never got good at it, the plane would always be falling no matter how I flew. I might try Lock On, though. Is there a lot of combat in them? Or is it pretty much flying for hours, see an enemy, then fly back?

It usuall throws you in action right away, as I'm playing the A-10 campaign, it's probably one of the most "action-packed" since I have to fly low
and there are always SAMs tracking you and pretty much all fighter planes (Mig29/Su27) as the greater advantage, due to the A-10 low capabilities
as fighter plane. Trying to avoid as much dogfights I can, but tanks and armored vehicles are small appetizers for this aircraft.

sorry no screens yet, since I'm just about to play the 2nd mission for the 10th time, because I get killed so quickly.

Actually, let's see I might have made some screenies and you can see a whole lot of other stuff happening while you fly to your waypoint:

Here is the take-off for mission 2.




As you can read on top left corner, the tower already advising me of bandits coming at me and i just started my engine:




It can look "a bit" complicated for people who never played sims, but this is what you have to know what display shows what and what switch does what and when to use it.
In this game, this a fully functional cockpit so everything displays all the info and all switches are operational and need to be used if you want to engage or just to survive.


The bandits are after me, but thank God for the F16s coming with me to cover, they are about to meet their destiny




.....errmmm, looks like the Migs came out victorious and succesfully managed to knock me out of the sky. I am used to see this vew now, this game is hard..



...here is that bastard that got me, you can see me on the left in the distance as i obey the laws of gravity...



I finally arrive to my target, a column of T80s with SAMs and Shilka support. This is where everything goes haywire and I get knocked out frequently.
Mission Status: still failure, since i get knocked out by the shilka, and so does my wingman.
Next try? How about different loadout? I will bring some nasty laser guided bombs with FF (fire and forget) capability, like the GBU84 and try to keep my distance

[Justinian]

Does Red Baron still count as a flight sim, after all these years?

[Kanaric]

Does Red Baron still count as a flight sim, after all these years?

That is one game that DEFINATELY needs to be remade. That game would be completely awesome.

It would of been done by now if it were a RTS or shooter....

[Skyhigh]

i was always fascinated by aviation especially WW2 planes, etc.
i got started on flight sims when i was real little with Aces Over Europe (best game ever)
a few summers ago i bought microsoft combat flight simulator 3 - it was really good and would be playing it today if my joystick wasnt a piece of crap

[Kanaric]

i got started on flight sims when i was real little with Aces Over Europe (best game ever)

Awesome game as well. I had Aces over Pacific too but it ****** me off because the disk was corrupted. Excellent games.

Dynamix had the best flight sims of all time. Too bad Sierra limited them to building "Starsiege" and then destroyed the company.

[Major König]

Archer, can you post some World War two flight simulator pics?

[HorseArcher]

Archer, can you post some World War two flight simulator pics?

I have IL Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles.

Possibly the best flight simulator that money can buy today. I'll make some screenies of that soon.
It's actually a harder game, due to on-the-spot accuracy in flight controls and these planes can't take too much abuse.

Here is this kick ass plane, much like the great-grandfather of the A-10 (german Stuka bomber)
(this is not my image)

[MadBurgerMaker]

I just got Falcon 4.0 Allied Force, so Ill try to get some screenshots and such on here as well (assuming I even remember while learning how to play it, and also assuming Archer doesnt mind). I havent even gotten it patched to the latest version yet, though, so dont expect anything immediately.

Red Baron was my first flight sim (I dont count Wings of Fury on the Apple 2C), I went all through the Aces series, as well as the old Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe (including all the plane add ons). Its too bad the market for flight sims has dried up, but every once in a while a good one will still pop up.

[HorseArcher]

I just got Falcon 4.0 Allied Force, so Ill try to get some screenshots and such on here as well (assuming I even remember while learning how to play it, and also assuming Archer doesnt mind). I havent even gotten it patched to the latest version yet, though, so dont expect anything immediately.

Red Baron was my first flight sim (I dont count Wings of Fury on the Apple 2C), I went all through the Aces series, as well as the old Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe (including all the plane add ons). Its too bad the market for flight sims has dried up, but every once in a while a good one will still pop up.

Hey it's not my thread, I just created it.

Please post images from flight simulators, I am just trying to raise a little fan-club here

[Rustynail]

A game I really liked was Strike Commander.
It was made by the guys that made Wing Commander.
You could buy which missiles you wanted, choose your wingmen...lots of fun.

[MadBurgerMaker]

Hey it's not my thread, I just created it.

Please post images from flight simulators, I am just trying to raise a little fan-club here

Will do then. I just got myself shot down fumbling around against some MiG-29s. At least I figured out the buttons to bring up the AIM-120s and AIM-9s during that rather short little scuffle. Im obviously too stubborn to just read the manual, so thats not an option.

[Cadmium77]

http://forums.ubi.com/groupee/forums...42610647/p/158

Go ahead, be a glutton.

[Pent uP Rage]

Sweeet. I'm bringing out my old sig in honor of this thread. My "Pent uP P38"
I've had LOMAC for quite a while now and like the A10 campaigns most of all. I've just prefer IL2/Pacific Fighters for simplicity.
And flying online is AWESOME. If you can get a wingman
Aside from having to program my own games on a Commodore64, my first "game" was the original wireframe MS Flight Simulator.
For some reason, I always liked flying around that wireframe Sears Tower as close as I could.
I looove flight sims. I feel like flight sims and hex war games are my roots.

I'll let Archer cover the LOMAC screenies, so I'll post a few IL2/PF screens.
If anyone wants a wingman, hit me up!

[Darkragnar]

Great thread, ill be posting some images from Falcon4.0 too here
oh and has anyone played the game Wings Of Glory,it was a world war I game and one of my first on the pc,boy that game was good alright
i used to play a game called F14, on my old Keyboard where u had to put a Audio Cassette in a taperecored and connect it to ur keyboard and the keyboard was connected to the Tele, dont know what that platform was called ,although we used to call it a computer back then lol.

Great site Cadmium77

[MadBurgerMaker]

Okay...Here are some quick ones from a training flight:

Left turn with the AB heating up:



Straight down into the cockpit:



Looking down at the stick:



There are probably seven or eight cockpit views, with just about every little switch being "clickable." Im not sure how long this is gonna take to learn.

EDIT:

A bit more screwing around on the same training mission. I decided to see how far a clean two seater could climb straight up in full AB (with a nice 600kt head start).

The beginning of the climb (at about 3,000 feet):



And the end, with the stall horn screaming at me, and nearly all my airspeed bled off.....at 40,000 feet:



Ive come to the conclusion that the F-16, even in its two seat trainer form, is seriously badass, if this sim is anything to measure it by.

[plasticfigurine]

From IL2 Sturmovik:


I didnt take this shot. I got it from these forums:
http://forums.ubi.com/groupee/forums...1631045132/p/1

[Handsome Huss]

Hey there.

I'm not absolutely positive, but Im pretty sure that I read about EA trying to get into the Flight Sim business. A game released by a company that big would probably be a little more popular, right?
Apparently the reason that they wanted to include planes in Battlefield 2 was to create sort of a bridge into that genre...
Dont know if it would be a good thing though. It might just be some sort of aerial combat expansion or something, lacking any detail or realism, in order for them to break into a new market. I dont know though...I could've sworn that they used to make flight sims, and that if I went digging, could find a couple.