Flying games?

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jamesrb

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jul 29, 2004
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I have a lot of fun with my G27 playing Dirt 2, Race 07 (w/expansions), and GT5. If I wanted to get into flying games, what controller and what games would you recommend?

Are there even enough games to justify the expense? I have the Obutto and see that there is a flight stick mount for it.
 
The DCS series also has a Russian helicopter - the Ka-50 'Black Shark'/'Werewolf' (NATO: Hokum A) modeled to the same level of fidelity.

For much less button-mashing, but equally impressive graphics (well, way better, actually), you'll want to watch for the soon-to-be-released (in America, a beta is available elsewhere) 'Cliffs of Dover' (the successor to the IL2:Sturmovik series of very excellent games).

All of these games (including the also-recommend DCS: A-10C, above) you can easily spend immeasurable amounts of time in. And all of these definitely, DEFINITELY need a hardcore HOTAS.

For the cheap end, you can pick up a Saitek X52 that will work fine for these.

I'm currently saving my own pennies for a Logitech G940, though. :drools:

In any case, you'll also need some kind of head tracking software. The Track IR stuff is essentially ubiquitous in the flightsim community (it supports all major titles, gets regular updates, and all competitive virtual pilots use it with basically no exception). Myself, I've had some luck (to date) using the free Freelook software with an LED-equipped baseball cap in the past, but that's not an ideal solution. I've recently picked up a newer webcam that I'm going to give FaceTrackNoIR a try with as an alternative.
 
"Rise of Flight" is a very well done WW1 combat flight sim. And I mean sim as in simulator, because if you are flying with realistic settings you will need to FLY these planes!

Outstanding flight model and damage model are backed by some really beautiful flight environments. Both the terrain and atmosphere are stunning in realism and detail. Vehicles, ships, trains, buildings, gun emplacements, are all interactive and destructible. Shoot em up, blow em up, watch them burn, see them explode! Fly through clouds and your goggles get wet with moisture! Shoot down an enemy in a dogfight and watch them go down in smoke and fire.

The game is very polished, having been out for a couple of years, and it is continually being improved and expanded. Every airplane is accurately modeled right down to the rivets on the cowling to the working cockpit gauges and controls. The latest patch ushered in a full blown career campaign, where depending on the kind of squadron you join can include bombing, strafing, recon, balloon busting, dogfighting.

I am sure Rise of Flight is among the best combat flight sims to be had, setting a very high standard for realism, detail, and challenge.
 
Poordevil said:
I am sure Rise of Flight is among the best combat flight sims to be had, setting a very high standard for realism, detail, and challenge.
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...that's one I'm watching, too, actually. If it ever shows up on Steam, a day 1 purchase from me.

But I don't really get enough time to game to deal with various and sundry platforms, so until it shows up there...*shrugs*

Does look nifty, though.
 
dderidex said:
For much less button-mashing, but equally impressive graphics (well, way better, actually), you'll want to watch for the soon-to-be-released (in America, a beta is available elsewhere) 'Cliffs of Dover' (the successor to the IL2:Sturmovik series of very excellent games).
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The problem I have with IL2 is that it's so slow paced, even if you skip take-off and landing. For minutes at a time you are flying to your target or whatever and nothing is happening. "Patrol to the North!", then you fly and fly and maybe 90 seconds later the AI decides that you have flown enough and it's time to give you some targets.

I understand that such delay may be more realistic, but personally I have no patience and I hate waiting. Spending dozens of minutes over the course of a session waiting for something to happen isn't my idea of fun.

For me the best flying game of all times is Crimson Skies. Then there was one in the 90's where you were a mercenary flying an F-4 first iirc and then an F-16, to finally unlock the F-22 doing odd jobs here and there, buying different rockets and bombs, had good gfx and a pretty decent story, one of the female pilots in that game was called Vixen, don't remember the name of the game though.
 
I highly recommend you look at the CH Fighterstick.
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/CH-Products-200-571-Fighterstick-USB/dp/B00006B84X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1309079347&sr=8-1"]Amazon.com: CH Products Fighterstick USB: Electronics@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/310CCHXY3CL.@@AMEPARAM@@310CCHXY3CL[/ame]

It might not look as "fancy" as many of the el-cheapo joysticks or the really expensive ones, but CH joysticks are known for two things:

1. Being indestructible
2. Having precise controls (which is very important for any kind of combat with flight games).

You can find one for around 100'ish easily and it'll last you years and years of use, unlike crappy joysticks like Saitek makes.

If you want to go further you can get some Pedals and a throttle to go with it as well.

As far as games go,

Rise of Flight is an excellent game if WWI era planes interest you, the best/most current one out there at the moment.

Cliffs of Dover (From the IL-2 guys, which is known as the best WWII flight sim) is their newest game. It's out in europe now, out in July in the US. It had some bugs and problems at release in Europe but they are patching things up. Most people will prolly jump to it as the newest WWII flight sim to play online, etc.

Then you have the more modern games mentioned already, A10-C Warthog, etc. Those are the better modern flight sims.

One area that's missing in Flight sims, and one I REALLY would like to play is Helicopter rescue, etc. I [played the hell out of Simcopter back in the day and even for a non-sim game tehre's nothing out there for that area.

It'd be nice to see a chopper rescue game, where you have to rescue people from sea (IE like the Coast Guard) or in Cities for helping airlift people to th ehostpital, then in woodland area's to help put out fires, etc. I would love to fly a heli and do this stuff in a game, but nope, none of that in any o fthem at the moment.
 
Thuleman said:
The problem I have with IL2 is that it's so slow paced, even if you skip take-off and landing. For minutes at a time you are flying to your target or whatever and nothing is happening. "Patrol to the North!", then you fly and fly and maybe 90 seconds later the AI decides that you have flown enough and it's time to give you some targets.
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You want Wings of Prey, then. A third-party company licensed the IL-2 engine, provided a heavy graphics update to it (it looks quite modern in this title, although not quite as good as 'Cliffs of Dover'), and decided to give IL-2 what it really was most sorely missing...a sense of story and place! It isn't quite a campaign, but at least a story, and that's something.

Oh, and they got Jeremy Soule ('Oblivion', 'Morrowind', 'Icewind Dale', 'Prey', 'Supreme Commander', etc) to do the soundtrack...some of his best work is here.

It's the same IL-2 engine, so the same excellent physics and damage modelling (etc) is in play, here, although the controls are simplified a bit. Oh, and there are rarely missions that even LET you do 'takeoffs or landings' - most start in the air around the area of your target, and end once the mission objectives are completed (or lost).

It's definitely several very large steps closer to a more accessible take on IL-2.

Then there was one in the 90's where you were a mercenary flying an F-4 first iirc and then an F-16, to finally unlock the F-22 doing odd jobs here and there, buying different rockets and bombs, had good gfx and a pretty decent story, one of the female pilots in that game was called Vixen, don't remember the name of the game though.
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Unless I'm much mistaken, you are describing Strike Commander.
 
Stiler said:
It'd be nice to see a chopper rescue game, where you have to rescue people from sea (IE like the Coast Guard) or in Cities for helping airlift people to th ehostpital, then in woodland area's to help put out fires, etc. I would love to fly a heli and do this stuff in a game, but nope, none of that in any o fthem at the moment.
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I was pretty sure the Flight Simulator X had a 'missions' pack that did exactly this. In fact, I believe that was what the add-on pack 'acceleration' was all about. And, of course, once the capability was added to the game to score missions, users have started making their own. Here's a set of missions using a V-22, for example, including an oil rig evacuation.

And, of course, the perennial MS Flight Sim add-on maker Just Flight has their own packs for purchase - here is one called 'Rescue Pilot' that covers...well, rescue pilot missions.
 
dderidex said:
In any case, you'll also need some kind of head tracking software. The Track IR stuff is essentially ubiquitous in the flightsim community (it supports all major titles, gets regular updates, and all competitive virtual pilots use it with basically no exception). Myself, I've had some luck (to date) using the free Freelook software with an LED-equipped baseball cap in the past, but that's not an ideal solution. I've recently picked up a newer webcam that I'm going to give FaceTrackNoIR a try with as an alternative.
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Thanks for the linkage! I will definitely check out FaceTrackNoIR. I have been wanting to buy TrackIR but this looks to be a great alternative.
 
I, too, vote for DCS. A-10C is amazing and from what I've seen and read, Blackshark is as well.
 
DCS A-10C is amazing. I landed on sim settings two days ago for the first time :)

I also enjoyed Wings of Prey -- it runs and looks great. Not even close to the same playing field as DCS in terms of simulation, but it's a great jump in and gun some planes down style game.
 
dderidex said:
I was pretty sure the Flight Simulator X had a 'missions' pack that did exactly this. In fact, I believe that was what the add-on pack 'acceleration' was all about. And, of course, once the capability was added to the game to score missions, users have started making their own. Here's a set of missions using a V-22, for example, including an oil rig evacuation.

And, of course, the perennial MS Flight Sim add-on maker Just Flight has their own packs for purchase - here is one called 'Rescue Pilot' that covers...well, rescue pilot missions.
Click to expand...

Also, Microsoft Flight is supposed to be more structured and mission-oriented than previous versions. No release date yet, but I'm looking forward to it. Freedom is great, but without structure and purpose, it quickly turns into boredom for all except the most fanatical flight simmers.
 
Poordevil said:
"Rise of Flight" is a very well done WW1 combat flight sim. And I mean sim as in simulator, because if you are flying with realistic settings you will need to FLY these planes!
.
Click to expand...

glad I peeked in this thread. I was just looking for a WW1 flight game after watching Aces High
 
dderidex said:
...that's one I'm watching, too, actually. If it ever shows up on Steam, a day 1 purchase from me.

But I don't really get enough time to game to deal with various and sundry platforms, so until it shows up there...*shrugs*

Does look nifty, though.
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I don't understand? Why does it have to be on steam? I downloaded the game directly from RoF's website 2 years ago almost, and now that the base game is free to play there is absolutely no excuse not to try it.

Steam? Please.
 
BlitzPuppet said:
I don't understand? Why does it have to be on steam? I downloaded the game directly from RoF's website 2 years ago almost, and now that the base game is free to play there is absolutely no excuse not to try it.

Steam? Please.
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*shrugs* I only use Steam. Most of my mates play shooters and such (and I do dig the occasional zombie sweeping, myself), so it's handy to have on place for all my games that let's me see what everyone else is playing, so I can more easily decide to jump out of whatever game I'm in to join theirs. That Steam Overlay thing is ideal for those with regular gaming friends.
 
RoF uses their own servers for DRM, etc.

It used to be that you had to be online to even play Single player, but it was changed a while back IIRC.

I picked it up on a sale on Amazon for like 15 bucks, it's a great game, espeically if you haven't played a WWI flight game since the days of Red Baron.
 
dderidex said:
*shrugs* I only use Steam. Most of my mates play shooters and such (and I do dig the occasional zombie sweeping, myself), so it's handy to have on place for all my games that let's me see what everyone else is playing, so I can more easily decide to jump out of whatever game I'm in to join theirs. That Steam Overlay thing is ideal for those with regular gaming friends.
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Don't get me wrong, I didn't mean for it to come off as a personal jab but seriously...

The game in it's base form is free (you get to play online, do everything anyone else can.) The only setback is that you are limited to the 2 base planes, you have to purchase the others.

The game is really fun, and you're missing out on another great sim if you continue to wait on it to port over to steam.
 
So, I have thought about getting:

- Flight stick mount for obutto
- Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog
- CH Pedals
- TrackIR 5

Will the track IR work for me? I sit 7 ft or so from the TV and the TrackIR would be about 1 foot over my head. Are these games enjoyable without TrackIR? I guess I can think about switching to a monitor mounted on the Obutto but that will increase the cost quite a bit.
 
dderidex said:
*shrugs* I only use Steam. Most of my mates play shooters and such (and I do dig the occasional zombie sweeping, myself), so it's handy to have on place for all my games that let's me see what everyone else is playing, so I can more easily decide to jump out of whatever game I'm in to join theirs. That Steam Overlay thing is ideal for those with regular gaming friends.
Click to expand...

Link the game through steam so you still have access tot he overlay and friends list etc. Works for 99% of the games out there even the ones you didn't buy natively from steam. Not a big deal.
 
HyperTension said:
DCS A-10C Warthog...

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Kind of too complex for a noob to flight-sim. I would start out with Rise of Flight and IL-2 1946 and work your way up from there. For cheapish and decent stick I would get Logitech Extreme 3D Pro.

Rise of flight is free and you just pay for the DLC you need to play the campaigns. IL-2 is only $9.99 from gog.com or Steam.
 
jamesrb said:
So, I have thought about getting:

- Flight stick mount for obutto
- Thrustmaster HOTAS Warthog
- CH Pedals
- TrackIR 5

Will the track IR work for me? I sit 7 ft or so from the TV and the TrackIR would be about 1 foot over my head. Are these games enjoyable without TrackIR? I guess I can think about switching to a monitor mounted on the Obutto but that will increase the cost quite a bit.
Click to expand...

Don't you think it would be better to see if you really like flight sims first before spending all that money on hardware?
 
Gnasher said:
Don't you think it would be better to see if you really like flight sims first before spending all that money on hardware?
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I don't see a possibility of me not liking it. Since I don't know anybody with a flight sim, I have to buy something to find out. I could go with a chepaer setup, but would regret it far too much if I do like it. Also, I figure I am less likely to enjoy it with a cheaper set up. If the TrackIR works, I would probably keep it for racing games regardless.
 
Track IR works fine, it's also great in ARMA II, which features helicopter flying as well as vehicle/tank and infantry combat, should check that out if you are getting Track IR.

You can see how it works with Track IR here:
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wXx3vMy_AQ"]YouTube - ‪TrackIR5 & ArmA2 Premiere (TrackIR 5)‬‏[/ame]
 
But does it work if I am 7 ft away with my head a foot lower than the camera? This is well over their recommended distance.
 
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