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I want to play with my stick
defreak
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Joystick that is. I'm looking for an aerial combat PC game to play. I've been out of the loop for PC games for about 6 years now, since I stopped upgrading my PC. I just built a brand new rig for BF3/4, and now I'm craving a dog fighting game. The only ones I've ever played before were X-Wing vs Tie Fighter and some game in a WWI setting. It seems like there haven't been any (for the PC at least) released in the past couple of years.
I'm open to anything, any time setting, arcade or simulation, as long as it's a quality game, and doesn't look like shit (post 2005?). Preferably something that has missiles/photons, but I'll go for some good propeller action too. Thanks.
I'm open to anything, any time setting, arcade or simulation, as long as it's a quality game, and doesn't look like shit (post 2005?). Preferably something that has missiles/photons, but I'll go for some good propeller action too. Thanks.
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Anyway...your options are fairly limited. There is War Thunder, which is a F2P WW2 air combat MMO that looks rather pretty and which a number of people around here seem to enjoy. The thing about War Thunder is that the people who are into it tell me that the best control scheme for experienced players is actually the keyboard, and that keyboard people can maneuver more effectively than people with gamepads or even joysticks. I personally found trying to fly with the keyboard or a 360 controller agonizing and I didn't want to go buy my first joystick in years, and somehow having rings flown around me by people with keyboards even if I did didn't sound like my idea of a good time, so I gave up on the whole thing.
There are the more recent iterations of the Il-2 franchise still chugging along. Again, WW2 air combat there, no missiles/protons.
Rise of Flight was a WW1 air combat simulator which came out a few years ago that was/is really pretty...the problem was that it was released sort of half-finished, with no campaign to speak of and awful AI (actually the AI started decent and then the devs inexplicably released a patch that made it worse by giving every enemy plane type the same tactics book instead of each one having a unique profile that suited its strengths). They were touting it as being primarily a multiplayer-oriented experience in the meantime but the multiplayer population was always pretty damn low. I don't know if any progress has been made, I haven't played the game since 09-10 or so. Edit: Apparently since then Rise of Flight has moved to a F2P model. You can download the game and get two planes to try totally for free to see if you like it. Not sure what else has been added but at minimum it looks like a lot more planes (when I played the game it only shipped with 4 and there were 2 more available as paid DLC) and possibly some actual career content as well.
I think Lock-On and its expansions are still pretty popular with people who want a modern air combat experience, although of course there's not really much else on the market.
For more arcadey offerings, there are the two Tom Clancy HAWX games, although the ridiculous weird-angle third person maneuvering camera turned me off of those.
There was also an installment of the Namco Ace Combat series that came out for PC last year, with a real-world setting and "serious" plot as opposed to the usual Ace Combat made-up melodrama. Don't know if it was any good.
If you want dogfighting of a more pew pew-heavy type, space sims are actually kind of enjoying a renaissance right now. There is Strike Suit Zero, a pretty fun space mecha/fighter plane game that came out earlier this year and you can pick it up on Steam for under $20. For something deeper, go over to the Games & Technology forum and find the thread on the upcoming Star Citizen and see if it sounds like something that would float your boat. There's also a "space sims megathread" over there where you could find some other leads but I don't think it's been posted in recently.
In more recent years after he had a stroke and was told he couldn't fly alone anymore, he uses the sim to help him cope. I'd hate to think what it would be like if he didn't even have that.
Sorry to hear that about your dad Cambiata, glad that he found a way to cope, it's always cool to hear positive stories about video games.
For modern military, look no further than the DCS series. They have several great modules. I think they're even currently having a big sale (if it's still going on). I'm a huge fan of A-10C. That and FC3 will set you up.
For general aviation, there's still Flight Simulator X, but it's starting to show it's age. I've heard good things about the latest installment of X-Plane. Microsoft Flight is very light on the sim stuff, but is pretty and decently fun. It's no longer being supported, but the base version of it is free, so it's worth checking out. The add-ons go on sale on Steam fairly often. I would look for them to during the upcoming summer sale if you're interested.
For WW2 era stuff, there's a P-51 module for DCS, but I don't think that's quite what you're looking for. IL-2 1942 still holds up pretty well and even has patches still coming out for it.
For space stuff, Freespace Open is probably your best bet. Just get FS2 off of GoG and download FSO. You could also check out Evochron Mercenaries.
There's also a Flight Sim thread here with some knowledgeable and helpful people.
MSFS, by far the titan of the genre, is dead. And Microsoft Flight, almost an insult to the simming community anyway, was basically stillborn. And basically everything else you just mentioned is a game that came out years ago or an expansion/module for a game that came out years ago, most of them appealing to very niche markets.
The fact is that the flight simulation genre is moribund compared to the halcyon days in the 90's when it was a major genre within computer gaming and you had new titles coming out ever year. Hell, Jane's by itself probably put out as many flight sims in the 90's than there have been major flight sim titles from all publishers in the past decade. It's nice that there are developers like DCS still fighting the good fight, but "the best time" for flight sims compared to the peak? Nah.
In regards to the quality and fidelity of the sims? Absolutely.
The quality and fidelity of the sims has improved as a natural result of the improvement of technology. Now imagine if flight simulation had the market share and pull with developers that it used to, so that there was more than one title from a niche studio every 2-3 years taking advantage of that.