After playing WW2 strategy games for quite a while, I found my old Joystick this week. Remembering how I enjoyed F-16 Fighting-Falcon, Gunship and other flight-sims, I am now searching for a new challenge. I would quite like a WW2 Simulation, but I am open for everything. Doesn`t have to be ultra-realistic.
More important would be a dynamic campaign. I've read, that Combat Flight Simulator 3 had one of those, but then I've read a lot of bad reviews for it.
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For WW2, Battle of Britain : Wings of Victory, available from this very site. For modern, Falcon 4: Allied Force. Both are realistic simulators and have genuine dynamic campaigns.
< Message edited by Hertston -- 2/26/2009 2:32:58 PM >
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Falcon 4.0 allied force has the best dynamic campaign. Longbow2 has it too but its a tad older.
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What about Mig Alley ? It is a few year old, but I think the campaigns are dynamic, based upon the outcome of your missions. Plus it covers an era rarely seen in fligh sims.
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I might add if you like helicopter sims, then DCS Black Shark is awesome...but check out the DRM on it. As far as I am aware it has the latest version of Starforce and the download I bought uses activations/deactivations...not ideal and not something I would normally subscribe to, but I do love helicopter sims...and it is very, very detailed.
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Black Shark is great sim but its campaign is nowhere near as dynamic (its more like canned than dynamic) as the one in falcon 4 ah or longbow2. They simply dont make really dynamic flight sims anymore.
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I've always been interested in X-Plane (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X-Plane) but never got to it. No campaign mode, so it's probably way off from what your're looking for. The moddability and realism seems extreme on the other hand!
BoB2 seems like something I am looking for. Falcon 4 is a great simulation, but I guess the complexity of flying an F-16 is too much. I took me ages in F-16 Fighting Falcon and this game had options to reduce the amount of realism.
Black Shark seems nice, but I don't want to play a heli-sim right now and it has no dynamic campaign.
What about Combat Flight Simulator 1/2/3? I've heard that Nr. 3 has a at least half-decent dynamic campaign and there are quite some mods out for that game.
Does IL-2 have a dynamic campaign?
< Message edited by Sarganto -- 2/26/2009 5:39:42 PM >
IL-2 1946 is still the most comprehensive and probably the best looking (despite it's age) serious flight sim out there.
Seconded, though I haven't played any part of the serie. It's been heavily modded too, and some mods make it closer to AirWarrior & Warbirds. MMO that is!
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IL-2 1946 is still the most comprehensive and probably the best looking (despite it's age) serious flight sim out there.
yea, as long as you don't care about flight models, but the shear numbers of planes types and missions are outstanding (I have a number of posts/AARs on this forum from Matrix's the last days add on to the IL-2 Forgotten battles)
Have high hopes for his BoB sim he should have out sometime this year, seeing as how Oleg can't stand English or Germen planes, the modeling should be decent, since they are the only two modelled
BoB II is outstanding, you can have 100's of planes in the air, go to the forum here and check out some of the screen shots, the Art package is outstanding, and Buddye is a great/HARD working programmer, as well as the rest of the gang working behind the sceens on it, and have added alot of good stuff to it, and are working on adding more
IL-2 1946 is still the most comprehensive and probably the best looking (despite it's age) serious flight sim out there.
Seconded, though I haven't played any part of the serie. It's been heavily modded too, and some mods make it closer to AirWarrior & Warbirds. MMO that is!
WW-2 flight simulation. I also highly recomend IL-2.
Specifically, IL-2 Sturmovik 1946 The Signature Collection. By UBISOFT
Includes the entire IL-2 collection of flight simulations plus all-new content (200 new missions). Five(5) games in one.
Compete online with up to 128 players. Fly jet and rocket planes in Alternate History Campaigns. Fly the entire globe, from the sands of Iwo Jima to the snow-covered steppes of Russia. Complete mission/campaign editor. Highly detailed 450-page plane guide.
If you are into all WW-2 aircraft, this is the one to investigate.
Windows 98/Me/XP (only).
< Message edited by wdboyd -- 2/26/2009 6:52:00 PM >
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quote:
ORIGINAL: wdboyd
Salutations,
WW-2 flight simulation. I also highly recomend IL-2.
Specifically, IL-2 Sturmovik 1946 The Signature Collection. By UBISOFT
Includes the entire IL-2 collection of flight simulations plus all-new content (200 new missions). Five(5) games in one.
Compete online with up to 128 players. Fly jet and rocket planes in Alternate History Campaigns. Fly the entire globe, from the sands of Iwo Jima to the snow-covered steppes of Russia. Complete mission/campaign editor. Highly detailed 450-page plane guide.
If you are into all WW-2 aircraft, this is the one to investigate.
Windows 98/Me/XP (only).
Sounds great, but tell me, what sort of copy protection does Ubisoft add ? I'm too lazy to go look.
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All good/great recomendations above, but since you mentioned CFS3, you may want to check out the many user-made add-ons that have come out for it, especially the WWI one, Over Flanders Fields (http://www.overflandersfields.com/). There are 3 versions (aka phases); the first two being shareware and the last payware. You WILL need a copy of CFS3 (available on Amazon.com for $10 I believe) to play any of the addons . I've been playing OFF Phase 2 and it is great. I'd like to get Phase 3 (and yet may), but the price tag is a bit steep ($50, + $9 S+H). The are several other add-ons (Korea, PTO) that I haven't tried yet, but the most interesting one (to me) is MAW (Mediterranean Air War), http://www.medairwar.com/. Just be prepared for some heavy duty downloads. I think OFF and MAW both exceed 1GB and then some....
< Message edited by uncc -- 2/26/2009 9:55:53 PM >
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After playing WW2 strategy games for quite a while, I found my old Joystick this week. Remembering how I enjoyed F-16 Fighting-Falcon, Gunship and other flight-sims, I am now searching for a new challenge. I would quite like a WW2 Simulation, but I am open for everything. Doesn`t have to be ultra-realistic.
More important would be a dynamic campaign. I've read, that Combat Flight Simulator 3 had one of those, but then I've read a lot of bad reviews for it.
Well, regarding dynamic campaign nothing comes close to Falcon 4. Concerning detail and complexitiy, PMDG products (747-400, MD-11 for FSX, FS 2004) outshines F4, but those are civilian aircrafts. I also purchased IL-2 due to WW2 background, but this one was not my cup of tea. Too arcade style for my taste.
You always have to compromise. There is not *the* perfect flight sim.
First I have to thank you for all your advice. I think I will give CFS3 and IL-2 a shot, because I can get my hands on them quite cheap (or via friends ;) )
Other problem is that my old Sidewinder Precision Pro Joystick seems to be broken. I've bought an Gameport-to-USB adapter to be able to play with it, but it doesn't send any commands to my pc, when I push the buttons (if I try to calibrate it for example). I tried another superold Joystick, which has a broken Y-axis. This superold piece of junk seems to work though. It sends info about pushing buttons and using the X-axis.
Don't know what to do now. Already bought the Adapter for 10 bucks (high value €-bucks!) and I think the Sidewinder is one of the best Joystick-Designs ever :( When I started thinking about playing flight sims, I didn't think about buying a new joystick...
I will try my old Joystick tomorrow on an old desktop-pc with a gameport-device. If it works there, then maybe only the adapter isn't working with my sidewinder. If it doesn't...well then it's time for the trash bin.
I recently purchased a Saitek X52 Hotas with separate throttles and being quite happy with it. It's way more accurate as my old Logitech 3D Extreme used to be.
< Message edited by Lützow -- 2/27/2009 8:44:43 AM >
I have to disagree. Something in Wingman snapped, and 'stick didn't stay in center anymore. In newer model center point wasn't ever in center. 'Sticks I have any good experiences, are Gravis Analog Pro and Trust Predator Pro. Both are way outdated now, and out of production.
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Matti Kuokkanen I have to disagree. Something in Wingman snapped, and 'stick didn't stay in center anymore. In newer model center point wasn't ever in center. 'Sticks I have any good experiences, are Gravis Analog Pro and Trust Predator Pro. Both are way outdated now, and out of production.
Gravis was great except the horrid analog calibration and the fact that the stick snapped into half during head2head nhl97-match.
Currently I have wireless logitach as a sofa joystick and gigantic MS FF2 as table one.
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Lützow I recently purchased a Saitek X52 Hotas with separate throttles and being quite happy with it. It's way more accurate as my old Logitech 3D Extreme used to be.
I'm still using my X45 after five years or so. Super bit of kit once you use a few cable tidies to soften the spring a bit.
I finally got my hands on IL-2 Sturmovik 1946 and to make a long story short: That's not what I wanted. Sure, there are "dynamic campaigns" but still, the missions are assigned to me and I don't have any freedom in picking my own targets.
But at least it's a decent simulation. Still, I have no joystick but it is "playable" with mouse and keyboard...but I will surely get a new joystick and maybe after that BOB2 or CFS3 with Mods/Addons. They seem to have that "choose your own mission on the map" feature instead of generating random missions to simulate a "dynamic" campaign.
ORIGINAL: Sarganto Still, I have no joystick but it is "playable" with mouse and keyboard...but I will surely get a new joystick and maybe after that BOB2 or CFS3 with Mods/Addons.
I would consult according websites like avsim.com before purchasing a new one. There is a reason many flight simmers use CH or Saitek systems.
ORIGINAL: Sarganto Still, I have no joystick but it is "playable" with mouse and keyboard...but I will surely get a new joystick and maybe after that BOB2 or CFS3 with Mods/Addons.
I would consult according websites like avsim.com before purchasing a new one. There is a reason many flight simmers use CH or Saitek systems.
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