Which sim?
 

Hi all

I've been away from pc's and simming for far too long now. Went down the Apple Mac route but have now come out the other side :oops:. Anyhow, I've just recently bought a pretty capable lappy (i7 based, 8gb, and a 1gb Radeon card). I've got it hooked up to my projector for wall-sized fun :). It's able to run DCS and CoD pretty well as I had a bit of a mess-around yesterday.

Anyhow, thing is, I'm completely out of touch with what's good and what's not. I don't have too much time on my hands, so want to put the effort into whatever is gonna give me the best overall experience. I am drawn to DCS's Warthog, but, if I'm totally honest with myself, probably don't have the time to learn how to fly the thing. Same for Black Shark 2. Have considered the Mustang, but it just seems a bit "out of sorts" with the world it's been dropped into.

I do tend to prefer the slower, seat of the pants, type flying. I love WW1/WW2 combat. As above, I've downloaded CoD, and I've already got Rise of Flight (sort of, I've found the case but the disks gone awol. Assume I can just download off the site and activate with my code?).

My internet connection is lousy, so it cannot really be trusted to allow online combat, so I'm really after a pretty good single-player experience. My shortlist seems to be:

Rise of Flight - If I can just download it and reactivate?

Cliffs of Dover - I've got the up to date version off steam yesterday. Does it need much 3rd party patching to bring it up to spec?

DCS's Mustang - Does it sit as oddly as it appears?

Flaming Cliffs 3 - Thinking it might give big rewards without the need for a degree in aeronautics.

War Thunder - Looks terrific. Is it online only? (I have the console version, Birds of Steel, and it is very good)

Any other sim I've overlooked - Please feel free to pipe up.

There, I think that's enough to be going on with :D. Thanks in advance :up:

For Cliffs of Dover get the Team Fusion patch from the Air Tactical Assault Group (ATAG) site.

Rise of Flight should be okay with your key and downloading.

P-51 by DCS is great, it is beautiful, but it is a DCS product and so still isn't a 'jump in and fly' aircraft, but out of all of them it is the simplest.

Flaming Cliffs 3 I've not played yet, but is attractive and yet more simple to fly than the other DCS stuff.

Don't know if any of this helps you, but in order of preference for me I'd go RoF, FC3, P-51, Clod.

Edit: Oops, forgot War Thunder. It's more game than sim, and it is online MP play only.

There still is Falcon. For BMS free upgrade, you'd need to have an old Falcon 4 original disc for installation, can be found sometimes at ebay, or such 2nd hand places. Else, if failing on the CD, there is Falcon Allied Force, in itself a solid and great simulation still, just not with the tremendous visual upgrades of the BMS package.

The major argument for BMS is the now fully detailed clickable virtual cockpit. In fact, there is no 2D cockpit anymore.

Falcon, the old classic. This thing seems to never stop flying. And that is good! And still the best campaign simulation on the market - after 16 years now, I think.

Built for eternity? :)

Thanks both for the heads-up. I shall patch CoD later and see what goodies it brings. I did kind of think that War Thunder would be online shenanigans, so I shall rule that out. Looking forward to re-trying RoF as I believe it has gone through a few updates since I last fired it up. And it was pretty good back then :). It's only a matter of time before I take the plunge and bag the Mustang as I've heard nothing but amazing things about it. Will I be able to blow the dust off my old Sidewinder FFB stick or do I need to invest again?

As regards Falcon 4, I've actually got the boxed retail version upstairs with the giant manual etc. I had heard that it had been heavily updated and was now a joy to behold. Thing is I'm not all that fussed about learning a highly complex jet sim. I remember it being a huge learning curve back in it's day. I'm quite a bit older now and my capacity for learning/patience has depreciated accordingly :(. I may try to get it working/patched though just for the sake of curiosity :).

Skybird........... Good to find you still stalking these forums :D. You still flying Condor? I so loved the flight-modelling in that sim. Don't think I found anything else that came close. Just a shame that it aged like it did. Haven't visited their forum for a long time. Last I checked people were getting fed up waiting for Condor 2 to materialise. Might have to blow the dust off the old girl and have another ridge-soaring session :)

Just been reading up on DCS's Mustang, got trigger happy, and now have a copy winging it's way towards me from Amazon :Kaleun_Party: Just couldn't help myself. Will I need another joystick or can I press my MS SW FFB2 into operation?

I don't think FFB on the old Sidewinders works on Win7 (so prolly not 8 either)

Treat yourself to Thrustmaster's Warthog HOTAS. :up:

Oh, that's a bit of a bummer. It's a great stick :wah:. Oh well...... I may need a small lottery win to be able to bagsy a Thrustmaster Warthog. Is there a current joystick that won't break the bank that would be suitable for the Mustang? I don't really need all the bells and whistles of a modern fighter joystick for a WW2 plane. And has FFB been shelved completely these days?

I have a relatively simple Thrustmaster T. 16000 which does okay. I don't know much more about FFB on modern sticks, I know a lot of PC wheels have it so I'd think there were sticks out there too.

Thanks for that. I'll have a bit of a nose around and see what's what. May have a bit of a selling session and try to grab the Warthog stick. Trouble is, I'll then be obliged to buy the matching sim. And then I can kiss my life good bye, lol.

Yep, it is a life-sucker!

Whatever you get, enjoy!

Bugger it! In for a penny, in for a pound and all that....... Just thought I'd save myself all the "shall I shan't I" agonising and have just ordered the Thrustmaster Warthog HOTAS. Looks like bread and water rations for the foreseeable future :oops:

Nice one, once set up it should see you for life. Now to get the best out of it you need DCS's A-10C and a lot of reading.

And if you don't like it I'll buy it off you, at a heavily reduced price of course.

Of course ;)

I want the Warthog HOTAS!!! You're lucky.

They also make a special chair for it. :arrgh!:

Well that's his family sold now, well done.

Don't get me any deeper in hock :o. Just realised, after ordering the 'stick, that it doesn't double as rudder function as well. Does the A-10C allow auto rudder as an option or shall I need to buy seperate pedals? And, if so, are there any to be recommended? I have looked at the Saitek Combat jobbies in the past. To be honest, I'd rather be without pedals at this moment as I'm gonna be struggling space-wise. But, if needs must............

The learning curve is even steeper and longer now, since so much system stuff was added and refined. It definitely is a study sim, and it adds several manuals more to the sim. But I find it more accessible than the DCS A-10, or DCS-Blackshark. It also is much more atmospheric. When flying in campaign, you are up and out there with dozens and hundreds of units around you, meeting formations returning home, getting crossed by others who head for their targets. and when I say dozens and hundreds, I mean it. No other sim gives you such an intense feeling of being just a tiny little piece in a very huge campaign going on LIVE all around you. This is what apparently will set Falcon apart from all other sims, forever.

Don'T say it too loud, in GT many people are cursing when they see me raising over the horizon these days. :D

No, no Condoring for me anymore, I spend almost all civilian flying now on the PMDG Boeing-737NGX (as Herr Berbunch for some reason has not yet pointed out again :) ) Last thing I tried with Condor was the release of the (very good) ALPI-3 photo scenery. But soon after that I started to lose interest in Condor.

Consider the Simped Vario Pro, which seem to be relatively unknown outside Germany (what they do not deserve). I have them since 13 years, very good quality and comfortably wide foot-spacing.

http://www.flugsimulator.de/hse/simped.htm

They are precise and robust.

I have the Vario Pro a bit down that site, for 170 Euros. But if you want to spend almost twice as much - they also have the needed arguments to convince you of that, as you can see.

Oh damn, I just found out that the German guy went out of business for private, financial and request-related reasons just months ago. Sorry. those pedals where the best in their price range. Beat Saitek and CH hands down. Maybe you can find good used ones. But I doubt it - if you have them, you don't give them away again.