[Threadfin]

Good post CCIP. One of the things that makes BMS more interesting, more fun and more replayable is the fact that the Viper is a multi-role jet. The DCS F/A-18 will do a lot to bridge that gap, but you're still left with the point you made that I agree with the most -- and that's the campaign.

DCS is great for learning the systems,controls and weapons, mastering the jet. And it looks fantastic all the while. You do some training and get to the point where you are comfortable flying combat. This is where it all starts to fall apart. So you fly some missions. Maybe you didn't get it right. So you fly again. Now you know that the Su-27s are west of steerpoint five. Now you're ready for them. Since you saw no other planes in the first go 'round you aren't even scanning another part of the sky. Nothing there. And you already know it. So now your antenna is right where it needs to be and this time you pick them up early.

You get your missiles off first this time, after all you've already done it once. Two Flankers killed and you fly around and maybe back to base just looking at the clouds because hey, you've already done this and you know what is there or isn't.

My long winded point is that even though DCS makes a fantastic jet, what are you left to do with it? Some mission scripters are amazing, it's true and can almost give the the perception that you're flying something dynamic, changing, evolving.

But deep down you know you're not. The 'soft factors' of flying jet combat are lost on DCS like uncertainty or the unexpected. And there is no feeling of import or weight to what you are doing. The results, good or bad, have no impact on anything. This is where BMS shines as you rightly point out. Of all the great sims we listed earlier that have great campaigns, not one of them comes anywhere close to what F4 does.