I'm sad I missed that era in flight sims to be honest! I got into flight sims at the end of the 90s, and the oldest titles I've really had substantial stick time with would be Total Air War, Red Baron 3D, and the NovaLogic F16/F22/Mig29 games. Those were very much at the tail end of the simulation "golden age" of the 90s, which was eventually capped off by Falcon 4.0 and Jane's F-18 before the genre basically collapsed.

Someday maybe I'll check out some of the older games, but not having been there at the time, it's kind of hard to be nostalgic for it. The good news is that despite the fact that flight sims have gone from the most popular gaming genre (which they were at one point) to a small hardcore niche, there's still great stuff to fly and hey, for all it's worth, the genre has advanced a lot technologically over time!

I feel that I haven't yet played a flight sim I'm as happy as I am with a modded SH3. I like the old ones, Dynamix's Red Baron and Aces of the Pacific but of course they had some big limitations. Maybe IL21946 is the best for me yet but I hate the AI and I haven't yet owned a computer that can run air battles with lots of planes. The campaign in IL2 is pretty dismal as well. But I do love the feeling when I am flying alone in a BF109G-2 and am slowly starting to get an energy advantage and begin to dominate a battle against a group of La-5's :)

I know I'm bringing back a slightly old thread, but I was leery about starting a new on for this.

The last flight sims I played were Red Baron 3D and European Air War. Both had their weaknesses, and both were a lot of fun.

I just purchased Microsoft Combat Flight Sim 3, the point being to get Over Flanders Fields. I'm also currently downloading the F2P version of Rise Of Flight. I've said a lot of bad things about paying to get extra stuff, and I still feel that way about SHO, but to get cool WW1 planes? Oh yeah!

I'm still waiting until I can get a new computer so I can play these in all their glory, but I felt like starting the experience now.

Next I suppose I'll need a joystick, and I guess I'll have to get IL-2 sooner or later. We'll see how it goes.

CFS3 is very good. Installing mods however....I tore my hair out this past summer trying to get the Pacific Theatre mods running. It involves a whole bunch of careful steps. I didn't look at OFF but the mods i did install were unfinished. The PTO Solomons mod only had a couple maps and the PTO Rising Sun Mod was NOT finished. Even for a Beta...it was rough. :dead: I ended up just adding a plane or two to the game and that was the end of my CFS3 for the summer.

I highly recommend IL-2 1946 though! The stock game is very fun! There aren't many sims you can say that about. Stock CFS3 is fun....but it gets boring after a while. If you get a mod working on CFS3, I'd love to hear about it. :sunny:

Also, if you ever get the chance, play Jetfighter V. It only has 3 jets, but it's pretty fun. :up:

OFF is more than a mod, it's a complete rewrite of the game. Basically right now I just want to play around in canvas byplanes. :D

I wish you good luck in this painful journey ahead of you. I will not mod CFS3 with the PTO mods ever again.

Until they're finished... :smug:

The pacific air war is cool.... :arrgh!:

Yeah I've still got my copy of OFF from when it came out, what I remember of it, it was really awesome. Now I feel like going to storage and digging around in boxes for five hours trying to find it!:doh:

If you and Steve get OFF up and running, tell me about it. I might want to go get back into CFS3 again. I have my stock install plus a few planes on my system now. I added the AvH B-17, a (crappy looking) B-29, and I think there was another one....I can't remember off the top of my mind.

I bought CFS3 about six months ago but after using every tweak I still couldn't get it installed properly on W7. :cry:

For those of you who like to barrel-roll in the sky above WWII-torn Europe, the Battle of Britain II has just gotten a new upgrade, version 2.12.

http://www.shockwaveproductions.com/...db28013ae83489

Don't ask me about it, I have it no longer installed. But when I had, it was easily the best - and numerically most overwhelming - WWII-air simulation I have ever played. And quite difficult to fly, maintaining situational awareness, spotting enemy planes and keeping an eye on them, and getting along with the physically very correct flightmodels is a very different ballgame here than it is in more game-like IL-2. I admit I sucked in dogfights in this - no fault of the game, but incompetence by me. The title also offered me the biggest air battles and the largest sky armadas since European Air War, plus campaign mode with live command room coverage with you sitting at the big map and giving orders for your squadrons and airfields.

---

Beside that note, it seems I have moved out completely of air combat titles. I have downloaded again the latest Falcon BMS version, wanting to check if now it works more stable for me than two or three years ago. But I still have not felt like wanting to get into it. - When I even ignore my once oh so beloved Falcon, than my life indeed has changed. All my flying today is centred exclusively on FSX.

As of now, I'm diggin' BoBII with all the sweet, sweet upgrades.

I've got Rise of Flight, but my poor, old machine just ain't to snuff graphics-wise for the game to be truly enjoyable to me. I play it only every now and then.

I also eagerly await the stand-alone version of OFF and may just wander over into "modern," aircraft one day.

Comanche 3 and 4 From Novalogic
 

Greetings!

I know this is an old and probably dead thread but I don’t care.

I am a private pilot who trained in simulators in college in the mid ‘80s. I was in the Army Mech Infantry (Bradley) in the Natl Guard for years so I’m really both a tanker AND a pilot at heart.

The Novalogic Comanche and Armored Fist games are my favorite sims. I resurrected some legacy PCs and have been playing a Gunship! Comanche 3 and Comanche 4 lately.

All are different. All are fun to me. I’m trying to beat all the missions. No online play appeals to me, it’s all me against the machine.

Comanche 4….wow guys, that’s a fun game! Ok. - more arcade than sim but it’s still fun. That’s what’s on my Windows 98 hard drive right now and it’s 2023!!

Pretty much over 10 years dead!

And that by itself gives pretty much the answer to the leading question of the topic.

These days convincing and good gameplay, realism in the combat simulations are pushed aside as something that only costs time and money in development and therefore is being replaced by ever-so-better graphics for ever-so glitzy and funky peripherals.

Totaly surface shine over any deeper substance.

:k_confused:

Despite my grumpy complaints here are my titles of the best flight combat simulators:
Falcon4 - Falcon BMS for outstanding depth and longevity.
EECH - Enemy Engaged Comanche vs Hokum for great helicopter sim.
TAW - Total Air War for very elegant design and very entertaining and engaging gameplay.

:Kaleun_Applaud:

Been puttering around with Jane's F-15, implemented hacks to run on Win10 in glide, looking good, now trying to learn the game. Hopefully it will become a favorite of mine.