[Beery]

Originally Posted by DS

But not in the numbers, or the complexity, that they used to be. Look at the combat jet scene. The last jet sims (my other hobby) that I can think of with complex avionics was Falcon 4.0 and Jane's FA-18, and they are about 10 years old now. The very few jet sims have come out in the last 10 years have had arcade avionics (though LOMAC did have excellent flight models). As a result, I still fly 4.0 (Free Falcon build) and occasionally Jane's F-15 and FA-18. The graphics are dated, buit there is still nothing comparable on the market in the last 10 years.

When it comes to sub sims, all there is Sonalysts (who do this as a side diversion from real life work), and the SH franchise, which we are kicking in the teeth.

So no, combat sims aren't dead, but they are (IMO) a faint shadow of what they used to be in terms of numbers and detail.

Okay, but that's hardly because the market for them really changed. What happened was that the industry changed - FPS games became the types of games that were best able to push the edge of the envelope in terms of graphics. It had nothing to do with the sim genre dying - it was just that manufacturers found engines that did FPS well and players wanted the most appealing graphics. Flight sims weren't where it was at anymore. Once flight sims get graphics that are as advanced as the FPS games, and once the current batch of mediocre flight sim developers are gone, the genre will be picked up by companies that can do what Dynamix and the Falcon crew did and the genre will rise again.