Take On Helicopters
I had bought the DVD version initially, and “right out of the box”, slow FPS rates were the first thing to attend.
Being a virtual pilot for many years on the MSFS series, it was quite natural to give TOH a shot.
Right from the beginning , FPS rates had to be “treated” using the intuitive menu settings (video).
Knowing all too well the finicky nature of FSX, and it’s frequent CTD’s caused by sliders too much to the right, and to the many checked boxes, this was all too familiar for me.
The results of those major reductions in all of the settings, including clouds effects and desabling anisotropic filtering, were a big improvement. That was obviously predictable, at the cost of some eye candy, and limited visibility.
– Real player with 82.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Flight Open World Games.
I own this game quite a while, occasionally taking free flights in Seattle and i must admit - level of detail in envelopment is far beyond for any flight simulator game even today. There is probably thousand of different models for buildings, not only for landmark, but any major building have it’s own model and detailed texturing. Those also all collision enabled, meaning you can crash or land on. Even trees are crashable 3D models. You can even land and get out of your bird and start playing ARMAII in Seattle. Or in normal ARMAII maps - if you own it in Steam.
– Real player with 49.3 hrs in game
Wings of Prey
Wings of Prey is a lot more accessable than the IL-2 series and allows you to get into the game and action alot more quickly.
WoP features a ton of highly detailed aircraft that include cockpits, plus missions / gameplay spanning many combat theatres to match. There is plenty to do here in single-player, plus standard online multiplayer modes are included as well. I’ve gotten 100+ gameplay hours out of WoP so far.
However compared to its rivals, there are a few things lacking, notably no mission editor so you are limited beyond the missions offered and there have been some issues with multiplayer recently as support has been dropped in favour of its multiplayer-oriented sequal War Thunder .
– Real player with 118.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best Flight Singleplayer Games.
NOTE: This is coming from a joystick/throttle/trackir user who mainly flies in Sim mode, running Windows 10.
I’ve owned this game for a few years but never really spent much time playing it after my first big marathon. Why is that, you may ask? Well, back when I was using a mouse and keyboard setup, the game was playable but ultimately boring. But more about that in the pros vs. cons of this game.
Pros:
-The game is rather pretty for when it was released, the plane models are seemingly pretty detailed and the ground clutter is realistic for the period.
– Real player with 53.0 hrs in game
IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946
Written as of 25 August, 2016.
I grew up with this game, so I may be severely biased, just a warning. I remember getting the original IL-2 Sturmovik/Pacific Fighters pack way back in 2005 as a starry-eyed little kid. I was fascinated with aircraft from this era and it’s the main reason I know how much about them I do today. And then, suddenly, this new, vastly superior version appeared! I never begged my parents for something so badly in my life, but I NEEDED this as a child. And so I made the money to buy it. Best idea ever. It doesn’t show it, but the amount I have played this game in so many situations must easily be at least 4,000 hours before getting it on Steam alone. But enough of my life story, let’s get into the review of this.
– Real player with 590.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Flight Realistic Games.
IL-2 1946 Is a masterpiece in WW2 aircraft simulation and is a must have if you’re craving action in the pacific. To my knowledge, this is the only game that gets it right and makes you feel like you’re there fighting for small islands and atolls in the 1940’s. Whether you choose Japan or the United States, it does a great job at putting you in the pilot’s seat and give you the true feel of the war from the perspective of one squadron. If you choose the Japanese, you really feel the advantage of the Zero or the Val in the early war battles. The flight models of the aircraft in game make you work for it and learn how the real world planes fly, but once you put in the work you see the reward. But as the Japanese campaign goes on, everything gets harder. By the time you’re flying at Iwo Jima you’re in desperation to just survive you’re next mission. Alternatively, If you choose to fly for the US Navy, you start out from the battle of the Coral Sea and work your way to the mainland islands of Japan. For the US Navy you get to choose the Dauntless or the fighter campaign. The main fighters you get to fly as the war goes on are the Wildcat (and subsequent upgraded variants), Hellcat (f6f-3, f6f-5), and Corsair (with variants). In both campaigns you take off and land on WW2 carriers which by itself is boatloads of fun, but the missions are great as well.
– Real player with 388.2 hrs in game
BOMB: Who let the dogfight?
I’m a little late off the ground with BOMB - it released years ago. But one night I was sitting around wishing I had a good flight simulator for some easy flying about and found this game.
At first, there was some setup frustration. The mouse is pointless. The gamepad didn’t give me good enough controls - I couldn’t fine-tune my shots. Then I remembered my old flightstick pro in the closet - pulled it out, set up up and went to town.
The dogfights are swirling and fun. The missions are interesting and varied - sometimes it’s ground attack, sometime it’s air defence, sometimes it’s just straight dogfighting. And the dogfighting is fun - my only complaint is that I wish for an easier way to lock on someone, and possibly an artificial horizon while I’m looking at someone. But overall, its a blast!
– Real player with 25.9 hrs in game
This game has been created by a team of only 2 people and is amazing, for me, this game is really a big “YES” ! The graphics are pretty, the comments make me laugh, and the dogfights are fun and not that difficult, but you have to get a bit equipped to take fully advantage of the game, a joystick, even a cheap one, is quite compulsory, and a track ir is nice to have, to follow ennemy paths. this game is not acardy, meaning you don’t shoot 40 ennemy aircraft every minute, rather it is a good small dogfighting game where the physics is decent. If, like me, you are lost in DCS or another realistic combat simulator, because you cannot play every day and is too complex, this game is a good and simple alternative for fun, only costing a couple of euros. Beside the campaign of 17 missions, there is also a skirmish mode, and a few single missions. There is a multiplayer mode as well, but I haven’t tried, and you have to find players to fight with. The misson editor is a bit broken for the time being, but you can copy and edit files in Xml and Lua to create your own missions, with ennemy aircrafts, boats, vehicles, and buildings. Support is very responsive even 5 years after this game has been released, In summary, I really recommend this game for players liking dogfighting, wanting a game which is not acarde ( meaning knowing dogfighting tactics and plane energy really helps ) but much simpler and more forgiving than other realistic combat simulators.
– Real player with 18.9 hrs in game
X-Plane 10 Global - 64 Bit
Summary
A true sand-box flight-sim, X-Plane 10 offers a huge variety of options for virtual pilots. Be warned that X-Plane 11 now exists, so you may wish to check that first, if you want the latest version. But version 10 is still a solid offering.
Full review
X-Plane 10 is a first rate flight sim. It is not the latest in the series, as X-Pane 11 has now been released. However I’ve really enjoyed using X-Plane 10 and this sim deserves a positive review. X-Plane 10 may also still be preferred for older machines.
– Real player with 2155.6 hrs in game
I love it and am addicted to it.
Recommendation:
Under setting- rendering
Put number of roads to something higher.
(You get more roads where they exist in the real world)
Put number of objects to something higher.
(You will get generic boxes (buildings) at those roads)
Put detail distance to medium.
Unclick compress textures.
Put texture to high.
In the beginning I found the planes cockpits to be fuzzy.
Some really are fuzzy or they are meant to be used with 2d cockpits.
But mostly it was because by default the texture-settings where set low and where compressed
– Real player with 572.9 hrs in game
DCS World Steam Edition
I wish steam had a third recommendation option: “Kinda, but…”
This game, and it’s very much a game, is awesome. I’ve had over a thousand (and likely to grow) hours of fun, with some frustrations in-between. Thing is, at its core, DCS is a giant steaming piece of garbage. Nearly everything with the exception of the aircraft themselves is some flavour of “unfinished,” “half-baked,” and “broken.”
A note on the pricing: I’ve spend more money on DCS than on any other game. Though not as much as it might seem, if you do it smart you can get all important modules for 250 dollars. And it isn’t like you’ll be buying modules more than one at a time, you can get literally hundreds, even thousands of hours of gameplay from just one. I recommend you always buy on sales and choose your modules wisely. Do not buy flaming cliffs, or any of the flaming cliff aircraft, those are extremely outdated and “simplified” (though as you would quickly learn, the shortcut “shift+rctr+home” is much harder to remember than the location of the switch labelled “right engine start”, so “simplified” might not be the best word to use here).
– Real player with 1560.4 hrs in game
This game is fantastic, and I’m talking about the 100% free Su-25t simulator you get by downloading this program right here, DCS, for FREE.
The Su-25t isn’t just one plane to fly in a game like War Thunder, it’s a complete old-school single player simulator. You get ten or so training missions covering every important function of the aircraft.
You get another ten or so individual mission scenarios, + again that number of quick missions and on top of all this you get a full campaign.
Along with that full campaign you can also find additional campaigns online, really high quality player made campaigns.
– Real player with 1143.4 hrs in game
IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad
Where do I start?
I have always played the Il2 Sturmovik series - that is no exaggeration - I picked up my first installment at age 10, which means I have played for half my life.
To talk about the series as a whole would take up so much time that you’d probably die of old age by the time I finished, so I’ll keep it simple. It’s had it’s ups and downs.
This installment though? What a bloody masterpiece. If you’re here then I’m guessing you already have some Idea of what the IL2 series is, and that is a Combat flight simulator with a heavy emphasis on realism, through its flight and damage models. In all of these aspects Il2 Sturmovik Excels, aircraft are painstakingly researched and their flightmodels studied in order to bring them as close to life as possible.
– Real player with 382.9 hrs in game
Must fly in VR. My gunner bailed after our Stuka’s right tank was shot and began to leak over the Kuban. You didn’t trust me, bud? I landed safely at a friendly airfield. Hope the water showed him no mercy. 10/10 would recommend to every flight sim/WW2 enthusiast.
– Real player with 201.7 hrs in game
Lunar Flight
–— ADDITIONAL EDIT —–
It’s been 2½ years since my original review (see below) which still stands. However, I’ve now been able to play this game in VR (Vive) and felt compelled to update my thoughts.
This game is the best VR experience I’ve had to date! It’s easily a better VR experience that DCS which I also spend a lot of time with. Why the high praise? There are a few reasons:
GOOD FRAME RATES - Perhaps due to the fact that this is a relatively simple game, framerates remain high enough to give a good experience.
– Real player with 155.7 hrs in game
This little gem is the perfect homage to 50 years of human spaceflight, and classic Lunar Lander games (originating way back on 1969 text-only computers).
It takes the idea of the old 2D arcade games with realistic physics, and perfectly transcends them into 3D - plus VR support! The audio deserves special mention: the mesmerizing music, plus voice recordings from real NASA missions, create an intriguing ambience.
Considering the ‘Newtonian’ flight dynamics, this game is of “Easy to learn, difficult to master” flavor. There is a learning curve, but once you get the hang of it, it feels AMAZING to fly around. The satisfaction of completing Mars missions is just so rewarding!
– Real player with 101.4 hrs in game
Microsoft Flight Simulator Game of the Year Edition
Do not buy this game unless you have an insanely fast internet connection and immense patience
Out of the 180.6 hours I currently have on this game, around 176 of those hours have been spent installing MSFS. To make matters worse, you can’t install the game using Steam- you have to enter an in-game installer that downloads incredibly slowly, if it even downloads at all.
When I first bought this game at release, my installer was bugged and I couldn’t actually complete the download (I always got an error message at random times throughout the download) . I had contacted both Steam and Microsoft support to fix that issue but they both didn’t help at all. A couple months after I’d given up I decided to try and install it again after I saw there was an update and for the first time it actually completed the download. This took several days and effectively commandeered my computer as you can’t close the MSFS launcher without losing all your download progress, and you can’t play other games as the download is very resource intensive. Additionally, despite having internet that’s usually about 20-50mbps down, the download speed for MSFS is more often than not around 3mbps, if not lower.
– Real player with 180.6 hrs in game
I do not recommend this game for two reasons. First, and main reason, is that this game is completely server dependent. Without good quality broadband internet connection, you will not be able to even open the game after a few days. Second, Microsoft and Asobo force what seem like work-in-progress and poorly tested upates/content onto their customers. The sim looks amazing under ideal circumstances, but my overall experience to date has been that of a beta release product. It just comes across as corporate greed, trying to save money by not hiring enough testers, instead getting their customers to do all the testing and bug feedback for them. All the while charging for the game as if it was a finished product. I have wasted countless hours trying to fix whatever bugs they’ve introduced each update cycle, just to have new bugs introduced the next time around, and its beyond frustrating at this point. I do not support this system of development and deployment. All I want is for Microsoft/Asobo to make all updates and additional content optional, even if opting out of updates would disable all online functionality of the game.
– Real player with 166.1 hrs in game
Aerofly FS 2 Flight Simulator
Very Highly Recommended. As a retired real world pilot that spends most of the day with flight sims I have now found the best of the best. Sure, it is still growing and has a long ways to go but, for now, nothing else does what Aerofly FS 2 does for me.
I have two full hardware setups. My original triple monitor / Saitek hardware 6th gen rig that I have used for the last 12 months and a Volair Flight Sim cockpit with a brand new Alienware 8th gen Intel processor with a 1080 Ti card. This was purchased during the Christmas holidays along with a Oculus Rift VR.
– Real player with 8629.5 hrs in game
I have an embarrassing amount of time in flight simulators, dating all the way back to sublogic’s product in the early 80s. I am a real convert to Aerofly, and I bought my VR gear specifically to handle it - and it was absolutely worth the investment.
I’ve been using this sim now for months, and let me begin by saying what this is… and isn’t (at least yet).
For me, this sim has achieved what I’ve wanted all these years; the actual illusion of flight. I wanted the chance to feel the size and layout of the cockpit and to feel that pull in your guy when you dive through mountains, or make a daring landing. I love the fact that in the P-38 I have to look around the control column to see some of the gauges. I love the feel of the airplanes and how each has a unique character to flight. Of course, any of you using FSX,P4D, or Xplane have had these features for a long time. Aerofly and VR really recreates the feeling of flight. I’ve had a bunch of people try out my rig of course, and the reaction is always the same; incredible excitement, followed by the freedom that comes from flying anywhere you want. In short, it’s what I always wanted flight simming to be.
– Real player with 307.1 hrs in game