NEED! IT! NOW!
now i know what my next purchase is gonna be...
that + x52...
NEED! IT! NOW!
now i know what my next purchase is gonna be...
that + x52...
Play games, not platforms
If you don't want to spend R1,200+ on a joystick the Force Feedback SPEEDLINK Black Widow Flightstick is a very cool little joystick with a seperate throttle lever which goes for about R750.00 here
It's not very well known outside Europe but I've only heard good things about it.
Yay! I'm sorry I only saw this thread now!
I just recently bought X-Plane 9 and some add-ons for it. I bought Real-environments Extreme for it as well as a forest texture enhancement pack. What I like about X-Plane is that it seems to look better than FSX and also doesn't need a monster machine to run either. The downside is that the planes are not as detailed as FSX's, but a lot of critics have said that X-Plane 9 has more realistic flight modeling than FSX making for a more accurate "sim".
Here's a link to REX for X-Plane 9 to give you an idea: http://www.realenvironmentxtreme.com/xplane.html
I'd also like to add that Lock-On Modern Air Combat is a complete waste of time. It was a promising title but it is FULL of bugs and the patches are VERY large in size, and surprisingly ended up making the game even worse. I had the title on release day and then promptly got rid of it a few months later when there was no improvement.
People should also refrain from mentioning any "action" title such as HAWX in a flight-simulator thread. It's nowhere NEAR a simulator and it's like calling Need for Speed a realistic driving game.
I find that flight simulator communities are also much more serious and go as far to say that flight simulators are not classified as "games" but rather a hobby and / or a tool for real world flying. X-Plane 9 for example comes in a professional version which can be used to train real-world pilots.
Last edited by Neo; 10-06-2010 at 08:48 AM.
My ignore list: growing too fast to keep updating.
Tomayto
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The singularity is about to explode! Weapons are at maximum.
If you can try to pick up a budget copy of LOMAC or LOMAC : Flaming Cliffs and patch it up. It's not a bad sim these days.Originally Posted by Neo
I tend to be pretty relaxed about my simming these days since I'm only getting back into it now and do approach flight sims as games. To most people it isn't serious business but a cool way to experience something awesome that we would otherwise not be able to experience.
I find the arrogant attitude of a lot of simmers towards people who aren't that serious about the hobby to be counter-productive. We should rather focus on encouraging people who enjoy action flying games like HAWX to try something like LOMAC which can be played on easy realism and enjoyed by them as well. The more people who get into simming the better for the genre. The bigger the market the more people will enter it.
I was rather disappointed with FSX. The planes looked very nice, but the ground textures were really not up to scratch and the building and trees looked so bad it would have been better if they had simply left that out. I find with all the flight sims these days that you need to spend hundreds of extra Rands on add-ons, just to make the game look like it should have looked from the box. It's becoming a bit of a money making racket.
Still, I think there is a definite line between a flight simulator and game featuring aircraft. Sims tend not to pay ANY attention to what a gamer wants. Instead if focuses on realism and all the pedantic details that being a real pilot is all about. If you're a gamer expecting a "game" - you'll think it's the worst "game" in the World.
FSX did one step further to approach gamers by creating "missions" and some objectives. Other than that, it's about taking off safely, flying to where your garmin is pointed at, and landing safely. There are no missles or guns.
Perhaps the issue with the genre is the fact that it's being approached by people as a game. People should know from the get-go it's NOT a game. It's a simulator. Honestly, people who do not understand the difference between a game and a simulator shouldn't play the title anyways.
The terms "game" and "simulator" are being used far too loosely these days.
My ignore list: growing too fast to keep updating.
I have to admit that I am not a fan of civilian flight sims but blowing stuff up is where the fun game aspect comes in. Most of us simmers cut our teeth on the older military sims (Dynamix Aces Over, the Microprose sims or EA's LHX.) which were great fun and managed to be fun to play while giving the best approximation of flying an aircraft possible. It's part of the problem I have with IL2. It's a good sim but it lacks personality. The rivet counters are destroying the simming genre. Flight sims need to keep a sense of fun to become popular again. Wings of Prey and games like that get bad press for not being simmy enough but they are vital to breathe life back into the genre.
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