Posted: 10/9/2009 12:18:14 PM EDT
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Alright guys, I haven't played a video game in years. I recently ended a bad relationship, and I need something to relax and have fun with. I've been throwing myself into my school work and exercise regimen, rattled off 1500 rounds of 9mm etc, but I want to get a flight sim game to occupy me in my down time. My roomate has an Xbox 360, but I want a flight sim type game and I haven't liked the ones he has bought for that.
With that said, what games should I look for? What can I expect to spend? I'd like to keep that below $100, but I want a game and a PC joystick. I'm using a laptop, but I have a full size monitor and keyboard that I can plug into it. What good games are out there that my 3 year old (it was "fast" when bought new) laptop will handle? Modern era games as well as WW2 games are equally desirable to me. A fun commercial game would be considered in addition. Also, online play with others would be a big plus. I want decent graphics (not something that looks like a slightly more modern DOOM) and fun gameplay. So, what's out there? What do you guys like? Any suggestions on a decently priced joystick? I live right next to a best buy, and there are a few other electronics stores in town. I'd like to pick something up tonight. |
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IL-2 Sturmovik 1946, FTW: http://www.ubi.com/US/Games/Info.aspx?pId=5163&tab=download (Only $10 for the download.) An XBOX 360 version just came out, which is also quite good. ETA: This is a good, inexpensive joystick. Works with PC and XBOX 360: http://www.provantage.com/saitek-ps41u~7SAIG03F.htm |
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IL-2 Sturmovik 1946, FTW: http://www.ubi.com/US/Games/Info.aspx?pId=5163&tab=download (Only $10 for the download.) An XBOX 360 version just came out, which is also quite good. ETA: This is a good, inexpensive joystick. Works with PC and XBOX 360: http://www.provantage.com/saitek-ps41u~7SAIG03F.htm Thanks! That game looks fun (and won't break the bank). I'll go see what I can find locally for a joystick. With luck they will have one of those. |
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For a good, realistic, flight sim, with a huge online community, check out X-Plane.
No combat, but astonishing physics and rendering. Go here: http://www.x-plane.com/ |
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I found a copy of MS Combat Flight Sim Pacific for $2 at Goodwill. A buddy at work gave me a nice joystick that they were throwing away. Fun times. I've got a copy of Falcon4.0 sitting on a shelf somewhere. That was a good one. Google Earth has a flight sim easter egg. |
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Quoted: I found a copy of MS Combat Flight Sim Pacific for $2 at Goodwill. A buddy at work gave me a nice joystick that they were throwing away. Fun times. I've got a copy of Falcon4.0 sitting on a shelf somewhere. That was a good one. Google Earth has a flight sim easter egg. Yep, that's another one that should run well on the OP's computer. Stay away from MS Combat Flight Simulator 3, however.  |
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For a good, realistic, flight sim, with a huge online community, check out X-Plane. No combat, but astonishing physics and rendering. Go here: http://www.x-plane.com/ This here is the gold standard for pure flight sims. No "gaming" about it. |
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Quoted: Microsoft Flight Simulator X. Get a decent Logitech Joystick and you're all set. Having been on the FSX beta team, I can safely say screw FSX...Flight Simulator 2004 can be made to be very close to FSX, with half the hardware requirements...it also has a much larger collection of aftermarket mods and additions...  |
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If you really want a challenge, if you want a highly realistic combat flight sim that your computer will run i will suggest that you buy Falcon 4.0 Allied Force. It replicates everything on the F-16.
If you want the best WW2 flight sim buy IL-2 Sturmovik 1946. Lock-On Modern Air Combat, is great flight sim if you dont want alot of realism like Falcon 4.0. it also has better graphics and its easyier to play. Unless your laptop is a high-end or gaming laptop it might have a hard time playing Microsoft Flight Simulator X. Its very CPU and Graphics heavy. Otherwise i would say get it because it is realistic and you can get 3rd party addons like aircraft and scenery to enhance the game or make it more realistic. When gettign a joystick, get one that allows you to use 3d twist so you can use the rudder. I play fligt sims alot and i have and play all those games i listed on a regular basis. |
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depends upon what you want. "survey sims" have many different aircraft, which can be fun, but you pay the price WRT fidelity, systems modelling, and flight model accuracy.
back when i was simming a lot, my tastes ran to the "hardcore" sims, featuring an in-depth model of a single airplane. for your 3 year old laptop, your best bet would be the holy three: jane's F-15E strike eagle jane's F/A-18 super hornet (my personal favorite) falcon 4 these all feature very high-fidelity flight models and avionics models, and any of them will be a great buy. i had 1500+ hours on jf-18, so we're talking about fractions of a penny per hour for entertainment. the f-18 online community includes several former naval aviators with significant hornet time (jim campisi, among others), and all of them have commented that the sim is extremely good. the carrier operations are impressive––campisi once commented that night traps in the sim are immersive enough that he sweats and his pulse picks up on every approach. it's easy to get caught up in the joystick aisle. trust me––you don't need anything fancy. a $40 saitek cyborg with throttle and twist rudder will serve you very well. if you want to spend $100, the saitek offers a seperate stick/throttle combination, but having played with one for a long time, it really isn't worth the money IMO. next step up is CH and thrustmaster, but it's a more serious investment. i will emphasize a rudder as something you'll really want. you can play without it, but any sim is much better with the rudder. either of the other two sims are good, and falcon4 is arguably the best after you get the open source addons. JF15 is set in the gulf, F4 is set in korea, and JF18 is set in the waters around the kamchatka peninsula. over the last year or so, i've been getting into FSX and civilian simming, since i'm a lot more likely to get stick time in a real cessna rather than a fast jet, and i'd enjoy having some idea of what is going on. so now i'm trying to navigate off of VORs and execute good procedure turns and such, rather than trying to convert from lag to lead pursuit. it's oddly addictive. anyway, spend $20 on one of the listed sims, $40 on a stick with throttle and rudder control, and rest assured that all of your free time for the next year or so is gonna be devoted to it. 
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Unless your laptop is a high-end or gaming laptop it might have a hard time playing Microsoft Flight Simulator X. Its very CPU and Graphics heavy. Otherwise i would say get it because it is realistic and you can get 3rd party addons like aircraft and scenery to enhance the game or make it more realistic. . agreed. my laptop has a dual core 2.1 with 4gig RAM, and FSX bogs down in busy airspace, even with the GFX at almost minimum. |
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Unless your laptop is a high-end or gaming laptop it might have a hard time playing Microsoft Flight Simulator X. Its very CPU and Graphics heavy. Otherwise i would say get it because it is realistic and you can get 3rd party addons like aircraft and scenery to enhance the game or make it more realistic. . agreed. my laptop has a dual core 2.1 with 4gig RAM, and FSX bogs down in busy airspace, even with the GFX at almost minimum. Very true. To give the OP the idea of what he would need to get it to look like the pics I posted above. I'm running an overclocked i-7 920 with 6gigs of ddr3 1600 and a GTX 285 superclocked. |
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IL-2 Sturmovik 1946, FTW: http://www.ubi.com/US/Games/Info.aspx?pId=5163&tab=download (Only $10 for the download.) [/thread] |
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In light of your recent breakup, If you get one of the sims my company develops for FS2004, FSX, or CFS3 send me over a pm and I will hook you up with a free copy of something. http://www.skyunlimited.net/ |
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The terain on FSX is very close to that on Google Earth, on FS2004 it isn't even close.
There is supposed to be a Microsoft service pack that speeds FSX up a lot. Combat Flight Sim 2 is excellent, CFS 3 is a lot different but I like it a lot. Microsoft's Force Feedback joystick uses optical sensors, they don't wear out. It's a good stick. Edit to add, Google Earth has a built in flight simulator, Google it for details. I can't get it to run since I've reformatted but used to use it and liked it a lot. BTW, you can use FS2004 and CFS 2 planes in FSX. |
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Thanks guys, I picked up a Saitek joystick (not the one that was posted, but this one seems nice and is a 6 axis). IL-2 Sturmovik 1946 is downloading right now.
Feel like a kid again, I can't wait! PS: It's kinda sad to only be 21 and saying "I feel like a kid again". |
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Falcon 4 with the OpenFalcon mod is amazing....though there is a bigger mod on the horizon I hear rumors of that should bring it up to speed with the best flight sims out here. Im surprised nobody brought up DCS: BlackShark. They are releasing their A-10C sim here very soon. You can be like me and build a full cockpit, with every switch and light/indicator functional! http://www.ar15.com/forums/topic.html?b=1&f=147&t=858274 |
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Unless your laptop is a high-end or gaming laptop it might have a hard time playing Microsoft Flight Simulator X. Its very CPU and Graphics heavy. Otherwise i would say get it because it is realistic and you can get 3rd party addons like aircraft and scenery to enhance the game or make it more realistic. . agreed. my laptop has a dual core 2.1 with 4gig RAM, and FSX bogs down in busy airspace, even with the GFX at almost minimum. Very true. To give the OP the idea of what he would need to get it to look like the pics I posted above. I'm running an overclocked i-7 920 with 6gigs of ddr3 1600 and a GTX 285 superclocked. Wow dude, you should be able to run FSX on high graphic settings with your specs. Try and turn down your your aviation traffic or scenery settings. Im able to play it on a laptop with a dual core CPU @ 1.55 ghz , 2gig of ram, and a ATI X1800(highest end laptop ATI gfx card 3 years ago) on very high settings. But i had to basically turn off the traffic settings and turn down the scenery settings to very low in order to have high graphic setting. If i had a quad core i bet i could run it all on high. Here is a couple un edited screen shots takin with those settings. 
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Try "Janes' WW2 Fighters" if you can find it. It's over 10 years old but the graphics, flight controls and game physics still hold up well. Takes place during the Battle of the Bulge, you can fly U.S., British and German planes, all fighters. Pretty much any modern compy can play it, it's great fun and will get your blood pumping. WW2 Fighters was the WW2 flight sim of its day.
And like others have said, IL-2 is a great game. |
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IL-2 Sturmovik 1946, FTW: http://www.ubi.com/US/Games/Info.aspx?pId=5163&tab=download (Only $10 for the download.) [/thread] Yep....end of thread, IL-2 is the shit, I've had IL-2 1946 for 3 or 4 years now and haven't really scratched the surface yet.....learning curve could be a little steep but most of it is user adjustable, pick something like the P-40 or early 109s' to practice with. you'll get addicted. |
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Unless your laptop is a high-end or gaming laptop it might have a hard time playing Microsoft Flight Simulator X. Its very CPU and Graphics heavy. Otherwise i would say get it because it is realistic and you can get 3rd party addons like aircraft and scenery to enhance the game or make it more realistic. . agreed. my laptop has a dual core 2.1 with 4gig RAM, and FSX bogs down in busy airspace, even with the GFX at almost minimum. Very true. To give the OP the idea of what he would need to get it to look like the pics I posted above. I'm running an overclocked i-7 920 with 6gigs of ddr3 1600 and a GTX 285 superclocked. Wow dude, you should be able to run FSX on high graphic settings with your specs. Try and turn down your your aviation traffic or scenery settings. Im able to play it on a laptop with a dual core CPU @ 1.55 ghz , 2gig of ram, and a ATI X1800(highest end laptop ATI gfx card 3 years ago) on very high settings. But i had to basically turn off the traffic settings and turn down the scenery settings to very low in order to have high graphic setting. If i had a quad core i bet i could run it all on high. Here is a couple un edited screen shots takin with those settings. <a href="http://img22.imageshack.us/i/2009630153036243.jpg/" target="_blank">http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/3630/2009630153036243.th.jpg</a> <a href="http://img195.imageshack.us/i/20098319437502.jpg/" target="_blank">http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/7143/20098319437502.th.jpg</a> I run it with everything maxed at 1920x1200 Yea it can handle it. 
ETA. With more scenery. 
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I play this one. It's pretty fun. I have a Saitek ST290 and it works just fine for it. |
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ach! can't believe i didn't think of that. it's built, run, and owned by one of my old bar regulars. i just never got into it because i'm not a WW2 sim guy. 
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Quoted: Try "Janes' WW2 Fighters" if you can find it. It's over 10 years old but the graphics, flight controls and game physics still hold up well. Takes place during the Battle of the Bulge, you can fly U.S., British and German planes, all fighters. Pretty much any modern compy can play it, it's great fun and will get your blood pumping. WW2 Fighters was the WW2 flight sim of its day. http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy272/mabeekilroy/WW2fightes002.jpg http://i799.photobucket.com/albums/yy272/mabeekilroy/WW2fightes001.jpg And like others have said, IL-2 is a great game. +1. I still play this one as well. My only complaint is that it's a little too easy to shear the wings off of enemy planes. Another "oldie but goody" is European Air War:  However, it takes a significant amount of patching to get it to work on a modern XP system. (I don't believe it works on Vista at all.) |
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... However, it takes a significant amount of patching to get it to work on a modern XP system. (I don't believe it works on Vista at all.) That was my problem with this sim, I couldn't get it to work on any of our compies, even the ones that were several years old and running Windows Me. Really wanted to try it too. 
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Unless your laptop is a high-end or gaming laptop it might have a hard time playing Microsoft Flight Simulator X. Its very CPU and Graphics heavy. Otherwise i would say get it because it is realistic and you can get 3rd party addons like aircraft and scenery to enhance the game or make it more realistic. . agreed. my laptop has a dual core 2.1 with 4gig RAM, and FSX bogs down in busy airspace, even with the GFX at almost minimum. Very true. To give the OP the idea of what he would need to get it to look like the pics I posted above. I'm running an overclocked i-7 920 with 6gigs of ddr3 1600 and a GTX 285 superclocked. Wow dude, you should be able to run FSX on high graphic settings with your specs. Try and turn down your your aviation traffic or scenery settings. Im able to play it on a laptop with a dual core CPU @ 1.55 ghz , 2gig of ram, and a ATI X1800(highest end laptop ATI gfx card 3 years ago) on very high settings. But i had to basically turn off the traffic settings and turn down the scenery settings to very low in order to have high graphic setting. If i had a quad core i bet i could run it all on high. Here is a couple un edited screen shots takin with those settings. <a href="http://img22.imageshack.us/i/2009630153036243.jpg/" target="_blank">http://img22.imageshack.us/img22/3630/2009630153036243.th.jpg</a> <a href="http://img195.imageshack.us/i/20098319437502.jpg/" target="_blank">http://img195.imageshack.us/img195/7143/20098319437502.th.jpg</a> I run it with everything maxed at 1920x1200 Yea it can handle it. http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa205/adalond/fps.jpg ETA. With more scenery. http://i199.photobucket.com/albums/aa205/adalond/fpd.jpg nice... i wish i had framerates like that, i need a new computer |