MS Flight Simulator X

[Viin]

Hola,

I just got Flight Simulator X for Christmas and was wondering if anyone else had picked this up?
I'd be interested in trying the multiplayer functions - particularly the ATC stuff.

Anyone else out there playing this?

[Yegolev]

I think I played that in 1990.

[Viin]

Well if you haven't played it recently, you should check it out.

With the "X" release they have added a lot more 'gamey' things, such as the Red Bull Air Races (which, if you haven't seen, are pretty cool). They have a control schema for the Xbox 360 controller (for Windows), which I was gonna try but I don't really feel like buying a wireless dongle if it doesn't work with USB.

If you think your computer is up to snuff, you can download the demo here.

[Yegolev]

Before I bother, does it work with a MS Sidewinder?  Last game I used that with must have been Mechwarrior 2.

[Viin]

Before I bother, does it work with a MS Sidewinder?  Last game I used that with must have been Mechwarrior 2.

Yep, that's what I use. It works with either the force feedback one or the regular one.

[Yegolev]

I will have to try it just to use the Sidewinder again.  It's the force-feedback one, too.

[bhodi]

You bounce off stuff instead of crashing, though, right? Wouldn't want to give future terrorists any ideas...

[Big Gulp]

I know some people get off on actually playing a responsible, mundane pilot.  I'm not one of them.  I fully understand that real flying is difficult, but it still does nothing for me.  If there aren't guns mounted to my aircraft I'm just not that interested.

[Viin]

I know some people get off on actually playing a responsible, mundane pilot.  I'm not one of them.  I fully understand that real flying is difficult, but it still does nothing for me.  If there aren't guns mounted to my aircraft I'm just not that interested.

I agree! Real flying is a blast, but in a sim it's pretty boring. That's why they added some other things to do than just 'fly around'. The races I was talking about are pretty cool (it's actually a course you have to complete, and try to get the lowest time) and some other more aviation-like things (such as hitting all the scenic spots along a route so your passengers can take pictures and get it done within a time limit).

Certainly not for everyone, but it's fun to play around in the demo at least.

[Engels]

Its funny. For most of the time, I'm like Big Gulp. I want nothing to do with an flight simulator. Then, out of the apparent blue, I will get a flight sim bug, and I will play various flight sims for weeks and weeks on end.

I'm wondering about the sys reqs for X. Previous versions came out with very heavy sys reqs for the time, and made it pretty unenjoyable to play unless you had cutting edge hardware. How does this one stack up?

[Viin]

I'm wondering about the sys reqs for X. Previous versions came out with very heavy sys reqs for the time, and made it pretty unenjoyable to play unless you had cutting edge hardware. How does this one stack up?

Same thing. I think Microsoft uses it to test GPU vendor hardware in their research department.

But, even on lower settings the game is enjoyable - you just don't get to see the swirling vortex of snow at the peak of a mountain before a downdraft throws you into the trees.

I was trying to do ATC stuff last night on a 20 person server, but it didn't work out because they had set the voice comm to 'global' instead of frequency based - so we would have been sharing the same freq for traffic at San Diego as LAX.

[raydeen]

I enjoy watching others do the flight sim thing. When I try to play them, I run out of interest in about 5 minutes. The only thing I love to do is fly all dare-devil like through dense urban areas and see how spectacular of a crash I can pull off. Red Baron and Aces over Europe are about the only two flight sims I like. Simple and shooty. My brother in law though is a FS nut. I'm surprised he hasn't picked up the new one yet.

[Jain Zar]

I want Microprose back.  Gimme modern day versions of Project Stealth Fighter and Gunship, especially with the lovely keyboard overlay.
Detailed enough to feel realistic, simple enough to be fun.
Plus you kill things.

I keep thinking Flight Simulator might be fun to try, but then I keep remembering I can't blow up stuff.

[Nebu]

I love flight sims and am nearly fanatical about them.  Funny thing is, that I'm only interested in prop planes.  Anything after WWI or WWII interests me not.  I enjoy the thrill of knowing that I may stall out during a maneuver and that I can't shoot down a target from a mile. 

[Big Gulp]

I want Microprose back.  Gimme modern day versions of Project Stealth Fighter and Gunship, especially with the lovely keyboard overlay.
Detailed enough to feel realistic, simple enough to be fun.
Plus you kill things.

Absolutely.  F-117 Stealth Fighter is only second to Red Baron for my favorite flight sim ever.  Threading the needle between doppler and pulse radars just to deliver your payload and get the fuck out of dodge was unbelievably great.  It was like the perfect combination of flight sim and sub sim, and it's never been duplicated.

[stray]

I'd like to see more arcade-y flight sims. Which, I admit, aren't flight sims at all ;). Anything in the vein of Ace Combat or space shooters like Wing Commander, etc.. There was this old Origen title called Strike Commander that I liked too.

The last real combat flight sim I bought was Lock On, and I learned my lesson not to buy one again. You pretty much have to be a real pilot to be good at them.

[Furiously]

I want Microprose back.  Gimme modern day versions of Project Stealth Fighter and Gunship, especially with the lovely keyboard overlay.
Detailed enough to feel realistic, simple enough to be fun.
Plus you kill things.

I keep thinking Flight Simulator might be fun to try, but then I keep remembering I can't blow up stuff.

Gunship was one of my all time favorites. That being said F-117 revolutionized the whole genre. I played a ton of both.

[Engels]

I know the title is goofy as heck, but did anyone play Eurofighter 2000? I loved that game for being both realistic and having a playable combat game without too many head aches. There was some learning curve, since there was an expectation that you do read some of the manual to be able to use smart bombs, etc, but for the time, I thought it was awsome. One of the features that made it rock was the camera manipulation, where you could, with a few hotkeys, both record your final approach to a ground target and switch cameras to see both your 'intuitive approach' and your in-cockpit and electronics. If you screwed up, you could quickly just hit playback for just that one small 30 second sequence to see what you did wrong. I became very very good at nailing specific targets with heavy payload bombs. Plus, the explosions were just wtfpwn. Nothing like screaming out of your own mini mushroom cloud with the camera angled back to see your destructive power.

It focused more on the mechanics and game play than in giving you 40 different scenarios to fly in; it stuck to the scandinavian coast, finland and the north sea. It had awsome slate grey skies and murky landscapes. It made you feel alone and 'on a mission' like few flight sims ever have.

[Stephen Zepp]

Air Ace

Indy team (2 people plus some artists) working on a WW2-ish flying game (as opposed to a flight sim, they want to expressly stay away from that).

They welcome community input, but please keep in mind this is a side project of two very capable but extremely busy engineers (one who teaches game development in the UK), so don't expect hard deadlines or delivery dates.

[Viin]

I just learned that there is a WWI online dog fighting game using the name from the movie FlyBoys:

http://www.flyboysgame.com/

Not sure it's any good, but it could be fun for some online dog fighting.

[Nebu]

I just learned that there is a WWI online dog fighting game using the name from the movie FlyBoys:

http://www.flyboysgame.com/

Not sure it's any good, but it could be fun for some online dog fighting.

The graphics aren't great, but if the physics are good it could be very fun.  Thanks for the link!