Hey everybody,

Just recently i've discovered my love for flight sims - I bought Flight Simulator X and i'm even now participating in Microsoft Flight beta, I have bought IL-2 Cliffs of Dover and tried Janes Advanced Strike Fighters. The thing i've found with Flight Sim X and Microsoft Flight is, although a great experience - once you're in the air its horribly boring. IL-2 Cliffs of Dover seems to struggle on graphics even though I have a beast of a machine and Janes Advanced Strike Fighters doesn't even work properly with my joystick. Lately i've also been playing Battlefield 3 only for the jets so I can get my fix for dog fighting - even though of course it isn't realistic, its a hell of a lot of fun.

So my question to the PC Gaming Master Race is this - What is a really good Flight Sim that allows me to have dogfights, works with a joystick and has decent graphics? (and won't run horribly because it is unoptimized).

Thanks all.

Try DCS: A-10.

Crimson Skies is the absolutely one of my favorite flight experiences of all time, and I can't recommend the original highly enough. Can't speak as to how well it works on a modern computer however.

Thanks Spoonman671 - I'll check it out.

I used to play LOMAC a few years ago. The game might be a bit old now, but I've never played another sim I've enjoyed more.

Master Race...

Last flight Sim I played and loved was F22 Raptor but that was years ago, when i was in middle school.

@DarknessMyOldFriend said:

Crimson Skies is the absolutely one of my favorite flight experiences of all time, and I can't recommend the original highly enough. Can't speak as to how well it works on a modern computer however.

This is the correct answer right here. Would love to see them make the engine open source so we could have a situation similar to Freespace 2....

@Draugen - Look up Zero Punctuation to get what i'm talking about with PC Gaming Master Race :)

So does this mean that there aren't really any good current flight sims? I'm trying to find out were I can get DCS A-10 to give it a go, but i'm not liking my chances (Seems to be fairly rare)

IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946 is pretty fly.

@deathfury said:

IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946 is pretty fly.

I second this. I'm staying away from Cliffs of Dover until it gets patched a little bit more, but 1946 is very polished. It also includes the Pacific theater, so your dogfights aren't just limited to Europe.

@Ubersmake@deathfury : I tried Cliffs of Dover and it ran horribly - i'm guessing this isn't indicative of the entire series?

@Matty_R said:

@Ubersmake@deathfury : I tried Cliffs of Dover and it ran horribly - i'm guessing this isn't indicative of the entire series?

I think you can still find an ancient demo for IL-2 Sturmovik on the Internet, released way back when it came out. So you should try that if you're concerned. I originally played 1946 on an older Athlon XP machine with 2GBs of RAM and an Nvidia 6800, and it played well.

1946 is a compilation of all the IL-2 games pre-Cliffs of Dover, and after being continually patched and polished over the years, 1946 is a compelling package. I would have jumped on Cliffs of Dover at launch, since I've been looking for a good Battle of Britain-focused game since Rowan's Battle of Britain, but all the reviews I've read so far have been astounded at how poorly Cliffs of Dover performs compared to its predecessors.

I second DCS A10, and add DCS Blackshark and Falcon 4 with the BMS mod

I recommend DCS A10C as well. If you're really serious about it you should look into TrackIR.

I watched the review of DCS A10C and it looks pretty good - i'll try to get that. As for the TrackIR @Ketchupp to get it is about $300 with some tracking dots or something. Not sure if i'll bother investing in something like that - considering I could probably get an Xbox Kinect and it would do that same thing with tracking dots.

Two weeks ago I was accepted into the alpha for World of Warplanes. It is simply amazing especially considering its stage of development. I can't ascertain as to when it will be released, but when it is, it should be high on your list. The controls might need a bit of tweaking, at least they did for me playing it on my gamepad, anyways the dog fights are fast and fun and a skilled opponent can make for a pulse pounding battle.