So I've recently begun a descent into what I feel might be the deepest gaming rabbit hole I can dive into; Simulation gaming.

I've always loved sims, from F-15 Strike Eagle II and the other Microprose sims on DOS, to Apache Longbow and Silent Hunter. I just love the historical context, and the notion of mastering complex hardware. But now, as an adult, I can actually buy the peripherals "required" by them, and at that point the journey doesn't appear to end.

I have a fascination for helicopters, so when DCS Black Shark was announced, I bought it as soon as possible. Except that god damn game is so hard core, and mostly in Russian, that I just decided it wasn't something I could feasibly get into. Real bummer. Then DCS A-10 was announced, and I was fucked.

See, Russian military hardware is one thing, but American military hardware is practically pop culture. When you're telling me you're shipping an A-10 sim, that is a sim of my favorite military aircraft, by the same guys commissioned to build sims for the USAF, in a market that contains A-10 specific controller hardware, then I'm just going to dive in head first.

So far, DCS A-10 is the most expensive game I have ever played. Between the game itself, the HOTAS warthog stick/throttle set, the new graphics card, the extra memory and the trackIR, I could've bought myself 3 extra PS3s. And these are in Norwegian prices (aka Fuck You prices).

The thing is, it's just progressively more awesome the more I invest in it. The feeling of mastering the HOTAS controls (basically there are shit tons of buttons on stick+throttle and they are context based) and actually being able to lean into the gun sights, or turn my head to scan the terrain for targets as I'm turning, or even subjectively dull things like learning how to effectively coordinate four different sensors into a cohesive targeting solution (picking a target through the HUD cursor, adjusting it on the TAD map display, then sharing it with the targeting pod, making fine adjustments before sharing it with the maverick missile before launch, it's just delicious).

So now I'm looking at buying a new monitor, because even at the highest resolution on my current one, I still have difficulty spotting some targets visually. God damnit.

Anyone else have stories of games successively driving them to more and more hardware purchases to enhance the experience?