Recommendations on some Combat Flight Sims Please.

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kaybayray
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Joined: 25 Feb 2008, 19:18

Recommendations on some Combat Flight Sims Please.

Post by kaybayray »

Greetings All 8)

I have been playing BOB II WOV for a couple years and recently did the 2.11 patch. Great flight sim and strategy game IMHO. I am looking for some other sims to fly as well. My interest lies more into the Strategic Air War over Europe air combat sims over BOB air combat sims. I see that you work with FSX, and some of the earlier versions FS 2003 and FS 2004 I believe. I am not familiar with them with respect to air combat.

I am not really looking for online play unless with people that enjoy historical air combat online rather than the free-4-all that can be had on the mass multi-player flight sims. I also really enjoy stand alone sims, such as BOB II WOV. I know that most of the A2A community are very well informed about the various flight sims, their respective areas of focus as well as their strengths and weaknesses. So I was hoping that many of you might give me some brief recommendations as to which sims I might pick up and play.

I prefer Campaign games over just a can of missions and I also like the ability to create missions. I am not really looking to Mod games as that is really over my head. I just like to play them. I prefer the Allied Strategic Bombing campaign perspective in Europe over others. I have a special interest in flying the Bombers. I currently still run B-17 The Mighty Eighth, B-17 Flying Fortress, SWOTL, Air Warrior, II & III as well as BOB II WOV. I have heard much over the years of IL-2 but get lost in all the addons, expansion or what ever they are. I am told that the compilation version 1946 will not run on Windows 7. So I dont have that.

I was hoping to hear your recommendations. I have another very low end machine that I run Win 98 on and I am rebuilding another mid capability machine that I will run Win XP on. So between all my machines I should be able to run most. So please, if any of you more experienced players would be so kind as to clue me in I would appreciate it very much.

Later,

KayBay
It's all mind over matter..... If you dont mind... It dont matter

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JJB17463rdBombGroup
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Joined: 24 May 2004, 22:28

Re: Recommendations on some Combat Flight Sims Please.

Post by JJB17463rdBombGroup »

There are very few offline combat flight sims that allow one to Pilot or man other positions in bombers in the European Theater in WW2.There are some older titles that you may have overlooked.
For instance Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 3 (if you can still find it perhaps used though) with this add on here known as Firepower.The add on though older is still quite fun.
http://www.a2asimulations.com/store/ind ... ucts_id=19

also see here on the forum

http://a2asimulations.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=2

It was A2ASimulations (They were known as Shockwave Productions back then) first product back in 2004 and it was a great success for them (it attracted a lot of people even from the bombs-away.net -B-17 Flying Fortress The Mighty 8th game website).If you don't have this I fully recommend it.

Although not at all a simulation here is an interesting WW2 Strategic Air War strategy game.
Kin of like what mission planners did during the war planning raids like as seen in the Memphis Belle War Documentary.
Gary Grigsby's Eagle Day to Bombing the Reich.This might interest you.
http://www.matrixgames.com/store/320/Ga ... .the.Reich

BTW A2ASimulations has stated that one day (probably still far into the future) they will work on a heavy bomber combat flight simulator like B-17 Flying Fortress The Mighty 8th.Scott desires the B-17 while Lewis desires a RAF Bomber Command Lancaster one.Who knows perhaps both.Still due to exorbitant development costs it will have to be many years in the future for something like this to come out.On the bright side though with their accu sim development whatever they come out with might easily eclipse B-17 Flying Fortress The Mighty 8th in terms of accuracy and complexity.Accu sim is one of their stepping stones which could enable them to someday reach that goal.

Of course you could opt for trying il-2-CLOD as it has some German bombers set in BoB but it's still being working on (improvements).Of course you should have a very beefy PC for that.Eventually though that series might eventually have Strategic Bombers in it as a sequel perhaps someday.Who knows maybe not depends on the developers.Hard to say what will eventually transpire 5 or 10 years from now.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Much Older Titles

There was another one where you could man the bombers known as Janes Attack Squadron.
It didn't fare so well.I have it,it's somewhat interesting though not a great success.
Too bad it wasn't improved more.It could have been a good title.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane%27s_Attack_Squadron

Likewise there were some even other older titles.I remember a game called Fighter Squadron Screamin Demons over Europe where one could build there own missions and it had a few crew manable bombers in it.Quite fun at the time although crude.The cockpits were crude and butt ugly.Simple controls.
Damage effects though were quite ahead of the time.FLAK looked good.Spectacular bomb damage effects for the time.
It came out in 1999 I think.Seems to run great on certain PC's.Once you have too fast or too slow of a PC you won't enjoy it.Worked best with 3DFX cards of that era.My guess is that a Pentium II system at 400 or 450 Mhz will run it just right with a Voodoo 3,4 or 5 graphics card.Maybe a slower Pentium III will run it right.Even a Pentium III at 650 Mhz seems too fast.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fighter_Sq ... ver_Europe
There are some fan sites that have quite a lot of add ons and mods to it even modifiying it into a WW1 sim and other theaters.

Although not a heavy bomber sim but in the European Theater who could forget one of the most fun,immersive combat flight sims of it's time known as European Air War.Anyone whom never had it or played it sure missed out a LOT.
This was during the 1999 era.Lots of escort missions in this with a whole group of bombers too.
It still has a section over at Sim Hq
http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/f ... r_War.html
Here is just the google search result.
http://www.google.com/search?gcx=w&sour ... 24&bih=677

There were some other good WW2 flight sims of that era as well back in 1999.
Again not a bomber (can man positions) sim
Janes WW2 Fighters -Great,excellent detailed cockpits
Luftwaffe Commander- Didn't get great reviews however I enjoyed it.Worked good on my PC.
Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator (The first one) Bland but good.Had a lot of 3rd party add ons.
Yes,there are others too especially some newer arcade type combat flight sims.
Son of a U.S.A.A.F. 15th Air Force 463rd bomb group 772nd squadron B17 pilot.
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MTFDarkEagle
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Re: Recommendations on some Combat Flight Sims Please.

Post by MTFDarkEagle »

kaybayray wrote:I have heard much over the years of IL-2 but get lost in all the addons, expansion or what ever they are. I am told that the compilation version 1946 will not run on Windows 7. So I dont have that.
It will run on windows 7 64 bit, as I run it myself :)
It's great!! Go pick it up! Also, other good combat sims are:
WW I: Rise of Flight (Website: http://riseofflight.com/en)
Modern Helo: Digital Combat Simulator: Ka-50 Black Shark
Modern CAS: Digital Combat Simulator: A-10C Warthog
Both here: http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/

Cheers,
Lukas
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JJB17463rdBombGroup
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Joined: 24 May 2004, 22:28

Re: Recommendations on some Combat Flight Sims Please.

Post by JJB17463rdBombGroup »

Best place to get iL-2 1946 is at Good Old Games.
Their EULA allows you to install it on as many PC's that you would own or new ones in the future.
It's a digital download so no need for DVD's except if you want to burn it on one for a physical copy or put it on a flashdrive for easy transfer.
Don't share with anyone else though.

The OP is opting for the air war in Europe during WW2 though preferably offline,desiring bombers that can be crewed by him.I take it that he prefers strategic bombers over tactical medium bombers but I think either would satisfy him.

Those other modern combat flight simulators are great though-highly detailed.But not of his desired era,theater,type.
Still many of us here do enjoy modern combat flight simulators as well.
Rise of Flight might interest him too as it has some WW1 bombers in it although not of the WW2 era one could consider WW2 as a continuation of WW1.

Edit sorry I didn't respond sooner apparently newegg is still selling Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator 3 if you can get it here in the US (Newegg also has a Canadian website too).
So you could get the firepower add on.
Here is MSCFS 3 at newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6832747049
Son of a U.S.A.A.F. 15th Air Force 463rd bomb group 772nd squadron B17 pilot.
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