The best sim in town...

[JediMaster 451]

The AI in Il-2 irritates me to no end. It's like flying on a public server with a bunch of cheaters!

[Dagger 21]

I Liked Lock on until i played it and once you add the only add-on you get star forked on your system, plus it's a really good looking sim, but lacks the depth of Falcon 4 or Janes F-18. The Thirdwire family of sims are really good in that you can add-n and it doesn't have a steep learning curve. I pushing 200 hours in Falcon 4: Allied Force and while the learning curve is steep, and I unless I have a bunch of time I avoid ramp starts, Falcon 4 would get my vote if you want a sim that will push your mind, just like a real Falcon driver, and I added the High tiles terrain, I really liked that, along with some of the newer pits. Thirdwire I fly alot as they have the looks and the planes i want, Lock-On is now a coaster and will remain that way after the way they slipped star forked in it. Yes it's a pretty sim, but not nearly as hard as Falcon.

[gillg 4]

OK, I love the range that the Third wire series brings, but i just wish that the AI was a llittle smarter. You basically know what to do to get a mission done and there is little element of suprise. Falcon 4 Has this but it's only available with the one plane. Albeit diferent variants.

If anyone knows of a sim like Falcon 4 but you can fly an F-4 or an A-4, please lemme know.

 

I think though WoE is the one.

 

PS, with a little more AI.

[+malibu43 142]

OK, I love the range that the Third wire series brings, but i just wish that the AI was a llittle smarter. You basically know what to do to get a mission done and there is little element of suprise. Falcon 4 Has this but it's only available with the one plane. Albeit diferent variants.

If anyone knows of a sim like Falcon 4 but you can fly an F-4 or an A-4, please lemme know.

 

I think though WoE is the one.

 

PS, with a little more AI.

 

Different games to satisfy different cravings...

 

I have the TW series for when I feel like some simple jet fun. Lot's of variety and covers a big time frame. I tend to play this one a lot after watching an episode of Dogfights...

 

I have IL-2 1946 to get my WWII fix.

 

I have F4AF for when I feel like getting technical.

Edited January 19, 2008 by malibu43

[+DoctorQuest 120]

I am done with LOMAC. It is off my system. I will leave it at that. I get my Russian fix from Flanker 2.5 and my Eagle and Warthog fix from WOE. I fly a lot of RBII, EAW and Jane's F-15. I have also recently gotten back into F-22 Total Air War. I like IL-2 for the variety of interesting historical aircraft. F4AF gives me the Falcon and Jane's F/A-18 gives me the Hornet. I fly FS2004 for serious training and touring the world.

 

As a simmer, life is pretty good these days.

 

EDIT: Dangit! I did post to this once already...... Oh well.....

Edited January 19, 2008 by kirbykern

[+malibu43 142]

I am done with LOMAC. It is off my system. I will leave it at that. .....

 

I originally bought LOMAC last year, but found it wouldn't run on my laptop. I ended up buying WOE after that, so I could fly the F-15 and A-10, thinking that I was settling. Needless to say, I was wrong...

[sparkomatic 7]

The AI in Il-2 irritates me to no end. It's like flying on a public server with a bunch of cheaters!

 

 

Point taken, it has also gone through some series AI movements like the 3Wire series...I enjoy ground attack though...if only we could get that level of detail into WOE...kind of like EAW had...wait a minute who's at the door?

[JediMaster 451]

Il-2 was designed as a tada Il-2 sim. They started adding all those other planes into it but it was never designed for it. I think that has been proven in spades by all the shortcomings in areas like AI and high altitude flight.

[+Johan217 5]

What I like about the Strikefighters series is that (even out of the box) it allows me to fly campaigns in all these aircraft that haven't been done in other flightsims. Note that I said "fly campaigns" rather than just "fly". For me the campaign is central to any pc game I play. This is why I gave up on a sim like Lomac. Sure, the campaigns in Strike Fighters aren't that complex, but they allow me enough freedom without having to refly the same scripted mission over and over again.

 

For me the best sim in town would have the graphics of Lomac, the aircraft of Strike Fighters, the avionics of Falcon 4.0, the campaign of Mig Alley, and the weather/traffic procedures of MSFS.

[sparkomatic 7]

Granted JM, it is not perfect...but come on...when you are taxiing on the airfield and step on the left brake and the left speakers squeal and moan like they should and then you launch/lurch waddle down the runway and go after a column of trucks...and strafe the little buggers and some dudes run out of the burning trucks...dont find that fun?

 

Yeah ya do...

 

Admittedly, it is a russianwetdream how easily I can slaughter butcher birds in basically any crate that I want and dont even get me started on how easy it is to garner kills against -109s...but that isnt why I played it.

 

But for a fun sim, I still like Janes USAF...man at least it had AWACS that wasnt entirely useless...

[WarlordATF 1]

You can fly all aircraft in Falcon 4.0 Allied Force, All you have to do is rename the VALIDAC.DAT file in each campaign folder. but all planes use the default F-16 cockpit.

 

I'd suggest WOE. Its doesnt do any single thing better than the other sims, but with the mods and ease of editing its become my favorite sim.

 

I didnt care for LOMAC, it seemed to restrictive to modding to me. Falcon 4.0 is IMHO the most in-depth sim, but it suffers in the graphics and AF is a pain to mod because Lead Pursuit (License Holders) have a no-modding policy. I liked IL2, but like the others have said it has its own issues.

 

My All-Time Favorite Sim was Janes Fighters Anthology and WOE with mods reminds me alot of it, So its become my current favorite.

[Spinners 15,985]

I've been playing IL-2 (Woolworths £3.74), Strike Fighters Gold (ebay £2.99 inc. postage) and today I've bought LOMAC (also in Woolworths for £3.74).

 

How much fun can you have for pennies!!!

 

My PC's a bit old now so Strike Fighters Gold does it for me as jets are more my thing and I really must get WOV and WOE especially at these prices.

 

I've stuck LOMAC on my laptop with Vista (my PC won't run it) and I'm having teething problems but I'll give it time as I've only had it a couple of hours! I think I'll get my PC upgraded and stick LOMAC on that.

 

Oh. BTW I just love the mods and skins thing! Not long after buying SFG I was in a Thunderbirds F-4E! (Thanks Streakeagle).

[+Brain32 265]

I've been playing IL-2 series for almost 5 years now, inspite of all it's shortcomings I still consider it the best WW2 air combat sim ever.

Admittedly, it is a russianwetdream how easily I can slaughter butcher birds in basically any crate that I want and dont even get me started on how easy it is to garner kills against -109s...but that isnt why I played it.

Unfortunetly this is a wet dream of utter retards from ubi forum who were completely incompetent in fighting against theese German planes online so they whined and whined until the dev got sick of it, now it is what you see :(

 

As for the jets/modern era, I first tried LockOn I loved except for the one part, it's performance was extremely poor, I really don't know what kind of system one has to have to play it, I never found satisfactory eyecandy/performance ratio with it.

 

Now about Falcon4(AF), I wasn't quite pleased with the graphics(not critical), but what really drove me away was the fact that at the time I tried it I really did not have the time to learn all that stuff, however I hear only good things about it always...

 

And in the end WoV and WoE, first my friends got me WoV but I didn't really commit to it immidiately, however about 8 months ago I found WoE at really affordable price and totally got into it. Now I use SF series for Jets and il2 for WW2 and I don't need anything else until further notice, although that JetThunder really caught my eye, I will sure get it when it comes out

[JediMaster 451]

LOMAC was a real hog when it came out, but all these years later a current mid-range system can handle it fine...as long as you leave it on medium settings!

[SkyStrike 15]

IMHO, Jane's USAF was The best modern jet combat game ever created.... A decent choice of stock planes, different flight models for each of them, properly simulated avionics, and pretty good graphics & FX (For its time)... Too bad no one bothered to create a sequel to it....

 

WOE is pretty good, with its gameplay , graphics , effects & of course being very mod-friendly. And with all its mods such as add-on aircraft, weapons, etc...it comes pretty close...

Edited February 1, 2008 by Tomcat_ace

[JediMaster 451]

USAF was the sequel! IAF was the first one by that developer, USAF the 2nd. USAF was the final game in a long line of Jane's titles by Origin/EA that started with USNF in the early 90s.