Suggestions for combat flight sim upgrade

[Jon_Beers 19]

I have finally been able to purchase a decent more recent model PC. I have MS CFS2 & SFP1 running great on it. With all the hard-drive space I have created many installs with specific planes loaded in each install so the random mission generator button will load appropriate planes.

With MS CFS2 I like that you can define groups of enemy planes to chose from, but it messes up if you dump all your planes in one install.

Strike Fighters 1 doesn't seem to restrict appropriate planes to showing up when flying over a terrain even if you define friendly and enemy planes in that terrain's 'nations' file.

What I would like to do is upgrade to a more recent combat flight sim(s). I say sims because Id be surprised to find a game i liked for both WWII props AND jet (missile) combat.

Yes...I'd like some improvement in graphics, but I like the realism (flight mode;s) to be realistic as possible. I do realize the 'air' file or 'data' file creater or modifiers have a huge impact on flight model realism. For example, I can only remember losing a F-4 to an uncontrolable spin once and that was a stock plane not a mod; while, my MiG-29 will spin if you pull to many Gs at a low airspeed (to much AOA) and its a mod add-on!

Anyway, looking at pics online it appears that folks are really doing a good job on aircraft for more recent sims...and terrains.

Can anyone give me some input on what would be a good combat sim buy(s)? 

My budget is limitted and I can not buy everything out there to see if i like it like back in the day when i had less responsibility.

Oh, I do think i want to get MS FSX to get modern graphics. There's a payware F-4J/S Phantom available that I think I want.

However, the VC and skin of my F-4s in Strike Fightes 1 is pretty good really. I would imagine there's probably some pretty good free mod planes for a more recent combat simZ. I'm not THAT picky...I've been living with sims that came out practically in the last millinium for Jeez sake.

Input please...and thanks!!

[MigBuster 2,861]

Modern combat sim with great graphics with requirement of realism?

DCS..........you can download it for free but you need a high end rig to run (and you may need to download v2 instead of 1.5).the rest of it (the modules) are not cheap.

Falcon 4.0 with BMS 4.33...very cheap to buy not as good graphics but ticks all the other boxes.

 

 

 

 

[+streakeagle 864]

Aces High 3 is free. You can play offline, though you will have to learn how to create offline "staged missions". They recently reinstated free user hosted arenas. Of course the game is really meant to be played in the massive pay-to-play arenas, but at a cost of $0, it is an excellent survey sim with so may different aircraft to fly as well as some tanks. I spend some time flying Aces High 3 as a paid subscriber. It works very well with VR (I have an Oculus Rift).

IL-2 Cliffs of Dover was patched up and re-released on steam for about $19 during the winter sale. It is limited to a Battle of Britain plane set, but the graphics looks great.

The go-to WW2 sim right now is the IL-2 Battle of Stalingrad / Battle of Moscow series, which happen to be on sale right now ($24.99 each for the base games). This series is shaping up to rival the original IL-2 in covering a vast plane set and has great graphics. I don't own either one for a variety of reasons, but I have heard nothing but good comments about it from people I know and trust. The developers also recently announced that they intend to slowly create a new WWI game around this same series because their existing WWI product, Rise of Flight, has gotten a bit dated.

My sim of choice is DCS World. If you try out the free Su-25T and TF-51D and discover it runs good enough on your machine, then consider getting Flaming Cliffs 3 which is on sale right now for $18. It is a great price for the A-10A, Su-25, F-15C, MiG-29, Su-27, and Su-33. Carrier operations with the Su-33 are fun. But DCS World is at its best with the full-blown study sim add-on aircraft. If you like that sort of thing, wait for sales and buy one or two aircraft as time and money permit.

 I bought into the SimWorks Studios F-4B for FSX, so I also fly some FSX with TacPack. While FSX Steam Edition can be found on sale for very little cost, good addon aircraft aren't cheap and neither is TacPack if you want any kind of air combat functionality in FSX.

SF2 is a little dated, but is still a nice upgrade from SFP1 and is fairly cheap if you only buy one of the games.

If I were you and my machine specs were good enough, I would get either Il-2 BoS or Il-2 BoM for WW2 flying and DCS World/Flaming Cliffs 3 for jets. Of course Ace High 3 is free, so you should try that one, too.

 

[Jon_Beers 19]

Alright...thanks for the comments. I've enjoyed SFP1 very much and am considering SF2 if it will run on win 7 / will look into dcs

FSX has that F-4J/S add-on available (forgot by who)