JediMaster

MS Flight Sim is like X Plane. If you like one, you'll like the other. SFG has a whole group of similar sims with different terrains, planes, and eras. They cover Vietnam, Israel, Europe, and WWI. Check out www.thirdwire.com to see them. Like SFG, they're all very easy to just jump into, fly, and fight. LockOn is more complex with more to do in the cockpits and more accurate radar and avionics controls. An updated LOMAC 2.0 is due out soon. If you like WWII, Il-2 is the place to go. If you like WWI, the CFS3 mod OFF is great, and some people have seen past the shortcomings of the new Rise of Flight to enjoy that. Falcon 4:Allied Force and DCS: Black Shark are the pinnacle of realism with a single craft modeled and TONS of switches and knobs to learn. An A-10 is in the works for the DCS series that will let you fly both together.

To be honest, I think the glory days of the big mods are over as it takes far more effort now and people seem to have no ability to actually complete them. You see so many "starting" but few deliver even an alpha, unless you mean small things like skins or models. I've lost count of how many mods I've seen that started development BEFORE the game's release only to announce "it's over" 2 years AFTER the game comes out.

No Fry's out east. Actually, I've never seen one anywhere and I've been east of the Mississippi a lot.

Those thrust reversers sure kick up a lot of crap!

Yes, there were some really good ones released before 1998, but that's when the pace of releases picked up. By 2000 I think it had already started its steep decline. I think we had Jane's F/A-18, B-17 II, EECH, and Gunship! that year, but after 1999's deluge it was obvious there was a serious shift in the market. 2001 saw only a single notable release...Il-2!

I refute the "2009"! I've seen some of those long ago, in a decade far, far away...

Bring it back? I see a couple every day here, parked down by the DoS hangar. I used to see them fly a lot, but not recently...

Aren't the MiG-29's engines the same way? Angled outward so that loss of one doesn't result in sudden "yaw of death" like the F-14 suffered sometimes? With planes with close-set engines like the F-15 or F-22 thrust is close to the centerline, but those with some separation have engine-out yaw to deal with. I don't think the Su-27 has it, though, and being MiG-29-ish in planform you'd think it would need it too.

Actually, prices are DOWN. I remember seeing MPS' F-19 at EB in 1988 for $69.99! I seem to recall Falcon 3.0 in 1991 was $62.99? Given the decrease in value of the dollar in the last 20 years, that means they cost a LOT more than any "normal" games do now (I'm excluding "special edition" games that charge extra or MMOs). I remember in the late 90s my (then newlywed) wife saying I could only buy one sim a month because I was going crazy buying too many. One a month! Can we even imagine that many coming out anymore? I'll always remember 1998/99 as the golden age of the sim as we had multiple giant releases in just a year, from Flanker 2 and Falcon 4 to Euro Air War and Jane's F-15 and WWII Fighters. It really was a sim a month, and they were all good!

I've got all those films on DVD...both Hot Shots, both Airplanes, all 3 Naked Guns...they're just excellent comedies. When it comes to aviation, though, the only films I own are Top Gun, Final Countdown (borderline plane film), Blue Thunder (you have to love helo vs F-16s), and Tora Tora Tora. They are good enough to watch despite their many flaws.

This idea isn't about reconverting the converted, it's about preventing them from getting new converts so they will get killed off without repleneshing their ranks. The West is the "Great Evil" and in their mindset that can never be reversed. We could pull all forces out of that entire side of the PLANET and it wouldn't make a difference because of what we did in Iran in the 1950s, or in Blahblahland in the time of the pixies, or when pigs flew cats to the moon. They, like many before them, have found the route to power is to create a great enemy that is not easily defeated yet easily proclaimed inferior. No matter WHAT we do, they can easily twist it to make us look bad and them good yet downtrodden. Their people eat that crap up. The only way they'll hate us less is if they can find someone else to hate more, they're not going to stop hating.

No, you're wrong. Berman took over before Roddenberry died because he was very sick towards the end. Even though Roddenberry died at the end of 91, Berman had already been in control at least a year. Wil Wheaton even stated he wouldn't have left the show in the middle of season 4 if Roddenberry had still been in charge, it was that he didn't get along well with Berman, but anyone will notice he left before Gene died. His last "normal" episode before he left the regular cast aired 11/90. It was season 4 when Berman took over.

Russia isn't buying the Su-35BM, it's buying the Su-35S. This looks like a Raptor from the front and a forced-perspective Flanker from behind. I really don't see the YF-23 at all, other than the aft fuselage area but that's straight Flanker-derivative far more than the 23's odd sinusoidal curves. The 23 didn't have separate stabs, it was more like the F-117 in that way, but this one does just like every other non-delta plane out there. The interesting part is the vertical (well, off-vertical) stabs look a little small for a plane that size. Compare them to those on any other twin-finned plane and you'll see what I mean.

No, it's an F-22/Su-27 lovechild. Redheaded. Step.

They could've at least TRIED not to make it look like an F-22/Su-27 love child.

Roddenberry did hand the reins over to Berman after TNG started, so he is to blame as well for any perceived shortcomings of the franchise. Except the JJ Abrams film, Berman had nothing to do with that, he's out of ST now.

I think the lack of integrated "real" keyboard is a major shortcoming. Typing on one of those virtual keyboards just blows, no tactile feedback at all. I also think the inability to expand storage is a shortcoming. If you think you can get by with a 32GB model but then find out you needed 64, what do you do? You go out and buy the entire 64GB model, that's what, and pray you can sell the 32GB one! No storage expansion is another mistake. The question I have...what about Facebook apps? My wife has an Asus netbook with the Atom CPU but she uses my Dell C2D laptop more often when using the internet because apparently a lot of those Facebook things like Farmville run like crap on the Asus' small CPU. How fast will this iPad at 2x the price of the netbook be?

No. The last was the Kitty Hawk IIRC, which is why as Dave mentioned it's in inactive reserve status and none of the others are. In case of some emergency it is available to be sent back out, for now. You'll notice in the pics of 63 it has all its antennas and domes while the others are missing theirs. The Big E is now the oldest carrier in service, as well as the most expensive to run. It's due to be replaced in 2012 I think? As mentioned, though, it's a nuclear carrier so preserving it will take more work. However, as the first CVN (and the only one of its class), I think it will be. If nothing else, the Star Trek fans will see to it. For the record, though, the carrier called "Enterprise" in Star Trek 4 was actually Ranger.

Yes, by leaving the terrain out of the shots (when it's certainly being done with an older terrain again like those shots previously) he can have you focus on the F-14 itself.

I've not tried it with Vista or 7 myself (I have the Il-2:46 disk), but my father in-law's PC installed Il-2:FB, AEP, and PF just fine and he has 32 bit Vista.

No...that's exactly what we'd be expecting him to do...

Anyone know which (if any) are going to be scrapped and which will be preserved?

I read there are CoS "ministers" on his flights. If they're just volunteering, it's one thing. If they're missionaries, it's another.

This is why it's better to work online retail.

As a side note, of those 6 only 1 is still in service, the Nimitz-Class TR. The other 5 were all conventional-power and are gone.