JediMaster

Well, I don't know if having difficulty with a particular plane match-up (like F-8 vs MiG-17) is a good barometer of where you'll like the difficulty set best.

Since I fly lots of 3rd party planes as well as stock, and I know most of them were done with the normal FM in mind, that's what I use. I think I leave the AI on normal as well. Sometimes you just can't win a dogfight against a particular plane if your plane isn't up to it. You need to rely on wingmen/other flights, friendly ground fire if you're over friendly territory/units, or just bugging out. Maybe you get a mission failure for it, but it's better than getting shot down!

One of the reasons kill numbers are far higher in sims than historically is the lack of self-preservation in the AI. They see nothing wrong with chasing you to their deaths unless they run out of fuel or ammo and then head home. Every sim has that problem. The exception is usually where you get a "mission complete" or "failure" and all the AI planes call it a day even if you're right there.

In Korea for example there were numerous instances of large (greater than 6 v 6) dogfights occurring with only 1 or even no kills, just maybe some damage. A real pilot will press an advantage that they have, but if they're outmatched they won't keep trying to shoot one plane down while 4 others get on his six. They want to live to fight another day.

Not AvP1, they did AvP2. AvP1 was a decent enough flick, better than Predators 2.

That's the first time I've seen pictures of, let alone even heard of, China's J-10 display team.

You have to admit a camo refueling probe cover on that bright paint scheme is funny though!

I haven't reinstalled CFS3 since my upgrade to Win7, but I sort of plan on it at some point. Until late last year when I did the upgrade, I still played it every once in awhile. The Firepower addon I bought for it really helped things, as did all the modded planes the 1% team made for it. The stock game was a bit lacking. Anyway, I think it was the best of the CFS games and the only one I'd bothered to buy.

I still play older games all the time, in fact I recently went thru and replayed all the HL2 games, Far Cry 1, Doom 3, even Deus Ex and Thief 2. For sims I've still got EECH (with mods) and Il-2 1946, even the original LOMAC still installed along with F4.

The limit seems to be about 10 years. Older than that and current systems tend to get errors trying to play games unless they've been fixed/updated for new sales on places like GOG.com and Steam.

I'll rent it on Netflix only because I tend to rent just new films there. The older ones I want to see I already own.

The amazing thing to me is that film had a $10m budget. They spent more money making each of the recent CoD games than they did on that flick, so for it to have "average" FX is pretty amazing.

Oh, it was directed by the same guys who did AvP: Requiem, so if you saw that you should have some idea of the quality Skyline must have.

I really can't pick 3 best, so I won't bother to try. My DVD collection is vast, and my BD collection is catching up, but a lot of the ones I've bought are because they are faves!

Now for worst, that's also hard to pick 3 so I'll just choose the first that pop into my head:

Virus

Alexander (so dull you'd think it was real history)

Wing Commander

That Na'vi language is everywhere!

Would that be a "technical" pony w/saddle-mounted .50 caliber MG???!?!?! AWESOME!!!

Anyway, for some reason games like HAWX get a sequel while TK's sales are a drop in the bucket. At least he doesn't have to split the proceeds with publishers anymore.

IIRC 1946 is now a bargain-priced sim due to its age.

Anyway, I've been running it since I installed Win7 a year ago without a single issue. I don't recall any installation issues, but if there were I've forgotten.

Yeah, I think the worst I've seen is a blood-stained canopy on rare instances. The people on the ground tend to be ephemeral and are there only to run away from vehicles, disappearing after they get a bit away.

Flight sims are not a gory lot and Il-2 is no exception.

The way the trail is dissipating in the lower part of the image is the key. Rocket trails go from lower atmosphere to upper atmosphere and don't disperse in the same way at different points because wind speeds, directions, shear, etc all vary with altitude.

The lower part of that trail is all smearing off to the left in a uniform way which indicates it's all at the same altitude. No rocket will fly to an altitude, stay there for awhile, then climb again. That's an inefficient launch profile plus it puts stress on the rocket. Oh, and rockets move REALLY fast.

It's an airplane.

I once saw a contrail like that form here. It was also at sunset, off to the west of here, and it just started at altitude slowly heading north. When it first started it looked very odd because it was so short so it almost looked like the contrail was the object itself. After about 5 minutes though it was long enough, and you could watch it getting longer to the north at a nice slow rate, that it was obviously a distant airplane.

It's the same reason that many of the early Bond films have several actors revoiced/dubbed by another actor because of perceived issues with being understandable. Some, like Adolfo Celli, spoke perfectly fine English, to the extent that only SOME of their lines were dubbed while others were left alone, but it still seemed odd. Of course, they dubbed Arnold in his first film as well, even though Terminator showed you could understand him just fine!

It's as if while Hollywood doubts the intelligence of its viewers (but not their ability to understand slang), the UK establishment doubts the ears of its viewers (but not their intelligence...usually).

I see them doing touch-and-go's here all the time...for hours...

Those guys sure know how to land...and then take right off again!

Besides, the Alamo is hardly an uber-missile. Best used against targets that AREN'T fighters!

Il-2:1946 has a lot more than FB+AEP+PF. There were a series of addons released overseas that weren't released here until 1946 bundled them all together. There's really no reason not to just get 1946.

The graphics between FB and 1946 didn't change much. The only real jump was from the original Il-2 to Il-2:FB. Every release since has been patches to the FB release code.

If your machine can fly LOMAC, you should be able to fly 1946 without much difficulty.

The C-5...when it absolutely, positively has to have an engine problem between flights.

He's not there, I think he's still in Dubai shooting MI4.

That depends on whether there was a timer with a big clock on it, or if it was just that 17 minutes after they defused it they suddenly heard "CLICK!" without warning!

Wouldn't...you...rather...play...a...nice...game...of...chess?

Yes, Fresno is quite funny. Hard to believe people still live there!

Just who is ActivIdentity Inc, anyway? Do we really know who's behind them?

I demand a congressional inquiry complete with those boring hearings on C-SPAN (although they may feel free to liven it up with appearances by Garry Shandling or Robert Downey Jr).

What a PITA these CACs are. I'm not sure if it's an inherent flaw with the tech or just the way the masterminds at the DoD have decided to implement them!

Anyone remember that old 60s film The Starfighters? I think 30% of the film consists of watching 104's practicing AAR.

If you're asking someone to burn it to a disc and mail it to you, it would be easier to just come out and say so rather than just try and imply it.

True enough, I just don't think we'll be going out there...they'll just bring everything inside for us to look at.