Flight game, not simulator. Nothing personal against flight simulators, I’m sure they are a lot of fun. But maybe, just maybe, I don’t want the experience of spending years in flight school just to make sure I can turn on my blinker. I know I can turn down the realism settings, and there are even so-called “simplified” displays, but there’s still an awfully steep learning curve involved. (Can you tell who just picked up a copy of Falcon 4 and thought he’d be shootin’ bad guys by now?)
I wants me a game. It doesn’t have to be outrageously simple—I’m not looking for Space Invaders-level or a straight forward arcade shump—but one that doesn’t have a seven hundred page manual and several aftermarket texts supporting it. While I’d appreciate a sophisticated physics engine creating the world and handling movement within it, I don’t want to master those physics in order to play (‘play’ being the key word).I remember a game for the Amiga back in the early 90s, I think it was by E/A or Microprose. I can’t remember the name, or even the jet, but it had air-to-air, air-to-ship/ground, landing and taking off from a carrier, etc. that were challenging, but not so complex as to require memorizing a hundred buttons, switches, display variants, and procedures—it was an Amiga, after all.
The space modules of Star Wars Battlefront II seem to come close, but there is a lot more going on than flying and shooting (though I should mention that space-based or other themed games are fine as well), and it is just a tad on the simple side. But at least you can climb into an X-Wing and start shooting with minimal trouble.
Oh, and I want to shoot down my brother, so Internet-based multiplayer is fairly important.
Is this too much to ask for? Is the market so dominated by flight sims that the standards are set by how close they match a real fighter jet?
IL2 Sturmovik from Ubisoft is pretty good. Even if you decide to wade thru campaign mode you can fast-foreward thru the ‘flying from point A to point B’ bits and jump in when there’s something to shoot at. Or you can use the mission editor to just thow in whatever enemy planes you want and go shoot them down.
You know, prop planes make perfect sense. I don’t mind difficulty in flying per se, it’s the myriad of controls to learn before getting the thing out of park.
How are the Star Wars games? Is flying in those similar to the experience in Battlefront II? I.e., are the controls and flight characteristics similar, or did they take it to an entirely new level?
Heh… I think I may have a copy of Red Baron around here somewhere, in need of a little dusting off. I had thought to try something that will take a bit of advantage of the setup (64x2, ATI 4850), but heck, I do like to futz with the Atari emulator once in a while and play Yar’s Revenge.
European Air War takes my prize of “Best WWII Combat Flight Game” because it’s simple to play, lots of fun, and it actually makes you feel like a WWII fighter pilot- it’s hard to explain, but the game is a lot of fun and strikes the perfect balance between rivet-counting realism and having Spitfires that can fly faster than modern jet aircraft…
Another vote for the starwars games. Tie Fighter in particular is a masterpiece.
Biggest difference to other flying games is the lack of gravity.
Also, it might not be quite what you’re talking about, but DarkStar One is an excellent space flying game. It’s not as cerebral as Tie Fighter which can demand a lot of concentration in some missions.
On the same lines, but a little deeper is Freelancer.
If you want suggestions for more earth-bound games, I got nothing.
I haven’t played the Battlefront II game, but I did play the first and the flying was fairly suck. However, the X-Wing series is renowned for great controls and simplistic but very, very effective interfaces (like a radar that actually makes a lot of sense) and the piloting for it is simply smooth. I found myself doing wild tricks, like doing a corkscrew break down and to the side and cutting back on the speed - the TIE on my ass suddenly shot past me, perfectly lined up for a shot. It’s AI feels very advanced, even by today’s standards and your squad actually performs well. You’ll also come to dread TIE Interceptors and Defenders. (The first is ungodly fast and has good AI, the second is that and with Shields . . .)
If you want something a bit more instantly accessible, I’ve a lot of good things to say about for instance Rogue Squadron for the N64. There are emulator versions out there for the PC.
Beyond the scope of Star Wars, though, I’ll second IL Sturmovik and its expansions.