Author Topic: Aces High II, last of a dying breed? (Read 4018 times)

thndregg · « **Reply #15 on:** February 24, 2008, 05:17:06 PM »

I play this game because it actually (and hopefully continues to) allow for some THOUGHT behind how I play.

JScore · « **Reply #16 on:** February 24, 2008, 05:29:24 PM »

Check out this link. I peruse SimHQ's site every once in awhile, and this was one of their latest stories. Could be promising.

http://www.simhq.com/_air11/air_337a.html

zorstorer · « **Reply #17 on:** February 24, 2008, 06:00:47 PM »

I still boot up and play Tornado every month or so. The sim was outstanding at the time and still holds its own today (though not in eye candy). It was just about the only sim (other than AH) that I could totally loose track of time in.

Here is a link to a review of it. If you can find it and have an old 486 to run it on it is well worth the time invested.

Stratocaster · « **Reply #18 on:** February 24, 2008, 06:11:57 PM »

I am waiting on CT and the latest oleg game "storm of war" which should be the first installment of many and probably the most detailed flight/combat flight sim to date. Although those are going to be fun I still play il2 1946 through the hyperlobby client in servers with 50-60 people. The map rotations have all sorts of objectives and plane limits to allow a map win in about 40 minutes of play. and its nice to have 50 people playing on a historical map with historical match ups working as a team.

Lazerr · « **Reply #19 on:** February 24, 2008, 09:20:44 PM »

FYI. I fly with a mouse, and you'll all die to it.

Grits · « **Reply #20 on:** February 24, 2008, 10:45:57 PM »

Boxed flight sims got too complicated, with Falcon 4 the classic example. You had to study the freaking encyclopedia they called a manual for a month before you could fly a sortie. It wasnt really a flight sim as much as a system simulator with the flying as a secondary feature. Some may disagree, but the reason AH is as good as it is, is because they add the system functions needed to give just enough feeling of "being there" without it becoming the only thing you do.

My all time favorite box sim was the original Red Baron from Dynamix. What made it great was not the graphics or the flight model which for its time were state of the art, but the semi-role playing pilot careers, having famous aces challenge you to duels and getting to choose a personal plane. Even Aces of the Pacific lost some of the depth of the career feature, it was there but not as much variety.

Lumpy · « **Reply #21 on:** February 24, 2008, 11:51:06 PM »

"Storm of War: Battle of Britain" is just around the corner. It's the first installment on the new WWII flight sim from the makers of Il2FB.

SD67 · « **Reply #22 on:** February 25, 2008, 01:18:18 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Gixer
Just waiting to see when Microsoft pull the plug on Flight Simulator, that will spell the end of my involvement with PC flight sims.

Ahhh Gixer, there is always X-Plane!

Gixer · « **Reply #23 on:** February 25, 2008, 01:52:52 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by SD67
Ahhh Gixer, there is always X-Plane!

X-Plane doesn't have the PMDG 747 or world airports/scenery. Nice enough sim though.

~~...-Gixer~~

SD67 · « **Reply #24 on:** February 25, 2008, 02:10:32 AM »

X-Plane does have world scenery, but the airports are rudimentary. I have heaps of custom airports and sceneries built by the users of X-Plane that are first class though. Some of these guys spend incredible amounts of time developing some of this visual stuff for the sim.
The same goes for aircraft. I have build a few X-Plane models that have been circulating throughout the experimental aircraft community that people are using to work on things like belly plates, landing gears configurations, canopy mods and the like. X-Plane has an intensely detailed and accurate physics engine that give an incredible range of feedback. I have one model I made using information directly transferred from my CAD files to work on some of the finer details of the aircraft I am (very slowly) building myself.

Gixer · « **Reply #25 on:** February 25, 2008, 02:49:38 AM »

Yes X-Plane is an interesting sim, i just prefer Vatsim,real world (cargo)flight ops and the 747-400F

~~...-Gixer~~

Gianlupo · « **Reply #26 on:** February 25, 2008, 05:34:11 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Grits
Boxed flight sims got too complicated, with Falcon 4 the classic example. You had to study the freaking encyclopedia they called a manual for a month before you could fly a sortie. It wasnt really a flight sim as much as a system simulator with the flying as a secondary feature. Some may disagree, but the reason AH is as good as it is, is because they add the system functions needed to give just enough feeling of "being there" without it becoming the only thing you do.

Grits, that way you're comparing oranges and apples. A P-51 is quicker to fly than an F-16 because it has basically no avionics, while, to get the F-16 off the runway you have to study the freaking encyclopedia. Different planes with ages of evolution between them, inevitable that the newest is the most complicated to manage (not to fly, to manage!) and requires the most studying.

But I guess I understand what you wanted to say: you just wanted to say that there has to be a balance between accuracy of the simulation and playability of the game. If that is what you meant, then a better example would be comparing Falcon 4 to LockOn, where modern jets are simulated with fairly simplified avionics, when compared to Falcon. Or, even more "arcade", the Strike Fighter/Wings over... series of simulation. AH is good because it achieves this mix of simulation and playability at its best.

Newer flight sims (like the one I mentioned and the IL2 series) have brought a new interest for the genre (that is not dying yet, but it's surely ill...), having achieved, to a certain point, the same result.

I love Red Baron, too... eagerly waiting for this one:

Knights of the sky

Homepage of the project: http://www.gennadich.com/

Grits · « **Reply #27 on:** February 25, 2008, 09:24:29 AM »

The last box sim I bought was Tornado, I only saw Falcon 4 at a friends house, and I've never seen LockOn. But, yes, you understood where I was going. Even with the more complex modern plane some new games, and IL-2 if you ask me, add far too much tedious busywork managing the systems of the plane instead of what I want to do, fly a WWII fighter. For a while the systems realism race was OK like with Strike Eagle II, Falcon 3, Apache or Tornado where each one added more systems but still kept it from being distracting from the flying. It got to the point that only uber techno-geeks would take the time to learn the manual, and if you look that was exactly when flight sims started dropping in sales. It wasnt the genre it was the product being produced IMO.

Pigpen · « **Reply #28 on:** February 25, 2008, 09:41:10 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by zorstorer
I still boot up and play Tornado every month or so. The sim was outstanding at the time and still holds its own today (though not in eye candy). It was just about the only sim (other than AH) that I could totally loose track of time in.

Here is a link to a review of it. If you can find it and have an old 486 to run it on it is well worth the time invested.

zorstorer,

on Tornado; I played some of the most immersive missions on that sim that I still remember (had one where both my wing sweep and flaps were damaged, and I was so intent on slowing down for the landing that I forgot to lower the gear....but still was able to land without becoming a fireball). Yep, great sim, that one...

pigpen

republic · « **Reply #29 on:** February 25, 2008, 10:00:22 AM »

I've heard Eurofighter Typhoon was great, but...sadly I missed out on it.

If anyone has some suggested mods for IL2 shoot me a PM, I've all but given up on the series. I've played since the beginning and its really just gotten stale to me.