Falcon 4.0 isn't really "4.0" any longer, and hasn't been since pretty much the year it came out, back in 98 or so.
The source code was released long ago, and the Falcon community has made it what it is today. BRS or some of the other mods are fantastic, and free. The docs and training videos are an absolute must, it isn't the sort of sim now where "c" is for chaff and "f" for flare. Considering what they've had to work with, what they've done is nothing short of incredible. One of the big, big features is of course the dynamic campaign, which itself has been modded and improved over the years, and keeps the "game" rolling, with unscripted missions and outcomes. Everything about BRS Falcon is excellent, the weapons and their employment, the systems, avionics, all of it - it may not have the DCS series graphics, but it's still pretty good, and everything else is at least as good.
It will take an investment in time to get into, but youtube has a large selection of training files and videos, for everything from landing, to midair refueling, employing various weapons, the radar systems and submodes - all of it. Just watching these videos will take days, and the manuals are very, very large. I bought my first Ipad/Ereader rig just to be able to read these files in fact while not at my desk.
I played Falcon from it's very first versions, Falcon, Falcon AT, Falcon 3.0 which was a big leap forward, and then 4.0 and all the variants since. I'm bias I guess because of this, but I really think it's a worthwhile product, and has aged very well. I also wrote and worked for a website that had interviewed and had articles written for it by Pete Bonnani, who was a USAF pilot that helped Gilman Louie write the Falcon games. There is a lot of history behind the current BRS versions now, I would say probably 25 years+ worth. Not many games stand that test of time.
