So I came across this forum this morning while browsing some video game dogfight videos. Im a big enthusiast of piloting video games and I watched a couple clips of the Microsoft Flight simulator and I liked it but without some type of air combat, flight seems too plain to me. Maybe Ive played 'dog fights' so long that Im used to it. I understand that a lot of people play the flight simulators for just that, flight simulation. But I know there has to be gamers on this forum that like air combat. Well if your one of them and havent tried one of the following games, you should.

 

 

My very favorite would have to be, and before you brush me away, hear me out: GTA 4. Theres two versions, GTA 4 Original and GTA 4 TBOGT, each offers its own kind of helicopter/s with their own ability. The flying mechanics still amaze me considering it was made over 5 years ago. The dogfights are nuts on this game because this is one of the few dogfight games, IMO, where skill means everything. Ive seen top guys, me being one of them, take on whole squads of mid level pilots on their own. And if it gets too much, why give them the satisfaction? Hop out and parachute into the city and let them try to come get you.

 

Very realistic and one that I like very much is Battlefield 3. You have to fight your way to the aircraft but if youve put in the time to learn it, it is a delight when you disappear into the clouds and come down like a speeding bullet, taking out a couple of soldiers and a tank, and then disappearing back into the clouds. Even if youre about to blow up you can parachute down, and still use your RPGs or tracking missiles(if you have them) while your parachuting down. I usually just parachute right onto a vacant tank, park it in a good location and switch to gunner view. Which is like having an automatic mid range sniper rifle...while your proteted by the armor of the tank:).

 

Halo reach, is aliens and monsters, probably not the kind of taste some of you have but it can be a lot of fun if you learn to circle in the helicopter and pick up 2 good shooters. Theres also a plane type aircraft called the banshee which can be very lethal and a game-changer. The bad thing is that the body isnt particularly strong and good players focus fire on the banshees until theyre taken down so you need to communicate with ground support.

 

Im not home at the moment but on my pc I do have some very good footage bookmarked, and when I get home, I'll post some videos if anyone is interested.

That is a nice long intro! I didn't know GTA was online multiplayer!! If you love online fights, try DCS A10 or their great new P51.

 

I play bf3 sometimes, but wow, you experts are too quick.

 

For a great online fight, go to the fsx forums and tell them xplane is better :-)

Welcome!

 

There are basically two non-military flightsims worth the mention, if you're not after the heavy metal....... well, they're actualy the same, but one stems from the other... MS FLIGHT Hawaii, and soon MS FLIGHT ALASKA... Before there were other programs, but that's history.....

Before there were other programs, but that's history.....

 

+

 

 

Hello

For you maybe... but not for the majority of us.

You'll almost certainly find that there are a lot of people who use civilian flight sims that also like combat ones too here on Avsim, and indeed lots of other stuff as well as only flight simulators. Have a look about on Avsim and you will see that there are many dedicated forums for air combat simulations such as DCS-A10, Rise of Flight, Falcon Allied Force and other such combat sims. And if you see how many people have bought A2A's P-51 Mustang for FSX, that'll confirm that lots of people like warbirds as much as they do Cessnas and Boeings.

 

You might also like to know that it is actually possible to dogfight online in Microsoft's Flight Simulator, and shoot at stuff too, since there are several excellent add-on combat aircraft which can do that, in fact you can make any MSFS aircraft combat capable with the addition of Captain Sim's Weapon for FSX, which can add missiles, rockets guns and bombs, plus a radar and a HUD to any aeroplane you like.

 

So anyway, welcome to Avsim, where we like to blow stuff up with precision as well as make precision approaches. :LMAO:

 

Al

See, this is how an online dogfight goes!

 

I'll add that what may seem boring with civil sims is actually not when doing procedure airline flying to any world location you like. It's almost like being there and having to follow real world procedures all the way makes for allot of fun.

 

I first off started flying combat sims as I was in a real world fighter squadron (VFA-94). After Falcon 3.0, EF2000 the campaign modes seemed to get dumbed down. I miss the days your in a war, pick the target, setup your flight groups, assign your pilots based on skill, setup mid-air refueling points with your air tanker, and pick what flight group you want to fly with and lead. All that is gone now... I will check out that P51 sim mentioned above just the same today's combat sims don't come close to what we had before. It's a shame the graphics are so dated or I'd be playing EF2000 or Falcon 3 today (Falcon 4 omitted many cool thing that F3 had which caused me to not fully embrace it). This is why I moved to GA/Aireliner sims (exclusively FS9), I like not only flying but the environment Emerson as well.

My combat sim of choice is Aces High http://www.hitechcreations.com. I've had an account there since day one of the open beta back in September, 1999. Since then I've continually gone back and forth between AH and 4 versions of FS (2000, 2002, 2004, and FSX). When I get a little bored with one I'll fly the other for a while. It's great to have choices! Now MS-Flight is in the mix, so even more choices. Taking away from all of the above is the considerable amount of time I spend creating planes for FSX using FSDS 3.5. I don't think there's much time left for anything else! It's a good problem to have. :Money Eyes:

Hey guys thanks to much for the replies and some insight on the flight combat simulators.

 

Since you get a ton of different and sometimes unrelated unrelated results on youtube, I like to goto dedicated sites or forums to watch dogfight videos: Theres a lot of videos on the link that Im posting but I think that if your just trying to get an overview of the game, the intro video is the one to watch.http://www.gta5pilots.com/ .

 

I have a hundreds of bookmarks and not enough time right now but Ill be back later to pose a good site to watch halo and battlefield piloting.