What now, Microsoft?

[mgh 89]

I never claimed it was dying - but it's certainly not growing at 230% annually. like video games it's currently in decline.

[HiFlyer 9,359]

I never claimed it was dying - but it's certainly not growing at 230% annually. like video games it's currently in decline.

 

Meanwhile War Thunder, which is 100% online, shows all the indications of stellar growth. They are now exploring stepping onto steam, and I was just reading this on their website:

 

http://forum.gaijine...am/#entry140449

 

Following numerous requests from the War Thunder community we decided to take part in Steam Greenlight to bring the game to more players who value massive online combat action, realistic and dynamic gameplay and hi-end graphics.

 

During the Beta Test more then 500 000 players have participated in more then 60 million fly-outs, spending tens of million of hours in the game; and the game has received more then a thousand updates, constantly adding new features and increasing the quality of the game.

 

Not bad! In fact, if those are truly 500,000 Unique players, then its possible they could already be matching or even exceeding the size of our current community.......

 

More tasty graphics.

[simmerhead 885]

Now that ORBX has pimped FSX with their new "FTX World" addon I will probably manage to squeeze a little more juice out of FSX, but it is starting to look like a pretty wrinkly lemon.

 

War Thunder sure looks great, but with no "present day real world scenery" it's like having a cake, but not getting to eat it too...

[OzWhitey 3,353]

I'd missed out on war thunder - having just done some quick research it looks great!

 

The gaming sites call it a sim. What's the simmer's perspective on the flight dynamics/systems modelling etc

[HiFlyer 9,359]

I'd missed out on war thunder - having just done some quick research it looks great!

 

The gaming sites call it a sim. What's the simmer's perspective on the flight dynamics/systems modelling etc

 

http://xsimreviews.com/ ^_^

 

http://xsimreviews.com/page/2/ Here, its the 4th article down.

[OzWhitey 3,353]

Ok, checked out yiur link, vid looks pretty but not based on a real-world location by the looks of things - 'generic' asian theatre.

 

I've read a few reviews,I guess I was more wondering what people who like fsx and value realism thought of it. Lots of arcade-y bits there, but how does she fly? I'm hearing so much good stuff about the flight dynamics in dcs, i wondered if these guys had done something special too.

[cloudswimmer 24]

Wow where'd that come from, war thunder, looks great. Reminds me of warbirds back in the day. Will have to give it a try for giggles, but I sucked so bad at air to air combat in warbirds that burnout came very quickly. I suppose it won't be any different for war thunder.

[HiFlyer 9,359]

Ok, checked out yiur link, vid looks pretty but not based on a real-world location by the looks of things - 'generic' asian theatre.

 

I've read a few reviews,I guess I was more wondering what people who like fsx and value realism thought of it. Lots of arcade-y bits there, but how does she fly? I'm hearing so much good stuff about the flight dynamics in dcs, i wondered if these guys had done something special too.

 

I couldn't find any reviews yet from that perspective. Maybe this is your chance to write one! (Or for an Avsim reviewer) ^_^ I know that in Full realism mode, you have control of mixture, prop pitch, left and right brakes etc and that they are actively working to beef up the flight models, but I also know that if you are looking for a "15 minutes to start the plane" sort of experience with hundreds of clickable controls, this is not going to be it.

 

My current controls are inadequate to fully test the sim though, since what I really need for a fair go at it is probably a full Ch Products rig, preferably with foot pedals and track IR! (I am considering it!) If I wanted to compare it to something, it might be a mix of Microsoft Flight and Rise of Flight.

 

http://warthunder.co...res/12/current/

 

Anybody else with an open mind and able to answer this better, please feel free to step in.

[japascoe 98]

Ok, checked out yiur link, vid looks pretty but not based on a real-world location by the looks of things - 'generic' asian theatre.

 

I've read a few reviews,I guess I was more wondering what people who like fsx and value realism thought of it. Lots of arcade-y bits there, but how does she fly? I'm hearing so much good stuff about the flight dynamics in dcs, i wondered if these guys had done something special too.

 

The flight model is detailed for an arcade game, but light for a die-hard simmer. Personally I really like it, but it's an online multiplayer dogfighting (and in future tank and ship driving?) game. The flight model is reasonably detailed, and to be successful in combat you do need to use your head and exploit your plane's strengths, which is why I like it. The maps are made for online multiplayer action and are very well designed from that perspective, but don't expect realistic recreations (although I haven't tried the historical battle mode much, maybe that does better in that regard).

The flight model doesn't come anywhere near DCS (at least from what I hear, don't own any DCS stuff myself), but it doesn't want to make me cry either, unlike say, HAWX.

 

To sum up: it's a highly enjoyable game, that's good at what it does, but it is not a hardcore sim. If you want to do anything other than multiplayer dogfighting, and/or want the highest level of systems and physics fidelity, stick with DCS.

[mgh 89]

Meanwhile War Thunder, which is 100% online, shows all the indications of stellar growth. They are now exploring stepping onto steam, and I was just reading this on their website:...

 

Not bad! In fact, if those are truly 500,000 Unique players, then its possible they could already be matching or even exceeding the size of our current community.......

 

Maybe the growth of interest in War Thunder is related to the decline in interest in FS?

 

Public taste changes and there is a much wider ranges of games now available than previously. Although FS has improved techically over the years in princlple it's still the same game it always was. Perhaps getting into an aircraft and flying it no longer has the same general appeal?

[OzWhitey 3,353]

 

Maybe the growth of interest in War Thunder is related to the decline in interest in FS?

 

Public taste changes and there is a much wider ranges of games now available than previously. Although FS has improved techically over the years in princlple it's still the same game it always was. Perhaps getting into an aircraft and flying it no longer has the same general appeal?

 

I reflecting today about the recent increasing buzz about a couple of combat flightsims - and was wondering whether a new cohort of gamers might be chasing realism.

 

When I was a lad, the 'A' titles were combat flight sims. Releases such as Microprose's F-19 would get articles in the newspaper (i remember they said the us government must be worried about the potential security breach the sim represented, being so realistic - funny when you look at the game now, plus they even got the name of the stealth bomber wrong!)

 

I remember two f-22 sims being released in competition, lots of dreaming about simming with future tech - and then it just kind of seemed to lose momentum and become a niche hobby.

 

Rts was massive but doesn't have anything like the buzz it had. Fps came along and that genre is still massive of course - but I do wonder if a generation raised on console shooters might be growing bored of the 'same old, same old'. And whether this is Flightsim's moment to set th record straight.

[HiFlyer 9,359]

To sum up: it's a highly enjoyable game, that's good at what it does, but it is not a hardcore sim. If you want to do anything other than multiplayer dogfighting, and/or want the highest level of systems and physics fidelity, stick with DCS.

 

Historical battles do better at depicting actual locations and are also where the hardcore tend to gather...... But they are not there in large numbers.

 

Last night while playing I saw about 4k to 6k players in cue at any given moment on simplified mode. As you moved up the complexity layers, the numbers in cue declined disastrously until at full realism, historical mode there were about 6 people in cue. What I see there is a ground floor opportunity for this community to show its numbers and interest to developers who have already shown good faith and willingness to accommodate deeper realism.

[HiFlyer 9,359]

I reflecting today about the recent increasing buzz about a couple of combat flightsims - and was wondering whether a new cohort of gamers might be chasing realism.

 

When I was a lad, the 'A' titles were combat flight sims. Releases such as Microprose's F-19 would get articles in the newspaper (i remember they said the us government must be worried about the potential security breach the sim represented, being so realistic - funny when you look at the game now, plus they even got the name of the stealth bomber wrong!)

 

I remember two f-22 sims being released in competition, lots of dreaming about simming with future tech - and then it just kind of seemed to lose momentum and become a niche hobby.

 

Rts was massive but doesn't have anything like the buzz it had. Fps came along and that genre is still massive of course - but I do wonder if a generation raised on console shooters might be growing bored of the 'same old, same old'. And whether this is Flightsim's moment to set th record straight.

 

I always thought the decline of flight sims was inevitable. I entered the whole thing fairly late in the game, but it was apparent then that there were at least two factions of simulation enthusiasts. Casual and hardcore if you will. I watched the casuals fight a losing battle with the hardcore who were constantly pushing for deeper and deeper systems. Thick manuals were signs of success, even as people warned that average consumers didn't have time for games that threatened to become second careers. (Witness the current rise of casual games)

 

People, including myself drifted away as things got more and more opaque, and losing the majority meant less profit to implement the systems the hardcore were demanding. Eventually I ended up just shaking my head at the howls on the various forums as the cancellations and closures began.

 

Flash forward to the present, and we have a niche community that is (mostly) hardcore driven, and wonder why the only sims that seem to capture the numbers of old are not the ones aimed primarily at systems management. I don't think the most successful sims ever really were, except towards the end.

 

Now its almost as if there has been a reset. The casual sims that appeal to mass audiences are on the rise, and once again the graphics bars are being moved forwards while also encompassing a bit more than usual from the simulation side. Will the hardcore participate and not drive things to extremes this time, or will they look away?

[OzWhitey 3,353]

Yeah, that's almost exsctly as i see it.

 

Things were great up to and including Falcon 3. Falcon 4 came out, was buggy but also pushed the realism to a level where many simmers gave up.

 

The old 'serious' sims like gunship or F-19 were actually pretty accessible.

 

The trick, i think, is having full fidelity buried in the sim but then allow it to be progressively removed to make easy modes available for the noobs - so someone actually plays your sim (apart from the six of us !).

 

Sounds like war thunder may have got this sort of right.

[HiFlyer 9,359]

Full realism, to give a better idea of the scenery. I admit to being wowed by this. For the first time ever the roads and buildings and other man-made objects seem like legitimate, organic parts of the scenery rather than alien overlays and roads to knowhere. And everything at such a high apparent resolution that no pixelation occurs even at grass level. It feels so sharp that its almost too much.

 

I know from an interview that MsFlight supposedly had very very high texture resolution capabilities, but don't think they were ever really exploited before the end.