Hi guys.

 

This is my first post.

 

Just wanted to share an experience I had recently doing some virtual flying.

 

I've been into flightsims for over 10 years with MSFS as my main focus and the occasional foray into X-Plane..and more recently I've enjoyed the superb graphics in Aerofly FS..but soon got tired of its sterile atmosphere as there were no Ai traffic or cars -just me an the plane.

 

Most fun sim

 

Anyway, the most fun I've ever had flying virtually happened a few weeks ago when I tried out Grand-Theft-Auto-Five on PS3. I'm no shootem-up fan, I only dabble in the GTA series for the realworld virtual environments and of course the flying and parachuting etc. 

 

So there I was, sat in my virtual stunt plane in GTA-5 on a dirt runway.  As I accelerated down the runway the plane bumped around realistically and I took off.  100 feet or so in the air the engine was roaring and I had a big smile on my face. Suddenly a bird struck the plane with a surprisingly loud and realistic thud. I climbed higher and was eventually skimming over very realistic mountain scenery..and under bridges..and over the most realistic water I’ve ever seen in any game/sim.

 

As I came in low to land on a strip of beach the sun was going down and busy traffic zoomed on the freeway below in a virtual world that was alive with machines and people and animals and fish etc.

 

I got a real buzz from GTA5 with its fun and fairly realistic flightsim (with realistic touchdowns, heat haze from jets,  rotor- wash from copters). But I also liked knowing that I could land a plane or copter and hop into a realistic car or truck or boat and interact with the virtual real-world that is GTA5.

 

Granted GTA5 as a flightsim can be quite 'arcade' in places: for example, when I landed on the beach the plane stopped much shorter than in real-life; ...and there's a silly glitch that allows you to land planes on sky-scraper’s heli-pad if you time it right (could be fun though;). 

Plus there are no actual cockpits in aircraft (just spot view and some nice prop views and flybys etc).

 

But overall flying in GTA5 is for me the most fun I've ever had in a sim ...not to mention the in-built music..and the potential to have your wing blown off by trigger happy police marksmen in a police copter   And hopefully, if GTA5 is released on PC, there will be lots of aircraft mods and tweaks that could make it even more breathtaking and fun.

 

Whats your most fun flightsim experience?

 

Thanks for reading.

 

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GTA5 video links

 

Grand Theft Auto 5 - low flying

 

GTA5 Jumbo Jet vs Train (quite funny and cool scenery)

 

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It shows how far back in graphics MS left FSX slide. Can you imaging what FSXII could have been?

 

Cheers,

Can't wait for the PC version.

I actually almost did a thread on this...... Then I erased it all. :-)

 

I was thinking about why some sims seem to promote fun and wackiness..... Landing on buildings, flying under bridges etc, and why some sims seem to attract a much more sober audience, and you almost never see any videos of silly things being done.

 

My most fun experience was in MS flight. Several occasions in multiplayer where people just spontaneously gathered to do things like race through Hawaiian canyons, or follow highways just a few feet above the ground. Since collision detection is very very good, just clipping a tree with the tip of a wing is hazardous!

 

Flying under bridges and cranes in groups, playing follow the leader; mock dogfights.........

 

It was not so much what we were doing, but that a group of us were having fun doing it together..... being idiots.  :lol:

 

 

The famous Upolu wind bug.

Love the ambiance in GTA5.
Looks so incredibly good..
And that on a 360 wich is less then my pc in specs...

Damn you Microsoft !!

Can't wait for the PC version.

I know I can't wait for the mods. Pulling up to Kingair in my Ferrari.

Thanks for your comments. I agree with them all.

 

So what most of us really want is a proper and 'sober' flightsim like FSX but with much better graphics and scenery, and with a living world underneath our wings that we can interact with, as per GTA5.

 

Another thing I like about GTA5 is the 'flight-school' section -which is obviously introducing teenagers to virtual flying (makes a change from virtual shooting;) 

 

I enjoyed this video of GTA which shows off the stunning scenery...surely the best we've ever seen in-flight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP_DCg2yj5M

BTW.  I guess this is probably the most dramatic entry into a virtual aircraft that we've ever likely to see ---->

 

 

(Dont forget to watch the very last blooper clip)

 

All in good fun.

 

Enjoy whatever you fly.

Coolness!  I've always enjoyed GTA, sometimes even to just get in a taxi cab and watch the scenery rolling past the window...  Sim in its own right.

> .. even to just get in a taxi cab and watch the scenery rolling past the window <

 

Hi Otter,

 

Perhaps to hop on a plane as a passenger would also be good. Although on second thoughts, being GTA5, perhaps that's not such a good idea  ;-)  --->

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K05XTbwQMeA

TooWings, on 19 Nov 2013 - 05:23 AM, said:

> .. even to just get in a taxi cab and watch the scenery rolling past the window <

 

Hi Otter,

 

Perhaps to hop on a plane as a passenger would also be good. Although on second thoughts, being GTA5, perhaps that's not such a good idea ;-) --->

 

You know what's sad is in this day and age I can actually see turning on the news seeing someone driving on the runway trying to stop a plane from taking off like this. There was a time I couldn't imagine planes purposely running into buildings unless it was from some wacked out video game like GTA. I see why there was a backlash against 'GTA 5' yet due to the state of people's narcissism and lack of concern for others welfare it's one of the highest grossing games of all time. Can you imagine the lives lost bringing 747's down like this? Totally not what I call fun or cool for the simple fact there are people out there that would actually try something like this after seeing it in a game. There was once a time you could look at a game like GTA and pass if off as silly entertainment, that's no longer the case...

 

To your original topic I can see loving the graphics in this game but to say this is the most fun you've had in a flightsim says allot about the gamer in you versus the simmer. It's not a sim if you can't sit in the cockpit and operate the plane like you would a real aircraft. A game has you flying behind the aircraft like a ghost which is the direction Microsoft was trying to take Flight Simulator for years. I'm actually surprise Flight had cockpits in some of their planes although most of what was being released was what your excited about in 'GTA 5'.

.> but to say this is the most fun you've had in a flightsim says allot about the gamer in you versus the simmer. <

 

As I said earlier, I've been flightsimming for over ten years..and I've pretty much done it all. (In fact my FSim career started on the ZX-Spectrum in 1981;)

 

Over the past few years I've gradually lost interest in the rather stale FSX / X-Plane environment and am more attracted to the 'living' environment of games/sims like GTA5.  Again, as I said before, I'm not into the shootem-up side of things or the violence, simply the 'living world', the flight physics, the amazing dynamic scenery, and of course the fun. (and quite a few Avsim members echoed my sentiments about GTA5 flightsim fun).

 

True there are no virtual cockpits in the aircraft, but as I said, if the game comes out on PC then these can be modded. Meanwhile there ARE some stunning 'views' apart from just spot view.  And dont forget, GTA is evolving fast..so who knows what the future holds.

 

The trucks and cars crashing into the passenger jets were, for me, simply a demonstration of the awesome physics and damage engine in GTA5. I didnt see it as a tuition video for would-be terrorists -my mind doesn’t think that way.

 

But anyway, whether its FSX or GTA5 we're into, at the end of the day its all just pixels on a screen; it's not 'real' y'know!  So methinks we need to lighten up here and take a chill pill 

 

Enjoy whatever you fly ..'virtually' of course..

 

.

 

Totally not what I call fun or cool for the simple fact there are people out there that would actually try something like this after seeing it in a game. There was once a time you could look at a game like GTA and pass if off as silly entertainment, that's no longer the case...

 

Oh, so games are the source/enabler of violent behavior?  Just like movies or rock music were before them? While I'm not a fan of some of the adolescent humor in the GTA series, or the wacky (insert a suitable adjective) pursuits some of its players engage in, it has a great deal more to offer than that, which is obviously lost on you.  Every concept and tool can be twisted and used for nefarious purposes: after 9/11 weren't there reports (true or not) that the hijackers had used a flight sim to practice their piloting skills and execution of their plan?

 

 It's not a sim if you can't sit in the cockpit and operate the plane like you would a real aircraft.

 

Only if you're a purist.  Then again, where is the line between "flying around" and "operating the plane like you would a real aircraft"?  How realistic does your cockpit have to be? Do you get to do a 2-man's job all by yourself? And so on and on.

 

 

So methinks we need to lighten up here and take a chill pill 

 

Amen.

*Hugh plane plows into bus and crashes*

 

I Loled.

 

And I barely kill an insect if I can shoo it out of a window instead.......  :lol:

 

But then, I'm pretty sure whats reality and whats not. As are most people, I assume. (Well except for people waiting for MS to release FS11!)  :lol:

 

Its also a fact that I have probably seen several planets worth of people killed in various ways since I was a kid, on television and in movies (and also games) yet strangely I've never ended up killing anyone........

 

Beyond that is the inconvenient existence of a zillion peer reviewed scientific studies over the last few decades debunking direct causal links between video games and violence........ 

You know what's sad is in this day and age I can actually see turning on the news seeing someone driving on the runway trying to stop a plane from taking off like this. There was a time I couldn't imagine planes purposely running into buildings unless it was from some wacked out video game like GTA. I see why there was a backlash against 'GTA 5' yet due to the state of people's narcissism and lack of concern for others welfare it's one of the highest grossing games of all time. Can you imagine the lives lost bringing 747's down like this? Totally not what I call fun or cool for the simple fact there are people out there that would actually try something like this after seeing it in a game. There was once a time you could look at a game like GTA and pass if off as silly entertainment, that's no longer the case...

 

There will always be crazy people doing crazy things, you can't blame that on a video game. If those crazy people need GTA to get ideas then they are clearly lacking imagination and I belive they don't need GTA to do such things. If what you say is true, we can pretty much close down the whole entertainment industry, forbid all violent movies, games everything involving firearms and cars and planes in entertainment. Might aswell forbid simming because someone can use it as training for hijacking 737's and crash into skyscrapers and repeat 911, SIMs would even be more dangerous because it learns people how to handle those things.

Murderers, rapists, criminals and violent people has been around since "Adam" and "Eve" and forbid all things that is fun ain't gonna change that -_-

 

And why spoil the fun for TooWings, wether he sees GTA as a sim/game or not how are we too decide, let the man have some fun   If he thinks he's simming or gaming is irrelevant he just wanted to share he's enjoyment of the game and take a break from all the boring seriousness that goes on in our lives as "hardcore" simmers ^_^ Maybe you could need a break yourself from all the seriousness :rolleyes: I enjoy GTA sometimes too and even like to blow stuff up, get chased by cops and blast the the brain out of people online for fun, it doesn't make me a criminal, murderer or something. It's just entertainment...

 

And also TooWings is new to the forum, why give him such a harsh welcome, was that really needed?