Combat games

[Brennanx]

What is the best combat game out their? im gonna buy one and i dont know what.

[ZK-Brock]

Just a hint, remember that they are still counted as simulations, just as FSX is

[Brennanx]

people been talking about lock on. How good is it ? and does the flying feel real.

[ZK-MAT]

IL2 Sturmovik is very well supported in NZ take a look at the KiwiSim forum . There is an active online community that play most nights, Mondays are the busiest.

The latest version in IL2 1946, which provides planes from early WW2 till the end of the war including some jets that never made it to war.

You can play it offline doing missions and get your skills up before joining the fray online with realism settings forced on you The realism settings make you think twice about engaging in dogfights, ensuring you set your fuel, mix, trim, flaps correctly etc. Stalls are common, you need to be aware of what your plane is capable of and so on.

This shot from an aircraft comparison viewer shows the differences in planes, all are modeled in the game to reflect these characteristics.





One Monday, online:

[SUBS17]

people been talking about lock on. How good is it ? and does the flying feel real.

Lockon has some of the best graphics for a jet combat sim and several flyable aircraft. F-15C, A-10A, SU25, SU33, SU27, Mig29A, Mig29S and an addon with the SU25T called Flaming Cliffs. Overall its a good sim and its best played online single player missions and campaigns are quite basic compared to Janes or Falcon 4.

[SUBS17]

As for the FM you have to setup the response curves to get a realistic performance with your stick. You also have to adjust the sensitivity on your throttle if you want to try formations.

[SUBS17]

What is the best combat game out their? im gonna buy one and i dont know what.

If you're into jet combat there is a couple of good ones out there such as Falcon 4 Allied Forces and Lockon Flaming Cliffs. You can get both from VR concepts (AF is $45 good value for money since the original was $200)
VR concepts

AF I highly reccomend as its got good avionics and a dynamic campaign.

[Brennanx]

Thx guys still dont know what one im going to get. Whats the difference from lock on and lock on flaming cliffs?

[SUBS17]

FC is an addon for lockon it features a flyable SU25T and you can get further patches that improve lockon. You're better off getting either Lockon Gold which features both lockon and FC or get Falcon 4 Allied Forces. As far as gameplay is concerned F4AF is a better sim. Both F4AF and LO require the latest patches to run properly. Just for comparison heres some shots of F4AF.

[SUBS17]

You can download a demo of Flaming Cliffs from here and try it out. In the demo you can fly either the SU25 or the A-10. It has trainning missions to show you how to use the weapons.
Eagle Dynamics

A point to note the Lockon Gold was shipped out with a faulty FC disc so if you do get LO Gold and that happens just contact the publisher and they'll send a new disc out. Also FC uses Star Force protection which alot of people don't like but since FC was released I've used it and had no problems.

[Brennanx]

I might buy lock on gold. Where is the best place to buy it.

And is lockon as good as falcon 4 in multiplayer?

[SUBS17]

Some of the differences between Falcon and lockon online are that with lockon you have more types of aircraft that you can fly such as what I mentioned above but F4 you only fly the F-16. You can mod your F4 to fly other aircraft types but it will still have an F-16 cockpit and the flight model will still behave as though it has an F-16s FBW. With Falcon you can essentially do any part of a mission online successfully takeoff, refuel, drop bombs, dogfight, land etc. With lockon its more of a score type gameplay so in some servers you dogfight and scoring is based on how many kills you have and also you can't inflight refuel like in Falcon. With Falcon you can fly similar types of missions or you can fly as part of a coalition against North Korea or Serbia in a dynamic campaign. Every mission you fly has an effect on the overall theatre of the campaign and radio traffic is much better than lockon. Also the AI jets are smarter and you can rely on them to do the mission. Lockons AI is quite dumb and the radio traffic is quite minimal incomparison. Graphically LO is much better but Falcon is better overall as you have much more immersion and flying online is alot more fun. You also have better situational awareness with Falcon due to the F-16s data link. One problem with Falcon is it does require study in order for people to learn how to use it. LO on the other hand is very similar but a bit easier with the avionics. If you get either sim I'll go for a flight with you though I reccomend you get F4AF as then you could fly with some of the guys in my Squadron and do some fun missions.

[Brennanx]

OK thanks for all the help.

[SUBS17]

F4AF is avialable at dicksmiths as well but I think VR concepts is $5 cheaper.

[Brennanx]

Ok so I can get falcon 4. And where do i get Lock On Gold because that site only has Lock On.

[SUBS17]

Try here just remember that if the 2nd disc is faulty that you will have to send it to evolved to get a replacement.
http://www.amazon.com/Take-2-Interactiv ... B00094OT4K
Probably a safer bet to use vr concepts and just get lockon and if you like it then get Flaming cliffs. Also try the demo out.

[Brennanx]

Getting lock on then flaming cliffs costs about $100. And Gold costs $60 or something.

[SUBS17]

Yeah ED is releasing a 2nd addon for lockon later this year a helicopter gunship addon called Black Shark. It features a full clickable 6dof 3d cockpit with advanced flight model KA50. So the price later this year will definately drop again and I'd expect something similar to LOGold out on disc as well.




Check out these videos Black Shark videos

[Brennanx]

sweet. I might get that then, its lockon gold with the helicopter right?

[SUBS17]

No the helicopter addon Black Shark is still in the process of being made so we'll have to wait until it is released later this year. FYI Lockon Gold features Lockon 1.02 on 1 disc and the first addon Flaming Cliffs on the 2nd disc. FC features the SU25T as an addon. So flyable aircraft is F-15C, A-10A, Su25, SU25T, SU27, SU33, Mig29A and Mig29S. SU25T is different from the other aircraft as it features advanced physics and Advanced Flight model.