Originally posted by: Jerm324
Il-2 sturmovik is pretty good. it's a ww2 flight sim though, seems your into more modern sims.
IL-2 series is fantastic.
There are three things you need to buy to get the whole game:
IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles
The Ace Expansion Pack (there is an Aces mission pack =/= what you want)
Pacific Fighters - can be installed as a standalone or as an expansion pack. Trust me, you want the european theater, too, its wonderful.
Ok, that covers WWII
For modern sims, buy Lock On: Modern Air Combat. Graphically amazing, technically accurate, though the flight models seem a bit squirrely at times.
both these games have great online play.
I don't actually own LoMAC, but I've played the demo. They say the demo sucks compared to the current version, and the demo is really cool, so I'm sure its a great game. I prefer the old school of air combat, though. I'd love a WWI sim.
IL2 is probably my choice for best game, ever. Graphical it is amazing. slightly doctored screens look like photos, its that good.
It plays on a less than top of the line rig, too, no problems. I was running it on an Ath XP 2100+ with 512mb ram and a Ti4600, almost full detail, no problems. i've upgraded now, running almost max settings (you can manually edit the water to look a little bit better, its not an official option) at 1280x1024 no problems at all (well, stutters sometimes when things get really hairy). current setup is AMD 64 2800+, 1gb ram, 9800XT 128mb.
offline things are great. not the best in box campaign, its this strange dynamic campaign generator . . . but there are free player-created campaigns that are amazing. Instant action is fun and can be very challenging, allowing for up to 16vs16 battles.
There is a full-featured mission builder included, too. I setup a battle of several hundred little fighters, it was amazing.
Online things only get better. You have some servers set up where its just combat, no real emphasis on historical accuracy, and that can be amazing good fun, low and dirty furballs with planes going every which way and half of them on fire.
Speaking of fire, the damage modeling is fantastic. your plane takes and shows damage realistically, its great.
The flight models give you the biggest feel that you are actually flying of any sim I've ever played, and they are supposedly insanely accurate. I've never flown a real plane, but they match historical data very well.
If you are more into history than mad air-quake, there are several virtual wars you can fly in, that lock full-switch (all realism (difficulty) switches turned on) and give realistic missions and planesets. they track progress, dynamically alter the situation as one side does well or the other side, and track your stats online. It'll take you some time before you are able to fly well in one of these, though.
A note of the planeset: its huge. Aircraft you've never heard of, in stunning detail. There are a few notable exceptions, but not enough to detract from the experience.
there is a 4.0 patch due very soon (this week? They say its always 2 weeks away but I hope for this week) in which we get a new flight model (the FM they are using for an upcoming sim called Battle of Britian, much more detailed and accurate), a couple new planes, and some tweaks for accuracy.
In other words, teh IL2 series is the way to go. I love it.