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So I have just noticed how much dust my X52 (yes, those super-fancy joystick) is gathering and I have to ask: are the any good simulators out there so I can justify the expensive thing?

I am looking towards Orbiter, but is there something that is a bit more fun?

Il-2 was fun, if you turn down most of the realism options.

If you just want something to fly, realism be damned, find a copy of Crimson Skies. It's an old game, but the atmosphere and gameplay are excellent.

If you REALLY like realistic flying, go for the Microsoft Flight Simulator series. The latest one, Microsoft Flight Simulator X, has pretty sweet graphics (when turned all the way up) and some fun missions, but they're damn long sometimes, usually 40 minutes or over. A Century of Flight, its predecessor, has a number of historical planes, including the Wright Flyer, but the graphics are pretty shitty in comparison, with urban areas being especially dull-looking. The whole series, however, has hundreds of downloadable planes, helicopters, gliders, and more (like snowspeeders and Ferraris) for each game.

Fighter Ace is a nice downloable game, but offline play is pointless. Even practice never matches up to multiplayer. I've been in some pretty crazy battles that generally look like multiplayer matches in Ace Combat 6, but with more planes and no missiles.

A word of warning if you want Microsoft FSX: you need an uber gaming machine if you want to turn all the settings up really high. But the graphics are so much better than FS2004 that you can have everything set to medium and it still looks better.

so:

- Free:
- Orbiter that you quoted
- ysflight
- Flight GL

Warbirds:
-IL-2 and it's many add-on

- Jetfighters

fun:
Strike Fighter Project One / Wings over Vietnams/ Wings over Israel
60's/70's- era (and earlier) jetfighters; pretty big fan to community.
Multi player is a little dull
- Total Air War: F-22 goodnes by the maker of EF2000

Avionics:
Falcon 4.0 with one of the many realistic add-on or Falcon Allied Forces.
Probably the most advanced public military avionic simulator to date
or if you can find it the best of the category:
Jane's F/A 18 Hornet


Flight Model:
LOMAC + black shark:
Ukraine Vs Russia in Crimea. gorgeous.
the black shark add on is supposed to add a pilotable Helo due for september


Civilian:
Xplane or FSX.
it's really a question of philosophy.

hope it's helpful

Il-2 was fun, if you turn down most of the realism options.

I play Il-2 with most of the important/ fair realism settings turned on - limited ammo, limited fuel, stalls & spins, head shake, clouds, realistic gunnery, etc etc.

Where I turn off the realism is view related- external views are on, as are icons for enemy fighters, and I turn the cockpit off. My reasoning for doing that is that it's simply unreasonable to expect someone looking at a monitor to emulate what a real fighter pilot has to go through when tracking his target* - for the same reason, I turn off complex engine management (I play a flight sim game to shoot down Nazis, not to fiddle with my mixture, the PC can do that for me, thank you).

*Sure, there's Track-IR for that, but I'm not that fanatical to buy that. It's easier to just padlock or push F6, depending.

Civilian:
Xplane or FSX.
it's really a question of philosophy.

A little more detail on this, X-plane has a geometry based flight model including LEO mechanics that are accurate enough to do realistic space shuttle landings (and with some downloads you can fly an Aurora around or fling yourself into orbit with Space Flight One or whatever it's called). FSX models up to 100,000ft now, but all aircraft flight characteristics are separate from the actual model. Not a huge deal right? But what if your doing mockups? It's way easier to do up a mockup aircraft in the X-plane aircraft editor and let the engine take care of the mechanics than to fuck around with FSX's parameters and bullshit. On the flipside, the parameter approach allows you to have VERY detailed flight models, which would require ridiculously detailed and high polygon models in x-plane (tiny stuff like dents/warps in wings and propeller).

Personally, I prefer X-plane, since I mostly mess around with crazy designs and don't want ultra fidelity settings. Also X-Plane runs on Mac OS.

Try the X-plane demo on www.x-plane.com (9 looks nicer than 8, 8 is more stable apparently, never had a crash in 9 myself) imo, and if you find the flight model not accurate enough get FSX. Oh, did I mention X-plane also has a Mars flight model and terrain data?

Damn, sound like a fanboy, end post.

Fun game, if you don't mind paying a monthly fee, is Aces High 2. Two Main Arenas, with any where from 200 to 400 people in them, world war 2, lots of different aircraft, good action.

Keep in mind with the suggestions that I want to use an X-52 joystick on it as much as possible.

Given that you mentioned Orbiter in the OP, I sense you are open to space flight sims, in which case I must recommend your choice of Freespace 2, which is now open source, or Vega Strike, equally open source. Freespace 2 is quite simply an awesome combat flight sim, and I consider it worth the 3GB of hard disk space it takes up. Vega Strike is less impressive, in both its size and its quality, but the ability to upgrade your ships as you like, trade instead of fight, etc etc, make it a nifty game all the same.