StarDestroyer.Net BBS

I'm wondering if there are any simple flight sims featuring modern combat aircraft (not necessarily arcade-like, but not Falcoln 4.0 either). Besides being easy to learn (I'm looking for a mindless time-waster I can learn in less than 20 minutes, not something that requires a twelve-step tutorial and 300-page manual), my only other real criteria is that it be for the PC, since for obscure reasons I have never ever owned a console. Anyone know of one?

Any Novalogic flight-sim, the others I know require the 300-page manual and hours of training.

F-22 Total Air War is pretty cool. I learned it in about half an hours, done all the training missions and was ready to rock, without reading the manual at all.

Any sim that you can learn to play without the manual in only 2 hours is by definition not a sim of any kind. They're arcade games. Good modern combat sims require some effort to learn.

Vympel wrote:Any sim that you can learn to play without the manual in only 2 hours is by definition not a sim of any kind. They're arcade games. Good modern combat sims require some effort to learn.

There's a difference between "learning to play" and mastering the game...

Eg. You can pretty easily learn how to do stuff in F/A 18: Korea in much less than an hour. Getting your skills up to the point where you can live through the campaign is another matter

Sega Strike Fighter is pretty cool, even though i think it's only out on arcade.

Vympel wrote:Any sim that you can learn to play without the manual in only 2 hours is by definition not a sim of any kind. They're arcade games. Good modern combat sims require some effort to learn.

Then I rephrase my question under your definition of arcade - are there any good arcade modern jet combat games?

Eurofighter Typhoon is fairly "lite" and LO:MAC looks to be bringing arcade home to roost.

As far as I'm concerned, most of the Jane's series carry a good compromise between playability and realism. Jane's Fighter Anthology is the one I have (it's o-l-d, though), and it's a really good game. Just one word of warning: don't try to start with the Vietnam campaign. Trust me. Just don't.

For me, the hardest part of any flight sim is taking off (unless they start you out on the runway all lined up) and landing.

Apart from that, all you need is to program a few buttons to the joystick and you're fairly well set after some practice (in gunnery, dive bombing, etc, whatever the game has).

Enemy Engaged was pretty good and easy, though you can only fly helicopters in it, fixed wing is all AI controled on both sides.