Best *modern* combat flight sim/game?

[Spud1]

Well i'm off into town in a few hours, and fancy picking up a decent combat flight sim game for a bit of fun.

I'm pretty much clueless about which game to get though..or even whats out there. The last combat flight sim I played was simply called 'F16' and was in true EGA colour! That was a great game, flying my F-16 over tripoli shooting down migs with a truely old-school joystick a good 12 years ago.

So whats good at the moment? I'm talking modern games only here..where you predominately fly Jets (so no WW2 based games please..)

Cheers

[Flibb]

lockon is the latest one I have played, but its bloody difficult. After a couple of months I finally managed to work out the radar systems. Havent played in a while though, so havent a clue as to what updates are around for it.

You really want a good stick for this, preferably with loads of buttons.

[frosty15]

Not a desk joc myself, but apparently - Lock On: Modern Air Combat sounds your best bet.
take a look

[Spud1]

Looks good..willl read up a bit on it cheers

Flibb I have loaned an X-45 for a while so I have a fairly decent stick/throttle..will probably be buying my own X-52 in the next month or two tho when my friend decides he wants his 45 back

Keep the suggestions coming though, always good to have a choice.

[BUFF]

Depends what exactly you want - if you want a realistic study sim (that will have a serious learning curve needing hours of study) then LOMAC & F4 Allied Force are the 2 best.

If you want something a bit easier (& arguably more fun) then look at the series of sims from Third Wire - they're available cheaply if you look.
Also massively modifiable with hundreds if not thousands of user addons & mods.

[Koolpc]

Lock on looks the best to me.

[yamangman]

There isn't one quite frankly. Lock on is bug ridden, even with latest patches and addons, and you'll only find the original in the high street (if you're lucky). It runs like, well, poo too. Fighting with the AI is extremely dissapointing, but that is pretty much what lets down all games for me. You're only other alternative is F4:Allied Force, which is a souped up 10 year old game that still looks like crap, and is, in all honesty, a million times harder than Lock On. I mean seriously, even if you were under the impression you were a aviation fanatic, unless you have 6 months non stop to invest it'll just gather dust. If you enjoy a game for it's technical ability and undertaking however, nothing really comes close.

Lock on is good for a blast, but with zero depth (even if it does model relatively complicated avionics and flight parameters). F4AF is an extraordinary game, but I can almost guarantee without knowing you in the slighest that you won't enjoy it, at all.

[kstanley7]

Enemy engaged 2 is pretty decent!
I've always been into flight sims, lomac is well pants by my books. There has yet to be a decent flight sim that involves flight and fight. But saying that.. microsoft flight x and x-plane are not bad for flying. If your into other simulators that involve fighting, I would recommend silent hunter 4.. which you command a submarine during world war 2. pretty decent game which I can't get enough of

[BUFF]

Originally Posted by kstanley7

Enemy engaged 2 is pretty decent!

you're kidding?
that's been roundly panned everywhere - big disappointment.
e.g. http://www.simhq.com/forum/ubbthread...=1#Post2220095

[kstanley7]

I just love the graphics. but each game is in it's own taste preferences.

[boebi]

If you want realism:
Flight Simulator X Deluxe (i got it, quality is WOW, if you can run it at max gfx, i can )
If you want realism but fighing:
F16 Falcon

[Sair33]

Originally Posted by Spud1

....(so no WW2 based games please..)

... you're missing out!

[Optical668]

Yeh lockon is great although as said it runs pretty poor even on a hardcore rig, but the best thing to do is to print off all the controls for the keys cause theres alot to understand and some need like Ctrl+Shift+A for stuff and Ctrl+Alt+A for something else, i sat on the parking area for about 10mins once trying to find the engine start key, as for the weapons system thats another story all together and after like a few days not playing it i pretty much forgot all the keys and had to go thru all the **** again so i printed the key mappings off which was something like 5 pages long.