The Glade 4.0

A good friend of mine recently put together a kick-ass PC for himself, including an array of three monitors side-by-side, and he's expressed an interest in getting into flight simulators as a hobby. I'm thinking of getting him one for Christmas, so any recommendations for the best / most realistic ones? Oh, and what about controllers too - any good ones out there that look/feel like actual airplane controls?

Fyi for compatibility , I think he's running dual Radeon graphics cards, but I'm not sure; could be nVidia.

Battlefield 3. It's not realistic, but it's the most fun and has great graphics. I'd be surprised if a flight simulator had better graphics than it.

If he's running 3 monitors, you're most likely correct that he's running ATi. The Eyefinity craze is much more prevalent over there than whatever nVidia's equivalent is.

Unfortunately, you caught me at an awkward time. If you didn't have the Christmas deadline, I'd point out that Microsoft is resurrecting their flight simulator series soon with Microsoft Flight.

Short of that.. Hmm. Rise of Flight would probably scratch the itch. It's a pretty authentic and impressively detailed WWI sim that supports a good array of enthusiast hardware from what I understand (not having any serious enthusiast hardware myself).

Again, looking on the horizon a bit, the guys who brought us World of Tanks are working on World of Planes.

As far as controllers go, I enjoy my Thrustmaster 1600.M as it's pretty comfortable and nicely configurable, with a good build quality. But it's definitely a gaming stick rather than a particularly sim-oriented one, and it's not a pedal/throttle setup, which it sounds like you might be looking for. I think only Thrustmaster, Saitek, and Logitech are really even making flight sticks anymore, and they're all pretty well regarded from back in the day. When I was shopping for my current stick a year or two ago, reviews seemed to indicate that Logitech's more broadly marketed sticks' quality may have suffered some in recent years, though I'd be shocked to hear their higher end stuff did the same. I harbor some prejudices against Saitek from over a decade ago, but they're probably the most "serious" of the 3 anymore. IIRC, they were the only ones from whom I saw any yokes when I was looking (not that I prefer yokes, but your friend might, depending on what kind of airplane controls he wants to feel like).

There's another game or two that I don't have direct experience with that I feel like I should have mentioned, but I'm drawing a blank. I'll look through RPS later today at lunch or something and see if I can jog my memory.

And Lex, the stuff I've seen from Microsoft Flight will surprise you, then.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Awesome; thanks, Kaffis. As an aside, I have to say, this is a very sig-worthy quote:

OK, another vote for "awesome" for Kaffis. I love flight simulators, and that Rise of Flight looks pretty fantastic. Played a lot of Dawn Patrol when I was a kid, and The Blue Max is one of my favorite movies, so this is right up my alley. Unfortunately, I don't have a machine
that can handle it, I don't think (or a joystick, for that matter). Downloading the demo now, though, just to make sure.

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Here's Microsoft Flight, Lex.

Click the link and watch the non-embeddable videos there. Webisode 4: Explore is my favorite.

Rise of Flight trailer:

Not quite as visually impressive when it comes to ground texture and structures, but the attention to detail on the planes and the cloud rendering is pretty stunning.

The one I thought I was forgetting that I'd seen recently on Rock, Paper, Shotgun was Air Conflicts: Secret Wars, but now that I look back at it, it's more of an arcade flight game than a sim.

RD, I suppose I should be thankful I didn't talk about the stick's adjustable stiffness.

Rise of Flight is hard to go wrong with. It's a free to play game with a large stable of reasonably priced planes (if you're enough of a buff to have favorites) to add to the 3 or 4 you get for free, and they have frequent sales and bundle options that make picking up a big hangar's worth of planes about the price you'd expect to pay for a retail box if you enjoy the game.

My one problem with it is the voiceovers for the mission briefings range from notably awkward to atrocious. It's made by Russians, though, so I suppose my real complaint is that the American market for combat sims has tanked in the last decade. Well, that, and I haven't played serious flight models in so long that I'm pretty terribad at flying. =)

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Not what you're asking for, but may be interesting:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjEo1CSHluk

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Ron Paul 2012

I don't see the point of a flight simulator where you can't strafe ground targets.

This is what made me first interested in flight. When I was much younger, my grandfather gave me WW2 footage like this below as a birthday present.

Lex, it's pretty simple: not every video gamer's objective is to shoot things or cause death and destruction.

Many people like flight simulators because it gives them a taste of what it would be to fly a plane in real life. These could be people who are prevented from engaging in a career as a commercial or freight pilot due to medical conditions, and/or people whose financial situations are not conducive to taking up flying as a hobby.

Others simply find it relaxing to soar through simulated countryside.

Still others like the exploration aspect that detailed flight simulators can provide.

And so on.

That said, if strafing ground targets periodically is a must, or engaging in dogfights, I do recommend Rise of Flight if you want a taste of what it's really like, instead of the very simplified flight model and aim-assisted BF3 experience. Alternatively, if you want a realistic take on modern weapon systems, there are other series out there, most often showcasing one or two specific modern aircraft, though I think they tend even moreso to be an aging and sparsely populated genre.

_________________
"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

My FIL and my CEO are both huge fans of X-Plane. I believe it's so realistic that it's used in the certification process.

One is a licensed pilot, and one is training to be a licensed pilot, so that that as you will.

Edit: Ah, here we go: http://www.x-plane.com/pg_levels.html

Ooh, I hadn't seen that X-Plane 10 (X-Plane X?) had been released. I knew it was the big daddy of blade modelling, but I also didn't know it ships with an aircraft creator. That sounds.. frighteningly interesting.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

X-Plane is pretty awesome from that standpoint, FarSky ...

But, anyone who isn't learning to fly in a tail-dragger should be beaten about the head with an axe.

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It's a bit older, but if you'd like to try flying an F-16 there is Falcon 4.0. It is however:
H
A
R
D.

And will look a tad dated. For realism, however, it can't be beat.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

Pfft. Do they even make those anymore?

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Holy shitsnacks!

http://www.wacoclassic.com/

http://www.amerchampionaircraft.com/

http://www.extraaircraft.com/aerobatic/index.php

The Zivko Edge

The various Cab airplanes ...

Piper Cubs ...

So, yes, yes they do.

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Thanks for the advice, guys. Think I'm going to get both Rise of Flight and X-Plane and leave it to my friend to buy himself a controller.