PC Games - Flight Sim...what else?

[ArsE92]

Chaps

The last time I really played anything on the PC for any period of time was Battlefield 2. I'm normally a PS3 man, but have recently upgraded my PC to the below spec:

i5-3470 @3.2hgz CPU
16GB RAM
Samsung 840 Pro SSD
Gigabyte GTX 650Ti 2GB
2 x monitors on DVI

So, I really want to get back into Flight Sim. Is Flight Sim X the 'one to have' these days? Does anyone know of any 'community' websites for downloads and tweaking?

Any other recommendations for games that will happily run on this 'rig'? I've got Alan Wake on the way as I heard it was good and I quite like 'adventure' style games.

What about racing games? Cars and bikes, not fussed really!

I think I'm generally just looking for stuff that will impress me and justify this outlay.

Thanks

[Wayoftheflower]

Stuff like Mechwarrior Online open Beta is free to play and a more simlike shooter. Should like nice on your rig.

As for racing my favourite remains GTR2 for the amazing array of mods available.
Bathurst or Crystal Palace or Targa Florio in anything from a 904 to a 458 GT2 to the Redbull X1? GTR2 will do it.

For action/adventure Deus Ex Human Revolution was excellent. And Fallouts 3-4 and Skyrim are massive and very pretty timesinks.

Edited by Wayoftheflower on Monday 24th June 16:35

[RobGT81]

The DCS sims are about as good as flight sims get.

http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/

[Einion Yrth]

IMHO FSX is no better than FS9. My thief of time for flight simming is Orbiter free, highly expandable and bloody brilliant, I reckon - although admittedly its atmospheric flight model is imperfect.

[FourWheelDrift]

ArsE92 said:

So, I really want to get back into Flight Sim. Is Flight Sim X the 'one to have' these days? Does anyone know of any 'community' websites for downloads and tweaking?

Tweak your FSX.cfg for best performance - http://www.venetubo.com/fsx.html

FSX free community download sites.
http://www.flightsim.com/
http://forum.avsim.net/
http://simviation.com/1/front-page
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/content.php
http://www.airfieldconstructiongroup.org/drupal/ (Freeware UK airfields, Duxford an absolute must)
http://indiafoxtecho.blogspot.co.uk/ - Quality freeware F-14 Tomcat, T-45, F-35
http://www.britsim.com - has the FSX Avro Shackleton
http://www.robertjamesrichardson.co.uk/index.html - lots of British Classics

Recommended environment payware.
Real environment Extreme - http://realenvironmentxtreme.com/
ORBX England/Wales/Airports - http://www.fullterrain.com/ (Scotland on the way)

Recommended Payware aircraft.
http://www.a2asimulations.com/ - Spitfire/Mustang etc with Accusim. One of those special buys. Just one would do as it's the most realistic in-depth around.

There are many others but too much would be overkill.

ArsE92 said:

What about racing games? Cars and bikes, not fussed really!

Best wait a few months for the likes of Project Cars and Assetto Corsa to be released, see here for good news on racing games - http://www.virtualr.net/

[ArsE92]

Wayoftheflower said:

Stuff like Mechwarrior Online open Beta is free to play and a more simlike shooter. Should like nice on your rig.

As for racing my favourite remains GTR2 for the amazing array of mods available.
Bathurst or Crystal Palace or Targa Florio in anything from a 904 to a 458 GT2 to the Redbull X1? GTR2 will do it.

For action/adventure Deus Ex Human Revolution was excellent. And Fallouts 3-4 and Skyrim are massive and very pretty timesinks.

DX:HR - wonderful game and completed on my PS3. Same for FO3 and FO:NV but I couldn't really get into Skyrim. I should give it another chance really but I'd probably play that on PS3.

I'll check out the Mechwarrior game though, thanks.

RobGT81 said:

The DCS sims are about as good as flight sims get.

http://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/

I'll have a look a that, thanks. I'm more into the non-combat flight-sims to be honest! I prefer landing at GCI in bad weather than shooting down Meschersmitts.

Einion Yrth said:

IMHO FSX is no better than FS9. My thief of time for flight simming is Orbiter free, highly expandable and bloody brilliant, I reckon - although admittedly its atmospheric flight model is imperfect.

I'll take a look thanks.

FourWheelDrift said:

ArsE92 said:

So, I really want to get back into Flight Sim. Is Flight Sim X the 'one to have' these days? Does anyone know of any 'community' websites for downloads and tweaking?

Tweak your FSX.cfg for best performance - http://www.venetubo.com/fsx.html

FSX free community download sites.
http://www.flightsim.com/
http://forum.avsim.net/
http://simviation.com/1/front-page
http://www.sim-outhouse.com/sohforums/content.php
http://www.airfieldconstructiongroup.org/drupal/ (Freeware UK airfields, Duxford an absolute must)
http://indiafoxtecho.blogspot.co.uk/ - Quality freeware F-14 Tomcat, T-45, F-35
http://www.britsim.com - has the FSX Avro Shackleton
http://www.robertjamesrichardson.co.uk/index.html - lots of British Classics

Recommended environment payware.
Real environment Extreme - http://realenvironmentxtreme.com/
ORBX England/Wales/Airports - http://www.fullterrain.com/ (Scotland on the way)

Recommended Payware aircraft.
http://www.a2asimulations.com/ - Spitfire/Mustang etc with Accusim. One of those special buys. Just one would do as it's the most realistic in-depth around.

There are many others but too much would be overkill.

ArsE92 said:

What about racing games? Cars and bikes, not fussed really!

Best wait a few months for the likes of Project Cars and Assetto Corsa to be released, see here for good news on racing games - http://www.virtualr.net/

Fantastic! Thanks for taking the time to type all that out. I'll have a look when I get home.

[danjama]

I really enjoy 'il2 sturmovik 1946' (racked up thousands of hours but not as much anymore).

The sequel il2 cliffs of dover is excellent but has a narrow scope and has been abandoned by the developers, though a mod patch is available from the community and improves it a lot!

FSX is quite poor imho, i've given up on it.

The DCS series is excellent, especially the P51.

Try ProjectCars for racing and Red Orchestra 2/Rising Storm for war games. All are brilliant.

Oh and one more word on flight sims - Rise Of Flight. Excellent WW1 based sim, which is immense fun. If you need more info or want to team up online, pm me.

[tristancliffe]

X-Plane is meant to be good. Not quite as pretty as Flight Sim, but the flight model is about 1000x better.

[danjama]

tristancliffe said:

X-Plane is meant to be good. Not quite as pretty as Flight Sim, but the flight model is about 1000x better.

Ah yes, forgot this one. Muuuuuch better than fsx in most ways.

[ArsE92]

Thanks Chaps.

I've gone and bought FSX now so I'll run with that and see how I get on. I had a quick play this morning and for some reason all the graphics had messed up. I had landing lights in the middle of the sky!

I'll sort it out tonight I'm sure and start looking at some of the add-ons.

[thehappyotter]

FourWheelDrift said:

FSX free community download sites.

http://www.britsim.com - has the FSX Avro Shackleton

I'd vote for this one, I might be biased though

Glad you like my site

To add to the Classic Brit theme, check through the forums at CBFS. They're a really friendly bunch and where I spend a lot of my time.

http://www.cbfsim.co.uk/cbfs_bb/

[ArsE92]

Well, I've got it all running nice now at 1920x1080 on two screens, with all graphics turned on full. It looks pretty impressive I have to say.

I completed the first 5 tutorial missions last night and really enjoyed it. There's one where you have to go from Edinburgh to Glasgow in a jet, so I made my wife stand behind me and massage my shoulders like a stewardess as I "brought this big bird down"

I think she'll leave me soon.

thehappyotter said:

FourWheelDrift said:

FSX free community download sites.

http://www.britsim.com - has the FSX Avro Shackleton

I'd vote for this one, I might be biased though

Glad you like my site

To add to the Classic Brit theme, check through the forums at CBFS. They're a really friendly bunch and where I spend a lot of my time.

http://www.cbfsim.co.uk/cbfs_bb/

I'll check these out tonight.