By Craig Pearson on January 23rd, 2012 at 10:28 am.
In a previous life, I attempted to play a flight sim. I’ve always wanted to be good at them, but with an ever-increasing flighty fidelity in modern sims, that dream is soaring away into the clouds. So while I’m excited about Eagle Dynamics’s newly announced DCS: P-51D Mustang, it’s tinged with melancholy that I’ll never be able to fly like a Mustang.
Tim Stone speculated that Eagle Dynamics would deliver the legendary WW2 fighter as part of a Flying Legends series, so he’ll be pleased that the long-range escort fighter will be arriving sometime in 2012.
It’ll also help solve that age-old pub fight: ‘What’s better? The Ka-50 Black Shark, the A-10C Warthog, or the P-51D Mustang?’ as the multiplayer with be compatible with DCS’s previous sims. I love that games are able to take history and scrunch it up in a tight little ball like that.
Apropos of nothing: ‘Mustang’ is such a cool word that I’m now adding it to my list of potential baby and/or kitten names (along with ‘Fistbump, ‘Impossible’, and ‘Double-Rainbow’).
Via Blues News.
23/01/2012 at 10:31 Uglycat says:
I really wish for an updated Chuck Yeager Air Combat so I can shoot down Warthogs in a ME109.
23/01/2012 at 10:56 Ephaelon says:
They should now model a Sopwith Camel (only biplane I can name off the top of my head) and then you get got your easy-medium-hard levels in terms of cockpit complexity. Chances are, even in a Wright Flyer I’d still fail at any attempts to fly a sim.
23/01/2012 at 11:40 Big Murray says:
Get a couple of Fokkers in there and we’re good.
23/01/2012 at 13:21 Salt says:
Yes, I’m hopeful that the lack of computer systems in a Mustang will lower the barrier to entry that DCS A-10 has.
I enjoy my time with the A-10, but I’ve yet to fly a full mission where I actually launch a weapon. I guess I always mess up some part of the computer start-up procedure, as it never works quite as it does in the tutorials.
Ah, but a Mustang with perfectly modelled metal levers and twiddly bits everywhere. Delightful.
23/01/2012 at 14:14 tentaclesex says:
Salt:
I know exactly what you mean. I always screw up somewhere in the Digital Stores Management System and fail to set up my weapons properly. I can usually get the big gun on the front churning away, but outside of the tutorials, I can never seem to get the bombs and missiles and rockets to do their things.
24/01/2012 at 09:12 Yammo says:
If you wish to fly WWI planes, then you have to try Rise Of Flight… An amazing WW1 sim…
It’s even Free-to-Play… (Though the starting-set of A/Cs is very limited…)
:)
23/01/2012 at 11:29 Thiefsie says:
Please watch this… it is incredible… both awe-inspiring, funny, alarming, and a little bit green-inducing.
http://www.giantbomb.com/quick-look-digital-combat-simulator-a-10c-warthog/17-5490/
23/01/2012 at 12:07 Ephaelon says:
Friend of mine linked that to me and when I started watching it I told him, “I bet if i skip to the middle, they’ll still be on the tarmac.” I wasn’t actually serious.
23/01/2012 at 18:02 DigitalSignalX says:
I actually watched that entire vid: very very funny.. and scary.. and amazing. Makes me jealous of the people who can do all that both in and out of the game.
23/01/2012 at 11:40 Shortwave says:
Insta-purchase.
23/01/2012 at 11:57 Llewyn says:
Mustang Fistbump Pearson has quite a charm. Perhaps, rather than baby names, you should consider ditching boring ‘Craig’ by deed poll?
This would still leave the option of Impossible Pearson for any future baby, although Impossible might become impossible after adopting Mustang for oneself.
23/01/2012 at 12:11 tigershuffle says:
I knew a Mustang Sally once …..but could never keep up with her
23/01/2012 at 12:07 Matt says:
Kick ass. Now they just need to develop DCS: P-38 Lightning and DCS: P-61 Black Widow and I will shower them with monies.
27/01/2012 at 07:44 NamelessPFG says:
I’m very relieved at not being the only person in the world who wants a DCS: P-38 Lightning in the wake of this news.
23/01/2012 at 12:15 tigershuffle says:
Not played a modern era flight sim since Falcon on my Amiga……find all the fire n forget a bit dull compared to dogfighting in Wings of Prey ….and prior to that IL2.
Mustang looks interesting but still holding out for Gajjins World of …Planes as the beta looks promising :)
23/01/2012 at 13:25 The Tupper says:
The flying’s usually easy. Landing takes a bit of practice, admittedly.
23/01/2012 at 13:43 Ergates_Antius says:
Unlike Spitfires and Hurricanes, there are a reasonable number of real Mustangs knocking about in flight-worthy condition. This means that it’s actually reasonably possible to fly and or own one – one of my life ambitions.
23/01/2012 at 14:50 Brun says:
Aww, and here I was hoping for a DCS: F-15. Guess I’m sticking with Falcon 4 for my modern fighter needs.
23/01/2012 at 15:37 Javier-de-Ass says:
f18 is likely the next jet
23/01/2012 at 18:29 Megadyptes says:
Yeah they’re also working on a DCS: modern American jet along with this.
23/01/2012 at 14:57 BobsLawnService says:
I still want a solid Pacific theatre WW2 carrier based Flight Sim. I miss lining up a good torpedo run against a Japanese carrier in the face of a heavy AA while my tailgunner tries to fend off swarms of Zeroes.
Was Aces Over The Pacific really as good as I remember it being?
23/01/2012 at 15:40 Capt. Eduardo del Mango says:
What was wrong with Il-2: Pacific Fighters (all content obviously included within Il-2 1946)?
23/01/2012 at 16:38 BobsLawnService says:
Il-2 had all the rivets in the right places but lacked a soul.
23/01/2012 at 16:53 Capt. Eduardo del Mango says:
Planes don’t have souls, though – they have rivets.
Sorry. I do know what you mean – Il-2 very quickly became a working compendium of WWII/aircraft/equipment/locations rather than an actual ‘game’ with a character, but if you want to fly Second World War aircraft off aircraft carriers, and launch torpedos at other aircraft carriers, Il-2: 1946 is so bang on the money that “it lacks soul” doesn’t seem like a valid reason to avoid it. The end result is that a lot of the content becomes user-generated – that is, user created missions, or playing multiplayer planes and carriers – but it’s still top notch.
Whether or not Il-2: 1946 has a ‘soul’ is, I’d have thought, necesarilly secondary to whether or not Il-2: 1946 can recreate Wildcats launching from a carrier and, then, whether Wildcats launching from carriers is awesome.
Wildcats launching from carriers is awesome. Il-2: 1946 does the best available job at recreating Wildcats launching from carriers. Il-2: 1946 is awesome.
23/01/2012 at 15:04 Baytor says:
As much as I like DCS:A10C, I think mechanical controls and a HUD limited to “bullets go in this direction” is much more my level.
Bit of a shame they didn’t plump for the P47, just for the novelty of CAS then-and-nowness. Also, nobody called the P47 the Thunderbolt either.
23/01/2012 at 20:11 Arglebargle says:
A pair of P51s were used as chase planes for the Huey Cobras when they were in their shakedown phase. They were also used to impress the visiting brass….
24/01/2012 at 01:44 Durkonkell says:
The alt-text made me smile!
I’m glad that the DCS games exist, but I don’t believe I’d ever be able to actually play them. Quite aside from anything else, I don’t have a joystick…
24/01/2012 at 09:20 Yammo says:
For anyone having problems with the DCS A10C weapon systems… If you are able to start, take off, land and shut the plane down… then it is high time to find some online people that can help you out. We’re usually helpful and friendly… Usually… ;)
Or you could enter this contest and hope to win some tutoring lessons along with the Warthog Joystick. :)
http://www.virtualredarrows.com/