By John Walker on January 9th, 2012.
After over 340 years in development, there’s finally a trailer for Microsoft Flight. It’s the reboot of the previously defunct Flight Simulator series, beginning stuck on the islands of Hawaii, but coming out for free. The trailer doesn’t really emphasise the hardcore side of the game at all, so those hoping to find out if it’ll meet their MSFS needs will have to wait a bit longer.
By Alec Meer on December 2nd, 2011.
Microsoft Flight Simulator was dead for a while, but it’s due to return with one less word next year. Microsoft Flight is the name for the rebooted grandaddy of stately, faithfully-recreated aeorplanes, presumably because someone in marketing decided ‘Simulator’ didn’t sound suitably lifestyle. Microsoft Game Studios have been quietly documenting MSF’s progress over on their website for a while now, but they’ve just announced plans to open the bomb bay doors to interested beta testers next month. That all happens here.
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By Andrew Smee on October 28th, 2011.
Take On Helicopters, Bohemia Entertainment’s civilian helicopter sim, has landed. Or taken off. Or remains hovering, terrifying, in the air, threatening to remove fingers from waving hands. Our lovely Tim was quite taken with it and now you can be too. It’s on Steam for $49.99 or £31.99 and is also available on a whole crate-load of international distributors. Tim recommended it for anyone with even a passing interest in flight sims, so fire up those rotors and watch out for crosswinds. The release trailer’s fuelling up after the jump, and features footage of some thrilling low-altitude flights through the tree line.
They Should Have Sent A Pilot
By Adam Smith on October 7th, 2011.
Air Conflicts: Secret Wars plunges beneath the surface of World War II, even though it’s set entirely in planes rather than submarines. What does it all mean, and is the game the sort of terrifyingly accurate simulation that I struggle to get off the ground, or a point and shoot arcade game suitable for a landlubber with no air-legs? And should I have used the term “landlubber” in a non-nautical context? Here’s Wot I Think.
H is for hot-diggity
By Tim Stone on September 28th, 2011.
My left mouse button is confused. It’s just spent five unbroken hours with a Bohemia Interactive game and not once was it asked to snuff out a man’s life. There were times when I felt like asking it to snuff out a man’s life, but as the preview build of Take On Helicopters doesn’t include player firearms, such a request would have been fairly pointless. After the jump, a picture of the man I wished dead, plus twelve hundred words where four -“Take On Helicopters! Gosh!” – probably would have sufficed. Read the rest of this entry »
By Alec Meer on February 24th, 2011.
It is with some nervousness that I attempt to share news of the release of hardcore flight sim DCS: A-10C Warthog. It sounds and looks like a pretty remarkable achievement, but as I tend to start weeping uncontrollably if you put me on anything more complex than Crimson Skies or Stunt Island I may not be best placed to successfully identify the major lures of this beast. That said, it does include a ‘game’ mode as an alternative to exacting simmery, so perhaps I’d not be completely out of my depth.
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By Tim Stone on May 10th, 2009.
When Fighter Squadron: Screamin’ Demons Over Europe touched down in early 1999 it found all the comfiest armchairs in the mess bagsied, all the comeliest WAAFs spoken for, and all the Brylcreem in the local branch of Boots sold out. The previous year European Air War, Jane’s WW2 Fighters, and Combat Flight Simulator had arrived and snaffled everything. Obscurity beckoned until a band of inquisitive erks led by one ArgonV noticed the sim’s mod potential and set to work. The most impressive product of their labours to date – a massive WWI TC – has just been released in a convenient standalone package. If there’s a better free combat flight-sim available, I’m unaware of it.
By Tim Stone on April 26th, 2009.
WWI boffins came up with various solutions to the Western Front mud problem – floating roadways, artillery shells that spread sawdust, boots in the shape of boats, snorkels… By far the cleverest though was a device called the Aero Plane. Essentially a winged car made of kindling, piano-wire and old big-top canvas (hence Richthofen’s Flying Circus) these machines allowed soldiers to fight and stay clean. Rise of Flight, the beta of which I’ve been dabbling with for the last couple of days, celebrates this momentous military breakthrough in an uncommonly realistic manner.
