2014 wasn’t exactly a bumper year for standalone flight sim releases. Apart from the flak-nibbled IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad, and eccentric WWI curios like ILYA Muromets and Canvas Knights simulated clouds had simulated skies almost all to themselves. Fortunately the add-on sector was as vigorous and ambitious as ever. Today in The Flare Path I catch up with five top flight sim supplementers, all of whom have worked their windsocks off this past twelve months. Recently discovered the delights of DCS World or purchased the A380-sized bargain that is FSX Steam Edition? Beware! What follows may pluck at your purse strings.
Here at Flare Path we take flight simulation extremely seriously. When a company like Eagle Dynamics goes to the trouble of releasing a free aerodyne as lifelike and lively as the ‘new’ DCS World Mustang, we believe it’s important that machine is flown responsibly and realistically. If you know yourself to be a hellraiser, a tearaway, a speed merchant, a rowdy, a clown, a daisy botherer or a beret shredder, be sure to read the following Enjoyment Guide before clambering into the cockpit of the weaponless TF-51D.
According to Flare Path’s contacts in Moscow, Obama’s failure to secure Russian backing for air strikes against the Syrian regime had nothing to do with traditional enmity or Putin’s long-standing relationship with Assad, and everything to do with the US president’s unwillingness to publicly state that A)“Company of Heroes 2 was deeply insulting to the people of the former Soviet Union”,B)“Going East’s lack of Kamaz trucks and Russian locations has brought shame on SCS Software and the entire Czech Republic”, and C)“Anyone that fails to back RRG’s WW2 flight sim kickstarter is a massive knob.” Read the rest of this entry »
Times are tough in FP’s neck-of-the-woods. If the illegal logging conducted by fuel-poor locals continues, pretty soon there’ll just be a larynx-of-the-woods. Thank heavens high-quality, low-altitude entertainment can still be picked up for the same price as a lungful of fresh air and an eyeful of superior sunset. After rolling with the rather wonderful War Thunder last week, this week I thought I’d get my free firmament thrills courtesy of DCS World’s Su-25T Frogfoot and SAM Simulator’s ZSU-23-4V1 Shilka. Read the rest of this entry »
Even if you don’t like flight simulations, you should probably watch this. Some trailers give me a migraine, some tickle my curiosity box and many have very little impact on me at all. I press play, I sit back, I watch and then I wonder why it was quite so noisy or why it adds nothing to, or seemingly contradicts, what I already knew about the game it purports to advertise. Since I probably couldn’t even manage to turn the ignition key and check the mirrors in DCS: P-51D Mustang’s intricately simulated WW2 fighter, I’m pleased I can at least enjoy looking at the game. This is one of the most beautiful promotional videos I’ve seen for a long time.
In an effort to weed-out oiks, riff-raff, rotters, fakes, frauds, bounders, curs and cads from Flare Path’s readership, from this week onwards only individuals able to answer ‘yes’ to one of the following questions – Do you rush outside and start scanning the sky on hearing an unusually throaty aero engine? Is your contentment reservoir refilled by the whistling of distant trains? Have you named your children after obscure WW2 Royal Navy minesweepers? Does your ‘If I Ever Won The Lottery’ list begin 1) Quit job. 2) Buy vast rural estate. 3) Purchase Panther tank? – will be able to see the ‘Read the rest of this entry’ link lurking under intros like this one. Read the rest of this entry »
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. Read the rest of this entry »
What’s General Paulus’ take on splendid recent releases like Achtung Panzer: Operation Star and Unity of Command? Does Genghis Khan play anything other than Mount & Blade? Does Oliver Cromwell still believe the lack of English Civil War wargames is the result of a fiendish Popish plot? In an effort to answer nagging questions like these The Flare Path has acquired a SpiritMaster IV ouija board. I’m still ploughing through the manual and tutorials at present. Early experiments haven’t been wholly successful. In preparation for this week’s pieces on the the first Combat Mission: Battle For Normandy module, Steel Beasts PPE 2.6, and Eagle Dynamics future plans, I attempted to contact Michael Wittmann and Chuck Yeager, but ended-up chewing the ectoplasm with Florence Nightingale and Samuel Pepys instead. Read the rest of this entry »
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. Read the rest of this entry »
The Warthog is the best of the planes. No fancy dog fighting, no high-altitude serenity, just a giant gun and loads of missiles for tearing open stuff on the ground below. Boom! And what better subject for Eagle Dynamics’ next DCS game? (They of helicopter fun times, Black Shark.) Lashings of detail on this new simulation can be found here. Some fancy sim toys in there, including a sprawling mission editor. Even more enticingly, you can get your hands on it now via pre-order, as the store explains here.
