Sow Bob? what's that?

STORM OF WAR: BATTLE OF BRITAIN

Its the sequel to IL-2FB. Currently in Development.

ohhhhhh.

Never bought in to IL-2, though I've been meaning to.

Well if you want the most realistic WWII flight sim, its your only choice.
You can get IL2-1946 for $20. Its definitely worth it. SOW:BOB is still a ways off. You do need a HOTAS system to play it well. And the learning curb is steep, but once you get the basics you'll love it.

I've considered getting Fighter Ace 3.5, simply for the plane selection. do you know anything about it?

Originally Posted by The Other Guy

I've considered getting Fighter Ace 3.5, simply for the plane selection. do you know anything about it?

No. The last MMO flight sim I played was Warbirds.

BTW you can play online with IL-2FB, you just need to download an external lobby client. HyperLobby is the most common. Warning: Some of the online pilots are very, very, good.

Also works with other flightsims, and its free.

I really recommend you try IL-2 1946 if you're into Flight sims. For a 4 year old game it still kicks ass. 300+ aircraft (and variants) to fly. I mean take the Me 109. You have the

E3, E4, E4B, E7, E7, E7-Trop, F2 F3, F7, G2, G6, G6/AS G-14, G-10, and finally the K-4.

Its $20. You7 just need a HOTAS system. Try the Thrustmaster Afterburner II series.

any little stuff? (french, polish, yugoslavian, italian, romanian, finnish, etc.)

Falcon 4.0 with all the patches downloaded was pretty good. Steep learning curve here as well but does modern air combat real good I think. Out of the box it's got a fair bit of bugs.
SAR 3 is a decent little game for those who like helicopters. No shooting, no getting shot at, but lots of air ambulance work among others. There was supposed to be a Vietnam War helicopter game based on flying the UH-1 from the same developer but I don't know what happened to that.

Originally Posted by The Other Guy

any little stuff? (french, polish, yugoslavian, italian, romanian, finnish, etc.)

YES. But the game maps only focus on the Eastern Front and the Pacific.
So for example while you can fly for France, it will only be with the VVS in 1944 not during 1940 invasion. You can fly the Fiat, but only for the Romanian Air Force as the Aeronautica Regina didn't see any action on the Eastern Front. This game is authentic as possible.

The Western Front is only for SOW:BOB. You can expect to see Hawk 75s, Dewoine 520s, etc...

In the FIGHTER career mode you can fly for...

France - Normandie-Niemens Squadron (flew with the VVS). Most Yak-9 and Yak-3.
Poland - Plc Pz.11 then you switch to Russian fighters.
Finland - One of my favorites. You fight in the Continuation War flying
Fiats, Hurricane MKI or F2F Buffulo. Later you fly the Me-109G-2.
Australia - Hurricanes and Beaufighters
New Zealand - Same as above.
Royal Navy - Seafires MK.III

And of course the USN, USAAF, IJA, IJN, Germany and the USSR.

Many others, there are so many different aircraft and varient I have not tried them all.

Careers I have flown:

A German Fighter pilot Me-109E3 later switched to F3 during the inital Barbarossa attack 1941-42
A USAAF, flying P-40Bs and P-40E.
A VVS pilot started with a Lagg-3, then went to a I-16, a Mig-3, and finally a Yak-3

There are also light medium and *certain* Torpedo bombers. the JU-88, JU-87, the IL-2 (about 10 different varients), the HE-111 the A-26, the B-26, the Beaufighter and many others. All bombers have realistic gun stations and bombsights.

This is not an arcade game. All Aircraft are authenticate. I.E, you pull a Zero-G turn in a Russian I-16 and you will not only blackout you will stall the engine. The I-16 had no electric starter (engine is hand cranked), so if you stall, you crash. Thats why most people online specialize in one or two types of airplane. Try to fly a FW-190A-5 like a Me-109G-6 and you will get blown out of the sky.

Make sure you buy IL2-1946it hads loads of new stuff including some what-if airplanes. Aircraft that arrivied to late for the war like the Ta-152 and the IL-2 to the truly bizarre, like the German Leichstien. A VTOL aircraft that uses AtA missiles and looks like something out of Buck Rogers.
The weird aircraft did exist -on paper.

13th Redneck

Make sure you get Falcon 4 Allied Force. Its the same Falcon 4.0 but under a different devolper (the game rights were sold when the original publisher went bankrupt). GraphicSim bought all the rights to Falcon 4 and they have fixed all the unresolved bugs that hampered the original game and added ALOT more content. For $20 its worth it.

The are rumored to be working on Falcon 5.0.

Personally I dont go for jets, I prefer dogfighting.

Originally Posted by the_13th_redneck

Falcon 4.0 with all the patches downloaded was pretty good. Steep learning curve here as well but does modern air combat real good I think. Out of the box it's got a fair bit of bugs.

have it. yes, the learning curve is VERY steep! I still can't get it, even though I've had the game for 7 years. so many flashy lights...

I figured micro prose went under. hadn't heard anything from them in a long time. i'm not a jet guy either.