Hit em lead, pound em!
DCS is having a two-for-one sale, which probably isnāt all that compelling (the bundles are specific pairs of aircraft, some of which you probably already have if youāve been around) unless you want to save 30% or so on the Korean War planes, or 40% or so on the transport helos. A MiG-21 and F-5E bundle might have seen some buy-in from me, but the F-5E is probably too new for a sale.
Another new game coming in the IL-2 series: IL-2 Battle of Kuban. Thatās a battle Iād never heard of before, but there are cool new planes coming, DirectX 11 and VR, and a lot more.
Unfortunately in todayās world of people waiting for games to hit $3 on Steam, theyāve seen support wane a bit, and thereās a pretty honest request for people to jump in on the direct preorder rather than waiting for Steam and sales.
You could also argue that the drop in sales might be due to Battle of Moscow and Battle of Stalingrad not being that different, but in the end, this new version does promise some significant enhancements, and I hope that hardcore sim fans who want to see the few series out there live on will invest in the game and spread the word.
Even though I think the IL-2 series is pretty sterile, Iāve still gotten way more than my moneyās worth trying different planes, setting up quick encounters, and test-flying aircraft to destruction. :) And as a rivet-counterās sim, itās fantastic.
They promised VR for the previous game as well, which has yet to materialize. Comments like āVR (with existing GUI)ā, and āwonāt probably be ready for a few months moreā makes me think I should wait and see on this one too.
When they up their game in the single player campaign environment Iāll throw some space bucks at them but not until then. Just give me a modern SWOTL or EAW I stead of another pretty sim with all the rivets in the right places.
Of more than cursory interest to simmers:
Well, thatās good, I hope. Saitekās support sucked and Logitechās is pretty good.
But Logitech abandoned the joystick market once. (As I found out when I tried to find a second G940 setup.) Hope they donāt do that to the Saitek controllers.
Hrm, Iāve been eyeing off an X-56 to replace my aging G940 does that mean I should now wait? Or is there currently something better out there? I like the G940 but the force feedback ended up a liability, and the stick itself feels really sloppy and imprecise.
Logitech bought Saitek? Wow, maybe their stuff will actually have support and good software now.
Hello good sir, have you heard about our lord and savior, the Microsoft Sidewinder Force Feedback 2?
http://home.arcor.de/wolkov.schitzkoy/microsoftjoy1.jpg
;)
Re: IL-2, I may actually get that: more AI planes per mission, a ROF-style campaign, and a PWCG integration button answer a lot of my concerns with IL-2: BOS.
Then again, I may also just pick up Rise of Flight again.
*hides behind couch pretending to not be home*
I used to have one of these beauties way back when, until one sorry day a drunken house guest somehow stumbled onto it and snapped the stick off. Tāwas a sad occasion to be sure.
But Iām over it now, and these days would prefer something with a pinky mode switch and more hats!
So the three tiers of joystick Iām aware of nowadays are basically thus:
- $40 stuff like this: http://gaming.logitech.com/en-us/product/extreme-3d-pro-joystick
Pretty good value for the money and that joystick in particular Iāve had for like 10 years and it still works just fine. It doesnāt have all the hats and pinky mode switches though.
- $150 - $200 level stuff like this: https://www.amazon.com/Saitek-Flight-Rhino-Throttle-System/dp/B00HHAIY72
Iāve had an X-55 for about a year and itās been mostly good. I will say the build quality isnāt quite as good as I might like (hopefully that will change with Logitech buying Saitek! :D) but other than it feeling a little most plastic-ey in some places than Iād like it hasnāt broken or fallen apart or anything on me yet. I will say that all the extra buttons and switches are cool, but they probably donāt actually work in the way you assume when you first look at it. For example, the switches on the throttle always center when you let go. I had assumed they were 3-way switches, but this is not the case. They do go up and down, but they snap back to center when you let go. Also, learning to set this all up in the joystick software and your flight sim software and making it all work how you want/expect is not an effortless task. It takes a while to get everything just how you want it. And some things, as mentioned before, donāt work how you would expect so you end up having to do these weird stopgap end around things that work the way you want in the end, but arenāt the most straightforward way of doing it. For example, maybe your flight sim doesnāt recognize a certain button on your stick/throttle as an actual joystick button. So then you end up having to make that button press emulate a keystroke, and then set that keystroke to what you want the command to be in the sim.
There are lots of sticks from the same and other manufacturers that are mostly all just different variations on the same main stick and throttle theme. Poke around and youāll find something you like.
- $400+ stuff like the Warthog: http://www.thrustmaster.com/products/hotas-warthog
Basically #2 but the build quality is way more badass. The Warthog is a an (exact?) replica of the stick in the A-10 Warthog. Cool! :D
I sorta gave up on force feedback a decade ago. I remember having a force feedback Microsoft stick in the 2000ās at some point but the gears stripped out or something after a year or two and lots of games never really supported it anyway so I then moved onto the previously mentioned Logitech stick out of a lack of other options. Kinda makes me sad because especially for flight sim stuff the force in the stick would be helpful!
Did I overexplain enough yet? :P
They say the Battle of Kuban release comes with ROF-like campaigns for the three games.
Iām a tier-2 kinda guy for the most part though the Warthog has always tempted me. But itās a bit expensiveā¦
I used to have an X-52 with Saitek pedals, which served me a couple of years before it started playing up. The current Logitech G940 setup is still going strong, itās a solid construction, I just dislike the central play in the stick thanks to the FFB (which is not supported in many games anyway).
Those convoluted throttle base switches, dials, and what have you on the newer Saitek/MadKatz seem like a pain. I like the 4x2 matrix button layout on my G940 throttle, itās real easy to feel for them with a VR headset on:
Simple! Though perhaps youād get used to blindly feeling for the Saitek layout eventually? The new X-56 looks like a slightly upgraded X-55, with extra mini analogue sticks that would be handy for Elite.
The other issue with upgrading this thing is of course the stick, throttle, and pedals all plug together and use a single USB, ever though they present as three separate devices. So Iād have to get new pedals as well, or keep the old setup plugged in concurrently with the new. :P
You can lift up the covers on those colored buttons on the base and put in your own labels. I drew icons for much used functions in elite (deploy weapons, chaff, gear, etc) on clear plastic and put those in. very neat.
The g940 is nice on paper, but theres a known problem with the interior design of the throttle that makes it eat its own cabling with time. Mine has. It was a bear to get right again, and it never worked as good as out of the box. Also sloppy stick, spiky sensors on all axes and wellā¦ meh.
If and when I get to drop serious cash on flight hardware again, I have my eyes set on tier3 CH products stuff. That is said to never break, go sloppy or degrade.
Arenāt campaigns in ROF linear affairs?
RoF has pilot careers with a random mission-like generator. Itās decent. Donāt think I had a pilot that lasted more than a half dozen missions, so in that sense itās pretty realistic :)
Iāve held off the IL2ās since Cliffs of Dover, because I think my computer is getting too long in the tooth for them, but this backlog of WW2 sims is starting to really gnaw at me. And Pacific theatre in the future? Awesome, but I hope they can break away form the traditional map choices. Battle of Leyte Gulf would be neat with hundreds of ships going at it.
See this threadā¦
Huh, I remember reading that and then apparently completely forgot about it. Iāll have to load up ROF to see how it compares to WOFF (which it likely wonāt, but still). Thanks!