On a whim I did a little poking around in the Google Play store on my nexus, thought there might be a little something to while away some time on, and came across quite a few little flight simulators. I downloaded Sky Gamblers, and was surprised at how well it flew. It has a cockpit mode, the controls aren’t too bad and it plays surprisingly well for such an inexpensive thing. Graphics are definately 2003 era but on my small screen it doesn’t seem to matter much.
There seem to be quite a few other flight games too, some f-18 stuff, a vietnam era sim that has jets and choppers, etc, that seem well liked by the mobile enthusiast community.
Any gems in here? There are so many at first glance, I’m amazed. The civilian air flying games might be ideal, since the stress of trying to dogfight on this small format is a bit tiring, while some nice casual stunt flying or takeoffs and such might be nice and relaxing. Like this, could be promising?
Devoted some time to both Wings Over Flanders Fields and Rise of Flight this weekend. WWI air sim cage match!
Long story short: I sure as wish heck that we could encourage these two games to mate (maybe a romantic dinner?). Their offspring would be awesome. But, barring any sort of digital hanky-panky, I think ROF is the game I’ll be focusing my energy on.
Of all the sims I’ve flown, nothing conveys the feeling of flight like ROF. There’s just something about the dead sexiness of the visuals combined with a flight model that actually feels like you are moving through the air (instead of just pushing a stationary camera around). It is crazy immersive. And, performance is better with ROF due to it’s more modern engine (though the D3D mod for WOFF certainly helps in terms of performance and visuals).
As for the solo game, I have found that Pat Wilson’s Campaign Generator for ROF creates an experience that is substantially better than the default ROF dynamic campaign and really results in a fun experience with good variety from mission to mission. It’s still miles away from the detail inherent in the WOFF campaign, but the mission-to-mission experience is really not that far off.
WOFF really is a marvel. So many flyable planes. Such a great campaign. Awesome AI. But, I just can’t shake the tangible feeling of flight that ROF provides. With so much time spent taking off, cruising from waypoint to waypoint, landing – it’s that feeling that wins out for me.
The flight model and the graphics for RoF are certainly a step above. But the campaign was just so nice for WoFF. It’s a shame WoFF ate my computer’s lunch, or I’d have given it a lot more time.
Just a small sidebar that RoF may be nearing the end of its service life. The team is probably busy working on the WWII game. They only have one plane up for preorder. I’d expect most major changes in a sequel, if that ever happens. Sounds like the WoFF guys are a bit more active right now. RoF is in good shape regardless.
meh. i want jets. I wish TK would get someone to fork over twenty million and make a triple A strike fighters. Maybe make it into a ‘every kite from 1935 till 2035’ encyclopedia. Dont change much of the game mechanics, just give it all the glitz in the world.
The originally reviewed release was, or so I’ve been told, shit. The post-review patched version is allegedly better. Not that I’ve played either.
The thing is, back in the day, I played the living shit out of Gunship 2000 on my old Amiga. I sure as hell don’t have the free time to dive down that rabbit hole again. Nor the desire to inevitably spazz out on a sim rig the cost of a small car.
This “sim” metaphorically broke my back when it came to reviewing flight sims, or reviewing at all for that matter. I had to deal with Typhoon and Gunship! in close order.
It might have turned out to be good, considering its designers and pedigree, but it was so, so undercooked… you could tell it was basically a “throw it out there before we close up shop” effort.
M1TP2 does need some TLC. That was a great tank sim.
Also a little undercooked IMO, though definitely playable. At least I played it an awful, awful lot.
In fact, an M1TP2 remake is one of my “dream games”: Update it. Tweak/refine the gameplay to be really an RTS with the 1st person sim part “just for fun”. Oh, and add some more 1st person driveable vehicles.
Such a sad end to an era. While early release nowadays is one of the things enabling great diversity and experimentation, in the Great Sim Era it meant the end of a great genre :sadeyes:
I remember scharmers weekly-ish rants about what was going on on the sim-related message boards. you always hated the rivet counters eh. now look where we are :(
