Is There a Simulator Mode? Difficulty Options? Any Way to Get the F4 Phantom Today?

[SlipNSlyde]

I am looking for a flight game that has a semi serious simulator mode and modern graphics.
I would prefer to fly the F4 Phantom.
I want to fly from cockpit view.
I would prefer a Vietnam campaign.

Does this game have a simulator mode? From what I have seen its quite arcady.
Does high difficulty mode force cockpit view?

Also, is the F4 Phantom available in any way now since the pre-order special is off?

If not, can anyone recommend any games that might fit my requirements? Thanks.
Considering:
Arma (but F4 is still missing I think)
IL2 Sturmovik with mods
Strike Fighters 2 with mods

[dishmechanic]

IL2 1946 with BAT seems to scratch most of your itches. The graphics ARE a bit dated but with the various modules it will let you fly anything from WWI, 1920s race planes, WWII stuff, all the way up to the F/A 18 hornet. I dont recall if they specifically have an F4 in the Jet age module or not off the top of my head I can only remember the A4, and Mirage III.

[SlipNSlyde]

Originalmente postado por donbit:

Are you familiar with “Wings over Europe” Cold War gone hot.? A little dated but an excellent sim for immersive ness and has the Phantom.
This was my first AC experience so it was kind of a rude awakening. Been playing flight sims since 1989 not a console gamer. First game ever I wasn’t able to plug in my joystick and just use it, even with other arcade like sims ie Crimson Skies and SWON were all joystick supported. The one thing I can say is that with my GeForce 1080 the graphics are jaw dropping. I went ahead and bought a Gamepad at the local gaming store for twenty bucks and works fine yes there are workarounds to get a stick working but with this game I can see where one would not really be an advantage.
The missions are timed and plane physics aren’t all that great throttle up go fast throttle down go slow it is fun to just fly and blow up stuff and not worry about all the tinkering in a true sim. I think since they ported it for the pc I think a lot pc guys thought it to be more sim like but it’s just a game

Thanks for the info. I have the same impression of AC. Seems great for the arcade crowd. If you can stand not using a joystick. The graphics really look great.

Wings over Europe led me to Wings over Vietnam. Both look worth checking out. I can only hope there are texture patches and mods to make the ground especially a little richer, but that's not a deal breaker.

How would you say the Wings games compare to Strike Fighters 2.
Have you played both? Thanks.

[SlipNSlyde]

Originalmente postado por Lafettie:

Warthunder.

I played it plenty. Probably too much.
The ultra nationalistic community, and pro German anti American bias left a bad taste in my mouth. The toxic moderators and unethical sleazy developers with all their constant ninja buffs and nerfs, bottomless pay to win, and constant flight and damage model changes not for realism but to keep you always wanting to grind something new, also left a bad taste in my mouth. I don't believe I'll ever play another F2P game after War Thunder.

[⚡Snake⚡Plissken⚡]

Originalmente postado por SlipNSlyde:

Originalmente postado por Lafettie:

Warthunder.

I played it plenty. Probably too much.
The ultra nationalistic community, and pro German anti American bias left a bad taste in my mouth. The toxic moderators and unethical sleazy developers with all their constant ninja buffs and nerfs, bottomless pay to win, and constant flight and damage model changes not for realism but to keep you always wanting to grind something new, also left a bad taste in my mouth. I don't believe I'll ever play another F2P game after War Thunder.

I went to play it, when it asked me to bind all my controls to my T.1600m I promptly uninstalled it.

[SlipNSlyde]

Originalmente postado por Scary Barry:

I would stay clear of DCS if I were you. The free stuff is great, but the paid content is heavily bugged and unfinished crap, and nowhere near the level of the free stuff. You'll save yourself lot of headaches by just going for a classic flightsim and run it in Compatibility Mode, or buy it through GOG.

Interesting info on DCS, thanks.
By the way I did ask the developers in the forums about a Vietnam campaign with Vietnam era jets. The answer I got is that they are working on the F16c which alone should take about 2 more years and they might have the F4 Phantom in about 4 years. I couldn't help but laugh. They were dead serious.

[SlipNSlyde]

Originalmente postado por Scorch:

Originalmente postado por SlipNSlyde:

They were all 'flight sims' but were nothing like DCS today.
They had cockpit view, realistic flight models, joystick required.
But there was one button engine start, and all weapon and targeting system commands were on keyboard and fairly simple.
In other words there were casual sim compared to flight simulators of today.

The latest games I can recall, which could fall under your classification, is BAT mod with jet fighters for IL2 1946, and Strike Fighters 2, also preferable with mods.

BTW, AC7 is the only freaken arcade flight game about modern jets, which was released on PC in the last six years, so saying that "everything" in this genre is pure arcade or a hardcore sim is a bit stretch.

The BAT mod looks pretty good. I'll check it out. Also curious how do you feel it compares to Strike Fighters 2?

There are other arcady modern jet games if you consider the flight component of Battlefield and Call of Duty games and the like. But like you say, not much supply for sure. That and stuff like DCS sure leaves some big gaps in the industry.

[SlipNSlyde]

Originalmente postado por Snake Plissken:

Originalmente postado por SlipNSlyde:

I played it plenty. Probably too much.
The ultra nationalistic community, and pro German anti American bias left a bad taste in my mouth. The toxic moderators and unethical sleazy developers with all their constant ninja buffs and nerfs, bottomless pay to win, and constant flight and damage model changes not for realism but to keep you always wanting to grind something new, also left a bad taste in my mouth. I don't believe I'll ever play another F2P game after War Thunder.

I went to play it, when it asked me to bind all my controls to my T.1600m I promptly uninstalled it.

Getting a working configuration can be a daunting task in War Thunder.
But like I say it isn't the reason I left. More like the unenjoyable experience as a whole designed to squeeze your wallet literally forever, the shady sleazy developers, and toxic moderators, and extreme nationalistic alt right European community. Ask why the over the top German bias and 'kek' and 'reeeee' are the typical response you'll get. Not for me.

[SlipNSlyde]

Originalmente postado por dishmechanic:

IL2 1946 with BAT seems to scratch most of your itches. The graphics ARE a bit dated but with the various modules it will let you fly anything from WWI, 1920s race planes, WWII stuff, all the way up to the F/A 18 hornet. I dont recall if they specifically have an F4 in the Jet age module or not off the top of my head I can only remember the A4, and Mirage III.

Another vote for IL2 with BAT mod. It sounds pretty appealing.
By the way is there both campaign and PVP?

[dishmechanic]

Just had a look So you you can fly the F4 B,C,D,E J,N, and S variants, I believe that you can do some multplayer dog fighting, but I have no idea how comprehensive it is, or how populated. I just remember a brief mention of it. you can also tweak the mission during the breifing so you can go up against what ever you like, and does have ground attack missions. heck, can even fly helicoptors, or fly a FAC piper cub during the Khe Sahn Tet offensive in 68 you mentioned having a preference for Vietnam stuff you you may get a kick out of that?

[Too Many Urkels On Your Team]

ARMA 3 with Air Cav Vietnam and Unsung Mods might be up your alley. But you'll need a fast CPU, GPU is mostly irrelevant to ARMA, it's all bout them CPUs.

[Steve C.]

ARMA 3 is decent with helicopters, but I find the view distances way too short even at the max settings for realistic fixed wing missions.

[Too Many Urkels On Your Team]

Originalmente postado por Steve C.:

ARMA 3 is decent with helicopters, but I find the view distances way too short even at the max settings for realistic fixed wing missions.

Sure, but if you want semi-sim, F4 usage with modern graphics, where else do you turn?

[kkang2828]

Originalmente postado por SlipNSlyde:

I am looking for a flight game that has a semi serious simulator mode and modern graphics.
I would prefer to fly the F4 Phantom.
I want to fly from cockpit view.
I would prefer a Vietnam campaign.

Does this game have a simulator mode? From what I have seen its quite arcady.
Does high difficulty mode force cockpit view?

Also, is the F4 Phantom available in any way now since the pre-order special is off?

If not, can anyone recommend any games that might fit my requirements? Thanks.
Considering:
Arma (but F4 is still missing I think)
IL2 Sturmovik with mods
Strike Fighters 2 with mods

Sadly, there is NO game right now that matches your criteria. IL2 1946 with BAT and Strike Fighters 2 with mods come close, but the graphics are not 'modern'.

DCS's survey sims(Su-25T, LO: FC3, and the planned Modern Air Combat) don't have Vietnam War era content.

War Thunder only just got the F-100 and the Mig-19. By the way, describing WT as P2W is a bit too much. The WT playerbase is very anti-P2W(I mean P2W in its truest sense). WT may be a grindfest, but it's not P2W.

Your best option might be waiting for WT to get to the Vietnam era and then finding some people to play custom battles with.

I, like you, am a casual sim player and I too grieve the fact that the genre has become a niche. But IMHO all the old-school sims that you mentioned weren't casual sims by design. Rather, they were 'simple' because of the technological limitations of the time. They are casual sims only by hindsight. They were trying to become something like DCS, but the PCs back then didn't have a hope of running such a complex game. At the time of their release, games like USAF and USNF 97 were state-of-the-art hardcore sims. But now with something like DCS at the top, the old sims have become 'casual' by comparison.

At least that's what I think.

[Too Many Urkels On Your Team]

Originalmente postado por kkang2828:

I, like you, am a casual sim player and I too grieve the fact that the genre has become a niche. But IMHO all the old-school sims that you mentioned weren't casual sims by design. Rather, they were 'simple' because of the technological limitations of the time. They are casual sims only by hindsight. They were trying to become something like DCS, but the PCs back then didn't have a hope of running such a complex game. At the time of their release, games like USAF and USNF 97 were state-of-the-art hardcore sims. But now with something like DCS at the top, the old sims have become 'casual' by comparison.

Not at all. Falcon 3.0 and 4.0 was/is pretty close to what DCS was/is today. Apache Longbow in 1995 was hardcore with all the realism stuff turned on too. USAF and USNF 97 were never "sims". Hell, USNF had a fully acted FMV plot. That's not "sim".

Look athe manual for Falcon 3.0 (not 4.0) http://lucasabandonware.free.fr/manuels/Falcon%203.0.PDF

You're just mis-remembering or never played the truly hardcore stuff back in the late 90s.

[Too Many Urkels On Your Team]

Another example of this crazy notion that flight sims back in the day weren't "hardcore":

From the manual for F-14 Fleet Defender (MicroProse 1994): Because of the complexity of the F-14’s weapon and flight control systems there are well over a hundred different key commands. Each command performs a unique function and is activated by the touch of a certain key or combination of keys on your keyboard.

https://steamcdn-a.akamaihd.net/steam/apps/328930/manuals/Manual.pdf?t=1486753153

That game modeled air density to affect flight performance and things like aspect angles for radar returns in 1994.