December
2009
To wrap up 2009, here's a list all of the major
flight simulation titles that hit store shelves and digital
distribution sites this year:
Digital Combat Simulator Black Shark,
Vehicle
Simulator,
Jet Thunder,
Fighter Ops,
Rise of Flight,
Over Flander Fields Phase 3,
Yankee Air
Pirate 2, and
Seven-G. Not a bad year at all as some of these were good
products.
Wings
of Prey is a combat flight simulator coming to PC-land by Gaijin
Entertainment. The site offers up game details, screenshots, videos,
features and a user forum.
GamingExcellence scores-up
Rise of Flight: The First Great Air War in their review of neoqb/777
Studios flight simulation released last summer.
Jens "McGonigle" Lindblad over at SIMHQ previews
Hat in the Ring, an Over Flanders Fields expansion from OBD
Software providing 6 new planes and scenery/terrain enhancements,
among other things, for their expansive add-on for Microsoft's
Combat Flight Simulator 3.
Lock On: Flaming Cliffs 2.0 is coming in the first half of 2010
according to SIMHQ. Released by The Fighter Collection and Eagle
Dynamics, this is an upgrade to the original Flaming Cliffs add-on.
A subscription-based MMO flight sim? AVSIM reviews
World War II Online: Battleground Europe made by Cornered Rat
Software/Playnet which is an historical combat simulation covering
1940-1941 WW II.
This month we feature a fine
Boeing/BAE T-45C Goshawk aircraft.
Goshawk headed toward the bay
Extremely detailed virtual cockpit
November 2009
Addit! Pro Tip: To quickly change an
aircraft's description, performance specifications or identity
details simply change those fields while in the Edit Aircraft screen
then press Save.
Ever wonder what happened to Microsoft's laid-off
Aces Studios members? Some of them teamed up to form a new company
called
Cascade Game Foundry, a new simulation game development studio
with many veterans and experts previously responsible for titles
like Flight Simulator, Train Simulator, Jane's F/A-18, Project
Gotham Racing, Halo and other hit games. Cascade Game Foundry
intends to "reinvigorate the simulation market with a quantum step
forward and our products will convey that sense of passion, fun and
excitement that we have always had for the genre". Read the full
Cascade Game Foundry Forges Ahead press release.
Flightsim.com
interviews veteran add-on aircraft designer David Eckert.
SimHQ.com features an article
Apache Air Assault / Apache Longbow Assault, volume 1 of a
Budget Simulations series showing how bargain bin sim titles can
offer a lot of bang for the buck.
A splendid
Cessna Citation X is our
featured addon this month:
Citation X departure from LFPG
Functional 3D virtual cockpit
October 2009
SimHQ.com takes a look at
Logitech's Flight System G940, a complete HOTAS package for the
flight sim world.
AVSIM.com reviewer Jeff Shyluk gives us an
in-depth look at neoqp's Rise of Flight WWI combat simulation.
SimHQ.com's Frank Giger also
reviews Rise of Flight.
Ubisoft updated the recently released
Heroes
Over Europe to version 1.1.
For October we feature a rather stunning
Super Hornet RAAF 20th Birthday:
F/A-18 in flight over the sea
The virtual cockpit
September
2009
GamersHell.com posted new
trailers for Heroes Over Europe demonstrating the game's planes,
environments and ace kills. Also available is a series of new
Heroes Over Europe screenshots.
SimHQ.com has 5 exclusive screenshots of
DCS:
A-10C Warthog, a work-in-progress simulation from Eagle Dynamics.
OBD Software has
updated Over Flanders Fields, a World War I game based on the
Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator.
Be sure to download our newest featured addon,
North American Rockwell OV-10A.
OV-10A over-flight at dawn
Illuminated virtual cockpit
August
2009
An
update to Rise of Flight: The First Great Air War from NeoQB/777
Studios improves the game's UI, adds aircraft, enhances chat and
more.
Gameplanet
reviews WW I flight simulation Rise of Flight: The First Great Air
War giving it 8/10. Out of Eight also
reviews Right of Flight giving it 5/8.
Ubisoft announced they are publishing a WW II
combat flight simulation
Heroes
Over Europe this fall. "The sequel to Heroes of the Pacific, the
World War II flight combat game, Heroes Over Europe builds on the
game's impressive legacy with intense dogfights, a highly detailed
realistic visual presentation and even more online options."
This month we feature
Baron325
Baron58TC add-on aircraft. Be sure to check it out!
The Baron flies low
Nacelles visible from the great 3D view
July 2009
PC Games Hardware offers an article called "Multi-monitoring
for simulations: Holodeck possible today?" which talks about the
proliferation of multi screen setups for gaming and includes videos
of real-life implementations.
IGN.com tosses out a
quick preview of Rise of Flight by Russian developer NeoQB. Rise of Flight,
due out soon, is a World War I combat flight simulation
spanning over 125K square kilometers of western Europe. Reportedly
featuring amazing graphics and highly detailed terrain using an
engine that may be used to create future RTS games.
A Japanese man recently set a new world record for
the
longest paper plane flight. His ambition is to launch paper
planes from orbit and recover them on earth.
Aero
Vodochody L159A
is our featured addon for this month. Enjoy!
Zooming over a rural city
Glancing right in the VC
June
2009
SIMHQ.com's staff is busy reporting on
E3's Expo and
their June 3 report offers up some
flight simulation news. SIMHQ's article
Oleg Discusses What's Next features a Q&A session with Oleg
Maddox and Ilya Shevchecko concerning the future of the flight sim
industry and Storm of War.
AVSIM.com
was offline for some time but they recovered quickly and are now
back along with most of their file library archives. Read more in
Tom Allensworth's blog.
For June we feature a splendid
de Havilland Dash 8-100 in 3 paint schemes:
Dash 8-100 flies over a canyon
Detailed 3D cockpit view
May 2009
Eagle Dynamic's
DCS: Blackshark simulation is available. Blackshark is an air combat
simulation of the Russian Ka-50 helicopter.
A group of flight simulator development and
publishing companies are meeting in Amsterdam to discuss the future of
the third-party flight simulator industry in the wake of Microsoft's
departure.
Be sure to download our newest featured addon,
Sopwith Camel.
Camel in the rain
A view from the virual cockpit
April 2009
SimHQ.com
features a
First Look at Rise of Flight, a World War I flight simulation from
neoqb. From more screenshots, videos and details visit
RoF's official site.
Flightsim.com has another installment of
Where In The World? Number 19 challenges us to identify the pictured
town and provide its real name.
Flight enthusiast Matthew Sheil from Sydney builds the "world's
most expensive home flight simulator" earning a Guinness record. The
cost? Just under $200,000 which makes most home rigs look like a real
bargain!
This month we feature
Hawker
Hurricane IId, designed for use with
Flight Simulator 2004 and FSX:
A Hurricane close-up
Airport over-flight from 3D cockpit
February 2009
There are new support topics offering a solution
for errors when you select addon files during installation. There is
one for
Addit! Pro For FSX and
Addit! Pro For FS2004.
Our comprehensive
Addit!
Pro Support Area
covers a wide range of topics from program installation,
troubleshooting, registration and usage.
Strike Fighters 2 from Third Wire Productions makes Strike
Fighters Vista-compatible.
XSI announces progress and a new development phase
on Fighter Ops.
Rock, Paper, Shotgun posted an interview with Matt
Wagner, project lead for
Eagle Dynamic's
DSC: Black Shark helo simulation. Screenshots
included.
Microsoft told most of Aces Studio (the team
behind Flight Simulator/Combat Flight Simulator/Train Simulator 2),
to take a hike as part of the company's lay-off plan for 2009 which
includes 1,400 immediate job cuts followed by more down the road.
Read GamaSutra's initial report
Microsoft Makes Big Cuts At Flight Sim Studio for more
information. Having flown Flight Simulator since
A2-FS1 for
the Apple ][--packaged in a plastic Ziploc bag back in those
days--this is
certainly disheartening news.
If Microsoft doesn't make Flight Simulator 11,
Boomtown shows you how to roll your own by
enhancing Flight Simulator X using third-party add-ons like
Ultimate Terrain X, Real Environment Xtreme, Traffic X, Active Sky
Advanced, Ground Environment X and more.
This month we feature an
A-7EH
Corsair II Hellenic Air Force in 4 paint schemes:
Corsair on deck
3D cockpit
January 2009
SimHQ.com has an article
reviewing Intel's latest Core i7 CPUs and their performance in
simulations including Microsoft Flight Simulator.
Flight Simulator X still has yet to overtake
Flight Simulator 2004, at least according to a casual poll over at
SimFlight. With over 2,400 votes, 47% chose FS2004 but only 39%
picked FSX. It is a good thing a new version of Addit! Pro For FS
2004 is in-the-works!
Our featured addon for the first month of the new
year is F3D
Skyknight.
Skyknight aircraft
3D cockpit
News
