Which flight-sim is best at...

[Zipper730]

1. Simulating accurately piston driven aircraft from WWII
2. Simulating accurately gas-turbine driven aircraft
3. Simulating accurately both

 

[pirate_smee]

In my opinion:

Piston Engines:
IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover Blitz Edition and DCS (Digital Combat Simulator)
after these two IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of ......

Jet engines:
DCS Moduls (not Flamming Cliffs 3) and Falcon BMS 4.33.5 (20 years and still kicking)

For both there is only DCS.
What DCS lacks, is the amount of WW2 aircraft, but they are coming.
For the most accurate aircraft you have to buy the modules, but the price is in my opinion fair.

If you want to start with flight sims and first want not to spend much money try out:
Chucks Guides will help you a lot to get a grip on the different aircraft's

DCS with the free SU-25T and the P-51, I love the AV-8B wait for summer sales or discounts around Christmas time.
Fly on Dynamic DCS there are a lot of nice people there

Falcon 4.0 you can't get wrong with that, fantastic dynamic campaigns and a lot of scenery's and campaign from the community.
Falcon BMS 4.33.5 free mod, I hope Falcon BMS and DCS merge to one great Simulation

IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover Blitz Edition on steam or try G2play, I find it more accurate than the Il-2 Battle of......
but Cilffs over Dover is a little bit more challenging to start with, because there is no preset settings for your Stick, throttle and pedals at first.
There is an issue if you bought the Il-2 Battle of...... games on third party websites like g2play, steam deactivated these games.
Mine too, but I only bought an single aircraft on g2play, so be careful with it.

 

[Zipper730]

Piston Engines:
IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover Blitz Edition and DCS (Digital Combat Simulator)
after these two IL-2 Sturmovik Battle of ......

In what way is Il-2 better than DCS and vice-versa?

For both there is only DCS.
What DCS lacks, is the amount of WW2 aircraft, but they are coming.
For the most accurate aircraft you have to buy the modules, but the price is in my opinion fair

How hard are the modules to download? Are they the the type that automatically download themselves?

If you want to start with flight sims and first want not to spend much money try out:
Chucks Guides will help you a lot to get a grip on the different aircraft's

Thanks

 

[dogsbody]

I still play my CFS3 once in a while. I use a Microsoft Sidewinder Precision 2 joystick. Is it the best? I can't say as it's the only one I have ever used. I like CFS3 as it seems fairly accurate. I have also added the Firepower program to it.
I used to play Il-2 Sturmovik flightsim but when I bought a new PC a number of years ago, the 'puter wouldn't recognize it. I tried playing Il-2 Sturmovik Birds of Prey on the wife's Wii but I couldn't get used to the Wii controller and couldn't get a joystick that would work with Wii.

So, for me, it's CFS3 or nothing.



Chris

 

[pirate_smee]

In what way is Il-2 better than DCS and vice-versa?

Aircraft:
IL-2 has more flyable aircraft, please check chucks guide for Cliffs over Dover and Blitz addition adds these aircraft

followed by IL-2 battle of .... view the wiki entry, but you have to purchase all modules and aircraft to fly all the aircraft

DCS has currently these three WW2 aircraft but also many Jets and Helicopters but you have to pay for each of them, sadly summer sale is just over
Before you buy some Jets read this

Spitfire LF Mk. IX,
Fw 190 D-9 Dora,
P-51D Mustang

Accuracy:
In my opinion DCS has the most accurate modeled aircraft systems and IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover Blitz Edition is more accurate then Il-2 Battle of ...., all three compared at highest difficult / simulation level. In DCS and Blitz you have to push every button with the mouse in the cockpit to start your plane, in Il-2 Battle of... you only press start and an automatic system starts the engine for you. Please again check Chucks Guides or watch startup videos on Youtube

Graphics:
DCS 2.5, followed by IL-2 battle of ...... and last IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover Blitz Edition compare them yourself by watching the videos

Maps:
IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover Blitz only the Channel map

IL-2 Battle of Stalingrad: Stalingrad and Velikie Luki Basic game
IL-2 Battle of Moskow: Moskow
IL-2 Battle of Kuban: Kuban

DCS:
Caucasus free
Persian gulf
Normandy like Cliffs over Dover
Nevada

Servers:
DCS and IL-2 Battle of .... you will find most of the times some full servers
IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover BLITZ you will find some good filled servers on the weekend

Community:
There are all most no A-holes, behave and you will be treated well.
Not like many other multiplayer games. These games are for team players.

How hard are the modules to download? Are they the the type that automatically download themselves?

Very easy in IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover Blitz Edition all aircraft are installed with the game and added witch the patch.
In IL-2 Battle of .... you have to activate the Key for an aircraft or module on the official website.
In DCS you can activate the key in the start up menu by selecting the Icon. After adding the key the modules are downloaded automatically or at the next game start, be aware the basic installation of DCS 2.5 uses 120GB + Add-ons, my installation has currently about 200GB .

If you have no experience with flight sims you may also try War Thunder in Realistic and Simulator Mode, it isn't so accurate like the game above, but is nice for a quick spin.
What I don't like on War Thunder you have to train abilities of your crew and you have to research the aircraft, but have a lot of aircraft. There are nearly no campaigns.
Most mission on the DCS and Il-2 multiplayer servers take 45 minutes - 2 hours, you have to start you plane, wait to calibrate you instruments, climb, get to your target, fight and get back, rearm.
In War Thunder each match only takes 10-20 Minutes.
I use War Thunder for a quick match in the week and DCS or IL-2 on the weekend.

There will be also a spin off of IL-2 Cliffs over Dover Blitz by Team Fusion in the north African theater
flyable Aircraft Team Fusion 5.0

As you see there is no best Simulation, you can chose and play what suites you best.
This comparison may also help you, be aware this is for DCS 1.5 and Cliffs over Dover Basic game, the Blitz Edition includes all Team Fusion Mods and is an on click install

 

[Mungo60]

I agree with above , for me DCS is the ultimate Flight Sim for the Spitfire LF Mk. IX, Fw 190 D-9 Dora, P-51D Mustang and now the Yak 52, these are excellent flight models and require practice and patience, IL2 is my second favourite and is not as "controller" intensive. With DCS it becomes addiction, and with that comes VR, pedals, Joysticks, throttles, button boxes, HOTAS, hacked collectives and bits and pieces - can be very expensive. As in my case below ............

 

[Milosh]

Doesn't DCS have the Bf109K-4?

 

[GrauGeist]

The problem I had with IL-2, was that any mods you did to your program had to be replicated by anyone wanting to fly multiplayer with you.

With CFS3, your add-ons were seen by other players as long as they fell within the SDK's perameters. For example: you could add payware or freeware aircraft and your team mates or opponents' program would recognize it, like Mudpond 1% aircraft, which were amazingly detailed both in presentation and performance.

 

[Mungo60]

Yes Milosh, the DCS Kurfurst is a great model and is beautifully made, heres the official vid that was made when it was released
View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n68o3zyXLv4