King_Hrothgar

It works and does exactly what it advertises. The problem is the game is based entirely on novelty, which wears off after maybe an hour. On the bright side, it is only $5 or so on steam, so I'm generally happy with this purchase.

I'm a big DCS fan and I like WW2 air combat in addition to the modern stuff, but DCS is not a WW2 sim. The AI, damage modeling and overall content of the game simply don't support that. I find the flight model and graphics of the Fw-190D9 module to be good, but it is a plane in isolation. If you want a reasonably realistic Fw-190D9 airshow simulator, this is for you. If you want a combat flight sim though, you're better off looking else where. DCS just doesn't deliver for WW2 aircraft at this time.

I initially gave this a 6/10 when it was released as I thought it had a lot of potential despite shallow initial game play. I no longer believe it has any potential. The reason for this is the series of updates made to it over the last 7 months. The updates themselves aren't spectacularly bad, they just don't fix the core problem of shallow game play. The developers don't seem to realize this is a problem. Going into specifics, here's the break down: Combat: The ships are slow and not very nimble. This makes combat fairly slow paced compared to other flying games. Whether you look at something arcade-ish such as War Thunder or the hardest of the hardcore, such as DCS or IL2, the game is just slow and overly easy. Most weapons are turreted, thus removing aiming and when combined with low speed and little maneuvering, there just isn't much to it. It isn't tactical or strategic either, so there really isn't anything going for it. Trading is equally simplified. The items a player can trade do not serve any in game purpose other than being trade goods. Trading useful items such as ships, modules and ammo is not possible except at a loss. Additionally, items cannot be traded between players. Exploration is basically just a timer when all is said and done. To to exploration, jump to a system that's "unexplored" and fire your scanner. 5 seconds later, point your ship at each object in the system one at a time for 10-30 seconds to get a detailed scan. That's it, the end. The various other professions aren't any deeper. The end result is a pretty game that could have been amazing if the developers hadn't been living under a rock for the last 30 years. But they were, and so it's ultimately just a cross between Asteroids and Pac Man. And to make it worse they decided the players are too dumb for that so they simplified it.

Welcome to DCS: Buttons. This thing requires a million button presses to fire an unguided rocket. Of course, you can't blame DCS for that. I suggest you write your complaint to Fairchild Republic. This module is a wonderful representation of the A-10C in all it's needlessly complicated glory. The cockpit art, sounds, and details are all top notch. This module includes all the basic features you'd expect including: interactive training, a campaign, some single missions and a bunch of skins for the plane. Everything works fairly well in this module and I can't say I have any complaints. That said, I do not recommend this as a first DCS module. Not because the module is lacking but due to the complexity of the plane itself. This is the single most complicated plane in DCS to operate. And I mean that by a lot. The plane itself is easy to fly, but that doesn't do much good when you have no clue how to fire off a missile at that shilka shooting at you. This is a great 2nd module though and I recommend picking it up at some point. I will admit that this is not one of my favorite DCS modules but that is due to the million button presses to fire a rocket part. The module itself is great, I simply dislike the plane.

The flight model, sounds and systems are all very convincing. I give it props for that. But as mentioned by CBZ, it lacks content. With this module, you get the plane and nothing else. No campaign, no interactive training, just the plane. With that in mind, the plane itself is kind of cool. It is a bit out of place in DCS, given that DCS doesn't have any AI units from before the 1960's. But it does **** by in a light ground attack role. It will be able to fight the MiG-15 when that's released, but that won't change the lack of period ground units or AI aircraft. I would not recommend this plane at $50. However, if you can pick it up for $10 in a flash sale like I did, then I say grab it.

I like my DCS whilrly-birds and this one is no exception. Technically it's still a beta at this point, but it's been "beta" for about a year, so it's fair game for an honest review. The Mi-8 itself has a convincing flight model and detailed systems that all work the way the should (I think, not a real Mi-8 pilot). The sounds, 3d model and cockpit art are also top notch. It includes the obligatory interactive tutorials for everything from general flying to weapons employment. And it also includes a single campaign, but I honestly haven't played it and so can't comment. With all those features, it is still missing a few things. The biggest is an english cockpit. There is a user made english pit for it and it can be easily downloaded off the DCS website. It even works with any MP server. But it's annoying that one isn't included. Additionally, some features of the real one are not modeled. The biggest of these is the bomb sight. Why you would ever want to drop a bomb from a transport helicopter I cannot say, but the real one has this ability and a bomb sight to go with it. Ours has the bombs, but not the sight. Other than those two things, it's all there I think. Even the doppler navigation system which I have absolutely no clue how to use. In terms of complexity, welcome to DCS: Switches. It's like the A-10C in that regards. Fortunately, once it's actually running there aren't that many you have to mess with. Two 4-way hats and a trigger pretty much gets it all for combat. Flying it is a lot harder than the Ka-50 but having flown the Ka-50 for years, I didn't find it overly difficult. It is less fun though. This is not an attack helicopter, it is a utility chopper. As such, tanks, SAMs and AAA are off the menu. Infantry and trucks are fine, but anything shooting back with a HMG or bigger is going to ruin your day. It does eat UH-1H's for breakfast though, so there is that. And the clamshell cargo doors also work, which is pretty great by itself. In any case, I recommend this for the die hard helicopter fans. It is fun but as it is a transport aircraft, it generally isn't very exciting. I mostly derp about the airfields harassing fast movers taxing around the airfield in MP with it.

I highly recommend this DCS module if you enjoy the base DCS:W. The module includes several campaigns (including the Su-25T campaign adapted to the Ka-50), detailed interactive tutorials and the glorious Ka-50 of course. As the oldest DCS module, it is the most complete in general and has a ton of user made content for it including skins, missions and even cockpit skins. The Ka-50 itself is relatively simple from a systems standpoint. It requires about half the buttons the A-10C does to operate and yet has nearly identical functionality. And thanks to the wonderful ability to hover and do all the other chopper stuff, it's actually a lot more capable. I fear no fighter, SAM or AAA when flying this whirly-bird, the same can not be said in the A-10C. Due to its simplicity, I recommend it as a first study sim module. It is the easiest of the three choppers currently in DCS to fly, but choppers in general are a lot harder to fly than fixed wing planes. So you will spend more time learning the stick and rudder part. But the freedom it allows is absolutely worth it. In terms of game performance, this module is no different from any other. As of my writing this, the new graphics engine coming in DCS:W2 had not been released yet. And as such, the graphic effects are dated and have much lower performance than they should. Additionally, trees are not collideable which is a big deal for helicopters. But these are generic DCS issues which will hopefully be resolved in the next few months with a graphics engine update + new map. BTW, I've had this module since it was initially released as BS1 back in 2008. I haven't played it that whole time, but I've had it and the updated BS2 long enough to get past the rose colored glasses. After playing it for years, I still love it and highly recommend you get it if DCS is your thing. Even if you aren't that interested in choppers, I still recommend it. I bet it will surprise you.

When the game was initially released back in 2009, it was limited and arguably incomplete. But in the years since, it has turned into the current standard for how to do a combat flight sim. It has the best SP play around, putting even IL2:BoS (based off it) to shame. MP is also solid, though it's started to thin out a little. Flight, damage and sound modeling are all top notch and even though the game is 5 years old, it still has solid graphics that will bring anything but a high end machine to its knees if you crank up the detail. With more than 30 flyable planes, there is plenty of variety too. Development has taken a back seat in the rush to get IL2:BoS out, but allegedly they have more stuff planned now that BoS is released. If military or early aviation is your thing, I can't recommend this game enough.

This is a midcore CFS, not as complicated as DCS but much more realistic than war thunder and similar games. Complexity is about the same as Rise of Flight or the original IL-2 series from early/mid 2000's. With that in mind, it has superb feeling flight modeling and impressive damage modeling. The sounds and graphics are also very good, especially given that it's actually using DX9. In terms of gameplay, the multiplayer is top notch. Even at this early stage, we have 60+ player servers with a buddy of mine looking at doing a 120 player server. Combined with a powerful mission builder (in closed beta as of this review, but with some of those custom missions being made available to all), the multiplayer maps are incredible. There is the possibility of player made fully dynamic online campaigns and complex missions in general. This is the MP CFS to play for the next few years at least. Sadly the game does have one major short coming and that is the single player aspect. The career/campaign is basically non-existant. In its place, we have what basically amounts to an advanced quick mission builder (QMB) in addition to the regular QMB. It has some historical background in cutscenes and an historical frontline at various stages, but the player doesn't have an assigned unit, plane type or even nationality. The player is everyone and no one at the same time. Terrible design decision imho. That said, functionally it works just fine. I simply hate the design of it.