![]() In honor of the new horizon for the genre, we at The Escapist found ourselves reminiscing about the space combat sims that have come before. We’re super excited about Elite: Dangerous and Star Citizen, not to mention smaller offerings like No Man’s Sky and EVE: Valkyrie. The emergence of Kickstarter as a viable funding method for video games, and resurgence in sci-fi fandom with reboots of Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek and Star Wars all out or coming soon, has a slew of space combat sims in production. But after a few commercials duds, and that ill-advised Wing Commander movie, we saw a dearth of space combat games in the new millennium. The genre of space combat sims enjoyed a decade of excellence in the 1990s as the graphics and processing power of gaming PCs matched the fidelity of movement our imaginations demanded. The thrill of watching Luke Skywalker’s X-Wing swerve and dive during the Death Star run in the first Star Wars is probably a big reason why games like Elite and Wing Commander were produced. Piloting a spacecraft through the nether between worlds is a fantasy for so many of us. All hail the king.The Escapist loves to play any game that lets you say things like “Stay on target!” and “We’re too close.” Add in GPU-crushing graphical capabilities, more than 37,000 real-world airports, and a massive roster of planes, and Flight Simulator give air-heads everything they've ever thought they might want. Players can fly over the largest cities or the house they lived in during 3rd grade and expect to find everything just where it's supposed to be. Microsoft has flexed its considerable muscle this time around, leveraging the strength of its Azure artificial intelligence and Bing mapping capabilities to draw the majority of Earth in loving detail. But even the most ardent fans had to admit that the world they flew in was often flat and uninspiring. The flight models and airframes always looked like the real thing back then, and that's still the case today. ![]() Released more than 14 years after the last iteration (FSX) of the series, the 2020 version is a stunning accomplishment of realism. The once and future king, Microsoft Flight Simulator once again undeniably rules the genre. Nothing dulls this experience more than a flight game that doesn't immerse the player in a realistic environment at that point, you might as well play Ace Combat or GTA (not that there's anything wrong with the Ace Combat series). There are no boss fights, or spells to memorize, or inventory management - just the pure experience of soaring amongst the clouds in your own personal airplane. Many players enjoy flight games because they don't have stages or storylines. ![]() Unlike most games, where the challenge of the game is the focus, flight games are more about the experience. Updated on November 7, 2021, by Jeff Drake: Flight games (or sims) are an interesting type of game. Both old and new simulators now dot the landscape, and with both combat and civil aviation represented, there is truly something to be found for every taste ![]() ![]() The focus of these entries is realism, of the highest order, in both the graphics and the aircrafts represented on screen. This growth peaked sometime in the 1990s, but it still thrives thanks to a few dedicated developers and a huge modding community. RELATED: Best Farming/Simulation Games (According To Metacritic)Īs home computer technology quickly improved, and along with it the realism of control systems, the genre blossomed into one of the largest in the PC space. ![]()
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