Talk To Me Goose

Flight Sims have been a staple of PC Gaming. It's weird to think that you can play a flight simulator on a console.

It's a shame too, that you can't. Hold on a sec. Not so fast. There is one game out there. One lone wolf that even the most purists flight sim enthusiasts would give a nod to. It's got great graphics, fighter aircraft with unique characteristics, including speed, ceiling, payload, etc, etc. See, I've already lost the non Flight Sim crowd. But before you leave, you might be well served to finish reading this because you just might be interested in this one.

Let me take you back for a sec to my experience with Flight Sims. It goes like this:

Chuck Yeager's Air CombatJane's Fighters AnthologyJane's Israeli Air ForceJane's F/A 18and it's all pretty much downhill from there.

Nothing commercially viable was left. I don't know what happened.

So one day I'm strolling through Gamestop and I see this used Xbox 360 game. No not the Ace Combat Series. It seemed different. The box was calling me. It was expensive, but I felt a connection with it.Needless to say I walked out with it. After all, it WAS calling my name.

I start to play it and lo and behold, I have limited ammo. I'm not flying at the speed of light, I'm flying at 250 knots and it's taking me some time to get up to that speed. When I climb, my speed drops. If I make a tight turn, same thing.

Ok, so now I go back and equip my aircraft for some single missions. Oh my gosh, Phoenix missiles for my Tomcat! Sweet.

Then there's multiplayer. Only online of course. So, I get on. I figure I'll shoot a few folks down and call it a night.

The mission starts. I spot a bogey on my radar at 11 0' clock. I know what he is flying because we got to see in the lobby. Su-27. No biggie right.

I'm flying my big grey Tomcat loaded with 4 Phoenix missiles and a couple of Aim 7's I think.

Next thing I know he's got a lock. Still, I'm not worried.

He fires. Still not worried. We're going head to head and I'm going to take this turkey out. I can't see him but he's on my radar.

What happens next leaves me in complete shock.

I explode.

I spend the next couple of months learning to dodge a missile. Then another couple of months learning to dog-fight in without running out of guns.

I had found what I was looking for. A Flight simulator on the Xbox 360 where I could pit my skills against the best online. With time I unlocked almost all aircraft including the F-22, but my favorite was and still is the Russian Su-27. This game has the mechanics down so well you can pull a Cobra maneuver in the Su-27 if you know what you're doing.

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