This looks pretty damn good... http://blog.logitech.com/2009/06/02/e3-product-announcement-logitech-flight-system-g940/ It hits the shops some time around September and the current price is $299 - by the time you translate that to sterling and factor in the trans-atlantic rip off factor I suppose it will be about £300. The Thrustmaster Cougar is about £160 ish and if you chuck in a good set of rudder pedals (about £100) and you're looking at about the same price. However with the Cougar/pedals combo you have to fight to get them to work together and you also need to have the Cougar connected via USB and the pedals MUST be attached to a gameport connection. If you get the Logitech version its all done via USB, plus you get force feedback thrown in as well.
Well, there has been a distinct shortage of flight sims recently, especially compared to the 80s/early 90s when they were the premier PC game genre.
Flight sims used to be the dominant game type in the early days of the PC but now there are just a few left most of which date back a good few years. IL2 Sturmovik is a old game but still one of the best, Black Shark is very good as well. Falcon 4.0 Allied Force is still going strong and I do have a soft spot for Flanker 2 (patched up to 2.5 really makes a difference) plus Lock On gets good press now that they have fixed the early problems. My personal favourite is again going back quite a bit but the Mechwarrior and Freespace games (especially the Battlestar Galactica mod!) are simply made for the HOTAS styled controls and if you've got a long memory the X-Wing and Tie Fighter games from Lucasarts are just a dream to play.
:'( i want another good flight sim... a really good one... something that makes me feel like i'm young and playing Fighter Squadron or WWII Fighters or Longbow 2 again...
I really like the look of this set, looks like the old plastic friends gonna get some exercise soon Thanks for the post on these JohnnyBoy700! I have been into flight sims since the early 80's and I wish there was more choice with the titles nowadays. FSX is great, and there is a massive mod community, but something to give it some real competition would not go amiss.
The thing that I think impresses me the most about the joystick is that it doesn't rely on mechanical contact - the biggest problem with the Thrustmaster gear was the potentiometers that sensed the amount of movement. Right back since the F16 stick was released (waaaay back in th eearly 90's) through the F22 and even with the Cougar the TM gear have always had issues with their pots, be it spiking due to dodgy contacts, grease on the carbon track which stopped conductivity to just plain breaking all of the Forums had numerous posts on how to deal with the problems. The Logitech approach, presumably as a result of the issues TM had, seem to have gone for for the electronic method - probably using a Hall Effect sensor. It works along the principles of producing a magnetic field in a semiconductor by applying a current, you get different results depending on how much current you use and which polarity. It works very well because its simple and has nothing to wear out. Yep, I think I've just about convinced myself I want to buy one, all I have to do now is justify it to the wife.
Does anyone remember terminal velocity from 3d realms (RIP) from back in the day? that was pretty good fun - loved that!
