Combat Flight Sim

Source: Blue’s News

Another new video from Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown offers a developer diary for the upcoming aerial combat game. They call this Dev Diary #1, but with the game due on consoles Friday and on PC on February 1st, there’s not much time for many additional entries. Here’s word on this one:

“Fly behind the scenes of ACE COMBAT 7: SKIES UNKNOWN with this exclusive interview of the Ace team, featuring Brand Director Kazutoki Kono, and learn more about the making of the game.” All the developer commentary is in their native Japanese, but handy English subtitles are used throughout.

The art of aerial dogfighting is one of the most dynamic forms of combat, experienced in three dimensions, setting the stage for a highly unique and challenging battleground. Now, with Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown’s multiplayer mode, players can enter dogfights with their friends and coordinate battle strategy to take out opposing players.

Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown’s multiplayer mode will consist of two gameplay variants; the first variant takes on a team death match format featuring 4 vs. 4 dogfights. The second multiplayer variant takes on a traditional death match format, enabling up to eight players to blow each other out of the sky. In both multiplayer modes, only players with skill, guile, and determination will taste victory!

Click here to check out the multiplayer action in Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown.

To find out more about Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, head over to the games official website.

Source: Blue’s News

The Fighter Collection & Eagle Dynamics announce the F-14 Tomcat is the next aircraft coming to DCS World, their aerial combat simulation. The DCS E-Shop has loads of details on the plane, and it is already available for preorder. Here’s the announcement video along with more on the Tomcat and its appearances in theaters of operation and movie theaters:

The Grumman F-14 Tomcat was a two-crew, variable geometry, maritime air superiority fighter that served with the US Navy for 32 years and continues to serve with the IRIAF in Iran. The F-14 was the US Navy’s frontline fighter from the 1970s until the mid-2000s. Over the course of its long service life it also became the US Navy’s premier precision ground-attack platform and lone airborne reconnaissance asset.

Outstanding features of the aircraft are the swing-wing configuration, crew of two, and the powerful AN/AWG-9 Weapons Control System (WCS) and radar. The AWG-9 allows employment of the powerful AIM-54 Phoenix air to air missile while the LANTIRN pod allows the ability to carry out precision ground strikes using laser guided bombs. The F-14 Tomcat was present during many pivotal historic moments such as the two Gulf of Sidra incidents, Operation Desert storm in Iraq, the conflict in Yugoslavia, Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan and Operation Iraqi Freedom. It was also immortalized in the iconic motion picture, Top Gun, and starred in several other feature films including The Final Countdown, Executive Decision, and others.

The DCS World Website now offers a new version 2.5 of Digital Combat Simulator World (DCS World), the free-to-play digital battlefield from The Fighter Collection and Eagle Dynamics.

Digital Combat Simulator World (DCS World) 2.5 is a free-to-play digital battlefield game. Our dream is to offer the most authentic and realistic simulation of military aircraft, tanks and ships possible. This free download includes a vast mission area of the Caucasus region and Black Sea that encompasses much of Georgia. It also includes a flyable Russian Sukhoi Su-25T ground attack aircraft and the famous WWII North American TF-51D Mustang. An additional 25 aircraft are available for purchase from our e-Shop and Steam.

The download comes with one of the most powerful mission editors ever designed, full network play and more than 156 AI weapons systems, 105 ground vehicles and trains, 50 air defense systems, 19 ships and 84 AI aircraft permitting you to plan and play highly sophisticated missions. DCS World is massively extensible through additional DCS modules as well as user-made add-ons and mods which you can purchase and download from our site.

DCS is a true “sandbox” simulation that is also designed to cover multiple time periods of interest such as World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam War, the Gulf War and others. Current regions to battle include the Caucasus, Nevada Test and Training Range, and Normandy 1944. New maps in development include the Persian Gulf, Syria, Afghanistan, and others.

DCS World is fundamentally a deep, authentic and realistic simulation game designed also to offer a more relaxed gameplay to suit the user and his particular level of experience and training. The ambition is to hand hold users from novice pilot all the way to the most advanced and sophisticated operator of such complex weapons systems as the A-10C Warthog or the F/A-18C Hornet. The only next step is the real thing!

Key features of DCS World 2.5:

• The most realistic Free-to-Play digital battlefield.
• One-of-a-kind, internally developed graphics engine that looks amazing from one foot to 80,000 feet.
• Includes a beautiful, free, and highly detailed map of the Caucasus region that includes Russia and Georgia.
• Includes millions of buildings, millions of km of usable roads and railways, more than 50 million trees, and 20 fully-equipped airbases.
• Includes 156 free and fully operational weapons systems, 105 ground vehicles, 19 ships and 84 AI-controlled aircraft.
• Fly the TF-51 Mustang and Su-25T attack jet for free!
• Play all DCS World modules from one DCS World version. • State-of-the-art graphics with amazing lighting, shadows, and performance.
• New breathtaking effects for explosions, clouds, fog, fire, and smoke.
• Hundreds of land, air- and seaborne AI vehicles. The world is your sandbox.
• Create your own missions and campaigns for unlimited gameplay!
• Mission generator included that allows rapid mission creation. • Enjoy multiplayer with friends, and even fly together in the same aircraft!
• Purchase and fly the most iconic airplanes and helicopters from WWII up to the modern day.
• Mouse interactive cockpits for most aircraft and the most accurate flight models, cockpit systems and sounds available.
• Purchase and fly the most authentic simulations of the A-10C Warthog, UH-1H Huey, F-86F Sabre, Spitfire, and many others now.
• Exciting new aircraft coming to DCS World like the F-14 Tomcat, F/A-18C Hornet, F-4E Phantom II, Mi-24P Hind, P-47D Thunderbolt, and many more!
• Purchase additional high-quality maps such as Normandy 1944, the Nevada Test and Training Range, and the Persian Gulf.
• Play hundreds of missions and campaigns with new campaigns continually created.
• Both hardcore realistic and casual gameplay modes and options available.

A DCS World 2.5 content video can be viewed HERE.

Source: Blue’s News

1C Game Studios now offers Battle of Kuban, a third installment in IL-2 Sturmovik that features the air war in World War II’s eastern front. This operates as a standalone game or as an add-on for Battle of Stalingrad or Battle of Moscow, except on Steam, as word is: “On Steam, customers must first purchase Battle of Stalingrad if they wish to purchase Battle of Kuban.” This forum post has all the details on the new release as well as a new version 3.001 patch for Battle of Stalingrad. Here are the details:

The third installment of the next-gen IL-2 Sturmovik series is dedicated to large scale aerial battles between the Red Air Force and the Luftwaffe in the skies over the Kuban front in 1943. It contains ten aircraft.

This edition contains two additional Collector Planes – the legendary Spitfire Mk.VВ (Lend-Lease version imported from Britain) and the rugged German Hs-129 B-2 ground attack airplane. These two aircraft bring the total amount of included aircraft to ten in the Premium Edition.

IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Kuban can be used as a separate product or be integrated with BOS and/or BOM, resulting in one big WWII Eastern Front combat flight-sim.

• 2 Collector Planes (Spitfire Mk.VВ and Hs-129 B-2)
• 8 Battle of Kuban Aircraft
• Kuban Map
• Battle of Kuban Campaign
• Quick Mission Builder
• Single-Player Missions
• Multi-Player Mode
• Player Controlled Tanks

Eagle Dynamics SA and Belsimtek are excited to announce that DCS: F/A-18C Hornet is now available for pre-purchase!

DCS: F/A-18C Hornet will be the most authentic and detailed simulation we have ever developed, and it will use our unique CFD engine and aerodynamics developed by Belsimtek to create the most realistic flight dynamics possible. Based on exhaustive research in association with Boeing, our Hornet takes advantage of our newly developed simulation engine and it will set a new benchmark for PC flight simulation.

The Hornet is a true multi-role fighter that can switch from attacking surface targets to engaging air targets with the press of a button. Equally at home on an aircraft carrier or airfield, the Hornet is equipped with a large suite of sensors that include radar, target pod, and a helmet mounted sight. In addition to its internal 20mm cannon, the Hornet can be armed with large assortment of unguided bombs and rockets, laser- and -GPS-guided bombs, air-to-surface missiles of all sorts, and both radar- and infrared-guided air-to-air missiles.

DCS World provides the most rich and authentic digital battlefield for the Hornet to fly in.

Key Features of DCS: F/A-18C Hornet:

• Professional Flight Model (PFM) and authentic Flight Control System (FCS)
• Realistic model of the F/A-18C, down to each bolt
• Detailed simulation of the Hornet’s many systems like engines, fuel, electrical, hydraulic, radios, lighting, emergency, and many, many more
• Inertial and GPS navigation systems with moving map display
• Virtually all the weapons and sensors that a mid-2000s US Navy F/A-18C operates
• Highly realistic cockpit that is mouse interactive
• Spin recovery system
• Authentic Hornet sounds with assistance from Boeing
• New effects like over-wing vapor
• Virtual Reality support
• Multiple liveries

During the Early Access period, the following items will be added to DCS: F/A-18C Hornet:

• New and updated sensors to include air-to-ground radar, additional air-to-air radar modes, Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System (JHMCS), Link-16 Datalink, and targeting pod.
• New weapons such as Harpoon, HARM, Shrike, Maverick, JSOW and SLAM, SLAM-ER missiles, Walleye, laser- and GPS-guided bombs, sea mines, fire bombs, TALD decoys, and AIM-9X and AIM-120 air-to-air missiles.
• Additional display pages like the Situational Awareness, Flight Performance Advisory System, and Automatic Carrier Landing pages.

Pre-purchase now for $59.99 and save $20 from the Early Access release price of $79.99. We plan Early Access DCS: F/A-18C Hornet to be available for download by the end of Spring 2018.

1C Game Studios, in partnership with Team Fusion Simulations, is proud to announce the release of a completely updated and improved BLITZ edition of the realistic air combat simulator IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover.

Already known for its incredibly detailed cockpits, massively popular Multiplayer, and complex flight, engine, weapons and damage systems, Cliffs of Dover has now been updated to state-of-the-art DX11 graphics and has had over 20 new flyable aircraft types and variants added to it.

In addition to the 25 original Spitfire, Hurricane, Bf-109 and Bf-110 types, players now have the opportunity to fly new aircraft, such as the rare Bf-109E-4N with its high octane, high-rpm engine and 30mm cannon. Players can also experience the C-6 ground attack version of the Bf-110 and the powerful twin-engine Bristol Beaufighter in both day and night-fighter versions.

Glorious new autumn and winter maps allow players to continue the campaign later into 1940 and the era of the ‘Blitz’.

Completely revised special effects and damage visuals provide spectacular detail, allowing players to savor the effects of their powerful weapons before sending their opponent’s aircraft crashing and burning to the ground.

Speaking of which, new ground textures and scenery, as well as newly implemented cloud systems, provide for a stunning environment to fly over and through, using the revised and improved flight model that provides the accuracy and fidelity flight sim fans expect. On top of all that, new high-fidelity sounds bring the experience of virtual flight to life.

This title is a must-have for experienced flight sim enthusiasts as well as newcomers to the genre, and will provide endless hours of entertainment in the company of an established, numerous and dedicated online community.

Watch the IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover Blitz Edition – Trailer HERE.

IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover Blitz Edition is available for purchase on Steam beginning today for USD 24.99. Customers can take 25% off the price with the time limited launch discount. All existing owners of Cliffs of Dover Classic will receive BLITZ free of charge.

Sim155 Ltd. has released some information on the new developments they are currently working on for their flight and naval combat simulator game Combat Air Patrol 2 (CAP2). Here’s the latest:

We are excited about December as we finally start to bring the missions to life!

Current work is focused on all aspects of aircraft AI. This will improve things such as:

• Dogfights
• AI aircraft mission integration (taxiing, AI flight member roles)
• AI airbase traffic
• AI aircraft weapon deployment (AA & AG)
• AI awareness of aircraft state (fuel, weapon state, radar, RWR)
• A2A refueling.

This means for example, in a training mission you might see a tanker takeoff while your flight taxis to the runway. You takeoff, form up and hit training area targets line astern, refuel and return to base. Another example, for the Mach Loop you may be in a flight of four aircraft transiting the loop where you may be lead or following the flight leader.

Live now:

We’ve dropped four patches over the past couple of months and the current version (v810.7) is now live across all branches (including VR).

Head on over to the Combat Air Patrol 2 Steam community hub for full details on the last four patches and to purchase CAP2. Find out more about CAP2 at the games official website.

Source: Blue’s News

1C Game Studios takes to their forums to announce ambitious plans to expand their IL-2 Sturmovik series with three new games to be released over the course of 2018 and 2019. They are also outline plans for a new aircraft, a playable demo, and announce a new name for their game engine. There’s a lot to unpack, so please make sure your seats are in the upright position as we take off. First off, they reassure fans that IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Kuban will emerge from early access into full release later this year. Then they take the lid off the three new games, Battle of Bodenplatte set during the closing months of World War II; Flying Circus Volume I, which bring the series back to World War I, and Tank Crew – Clash at Prokhorovka, entirely focused on tank combat in the second world war. The first of the three is already available for preorder, and preorders for the other two should start in the first half of next year. They also kick off preorders of two new planes, LA-5 FN and Bf-109 G-6, say they will unveil plans for a playable demo in Q1 2018, and say they’ve enhanced their Digital Nature Engine so much that they’ve renamed it the Digital Warfare Engine (which also has the advantage of sounding less like it was designed for a farm simulator). Here’s the rundown on the three planned new games:

Battle of Bodenplatte

Although it was technically an “operation”, for continuity sake, we’re calling it a battle! Battle of Bodenplatte will explore the air war near the end of 1944 and into 1945. This late-war setting offers a wide variety of classic fighters and fighter-bombers for you to fly including some of the hottest piston powered airplanes to ever grace the skies. In addition, we’ll introduce our first jet aircraft! The Allies flew many low-level tactical missions into Germany from bases in Belgium and Holland during this time. In a desperate attempt to stem the tide of war, the Germans launched a surprise attack on Allied airfields on January 1, 1945. The ensuing battle became legendary.

Flying Circus – Volume I

Flying Circus will finally give our loyal and patient Rise of Flight customers a new way forward into the future! Our eventual goal is to essentially re-build ROF inside of the Sturmovik universe and give WWI all the latest technology like VR, 64bit, DX11 and improved visuals. We will start by focusing on re-furbishing ten of our existing WWI airplanes and providing a partial map of France to fly and fight over. Subsequent Flying Circus products will further expand content and we’ll work to integrate Flying Circus into our Campaign and Career systems over time. Volume I is merely the first important step and it will be a lot of fun! If Flying Circus proves popular we can eventually fire up the Great War assembly line and break out the canvas and timber once again to make some new crates! Guynmere, Fonck, Coppens, McCudden, Bishop, Rickenbacker and von Richtofen shall fly again 100 years later!

Tank Crew – Clash at Prokhorovka

Tank Crew will be expanding upon our initial adventure into tank combat by including ten new tanks and armored vehicles and improving our two existing tanks. Tank Crew will create a ground combat component that can be integrated into single-player content and multiplayer servers. Our tanks will be multi-crew in multiplayer which most other leading tank games are not capable of. Our playable tanks will also be modeled both inside and out with realism in mind and improved damage modelling. The map will feature the southern portion of the Battle of Kursk with the village of Prokhorovka and town of Belgorod included. The map will also be built somewhat differently giving tank players a better ground environment then our current large maps. Further details about Tank Crew will be released as development ramps up.

Sim155 Ltd. has announced that Combat Air Patrol 2 (CAP2) v810.4 update for the flight and naval combat simulator game is expected to be available in early October. This new update will contain a richer environment, with more buildings, lush vegetation, and a host of custom objects including power lines, lighthouses, water tanks, ATC towers, rigs etc. Lighting has been added to roads, runways, taxiways and buildings, illuminating villages and cities for superior immersion. The cockpit lighting in the AV8B Harrier II has also been updated, including night illumination.

Check out the new Combat Air Patrol 2 “Terrain Lights Promo” HERE.

Combat Air Patrol 2 (CAP2) is a flight and naval combat simulator game for PC (Steam/Windows) where you pilot the AV8B Harrier II. After initial flight and tactical training you will be pitched into an immersive scenario against aggressive ground, sea and air based enemies. Use your skill as a pilot and your tactical awareness to engage in dogfights, carry out ground attacks and command your fleet to ultimately ensure the safety of your comrades and the final capitulation of the enemy. Strategic decisions such as commanding your fleet on the tactical map and your performance in the air will affect the final outcome: Go ‘gung ho’ with a full out assault and the outcome will be in the balance or plan ahead and the end result will be your ultimate victory.

You can follow the development of Combat Air Patrol 2 via its Steam Community Hub and at the games official website.