About flight simulators

Are there any flight simulators out there that are suitable for beginners? I have no clue how these things work as I've never played any of them, and all of my information is purely based on hearsay. I've been told that old flightsims were expensive packages that came with manuals of hundreds of pages long that had to be read through if you were ever going to get your plane to take off. Is this still the case, or are modern flightsims easier to get into? The main reason why I'm asking is because I saw IL-2 Sturmovik on sale, but I didn't know if this game would be enjoyable to someone who has no experience with the genre.

Many flight sims these days have scaleable realism to appeal to a broader audience. For example the helicopter flight sim DCS: Black Shark can be played with full realism where you can actually go through the full startup sequence for the helicopter, nearly every button in the cockpit performs its real world function, where too much lift on the rotor can cause them to snap, or you can put it on arcade mode where anyone could enjoy the game.

IL-2 is a good middle ground sim. It's a great balance between realism and accesibility and it does have scaleable options. I'd recommend it.

Yep, I'll recommend IL-2 as well, rather simple to get into, with many options

Are there any flight simulators out there that are suitable for beginners? I have no clue how these things work as I've never played any of them, and all of my information is purely based on hearsay. I've been told that old flightsims were expensive packages that came with manuals of hundreds of pages long that had to be read through if you were ever going to get your plane to take off. Is this still the case, or are modern flightsims easier to get into? The main reason why I'm asking is because I saw IL-2 Sturmovik on sale, but I didn't know if this game would be enjoyable to someone who has no experience with the genre.

DraugenCP

FSX. It's got just the thing for beginners: lots of hand-holding and explaining of aerodynamics/flight principles. Make sure you get a PC well beyond the recommended specs though.

FSX did use to be expensive. It was still $70 a year after release. Now, it's down to $30.

Examples of FSX Learning center:

Thanks guys. I might pick up IL-2 later this week, and keep an eye out for FSX if I like it.

Yeah, iL2 and FSX. If you can find FS 2004 (there are a few places still selling it online even and it is somewhat easier on your PC than FSX). You can get iL2 1946 from Steam. There are mods for all three and FS9 and FSX has lots of free and payware mods for each.

I recommend it too. Both FSX and IL-2. They are both really great for beginners and advanced people. It's depends mostly on the settings you use, model of aircraft and mods that you will use. I still suggest having a stick or a yoke to play them. A throttle could be nice too. Pedals would be great if you want to fly helicopters mostly. Lock On, Falcon and Black Shark are the games I won't suggest mostly if you don't want to read big manual or don't know much about flight sim.

So I would sure recommend FSX and IL-2 since they are good sim for anybody to pick up and learn, but still not feel like a game too much. X-Plane wouldn't be so bad either, but getting good planes is somewhat harder, the graphic is not as good and is somewhat harder to setup than FSX in my eye. Once it's done and you found those great planes, it's a blast to play. So I could somewhat say it could be decent to get too, mostly if your computer is not that a beast. It runs better than FSX for sure in terms of frames rates.

AVSIM has a bunch of great people around that can help ya tweak FSX so you can get better frame rates in it.

Microsoft Flight is also coming out this year and it's supposed to cater to both casuals and hardcore simmers.

FSX is definitely a fun experience. The best part, IMHO are the missions, but just taking out a 747 for a short flight is both fun and challening. Try landing at the odl Kai Tak Airport!

IL-2 is a good game, it has really good arcade/realism settings as well. I mean, its not arcadey really, but you can scale it down quite a bit to where you only have to worry about direction and speed and shootign the enemy down lol, and you can scale it up gradually.

So yes, I'd recommend it to someone looking to get into sims. Just get a joystick first.

Microsoft Flight is also coming out this year and it's supposed to cater to both casuals and hardcore simmers.

FSX is definitely a fun experience. The best part, IMHO are the missions, but just taking out a 747 for a short flight is both fun and challening. Try landing at the odl Kai Tak Airport!

Kinthalis

Please show us where MS said Flight was coming out this year. A link will help out.