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By: - 22nd March 2007 at 21:54 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Good points Daz. Of course a 'real' flight sim is the ultimate free roaming game, in MSFS and X-Plane you can fly pretty much anywhere you want to go but I agreee there's a gap in the market. A simplified free range combat flight sim type game could be really popular.
Something similar to the driving game Test Drive Unlimited would be fantastic. 'TDU' is set in Hawai, players can drive all over the island at will in a variety of exotic cars and take part in races against computer driven 'bots' or human opponents over the internet. It's even possible to challenge people directly by flashing your cars headlights at them ! Something similar involving aircraft would be awesome.
Bruce
Posts: 18,353
By: DazDaMan - 22nd March 2007 at 10:21
I've been buying/playing flight-sims and shoot-em-ups on the various console formats for years, and all of them seem to be the same kind of format - fly the plane through various missions, shoot things down, blow things up, finish. Et voila!
It puzzles me as to why nobody, to the best of my knowledge, has ever come up with a game along the lines of Grand Theft Auto - i.e., free-roaming or mission-based.
You could play a pilot, flying with the RAF/USAAF in Europe/the Pacific/Mediterranean, and you carry out various missions such as photo-recce, dive-bombing, fighter sweeps or bomber escort, but at the same time you have the option to simply fly around an environment and destroy things wherever they are, and even perhaps affect the outcome of the game with your actions. There could even be side missions (as per GTA) where you simply have to carry things out - a photo-recce of some tanks, perhaps, or escorting an aircraft.
It's not only possible, it's very doable, since in the mid-stages of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas you have to learn to fly different aircraft, AND you have them at your disposal once you have attained the correct skills (or stolen the fighter jet from the aircraft carrier). Hell, the WW2-style warbird you acquire during these stages has guns, so why not?
I know most games have the option of a "free combat" in their menus, whereby you simply have to shoot things down or survive the time limit, but that's all there is to them. Why does a flight-sim need to be limited?