Most Immersive Flight Sims?

[Invrlose]

I've been flying helicopters for a bit now in Arma 3 and it's good and all but I'm looking for something more immersive. The trouble is that I don't have any dedicated hardware and I'm not sure if I really want to buy any. A joystick works fine for planes, but typical helicopters in real life that I've been in and flown don't have a joystick and it really fucks with me.

An example of the kind of flying that I like to do on Arma

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4JyYxl_NTg

[Valeron]

I guess it depends on how realistic you want them. You aren't going to get anything close to the real thing, especially if it is just something you run on your PC

[Syce]

il2-sturmovik is a great flight sim but older.

[AtomicSpoon]

il2-sturmovik is a great flight sim but older.

I would say get IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover. Still a decent community there last I checked. If you want a dedicated combat flight sim look into DCS. The issue with wanting a more realistic flight sim is that some of them are designed for people with hardware. DCS, etc.

I fly in Arma 2/3 using M&B + CH rudder pedals for rudder as the game works best that way (See Dyslexci's flight videos the man is a monster) using keyboard for major flight input and mouse for small precise input. Not the same for other games really.

[Davemetalhead]

If you want realistic helicopter flying then DCS World is it. The base sim itself is free, you get two aircraft with it - the SU-25a and the civilian trainer version of the P-51 Mustang. The Mustang cockpit is fully interactive, the SU-25a isn't - but both have as realistic a flight model as you'll find anywhere.

There are 4 helicopter modules available - the Huey, the Mi-8 Hip, the Ka-50 Blackshark, and the newest module (still in early access), the Gazelle. All are hardcore sims, with the cockpit's fully modelled and interactive.

Check out "Bunyap Sims" on YouTube for some great info and detailed looks at some of the DCS World modules.

There are also a number of different aircraft available, from the Focke-Wulf FW-190 to the A-10C.

Be warned though - this is a hardcore sim, and to get the most out of it you really will need a joystick and throttle, preferably also some rudder pedals and a head tracking system like Track-IR. It'll take many hours of practice to be competent in pretty much any of the modules.

For a slightly "lighter" sim, you could try Enemy Engaged: Commanche vs Havoc. It's available on GoG pretty cheap, but with a community patch it adds fairly up-to date graphics and new helicopters. It has one of the best campaign engines in sims too.

Finally, there's Falcon 4.0 - also available on GoG with the Falcon Collection. Again, add a community patch, the BMS 4.33, and it's about as hardcore and immersive as you can get. The graphics aren't as good as DCS (it's a sim released in 1998!), although they have been improved, but with the BMS patch it's considered one of the greatest sims of all time.