Re: Over G Fighters


"Zackman" <zackman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:DbidnXe7_9mhcCHZnZ2dnUVZ_q6dnZ2d@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
CJ <cjmartin04@xxxxxxxxxxx> spake thusly:

True there is more control with the PC version of a flight-sim,
currently, but what says Microsoft could not use this opportunity to
release a whole new line of peripherals such as a flight yoke, rudder
pedals, etc., that everybody has to buy if they want to play this
game "properly"?

Then basically they'd have another game like Steel Battalion, where you
have to buy an expensive controller just to play the game properly. I like
the idea but I don't think it would fly. Ha! No pun intended.

I don't play driving games myself, but IMO the gaming industry has already
pretty much crossed this barrier with other games than Steel Battalion
(which I'd never heard of before you mentioned it, lol). The release of
EA's NASCAR series which, because it's been so popular, has brought about a
whole cottage industry of wheels/pedals to play it "properly." It's possible
(I think) to play the driving games with the regular PS2/XBox/360
controller, but IMO it probably doesn't work nearly as well as a wheel/pedal
combo does. The barrier of having to get new controllers to play specific
games "properly" such as that doesn't seem to have hurt the sales of the EA
NASCAR game. I've been told by a friend that the EA game with a wheel and
pedal combo is a hell of a lot of fun.

Having said that, this could be one thing the new PS3 controller might
do better than previous generations of console controllers due to the
inclusion of the gyroscope. From what I saw, it looked like it worked well
on Warhawk. The Wii controller might be able to do flight sims better as
well due to its motion technology, although using a remote styled controller
would be weird for a flight sim IMO.

IMO there's no reason the
flight-sim couldn't make at least somewhat of a comeback on consoles
since it has all but died on PC's.

Has it though? The Flight Simulator series has been one of MS's consistent
strongest sellers, and it still cracks the top 20 PC games list from time
to time, even years after the latest release. Flight Simulator X will be a
big seller (or as big as a PC game that isn't made by Will Wright or
Blizzard can be these days) and will remain popular for another three
years until they roll out the next version.

You're right Flight Simulator is a great game and has always sold great
for Microsoft. My argument about the PC flight-sim "dying" wasn't because
there aren't a few great flight sims out there. It's because there are
*only* a few great, or good, flight sims out there anymore and, if we're
lucky, we get one new one a year. Other than the Microsoft series and the
add-ons that enable combat, the only other modern combat flight sims that
have been released in the past few years I can think of for the PC are
Lock-On, IL-2 (and the expansions) and Falcon 4.0 Allied Force. That's only
a handful and a couple of them's replay value is really only because they've
had expansions released. The most popular flight sim back when I was
playing sims in the 90s, Jane's, last released a game in 2002 by Xicat that
was, to put it mildly, a disaster. Since then I believe the series has died.

It just seems that there are fewer and fewer flight sims released than
there were during the early-mid 1990s and the genre is slowly dying out.
What there is left of the genre seems to be dominated by expansion packs
released for previous games and not new games. Of course one could make the
same argument about sequels and licensed games in the console market lately
too.


.

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