[Houndstone Hawk]

Over G is still the best console combat flight simulation by a long margin. It has everything from realism, immersion, longevity, great camera views & saveable replay theatres. EVERY AIRCRAFT has a great cockpit, the single player skirmish mode has multiple options including weapons loadouts for each aircraft so it's quite possible to have great dogfights with cannons only. Work around the average graphics, cheesey music & voiceovers & you end up with a great, complete console experience that doesn't need theatrical music scores etc & doesn't shy away from take off & landings; hell you can even taxi out from the apron & back again in certain modes aswell as being required to come back to base to rearm etc if needed (on harder difficulty settings).
Luckily, the non-mappable controls are great & intelligently thought out, from the easy firing systems, wingman orders, through to the gears, spoilers & tailhook deployment & the virtual cockpit look-around is very smooth. I hear what you say about flightsticks & I agree they're great but the pad design in this game works great.
Also; players will note that not only do all the avionics, MFD's & in-cockpit instruments work, it's quite possible to fly by viewing these instruments aswell, thanks to the great level of detail of the game.

Successfully performing a nerve wracking Carrier circuit in an FA/18 Super Hornet (or similar) with all visual aids off & you'll quickly realise just why this game should have received so much more praise & success than it did.

You even get to unlock the X-35C & it's VSTOL flight dynamics are faithfully created so you perform hover etc. Microsoft Flight Simulator even struggles with that!!!

The best, most complete flight experience on console IMO!!!