Sim with best career mode?

[ISmellSmoke]

Hi Guys,

Quick question... I am getting back into flight games after about a 15 year break. I used to really enjoy playing the kind of games with a strong career mode, where you play the same pilot, maintain stats, get medals, get promoted, injured, etc. Super realism in the flight model isn't as important to me as this aspect.

I have IL2-1946 and I like that it does some of these things - but so far its seems very cursory (maybe I need to play longer?).

Any suggestions for me?

Thanks!

[philip.ed]

For me, I love BoB2. Hands-down for me, that is awesome. Others may hate the fact that there is a chance the luftwaffe can win, but this can only really be achieved if one plays as the luftwaffe. You have the chance to play as the commander, but you can just play as a single pilot and if playing as a RAF pilot (from my experience) there is no chance the luftwaffe will win because I have always found that events unfurl historically.
Seriously, it is the most immersive campaign I've ever played, and getting vectored to raids will really send chills down your spine, it feels so realistic

[IceFire]

IL-2 does not have the most immersive career experience... I think the old standard of Aces of the Pacific in some ways did a better job than this. But IL-2 campaigns can be fun to play... the DGEN ones aren't bad and have some level of persistence. Hand crafted campaigns don't have some of the options but they can offer a very interesting experience as well.

[WTE_Galway]

Also consider downloading and installing DCG with IL2_1946.

It provides a much more customizable dynamic campaign/career than the stock DGEN.

[addman]

Originally Posted by IceFire

IL-2 does not have the most immersive career experience...

Understatement of the day, EAW IMO had a reallly good mix of campaign/gameplay. I remember starting out low rank in a Me-262 in 1944 and then working myself up to Hauptmann and given the control of wich of my pilots would fly the missions and also wich loadout i.e R4M rockets(depending on availability) they would have. Sure you can choose loadout in IL-2 campaigns but in EAW it was dependent of stock. I was actually concerned that my pilots returned from the missions. I hope and also believe that this will be rectified in SOW.

[The Kraken]

Originally Posted by addman

Understatement of the day, EAW IMO had a reallly good mix of campaign/gameplay. I remember starting out low rank in a Me-262 in 1944 and then working myself up to Hauptmann and given the control of wich of my pilots would fly the missions and also wich loadout i.e R4M rockets(depending on availability) they would have. Sure you can choose loadout in IL-2 campaigns but in EAW it was dependent of stock. I was actually concerned that my pilots returned from the missions. I hope and also believe that this will be rectified in SOW.

That is certainly something we all hope to see in SoW. Although personally I didn't find the EAW campaigns too immersive either, mostly because the missions were extremely repetetive (more so than Il2's DCG) and the stupid "mission failure" assessment when you only managed to shoot down 18 of 24 bombers

[Seeker]

I think Red Baron is probably the best of the flight sim career modes; although EAW had some great ideas in it.

I agree that IL-2 has always been a bit cold as an off line game. Some of the hand built missions/campaigns are wonderful, and can do a surprisingly good job of historical "tuition"; but the replayablility of anything scripted is limited.

The inbuilt campaign generator wasn't bad when the game was new, but these days it's an insult for a new purchaser to find out he's paid for a game wherein so much of the content is unavailable to a new user (Spit or Temp or He 162 campaigns for example).

BOB2 had fantastic promise, but was so flawed at launch it never really recovered. I think it was the only sim ever made where joystick button assignments were hard coded, despite the in box literature showing a programmable MS sidewinder!

Much of what keeps IL-2 running comes from the EAW world, such as Hyperlobby and DCG.

It'll be interesting to see if SOW will be sophisticated enough to stand alone or if it'll still need support from the EAW legacy.

[Richie]

Originally Posted by philip.ed

For me, I love BoB2. Hands-down for me, that is awesome. Others may hate the fact that there is a chance the luftwaffe can win, but this can only really be achieved if one plays as the luftwaffe. You have the chance to play as the commander, but you can just play as a single pilot and if playing as a RAF pilot (from my experience) there is no chance the luftwaffe will win because I have always found that events unfurl historically.
Seriously, it is the most immersive campaign I've ever played, and getting vectored to raids will really send chills down your spine, it feels so realistic

Maybe when SOW progresses to 1943-45 I'll be able to do the same in a 109 with just as many chills.

[T}{OR]

Haven't had the chance to really try Battle of Britain: Wings of Victory, but I keep hearing good things about it.

B-17 II The Mighty Eighth II was fun in the beginning, but got boring very quickly. And lack of proper plane numbers (I frequently RTB'd alone, or with just one plane) was an immersion killer for me. Not to mention that out of 18 planes you could had in formation, only 6 were 'alive'. And that in the only career I managed to force myself to finish I ended with over 30 kills...

IL2 was never good offline for me. AI was predictable and flew too perfect. Bomber formations were more or less fun to attack if one used the proper tactics, trigger happy gunners who shot at other bombers flying nearby killed it for me. Other things were good, more or less. But I could never 'get into the mood' as I did with some other games. On line was where it used to shine like no other...

This leaves me no choice but to put EAW at the first place. EAW might have had repeating missions, but the overall end result accompanied with a nice atmosphere was more or less believable. Not to mention the 100+ plane battles which were epic, to say the least.

Red Baron was very good. From what I remember of it.

[moilami]

Originally Posted by T}{OR

Red Baron was very good. From what I remember of it.

It was awesome. But after I saw Their Finest Hour from Youtube I am not sure do I want to see Red Baron anywhere else than in my memories