DCS A-10C Warthog on STEAM!

Whoa, never expected this, but the DCS A-10C Warthog is now available on Steam. Wondering if updates are automated though. Wings of Prey aren't so little reason to use Steam. Will have to investigate.

 

I'll wait till it hits Amazon. I'd rather deal with ED than Steam. Gotta give them props for their new activation scheme. It's not perfect but it strikes the right balance.

 

Games looks phenominal.

S

 

Yeah been playing the beta since October.... its good!

 

I got Black shark and that is an epic game

waiting for A10 to appear on UK steam

 

I found this awesome video about it:
YouTube - Project 10 - DCS: A-10C Movie

 

It looks very realistic - which makes me wonder how playable it actually is. The problem with trying to replicate a realistic in-cockpit experience is that you (the player) doesn't have anywhere near the intuitive grasp of the controls and the situational awareness than the real pilot.

 

You are never going to duplicate what a real pilot goes through unless you buy a state of the art simulator that's used for training purposes. But serious flight simmers adapt real well to situational awareness. Some are so good that they have been known to jump into a real military simulator and impress the instructors.

The immersion used, can be anything from a 3D three monitor setup with Saitek flight controls.

 

I can understand it better using a 'consumer-grade' sim setup but what about regular keyboard + mouse or joystick? That's my point.

 

Sure you can have fun that way, that's my setup, a keyboard, mouse and basic joystick. But if you were doing MP then they'd have the advantage similar to if you were playing a FPS with a keyboard and mouse and the other person was playing with a gamepad. For single player no problems expect you are limited to configurations on the joystick.

A Saitek Flight stick has an insane amount of buttons and you can configure them to your hearts content. Those that take their flight sims seriously have their Saitek and Thrustmaster Flight controls configured very efficiently.

 

It's ok. I've been flying sims, primarily military sims, since I've owned a PC (Falcon 2/3/4, Comanche, Jane's USAF, Longbow 1/2, F-15, F/A-18, IL-2, yadda etc) and while a more elaborate setup is preferable (HOTAS - throttle, stick, rudder, mfd), you don't lose much immersion using a decent single flightstick + keyboard / mouse. One of the best investments you can make though is in a TrackIR. That eliminates the whole need to pan view manually. You just move your head a fraction of an inch to realistically move your view on screen. I honestly can't fly without it any more on the computer.

I used to have quite an elaborate setup. Built my own desk, had a projector, three monitors, two which drove the MFD's and gauges in Falcon 4, full HOTAS, etc. It was fun, but now that I don't have that any more, it's still very enjoyable. The few sims you get these days, the developers take the limitations of the PC into account, and truly give you some good immersion.

Granted I haven't done much PC simming in the last couple of years due to my personal situation, and it is very time consuming, as in requires large dedicated slots of time. But I still get a flight in now and again.

 

Ah... Very interesting. I'll give it a whirl.

 

A-10C is $45 at Direct2Drive still with the 25% off sale code "bunny".

 

Downloading and installing NOW!

 

Not sure where you are in flight sims but in general if you get into a hardcore sim(s) you are going to want all those buttons. You dont have to go all out but a modest investment in the mid 100 dollar range will bring much joy. That said I give up my home setup when I head up north and use my still ticking sidewinder/keyboard setup there and enjoy myself just fine. The experience is less than what it could be but its still a lot of fun. Were it me I would invest in a modest stick or use one already on hand and see how it goes. You'll know if your the type thats going to need more serious hardware. A last thought is that you will get 99% of the love out of a decent but relatively inexpensive hotas as you will a top of the line setup.

Full disclosure, I am a hardcore style flight sim junkie and my viewpoint my not be representative of normal people.

 

Wow right on! Didn't know about this one. Glad to see these guys bringing PC back to it's roots. I was so into flight sims back in the 90s, Falcon 3.0, Tornado, Mig 29, Gunship 2000 etc. And I still have Falcon 4.0 Allied Force, but haven't played it in awhile since I forgot the controls and don't have a manual, which bring me to my questions about Warthog.

First, I did go through some online reviews and videos, and it looks as though it'll take a hefty system to run at good framerates. According to a video posted on youtube, a person running an i7 and 460 GTX desktop with 8 gb ram could only get 10 frames per second with max graphic settings. Is this true? Can my notebook with an i5 GTX 460m even run this game? I really want to play in max settings.

Second, I also hear that it has a 900 page manual. How do I go about getting a hard copy book? Again I've played hardcore sims and it's important to have the manual to know what you're doing, and reading it online just won't cut it, so if I get it from Steam, what's the deal with the games manual?

Finally, whoever has the game, can you list your system specs and how well it plays at max settings. ie. framerates. thanks.

 

Would this be any fun with just a mouse and keyboard? I'm a bit of a cheapskate here =)

 

You will need to invest in a decent HOTAS (hands on throttle and stick). Most at the DCS forums are recommending the Saitek X-52 as the best economical setup. It costs $83 right now at Amazon.com.

There is a sim and game mode, so if you just want to get in and fly around for fun for a while without worrying about all the technical details you can do that. I got the thing downloaded and installed, just haven't had a chance to run it yet.

If it's anything like Black Shark, their previous sim, it should run fine on a modest setup as long as you don't crank up the details too much.

@aboineg - lol, no you can't use mouse/keyboard. You should AT LEAST get a joystick that twists for rudder and an axis for throttle.

Once I get in it a bit I'll give my initial impressions. I feel like I'm getting back to my roots, like it's Falcon 4 all over again. I dumped so many hours into that thing, but it's one of those things that if you put in the time it has lots of reward. Huge learning curve but once you get mediocre at it, and that's probably the best will do, it can be lots of fun.

 

Well, that answers my question, thanks!

 

Jacob

It runs like butter, atleast compared to the orginal Lomac, not to mention the IL2 Sturmovik COD. That said i have only tryed it a very short period. I run it in Full HD maxed, and yes we have the same laptops if i remember correctly

 

Yeah, just gave it a run on my Sager notebook, 1080p all options high, don't have a good flight stick setup yet, just used my trusty old Microsoft Sidewinder, but it was smooth as silk. Couldn't believe it.

 

Oh really? That's great to hear. The problem with nearly every flight sim I've played at the time they were released was that the hardware was insufficient to run it, and took about 3 years to catch up to be able to play the sim at a reasonable framerate at max settings. That's why even though I love the simulations, I'm kinda hesitant to get this, although I was thinking that the developers themselves would know about this problem and try to cater their software to the technology that we currently have.

I've heard there's a demo of it, if this is true I'll try and download that first to see how it runs on my system. Although I regret even more not going for an i7, since these kinda simulations take into account and need to calculate every minute detail especially the flight model's physics...

 

Oh thanks for this Audi!

 

There is no demo unfortunately.

It seems to like RAM, well at least 4GB or more is good.

But here's the recommended specs:

Recommended system requirements
Operating system 64-bit: Windows Vista and 7
Processor: CPU: Core 2 Duo E8400, AMD Phenom X3 8750 or better
Memory: 4GB
Hard disk space: 7 GB
Video: Shader 3.0 or better; 896MB NVIDIA GeForce GTX260 DirectX 9.0c or better
Sound: DirectX 9.0c-compatible
DirectX®: 9.0C

 

iPad app for clickable cockpit. Check out this video:

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Is that everything you have to do before take off? Man that game is way too intense for me.

 

That's a full startup sequence if you want to. You can start with aircraft fully powered up.

That iPad app looks great though, no need to figure out which keyboard shortcuts to use. Of course $500 for an iPad, sorry, can't do it. Maybe I can find a used one cheap.

 

wow even for a sim that take off sequence is intense

 

I would prefer to click around the cockpit. Are all the buttons clickable in the cockpit?

 

LOL, You would need four for an simi all glass cockpit?

How do you like the fire control? Way different than the old simple ones like Hellcats Over the Pacific, no?

 

Yes!

I've delved in sims a lot in the past, and Falcon 4 is by far the most intense, but this is pretty darn close. The fidelity of the weapons systems and MFD's is phenomenal. That's one thing that I loved about Jane's F/A-18.

Once I get halfway decent I'll do some videos. I just don't want to embarrass myself.

I just got my Saitek X-52 today too, so will have to get that all set up for A-10c as well. This isn't exactly a "jump in and go" game at least as far as showing some decent action sequences.

 

I still rate f4 as the best flight sim ever, to this day still in a league of it own.

 

Haven't played this in a few months since the final version was released... it's improved a lot since the betas! Fantastic sim... I'm having a ball.

Runs great on the G73. Beautiful sim world.

 

OT

The only sims I have time for, now, is ClearView for my 450EXI helicopter. Free demo and download for sim fans. ClearView RC Flight Simulator - Home

I'm trying to avoid $200 of parts scattered over the ground or embedded in my forehead. I've flown real fixed wings but the RC Heli is scary for the newbie like me!

cheers

 

HA have fun with the heli, I fly a Blade 400 around the yard on occasion, and have a little blade micro that I love. Fun toys!

Back on topic, I am glad to see this sim so far appears to be very well optimized after the Beta... I had some initial glitches in the Beta and decided to wait it out. Glad I did, great sim! Of course I've always loved the A-10 anyway....

 

Lol I almost fell asleep watching that. why would anyone in their right mind want to play this?

No offence of course.

 

Obviously you have no interest in flight and flight avionics. It's a thinking and learning process that every pilot has to go through to get all systems up and running and verified are working properly. This is required even in the simplest of aircraft in the startup and runup checklists.

Becoming familiar with all these systems will make the sim a LOT more enjoyable and tolerable. Wouldn't you rather know where everything is and that they were working properly when you took off, to immediately know how to manage your aircraft when a system gets destroyed, or if you have to limp home with half your wing blown off or an engine missing? After a while it becomes second nature and you just power up and cross check accordingly.

That being said, doing the full startup is optional in the sim, but most die hards like to do it. I do it for a while just get familiar with the systems, but when I die five minutes after takeoff, I just restart the mission on the runway.

 

Do you guys think this would be worth it for a non flight enthusiast? i mean i like sims like Silent hunter and stuff where you can just fly/sail/walk around a scenic landscape. But if this is a bit to technically heavy, it might be a little to much. But anyways, can you recommend this to a regular non-flight enthusiast?

 

Sure, it's fine for anyone who's willing to learn a bit about flight. There is a game mode and it's possible to configure certain aspects of flight to make it easier for you. You can make it pretty much as "real" or as "game" as you'd like. However, even on game mode it still requires basic understanding of flight, like stalling, g-forces, etc. You can't go vertical in an A-10 for very long without stalling.

 

Don't know if you were quoting this poster but I agree. You can turn DCS: Black Shark and A10 into Comanche 4 if you like. Shhh don't tell anyone but sometimes I just like blowing stuff up and not caring about who's shooting back.

 

Yep, that's half the fun. Just go in and shoot stuff. And you can leave it at that if you want. Many people though start to want to micro manage the cockpit a bit and that's when they get consumed by it all. You thought WoW was bad, get into a complex sim like this and you'll delve hundreds of hours into it before you know it.

Unfortunately there is no dynamic campaign engine. That makes Falcon 4 still top notch in my book.

But there is talk of adding a dynamic campaign standalone server option, so you'd essentially require either joining an online server or standalone machine for a dynamic campaign.

 

Well the very first games of PC that pioneered 3D gaming put an emphasis on realism, not just for aircraft but also for automobiles, and even though we would cringe looking back at the graphics they had, back then it was state of the art and put anything on nintendo or sega to shame.

Back in the early 90s the dash board being simulated in a Lamborghini in "Car & Driver" was crucial to knowing when to down shift or upshift by looking at the speedometer, and it made you feel like you were driving a powerful $100,000 car. Now this same feeling was applied to the most powerful manmade vehicles such as the F 16 fighter jet, and back then, since the very first Iraq war was all over the news and footage was being shown of the airstrikes I really wanted to "feel" how it would be to "drive" one of these creations that we as human beings have reached in our advancement through history.

Now If you put yourself in this mentality when playing one of these military aircraft simulations, (i.e. having the oppurtunity to "test drive" a powerful million dollar vehicle) and take the time to learn how to operate one, once you do and can pilot it like an expert, then you will be rewarded with the joys of being able to make it look so simple knocking out 1 million dollar tanks.

 

I have hundreds of hours in F4. Possibly going to four digits. I flew in online squadrons for years completing many campaigns flying with friends. Best game ever made.

 

Thanks for the reply, i guess ill give it a shot

 

I agree. The sad thing is that since I haven't touched it in a couple years at least I'd have to learn it all over again. Any time I'd take some time off from it, there is a significant learning curve.

 

I bought it and have played it a little and i have to say, the graphics are great! and its a real fun game. And incredibly easy when you have it on arcade!

 

lol yeah, just remembering where you put all the commands takes some time after you have set it down for a time.

 

Yeah, I actually had a second monitor that displayed a graphic of my HOTAS layout depending on what mode I was in. Had it switch automatically when I switched modes. Another monitor for my gauges, and then either a main monitor or my projector for the main display.

Man I miss that. Had to take it all down before I had kids. No time and no room.

 

People don't realize how difficult a flight sim like Falcon 4.0 can be and how good the opposition is in multiplayer. I remember having to bone up my skills when I used to fly Air Warrior back in the 90's via Genie Online. I thought I was pretty good until I went up against pilots better than me and it was lights out within a few minutes.

 

Air Warrior, yeah. That was fun. European Air War too. And IL-2 has been around forever too.