SimHQ.com - 2008: Double Aught and Almost Naught

Without the standout, nick-of-time release of DCS: Black Shark, 2008 would have been a year of mod files and the status quo of waiting for something new to be released next year. The work in progress screenshots and videos are very nice and exciting, but the truth is that we’re all getting a bit tired of anxious anticipation.

DCS: Black Shark Since it made it to worldwide distribution in 2008, let’s celebrate Black Shark first.

It was proclaimed to be an in-depth study sim of an attack helicopter with nothing spared — from weather, flight, and damage modeling to outstanding graphics. DCS: Black Shark was, according to the developers, the new standard in rotary simulation that would appeal to the most grognard of switch-flippers and button-poppers and the manual adverse through scalability. And they pulled it off.

How good is the simulation? Good enough to have members that don’t speak or read a word of Russian downloading the CIS only version and others attempting immersion therapy for Starforce aversion. Rumors that Dart worked through a full fifth of Red Army vodka before pulling out his wallet are simply that: rumors.

Black Shark is good enough to make one actually want to read the manual, and definitely warranted the more than week’s worth of articles that followed its release including an exclusive interview with Producer Matt Wagner.

SimHQ was honored to present the world-premiere video of Fighter Ops along with an exclusive interview with Rick "Rjetster" Ladomade. In one video showing the T-38 in flight, the sim demonstrated it was for real, in development, and going to be good one.

Wings Over Israel Tsuyoshi Kawahito and his little empire in Leningrad-on-the-Lower-Colorado (Third Wire Productions) continued to keep his fans entertained and Vista users a reason not to "upgrade" back to Windows XP. Vista owners were shown compassion, mercy (not to mention a new price list) for all the Third Wire series, not to mention two totally new releases.

Wings Over Israel was released this year, which featured out-of-the-box compatibility with Vista and loads of new content, all for a very reasonable price. Not to be outdone, all previous releases were patched up to Wings Over Israel standard.

Then, in the waning days of December, Strike Fighters 2 was released written from the ground up to be fully compatible with Vista and features a completely new file structure and folder system. We're still looking under the hood, but expect something on this new title very soon.

Jason Williams and his team at 777 Studios have been hard at work during 2008. Primarily on their new PC flight simulation, tentatively titled Razorback! P-47's Over the Pacific. Jason has been understandably tight lipped with the details, but if it does turn out to be a P-47 simulation, we can look forward to plenty of heart beating, ground pounding action, as well as some good air-to-air combat. The sim will be based on the Merlin Engine, licensed from Shockwave Productions, and in fact, 777 Studios and Shockwave will be cooperating as they each proceed to develop new simulations. Now, that's teamwork! Jason has said the new sim will be modular in design so that new aircraft and theatres can be added, but not as open source. For more information, updates, and tidbits about 777 Studios, visit the 777 Developers Forum here at SimHQ. The best of luck to Jason and 777 Studios.

World War Two enthusiasts were greeted with a dribble of screenshots for Oleg's Storm of War: The Battle of Britain that demonstrated the development team has some of the best texture artists around to make the ground objects look better than in most first person shooters. We know it's going to be incredibly detailed when it finally comes out. Whether we'll all be buying it for our grandchildren is the real question. At this point Oleg is probably as ready to complete the project as we are ready to fly it.

Rise of Flight Deflecting from this was the cracking of the IL-2 series code and the very self disciplined work of a cadre of modders winning over most of the skeptics. Staying away from modifying the flight and damage modeling that would cause toxic controversy, the steady string of immersion builders such as repainted cockpits, reduced navigation light brightness, and real content such as maps re-energized the series in a way that completely muted the angst that the final 4.09m version of the simulation has become vaporware.

World War One nuts (such as myself) rode an emotional rollercoaster with the progress of Rise of Flight. The simulation saw not only a name change (the sim formally known as "Knights of the Sky"), but the name of the company as well. Web sites went online and offline, development blogs went silent, and the number of "it's never going to be made" threads became the norm in the forum for it. All was forgiven, though, as things seemed to get back on track with multiple bursts of screenshots and videos of the initial builds. Rumors of beta testing starting up around the New Year lifted spirits all around.

But all the other new flight simulations that were a possibility in 2008 will be pushed to "sometime in 2009". Maybe later.

The Aviation and Air Combat Category Winners Are...

Best Civil Aviation Simulation
X-Plane

Best Civil Aviation Mod or Add-on
Traffic X (FSX)

Best Air Combat Simulation
DCS: Black Shark

Best Air Combat Mod or Add-on
EECH v1.11 + Mi-28

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