Yeah. I was looking at that one. I read in some places that it's very "arcadish". Also, there is a Soviet Invasion and Cold War Gone Hot subtitle that appear to be two different games. Which is the one to get?

The bulk of my modern combat sim experience is with Hornet 2.0 and Hornet 3.0. I bought F/A-18 operation Iraqi Freedom, but was pretty disappointed.

I was pretty satisfied with the systems and realism in the Hornet series. In fact, that was one of my favorite parts of the sim, using all the radar modes and weapons systems. So maybe I could even go for something a little more technical than that. Given that, do you all think I'd be happier with WoE, or Falcon 4.0?

F4 is more technical than OIF, WOE is less so. The major area of simplification is the avionics. Partly this is due to the fact that the focus is on 70's and earlier birds, when stuff just wasn't that complex to look at. The flight models included with the stock airplanes have been criticized as too simplified, but don't think that means Crimson Skies-style flying. It just means few spins, while you will still find out that planes like the F-104 are NOT dogfighters. :)

WOE lets you fly many different planes in different terrains and eras. F4 lets you fly the F-16 in the present day in Korea or the Balkans.

Make no mistake, while both are flight sims, they offer very different experiences. F4 is closer to what OIF was, just far more realistic, in depth, and complicated. WOE goes in the other direction but is not arcade.


The Jedi Master

Hmmm... sounds like a toss up. I guess I'll just see which one I find cheaper first

I'm just curious, which one has better graphics. It's hard to tell based on the screenshots and youtube's I've seen. Are there demos of either game out there?

For airplane/weapon models, WOE equals or passes LOMAC most of the time.

Terrain still goes to LOMAC.

There WAS a LOMAC demo I think, back when the game was released years ago, but I'm not 100% certain. No demos for TKs sims.

One major difference, though--TK has been patching and upgrading his sims over the years to the point where the games look far better than they did at release. LOMAC hasn't changed at all.
Check here: http://www.simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=2340402&gonew=1#UNREAD
A bunch of shots of the upcoming Middle Eastern-set sim TK is working on, graphics are pretty much identical to WOE except with each release the terrain looks a little better. The original SFP1 had the least attractive terrain of the bunch.


The Jedi Master

Ok. sounds like I'll probably get WoE.

Just to be sure, though, based on what I posted earlier, WoE should run fine on my system, right?

And while we're at it, based on the system specs I posted earlier, what would be the cheapest easiest thing I could do to be able to play LOMAC on my laptop? I'd rather spend $50-$100 to upgrade my computer and then play the game I already have, than spend $25 for an outdated game and then be stuck in the same boat when I find something else "new" that I want.

Thanks.

Hmmm. That's a good question, actually!
The CPU and video chip in that laptop are pretty low. You should be able to play WOE, if you lower the detail levels a fair bit.
I just don't know about LOMAC. It really likes a strong CPU, which yours is not, and a great video card, which yours is also not. Actually, I have a laptop quite similar in specs to yours, but I've never bothered trying LOMAC on it. Instead, I've only played games from 2002 or earlier on it!



The Jedi Master

I'll just say this. I have a rig that will run LOMAC adequately. I'm not in it for the eye candy. I consistantly find myself flying WOE more than LOMAC. The expandability of WOE far outshines LOMAC. They are both good sims, but the LOMAC devs have gone down a path I don't care to follow (Black Shark) whereas there are tons of addtional planes I can download for WOE, most of which are better than the stock planes.

I would certainly hold on to LOMAC for when you can upgrade your rig.