Hi,

I'm looking for a flight combat PC game with a good campaign mode and story line to it. I don't just want to fly mission after mission with no real plot or end to it. For example, I wasn't a huge fan of IL2 Sturmovik.

I am open to either WWII or modern air combat games. Any ideas?

Thanks

Battle of Britain II has a great campaign mode.

The sims with great campaign engines are:

• Falcon 4.0
• Red Baron 3D
• Battle of Britain II

For the immersion factor, try:

• European Air War
• Falcon 4.0
• B-17 Flying Fortress 2

For pure storytelling:

• Tom Clancy's HAWX
• Yankee Air Pirate 2

For a bit of nostalgia:

• Strike Commander
• Red Baron
• Falcon 3.0
• B-17 Flying Fortress

The best one one for its diversity and improvement thought its comminity and with the best Mission Builder is CFS2. It has a World map that allows to build mission throughtout the World and Hundred of planes and ships plus scenery improvements for it through its community.

Just checkout this post http://www.simviation.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1117604819/all

1] European Air War
2] B-17 Flying Fortress II
3] Battle Of Britain II
4] WarBirds -- AVOID LIKE AN AIDS NEEDLE [Ask Anyone's Who's "Interacted" With It ....]

Battle of Britain 2, you can play the campaign at level of RAF or Luftwaffe Commander, and then jump into the cockpit in any dogfight or flight on the map at will.

Last night I was in the middle of a Luftwaffe campaign - August 20. Put together a raid of 200 bombers and 300 escort then fragged into one of the Bf109 escort squadrons over France and rode shotgun to the target. Amazing being part of something that huge - there were aircraft all the way from Britain to France as far as the eye could see. The RAF put up about 200 fighters to attack us and in no time I was down among the treetops duelling with a Hurricane. Fighters and bombers were falling like burning leaves all over the countryside. I brought the Hurricane down but my engine started smoking. I nursed my Emil up to 2,000 feet over the Channel before the engine cut out, and I had to bail. Made it down into the drink and into my raft.

Just another day at the office...

PS the graphics, weather etc these days are a treat too...

Image courtesy my favorite screenshotter, Stalkervision



Plus it is only $20 USD and has a big group of freeware developers supporting it with patches and enhancements etc. If you want campaign immersion, these guys now have modelled every fighter skin in the entire Battle! I bought my copy here:

http://www.a2asimulations.com/bob/

It says US customers only but I bought from UK using Paypal.

It isn't perfect of course. No multiplayer so although the AI is good, you will be able to beat it with practice. I find it is pretty poor at low level, so if I have an enemy on my tail I can't shake, I drag him down into the weeds and he tends to break off below 200 feet. And the Luftwaffe campaign is damn hard, I have never managed to win it (but I'm still trying!)

PS

For a modern combat sim, you might also consider Jane's F/A-18. Superb naval aircraft sim. It's very detailed, tough, has a branching campaign. While the learning curve is steep, it's not quite as insane as Falcon (which I'm learning). There's also a dedicated community called TSH that continues to add a wealth of improvements to graphics, sounds, and simulation.

The only downside is that it's older, and may require some finessing to get it working properly on your modern system.

Get hold of an old copy of "Janes WWII Fighters." Nothing beats if for cinematic awesomeness! "Janes USAF" is another quick action awesomeness but with modern jets.

You might also want to try the Third Wire "sim lite" series: First Eagles Gold (WWI), Wings Over Europe, and Wings Over Israel. I recommend Wings Over Vietnam but only if you add-on the third party "Yankee Air Pirate 2." Third Wire does not have a WWII sim.

For WWII and more modern graphics, go with IL2 1946.

And European Air War (EAW)--which has 'campaigns' all over the world for WWII and beyond, not just Europe.
Old-time graphics and up-to-date immersion flying with new 1.28 patch.
Has a Forum here.

Sounds like someone who flew a two week free trial.
MMPOGs allow you to interact with 100s of players in a historical setting in venues like the Squad Select Series (Warbirds 200+) and the Friday Squad Ops (Aces High 500+). White knukle stuff.