Although I've never tried it, I understand that FSX with some add-ons like Javier's carriers and vLSO is also quite immersive.
"A week or even a month for someone basically saying "shucks, this is pants" maybe. But their banhammer only has the forever setting. Gotta set phasers to stun for the localization of female undergarments, not kill yo." - Frederf
The most realistic carrierops is FSX with acceleration plus vLSO, AI Carriers and one of the decent addons available - VRS Superhornet, T45C or F-14.
Also you can get from VRS the Tackpack which allows some addons to use weaposn in mp. vLSO grades your approaches to the carrier so that's why vLSO and FSX makes the most realistic carrierops because your approaches are graded vs real life grades.
"Trust me I know what I'm doing" Detective Sledge Hammer
Not really sadly. SF2, DCS, and to a lesser extend Falcon 4 BMS all feature "carrier ops", in that you can take off and land from a boat, but none of them strive hard to be immersive.
SF2 you spawn on the Cats, and upon landing the AI despawn almost immediately. It also has a minorly nifty system where it populates the deck of the carrier with aircraft sporting the paint schemes of embarked squadrons. DCS again spawns you on the cat, but actually has the AI taxi clear of the wires after landing, fold their wings, and move to a parking position.
Ironically enough, for a game that has no native support for naval aircraft, Falcon 4 might actually be the closest to what you're looking for. Aircraft spawn amidships, taxi to the catapults, fly their missions, return, and land, though if I recall they de-spawn immediately upon touching the deck.
None of these games so far have anything resembling a proper carrier pattern (they flight straight in), proper carrier ATC, crewmen, etc. I'd agree that FSX is the best experience for *you* landing the jet. I can't really think of a contemporary game that has a mature, featured carrier environment.
Looking forward, ED has promised a suite of improvements to carrier operations with the F/A-18C module. Given the current state of carriers in that game, I'm optimistic: they've already got pitching decks in game, as well as proof they can get the AI to taxi about a moving object at sea. A combination of FLOLS implementation, a better marshaling/ATC algorithm, the ability to start at a point on the deck instead of the catapult, and a working catapult, I could easily see DCS taking on the mantle of the best naval aviation simulator. That said, my experience with ED has never been a question of what quality they're going to put out, but rather how long it's going to take. I'm 23, I wouldn't be particularly surprised if I were pushing 30 by the time I see all of that in game. (here's hoping that's wrong).
thank you very much for your answer. I reinstalled SF2 last week and while its fun taking off and land back on the carrier with the f-14 I was looking for something more. Reinstalled too Jane's F-18.
Seems we'll have to wait for ED's F-18 or Letherneck's F-14
F-14 fleet defender was quite immersive and so was Topgun Fire at will in both there was some good missions with aircraft doing missions while taking off and landing on carriers. F-14 Fleet defender featured packages of different aircraft types taking off and landing it was quite good. F/A-18E by DI was good also good because it featured crew on the deck marshaling you to the cat but when you landed it could have been better if there was ground crew to guide you to park up and fold wings etc.
"Trust me I know what I'm doing" Detective Sledge Hammer
Thanks for the videos. I had forgotten that I been able to do much on the deck in FD but that sparked some memories. One was that we had some different carriers you could fly from and so I had to set things up to handle the differences in layouts of the deck. I think most were similar but at least one was different enough I had to make things data driven. The other was that I could have a number of planes taking off, since once you took off they'd be behind you and not affecting your framerate, but when they landed I had to get them to the elevator and "under deck" quickly so they wouldn't hurt your framerate if you were coming in to land. I think I could keep the 2 ready 5 planes on the front cats but I'm not sure.