I first got into "DCS" with Lock-On. The graphics were spectacular and I was still a kiddo, so I got fooled. I played a little bit and the first thing I noticed was "why the hell does my wingman stay glued to my wing and replicate each and every move I make?" It was dumb. I went back to Flacon 4.0 which I already had.

After a while Lock On Flaming Cliffs came out, and I bought the DVD, which arrived by post.
At the time it was cool, because of the AFM for the Su-25T. Again, after a few missions it became dull, and I went back to Falcon.

Then DCS Black Shark came out, I bought it immediately. It was a real novelty because of the helicopter, the great flight model etc.
It was crashing A LOT on my pc but I studied and enjoyed the Ka-50.

When they announced DCS A-10 I was very happy. I always loved the A-10 and finally, together with the F-16 in Falcon, I had the chance to fly two of my most favourite airplanes. Instant buy. It was quite buggy, but it finally became quite stable ith version 1.1.1.1
I joined a serious squadron and we trained and flew a lot. It was a pain to be honest, because the game was crashing and lagging a lot, and so each mission had to be restarted multiple times. Anyway it was a good time.
After 1.1.1.1 it all went very much downhill, the game became so badly broken and unplayable that we all gave up and disbanded our small squadron. People lost interest and only a few hardcore simmers were left...
1.5 was a good step forward, some stability has been brought back but apart from improved graphics and new modules, the core "simulation" is not much more than what I remember from Lock-On.

I fly DCS regularly, it's a good airframe simulator and i enjoy the different aircraft and switchology. I treat it pretty much in the same way as FSX. Mostly free flights, circuits etc. The Mirage brought some A-A fun for me, it's a good module with a good, open developer behind. Other than that, when I want to feel like I'm a fighterpilot at war, rather than a rich guy with a lot of warbirds in the hanagar, I fire up BMS.