Ive posted a few places about getting back into flight sims. I have IL-2 1946 and thinking of getting wings of prey as well, but also would like some modern flair. And i think im leaning between lomac and SF2 series's over europe and/or over vietnam. I use to play an old old old f-22 sim as well as janes combat collections like USNF and USAF. I like the options of different flyable aircraft which is why im not really considering falcon 4, i love the f-16 but want more. Im just alittle lost. is there reason why i should pursue one game over the other. im getting a cheap stick till i can afford a nice HOTAS, really like the looks of the Logitech with FFB. But im itching to get back in the cockpit.

Thanks for any guidance.

it also seems theres alot of new stuff in terms of campaigns and alot of the reading is going over my head as i try to quickly skim at work to help me pick. Im not afriad of learning once i get the game. but it seems hard to size everything up.

I have a LOT of sims and I find myself flying the Thirdwire ones more and more. I tend to run the generation 1 sims since I have an older system and finances prevent an upgrade any time in the foreseeable future.

There are some truly amazing mods out there for TW sims (although some have not caught up with the second generation TW sims yet.)

I would start with one of the TW Europe sims. They probably have a better selection of "modern" aircraft. There are a number of good F-16 add-on aircraft if that's your bird of choice.

No i do like the f-16 but said i was leaning to TW or LOMAC for more variety. as it seems is the case but i dont know, like i said ive been out of the sim scene for years. but do have a decently beefy pc atm. I got one of the lower end I7's and 3 or 4 gigs of ram. decent comp. so Im not too worried about running anything.

Well they are not that modern - as in the stock games run to about 1984 max - but would recommend Strike Fighters 2: Israel as a starter.

Not sure how much the first gen DX9 series will be supported - but currently you can only get good performance out of them using a mod to up the FPS (thats with an i7)

The Strike Fighters 2 series are being supported on multicore CPUs and Vista/Win 7 so are the ones to go for if you can.

I guess whats the differences of LOMAC Vs SF2 series. They will prob cost the same as you need base then addons right? In a year or so I might own both but what might get me to choose one over the other for a first post ww2 flight sim, in a long time. Last one I played i think was Janes USAF Gold?? or USNF 97.

SF2 Israel is a nice pick since it has both the easiest (Lebanon '82) and the hardest (Yom Kippur '73) campaigns in the series. Nice range of aircraft too - from Mirage III, through F-4 and A-4 to F-15, F-16.
There's also a stock payware addon for it in the works which might connect you with Il-2. 1950's, Suez Crisis, flyable P-51D and Gloster Meteor. Not sure, when it gets released but it's soon-ish and the previews look good.

However, if you want to jump right into mods, SF2 Europe might be a better pick. Vietnam's good too but normally has less dogfighting.

When choosing between LOMAC and SF2, there are few things to keep in mind.

Graphics:

SF2 uses DX10 shaders, LOMAC, even with the Flaminf Cliffs 2.0 addon, still uses older DX9.0c graphics. Now, LOMAC can still make the environment look better, but keep that in mind.

The terrains are markedly different. LOMAC's is much, MUCH, MUCH, more detailed, even with SF2's settings cranked all the way up.

Gameplay:

LOMAC only models a few aircraft, but they are modeled to a much greater degree of realism than SF2. Now, the realism can be scaled back to any skill level, but just keep in mind that SF2 was meant to be more approachable...easier.

Mods:

True there are mods available for them both, not as many for LOMAC, especially since the release of Flaming Cliffs 2.0, but you have to keep the quality in mind. SF2's stock aircraft reach a level of detail that third-party aircraft don't generally match. TK's models are not just pretty good, they're VERY good, so they raise the bar quite high. There are FAR more stock aircraft to fly in SF2, and an impossibly large number of mods you can download that allow you to fly anything nanywhere, but they may not have the level of realism you want or look the best.

pfunk

the only thing that i desire for SF series, is a replay function.
LOMAC can record replays, SF can not yet.

Well I got SF2: Vietnam and an x-52 HOTAS. Now to learn what the hell to do with it all. My old joystick from my old days of fight sims had maybe 1/10 of the functionality. kinda overwhelmed with all my options.