HansRoaming

Pre ordered for me. Will be able to do a start up without wearing out ALT-TAB :)

Are you planning a sound mod to go with it that endlessly loops the theme tune as you fly around? :)

Whoever did that deserves an attaboy from ED. Multilingual user interfaces (including a complex cockpit) really makes it accessible. I know I would have probably not bought it with non English lettering. Having the A10C cockpit lettering in Russian as wella s English although not pure will make it more appealing to a core consumer group in EDs market.

"The price will be $39.99." cmon guys we're giving you early capital for your product. EDIT: while the APIs are opening up, as they should, don't forget the AI as that is my personal love in coding :)

Does it simulate the sweaty arse?

Think 'economies of scale'. But hell yeah am ready to buy that printed manual, cmon ED take my money.

This stuff is why we need an english wiki! :)

The Multiplayer aspect of Supreme Commander with regards to the lobby works well and it still has people in there playing games. Might be something worth modelling.

Well I saw this is the PC Pilot forums Never hurts does it :)

DRM is basically malware you install on your PC and when they don't get along all sorts of goodness can happen to your PC. That's why it gets a low score.

If you read the book Warthog, about A10 pilots during the first gulf war, then one of the comments you'll notice that pilots keep saying about the A10 is that it is a lot more satisfying to fly than their previous "pointy nose" jets. Close air support is a lot more involved than modern bvr air to air. Am not saying there is anything wrong with people who love air to air, but am glad ED are focusing on CAS first in the series.

Not when there is ECM about. ;)

Couldn't find the link for that off of http://www.digitalcombatsim.com also a fan site doesn't command the same authority as a product sponsored site. I think that although the bar has been raised the market has to. It is easier to sell to a global market today than it was. There is a good article on Gamasutra about Valve and how they successfully monetize relationships with their customers http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=22378.

A long time ago the advent of guided missiles signalled to many at the time that the days of manned flight for combat aircraft were numbered. Over fifty years later we're still putting people in aircraft. UAVs are good but I wonder how they would fare in an environment when both sides have technological parity. The human brain is still the best vocational unit available for weapon systems and will be for a long time to come.

BS has got me back into sims from becoming bored of them a while back (my first sim was for the ZX81) and it's the only software in a couple of years that is making me upgrade my computer just to play it better. 'nuff said really.

I believe it is in EDs list of BS aircraft to come out. An Afghanistan map would be good!

Great article and some of the problems there are shared across many different types of software development projects and teams. I think a real problem that they suffered from was the point release mentality i.e. think up Longbow, release, think up longbow 2, mod code, release and the try and do a10. With an engine that wasn't designed with longevity in mind the cruft was really starting to cause pain. Of course with the point release mentality then it's hard to justify changes that make sense in the long term. Also distribution and the community has changed since that time. The Internet allows for reduced distribution costs and also encourages the community around a product. With enthusiasts adding value to the core product with mods and add ons this only increases the attraction for new potential consumers. With ED as I've commented elsewhere I feel that the DCS line is a great move. By spreading the potential return of investment for application infrastructure development such as the engine and editors over multiple releases improvements can be more easily justified and actioned. Refactoring and the implimentation of clean loosly coupled interfaces that don't always meake sense on a short term basis can really bring benefit to subsequent releases. Support for the enthusiast moding and third party community builds a rich surrounding ecology to the core product which only increases the DCS lines appeal. Options in the future to lower costs could be to open source certain parts of the infrastructure such as aircraft designers and mission editors. This can spread development costs and allow for innovation that would otherwise be not cost effective to do. The funding model of staged releases of aircraft I feel is a good compromise between the point release mentaility of old and the subscription model of the 'gold mines' of MMO. For example CCP releases all updates to EVE Online for nothing but relies on subscriptions for income. With DCS the fact that Blackshark is the first release of an an ever improving product I feel is a good move on EDs part. With different types of aircraft appealing to different markets there is great oppertunity for cross sell and also the longevity of each release is much greater than if they were point releases. Blackshark in 2015 should be potentially as fresh as it is today as the underlying engine will have improved of the intervening years. With the departure of Microsoft from the sim scene the market has opened up and I feel that EDs new approach and high quality of product will capture a significant part of the global market. Personally I'm quite excitied about what's to come.

Forgot to mention an analogue hat would rock too! Want to move the camera up front a bit easier :)

If it was HOTAS and as good as they claim for FF along with a throttle and pedals then it would be truly awesome.

I think people are forgetting the context of this review. Bearing in mind that potentially a lot of readers might not have flown any sim before then the experience in arcade mode is going to be important. The fact it plays well there opens up BS for a wider audience and brings more people to the product. With more people buying BS and other DCS purchases the more ED can spent resources developing and making the series better. A win win for all.

Ka-50 is semi rigid mount so has a trade off for target engagement envelope vs accuracy. As mentioned above it is a side fire attack at speed whereas a BS would have to do a funnel at 1.5km and at 70 knots to accomplish the same.

Ok here is what I think DCS as a concept For me the virtual battlefield idea where a common engine with bolt on experiences including fighters, CAS etc is a great sell. Personally I can see that as the stable of vehicles expand I'll be purchasing more of the DCS releases. Commercially this is a great idea as the potential for cross sell is increased. One product brings in a consumer to the range and they buy more. It also cuts down the cost of ownership of the previous releases as the engine and so on is shared, patching adds value across the range rather than a narrow previous sim. Future add ons could include terrain modules and so on so people can fight in common battlefields. The fact this development cost is spread over multiple types of simmer maximises sales potential. The sim market is not a huge one but I feel DCS will maximise the potential customer base. Since I flew a helicpter for real a year ago have been looking for a great helicopter experience and have found it in Blackshark. From this introduction I know I will buy the A10, Apache and Hind release for sure and depending what is offered with the others might buy them too. Singular releases would have a limited appeal for me whereas a new aircraft, new terrain, better AI and so on that improves my previous purchases would be compelling. A pointy nose fighter add on in itself wouldn't excite me but one that improved my DCS installation would. DCS Blackshark Engine I don't have an uber powerful rig but what I do have runs BS reasonably well. The big problem for me is collision detection on trees and the fact that the software is not making use of my multi core capability. Saying that the feel of the helicopter is good and the control options are great. This is the first game that is getting me to upgrade my kit in a while. 7/10 Gameplay So far am in the learning mode and am loving this, because of the immersion factor just being able to fly the helicopter well is rewarding and the sim is providing me with more entertainment the more I put into it. Haven't had a chance to sample the AI in depth but maybe something similar to Weta's Massive engine could be a solution for the AI. As a side note, sometimes you wonder what the Human machine interface designer for the helicopter was thinking with the stated goal of reducing workload. :) 9/10 Documentation This is difficult to answer as there is extensive and exhaustive documentation but and it is a big but, I cant read it offline. A printed manual to be available for purchase would be a godsend. The second point is that although the manual has secotions on how to deploy weopen systems etc there could be something on CAS helicopter tactics. The manual for M1 tank platoon I still remember as being awesome all these years on for its depth and value it added to the game. 7/10 In game training The training and demo files show some good things and have reallly helped. Gets a solid thumbs up from me. Use more varied greetings in future though please :) Something showing different tactics in different situations would be good. 8/10 Simulation quality This is the best modeled sim I have ever had experience with. The detail and feel of the chopper is awesome and the immersion factor for me is high. Loving it, more of the same! For a version 1.0 this is amazingly polished, much respect to the QA teams. Am very impressed. 9.5/10 Laser :) Somebody buy this down the market or something, cmon Kamov, sort it out! 1/10 To sum up, I love this sim and hope the ED stick with the DCS concept as they've announced the next release (Flanker->Lock On->Black Shark) would add onto the previous one before and it didn't happen. If the follow ons are as good as this they've got my money.

Sounds like they need an overclockers heat sink bolted to it :) Seriously though am surprised a heat sensor with a warning light wasn't built into the avionics system.

Seems a bit short lived for a laser to burn out so quick.

Although the designers forgot to put a QWERTY keyboard in the plane, what is this an early 80's home micro with that alphabetical layout?!?! :)