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If you watch part 1, it states there are 61 AI controlled aircraft. It also shows the flyable aircraft - the same exact ones that are in FC currently.

Audiphiles are actually few and far between. To correctly "tune" a 5.1 system, one must correlate the actual geometry of the room that the system is being placed in. Those who actually do that are a scant few. Alot of people put their 5.1 PC systems close to where they sit simply because of space. 5.1 headsets actually do work. Are there any delays? Looking at the components in the inline amplifier (I'm an engineering tech by day), there's no delay buffers. What they do have though is defined angles on the drivers. My old roommate used my PC for a bit and he plays with his sound turned extremely loud. The SPL on his ears is well over 107db as I could normally hear his headphones through his closed door. In that instance, any positional audio is pretty much useless. If we are playing ArmA2 and someone is walking up to me from 145 relative, then I know which direction they are coming without even having to turn my head to isolate the direction. It even works for "up and down" I worked on the Commanche program for a while and was working with the engineer who was programming the positional audio for the warning unit. 360 degree audio envelope using only one driver in each earpiece. It's a trick of replicating the audio into the two channels independently and then adjusting their individual pan and amplitude. In short - you can get simulated surround or true surround and not be able to tell the difference. The one thing I enjoy about the Turtle Beach HPA's is that they are not designed to be very heavy on the bass. I find that most modern gaming headsets are very bass heavy. I still have an RTA and the manequin head I modified to test headphone frequency response curves and SPL levels. The Plantronics 777's and the Fatality headsets were ungodly bass heavy even with a flat EQ. While many may enjoy that, I kinda like to hear things as they really are. And the world just doesn't have a sub rumble like that on a regular basis :D

Dedicated server code + dynamic campaigns that can be saved server side (ie in case of a server reset - the mission cna be reloaded without loss of progress) would be the best option imho.

I use the Turtle Beach Earforce HPA 5.1 Surround headphones. http://www.turtlebeach.com/products/efhpa2/home.aspx I haven't found a set of non-USB 5.1 surround headphones that can compare to what you get for the price. Each earpiece has four speakers in it and the inline amplifier has seperate volume controls for front, center, surround, and sub. It also has a master volume control. The mic works extremely well too. Just make sure that if you have cats, to keep the headsets out of reach of them. Mine like to take the foam windsreen off of the mic and bat it around the house. I have a first generation set of HPA's, but am going to replace them shortly. I've had these since they were released (late 2004 or early 2005). They've been thru hell. They've been through several hundred matches in America's Army, crap tons of pub play in AA2, ArmA, and Arma2.... and cubic ton of flight hours in IL-2, LO, Falcon, & DCS. When I was competing in America's Army, I wore them at least 4-5 hours a night almost every night of the week. They show it too lol! I also have a recording studio and have $500 headphones int here that couldn't have stood up to the abuse that these HPA's have. Another plus is that TrackIR's Track Clip fits very nicely on them. Hope this helps.

I can't believe I'm gonna say this, but it just hit me......... Has anyone else ever noticed how the style of the gunships in Half Life 2 kinda favor the Hind? (Don't shoot me for referencing HL2....I liked the story line lol!)

All of the anti-FC'ers out there need to realize one simple thing: The Saitek X65F will be shipping with a demo of LockOn. This will bring attention to ED for those who haven't heard of it or been here in a while. This also brings potential for added interest in the DCS series (present and future). LockOn and Falcon both fall short of being high fidelity simulators. Their cores were written long ago for hardware that could not handle a fully developed, high fidelity simulator. Where one lacks, the other picks up - and vice versa. Each has their strong points and reasons to play. The only problem with Falcon I see if the fragmentation of the community due to no more official updates. AF, OF, etc they all kinda split everyone. I honestly have enjoyed many hours in both. I really do wish this AF vs LO feud would come to an end. It's so very "internet" if ya know what I mean ;)

Probably no reason why it wouldn't be. Just depends on if you'd wanna play everything at 640X480 (it's max resolution)

Ground pounding while Kuky and Grimes maintain air superiority in the area - that's gonna be fun :)

There's no way to fit that manual into the box unless it was a REALLY BIG box. Still, I waited for the box to come out. Call me old fashioned, but I always enjoyed seeing the box edge and the title on my shelf :D Now, if I was addicted to buying games like alot of people, I wouldn't have the shelf space for all of the boxes. In that case, digital downloads are more convenient. I think I have MAYBE 13 games on my shelf lol!

I can't see a flyable AWACS. Might as well just fly a 737. The pilot of an AWACS just flies it. The crew in the back does all the work and, as of yet, same aircraft coop hasn't been modeled in. And, as a person who operated both ECM and SS/AS radars, it would difficult to find the right people who wanted to stare at a radar scope or ESM screen (it has no sweep - far less entertaining) for an hour or two without even having a window to look outside. It would really up the realism, but there has to be a balance called at some point :D Personally, I would love to see more functionallity in the interfacing with AWACS in both MP and SP. Since there's F/A-18's and S-3 Vikings modeled into the engine, it would stand to reason to have a US carrier out there somewhere. In that case, also have the E-2C Hawkeye....or the min-WACS as we called it when I was stationed aboard the USS G. Washington CVN-73. Of course, this would require datalinking between the fighter aircraft and the AWACS platforms visibile and functional in the MFD's as well.

(joke anyone who took statistics in college will get a laugh out of) Ya know 50% of all statistics are wrong

In the end, I think it was great community effort here getting the votes in. Considering that DCS Blackshark is sim in a very niche genre, having that many votes and carrying the lead for as long as it did is quite a statement. As far as the whole "cheating votes" thing - Most people who play Blackshark are older and generally operate from one computer. Sure they may have one at work, but think of how many are firwalled from gaming sites at work. God knows I am. I'm lucky to be able to see these forums. And that's not saying that the Killing Floor votes were massivley overstated either. Each game got less than 3000 votes. That's not alot of votes in the grand scheme of gamers. Killing Floor got exposed to many more people based upon it's engine alone and it's advertising via Steam. Not my kind of game and didn't download it. Kind of got tired of the twitch-reaction based shooters in my late 20's. Now, as I reach 40, I prefer more tactical games. But props to Killing Floor and it's players. Diversity is what keeps the gaming industry from going completely under. This has nothing to do with any nationality or geographic location. It was a reader's poll for games. For the "Russian vs _______" aspect to become a debate in the first place was out of place by the members of both communities who participated in that debacle. I say congrats to both games and each other game in the polls. It gave them some publicity that they may not have gotten otherwise. To the people from the Killing Floor (and Steam Forums in general), if you ever feel like something different. Hop into the cockpit of the Blackshark. The learning curve is vertical. The manual is over 500 pages. It's a heckuva change from the shoebox shooter genre and could be fun in a different aspect of gaming. Of course, what is enjoyable and good is perceptive to each individual gamer. If you need advice or help, just ask. Novices are always welcome :) No need to bash Killing Floor the game, nor it's players. It was a PC game in a world of console ports. At least the top two were strictly PC and one of those top two was DCS :)

Three ways the cops will know if you're drunk: I LOL'ed :D

ON TOPIC -The muzzle flash was prety badass. Having seen US aircraft perform gun runs on dummy targets, I was not expecting to see that sort of muzzle flash from a fighter jet.

It's the fabled MiG-28 - no one had ever been that close before!! :megalol::megalol: (sorry, couldn't help myself)

The X65 is a Force Sensing joystick (not FFB). While that's a good thing as it's reflective of most current fighter sticks in reality, The release price will be around $400. That's about $200 more than I'd pay for a joystick. I'll stick with my X52. It works and it's cost effective :D More info on the X65 here: http://saitek.com/uk/prod/x65f.htm

Being an ex-sailor :) Three carrier groups complete with multi-branch flyover: 1991, The USS Wasp LHD-1, RMS Invincible, USS Forrestal, and the Principe de Asturias. I was on this deployment and, if I can find them, I'll scan in some deck level photos of the event :) Shock Trials on a Nimits class carrier. I had an 8X10 pic of the USS Wasp undergoing Shock Trials, but cannot find it. Believe me, it's much worse inside during this excersise than the pic could ever depict. If it was welded, we were hugging it lol!

Can another file mirror be provided? There's no free downloads for the F-15 (been trying) and not gonna sign up for a premuim account at a site I'll never use again lol

It pops up at the very onset of the stall. You can still get out of it at that point if you're paying attention. After years and years of playing Il-2 though, I had actually forgotten about the stall warning until I was making this video. Just one of those things you get used to and eventually don't need as you gain a feel for the sim itself. I see your point EtherealN and I do agree :) Like I said though, that stall warning is something I haven't really paid attention to in years. As far as FFB, if Saitek makes an X52 series with FFB, then I'd have am FFB stick that I actually liked lol!

XP x64 - another one of the OS's that MS would like to forget they made lol! Great job on the driver MSI :)

I finally got IL-2 Sturmovik 1946 working with my Win 7 64bit install. Before I got it working, I knew there were differences in the behavior of the planes between WoP and IL-2, but I couldn't quite place it on memory alone. So, I decided to take a plane common between the two games, make a video of the same maneuvers in each, and splice them together so I could watch it myself :megalol: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UPuXvo4DSmg As it turns out, alot of the differences are via a heap of small things in IL-2 that add up to a feel of more complex experience and believable control over the aircraft. This was just a very simple comparison. Max speed at full throttle and level flight below 500ft altitude Turn radius before start of blackout effect Turn stall speed with one wing below the other Possibility of stall recover if below 500 ft altitude Vertical climb rate at full throttle and max speed from approximately 200ft altitude Max altitude of climb Lowest speed at pinnacle of climb Unfortunately, both games have the speed & altitude info on the left side. I was actually suprised when I spliced the two videos together. While the two games definitely feel different, the parameters were very close to one another. I started figuring out that the enviromental detail and cockpit scaling of each game was part of it. The shudder effect in IL-2 is another main effect that is missing from WoP. One thing that IL-2 does do that WoP does not is warn the pilot of an oncoming stall. This is actually a one up for WoP since a WWII sim should not have any sort of stall warning. But,t hat visual warning was a carry over from the very early days of IL-2 when the flight models and graphics were not what they became after years of development and patching. Overall, WoP has the IL-2 foundation. If the WoP dev's can get the shudder effects and the pre-stall counter rotation implemented, then that will dbe a great step towards more believability in flight :)

As has been stated several times, it's a good foundation. It will be fun to see where they go with it. Are the FM's dead on accurate? Nope. Are IL-2's FM's dead on accurate? Nope, but closer than WoP. WoP used the basic FM's from IL-2 as it's foundation. The biggest difference is that WoP uses a different engine than IL-2, so many of the parameters from the IL-2 FM's did not correlate directly. The developers released 10 updates in 25 days based on community feedback and bug reports, so they're working dilligently at getting it "sim worthy" for all of us picky sim-heads. :D In the case of WoP, it's looking at the potential for a polished FM instead of expecting it to be there at the start. If we expected that out of combat flight sims, then I doubt any of us would have stuck with LockOn or IL-2 from the very onset as there were many things that have been worked out in the FM's over time since the release of both. I'm not saying anyone should just bow down and accept it as a sim because it has a simulator mode in it. We should at least give it a shot though to see if they can make a good sim out of it. The engine appears to have the capability.

Good Lord! What mods does the guy use to get the game that stunning?

That's what I've been trying to tell peeps :) It's a damned good foundation to be built upon, and they have been VERY busy building.

LOL!!!!!!