
Even in Simple, you'll use combinations of the d-pad and right analog stick to look around your environment. It forces you to read the instrumentation in the cockpit or rely on your instincts to pilot the crafts, and it makes for a much more harrowing experience.Īs expected, the different difficulty levels use of every button and button combination available on your control pad. Then there's Simulation, which throws in everything that the Realistic setting does but takes away the minimal HUD elements, such as radar and the altimeter reading. Experiencing blackouts, having the plane stall from a steep climb, and manipulating the controls more to escape from a dive are just a few of your concerns at this difficulty level. Realistic adds physics, so you'll be limited in the tricks you can pull off if you don't know how to pilot your plane. Simple gives you gameplay similar to an arcade-style flight game, where your primary concern is flying without getting shot or crashing.

There are three difficulty levels as well as a separate option for toggling limited ammo and fuel counts. The first thing you'll notice is how the difficulty levels dramatically change things when you play. Not content with its offerings thus far, the Russian development house has returned to the World War II setting with Birds of Steel, a flight game that pleases both camps, even if it leans toward the simulation side. The flight simulation game remains the domain of the PC and its myriad of flight sticks and pedals, though we have seen a few attempts to port this to the console world in the form of IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey and Apache: Air Assault, both titles courtesy of Gaijin Entertainment. 2, a good deal of them are arcade flight games, where technical details give way to white-knuckle aerial action. From the antiquated stuff of Red Baron to the slightly futuristic fare of Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. This console generation has seen a good number of flight combat games.
