No new flight sim to play? Try Steambirds
Posted on 8th Mar 2010 at 10:30 by James Gorbold with 12 comments
Back in the 80s and 90s the flight sim and hardcore RPG ruled the roost of PC gaming. Companies such as Microprose seemed to release a whole new flight sim almost every month - and got so ahead of themselves that they had to start making up details about unreleased aircraft in order to make games about them.
These days however it's almost impossible to buy a new flight sim. Very few have been released in recent years, and the few that have been all suffer from a serious number of problems - Flight Sim X runs like a dog regardless how much hardware you throw at it.
As somebody who looks down their nose at a lot of newer flying games, such as the truly awful Wings of Prey, I've not exactly been filled with hope about the future of the genre, but if, like me, you're craving a decent flight sim, I can heartily recommend Steambirds.
OK, it's not a flight sim. Not at all. It's actually a free, browser-based game that's played out turn-by-turn from an overhead perspective. Bear with me, though. Rather than badly simulating a cockpit, you instead take on the role of wing commander - directly a flight of fighters against squadrons of increasingly advanced enemies.
It's fun, light hearted and just what the flight surgeon ordered.
Speaking of Wing Commander - now there's a classic from the 90s that's begging for a comeback.
These days however it's almost impossible to buy a new flight sim. Very few have been released in recent years, and the few that have been all suffer from a serious number of problems - Flight Sim X runs like a dog regardless how much hardware you throw at it.
As somebody who looks down their nose at a lot of newer flying games, such as the truly awful Wings of Prey, I've not exactly been filled with hope about the future of the genre, but if, like me, you're craving a decent flight sim, I can heartily recommend Steambirds.
OK, it's not a flight sim. Not at all. It's actually a free, browser-based game that's played out turn-by-turn from an overhead perspective. Bear with me, though. Rather than badly simulating a cockpit, you instead take on the role of wing commander - directly a flight of fighters against squadrons of increasingly advanced enemies.
It's fun, light hearted and just what the flight surgeon ordered.
Speaking of Wing Commander - now there's a classic from the 90s that's begging for a comeback.
12 Comments
Discuss in the forums ReplyAdd to that a soundblaster AWE32, a "3D" card and a Gravis Joystick and evenings and weekends could dissapear for weeks on end. Mark Hamil & the temblor bomb, good times! :)
http://skyrates.net/
That sounds like Wing Commander 3 - I'm old enough to remember upgrading my 286 to a 386 in order to try and play Wing Commander 1 smoothly :)
Like all Origin games though you needed a faster CPU than Intel had yet released, so I only got to enjoy Strike Commander was when it was re-released a few years later on CD (rather than FDD) with all the expansion packs included.
Thanks!