DCS A-10C
If DCS: A10C Warthog were a simulation of, say, pancake making, it would not merely ask that you combine the proper ingredients, place the resulting batter in a correctly pre-heated frying pan, and cook for the desired time limit. No, that would be too easy. In addition to all of the above, it would also ask you to mill your own flour, forge your own frying pan, and then micro-analyze every single facet of your virtual kitchen before and while you're cooking to ensure something does not go awry along the way. And make no mistake – this kitchen would be the most complex kitchen one could possibly dream up.
Of course, it would also force you to fend off marauding chefs, each wanting nothing more than to shoot you down with a well-aimed barrage of eggs. Fortunately for all of us, pancake-making has not been sim-ified. Not yet anyway. But if it's intricacy you want, if painstaking attention to detail is your nirvana, and if you fancy yourself able to digest and execute, in perfect symmetry, each and every operation involved in starting, launching, flying, taking into battle, and eventually landing what is arguably the most comprehensive virtual portrayal ever devised of a modern warplane, look no further than Eagle Dynamics' exhaustive DCS: A10C Warthog, one of precious few serious flight sims in the modern gaming landscape. The "DCS" stands for "Digital Combat Simulator," and like the one and only prior game in the DCS series (2009's helicopter junket DCS: Black Shark) and indeed all earlier ED titles, "simulator" means just that – a rivet by rivet, blow by blow, second by second hyper-authentic journey into the incredible minutiae normally reserved only for real life pilots. |
To say that A10C makes old school flight sims such as the rightfully esteemed Falcon 4.0 seem, in many ways, like a "game," is not overstating the realties. Truth is that anyone not already indoctrinated to the world of the hardcore flight sim – and even many that are – will find it nothing short of "work." That's right – work. ED's latest goes beyond the standard definition of "simulation," and instead, in many ways, feels like a job. A wonderfully exhilarating, enormously satisfying job when you finally get the hang of it, but a job nonetheless.
But it's not just ED's admirable attention to detail and lust for realism that makes the game as difficult as it is. Of equal responsibility is the developer's seeming disregard for those who may be taking their first taste of the flight sim world, and even those who've treaded light there before. And that disregard starts with the game manual. Said manual – all 669 pages of it – and indeed almost all of the included instruction, treats you as if you're a real pilot who's already familiar with the drill…and the jargon. Take for example, this random manual selection, lifted from page 290: "For CBU weapons, OSB 17 and 18 allow setting of spin RPM and Height of Function (HOF)." Ask yourself if you can understand that. If you can, you've likely found your game. If not, prepare thyself for brain cramps. |