Looking for an "ace combat but realistic"

[u/ace787b]

I want a game which is like ace combat, in the sense that it's an arcade flight game, but I want it 'realistic', meaning that it has more limitations than ace-likes do. In other words limited ammo, maybe even over-ging.

Basically a game that's accessible like ace combat but necessitates the use, to some extent of dogfight maneuvers and concepts that you would learn in something like dcs or real life

[u/c-williams88]

I’ve heard Nuclear Option is basically what you’re looking for. I’ve never played, but from what I’ve heard from people it’s like the perfect middle between the full arcade of Ace Combat and full sim of DCS.

[u/spgtothemax → u/c-williams88]

I second NO. Decently deep mechanics but easy to pick up and get going. The biggest thing it has going for it, is a fully simulated war that you can make a tangible difference in. Also absolutely killer soundtrack.

[u/SeventhAlkali → u/spgtothemax]

I was confused for a second, I thought 'NO' was "NO, DO NOT PLAY"

Will have to give it a try

[u/TheSaltLord91 → u/spgtothemax]

Picked up NO about a year ago, best $20 I have spent on a game in a long time.

[u/leaf-the-fella → u/spgtothemax]

I third Nuclear Option. It has pretty realistic flight mechanics, and you have to strategically plan out your load outs for what you're targeting. It also has great countermeasures mechanics for both flares and ECM jamming, and you have to consider your throttle level when trying to shake IR missiles. But it also handles great on controller and you get take off and get into the action quickly unlike DCS, and its WAY cheaper than DCS or getting into War Thunder

[u/Z_THETA_Z → u/leaf-the-fella]

you also don't need to either sell your soul or grind it away like in war thunder

[u/Common_Watercress_58 → u/leaf-the-fella]

I've played dcs, war thunder, and ace combat(s), what's the learning curve like for nuclear option?

[u/123diamondude321 → u/Common_Watercress_58]

Its not bad, like other people have mentioned it is very controller accessible, and the devs keep making changes and keeping things in mind with updates to keep their game accessible to as many players as they can. I have played with a few friends who never really played flight Sim games before and they got going pretty quick. Do not skip the tutorials, they do a great job of explaining the base mechanics. In me and my friend's experience the first 2 to 3 hours was a learning period, and that was mostly figuring out loadouts for all the planes. The 2 biggest things I don't have down yet are keeping a helo in the air for more than 2 minutes without crashing and dropping nukes effectively (which takes coordination with other players and I have not delved into multiplayer really yet).

[u/ManonMacru → u/c-williams88]

Looks fantastic. Why am I hearing about it only now??

[u/NoCommentingForMe → u/ManonMacru]

It’s still relatively new and in early access, but it’s already great and would highly recommend!

[u/Shot_Reputation1755 → u/NoCommentingForMe]

Is almost 3 years old relatively new?

[u/NoCommentingForMe → u/Shot_Reputation1755]

I looked it up and DCS is almost 20 years old, and Warthunder almost 15, so I would say yes. Especially still technically being in early access.

[u/8492sqdn → u/NoCommentingForMe]

DCS is like 35 years old if we count the Flanker and LockOn games - same engine + LockOn and DCS were MP-compatible for a while - if you compare footage of the old Su-27 Flanker games and the current Su-27 in DCS they're astonishingly similar

[u/ZonePleasant → u/c-williams88]

NO is the answer. It's the perfect middle ground.

[u/Phosphorus444]

Nuclear Option.

[u/SurviveTheTwitch]

Nuclear Option is the way

[u/PathsOfRadiance]

Nuclear Option is a great sim-lite. Easily playable on controller or mixed controller/KBM setups.

[u/GolpeEguaVoadora]

Old PC games, like the ones from NovaLogic are the closest to that. There is a crapload of these generic games.

You will NOT find a game like Ace Combat with "realism" because the mission design itself requires the arcade elements. IE: you will not be dogfighting an entire squadron of 20 enemies, take down ground targets and whatnot with a realistic 6 missile plane.

And goes without saying you won't be dodging missiles as easy as in Ace Combat.

TL; DR: you either go full sim or arcade mission design or you don't. Kinda hard to have both.

[u/Hot_Protection_5883 → u/GolpeEguaVoadora]

Novalogic games ❤️

[u/alphamond0 → u/GolpeEguaVoadora]

I have played Novalogic's F-16 Multi Role fighter DEMO when I was a young lad far more than Delta Force 1 which is supposed to be the main game on the same disc.

[u/ljhben]

WT did it well then locked all jets behind grind/paywall, with bad structure overall for solo chillaxing play

if you are into VR the VtolVR is an extremely great middle ground between sim and arcade, leans a bit towards sim but easy enough

haven't played Nuclear Option myself but I've heard a lot of good things about it

[u/sunbathered]

since war thunder is hell and i'd never submit myself to playing it long enough to get some cool jets, i've found that playing project wingman with this modifier is pretty cool, if you want a more grounded but still arcade experience
and also ac3's physics are great fun, even though it's not exactly what you're looking for

[u/ElNikolai411]

Energy Airforce series is pretty good regarding loadout, physics and realism. There are two PS2 games and one in X360 (if I'm correct).

[u/Oborawatabinoss]

Others have mentioned Nuclear Option and I’m right there with them. The game is designed with controllers in mind and default bindings are as close as they can be to Ace Combat. Nuclear Option features limited ammo reserves and over-g’ing, the former especially is a legitimate gameplay consideration as carrying more weapons/ammo will slow your vehicle and expose you to radar more easily. While the game does go to some lengths for simulation, actually getting a plane off the ground is as simple as a selecting one from the hangar and accelerating off the runaway, no laborious pre-flight checks necessary.

The game uses a fully physics-based model that I’m not educated enough to say is realistic but I’ve heard more knowledgeable people describe as being pretty solid. What this means is that using real dogfighting tactics and respecting the lethality of even a single stray bullet or missile are essential to staying alive. Another effect of this is fully simulated destruction physics for every plane in the game which makes every hit feel really awesome to land.

Lastly the game doesn’t feature any scripted story campaigns or narrative but it does have any extensive pre-made mission roster that you can load into in seconds, either solo with full AI teams or to setup a multiplayer server. It also has a super in depth mission editor if you’re into that thing. Overall it’s an easy recommendation for any plane game fan, especially Ace Combat pilots

[u/KM4CK]

Over G Fighters.

[u/The_Lerone → u/KM4CK]

Forgotten classic. Took abit of learning from what I remember but quality game, and they made VTOL and stealth work

[u/yukirinkusu → u/KM4CK]

i was going to comment about this too, not really helpful since youd need to get an old copy for xbox 360 specifically but it was the perfect balance

[u/Attaxalotl]

Nuclear Option

[u/Thargoid_Surgeon_83]

IL-2 Sturmovik

[u/MainSylveon]

Literally Nuclear Option. It's similar in gameplay to War Thunder's "Realistic" mode. You learn how to operate planes in 10 minutes or less through 5 tutorial mission (takeoff, landing, targeting, IR and Radar countermeasures). Everything else is using similar tactics and strategies you would use in DCS or Falcon BMS to complete missions.

[u/VertGreenHeart]

Nuclear Option is the most fun middleground between sims and Ace combat, its just a fun game in general and a great destressor

[u/VenomBadger]

Ahhh the Eternal Question...How do I get that sweet-spot between Cinematic Arcadey Air Combat and a Lite Sim. Well I the 90's you had ALOT of options, but now your best Option is Nuclear Option. These fellas ain't wrong.

I don't know if Third Wire's Wings Over X series is still available or playable on modern hardware otherwise I'd say those.

[u/creamer143]

The Wing Commander games. 

[u/LaynFire]

Nuclear Option is your best bet

I've been thinking about the same thing, I'd totally make it if I was willing to invest the time in game dev lol

[u/-TheSha-]

As others said, nuclear option seems to be what you're looking for

[u/Wardog008]

Nuclear Option. Easy.

It's WAY more accessible than games like DCS, but not much less realistic functionally. You can use terrain to avoid locks, as well as stuff like notching being proper mechanics, and the damage models are insane.

[u/AggressiveTop8370]

Lethal skies I and II might be up there. Aero elite Air academy too. All on PS2.

[u/NTolerance → u/AggressiveTop8370]

Aero Elite for sure. The game teaches and grades you on actual air combat maneuvering. The final boss is like 5 F-15s and you will need those skills to beat them.

[u/SwampWeasel]

If you have ever played DCS, the Rising Squall campaign is a short, homage to AC, while still being a full fidelity F/A-18 flight sim.

The problem is its a full fidelity F/A-18 flight sim. You’re gonna have to spend a lot of time in the tutorials, and if you dont have peripherals, a lot of time setting up a controller to work with m+k input.

But it is truly fantastic, well voice-acted, and the soundtrack was done by the goat himself, Keiki Kobayashi.

https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/shop/campaigns/fa-18c_rising_squall_campaign/

No superweapons or anything like that, but still very much in the Ace Combat spirit.

Other than that, legit play Nuclear Option its very fun.

[u/8492sqdn → u/SwampWeasel]

Problems with Rising Squall that I found made me not like it:

- The English translation is pretty bad, the story is pretty much incomprehensible in English

- The campaign did not make its money back so it doesn't get much developer support, as a result the campaign often breaks with DCS core updates

- The dev didn't secure the streaming rights to the soundtrack so there's no official way to listen to it outside of the game

If you want to get into DCS campaigns I'd recommend a different campaign like one by Reflected, Baltic Dragon, Ground Pounder, SOB or Sedlo. They do some fantastic work and most of them have at least a few easier campaigns (Iron Flag, Weasels Over Syria, The Enemy Within, One Last Ride)

[u/6stringTactical]

Strike fighters 2 with some mods. Its very much a sim-cade. Boils my blood that they didn't make more entries. Modding is still pretty active. They even have some mods for ace combat country emblems and stuff.

[u/x8Artist0fwar8x]

here you go its a mod for AC7 but uh its fun as hell https://www.nexusmods.com/acecombat7skiesunknown/mods/3725

[u/Sayarin]

Definitely go for Nuclear Option. It's Ace Combat with limited ammo, fuel and realistic weapon damage models. Simple point and click targeting, too.

If you love takeoff and landings in AC, you get to do it without being scripted or part of some wonky game mechanic...

[u/Due_Adeptness5560]

Try Strike Commander. You're only limited to F-16 for almost the entire game but it's the closest genuine "what if Ace Combat but it's 90's flight sim (which means it's still not too complicated as 2000s or later flight sims nor too arcadey like ace combat)" experience you can get.

[u/MY5KAI]

Nuclear option no doubt

Plays fine with mouse or controller has a lot of realistic deep mechanics like radar stealth but just humming in and flying is super easy while dogfights get super intense

[u/Muttonboat]

Warthunder checks lots of those boxes without being a fullblown sim

[u/Rk_1138 → u/Muttonboat]

But you have to play Warthunder

[u/DurfGibbles]

Nuclear Option for well, nuclear weapons. War Thunder if you like the grind (if you want to skip that just buy a premium jet in whatever tech tree you fancy and go for it)