[Chock]

If you are interested in WW1 flights sims, such as the recently released Rise of Flight, or any of the other ones kicking around for that matter, then over and above everything else, the most important consideration is the computer you have.

Being a very recent release, Rise of Flight is quite demanding on a computer. It has very pretty graphics options, many of which can be turned off, but even with everything turned down you will still find it needs about 3 Ghz of RAM, a decent fairly newish dual/quad core CPU, and a graphics card capable of Pixel Shader 2.0 (check the RoF site for the exact specs, but keep in mind that these are often somewhat optimistic in terms of what you really need to run the thing, so if you barely scrape it in terms of meeting the specs, then don't expect blistering performance). This is worth bearing in mind, as upgrading your computer to a level where you get satisfactory performance could get expensive, and if your computer is not up to snuff, then you'll be looking at a very jerky sim on screen which will make shooting anything down very hard indeed..

If your PC does meet the specs, then RoF is a reasonably good flight sim, but as a simulation of WW1 it needs a bit of work. There several are fundamental errors in it, such as black flak bursts from the Allies, incorrect squadron formations and tactics; i.e flying too low on OPs and that sort of thing. It's enjoyable, but if you are a purist, you might not be overly impressed with some of these aspects. Another kicker is that RoF requires you to purchase further aeroplanes, as the initial hangar is not full of everything you might expect or want to fly (extra aircraft costing about seven quid to 'unlock' in the sim). By default, you can fly the Fokker DVII, SPAD, Nieuport and DVa, but you'll be getting your hand in your pocket again if you want to drive the SE5a or the Pfalz DIII. This aspect does not bode well for modifications from users, since it looks very much like they want users 'to keep coming back to the well' so to speak.

What is more, I did buy the add-on SE5a, but I thought the flight model of it was rather poor to be honest and not especially convincing, although the Albatros DVa is indeed quite good, so if you wanted to fly as a German, you would be happy with what comes by default if that was you mount of choice. Other disappointments on the SE5a I purchased for RoF were the fact that the Foster Mount will not let you crank the Lewis gun down to fire up at 45 degrees into two-seaters from underneath and nor does it feature an Aldis sight, so you can't snipe things from long range either. Both these missing aspects mean the SE5a in Rise of Flight has somewhat 'had its teeth pulled'.

With regard to it having a steep learning curve, that's very much in the eye of the beholder. It's certainly among the more realistic of the several WW1 flight sims available when it comes to what is modeled - i.e engine overheats and such, but I found it relatively easy to get to grips with, since I am a pilot in real life, but more importantly, I'm fairly well read when it comes to WW1 aircraft, so knowing what to expect, there were not too many surprises in store, and if you are similarly knowledgeable about WW1 craft, you would probably find the same was true for you, so I wouldn't panic about it being hard to learn, there are in fact a number of tutorial lesson flights included to get you going.

Now, if any of that has put you off RoF, then it is worth considering the other notable options for WW1 flight sims, the two big contenders being, First Eagles, and Over Flanders Fields. Of these two, Over Flanders Fields is what might be deemed as the 'hard core' choice, since the goal from the developers was to create something realistic and immersive, which indeed they have managed. It's worth noting however, that OFF is essentially an add on 'mission disk' for Microsoft's Combat Flight Simulator 3, so you need to buy that sim too if you want to run OFF, but that does mean you'd have CFS3 too of course, which is quite enjoyable, being basically a Ww2 flight sim with some minimal built-in role playing aspects.

First Eagles is probably the wisest choice if you are fairly new to all that flight simming malarkey. As it comes, you only get a few aircraft in it, the SPAD, SE5a and the Fokker DVII. however, there is an expansion disk for it which adds several aircraft, including the Fokker Dr1 Triplane, Albatros DV/DVa and one or two others. In actual fact if you buy First Eagles these days, there is a 'gold' version of it which combines the original sim with the expansion pack, making things a bit simpler and cheaper.

First Eagles has very user-friendly scalable realism options, from simple flight models and easy weapon usage, up to more demanding realistic settings. RoF and OFF have these too of course, but of the three, First Eagles is certainly the easiest one to get to grips with and as far as demands on how good a computer you need to have in order to run it, FE is also a good choice, since it is fairly light on hardware demands. Despite the relative simplicity of First Eagles, it's worth noting that unlike RoF, which does not have the Aldis sight on the SE5a, FE most certainly does have it on the SE5a, and it works well too, so it's not necessarily true in all respects that the 'hard core' RoF beats all comers!

Another major plus point for First Eagles is that there are literally hundreds of freeware add-on mods for it, from additional aircraft (some of these very good indeed), additional campaigns, better scenery, tougher flight models, weaponry modifications and all manner of things to mess around with. If you are reasonably competent with a computer, it's also not that hard to create such modifications yourself, so FE is very 'customisable'. There are links on the First Eagles developer website (Third Wire) to most of these mods.

For all three of those flight sims (Rise of Flight, First Eagles and Over Flanders Fields), you are going to want a joystick of course, and it would help if it was a good one, with a throttle and preferably a 'twist' function which you can use for the rudder. You could of course go mad and buy rudder pedals for your computer too, and these do add plenty of realism, but if you are just getting into things, that can wait. So take a look at something such as the Saitek Cyborg EVO joystick, which is reasonably cheap, has a throttle and twist rudder function, and usually installs without anything more complex than plugging it into a USB port on your computer.

If you get really into things, you may also want to look at Track-IR, which is an Infra Red tracking device that plots your head movements and pans the view from your cockpit based on small movements of your head (which sounds weird, but actually works very intuitively). Track-IR makes dogfighting in flight sims a lot easier and more immersive, but you can live without it and use the hat switch on a joystick to pan the view, which is not quite so easy, but certainly cheaper than the expense of buying Track-IR. Although as noted, if you really get into things, Track-IR is pretty much indispensable.

In conclusion, if you are worried about getting to grips with everything and want an easy introduction to WW1 combat sims that can be expanded to greater complexity, I'd recommend First Eagles and a joystick with a twist function as the smartest starting point.

Hope that helps a bit.

Al