Flight Simulators

Last week I found myself monitoring numbers on a screen. It was one of those tasks that didn't require 100% of my attention but kept me from getting any other work done. It was the perfect scenario for improving my video game skills. I went to our in-house library and picked up a copy of Battlefield 3. I started playing this game around Christmas and did a quick write-up of it. Since then, I have not been able to get back to the game and so it was fun to start playing again.

As I was on one of my work video game consoles, I had to start from the very beginning and that acted as a good refresher for me. Then I got to the mission where I stopped playing at home: a flight mission. When flight simulators first came out, I thought they would be fun. Then I played a few and they were incredibly boring and/or incredibly hard to figure out. Part of the problem with a simulator is that you are in a chair with gravity always keeping your seat planted firmly in said chair. There is no sensation of movement other than what you see and that makes it tough to play the game. When Battlefield 3 got to the flight simulator during my Christmas break, I just lost interest and went on to play another game.

This time I decided to give it a shot and I am glad I did. It was a lot of fun and I really enjoyed the mission. In fact, I came home and had my son play it because it was so entertaining. One thing they did right is have a pilot fly the plane while you concentrated on using missiles and flares. You get to dogfight other planes and then take out ground targets. Both my son and I enjoyed it a lot. The only disappointment was that we now know they lied to us in the movie "Top Gun." In the movie they make it seem like Goose is just along for the ride and Maverick does all the fun stuff. In reality, the guy in back gets to shoot stuff too.