DCS: Black Shark English Version – Part 2 Page 5

By SimHQ on December 5, 2008 in _air12, hide

Flight Impressions: Game Mode

Now don’t get an attitude about playing in Game Mode and think only Simulation Mode is where the fun is! Stay with me here and I’ll show you.

Here are the System Graphics settings I’ll be using…

For my Gameplay Options, you’ll see a scaleable and assignable difficulty setting…

To begin with, I’ll leave these settings as they are to illustrate the differences between Game Mode and Simulation Mode.

Let’s go back to the GUI and select Instant Action. In this track, I’m faced with a couple of columns of targets on the ground as well as a few targets in the air. It doesn’t end all that great for me, but you’ll get the idea as to how much fun flying in Game Mode can be.

Let’s watch…

Okay, you may be asking, Ghost, how did it feel? Well, I can only compare flying this sim to what I’ve flown in, in real life. As far as my experience in flying helicopters goes, I’ve flown in (not flown) an AH64 Apache, UH 60L Black Hawk, UH1N Huey, and CH46 Phrog. I can tell you this, if flying any of those is as much fun, but demanding as it is the Ka-50 Black Shark, those pilots are pretty lucky to have such machinery strapped to their butts. The Ka-50 in this sim feels as though it’s flying on a set of rails. It is very responsive to cyclic (pitch/roll), rudder (yaw) and collective (increase/decrease blade angle of attack) inputs.

Trimming the Ka-50 took some getting used to. In my opinion, its much easier to trim the Ka-50 with the press of a single button (t) to send a cyclic position to hold rather than pressing a coolie hat in the direction you wanted to trim your aircraft (aileron/elevator/rudder).

Okay, you looked at the first track from afar; now let’s try it again from inside the cockpit…

Oh MY, I’m a hero! Notice the extensive mission debriefing report behind my award.

Not bad for an old relic, huh? The computer, not me!

Seriously, my computer, which is just over the minimum spec requirements for DCS: Black Shark, does reasonably well with the high graphic settings and some cranked-up gameplay. It is suggested that players start out with the program recommended graphic settings for their machines then inch-them-up from there.

I still got my butt handed to me flying this mission, but as with everything else, practice, practice, and more practice gets you closer to finishing a mission.

Now let’s kick it up a notch (or two) to Simulation Mode.

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