I feel the site is lacking some flight games. Are they going to put anything like old flight sims or hawks anything of the sort? :(

Being myself interested in flight sims, I agree. We have Il2 sturmovik, B17 mighty eight, Hind, Apache and Red Baron I&II and that's about all. All of them amongst the very best sims ever made but, still, the genre is underrepresented.

Unfortunately, have a look at what's wishlisted : http://www.gog.com/wishlist/games#order=votes_total

Aside from space sims ( x-wing, Tie fighter, Freelancer ) there is not a single real flight sim in the top pages.
falcon 4 and Apache Longobow have a mere 300 votes . Aces of the Pacific, Aces over Europe a mer 200, European Air War, Falcon 3.0 , Gunship/Gunship 2000 less than 100

The reason ? The need for a joystick, maybe. The need to invest some time to get well into this type of game? the fact it's such a niche market. ? Anyway, it's understandable hat GOG focusses on games that will sell well.

If you like space games, we are likely to get Wing Commander prophecy soon.

Old ones, or newer ones?

Some months ago I got an urge for some flight sim action after I visited a local aviation museum, where there was also some more professional flight sim system (with multiple screens etc.) used for pilot training.

I personally think two things killed(?) the flight sims as a gaming genre:

- Flight sim enthusiasts used to gather around certain most popular flight sims, and play them for months or years. Other flight sims couldn't get enough sales due to that. With other genres, people normally move more between titles, after finishing earlier ones.

- At some point the avionics, physics, campaigns etc. in flight combat sims became so good that the only way the newer ones could make a distinction from earlier ones was slightly better graphics, and that's all. After all, in how many ways can you simulate a F-16?

You certainly have a point there. Some flight sims have been (and still are) long lived.

I don't think the genre is dead. DCS , Rise of flight, Cliffs of Dover are amongst the latest additions. Maybe. But then you can simulate other aircrafts ( what about a Short Sunderland or a Gloster Gladiator instead of a F16?), other periods, other campaigns or even subjects( I have never seen a flight sim recreating the Schneider cup or plane races, once every bit as popular as car races).

Xtreme Air Racing ;)

Also considering War Thunder is one of the more popular mmo's at the moment.
And then there is this in the making. =P

But I tend to agree that with the emphasis toward realistic simulation the campaigns were you could actually make a difference suffered.
Not even speaking about attrocious intuitivity of controlling the more complex aircraft, I remember I played Falcon 4 for days and in the end I still haven't figured out how to reliable make a missile lock and fire one. =/

On the other hand I can live without games like H.A.W.X. =/

Well, worse than that : Cliffs of Dover isn't satisfactory, Rise of flight Iron Cross is superb and offers a lot of content ...at a price. It's a "pay per plane", not that different from a "pay as you play" . Rise of flight Channel edition is marginally better, but the base game and the packs together are in 200€. Remains to see if and how it will be discounted during sales. DCS is about the same. And anyone planning to buy it might miss the 900 pages manual that used to ship with early-days flight sims.

Remain First Eagles 2, Battle of Britain 2, Il2 1946, Wings of Prey and Strike fighters 2. not exactly recent games Hadn't caught that one. Cliffs of Dover, set-up over the Eastern Front, with the business model of Rise of Flight, and a 89.99$ pre-order just for the privilege of having 2 exclusive planes. Pardon me if I stay away of that "tempting" offer.

Heroes of the Pacific! :P

Okay so calling it a flight game is like calling Top Gun for the NES a flight game, but it DOES have a lot of really cool planes in it and name me another game where you get to single handedly stop the attack on Pearl Harbor?!

Oh, and historical realism isn't really it's strong suit either. :D

Pay per plane was just the beginning. Now they also sell extra weapon mods and field modifications like " Cockpit Light - Cockpit illumination lamp for night sorties" and "Scarf (colors: red, blue, green, yellow)" Could be worse. Two words: Fighter Ops.

I concur and would like to add Chuck Yeager's Air Combat to the games already mentioned. It's not as hardcore as some of the other sims mentioned, but it's not an arcade flyer either and it a lot of fun. By the way, the Aces over Europe/The Pacific and Gunship 2000 are quite playable and enjoyable without a joystick.

Another genre that is under represented is the submarine sim, and I don't mean space combat under water.

Last time I heard of that one , it was in a "pre-alpha" stage , somewhere back in 2008 or 2009....

First things first (so the lot of you doesn't hate me that much ;) ):

I own Il2 sturmovik, B17 mighty eight, Hind, Apache vs. Havoc, and Comanche vs. Hokum here on GOG.com, leaving only Apache Longbow and the Red Baron Pack still to purchase.

Most of these games I have fond memories of (aka: I suffer from nostalgia towards them).

Now for the reason, those games might not sell so well nowadays (imho): All good reasons - especially the niche market - but the one I think of as important, too is: graphics!

Yepp, you do read right...now let me explain myself:

I am usually not fixated on the graphics of a game - with one exception: simulations...more exactly: driving and flying simulations.

Those two genres are the ones where I want a decent graphical outfit...don't get me wrong, in their time, all those games mentioned above were goodlookers, but those times are over.

Nowadays I want "Wings of Prey" -graphics, I want "Cliffs of Dover"- graphics, I want DCS-games-graphics...
And in driving sims, I want GRID-, NFS SHIFT-, and DiRT-graphics.

And I'm pretty sure, I'm not the only one.

Once again and only to make this clear: there is nothing wrong with all the old flying and driving games here on GOG, but let's be honest - the chance to get a new player-clientele in those two genres by the old graphical standards is very low.

And so is the chance, to get new players to purchase these oldies.

Edit: Typo.

I really enjoyed "Hellcats" back in the days. It featured a "true" reprint of the plane manual which served as Copy Protection - that alone was awesome...
It took me YEARS to land a plane, and even more to land on an aircraft carrier.
You got promoted, you got ribbons for your missions. It was awesome...
Then Red Baron came and it was even better though I hated the planes, except for the ones by Fokker, and I disliked the fact that no matter how many Frogophiles I shot down the Germans always lost the war.