DCS players pay for immersion. War Thunder players pay to skip the grind. If you doubled the F-16's acceleration, allowed it to turn 30g's, and gave it a laser cannon, in DCS it becomes a free mod. In War Thunder it'd be worth several hundred dollars.
I would also chip in and add that DCS also has sales. With the current christmas sale you can buy DCS F16 for 50% off. thats a new precedent as in the past sales, ED would at mot only offer 30% off on moduels that were still in EA, or still deemed thier "premium" products.
Around Christmas they also do the free ‘test drives’ of any of there planes I believe not to mention you get the su25 free after just downloading the game so you can see what it’s like
Couple of points i'd like to contest. 1 - you could technically get the F-16 in WT completely free. (would take awhile, yes. but is possible) 2 - The canopy tent is modeled in War Thunder but is very faint. easiest to notice on winter maps. 3 - Lastly, DSC is a much more in depth simulator, where as WT is much more casual. Good video though. The RWR in WT still bugs me, wish they would model proper RWR on all aircraft.
It depends. Fox2 missiles, for example, are better "simulated" in Warthunder. Clouds can interfere with the IR sensor and preflares work, these are 2 important aspects that are unfortunately still missing in DCS. similar with Fox1 missiles and other things. It depends on which aspect you are comparing.
DCS: 120$ gets you multiple modules with the first time buyer discount that gets applied to entire shopping cart. Don't buy directly through Steam. Launch the game and wait for the module purchase window to pop up. War Thunder: 120$ gets you ripped off. Edit: What the hell TH-cam! Why is the slightly condensed version of this acceptable but the slightly more detailed version was not? Both have no obvious violations, until now. Echo Alpha Tango, Alpha, Delta India Charlie Kilo, TH-cam censorship bot. How about this one Mr/Ms/Mrs TH-cam "safety" team member? Delta India Echo, India November, Alpha, Foxtrot India Romeo Echo!
In terms of value, WT is a simcad and lets people with basic peripherals and average computers enjoy air combat where as DCS requires a lot more money outside of the game on hardware like a hotas, head tracker and beefy computer to get into it. For about 400 dollars you could buy all the way to the f14/ f16, so it goes both ways. WT community is also much much bigger and less niche. Plus WT offers a pretty good sim mode too. I have play both and play them for different things, but I have spent more money to play DCS than WT. I am tier 7 in 5 nations and have spend probably 1300 USD over the years on WT. DCS I have spend nearly 3500 including a GPU upgrade, hotas, headtracker and pedals. They sort of are hard to compare in terms of value because they are completely different and intended for different audiences. One thing is for fact, DCS faces a required, major pay wall and WT does not (Just a lot of gut wrenching grinding.... so much grinding...)
The Beefy computer is a myth.......you need a well built one with a processor with good single core performance (at least up until the multicore implementation rolls around). For the record I'm playing DCS just fine on an i5-6600K @ 4.27 ghz, 32 GB DDR4-3000 CL-15 RAM, 3 SATA SSD (1x500 GB 850 Evo SATA, 1 TB 850 Evo M.2 SATA and an 1TB 860 SATA) and a GTX 2060. (Not a super just the regular one.) DCS is installed on the M.2 SATA. Now I'm going for a major upgrade now, in large parts not necessarily due to DCS but other games, but with some very DCS Specific Upgrades, like going for 64 GB of RAM. Because DCS can use Tons and even more Tons of RAM. It's more about how you build the PC, without obvious bottlenecks and how you configure DCS. 32 GB is a necessity in MP on a lot of the newer maps, so even just upgrading your current ram to 32GB or 64GB can yield great benefits. SSD is a must. Don't build the usual gaming PC, of a middle to weak CPU, a way outsize Graphics card, little RAM and not enough SSD space for DCS and expect it to do well. You need a well rounded system with not obvious bottlenecks. Currently the 5800X3D hands down the best CPU for DCS, because it has great single core performance, a huge cache and it doesn't switch things around from core to core, due to boosting and playing with the Powerlimit like the Intels. Which has been observed by community members to cause microstutters every few minutes. P.S. I find the comparison for DCS a bit unfair, given that you included Hardware Upgrades in the DCS Cost, while you didn't for WT. And don't tell me you never upgraded hardware for it or while playing it. However if we go ultimate value for money for Viper Drivers, nothing beats BMS 4.37, not as pretty as DCS, but probably the most in depth simulation of the Viper and an actual air war. The Dynamic Campaign is still unmatched, and you can play it in Multiplayer. And the Ai is way smarter, the Missile Autopilot works properly, you have a full IADS (Integrated Air Defense System), pretty much all the Viper Versions, etc. pp.
@@LupusAries I think his comparison for hardware is fair Been using the same rig I use for all my games to play war thunder, my mate is looking into dcs and now I am too, and only now am I considering getting full hotas setup, pedals and vr headset. Stuff that I normally wouldn't even bother with due to the fact that they don't have much use outside of specific sims. And yeah you can run dcs on a lower end pc but to really Milk the most out of it and the cockpit views you want a top end pc. War thunder litteraly has a whole community that uses minimal settings as a strategy. If you're investing in a sim then you want spectacular graphics. Don't try and bullshit me on this, the videos of dcs using an rtx 4090 vs rtx 2070 speak for themselves.
@@unlockingsnow8571 I'm not bullshitting you, it's just that most of us combat flight simmers are looking for an experience rather than graphics. Just look at Enigma, the guy behind the Cold War server he started playing Falcon BMS 4.37 and started playing IL-2 1946 again, both of which are markedly inferior to DCS in the graphics department. However, Falcon's dynamic campaign and IL-2 1946 modded's heavy bombers and pacific theatre offer unique experiences. Same as WT, there are a lot of players that play on low settings, because Performance is often more important than looks. The 4090 videos are nice but all have one thing in common: They crank everything up to the max, including very Performance expensive effects like SSLR and..... They don't feature Combat. As for Performance reasons in combat, some effects like SSLR will be sacrificed. I've been playing Combat Flight Sims for over 20 years now, and 90's aside, we've almost never had a cutting edge graphics flight sim. I also play DCS on the same rig I play all my other games on, including in the past War Thunder. The funny thing is that overall, if you include Premiums and Premium Accounts WT is far more expensive than DCS.....unless you conflate module costs with Hardware costs, although unless you build something crazily expensive, WT still costs more.
But BMS 4.37 needs falcon 4.0 nad you need bought it. Not much, but need. How far DCS: f-16 to f-16 blk 50 in BMS, that Falcon BMS much further to being a DCS.
@@owouwu3152 In DCS you can in mission editor made dynamic campaign. Also the BMS have problem with SAMs and another planes, they have much further to reality than DCS.
Also Falcon BMS user: Also spends 10k on cockpit on the same note as calling DCS guys inferior. At that point another 50-60 bucks seems like pocketchange. No joke, saw one guy getting the real WAR out of an F-16 and made it work for BMS, can't have been cheap. Not dizzing one or the other, I say the more sims with F-16's the merrier, then they have to compete with product quality.
So glad I switched to dcs, war thunder has just become a money printer for the snail, ED actually seems to care about how there game ‘feels’ and I mean the prices are now about the same for a plane in dcs and warthunder so😂 not to mention how much prettier dcs is to warthunder
The biggest problem about dcs is you need at the minimum a vr/head tracking, a good computer, joy stick, yaw pedals. If I already had theses things I would no doubt pay 80 dollars for the f16 but it actually requires $500-$5000 to play dcs competetivly.
Err no, those are tools, what is important is the man in the box. You can have all the kit in the world, but it won't make you any better. Man, before I had headtracking, I was beating friends of mine that had it, simply through better SA. Now am I better with Headtracking, yes, by far, but you can do without if you're the better pilot. A decent Stick is really helpful for the F-16, but even a cheaper HOTAS will do. Now the Rudder Pedals are optional for the F-16, as the FLCS does most of the work for you there and i HATES you making yaw inputs via the rudders. The Pedals are a must on something like the Tomcat or older, however the cheap TFRPs will do just fine. Just make sure to configure them properly, with a bit of deadzone, else you will make unintended rudder inputs. Headtracking can go anything from a phone or Headtrack, or a simple webcam. And headtracking is all you need, VR is nice, but most of us haven't got it, due to the huge performance penalty. What is required to play DCS competitively is time........and lots of training. You need to know your aircraft inside out to compete with some best pilots in the community. On top of that you need to know tactics and your enemies. A lot of us have thousands of hours in virtual aircraft, some of us have flown virtual vipers for more than 20 years. Which means we have the experience advantage on you, air combat is not a twitch shooter, it's a mindgame of virtual lightning 3D chess, where both players move at the same time and there are no pauses to strategize at all. In short, to be competive requires skill, not money! Money can help you perform better, by say using an FFB stick or better pedals, or better headtracking. But it's utterly worthless if you haven't got the skills and brain to use it right.
@@LupusAries That's still a hundred or so dollars invested into peripherals for one game, a hundred dollars that I'd rather spend on a premium, premium time and maybe some GE that would allow to me to grind out an entire tree in WT.
In the Chinese TT F16A MLU should be pretty close to a block 50 viper in the 2000s. at least in terms of avionics. MLU's are supposed to have digital cockpit and and APG66V2 radar ( APG 66v3 in case of Taiwanese versioN) which should have same radar modes as APG68, and nearly comperable in detection ranges. Amraams as well. Also depending on Software tape suite ( MLU's used same commonality software as USAF vipers post CCIP modernization) , should also have targeting pods and Helmet queuing system as well as Link 16. But gajin just copy pasted F16A ADF features onto the MLU and mixed it with some unguided bombs and old B model mavericks.
he's comparing what can you buy for money in both games, where DCS is far better modeled , cheaper, better managed, better gameplay and way more inmersive
@@danko8983 1.True. 2.it isn’t cheaper I mean wt is free in any aspect but you just need to play the game and grind. 3. Better Managed? Tf do you mean 4. better gameplay is subjective because I don’t like the hyper realism and complexity of dcs. And I like the arcade style of wt more.
They have their own drawbacks my dude, DCS is for the models War thunder is for grinding. Im comparing the premium pack, not the tt that have to be grinded and can be grinded for free..
The cost of the War Thunder F-16 that you ascertained doesn't remotely take into consideration the most important commodity that any person has, which is time. Time has intrinsic value. If you valued your time at minimum wage in the U.S, 7.25 per hour, you would have accrued thousands of dollars (presuming you're an average player and you have a life beyond gaming) of notional "labor costs" by the time you actually reached the F-16. Taking this into account, if what you want is to fly a realistic depiction of the F-16 specifically, and you don't really care about the other planes in War Thunder, or at least not the early-late prop planes, then I wouldn't even really consider it an option. If you're an avid War Thunder player already, it's an awesome addition, but if you want to get into the game just to grind out one specific plane and you don't have an actual interest in the earlier planes in the various tech trees, I wouldn't recommend playing at all. Unless of course you are stubborn about sticking to mouse and keyboard. The point isn't that one is better than the other, it's that both (presuming you are starting from zero equipment/progress), are pretty expensive to get into and that your choice should be made purely on the basis of what sort of experience you want.
@@at335pro That’s fair, but 80 dollars on the DCS F-16 cant turn into an entire nation tree of aircraft in a week of playtime, if you’re going to compare value of products you have to consider all of the variables that provide value to each product. Do I think the F-16 is more worth it? Absolutely, I don’t think anyone is disputing that, does that fact make the F-16 in WT not worth its price? This video doesn’t prove it. Don’t know why you felt the need to make a video showing what we all know, that a study level sim aircraft is more valuable than a WT aircraft at the same price. Just seems a little goofy to me because the two aren’t really comparable.
Hey if you wanna slew your AIM9 seeker to your HMD without having to mess with your MFDs you can use the Cursor enable switch (i think in game its bind name is cursor ENBL or something like that.) When depressed, that button will slew the aim 9 seeker to your HMDS LOS. When paired with uncage it will auto uncage whenever it sees a sufficient thermal signature. Can be used as a makeshift EO. Also more efficient and straight forwards in dog fights.
ah yes, comparing a 1980s F-16A block 15 to a 2000s F-16C block 50... and then being suprised that the more modern one has more modern stuff... also, only idiots GE their planes, so effectively the WT F-16 can be archived as F2P player while in DCS you HAVE to pay 80 bucks.
it can be achieved f2p after spending 1500 hours of your life in a game where it's developers do not care about anything except their wallets, in those 1500 hours you can make $10000 dollars ( based on the salary per hour of the united states ) and those 80 bucks are nothing, is way more worth it paying 80 bucks to play an amazing game with amazing modeling of your fav planes than spending 1500 hours on a game that their creators do not care about balance, vehicle implementation, gameplay and player confort and only care about their wallets
@@danko8983 alternatively, you can spend only around 10 bucks for a great sl grinder and minimize the grind tenfold. You also compare a literal job to a video game, which is hardly a valid comparison, as if that were the justification for doing anything (how much money it gives), then why do anything other than work?
Still i go with warthunder It has Army, Fleet and Air Force + that game is free and also you can get f-16 for free. DCS is fully focused on full detailed things and only air force
tbf this is a bit of an unfair comparison in terms of tech and weapons, the f16 in war thunder is from the 70s, the one in DCS is from the early 2000s. And technically the best F16 is in Falcon BMS, i dont personally play it but its well know to have the most accurate public knowledge f16 simulation.
Hope you know you're comparing an F-16A Block 15 with an F-16C Block 50... Thinking the modern weapons and systems of the 16C is a fair comparison, like bruh.. Yes, you might compare prices, but the F-5E in DCS costs 60$ yet lacks more features than the WT F-16A, while the WT F-16 doesn't have any IRL. Do you want a fair comparison between DCS and WT? Compare the F-5E, Sabre, MiG-15 etc.
@@airbus_3209 WT is better in terms of being accessible. easy to learn and not requiring extra hard ware to get into and intuitive controls. It also has way more vehicles but that's not that important to me. Otherwise yeah DCS is more accurate.
@@Frozander dcs and wt is same story as LoL and Dota . people who suck at LoL goes to Dota . People who cant learn DCS ( which is really not that hard) goes to WT.
Its sad to see so many people debating which game is "better" despite it being another apples to oranges comparison. DCS prioritizes realism whereas War Thunder prioritizes user-friendliness. Not to mention the fact that it literally comes down to preference, so quietly shut the hell up people.
Most stupid comparison I saw in a while. At least compare the same block vehicles because there are actual inaccuracies in WT model. But you moaned about an older block f16 being an older block f16. Also it is technically free and infinitely better than DCS since it is impossible for you to get DCS F16 by just playing the game. Let alone ignoring the fact that WT is a game you can play with a mouse and keyboard and play for a few hours with no setup unlike DCS which you need to buy at least a joystick to be able to control your plane somewhat fine. I am not even going into trackIR or VR "soft" requirements to enjoy DCS. I like DCS it is a good sim but it is practically incomparable with with War Thunder.
@At335 At least in that case, WT has a leg up over DCS when it comes to mouse and keyboard for its sim mode. Its rather simple to set up the keybinds to how you like it compared to DCS, as there's far less to manage.
@Bill Kong To be fair, it's universally recognized that spending GE to research the vehicle itself is a terrible idea and a rather poor investment. It's much easier to only spend $30-$50 on a premium aircraft, which opens up researching the rest of the tree in a timely manner, and just using any GE you have left on modifications for the F16 to make it playable, by which the grind is far easier and, in the end, cheaper overall.
and winner is ... Falcon BMS its been 3 years since they released F-16 for DCS but still far far away from complete Lol anyway these are just games compared to real life so just play whichever u have fun
@@jhkim9341 no just like 3montzs of grinding f2p and if you buy a premium plane (rn 30€) you can grind the f16 in two weeks (when you haven’t grinded anything in the us) to grind the whole us tectree you only half a year or a little bit more.
@@huriken8899 haha 3 months of grinding you say, totally false, to get to top tier totally f2p you need over a year, i played A LOT war thunder during the quarentine ( nearly 8 hours a day, something i regret totally ) and achieve jets 8 months after i started playing, then i bought premium ( something i regret too, fucking pay to progress game ) and got the F-4C in april or so, i currently have nearly all the US tech tree researched after nearly a year and 8 months of playing, it is a fact that you cant reach high in war thunder without paying unless you spend your entire day playing this shitty managed game, refusing to do better things like training, exercising, hanging out with friends, being with family and building your future
Realtalk i dont like these custom skins, WT isnt that far to make something like that, respect first to gaijing for the world record for the most vehicles in a game
You buy f16c in dcs for 70usd and another 1500usd for beefy pc and and headtracking and thrustmaster control for another 900usd... Pretty cheap imo 🤔🤔🤔
to be fair, the Keyboard&Mouse controls for WT is one of the best I've seen in flying games. Even when compared to arcade shooters like Ace combat, its smooth, straight forward and easy to use(not so energy efficient tho). Decent optimization is also cool too For the whole 'setup' prices for DCS, it varies a lot however. Decent HOTAS' are available at around 200~300$ for instance. It just varies a lot and is overall just a difference in taste. No need for anyone to be salty here :)
I’m playing DCS with a 1080 not even a TI and I get 50-60 fps consistently on very busy MP servers and usually in the hundreds when playing single player. You don’t need much to play DCS if you think so you’ve been lied to. You also don’t need head tracking or a fancy HOTAS because there are plenty of things to do other than dogfighting which you don’t have that option with warthunder. I have done some dogfighting with a guy that exclusively uses keyboard and mouse and he kicked my ass several times. All the extra things do is make things easier but they are by no means required like many people have been lead to believe.
You cant compare them like this...comparing f16 block 10 to the C variant??? war thunder is much different than dcs. I highly doubt anyone ever thought to himself if to "buy" the f16 in war thunder or dcs. pointless video
Take into account trust me i luv DCS too but remember that the DCS model is the newer modern version where the one in warthunder is the newer released where the US was just beginning to use them
On war thunder you need like 100 games of being useless in order to grind out the flares and missiles. In DCS if you already have familiarity with a similar plane like an F/A-18 you can be combat effective almost immediately.
Dcs is better than WT at a lot of things, but my problem is that I’m a console player ( apparently no one in the comments is). So this means I only get to play WT, and I don’t have hundred’s of dollars laying around to pay for the pc and flying gear for dcs. And it’s even worse to me because I’m not American, I use the Mexican peso, and it’s value, ( as of posting this) is at 20 pesos for 1 dollar, meaning that I need even MORE money, which I don’t and will not have in the near future unless I become a millionaire.
two totally different markets. War thunder is a game and is not trying to be a simulation. I prefer DCS but not everyone is wanting to put in the amount of time and money to fly a SIM.
@@theroach2204 I grinded the entire israeli air tree in 2 days (up to kfir, f4e, nesher etc...), grinded the m1a2 sep in a day, and most of the swedish air tree in a day aswell,(up to the j35d)... it is very much possible, just a lot of time, game knowlage boosters, and simulator battles for air trees
@@theroach2204 If you have time and skill you can definitely do that I grinded french tree in a few days when they were only up to the super mystere. I haven't played them since so I am still at that aircraft but it took me about 3-4 days to completely research the tree.
@@Frozander "skill" lol, uptier is point and click and luck that you have team mates with superior infrared and radar missiles than the oponent team, i play uptier sometimes and i know what im talking about
you are also comparing the C and A variant of the f16 it wasnt developed initially to incorporate any BVR radar or weapons it was first and foremost a dogfighter before those ideals of aircraft design were found to be outdated
consider that in dcs if you buy the f16 you have the f16, in war thunder with one premium plane you cna unlock dozens of other planes, so you cannot make a 1 to 1 comparison.
But if you only care about the F-16 and don't really for any others, you might as well go for DCS. You're going to pay with a lot of time in WT. If you are buying the F-16 in DCS, you'll get the F-16 experience at the first Minute and you'll be able to fly a dozen sets of different missions and actually fly the plane with advanced weaponry, something War Thunder may lock behind 3-4 Versions of the plane. That's the whole point. In DCS you will get the richest F-16 experience you can get. But you will have to do it with simulator controls - which is a very fair point to consider.
@@Leonardo-wn2fp if you dont care about the other planes that's your fair opinion, but part of the deal is that the premium will give you access to the whole tree. It's like complaining that netflix is expensive if you want to see only one movie from their whole list. Yes it is expensive if you only watch that one but you have plenty others, same for wt.
@@ccclll987 Just saying, try play up tier planes without a good radar like the F4C, F5E that dont have even radar missiles and still gets match with mig 29s with radar and all aspect missiles
if it's a price comparision then just say it in the title. Let me remind you 1 more time that the F-16A in WT is completely free to get, you just need to spend time and grind, unless you have issues (nobody cares btw)
@@Fatallydisorganized Nope. If he would like to compare F16 that's in DCS to F16 in WT he should wait untill C50 is in game. If he want's to do things like that then lets compare MIG29A from DCS to MIG29(2.12) from WT that should be same plane.
While I would say DCS does it better, you compared a more modern variant of the F-16 to a newer, nearly fresh market variant of the F-16. DCS is a combat simulator, which not everyone has the time to learn. It also costs money to play to begin with, and some range to the prices of a Triple-A game. War Thunder is a Multi-player, free-to-play game that only requires you to spend money to accelerate the time it takes to get the aircraft. And, you don't have to play JUST the Americans, you can play ANY nation and get thrown straight into combat.
![[LIVE] : ONE ลุมพินี 78 | คู่เอก "ปกรณ์ vs ฟาบิโอ"](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/LSOmgl0Th2c/mqdefault.jpg)
No doubt that Gaijin's implentation of the F-16 lacking. But my man... You are comparing Blk 10/15/20's to a Block 50 from the late 90's/early 2000's?
Im comparing on prices if you were to buy them
@@at335pro Ah then that makes sense, fucking Tier VII premiums! :D
But you can still grind for the f 16 in war thunder you can't grind for the f 16 in dcs you are forced to buy it
@@MINI_VIPER called getting a fucking job
@@MINI_VIPER nobody forced you to buy it tho, if you dont like it then just dont buy, its that simple
DCS players pay for immersion. War Thunder players pay to skip the grind.
If you doubled the F-16's acceleration, allowed it to turn 30g's, and gave it a laser cannon, in DCS it becomes a free mod. In War Thunder it'd be worth several hundred dollars.
LMAO...
yeah, well said!
Comparing war thunder to dcs is like comparing a fast food joint to a gourmet restaurant.
And yet they cost nearly the same to get modern planes 🤔
@@cfranko1860 Wrong, and by a long shot. You could max out every tech tree in war thunder for exactly $0.00.
@@ztccs3559 after like 1 year
@@convex495 more than that
@@ztccs3559 the time invested says otherwise
I would also chip in and add that DCS also has sales. With the current christmas sale you can buy DCS F16 for 50% off. thats a new precedent as in the past sales, ED would at mot only offer 30% off on moduels that were still in EA, or still deemed thier "premium" products.
Around Christmas they also do the free ‘test drives’ of any of there planes I believe not to mention you get the su25 free after just downloading the game so you can see what it’s like
So does War Thunder.
@@clayblaze1327 You can get trials at any time, though. 2 weeks for each module, with a 6 month cooldown period after.
Couple of points i'd like to contest.
1 - you could technically get the F-16 in WT completely free. (would take awhile, yes. but is possible)
2 - The canopy tent is modeled in War Thunder but is very faint. easiest to notice on winter maps.
3 - Lastly, DSC is a much more in depth simulator, where as WT is much more casual.
Good video though. The RWR in WT still bugs me, wish they would model proper RWR on all aircraft.
It depends.
Fox2 missiles, for example, are better "simulated" in Warthunder.
Clouds can interfere with the IR sensor and preflares work, these are 2 important aspects that are unfortunately still missing in DCS.
similar with Fox1 missiles and other things.
It depends on which aspect you are comparing.
@@HobelDcs in DCS IR missiles also don’t react to the sun
Good to know
@@Austrium1483 but on the sun already
@@HobelDcs Just curious, how exactly does war thunder model FOX-2s better?
DCS: 120$ gets you multiple modules with the first time buyer discount that gets applied to entire shopping cart. Don't buy directly through Steam. Launch the game and wait for the module purchase window to pop up.
War Thunder: 120$ gets you ripped off.
Edit: What the hell TH-cam! Why is the slightly condensed version of this acceptable but the slightly more detailed version was not? Both have no obvious violations, until now. Echo Alpha Tango, Alpha, Delta India Charlie Kilo, TH-cam censorship bot. How about this one Mr/Ms/Mrs TH-cam "safety" team member? Delta India Echo, India November, Alpha, Foxtrot India Romeo Echo!
Sierra Hotel!
In terms of value, WT is a simcad and lets people with basic peripherals and average computers enjoy air combat where as DCS requires a lot more money outside of the game on hardware like a hotas, head tracker and beefy computer to get into it. For about 400 dollars you could buy all the way to the f14/ f16, so it goes both ways. WT community is also much much bigger and less niche. Plus WT offers a pretty good sim mode too. I have play both and play them for different things, but I have spent more money to play DCS than WT. I am tier 7 in 5 nations and have spend probably 1300 USD over the years on WT. DCS I have spend nearly 3500 including a GPU upgrade, hotas, headtracker and pedals. They sort of are hard to compare in terms of value because they are completely different and intended for different audiences. One thing is for fact, DCS faces a required, major pay wall and WT does not (Just a lot of gut wrenching grinding.... so much grinding...)
The Beefy computer is a myth.......you need a well built one with a processor with good single core performance (at least up until the multicore implementation rolls around).
For the record I'm playing DCS just fine on an i5-6600K @ 4.27 ghz, 32 GB DDR4-3000 CL-15 RAM, 3 SATA SSD (1x500 GB 850 Evo SATA, 1 TB 850 Evo M.2 SATA and an 1TB 860 SATA) and a GTX 2060. (Not a super just the regular one.) DCS is installed on the M.2 SATA.
Now I'm going for a major upgrade now, in large parts not necessarily due to DCS but other games, but with some very DCS Specific Upgrades, like going for 64 GB of RAM. Because DCS can use Tons and even more Tons of RAM.
It's more about how you build the PC, without obvious bottlenecks and how you configure DCS.
32 GB is a necessity in MP on a lot of the newer maps, so even just upgrading your current ram to 32GB or 64GB can yield great benefits.
SSD is a must.
Don't build the usual gaming PC, of a middle to weak CPU, a way outsize Graphics card, little RAM and not enough SSD space for DCS and expect it to do well.
You need a well rounded system with not obvious bottlenecks.
Currently the 5800X3D hands down the best CPU for DCS, because it has great single core performance, a huge cache and it doesn't switch things around from core to core, due to boosting and playing with the Powerlimit like the Intels. Which has been observed by community members to cause microstutters every few minutes.
P.S. I find the comparison for DCS a bit unfair, given that you included Hardware Upgrades in the DCS Cost, while you didn't for WT.
And don't tell me you never upgraded hardware for it or while playing it.
However if we go ultimate value for money for Viper Drivers, nothing beats BMS 4.37, not as pretty as DCS, but probably the most in depth simulation of the Viper and an actual air war.
The Dynamic Campaign is still unmatched, and you can play it in Multiplayer.
And the Ai is way smarter, the Missile Autopilot works properly, you have a full IADS (Integrated Air Defense System), pretty much all the Viper Versions, etc. pp.
@@LupusAries I think his comparison for hardware is fair
Been using the same rig I use for all my games to play war thunder, my mate is looking into dcs and now I am too, and only now am I considering getting full hotas setup, pedals and vr headset. Stuff that I normally wouldn't even bother with due to the fact that they don't have much use outside of specific sims.
And yeah you can run dcs on a lower end pc but to really Milk the most out of it and the cockpit views you want a top end pc. War thunder litteraly has a whole community that uses minimal settings as a strategy.
If you're investing in a sim then you want spectacular graphics. Don't try and bullshit me on this, the videos of dcs using an rtx 4090 vs rtx 2070 speak for themselves.
@@unlockingsnow8571 I'm not bullshitting you, it's just that most of us combat flight simmers are looking for an experience rather than graphics.
Just look at Enigma, the guy behind the Cold War server he started playing Falcon BMS 4.37 and started playing IL-2 1946 again, both of which are markedly inferior to DCS in the graphics department.
However, Falcon's dynamic campaign and IL-2 1946 modded's heavy bombers and pacific theatre offer unique experiences.
Same as WT, there are a lot of players that play on low settings, because Performance is often more important than looks.
The 4090 videos are nice but all have one thing in common:
They crank everything up to the max, including very Performance expensive effects like SSLR
and.....
They don't feature Combat.
As for Performance reasons in combat, some effects like SSLR will be sacrificed.
I've been playing Combat Flight Sims for over 20 years now, and 90's aside, we've almost never had a cutting edge graphics flight sim.
I also play DCS on the same rig I play all my other games on, including in the past War Thunder. The funny thing is that overall, if you include Premiums and Premium Accounts WT is far more expensive than DCS.....unless you conflate module costs with Hardware costs, although unless you build something crazily expensive, WT still costs more.
why would you include hardware? your „beefy“ pc can also be used for other stuff you can also resell all of it too
@@unlockingsnow8571 not rlly people also play bms with potatoes and thats for many the better sim than dcs
Falcon BMS 4.37 user: "Wait you guys are paying for the F-16?"
imagine paying 80$ just for incomplete F-16CM while we can fly various F-16 in dynamic campaign BUHAHAHA
@@owouwu3152 with the shittiest physics engine from 1998 BUHAHAHA
But BMS 4.37 needs falcon 4.0 nad you need bought it. Not much, but need.
How far DCS: f-16 to f-16 blk 50 in BMS, that Falcon BMS much further to being a DCS.
@@owouwu3152 In DCS you can in mission editor made dynamic campaign.
Also the BMS have problem with SAMs and another planes, they have much further to reality than DCS.
Also Falcon BMS user: Also spends 10k on cockpit on the same note as calling DCS guys inferior.
At that point another 50-60 bucks seems like pocketchange.
No joke, saw one guy getting the real WAR out of an F-16 and made it work for BMS, can't have been cheap.
Not dizzing one or the other, I say the more sims with F-16's the merrier, then they have to compete with product quality.
So glad I switched to dcs, war thunder has just become a money printer for the snail, ED actually seems to care about how there game ‘feels’ and I mean the prices are now about the same for a plane in dcs and warthunder so😂 not to mention how much prettier dcs is to warthunder
I'm so glad that I use both. And Il-2 and CLOD and Condor Soaring. And even Aces High 3.
ED is a developer of sims, and is the company that produces the Russian airforce simulators. Gaijin is just a videogame company.
The biggest problem about dcs is you need at the minimum a vr/head tracking, a good computer, joy stick, yaw pedals. If I already had theses things I would no doubt pay 80 dollars for the f16 but it actually requires $500-$5000 to play dcs competetivly.
Yeah wt is simplistic and simcade but at least I can have fun with mouse and keyboard
I play DCS on a $60 stick and you can do headtracking for free with your phone.
Err no, those are tools, what is important is the man in the box. You can have all the kit in the world, but it won't make you any better.
Man, before I had headtracking, I was beating friends of mine that had it, simply through better SA.
Now am I better with Headtracking, yes, by far, but you can do without if you're the better pilot.
A decent Stick is really helpful for the F-16, but even a cheaper HOTAS will do. Now the Rudder Pedals are optional for the F-16, as the FLCS does most of the work for you there and i HATES you making yaw inputs via the rudders.
The Pedals are a must on something like the Tomcat or older, however the cheap TFRPs will do just fine. Just make sure to configure them properly, with a bit of deadzone, else you will make unintended rudder inputs.
Headtracking can go anything from a phone or Headtrack, or a simple webcam. And headtracking is all you need, VR is nice, but most of us haven't got it, due to the huge performance penalty.
What is required to play DCS competitively is time........and lots of training. You need to know your aircraft inside out to compete with some best pilots in the community. On top of that you need to know tactics and your enemies. A lot of us have thousands of hours in virtual aircraft, some of us have flown virtual vipers for more than 20 years.
Which means we have the experience advantage on you, air combat is not a twitch shooter, it's a mindgame of virtual lightning 3D chess, where both players move at the same time and there are no pauses to strategize at all.
In short, to be competive requires skill, not money! Money can help you perform better, by say using an FFB stick or better pedals, or better headtracking. But it's utterly worthless if you haven't got the skills and brain to use it right.
i have friends who play it on a controller
@@LupusAries That's still a hundred or so dollars invested into peripherals for one game, a hundred dollars that I'd rather spend on a premium, premium time and maybe some GE that would allow to me to grind out an entire tree in WT.
You are comparing a very old f16 model with a more modernized f16 model.
In the Chinese TT F16A MLU should be pretty close to a block 50 viper in the 2000s. at least in terms of avionics. MLU's are supposed to have digital cockpit and and APG66V2 radar ( APG 66v3 in case of Taiwanese versioN) which should have same radar modes as APG68, and nearly comperable in detection ranges. Amraams as well.
Also depending on Software tape suite ( MLU's used same commonality software as USAF vipers post CCIP modernization) , should also have targeting pods and Helmet queuing system as well as Link 16. But gajin just copy pasted F16A ADF features onto the MLU and mixed it with some unguided bombs and old B model mavericks.
@@kcz1093 😵💫
he's comparing what can you buy for money in both games, where DCS is far better modeled , cheaper, better managed, better gameplay and way more inmersive
@@danko8983 1.True. 2.it isn’t cheaper I mean wt is free in any aspect but you just need to play the game and grind. 3. Better Managed? Tf do you mean 4. better gameplay is subjective because I don’t like the hyper realism and complexity of dcs. And I like the arcade style of wt more.
@@huriken8899 Lol, to get to uptier you need months and much suffer just to play a small amount of vehicles that are playable in uptier
They have their own drawbacks my dude, DCS is for the models War thunder is for grinding. Im comparing the premium pack, not the tt that have to be grinded and can be grinded for free..
you do realize the f16 in WT is the A model
He reckons he’s “comparing prices” but like clearly biased video
@@Kevin-wp7xp I'd like to see you buy a high fidelity aircraft in war thunder that costs less than a premium toptier
@@oneinchant589 you don’t have to buy anything in warthunder
The cost of the War Thunder F-16 that you ascertained doesn't remotely take into consideration the most important commodity that any person has, which is time. Time has intrinsic value.
If you valued your time at minimum wage in the U.S, 7.25 per hour, you would have accrued thousands of dollars (presuming you're an average player and you have a life beyond gaming) of notional "labor costs" by the time you actually reached the F-16.
Taking this into account, if what you want is to fly a realistic depiction of the F-16 specifically, and you don't really care about the other planes in War Thunder, or at least not the early-late prop planes, then I wouldn't even really consider it an option.
If you're an avid War Thunder player already, it's an awesome addition, but if you want to get into the game just to grind out one specific plane and you don't have an actual interest in the earlier planes in the various tech trees, I wouldn't recommend playing at all. Unless of course you are stubborn about sticking to mouse and keyboard.
The point isn't that one is better than the other, it's that both (presuming you are starting from zero equipment/progress), are pretty expensive to get into and that your choice should be made purely on the basis of what sort of experience you want.
Let's compare with Falcon BMS 4.37.
Where to get these rwr and missle tone sounds?
These are block 10s and 15s they shouldn’t have any of the stuff you’re complain about them not having. War Thunder is a competitive game not a sim
Lol war thunder a competitive game that’s funny
@@raygunreagan2274 In what way is it not?
Comparing what you get for what you spend
@@at335pro That’s fair, but 80 dollars on the DCS F-16 cant turn into an entire nation tree of aircraft in a week of playtime, if you’re going to compare value of products you have to consider all of the variables that provide value to each product. Do I think the F-16 is more worth it? Absolutely, I don’t think anyone is disputing that, does that fact make the F-16 in WT not worth its price? This video doesn’t prove it. Don’t know why you felt the need to make a video showing what we all know, that a study level sim aircraft is more valuable than a WT aircraft at the same price. Just seems a little goofy to me because the two aren’t really comparable.
@@at335pro you don’t need to spend anything in wt you just need patience and grind
With the F-16C (now in the game)it has HMD, up-to-date armaments and everything you complained about, im not sure about the stock version with flares
War thunder's ground handling is fucking atrocious
I dunno why people still compare WT and DCS when it comes to quality or realism. They really aren't in the same ballpark nor have the same goal.
Hey if you wanna slew your AIM9 seeker to your HMD without having to mess with your MFDs you can use the Cursor enable switch (i think in game its bind name is cursor ENBL or something like that.)
When depressed, that button will slew the aim 9 seeker to your HMDS LOS. When paired with uncage it will auto uncage whenever it sees a sufficient thermal signature. Can be used as a makeshift EO.
Also more efficient and straight forwards in dog fights.
ah yes, comparing a 1980s F-16A block 15 to a 2000s F-16C block 50... and then being suprised that the more modern one has more modern stuff...
also, only idiots GE their planes, so effectively the WT F-16 can be archived as F2P player while in DCS you HAVE to pay 80 bucks.
it can be achieved f2p after spending 1500 hours of your life in a game where it's developers do not care about anything except their wallets, in those 1500 hours you can make $10000 dollars ( based on the salary per hour of the united states ) and those 80 bucks are nothing, is way more worth it paying 80 bucks to play an amazing game with amazing modeling of your fav planes than spending 1500 hours on a game that their creators do not care about balance, vehicle implementation, gameplay and player confort and only care about their wallets
@@danko8983 alternatively, you can spend only around 10 bucks for a great sl grinder and minimize the grind tenfold. You also compare a literal job to a video game, which is hardly a valid comparison, as if that were the justification for doing anything (how much money it gives), then why do anything other than work?
I guess if you are someone who downloaded war thunder and started playing it just to get the F-16 then this comparison makes more sense.
you can’t even unlock the f16 with money until you unlocked everything else
Still i go with warthunder It has Army, Fleet and Air Force + that game is free and also you can get f-16 for free. DCS is fully focused on full detailed things and only air force
You compared a block 15 and 10 to the F16C lmfao
one is a modern F16 one is an early version of the F16...
Why would you pay GE to unlock tech tree planes?
tbf this is a bit of an unfair comparison in terms of tech and weapons, the f16 in war thunder is from the 70s, the one in DCS is from the early 2000s. And technically the best F16 is in Falcon BMS, i dont personally play it but its well know to have the most accurate public knowledge f16 simulation.
I have over 5k hrs in both games and theres no comparison war thunder is not even a flight sim its an arcade game
in wt they have tech related to the planes year. to not make it unfair for other players
What sound mods are you using for the missile in WT?
hmd on block10? that's new to me
this is the worst comparison I have ever seen lmao
Hope you know you're comparing an F-16A Block 15 with an F-16C Block 50... Thinking the modern weapons and systems of the 16C is a fair comparison, like bruh..
Yes, you might compare prices, but the F-5E in DCS costs 60$ yet lacks more features than the WT F-16A, while the WT F-16 doesn't have any IRL. Do you want a fair comparison between DCS and WT? Compare the F-5E, Sabre, MiG-15 etc.
It's like comparison dota 2 with lol 😂
Why is dcs being compared to war thunder. 2 completely different types of games.
thx for the comparison,it opened my eyes!
True, WT > DCS
@@kontoname what?????????
how is WT better than DCS
@@airbus_3209 WT is better in terms of being accessible. easy to learn and not requiring extra hard ware to get into and intuitive controls. It also has way more vehicles but that's not that important to me. Otherwise yeah DCS is more accurate.
@@Frozander dcs and wt is same story as LoL and Dota . people who suck at LoL goes to Dota . People who cant learn DCS ( which is really not that hard) goes to WT.
Its sad to see so many people debating which game is "better" despite it being another apples to oranges comparison. DCS prioritizes realism whereas War Thunder prioritizes user-friendliness. Not to mention the fact that it literally comes down to preference, so quietly shut the hell up people.
"War Thunder" and "user-friendliness" do not belong in the same sentence.
Most stupid comparison I saw in a while. At least compare the same block vehicles because there are actual inaccuracies in WT model. But you moaned about an older block f16 being an older block f16. Also it is technically free and infinitely better than DCS since it is impossible for you to get DCS F16 by just playing the game. Let alone ignoring the fact that WT is a game you can play with a mouse and keyboard and play for a few hours with no setup unlike DCS which you need to buy at least a joystick to be able to control your plane somewhat fine. I am not even going into trackIR or VR "soft" requirements to enjoy DCS. I like DCS it is a good sim but it is practically incomparable with with War Thunder.
i agree with everything you said other than the TrackIR and Joystick thing, you can use an xbox controller fine and a webcam with Opentrack.
Ive seen people use keyboard and mouse on dcs. Its hard but possible
@At335
At least in that case, WT has a leg up over DCS when it comes to mouse and keyboard for its sim mode. Its rather simple to set up the keybinds to how you like it compared to DCS, as there's far less to manage.
you cant even buy the f16 in wt if you havent unlocked anythjng yet
your comparing an F-16A block 10 and Block 15 to an F-16CM block 50
War thunder has the f16a, dcs has the f16c... It's like comparing a colt saa to a Glock
Yeah but one game is a simulator, one isn't. See the issue?
So why does the other one cost more?
@Bill Kong
To be fair, it's universally recognized that spending GE to research the vehicle itself is a terrible idea and a rather poor investment. It's much easier to only spend $30-$50 on a premium aircraft, which opens up researching the rest of the tree in a timely manner, and just using any GE you have left on modifications for the F16 to make it playable, by which the grind is far easier and, in the end, cheaper overall.
and winner is ... Falcon BMS
its been 3 years since they released F-16 for DCS but still far far away from complete Lol
anyway these are just games compared to real life so just play whichever u have fun
Ok. How is behavior of SAMs missiles and another planes and ships in BMS?
Yea, yea, F-16 with not enterned in use JSOW-B.
@@gigantrejser4926 as a guy who plays way too much DCS.... i'll give it to BMS.. .at least for viper sims
You don’t need to pay for anything in warthunder
You pay with your time, which one could argue is way more valuable than 80 dollars (its on sale for $40 right now)
@@lamduong5701not bad if you can trade free time (no profit) for something that is worth something (sell the acc)
Bet it would take more than at least 1 year to grind f16 in warthunder without money.
@@jhkim9341 no just like 3montzs of grinding f2p and if you buy a premium plane (rn 30€) you can grind the f16 in two weeks (when you haven’t grinded anything in the us) to grind the whole us tectree you only half a year or a little bit more.
@@huriken8899 haha 3 months of grinding you say, totally false, to get to top tier totally f2p you need over a year, i played A LOT war thunder during the quarentine ( nearly 8 hours a day, something i regret totally ) and achieve jets 8 months after i started playing, then i bought premium ( something i regret too, fucking pay to progress game ) and got the F-4C in april or so, i currently have nearly all the US tech tree researched after nearly a year and 8 months of playing, it is a fact that you cant reach high in war thunder without paying unless you spend your entire day playing this shitty managed game, refusing to do better things like training, exercising, hanging out with friends, being with family and building your future
my friend is comparing dcs with warthunder in arcade or realistc mod no sim mode. dude whats wrong with you?
Realtalk i dont like these custom skins, WT isnt that far to make something like that, respect first to gaijing for the world record for the most vehicles in a game
You buy f16c in dcs for 70usd and another 1500usd for beefy pc and and headtracking and thrustmaster control for another 900usd... Pretty cheap imo 🤔🤔🤔
to be fair, the Keyboard&Mouse controls for WT is one of the best I've seen in flying games. Even when compared to arcade shooters like Ace combat, its smooth, straight forward and easy to use(not so energy efficient tho). Decent optimization is also cool too
For the whole 'setup' prices for DCS, it varies a lot however. Decent HOTAS' are available at around 200~300$ for instance. It just varies a lot and is overall just a difference in taste. No need for anyone to be salty here :)
@@hubril7921 im sorry about that haha 😆😆 i was too exaggerated about the pricing. But you get my point. Also i play DCS too
I’m playing DCS with a 1080 not even a TI and I get 50-60 fps consistently on very busy MP servers and usually in the hundreds when playing single player. You don’t need much to play DCS if you think so you’ve been lied to. You also don’t need head tracking or a fancy HOTAS because there are plenty of things to do other than dogfighting which you don’t have that option with warthunder. I have done some dogfighting with a guy that exclusively uses keyboard and mouse and he kicked my ass several times. All the extra things do is make things easier but they are by no means required like many people have been lead to believe.
well, one thing wt has over dcs is the visual effects, ngl in dcs they look awful
hey man how do you have custom announcer lines and custom RWR sounds
Simcade vs Simulator
lets wait untill the f16c and then compare
You cant compare them like this...comparing f16 block 10 to the C variant??? war thunder is much different than dcs. I highly doubt anyone ever thought to himself if to "buy" the f16 in war thunder or dcs. pointless video
Bros comparing 2 completely different games
ok who the fuck pays for SL and RP tho
you can control radar in wt
Take into account trust me i luv DCS too but remember that the DCS model is the newer modern version where the one in warthunder is the newer released where the US was just beginning to use them
tu joues en arcade forcément
On warthunder you can get the plane and play right away, on DCS you need a 2 month course and training to fly
On war thunder you need like 100 games of being useless in order to grind out the flares and missiles. In DCS if you already have familiarity with a similar plane like an F/A-18 you can be combat effective almost immediately.
It only takes a few days at most and after that it's just getting competent with the airframe.
That is not true. Need a quick youtube search yes but i can teach someone to fly decently in a day
@@appa609 100 games you must be dogshit i had 5games in the mig29 or other jets to get flares
@@vassowned7768 only with premium account, without it you need at least 15 decent games to get only flares
Dcs is better than WT at a lot of things, but my problem is that I’m a console player ( apparently no one in the comments is). So this means I only get to play WT, and I don’t have hundred’s of dollars laying around to pay for the pc and flying gear for dcs. And it’s even worse to me because I’m not American, I use the Mexican peso, and it’s value, ( as of posting this) is at 20 pesos for 1 dollar, meaning that I need even MORE money, which I don’t and will not have in the near future unless I become a millionaire.
two totally different markets. War thunder is a game and is not trying to be a simulation. I prefer DCS but not everyone is wanting to put in the amount of time and money to fly a SIM.
Why would you GE yourself the plane? You can grind it out in a day or two
thats a load of bollocks.
@@theroach2204 I grinded the entire israeli air tree in 2 days (up to kfir, f4e, nesher etc...), grinded the m1a2 sep in a day, and most of the swedish air tree in a day aswell,(up to the j35d)... it is very much possible, just a lot of time, game knowlage boosters, and simulator battles for air trees
@@theroach2204 If you have time and skill you can definitely do that I grinded french tree in a few days when they were only up to the super mystere. I haven't played them since so I am still at that aircraft but it took me about 3-4 days to completely research the tree.
@@Frozander "skill" lol, uptier is point and click and luck that you have team mates with superior infrared and radar missiles than the oponent team, i play uptier sometimes and i know what im talking about
Some people have work, some people a 10 hour work day is a short day.
you are also comparing the C and A variant of the f16 it wasnt developed initially to incorporate any BVR radar or weapons it was first and foremost a dogfighter before those ideals of aircraft design were found to be outdated
mmm yes non biased video for sure
ummmm F16 in wt is free....
a very biased video and the comparisons are pretty deluded
the warthuner players in the comments 🤣🤣🤣
War Thunder: F-16A
DCS: F-16C
That simple
Also Warthunder: F-16 Mlu.
consider that in dcs if you buy the f16 you have the f16, in war thunder with one premium plane you cna unlock dozens of other planes, so you cannot make a 1 to 1 comparison.
But if you only care about the F-16 and don't really for any others, you might as well go for DCS. You're going to pay with a lot of time in WT. If you are buying the F-16 in DCS, you'll get the F-16 experience at the first Minute and you'll be able to fly a dozen sets of different missions and actually fly the plane with advanced weaponry, something War Thunder may lock behind 3-4 Versions of the plane. That's the whole point. In DCS you will get the richest F-16 experience you can get. But you will have to do it with simulator controls - which is a very fair point to consider.
@@Leonardo-wn2fp if you dont care about the other planes that's your fair opinion, but part of the deal is that the premium will give you access to the whole tree. It's like complaining that netflix is expensive if you want to see only one movie from their whole list. Yes it is expensive if you only watch that one but you have plenty others, same for wt.
@@ccclll987 Just saying, try play up tier planes without a good radar like the F4C, F5E that dont have even radar missiles and still gets match with mig 29s with radar and all aspect missiles
@@brazilian3578 air rb is shit in fact from 9.0 and above. The rest of the game is very good in rb. For top tier I only play sim at this point
if it's a price comparision then just say it in the title.
Let me remind you 1 more time that the F-16A in WT is completely free to get, you just need to spend time and grind, unless you have issues (nobody cares btw)
Free to play >>>> 80 dollars
omg dcs is soooo much better wtf why people still play wt??
Simcade vs full simulator; different games for different people.
Comparing an F-16A with a more advanced F-16C..
He was comparing what you get for the money. Which in this case DCS is much better value wise
@@Fatallydisorganized That is still dumb because no one ever thinks to himself if to buy dcs or war thunder they are very different games.
@@Fatallydisorganized Nope. If he would like to compare F16 that's in DCS to F16 in WT he should wait untill C50 is in game. If he want's to do things like that then lets compare MIG29A from DCS to MIG29(2.12) from WT that should be same plane.
I prefer war thunder than this boring dcs
First
lmao i could literally hear the Bias when you played that music. here. hold a dislike.
While I would say DCS does it better, you compared a more modern variant of the F-16 to a newer, nearly fresh market variant of the F-16.
DCS is a combat simulator, which not everyone has the time to learn. It also costs money to play to begin with, and some range to the prices of a Triple-A game.
War Thunder is a Multi-player, free-to-play game that only requires you to spend money to accelerate the time it takes to get the aircraft. And, you don't have to play JUST the Americans, you can play ANY nation and get thrown straight into combat.