Strike Commander

Heh. Seriously though the joystick powered fun is only possible in games like this. I know people compare it to wing commander but I believe it stands it's own ground. EA became successful on the shoulder of giants like this, even if they are too arrogant to admit it today.

Well folks, I don't even know where to start. First of all, don't be scared of the manual - you can easily fly this thing with the reference card and a few minutes of training. You can adjust the difficulty just so it fit's your personal skill or your preferences. You like it real hard and realistic? You can have that as well as very easy and arcade-like. Next, the story: the story is great. It's not as epic as the story of Wing Commander II or III, but it will tie you to your chair and won't let you go until you are finished with it! You will command your own mercenary fighter squadron, fly missions all around the globe and do all kinds of missions, which brings us to reason no 3 why everybody should play this: the mission design is great, you get escort missions, search and destroy, bombing runs vs. ground and sea targets, simply everything you ever dreamed of. For all those who already know this game: you will buy it anyway (just like me as soon as I saw it on GOG). For the younger ones who don't know it yet: go buy it!!! This is the best flight sim that was ever made (in my opinion). It's not so complex that you need a Phd. to play it (like Falcon 3.0 or something like that), but it's complex enough that the sim freaks out there will have fun with it. GOG, thank you for this masterpiece! Oh, and now go on and give us Wings of Glory and Pacific Strike, then I will build an altar for you guys and light a candle every day as long as I live ;-)

Finally this great work from Chris Roberts arrived on gog.com. Being "the good mercenary" and flying your beautiful F-16 in well staged dogfights along with the great storyline is simply thrilling! Just connive at the graphics - keep in mind that this game is from 1993. Ah, memories...

This one comes out of Origin's Golden Age, made about the same time as Wing Commander 2, one of the best of the series. Like Wing Commander, you have an action based flight sim with a collection of unique characters to fly at your wing. You'll get plenty of chances to talk to each character between missions, and watch as their character develops. Gameplay is fast paced and action packed, with lots of destructible items on the terrain, and plenty of ways to customize your jet. Later on, you'll take control and be able to fly your own missions, and choose which hardware you want to take out. In the end, you get a mix of old school military fighters and Wing Commander: Privateer. This game is well worth your time.

This is one of Origin's finest games from the 90's. Step into the cockpit of a top of the line F16 and fly along the mercenary flight squadron Wildcats as they undertake various contracts, including the protection of food and supplies to starving civilians in a civil war torn Africa and more. Inbetween the missions, you will be able to talk to the crew about the current situation, you can also later in the game buy new missiles for the planes. The game is best played with a joystick, which is what a lot of gamers used back in the 80's and 90's for flight games, as it can be quite tricky getting used to the controls. But once you get the hang of it, you will be flying like a true ace and shoot down enemy planes from the sky like it's nothing.