Customer Reviews

DCS: Black Shark

5 star:		(25)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

There are Survey Sims and there are Study Sims. For example, Microsoft FSX albeit very detailed and allows you to learn aviation in a profound way, it is a "Survey" simulator. DCS Black Shark is a "Study" simulator. This means unless you already know the Black Shark, it is highly doubtful you will be able to jump in and start flying in real simulation mode like you can in FSX. However, Eagle Dynamics provides an accommodating game mode, which will allow anyone to take off with the Black Shark and enjoy a military chopper. Nevertheless, you can easily keep adding real features to the game mode step by step to make it more real as you strengthen your skills. That's the big picture. Now for the review...I have played this Sim for hundreds of hours and every single time I get into the Ka-50 Black Shark I just absolutley love it. I broke up my learning process into fully understanding the startup procedures, then basic flight procedures, then targeting and using the weapons, then shutdown...and on to advanced. I recommend a similar method. The graphics and modeling of the Ka-50 are stellar. The cockpit is stellar just for the fact that EVERYTHING works unlike FSX aircraft. The terrain and other outside eye candy are not really the focus but they are very nice as well. This Sim is foucsed on a real Ka-50 experience and is extremely credible for that point. It is an awesome means to learn to fly a military helicopter. It is absolutely worth every dime in regards to a well crafted simulator. And if you get frustrated, Eagle Dynamics has an excellent forum to help you along the way. This is an absolutely incredible simulator, and I recommend it.

Others here have talked about how amazing this game is. It is all that they say, and I won't repeat it here.

I'd just like to talk about the combat. In this sim, you are not super-cruising at Mach 1+ seven miles above the Earth, using your radar to fire missiles at targets thirty miles away who'll you'll never see.

Instead, you are flying between trees at 180 knots, using line of sight to both protect yourself and engage your targets. You pop up from behind cover, pop off laser guided missiles at enemy targets, and then get back in the weeds. You fly through canyons carefully, keeping your eyes peeled for that one little soldier with a MANPADS and your finger on the "flares" button. You avoid going in blindly, guns blazing, because you will die if you do so, and instead practice patience and intelligence. You outflank, you outmaneuver, and you use real military tactics to get your job done.

When you play this sim, put yourself in the mindset of a first person shooter. You're not high and fast, looking at the world as if it were Google Earth. You're in the weeds, and you're a hunter. You're a sniper. You stay low, stay in the dirt. That's how real helo drivers operate, and that's how you fly this sim. You're in a war zone and the lower you fly, the safer you are from SAMs and other AAA weapons.

And just like a squad of soldiers communicates with hand signals, you and your wingmen communicate via the realistically-modeled datalink system. Spotted a SAM battery? Target it, save it to your target memory, and then transmit its location to all of your wingmen. Want wingman #2 to engage it? Use the radio command menu and tell him to take it out. You can do this both with your AI wingmen as well as online with human players. It's an amazing feeling of teamwork.

It's an FPS squad mentality, but this sim features the most incredible flight, damage, and systems models ever rendered in a commercial software simulation. The manual is thick, and is not to be ignored if you're looking to play the "real" mode as opposed to "arcade". You will need to do the tutorials, learn the systems.

Is it a learning curve? Yes. Is it worth it? Heck yes. The first time you land successfully, or score your first tank kill, or dodge your first SAM, or shoot down your first enemy aircraft, you will feel impressed with yourself, because it took time to learn to do that. It's a challenge, but an extremely rewarding one.

If you've had a helicopter-shaped hole in your heart since Janes' Longbow 2 (released in 1997) and have been longing for a decent Combat Helicopter Simulation (with multiplayer even!), salvation is at hand. This simulation is not merely decent though, it is the best available outside of military training simulators!

In Black Shark you will find realism like you have never had it before. Every system is modelled with pain staking attention to detail, and nearly every button or switch available to the pilot is available to you to click on and activate(or use keyboard commands)!

The simulation can be tailored for those who want easy avionics and weaponry and basically just want to hop in and start banging away, all the way to complex systems management where one can spend weeks (or months) just learning to fly and navigate! The BlackShark world is truly your oyster, my friends! One can also create missions (single and multiplayer)in the Mission Editor and share them with your friends.

Graphics quality is also fantastic, and can be scaled up or down to accomodate most computers. I use an AMD Dual-core @ 2.4mhz with a Geforce 9800 1GB and I have it cranked all the way up with no problems whatsoever!

DCS also has expandability in mind, and there are plans to release modules based on the AH-64 Apache, and A-10 Thunderbolt. All I can say is that if those modules are as impressive and immersive as BlackShark is, combat flight simulation purists (such as myself) will be busy for some time to come!

Over the years flight simulators have gotten increasingly sophisticated with many of the home systems available rivalling some military and commercial aviation set ups. This has become more so as home computers have become more powerful and DCS Black Shark takes full advantage of modern hardware to deliver what must be the ultimate helicopter simulator in the gaming world.

In full simulation mode you can expect to spend some serious time learning all of the flight systems and controls within the aircraft. I've had this game a couple of months and haven't yet fully mastered the art of flying the machine with all the easy options turned off. Rather than seeing that as an impediment to ejoyment, it merely means this product delivers the goods for those looking for a hard core simulator. It also means I'll have the game for years with simply hours of replay entertainment...it's one reason I love simulators.

Leaving aside the complications associated with flying a helicopter, the game delivers an enriched flying experience, especially when combined with a reasonable system. I am running an intel dual core 3.2ghz machine with 2 gigs of RAM and a 9600GSO card, with 768mb of video RAM. Maximum settings will slow the game down once you include ground targets and all the panopoly of war, but visually the development team have thought of everything, but a good spec PC is definitely needed. You can adjust the settings which'll increase frame rates when there is a lot of action going on.

The enormous war theater is highly realistic and the modelling of the Black Shark is utterly fantastic, both inside and out. Furthermore, switching to other aircraft to view action going in the theatre illustrates that the team did not compromise on the skins of other objects. It is quite possibly one of the most detailed and beautifully modelled flight sims out there and this visual experience is mind-blowingly realistic.

One of the challenges I am still coming to grips with - and to be fair I haven't played the game as much as I'd like - is learning to fly a chopper over a fixed wing aircraft. I have a new respect for helicopter pilots now as the experience is quite different.

The developers have done a great job of recreating the physics of flying a chopper. It is much more susceptible to the influences of wind and turbulence and requires some time to get right, especially landing and controlling hovering. In full simulation mode I would totally recommend rudder pedals as there's no way to accurately control the tail shifting about with cross winds. True to form, the aircraft behaves as it would in the real world and I'd have been dead several times or maimed by bits of rotorblade thumping down on terra ferma like lead balloon.

To this end the helicopter will bounce and rock about if you try to throw it around like a fixed wing and if you go back to an arcade mode after the sim, the flying seems a little wooden.

The other challenge of the game has to be getting your head around the various avionics systems within the aircraft. The simulator mimics everything down to minute detail and excitingly just about every single button within the cockpit works. Its incredibly detailed and like the flying it takes time to learn how to follow the start up procedure just to get the engines running and then learn the weapons targetting and control systems.

The game comes with quite a few training videos which layout the basics of various aspects of flying the chopper. It takes time to go through each one, and then of course, remember what you've been watching!

The developers have been kind enough to deliver an arcade style mode which will allow those not wanting the full sim' experience to get straight into the action. Aside from the various training videos from which you can take control of the aircraft and have a go, there are missions which you can jump into and of course a set of campaigns.

In short this is a fantastic product which will offer hours of fun for the gamer and of course the heli-sim fan. The game really shines as a sim' and this is the intended audience and if you go down this path or get hooked on simulator mode, you'll need a decent joy stick, throttle control and importantly rudder pedals.

i meant everything i said in the title, this game is a true gem, something that has set up standards that will be hard if not impossible to keep up, since military hardware is something that is off limits to civilians, what wepons, systems, and real data of engine power etc.. are of course hidden and not revealed by any armies of the world..

this is why this game is one of a kind, it has a lot of real information about this chopper that makes this a increadible simulation that if you master it, you are almost guaranteed to fly the real thing if you had the possibility..

to make another simulation like this is almost impossible because of limited info ..like USA air forces will never reveal the power of the engines of the F-22, or the radar aperture of F-16, .. there are general infos on wikipedia and are open to us civilians, but to make a true sim you need as close to the real thing.. and trust me this IS the REAL THING..

luv you Russians, .. Keep up the good work.. you are increadible..

First off, let's get one thing straight: this "game" requires a LOT dedication to get the most out of it. If you are one who likes to immediately jump into a game, power it up, and see all it has to offer in the first few hours, you will be sorely disappointed with DCS Black Shark. However, if you are the type of person that finds gaming a lot more satisfying when it's required to put some serious effort into it to get the most out of it, you may want to give Black Shark a second look.

But understand this....you will need to STUDY. I can't emphasize this fact enough. You'll be going to school. The game comes with a 600+ page manual (this is not including the GUI manual, which is fairly thick in itself), both of which are in .pdf files, though you can buy a manual off this site as well. It is luckily very comprehensive and covers a lot of material, from the history of winged flight, the development of the KA-50, the dynamics of helicopter flight, then on to each individual system onboard, how they function and relate to one another, etc. If you're planning on opening the box and starting this bird up on sim mode and taking it for a spin, think again. It took me a good 5-10 hours of learning before I could even cold start the heli and take off. Let me give you an example of the ABBREVIATED start-up procedure:

-Turn on battery 1 & 2.-Turn on radio and intercomm.-Turn on power to electric, hydraulics, and Enkram (warning) system, turn off master warning light.-Turn on INU (inertial navagation unit) power.-Turn on K-041 power switch to suppy power to the targeting and navigation systems, and boot up the ABRIS.-Turn on standby ADI, fire suppression system, and fuel gauge.-Set the Auxillery Power Unit shut off valve to open, turn on forward and aft fuel pumps, start APU.-Release rotor brake, close cockpit door.-Turn on left Engine Electronic Governor (EEG) switch, open left engine fuel valve, switch to left engine, start, open left engine cut off valve.-Once rpms reach certain level, repeat above for right engine.-Shut down APU, close APU valve, uncage stand-by ADI.-Lower collective and set engine RPM levers to auto, and turn on generators and dust protection system.-Power up nav and comm systems, autopilot, countermeasure systems, laser warning receiver system.-Turn on rotor lights and other minor systems as desired.

'Course it doesn't need to be done in that order, but that's to help give you an idea. Watch a YT video to see it. Many of those steps I shorterned as well (such as comms, autopilot, and nav start-ups). Remember, this is the quick version, it's not including running tests for all systems. Needless to say, this took a while to learn. And this is not even taking into account the time it took to learn things like entering a hover and maintaining it properly (sounds easy, it's not initially and requires practice), how to land, how trim works, to somewhat learn the onboard computer ABRIS (this could easily be a course in itself), to navigate, use comms and assign targets, and use countermeasure and targeting systems. You are basically learning to fly a real helicopter, and there is a TON of material here to see. It's very, very intimidating at the start.

The presentation is very well done, but you will need a semi decent rig to run this at good settings. I own a Quadcore 2.4 Ghz, 4 gigs, 285 GTX running Windows 7 and am only able to run it on medium/high settings. Although I've heard of lesser computers running it on high so maybe something in my system is making it occasionally lag. The visuals and sounds are all there and look great, no complaints here. I have to mention how much I love the interface. Almost every switch in the cockpit is mouse clickable, aside from a few for safety's sake (ejection....one of the few helis that have it) and those that have application in RL but that are really of no use in a sim (cockpit heating, for example).

It is possible to play this on "game" mode where many of the technicalities are not taken into consideration in order to give a more arcadey experience, but honestly, when you buy a game like this who really wants that? The meat and potatoes of this product lay in its simulation model, and I can't tell you how satisfying it is to power up the APU, then start the left engine and start to see the rotor blades move and the engine start to whine up for the first time. Killing your first tank will probably be a monumental accomplishment, at least it was for me. It's all incredibly satisfying when the fruits of your labor pay off, and it's exactly why I'm a sim genre junkie. Seldom do other genres come close to matching it.

I don't mean to scare people away from this great sim, but I just want to warn you what to expect. Rest assured, this will require commitment on your part. So if you're up for a challenge, give this a go. For what it takes, it gives back in spades. However, if you're looking for something more casual, this is definitely not for you, so don't say I didn't warn you.

Ok,

I am going to be very brief here and say Blackshark is an awesome simulator.

It teaches you how to operate the subsystems of the helicopter. There are videos that explain its various subsystems. There is one that shows you the steps to take in starting the helicopter up from a cold and dark configuration.

The model is also highly detailed.

You will have fun with it flying missions and blowing things up.

There is one thing you should be aware of (and this is what I didn't like). This software must be activated before you fly.

I activated my copy through the Internet. After activation the software notified me that I have SEVEN activations left! I shouldn't have to explain the consequences of what that means.

Software activation is a means to control obsolescence. All the company has to do is shut down the activation server sometime in the future and you can't fly any more.

There are other methods for protecting software from being copied that does not impede on consumer rights. Possession is nine tenths of the law.

Control is closely linked to TYRANNY.

t/y,
Roger

Limited activations is basically the buzzkill for this game, although Starforce alone is enough to warrant staying far away from DCS Black Shark. Looks like another promising title has been ruined by an idiotic and vain attempt at preventing resale and/or piracy. There are already many cracks and work-arounds out on torrent sites. Why punish the paying customers with these stupid DRM schemes?

I don't mind a simple disc check, but installing crap like Starforce drivers on my system has already caused me pain in the past. I never used to care about DRM, I would just happily buy the games and play them. Now I have to do a damned investigation before purchasing anything!

This is by far one of the best military sims I've experienced since Jane's Longbow 2 or the original Falcon 4. After MS Flightsim X left me disgusted, I haven't touched a flight sim in a couple years until now. With excellent graphics, challenging AI, high polish, a huge .pdf manual, and a steep learning curve, this is a hardcore simmers dream come true. Invest in a good joystick and a Trackir setup and enjoy.

I am a combat flight sim addict. I have a bunch from the heyday of the genre in the 90's that I can no longer run on my Gateway gamer with Windows 7. I understand that CFSs in general are no longer popular and as such there's no incentive to develop more or upgrade the oldies but goodies for today's OS. None the less, I have been in mourning for many years as my all time favorites are helicopters that started with Gunship! and ran through Long Bow and Long Bow II. When I got wind of DCS: Black Shark, it sounded too good to be true but I figured why not give it a shot...

Well, if you loved the Long Bow sims, you'll wet yourself over Black Shark! Black Shark is flat out the best gunship sim I have ever played and the most fun I've had with a PC game in years. When I say best, BTW, I mean on all levels; realism, graphics, gameplay, this sim has it all.

Installation was straight forward. I've encountered no bugs to date. Play is excellent using a Saitek X52 FCS.

With all realism turned on, only an actual HA-50 pilot could jump in & fly this thing. Even if your familiar with sims, It'll probably take you a month to learn to start the engines and take off to a hover. That's cool for real hardcore gamers. For guys like me who are past that stage and just want some arcade type post workday blow sh-- stuff up stress relief, Black Shark is right on the money. In arcade mode it only takes a couple fun filled hours to learn, then it's Angel Of Death time!

Can't recommend this more to a hardcore sim pilot or casual gamer alike.