DCS World VR

There’s definitely no shortage of simulator games on PC. This oft-overlooked genre appeals to gamers who enjoy an experience that is as realistic as possible, without the fear of crashing a $38 million aircraft. Digital Combat Simulator World (DCS World) offers players a staggeringly genuine experience behind the controls of some of the world’s most state-of-the-art military vehicles.

Land, air, and sea

One of the most unique elements of DCS World is that it allows players to take control of a variety of military vehicles. Unlike games like Microsoft Flight Simulator 2002 – where you can only pilot aircraft – DCS World lets you drive tanks, pilot jets, and even be the captain of a navy ship.

This variety of options gives the game a true “warfare feeling to it, as confrontations usually involve several fronts, where players clash on land, engage in dogfights in the air, or try to navigate the treacherous waters of naval warfare.

True to life experience

Every vehicle in DCS World has its own distinctive feeling and controls, meaning that, just as in real life, learning the controls of different crafts takes some time to get used to.

To make things even better, DCS World features gorgeous graphics that really let you get immersed in the gameplay. Cockpits are beautifully rendered and the overall look of the world is astonishing. Shadows play an essential role in making the cockpits look as real as possible: strong shadows are dynamically rendered as your plane does barrel rolls and other planes fly over you.

Astonishing VR experience

The game’s amazing graphical fidelity also means that it plays great on VR. All of the vehicles’ cockpits are painstakingly recreated in DCS: every button and lever looks identical to their real-life counterparts.

Playing the game in VR is truly an out of this world experience, as you’ll be experiencing all of the non-stop action that the game has to offer in a true first-person perspective. Just be sure that your PC has the necessary horsepower to run the game on a steady framerate.

An ever-expanding experience

Ever since its first release in 2008, DCS World has evolved and added new features and vehicles to the base game. The game features “modules” that work as the game expansions. As the name implies, these expansions are modular in nature, meaning that not all of them are needed to get an ‘ultimate’ version of the game.

User-generated content is also an integral part of the DCS World experience. Developers Eagle Dynamics encourage the community to create mods for the game, these mods include new aircraft and maps that keep the game fresh and constantly updated.

Flight simulators are a niche genre that’s found its audience in PC gamers. In 2020, the new Microsoft Flight Simulator proved that there’s a place in the modern gaming landscape for complex simulator games. DCS World has a long history of upgrades and add-ons that have kept the game up to date.

Pros

• Thoroughly detailed cockpits for every vehicle.
• Great VR implementation.
• Good selection of user-generated content.

Cons

• Environments could be a bit more detailed.