Aerial Combat Games

ITT: Recommend popular and obscure aircraft combat games. Simulators, arcade, 2D, 3D, realistic aircraft, in space, whatever.
WHAT ARE YOU
Mobius one, engage
Ace Combat 04 Shattered Skies is the shit. I have yet to play the rest of the games in this franchise, aside from Infinity, but hopefully they're as good as this game. I heard bad things about Assault Horizon, but 5 and Zero are supposed to be just as good as this game. I like the dogfights, I like all the different aircraft you can acquire, I like the cheesy dialogue, story and voice acting. The game is somewhere between arcade shooter and simulation. It goes out of its way to offer landing and take off segments during missions that allow you to return to your base and resupply, but these can be skipped if you don't care. It features real world aircraft but the story is a fictional interpretation of inter continental political conflicts between countries that don't exist. The aircraft each offer slight differences in terms of attack power and defense, so your choice of aircraft will inform your play style. Some aircraft are terrible at air to air combat but excel in air to ground bombing runs, while some aircraft have high attack power and excel in multirole support but have low defense. Each mission has objectives that you must complete, and you are graded on your performance. Often missions will be updated and you'll take on numerous objectives in a single sortie. Your overall score during every segment will determine your grade.

It's a great game, go fucking play it.

Do you think Ace Combat 7 will motivate people to get the Sony VR shit?
I'm just wondering whether or not I will be able to even play it. I get terrible motion sickness as it is.

YSFlight

Bad goy

5 is cheesy as fuck but it has some golden moments. Flying feels considerably less clunkier as the games go on, so expect a slight improvement in maneuvering. 5's campaign is also the longest of the whole holy trinity with 27 missions, I think. By the end of the game you're gonna be shouting CUM HISTORIA MUTAT VALDE RAZGRIZ at the top of your lungs. Some don't like it but it's overall a pretty good game, no reason not to try it out if you liked AC04.

Zero is overall pretty fucking solid and the favorite of many. It's grim as fuck in contrast to 5 and is told in the form of a war documentary about the Belkan War, which happened 15 years prior to AC5. Depending on whether you spare unarmed (yellow) targets or destroy everything on your path, you get thrown into the category of Knight, Mercenary or Soldier, which changes some ace fights and the way you are addressed in the documentary. AC0 has these boss fights that come in form of ace squadrons where you have to shoot them down at the end of the mission, and they're some of the best fights you'll see in the trinity. It's also recommended to play it after AC5 because it has a great deal of little references from 5 that you'll get whilst you're playing, including an OH SHIT moment in one mission. Overall, it's hype as fuck and a must play.

Yuo is of mein Belkan nigga.

We reclaim clay nao pls.

H.A.W.X (2 is shittier than AH)
JASF (inb4 autistic simfag)
Vector Thrust (pirate, shit ain't finished and the dev is on the verge of dying literally and figuratively)
AX:EL
Air Guardians (low budget game)
Air Force Delta (DC)
Dropship (PS2, doesn't emulate well last I checked)
Several jap only Macross games across PS1 and PS2

What games can I play on PC or PS3?
I don't want to emulate ps2 stuff.

My fucking nigger.

It's too bad Vector Thrust didn't turn out better. A moddable Ace Combat would have been fantastic.