Helicopter Games
From LoveToKnow VideoGames
If you’ve got the hots for helis, you probably want to get your hands on a killer bird in a helicopter game.
A Different Style, a Different Ride
As any copter jock would be happy to tell you, helicopters fly differently than airplanes, and concomitantly, helicopter games are radically different from airplane simulations.
Modern planes fly off the lift generated by air passing under their wings. Due to aerodynamics, planes have to move relatively swiftly - forcing a large volume of air under those fixed wings - to avoid dropping like stones. Helicopters, on the other hand, ride on a cushion of air generated by small rotary wings, or blades. This allows them to hover in place, maneuver in tight spaces, and move stably at much lower speeds.
If you were to analogize them to the animal kingdom, planes would be birds, moving linearly and swiftly by wing power, and copters would be insects, darting about using multiple wings.
Chopper Combat
You’ll find choppers in many games today, both as a support vehicle and a tactical weapon. The popularity of copters in modern video games parallels the importance of the helicopter in modern combat. As in real life, the chopper’s advantages are many:
- nimble
- excellent ground vision
- able to transport vehicles internally or externally
- strong lifting capacity
- does not need a runway to land or take off
- can hover
- ideal for transport of infantry and paratroops
These characteristics make it useful for both utility and attack, and when properly armored, choppers can be formidable mobile battle platforms, wreaking havoc with missiles and gunfire of all calibers.
A Different Experience
Flying a video game copter is an adjustment for anyone who’s only familiar with planes. Hard turns and climbs can result in a strange stall experience where the copter “slides off” its cushion of air, and fails to deliver enough thrust downwards to stay aloft. Hard dives result in giddying speed, but the copter can slide off while leaning forwards, too. A gentle touch goes a long way toward staying alive.
Some of the popular helicopter video games over the years have been AH-64D Longbow, Comanche, Hind, SimCopter, and RC Stunt Copter. Search for them at your favorite search site, or check them out at an online game periodical like Gamespot or Happy Puppy!
Many other games feature helicopters or helicopter-like vehicles in the context of larger scenarios, too. Check out Command & Conquer: Red Alert, Battlefield Vietnam, Battlefield II, and even Microsoft’s Flight Simulator 2002 (but not the new “Century of Flight” version).
Tactics
Here are a few tips for new copter pilots.
- As with planes, altitude and speed keep you alive. Speed makes you hard to hit. Altitude gives you vision, and can be quickly traded for speed.
- Because choppers are loud and relatively slow compared to planes, they present an easier target to foes at all elevations.
- A copter can’t outclimb or outrun most planes.
- Hard turns in a copter cost both speed and altitude. Use the copter’s stability as its best asset in both attack and defense.
- Small, quick pendulum-like movements on a gently swerving path can help you shake tailers. Flying in large, horizontal circles around a fixed target while tilted forwards is an excellent way to avoid fire and maximize the punishment you are delivering.
Good luck, and happy flying!
Related Video Games Links
This page has been accessed 1,031 times. This page was last modified 01:51, 27 December 2005.
© 2006-2008 LoveToKnow Corp.
