One of the questions we are asked often is about our arenas in our flight sim game. What are they? Does it matter which arena a gamer plays in? Is one better than another?

Well, here are your answers.

Aces High has several online arenas available for multi-player gaming.  To go online, you must have an active subscription with HiTech Creations or be in a two week free trial period.

The arena list includes the Arena name, the Players/Max, and the Ping time to the arena.

The first number in the Players/Max count represents the current number of players in the arena and the second number is the total number of players allowed in the arena.

The Aces High arenas use a dynamic or floating limit for the arenas where there are two, or more, of the same type. For instance, the two Late War arenas will show a limit that changes as the amount of players in these two arenas change.

The arena limits are governed as follows: As an example, if the Orange arena reaches a certain percentage of its maximum capacity, the server will adjust the Blue arena limit to a higher number. When the Blue arena reaches a certain percentage of its limit, then the Orange arena limit is raised. Conversely, the arena limits are also reduced in the same manner.

This gives the possibility of an arena limit being lower than the actual current number of players in that arena.

Highlighting an arena in the list and clicking Ping Details shows additional information about the connection to that arena.

The Early, Mid, and Late War Main Arenas are where you'll find the majority of players.  These arenas differ in the plane sets offered. The Early War Main arena has early World War II planes or planes which best compete in that era. The Mid War Main Arena contains planes specific to the middle of World War II as well as the planes from the Early War Main arena.

The Late War Main Arena has all aircraft enabled from all time periods of World War II.

The Axis versus Allies arena is set up for historical gameplay.  There is a two sided war, a limited plane set, and reduced radar.

The Dueling Arena contains a special terrain with separate areas for all types of game play including furballing, tanking, and canyon fighting.

The Special Events Arena is available to all players and events are scheduled by the Aces High Campaign Managers.  For a schedule of events, please visit events.hitechcreations.com.

The Training Arena is available for players to practice online without affecting their scores.  In this arena, players are requested to ask permission before engaging other players, and to not interrupt training sessions in progress.

The Open Lobby button opens a lobby area where you enter a chat room to hang around and talk to other players. It is handy when you wish to schedule a meeting with other players online.

Aces High is produced by HiTech Creation and has been one of the leading combat simulators since it came on the market in 2000. Check out our website and try our free two-week download.

This question inevitably comes up during any discussion about flight sim gaming. There is no doubt that the quality and power of your gaming computer will directly affect your play. Having the best PC possible, within your budget, is one key to becoming a better flight simulator player.

HiTech Creations, makers of the wildly popular Aces High, has some thoughts on this matter, so read on.

What is the best PC for flight sim gaming?

No matter what we say about this question, please remember it is a purely subjective opinion. You can read twenty such articles and chances are excellent you will have twenty #1s.

So, what can you do to find the answer to that question? Trust yourself to shop wisely. Look for a powerful processor. Look for loads of memory. Read those twenty articles and make a list of the top five suggestions from each, and then find out which PCs appear on all of the lists. Some simple investigative skills will net you are pretty accurate answer to your question about PCs capable of making you a combat simulator superstar.

However, the true answer to the question is this: none of the PCs, currently on the market, are the best, and that is because “the best” can only happen when you build your own PC.

Build your own?

Some of you may have just turned white with fear. Build a computer? How is it possible? Surely we don’t mean any novice. Surely we don’t mean just any gamer is capable of managing such a Herculean feat.

Well, in fact, that is exactly what we mean. There is software now available which will take you through all of the steps necessary to construct a great gaming computer. There are how-to articles and videos which will take your hand and walk you through the entire process and believe us when we say a novice can do this. Once you get over your apprehension, anything is possible.

Please note: to build a great gaming PC, it will not be cheap. Great components and a great motherboard are expensive. You can easily spend several thousand dollars building a monster gaming PC, but if you are into gaming like we think you are, a few thousand dollars will not stop you from making it happen. And the computer you build will last you longer, oftentimes between five and ten years of great gaming.

What if you have an inferior PC?

If you can only afford an inferior PC, save up until you can afford to upgrade. Adding memory is not that difficult. Replacing a processor is well within your capabilities. Do not let fear hold you back, and a lack of funds simply means you need to save money like a fiend until you can upgrade.

A final word about Aces High.

Since 2000, Aces High has led the way in the combat flight simulator genre. Give us a try. We offer a free two-week download of Aces High, no credit card required. Two weeks will be more than enough time for you to learn how to play our game, and determine if what we say, that Aces High is the very best flight sim game, is true.

If we could give one word of advice to combat simulator game beginners, it would be this: learn as much as you can about the combat flight simulator before you start playing it. More on this shortly.

We are HiTech Creations, and we know a thing or two about playing combat simulators. Our Aces High has been a leader in this gaming genre since 2000, so you might say we have some game when it comes to flight sim games. With that introduction, let’s look at our suggestion and why we believe it is the right approach to playing.

Everyone is eager to begin; totally understandable.

You get a new game, you are all excited to sit down and play it, you dive right in, and . . . experience confusion and angst within five minutes. Who can relate to that scenario?

It’s very normal to do that, and it is also the wrong approach, no matter how excited you are to play your flight simulator. Take a deep breath. Calm down. Swallow your excitement and follow these instructions/suggestions.

First, familiarize yourself with the controls.

Turn on the game, search for the link to controls, and start “fiddling” around with them. We know, “fiddling” is not a technical term, but it does accurately summarize how people learn the different controls on a game like Aces High. You click on something, you try it out; you click on something else, you try it out. Sooner or later, you begin to understand what all of those links are for, and you begin to form some base knowledge on how things work. You can call this trial and error, or learning by the seat of your pants, but really, it’s just getting the lay of the land before you dive in and take on competition. It’s nice to have a working knowledge of the vernacular of a game before reading instruction on how to play that game.

Next, read and watch and ask questions.

With that out of the way, it’s time to “go to school.” If you are playing a game like Aces High, you will find the learning tools by clicking on “support” or some such link. For Aces High, that support includes forums where you can ask any questions, hundreds of articles on how-to, hundreds of instructional videos, and even one-on-one instruction if that is what you want and need.

Again, our suggestion: read an instruction on one aspect, then open up the game and practice that one aspect. Then move on to another, and another, and another. Is this time-consuming? Of course it is, and possibly even tedious, but it will pay huge dividends once you join the main playing field and take on live competition.

Finally, strap on your helmet and fly the skies.

How long will all of this take? Our estimate, a week or two, which is one reason why we offer, and this is unique in the gaming world, a free two-week download of our game, Aces High. That way you can learn how to play our game before you ever pay a penny in subscription fees.

You will then be ready for your first mission and dogfight. Strap on your flight helmet and fly the skies with Aces High.

The eternal debate about PC vs Console can definitely be argued regarding flight sim games.

Which is better? Which one should you spend your money on?

We are HiTech Creations, the makers of Aces High flight simulator, and since we’ve been doing this for twenty-four years, we thought we would toss our hat into the ring and give our opinion. Mind you, our game is a PC game, but we will try to be impartial as we look at the strengths, and weaknesses, of both modes of gaming.

What is PC gaming?

The basic answer to this question is this: PC gaming is playing games on your personal computer. There is nothing unique about PC gaming; it’s been around almost as long as PCs have been on the scene. However, the degree to which you can play a game efficiently on a PC depends upon the computer you own and how much hardware is installed in that PC.

What is Console gaming?

From Wikipedia we borrow this definition of console gaming: :"A video game console is a specialized computer system designed for interactive video gameplay and display. A video game console functions like a PC and is built with the same essential components, including a central processing unit (CPU), graphics processing unit (GPU) and random-access memory (RAM). To offset costs, most video game console manufacturers use older CPU versions."

Pros and Cons

The pros and cons of PC vs console have been debated since the mid-90’s, and likely will be debated long after we have moved on to another level of existence.

Generally speaking, the console is easier to operate, most likely less expensive ($400-$700 for a console), and offers exclusive membership options for many of the more popular games. However, they have lower graphics quality, fewer upgrade options, and the most expensive games.

PC games have better graphics, more online support, more input and screen options, and less expensive games. However, they also require more technical skills and much more expensive hardware (you can easily spend $2000 for a very good gaming PC)

Which leads us right back to the original question, namely which is better? And you most likely will not like our answer: it is personal preference and up to each player to decide. We will say this so that it does not appear like we are ducking the question: if money is an issue, the gaming consoles are probably the route you will want to take. If money is no issue, and outstanding graphics are your thing, then nothing beats the best gaming computers on the market.

A final word about Aces High.

Yes, Aces High is an online PC flight sim game, designed back in 1999, first introduced in 2000, so our opinion could be discounted, but we truly tried, in this article, to give an unbiased opinion. Most gamers will tell you that, if money is not an issue, there really is no comparison, that the PC route is much better. However, the console games offer great gaming as well, for a fraction of the cost, and we can certainly understand why gamers would opt for that choice.

Strap on your helmet and fly the skies with Aces High, our combat simulator with an attitude. We invite you to try our free two-week download of Aces High. For two full weeks you will have full access to our game, our forums, our instruction videos, and our articles. If, at the end of those two weeks, you decide our combat flight simulator is not what you are looking for, then no harm, no foul, and we will wish you the best in gaming.