Ace Combat 6

While Tom Clancy's HAWX was a great game, Ace Combat 6 takes the cake. With more fine-tuned flight controls, more weapons variety, and INTENSELY better graphics, Ace Combat 6 sets the standard for me in Flight Sim games.
I have always been a pilot at heart, the very first video game I ever played was a Flight Sim game for the old-school NES system where you flew an F-117 Stealth Fighter. Because of that game many many many moons ago, I still play inverted to this day.
Unlike in HAWX, the game designers have put every detail into each aircraft, right down to the missile-bay of the F-22 Raptor popping open to show "Ready for Deployment" (see above). In HAWX...those missiles kinda just come outta nowhere...talk about oversight on a small but important deal...

Ace 6 is 100% Fictional, however, in story. There are a couple fictitious aircraft such as the NOSFERATU, and it even takes place in a fictitious nation on a world that just may not be earth, to be honest (You see what I THINK is a global map at one point and whoa...so NOT my home turf!).

The good ol' Japanese do it again to toss in some mega-super MAC Cannons, flying fortresses, and over-dramatics, but for some reason, I can put it all aside. The story is actually involving and in-depth and I actually feel a connection to the characters I never see, the nation that doesn't exist, and the story that I in reality cannot relate to...they just do THAT good of a job at involving the player. Especially when you're just flying a plane.

The story IS incredibly in-depth with cut-scene cinematics that show the basic happenings-on of the situation in which you find yourself caught up in. HAWX...yeah...I dont even remember the story...but I can remember verbatum some lines and scenes from ACE6...and I played HAWX waaaayyyyy more recently...

But beware, North American Gamers...this IS a Japanese dominated game, full of downloads of Anime/Manga pinup girls to slap on the paintjob of your chosen aircraft, amongst other things, this game does cater to the Japanese demographic. It also means that online (which is INCREDIBLE, by the way), that most of your opponents, or even wingmen, will be from Japan, and so communication may be an issue, as well as online connectivity. I would suspect that this will continue to be an issue in the upcoming Ace Combat 7.

But for offline play...there is no better Flight Sim...period. Yet.