Flight Sims, more specificaly, DCS Black Shark, your thoughts?

[Supreme Unleaded]

Ever since i was a lil kid ive always enjoyed flight sims, even more after I actually flew a plane for 30 minutes. But ive always stuck to moderate sims, like the IL Sturmovik and ace combat games.

Now recently ive really been wanting to get into some legit sims, somewhat influenced by reading a few military novels lately xD But anyway. I got my eyes on DCS Black Shark at the moment, and im wondering
Should i get it?
Is the learning curve too steep?
Do I need any extra hardware or would it be helpfull? (keep in mind i have an alienware laptop so my platform is good, i was wondering more about flight sticks)

And of course, any other thoughts are helpfull, feel free to call me stupid for even thinking to get this game, or praise me for it, anything helps xD

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

These games are hard as hell to get into

Yeah, there's a yawning chasm in play style and time investment between an 'air combat simulator' and a 'military flight simulator'. The former, while containing some nods to the minutae of flight operations, are focused on getting you into the action. The latter are 'full service', aiming at giving the player the closest they can manage to the complete 'military pilot' experience... meaning they make you learn to 'fly' your bird, teach combat and combat doctrine, and are completely unforgiving of mistakes. Fun, if that's your sort of thing.