I grew up on this genre. Aces over the Pacific by Dynamix was the bread and butter of what got me into computers when I was a kid sporting a Compaq Persario with Windows 3.1
So it kind of sad to see that no one really makes flight simulation combat games like Dynamix did anymore. They used to be a dime a dozen, some good, some great. I'm not really sure when the genre took a nose dive but it seems like the more modern reiterations of this type of game are very childish and arcade like. Hawx (not sure if it was 1 or 2) was the first time I heard about a Dog Fighting game coming out again and I got excited, until I saw how much of an Arcade game it was, just really took all of the fun out of it.
So I can't really find a modern game in this genre that isn't for kids and is done to a high standard. I found IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover to be the newer of the options, but most reviews said it sucked. The graphics didn't look to striking either, although I noticed people making mention of the game improving a LOT after an update at the end of 2012.
Well, is this genre really dieing or dead, or have a missed a couple of great ones over the past years... or perhaps, there is something on the horizon that I hadn't heard about yet?