I'll go with the track IR crowd on this one, though not if you don't have a stick at all! A decent stick is mandatory, even an x 52 can be had for less than $100 now. I would say that Track IR is the biggest game changer though, as it really starts feeling like your there when you can just look around. One caveat though, most people take quite some time to get used to it, and it takes some time and patience to get it "dialed in". If you have an inexpensive stick, and go for the TIR, I'd say next purchase should be a throttle-stick combo (like the x52), then probably rudder pedals after that.