for me it does.

It may be my location, sometimes that is issue.

Got it

YAY

German to English translation from the German instruction manual:


That sums up that Steam is needed to run the game, end of.

If steam is a requirement as per the instruction manual, then retail will activate on Steam which is great news.

Translated into English using google translate, no pictures included so if you wanna see them you will need to have the german one open along side it. The translation is'nt the best but I suspect it's more understandable if you dont know german :-P

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=TPHJ1L2K

well, we will need it. the 109 has only a manual propeller and till you are ready to release some bombs out of your bombwagon it take some time, äh, work-> DONT overweight your plane ;) , select the dropsequence, select the fuzes,aim the LOTFE, arm the bombs, open the bombdoor... :D

flying a Spit or Hurri with a CSP will be childs play :D
just dont load tracers in all your guns...its NOT recommended for framerate in the manual :D

I just finished reading.

Bloody hell, there's a lot coming!

its like all the things the community was wishing for and a whole lot more we didnt even think of. im reading it and gobsmacked.
now full real dogfights will have so much CEM and weather that might render your aircraft inoperable too, that will totally liven it up and people will need to specialise in a certain aircraft, i love that!!!

" Cliffs of Dover benutzt Steam, um Spielpartner zu finden. Sie können aber
auch ohne Steam spielen, wenn Sie im LAN spielen oder manuell eine Server-
IP eingeben. Für frühere IL2-Spiele haben außerdem Fans externe Programme
zum Finden von Spielpartnern geschrieben. Es ist möglich, dass einige davon
auch Cliffs of Dover unterstützen, oder dass neue erstellt werden."

So you do not have to have steam for certain aspects of the MP part, like direct IP connecting, and older programs made for IL2 do not necessary have to be remade.
This however does not mean that you can start CoD without Steam, that's not what it says.