This is a really good post in defense of IL2 for the console.. but I also understand where sod16 is coming and would like to state this in his defense:
I've played IL2 on the PC for a good 5 years now. When I first heard it was being handed over to a third party for release on the 360/ps3 I was very skeptical. I thought, "How can this even be possible given a controller with buttons I can count on 2 hands? ...and would console users even want to get into the level of depth known as IL2?"
Then the trailers started appearing on the net and I was instantly in love. I thought "WOW.... this is IL2 1946 with a bad@ss graphical overhaul!!!... I watched the trailers over and over and over.....
Demo day arrives and I felt like a 10 year old on Christmas! I went into the demo knowing things like the engine "management" would be non existant. There would be no prop pitch/air fuel mixture/or in flight supercharger adjustments. There would be no manifold pressure or engine damage due too overheating ...and you know what? I was just perfectly fine with that. After all this is a game console not a flight trainer. I knew that the real bread and butter of the IL2 experience boiled down to 3 areas:
the dogfighting, knowing the strengths and weakness of each plane in a combat situation, and lastly .....the awesome damage model Oleg implemented almost 10 years ago.
Sadly area #3 is horribly diluted.
Part of what made IL2 such a good experience was the unknown. Entering combat was the enemy flak going to destroy a flap? was a bf-109 cannon shell going to blow off my rudder? Would a round unluckily pierce a fuel tank causing me to crash land over enemy territory. If I ditched was my landing gear going to extend or was it going to be a belly landing? Well heck if I have to belly land I better find some flat ground or it's all over!!! You see this is whats sadly missing from BOP. So much fun was too be had just trying to ditch a plane and surviving.
Now you just get instant "hollywood" explosions when your wingtip rubs the grass.
I know Anton stated that this is a flight sim not a crash simulator.... but why remove the crash aspect and dumb down the damage engine when it was already there too begin with???,,,it doesn't hurt the playability of the game on the console or confuse the masses that play console games...it only completes the awesomeness that is IL2 ,,,and I surely know that the 360/ps3 can handle ALL of this if my old P3 700mhz did 5 years ago.
Maybe it was "we ran out of time" problem with the publisher.... I don't know but it is sorely missed.
Plus If the damage is restored to its original PC state and a replay editor is included we can have BOP videos like this
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