Long Live IL2

[TynMahn]

Disclaimer: Don’t want to start a discussion on merits of this of that, etc. I just tried something out and wanted to share with a community of people that have like interests.

In the end what I took away from the experience was, “I sincerely hope, now more than ever, that IL2 is not dead! And I, for one, would be more than willing to plunk down another @#*%‘ed $60.00 for the stupid BoM expansion (that I have absolutely no interest in) if it fixes CoD.”
Ok, so out of curiosity, I wanted to see what it was all about and it is free so I figured I’d give it a try.

Let me first say that, the period that is its focus is not really my interest, so I’m a bit biased at the outset.

My initial impression is that they have done a pretty darned good job. The set up and business model is pretty ingenious and would seem to provide them with a good steady source of income which would lead to constant development. I will say that some of the things that come in the “mod” packs, like altimeters and temp gauges, should probably be stock equipment. Maybe not, maybe that plane didn’t come stock with these; I don’t have any idea.

They have, not great, but decent detailed “pilot’s manuals” for each plane, which is really nice. I like that you can spend as much as you want and still fly with those that have spent more. I didn’t spend a whole bunch of time in it so I don’t know much about weather, campaigns, multiplayer missions, etc.

I will say this, the environment is WAY to vibrant. Looks almost cartoonish.

All in all, I think it is a pretty good product and an excellent idea.

I say all this to say that even as good as my initial impression was of the game, it in NO WAY even comes close to the potential of this game. For one example, there were all kinds of levers and switches in the cockpit that I don’t even know what they do, and where not even used in the sim.

Before I tried the sim out, I was looking at the site thinking to myself, if it is true and IL2 is dying a slow death of lack of funding to and enthusiasm from the developers, I sure hope these guys do a WWII sim. After trying it, I still hope that, but I hope even more that the developers of this sim do NOT give up. This one is so much better (or could be).