A POLE: How long have you been flying IL-2

[banned]

2001. I remember it well. Loved the thought of flying but knew the inner ear is shot so bought a flight sim instead . After downloading I was in my element for years. Joined a squad and became obsessed. It was a funny night when I downloaded teamspeak. I didn't want to activate it because I thought that I would have children in my ear whilst flying. Couldn't believe that everyone in my squad were grown men, around my age.
Absolutely loved having squad nights against other squads throughout the world. Went out and paid $6000 for a new comp specifically to fly IL2. That lasted years and years. Also purchased rudder pedals.
Loved jumping in the COOP area in Hyperlobby with others. As with squad nights, it caused me to fly differently because I didn't want to get shot down quickly.
Since CoD, I haven't been back to IL2. Just wanting CoD to get up to par and then get back into a squad and fly against other squads. Can't wait.

[aus3620]

A bit different from some of the il2 grognards here! In May 11 stumbled across 46 in the bargain bin. Heard about these flight sims being difficult and the manic obsessive players it attracted. Wanted a change from Silent Hunter 3 - Grey Wolves so thought I would pick it up.

Wanted to fast track the learning curve and found Joint Ops while browsing. Signed up for their BFS. Great course and enjoyed the online experience. As I'm from Oz I decided to look for a local on-line outfit.

The July 11 CLoD patch came out and I just had to have it! Obviously by this time the bug had truly bitten me! Since then I've put on 400+ CLoD hrs and have all the miscellany - pedals, upgraded joystick, IR5, upgraded graphics card ...

Gunnery still sucks and the flying isn't that much better! But having a lot of fun with it.

Looking forward, like everyone, to the next CLoD patch. The vision of 1C looks far grander than any other title out there - inevitable that issues would arise. Frustrating for us punters but without some risk in development you will only achieve mediocrity!

[Rjel]

I've flown it since the first leaked demo. Knew one of the beta testers who shared little bits of info with some of us who flew with her at the time. It seems that everyone knew about the demo leak as soon as it hit the net. At least as I remember it. I don't think I ever flew EAW again after flying the IL2 demo.

[Sokol1]

Since 09/2001 demo. Some pictures from these days.

First online kill, another 109, flown by "mr.bul".

http://img231.imageshack.us/img231/3...firmedkill.jpg

COOP with some friends, trying to take of in IL-2 with bombs and 100% of fuel.

http://img820.imageshack.us/img820/1763/grab0000u.jpg
The guy in IL-2 with german mark shot its cannons and the plane slid backwards (notice by a -shut- in dialogue), a big surprise!

A Riva TNT 16MB barely handly the game in 800x600.


Sokol1

[kestrel79]

I first played on a date with my girlfriend at the time back in college in 2003-4 at the EAA Museum, they were having a "Flight Sim Day" there. (She thought this was cool, lucky me

I knew from reading many reviews that IL2 and Forgotten Battles was THE ww2 flight sim to get, but I was in college and at the time had a mid 90s pc I bought at a garage sale for $50 as my web browsing/homework computer.

I got a low end Dell computer around 2004, which allowed me to at least play some pc games at lower specs. I went to Gamestop and saw IL2 Forgotten battles "Gold" that came with the Aces Expansion Pack, I bought it used for $15 bucks. What a deal.

I've been hooked ever since, even thought now I've moved on to CloD.

[skarden]

Geez been playing since 2006, a bit of a late comer by IL-2 standards, I got it after I purchased blazing Angels. and while I did find it fun it was a little shallow, it also triggered in me a need to find something with a little more depth.

I saw IL-2 w/ The Aces Expansion pack at EB bought it and it promptly blew me away, I'm still trying to "master" it. Frikin Awesome

[carguy_]

Got into the sim in February 2002, mostly flying arcade settings offline. May 2002 I first went online. June 2002 first squad training. July 2002 oficially entered online squad. From 2002 to 2007 flying mostly coops and online war sorties. Quit in september 2007 I think, when the game code got cracked.

Never really got to try those 1945 LW planes out in campaigns.

Around 500 online war sorties flown, supposedly ~700 overall, counting in generic coops and not more than 50 hours in dogfight servers.

[JG53Harti]

I started to play the beta when it was officially distributed to testers

[senseispcc]

Since it was published one year, or nearly so.
I am talking of COD IL2 from the beginig the release date of the demo with the P39 flyable plane my first flight I sill remember...thanks the game team.
My firstairgame simulation was 1942 Battlehawk from Lucasfilms a all new experience on my 286 Amstrad PC.

[FS~Phat]

For me since release. I've been a hardcore WWII combat sim junkie for years!
Was playing EAW, CFS2 and Rowans BOB prior to IL2 in 2001 and BOB II & CFS3 through the early/mid 2000s but I spent most of my time in IL2. Before that it was the wing commander, privateer and X-wing/star wars era. (Now just getting back into X universe and a new one called SOL Exodus which is a great indie space title thats even enjoyable with "mouse" .... anyway i digress...

BOB II wings of victory got me in for quite a while on the strategy side of things and the flying was "different" than IL2, having large formations and the like was completely different to IL2 and the BOB II WOV graphics was in some part better and others not... but I enjoyed all of them for the different nuances they brought to flying in a WWII sim.

Not that dissimilar to my enjoyment of COD for what it is now while still enjoying the odd 46 outing and time in WOP. They all offer differing nuances but it's COD that I still keep coming back to and have the greatest overall satisfaction in. Over time I believe COD will bring a lot of the best elements of all those early IL2 competitors, especially when the SDK is released and 3rd party development matures.

My current favourite SIM though is STO (star trek online), which I just couldnt get into on release but a couple years on its got a whole different feel and Im hoping just like STO, that COD will mature into something we all adore!

PS. An interesting tidbit of amusing information, SOL Exodus has a bunch of zealous religious extremists called The COD.... I kid you not!