Any chance of a dispassionate review?

[iggy42]

Hello All,

Is possible for someone to give a brief review of CoD as it stands post the latest patch? I'm currently undecided (and I'm sure not alone) given the comments on the forum - some seem positive, and some are obviously still having serious issues.

In short - knowing what you know now, would you buy or would you hold on for further patches?


Cheers, Iggy

[Zimbower]

wait not yet!

[Strike]

I'd share my system specs first. If you have something somewhere near my specs, sure you can play it 1080p with stuff medium/high over land.

And I assume it will only get better :) 1 patch per week ain't bad either for a game with flaws here and there. It is certainly removing the most annoying flaws one by one.

[jimbop]

Yes, need specs. My machine is fine for CoD.

[Khamsin]

OK, specs first

i7 920 at stock speeds (2.6Ghz)
6 Gig 1600Mhz DDR3
ATI 6970 1 gig graphics
Saitek X65F stick, with Saitek Pedals and Track IR5
Motherboard sound
Windows 7 64 bit Ultimate

For me, its been perfectly flyable since it was installed from disc. The patches over the past three weeks have only made a very good game even better.

The slightest of stuttering when flying low over the ground, as the ground textures load ... but in the air its a delight.

Game settings 1920*1080*32bit .... high textures for everything, unlimited buildings.

Noticeable bugs?

Well, there's a problem with high alt flight when in full real mode (CEM + Engine temps) .... a lot of bucketing of the airframe and engine coughing when over about 15000 feet.

Landings seem too easy.

Have just noticed that landing gear drag may not be modelled correctly ... was just flying with another 109 who still had his gear down from my POV and yet there was no apparent speed difference between our birds.

Still some graphic anomolies ...... what looks a little like kilometre long semi transparent structures sticking far out into the channel. Hard to describe, but anyone who's seen them will know what I'm talking about.

Convergence settings on aircraft seem to be screwy ... but of course, that could just be me.


Overall, I'm liking it a LOT. I've flown MMOG flight sims since Air Warrior back in the early 90's. Was there on beta launch of Warbirds .... flew the first betas of Aces High and have been a beta tester for WW2OL since forever.

Nothing comes close to CoD in my opinion ..... the flight models seem a lot more 'real' than the games listed, the feeling of aircraft inertia in CoD leaves the others in the shade. Everyone else will talk about the graphics (which are excellent), or the options and difficulty ...... but the thing you get from reading through the manual ... poking through the game controls options etc is a feeling that this game, if it survives a rocky launch, will be something else in a couple of years.

It looks from the controls pages as though the 'hooks' are there to include vehicle combat at some time. Add in a few ships, transports and submarines, reconfigure the game as an MMOG and you're just missing infantry combat to make a damn fine WW2 simulation.

This game is going to grow .... no doubt about it. Yup, its had a rough start, but I don't think you're going to regret it if you jump in now. In 10 years time you'll be glad you did.

[iggy42]

Sorry, my spec is:
Core 2 Quad Q6600 @2.4 GHz
4 gb ram
GTX 460 1gb OC
X52 Pro
Vista Home Premium 32bit

And thanks for your comments so far.

[jf1981]

Buying now is provided you wish to learn & feel it in pre stage, but now or later, I feel it's worth.

Patchs will do it, it might take a while. It's just like an alpha at the moment, but it's playable and anyway quite fun.

[BadAim]

What the other guys said and I'll add one more thing. Your temperament should be the deciding factor; if your willing to put up with some bugs for the overall experience then go forth young man, you'll love this sim. If you are likely to get frustrated by things like spending 5-10 minutes setting up the belting on your guns then loosing all of it the second you leave the screen, then you might want to wait a bit.

As for my Dispassionate Opinion on CloD: It is by far the best flight sim ever made, it was simply released to soon. Don't worry about all of the naysayers, it won't take anywhere near as long as some of them think to get this thing up to snuff with all of us Beta testers out there helping out. :)

[Extreme_One]

Sorry, my spec is:
Core 2 Quad Q6600 @2.4 GHz
4 gb ram
GTX 460 1gb OC
X52 Pro
Vista Home Premium 32bit

And thanks for your comments so far.

Firstly, as you have a 32bit OS you won't be able to fully benefit from 4GB RAM, your OS can probably make use of around 3GB (not a major problem but something you should be aware of)

You should find with your system that you can play at medium/low settings @ 1680x1050 with shadows off (turning shadows on will lose you around 15-20 fps)

I don't think you'll be too disappointed with performance.


FYI my specs:

Core 2 Quad Q6600 @2.4 GHz
4GB ram
ATI HD 5870 1GB
Windows 7 Pro 64bit

I'm getting approx 35fps over land and approx 55 fps over water. (Vsynch on)

OFC it all slows down a little bit when there's lots of action but it's very playable.

Flying over London is still a chore, slows down to 20fps at low-level and frequent stutters drag fps down even lower.

TBH there wasn't a huge amount of action over the City during the BOB anyway so it's not a major issue imo.

[MadBlaster]

In short - knowing what you know now, would you buy or would you hold on for further patches?

Cheers, Iggy

If you haven't played IL-2 before, I would say don't buy it yet. Instead buy IL-2 1946 for ~$10 retail (still supporting the cause), patch it up to latest TD official patch (I think it's 4.11?) then get the full mod pack (yes I said it, i live in real world and the mod pack is very good too and helps to promote IL-2!) and play Warbirds of Prey online servers for a few months. Then you will have a good feeling I think about IL-2 and won't mind so much when you buy CoD and have to put up with the many bugs. It's labor of love. CoD will get there, but for the new simmer, I think it is a hurdle that could turn them off completely in it's current state. But it will get there. In the meantime, the DT patches and mod pack offer much to explore.

[Strike]

If you haven't played IL-2 before, I would say don't buy it yet. Instead buy IL-2 1946 for ~$10 retail (still supporting the cause), patch it up to latest TD official patch (I think it's 4.11?) then get the full mod pack (yes I said it, i live in real world and the mod pack is very good too and helps to promote IL-2!) and play Warbirds of Prey online servers for a few months. Then you will have a good feeling I think about IL-2 and won't mind so much when you buy CoD and have to put up with the many bugs. It's labor of love. CoD will get there, but for the new simmer, I think it is a hurdle that could turn them off completely in it's current state. But it will get there. In the meantime, the DT patches and mod pack offer much to explore.

Perfectly well said!

[Rattlehead]

Dual Core 6850
Ati 5870
4 gb RAM
Win 7 32 bit


I think the sim will delight and frustrate in equal measure. No, that's unfair really, it has delighted me far more than frustrated me.

It's clearly not a polished product by any means, yet what is here is really something special in my opinion.
Sometimes bomber intercept missions or dogfights are so utterly immersive and convincing you'd swear you're really back there in the war.

Just yesterday I managed to bag three 109's, all going up in flames in the most convincing manner you could imagine...I had never done that before and the feeling was so exhilirating and rewarding. I hunted down a fourth and had him in serious trouble before I ran out of ammo...but I pulled alongside him to get a better look at the damage and he was pretty banged up.

But yes, before that I had to battle getting my Spit out of the hangar (for some reason the 'spawn parked' feature sometimes places the planes in the damndest spots) and deal with some graphical artifacts on the terrain, framerates dropped alarmingly near industrial areas, and I could not use my comms to radio my squadron.

The mission wasn't all sunshine and roses due to the bugs or missing features, but the good parts were truly brilliant.

In some ways, that mission was a microcosm of the game itself: brilliant in parts, but I had to deal with some thorns before getting to the rose.

My personal opinion is that it's good enough to buy now; just as long as you understand there will be times that you will get frustrated with the bugs and lack of features. (Which hopefully will be sorted out in time.)

[iggy42]

Thanks all

I was aware of my OS limiting my RAM but its always worth pointing things like that out.

I've played IL2 since the first demo came out - took ages to download on a 56k dial-up connection...

The comments so far have confirmed what I suspected - a diamond in the rough in need of a very good polish. I think I'll give it a go. I don't mind waiting for content - I've played RoF from not long after its initial release but I don't like bugs.. However, seeing as nearly everyone is having issues and the devs are obviously trying to fix I'm not too worried ;)

[RocketDog]

That's a good attitude to have. In its present state CloD is hopelessly inferior to RoF in almost all respects. The FMs are dubious at best, the terrain would only look like England if you took a lot of drugs, half the content is placeholders imported from IL-2, including the barrel-rolling AI, the odd-looking clouds etc. All terrible and quite enough to finish Maddox's reputation.

But it also has some very good features as well. The aircraft (and tank!) 3D models are very well done, the DM is good and the water is nicely realised. The cockpits are very good too, comparable to RoF, and the lighting is excellent. Even if it never gets fixed and remains just a half-finished oddity it's still worth a punt. And where else can you fly a Blenheim? (OK, FSX had one)

[Chivas]

If you played IL-2 from the start you know how the developer supports his products. COD was released far too soon, but I think it was the only way to keep the sim in business. It has an unprecedented number of unfinished features, but almost every week they are improving some aspect of the sim. I'm looking forward to another ten to fifteen years of improvements and additions to the series.

[Stuntie]

Trying to be as dispassioante as I can...

Massive potential, and will be a long term winner.
Looks and flys great.

However it currently suffers from significant performance issues on anything but the latest systems.
You need a 1GB graphics card to escape performance hits and a pretty bad stuttering problem.
The stuttering is the main issue as it makes fluid play more difficult.
yes the patches are coming, and are helping. But unless you are cutting edge you will be frustrated with it right now.

Having said that, once it gets sorted out, or if you have the PC for it, it will be a great sim.