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I highlighted new and imporntant info. Note: The author states it's going to PC, but it's not.

IL-2: Sturmovik: Birds of Prey
The classic PC franchise will finally hit consoles later this year

The year was 2002, IL-2 Sturmovik was already out in stores for a year and it seemed like I was missing out on something. I remember the day one of my friends lent me his copy of IL-2 Sturmovik for the PC saying how cool the game was. Being a big fan of Microsoft’s Combat Flight Simulator games, this new game was tempting after hearing people raving about it. Since that day and up until my PC gaming time was shortened because of the consoles, IL-2 Sturmovik has a special place in my list of favourite games.

Since then, almost every flight combat game I’ve played on consoles, with the exception of Crimson Skies, didn’t come close to what I experienced with IL-2 on PC. So when I heard that IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey was not only coming to the PC but also to home consoles, I was very excited. Recently I had the chance to see it in action thanks to our friends over at 505 Games in Los Angeles and I was very surprised of what I saw.

IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey will let you experience over 50 single player missions across six of the main airborne battles of World War II like Stalingrad, the Battle of the Bulge and the Battle of Britain. From intense dog-fights, risky bombing missions, escorting friendly aircrafts and intercepting enemy squadrons, players will be able to choose the right aircraft from a good selection of historical planes that includes the B17, the Spitfire and the Mustang.

We had the chance to play with the XBox 360 version of the game and two things came out strong: the controls and the visuals. First of all, I can assure you that the controls are far from being difficult. If you played Ubisoft’s Blazing Angels game a few years ago, you will see a few resemblances control-wise, but from my experience with the game, I was actually very surprised to see how the controls are much better and much smoother. Using the right and left sticks to control your plane, control and shooting responsiveness on the planes are great. I’m already salivating at the fact that the game may support my Saitek Aviator flight stick. It hasn’t been confirmed by Gaijin Entertainment but since the game almost uses the same button configuration as Blazing Angels, I better have it near and so should you.

The well-known simulation mode that everyone knows from the PC version will be featured in Birds of Prey however an arcade mode has been included in order to give the non-hardcore player a chance to fully enjoy the game. A few quick notes on the Simulation mode. First, all targeting reticles and other help features found in the arcade mode of the game will be disabled and players will be limited to a cockpit view to engage the enemy, something fans of the PC series will certainly love to see here. Secondly, the visuals in Birds of Prey were simply amazing. I did noticed how each aircraft was highly detailed, and the real-time damage taken by your plane as you take shots from the enemy was very impressive. We were told that the new graphic engine could also render hundreds of airplanes taking part in one massive air battle.

No flight combat game will be complete without a multiplayer mode and Birds of Prey is no different. We didn’t see it in action but we were told that players should expect multiplayer modes without going into a lot of details. We do know that both competitive and cooperative play would be available each supporting plane color and weapon customization.

On top of that, 1C Company, 505 Games and Gaijin Entertainment are also bringing the IL-2 franchise to portables as DS and PSP versions will launch simultaneously along side the PC, Xbox 360 and Playstation versions of the game. Look out for IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey as it will be available in stores in North America sometime by the end of the year.

By Jay Acevedo (AnodaJay)