actually what IL-2 series did was simple.
be the best and stand out . . . push the boundaries of what we simmers had.
and in a time where everyone else's ish worked and didn't have too many glitches.
And the price was the same as the lesser sims
I remember the wow factor we all had when I'd bought the game and threw it on the best machine we had on the shop. This guy who wasn't even into sims but was a hardcore gamer, "I'm not into this but damn I could get into this." Also was the comment of a console purist, "You to me on the graphics. That IL-2 russian game looks real. You PC guys always get us on the graphics. %!@#!"
some others
1) it was one of the best quality games available and although its hardware req's were legendary, hardware prices fluctuated . . .
I remember its flight model was smooth and dynamic. The effects were normal but I remember the ballistic physics was well done. The a standout game that had bullet realism was Max Payne due to the bullet time feature in it(which people later used to recreate Matrix mods that had the effects from the movies).
Other flight sims had gotten the bullet trajectory and timing but there was some aspect or feature missing, but IL-2 nailed it well close or long range . . .
they also had lesser known / weird planes that the hardcore peeps liked.
It had the most complete features of a flight combat sim. FM, DM, physics etc . . . and it looked awesomely gorgeous.
2) it came out around (i think the tail end) of the golden era for ww2 and close era sims, IIRC they had games like MiG Alley, this uber flying fortress game, a few good European Theaters, so the competition was there.
3) online gaming had started.
4) it required killer hardware but in that era I remember a top of the line $500 nvidia card would be $250 in a month, it was that era where you could wait a few months and prices for hardware would drop because the latest and greatest was out in a few weeks.
I used to work a PC chopshop and they used to give away 6 mo old towers, hardware . . . man I had all these awesome franken PC's that still work today . . .
Good times back then.
