For 1946 & Oleg Fans

[Houndstone Hawk]

I have to aire my own personal opinions on this game after, having been an avid fan on Oleg Maddox from the beginning, purchasing all his PC work & addons, I feel I am entitled to a say re: this console attempt.
Being a lucky owner of PS3 & 360, I have been so looking forward to this game for what seems an age. I remember reading the promises & words like "realism", "sim" etc etc. This was supposed to be everything that is IL-2, coming to console but I have to say, it couldn't be further set apart & in my opinion, the only thing that seperates this from the highly arcade "Blazing Angels 2" is no floating 'powerups' in the sky.

Allow me to backup my opinion & compare BoP to the IL-2 series.
The last PC offering "IL-2 Sturmovik 1946" has over 250 playable aircraft, ALL WITH COCKPITS (so Anoton's explanation of money trade offs to leave out German Cockpits from a paultry stable of 40 aircraft of which only around 12 have cockpits, is a bit baffling, especially when you compare the price differences between these titles), a fantastic immersion is always felt in 1946 in the most simplistic of ways; taking off for example before each mission. Why on earth has the player been denied the option to take off from his airfield with his squadron? Where's the immersion in being "thrown" in the air with no background of the mission, very little target information etc.
Speaking of immersion, I was looking forward to flying & gunning from the Blenheim bomber as I was told by the booklet aswell as reviews that the camera cycles from view to view & incorporates a gunners eye view. Now forgive me here but I was assuming that at the very least, the gunning could be done from his viewpoint but in third person???? How is this immersive? How is this realistic? How is this even bearly enjoyable?
1946 will put the player from position to position within the aircraft at the touch of a single key & with no expense spared, beautifully rendered bomber cockpit, bomb aimer station & gun pod etc.
1946 incorporates an extremely powerful yet such a simple-to-use mission editor whereby the player can create his or her own missions by use of waypoints, & capping it all off by dropping in static cameras in which to view the action after the mission (or even during). Have a look at some of these on youtube, they're incredible & all done ingame.
Now I fully realise the dominant numbers of the console market have no wish for such a tool but .... not even having a flyby view or any options for the player to view a fantastic dogfight that he or she has just taken part in?? Come on!!!
Flight controls. I bought the AV8R-02 especially for the 360 version of the game I purchased (after playtesting both 360 & PS3 demo versions to death) &, like many threads state here, the dead zone is enormous & completely unplayable.
Also, Playing in realistic mode & reaching for the 'padlock enemy' camera button, you actually have to take your hands OFF the flight controls when viewing the enemy. Thinking a simple remapping would obviously solve this, I'm so disappointed to find that even this simple yet crucial task is denied to the player.
I'm fully aware that there has to be sacrafices made to incorporate a console version of a FlightSim but all the things I have stated HAVE BEEN DONE BEFORE ON CONSOLE. Operation Flashpoint on the original Xbox was a PC port & kept the fantastic mission editor intact, the incredible & now respected & highly under rated OVER G FIGHTERS for 360 enabled to player to relive his or her dogfights in multiple camera views aswell as incorporating great cockpits for each one of its aircraft & obviously allowed for customizable controls aswell as allowing the player the chance to taxi, take off & land.
The online area of this is a joke, I'm sorry but there's no other way to describe a ranked player dogfight where you clearly have such an edge over your opponent (or vica versa) & he or she can bearly fly from the direct result of your gunning. he can bearly stay in the air but then he stalls near the ground, goes into terra ferma & you are NOT REWARDED THE KILL???? So I am clearly outmatched, smoke pouring from my Hurricane, can't see out of the cockpit visor (obviously not a German aircraft or a Blenheim then); what's going to stop me from heading south & ploughing into the ground? there's no points loss & hey, I get to start far above my oppenent in a nice shiney new plane!
I've not even made any intentions to go into the anoraky bits like the spits in BoB actually being Mk.Vb's & the hilarity of the P-51 cockpit actually being a P-47 because those elements don't detract from the consoles gameplay. This title could have been so much more but once again, there is a developer out there that thinks that they have to 'dumb' games down for the console generation.
I should've trusted my instincts I guess when there was no Oleg Maddox or Maddox games label attached to this title.
One of your forum members has summed this console 'GAME' in 2 glorious sentences.
"Gameplay 5/10, Graphics 9/10. It's like a beautiful but very dumb woman"
Here's a link to just one video I made using IL-2 Sturmovik 1946's ingame cameras. Imagine if you could do this & view your dogfights in such a way in BoP. It is however supposedly the next generation of gaming & IL-2 has been around for so long!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9mL9gaAV6k

[SirBruce]

Thanks god, everything you say can be fixed through Xbox Live Bazar downloads... but, at which price?

[daveblah]

Its nice to see that im not alone in my view of a slightly missed opportunity here.I have bought this game and i will play and enjoy it, however if i want a bit of "realism" i'll be returning to 1946, as there are just too many niggly issues with this game. Grief, i sound like a whining never happy ingrate.

[Raw Kryptonite]

I agree with much of what you said, but not in comparing this to 1946.
Compare it to the original release, not the one that came out SIX YEARS later, including expansions and longer development. I've got 1946, not the original, so I'm looking at the features for the first version here:

# Fly 31 types of Russian, German and American planes
# Fly pilot or rear gunner (IL-2 plane types only)

So the original game had fewer planes than Birds of Prey. Gunner view was on the IL-2 only. I would like to have a more useable gunner view or at least control, since shooting and aiming with the HAT while flying the plane at the same time is a little too much multi-tasking. LOL Glad we can shoot from a bomber though.

RE: mapping of buttons on the flightstick
I place that blame squarely on Saitek with this cheap flightstick. What a ridiculous layout of buttons! We need more flightstick options (being actively sold NEW that is), but that isn't Gaijin's fault.
On the padlock, I don't use that I use the HAT. If you use the padlock, again, it isn't Gaijin's fault Saitek was drunk the day they designed this stick.

I also agree about OGF being a brilliant and far underrated game. Too bad the presentation is so bad when the flight is so good (and controls are excellent too for a controller). I wish I could use this flightstick with OGF, but I can't really blame OGF for that. (problem being that the throttle isn't used and rudder is reversed)

The game isn't perfect, but I don't know any game that is. I love it just the same. I think Gaijin did a great job with a game that isn't like anything they've done before. They worked to give us what we wanted in a situation where the publisher didn't start out on our side. Looking forward to future content and a sequel.

Interestingly enough, Oleg and Maddox games are listed in the credits, first column.

[lazyboy_se]

Ok, I'm sure I agree with some things in your huge post, but really don't you think you set the bar a bit high? I haven't gotten my copy of the game yet, but as far as the demo shows I think the game is great. If the joystick issue is dealt with the game will be epic. I mean to compare the consol game with a PC version that is like the latest installment of a very popular series is absurd. For example compare the 250 planes in 1946 with the number of planes in the original. It was a long time since I played the original but I think the number of planes were similar to BOP.

Also, how easy is it do you think to present the idea to the producers that you will model 200+ planes for a game that has never been sold on consol? It would be a potential economical suicide. Much easier to do if you do a follow up on an allready popular pc game. But i agree that the german planes should have had a cockpit.

For the third you seem to think it as easy to create a whole plane now as it was several years ago. I don´t think so is the case and if you expect 200+ planes on the next PC version of the game my bet is you will be dissapoined again.

edit: well Raw Kryptonite beat me to the point.

[David603]

^^^Storm of War: Battle of Britain will only have 17 flyable planes when it launches, but each of them will be 100% complete and far more detailed than the ones in Birds of Prey.

[Dr. Laplace]

I like your review of the game. I have not purchased the full version yet but I will since I liked the demo enough to buy the retail. I also give you props for the over g fighters comment: it's is a good game and it IS highly underestimated.

I think that IL-2 for the consoles will have a sequel that fixes most of the issues you address. I think that the REAL challenge of this game was how to make a game so specialized (for flightsimmers) accessible on the mass-consumer world of the consoles.

Personally I think I will have a lot of fun playing this because that's the way these things should work out: have fun. I can always dust off the ol' 1946 sturmovik if I get bored.

As soon as I get the full version I will also post constructive comments for all to see.

[l88bastard]

Agreed BOP is a kiddie game. I am not bothered that I bought it, but I AM PISSED that I SPENT $130 for an ACE EDGE WHICH IS USELESS WITH THIS GAME. Your better off using the game pad and calling this game for what it is...childsplay....after I finish the campaign its getting traded in for Call of Duty MW2 and Im going back to 1946, bah

[BeaverCompany01]

You guys are a bunch of whiners...............Im glad you won't be playing this great game.

[Revvin]

As Kryptonite says the original had only a small selection of planes in it, I've played the series right the way through from the first release to the definitive 1946 version. Anyone buying Birds of Prey and expecting IL-2 1946 was always going to be setting themselves up for dissapointment. This was never meant as a substitute for 1946 - its a console game! Games like Birds of Prey and RACE Pro are breaking new ground for console games, simulations in the own right and not the usual heavily simplified offerings normally seen on the console. They are not perfect but I'm happy to support them in the hope that more will come.