IL2 for PC

[PantherAttack2]

yep- IL-2 Sturmovik 1946 is definitely worth the $10 price.

I myself got it on Steam, so I'm not sure where else you could buy it. As Gorrit said, BoP has much better graphics, but 1946 has a lot more advanced aircraft settings (prop. pitch, fuel mixture settings, cowl or armor flaps, etc.) and much more content in general. Over 200 flyable planes with complete cockpits. There are supposedly over 300 AC (I never counted), but some don't have cockpits and therefor it won't let you fly them, however, some mods do add new, historically accurate cockpits for existing planes.

Bombing is definitely the hardest thing to do in my opinion, as even when you have a lot of difficulty settings turned off you won't ever get the big yellow circle telling you where bombs will land like in BoP. You actually need to use a bomb-sight, and enter in your Actual Air Speed (which to this day I don't know how to calculate, so... no level bombing for me) and other things. The same applies for dogfighting- when you are in the 3rd person style view, there is no little gray circle on the screen telling you where your bullets will go. However, 1946 has much less bloom and in general less fancy effects, so you can see through the cockpit glass much easier.

I don't endorse modding for the purposes of cheating or gaining an advantage in multiplayer, however All Aircraft Simulations has many 1946 mods that add new historically accurate AC, new cockpits, new maps, better graphics, etc. It's a great website.