Thoughts after taking a break from BOP

[JOED70]

I took a break for a few months from Il2 on PS3 ( went riding in the Wild West) and have returned to playing what for me is one of the Top Video games of all times. Considering that my video game addiction started way back 79-80 with text adventures on my TRS-80 . and my first flight sim was Chuck Yeager’s Advanced Flight Trainer game for the Tandy 1000 and have owned just about every console system from Atari ,Coleco up thru the Nintendo and Sega years. Sims and particularly flight sims have caused me to part with $1000’s over the years . So the $90 I parted with for this game is the bargain of a lifetime (Anton et,al you guys really have created a masterpiece that now 11 months since release still maintains all it’s lure ) . Mind you the other major factor in this is the great community that this game has . So kudos to all fellow players as well.
Now that I’m back playing I have noticed a few big improvements in game play one being a few new regular players . But the single most important change is one that has to do with my video setup which I changed during my break from the sky’s . I had my PS3 hooked up to my JVC amp with HD component cables (RGB) then from amp to HD set . In order to play Bluray I switched to Video direct to TV via HDMI audio is still Toslink to amp. Well its like night and day as far online play goes I can now see with much better detail plus I can now tell when I’m hitting or missing can actually see the explosions flash on a bogey when my cannon rounds strike. I can also see the tracer trails both incoming and outgoing as individual trails not just a mixed stream . So many times before it would be a WTF moment and wanting to pull what hair I have left out not being able to figure out why I could not strike any hits or tell exactly were incoming fire was from. So if anyone has the type of setup I was using I highly recommend switching to HDMI if an HD set.
My other observations about the mechanics of this game is the fact that in realistic and arcade gravity ,drag and friction have been greatly reduced , plane will stall but it doesn’t fall out the sky. In simulator mode this is much better but the lack of target id or some limited tracking ability make this to difficult for a lot of players this is after all a 2D version of a 4D environment tracking of some sort is needed to compensate for this as well as the fact that you are missing feel and perspective . This is the reason that the dive speeds for a lot of the aircraft appear off the ability to change these settings when creating a room would be a real plus if a sequel ever makes its way to us consol guys. That is really the only thing missing from making this a 100% perfect game is the ability to have more control in mission parameters for online i.e. gravity, friction, drag, limit type of aircraft i.e. no bombers in dogfights the ability to remove problem players from rooms and improvements in the hit/kill tracking or some incentive for players to bail .
Despite all that I will keep playing and having fun as others will also because of all the wonderful work that went into this piece of art. That and the great community of like minded players . I have missed you all and look forward to zooming around the online skies again with you all.