Any chance of a dispassionate review?

[Strike]

Originally Posted by MadBlaster

If you haven't played IL-2 before, I would say don't buy it yet. Instead buy IL-2 1946 for ~$10 retail (still supporting the cause), patch it up to latest TD official patch (I think it's 4.11?) then get the full mod pack (yes I said it, i live in real world and the mod pack is very good too and helps to promote IL-2!) and play Warbirds of Prey online servers for a few months. Then you will have a good feeling I think about IL-2 and won't mind so much when you buy CoD and have to put up with the many bugs. It's labor of love. CoD will get there, but for the new simmer, I think it is a hurdle that could turn them off completely in it's current state. But it will get there. In the meantime, the DT patches and mod pack offer much to explore.

Perfectly well said!

[Rattlehead]

Dual Core 6850
Ati 5870
4 gb RAM
Win 7 32 bit


I think the sim will delight and frustrate in equal measure. No, that's unfair really, it has delighted me far more than frustrated me.

It's clearly not a polished product by any means, yet what is here is really something special in my opinion.
Sometimes bomber intercept missions or dogfights are so utterly immersive and convincing you'd swear you're really back there in the war.

Just yesterday I managed to bag three 109's, all going up in flames in the most convincing manner you could imagine...I had never done that before and the feeling was so exhilirating and rewarding. I hunted down a fourth and had him in serious trouble before I ran out of ammo...but I pulled alongside him to get a better look at the damage and he was pretty banged up.

But yes, before that I had to battle getting my Spit out of the hangar (for some reason the 'spawn parked' feature sometimes places the planes in the damndest spots) and deal with some graphical artifacts on the terrain, framerates dropped alarmingly near industrial areas, and I could not use my comms to radio my squadron.

The mission wasn't all sunshine and roses due to the bugs or missing features, but the good parts were truly brilliant.

In some ways, that mission was a microcosm of the game itself: brilliant in parts, but I had to deal with some thorns before getting to the rose.

My personal opinion is that it's good enough to buy now; just as long as you understand there will be times that you will get frustrated with the bugs and lack of features. (Which hopefully will be sorted out in time.)

[iggy42]

Thanks all

I was aware of my OS limiting my RAM but its always worth pointing things like that out.

I've played IL2 since the first demo came out - took ages to download on a 56k dial-up connection...

The comments so far have confirmed what I suspected - a diamond in the rough in need of a very good polish. I think I'll give it a go. I don't mind waiting for content - I've played RoF from not long after its initial release but I don't like bugs.. However, seeing as nearly everyone is having issues and the devs are obviously trying to fix I'm not too worried

[RocketDog]

That's a good attitude to have. In its present state CloD is hopelessly inferior to RoF in almost all respects. The FMs are dubious at best, the terrain would only look like England if you took a lot of drugs, half the content is placeholders imported from IL-2, including the barrel-rolling AI, the odd-looking clouds etc. All terrible and quite enough to finish Maddox's reputation.

But it also has some very good features as well. The aircraft (and tank!) 3D models are very well done, the DM is good and the water is nicely realised. The cockpits are very good too, comparable to RoF, and the lighting is excellent. Even if it never gets fixed and remains just a half-finished oddity it's still worth a punt. And where else can you fly a Blenheim? (OK, FSX had one)

[Chivas]

If you played IL-2 from the start you know how the developer supports his products. COD was released far too soon, but I think it was the only way to keep the sim in business. It has an unprecedented number of unfinished features, but almost every week they are improving some aspect of the sim. I'm looking forward to another ten to fifteen years of improvements and additions to the series.

[Stuntie]

Trying to be as dispassioante as I can...

Massive potential, and will be a long term winner.
Looks and flys great.

However it currently suffers from significant performance issues on anything but the latest systems.
You need a 1GB graphics card to escape performance hits and a pretty bad stuttering problem.
The stuttering is the main issue as it makes fluid play more difficult.
yes the patches are coming, and are helping. But unless you are cutting edge you will be frustrated with it right now.

Having said that, once it gets sorted out, or if you have the PC for it, it will be a great sim.