Amazing.

[Les]

I just had the most realistic, most immersive flight-simming experience I've ever had.

Struggling to find the words to describe it, I realize I'm amazed, and so realize the 'game' I just played is amazing. No questions. No doubts. 'Cliffs of Dover' is the best, most realistic, flight-sim I've ever used.

You might not think it's possible based on what you read around here, and there's no reason it should mean anything to anyone else anyway, but what I just experienced was the pinnacle of years of combat-flight-simming and I'm blown away by it. A simple 6 Hurricane vs. 6 Bf-109 dogfight over the Channel, then a short flight back to land in England. (And as a bonus, it turned out I bagged three of the 109's, but I didn't see any one of them actually go down, was too busy looking for the next one and keeping my engine in order.)

I'm still trying to get my head around the fact that this was just a stupid off-the-cuff Quick Mission furball that's left me so impressed I'm blabbering here on the forums about it. Maybe I should go start it up again and look at the things about it I don't like, or go do something more 'real' or 'important', just to regain some perspective on it. I don't know.

Played with full engine complexity, no chat or hud messages at all, just flying by using the gauges in the cockpit and what I could see around me, except for the mini-map to check there were no enemies left and to find my way back to base after an air-start. All video settings on full, with good to great frame-rates throughout and very minimal stuttering over land. For me, that was the most immersive combination of elements, but I'm hoping others can use their own preferred combinations and still have the same kind of experience, in their own way, that I just did. It's the new best, it really is.

And no, it wasn't perfect, but the honeymoon is well and truly on, for me anyway. The novelty may wear off and I may grow tired of it, but I have just flown what I believe is the closest thing to a real combat flight you can get on a computer. The way it looked, the way it sounded (yes, the way it sounded), the procedures involved, the whole thing was on a whole new level for me.

I'm not saying if everyone experienced what I just experienced they'd come away with the same impression. But if everyone who uses this sim finds their own way through it to this same awestruck place I'm in, 'Cliffs Of Dover' and the new IL-2 series will become widely known and accepted as the best combat-flight-sim ever, and in some ways, as the best flight-sim in general. Big words, big claims, but it's just a fact as far as I'm concerned.

You could say Maddox Games tried to do too much with the new series and that they fell short in a lot of ways. Well, even if that's so, from what I've just seen, they've still landed head and shoulders above anything else that's been done. I've already gotten my money's worth out of it, playing around with only a few of it's features.

People, rightly so I believe, have their problems with aspects of the sim, I do too. Others talk about it's potential. Well all those problems just disappeared and this sims potential was just made real for me, and I just had the best flight-simming experience I've ever had, as simple as that.

Congratulations, and thanks, to all involved in it's creation.

Edit - I've attached the .trk file of the mission if anyone wants to watch it, though I doubt it would be interesting to anyone else (it's probably a guess-you-had-to-be-there kind of thing) and it probably shows up my mistakes and short-comings more than anything, but what the hell, as crap as it may seem in hindsight, this little sortie on max settings blew me away.

Edit2 - Looks like there's a bug with the replay system, the track plays alright up to a certain point, then the plane's engine keeps throttling up and down in way it didn't do when I was recording it. Could be due to bringing up the map in-game, I don't know. If you do play the track though, you can still see the actual dogfighting before the bug kicks in. Watch it without enabling 'Change Views' in the options if you want to see the recording as I saw it at the time, it probably makes more sense that way.

[danjama]

Cool story bro (really)

[glue]

I wish I could view it. (Don't have CoD yet)

[andmcq]

That looked awesome. Headtracking makes it look so much nicer.

[doghous3]

It's just good to read accounts of people enjoying the game.

According to steam, I've racked up 47hrs on CoD.

[oxygenthief]

[naz]

Thanks for posting mate, I enjoyed watching that. I've been playing Il2 since the original demo and am loving Cliffs of Dover as well.

PS... I was wondering what was going on with the the throttling at the end LOL

[SG1_Lud]

Well expressed bro and thank you very much for taking the time to write this.
You know, normally the people that post in the forums are because they have a problem. That's why is so much appreciated that you wrote that, and even more, so well that was a pleasure to read.

Indeed, those who like to use real navigation, cem and enjoy not only the combat phase, but the rest of the flight, have here a real diamond. Of course it needs some work, but it is a gem.

To be honest, I had a slightly better experience with the amazing A2A spitfire (with accusim), which I recommend you strongly. But it lacks the war environment. IL2 COD is an amazing simulation of it all.

Hope Luthier and team read your words, and they encourage them, despite the bad reviews.

Cheers and keep enjoyng Les!

[Rocka]

Great read and good to hear that some other ppl are having blast with the game.

I've had my ups and downs with the game so far (46 hours played) but sometimes it's so good that it beats everything out there, both past and present.

The game can only get better from this point, and that's not a bad thing.

After having some dogfights in COD yesterday with complex engine management on I loaded up the old IL-2 doing some mission in a Hurricane. Oh boy what a difference!
Went back to COD immediately!

[Triggaaar]

I'm glad some people are finding the game is living up to their expectations.

I do wonder how this sim would have been received if 1C had called the release a Beta until 19th April, when it's due for release in the States. It would have been harder for people to slag it off, instead they'd have to just state what didn't work.

I think there are still pleanty of bugs and issues, but given that we can fly this at maximum settings with the hardware we have, it's difficult to see how it could fail. Everything is there, and it just needs tweaking. I'm sure there are people here that just can't run the game, thinking that it needs more than tweaking, but if it can run properly on some people PCs, then it's clearly capable of working.