Yes, good point about 1946, rattlehead. I think of it as 'the curse of CoD' since now I can't go back. The DMs are just so much stronger.

If your combat flight simmer. Buy it. Your investment will help insure we see many more years of new theaters and updates. I haven't found Steam to be a problem at all. It actually makes my life easier installing updates and checking my game files for errors if there is a problem.

Buy it. Maybe to get a more detailed advice post some system specs.

I have Rof, IL2 1946 and this one and I can't help it, this sim is the best of them all in regards to how fun/real it is flying the planes.

As for performance, well, look at the update, it's going to improve and then it's going to improve some more in time. Content is a bit mehh....they need to add something to cater to the game aspect of the sim, i.e. dynamic campaign generator.

No problems here ever with running steam games, on the contrary it is rather convenient not to have to look for updates and patches but to get them automatically, all the games I have currently running are steam games with the exeption of RoF.

I would recommend it. It runs pretty well on my duel core and there is more to like than dislike - my glass is half full and absolutely no regrets buying the Collectrors edition DVD vesrion.

Get it now?
 

:confused:There is no point in waiting if you like the cfs genre...its been 6 years allready!

As far as steam goes, I wish the original IL2/FB/AE/PF/1946 had steam as the updates were redonkulous...

Puss, is that you?

I bought IL2 1946 via steam, maybe you can register your version with steam and it'll update then automatically. Just a thought, I never tried registering a non steam game with steam, but the option is there.

Pretty much my take on things as well.

The summary goes something like this:

1) Early adopters are either fed up with their personal pet peeve not having been fixed yet, or waiting patiently while adopting a "it'll be fixed in a few months, i'll play something else for a while" attitude, or swearing by it because they see some flashes of brilliance in it and consider the progress made thus far in the less-polished aspects acceptable and reassuring. In other words, it's a mixed bag and there's some pretty strong convictions going around that often lead to vitriol in the forums.

2) Newcomers are only just getting to grips with it. Depending on their patience levels and issues they might face, they are gradually gravitating to one of the previous categories. However, there's a lot to learn in the sim and this buys you quite some time before you can say you've seen all there is to see.

3) According to the recent development update, we should be getting reworked graphics and sounds two weeks from now in a beta patch, dealing with some stuff that's pretty high on the list of a sizable portion of the community.
After testing the patch for at least a week, maybe more, and fixing any potential bugs that managed to creep in, it will be released officially.
Personally, i'm more interested in corrections to the way some aircraft systems are modeled but according to the dev update this is next on the pipeline as well.

4) Content is not much in terms of missions/campaigns and MP servers are experimenting with the use of mission scripting, but just learning the ins and outs of the new way of flying, exhausting your amazement at the damage models and learning to manage your engines will probably take up more than a few weeks.


In other words if your PC has a reasonable chance of running it i'd say go for it, as the pace of upcoming patches is such that you will probably get new stuff to play with before you manage to get bored with what's currently included, or even come to grips with it in a comfortable manner.

For example, i spent about 6 weeks simply exploring the ins and outs of all the aircraft in the sim by flying quick missions and free flights, before even starting the campaign or jumping into a multiplayer session.

Ok, i'm a bit of an obsessive tester in terms of how things work in the sim and my experience is not entirely representative in this regard. However, i'd still say that
a) learning to keep your crate in the air at full difficulty settings
b) flying QMB practice missions to familiarize yourself with the aircraft
c) playing through the two stock campaigns
d) joining a few multiplayer sessions

will easily take up 4 weeks of your time, especially if you factor in other commitments in your life taking up your gaming time, by which point we might have new fixes implemented according to the development roadmap.

Hmm well I would say buy it but not until after the next patch comes out :) It sounds like there are going to be a lot of major changes to major bits of the game and if you wait then you will not be left thinking well i liked this better before but these parts are better now and so on. :) For you it will be like a fresh start and what ever game it is after the patch will be your first look at it :) Just my 2 bits :P

Good luck

Cheers :)

wait for the next patch and some feedback. At the moment I would consider it an Alpha quaility game.. too many bugs that are game stoppers... the sound stopping every 15 mins is just one...

If you are unsure, just hang in there and watch for the responses to the patches.

Of course we'd all like you to buy it now to support the game development, which we have to admit is its current state, but it's playable now, should be better in about three weeks time and should be truly great once its all ironed out. But be prepared for some more dev time for it to get there 100%.

You will have to use Steam. I never had before CoD and I was sceptical about it but it has brought me no problems whatsoever. It has the advantage that anyone playing on line has the same co-ordinated version, unlike the vanilla/official mods/unofficial mods farce that IL-2 1946 descended into.