I thought so too initially, but apparently it is going to be much more involved than that.

Yes you are correct.
I understand they bought the rights to use the old IL2 flight model when they released the original WoP.. this is being built on with more detailed damage models, more simulation options but still not quite up to the level of COD.

I have to come to think of it as fitting in between the old IL2 and COD and I think it will suit a wider more casual gamer audience, with enough fidelity for us more hardcore players to give it a run when we dont have the time for the hardcore SIM.

As we all get older most of us have less time so more importance is placed on gameplay than simulation. So I think it will have its place as a balance between SIM and satisfying casual game play. If you watched some of the Alpha videos in simulation mode you can see the DM are less sophisticated but it has certainly improved on WoP. The thing that disturbed me most about WoP was the poor engine sounds and over simplified FM. These are now reportedly a lot closer to the old IL2 with perhaps even better engine sounds than both IL2 and COD.

I see it as a good thing that War Thunder will start a new era and incubator for casual WWII flight'sim' gamers that will eventually want to try something a bit harder and go for IL2 COD and its subsequent sequels.. by witch time, all of the first couple years dramas of COD will hopefully be long forgotten... :)

Remember most of us got our grounding in the MS CFS series (or even earlier) so perhaps a large proportion of us wouldnt have discovered or had the patience to learn to Fly IL2... I still remember the newbies joining servers and asking "how do I take off without crashing?" ;) oh those were the days! :D

Wow nice for you, when did you sign up ? I'm waiting for it too, really want to try it out.

I bought Wings Of Prey while waiting for COD to come out and I can't even get past the stupid arcade mode because it's too long and incredibly boring . So there it sits on the shelf , covered in dust .All in all a huge dissapointment .

Nope, they have that right - the forward exhaust manifold on the Mosquito combined the first two cylinders.

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k3.../mos_fb_15.jpg

I hope you are correct, the shortcomings of WoP make me a bit nervous as to how War Thunder will be (simply because the dev team is the same guys and if these issues were not important in WoP will they be addressed in WT?)

-Small Maps (makes bombing boring and leads to airquake style games)
-Arcade objectives in SP (some missions require you destroy more enemies than you have ammo)
-No mission editor
-No custom offline campaigns
-Simplified Physics
-No complex engine management
-Bombers use 3rd person view (no cockpits)
-Difficult to skin aircraft
-Game engine not open to modding
-lack of dedicated server software

But I am not in the beta so I suppose I shall have to wait and see how it is. :-P

Alot of that (not all) is addressed, BUT understand that there are parts of the game made easier than WoP to allow the casual flyer access. They are trying to achieve a little of both worlds, as stated above, its going to fall in the middle..

This is what scares me about War Thunder ;

http://warthunder.com/en/game/features/12/current/


Catering to the keyboard and gamepad people makes GREAT marketing sense, but I am past that. Not what I am looking for. It will sell more, but leave people that want more out of the picture.

Also the MMO thing is something I dont like. Quake wars in WWII aircraft doesnt do it for me.

I HOPE....hope that that the touted single player and coop modes are good, or this is one I will definitly pass on.

It's going to be a long, long, long wait I'm afraid but the choice of planes is brilliant.. the only thing thats missing for me is the battle, the walrus and the defiant. Shame.