IL2 '46.
I love flight sims, and realistic experiences. That's what pulled me into IL2 Sturmovik when it was released and kept me with it. However, each successive release has been BETTER than the last.
Forgotten Battles was such a cool idea, delving deeper into the little known aspects of hte air war of WWII (of course, more planes and maps for it would have been nice, but aren't they always?
lol).
Pacific Fighters was a dream come true. PTO and carrier ops rock. I was so happy to see Oleg/1C cover that theater. Of course, much of that was let down when the Hellcat was hosed and the UFO-rsair got a boost from the fanboi's who don't like real planes that did the real work (mirrored in the ETO by the P-47/P-51 relationship)..... but I digress.
IL2 '46 formed a hat trick of smash hit sequels. It once again pushed the envelope of WWII sims by
doing stuff that hasn't been done (or rarely and poorly done) before. The concept of the title rocks, and all the wierd cool planes (and awesome add on maps) are just awesome. I would have payed all the money I spent on all the titles combined just for the '46 content alone. Many in the forums love to piss and moan and whine about it. But many of us are very grateful for those wild exotic planes (the more exotic the better, it truly does not matter if they ever flew as prototypes or saw battle, in fact, if they didn't that's even better still as it pushes the envelope even further).
There have been some downs to go with the ups, and some stuff I would liked to have seen included to flesh out the various theaters better, but all in all, the conent, quality, and above all customer/community support has been bar none simply the best, probably in the history of PC games.
Even though Storm of War: Battle of Brittain is more of the same old same old that's been done a bazillion times before, I still look forward to it's release and all the advances it promises to bring with it. But mostly because it will be the framework and foundation for pushing back into those neglected theaters, planes, and concepts (what-if scenarios, the Finn War, CBI, PTO, etc).
