The original IL2 was on top until March 2003 when Forgotten Battles came out, then a year later about March 2004 the Ace Expansion Pack came out and later in 2004 Pacific fighters was released. It is hard to believe that it was 2006 when IL246' was released!
The original version of IL2 was a lot harder to fly than IL2 46 currently is. I am not saying it is more or less realistic, just that it takes more skill.
A few days ago I set myself up in a 109f4 in the original IL2 vs. a Yak1 and it was a very entertaining and tough fight that followed. I swear the original IL2 AI is tougher, the planes are harder to fly, and the aircraft take more hits before they fall apart.
I hit the Yak1 more than once with 20mm shells and it did not seem to noticeably hurt it's ability to fight. My 109 was hit once. Also I had kept the engine of the 109 on WEP for a lot of the fight and by the time the fight was over from lack of ammo my engine was ruined.
I remember one really well-known and skillful pilot named VSO quit flying IL2 once Forgotten Battles came out. He claimed they ruined it by watering down the flight models etc.. to make it more appealing to "gamers" than to true simmers. I can see exactly what he was talking about when I fly the original IL2 as it is much more challenging to fly and get kills with than the current patch of IL2.
Again not saying it is more true-to-life, just saying that it was harder as a PC flight sim, and I can see that those who learned to fly IL2 in it's original version certainly had a tougher education than those who jumped into IL2 since Forgotten Battles or Pacific Fighters appeared.
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