IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey

[the_fatadder]

Has been a rather long time since I last played a flight sim, but that really does look rather good.

(and the appeal to jump into a Spitfire and start shooting down jerry bombers is just too much to resist.)

Good job on posting the screenshots!

 

[Hereward]

Screenshots are.....well more than easy using the new PS3 screen grab system, click x and thats it LOL heres the last batch, taken in sim mode, and just sharpend a little to offset photobuckets size reduction system. Oh yeah, checked the Dirt 2 demo and the photograb mode isn't on the demo.....so looks like IL2 is the first to use it, heres hopeing more developers decide too.

Second image is from the tutorial mode, you'll notice I've croped a few as well.

Flyby over airfield, slight damage to the port wing ahem

Tutorial mode shooting barage baloons, notice the spent shells.

Dover after the bombing run. Each house you can see like every other in game is in 3D!

P51 Mustang, notice the underslung missiles for tank busting.

Cockpit P51....in Sim mode this is prety much all you have and a map.

Low cloud cover, so you spend most of the time down low.

 

[nicbha]

this photomode could keep me amused even with out the dog fights

 

[Hereward]

Even if you don't like this game, you have to admit it looks good! Nice shots Nicbha, you managed to shoot one of those parachutists yet? LOL

Just noticed in your dover shot the wind is from the oposite direction and of a higher speed from the smoke trails from the destroyed gun emplacements on top of the cliffs

 

[nicbha]

Even if you don't like this game, you have to admit it looks good! Nice shots Nicbha, you managed to shoot one of those parachutists yet? LOL

Just noticed in your dover shot the wind is from the oposite direction and of a higher speed from the smoke trails from the destroyed gun emplacements on top of the cliffs

good spot and no keep missing the parachtists will keep trying though 👍

 

[Hereward]

I have noticed that sometimes there seems to be quite high winds and at other times theres not. also the second mission can take quite some time, I once took 75 mins .......ok I was playing about a bit but I suddenly noticed it was getting quite dark LOL

 

[the_fatadder]

Wow, thats some pretty hefty damage!
How badly did that affect the ability to control the aircraft?

Wish I had my PS3 up at uni so I could download the demo!!!

 

[Hereward]

Damage wise the game prety much covers everything from a wobble to unflyable. The damage in the shot made you have to constantly keep right aerlon on and oblviously banking was really slow plus increased drag so stall speeds slightly higher. best one is over reving the engine, say going into a dive and keeping the WEP (full throttle) on....eventualy the engine just dies and the prop slowly spins in the breeze, only way to save the day is either bail out or hope you can glide to the airfield! Noticed also cockpit damage puts some hefty bullet holes in the canopy and engingine damage will throw oil on the canopy......this also goes for the enemy.........get behind a bomber and take his engine out, if you stay ther the oil from his engine covers your canopy!

Anyway, just want to say thanks to nicbha for the heads up on the thrustmaster flight stick, just picked it up from Argos for £24.99 and it's fantastic, really adds to the game, just trying to remember where all the buttons are now LOL

 

[nicbha]

got mine today too

haven't worked out how to slow down enough to land yet

 

[Sureboss]

Wanted a decent fighter sim on the PS3, might look at this over the next couple of days.

 

[FoolKiller]

I enjoyed the demo, but thought it felt a bit too complex for me.

But it was the second mission that did it for me. Could you drop bombs on the tanks? I couldn't tell and just kept doing straffing runs, which often resulted in a crash.

And thinking back, I don't know if I was using Simulation mode. I may need to give it another go.

 

[nicbha]

I enjoyed the demo, but thought it felt a bit too complex for me.

But it was the second mission that did it for me. Could you drop bombs on the tanks? I couldn't tell and just kept doing straffing runs, which often resulted in a crash.

And thinking back, I don't know if I was using Simulation mode. I may need to give it another go.

one of the shoulder button fires the rockets / bombs

 

[Hereward]

got mine today too

haven't worked out how to slow down enough to land yet

when you drop your undercarridge the flaps change mode, instead of changeing betwee raised and combat, they change to raised and landing, this hits the brakes along with droping the engine to around 30% then just cut the engine as you come in. If you use the virtual cockpit (the one that dosn't have the actual cockpit viewable) you can see 2 icons one is where the nose is pointing and the smaller is the direction of the aircraft in relation to where the nose is pointed.....it makes sense when you look at it......It's the usual setup found on most sims, just make sure the nose is above 0deg and the rate isn't too far below it. Much easier in arcade mode, then switch up to full sim when you've got the hang of it.
I did find another airfield.....A huge one......on the dover mission, follow the coast north, you can't miss it. Oh and got prety much max damage on the wing without losing it, 3/4 aerlon right and 5/6 ruder right plus half aerlon up and engine on WEP with flaps on combat......that was just for level flight LOL
Final one I found reducing the sensitivity to half on both aerlons and elevator gave the best feel also you can turn the hud through different percentages of info, all the way to completly off. This gives you a good learning curve to start hitting sim mode on the lower difficulty settings.

 

[Hereward]

I enjoyed the demo, but thought it felt a bit too complex for me.

But it was the second mission that did it for me. Could you drop bombs on the tanks? I couldn't tell and just kept doing straffing runs, which often resulted in a crash.

And thinking back, I don't know if I was using Simulation mode. I may need to give it another go.

Yep L1 fires the rockets, use L2 to zoom in first then fire. should be able to clear them all out in 5 runs. If there were no markers on them or radar then you were probubley on sim mode, I have noticed if you do the first mission in arcade it unlocks realistic and simulation modes even if you haven't done the tutorial, you may have selected sim mode by accident as you started the second mission.....Thats known as getting thrown in at the deep end LOL

 

[nicbha]

that was a great help cheers (well the bits i understood lol ) just landed it a few times thanks

 

[Hereward]

You can actual just go and practice "touch and goes" at the airfield at any time hopefully the full version will let you select takeoof and land on the missions like the PC version, ie start mission sitting on the runway and finish it sitting on the runway. If you go look at the other airfield you'll see it's more traditional in it's layout to modern runways. Not found any on the second mission yet but considering you only get 40 missiles and theres more than 40 ground targets theres got to be one somewhere, just such a huge map compared to the 1'st mission it'll take some finding.

 

[Sureboss]

Enjoyed this. Not gone on to the missions yet but it feels decent at the moment. This could be on the list of things to buy once I get paid.

 

[Dragonistic]

I was disapointed at the lack of help for people who wanted to learn how to use sim, they just added things with no explanation for those who don't already know, so you have to go searching around on the net to find out which doesn't really help you learn how to use them in combat on IL2. Perhaps the game manual will tell us, or perhaps there will (and there really should be) a simulation tutorial. I have no flight sim experience, and little knowledge of planes, so I had to go googling to find out what flaps were, which didn't help me know which was open and closed on IL2 because you may use flaps open or closed in combat, and the trimmer I found nothing so I couldn't use at all.

 

[ukog-dyer]

Trim is for speed so say you set your throttle at 50% you then got to trim your plane for level flight which will give you your speed for level flight eg:270kt's. So you are now flying level at 270kt's and you want to acending to a higher flight level (or hight ) you put your throttle to 75% and you will go up but still only fly at 270kt's same as if you want to decend you put your throttle to 30% and you will decend at 270kts. If you put your throttle to 40% you will still decend at 270kts but will not be coming down as quick.
The first thing you got to learn with flight and flight sim is that throttle does hight and trim does speed and when you got that into your head landing is so much easyer .

Anyway hope that helps.

 

[Hereward]

Thats the trim sorted, althought there is control surface trim as well....just to complicate matters LOL Regarding your flaps there are 3 settings on IL2

Raised = Normal and high speed flight
Combat = more manouverable at lower speeds
Landing = only selectable when undercarage is down, this lowers your stall speed and makes manouvering at low speed easier

Other uses is to use them as brakes! Basicly all the flaps are doing is altering the shape of the wings to give more or less lift, this just chages how manouverable the aircraft is at different speeds and also how slow or fast the aircraft can fly safley.

All of this should be explained in the book and also in the games "hanger" system where you'll find info on manouvers and aircraft.

I can imagine if you've never played a flight sim before IL2 even in Arcade mode could be a hand full, let alone going into a flat spin in Sim mode LOL

 

[NLxAROSA]

It's been almost two decades since I played a flight sim, but I really like this game. 👍 I think I'll stick to Arcade until I get the hang of it, so far all my landings resulted in fiery death.

 

[ukog-dyer]

It's been almost two decades since I played a flight sim, but I really like this game. 👍 I think I'll stick to Arcade until I get the hang of it, so far all my landings resulted in fiery death.

To pactise landing's put your landing gear down and the landing flaps down at 2000ft then put you throttle at 35% and get the plane into level flight so you do not have to touch pad to keep it level. When you have done that all you need to do is move the throttle down to 30% and your plane will start to come down very slowly say about 3ft sec which is about what you should be looking for to get a good glid slope.

Now pactise that in till you fill good at it and it become's easy then just put some throttle on say 45% to go back to 2000ft and the vack to 35% for level flight then go and find the runway.

When you have found the runway fly at 1000ft at 35% Throttle and put the plane into the landing configuration still flying level in till you can see the runway then you got to do what we done at 2000ft put the power down to 30% and let the plane slowly glid down trying to keep the landing spot in the middle off the screen at all time's. If it looks like you landing spot is going down the screen or under you , you need to take some more throttle of to make you decent quiker and if you landing spot is going up the screen or undershotting you need to add throttle intill you get a really nice glid slop do not use ELEVATORS FOR HIGHT you got to use you throttle.

Now when you are about 30ft above your landing spot and looking good(If not go around and try again)kill the throttle to 0% and use your Elevators to left up the front but not to much just to try and keep you plane level and it will stall onto the runway but make sure you keep and bit of pressure back on your elevators so your plane does not do a nose dive and kill you.

Hope thats clear but like i said you got to get into your head TRIM DOES SPEED -THROTTLE DOES HIGHT

 

[ukog-dyer]

Some Crosswind Aircraft Testing with lot of rudder on.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/yt-V7Vf-kW9Eak/crosswind_aircraft_testing/

How to Land airplanes http://stoenworks.com/Tutorials/How to land airplanes.html

 

[Dragonistic]

Thats the trim sorted, althought there is control surface trim as well....just to complicate matters LOL Regarding your flaps there are 3 settings on IL2

Raised = Normal and high speed flight
Combat = more manouverable at lower speeds
Landing = only selectable when undercarage is down, this lowers your stall speed and makes manouvering at low speed easier

Other uses is to use them as brakes! Basicly all the flaps are doing is altering the shape of the wings to give more or less lift, this just chages how manouverable the aircraft is at different speeds and also how slow or fast the aircraft can fly safley.

All of this should be explained in the book and also in the games "hanger" system where you'll find info on manouvers and aircraft.

I can imagine if you've never played a flight sim before IL2 even in Arcade mode could be a hand full, let alone going into a flat spin in Sim mode LOL

Arcade was a doddle and I could indeed fly just fine on Sim, even rescuing from completing diving spins out of control on many occasions. The problem for me particularly, was managing to hit the artillery on the second mission (did the first mission on sim on my first go on the mission, also with no HUD) I didn't know how to set the plane to go slowly so I could spot the targets and have time to hit them on a strafing run. Eventually I became far to annoyed which ruined the experience as when the enemy is less of a danger to me then... me the game becomes just frustrating and unenjoyable. I'd never buy this game anyway due to the nature of it, longevity wouldn't be long enough for me (I can't afford to buy games I just like, I need games I like and that will continue to like for a long time).

 

[Hereward]

IL2 definatly won't be for everyone, flight sims are quite anal in there control inputs. If you don't like the demo I'm prety sure you won't like the game, though give the demo time enough to grow on you. As for hitting ground targets on sim mode it's not easy, and it can be hard to spot them let alone hit them with rockets! once you hit one though the smoke acts as a marker so you can take a long run up at it and use the zoom view to nail the rest easily enough. But as with all flight sims, in fact driving sims as well, the biggest challenge is controling your vehicle. With a car if you get it wrong you go wide in a corner and simply continue....Get it wrong in a flight sim and you may just end up in a firey mess in a field LOL

 

[Dragonistic]

IL2 definatly won't be for everyone, flight sims are quite anal in there control inputs. If you don't like the demo I'm prety sure you won't like the game, though give the demo time enough to grow on you. As for hitting ground targets on sim mode it's not easy, and it can be hard to spot them let alone hit them with rockets! once you hit one though the smoke acts as a marker so you can take a long run up at it and use the zoom view to nail the rest easily enough. But as with all flight sims, in fact driving sims as well, the biggest challenge is controling your vehicle. With a car if you get it wrong you go wide in a corner and simply continue....Get it wrong in a flight sim and you may just end up in a firey mess in a field LOL

I actually didn't mind the demo as far as flying went, but shooting specks on the ground just isn't much fun, dogfighting is certainly more interesting but the genre itself with flying games don't appeal to me. It's the best I've played in the genre, and I have a quick go on the demo, but I'd never shell out real money for it.

 

[Hereward]

but I'd never shell out real money for it.

Maybe a barter system could be implimented? Or Monopley money? Only jokeing, thats one of the problems really with all sims, you find your ailinating players who are not into that aspect of whatever game your making. They have gone along way to make it accessable with the arcade mode and the pad setup compared to the PC original, but it's still a sim. Heroes over Europe however is more of an arcade blast which my pick up more sales because of it? Time will tell. R
Really looking foreward to the online options in IL2 One mode is team capture the flag......or rather capture the airfield...By Landing on it!....think some more practice is in order especialy if you have to try and land while the other team is trying to blow you to bits LOL Oh and unlocked Aircraft can be used online, thinking a bomber may be a bit of a handful to land but you can switch between pilot and gunner so could make for a really intersesting prospect online with your team mates doing bomber escort!

 

[Dragonistic]

Maybe a barter system could be implimented?

You laugh but for a joke one time we did attempt monopoly money... I was younger at the time, still to old to pull such a stupid joke but younger nonetheless!

I think IL2 is definately best in genre, the arcade beats Hawx which was straight up arcade, I just hope they add some way of learning about things in the full game, even if it's just the manual.

 

[Tired Tyres]

I'm at work at the moment, so I can't check but I'm sure there's a Training option in the game. It's not available in the demo but might be what your looking for in the full game.

I think this is an excellent game. It's nice and easy in arcade mode and nice and hard in Sim mode. That's a surprisingly difficult thing to pull off so that it keeps both camps happy.

 

[drivatar]

The PS3 demo had a lot of tearing. What about Xbox360?