Once one of the greatest WWII flight sims, I'm wondering if this is still worth playing. It does seem to run on modern systems, but I'm concerned that it hasn't aged well and I don't want to injure my fond memories of the title, by running it now if I come away from it disappointed. Has anyone fired it up recently? How has it held up? What is the situation with the modding community. I went to SimHQ and there seem to be some major mods, but the situation looks complex and I don't want to spend a lot of time researching the best mods and how to install and run them if ultimately, the game just isn't worth playing anymore...
Still, back in the day...this one had it all, from the excellent briefings, to the large scale battles and excellent modelling and effects for the time.
Yes it runs. On sale now at GOG for $4.99. I think it has held up well.
Quote from: ArizonaTank on March 22, 2021, 05:09:41 PM
Yes it runs. On sale now at GOG for $4.99. I think it has held up well.
Any input or thoughts on mods?
No idea on mods.
The game isn't all roses of course. Peripheral configuration is from the last century and therefore limited. I have Logitech joystick, and I can't get the game to recognize the joystick's throttle or twist axis for rudder. I can map the rudder to the POV hat, but a little strange, so I just use keys.
Still, the graphics are pretty good for a game more than 20 years old.
The discussion makes me want to go back and look at "Battle of Britain" that had a wonderful strategic game inside the the flight simulator. I wonder how that one has aged.
The modders did a great job bringing BoB up to modern standards, but I simply cannot get the game to run stably on Win10.
Yeah I'd rather dive into the Battle of Britain sim if I was going retro. That's one sim that really needs a make over. The core game is still really cool.
Which BoB are you guys talking about? BoB II that was released by Matrix?
Piffle; bring back/make up to date Mig Alley!
(Having said that, DCS is probably the best we'll get for this era at this point)
Quote from: Dammit Carl! on March 23, 2021, 03:46:56 PM
Piffle; bring back/make up to date Mig Alley!
...
Yes. That is a game that definitely needs to be remade!
I was referring to BoB II Wings of Victory by Rowan, and I think also from Matrix.
The guys who were modding really did some neat stuff with it, modernizing the graphics, adding new features, and things of that nature. I think they may have added some additional flyable planes - I can't be sure, and it's been quite a while since I played it. My problem is that the game (BoBII) simply wasn't stable on my Win10 system. I could get it to boot, I could get into the cockpit and fly and then it would simply CTD randomly. It really is too bad because what I played I really enjoyed.
I'm not sure why the team didn't do MiG Alley too. Sadly that game's graphics are just too old to make it worthwhile to play, for me.
I can't give you any feedback on EAW, sorry. I haven't played that in years. I know there used to be a pretty passionate group on SimHQ working on Pacific Air War, but that was a really long time ago.
I have to think that any of the IL-2 series would be a better choice than EAW at this point.
Quote from: Toonces on March 23, 2021, 05:15:54 PM
I was referring to BoB II Wings of Victory by Rowan, and I think also from Matrix.
The guys who were modding really did some neat stuff with it, modernizing the graphics, adding new features, and things of that nature. I think they may have added some additional flyable planes - I can't be sure, and it's been quite a while since I played it. My problem is that the game (BoBII) simply wasn't stable on my Win10 system. I could get it to boot, I could get into the cockpit and fly and then it would simply CTD randomly. It really is too bad because what I played I really enjoyed.
I'm not sure why the team didn't do MiG Alley too. Sadly that game's graphics are just too old to make it worthwhile to play, for me.
The AI in BoB II is pretty good as well. The robo-pilots definitely understand the vertical axis.
I remember Rowan's Battle of Britain (2000) very well. That was indeed a well done game. Being a gunner on a German bomber (Dornier, or Heinkel) was something I had never tried before at the time.
If I recall correctly BoB also had an operational game included, similar to the scenes of people pushing blocks around in the war-room in the film of the same name. You could just play this by itself but could dive into any of the combats resulting from your operational decisions - very cool & groundbreaking at the time. I recall the graphics really pushing my PC at the time as well.
Quote from: Phantom on March 24, 2021, 07:28:27 AM
If I recall correctly BoB also had an operational game included, similar to the scenes of people pushing blocks around in the war-room in the film of the same name. You could just play this by itself but could dive into any of the combats resulting from your operational decisions - very cool & groundbreaking at the time. I recall the graphics really pushing my PC at the time as well.
Yes that is the brilliant part of the game. Considering simulator games released over the last thirty-five years, I can think of only a few that had a similar play mechanic.
I have/had Rowan's BoB (I think). Didn't it have the capacity to have a lot of planes in the air at one time and do it well?
Quote from: Dammit Carl! on March 24, 2021, 09:09:14 AM
I have/had Rowan's BoB (I think). Didn't it have the capacity to have a lot of planes in the air at one time and do it well?
BoB II supports huge formations and my recollection is that it did it very well.