Il2 Battle of Stalingrad on Steam

[MengJiao]

On the question of should you buy the game now. I'm going to deviate from what I would've said in the past which would be a "no."  I personally think even in its' present state that the game is worth getting now. The learning curve is such that you will keep coming back for more just to get proficient. If you're familiar with ROF you will quickly ease right into this game. The WWII setting also personally for me creates a much more intense atmosphere than ROF.  I'm content at present just to fly the quick missions either dogfighting or doing ground attack runs against trucks convoys and armor.

  I can second most of Trek's observations and my set up is very close to his, though I think I have less in-game time at this point.  I've mostly flown the LAGG3-23 and it sure has some nice cannons.  The only thing I've hit so far is an AI Stuka, but even missing things in this game is pretty fun -- the bomb blast animations are very nice and there's some crazy but fun cinematic stuff around crashes.

[Father Ted]

On the question of should you buy the game now. I'm going to deviate from what I would've said in the past which would be a "no."  I personally think even in its' present state that the game is worth getting now. The learning curve is such that you will keep coming back for more just to get proficient. If you're familiar with ROF you will quickly ease right into this game. The WWII setting also personally for me creates a much more intense atmosphere than ROF.  I'm content at present just to fly the quick missions either dogfighting or doing ground attack runs against trucks convoys and armor.

...but I would also like to reiterate that you're not really getting a game at the moment.  What you get is a sandbox in SP to play with the planes and "air quake" MP.  I would hate for anyone to spend money on this and be disenchanted that there's nothing to do.  If cooing at the scenery and exploring the FMs is not your thing, then wait until there is some content.  I'm pretty confident that there will be, but if you're not like trek (or me) and need context to enjoy your flightsim then wait to see what the official release holds before parting with your hard-earned.

[trek]

Follow-up. OK, after much dog fighting practice I've finally shot down an enemy plane. It was a YAK 1 and I'm flying the BF-109F not the G version. I love the fact that the F version has several paint schemes too, I really like the Winter Leopard one. The more I'm getting into this game the more I already appreciate the quality and attention to detail that 777 Studios has put into it so far. If their plans are to follow the same game plan as they did in ROF it will be worth the wait. Too bad we can't get Pat Wilson to create a Campaign Generator for this one like he did for ROF.

[Grim.Reaper]

After playing IL-2 BOS all weekend here are my impressions of the game so far. For those of you that are on the fence as far as a purchase decision I hope this will aid you in the decision making process.

As a long time player of ROF and IL-2 COD and many others I'll first list my system, specs and my graphics settings in-game:

Falcon-NW FragBox 2
Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 3.17GHZ
8GB RAM
Nvidia GTX570 1.5GB
WIN7 64-bit OS

The game runs OK on Balanced setting, but I've noticed in dogfights it fares better on the Low setting.  I'm using  22" monitor at 1680 x1050.  No VSync and AA set at four. Currently I've set the FPS limiter at 30.

The game even on the Low graphics setting runs great and visually even at this setting the game looks gorgeous. Not to sound like a graphics whore (which I am) to me its' worth it just to fly around looking at the winter landscape. Obviously I'm going to need to upgrade to a quad cpu, get more ram and at least 2GB GPU card in the near future to really enjoy this game. At present on the graphics setting page there is a checkbox for multi-gpu support but its' not active yet. On the IL-2 BOS forums I have read complaints about the game optimization even with quad-core, etc., so overall in this respect this will be an ongoing project for the devs at 777 Studios.

Just like ROF it gives the best sense of flight of any sim I own. Someone asked in a previous post about their ability to successfully fly the various planes in the game if their flightsim skills are at the novice level.  I consider myself at best an average flight simmer, so the answer would be a qualified yes. Again, like ROF you have all the same flight difficulty settings to help like: no wind, rudder assist, engine auto control, etc.

The caveat on the previous paragraph is even with all the assists on I'm still having a hard time with some of the various planes flight models.  Making turns without going into a dive is something I'm trying to overcome. I've finally succeeded in the ground attack role and have become more proficient on my repeated runs at the targets. As it historically should be the Sturmovik  with it's rockets and the Stuka with it's gunpods are the best against armor. However, of the three German planes I spend the most time with I personally find the FW-190 a more stable gun platform than both the BF-109 and the Stuka. So, go figure.

My dogfighting skills are another matter as I've yet to down an enemy fighter plane. I'm finding this particular talent very hard in IL-2 BOS. This is surprising since I'm pretty good in ROF, IL-2 COD and BOBII WOV, etc.  I use a Logitech Extreme 3D Pro as I've found this stick more than adequate for the price point and easy to set up .

On the question of should you buy the game now. I'm going to deviate from what I would've said in the past which would be a "no."  I personally think even in its' present state that the game is worth getting now. The learning curve is such that you will keep coming back for more just to get proficient. If you're familiar with ROF you will quickly ease right into this game. The WWII setting also personally for me creates a much more intense atmosphere than ROF.  I'm content at present just to fly the quick missions either dogfighting or doing ground attack runs against trucks convoys and armor.

I think this game has great potential if modders like Heinkill whose done so much for IL-2 COD and BOBIIWOV on his own and with the Team Fusion guys get onboard with this one.

That is what I was afraid of, even with aids turned on, can be a little difficult to fly...read that elsewhere as well....I'll stay on the sidelines for now, maybe when a little further along.

[sandman2575]

Anyone else find it a little odd that Steam pulled BOS *really* quickly from both its "Now Available" slideshow and the list of "New Releases" on the main page?

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

Pulling it off has really killed the sales numbers. 

Went from ~ 32nd best seller down to ~95th best right after they pulled it.

http://tools.garry.tv/steamchart/?show=221100,249230,230230,307960&range=7

Seems like they're getting hit from both sides now.  Steam users who aren't that familiar with the title are still mistakenly assuming it's from the same group who brought out CLOD and are slamming it.  The WT crowd are slamming it over the pricing.  If you head over to the official IL-2 game forum, a significant number of early access buyers are pissed that they aren't getting Steam keys for the game and wondering if the two versions will not be compatible as was the case with Rise of Flight.

[sandman2575]

Jeezus -- that graph will give the boys at 777 nightmares.

They really need to make sure BOS is 'cross platform' compatible for Steam and non-Steam.  The silliness with ROF plane packages being "Steam" or "non-Steam" usable was/is just silly.

[Stryker07]

Hello folks! Was wondering where some of you had wandered off to, guess I figured it out now, lol.

I have a modest system to say the least:
Athlon II Dual Core @ 2.5Ghz
3GB RAM
nVidia 9800GT w/512MB RAM

I can run RoF at med/low settings and keep a very playable FPS through the full spectrum of things you face in a combat flight sim. I have heard the 777 folks say numerous times that if your PC will play RoF comfortably the BoS should run just fine. I was wondering what those who have time in game have to say about it. As was mentioned a couple posts above, even at med/low settings RoF is gorgeous to look at so if I can get equal performance out of BoS I am certainly going to give it a run. I tried to play CloD a few times on this rig......it was painful to say the least. I haven't tried since the new fuzion patch/mod was released, just seems like the juice isn't worth the squeeze. Thanks in advance!

[JC______]

Hi,

Somewhere in that website of them they mention that the "demo" is RoF itself. They say that the engine is the same for IL-2 BoS and that you should be able to pull the same performance in both games.

Cheers,

[MengJiao]

Hi,

Somewhere in that website of them they mention that the "demo" is RoF itself. They say that the engine is the same for IL-2 BoS and that you should be able to pull the same performance in both games.

Cheers,

  For me the experience of BoS has been oddly exhilarating.  The is a background of familiarity due to my 3 years of RoF, but -- for various pretty obvious reasons -- the differences seem huge:  faster planes, bigger explosions, tremendous landscape, cannon hits causing puffs off the target, planes flying into pieces after a couple of cannon hits and so on.  It's the RoF engine, but the experience is very different.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

I find the planes in BOS much harder to fly effectively than RoF.  I suspect it's due to the added variables of manifold pressure, prop pitch, and fuel mixture.  I find it quite difficult to stay in the effective power band when I'm flying the Soviet planes, especially the La-5. 

[MengJiao]

I find the planes in BOS much harder to fly effectively than RoF.  I suspect it's due to the added variables of manifold pressure, prop pitch, and fuel mixture.  I find it quite difficult to stay in the effective power band when I'm flying the Soviet planes, especially the La-5.

I usually play in easy/normal mode these days so I don't notice any particular differences in engine and prop control between RoF and BoS.  EG. on the "normal" US BoS server, you get your plane sitting on the runway with the engine running.  I just put the throttle on max and stay on the runway until I can lift a little and pull up the landing gear.  not that diffferent from taking off in RoF except for the gear up part.

[Silent Disapproval Robot]

If you take the leap into the world of complex engine management, it adds a whole new realm of difficulty.  Trying to fly while keeping one eye on water and oil temps, oil pressure, manifold pressure, tachometer, fuel mixture, and trying to remember your prop pitch and oil and water radiator settings can be ridiculously challenging. 

[jomni]

Manifold pressure,  prop pitch,  fuel mixture?

You guys should start flying civilian planes first in FSX / X-Plane before going to combat. :D

[Stryker07]

This is why I feel you really need a joystick + throttle combo to fly any kind of sim from WWII up. Every thing you do with the aircraft requires a change of some kind of setting, be it trim, prop pitch, super charger, etc. Trying to do all that with a key board would be maddening.