Your views on Il2 1946

[AJ!]

Hi peeps

can anyone give me their views on Il2 1946? I was concidering buying the game but i want to know what everyone else thought of it first

[Biggles]

If you are new in the IL-2 world: Buy it!!!!!!!!!!

That is, IF you want an excellent flight sim. with loads of things to do, and loads of planes to fly!

Here is what you get in one installation of the game:

IL-2 Sturmovik
IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles(IL-2 Sturmovik 2 if you wish)
IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles: Ace Expansion pack
Pacific Fighters
Sturmoviks over Manchuria addon
Pe-2 addon

If you have all of those, then you won't need 1946. If you only have one or two of 'em, you should base your buying on this:

Do you enjoy playinh IL-2 Sturmovik OR any of the games mentioned above?

If the answer is "no". Do not buy it.
If the answer is "yes", or "I don't know", I would say that you should buy it.

After all, it's a heck of a load stuff in the same package, about 4-5 GB on your harddrive, and all on one DVD. Saves time, money and space (money, considering it's actually cheap, or so it was for me anyway )

My view. But you just wait,there ought to be someone who can dig up anything bad about it too......

[FIREWALL]

Hi All I go to ubi and all i see is preorder ?

[Letum]

Originally Posted by FIREWALL

Hi All I go to ubi and all i see is preorder ?

Beats me! Try somewhere else.
People in the USA have had problems buying IL2 1946.

IL2 is a great flight Sim! Find a good server or group that has a Team Speak community and your playing will improve immensely.

I play more IL2 than SH3.

[bradclark1]

Ubi just says Spring 2007.

[oche]

I bought thru amazon, and amazon shipped thru NWS store.

The game has all of the previous releases of IL2, so it's a great buy. Many paint schemes for aircraft. Several new good static campaigns but i was hoping to see more dynamic campaigns for the new aircraft or at least for some of the other new maps included which can only be accessed thru Editing (single mission or built campaign) or thru multiplaying and fixed static campaigns and single missions.

[joea]

Get it!!

[Kapitan_Phillips]

Originally Posted by Letum

I play more IL2 than SH3.

Blasphemy!!

[MudMarine]

Guys,
I have IL2-1946, Have X52 problems with Vista. That Dang new system has a load of Gremlins written in the code which plays hell with X52. The X52 boys have not updated to Vista. Hope they take care of it, like ta get back flyin.

[ajrimmer42]

Get IL2 1946, it's easily the best combat flight sim out there!

[Heibges]

Originally Posted by Letum

Beats me! Try somewhere else.
People in the USA have had problems buying IL2 1946.

IL2 is a great flight Sim! Find a good server or group that has a Team Speak community and your playing will improve immensely.

I play more IL2 than SH3.

I live in US, and DL'd it because my DVD Drive was on the fritz. No problems and worked great.

As far as online games go, the flightsim community is hard to beat. You just don't have the arguments you see with SH2/DC or SH3 MP.

[Sailor Steve]

Originally Posted by Biggles

Here is what you get in one installation of the game:

IL-2 Sturmovik
IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles(IL-2 Sturmovik 2 if you wish)
IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles: Ace Expansion pack
Pacific Fighters
Sturmoviks over Manchuria addon
Pe-2 addon

You just sold me, brother! It will be my first purchase once my rig is up and running. Well, after SH4, and Pirates (can't believe I still don't have it) and CSF3 (just so I can play Over Flanders Fields).

[NeonSamurai]

Moved to flight sim section

[TteFAboB]

After my regular IL2 rebooted while exiting from it I've been having unsolvable problems with the game's window "focus". The game launches but remains in a sort of background mode. The mouse is still on the desktop which makes it impossible to control the views in the game.

Installing everything again, patch by patch, is a nightmare, so it's much easier having IL 46 at hand just to be able to make an easy re-install.

[Chock]

In answer to the original post, here is a comparison between IL2, BoB2 and CFS3, which might help you decide, note that this is of course my personal view, others may disagree with my assessment:

Flight modelling
Of all the combat flight simulators, I would say IL2 has the best flight model (although the recently patched BoB2 comes very close). But neither of them are anywhere near as convincing flight model-wise as something like Condor. Then again, that sim doesn't have to calculate bullets whizzing about all over the place and formations of aircraft. So on balance IL2 wins it in the flight model stakes. However, in the ease of use stakes, Combat Flight Simulator 3 is worth a look, as it's definitely far easier to fly the aircraft in this sim than others. Nevertheless, most people want realism in a sim rather than an easy flight model which holds your hand a bit too much, so this is a call that comes down to what you want out of a sim. If you don't like crashing when you take off or land, give BoB2 a miss, as it is very unforgiving in this regard, but the flight model once you're in the air is pretty damn convincing (as long as you remember to patch the sim, it was bloody awful in its first incarnation). Note that the current BoB2 patch does cause one or two minor issues however.

What you get for your money
If you like free add-ons and mods however, CFS3 is beyond compare in this aspect, with things like the (excellent) WW1 free add-on Over Flanders Fields available for it. Having said that, you are not exactly short of already-included options in IL2 1946, so I think most would agree that IL2 1946 is the best value WW2 sim by a mile straight out of the box in this regard. BoB2 is limited in its scope with regard to aircraft because it concentrates on just one battle, so you don't get to fly many types. And there are some glaring ommissions, such as the lack of a Heinkel He-59, CR-42, Boutlon-Paul Defiant, and Blenheim. There are also no British bombers in the sim, which despite what many think, were used extensively during the Battle of Britain and were in fact one of the main reasons for a tactical shift by the Luftwaffe. Nevertheless, what you do get to fly is generally very well studied and implemented.

AI modelling and challenge
The AI for the enemies in IL2 is sometimes a bit questionable and I think BoB2 has it ever so slightly on this score, but on the whole it is reasonably challenging in IL2. The slightly better flight model in IL2 compensates for this however and will probably have you shooting down more aircraft, as it is easier to fly your aircraft on the edge of its performance in IL2. Both IL2 and BoB2's AI are markedly better than CFS3. When it comes to online flying however, IL2 is a clear winner, with more people flying this online, and much smoother connections being the norm, it is perfectly possible to run a server and fly your aeroplane on the same computer with lots of people connected in IL2. Online dogfighting is where IL2 really comes into its own.

Aircraft graphics
The graphics in IL2 for the aeroplanes is a hands-down winner, there is not another WW2 combat flight sim that even comes close to it in this department, so if you like admiring your aeroplane on external view, there's no other sim that does this better, although BoB2's external view does offer the possibility of having your external view bounce around a bit, which adds a certain realism to things. Also of note is the 'replay' system in IL2, this is far superior to any combat flight sim with the possible exception of Falcon, and one look at replays posted on YouTube will confirm this. BoB2 replays have no sound on them either, which is another minus point. Where cockpits are concerned, it's a pretty close-run thing between IL2 and BoB2, however, Track-IR is not as well implemented for BoB2 so I think IL2 just edges it here. CFS3's cockpits come a very poor third place, they are 'serviceable' although no lookers in comparison to either BoB2 or IL2. Track-IR works well enough in CFS3 though, so no worries there.

Terrain modelling
With regard to terrain, neither IL2 nor BoB2 (or CFS3 for that matter) are eye-poppingly beautiful when it comes to terrain, although of the three, CFS3 is probably the most accessible from a modding point of view (the modding possibilities in IL2 are almost non-existent apart from aircraft repaints). BoB2, graphics engine limits the possibilities in this arena, although it is, and has been, modded on occasion. I would however suggest that of the three WW2 sims, IL2 is the most CPU-friendly and its terrain graphics are probably the prettiest in standard form. Some people have reported some 'rubber-banding' and jitters in BoB2 when the graphics are on full-tilt, I've not experienced this myself, but it's been noted by some as I say. There's not much to choose between sky environments, but CFS3 does model clouds very well indeed, although in none of the three sims does the visibility due to clouds seem to affect the enemy AI that much.

Audio
I think most people agree that BoB2 has the best audio of the three.

Tactical options
IL2, BoB2 and CFS3 all offer 'wingman commands' via a menu or keypresses. CFS3's are the most limited, IL2's are the best, BoB2 somewhere in-between, although the fact that you can direct squadrons overall in BoB2 and then jump in the cockpit expands the scope here a little.

Campaigns
The campaigns in IL2, BoB2 and CFS3 are all not as good as they could be (although BoB2 lets you direct operations as well as fly missions, so it has the widest scope of the three), however, most people regard the faffing around you have to indulge in to play a simple pilot campaign in BoB2 as a definite minus point, and I'd have to say I agree on this score. IL2 and CFS3 offer a lot of extra campaigns and missions via the 'net (as if this is needed for IL2 1946 in the first place, as it is already fairly comprehensive). Of the three, I would think that CFS3 will make you feel more like you are actually 'involved' in a war. IL2's campaigns are varied in scope from a theatre point of view, but they are little more than a vaguely-connected series of single player missions, which is okay as far as it goes, but hardly pulls you in.

Something different
From an novelties standpoint, CFS3 is the only one that tried to push the envelope. One interesting aspect of CFS3 being the possibility to alter history with your actions. You can also have your pilot character 'grow' by tweeking things like their G-tolerance or ability to spot enemies further away by spending 'points' which you accrue as his or her career progresses. This didn't go down too well with many simmers when CFS3 was released, who regarded it as a bit too 'game-like'. I personally thought it was both a brave and innovative thing to do however, which stopped it being 'just another WW2 aeroploane sim', but I guess that's down to personal choice.

GUI
Both IL2 and BoB2 have appallingly bad front-end interfaces which look like the developers couldn't be bothered, although of the two, you could regard IL2's as business-like and it does the job adequately enough. CFS3's interface is far friendlier and way more attractive, but it does lend it something of a 'less serious' feel.

Performance issues
Load times for CFS3, IL2 and BoB2 are all reasonably okay, with BoB2 being the worst, followed by IL2, then CFS3 - which loads almost instantaneously, and all three have a 'fly again option' which cranks up very quickly. BoB2 is the most unstable of the three from the GUI, although it's generally okay once loaded and in the sim, CFS3 can occasionally cause problems which require it to be run in a compatibility mode and occasionally require a re-install. IL2 is usually solid as a rock with very few performance issues and as already stated is probably the most CPU-friendly of the three.

So, there you go, if you're only going to get one of these three, I would say IL2 1946 is probably the best choice, but they all have their merits and you can probably find all three of them for less than a tenner without too much trouble, so it's up to you. Hope this helped you.

Chock