IL 2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles

Rating:
Summary: NOT for the casual flight sim folk
Review: If you are a hardcore flight sim fan, this is for you. If, on the other hand, you have a more balanced interest in gaming, or are a flight sim novice, stay far away from this title. I originally bought it because of good buzz about the game. However, since playing it and doing some additional research, I have found the comments on pluses and minuses made by gamers and magazines to be right on target.
PLUS:
-Great graphics
-Tremendous variety of aircraft to fly
-Good mission editor

Minuses:
-Godlike AI gunnery. Seemingly limitless enemy ammo fired like a laser. Even through clouds/fog/etc. (seems like a simple patch)
-Even at 8x game speed, some missions make you feel like you need a crew rest period
-Single-player missions seem to have no soul to them. A very cold game.
-While there are a variety of ways to change the difficulty level and plane management system, it seems to work out to be either expert mode or shallow arcade style. Hard to find a middle ground

-Quick reference card isn't. Way too much info squeezed on it at about a 6 font.

In all fairness, I have not tried the multi-player mode, which I understand is quite good. Bottom line, if you like hard-core flight sims, get this in a heartbeat. If you are a casual flight simmer, fly somewhere else.

Rating:
Summary: Zzzzzzzzz
Review: If you like staring at splash screens and listening to your
hard drive spin, you'll love this game. Once you actually
break through to the flying part, it's reasonably well
constructed, although nothing like as revolutionary as the
reviews would lead you to believe. But the mechanical parts,
the set up, the campaign selection, the options -- are
pure rubbish. And the amount of time it takes to load is
just flat amateurish. It's earned a proud place on my
"little used" file, and it's likely to stay there.
Save your money.

Rating:
Summary: Wow - Amazing
Review: If you like WW2 flight sims, nothing compares to this game. I still cant get over how beautiful the grafx in this game are. There are many planes to chose from, lots that you dont see in other flight sims. The negative reviews were right about the imposibly accurate AI, but those issues and others have been addressed in a patch. Also, a free addon will be released that add's even more planes. I see its currently listed for [$$], for that price you cant go wrong. I paid [more], and considered it a bargain price for the fine piece of software. Oh yeah, online gaming is great fun too, and the single missions and pilot career gives almost unlimited replay value.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic sim, attention to detail...some flaws persistant
Review: If you're looking for a realistic WW2 flight simulator - look no further, this is it. Every other sim is inferior (except niche products like dedicated online simulators - and this only because this sim is not a dedicated online one).

Many planes flyable, even more flown by AI. Fantastic attention to detail, flight models getting refined in subsequent patches. More planes are expected as add-ons, while user made skins (vast resurce of both historical and fictional are available) make the sim even better.

there are few negatives though. Somehow certain planes seem to be favored and given a somewhat unrealistic advantages. Others suffer from non-realistic disadvantages. This in no way spoils the big picture, but sometimes makes a hard core sim fanatic angry.

Special mention should go to the Fw 190 forward view. It is rather limiting, to say the least. A thorough study about this has been brought up with real Fw 190 from museum, but developers simply don't care. With Fw 190 being one of the two mainstay German fighters throughout the war, this flaw gets even more pronounced.

Still, the best WW2 flight sim out there. 4 stars only because of Fw 190 forward view.

Rating:
Summary: Best WW2 flight simulator!!!
Review: IL2:FB will include all original IL2Sturmovik aircraft and it will add following flyable aircraft.

Ju-87D-3 Two seat dive bomber / ground attack aircraft
Ju-87G-1 Two seat tank buster / ground attack aircraft
Bf-109G-14 Fighter
Bf-109G-10 Fighter
Bf-109K-4 Fighter
FW-190D-9 Fighter. 1944 model
FW-190D-9 Fighter. 1945 model with MW50
FW-190F-8 Fighter-bomber
FW-190A-9 Fighter
He-111H-2 Multi-crewed bomber
He-111H-6 Multi-crewed bomber / torpedo bomber
Me-262A-1a Jet fighter
Me-262A-2a Jet fighter-bomber
B-239 (Brewster Buffalo F2A) Fighter.
Hurricane Mk I Fighter
TB-3 Multi-crewed bomber
La-5 Fighter
La-5F Fighter
La-7 2x20mm ShVAK cannons Fighter
La-7 3x20mm B-20 cannons Fighter
I-153 M-62 Fighter
I-153P Fighter
Hurricane Mk IIB Fighter
Hurricane Mk IIC Fighter
Hurricane Mk II with Russian cannons and MGs Fighter
P-47D-10 Fighter / fighter-bomber
P-47D-27 Fighter / fighter-bomber
P-40E Fighter
P-40M Fighter P-40 field mode with Soviet M-105P engine Fighter
In total with IL-2:FB and IL-2 installation you'll get 129 aircraft, at least 80 of which are flyable!
This is a must get flight simulator to any aviation enthusiast.

Rating:
Summary: Wow
Review: It seems the graphics are even better than in IL2 Sturmovik. I think the sounds are better as well. If you haven't tried either Forgotten Battles or IL2 Sturmovik, you haven't experienced the best combat flight simulators around.

Rating:
Summary: Sweet
Review: Just got this game yesterday. In my opinion this is the best flight sim out there. Lock on due out in June 2003 may top IL2 forgotten battles, but since it deals with a different time period, I know I will be flying both of them for quite sometime.

Finally get to fly my favorite plane with a cockpt the Me-262. The Me-262 does not like big throttle response in this game or the engines will catch on fire lol. I'll bet this plane is pretty realistic regarding WW2 technology. Got to be really careful flying it, but the full cockpit version was worth the wait. It kills anything in the air with a good pilot behind the controls.

Love the new maps also and online play.

No flight sim tops this game right now.

Rating:
Summary: worth it for the updates
Review: Now that the IL-2: FB Ace Expansion Pack is out -- an expansion, not a stand-alone -- the original IL-2 FB continues to be worth getting. I've been able to get FB to work well on a late-model Pentium, with an ordinary Logitech Wingman joystick, combined with CH Pedals. The pedals simulate real-life rudder pedals and make the controls more responsive -- and as a trained pilot I can appreciate the sim better. This sim is very realistic, and more flyable than, say, MiG Alley.

The FB scenery is gorgeous, with very great detail around Stalingrad and Leningrad. Indeed, a low flight over Leningrad will be a virtual tour of what is now the St. Petersburg skyline. Only the German lines are almost in sight of the city.

As for the complaints about difficulty, it helps if you toggle off the complicated engine management when you create a pilot in a campaign, and your gunnery will be helped if you slow the time-speed to the minimum (1/4) and tighten the view. If this sim seems difficult, remember that many Soviet pilots went into combat with all of 10 hours' flight training, total. You have the Quick Missions to train on your favorite aircraft and even those of the enemy, which is more than the original pilots did.

I strongly recommend FB for sim aficionados. The Ace Expansion Pack will complement your FB copy nicely, and even the AEP exotica aircraft (Spitfire V, YP-80, Me163, etc.) will possibly save you the cost of the recent Normandy flight sims. However, I keep returning to the Soviet and Finnish sectors, in a time when the flying was desperate and the enemy was at the door.

Rating:
Summary: Puts CombatFlightSimulator to shame
Review: quite simply, a must have for anyone with a hi-end machine that wants the finest in flight sims. online combat and coop scene is OFF THE HOOK and usually really active and friendly. I bought the original IL2 and didnt expect to really play it too much, it ended up being the single most played game of 2002 for me. play it in OpenGL and crank up the details and drink it in. the level of detail is unreal. the netcode is perfect and stable and mature. i cant say it enough.

This game makes Microsoft and microprose sims look like highschool science projects.

Rating:
Summary: A must-have
Review: Simply put, this is the most fun I've had on my computer since the days of Aces over Europe, if not ever, period. Both online and offline are extremely engaging due to the superb netcode and great dynamic campaign, respectively.

This is one of the few titles in recent memory that not only lives up to the hype but exceeds it. Despite being highly impressed with the rest of the game, I did not buy the original IL-2 Sturmovik because of the lackluster engine modeling, which has been rectified (and then some!) in FB. If you have any interest in combat aviation, this is a must-buy, must-play, can't-put-it-down simulation.