What is IL2 Sturmovik?
Well, only the best World War Two Flight Sim in the world today!
IL2 Sturmovik? Pacific Fighters? Ace Expansion pack? Forgotten Battles? IL2 1946? What's it all about? All the above are part of the same game, merged into an awesome series that has now culminated in IL2 1946 which comprises the entire series on one DVD, aka 'Sturmi' for short.
By the way, do you have no idea what an IL2 Sturmovik is? It's a famed Russian ground attack aircraft from World War 2, aptly called 'The Black Death' by the Germans.
IL2 Screenshot: The IL2 Sturmovik
Back in 2002 I heard of some game called IL2 Sturmovik, which was getting rave fan reviews. Before long I bumped into the IL2 Demo. Years earlier I'd played the popular Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe (aka SWOTL), and wished for the days when computer power could deliver something more realisitic.
Well, after playing the IL2 Demo I knew those days had come!
If you have any interest in World War Two flight sims, then you owe it to yourself to give this sim a try. It's not easy - but that's why it's maintained such a devotion from the community. With online play and an editor to createyour own missions (the Full Mission Builder), gameplay is pretty much endless. Here's a link to the IL2 Demo, at Download.com:
Download IL2 Sturmovik Demo at Download.com
(open in a new window)
A quick news flash!
Before going out and buying the individual components of the series, STOP! The entire series is now available on one DVD, including the 1946 "What-If" expansion pack. That's all you need to buy. There should be a final free add on, coming in earlish 2008 with more maps and very nice additional objects. That'll be the much-awaited version '4.09'.
An IL2 Sturmovik brief history - the big picture
IL2 Sturmovik came out in 2001. Then there were add-ons, namely Forgotten Battles, the Ace Expansion Pack, Pacific Fighters and in 2006, the Pe-2 add-on. In 2007 came Sturmoviks Over Manchuria and the Luft '46 expansion pack. But remember, it's all now wrapped up on one DVD: IL2 Sturmovik 1946.
There's a good summary of the series here: Wikipedia IL2 Sturmovik article.
IL2 Screenshot: The Incredible Me-262 Cockpit
What makes the IL2 Sturmovik/Forgotten Battles/Pacific Fighters series so good?
General modelling When I first tried to takeoff in IL2 Sturmovik, I couldn't figure out why I kept running of the left side of the runway. After some questions in the Ubisoft forums, I found that the effect of prop wash on the rudder was modelled! Wow, nice! Gotta apply a bit of rudder on take off or you'll be in the ditch.
Flight model The general feel of flying and modelling of individual aircraft in the game is considered to be pretty good. Not perfect of course, but a huge improvement over other sims.
Graphics modelling The graphics are also a huge part of the game. Just look at the beautiful IL2/Pacific Fighters screenshots on this site to see what I mean.
Computer requirements You need a decent computer setup, but not a monster. The screenshots on this page were taken from my old computer, which had these specs:
- P4 2.8 GHz
- 1.5 GB RAM (1 GB is plenty though, 500MB may not be enough)
- ATi 9800XT 256MB Graphics Card
The Full Mission Builder! Yep, that's what this site is all about. Making your own missions is easy and opens up all sorts of possibilities for the creative juices to flow. Don't know what it's all about? Check out my IL2 Full Mission Builder review.
Flight sim peripherals IL2 came at the right time. Not too long after starting with the game, I heard of an interesting infra-red head tracking device called TrackIR. This device, the latest being the TrackIR 4 with Vector Expansion, is basically a standard peripheral for all flight simmers. It completely changes any flight sim and adds immeasureably to that much sort after immersion.
Other common peripherals are rudder pedals (Simped, from Germany, is the #1 choice). Also a HOTAS (Hands On Throttle And Stick) set up is very common. That's one of the great things about flight sims - though a little expensive, flight simming really lends itself to physical immersion with all these great peripherals. CH Products are very well repected for ruggedness and quality.
CH Products have a multi-function panel, basically a board with buttons and switches on it that might be the final step in removing the keyboard from play.
It's not just the hardware that helps with the immersion for IL2 FB/PF. Thanks to advances in speech recognition, we can control our AI flights with voice command, simulating the use of a radio. Shift_E's VAC (Voice Activated Commands) is a great software utility which again pushes the immersion level yet higher.
Screenshot: Spitfire vs Me-109 in Africa
The community Yep, despite the 'heated debates' over flight models, tactics and modelling, or partly because of it, the IL2 Sturmovik community is really strong and thriving. It's centered at the fairly new 1C forum here: IL2 Sturmovik Developer's Forum 1C: Maddox Games is the company behind the games development. The long-standing publisher's forums are at the UbiSoft site: IL2 Sturmovik Publishers Forum.
So will you give the IL2 Demo a try? I hope so! You'll be glad you did!
Happy flying,
Flying Nutcase
January 7th 2008
P.S. That demo link again... Get the IL2 Sturmovik Demo
