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- Authentic World War II atmosphere
- Engage in more than 50 thrilling missions from famous historical battles over Eastern and Western Europe and fly historically accurate aircraft
- Flexible difficulty level system - from arcade to realistic simulation
- Thrilling multiplayer mode support customization - choose the color scheme of your plane and install your choice of weapons
- Cutting edge, highly detailed visuals, realistic sound and original music from Jeremy Soule
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Product Description:
IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey is based around the large-scale aerial combat and ground military operations of World War II. Players can participate in some of the war's most famous battles piloting fighters, battle planes and heavy bombers across a range of thrilling missions. There are five theatres of war to engage in, The Battle of Britain, Stalingrad, Berlin, Sicily and Korsun' representing the main airborne battles of World War II in Europe. It also boasts an all new damage effects engine as well as advanced environmental visuals enriching the game play. Players can see real time damage to the aircraft such as holes in the wings and trail lines during dogfights. IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey features hundreds of airplanes taking part in air battles. The unique environmental engine also produces highly detailed, realistic landscapes that allow players to see breathtaking ground support actions. Amazon.com Product Description:
Take to the skies once again in the latest title in the successful IL-2 Sturmovik series. IL-2 Sturmovik Birds of Prey is the most ambitious title to date as it features scalable gameplay geared towards newcomers to flying games, as well as the more seasoned flight sim fans alike.
Realistic Aerial Detail
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Intense Multiplayer Modes
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WWII Atmosphere
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 | Synopsis
IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey is based around the large-scale aerial combat and ground military operations of World War II. Players can participate in some of the War’s most famous battles piloting fighters, battle planes, and heavy bombers across a range of thrilling missions. There are six theatres of war to engage in – The Battle of Britain, Stalingrad, Berlin, Sicily, The Battle of the Bulge and Korsun; representing the main airborne battles of World War II in Europe. The game also boasts an all new damage effects engine as well as advanced environmental visuals enriching the game play. Players can see real time damage to the aircraft such as holes in the wings and trail lines during dog fights. Key Game Features: - Authentic World War II atmosphere: Cutting edge, highly-detailed visuals bring the epic battles to life
- Engage in more than 50 thrilling missions: Relive 5 famous historical battles over Eastern and Western Europe
- Historically accurate aircrafts: Experience over 40 planes including fighters, battle planes and bombers. Learn to master the Spitfire, Mustang, Messerschmitt and many more...
- Flexible difficulty level system: Choose settings from arcade to realistic simulation to cater for all flying skills
- Thrilling multiplayer modes: 4 modes to choose from Dogfight, Team Deathmatch, Ground Strike, and Capture the Airstrip
- Realistic sound effects: engine and gun sound effects recorded from period planes with original music from Jeremy Soule as a backdrop to the frenetic action.
Choose from a large array of planes!
IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey features hundreds of airplanes taking part in air battles and allows you to pilot 40 of the most recognisable planes from the period. The unique environmental engine also produces highly detailed, realistic landscapes that allow players to see breathtaking ground support actions from above. |
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Average Rating : 
Rating : - Gorgeous but flawed
The graphics in this game are stunning and the sense of immersion is fantastic. But to play the game in the Realistic or Simulation difficulty settings, you'll need a flight stick of some kind. Using the gamepad, it's far too easy to tilt the control stick all the way, causing the plane to spin due to turbulence on your wings.
And you really should play with "Realistic" difficulty! Part of the experience of a flight sim of this era is to feel how those old prop planes flew. Their limited speed and lack of computer assisted flight creates an interesting experience. Those planes could barely generate the thrust needed to push enough air over the wings to generate lift and it's amazing how much danger those pilots were in. Like Shadow of the Colossus on the PS2, most of the challenge, and the sense of achievement, of this game comes from overcoming the limited controls. For example, you will find yourself climbing altitude just so you have enough kinetic energy to do trickier maneuvers when attacking.
So I bought a Saitek AV8R joystick and that's when problems with the game became most apparent. There is no way to stop your plane when you land (one mission requires that you do so). And the dead zone on the stick is just a little too large, making precision aiming difficult. To make matters worse, there's no way to reconfigure the buttons, leaving you with a "missile" button that almost never does anything (missiles were rare and clumsy in that era). Considering this is pretty much the *only* flight stick still being made for the 360, this is quite annoying.
Saitek PS41 Aviator Joystick for use with PC or Xbox 360 Game Console
There was supposed to be a patch that fixed these control issues, but after a quick search, it looks like the publisher has axed plans for the 360 patch.
Ultimately, I have mixed feelings about this game. It is an excellent experience and you can tell the developers have a love of the genre, but the execution is slightly flawed. If you have a PS3 or a PC capable of playing this game, I would recommend getting buying it on either of those platforms. You'll be able to find much cheaper and better USB flight sticks and the bugs will have been patched.
But on the other hand, if you like Ace Combat 6 and just want something fresh, setting this game to "Arcade" will give you a very similar experience. It's obvious the makers of this game were influenced by AC6 when you see the virtual HUD, and everything from how the planes control to the amount of damage required to shoot down an enemy feel nearly identical. The only major difference gameplay-wise is that smart missiles didn't exist in WW2.
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