UBI Soft IL-2 - Forgotten Battles Simulation Review

Overall Rating
 4 of 5

Visitors rate this review
5.00 of 5,
1 votes

Summary:
Improving upon IL-2 Sturmovik, this sequel manages to deliver what the previous title lacked: A random generated campaign.
In my opinion this is not enough to rate this title as a "sequel" but instead as a "addon".
One of the best features of the game is the fact that it has around 70 diferent airplanes to fly. All of them VERY diferent from each other.
However brilliant, Forgotten Battles ss a very expensive sequel to the most brilliant propeller flight simulator ever done, IL2- Sturmovik. As such, it will be rated 4.

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Summary:
IL2-Sturmovik is a superb game. Its playable, has scalable difficulty, is very realistic and athmospheric. Unfortunately, theres very little reason to buy the 'sequel', Forgotten Battles when the original is available as a budget release.

The original Sturmovik was not without its faults. The worst of which was an ugly, un-intuitive front-end interface and a frankly boring campaign. The 'sequel' doesn't address the first complaint at all, and deals with the other by completely removing a scripted campaign altogether in favour of the type of randomly generated affair also seen in Strike Fighters: Project 1. There have been numerous additions and improvements too, but these are very much in the spririt of third party add-ons (even though they aren't) and are of little consequence to the casual gamer. Yes, Forgotten Battles is better overall than CFS3, but in its own way its almost as dissapointing..

In my opinion, Maddox games has failed to 'update' the Il2 games sufficiently. Some of the game is absolutely state-of-the-art, for sure, but unfortunately there is so much content from the original game that FB just feels like a very expensinve expansion.

Overall Rating
 2 of 5

Visitors rate this review
4.50 of 5,
2 votes

Price Paid:  $10.00

Summary:
I think this version was designed for the online player first, because the single player experience is very lacking. Hopefully the many problems that are plaguing the game will be ifxed in a patch but as it stands now, the bugs kill any enjoyment the game might offer.

Overall Rating
 5 of 5

Summary:
The sequel to IL2, it ads some important features, notably a dynamic campaign that gives this game the longevity it deserves. In the original IL2 you had a static campaign that truly detractred fromt he overall appeal of the game. If it were not for two dedicated guys programing random campaigns for free, maybe we would not be here discussing this sequel.
Overall it feels like an adon to IL2 but for the true flight sim fan, you can not miss it.

Overall Rating
 3 of 5

Price Paid:  $40.00 from store

Summary:
I bought forgotten battles because I liked the original IL2 so much. This game is a good upgrade, although I agree that it may be a bit much to charge full price for what amounts to an upgrade. But still, it is a game that stands on its own so, whatever.

Forgotten battles is really good and has the same positive attributes as the original. However, I have had problems with the sound (I have a modern up to date PC with a mainstream SB audigy sound card). I also have problems with game stutter, especially in the beginning of a flight, but then it seems to clear up fairly well. My joystick also will suddenly not roll the aircraft to the right and /or not apply full rear stick (for nose up). Once it starts doing this, Im a dead duck and have to reboot my machine to get it working again. I've checked everything, all new drivers etc etc etc and it still does it. I'm suspicious it's tied in with the sound card problems, which is mighty annoying after paying full retail for the "upgrade". Especially considering that I have all mainstream quality components and ubi has built a game that has conflicts with a sound blaster (as described on their own website). What kind of silliness is that?

Anyway on to the game - There are several new models to try out on this game, including an obscure Russian rocket plane (similar to the Me163 Komet), the magnificent P47 thunderbolt (with its eight 50 cals), and the Me 262 with it's absurdly powerful quad-cannons.

The only thing I dont like is that the tail gunners on the bombers are incredibly deadly and will kill you or smoke your aircraft in a new york second. I don't believe gunners on bombers/recon planes were THAT on the money. Historicaly speaking very few fighters were really taken out by gunners, but in IL2 I'd rather tangle with a trio of ace piloted FW190's than get within a 1000 yards of an FW189 recon plane set to "ace"..so that's not really realistic.

Another thing is that I can swear that virtually all of the Russian and/or allied (for russian use) planes are superior performers when confronted with German planes from the same year. If I select an FW190 from 1942 and then go up against a Hawker Hurricane from 1942 or Yak or Mig or P39 airacobra from the same year...FORGET IT. You'll stall out of the sky trying to get away, much less get into position. I've always read (in my American history books) that the FW190 was an outstanding fighter bomber in all years of its production (with the exception of engine overheating in the early models).

And to double check I select the allied aircraft and fly against the FW190 and down he goes, with EASE. This same scenario can be repeated over and over again with other year consistent German vs Russian combinations. The Russian planes fly better than the German planes consistently. Is there a bit of Russian pride built into their flight models? Possibly even subconscience "unintentional" pride programmed in, based on what the software guys were taught about Russian airplanes when they were young? Many of the designers are probably old enough to have been educated under the old Soviet system, and I think those old biases have made it through to their modelling.

The only exception I can see is the Me109G model from 1944 which does fly sumpremely. The Me262 is very fast too, but everyone knows you can't make that airplane a slug and get away with it. (but the engines catch fire and overheat spontaneously constantly)

The Hawker Hurricane flies so well I can shoot down ANY German fighter all the way up to the Me262 (if it doesnt run away from me). I think this is absurd, the Hurricane could not tangle with later German Me's or FW's without having its cloth covered tail shot off. But in IL2 if you're in a Hurricane the Me's and FW's will go down in flames. (vive versa if youre a hun going against some Tally-hos)

Which brings us to the sophistication of the flight dynamic modelling. Many of the planes appear to have preset "canned" flight characteristics. The ones that stall easily all seem to stall easily in the same way. The ones that fly powerfully and don't stall easily all seem to exhibit this characteristic in the same way. I know there is only so far they can go with what can be a very complicated and sophisticated pursuit, but I think refinement is in order. These guys are good, they just need to swallow their Russian pride, give credit where credit is due for the German planes and recharacterize many of the German ariplanes. And strive for more realistic handling characteristics for all the planes (instead of canned repetitive flight dynamic models).