IL-2 Battle of Stalingrad Pre-Order Available Now

Gents,

It appears that the IL-2 Battle of Stalingrad game is real and will be available to play in beta format as early as this autumn.

http://il2sturmovik.com/

Hit the link to read the pre-order info and see a short promo movie advertising the game (CGI, but very pretty).

I have pre-ordered the game (you'd think I'd have learned from Cliffs of Dover, huh?) and will be the guinea pig if necessary to find out if it's worth our collective time.

I'm confident that if we start flying the Eastern Front we'll be shipping out for the Russians, so start studying the LAGG-3, YAK-1, and La-5 fighters. Also the IL-2 AM-38 and Pe-2 (87 and 110) if you're interested more in the mud-mover role.

I suspect the LAGG-3 will be cannon fodder for marauding 109Fs and 190 A-3s so as a group we'll probably go for the YAK or the La-5. We'll make that decision together, though, when it comes time (if we switch to this game).

Anyway, check out the vids and the info and mark your calendar.

I'm sure that I will do the pre order thing this weekend.And I do enjoy a good ground attack mission from time to time.

.....but which one should I buy?

Some videos that show info about the game (you may recognize some of the voices):

I think that I will order the Premium for the extra two planes and the early access.

alpine wrote:I think that I will order the Premium for the extra two planes and the early access.

After watching the videos me too.

Hey boss,I might be getting a little ahead of things,but the squad tag thingy for BOS seems to only accept 10 characters,I can't apply 'No.401_alpine' in full.

I registered as No401_StiC without realizing our Squadron tag would appear before our user name in the forums.

Edit
Fixed

The tag is changeable. Just register as Alpine or StiC. My tag is No.401_. I've registered as Wolverine. You can change it in the account settings I believe.

It certainly appears that one of the add on aircraft that will come after launch will be a P40. In the event that the P40 is added to the game, that will definitely be my aircraft of choice. Used to fly P40s in the old IL-2 games. Wonderful aircraft and armed with plenty of firepower.

This will get expensive I bet.

So does this mean that Hooves and Abortedman are back in action?

DNR: Not with us. They're active on the IL-2: Battle of Stalingrad forums and live on the West coast where the event took place so they got an invite. I imagine they'll be flying BoS when it releases and we may run across them in that respect. They've done a great job of getting some footage and info out about the new game, though, and we thank them for it.

A few more videos:

Drew from the Giantbombcast was invited as well and he mentioned that the branches and trunks are two different entities. You might get away with brushing the tree tops but hit a trunk......

Can't wait.

StiC

Jason was kind enough to throw some invites out to the active forums members on the West Coast.  I figured I should take the camera to get the most info I could for those that did not get such a cool opportunity.  Lots of free drinks, some smokin hot booth babes and an Aircraft carrier made for a VERY cool night.

As far as BoS in concerned, the game we got to play was the early alpha, on easy with no track IR or rudder pedals.  So getting some definitive "feel" for the aircraft was hard.  After a while I got used to the thrustmaster Twistie stick and was able to put the hurt on some 109's with the LAGG.  But again the AI was on re-re mode, so they didn't put up much of a fight.  This whole night was set up for the press, and it needed to be easy not to scare away the Journalists.  Although I only recall seeing one guy bag a Lagg with the F-4.

I have since gotten to play the alpha a few more times since the event at Jasons Home,  I am helping him and his team evaluate the Oculus Rift for BoS.  The Team took what I found and decided it looks good, so they have now put in Native support.  I haven't gotten to play that build but If I do, I cant tell you anyways as Ill be under NDA..... nanny nanny poo poo  :P  

As far as my impression of the game in its current state, I'm Very impressed.  14 months ago, this was an idea, now its a beautiful believable winter landscape with excellent sounding, realistically handling Aircraft carving through the frigid Russian air!

My favorite thing about the sim was the lighting.  How it interacted with both the ground and the planes.  

In my subsequent play time in the game, Jason showed me is Sweet FX profile for BoS and it made the now come even more alive than the stock game, which was very impressive.   Im sure that this product is going to hit the goal that they have set of making a solid running product that delivers a believable, fun, new experience that we as flight simmers require to fill our Virtual stick Coffers.

Hey guys this is happening tomorrow morning, it will be in Russian but the next one will be in English, wither way its our chance to see a little of the game and how its coming!
http://www.twitch.tv/il2sturmovik

I am so tempted to buy this but after COD I just can ot bring myself to do it. The south Pacific Peso is plummeting at the moment so the more I wait the more expensive it becomes but hey the last game dropped to $10 not long after it flopped on the market.

While I understand the hesitation. I would suggest forgetting about what happened with CloD and instead look at what RoF is and has become. AS it is THAT team that is managing the release and production of BoS. The team that had anything to do with CloD failure is LONG gone. "loft" at 777 is as professional as they come. They haven't missed one production goal to date. Because they work hard and keep their eye on the tasks at hand without getting distracted on features that aren't needed right now. I don't imagine BoS will be dramatically going down in price anytime soon. But I could see it going to 69.00 for the premium package after release.

But keep in mind we will all be flying it. And as soon as you pop into TS and everyone is on a mission in BoS, your going to wish you had it.

So the early access is out. Its a pretty amazing early alpha. The aircraft feels very good. The sense of flight is right on. There are a few things that arent turned on yet. Such as the vvi gauge. The Tail wheel lock and a few other minor things. But over all its suprisingly bug lite. I hole those of you that preordered premium get to try it soon.

I downloaded it yesterday and tried to get in last night but it wouldn't connect. I just assumed they weren't ready for us. I'll try again tonight.

It opened up at about 1230 am russian time so that was 1230 pm here on the west coast. 330pm on the east coast. Be sure you have activated your key on the front page of their website.

I had a chance to set up controls and fly briefly. Engine start-up is simplified. Gone are the individual magneto switches and fuel cocks. However, mixture and radiator and such are still very much there so in general I'm not too broken up about it. In all of the time I've played CloD, I've never once used the magneto switches during flight to solve a problem.

I flew full realism (all helpers turned off) and found the flying to be quite pleasant! Very good sense of being in the air. Side slip very much in evidence. I don't think trim is working yet. The aircraft certainly look fantastic, but there is some lag (ha) when the skin is being applied when switching to external views. I hope that will be fixed.

Sound is great. Controls feel tight. Very smooth performance on my machine (1st gen i7 and a GTX 580 1.5gb). This will obviously change as they add more features and effects, but they've got a good starting point.

I need to figure out how to set up the 'snap to gunsight' view so I can quickly zoom in and out. External views are great and include all of the ones you know and love from CloD and the old IL-2 games.

The map is very pleasant to look at even though it's just snow. It might get a little tiresome fighting over the snow for a long time though, so I hope they release a new map as soon as they can (summer version of the same map would be a good place for them to start).

Oh, bail out animation is great! I tested it and it was very smooth and fluid. It goes to third person, but it's still better than magically disappearing from your cockpit and falling through the structure of the aircraft.

All in all, I'm eager to get back into the LaGG and fly some more, even though it's just alpha.

Stay tuned for more impressions.

Flying the LaGG was a lot of fun. I still need to finalize my control set up, optimize graphics settings and learn to read Russian.

Pulse pounding~