My First Impressions

[CrazySchmidt]

Well I have had a very quick go of this today, as my Dad (RickRuski) had purchased it a week or so ago and decided to let me load it onto my machine for a quick look to see what I thought.
After about half an hour I had seen enough to know that I am bloody glad I didn't spend any of my money on it. Considering that the purchase price is the same as any other new title, I found it immediately disappointing in two major aspects.

1) Even with the graphics options set as high as they can go, it falls well short of what the IL-2 series offers in graphical splendour by a country mile.

2) To get the game looking half decent you need to have the graphics set extremely high. When they are set this high, the game becomes a frustrating slide show, this includes running with the latest patch. Also note, that PF runs very smoothly on my machine at the highest graphics settings.

Now I am absolutely sure that this game has some wonderful features and it is very fair to say that the aircraft and cockpit modelling/texturing is of a very good quality, but honestly, the over all look and feel is like a cartoon next to the IL-2 series!!

Sorry if I have upset any fans with these comments.

Cheers, CrazySchmidt.

[WhiskeyBravo]

You need to spend more than half an hour with it. Did you spend any time with the campaign? Thats almost a game in itself. For sure it's not perfect but behind the problems there's a great game bursting to get out. Pay a visit to the Shockwave forums for some tips on getting it to run better. The support from the devs is very good.

I don't think its an IL2FB beater by any stretch of the imagination, but its definately worth more than half an hour.

WB.

Not a fanboy but a fan of flight sims.

[CrazySchmidt]

Hi WhiskeyBravo,

Of course you are right, 0.5 hours is no time at all to give a new any thing a serious go, it was just an install, play, set max settings then play again type of thing.

I remember when I first downloaded the original IL-2 demo and tried it I thought it sucked because I hadn't spent the time to set it up properly and it looked like shit!

But what I did find with IL-2 once you had set it up properly, is that it did look right and it worked right and felt right and well... shit it is right. When one thinks of WWII air combat Sims the IL-2 series will be very hard to better.

This release from Shockwave is a good effort, but truly that is all that can be said for it, it is unfortunately a unpalatable regurgitation at best.

Personally I don't think Oleg will be knocked off his perch for a long time to come because the platform from which he launches his next sim is already clouds above the rest, so one can only imagine what graphics excellence will be on offer for BOB!

I for one am looking forward to it greatly.

Cheers, CS.

[keithb77]

I too put it aside after 30 minutes, but I've since gone back, dug out my old force-feedback joystick and now I'm an addict.

The graphics are dated but that really doesnt matter, what it does have is tremendous single-player immersion and a very challenging grass-field wind-in-the-hair flight-model.
BTW the terrain in BoB2 may not look as 'good' as the Il/2 terrain but England really does look quite like that, the Il/2 terrain looks very good, but I've never seen anywhere in the real-world that looks like it.

I've flown IL-2 since FB, got AEP, PF and all the patches, its excellent in several areas and appalling in others. BoB2 is the exact opposite....

I really hope 1C:BoB learns from all the good parts of BoB2 - if its just IL-2 with better graphics and a different map I wont be happy and I'm sure many others wont be either.

If you can, give BoB2 another chance!

Cheers,
Keith

[Flappy]

Gotta support the genre, I got it at Fry's here on launch day! Same with F4 AF, I have both earlier versions of each game, but I truly believe in Voting with my Money ( I know,call me old-fashioned) Impressions not too favorable at first...(blocky Forests,anyone?) but that isn't where its' decided. After patching to 2.02 to get rid of the annoying CTDs (or part of them),turned on some options,others off and headed for the "Big Show"_ BoB day!
There's nothing quite like boom and zoom with all those fat juicy 88's up there,now that a FURBALL!!! If I never figure out how to get the campaign to run right,(I never did in BOB) I'll still be happy with the memories of how smooth and responsive my Spit was dodging in between Flak,109's and the heavy,cumbersome Junkers craft! It was a BLAST!
I'm eagerly awaiting Maddox's foray,but I don't see how it'll go especially as hardware restrictive as its likely to be. Of course I'll buy it on Launch Day like I have all of his sims,but over 50 or so planes in the air at once? BoBII can do it ,even on (for now) modest spec machines...just takes scaling back a bit.
I can't imagine any amnt. of scaling to get BOB from maddox to run on my current system (which is not "Low-Powered) with over fifty or so AC in the air at once!

[IV/JG1_Oesau]

I've finally got my copy of BOBII and I admit I've struggled with certain aspects of the game. I think I was expecting too much and have felt a little let down.

I fully admit however that a major part of my problem is that I am way too familiar with IL2. Thinking back to my early days of IL2 I found it difficult and frustrating compared to the other (CFS2) combat sims I'd flown. My attachment to IL2 is I believe holding me back from really getting into BOB II. The other reason is that I'm in a squadron and my time is limited, therefore getting the most out of other titles is difficult.

Still, I have it and keep chipping away at it.

As for Olegs BOB and PCs. It's going to push the limits of the best machines available when it’s released, my box now (that plays IL2 very well) is not going to have a chance with decent settings. Think dual core machines here (well, if he develops with multi thread in mind which I might add is what F4 AF has now), 2 Gb RAM as standard, and a kick ass GPU.

[Osram]

1) Even with the graphics options set as high as they can go, it falls well short of what the IL-2 series offers in graphical splendour by a country mile.

I am probably biased, but for example both cockpits and external airplane models (apart from the two least important planes Defiant and Blenheim I) have way more polys than the Il2 series uses. However, I agree that for example the terrain does look more beautiful in Il2.

When they are set this high, the game becomes a frustrating slide show, this includes running with the latest patch.

The first patch did not adress fps. The second patch is a BIG fps boost and shipped a few days after you wrote your post :-/.

Also note, that PF runs very smoothly on my machine at the highest graphics settings.

[Osram]

I've flown IL-2 since FB, got AEP, PF and all the patches, its excellent in several areas and appalling in others. BoB2 is the exact opposite....

Yes. It is bad luck that Oleg and us will cover the same theater, but at least the "philosophies" and the capabilitoes of BoB2 and the Il2 series is fairly different, so someone that has both can enjoy both.

[Osram]

Think dual core machines here (well, if he develops with multi thread in mind which I might add is what F4 AF has now), 2 Gb RAM as standard, and a kick ass GPU.

BoB2 is Multi Threaded as well .

The aim should always be to take advantage of the features of high end systems but to run in a reduced feature set on low to medium end ones. My private desktop is an AMD1.333, 512 MB main mem, GeForce 3 one and is and will remain capable of running BoB. For example, I am now doing a realistic implementation of the gunsight / REVI and it will work with pixelshader 1.1. However, if you have 2.0 you will even be able to see ther "shadow" of the aperture of the vertical optical tube inside the REVI, IOW the recticle will not cover all of the glass.

We might very well have a feature for people with shader model 3.0 later on.

[IV/JG1_Oesau]

Great new Osram, thanks for that info!