Oh my good giddy grandfather
I just gave the 2.04 beta patch a run after just having joined the test program for the first time.
Before that, a typical (virtual) day of campaign play for me involved saving before and after every frag, and one or two CTDs per hour of play.
Within the first five minutes with the new beta my pills dropped. Contrails! Tracers from the 303s! Tracers from the bombers so you can actually see them shooting! New bullet smacking sounds. Heavy smoke rising on the horizon from my burning airfield. Engines stuttering when they've eaten some lead. Flack bursts you can feel!
And...was I just imagining it? Seagulls crying over the cliffs of Dover?! I opened the canopy and stuck my head out and I'm sure I heard seagulls!
As mentioned, I am a campaigner, so I started an Aug 12 RAF campaign and played the full day through. Tallied 15 Frags, including Me109, Ju87, and He111 intercepts. Two landings back at base, 8 Alt-x back to the map, one bailout, one submarine imitation, 2 airfield landings (Hurris, didn't try a Spit), and one landing out of fuel in a field running gently uphill. Six kills (****e, I know), with a Ju87 exploding, He111s heading home smoking, or crew bailing, and a 109 that rolled onto its back and hit the sea. No strange/miraculous AI manoevres to report. AI engaging as expected and disengaging as expected.
I have no crash log to post, despite three hours of flying and multiple frags. Frame rates were nice, even circling Dover radar station when it was getting a pounding from 30 Ju87s with heavy escort of Me109s in the area, dirt fountaining in the air, buildings burning, aircraft falling into the sea...
Only one freeze to report, which happened on the map screen while assigning patrols. Had to CTRL ALT DEL out and restart.
As far as I'm concerned, the patch team is close to having nailed it. WOV is now what it promised it would be, and more.
Bye - got to get back up there!