IL 2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey

IL 2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey is an aerial combat simulator much like the recently reviewed HAWX. Unlike HAWX, however, Sturmovik takes place during the Second World War making it a slightly unique game.

I should mention this game was slated terribly, in my opinion, review-wise. I don’t share that feeling however. Sturmovik was a great game to pick up.

As mentioned the game takes place during WW2 and you’ll find yourself flying through 6 different theatre’s during the main campaign. These include: The Battle of Britain over the English Channel, The Battle of Stalingrad in Russia, Italy, The Korsun Pocket over Ukraine, The Battle of the Bulge in Central Europe and finally over the skies of Berlin. Seems pretty busy right? Well that’s just the main campaign. The game also comes with a long list of single player missions in the same theatres that are different from the campaign entirely, there is a lot in this game.

The realism in Sturmovik is pretty well developed. Since this is WW2 there’s no such thing as guided missiles, you’ll be shooting down enemy aircraft with guns alone. During ground attack missions you might get lucky and be gifted with free fall bombs or rockets. This might seem a little daunting at first but let me assure you it only adds to the fun. There’s nothing like lining up behind a bomber, dodging the fire from its tailgun and then releasing a relentless firestorm upon it.

Damage effects upon planes are the superb; the more fire you take the more holes punch through your wings. Accidentally fly to close to another aircraft and you’ll clip your own wing sending yourself spiraling to a fiery end. Fly into the smoke trail of a damaged aircraft and your cockpit window coats over with leaking oil. It’s all very well thought out and rendered very beautifully. Furthermore, the more damage done to your plane the harder it’ll be to fly it. Flight is already a little difficult to begin with… at least it is if you go straight to it from HAWX. It’s quite realistic in that it limits you from performing totally insane combat maneuvers. This, again, only adds to the fun and it makes sense too. After all many aircraft during WW2 had mostly wooden bodies.

It’s worth mentioning the different gameplay modes on offer with Sturmovik. The first is called Arcade and this is the most easy going too. Arcade mode gives you a targeting reticule to assist you in dogfighting opponents, it also makes flight and damage effects a little easier. Realistic mode is next and this will take away your reticule and make flight much more difficult. Simulator is insane though, not only are damage effects severe but flight is super sensitive and you can only fly from within the cockpit. I avoided trying that more than once. 

So, lets take about the gameplay a little. You’ll start off doing a little tutorial and then you’re thrust into the main campaign as a British pilot operating around Dover. As the game progresses you’ll also fly as an American and Russian pilot too. Throughout the campaign, and the single player missions, you’ll be facing the Nazi war machine but also the Italians to a lesser extent. I thought this was a nice tough because the Italian theatre during WW2 is often overlooked by gaming companies. Another nice feature of the campaign, and single player missions, is that you’ll be flying a different variety of aircraft including bombers. After each campaign mission the narrator will read an extract from an the actual diary of various pilots during the war, another nice touch. Want another nice touch? The Russian and German pilots in the game do speak authentic Russian and German. This game has a whole lotta nice touch’s if you ask me.

Moving onto graphics and wow… The landscape is rendered beautifully around you, the aircraft are rendered beautifully and the damage effects are great too. I seriously can’t find a fault here, even the music is great if not a little somber.

So are there any faults with this game, only a small few. At times gameplay can seem a little slow. It’s not as intense or dramatic as HAWX but that might be because of historical nature of the game. Also, because flight is a little difficult due to the nature of the planes you might find yourself mentally or physically ( your hands) exhausted after a mission or two. Then again my right hands last two fingers are a little damaged…

Either way I’d recommend picking up Sturmovik if you’re into flight simulators, WW2 or just aircraft in general. It’s a nice game with loads of well thought out detail and loads of gameplay.

Gaming Frustrations

How often have you been playing a game and become so frustrated that you wanted to toss the controller across the room or violently kick the nearest inanimate object?

Unfortunately it happens to us all for one reason or another. It might just be that the objective laid out before you is insanely difficult, you might be facing an unholy uber boss of stupidity or maybe, just maybe, the game controls are ridiculous?

Is the irony lost on us? Here we are playing a game and getting so irritated that it ceases to be fun; the entire point of a game. Is it a phenomenon among gamers that we all possess a deep hidden rage within us that can be brought to the surface by an annoying game sequence?

We all have our breaking points, our Radecs. Anyone who has played through Killzone 2 will know what I’m referring too. Remember Radec, remember your reaction to that terrible last battle? Remember how your murderous rage drowned out the men in white coats as they hauled you away? 

How about the ending to Red Faction: Guerilla? Do you remember ascending Mount Vogel like Moses up Mount Sinai? No..? Probably because Moses didn’t have to contend with the equivalent military of a small country. I mean come on they really, and I mean really, try and push you on the last part. While you’re clawing your way up that mountain you’re probably being dragged into a deep pit of despair.

Then we come to the little annoyances. Many games have quite interactive climbing abilities these days, games such as the Uncharted series or the Assassins Creed series. It’s fun climbing our way up through giant caverns or bell towers and seeing beautifully rendered scenery below us. But there’s always those really awkward jumps you have to make that really drive you nuts. It’s not the jump itself that makes it awkward though, it’s the controller. Although the joysticks on modern controllers are far better than using the older d-pads sometimes they have trouble differentiating Right from Down… sending your character flying off a guard tower like a sack of potatoes… and hitting the ground like one too. Ouch! Wait until it happens repeatedly and ouch turns into a string of nasty expletives.

Despite the numerous frustrations, great and small, that we find in various games we keep playing; why? Is it an addiction or are we simply masochists? I don’t think it’s either. With each game we’re taken to a new world, something different that escapes the boring reality of life. A little bit of mind numbing frustration isn’t going to cause us to give all that up is it?   

 

 

H.A.W.X

Tom Clancy’s HAWX can best be described as an aerial combat simulator, a pretty rare genre for modern console gaming although some might remember the Ace Combat series on the Playstation 2. Other titles that would encompass this genre is the recently released HAWX 2, IL 2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey and Ace Combat: Assault Horizon which is due for release in 2011.
So, what does HAWX offer us then?

HAWX puts us in the cockpit of over 50 different actual aircraft in existence today. I’m not kidding either, the game has 50 fully licensed aircraft to unlock and play. Each has its own strengths, weaknesses and weapon packages. Ever fancied flying a Tomcat, Stealth Bomber or A-10 Thunderbolt? Well you can, in fact you can choose whatever aircraft you like for each mission and choose the weapon package to fly with as well. The game, of course, will recommend an aircraft and weapon package for each mission but I used these more as guidelines then choose my own equipment, it’s more fun this way. Admittedly the game has more aircraft than it needs, I found that I didn’t use half of those available.
You’ll find yourself flying a variety of different missions where you’ll be engaged in escorting aircraft, dog fighting, bombarding ground and naval targets and contending with SAM sites. The missions are quite entertaining and bring a strong storyline that sync up and squeeze into the Tom Clancy universe where you’ll find Ghost Recon teams and the like. Although each mission will put you through your paces I did find myself wishing there were a few more missions in the game. Also having finished the game on Normal I moved onto Elite and found no significant increase in difficulty. Granted, when you do move onto Elite you’ll have all the available aircraft and weapon packages unlocked from the previous run through the game so maybe it all balances out?

 

Moving onto the game controls: everything handles pretty well. The aircraft, all jet planes, handle perfectly well. Each aircraft has its own handling limits, of course, but as far as the controls go everything is spot on. That is until you activate Assistance Off. Assistance Off (AO) gives you a zoomed out view of your aircraft in order to let you dogfight more effectively and also to dodge incoming missiles. AO allows you to throw your aircraft around in tighter corners to gain the edge on enemy aircraft and in my opinion is a well engineered idea with but one flaw. While flying in AO you’ll be turning many tight maneuvers quickly and just as quickly it is easy to lose track which side of the aircraft is up and which way you’re turning. It could just be me, mind you, I do have glasses and I am operating on a 22” HDMI TV but I have the feeling others might feel the same way.

Lets move onto the combat. With a small range of guided missiles, rockets and bombs to choose from you’re pretty well equipped to take on whatever comes your way. This being the modern age your aircraft will try to establish missile lock on your enemies and away your missiles go. That might sound easy but trust me in close range aerial combat establishing missile lock is no simple task but it is very enjoyable. Watching an enemy aircraft roar past your cockpit followed by two smoky streaks of guided death is a tasty treat. Lining yourself up for ground targets for a bomb drop or rocket strike is just as fun, especially when you hear that familiar whistling sound of a plummeting bomb.

 

Finally we move onto the graphics and we’ll start with the aircraft. Now I’m no expert on aircraft although I do enjoy modeling them but, to me, it seems all of the aircraft within HAWX are pretty well detailed. As I started each mission I found myself swinging around the camera and admiring my aircrafts style and curves… sexy.
It’s the world around you that’ll really captivate you though. From the dizzying heights you find yourself at you’re presented with stunning scenery. It all looks very realistic until you get closer to the ground… The fact is buildings and vehicles down there aren’t all that detailed unfortunately. It’s not a big loss but for a game with a fair bit of ground bombing they could’ve put a bit more work into it.

All in all I loved HAWX. I loved being able to choose an aircraft for each mission, choose the weapon load out and wreck havoc. The game isn’t perfect but then what game is? I’d recommend this to anyone who is interested in modern aircraft or aerial combat. There’s few of these games out there so why not give it a try?