Page 5

Pros

Graphics.
Il-2: Forgotten Battles is the hottest-looking flight sim on the market, with or without pixel shaders. Huge maps, detailed terrain, precise models (especially damage) make for the most immersive flying experience ever.

Sound.
The sound effects are utterly fantastic. Bullets and shells buzz by, guns purr mechanically while cannons bang off rapid fire round after round. The only complaint we had were the strangely quiet cockpits of the German fighters.

4x20mm lovin

Eat that

w00t

Modeling.
Whether you’re talking about the damage model, which simulates loss of rudder, ailerons, pilot injury, engine damage, or the flight model which can take a P-39 Aircobra from 0 to fatal spin in .2 seconds, FB has the best modeling on the market, period. It takes a while to get used to torque and gyro effects, or the touchiness of the planes, but it’s worth it.

New features.
The dynamic campaign fleshes out the singleplayer aspect and for all our griping, it’s much better than the static campaign of Sturmovik. Now if only it didn’t take 20 minutes to fly to the target even on 8x time compression…

Cons

Campaign.
It may be an improvement over its predecessor, but it has a long ways to go. Squadron management features, a score chart, pilot names… please, Maddox, give us anything to make it more immersive!

Ripping them up

Beautiful bomb job

I r0x0r teh b0x0rz

AI.
The AI cheats, blatantly – in the flight model, in targeting, in spotting the player in clouds. It flies in a very robotic and mechanical fashion; even an untrained newbie could spot the difference between a replay of an AI pilot and a human pilot.

Multiplayer community.
Small, divided and sometimes argumentative, the FB community is also hampered by the unpopularity of the default matchmaking service.