At the 1C event on Thursday, I saw IL-2: Sturmovik: Birds of Prey and spoke with one of the developers I have to say that this is one of the most promising combat flight sims I've seen in a long time. It's also the first actual combat flight simulation on the 360.
The first thing anyone will notice when they look at this game is that it's visually impressive. The planes themselves look great, and the historical accuracy is near-perfect. In speaking with the developers from Gaijin Entertainment , I found out that they had a historian consult for all areas of development from the creation of the fighter planes to the battles themselves. As the demo progressed, they pointed out that plane damage is modelled in real-time. When an enemy bullet rips through your plane's wing, you can actually see the ground through the hole that is now there. Another impressive aspect that separates this title from many others is that all of the terrain is fully 3D. Trees, buildings, it's all there and it's all real enough to crash right into.
To continue the impressive display, they loaded up a level where the skies were full of enemy planes. Gaijin boasts that they can have over 100 planes in the air at the same time, each reacting with its own AI. I'm not sure how many planes were flying while I was watching them play, but it was a lot.
The single-player experience will span the five major aerial battles of European World War II. These include Berlin, The Battle of Britain, Korsun, Sicily, and Stalingrad. All battles will be historically accurate and very intense.
My initial concern with a combat simulation on the 360 was that it may not appeal to the mass market of 360 gamers. In answer to this, Gaijin has added three difficulty settings: Arcade, Simulation, and Hardcore Simulation. This hardcore setting removes all external camera options and forces the player into the cockpit view. Also, forget your nice convenient digital HUD, players will have nothing more than the instruments inside their cockpit, all of which are fully functional. Players can choose how 'real' they want their experience to be, and they can even use the Flight Stick that many purchased for Ace Combat 6.
Personally, I'm pumped for this one. I've been wanting a combat sim for quite a while, and the ability to dogfight with people on Live just sweetens the deal. Birds of Prey is being published by 1C (who, incidentally, are the first Eastern Europe publisher with an Xbox 360 licence) and is slated to release in 2009. It will also be available for the PS3, PSP and the Nintendo DS.
