http://yuplay.com/story.php?title=Wings-Prey-3

http://www.airwargame.com/

Here's the big thing that you couldn't possibly be told about by anyone in an official capacity on these forums.

“Wings of Prey” is based around the large-scale aerial combat and ground military operations of World War II. Players can participate in some of the war’s most famous battles piloting fighters, battle planes and bombers across a range of thrilling missions. There are six theatres of war to engage in – The Battle of Britain, Stalingrad, Ardennes, Berlin, Sicily and Korsun' representing the main airborne battles of World War II in Europe.

“Wings of Prey” also boasts an all new damage effects engine as well as advanced environmental visuals enriching the game play. “Wings of Prey” features hundreds of airplanes taking part in air battles. The unique environmental engine also produces highly detailed, realistic landscapes that allow players to see breathtaking ground support actions.

Game features:
Authentic World War atmosphere: Cutting edge technologies with highly detailed visuals bring the epic battles to life;

Engage in more than 50 missions from famous historical battles over Eastern and Western Europe;

Historically accurate aircrafts: Experience over 40 planes including fighters, battle planes and bombers. Learn to master Spitfire, Mustang, Messerschmitt and many more;

Flexible difficulty level system: from arcade to realistic simulation;

Downloadable content support: more planes and missions are coming next year;

Support of 6-DOF TrackIR, TripleHead2Go, Saitek and Thrustmaster joysticks, mouse and voice headsets;

Thrilling multiplayer: 4 game modes to choose; VoIP, lobby game system, leaderboards, friends lists, join-in-progress and host migration features provide great experience;

Realistic sound effects and original music from Jeremy Soule

Wings of Prey. Hmm...like duck wings? They are tasty, but hard to catch.

Basically IL-2 BOP but with additional content and the level of support that Gaijin wants to be able to offer. The console game IL-2 BOP sequel is set for next year as well they say. I don't think I'm going to pre-order, but I'll likely end up picking this up.
Supposed to be out this year if the beta goes well. Beta entry with pre-order.

More info here:
http://simhq.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/2887084/IL_2_coming_to_PC_maybe_showin.html#Post2887084

It really doesn't look bad. Only deal breaker for me would be that you can't take off and land. If it's all airstart type missions I won't even consider it.

Some missions will have 'take off' option - for example all battle of britain missions, and stalingrad missions.

Birds of Prey's graphics look awesome. If they can bring that to the pc and up the game play to the liking of true flight simmers they would really have a winner.

Todace. Can you only take off, and not land? Can you return back to your base, or does the mission end after you've destroyed the required amount of targets, like an arcade type game.
There is supposed to be a "Simulation" option. I hope they mean that in the true sense of the word, 'cause this looks like it could be a good one.

+1

- Will trees be collidable in the PC version?

If it's like the console version then the vast majority of missions will be air start. The mission officially ends when the main objective is met but after the "Mission Complete" text comes up you can press a button to complete the optional objective which is sometimes to RTB other times it's to destroy some more targets.

Unless they make serious, drastic changes from the console version I fear fans of '46 will be pretty dissapointed in BoP as a PC flight sim. I already sold off the 360 version and just went back to playing '46 for my IL-2 fix. The graphics are great though for what that's worth.

I wonder if this would have some sort of multiplayer built in that would work in a more seamless fashion than needing hyperlobby and such?