The 'sytaleness ' of the il2 series is well quoted over the years, with FMB work this was overcome and some awesome ground pounding campaigns could be flown.But in standard form this was not the case.An odd bit of flak here and there, maybe a vehicle coloumn or a train if you were lucky.
Thinking back to my first sim EAW , yeh im a noobie to sims in general.I had nice memories of that game, but in reality the ground attack component was just as sterile. An odd coloumn of vehicles here or there , some flak, and took me forever to find my first train.Editing it was a pia and left to guys who worked in the code, not spoilt like us who learnt how easy the FMB was in a few years when il2 dropped.
EAW menus and the intro were great..even that little Mustang flying around the microprose world at the beginning, then briefing rooms, chatter and scraping chairs..a cough as everyone silenced before we got the gen about the upcoming mission.Nothing in il2 has come close to that side of it, it put you in the mood for what was to come, not just reading a scrollable line of text...yawnzzz.Thats sterile at its best, doesnt really put you in any sort of mood does it, especially any sort of www2 time frame.
The gui has always been a boring deal in IL2 , the briefing maps are even sterile and not something one would see for the time period.Then i suppose for a while until we got better systems and il2 progressed and got better you also could not put a good amount of aircraft in the air. Big bomber formations, even big fighter formations were out of reach for the majority until hardware caught up.
I know the subject has probably been done to death but i find it interesting, the different thinking behind the guys who made games like EAW compared to IL2. Is it more the users fault..screaming that we want better FMs and DMs to a point where 20kmh's off at a certain height is enough to start a rant, so the other stuff (immersion) has been put aside while they try and achieve better flight fidelity, sure i love great plane models and the direction the cockpits have gone, the best i have been in, and i have lomac, blackshark and flaming cliffs as well.Not that i am any good in them
Lomac i found the sterilist game of all , i am just not a fire and forget dude it seems. And the terrain left me ..well..bleak to say the least.Plus i couldnt find any love for the planes like i have for the props.Blackshark seems very promising as its more i have my hands full than even worrying about what the hell is on the ground or in the air yet! But same, the interface is bland and nothing like immersive.
For me EAW gets the nod gui wise and pre flight preparation as well as the after flight scoreboard, basic but very well implemented.If you could roll that into il2 or CloD i would be a happy chap in that area. I remember you could place tracks into campaigns for il2 but they were still text on screen with a bit of user made video action.Possibly a good attempt at something, just poorly implemented.
What happened to the days of cool briefings before missions ? And no i dont have RoF so i realise i am possibly missing something very cool there. I know before CloD was released and way back in the SoW days there was a heap of debates here and at ic about clickable cockpits vs a better gui and immersion in other areas, briefings etc. The clickers couldnt care less about the immersive side as it did not have anything to do with what happened when you were actually flying, supposedly.Mood is a big thing i find, to a certain extent you make your own, but if mood didn't count for anything then every hollywood movie would be a blockbuster.
Are all those clicky voters still here , seems if that was such a big draw beck in the day then they would be, i mean that side of it works well, the cockpits are brilliant and functional , much more so than il2 so why still the amount in il that were campaigning for the clicky cockpits? Just wondering
as that side of the game is clearly the best part. I was one for no click pits but i am glad of the feature know that i know how to use it, but i think i could have got by without it and really would have rather seen the other things i mentioned added instead. Hopefully one day we do get a sim that harks back to the old briefings, and aircraft hangars, i mean you can skip it if you want so it is not really a big issue is it,.
For me it would add a lot when you are entering a campaign , watching your Tiffie be armed with some missiles pre flight, juicing up your 109 in a field before blasting out over the channel when you select your fuel percent, slotting a 250 onto your 190 before you head over the russin steppes or just putting on leather helmet when you hop into the tiger moth with a worried grin on your dial, all served up after an animated or at least period type briefing...you know..tallyho chaps , lets give Jerry a blood nose today ...and all that sort of stuff, different set areas if you changed Squadrons or airfields or plane type. A dynamic briefing if you will, different briefings that coincide with what has happened in your previous mission.
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