Ok, so let's start hearing the first impressions from those who purchased the WOFF Expansion. Obviously it just came out, so we're not talking about writing a full review. What are the things that stand out - good or bad - from your first few hours of the V2 Expansion?

My First Impressions:

Scenery - The very first thing that grabbed my attention was how the DX9 scenery looks. Immersive has long been a word used to describe WOFF, but with V2 that really took the scenery to a whole new level. Between the bump mapping, new textures, lighting effects and ground shadows from trees, clouds, etc the word I want to use to describe the scenery is Vivid! I swear sometimes while looking out of the cockpit at the ground scenery, it feels like I'm watching a movie, it looks so amazing. WOFF Expansion scenery is truly a stunning achievement!

Flight Models - Responsiveness and Feeling of Flight - The Expansion did more than just add back in "Wind buffeting". Yes, that's there again too and it's fantastic. It's much harder to keep your sights lined up one someone now because your plane often doesn't want to hold steady. There's these constant micro-adjustments you need to make and the "on rails" experience has been dramatically reduced because of that. A definate improvement there! But the stick response also feels like it been tinkered with and the results, I think, are phenomenal. The planes feel like they have a lot more weight to them. Pulling back on the stick has a slight delay to it, almost as if you can feel yourself pulling against the weight of the wind on the wings of your kite. I'm not sure how to describe it other than to say it feels so incredibly real! Between the added wind buffeting and the change in FM responsiveness, the dogfights are now far more rewarding than they have ever been in the history of W/OFF.

Add the new scenery and the improved flying experience together with the now more determined to live than ever AI and, in my personal opinion, nothing can touch WOFF V2s single player experience. Hands down, it's the best single player experience I've ever had on a flight sim, WWI or otherwise. At first I thought calling it "V2" might be a little over-sell when I heard that's what OBD had dubbed it. Now having had my hands on the stick for a few hours, I can honestly say I agree 100% that it deserves to be recognized as Version 2.0 of the WOFF franchise.

Workshop Options - Lots of nice new Workshop options to choose from. Enable or disable the DX9 depending on if your rig can handle the added shadows, bump mapping and other features. Dial the level of fidelity in on any number of things such as Cloud Shadow Density, etc. As always, OBD out-does themselves on allowing for user configurations. Other nice features added include the ability to choose Realistic or High Encounter rates to suit your play style. All in all I'm not sure what else you could really ask for in the Workshop. If you need it, it's covered.

Bugs - I've only discovered one bug so far, to my knowledge. Every now and then it plays the sound file like my pilot is getting shot, except he isn't. His health doesn't go down at all. No bloodspatter appears on the screen. No damage done to me or my plane. Sometimes there isn't even an enemy anywhere around to be seen. I'm not sure what causes it, but so far that's the only thing that seems to not be working 100% for me.

I haven't even really gotten to fly against Zepps or Gotha bombers yet or see the searchlights stabbing up through the night sky over London. Even without the 7 new flyable planes, 2 AI zepps and all the appropriate support squadrons for Englands Home Defense and Germany's Bombers, the upgrades to the existing gameplay of WOFF are actually worth the cost alone to me. But of course OBD threw those planes and Zepps in too and in doing so, added countless hours of additional enjoyment to this magnificent sim.

If you enjoy WOFF and you are looking for an excellent holiday gift for yourself, I highly recommend the WOFF Expansion! It's a Must Buy and I haven't even scratched the surface of what it has to offer yet.

EDIT - As usual, the Devs are on top of any issues and have a list of fixes already out for the next patch. Kudos again for 5 Star Support from OBD.