Birds of Steel (awesome sequel to IL-2 Sturmovick: Birds of Prey, 360/PS3)

[Shifty Geezer]

The pad is better in this version than BoP. Arcade actually feels better this time. the VS looks ok, especially the capture the point gameplay. One problem I see is no match making so it is newbs like me vs killer pilots

Ordinarily I'd complain about such unfair matchings, but I in this case it makes the game realistic!

 

[Scott_Arm]

Well, almost impossible. As for the rudder: Yep, I found it tough too Feels like you are fighting a ten ton hunk of metal being propelled through the air.

EDIT: Scott, try hold down the left trigger and then trying to aim. Btw, I do find the planes a bit too swirly for a gamepad. Gonna take a lot of practice.

I honestly don't think the gamepad is much of a problem. If you tap the rudder very very slightly, you'll see the plane move in the direction you want and then rock back and forth. I think it's just how the planes move. I might actually try turning the gamepad sensitivity down and see how that works for me. You can't really do tight turns anyway, or you'll black out.

 

[Acert93]

I flew through a hanger this morning on Wake Island--that was awesome

I then took out some of my own AA to get some ground run practice, that too was addicting.

Then I triggered up the difficulty to Realistic ... and wow is aiming HARD. I found the rudder (yaw) useless as you wobble so you end up using your Pitch/Roll to line up smooth strafing motions to blast the enemies. I must admit I prefer the "Simple" model as it has the same controls (unlike BoP) and is a challenge while still being a challenge. Some aids for the itsy bitsy thumb sticks That being said I guess it is also expectation--when 23 bombers are on screen I want to trash them all. But the game gives you a mission complete with you are able to take out even a handful which is probably more realistic. That being said they don't juke and jink much. I would imagine against a human ... I could see it now: 1v1. Player1 has to bomb a target, Player2 has to shoot him down.

The game has some amazingly nice touches. E.g. With the "Select" button you can swap to a different aircraft. If you select restart a mission it gives you the option to change the difficulty. Load times are solid and it has some really nice WWII summaries. I have always preferred WWII (or earlier) flight games. I wouldn't call myself a flying nut but I realized last night I have played more than my fair share of flight sims (Aces, A-10 Tank Killer, Falcon 4, F22vF23, various Janes, etc) and I must say I think Birds of Steel is just an amazing game. I was ready to hit order now last night on Amazon with my Prime account but they are sold out. I checked around and the local stores are all sold out as well. Checked the BoS forums, SimHQ, etc forums and a ton of reports of it being sold out everywhere. Awesome for the devs!

On a side note: Why cannot we get a Battlefield game like this? This version of Wake Island is awesome because it is big and it takes a bit of time to fly from one end to the other. A good strafing run on ground targets means you can get 2 -- maybe 3 -- Kills against totally stationary targets on Simple. With moving tanks and enemy AA fire you would need to really time your assaults and have a good run without pulling out in hopes to even hit a single target. So much fun!

EDIT: From reading some previews and forum posts it does seem that YES you can create custom missions for co-op play. It also supposedly has some nice features like "group ammo" so you can assign an ammo limit for your squad in cooperative play which is an odd twist. Some of the MP competitive modes allow respawning but you can destroy the enemy air craft carrier as a tactic to prevent respawns which is a neat idea.

And interestingly for air-to-air combat when firing cockpit view may be the best view for close in engagements. 3rd person is ok for spamming but for close in strafes cockpit view gives a really smooth, tight view.

Edit2: Well, I had a Saitek Aviator Flightstick (PC / Xbox 360) in my cart for under $50 at Amazon, went to check out and they went out of stock. From reading the BoS forums people are scouring for flight sticks hard and fast. I just found a copy at a local GS (bah) so I am going to go pick it up.

 

[Acert93]

Ok Scott, I got my copy. Now it is your turn so we can co-op up

I will give my impressions later. The more I played the demo the more the title grew on me. I liked the demo a lot so I am excited for this. And the fact it was $40 and not $60 made it an easier buy.

 

[Scott_Arm]

I'll pick mine up this week.

 

[Acert93]

So far I am pretty happy. They have 4 training tutorials that include torpedo bombing as well as dive bombing. You also get an opportunity to test out the gunner position. The only real complaint is that the air brakes is Dpad LEFT and Right Stick CLICK. You have to reduce speed to 30%, engage the air brakes, dive, release your bomb, release your air brakes, and climb. Not so bad except remembering 2 buttons for air brakes. Another little annoyance is how your throttle sometimes will increase when diving. Maybe realistic but I want it to stay put at, say, 50%.

On 4 player coop: You can use 4 player coop on (1) the Dynamic Campaign (essentially the campaign but branches depending on whether you win/lose I believe...?) (2) Customer Missions and (3) some of the Stand Alone missions. There quite a few conflict zones to fly in: Eastern and Western Europe, Malta, Hawaii, Guadal Canal, Wake Island, Midway, etc.

The campaign is essentially 3 parts: Part 1 training missions (4 missions), Part 2 is the US campaign in the Pacific (12 missions), and Part 3 is the Japanese campaign in the Pacific (10 missions). There are also 27 stand alone missions in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, the Mediterranean, and Pacific Theaters bringing the total missions to 53.

The Customer Mission Editor is super deep. You get to set where, when, weather, the exact sector of a theater, where friendlies/enemies are (e.g. front or rear, surrounded by friendlies or hostiles, etc), mission type (a large variety including defensive and offensive missions including all sorts of bombing and aerial combat), etc. You can set how many slots for players, what planes can be used, ditto wingmen, and then enemy fighters and bombers. I wish there were more slots for mixed fleets but oh well. As a side note, for Single Player play you need to make sure on the first series you set it to OFF LINE. If you select Private or Online you cannot start. Anyways the editor is very robust. There is pretty much no end to what sort of missions you can fly.

One side note, why flying level over open ocean it looks very realistic. When I was on a flight crew and not on shift I used to go to the rear and watch the ocean pass underneath. It was always so beautiful seeing the ocean, glint of the sun, waves, clouds, etc. Never got old. This game captures that very, very well with their lighting engine and clouds. And the ocean overall looks good and at times looks great. Aliasing and not-1080p are the only major visual hang ups. After that everything else is just about ramping up IQ (texture quality, slight increase to shadow resolution/filtering, etc). It is really hard to complain about things in this game. Accessible but HARD. The nice thing is the Simple Flying Model flows naturally into Realistic and Simulation. Same controls and same general feeling. Simple gives more visual aids on screen, offers less sway from using the rudder, and pretty much allows you to do tight turns without blacking out, makes stalling hard (you can but you have to try to stall), and you can do some maneuvers that would in Realistic/Sim result in tail spins. But Simple isn't an "arcade" mode. I have seen a couple complaints from people because it isn't which is unfair IMO, especially as they now allow the 3rd person camera and Virtual Cockpit in all flight models.

A nice feature is the ability to swap to the wingmen. Are you out of position? Switch to a wingman. Are you out of ammo or waiting for the unlimited ammo to "reload" (20-40 seconds)? Switch to a wingman. Thankfully it is a nice built in "difficulty" aid for when you are shot down or, ahem, run into debris of a shot down bomber... your mission is not terminated but instead you can change over to the wingman.

Gaijin has done a really good job of listening to user feedback concerning IL-2 S: Birds of Prey and addressed a LOT of the issues with the previous title (which was a good title; I didn't pick it up due to the lack of coop). Birds of Steel is Birds of Prey on Steroids. A GREAT example of a developer listening to consumers and making the right changes to the right things while leaving the core in place. The fact it is a discount title at $40 makes it a steal for anyone remotely interested in flying, combat or otherwise.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Tried to find it after work. No luck. Will have to try again tomorrow.

 

[Acert93]

You may need to do Amazon (I am linking because there are 2 entries, one is NOT an Amazon entry). I finished the American campaign

Spoiler

the Americans win

. Midway was just plain great. You have to make attack runs in an SBD against a carrier with no fighter cover as the fighters are covering your own carriers. There is easily 50+ planes in the air plus a ton of ships. The mission is pretty cool because you are tasked with using the sun to obscure you visually--if you don't AA fire rips you up. Once you land your bombs you have to escape which then entails using the tail gunner. The tail gunner set up is a LOT of fun. I could do that just for hours. My plan was sooo beat up coming home that I couldn't maneuver enough to land on the carrier... boom! It was pretty cool seeing how bullet hole riddled my wing was. One nice thing the devs did was once you do your objective you can basically ignore the next objective and continue fighting or bombing. I also did a Mt. Pass convoy mission called "Hunter" in the Stand Alone missions... yeah, hitting 10 lightly armored trucks going down a Guadal Island pass is freaking HARD!

One thing I don't like is the Warpoints and level unlocks. It is looking like passing the American campaign will get you through lvl 5 on Simple pretty easy which unlocks half the planes but I hate unlocks with a passion. Oh well, the game is really fun. And it is cool reviewing WWII history and learning new things.

I have not paid much attention yet but I guess on Simple your airframe has a set hit points but on Realistic and Sim vital components all have their own damage so the fuselage portion from the rear of the cockpit to the wings and the wings can take a lot of machine gun fire but your engine, fuel tanks, etc are more vulnerable. I guess the Zeros and American planes are different in that the American ones have self sealing fuel tanks.

 

[Vitaly Vidmirov]

To be fair, Birds of Steel is not a part of "il-2 sturmovick" series (even if it is a sequel)

 

[Scott_Arm]

To be fair, Birds of Steel is not a part of "il-2 sturmovick" series (even if it is a sequel)

I noticed that when I was looking for the game and checked the cover art. "Il-2 Sturmovick" is not featured on the cover title. Makes sense, since it is no longer predominantly an Eastern Front game. This one is basically a Pacific War title.

 

[Acert93]

I have updated the thread title.

 

[Scott_Arm]

No luck again today, but one store said to call them each of the next couple of days. They get them regularly and they sell out. Small numbers but still positive.

 

[Acert93]

Mods can you change the title to: Birds of Steel (awesome sequel to IL-2 Sturmovick: Birds of Prey, 360/PS3)

vB is not allowing me to do such. Thanks!

 

[phat]

I've been a flight sim fan since the days of sublogic, microprose, and spectrum holobyte. Gaijin are obviously kindred spirits. I've gone out and purchased all their flight sims for the PS3 (Apache, IL-2, Birds of Steel) after being blown away by a demo of IL-2 Sturmovik. I feel like the flight sim market's so small on consoles that I need to personally fund them so they can continue to produce games of this ilk.

 

[Acert93]

Support them even more by getting the 360 version... so you can play with Scott and me :|

Btw, phat, that is the reason I bought it too. At $40 and being a great game in a genre I enjoy (but I am NOT hardcore) it was one of those, "I want to see this genre survive."

 

[Scott_Arm]

I like it. The community is really small, because I see the same gamertags over and over again, but that's ok. I seem to be pretty decent on the realistic setting. I shoot down more than I get shot down, and I'm averaging about 2 kills a round, which seems to be very respectable. There's a lot I can learn. Some of my approaches are probably bad. I stall my plane every once in a while. Simulator would probably be a rough experience for me.

 

[Acert93]

[gt]728690[/gt]

Star Thunder: Independence Day meets Pearl Harbor. I am thinking this may be an April Fool's joke but the date is wrong and ... anyways if this was BoS DLC I would buy it!