What Is IL2 lol

[Daymonkey]

Ok so i know its a game with planes but , im being seriously serious(thats a lot of seriousness) is it good, whats the gameplay like. Your opinions depend on if i buy it or not.

[yamangman]

It's no good asking us. We're biased.

That said, it is the absolute dogs.

Gameplay = Awesome, seriously.

FB+AEP+PF is the best game ever and then some.

[[GSV]Trig]

And then a bit more...

[Dakaras]

Best game ever made if you like a challange

[MA_Moby]

i've been playing this thing since the original IL2, and I haven't got bored yet!

It's not just a fantastic game, it's a fantastic simulator. And that's worth remembering. It isn't the wort of game you can just pick up and play. First you have to learn to fly the planes. Then it's a slow, often frustrating, but ultimately rewarding process of learning behaviour of the individual planes and the combat tactics you will need to get your first online kill or your first successful bomb run.

That said, the difficulties are scalable, so you can switch off all the realism and play it arcade style - but it sort of defeats the point of the whole thing.

Once you tire of the offline play, the online community, which is strong, opens up all manner of possibilities.

Pictures speak louder than words (sometimes). So;

[Lee H]

I've just installed PF and its absolutely AWESOME

All I need is a decent joystick ( read saitek X-52 ) and I'll be strafe bombing in no time.

[[MA]DanglyBob]

What I'd advise, is pick up a copy of IL2 forgotten battles cheap, play in single player mode for a while (you'll need both the Aces expansion pack AND the pacific fighters game as well, to play online with most of us..)
Give any of us a shout if you find it frustating, but stick with it.
Then if you like it, invest in both AEP & PF, then come join us online.

This is a hugely rewarding game and the online community is excellent.
The online play is completely different to single player. There are various online campaigns to get involved with, Dogfight servers which are plain fragging sessions, or scripted servers which are like mini campaigns.
And that's all just within the Hyperlobby community.

You do not need the greatest gfx cards to play it, the eye candy can be turned right down to a minimum. Once you get into the action you do not have time to look at the scenery anyway.
But you do need a fair amount of memory to get it to run smoothly. At least 512Mb, 1Gb is better.
You also need a decent joystick. There are some decent ones for about £30 though, you don't have to go straight for the X45/52. Just make sure its got lots of assignable buttons, and maybe a twist grip for the rudder if you like it.

Once you get online, you don't need a huge phat pipe to play either. As long as its a steady stable connection 56k plays ok, though you may struggle on larger servers. ISDN and ADSL are better. but the size only really comes into question when you start to host games yourself.

And finally, some more pics...

[Zak33]

Chemical Equation:

IL-2 FB+AEP+PF=O2+H2O

ie...its life. Essential. But like H2O you can drown in it.

[Zak33]

and it makes you think differently....and act differently.


weird stuff goes on in your brain after a year of it. Good stuff. Just weird.

[MA_Moby]

that's a point - you'll need some ok hardware to get the most out of the game. Probably not a problem if you're already a gamer.

- a joystick of some variety, preferably one with a throttle and a hat switch. The Cyborg stick seems to be a favourite and is reasonably priced.
- 512mb RAM is recommended - though it can be run on less. But as a game it is RAM hungry. I have 768mb, but think I could do with upgrading to 1024mb.
- a decentish graphics card. To begin with I just had a ropey old graphics card that wasn't really designed for gaming - because prior to IL2 I'd never really been a serious gamer. The improvment moving from that to a Radeon 7500 was vast, and vast again was the move to a Radeon 9800. It helped for smooth frame rates of the game and amount of eye candy available.
- sound card, not so important, but it makes a difference when you get a good 'un.

- for online play, some kind of mic or headset.
- a broadband connection. Vital for the online stuff. I just have a 128 connection, but it copes with most things.

The best thing is to try the game with your system, see if you like it, then start to adapt the system. And once addicted to this game you don't mind spending the money.

[Lee H]

I'll wait until at least nearer xmas before I play online As I'll have my SLI system running and my joystick delivered by then

Sooo IL2 forgotten battles + AEP ( what the hell ?) + Pacific Fighters are the 3 I need

[ed^chigliak]

gameplay have AEP at £4.99 in their sale items which I just ordered

I was given IL2 the original from a m8 who prefers crimson skies!!! He is clearly insane but each to their own I guess.

FB is a budget title which I picked up for less than £10

Morrowind has taken me for ever but finally I've gotten around to my IL2 collection and slowly getting into the swing of it.

I already got a MS sidewinder joystick and a logitech formula force wheel/pedals which seem OK

I have abandoned the z axis twist on the joystick because I find it difficult to control roll and yaw with one hand. I'm much happier now with the rudder is assigned to pedals and so far it's not costing me very much.

My spatial awareness is OK if I hit ctrl-F1 which removes the cockpit but unfortunately it's not very realistic in this mode. No doubt it'll take a couple of months before I am feeling comfortable with this game and even then it'll just be the basics.

It's nice to have a game I can take online after morrowinds massively single player experience.

[Whalefish]

I have just bought Forgotten Battles as a bargain title. Just waiting for a gfx card slightly better than my MX200 and away I go.
I must admit it does look much better than Flight Simulator on the 48k Spectrum.

[[MA]DanglyBob]

Believe me, the quickest way to learn is to fly it with full real settings, maybe with just icons, external views ( for pics sightseeing only), and the speed bar on.

[Whalefish]

I just had a try at joining an online game via the Hyperlobby client and I get an error about needing 3.03m version. Now I have patched the game I have to the latest version so I am guessing I need to install something else. Would that something else be the Aces expansion pack?

[yamangman]

Almost everyone and the majority of servers use FB+AEP+PF+latest patch. You will need all those.