GamesRadar writes: "Fighter planes have been landed without propulsion, with wings shredded by enemy fire, with tail sections shattered by flak, and with bullet holes peppering the fuel tanks and engine. World War II is a goldmine of tales of daring escapes and miraculous landings in direct defiance of the laws of physics. The real world can be weird in a way videogames can't – at least until now.
IL-2 Sturmovik is as real as it gets. The planes in Sturmovik fly in the game because they're built to fly in real life; so sophisticated is the physics model Russian developers 1C have designed. This isn't Ace Combat or HAWX, where your plane's energy bar is gradually reduced to nought by enemy fire. IL-2 knows where planes keep their engines, their fuel, their pilots and their ammunition, and can register unique hits on all of them. Every plane is an inch-by-inch recreation of the real thing inside and out, and the damage system so accurate, a single bullet in the right place on the right plane could puncture your fuel tank and blow you out of the sky; an inch or two to the right or left and it might have no effect at all. Sturmovik is a simulation, and it is perfect."
VGChartz;s Adam Cartwright: "For a console that can only really be seen as a commercial failure, the PlayStation Vita did extremely well for itself in terms of software – more than 1500 games are available for it and that figure is surprisingly still growing each week, despite the hardware being discontinued earlier this year and despite the rhetoric suggesting it’s only a good machine for indie 2D platformers and niche Japanese RPGs.
Unfortunately certain genres didn't receive any representation at all and act as glaring holes in the Vita’s software library. Some of these just aren’t particularly popular on consoles in general, such as city builders, which have been niche for years. It’s these genres I’m aiming to look at in this article – what they are (including examples of some modern entries in the genres), why they weren't represented on the Vita, as well as some suggestions about what alternatives are available to scratch that itch."
The Publisher of GoozerNation recently had the opportunity to play IL-2 Sturmovik, not because he wanted to, but because his 5-year old son accidentally purchased the game for him through XBL. And because of Microsoft's draconian law of No Refunds, he settled in to play the combat flight simulator that released a little over two years ago. As a result, he was pleasantly surprised at how fun, yet frustrating, this value bin game could be.
GamingTrend writes: "Let's start this review with a big, fat, huge disclaimer right up front: I don't play flying games. In fact, I'm pretty sure the last time I stepped into a virtual cockpit was playing Afterburner in arcades 20 years ago. I know nothing about speed stalls, flaps, props, flat-spins, ailerons, Immelman turns (even after playing this for nearly 20 hours, I had to Google those last two), or any other kind of aerial maneuvering. So if you're looking to find out if IL-2 Sturmovik accurately recreated the altimeter on the interior cockpit of a WWII fighter, or if they correctly mapped the position of every ship during the Battle of Britain, you should probably check out some other reviews, 'cause this one ain't going to help you."
I've been playing the PC version for years now, and am very interested to see how well this game does on the console.
I somehow doubt this is exactly the same as the PC version. There's over a hundred keyboard commands. From folding your wings on a carrier deck to adjusting trim for every flight surface..it's a very realistic simulator.
Here's hoping it does well, and attracts more people to fly the unfriendly skies.