CoD: My Experience - Printable Version

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CoD: My Experience - keinmann - 05.03.2012

Hey guys: Keinmann is back!!! That's right, CoD finally got me back into the IL-2 scene! :-)

I picked up CoD at Best Buy over the weekend for $54. I was very worried that the sim would suck due to many negative reviews I saw online. One of the things that worried me most was the reported "Steam-ization" of the game. But I looked all over the back of the box and read the system requirements, and it said nothing about Steam! If it had, I probably would have done what I do every time I picked up a cool-looking game and see "Steam account required" on it: put it back on the shelf and walk away. So I bought CoD and went on my merry way home, hoping that the months that had passed since release day had brought some good bug fixes and patches.

When I got home I was FURIOUS when I saw Steam pop up on my screen, and I said to myself "This *BETTER* be worth it!" It was a pain to set the game up, as always with Steam(ing Poo). After I got the game installed I had to sit up for 5hrs and 24mins for a lousy Steam update -- so I didn't even get to try CoD until after 6am! When I finally got to playing, the first difficult thing was getting my control system set up. I have a joystick + throttle and rudder pedal setup, and it took me a while to tweak everyhing out: no big deal, because original IL-2 was the same way. Then I spent some time fiddling with graphics settings, testing some planes and "breaking in" the sim...

The first thing I realized when trying my first complete "solo" in the 109E was that this was NOT the old IL-2! Whoa, my engine won't crank at the press of a button! hock: It took me a second to realize the game had clickable cockpits and almost everything was operable and life-like! Not to worry: I know the 109 cockpit like the back of my hand. Open fuel, full open water & oil radiators, squeeze a little fuel down the line, open the canopy, lean out and get a good look around my plane, switch on my magnetos, full toe brakes, throttle at 5% and fire it up! By now I'd already realized how complex "Complex Engine Management" was in CoD, because I'd done a few "quick missions" in Hurris and Spits and burned them up lol... so I knew to let the engine warm up a second. Once I was up to 40C on my oil I was satisfied, and I locked my toes down on the brakes, powered up and let go. I was bouncing up and down as I rolled forward, and I thought to myself: "WOW! This is nice!". Some nose-heavy trim and a little forward pressure on the stick and my tail was up, and I was keepin 'er straight with rudder. Just like the real thing, I didn't need to pull up once I got to speed: she just lifts off into the air and you need to cut power, trim down and raise the gear.

I took it out over the channel and got a little alt under my wings, and tried some basic maneuvers. MUCH more life-like than the original IL-2!!! I feel like I'm flying the real thing; save G-force effects on my physical body and not actually dying when bullets hit me lol. The CEM in this sim is truly a blast, and very well done. Only the anthropomorphic control thing annoys me. It's not that bad in the 109, but sometimes it can just be silly. Like when you're lowering your slow *** flaps on a landing approach and desperately need to add throttle, by the foolish pilot just keeps on rolling out the flaps and stalls and crashes. It really kills me (quite literally) in the Hurricane. But now that I'm used to it, it's not so bad in the 109.

After flying around a few minutes over the Channel, I came back in to land. Just like the start-up and takeoff procedure, landing also felt very life-like and was much more impressive than the old IL-2! I made quite a beautiful landing for my first 109 flight ever in this sim. It could've been better, but it wasn't bad. I wonder, how many other people land their first time without mishap or incident?! :wink: I actually made a video of the entire flight with FRAPS, and have it on my spare HDD (I'll show it off if anyone wants to see heheh).

Now that I've got quite a few sleepless hours of gameplay under my exhausted belt, I must say that this sim is pretty damn good! I think that either the negative reviews were overdone, or the latest updates/patches have rectified most/many of the things which grieved our fellow simmers. Everything seems legit to me. The sounds aren't the greatest, but I was shocked that Oleg finally used some realistic audio rather than recordings of his electric razors and lawnmower. The ballastics are very well-written, and the damage model is most impressive. AI is much better than 1946, but I do notice that AI can do some whacky, unrealistic maneuvers sometimes (so far it hasn't been too bad here -- no worse than old IL-2). Like I said before, CEM is pretty amazing. Now I REALLY feel like I'm flying a real 109, and I feel overloaded and burdened with most of the tasks that weigh on you in the real thing (not fun for most people -- sheer ecstasy for a sadistic 109-perv like me lol). Other games (ESPECIALLY that piece of junk called "WWII Online") always made me mad because the 109 was not properly modeled or represented, and Allied planes (like the Spit) were serious OVER-modeled. But not CoD. I'm getting nearly perfect historical performance out of my winged beast, and making mincemeat of Hurris and Spits galore. This sim still needs a lot more fine-tuning and work, and is definitely a WIP, but I love it! I'm not giving it an A+ yet, but it's a solid A or A-, because nothing competes with it. And hurray for the fact that this is a Battle of Britain sim!!! :OO

And finally: graphics... They're very nice! The skins on planes seem a bit bland, but that's easily fixable (by us!). The cockpits are breath-taking. The water, vegetation, cities, etc are all excellent. I'm able to run the game with everything maxed out, no problem. And my PC doesn't get near as hot as it does running ARMA II. Of course, my system may be considered "uber++" by most folks. It's a custom software development machine I built myself last year for a couple thousand $. Here are my specs:

*Gigabyte mobo
*Intel i7-980 Quad
*nVidia GTX-580
*12GB DDR3 RAM (3x 4GB sticks, one slot still open)
*Windows 7
*Apevia Case w/ 4 cooling fans

Game runs smooth as silk on this machine. Everything to the max+, except I set trees to "high" instead of "very high" because it lets FRAPS capture video more smoothly. Turned the anti-epilepsy filter off because I don't need it. Using low MSAA settings because I don't ever see jaggies in this game to begin with, and why not keep my machine cooler? Dunno what else to say except it runs great but Steam sucks!

Regards,

keinmann

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Re: CoD: My Experience - RHYS4190 - 30.09.2012

Yes your system is quite impressive im trying to build my self a computer for this game what your specs?.

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Re: CoD: My Experience - Dietz - 01.10.2012



I agree with this review as far as it goes & love the sim,but there are so many features that don't work or features & planes that were promised and weren't delivered that it has stuck in many people's craw.Don't get me wrong I love the sim,but it is going through a very slow gestation period,unlike IL-2 in which everything worked when it was introduced & steadily added things that also worked. In the past year & a half we've had about 4 beta patches ( one last week..) and I think 2 official upgrades.That has helped.People have upgraded their rigs to make smooth play possible ( the official requirement specs were a joke!)There have been several third party campaigns added which help- the game comes with 2 bare bones campaign options ( very slim considering most of use thought we'd be getting the complete BoB mapped out in the sim..) and skinners are at work too-all good! Negative ? The AI aircraft ( Wellington, Defiant ,Dornier Do-17 et al) are not going to be flyable in the foreseeable future .Neither are new planes of 1940 to be modelled( He-59, Whitley,Swordfish etc.)We have heard the BoB developement is at an end & in future the Eastern Front is the new focus with aircraft all of us recognize from the initial aircraft found way back in IL-2 and perhaps a new map or two of Russia ...somewhere. It has been said Ubisoft is very concerned about competion from the arcade mutiplay sims like War Thunder- World of Planes...and is tilting in that direction(?).
It may be my pet peeve but the IC Official website has to my eyes really dropped the ball.Its almost as if it got its feelings hurt with the sh__tload of criticism it got handed our for what amounted to a Beta version of the game that we have all been testing since release.After so much pre-release publicity , they have retreated to give up as little as possible and it is given to us in a very sterile sort of manner or like pulling teeth.Like the first time they obviously promised too much so now they will just keep quiet until the Battle of Moscow ( working title) comes out.( Contrast this with the Rise of Flight site, that really is a friendly sort of place that really seems to value it loyal fans.RoF had a very shakey start too , but from the start the developers listened & responded with constnt fixes & additional pay-for aircraft- it feels like a world of differnce from one place to another - 1C and CloD could really learn a thing about PR & marketing by taking a stroll over to RoF.)The good news ( they tell us) is that all the improvement in game play will translate back to CloD-fingers crossed there will be a lot of them! Maybe then 3rd party modelers will embrace the sim in more numbers than currently do.
I fly CloD every day- its almost hypnotising to fly over the countryside,following roads & rivers where ever they go - the England & France maps are jaw dropping,as are the other features mentioned above and I feel things wil get better technically given time,but I won't gine up on IL-2 DBW it still is a load of fun! :wink:

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Re: CoD: My Experience - Deutschmark - 01.10.2012

Dietz Wrote:

Looks like another great Dietz landing... :lol: :mrgreen:

Deutschmark

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Re: CoD: My Experience - Dietz - 01.10.2012

Deutschmark Wrote:

Dietz Wrote:

Looks like another great Dietz landing... :lol: :mrgreen:

Deutschmark

One ot tooo many to count Duetschmark!!!!





etc .etc.- I'm an ace for the opposing team!

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Re: CoD: My Experience - Deutschmark - 01.10.2012

So long as you can walk away from it then its a good landing right Dietz :)

Deutschmark

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Re: CoD: My Experience - bomberkiller - 01.10.2012

Quote:So long as you can walk away from it then its a good landing right Dietz

lol...

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Re: CoD: My Experience - Dietz - 01.10.2012

Deutschmark Wrote:So long as you can walk away from it then its a good landing right Dietz :)

Deutschmark

Or crawl away from my PC without a CTD! :roll:

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Re: CoD: My Experience - Deutschmark - 02.10.2012

Well Dietz, think of it this way... You are contributing to the war
Your giving the mechanics a lot of almost new spare parts.... :)

Deutschmark

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Re: CoD: My Experience - Dietz - 02.10.2012

Yes you do have a point...

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