Wings of Prey/Wings of Luftwaffe

[+streakeagle 871]

I never got around to getting Wings of Prey because I simply don't have much time for the games I already have, but Steam had an offer I couldn't refuse yesterday ($13.50 for the game + addon). So I bought two copies with the Wings of Luftwaffe addon ($27 total cost!) just in case I want to do some multiplayer (my son already plays Blazing Angels with me on Wii). I found it difficult to get it set up the way I wanted. Lots of tedious stuff like figuring out which joystick axis' need inverting and registering the product key, etc. I must say, I am impressed with the look and feel compared to IL-2 and Aces High. I have only tried the Battle of the Bulge in a P-51D and a Bf-109 mission. The look and feel reminds me strongly of Jane's WW2 Fighters, just with modernized 3d models and textures. The glint of metal aircraft in the distance is well done... the first sim I have played to do it as well or better than MiG Alley. I haven't played very much and probably won't bother with it at all unless my son is interested. I have been focused on jets for so long that I have no idea how good the flight model is. It felt okay, but is it as accurate as Aces High? i.e. dead-on the published power, time-to-climb, and speed charts? My only immediate complaint besides setup hassles is the view through the canopy glass/prop. All that HDR/pixel shading looks cool, but I can't see much straight ahead between all the glare and prop-blur. The work around is to use the virtual cockpit/HUD view, but I would rather be blind than not have an excellent 3d cockpit wrapped around me.

Edited December 28, 2010 by streakeagle

[harryleith 12]

I had been playing around with this too and bought it for 50% off - $15. I thought I had a bargain, but the next day it was 80% off at only $6! I didn't get mad - I just bought the $6 one as well and gifted it to a friend. Now we both have it and can dogfight!

 

Wings of Prey looks like everything Heroes over Europe should have been but wasn't. Happy flying Streakeagle!

[JediMaster 451]

Remember this is a graphically-updated Il-2-engined game. It uses the same basic underlying code. I think it's agreed the FMs aren't as accurate, they're simplified for console consumption (and then it was back-ported to the PC), but the game is seen as a good time. If you like, you could say WoP is the Star Wars to Il-2's 2001. Both good in their own way, but not specifically appealing to the same audiences.

[+Julhelm 266]

The engine has nothing to do with Il-2. In fact the developers have consistently stated that except for FM's it uses no assets or code from Il-2.

[+streakeagle 871]

Yeah, I read that as well. They started out with the idea that it would be quick and dirty to port IL-2 to a console, but found it easier to develop a completely new engine to suit their needs.

It does not "feel" like IL-2. Nor does it look like it. I think its relationship to IL-2 from a realism standpoint is much like Strike Fighters to Falcon 4.0... yet from my brief experience it didn't seem that lite, more like LOMAC compared to Falcon 4.0 as it includes an awful lot of engine management options for a lite sim. TK would never use so many controls for a "fun" game.

[+streakeagle 871]

Having just flown the P-51D in both IL-2 1946 and Wings of Prey, the gunsight is much better and realistic in Il-2 (even if the diamonds are oversized). Also, while the WoP terrain looks good, the airplanes stand out against the terrain as if you are flying in front of an old cheesy blue screen projection (think Elvis Presley movies where you see the background going by as he is talking to someone while driving a car). This is especially evident when flying down low and looking at your own aircraft from an outside view. Some aspects of Il-2 look very dated in this type of comparison, but the trees look pretty good from the air, just not so good when you get down in the weeds. I haven't played enough of either to say which I like better, but WoP doesn't seem as sterile. I also did some head-to-head comparisons with Aces High and SF2 Israel Expansion Pack P-51Ds. By far, SF2 is the most fun since the AI really likes to dogfight. Aces High has much lower numbers of polygons than the other games and sacrifices cockpit accuracy for gaming convenience, but its flight model is by far the most accurate. So, if I wanted to do some serious dueling online with high fidelity flight and gun modeling, I think Aces High is still my sim of choice. However, for WW2 simulation and immersion, its probably a tossup on IL-2/WoP. If TK ever made an SF2 EAW release, the fun factor of his sim lite approach would put it in a category of its own. So I can see why modders like to build SF WW2 installs when they already have a ton of dedicated WW2 air combat sims to choose from. I don't know of any other WW2 air combat flight sim where you can fly a P-61 Black Widow AND even have functioning radar. But there is one WW2 air combat sim that I think is better than all of these: WoV BoB2 (Wings of Victory Battle of Britain 2). As long as you are happy flying Hurricanes, Spitfires, and Bf109s, I think it wins across the board with fidelity, fun, immersion, etc. If they ever take that sim up to the next level with more terrains and aircraft, it would easily outclass Il-2.