IL-2 Cliffs of Dover - Blitz Update (Team Fusion 4.5)

[Arrow 83]

I didn't see anything in the News or  File Announcements forums, so I'm wondering if players who currently play, or have every played the series, are aware that Blitz was released last December, 2017. For those who aren't, Blitz is Team Fusion patch 4.5 and has a number of significant improvements over Team Fusion 4.312;  last & highest patch number for the original game. The most significant change is that DirectX 11 support has been added and a complete recompile of the code as a 64 bit application. This is the announcement thread from Team Fusion's announcement on the Air Tactical Assault Group website.  Anyone who bought the original IL-2 CloD on Steam, receives Blitz for free.  That may well be true for those who bought it from other sources too, but I wouldn't know for certain.

I only flew CloD 4.312 for about 10 hours, but I've recently deeply immersed myself in Blitz and are really enjoying it. The things I've noticed are improved flight models, equivalent frame rates but with far better graphical detail and more realistic modelling in every regard - especially damage.  I'm an offline player, so I can't comment on multiplay improvements, but from my read of posts the online play experience on the larger maps has been improved and is the main beneficiary of the app now being 64 bit.

[+streakeagle 871]

I never bought CloD until the relatively recent Steam Blitz edition offer popped up in December of 2017. Patch 4.54 was just released a few days ago. The patch was so big (8 GB) that it was effectively a new installation. So I took it for a ride. The graphics look very good, especially for such an older game. The Spitfire feels twitchy, i.e. really sensitive to very small stick movements, but that is not surprising considering the DCS World Spitfire Mk IX pretty much feels the same way. The problem is that despite great graphics and what seems to be a passable flight model, I still like Battle of Britain 2: Wings of Victory more for the excellent dogfight AI and the option to fly in full scale bomber interception battles where the sky is truly filled with Nazi bombers. Additionally, the latest games like DCS World and IL-2 BoX support VR and generally have equal or better graphics. If I didn't have DCS World, I would probably be flying IL-2 BoX. But if I didn't have either of those sims, I might be playing CloD. But since I have DCS World and pretty much spend most of my sim time flying DCS aircraft, both CloD and IL-2 BoX just take up space on my hard drive. I will keep my eye on CloD to see where it goes in the future, but it will probably never be good enough for me to want to play it with any frequency.

[RUSTYMORLEY 162]

By God I wish Team Fusion would create a non-Steam version of this game, I would jump at it straight away.