JediMaster

The TIR3 didn't come with the Vector Expansion out of the box like 4 and 5 do. Other than that, yes, it's an FOV thing. That's why I'm not upgrading my 4 to a 5 now, because the 5 doesn't offer me enough improvement over my perfectly functioning 4 to bother.

I would think they should have CVTs.

"Battlefield’s traditionally deep vehicle experience" I know they can't mean "realistic." I have vivid memories of guys bailing from planes with no parachute and entering another vehicle below them!

The closest thing to that really was Novalogic's Joint Ops. A lot less realistic than OFP/Arma ever was, but up to 150 players and decently large maps. The AI stunk, though, made OFP's look like Terminators. I would enjoy much larger maps and scenarios, but I refuse to pay per month for any game.

Ah, that cockpit pic reminds me of many long hours spent in the 80s and 90s flying F-15 Strike Eagle 1-3 (mostly 3) and then Jane's F-15 (aka F-15SE4 from a different publisher).

Well, I have my Logitech Wingman 3D Extreme still for the few things that I use a simple stick for (Arma 2 for example) and use my Cougar for the real flying.

Apparently the smiling thing is because of this totally awesome thing they have with scanning software now that can't figure out what a smile is!

They're probably just automatic.

Well, at least he led the kind of life most can only dream of...long, significant, and to be remembered long after his passing.

French components, Israeli components...all made in Taiwan!

Sometimes it takes a fresh pair of eyes to notice things!

Unfortunately, you can't patch that. You're as far as you can go. The newer Il-2:1946 was released at 4.06 I think? Anyway, 4.08m is the latest full patch and there's a 4.09m beta that's been out for a year...for Il-2:1946. I'm afraid you'll need to get that to get the latest patches. On the plus side, I believe all those addons will work fine with 1946. It's a pretty good deal, as I think you can get it for $20 or less and it includes FB, AEP, FP, and the not-separately-released-in-the-West addons Pe-2, Sturmoviks over Manchuria, and 1946. Multiple new maps and planes (including a lot of great jets in the 1946 addon) and the full 4.09 is going to have even more. Anyway, you're right and we don't have the patches here either. We need to get those UL'd here. I believe they're at Ubisoft's site, though.

Where are the depth charges?

Any student of history can see that whoever is on top is a target for those who wish to be because jealously is a universal constant. I agree we do far too much outside of our borders, and I for one am sick of paying for it, but I'm sick of paying for other stuff too and I get no say in that either. Before WWII there was no gov't babysitting that we have now and the country was better for it. WWI both strengthened this country by turning it into a world player and ruined it by introducing the income tax. Now we have loser politicians who think people WANT to pay taxes to help out other people who aren't carrying their weight and want to be carried? We have so many homeless now because we don't keep enough of what we make to let people keep their homes! Why? So we can then give money to those same people who wind up not working after losing their home? Why doesn't the gov't look to reduce the cost of healthcare instead of just hand it to those who can't afford it while taking MORE money from those who can until THEY can't afford it either? Oh, that's right, they know that means the lawyers wouldn't be able to sue for 7 figures for every mistake a doctor makes and they're not going to TOUCH that. So malpractice insurance rates soar and costs for everything else soar to enable them to pay the premiums. Personally, I think we should pull back every US troop in the globe and to hell with sticking our noses into other countries. If they want our help, well too bad. If a country attacks us, forget sending troops, just nuke them.

Is this for FSX?

Wait, so you're actually assuming that a media report of a gov't deal is 100% accurate? Usually these packages include training and logistics for the life of the plane (which is usually 30 yrs), including several spare engines which cost a good amount. Just because the article doesn't say it does you can't assume it doesn't. To put it another way, that article is 8 paragraphs and the actual proposal is likely more than 8" THICK. Flyaway cost is NEVER the price when planes are bought because they're never bought by themselves. The only time in recent memory I can recall is there was a line item in the budget a couple of years ago for a single replacement F-22 that was listed as $141.9m or something, which was literally its flyaway cost. The rest of the time they include all this other stuff in the total price but the news always just says "for XXX planes".

Playing the demo, I noticed it was hard to control the plane with the gamepad using any flight model other than arcade. The realistic and simulator ones usually resulted in me spinning quite easily which I'm sure is because of the difficulty of using the gamepad precisely. Does Il-2:BoP fully support other controllers like the Saitek AV8R, which I'm considering getting?

Minis are expensive for their size, yes, but I've no idea what they feel like to drive or any of that other stuff. I've driven them in racing sims, though!

Certainly glad he didn't have children. The question is what about the driver?

Uh...that just seems stupid. It's a screen cap! Is someone going to take a screen cap for every frame of the disc to reassemble it or something??

I didn't think that signal would carry over a cell phone. Interesting. Anyway, the only time I ever did it (where I needed someone to come and open the doors for me) was in high school when the GF left the keys in the car and locked it behind her. So technically it wasn't me at all but I needed to call AAA to unlock it.

Also, if the cost is very close (between refurb and new build) it makes more sense in this case (where you're addressing shortfalls in numbers) to buy new. While being refurb'd the plane is out of service for a long time, so you actually decrease the active inventory to do it. That's why the USMC went with a mixed new build/refurb for the H-1 program instead of total refurb. I think the same thing is happening with the CH-47s?

I think it's safe to say they won't go with nuke power. The French built one and then decided not to for their 2nd carrier because of the costs.

MS: May we interest you in the Xbox 360 then??

According to that site, it was already down in 1997. The odd thing is I thought it was around later, too. I've been many many times since the mid-90s and I never noticed it was gone because I never looked for it! Not until when I was there a few months ago, that is, and I noticed the Pooh Playground.