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IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey was recently shown off to great applause at E3, being a sequel to one of the greatest flight combat simulator games on the PC it has a lot to live up to, thankfully, from what we saw, it does more than this. Birds of Prey isn't coming to the PC however, not right away and not by the same name, Birds of Prey will be released on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable and the Nintendo DS bringing the simulator game to the console and handheld market for the first time.
In Birds of Prey, you take to the skies in the cockpits of various fighter planes and bombers while participating in some of World War II's greatest air battles such as the Battle of the Bulge. You'll be fighting through six Allied campaigns which take place along the Western and Eastern front of Europe during WWII as a pilot in the British, American or Russian air force. These six campaigns are split up into a total of 50 missions which seem to vary between airborne dogfighting to bomber missions and escorts.
The biggest addition has to be the Arcade mode which has been introduced, while the original and its subsequent expansions were all based on realism, Birds of Prey has been given not only the usual simulation mode making it as realistic as possible by limiting your fuel and how the aircraft handles, but the arcade mode which has been added opens up the game for more casual players - bringing the series to a much broader market. Of course, playing a simulator on a controller isn't easy either, thus making the need for more accessible gameplay paramount.
From what has been seen of the 360 and PS3 versions, the game looks exceptional, the aircraft are of a very high detail with the correct markings and insignia for the ones we saw, even the cockpits look realistic giving you the choice between admiring the view of your aircraft from the outside or going for the ultimate experience in the cockpit. The special effects and environments also look good, from the explosions and machine-gun fire to the clouds and smoke contrails behind rockets, to planes that get hit and damaged, some even losing parts of the aircraft such as a wing or tail and then the pilot bailing out as your aircraft plummets to the ground.
The game will also include competitive online multiplayer on the 360, PS3 and PSP versions, nothing has been mentioned regarding the DS thus far, details on how large the online games will be are as of yet unknown.
Overall, IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey put simply looks stunning. It's a game many should be watching with great interest, a game we hope will play as good as it looks and be one we'll remember for many years to come.
