Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Expand your collection, 8 May 2004
By A Customer
This expansion pack is mostly a compilation of official dowloads to IL2 Forgotten Battles. This is no bad thing because it gives you a nice handy disk to keep them on!I had a bit of trouble loading it. I had to unload IL2 Forgotten Battles first and after a couple of false starts it all loaded. Thankfully, it didn't seem to need any extra power from my PC and graphics card. It ran as smoothly as the original game. I was fooled into thinking that the ready-made campaigns include the Ardennes, Pacific and Normandy. This is not the case. The new Ardennes and Normandy maps are available for full mission building and they also appear in some single missions. However, they aren't available in the quick mission builder or the new ready-made campaigns, which are still confined to the Eastern Front. However, the IL2 series is a bit like making model aircraft. You just want to have them all! The expansion pack gives you plenty of choice, including Spitfires, P51s, Zeros and Fiats. There are some real rarities, including the Mistel FW 190/JU88 combination. The new aircraft are, as usual, beautifully crafted, inside and out. You can fly all of them in the quick mission builder, albeit with a choice of Russian or German markings only. Multiplayers and full mission builders are better catered for. They can have a choice of national markings. The flight dynamics and AI have been enhanced, so the whole game is even more satisfying. You can even "tip" a V1 flying bomb with your wings (if you're good enough). This is a "must have" for all IL2 fans, particularly those who have not downloaded the patches. It's a bargain for everybody who wants a complete collection.
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29 of 29 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Still the best!, 20 April 2004
It seemed to be an eternity waiting for this product to be released in the UK, it was released in the US two weeks before we got it and I had read no end of reports from happy american simmers, raving about the new features. So when it arrived I promptly gave myself a hernia getting the packaging off.
I'm pleased to say that when I'd installed it I wasn't disappointed, this add on features a whole host of new aircraft that had previously been simply AI and many which were just missing from the sim altogether. Notable amongst these are the four variants of Spitfire which was understandable given that the sim really revolves around the Eastern Front but like most Brits, I'd been itching for the developers to turn their attention to this aircraft. I had something that looked like a Spitfire in MS CFS3 but it sounded and handled like the default Cessna 172 (which in itself handles like no real-life aeroplane that I've ever flown). The Spitfire, like every other new aircraft in the Aces Expansion Pack is a pure work of art and handles precisely as you'd expect it to, the 3D cockpits are stunning also, notably that of the Gloster Gladiator biplane(or J8A to be more precise). Most of the new aircraft are single engined piston types, from wood, wire and canvas biplanes to highly streamlined, state of the art monoplanes with devastating cannons and rockets, there are simply too many to name them all here. There are also some badly needed new twin engined machines, a P38 Lightning and a Messerschmitt Bf110 stand out with their heavy armament and for those who like their early jets, there are several exciting new models present. Like Microsoft, 1C has even included some 'what if' aircraft to the add on, the Go229 Flying wing and the P80 Shooting Star never saw wartime service but have nonetheless been lovingly reproduced and these introduce a completely new flying style from the prop fighters. As if all of the above wasn't enough, there are even two new composite aircraft, the Mistel, which was the worlds first air launched guided missile and the SPB, a large Russian four engined TB3 bomber with two fighters strung under the wings, all are flyable. There are one or two bugs, this is to be expected with such an advanced program but the developer has promised to bring out a free patch very soon to cure these, were it not for these minor bugs I'd have given the product 5 stars. The next free download will also bring out yet more flyable aircraft to fill any gaps that might still be present, there aren't many! The IL-2 range has become without doubt the greatest WW2 air combat simulator there is. Until the same developers bring out their Battle Of Britain simulator some time in the nearish future, this seems set to remain the case.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Watch your six!, 17 April 2004
This is the excellent expansion pack for the most realistic, the most beautiful and the most entertaining WW2 combat flight simulator ever made! It adds a whole bunch of new great aircraft to the already impressive selection shipped with the standard game. A must have for any games or WW2 enthusiast!
One warning though: you WILL get hooked! :)
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