What made you stick with IL-2 instead of switching to more arcade flight games?

[vividtide09]

I've noticed many flight sim players have tried games like War Thunder or other aviation titles but eventually settled on IL-2. What was the biggest reason for you?

Was it the flight model, historical accuracy, multiplayer, VR support, mission editor, or something else? I'd love to hear what keeps you coming back after hundreds of hours.

I'm also interested in hearing recommendations for beginners who want to improve their flying ski

[kama1]

i started with the most arcade flight sim ever: crimson skies. more arcade than war thunder.

played on keyboard... no jostick...

😵‍💫

after i stopped beeing a noob, switching to advanced il-2 was logical.

[Panzerkatze]

I started with WarBirds, about the time when the wheel was invented. Initially it was good but during the years, certain green players found The Holy Grail and developed totally immortal bombers (Bf110 w/ 2x20mm + 2x30mm had no effect), bomber gunners which killed fighter w/ one shot from distances over a 1 km, over 800 km/h F4 Wildcats, HE-111s f and JU-87 D5 faster and more agile than P39s and immune to its modest 37mm. So I left.

Next was Aces High. After a while, similar things started happening there and many left, me among them. I decided to give IL-2 a try. I flew initially in few multiplayer servers. In one of them reception for a newcomer was so hostile, I went to single player. Then I decided to try tanking and found it pretty fascinating. Since then, doing it, mostly in Finnish server, which I find the most realistic and it does not have any arcade point collecting to be able to fight against reds in equal terms. 

[jokash]

19 hours ago, Panzerkatze said:

I started with WarBirds, about the time when the wheel was invented.

Next was Aces High.

How do you start in games like that but miss WarThunder or original IL2?

I never heard of WarBirds

Edited August 2 by jokash

[Panzerkatze]

1 hour ago, jokash said:

How do you start in games like that but miss WarThunder or original IL2?

I never heard of WarBirds

Why did I buy GSM before smartphone was invented..? WT, let me laugh. Mother of all arcades..  😄

[MajorMagee]

I started with Panzer Elite and its continued development after Wings went out of business, then helped with the Alpha testing of the stillborn project Tiger vs T34, and after working with AnKor on modernizing the graphics engine for CFS3 eventually came here for Tank Crew.

[Kubert]

IL-2 was my first flight sim somewhere between 2005 and 2010. Never played anything else. It set up certain standard for me, which was focus on specific historical event and authenticity. I am also interested in World Wa II and IL-2 covers that. I am not playing multiplayer and War Thunder is more MP focused so I skip that. DCS is in my opinion too unfocused, has content from every time period and nation, but when I check it's prices, if I wanted to mix something like Battle of Normandy together in DCS I would need to sell kidney...so skip that as well. IL-2 is also more simulation than arcade, but not over the top. It's fine balance of everything I expect and care about. I don't care if some other game has better flight model or anything...I've never flown any real warbird to compare, and planes in IL-2 behave very similar as what I read about them.

[BlitzPig_EL]

My first attempt at combat flight simulation was CFS.  What a wretched mess.  Multiplayer filled with  moded planes, physics defying Corsairs that had ten Brownings on each wing with an all up weight approaching that of a Bleriot IX, and little old me in  a box stock A6M wondering WTF was going on.  I dropped it like a hot potato and never thought I'd ever try the genre again.  Then on the day after New Years in 2001 I saw a box on the shelf with an illustration of an IL2 on the cover.  Being the only person within 20 miles who even knew what an IL2 was, I picked up the "game", and the rest is history.

One of the guys in my group of BlitzPigs talked me into one of the arcade flight games, and it was like getting off my motorcycle and riding a child's tricycle, in a group of clowns on similar pedal machines, with comic music playing.  Nope Nope Nope.  Not for me.

[gungho4]

I started with RBII, then RB3D. Went to CFS, CFS2 and CFS3 (CFS3 Sucked). I heard of the IL-2 Series but didnt think much of a Russion Sim, but bought an IL-2 Forgotten Battles, shortly afterward IL-2 FB Aces Expansion Pact, Pacific Fighters and IL2 46, was completely hooked. Here I Am with IL-2 Great Battles/Flying Circus/Tank Crew. My PC is too weak for IL-2: Korea, or I would buy it.

[FlyingH]

Vividtide09, you wonder how (we) I got into IL2 from other games/sims, right. Want to read a short novel? I was born in 1951, lived in the far north of Sweden. At one time in maybe -54 -55 I wasstanding with my grandfather on his potaolot and heard a roar in the sky. ”Those are the jetplanes from the F21 base in Luleå” he told me. From that day I wnted to be a fighterpilot! Years passed, many flying machines passed overhead and I got deeper into the idea of flying one of those machines. Most of all I wanted to fly a Spitfire!

The day came for my application to the SwAF, got through the initial tests and was called for the final tests in Stockholm. There I failed! Dreams were shattered so I went back home and started a less adventurous life as a busdriver.

Then in the late seventies I made friends with a guy who was working sith computers. He showed me the rudimentary MS flightsim, you know the one on a black screen with dots forming the eviroment and a little square instument panel.

I was hooked. Years later I got my own pc and found Chuck Yeagers sim, don´t remember the name of it. Some MSF iterations a game called ”Overlord” where you flew a Mustang, a Spitfire or a Typhoon over Normandy in preperation for D-Day. The came ”European Air War” and ”Pacific Air War”, CFS I, II, and III. After those came the ”Flanker” and ”F 16”, Janes presented a few simlike programs, the early Hokum and other DCS sims passed my discs and finally the mighty ”IL2 Sturmovik” in 2001. From there on that was IT. All the other games felt gray and dull.

Today I´ve have the sequel Korea, but my pc is struggeling, so it is lying dormant on my HDD awaiting upgrades to my hardware (or funding for it)!

It took some years to build up a decent set of periferals, a cheep flightstick at first, then different Saitek hotas and rudder pedals, head tracking Track IR from 2 to 5, and finally Thrustmaster Warthog HOTAS. On top of that MFG Crosswind pedals.

My dream of flyingnever left me so the flightsims, aspecially IL2 series is the closest to leave the ground on my on terms lie in the closest to

After getting the warthog I got in contact with a guy via the forum that was before SAS, was it called AA, don´t remember. He asked if someone had a Saitek X 52 forsale. I had one so we changes addresses. He lived somewhere in Afrika but still we made a deal, I sent the stuff +all setting I had including the manual and he paid via PayPal. That would be some 10 – 15 years ago now. Wonder if he still is around

[spreckair]

@FlyingH  Sounds very familiar.  I grew up on a U.S. Air Force base in Southern Japan until I was 12 and dreamed of being a fighter pilot.  At 11, my eyesight went south (probably from reading too many air combat history books), so there was no hope to becoming a fighter pilot.  The rest of my experience is the same as yours.  At about the time of CFS III, I decided that flying on a flat screen was just too disappointing and quit flight sims, vowing to hopefully return someday when VR flight-simming would become viable.  And here we are, flight sims and VR.  Around January of 2021 (when I retired) I took the plunge and IL-2 was the only WWII choice left, which is alright. 

[AceMcGrugaur]

I've been interested in flying as far back as I can remember. My oldest brother gave me a book of all available aircraft in 1969. I found out in fourth grade that to be a pilot my glasses wearing face wasn't going to be accepted. Still hate that! So I finally got into computers and got a cheap stick and eventually found some space games to play but then I picked up a copy of a PC magazine and it had the IL2 demo. Installed it crashed into stuff and frustratingly uninstalled. Then another demo came out and after finding out about torque lol and big propellers. Eventually I bought a Saitek X-45 joystick with the axis on the throttle that can be used for yaw. Put in hours and hours of flying time till the hat wore out. Of course by now I'm hooked big time into the game and genre and spent a whole lot of money on it. I have zero regrets and am hoping for thousands more hours of flying. 1946 - Korea

[DeBo_238th]

My first flight sim was Secret Weapons of the Luftwaffe (4 3.5in floppy's in DOS). Followed by Aces in the Pacific. ever since then arcade style sims just didnt hit the itch for me. A joystick has always been required for me to enjoy the sim and I blame those 2 sims. IL-2 took over when it originally released, but did get competion from the Enemy Engaged series (attack helicopters) later on. Now its a toss up between Great Battles, Korea, DCS and Cliffs of Dover.

[Aapje]

18 hours ago, FlyingH said:

and found Chuck Yeagers sim, don´t remember the name of it.

Chuck Yeager's Air Combat

[Avimimus]

The sensation of flight. Arcade titles never get the sense of complexity that comes with real aerodynamics.

After that, the representation of history.

P.S. I started flying flight sims quite some time ago - so I had plenty of chance to experience lower-fidelity flight sims, limited as they were by the technology of the time.

The one thing I do miss though is the loss of speculative scenarios. It would be nice to fly a highly classified 5th gen or 6th gen scenario - or maybe an alternative history scenario... aircraft like the Mikoyan Mig 1.44 or the Blohm und Voss BvP 212 have a certain charm to them! Back when flight simulators took themselves a little less seriously, it was possible to have sims like DiD's Ef-2000 or SWOTL which really did try to produce the best representation that they could given the available documentation, but where still able to be a bit fanciful/speculative at times.

[JollyJack]

The ME and mission making. Especially in regards of ground object scenarios and drive-able vehicles. Them air battles are more fun in Flying Circus IMO. 

[jokash]

My ❤️

[JollyJack]

Just tried to enthuse a flight simmer for IL2 GB by extensively demoing it to him...... he seemed less impressed due the overall complexity, high total costs, time consuming interaction between game and ME with testing (unlike DCS). i mentioned added value of old and some recent modders and 3rd party developers.

He mentioned missing a proper ME {interactive?) manual and the copy protection system for bought campaigns (unlike DCS). 

Showed him Tank Crew and Flying Circus, both he found overally quite interesting. 

But he hooked off due the fact that Korea was a separate thing and the new graphics engine not possible for GB integration as i explained.  

He also agreed with me that the overall GB new forum seems quite a bit 'general' compared to the old version, and my opinion that GB seems sort of abandoned right now.  

[taffy2]

I have been flying IL2 for over 20 years and no other combat flight sim come close to this spectacular sim, it not only offers so many aircraft each with their own characteristics and a mysid of scenarios but an awful lot of historical fact . I'm 82 and I would like to think that I have another 20 years of flying this experience !!!! ?

Cheers

[JollyJack]

I started briefly years ago with 1946, lost overall interest until much later someone showed me MSFS. I missed RoF out on totally until i bought BoS on stream at first. I agree with you taffy2. I am basically most interested in ww2 stuff, and especially miss the 4 engine bombers. A paranormal "gifted" friend states that it has to to with re-incarnation in my case LoL.

[BoeingVertol]

I don't touch any game that centers it's identity around PvP.  MOST people can't control themselves from cheating, gaming the system somehow for advantages, or acting disgusting towards each other.  You couldn't pay me to play War Thunder.

Edited September 6 by BoeingVertol

[Bulldog]

Intellivison B-17 Bomber for me...

 

[Big-Al]

When I was a kid, my dad introduced me to model building. At that time I was allowed to play on his PC that had Combat Flight Simulator on it. I still remember the B-17 mission "Dicke Autos" where you were tasked to shoot them down. After that I got CF II, and while I was probably the worst pilot in history, it felt spectacular in the Zero. Afterward, I stumbled upon CF III and Il-2 Sturmovik and its expansions. Sadly, my interest in flying faded for some time and shifted to tanks and other stuff. When War Thunder launched in 2012-13 (not sure anymore), it felt like a dream. All the old aircraft I used to love and read about in one place, f2p.

I played War Thunder a lot in a squadron and really enjoyed it for a few years until a former friend introduced me back to the good old Il-2 1946. While it wasn't something fancy, it still ignited the will to fly more simulator-based stuff. Unironically, I also lost my taste for the 08/15 shooter genre like Battlefield/CoD. That's why I slowly left War Thunder and decided to search for contemporary alternatives. IL-2 Kuban just came out at that time when I got invested in the game. And yeah, that's it. Since then I've really enjoyed the environment of Great Battles (as well as Tank Crew/Flying Circus). 

I never got the hang of DCS, it didn't work on my old PC properly, and it is expensive for very little content. While Korea made me more curious about Jets, I will always be a prop enjoyer. Hence why this is and probably will be the sim of my choosing. 

[Rodwonder]

Started with the original Red Baron because of my interests in WW1 airplanes and pilots since I was child... Went on to RB3d and European Air War, then Il2. It's the way it feels in the flight model, not on rails like other sims. 

[jokash]

23 hours ago, Bulldog said:

Intellivison B-17 Bomber for me...

 

whats that supposed to be? A Dornier 17?