When we prepared the January preview " IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle for Britain ", Talked with the developers and looked at the still not completed version of the game, the sky seemed to be covered with diamonds – everything looked so cool a few months before the release. Beautiful landscapes, breathtaking attention to details, a chic flight model – all said that the games of the series " Il-2 attack aircraft "And henceforth, one of the main articles of Russian exports abroad will remain immediately after oil, gas, MiG-29 aircraft and nesting dolls.
The preview ended on an optimistic note: “It is unlikely that we will soon see a more reliable, realistic and beautiful aircraft system. "Battle for Britain" is a unique manual game game. Made in Russia ". The last phrase, alas, has become fatal.
The personnel decide everything
The game that appeared on sale after the seven years of waiting was least like the game and in the original, unsuccessful form (namely, this version went to both us and all customers) was practically incompetent.
The main problem is the terrible performance of the game. Even on top computers that are much superior to recommended system requirements, it regularly shows a slide show with 1-3 FPS, and when the personnel meter still goes to an acceptable level (for this you need to get to the ocean or burns your nose into the sky, the main The earth was not visible), light twitching and hanging still turned piloting into hellish flour. And this is before the start of the battle. When German “things” appear on the horizon, and even more so – when trying to open fire on them, the game turned into a static and completely uncontrolled landscape to the player.
After the first patch, which, by the way, happened five days after the release of the game, the situation has improved somewhat, although it is still very far from ideal: microfrisis still occur above the ground, and it is still impossible to fight in London’s sky-the game gives out miserable 10 Personnel per second even on a computer with the Intel Core i5 processor, 8 GB of RAM and GTX 580 video card. The duty excuse about “Iron weak for such a game” will not work here, because only a configuration with two or three graphics cards, and SLI and Crossfire the game in the irony of fate does not support in any form.
Firing article
The producer of the game Ilya Shevchenko answers our questions about the Battle of Britain.
"Gambling": Do you think the "battle for Britain" is a complete, ready to sell product?
Ilya Shevchenko: Finished – of course, no. According to the established tradition, we plan to continue to improve it and expand in the future in the same way as we did with all our products. Much of what we wanted to release in the initial release could not be finalized – such as a dynamic weather module, additional aircraft, DX11 support, improved support for multiducid processors and much more.
And, of course, we are aware of the discontent of many players with the performance of the game. We are actively working with them to solve these problems. Improving the game in this direction is the highest priority for us.
"Gambling": So what is the reason for its low performance?
Ilya Shevchenko: The requirements of Ubisoft's publisher are in many ways to make the game safe for epiletics players. The game was originally developed without the slightest thoughts of epilepsy, so when trying to test it on this item, it became clear that all the aspects of the game did not put it on normal: propeller, shooting, explosions, the sun, passing of the chamber, travel of cars, entry into the hangar, flight on a shaving and so on.
Since epilepsy is caused by the rapid flickering of objects, and the flight simulator is, in principle, the genre about rapidly flickering objects, the whole game from crust to crust was a real nightmare of the epileptic. In order to solve these problems, we had to shove a huge amount of graphic code in a very short time. Nevertheless, there were too many different outbursts in the game, and there is too little time. Moreover, the elimination of many outbreaks was simply impossible without a radical retreat from the basic principle of the simulator – historical fidelity. We would have to abandon the realistic sky, torture all the fire, smoke, explosions, etc.D. and t.p.
As a result, the epileptic filter was made about three weeks before the release from complete hopelessness. Popixel filter compares every previous frame with each new frame. If the pixels are too different in brightness, the filter averages the new pixel to the fitting limits. How easy it is to imagine, this filter delays the appearance of each new frame – and the more pixels in it, the more it beats in performance. But now we still received permission to remove this filter from the Russian version of the game, which will be done with the first patch (our conversation took place before the release of the patch; after its appearance, the game did not "fly").
"Gambling": in the Russian version of the game there are a lot of banal spelling errors. The team did not fit in the deadline?
Ilya Shevchenko: No, oddly enough, the texts were translated (initially the game was created in English) and lay in the game for many months. All the team members and numerous beta testers looked through them. Nevertheless, some obvious mistakes still crept into the game. We have already sent all the texts to the corrector and received them back, they will appear in the game with the first patch.
Gamery: What was the role of Ubisoft in testing the game?
Ilya Shevchenko: The French corporation is not guilty that the game contains a certain number of annoying errors. I bear all responsibility for the game.
"Gambling": Can you advise something to players who have already bought the game and displeased its work?
I hope that ten years of the Il-2 series of life are sufficient evidence that we are seriously approaching business and very appreciate the opinion of fans, constantly improving and developing our aircraft systems. People who bought “forgotten battles” on the day the game released in 2003 will remember that the release of the version was also not without problems, but in a short time we decided and made the game one of the most successful in the entire series.
And now we continue to work on the game – the pace of work has remained as feverish, which he was since the summer. So our advice to fans: read the forums, follow what is happening. I try to be in constant contact with customers, carefully listen to their criticism and wishes and keep everyone aware of what is happening in the team.
I dreamed of the sky of London
It is doubly disappointed that the “battle for Britain” deep down is a really amazing aircraft system. Such games are no longer made, and not at all because of the reduction of the PC-IGR market and the departure of all the best specialists in the console. The reason is much simpler – the same people play them as ten years ago, and there are practically no new pilots. Therefore, the main task of the Battle of Britain was first of all to force these people to transfer to it from the first part of IL-2 and addons to it, in which fans feel at home. And the release of the game in such an indecent form this task is very, very complicated.
Partly, the hardcore air systems themselves are to blame for this, which lived for ten years on the principle of “the more difficult, the better”, and their creators by default believed that all the people on the planet went through the initial aviation training and know where the flaps grow from the plane of the plane. Even though the threshold of entering the IL-2 is much lower than in any other game of the genre (although after after Microsoft Flight Simulator moved to the console and began to be called just Microsoft Fli GHT , The genre, as such, no longer exists), it will be difficult for absolute beginners here – no one will explain to you why the planes fly, how they are controlled, why a trimmer is needed and what is a magneto. In other words, the game is almost unable to instill love for the sky, such as, for example, Gran Turismo It falls in love with cars and motorsport due to its friendliness (and then smoothly increases the level of complexity, turning yesterday's newcomer into a rider). “IL-2 Sturmovik” beginners can only push away-after all, this is an almost complete flight simulator, so you need to know the mathship before you sit in the cabin. The user management answers some questions, but the information is still sorely lacking. The Battle of Britain is a game exclusively for “their own” people who value maximum realism and historical reliability.
Of course, you can fly here by turning off all the “uncomfortable” settings of realism, turning the game almost into an arcade (and the feeling that you control a real plane will not be lost). But in this case, the interest fades away very quickly, because all the Il-2 salt is just to feel the plane and squeeze the maximum possible from it, to know its weaknesses and use strong ones to get the advantage over the enemy. In the “Arcadian mode”, it is impossible to achieve such a high affinity, and the interface and convenience of the game are no better than the Spartan cabin of a piston fighter.
We flew, we know
In view of the complete impossibility of playing the computer “Battle of Britain”, we publish here the memories of the pilots who played its real version of 1940.
Lieutenant James Berd, 21 years old, Royal Air Force:
“The sight that opened before us was frightening and bewitching at the same time. At first we saw a luminous cloud – this Sun was reflected from the chrome parts of their aircraft, from the screws and glasses in the cabins. Then our link came closer to them, and I was able to distinguish the details. I could see the yellow noses of the Messerschmitts, at that moment they seemed to me with sharp beaks of birds of prey. It seemed that the whole sky was filled with German aircraft ".
Lieutenant Tim Flawers, 20 years old, Royal Air Force:
“When a senior officer appeared in the barracks and said that we soon have the first combat flight, we were shocked. Everyone who could control the plane was sent to the battle. Yesterday we were proud that we were holding in the air without outside help, and tomorrow we had to participate in a real war. I did not even know how to aim at then – I tried to shoot all the cartridges towards the enemy faster in the hope that I would get on … Now many are comparing the characteristics of the cars of that time, but no one thinks about the people who kept the helm ”.
Captain Paul Brimson, 29 years old, Royal Air Force:
“It was during one fight over Southampton. We crashed a great fascist steam room and shot down a few “pieces”, but I got it hard. When we turned back, I realized that I was unlikely to reach the airfield, and decided to catapult. But only the rag opened over me, as a flying gust of wind demolished me back to the city. I flew and looked at the city streets until I landed on the roof of some mansion. Later I found out what the same thing happened with two pilots of our squadron. In the evening we joked that they first had precipitation in the form of aviators. I know that it sounds strange, because then three to four times a day went to death, but we needed a reason to laugh ”.
Lieutenant Stefan Muntz, 30 years old, Luftwaffe:
“… The next goal immediately turned out to be before my eyes – three hundred meters ahead of me, at the same height, Spitfire finished the U -turn. He also saw me and changed the course – now he was moving right on me. I grabbed the helm with both hands, trying to make the plane move smoothly and the sight remains motionless. Through it I saw an approaching fighter. For a moment, the phrase that we were told before every flight surfaced: “Victory or death expected you …” We hit at the same time, I heard the bullets stuck on the casing of the case, but the luck was on my side – turning around, I saw how My opponent loses its height ".
Lieutenant German Sholle, 25 years old, Luftwaffe:
“This time is remembered by one big battle-either above the water, then above the sea, then against a couple of aircraft, then against several dozen … I still remember every flight, because each time I had to invent something new, offer the enemy new moves. Otherwise, in that war it was simply not to survive ".
It would seem, what does Il-2 have to do with it?
But experienced pilots will be in the seventh heaven with happiness. If you forget for a second in what form the game appeared on the shelves, you understand that it just has titanic potential. No other aircraft system so accurately transfers the romance of the piston aircraft era, when the skills of the pilot himself played a paramount role, and not the electronic filling of the aircraft. Only here, the fla Highs begin to shake when the Messerschmitt sits on your tail, and only here are two or three broken aircraft for a mission are considered a success. Indeed, in order to knock down at least one enemy, it is not enough just to combine the sight of your machine gun with its fuselage (which in itself is very difficult). It is important that the bullets fall into the vital node of the enemy fighter (engine, fuel tank or steering rods), and do not pass through the skin. Therefore, when, after a grueling five -minute duel, the smoking “Messerschmitt” will fly towards the earth with a stone, you will feel as if you had just won the second world.
The latest statement is more likely to the multiplayer-it has always been good at IL-2, and the war against computer rivals can be considered a kind of training before real battles online. A full -fledged mission editor is supplied with the game for single and multiplayer battles. Given the devoted (no matter what) community, one of the modmakers, probably, already at the days and nights painstakingly pulls out the game of his dreams from the Battle of Britain.
A single campaign, as it is easy to guess, is dedicated to the battle for Britain 1940., One of the most important air battles of World War II. Aviation Park is appropriate: Henkels, Junkers and Messerschmitts are from the German side, and from the English – “Spitfires”, “Howeers” and “Blenims”. It is probably not worth telling that each model is worked out to the smallest detail both externally and in behavior on the ground and in the air: in the case of IL-2, it simply cannot be different. Suffice it to say that if you have learned to start a motor from one aircraft, it is not at all https://sister-site.org/spinland/ a fact that you can do the same on the other without theoretical preparation. Fortunately, to memorize what each key on the keyboard does is now completely optional: in all planes to the last screw, cockpit is simulated with all devices, buttons and levers that can be twisted and impressed uncomfortable. The same manic attention to the details applies to the model of damage: each shot is counted separately, visually damage is displayed exactly where the bullet has got it, and the final result depends on the place of hit and the type of project.
There are a lot of nuances, and it is for the sake of them that thousands of aviation fans are now selflessly sitting on the forums, trying to find a magical way to get extra five frames per second from the game, arguing with developers about the incorrect composition of the mixture in the carburetor or asking more experienced colleagues, how is it all -A. Start the engine on the Spitfire. These holy people still do not know that the world around them has long changed: Crysis 2 It turns out on the consoles and at the same time does not slow down at all, and the game that requires a dozen patches for normal work does not wait for these patches, forcing its creators to replenish the bottomless ocean of studios working on casual games for Facebook.
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Air systems are now worried, probably, the most difficult times over the entire time of their existence – the whole genre consists of one and a half games, and new ones in the foreseeable future are not planned. The current generation of players cannot be interested in history and aviation with the help of obsolete games; The Battle of Britain has also missed its chance to attract a new audience.
Even Oleg Medox, the creator and chief ideologist Il-2 Stormavik, could not do anything-he recently announced his departure from the gaming industry. So we propose to consider the “Battle of Britain” by the swan song of the whole genre – in the current world it would have been an outsider, but this is just the case when the lost one more to blame, except for himself.
Reigracy – Yes
Cool plot – No
Originality – No
Easy to master – No
Gameplay: 9.0
Graphics: 7.0
Sound and music: 7.0
Interface and management: 6.0
Waited? A raw prototype of a brilliant air system, which, in six months a year, may grow the right details and will be able to stand on the wing normally. We are not advised to sit down for the helm before this time.
Rating: Semi -finished product