This Game is Great for a Little Escape Sometimes

[US63_SpadLivesMatter]

So our main water line busted the other day.  Somewhere underground.  Going to cost thousands to get it fixed.  Along with some other problems.  I decided to hop online and have a flight, to hopefully take my mind off it for a while.

 

So I hopped into a Spitfire and headed out to a friendly target to maybe pick off some bombers.  I circled for a little bit, and then I saw some AA fire.  I couldn't see what it was firing at until it hit a break in the clouds:  HE111 flying through the clouds and bombing from there.  I couldn't get to him before he was lost in the clouds again, so I decided to climb and circle over the break.

 

A short while later, I spot some fire down below, and it is an FW doing jabo.  I dive down on him, and by this time he has dropped his bomb and it flying out.  I'm able to overtake him, he is completely unaware, I am holding my fire until I can't miss, then as I get close my plane starts to drift and and take my shot and miss!  Because that is what I do apparently.  *Sigh*  So he breaks and I decide to stay on him; but oh shoot!  Another 190 is coming this way from above.  I turn hard and try to get low against some trees while heading back.  It looks like he loses me for a few seconds because he veers off, but then I see him come back around through my mirror.  I'm pushing my engine as hard as it will go, and up ahead, I see another aircraft going the same direction as me; a stuka!  I line up to fire on him, since I'm headed that direction anyways, and in my mirror I see the 190 firing at me from quite a distance, his shots falling short.

 

So I'm gaining on this stuka like a rocket, when suddenly I see another 190 dive onto the 190 that is chasing me.  He fires on him and misses, and they both break away into a fight!  I fired on the stuka, and it absolutely disintegrates.  I've never seen a plane in this game explode into an airborne ball of fire, debris, and smoke like this one did.  I'm jacked up beyond belief and fire straight through his wreckage, flying through the fire and smoke like I was in a Michael Bay movie.  Behind me the FW's are fighting, so I come around to take advantage of their confusion.  They are following eachother in a wide turn, and I drop into lag pursuit on the trailing one;

 

But then a third 190 drops in right in front of me!  I take a snapshot, and notice that only my 303's are firing; apparently I was a bit too zealous when I perforated that stuka.  Thankfully, my shots missed, so I decided to GTFO.  I boost the engine (I had turned it off when the the FW that was first chasing me got attacked) and get as low as possible, hiding against the trees again.  I'm running for my goddamn virtual life.

 

Finally, black smoke starts to pour from my engines.  Damnit!  Boosted for too long.  I was expecting a warning or something, but nope.  I reduce throttle and hope that I am far enough away that I won't be noticed.  I take a circuitous route back to the airfield, following the frozen lakes so I will have somewhere to land when my engine finally cuts out; but the Merlin holds on until I reach the airfield!  I don't want to risk circling for a perfect approach, because for all I know the engine will die at any moment.  It's already making funny noises, so I decide to come in a little bit hot.  I don't stick the landing, but I don't crash either, coming to a stop at the very end of the runway!  My plane is smoking like a chimney, but I made it!

 

 

 

And for 10-15 minutes, I had forgotten all about all the terrible things going on in life.  It was amazing how this game could pull me in the way it did and immerse me in another world during that time.  What about you guys?  Do you ever play IL-2 to get away from it all every now and then?  Does it do the trick for you like it did for me?

[Guest deleted@30725]

Yes, the immersion is good. But games should never be an excuse to hide from real life issues. Real life issues are challenges to be embraced and overcoming these challenges is something I look back on with great recollection even if at the time these things are hard to get through.

[US63_SpadLivesMatter]

Well there wasn't a whole lot I could do about it at 2 in the morning.

 

Up early and dealing with this shit right now though!

[Guest deleted@30725]

As long as you're having fun with it that's all that matters

 

Good luck with the water pipe. I know this sort of thing sucks!

[216th_Lucas_From_Hell]

It can definitely help. During some pretty trying times in the last two years after working through the hard stuff and having some nice family time the sweet comfort of armchair flying did wonders to refresh my mind and take some of the worry away

[BubiHUN]

Nice story!
Well, i belive hobbies, like games, sports, building models, etc have the same "purpose". Getting you relaxed, clearing your mind. Just to escape from the world  - for a few minutes or hours.

I hope your problem will be solved, and you will be okay.

When i was a kid i was in love with little scale model building. I had about 30 models, what i built by mself. They werent professional work, but they were mine. My brother bought some ww2 plane books about those what i just built. But not all of them were planes, there was some jets, a ship(KIng George V) and modern tanks. Building them always relaxed me every day. IL-2 BoX replaced them. Sometime i miss building models.



 

Edited September 6, 2017 by -[HRAF]BubiHUN