Desert wings - IL-2 Sturmovik comparison

[taffy2jeffmorgan]

I All,  I have been flying IL-2 Sturmovik since its conception, but this Desert Wings looks rather tempting so can a comparison be made between both these flight sims ? 

 

         Are the graphics/audio/game play aspects on a par with IL-2,  if I decide to purchase Desert Wings I suppose that I would have to re- set my joystick and other key board controls accordingly  

 

        Cheers.

[343KKT_Kintaro]

I may be wrong but I think you are using the term "IL-2 Sturmovik" as if it was only one game. "IL-2 Sturmovik" is a registered trademark, a commercial brand established in Russia in the  late 1990s by 1C company. Since 2001 different software products have been released under that name. The following list is not complete:

 

2001: IL-2 Sturmovik

2003: IL2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles

2004: IL-2 Sturmovik: Forgotten Battles - Ace Expansion Pack

2006: IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946

2009: IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey

2011: IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover

2013: IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad

2016: IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Moscow

2017: IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover BLITZ

2019: IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Bodenplatte

2020: IL-2 Sturmovik: Desert Wings - Tobruk

 

Plenty of releases, yeah, but the fact is that all these releases belong to one of the three existing games so far:

 

1) The original game released back in 2001 is now officially named same as the 2006 compilation "IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946".

 

2) "IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover" (the current version, which is the only one under development, is "IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover BLITZ"). The "Dover series" term was coined by 2016 or 2017 after announcement of the add-on that finally was released last Summer: "IL-2 Sturmovik: Desert Wings - Tobruk".

 

3) "IL-2 Sturmovik: Great Battles" (a named coined in 2017 for the series that started with Stalingrad back in 2013)

 

-  -  -  -

 

"can a comparison be made between both these flight sims ?"

 

These things belong to the domain of personal opinions... and my opinion is the following: the only feature that the Dover series lacks compared to the Great Battles series is... virtual reality compatibility (the Cliffs of Dover developers are working on it anyway). In all other domains the Great Battles series bears no comparison with the Dover series. That latter is far superior in all other domains: the quality and realism of the graphics (cockpits and landscapes), realism of the flight and damage models, feeling of flight, ammunition management, the number of aircraft you can fly compared to the money you pay for them, etc., etc., etc.

 

I often meet the opinion that the Great Battles series offers the best graphics and visuals, but this is because those graphics look cartoon-like: they are nice warmed-coloured visuals... but less realistic than what you see in "Cliffs of Dover" and in "Desert Wings".

 

"Are the graphics/audio/game play aspects on a par with IL-2": not for me, as I explained above. In my opinion, "Cliffs of Dover" is superior.

 

"if I decide to purchase Desert Wings I suppose that I would have to re- set my joystick and other key board controls accordingly": yeas, indeed. THey are different simulators. But be carefull because the control settings, especially those you give to your HOTAs, are fragile in "Cliffs of Dover", you will need to follow a very specific procedure, and stick to it.

 

Please know that in the Great Battles series every game is a stand-alone module: you can purchase the game you want, this works correctly with no other software being needed. In the case of the Dover series, if you want to run the add-on "Desert Wings - Tobruk" you will need the basic game "Cliffs of Dover BLITZ", which is sold for 6.24 US dollars until the 3rd of November... You see? no excuses!! Purchase now your BLITZ + Tobruk add-on now my friend!

 

You may know this video, showing some available aircraft in the add-on:

 

 

[Roger_Meatball]

For $6 you can get a full game in Dover Blitz. Tobruk is the content equivalent of a second full game with a more diverse and interesting planeset. If you like what you play in Dover I think you'll love Tobruk.

 

This series is wonderful, and the developers clearly love the subject matter. 

[9./JG52_J-HAT]

Cliffs is a bit older in the graphics department. You can see by the clouds, 4k textures and some of the lightening effects mainly on the aircraft (tesselation). All three are being worked on and should be released in the next patches, the new sky and weather system (TrueSky) being the first in the list. Possibly this year.

 

Audio is good, even for its age. I’d say it is even slightly better than BoS in many departments. For example you can control your RPM be hearing, your engine sputters when you cut throttle, your airframe stresses and makes creaking sounds under load etc.

There are two sounds bugs though: bullet hits on your own airplane sometimes don’t make a sound (so set up an info window with damage messages) and if you die pulling g’s, the sound of the aircraft creaking will be there after you respawn in multiplayer  (take off and pull some g’s and it will be gone afterwards).

 

Gameplay wise Cliffs (CloD) is a bit more realistic than BoX.
You need to do a couple more steps to start the engine, setup bombs etc. More like it was in the real thing but still not “too much”.

Engine management is a bit harder in Cliffs because there is no technochat. You will need to know your limits and watch your temps. There are no engine timers either (ie you can run over the limits as long as you don’t go over your temperature, since we always get a new plane after respawning).

Where CloD really shines is damage modeling and the shooting part.

Damage is done to individual components, so every bullet that flys towards the target is computed against what it is hitting, if there is armor, anything that might catch fire etc. The structural damage is less detailed, though. In CloD parts just snap and once they are hit, not afterwards under stress. 
Aircraft are also not perfectly stable platforms in CloD. Your bullets will go over, under, to the sides with dispersion the further out you shoot. So bringing someone down is way more satisfying In CloD than in BoS.
Damage and hit effects are also not as exaggerated as in BoS, being more on par with guncam footage most of the time. Sometimes you can hit something internally and the plane will go down without streaming anything (unlike BoS). Some say it doesn’t look as good in CloD in this department because they like the effects in BoS. So this impression varies.

 

The game isn’t as polished as BoS though. This is something everyone must know. Sometimes you will curse at the game because it doesn’t do something the way you think it should do. Quirks if you will... tiny bugs here and there that usually have a work around. But can get frustrating at first since you don’t know what to do to solve it in the beginning. Nothing major though that would stop you from enjoying it.

 

Edit: and what Roger Meatball said above! 
 

Buy Blitz now for $6, see if you like it, ask for help, go over to the ATAG forums, do a bit of reading and if you don’t find anything game breaking, buy Tobruk a couple of days later, before the sale ends.

 

And regarding control schemes, yeah, it’s a different application, so you cannot copy any of your current settings from BoS. What I do is just map everything to the same buttons on both sims. Pretty much the same thing in the end unless you go for a twin engine aircraft or a heavy bomber. Since CloD has clickable cockpits, you don’t need a bind for most of the one time per mission commands.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 21, 2020 by 9./JG52_J-HAT
Added sound effects and sale and controls

[Dagwoodyt]

Great posts! Physiology modeling is different for Blitz and BoX series though and deserves mention as it affects complexity of how dogfights are managed.

[messsucher]

By far the best thing to do is compare the games yourself and see which is better for you.

[OBT-Mikmak]

You can find a list of Cliffs Of Dover Blitz qualities here :

 

[taffy2jeffmorgan]

Thanks everyone that is excellent information, I have CloD blitz already installed so will purchase "Desert Wings"

 

Cheers

[taffy2jeffmorgan]

Just one other thing,  will Desert Wings automatically install into the CloD and then be shown as a separate campaign option.

[9./JG52_J-HAT]

Yup, it integrates fully with Blitz.

 

Once you buy it here and activate your key on Steam / buy directly on Steam Tobruk will be available as a DLC.
So still in Steam, select properties for Blitz and then under iirc additional content make sure the DLC is selected. 
I think mine was on by default and the game downloaded right away. (Sorry if you knew this, just better having it here in case you didn’t).
 

The game will launch then with both banners, Blitz and Tobruk. That’s how you know it’s been installed.

And you will start seeing splash screens containing the new scenarios. 
The content is sometimes in a Tobruk folder (for single missions for example), but most of it is up front and visible (campaigns and quick missions). You can filter content too to just show one or the other.

Planes and all bunched up together in one screen when you select to change your aircraft, just like it used to be. There is a whole lot of them now though.

Key bindings, graphic settings etc from Blitz are naturally the same in Tobruk.

[taffy2jeffmorgan]

Thanks for your help, may see you over the desert one day !