One of the most beloved World War II flight sims of all time is coming to consoles next year as 505 Games and 1C announce IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Nintendo DS and PSP. Spanning five different seats of war - The Battle of Britain, Stalingrad, Berlin, Sicily, and Korson - players will be able to take to the skies piloting a wide variety of bombers, fighters, and battle planes in massive battles.
The game addresses the console audience by presenting a varying level of difficulty, from your arcade-style Ace Combat battles to full-on simulation. Assisting in the realism will be a damage model for each plane that allows players to holes in their wings and smoke trails during combat, along with detailed landscapes complete with realistic ongoing ground actions. An original score b Oblivion composer Jeremy Soule is just the icing on the cake.
The IL-2 series is one of the best combat flight sims the PC has to offer, so I am extremely interested to see how it fares making the jump to the consoles. Looking good so far!
A TIME TO FIGHT, A TIME TO PREY
Milton Keynes, England - 505 Games will be bringing 1C Publishing's IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey to the console market for the first time. Developed by Gaijin Entertainment for Xbox 360 and PS3, DiP Interactive for Nintendo DS and DYNAMICSYSTEMS for PSP, the game takes place during the greatest aerial battles of all time (discounting Pterosaurs) and boasts the most realistic landscapes and aircraft seen in any flight sim. IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey will be published by 505 Games under the 1C Label and is due for a 2009 release.
IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey is based around large-scale aerial combat over the ground-based military operations of World War II. Players participate in the war's most famous confrontations piloting fighters, battle planes or heavy bombers across a range of thrilling missions. There are five seats of war to engage in – The Battle of Britain, Stalingrad, Berlin, Sicily and Korsun – representing the main airborne battles of World War II in Europe.
As well as advanced environmental visuals enriching the game play, IL-2 also boasts an all new damage effects engine. Players can see real time damage to the aircraft such as holes in the wings and trail lines during dog fights. Hundreds of airplanes taking part in air battles is a distinguishing feature of IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey and the unique environmental engine also produces highly detailed, realistic landscapes that allows players to see a brand new simulation of ground support actions.
Features
• Authentic World War II atmosphere
• Engage in more than 50 thrilling missions from famous historical battles over Eastern and Western Europe and fly historically accurate aircraft
• Completely flexible difficulty level system: from arcade to realistic simulation
• Thrilling multiplayer mode support customisation – from the colour scheme of your plane to your choice of weapons.
• Cutting edge, highly-detailed visuals, realistic sound and original music from Jeremy Soule (composer of Company of Heroes, Dungeon Siege, The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, Guild Wars, Neverwinter Nights, Prey, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, Total Annihilation, Unreal II, Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War, and many more.)505 Games will publish IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey on the 1C Label for PS3, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS and PSP in 2009.