IL-2 Sturmovik (game)

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Il-2 Sturmovik: an external view of a Bf-109 in the Crimea map
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Il-2 Sturmovik: an external view of a Bf-109 in the Crimea map

IL-2 Sturmovik is a combat flight simulation video game, focused on the air battles of the Eastern Front during World War II. It is named for the Soviet Ilyushin Il-2 ground-attack fighter, which played a prominent role in the theater.

The game was developed by 1C:Maddox Games and published by 1C in Russia and Ubisoft in the rest of the world, for the PC on November 18, 2001. The game has been frequently updated, the latest version with all sequels and patches being 4.05m. Along with its sequels, it is considered one of the leading WWII flight simulators.

The flight simulator IL-2: Sturmovik and the sequels Forgotten Battles, FB Ace Expansion Pack and Pacific Fighters now contains over a hundred flyable aircraft, covering most major aircraft of all fronts.

Contents

[edit] Flyable aircraft

The original version of the game features 31 playable Russian, German, British, French and American planes and an additional 40 non-flyable planes, although many of these are different variants of several planes. Common names are in bold.

[edit] Allies

[edit] Axis

[edit] Sequels

A sequel was released in March 2003, titled Forgotten Battles, which greatly expanded the number of simulated planes and battlefields. The game is based around the "forgotten" Russo-Finnish Continuation War of 1941-1944. The Ace Expansion Pack followed in March 2004, which improved the game still further.

In October 2004 Pacific Fighters was released, which can be installed on top of the earlier releases or as a stand-alone game. It expands the action to the Pacific, adding many Japanese and United States planes as well as carriers and battleships.

Most users of the IL-2 series choose to "merge" together Forgotten Battles, Ace Expansion Pack and Pacific Fighters into one installation. Having this merged version of the game is essential to be able to access the majority of IL-2 servers for online gaming.

The IL-2 Series "Complete edition" has been released, combining Forgotten Battles, The Ace expansion pack, and Pacific fighters into one easy installation.

Recently the PE-2 Add-on has been released in Europe and North America. The PE-2 add-on added 95 Campaign Missions, 5 Single Missions and 5 Multi-Player Cooperative Missions. Two new flyable aircraft, the Pe-2 in 4 versions, and the Pe-3 in two versions. The new PE-2 add-on also added a large number of new ground vehicles and other objects for missions, incluiding several types of Flak weapons and Soviet heavy weapons. As with the other add-ons the PE-2 is installed as a merged installation.

With a merged install the following additional planes are flyable:

[edit] Allies

(Note that due to intellectual property issues, several important US planes - such as the TBF Avenger - could not be included in the game as flyables. [1])

[edit] Axis

[edit] The future

The next game in the series, yet to be released, will be Storm of War: Battle of Britain, based on the major air battles between the Luftwaffe and RAF during 1940 and 1941. This game will utilize a new and improved engine, and so will not be compatible with the earlier ones. Version 4.06m is planned to be released shortly To the North American market, the pay add-on will be called Sturmoviks over Manchuria (IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946) and will feature new maps, missions and flyable aircraft.

Afterwards, the 4.07m pay add-on will be released which consists of prototype and completed aircraft from 1946. Including the Yak-15, MiG-9, Ta-183, MiG-13, Ar-234 and many others.

Ubisoft has recently announced "IL-2 Sturmovik 1946" for release in November 2006. It raises the total amount of aircraft to over 300 with 32 new flyable aircraft. It also features nearly 200 new missions and new maps featuring the Kiev region, new parts of the USSR, China, Korea and Burma.

[edit] External links

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