IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover

IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover

Developer(s) 1C:Maddox Games
Publisher(s) CIS 1C Company
INT Ubisoft
Platform(s) Microsoft Windows
Release date(s)
  • EU March 31, 2011
  • NA April 26, 2011
  • JP July 29, 2011
Genre(s) Combat flight simulator
Mode(s) Single-player, Multiplayer

IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover is a World War II combat flight simulator developed by the Russian software house 1C:Maddox Games. It inherits the name IL-2 Sturmovik from the Il-2 Sturmovik classical series (2001-2009) and is considered as being a part of the series, but it runs its own game engine instead of sharing it with the classic series.

Development and release

During development the game was originally called Storm of War: Battle of Britain and scheduled as a November 2006 release.[1] In January 2011 Ubisoft revealed the current name for the game and release date of 31 March 2011.[2] Upon Russian and EU release, the developers acknowledged a number of serious bugs and performance issues. These were somewhat corrected via patches from 1C Maddox and further stabilized and enhanced by community patches from Team Fusion. In October 2012, it was revealed on the 1C forums that development had fallen short of the original goals and that 1C Maddox was unwilling to continue supporting the title. Cliffs of Dover was planned to be supplemented by a new theater, Moscow, but 1C chose not to develop this new software, instead incorporating a similar, Russian, theatre into the next title in the series, 'Il-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad'.[3][4][5]

Current evolution of the game

Since the October 2012 announcement, members of the playing community have themselves been working on modding the game with the aim of improving the play-ability and correcting what have been considered "bugs". The main modding project is ran by a group named team fusion. The mods have focused heavily on improving historical accuracy in all aspects of the game, especially flight characteristics and visuals for each aircraft, and improvements to the accuracy of the physics in the flight model. The main focus points for these patches are: Graphics and Sound updates, flight model corrections and improvements, improvements to the flight characteristics of aircraft, additional units and ground objects, improvements to damage/heat engine, Net-code fixes, GUI/ Menu and language translation fixes, Bug fixes, Map improvements and additional missions.

To date (2014) multiple community-made patches have been released. There are four patches (with hotfixes) currently active which install together to create the current full patched game: versions v3.00, v3.01 'hotfix', v.4.0, v4.3, and v.4.312 'hotfix'.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores
AggregatorScore
GameRankings51.40%[6]
Metacritic60/100[7]
Review scores
PublicationScore
GameSpot4/10[8]
IGN6/10[9]
PC Gamer (UK)72%[10]
PC Gamer (US)45%[11]

The game was met with very mixed reception upon release, as GameRankings gave it a score of 51.40%,[6] while Metacritic gave it 60 out of 100.[7]

Sequels

On 11 December 2012,[12] a IL-2 Sturmovik sequel titled IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Stalingrad was announced. The sequel is developed by 1C Company and 777 Studios which is the developer of the WWI flight simulator, Rise of Flight: The First Great Air War.[13]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Ubisoft Rides Into The Storm of War™: Battle of Britain". Ubisoft. 11 May 2006. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  2. ↑ Smith, Quinton (18 January 2011). "IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs Of Dover Announced". RPS. Retrieved 6 February 2013.
  3. ↑ luthier (1 April 2011). "Il-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover Roadmap - Official 1C Company forum". 1C Company. Retrieved 19 October 2013.
  4. ↑ luthier (6 April 2011). "Tuesday April 5th Development Update - Official 1C Company forum". 1C Company. Retrieved 19 October 2013.
  5. ↑ luthier (8 April 2011). "Il-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover: Patch 1.0.13954 - Official 1C Company forum". 1C Company. Retrieved 19 October 2013.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 "IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover for PC". GameRankings. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 "IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover for PC Reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  8. ↑ VanOrd, Kevin (15 April 2011). "IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover Review". GameSpot. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  9. ↑ Goble, Gord (6 September 2011). "IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover Review". IGN. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  10. ↑ Stone, Tim (June 2011). "IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover review". PC Gamer UK: 84. Retrieved 17 December 2014.
  11. ↑ "IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover". PC Gamer: 74. July 2011.
  12. ↑ New IL-2 Sturmovik Title in Development
  13. ↑ Nunneley, Stephany (11 December 2012). "IL-2 Sturmovik sequel Battle of Stalingrad announced by 1C, 777 studios". VG247. Retrieved 6 February 2013.

External links