It also remains so ridiculously biased towards the Russian planes in general that it makes me sick to play it.
Yes, that's a big problem. It seems like the Russian aircraft can outfly anything. Sometimes a little I-153 can give you more grief than anything. And it seems odd that the historically poor russian ballistics aren't represented at all. Most of the Russian cannon are more accurate than Browning machineguns!
As for the AI, well, if you record some flights and watch the AI in furballs, they often defy the rules of aerodynamics (powersliding 262's, anyone?). And, while they aren't very smart in a tactical sense, they seem to have GODLY throttle/flap control (perhaps sometimes combined with bending the laws of physics), such that you can almost never make them overshoot, even if they're coming in fast. Combined with inhuman gunnery skills, it can be pretty frustrating.
My final beef with Il-2 is the view system. It's trash. Anyone who plays Il-2 after AH will hate it. It's absurdly restrictive.
1. Your head is jammed into a rotating vice. You can't change head positions. Very frustrating when instruments are obscured by the stick or yoke, or when you wish you could peer around that one canopy spar that's blocking your view of an enemy in front of you.
2. Views pan absurdly slowly. It's like you're wearing a helmet made of lead. Unless you're pulling hard Gs, anyone should be able to snap their head around quickly. We also have things called eyeballs, they can move too.
3. No rear or rear-up view. Doesn't make sense. Anyone can look directly behind as long as you can move one shoulder a few inches. We don't need to be able to move our heads around a continuous 360 degrees like in AH, but no six view is silly. There should be a different six view for looking over each shoulder.
The the system in Il-2 conspires to make good SA annoyingly hard.
Yet, despite these flaws, I still enjoy the game very much, and wish Maddox more success. I hope they improve in these areas with their next projects.
