If you're wondering whether Gaijin Entertainment distinguishes itself from the pack of 'no.just no' gamepad flight-combat wannabes, try the demo, just up today on Xbox LIVE. It's not bad as arcade sky-shooters go. I say that as student (actually just a humble pupil) of the original Windows series by Oleg Maddox, arguably one of the greatest World War II flight-sims going. I'm not much for arcade flying games, but IL-2 kept me interested enough to rattle through 'The Battle of Britain' and on to die, repeatedly, in 'The Battle of the Bulge,' before throwing in the towel and grabbing a cup of tea to write this.Flight-based games fare poorly on consoles, in part because joysticks trump gamepads for maneuvering fixed-wing aircraft through 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen. Also, because honest-to-bullets dogfights materialize peripatetically and often resolve in seconds.

1C Company and 505 Games announced today that a demo of the World War II flight simulator, IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey is now available for PS3 owners. The demo is already available for Xbox 360. The best place to get cheats, codes, cheat codes, walkthrough, guide, FAQ, unlockables, trophies, and secrets for IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds Of Prey for PlayStation 3 (PS3).

Imagine a first-person shooter where the enemy crops up infrequently and has to be shot indirectly based on where you anticipate they might be (as opposed to where they actually are) a microsecond forward in time. Imagine trying to whittle a speck on the horizon into an even smaller bit of flaming dreck, kind of like the sniper mission in Call of Duty 4 if you had to nail your target three or four times in a row. Now imagine a sky full of that.The demo kicks off with a montage of grim, grainy World War II aerial combat footage, promptly trading up for high-res lushly detailed money shots of Stukas and Ilyushins and Spitfires arcing and pirouetting and ground-pounding.

You're limited to single player in the demo, but you'll want to spend some time in the game options (tucked away under 'profile') anyway to get a sense for functional scope. You'll notice a few PC-like settings, for instance, including three alternative camera views, an option for radio subtitles, three HUD overlays, the option to fiddle metric vs. Imperial units for speed, altitude, and distance, and sensitivity ladders for ailerons and elevator controls (I know, really just X and Y thumbstick sensitivity, but 'ailerons' and 'elevator' sound cooler).More about backup and recovery:.The tutorial runs you through flight, advanced maneuvers, and aerial combat, then it's off to battle in two conflict scenarios, The Battle of Britain and The Battle of the Bulge. The former sets you up as an RAF pilot in a Mk. II Spitfire with two cannons and four machine guns on an German He-111 bomber mop-up party that's abruptly crashed by a bunch of Stukas. The latter slots you as a USAF P-51D Mustang pilot jousting with German FW-190 fighters over a beautifully pine-stippled, snow-crowned Belgian landscape.Brief impressions: The planes have a helpful tendency to level out rolls, but not pitching, so you'll naturally center out of turns, but still need to monitor speed and altitude.

The left thumbstick channels pitch and roll with respectable accuracy, while the right thumbstick controls yaw and throttle. In deference to arcade-flight convention, there's even a 'war emergency power' (WEP) redline option to give yourself a temporary speed boost.

A netbook small laptop there is a good chance that it will not.gratuitous space battles.sign up, it unlocks many cool features raw downloadgratuitous space battles is the popular indie space strategy game. Implacable.

You're rated on enemies destroyed, total mission attempts, primary and secondary goals completed, efficiency, and time.Only quibble: There's some trouble with the skinny red font used to track enemies-it doesn't show up well against the terrain at all, making low-altitude combat (or dive-tracking) a royal pain in the tail.Random thought: The Japanese word gaijin means 'outside person,' oddly enough. No, I can't read a lick of the language, but Everything I Know About Romaji Japanese I Learned.

Oleg in Name Only, or the First Real Console Flight Sim?Review byIntroductionPC gamers have known the excellence of the IL-2 Sturmovik series for years while console gamers had to suffer through titles like Blazing Angels and Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.K. Now 505 Games has brought us hope. Hope that a near simulation WW2 fighter game can make it on a console system.Now I do not pretend that any game released on the Xbox 360 console system could match the power and speed of the personal computer. The right PC is a powerhouse with many more capabilities. But I am diving into IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey hoping for something approaching the first real flight simulation for the console.Graphics and SoundsThe graphics in IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey are really fantastic and a sight to see. There is no distant pop-up scenery as you would anticipate with all the details turned on.

The Xbox 360 handles it all reasonably well with an occasional slight pause detected. The ground objects and the terrain is some of the best I have ever seen in a Xbox 360 title. During combat, the sky is filled with friendly and enemy forces and it looks beautiful on a big 1080p HD TV. The only real complaint I have about the graphics is too much bloom. Way too much. Bloom seems to be the norm these days for both PC and console games, and best represents the statement that just because you can doesn’t mean you always should.Audio-wise, the sounds are incredible.

Now I sure do not know the difference between two different WWII aircraft sounds like other vintage aircraft aficionados, but there is a difference in most planes clearly detectable. The sounds of the guns, rockets, and bombs are some of the best I have heard in a WW2 game. In a high watt 5.1 surround sound system you can hear the bombs hit targets and sense the earth shake. The concussion is probably more than a real 250- or 500-pounder actually produced, but there is no mistake when you drop one, two, or four eggs. It sounds great.ControllersMost gamers (but not simmers) will play this game with a gamepad.

That is a shame. I tried it with a gamepad the first day I got it and was not impressed. It was hard to control the plane, and the situational awareness was terrible. Even if you click the right stick down to enter free look mode. From what others have told me, they can live with the gamepad but they had to go into the sensitivity settings and drop it way down.I picked up a joystick just for this game and I’m glad that I did. It is not wireless, but it works well. There is a little too much non-adjustable dead zone in the center-of-the-axes, but I am learning to live with it.

It also took a while to figure out what buttons did what. Hospital games free download. The game manual gives you these nice Xbox 360 charts, three of them for arcade, realistic, and simulator modes, to show the gamepad controls but nothing for the two flight sticks that operate with the Xbox 360: the Saitek AV8R-02 and the EDGE HOTAS.That said, I love the AV8R-02 stick.

It just works and feels so much better then a gamepad for this type of game, especially in simulation mode where you have to trim your aircraft, avoid stalls, and deal with real-world flying techniques.GameplayGameplay was a mixed bag at first. While not expecting a flight simulation to rival PC titles, I was expecting IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Preyto be more simulation than it is. There are three modes — the expected Arcade mode; Realistic mode; and Simulation mode.Arcade mode gives you an easy flight model, more damage for you and less for the enemy. It also gives you unlimited fuel, ammo, and re-do’s.

Arcade mode also gives you radar with friend and foe highlighted, along with target information. It gives you labels, and gives you arrows on where the enemy or mission is. This is great fun no doubt, but the screen is overly cluttered, and the missions are just excessively easy. The included campaign is designed for this type of play, and do not really work well in higher levels of difficulty.Realistic mode is a step above arcade. You still have the labels, markers, unlimited fuel and ammo, but the plane’s flight model is truer to a real plane’s characteristics, and you do not have the auto lead gunsight.Then there is Simulator mode. I thought simulator mode was the one for me but I cannot even pass the required tutorial to use it. It gives you a truer flight model, takes away all your helpers, but still gives you a huge number of weapons and fuel.

Why? Because you need all of them to complete the type of missions the campaign dishes out. Therefore, simulator mode is not exactly what we simulation gamers had hoped. The problem with simulator mode is not the flying or fighting for me, it is the situational awareness and the inability to find your targets.You are not alone in this game. Most of the time you are a squadron leader of a flight of four. You use the D pad to give basic orders to your squadron like rejoin, cover me, attack, attack objective. It is simple, but works well.to view a Flash screenshow of the various game menus and setup screens.The TutorialsYou have nine tutorial missions that are well done with voice over and HUD instructions.

Only the first three missions are required before you can play the game:. Introduction to Flight. Advanced Controls.

Aerial CombatThen you have six optional training missions:. Leading a Flight.

Bombing. Airfield. Aerial Combat II. Realistic Mode. Simulator ModeYou have to do each of these in order to unlock the next mission. They are all very well done. Therefore, before you ever start playing in realistic mode or simulator mode, you have to succeed in all the training tutorials.to view a Flash screenshow of the Tutorials.TrainingNow I do not know why it is called Training.

“Training” for me is the tutorials mentioned previously. However, according to IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey, Training mode is really what sim fans would call a quick mission editor. You can select anything and everything.

Pick your plane, your enemy, air cover, air support, location, time of day, weather, and of course fuel and ammo settings of unlimited or limited. Most of the players I know will be hitting this mode the most. It lets you set up the mission the way you think it should be set-up. More than in arcade mode, realistic, and simulator mode.