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About a month ago, Maddox Games, creator of the venerable IL2 Sturmovik series of combat flight simulations for the PC, released its first new sim in seven years--"Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover"



I'm writing this note to comment on the seeming "bashing" this sim has been receiving from certain gaming "fronts" across the 'net. First I have to say that I feel a bit uncomfortable reviewing this sim when a) I have not tried it myself yet, and b) I am nowhere even near-capable of actually running/trying it out, if I indeed had my hands on a copy. But still, I want to say something about the issue, so here goes.

I don't even know where to begin. First off, I just want to react about the fact that it seems there's just too much hate out there for this release--I mean really, even Gamespot gave it a 4 out of 10 ("poor"). One thing that the uninitiated should know--this simulation (again, I have--wait strike that--WANT, to use the term "simulation", as most of the consolehead ilk out there seems to want to, borrowing words from Ben Kenobi, equate this lightsaber to "a clumsy blaster" i.e. a "game") has been in the development stove for over 7 years now. Imagine that--seven years cooking/ripening.

Now yes, someone out there may be muttering to himself while reading this note of mine, saying "But they shouldn't sell a bug-ridden game for USD 50.00." Sadly enough, this statement may well be true. However, I believe the average gamer should be informed of how complex and meticulous combat flight simulation development used to be like in the "golden days" of combat flightsimming--back then, the greatest combat flight sims only shined and blossomed after about 3-4 patching cycles. I mean let's take a look back at the venerable Falcon 4.0.



When Falcon 4.0 was released in 1998, it was a commercial flop, primarily due to the bugs and other problems (even the initial patches were really bad and even worsened performance/playability for some). The internal development woes even pushed some developers (who by then were already tearing their hair out because they felt they were being underpaid yet still tasked to finish an "unfinished" sim) to leak the source code of the sim to the public--an act that ultimately made Falcon evolve into the unmatched meticulously procedurally realistic combat flight sim it is until this very day. The story of how Falcon 4.0 evolved from being a "broken" sim into one of the most realistic combat flight simulations is a journey of somewhat epic proportions, that involved thousands of people around the world, to bring about the best in an otherwise defective flight sim.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Falcon_4.0#History

Imagine the modding community that was spawned out of all that--I believe some individuals even went on to develop their own graphics/programming/gaming companies from their involvement in these "modding" communities. Thus, for me, "Cliffs of Dover" is in a similar tight fix--due to deadlines and other "real world marketing" issues, of course, I expected the product to come out bug-ridden and perhaps performing well below than expected. But then yes, my hurting is much much less than those who already shelled out bucks just to get their copy.

Now another thing I want to point out is, hey, remember the time when combat flight sims were the items that were basically dictating where computer graphics technology was headed? I distinctly remember the years when games like Wing Commander, Strike Commander and Falcon 3.0 came out, and strange words that yet didn't belong to my vocabulary started to pop out of thin air (Gourad shading, disguised polygons, dithering, LOD-adjusting polys), and somehow were telling the hardware community "Hey! We need more horsepower to run these things! Get Moore's Law cranking!"


https://originadventures.wordpress.c...rke-commander/

Now, like I said before...when was the last time you heard there was a new, realistic, accurate, high fidelity World War II Combat Simulation out there? In the sea of Call of Duties and Medal of Honors out there, combat flight simming (and even civilian flight simming for that matter) has become tiny islands...endangered species, simply because people have lost interest. And perhaps that's the reason why there are really no significant improvements in graphics technology in the past 2 to 3 years--the flight sims have nearly died out--nothing out there is dictating and yelling "Hey, we need more hardware...we have to render each DENT and BURN on each individual SHELL that gets ejected from the wing of a firing Messerschmitt (as they tumble out and bounce against each other courtesy of yet-unnamed-new physics engine) by Tuesday!" Yes. I think it's time, and I think "Cliffs of Dover" heralds the dawn of that new age. Well, I can hope or wish.

At any rate, here's a good and somewhat balanced review of the sim.
http://www.lockonfiles.com/index.php...-dover-review/

And just look at those graphics...

http://www.jeuxvideo.com/screenshots...039724_009.htm

...damn...I mean, most of these guys complaining weren't EVEN there when people like me and my brother (and our friends) were AMAZED by crude pixellated blotches on the screen which were supposed to represent Do17 bombers, which blew up in similar, pixellated blotches each time our Hurricanes blasted them out of the sky...ahhh, the days of BOB.

*nostalgia mode on*

*nostalgia mode off*

-RODION