Customer Reviews

Battle of Britain II - Wings of Victory

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It would be a mistake to read only about the initial stability issues with this sim. It is complex and needed a lot of fixing.

But 3+ years on, it is still going strong with regular content updates. The latest all-in-one patch is version 2.08 with version 2.09 about to come. There is a strong community around the sim and the topic.[...].

With the update patches has come the most complete representation of the Battle of Britain ever. Over 400 individual aircraft skins are in the "Multiskin" package and each individual aircraft has historically accurate markings and deployment. You then have simply the best AI in the combat flight sim business, bar none. This has been developed over 5 years now. And of course the largest scale combat in any sim. Hundreds of aircraft fight in historically accurate battle raging over fifty miles.

If you have a graphics card that fully supports DirectX9 (you need this) then patch it and it's a real gem. A benchmark sim that has matured very well.

I will admit when BoB II WOV was first released I stayed well away from it because of what was being commented on the various forums about this game. While it was stunning GFX wise and you could see it was a total rework of Rowans original BoB game (which was good but buggy), reports of gliches and major game crashes and other problems seemed to indicate BoB II WOV was a DOA game. But a couple years later I happened across a copy at my local Big and Small Lots store for $6.00 so I said what the heck. After installing the game I did a web search to see what fixes were available and to my surprise there is still a small but very dedicated group continuing to improve this product. I installed the 2.8 patch (2.9 is out now and 2.10 is due for release very soon) and the 2.8 multiskin patch and was totally blown away. I run Vista 64 and a Q4 processor and this game is just stunning GFX wise and totally immersive and runs rock solid. The game is historically accurate and many game parameters can be adjusted to an individuals taste. The SP campaign is top notch just as the original BoB game was. The 2.9 patch adds lots more to the ground scenery as the towns and airfield are better looking and more plentiful, did I mention tree's? Yeah lots more tree's. The 2.10 patch is due very soon and in edition to better rendered higher resoultion ground scenery tiles the ground population will be expanded not just for England but for the French coast also, a much more fleshed out world to fly in. Also I do believe a new multiskin patch will be included that adds historical and accurate unit/squadron markings for all the German bombers. There are a ton of features/updates that I am not listing that are available now for the 2.9 patched up version of BoB II WOV. All I can say is if this period of avaition history holds interest for you this game is a must buy.

Game has been improved greatly since first version. With downloaded most recent patch, this game gives many hours of enjoyment. Both stategy and game play give it a whole dimension. Sheer volume of planes in the air add a sense of immersion not experienced in other air combat pc games. Great support from the sim community ensures this game will have a long life.

I recently purchased this title after reading many reviews and checking it out on U-Tube.
As Paul Rogers in a previous review noted; once patched to version 2.10 with the multi skin add on this sim is great. I didn't give it five stars because of some very minor graphic issues, but over all I'm happy I discovered this sim. It's Battle of Britain at it's best, and a great successor to 'European Air War' which I loved back in the day.

Very nice game and the graphics are really nice. I even enjoyed listen to the narrator and the story line. It was refreshing and nice. I am sure many other will enjoy it too.

I was looking for something to tide me over until Cliffs of Dover gets patched to a usable and fun state. I was happily shocked at how good this inexpensive title is. The graphics are very nice without being a system drain but the true beauty is the rock solid AI. I've had some great 1v1 battles and have enjoyed the large melees too. I do believe that eventually Cliffs of Dover will become a benchmark simulation but in the meantime I'm having a blast with WoV.

This is a great combination of being strategic and being in the middle of the action. The game is well written and historic plus the graphics are very good.

Not what I thought it was. I was looking for the IL2 style, but the graphics and usability of the game were not that good.

The game is very much like the IL-2 Forgotten Battles. Simular in graphics and overall game play.
Recommend highly.Battle of Britain II - Wings of Victory

This is actually a very good simulator given the age of the software. While the menus and campaign map are a little clumsy by today's standards, lacking the whiz bang effects of say a Total War type title, they are functional.

The graphics are acceptable, again given the age of the software, and most modern computers will run the thing on full specs without too much trouble. The immersive factor really kicks in during aerial combat and I have a new respect for the brave pilots of the era.

The game does a pretty decent job of recreating the pros and cons of diving your Spitfire or Hurricane into a swarm of bombers, which with their numerous defensive turrets are likely to rake your aircraft with machine gun fire. A certain amount of skill is required to bring down a bumber without being cannon fodder yourself, thus lone bumbers broken from the formation are much easier to target.

Then of course there is the fighter support, and being outnumbered is both an advantage as well as a disadvantage. It's a disadvantage in terms of having to watch your six, but it does make it easier to find someone to go after, especially if they're trying to line up another friendly pilot. The right angles and a well aimed burst can quickly put an end to an Me109, but more often than not you'll spend a lot of time trying to get into a firing position for just a split second burst. How those pilots did it in the old days with real g-forces and tricky aircraft to control is incredible.

On this note the AI, both enemy and friendly, is exceptionally well done. The damage modelling is pretty bloody decent, with bits of aircaft flying off as you unleash full bursts. you soon learn to conserve your bursts for just the right distance or you're wasting you time and getting the lead right is intensely exciting, especially to see an enemy go down in flames, or bail out.

I am still getting to grips with the allied aircraft, but the game's longevity of play is increased dramatically by also being able to fly German aircraft. Something for everyone then. The soundFX are a delight as nothing is more pleasing to hear than those old Rolls Royce Merlin engines from the era. If you're a fan of that time period, you won't be disappointed.

Landing the aircraft is a tricky issue and this has been a little bit of a sticky point for me. Admitedly these planes are notoriously difficult to land in real life, due to the tricycle landing gear and that steep angle once it bounces down...but many of the landing strips are difficult to find and beastly to land on due to the poorer ground GFX. It's hard to get a decent depth perception and lie of the land so to speak. The other bug i think is the stall effect, where in steep banks one wing is capable of stalling - which is realistic - flinging the plane into a wild spin. I suspect the modern gfx card with its ability to support physics effects might be the issue. The aircraft sometimes looks like it's a having a manic fit and flails at impossibly unrealistic angles. Still, for the most part the game does an excellent job of visual and audible cues regarding stall characteristics.

Some may find the whole thing a little repetative, but I think that represents the British pilot's experience during the Battle of Britain. Long hours of being on standby and at any moment launching at a moments notice to tackle superior odds sometimes several times a day.