Battle of Britain 2: Wings of Victory Limited Edition

by Shockwave Productions

Product Features

• Experience the fierce and famous air battles over southern England in 1940
• True-to-life weapons and visual effects; beautifully constructed 3D cockpits
• Fluid flight dynamics with authentic stall characteristics
• Rich sound with authentic engine response behavior; photo-realistic weather
• Delivers explosive fun for veteran and casual gamers alike

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B0007W4LH4
• Product Dimensions: 5.4 x 0.6 x 7.5 inches ; 4 ounces
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: August 16, 2005
• Average Customer Review: 2.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #26,272 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Battle of Britain 2: Wings of Victory recreates the fierce and famous air battles over southern England in 1940. The game delivers explosive fun for veteran and casual gamers alike, and occurs over a vast and living world below which will be forever known as one of the world's most decisive moments in history.

Features:

• Photo-realistic weather
• Beautifully constructed, pannable 3D cockpits
• Ambitious, dynamic campaign
• True-to-life weapons and visual effects
• Fluid flight dynamics with authentic stall characteristics
• Rich sound with authentic engine response behavior
• The industry's finest padlocking system with natural pilot g-force movements
• Built-in native Track-IR support with the latest 6DOF (six degrees of freedom)
• Immersive, powerful, and historical command and control

Product Description

Battle of Britain 2: Wings of Victory lets you become supreme commander of the British or German forces. Observe enemy movements and plan accordingly -- or take off the general's hat and hop into the cockpit. Destroy the enemy when you can and get you and your comrades home alive. Whatever you choose, you'll take part in the most authentic historical re-creations of these amazing battles. Get ready to strap yourself in for the fight of your life!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The game is awesome TODAY, unlike at original release, April 9, 2007

By 

SeaVee "SeaVee" (Miami FL USA) - See all my reviews

= Fun:5.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Battle of Britain 2: Wings of Victory Limited Edition (CD-ROM)

It is a shame that none of the many thousands of people who own and are playing this game have posted here. Amazon is not and never was a a major distribution channel for this game. The handful of reviews here are simply not a fair representation of what most people who currently own and play this game feel about it.

For example MAROS who gave it a one star terrible review says he was trying to play it on an ATI9250 and GeForce 5600FX card. Those are very low end and almost ancient cards. Of course he had issues. BoB2, like most flight sims is very PC demanding and requires DX9.0C fully compliant hardware. Is it fair that he trashed the game and the PC he was using to try it is an obsolete POS? I don't think so.

I suggest people go to SimHQ, Airwafare, Shockwave Productions or even the Ubisoft General Discussion forums (Ubisoft is the distributor of IL2, a competitor of BoB2) for REAL and FAIR perspective and commentary on this game. Even on the Ubisoft boards, there is grudging respect for BoB2 now and many of the IL2 players are now converts and play both games regularly. Word of mouth is spreading and many people are discovering how good this underrated game actually is now.

SimHQ a website dedicated to ALL types of air, sea and land combat games just recently awarded BoB2 the "Best Air Combat game of 2006". I think the folks at SimHQ and many hundreds of other simmers who post at many of the well-known flight sim boards should be considered more fair and credible than someone like MAROS.

Yes, in its original out of the box release form Battle of Britain II was incredibly buggy. It got a lot of (deserved) bad press and publicity due to the bugginess and issues. Subsequent patches resolved many but not all issues. With version 2.05 most of the major bugs were fixed and there were many many enhancements and improvements over any prior versions. Even so, one somehwat big flaw remained and that was the need for the "DEP workaround". A simpe workaround setting in something in WinXP. Some users who still had crashes were either too lazy or frustrated to even bother checking the tech support forums and simply gave up.

The latest patch, version 2.06 is about to be released (days or at most a couple of weeks). It has a HUGE number of additional enancemnents including all new Flight Models and significantly improved coding that has fixed almost all AI warpy behavior. Most importantly, even the need for the DEP workaround has been fixed.

If you want to SEE the game in action, go to YouTube and/or google search "BoB2" or "Battle of Britain II In Dulce Decorum" for many community created videos incuding one I created over 7 minutes long. There is an awesome BoB2 video on googlevideo by a guy named 150GCT_MANTA as well.

I own the entire IL2 series, including 1946. A great game in its own right, especially with its multiplayer capability which BoB2 lacks. BoB2 is INCREDIBLY immersive, has a massive campaign mode, has what is widely regarded as one of the best offline AI in ANY aircombat prop sims. The battles are on a massive scale and white-knuckle at times in intensity. It is the ONLY game of any genre I have ever played where the AI are at times as good or better even than good human opponents in other games.

The game also has FULL support for Track IR in 6 Degrees of Freedom. It has amazing Force feedback effects, especially for the flight model with FFB for buffet, drag, approaching stall, impacts, touchdown on the fields, gear extending, cannon and machine gun fire and impacts, etc. The FFB effects BLOW AWAY those of CFS3 and FS9 or FSX and only Il2 comes close as far as FFB.

Its no skin off my back if people don't buy the game. I am NOT a Dev nor affiliated with the company in any way except as a very happy owner of it and a beta tester.

Like I said, go to some of the well-known combat flight sim forums for a REAL indicator of what this game is all about in its PRESENT form.

SimHQ
Airwarfare
Ubisoft
Shockwave Productions

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The buggiest game I have ever played!, February 8, 2006

By 

CeeTee (Flushing, NY USA) - See all my reviews

= Fun:3.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Battle of Britain 2: Wings of Victory Limited Edition (CD-ROM)

I want to love this sim; I really do. However it's hard to love a game that has more bugs than the Berkeley School of Entomology! I have never seen a game with so many bugs and with such diverse characteristics. There is even a bug that makes all aircraft in play disappear except for your own of course. The Crash To Desktop bug (CTD) is the most common annoyance. Even after patching it will continue to plague your gaming sessions. Some people claim to no longer have this problem after installing the patch but I find these claims hard to believe.

The game play is where this sim really shines. The flight model is one of the best I have ever experienced. The graphics are very good but some what dated. Some don't like the AI routines but I believe the AI puts up a good fight. The damage model is lacking somewhat. For example you will notice single engine aircraft that continue to fly in formation with their engines aflame. Shockwave Entertainment claims to be working on this problem. There are several modes of play available including a large number of "instant action" missions. The campaign system provided forces one into the role of strategic commander. It plays more like a Battle of Britain board game than a flight sim campaign. There is no pilot carrier option in the true sense of the term. Too bad because a campaign based on flying missions as an individual pilot would allow the player to enjoy this games strongest asset; it's flight model.

BoB2 is incredibly imersive. You really feel like you are flying over the British isles during this great conflict. The game is capable of putting hundreds of enemy aircraft in the sky at one time and despite this fact frame rates are quite good. Sound quality is a bit thin but can be improved with any of the sound mods available. In the end I have decided to give BoB2 three stars. This is only because despite all the mirid bugs, deep down where it counts BoB2 is a great game. I just wish Shockwave would have included a can of Raid with the Limited Edition!!

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I like this combat flight sim a lot!, November 28, 2005

By 

hellcat44 "hc" (Northern Great Plains) - See all my reviews

= Fun:4.0 out of 5 stars 

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Battle of Britain 2: Wings of Victory Limited Edition (CD-ROM)

My opinions are based on a recent purchase of BOB2 and the latest 2.03 patch which self installs.
Depending on the sim's training or battle scenarios frame rates on my medium or at best high medium end PC are in the low 20's to high 40's. Graphics and plane damage modeling, although maybe not state of the art, are very good and after many hours of play not one CTD! I've also found the company/developer to be very supportive but then all one has to do is browse Shockwave's BOB2 forums to form a personal opinion.
So...if you want an immersive...realistic combat flight sim that deals exclusively with the Battle of Britain then BOB2 is probably your best choice. Like I said...I like this sim a lot and believe it's just going to get better and better.