It goes without saying that I love video games, I have owned many different consoles and owned over 200 video games total. While most are gone, I still have 14 Xbox and Xbox360 games even though I don’t even own a Xbox or 360. So you can imagine the variety of video games I have owned. But, as of late, the industry has left me lusting for better quality games.
On my PS3 and Wii all I have done is download classic games (Wolfenstein 3d, Tomb Raider, etc., etc.), the last one I bought that was actually pretty decent was Ghostbusters. I mean, I’ve bought Madden, and inFamous and such, but they really haven’t captivated me. I figured I’d check the Playstation Store to see if the new Dirt2 demo came out, it didn’t which led me to be sad, but I downloaded the Skate 2, Resident Evil 5 and IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey demos.
Skate irritated the hell out of me, I paid 50 bucks for the game, and all I ever did was see how many bones I could break in trick.
Resident Evil… Well, that’s a game I have never been good at, but I like to see how many zombies I could take down with a 9mm, a clip and my Judy Kicks.
However, when I saw IL-2 Sturmovik, I thought of Blazing Angels. I liked Blazing Angels, I look a good dog fighter sim. I have Tom Clancy’s HAWX, but that’s just too impersonal, anyone can fire a missile to take you down, but use guns? I was intrigued.
So I waited 30minutes for the demo to download. I went to get something to eat, ran a few errands, messed around with Aperture, and before I knew it, the demo was done downloading. I kept my expectations pretty low, video games lately have been a let down with most being worth their weight myrrh. The opening video however really perked my interest, the vintage WWII era video of planes taking off, bombers doing their runs, dog fights, then the in game footage came on. I saw countless planes flying around, smoke billeting, fires blazing, bullets flying, oil smearing my views, and great dog fighting.
I could’ve gone right through the 3 training mission available to learn the controls and get used to flying WWII fighters, but I’m impatient and I jumped right into the first real mission of the game, The Red Skies of Dover. It didn’t take me long to figure out how to control my Spitfire to start shooting down the Junkers bombers coming over the Channel to bomb. I stupidly fly in the middle of the bombers to shoot them down and then I notice I’m taking fire and I look at the screen and it shows where I’m getting hit and then I see the bullet holes on my plane. I throttle the hell up and pull up and right to get the hell out of town. Maybe going in, guns ablazing wasn’t such a good idea after all.
This is why I like WWII dog fighting games better than like the newer style dog fighting of Ace Combat and HAWX, it’s like I said that anyone can get tone and fire missiles.
I’m flying, I’m dodging, I got holes in my wings, and it’ll be a miracle if I can get this done and land this plane in one piece. You can see the wing structure through the holes and other various battle damage. I land a little too hard and my gear collapses, and I just skid out of control. The music plays, and the stats come up and yadda yadda yadda.
The next mission on the demo is in a P51D Mustang during the Battle of the Bulge. What would be cake for A-10 Warthog, is a bit much for P51.
I do some low levels in a river valley so I’m not detected or noticed by the inept German panzer division ahead of me, but when I’m close enough they notice me anyways. I climb up and strafe them with guns and WWII style rocket missiles. I do the same thing a few times, then I take out a train, blah blah blah. However, it takes me a few times. The Mustang is a bit unstable, and when I do my steep dives to fire the missiles I need to pull up rather quickly or else I try and pull up and nothing happens, so I turn into a Japanese kamikaze pilot without trying. Banzai.
While I do get frustrated, I’m also amused. I got ground targets to take out, but I also got the mosquito like German Luftwaffe to watch out for. So I take out a few tanks, then swat a few planes, few tanks, few planes, back and forth. The waves of planes keep coming and I’m forever entertained. I think I could spend however long my thumbs would let me to try and shoot down planes.
I found myself going back to the demo a few times and ignoring the main mission and just dog fight and shoot planes down. I also have a bit of a feeling that once I buy this game, that’s all I’d ever do too. I’d play the missions to unlock the planes and locations and such, but all I’d ever want to do is just dog fight and shoot planes down.
So for once lately, I am stoked about a video game for my Playstation 3 (screw you Final Fantasy 13).
Oh, before I forget, this game was developed in Russia. The same country that gave you Communism, the Lada Riva and delicious Borscht. Who would’ve thunk it?
