homepage Forums Air Combat & Civil Aviation IL-2: Great Battles Il2 fan finally returns to check out BoS

Hi all,

A long-time IL2 fan returning here - been away years but just realised my new laptop should be able to play the latest gen IL2 games.

I spent a couple of hours researching it but amazed to see where the latest series is now. Would appreciate any of you chaps confirming my understanding so far...

Il2 is now Il2 Great Battles, and you can just buy each 'Battle of' as required like an expansion, as long as you get BoS first?

They can all run from Steam?

Each battle has a dynamic campaign, or at least randomly generated - and you can use the Pat Wilson Campaign Generator if needed (I'm most into single player stuff)?

Western Europe is next, followed by the Pacific?

Are the system specs increasing with each expansion?

Anyway, as you can see, I'm now excited thinking/hoping that this latest gen will be like an updated version of IL2 FB/AEP/PF!

Many thanks,

Mo.

You have to buy BoS first only if you intend to purchase via Steam (because Steam treats BoS as if it was a base game, with the other parts being DLCs, even though in reality, they aren't). If you intend to purchase directly from the publisher's shop, however (and play the game outside of Steam) , you can start with any part. The installer utility downloaded from their site will still say "BoS" in that case, but that's just semantics - it will activate only the part you actually bought.

Sys specs usually do not increase much (all parts run on the same gfx engine), but with constant development going on and new eyecandy features being implemented, some requirements increase is a fact. Nothing you can't cope with by tweaking options, though. It's still much better hardware-optimized product than DCS overall.

You've got all the rest more or less correct.

Mind you, as far as number of planes and maps are concerned, this new series offers only a tiny fraction of the "old" Il-2 content, so only some aspects of it can be considered an "update" of the old franchise. It's still a solid successor though.

Minimum - that is far from optimal - requirements:



Laptop with just integrated Intel graphics chipset is an no go.

Thanks so much for taking the time to reply chaps.

I'm no computer expert but the laptop specs are 64bit Win 10, with i7 at 2.5ghz (but speed boost available), GTX 860m with 2gb and 12gb RAM, so I'm hoping it might just be okay?

Thank you again.

Mo.

er, ummmm....i doubt it (sorry).

https://www.game-debate.com/gpu/ind...=geforce-gtx-860m-2gb-vs-geforce-gtx-660

https://technical.city/en/video/GeForce-GTX-660-vs-GeForce-GTX-860M

Really not meant for a laptop unless you specifically have one of those rather expensive "gaming laptops" I am afraid. And I wouldn't call it an updated version of the old IL2-1946 - it is a completely different entity from AI, campaign engine, plane sets, engine, etc. etc to IL2 1946.

Thanks Redwolf. Yes, it's looking a bit shakey. on the GPU front looking at those comparisons. It would be quite an expensive gamble to buy the game just to see if it might run at all.

Oh well, I can always come back in another 5 years when I've finally got a better spec machine... and everyone's moved on again to another gen of sims.

Technically, I guess you could buy BoS through Steam, test how it runs and use Steam's 3-hour-refund policy if not pleased with results.

Could bit of a challenge though - setting up options, controls and some mission with lots of units and weather in an editor for an unfamiliar yet complicated game, which doesn't even have an easily accessible manual, plus doing some flying... 3 hours might be not enough to do that.

Ya, but looking at the performance specs of that video card he has in that laptop compared to the minimum requirements for the game, I mean he would have to be playing on the lowest resolution possible, turn down all the graphics settings to their lowest, and maybe, just maybe be able to play a max of 4 friendlies vs 4 enemies high above the ground - and possibly not even that. :/

Thanks chaps for all the info, it looks like I may be staying grounded. But no worries...maybe one day!

Enjoy your adventures in IL2 BoS.

Mo.