It’s another big moment for the IL-2 Sturmovik: Great Battles Series today as update 4.701 releases bringing with it a slate of new features with the standouts being the new cloud technology along with a new aircraft for Flying Circus Vol 2 and plenty of other adjustments to the series. Let’s have a look!
Clouds are here
Updating core technologies to do with clouds has been a reoccurring theme all year and IL-2 Great Battles is getting in on the action with their very own updated cloud technology. The new clouds are capable of being bigger, having more variation and variety, and with more shapes and structures than before. They also bring with them new visualizations for rainstorms and the ability for the sim to support localized rainstorms for the first time. This is clearly a big moment for the IL-2 series!
As much as these new clouds bring in new visual features, I’m more excited to see how these will alter the experience. Will multiplayer tactics change because of these clouds? That seems almost certain and some virtual pilots will need to adjust their tactics as the weather changes across the map and even over the same location over time.
DFW C.V has arrived
The DFW C.V, a heavily used 1917 era reconnaissance and light bomber, is to other standout feature in this latest update. Capable of carrying 200kg of bombs, dual Parabellum machine guns in the turret, or a Becker 20mm automatic cannon in the same position, the DFW C.V has some options available to it.
I’ll be checking it out in a future review of the aircraft.
Other updates
Although those are the standout features above, there are dozens of other areas of the sim that have been touched. New fuel tank explosion graphics, new 4K skins for the Yak-1B (completing the 4K skin upgrade project for the sim), paint scheme updates for the FW190A-3, 5, and 8 as well as the P-39L, and the P-51D has seen some big changes too.
The P-51D has been given a once over by the team and has seen some improvements to its overall handling. The engine model was tuned and speeds have increased slightly, controls are a little less stiff up to the edge of the flight envelope, and its behavior at high Mach numbers have been tweaked as well.
I predict that the improved handling will come with a small darkside where it will be possible to damage the airframe during high speed maneuvering if too many Gs are pulled at once. Expert P-51 pilots will learn to ride the edge of that and I’m sure the overall effect will make the Mustang just a little more deadly.
This update also brings with it new objects for Normandy including a series of radar installations (Chain Home Low, Chain Home RX, Chain Home TX, FuMG-401 Freya LZ-A, FuMG 41/42 Mammut), the famous Mulberry temporary harbours, V-1 launch site structures, new hangars and more. These will be essential when the Normandy map arrives sometime next year.
Stormbirds 
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