OnReTech appears to be sharing DCS: Sinai with a bunch of content creators to provide us all with some preview videos that help showcase the map. Multiple new videos have been released by content creators and here’s a round-up of all of the ones that I was able to spot as well as a few thoughts of my own.
Sinai map previews
Multiple content creators have been granted access to DCS: Sinai to give us previews of the project and here’s a round-up of the videos that I was able to spot.
The first is CasmoTV who gives a great look at the map showing it off from a variety of locations and angles. Casmo mentions a number of items as highlights including the immense size of Cairo, the variety of geographical features, and the variety of buildings in each of the locales.
The next couple of videos seem to send the same message. Pricklyhedgehog72 explores the map from fast jets and down low in the Ka-50 and gives us a great look at some of the different locations.
Growling Sidewinder repeats similar messages from the other two videos. He also shows off some of the different cities starting with Cairo but also going to Alexandria, Jerusalem and Amman.
Finally HIP covers the map in detail as well going to many different locations. There’s also an answer about the inclusion of Ramat David airbase which is already featured on the southern edge of the DCS: Syria map. Apparently it will be added later on in the early access development period.
A few of my own thoughts
OnReTech hasn’t approached me about a preview so my thoughts that follow are based on what I’ve seen through the videos.
First, I know the community reaction to the map was “not another desert map.” While I understand the sentiment, I think this map manages to do what DCS: Syria did and offer a variety of biomes and visual experiences that go beyond pure desert. The river delta area near Cairo, for example, is lush with vegetation and farming and we can see that shown and called out in the preview videos.
Another thing that really stands out is the variety and density of objects. There are so many different variants of building that, although there is clearly some copy and paste going on, there’s good variety too! All of that will look great but it might cause some pain on the performance side of things too.
Growling Sidewinder points out that the recent multi-threading patch for DCS World may have come at the right time for this map and I couldn’t help but agree. The improvements in performance will surely help people out while tackling a map with this kind of detail. Optimization, something that Ugra Media did very well over the course of DCS: Syria’s release cycle, will be be important here too.
I did really like to see that we have additional points of interest such as SAM sites and helipads called out. I hope to see some of that expand to other maps, particularly Syria, where we have the sites already built into the map in a similar way.
Finally, I do hope that OnReTech is working closely with Eagle Dynamics to ensure that some of the local nations are better represented. Egypt operates and has operated a wide variety of aircraft from both east and west and having these selectable under the nation tab as well as having some notional default skins would be a good way to help support and integrate the map.
I think this one is a map to watch. It didn’t initially attract a lot of attention but I think it may end up being a bit of a sleeper hit. We’ll have to see how it shakes out as we get closer to release. Speaking of which, I suspect that DCS: Sinai may be on final approach for an early access release given the sudden uptick in preview videos. Another one already came out a few weeks ago from Spudknocker and now we have more videos releasing today. Release surely isn’t too far away.
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