It’s been a tumultuous couple of weeks for the IL-2 series with the announcement of a new Team Fusion Cliffs of Dover DLC, a controversy that swept the community, ongoing documentary releases, there’s word on when we’ll hear about the next title in the IL-2 series, and yesterday we saw our first images of the La-5F Series 38. There was also talk about the next couple of Flying Circus aircraft. Let’s have a look and talk about it all.
Elephant in the room
It’d be difficult to do another news story about IL-2 without talking about the elephant in the room. I fear this may open fresh wounds but I don’t think I could go on without saying something.
Last week’s controversy surrounding the IL-2 X/Twitter account posting and liking political content and the subsequent apology has not sat particularly well in many corners and the apology fell somewhat short of what was needed to quell concerns.
While the immediate firestorm is over, I know there’s still a lot of dissatisfaction out there and my sense is that recent events have brought long simmering frustrations on bigger issues into clearer focus. I don’t think that the X/Twitter incident is the only driver behind this and the lasting effects of what has happened will only become clear months and years down the road.
To get a sense of it, I am going to run my first ever poll on Stormbirds and see how this goes. I also expect many of you will want to weigh in via the comments and I welcome it – but lets keep it on topic. Meanwhile, vote below.
Update on the future of the series to come
A lot of you and I have been wondering just when we may see a reveal of where the series is going. Indeed many of you have expressed concerns in the comments on this for quite some time.
What was said this week is that it will likely be spring of 2024 when they will feel confident about their next product. Read Han’s comment on the forum to see what is being said.
La-5F screenshots and commentary
We have new screenshots of the La-5F (Series 38) as well as new information about this Collector Plane. The La-5F (Series 38) joins the La-5 (Series 8) and the La-5FN (Series 1) as a new Collector Plane for the series.
The developer update makes the case that the upgraded artwork and performance advantages may pique interest. Indeed the cockpit visuals are better than the original La-5 that we have, though I note that the La-5FN also has a good cockpit.
This La-5F, although of lesser performance than the La-5FN, appears to be a slightly more modern variant. This version notably has a canopy jettison system which the La-5 and La-5FN as presented in the sim did not. No word on if that has any practical gameplay aspects such as ease of bailing out in some situations.
According to the update, the La-5F will turn better than the La-5FN, be more agile than the La-5 have the same field of view as the La-5FN, and posses slightly lower top speed and climb performance relative to the FN. Trade-offs rather than a linear increase in performance between variants does make for a slightly more interesting experience.
I would like to know how available the La-5F is in the Kuban campaign as the La-5FN’s limited appearance in the closing weeks of that campaign is one of its few drawbacks. If the La-5F is available for more of the campaign, it may end up being either a better buy in the first place or a more compelling experience for some single player pilots. And again, I expect that some will give it a pass too.
Flying Circus Vol 3 updates
Work continues on Flying Circus Vol 3 with two more aircraft entering into the beta testing stage. The Hanriot HD.1 and Nieuport 17 GBR (British) are next in line with these Rise of Flight veterans being upgraded to Flying Circus standard.
The Nieuport 17 GBR comes equipped with British gear as the type was commonly flown by several British squadrons. Arguably, this is a rehash of the Nieuport 17 that we already have. My familiarity with how Rise of Flight managed to sell the differences between the two variants is low so I am curious to see how these two will sit alongside each other.
The Hanriot HD.1 meanwhile brings in an interesting French type that was rejected for service but flew with relative distinction with Belgian Army Aviation. Not particularly fast, it was considered highly agile and a safe airplane to fly.
Other updates
A few other updates are coming. Patch 5.107 is on the way and it will also be bringing improvements to career mode. New mission types as well as the reduction in Luftwaffe presence for both Normandy and Rhineland missions to better reflect the reality of the war at that point.
The third episode of the IL-2 Sturmovik: Series Games documentary is now out.
You can read about all of the latest developer updates in the developer update right here.
Stormbirds 
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