With just 24-hours to go before Eagle Dynamics next cinematic showcase, I thought it was high time I did a little bit of speculating on what we might see in the new trailer. So here are some of the things that I think we might see and a few guesses at what they might reveal at the end. Put on your guessing hats and lets make some guesses!
Quite a bit of what we saw last year
The elephant in the room is that DCS World 2024 and beyond featured a lot of Pacific WWII content that has not yet arrived. The Hellcat, the Corsair, the A-6 (AI), several ships and scenery around the not yet released WWII version of the Marianas Islands map were all on show last year looking quite good but apparently not ready for the primetime yet. This year, I expect we’ll see them all again and maybe we’ll see a bit more of them in action than the brief images that we saw before.
In addition to that, the DCS World and Beyond series of videos has always been a bit of a celebration for the series so I’m certain we’ll see a huge variety of modules from the helicopter collection to their modern jets to various WWII types. So expect to see Spitfires, and B-17s, Apaches and Vipers, the, Mirage F1 and F-4 Phantom and everything in between.
We also did have quite a bit teased last year that did arrive such as the CH-47, OH-58, F-4 Phantom, Iraq and Afghanistan maps so there’s probably going to be some things we see again in this trailer that will come out this year too. Not to be too cynical about these things.
Some new things too
The teaser image released a couple of weeks ago provided us with some clues as to what we might be seeing in the update. The Eurofighter Typhoon, a project being undertaken by TrueGrit and Heatblur, is one that is almost certainly going to take centre stage for at least a part of this video showcase.
The project has been in development for several years now first being announced back in the chaotic days of March 2020. With its own team, lead by a Eurofighter pilot, and with the support of the experienced Heatblur team, Typhoon for DCS should be a very interesting airplane to fly even if it does represent an early Tranche of the type. Getting to experience the performance of the jet alone should be quite the ride.
Another aircraft I’m sure we’ll see a fair bit of is the full fidelity DCS: MiG-29. This project is reportedly slated for a Q2 2025 release if all goes well and that surely means that Eagle Dynamics are closing in on the finishing touches. If that’s the case, I’m sure we’ll see the fighter show up in the showcase. The type fills a need that has been identified by DCS World fans for several years now with the first semi-modern full fidelity jet fighter from the eastern block. Modern may be a bit of a stretch with its 40 year gap between now and the early MiG-29 variant’s introduction but I’m still excited by the possibility.
The teaser also showed off a building that many have suggested looks like a well known building in Vietnam. We’ve known for a little while that Eagle Dynamics has a couple of “green” maps on the way as a bit of an antidote to the seemingly endless amounts of desert region maps that we’ve seen over the last several years. One appears to be set in Germany but this building may finally mean that we’re getting something set in Vietnam? Will it be historical or modern? That’s going to be interesting to see how it materializes as well.
The teaser also includes a map with a frontline and its slightly conspicuous in its placement at the top. Will we somehow see some sort of cinematic introduction to DCS’ long awaited career mode? Perhaps just a tease of it. Another possibility is some sort of update to DCS’ combined arms module. What that looks like, what it includes, and how it might be updated from before is unknown to me… but we’re speculating so I’m throwing it in there!
The teaser at the end?
For many years now, Eagle Dynamics has managed to slide one or more teasers into the end of their DCS World and Beyond presentation. One year it was the F-16, another the CH-47 and the F-4, another was the AH-64, and last year they teased the MiG-29. Will they have another module cooking up? It’s unclear but if they follow the pattern and cadence of prior releases it seems likely that we will.
What this is a complete unknown to me. To date, Eagle Dynamics has not yet themselves really cached in on the growing interest in Cold War era jets seemingly having left that to their third party developers. So might we see something like the F-105 Thunderchief (one of the few Vietnam era jets not yet being tackled) or something from the eastern block like the Su-22? Something in this area is surely on Eagle Dynamics radar given the community interest in recent years.
Or maybe this is the year that Eagle Dynamics decides to return to the Su-25 either tackling an early model as full fidelity or revisiting the Su-25T in some way. Eagle Dynamics’ free combat module hasn’t seen any serious work to it in many years and it is still the lead-in and first impression to other modules. Maybe we’ll see a surprise there…. or maybe its wishful thinking on my part.
Lots of possibilities are out there so we’ll see what the company decides to do. I suspect that we won’t see anything too divergent from their usual fare, but you never know what surprises might come out.
Let’s hear your predictions
So, with 24 hours to spare let’s hear your predictions for the trailer! We can all be wrong together!
Stormbirds 
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