Wings of Prey

[JRD]

It reminded me a joke Fiach posted long ago in our Jokes topic

Ground  round (with quite arrogant impatience):  'Speedbird 206, have you  not been to Frankfurt before?' 
Speedbird  206 (coolly): 'Yes,  twice in 1944, but it was dark, -- And I didn't land.' 

Beautiful!  :-X

It reminds me of a story told by Spike Miligan, he was telling it on a programme here called The Late Late Show about world war 2 :

Spike : There we were, Fockers in front of us, Fockers behind us and Fockers on each side!

Host : Just for the audience, Spike is actually referring to a Focke-Wulf 190, a type of German fighter plane.

Spike : No! These Fockers were all Messerschmits!

(...)

The first jokes are all about aviation... DKM2 posted some gems there!  8)

[Art Blade]

yeah, I particularly like the first one you quoted ^+-+

[fragger]

 ;D ;D ;D

[PZ]

Very nice review of the game play - it sounds like the controls can be somewhat complicated!  Great screen pics, and the landscape does look very nice.  :-X

[JRD]

What I like about WoP is the clean look of it... a cockpit view is a classic view with a great control panel and the outside (3rd person) view is as clean as it can be with your plane, a mini map (you can toggle it on and off if I remember correctly) and, maybe, tags on other planes (you can also swith those off).

In the end you have a clean view, great graphics and outstanding dogfights.. good thig they didn`t have missiles and rockets and whatnot during the WWII or we`d be seeing a nightmare game like HAWX  :-()

[Art Blade]

Very nice review of the game play - it sounds like the controls can be somewhat complicated!  Great screen pics, and the landscape does look very nice.  :-X

Thanks :) They're not complicated (ARMA2 was complicated). It's only a matter of "getting used to" and which buttons or keys to remap to your liking :) and thanks, screenies is what I like to do a lot, now at least here I am allowed to, even without an external program. The landscapes are just great, but you'll only find out when watching replays. During flight and fight you won't have a spare eye for that  ;D

[Art Blade]

or we`d be seeing a nightmare game like HAWX

Oh gosh, horrid! Nah, WoP is a lot better :)

[fragger]

I visited my local gaming shop yesterday, and WoP won't be available in Oz until about mid-September. I'd really like to check this one out, being a lover of both WW2 fighters and realistic flight sims.

[Art Blade]

I'll continue to report about this game soon. Currently I'm too fascinated by AP.

WoP plays very smoothly if you have a good flight stick. I hope the missions will be good.. :)

[PZ]

I'm looking forward to more impressions and screen caps!  :-X

[fragger]

I'll continue to report about this game soon. Currently I'm too fascinated by AP.

Perfectly understandable, mate :)

[Art Blade]

OK folks, I'm back for WoP ;D

[Art Blade]

First Campaign Mission: Baptism by Fire

After having played a different game for a while I now was eager to get it going so I didn't want to practice first. I noticed. I forgot which buttons and keys were bound to what and I struggled a little during the mission to get it sorted. On top, I decided to start the mission with a take off rather than starting airborne. I managed to get to my mates in time, they radioed me that they didn't have that much fuel to keep waiting for me all day.. hehe  :)

During the patrol we encountered Nazi bombers, two of which and myself went down. Fortunately I had chosen unlimited attempts so I got back into the game right where I got shot down, the next four bombers were a little easier to shoot down but hell, the controls are either too sensitive or the opposite. It's like: Damn, can't bring my plane in line because it feels like steering a boat through treacle, and when I was close enough to engage I was like damn, now my nose is flipping up and down like a kite on two strings. I need to balance that, but it's not that easy and I don't really know where to adjust that.. in game or hardware, joystick springs? Tried both but still not satisfactory.

During the mission I was shocked to see how my plane could take damage ("you're losing oil") and how my windshield got all messed up with black smear (cockpit view). Also, just like what we had been talking about before, I nearly lost contact to my mates or nearly missed my objectives.. no radar and such. Feels authentic, though  ;D

Edit: Played it again, better this time. Probably just a thing of how sensitive the player is, not the joystick  ;D "Handle with care"  ;)

[PZ]

Nice  :-X
After my disappointment in Heroes Over Europe, I'm a bit hesitant to get into flying games (I hate flying anyway  :-() ) but this game is something that I'll put on my list of to eventually get.

[Art Blade]

At least the graphics are really nice, the landscape is beautiful, and it feels good. If you liked HoE, then this will blow your mind  :)

[Art Blade]

Played the second mission: Convoy.

I had to defend ships and took out bombers. I assigned commands to my fellow pilots telling them to attack or watch my six. We took out all enemies. The controls are simple but steering with a joystick is both easy and complicated. The trick seems to be not to try drastic manoeuvres but slow and careful movements. At the end of the mission I was given the option to continue flying (to the airfield) and I hit enter to confirm. After that I realised that the mission would simply have ended without confirmation, so what I had done presented me with like 5 minutes of flying from Dover to some airfield miles away.. next time I'll just end the mission.  :)

[smg id=2517 type=link align=center width=400 caption="WoP impressions 001"]

[Art Blade]

I've got a lot of screenshots and it's not easy to determine what to upload and what not to. I think action is always good, and here this one is just.. hehehe  ;D
[smg id=2518 type=link align=center width=400 caption="WoP impressions 002"]

[Art Blade]

You know, while you're playing you don't have time to admire the true scope of what's going on and you won't see spectacular action depicted in the previous post. You're focussed on taking out enemies and to survive a war going on around you. But the replay function (I keep saving my missions) is both good for watching the action from different angles (various camera options plus you can freely move the camera around with your mouse) and for taking screenshots like the previous one. In-game shots are no different except they're probably not as cool so you can take your time and chose a different angle or camera view while watching a replay and then take screenshots. Cool gimmick of this game  :)

[PZ]

The replay function sounds a bit like a feature found in Gran Turismo 5.

[JRD]

The demo gave me also the option to end the mission right away or choose to go back and land myself... I chose land myself as I wanted to fool around and enjoy the demo as much as I could. I reckon that it is a feature for those playing simulation mode. Not only you have to fly the plane in tough controls but you also have to win a battle AND bring you bird back home for a safe landing. It sure does extend gameplay and add a lot to the difficulty level of the game!

Since you are playing just for dogfights with minimal difficulty in controls, the "end mission" click is great! You get to play the same battle in less boring conditions  8)

[fragger]

Many thanks for your input on this game thus far, Art :-X Nice screenshots - I like the one of the Stuka getting its wings clipped ;D At least, I think it's a Stuka. There's not really enough of it left to positively identify it ;D

With flightsims, I generally alternate my approach to missions if the game will let me, such as go and land myself or end the mission then and there, depending on my frame of mind or prevailing patience level. It's good to know this game will let you do either.

The old Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator offered a similar option, in that you had to take off with your wingmen, but once you had, you could elect to either fly all the way to the action or just jump ahead to it. Sometimes I'd decide to fly all the way there ("there" usually being somewhere in occupied Western Europe, having taken off in England) and try my hand at staying in formation with the other guys (quite tough to master). One could do this in real-time, which meant a flight of well over an hour or more before getting into combat. To do all that flying only to be shot down in seconds once battle was joined could be something of a bummer, to say the least. A bummer in a video game, that is, but it did have a way of making one empathise with the pilots of the period. They'd have to fly in formation for hours, which as I understand it was both extremely tedious and demanding, only to reach a point where their lives were subsequently measured in seconds. Quite sobering, really.

But I do love a WW2 flightsim, and I'm really looking forward to having a go at this one.

[Art Blade]

Nice comments, guys :)

This game indeed allows a couple of settings to be altered to your likings, be it the number of attempts to solve a mission (fewer equals more points) up to unlimited, then which game mode (arcade being simple fun, to simulation when you're required to control stuff like mixture of your gasoline and trimming of the propeller blades.. needless to say you'll be dead before even seeing an enemy) and finally if you want to get airborne or start from the airfield. That plus either end the mission or fly home and land your wreck, erm, plane is de facto a great improvement compared with other games and also a path to immersion.

After a mission you get to watch some kind of real time rendered movie showing your plane and the pilot (someone who has a CV to check up in the options, no idea if made up or real). The pilot keeps thinking aloud about what he just saw and his fears or other thoughts.. Then the mission is over. Nice touch :)

[Art Blade]

I remember you guys demanding screenies.. and you seem to like aerial combat pics.. so here two more that I like :) The first one shows a plane crashing into some houses (nice details, don't you think?) after I had shot it down. The second one is a bomber I had taken down, I'm in the background with a white smoke trail.

[smg id=2519 type=link align=center width=400 caption="WoP impressions 003"]
[smg id=2520 type=link align=center width=400 caption="WoP impressions 004"]

[Art Blade]

To improve my skills (controlling those bloody planes) I decided to do more trainings. Learn from the best is what I believe is good advice, so I pushed the enemy skill a few notches up to Veteran and tried to catch them. They perform some great dodging and evasive manoeuvres and in the end it's cool flying with/against those AI pilots. How good they are and what you did can be observed quite well during the mission replay. Sometimes I thought to myself, wow.. didn't know how close I was, or that looked cool, and of course, oh no.. why did I fly in the opposite direction again? :)

What I don't like is the crosshair which indicates where to fire at (pre-aim) because I can't see it (some semi-transparent white-ish cross against a white sky or sun is useless). So the only solution is to either face the enemy or tail them so the cockpit sights actually w@&k when lining up shots.

It's interesting that during training missions you can fly whatever plane you picked before starting the mission, and you can determine which plane the enemy will be flying. For fun I chose a German plane I previously had assigned to the enemy, and gave him my Spitfire in return.

Erm.. the manoeuvrability of the Spitfire is by far better and therefore I crashed my German plane twice trying to do the same manoeuvres I had effortlessly mastered in the Spitfire. I could almost hear the Gerry who was flying his Spitfire gracefully in circles above me laugh at my spitting image of a war hero hammering my plane into the ground with utmost virtuosity. And a hint of frustration.

I killed him for that during my third attempt.  ;D

[fragger]

...my spitting image of a war hero hammering my plane into the ground with utmost virtuosity.

Lol :-() :-() :-()

Cool pics, Art! The environment in WoP looks terrific :-X Pity about the crosshair thing, they really should give you the option of changing the colour of it if you wish. A number of other games do.