Source: Blue’s News
1C Game Studios takes to their forums to announce ambitious plans to expand their IL-2 Sturmovik series with three new games to be released over the course of 2018 and 2019. They are also outline plans for a new aircraft, a playable demo, and announce a new name for their game engine. There’s a lot to unpack, so please make sure your seats are in the upright position as we take off. First off, they reassure fans that IL-2 Sturmovik: Battle of Kuban will emerge from early access into full release later this year. Then they take the lid off the three new games, Battle of Bodenplatte set during the closing months of World War II; Flying Circus Volume I, which bring the series back to World War I, and Tank Crew – Clash at Prokhorovka, entirely focused on tank combat in the second world war. The first of the three is already available for preorder, and preorders for the other two should start in the first half of next year. They also kick off preorders of two new planes, LA-5 FN and Bf-109 G-6, say they will unveil plans for a playable demo in Q1 2018, and say they’ve enhanced their Digital Nature Engine so much that they’ve renamed it the Digital Warfare Engine (which also has the advantage of sounding less like it was designed for a farm simulator). Here’s the rundown on the three planned new games:
Battle of Bodenplatte
Although it was technically an “operation”, for continuity sake, we’re calling it a battle! Battle of Bodenplatte will explore the air war near the end of 1944 and into 1945. This late-war setting offers a wide variety of classic fighters and fighter-bombers for you to fly including some of the hottest piston powered airplanes to ever grace the skies. In addition, we’ll introduce our first jet aircraft! The Allies flew many low-level tactical missions into Germany from bases in Belgium and Holland during this time. In a desperate attempt to stem the tide of war, the Germans launched a surprise attack on Allied airfields on January 1, 1945. The ensuing battle became legendary.
Flying Circus – Volume I
Flying Circus will finally give our loyal and patient Rise of Flight customers a new way forward into the future! Our eventual goal is to essentially re-build ROF inside of the Sturmovik universe and give WWI all the latest technology like VR, 64bit, DX11 and improved visuals. We will start by focusing on re-furbishing ten of our existing WWI airplanes and providing a partial map of France to fly and fight over. Subsequent Flying Circus products will further expand content and we’ll work to integrate Flying Circus into our Campaign and Career systems over time. Volume I is merely the first important step and it will be a lot of fun! If Flying Circus proves popular we can eventually fire up the Great War assembly line and break out the canvas and timber once again to make some new crates! Guynmere, Fonck, Coppens, McCudden, Bishop, Rickenbacker and von Richtofen shall fly again 100 years later!
Tank Crew – Clash at Prokhorovka
Tank Crew will be expanding upon our initial adventure into tank combat by including ten new tanks and armored vehicles and improving our two existing tanks. Tank Crew will create a ground combat component that can be integrated into single-player content and multiplayer servers. Our tanks will be multi-crew in multiplayer which most other leading tank games are not capable of. Our playable tanks will also be modeled both inside and out with realism in mind and improved damage modelling. The map will feature the southern portion of the Battle of Kursk with the village of Prokhorovka and town of Belgorod included. The map will also be built somewhat differently giving tank players a better ground environment then our current large maps. Further details about Tank Crew will be released as development ramps up.
