Birds of Steel

General informations

Birds of Steel is a WW2 flight sim made by the guys who make War Thunder, the popular F2P online flight game, which may or may not be a good reference.
BoS is mainly focus towards single-player though, and features some excellent game design decisions that strike the perfect balance between a simulation, and a more casual console game.

Here's a list of what makes Birds of Steel cool in my book:

• Flight models and difficulty levels: the game has 3 difficulty levels: Arcade, Realistic and Simulation (IIRC). Arcade is actually what's called expert in other games, but it makes flying the plane really easy. As a forum member once said, in Arcade Mode you're not flying a plane so much as a missile. In realstic mode, the plane handles more like a real plane, and requires a bit more experience and training, but it's really pleasant to fly in this mode with a controller. Simulation mode is the same thing with harder controls and more things to consider (trimming flaps, stuff like that).
• LOTS of planes to unlock
• 3 rather unique theaters: the Pacific Theater for cool naval/air battles; the Mediteranean Theater with the whole of Malta mapped; and the Kuban for Russian vs German aircraft.
• Ammunition system: your planes can go out of ammo, but MGs will be resplenished after a set amount of time (40 seconds, a bit more for cannons). It makes the game more immersive without having to go back to the airfield to reload every 5 minutes.
• Take off then the game warps the player near the combat zone -- no 20 minutes of nothing like in IL-2 1946.
• Mission Editor