Does IL-2 work with Windows 7 64 bit? I noticed it isn't listed as officially supported by GoG.

Is it possible through a simple setting to go for an arcade experience at first and gradually add in complexity/features later on? In other words, do I need to read about and understand tons of different settings and tweak the game to get it to give me an easy first-timer experience? I am hoping I can just tell it very simply, let me play in arcade mode please.

I know this sim caters to the hard core but it would be nice to be able to grow into it gradually if that is possible. I'd like to enjoy some of what it offers without needing to know everything real pilots do, to do so.

I can't personally answer about the Windows 7 64-bit, but I surmise from others that the game works.

There are different standard difficulty settings (easy through realistic) which set everything at the press of a button. You can indeed if you wish start out on easy difficulty - it may still be harder than a some arcade flight sims, but still much easier than the game is with higher realism turned on. For when you do feel like playing around with the settings, many of the difficulty settings are relatively self-explanatory - invulnerability, stalls and spins (whether your aircraft can stall or spin out of control), blackouts/redouts, limited ammo, limited fuel, etc ... some may be more obtuse, but with some playing around (and/or asking on the forum) should yield what they are soon enough.

For myself I took a somewhat similar tactic - I've created my own custom difficulty settings where pretty much everything but complex engine management and instrumentation/navigation is turned on to full realism. But I don't have to worry about fuel mixture + prop angle or things like that (yet). Others argue for a jumping into the deep-end approach, but I think wading in can have its advantages too. Another forumer, Wailwulf, pointed me to a useful site (which has its own forums too) where, upon looking through links and such, I saw some people had written advice for newbie pilots flying with full realism turned on: http://www.mission4today.com/index.php

Do you have a joystick? I would argue it is fairly important for this game.

Yes, it works with Win 7 64-bit. Countless hours of fun confirm that :)

As crazy_dave said, the difficulty is very adjustable, you can turn specific realism options on and off. Just start by selecting the easy preset, then look what elements are enabled and disabled and tweak to your own preferences.

However, even on the easiest difficulty the game is unplayable without a joystick. I've tried it and it's awful. You have no real control over your airplane and you just flutter about in the sky. Especially aiming at your opponents is impossible. Even the simplest 2-axis joystick will vastly improve the experience, although if possible, go for a twist rudder and throttle lever model, those aren't that expensive.

And one last note: if you decide to get it, install the Ultrapack 3 modkit: http://ultrapack.il2war.com/
It adds a lot of planes and I think it improves some graphics and sounds, too.

Thanks very much for the replies guys. That's great news the difficulty scales easily. I'm glad to hear that and that it works in Win7.

I did order a Thrustmaster T.Flightstick X which has a twist rudder and throttle. I knew I would want one for flying. I used to love flight sims many years ago and always had a joystick back then but it's been a long time.

I'll be grabbing this now on sale then. What a steal too isn't it? Wow! :-)

Says 7 but I can't seem to get it to work . I did all the install tricks and nothing.

Edit= Now after I spent hours downloading and redownloading and checking ram and hard drives with no luck yesterday , I tried it again with the downloader about an hour ago and it worked with no problems..!!?? IDK Think I'm gona go back to XP.

The game has a lot of big files to download, it's possible files got corrupted on its way to you, but the GOG downloader got them all correctly - maybe

right click the game icon and click run as admin. will set (for my Win 7 64bit) as XP SP2.

sidenote, I've been playing IL-2 for years and I'm not into all the complex engine management
so I just do without it. I fly for fun not a headache.

Good stick choice. I use a Logitech Extreme 3D Pro. $25 bucks.


~S~