Birds of Steel

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This game has taken the PS3 to the next level and shows what this system is capable of with the right innovators with great attention to detail. Graphics are beautiful, making you feel like your right there experiencing it hands on. Storyline is astonishing with amazing history and historical missions. Gameplay is spot on letting the user be a youngster or a retired war veteran picking up a controller and going to town. Wireless Controller is easily handible but for a real experience plugging in a Flight Stick puts you right in the cockpit with an option menu allowing for over 10 compatible joysticks. I am currently using a Thrustmaster T-Flight Hotas X Flight Stick sold online for $50 that is perfect and smooth but I'm sure most compatible flight sticks will be just as good. The Online gameplay is ridiculous where you can join quick 4 player missions, head to head, 16 player battles and many others including dynamic missions where you can work on completing missions with partner online. The fact that you have 100 authentic planes makes this game just even more jaw dropping with obviously some planes being more ideal than others. During dogfights there are times when you may clip your wing with another plane and next thing you are spinning down and crashing into a building that explodes upon impact... So Real! The Replay is breathtaking being able to change to what seems a limitless amount of views and feeling like your watching a movie. This game does not disappoint for one second. The amount of work that was put into a game that has a lesser fan base is just insane. I give the developers mad props and know even thought it may have been released under the radar it will soon pick up popularity through word of mouth. So if hanging on the fence on purchasing this one do yourself a favor and purchase it, you won't look back even if like myself and not your normal genre you will find this disc always being left inside your PS3 when powered on.

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I`ve never been to Wake Island. I think, before playing this game, that I didn`t even know that it is located in the pacific and it is so small that maybe 1000 people couldn`t live in it.

But now I know all of this (is that really something?) and, if the images of Wake Island depicted in this game are true, I wish I could visit this tiny piece of land.

The sea around Wake Island looks so beautiful with its blue/green colors and reflections all over its surface that I dare anyone tell me what other game has better images of the sea than Birds of Steel.

Nor only does it depicts all the pacific islands very vividly during the WWII, but it also drops your jaw to the floor and leaves you yearning for more.

This game is that beautiful.

After completing the second level of the Wake Island missions, I got happy just to know there wasn`t anything else to do and that I could just fly all over the place and watch, mesmerized, all the details put into the game`s visuals, before landing my aircraft.

I`m not kidding: when I bought it, I wasn`t expecting it to be better than IL 2 Sturmovik, a game that I love. But it is. It runs on a 720p resolution. It does not have the 1080p resolution option, but, baby, it runs butter smooth. Dozens of planes all around the sky, lots of explosions and things happening? No problem, it runs smooth, framerate is there, steady as ever, steadier than Sturmovik.

I don`t want to extend myself too much, nor is my intention to comment every aspect of this experience. I just wanted to drop by and pay a visit for all you guys that are thinking about buying this game: you won`t be disappointed, there are many, many modes like having the possibility of changing History and editing missions the way you want them to be played (climate, enemies numbers and experience in combat, war scenarios, day time, plane types, altitude where the fights will happen, etc) 100+ planes that you can customize, the possibility of editing every button of your controller the way you wish is there too... It plays like Sturmovik, which is a real plus, and the framerate this time does not drop... oh, well... I`m going back to playing it, I`m just taking a brake.

If you liked Sturmovik, don`t miss this one. If you are only interested in flying games, buy it too. You won`t regret it.

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First let me say that I don't like spending $60 on a game that you beat in a few hours and there is no replay value at all. I like to feel i am getting my money's worth in a game, which is why i usually buy used. After playing the demo, I decided to check this game out and was shocked to learn it was only $40! I'm not a huge expert on the flying genre, but I do enjoy a good ACCURATE flying sim. First and foremost is the graphics in this game, speaking about the planes and the water. i don't remember seeing the ocean recreated in a game like it is in this game. The planes look so amazing and accurate in details. After an intense air battle, it is cool to spin the camera around your plane to see the actual bullet holes and gapping holes ripped into the sides. (Battles are INTENSE!) Sometimes the battle is over and on your way back to the carrier, engine damage will cause your plane to finally die out and you fight to stay airborne to reach the carrier. The missions make you feel like you are right there, really in the thick of these intense air battles. Your mission might be to bomb a carrier and in route I find myself switching to rear gunner to knock the bandits of my tail, then get back to the mission at hand, only to get more and more bandits tailing me. Meanwhile ships are firing anti-air fire at you. Love the intensity of the battles and makes you feel outnumbered just as the actual historical battles were. Then, you can watch a replay of your entire battle and even save it to view later. You really get so much for your money in this game. There are a ton of missions in the historical campaign, then you can switch to dynamic campaign which gives you the chance to play out the battles your way and change history. Each battle will reflect on the next and so on. Then there is a mission editor to create your own scenarios. You really get your money's worth out of this game. If you have any interest in flying combat sims or WWII or just a solid fun game that is a STEAL at $40, you gotta check this one out.

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Birds of Steel is a very worthy sucessor of the best WWII aircraft simulator / arcade game for the PS3, IL-2 Sturmovik (2001, ported to the PS3 in 2009). The graphics are improved. The lighting effects are superior. And the multiplayer modes have been greatly expanded. The sound effects have also been improved, with added outside noise (plane panels, wind, etc) adding to the realism. While some may find the gameplay to be repetitive, the missions are not, with a wide variety of scenarios in both the Mediterranean and Pacific campaigns, that are challenging in any mode. Actually, if you played IL-2 before, you will love this game. When you approach an enemy destroyer, and AA shells are exploding all around you in Dolby stereo, without any loss in the frame rate, you will be completely hooked. You might even play this title for years. It's that good.

Like IL-2, this is not just an arcade game. It has a forgiving simplified flying mode, but also a realistic mode that elevates the experience to flight simulator status. You can even customize aspects of the simulation to create your own custom realism level, and use those settings in hosting an online battle.

This title goes far beyond Il-2 Sturmovik in terms of the number of aircraft available. This game has trainers, fighters, fighter bombers, and bombers representing five nations (USSR, USA, UK, Japan, and Germany, plus a bonus sixth nation, Australia). You unlock the planes mainly by playing online. I don't consider myself to be a fan of online gaming, because the mini games and action there is usually repetitive. But in Birds of Steel there are cooperative modes that are excellent, AI aircraft that seem fairly smart and challenging, as well as fleet battles in which getting through enemy defenses and bombing ships can earn you big points and level-ups. There's also an unlockable tournament mode and bi-weekly online challenges (think of the weekly challenges in FIFA 12), which so far, very few players seem to use.

You can gain credits and seniority quickly in online play, which allows you to buy exciting new planes. It might take gamers just 10 hours or so of online play to earn a B-17 or P-38 (one of the highlights in this game). The bombers can be personalized with decals such as insignia, slogans, and pin up girls, which is a really nice touch.

Birds of Steel lives up to the standard set by its predecessor and I think it is off to a strong start as one of the best Blu Ray PS3 titles of 2012. If you are looking for an engrossing, realistic, WWII flight simulator, this is a "must" for your collection.

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I really wasn't impressed with the demo of Birds of Steel, but I watched a lot of gameplay videos and decided to go ahead and buy it. It was a risk, for sure, but it completely paid off. The demo, as often is the case, highlights the game's weaker points boring tutorials, painfully slow storytelling, and very little in the way of a manual.

The game's strengths are in the untethered gameplay and the visuals and atmosphere. The score is also awesome, but short. The studio struck a beautiful balance in difficulty settings; Simplified, Simulator, and Realistic are each progressively more real and less forgiving. One completely undocumented feature of this game is the ability to save a replay of a match, watch it back, and screencap scenes. I have a beautiful pic of my STUKA barely pulling out of a dive, its wheels bumping an enemy tank's turret.

Online play is where its at. 8 on 8 dogfights are intense, especially the Battlefront Domination game mode where bombers can win the round by destroying the enemy airfield. This turns into a more strategic game than head-to-head a team can field a pair of dive bombers or one heavy bomber, if it wants to win quickly, but a balance must be struck between defending home and escorting the bombers into enemy territory. Its hairy. Often times, your team will either be clueless or simply not care but this is a complaint with all online games.

Overall, I have twenty hours in the game, and I'm ranked in the Top 500s. I definitely recommend this either as an arcade shooter or a true to life sim, it works great as both.