Dam it,I weakened and bought into the early access.
I tried to hold out, but after reading on the forum the game will cost the same as early access I went for it.
Be aware this is a complicated sim, not like War Thunder which is more accessible.
You can simplify things by selecting auto mixture, prop pitch, radiator and cowls. But if you are willing to commit to this, it is best to learn all engine management
So far there are free flight, simple missions, missions and multiplayer options.
The multiplayer ATM is six test servers, but they are working fine. Three EU, and three US.
I noticed you can join a server as a crew member only, which is great.
At the moment there are just gunner positions, but they will be soon joined by navigators and bombardiers.
The aircraft look and sound wonderful. The landscape looks good but is a plain wintery setting. There is talk of new theaters being introduced in the future, so I'm not too worried about that.
Most importantly, it all runs very smoothly. The choice of settings are low, medium, high and ultra. Mine defaulted at medium, but after hiking it up to ultra I find it runs well (30 to 40 fps)
This early access was very expensive ($90)
. I would advise holding out until the complete game is released if you are interested. The crucial content is the multiplayer, and at the moment I don't know how that will develop.
Hopefully with the community helping it will be good. Multi crews is a good start.
I will keep you updated on the developments
I've taken a few in game screenies to give you an idea.
The first few are of the Russian PE-2 with the different gun positions, and also some of the German Stuka.