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First Look: Rowan’s Battle of Britain
by Bob "Groucho" MarksContact!
The first thing that will whack the sim addict whilst perusing the user-interface screens to BoB is a mean case of deja vu. Before you call the Psychic Hotline, however, and schedule an interview to get that Tele-Psychic gig as your day-job, be advised that the basic framework of BoB was laid down in last year’s excellent MiG Alley (MA). You have seen it before, Junior---step away from the telephone. Rowan has simply picked up the overall structure of their Korean War jet-fest and fleshed it out substantially for their depiction of England’s Finest Hour.
In terms of hardware and player capability, this has got to be the most scalable simulation in existence. With a full two screens of video settings alone, those digerati who understand the strained mutations of language like "trilinear filtering" and "transform & lighting: ON/OFF" will be in frame rate vs. image quality heaven. The newbie, however, will probably be stunned like a dynamited aquarium fish when confronted with that same myriad of options. A choice of system-oriented presets would probably help the techno babble-challenged to deal with this form of info overload. That approach would help BoB be more in line with the tack taken by the extensive flight modeling, weapon effect, and A.I. option screens; after all, this is a sim that endeavors to reach out to all levels of flight combat simmers.
With such a huge number of choices available, BoB is (even in this early stage of development) one of those few sims that actually are accessible to that ever elusive "wider audience" that developers and publishers babble on about. The aircraft flight modeling can easily range from a G-Loc, pimple-faced, arcade roller coaster to a Hurricane model that would have made Douglas Bader himself cry for his mommy. Included in this multitude of choices is the obvious option of being able to fly as one of Churchill’s Few, or as one of the Luftwaffe’s Boys From Abbeville. Likewise, a full quiver of default controller presets can be employed to fly the chosen aircraft. One of the cool features I like is the ability to control prop RPM using the mouse wheel---very trick.
Jerry's in the clouds, eh wot?
Pull The Chocks
Like MA, BoB has a "Hot Shots" mode that offers instant gratification for those with a limited attention . . . umm, where was I? Oh, yeah . . . attention span. Expanding on its Korean conflict predecessor, however, Rowan has chosen to include an impressive spread of training missions and historical engagements in this version. The training missions are actually worth visiting when flying the aircraft on high realism settings. Trust me when I say that these training missions on high realism settings make the word squirrelly seem like a compliment.
Jumping into the historical missions, one thing becomes very evident: BoB has the capability of putting a lot of planes in the air at one time. This phenomena has nothing in common with the "Wall of MiGs" mirage of Falcon 4---these are an actual, no kidding, overcast of Luftwaffe bombers and escorts. No wonder Rowan and their distributor, Empire Interactive, take great pains at pointing out that BoB has the ability of putting around 1200 airplanes in the air at once.
The incredible part of this feat is that the execution of air traffic comes off without a discernable hit in frame rate. The pure volume of virtual aluminum in the skies over circa 1940 England as depicted in BoB, in my opinion, poses far more of a threat than enemy fire does. When engaging bandits over the well-rendered fields of Southern Great Britain, avoiding a collision with your wingman poses a much greater challenge than keeping one's center of gravity from being altered by enemy action---you know, having your empennage shot off and stuff. The spectacle of seeing a swarm of Heinkels and Dorniers over London, regardless if your mission is to repel or protect, is enough to awe even the most cynical sim geek.
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