I had not intended to buy this new WW2 flight sim from Gaijin (Birds of Prey AKA Wings of Prey) through Konami, but after reading the following two reviews, at $40 I'm going to give the game a shot on the XBOX. Hopefully, it will also eventually be available on PC. What caught my attention the most is the inclusion of an "easy to use" mission editor. This feature should give the game great longevity. For all its' faults Birds of Prey is still a lot of fun when I wan't to take a break from IL-2 and BOP's enemy AI was actually pretty good in the custom dogfight missions if you set the right difficulty level.

http://360.ign.com/articles/122/1220383p1.html

www.metro.co.uk/tech/games/892814-birds-of-steel-reviews-finest-hour

Are you going to use a joystick? I can't imagine trying to dogfight using an XBOX controller.

Slick,

Actually, I do OK with the Xbox controller with these games. Usually, with games like WOP, you can set the flight controls to adjust for your own personal experience with the pad. I'm sure a XBOX dedicated joystick would be better, but if the game comes out for the PC, I'll just wait for that version and use my Logitech Extreme 3D Pro.

I might pick this up, I tried getting into Wings of Prey but found that it was sorta missing something I couldn't put my finger on. I've played countless hours of IL-2 on the PC and always been looking for something on my Xbox. I have Ace Combat: Assault Horizon but its not "sim" enough. 

Thanks for putting this out in the light!

Certainly caught my interest....waiting for some player reviews.

I'm thinking of picking this up for the PS3 and getting the PS3 Thrustmaster T-Flight HOTAS X Flight stick to go with it.  I have an Xbox too, but the joystick for the PS3 looks the best and its around $50.

What do you guys think of the game and/or the joystick. 

Just edited this, and I now am thinking of getting the Xbox version with the HORI XBOX360 Flight Stick EX2 (what a name) which is both a joystick and throttle with force feed back and the price is around 150 with shipping from an ebay seller.  The only thing stopping me is the price (about 200 with both the HOTAS and game.) which is a great deal, but still its 200.

Same question as above, what do you think of this game and/or the joystick?

I've been playing with the ACE Edge on the Xbox and I love it.  I think this version is an improvement over the original Birds of Prey.  The game includes a dynamic campaign generator that allows you to fly multiple mission profiles with about 8-10 different maps from Europe and the Pacific.  All of the German planes now have proper cockpits and views.  I gotta say that flying close support missions over the Royal Navy around Malta has been intense.  Highly recommended.

Trey 

I did end up ordering both the force feed back HOTAS and the game.  Can't wait to play.

To all who don't already know, this is an AWESOME flight sim.  It really is my favorite - along with Rise of Flight.

Just wish there was a PC version :\

Stupid question maybe, but does anyone know if you can you use any USB joystick to connect to the Xbox for this, or do you need some special M$ approved thing?

Just conscious of how few wheels can be used with Xbox (idiots).

I don't think you can do that.  Although I think you can get xbox controllers to work on the PC.  I have the Xbox Ace Edge that I really need to get working on my PC.

Trey

Thanks Trey. I'll forget it then.

I'm normally an M$ fan, but I have been thoroughly unimpressed by the Xbox - region locking, peripherals limitations, lukewarm support of Kinect. Unless it has stellar reviews, I'll go somewhere else with next gen console (assuming I even get one).

You must have an xbox approved joystick, you can't just use a pc one, unless you know how to mod joysticks.

Right now I'm playing this game just with the regular contoller, and this game is fantastic.  I can't wait until my Hori HOTAS comes.  I got mine from e-bay, my first every e-bay purchase, but you can go on amazon and search xbox joysticks to see what else is available.  The shipping for the Hori on amazon was $50, which is ridiculous, so if you do want to get one, go the E-Bay route.

Anyways, we need to let more of the wargamer flight sim guys know about this, it is not just the best xbox flight sim, its one of the best flight sims made.  (Add in a strategic campaign like Rowans Battle of Britain did, and then it could be the best ever.)

I found out today through experimentation that the Xbox flight sims have a fatal flaw when trying to use them on the PC.  They work great EXCEPT that the throttle and rudder use the same axis when trying to configure the stick for the PC.  You can either have one or the other but not both.  Real bummer.

After playing Birds of Steel and loving it, I'm trying to find a decent and comparable flight sim on the PC since my wife and kids often keep me away from the TV with the Xbox.  I want to play Wings of Prey on the PC but I simply cannot setup my joystick hat to snap view.  I can do normal scroll views with the hat switch but after using snap views on BoS, I can't play without it now.  Wings of Prey is simply gorgeous too but the no snap view is a game killer.  I picked up Battle of Britain 2 and it also doesn't have snap views.  Ugh.  I play IL-2 to death already. I'm hurting for a good PC flight sim.

Trey       

What are "snap views"? 

BOB 2 is my favorite Computer flight sim  because you are part of the war, you don't just do random missions.

Snap View is when you use your hat to look around your cockpit and when you release the hat, your view snaps back to the forward view.  I can't play without it now.

Trey

Trey, in my opinion the best new PC flightsim around (if you want to try to shoot things) is Rise of Flight - and it's F2P.  You get the whole game for free, but only two planes to fly.  Buying enough planes to explore it properly means that you spend more than you would on a full game in the end, but you can do it in increments.  The only thing is that it is WW1, so if that doesn't interest you then never mind.

Incidentally, the next step up, both for functionality and immersion, from snap views is head-tracking for looking about.  I've had mine a year or so now, and I wouldn't play a flightsim without it

I think the PS3 version is the one to get, simply because you can use any PC joystick you happen to own.  I'm using a Thrustmaster T.16000 and it works incredibly well.  I do miss the tremendous variety of aircraft you can get in IL-2 (with UltraPack 3 - wow), but the presentation in BoS is simply awesome. 

Wings of Prey looked amazing and this does too - I really wish Gaijin would consider doing a PC version of Birds of Steel, because it uses the exact same engine.

Oh well - it's really cool to have 2 fantastic flight sims for the consoles (3, if you include the quite awesome Apache Air Assault that Gaijin did as well - I love these guys!).

Just a heads up that the PC version of Birds of Steel on steroids called "War Thunder" is available in closed beta.  If you registered your Wings of Prey on Yuplay.com, you should have beta access.  If not, you can buy one of the various starter packs to get beta access.  I'm downloading now and am itching to play with my brand new Satek X52 Pro system I got this week.  www.warthunder.com.

Trey