Hello, CBB!

You know what we love? Esoteric, bullshit simulators. You know what else we love right now? War Thunder! So, let's play something in a similar theme, but coated in ohgodIdonotunderstandplanes!

IL-2: 1946 is the definitive version of the original IL-2: Sturmovik. Starting as a simulator for just the IL-2, it eventually grew into covering over 200 aircraft across every theater of war. Sayge, do you want to fly as Finland? They've got it! Charmander, do you want to stroke yourself to Spitfires? They have a dozen! Hoozin, have you wanted to return to your homeland of North Africa? FANTASTIC!

Warning: IL-2 is not DCS. These are not clickable cockpits. IL-2 is a simulator in the sense of damage modeling, flight modeling, and ballistics modeling, but it's still a hotkey based game. You will need a stick, preferably a HOTAS, and you will wish you had head tracking if you do not. The game is also old, so it is not a beauty. Fortunately, this also means it can run on a toaster! Play it on your Mom's old work PC, it'll probably be fine! You have been warned.

"But Fortune!" I hear you cry "how do I play 1940's air shoot mans?". I have answers, friends!

The best way to get IL-2 is through GoG.com. A couple years ago now, IL-2: 1946 disappeared from Steam never to return. Cliffs of Dover is there again, but 1946 never came back. We weep silently into our pillows at night over this travesty.

I have not the fuzziest idea what patch version IL-2:1946 from GoG comes in at, but you will want to patch up to version 4.11.1m. This will take incremental patching, there is no one-stop-shop for them. The game came out in like, 2001, shut up. Fortunately, nerds greater than I have been sperging over this game for longer than I would care to admit, so your resources are endless!

Edit: GoG version comes over patched, apparently. Here is what you need to downgrade it to 4.10m, which you will then need to patch to 4.11.1m. Big thank you to Mr. Fadi for clueing me in.

Here is a patch guide. You willl need to register an account to download from these folks, though, so keep that in mind. Somehow I think you will be okay! Make sure you make a backup of your IL-2: 1946 4.11.1m patched vanilla copy in case you break everything again.

Once you hit version 4.11.1m (make sure you launch the game after each patch to make sure you haven't sundered your world), it's time to download the actual thing. The big one. We're going to be using HSFX, a total IL-2 overhaul. "Fortune, why is this mod exponentially larger than the actual game?" you might be asking yourself. Because it's fantastic. It's the ACE of IL-2. It just makes the game better in every conceivable way. You will thank me some day.

Here is a link to the version of HSFX the rest of us are using. There is a Torrent link. Start it up and go to bed. Go to work. Watch the bar, I don't care. Download it folks.

Once you install HSFX, you will get an application in your IL-2 folder called JSGME.exe. This is your mod manager for IL-2. We will only be using HSFX, so move that to the right side and you are golden. Congratulations, now you can come die with us, too!

Extras: We use Evolve to manage peer-to-peer connections. It is basically a social based VPN for games. IL-2 is so old there is no server tracking. The alternative is to have a server and we could all use HyperLobby. I am opening to this idea if folks become interested.

Lastly, since IL-2 is so old, there is no native widescreen support. You will need to modify the .ini. In your IL-2 directory, open Conf.ini in Notepad. Look for:

[window] width=1920 height=1200 ColourBits=32 DepthBits=24 StencilBits=8 ChangeScreenRes=1 FullScreen=1 DrawIfNotFocused=0 EnableResize=0 EnableClose=1 SaveAspect=0 Use3Renders=0.

Change your Width and Height to whatever your resolution of choice is. If it crashes at launch, you done put in a fake resolution, nerd. Then:

Look for 'EnableResize=' and set it to 0.

Look for 'SaveAspect=' and set it to 0.

Save the file, close it and run IL2.

And that's it! From there, you just need to configure your controls and get flying. We'll see you in the sky, Flyboy.