So what for a little more eye candy
How would you know what you're missing when you never played it?
Hint: Eye candy is just one
very tiny aspect of BoX's improvements over 1946.
And CFS3, WOFF and WOTR hardly compare to any of these at all. They're just ancient.
Anyway, it's your choice.
Just wanted to clarify that misleading statement.
As for the business model: Probably very few people like to spend a considerable amount of money for a
game.
Putting everything together is around 300 bucks if it's not on sale, and that's quite a lot. And that's just what has been fully released yet. Adding Early Access Stuff takes much more.
However, there's a few things to consider:
You can't really blame it on the devs that they adopted an improved version of the ROF business model which proved to be successful.
You can't blame it on them either that they want to ensure that the team's wages can be paid.
As much as you'd want a "cheap" version of the game, as little will you want the team to just shut down their business because it doesn't pay their bills anymore.
Furthermore, nobody says you should buy it all at once.
You can start with BoS or BoM for as little as 20 bucks when it's on sale, or 27 if you pick the "premium" version which I'd recommend.
Then you can start to look around, get familiar with the game and get used to some of it's kites.
That's probably the hardest part of it: We 1946'ers are used to just jump from one cockpit to another without any issues.
BoX is a new game. You have to get into it first.
Don't throw the towel too early, remember how long it took to get into 1946. It just doesn't happen within a few minutes.
Then there comes the enhanced complexity of BoX's simulation aspect: You need to spend more time to get used to a single airplane. Being able to master one doesn't get you into the air with any other like it was in 1946.
It's worth giving it a try at least. IL-2's future doesn't deserve to be thrown away with a simplified statement about it's eye candy IMHO.
Mike