Today was the final day of E3, and for the SimHQ team that meant it was “clean up day”. No, we don’t mean that we finally took a shower on Thursday morning — rather we revisited the various exhibitors of interest and filled in any of the missing items on our checklists. Overall the tone of the final day was decidedly more relaxed, in large part because everyone at the show was exhausted from the long days and lack of sleep. We spent our time wrapping up loose ends and making sure we saw everything we wanted to. The first thing Magnum did was go back and talk with the developer again of Operation Flashpoint 2: Dragon Rising. He wanted to verify some things mentioned in the forums feedback thread. Meanwhile, Chunx and Joe grabbed some high-def video of the Ostendo Curved Gaming Display while Joe played around withDCS: Black Shark. Then Joe interviewed the developers of the new racing title, Victory! and later played around in some audio/vibration gaming seats. Meanwhile, Chunx checked out DiRT 2 with a G25 wheel. All the while, guod was off taking in some demonstrations of new shooter titles being developed by EA and doing some web site management via WiFi.
Air Combat
DCS: Black Shark
While SimHQ readers may already be familiar with DCS: Black Shark, it’s still a 
nice treat to see it on display at the CH Products booth. Joe got to fly it for the first time, and the experience was certainly enjoyable: the title is being displayed on the Ostendo Curved Gaming Display, and the user sits in a Hot Seat customizable cockpit with a CH ProductsFighterStick, ProThrottle, ProPedals, and two MFPs.
We’ll discuss the Hot Seat specifically in the Technology section, but our intention for the visit was to fly DCS: Black Shark on the Ostendo Curved Gaming Display. While we were able to fly DCS: Black Shark a bit on Day 1 with easy settings, this time we got CH Products employee Michael Sexton to put everything into simulation mode. Joe hopped in for his virgin Black Shark flight and did well — right up until the final stages of the landing approach.
IL-2 Birds of Prey
Magnum had a press event scheduled for 2 PM. But once he heard that IL2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey was being displayed in a private viewing room he took a detour. He introduced himself at the door to the hostess of 505 Games. She kindly let him in and escorted him to a back room. That was decorated just like a living room. A couch, a table, and a big screen TV with surround sound speakers. And of course an Xbox 360 with a wired 360 controller. SimHQ covered the details of BoP in yesterday’s report. Even so, Magnum just had to see it. Like guod, his first impression is that it looked and played beautiful. The terrain was well developed and there was plenty of ground clutter, including full size towns and cities. There were beautiful clouds that layered the sky and you were able to use those cloud layers to hide in and surprise an enemy. The planes were beautiful and the action intense. As usual for media demos, the game was set to arcade mode, but there are two other levels of difficulty, one being simulation. Magnum really feels that this may be the first true flight simulation to finally come to the Xbox 360.
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