1CGS has launched a new sale for the IL-2: Great Battles Series with discounts across the board for most of the series that the team has launched over the last several years including recently launched IL-2: Battle of Bodenplatte and a full 50% off price for Flying Circus Vol 1. Let’s have a look at the latest sale and at the latest with Flying Circus including some commentary on the future.

Bodenplatte on sale for the first time













IL-2: Battle of Bodenplatte officially released back in the late fall of 2019. Usually 1CGS keeps their latest title out of the sales for the better part of a year but it seems that a little sale may have a bigger benefit than not and so Battle of Bodenplatte gets a sale price of $59.99 USD down from the usual $79.99. Read my full review of IL-2: Battle of Bodenplatte right here for the full overview.

The Bodenplatte Collector Planes are also on sale. Both the P-38J-25 and the Fw190D-9 are available for $14.99 instead of the regular $19.99 USD. If you were waiting for a small discount on the latest IL-2 title to get going with late war western front aircraft, now is your chance to check it out!





Flying Circus 50% off!

For the first time, 1CGS is offering a half off sale for Flying Circus Vol 1 bringing the price from $79.99 to $39.99 USD on the IL-2 store and on Steam.

Some may take it as a bad sign while I think it is potentially a good thing that Flying Circus is seeing a 50% discount as part of this mid-winter sale. We can infer that sales have been lighter than hoped for via an update from Jason Williams about if we’ll see a Vol 2. I do think that a 50% off sale provides a much greater incentive to take a chance on the title and hopefully enjoy some WWI aerial combat.

You can read my full review of Flying Circus Vol 1 right here.

Flying Circus current and future commentary

Flying Circus is an attempt by 1CGS to bring the best parts of Rise of Flight back to life in the new IL-2: Great Battles Series Digital Warfare engine.

With support for VR, enhanced graphics and rendering technologies, and the ability to integrate the whole series into one experience, Flying Circus makes a lot of sense to me as a sim enthusiast who enjoys flying everything from jets to high performance propeller fighters to wire, wood and canvas World War I bi-planes and tri-planes.

Vol 1’s ten aircraft, small to medium sized map, and excellent multiplayer support have been slightly let down by lesser single player support although that has already changed since release with the official inclusion of the Kaiserschlacht mini-campaign (featuring 6 missions for each side). I’ve flown the first few missions now on both sides and they are excellently put together missions created by SYN_Vander, an experienced Rise of Flight and IL-2 mission builder along with community support in terms of aircraft skins and more. Of course, Pat Wilson’s Campaign Generator and SYN_Vander’s Easy Mission Generator both have the ability to give you a more interesting single player experience even without the built in Career mode.































What’s more, Flying Circus’ multiplayer community is easily one of the most organized and dedicated that I’ve seen. While IL-2’s multiplayer has steadily picked up with many different groups starting servers and flying team sorties, it’s Flying Circus’ sub-community that has done things like put together an unofficial skin pack, organize Thursday Night Fly-in, Flying Circus Furball on Sunday, and keep multiplayer humming even when player numbers are low.

And speaking of those player numbers, they are growing steadily with it being reported that this past Sunday was among the busiest Flying Circus Furball that they have yet seen. I wasn’t able to be there for that but I do regularly attend the Thursday night sessions and the past Thursday night was the busiest that I’ve ever seen for that event. The 65 player server was full when I initially tried to join!

What’s more, I’ve had some of the most fun with Flying Circus’ multiplayer. I may be the closer in battles that make it so compelling but whatever the reason, it’s been tons of fun to fly multiplayer with Vol 1. It’s why I’ve become such an enthusiastic supporter of Flying Circus even with its flaws.

Reasons to buy?

With Flying Circus Vol 1 at full price and being a bit light in single player, I can understand many being reluctant to jump into the title, however, with growing single player support and an absolutely solid multiplayer community, the 50% off sale makes for a very compelling entertainment piece and at $39.99 we’re now into the same territory that a night out at the movies can cost you and I think most people are going to spend more than 2-hours with this.

Finally, while your purchase should absolutely be made with the intent at having an entertaining experience right away (which I think many will), it’s only through an increase of sales that we are likely to see a Vol 2. I think that a Vol 2 development cycle would bring with it the opportunity to add more single player experiences and bolster the aircraft set to add more variety of experience than is currently available. I’ve already written at length about the future of Flying Circus so I won’t repeat myself more than that.

If you enjoy IL-2 or if you’ve been holding onto Rise of Flight (an excellent sim in its own right), Flying Circus is really worth checking out… especially at $39.99.