New IL-2 Sturmovik game from 1C: Maddox Games is coming 31 March 2011. Game is looking awesome and it will be the day 1 purchase for me. Also game is using Steamworks for matchmaking but also use 3rd party DRM Tages. Yes, I know that is stupid but I don't care a DRM for this game. It also supports 128 players online, that is a huge number. Anyway just watch this video and see how is the game. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcm_5L6yZIY

Well, my feeling is somewhat different.

I'm a big fan of flight simulators. But I will take my time to get this one, although it's of course tempting me.

Three reasons for that. First I will wait till they release some patches. One unknown issue is whether the game - that will be released with a scripted campaign - will eventually evolve towards a dynamic campaign or not. And will they eventually add the Campaign of France, adding Dewoitines, Potez and Morane to the list of flyable aircrafts?

The second reason is that I'm not happy with their combination of Steam and Solidshield tages whatever they call it. Their system of allowing three activations , then adding one per month looks less troublesome than previous Tages DRM schemes but what happens in a couple of year? What guarantees me, f.i, if I want to reinstall the game in say 4 years, that the system will still be around and will not make it impossible for me to play the game ?

In addition, will 1C keep exploring the various options to p.... off its paying customers ? Securom, Starforce now steam+tages. What's next ? DNA recognition ? It's just a game. I'm supposed to buy it for my leisure, not to fullfil their paranoid approach of business.

Three. 49.99 € pre-order for the digital download version , 69.99€ for the boxed collector edition. These prices seem "normal" but keep in mind this is a steam game. No possible resale, dependance on a client software. My personnal approcah to steam is to buy heaviliy discounted games ( in mean <15 EUR ) . I will stick with this.

So, after all, I won't buy it at all.

I'll reinstall Battle of Britain II.

You can buy the game from Getgamesgo for $44.99 and activate the game on Steam. Also they will remove Tages DRM in future as far as I know.

http://www.getgamesgo.com/catalogue/game/il-2-strumovik-cliffs-of-dover

Only thing that ticks me off is that the US doesn't get the CE.

I suppose they may indeed remove the DRM. But I don't take it for granted.

In fact, I have nothing against DRM , just I'm not accepting the concept of activation limit. I know that there is only 10% chance that a given gamer ends up using his limit and even so he can contact support to try to solve the issue.

But all games end up being unsupported one game or another. Ever since a well known publisher once answered me that "this game is not supported anymore and, as it was released for win 95 platforms, you are not supposed to try to install it on XP " I just can't take publisher's support seriously anyway.

I don't even take for granted that this system is "neutral" towards the end user .

This system is very much like OEM activation for Win7. The software ends up being tied to your hardware. It's not clear how that thing reacts to hardware changes or to OS reinstall either. But sure there is no "de-authorization".

I can't remember the name of the game but I seem to remember one Atari game where there was some "fun" between Steam, Atari & Tages, none of the three taking responsbility for the failure of the activation servers. That's a form of leisure I will leave to others...