This one will be very short, sorry: we're preparing the update 5.002 release candidate right now and you already know what it will contain - Churchill tank (that was extensively covered by Daniel in the previous DD), dynamic visual damage and tactical numbers for all Great Battles aircraft and Normandy map improvements. We'll post the info about all this improvements simultaneously with the update release (hopefully it will happen early next week). Therefore there is little new info we can share today with two exceptions.
We're glad to inform you that Battle of Normandy Standard Edition and its accompanying Collector Planes are available on Steam! And update 5.002 will tons of changes is coming soon.
Today is a big day. IL-2 Sturmovik team is glad to report that after almost three years of development Battle of Normandy is out of Early Access and is officially released - 5.001 update is out!
«You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade, toward which we have striven these many months. The eyes of the world are upon you. The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you.» Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower.
While we are testing the Normandy release candidate, work is underway on other projects, which are scheduled for release a little later. In particular, the new Churchill IV player-controllable tank is in the final stage of development for the Tank Crew project. Supplied to the Soviet Union under the Lend-Lease program, this tank was an active participant in the events on the Kursk Bulge. During our work on it, we and our partners from Digital Forms have implemented a lot of its design features and equipment.
The summer is ending, just like our Battle of Normandy release preparations. Two variations of the Normandy and Southern England map (before and after the invasion) are ready, Career mode is ready, Quick Missions and Advanced Quick Missions are ready - today we're starting the release candidate testing. This time we want to spend more time and resources on the testing and debugging. The beta-testing of the 5.001 update is going for two weeks already and we plan to test the release candidate for two more at least. There's a reason for that - it will include not only the Battle of Normandy, but a number of global improvements as well.
