Red Faction: Guerrilla & IL-2 demo impressions

Got in a little time with both of these games and have some quick thoughts about them. RF:G is an open world sandbox type of game, along the lines of a GTA clone. I am only about an hour into it but so far it has been enjoyable. The game controls pretty well on foot and in vehicles and the aiming/shooting feels pretty good too. The environments are destructible and that is supposed to be the big draw here. It seems like the missions will get repetitive after a while, but without actually going through the game more, that's really just a guess. It appears to be a quality title through and through, but it's probably something that would be better as a rental for me. That feeling may change as I get deeper into the game, but with limited gaming time, that may not happen for a while, or even at all.

I was nicely surprised by the demo for IL-2. I wasn't expecting much but the game looks fantastic and offers different levels of realism as far as how the planes control. Targeting an enemy was easy as was leading the target when firing away with your plane's machine guns/cannons. The ground assault mission was a little more difficult because the targets are basically stationary, so you really come up on them fast. This game definitely has me intrigued and I will be checking out the full version. Again, my one concern is the repetition of the missions in flying games such as this, so perhaps a rental may be best. Either way, I will be playing this game in September. With Heroes Over Europe due out a week before IL-2, I will definitely be getting a healthy fix of WWII flying action. I only wish one of the games was set in the Pacific theater instead of both being set in Europe; I love my Japanes Zeroes and the F4F Wildcats and the F4U Corsairs. Oh well, maybe some day.