It may have gone unnoticed amidst the news regarding MSFS 2024 yesterday, but among the pandemonium, developer 1CGS released the 4th edition of their Flying Circus series. The new volume comes with several new aircraft and a big map update.
The Flying Circus series is set in World War I, and it does an impressive job of simulating the sheer chaos that used to be aviation back in those days. Strap yourself to a motorized kite, armed with conventional machine guns, and engage in up-close and personal air-to-air combat. The series offers an unprecedented air-combat experience, especially when you use VR.
Vol. IV comes with seven new aircraft, which are the single seaters: Airco D.H.2, Albatros D.III, Fokker E.III, Sopwith Pup and Sopwith 1½ Strutter B, and the two-seaters: Roland C.IIa and Sopwith 1½ Strutter.
The Airco D.H.2 and Fokker E.III also add a “new” feature to the mix, or well, rather removes a feature: the throttle. These early WWI aircraft did not have throttle control and always ran either at full whammy, or not at all. The only way to control the speed of these aircraft is by using the “blip” switch, which essentially removes ignition of the engine while depressed.
With Vol. IV also comes an update to the Western Front map, with the addition of early 20th century Paris and it’s surroundings, and it adds many new buildings and objects to the whole map. Paris naturally also includes custom-built landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower, the Sacré-Cœur and the Notre Dame. The map update will be available for all the Flying Circus volumes. However, the map isn’t the only thing receiving an update. Update 5.504, which released alongside Vol. IV, provides many fixes and improvements and even some new features to things like career mode, several aircraft and core game code across the entire IL-2 Great Battles series. A full change list can be found here.
You can purchase Flying Circus Vol. IV for $52,88 excl. VAT. from the IL-2 webshop. The expansion isn’t available via Steam yet, but since the first three volumes can be purchased through Steam as well, Vol. IV can be expected on there as well at some point.
