While a big shift in theatres from England and France, and all that's in between, The Desert War is a great theatre for dogfights and particularly bombing. In fact, if you don't like bombing, that's half the DLC gone right there. Dogfighting, for me is great over the desert, especially when a ground battle is under way, or at sea, trying to save a convoy from the plentiful and experienced German and classic Italian bombers and torpedo bombers. Bomb Alley, as the passage into Tobruk was well known earns it's name in this sim and joining the Scrap Iron Flotilla (the Aussie destroyers) in getting the fleet into safe harbour is exciting.

Models are beautiful, as always, with many variants and new roles for old birds (torpedoes for He-111's for example), but that's also part of the problem. Variants. If you aren't into the minutiae of variants of established aircraft, you're missing half the toy box. New aircraft are welcome, like the P-40 and tropical variants of the Spitfire and Hurricane are more than welcome, as the desert variant of these fighters were my favourites, but if you are expecting loads of new planes as with "IL-2: Great Battles", forget it..

You also have the Italians, missing the Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 Sparviero (Italian for sparrowhawk) Torpedo bomber that makes me scratch my head. It was the most utilised Italian bomber in theatre, and it's missing. What gives?

Missing also is the lack of a reward system, promotions, and medals that the first "IL-2: Sturmovik" had for its scripted campaigns, and these are all scripted campaigns. You get a half dozen, but they are empty, soulless and in the end pointless with no progression. It's the problem "IL-2: CloD" had but it should have been fixed.

If you're into ground vehicles, then that is the meat and gravy of the The Desert War, where pathetic British tanks such as Stuarts ("Honeys"), Cruisers and Crusaders go up against the German PKZ. III and IV (short barrel) then you'll be scratching your head as to why the British stuck to 2 pounder weapons, fighting against 75 and 88mm German weaponry. Even the vaunted Matilda II, with it's much heavier armour still only had a 2 pounder pea shooter that simply bounced off German armour. Makes for gripping, if painful clashes.

Ultimately the map is well done,very detailed, the ships are beautifully rendered in a bright blue Mediterranean, where a lot of the fighting will take place,and dogfights at dawn and dusk, with desert storms raging below, or clogging your intakes are a sight to behold. Try lcrash landing in one.

With an atrocious and frankly uncalled-for price of A$73.50 you'd be right to think long and hard before laying down your cash on this one and go knocking on "IL-2: Great Battles" door instead, sticking with "IL-2: Clod Blitz" as it is. There's plenty there to play with. You'll get way more value, and long term support but with a caveat. Team Fusion, wrongly have associated the price of this DLC with each new module of "IL-2: Great Battles". Why wrongly? Because the latter is a new product, constantly updating and with great mod support and "Desert Wings" is based on an ageing product which shows.

Hopefully the new 4K TrueSky update will breathe new life into an old dog and this DLC. All we need now is a Pilot Career.

While a big shift in theatres from England and France, and all that's in between, The Desert War is a great theatre for dogfights and particularly bombing. In fact, if you don't like bombing, that's half the DLC gone right there. Dogfighting, for me is great over the desert, especially when a ground battle is under way, or at sea, trying to save a convoy from the plentiful and experienced German and classic Italian bombers and torpedo bombers. Bomb Alley, as the passage into Tobruk was well known earns it's name in this sim and joining the Scrap Iron Flotilla (the Aussie destroyers) in getting the fleet into safe harbour is exciting. Models are beautiful, as always, with many variants and new roles for old birds (torpedoes for He-111's for example), but that's also part of the problem. Variants. If you aren't into the minutiae of variants of established aircraft, you're missing half the toy box. New aircraft are welcome, like the P-40 and tropical variants of the Spitfire and Hurricane are more than welcome, as the desert variant of these fighters were my favourites, but if you are expecting loads of new planes as with "IL-2: Great Battles", forget it.. You also have the Italians, missing the Savoia-Marchetti SM.79 Sparviero (Italian for sparrowhawk) Torpedo bomber that makes me scratch my head. It was the most utilised Italian bomber in theatre, and it's missing. What gives? Missing also is the lack of a reward system, promotions, and medals that the first "IL-2: Sturmovik" had for its scripted campaigns, and these are all scripted campaigns. You get a half dozen, but they are empty, soulless and in the end pointless with no progression. It's the problem "IL-2: CloD" had but it should have been fixed. If you're into ground vehicles, then that is the meat and gravy of the The Desert War, where pathetic British tanks such as Stuarts ("Honeys"), Cruisers and Crusaders go up against the German PKZ. III and IV (short barrel) then you'll be scratching your head as to why the British stuck to 2 pounder weapons, fighting against 75 and 88mm German weaponry. Even the vaunted Matilda II, with it's much heavier armour still only had a 2 pounder pea shooter that simply bounced off German armour. Makes for gripping, if painful clashes. Ultimately the map is well done,very detailed, the ships are beautifully rendered in a bright blue Mediterranean, where a lot of the fighting will take place,and dogfights at dawn and dusk, with desert storms raging below, or clogging your intakes are a sight to behold. Try lcrash landing in one. With an atrocious and frankly uncalled-for price of A$73.50 you'd be right to think long and hard before laying down your cash on this one and go knocking on "IL-2: Great Battles" door instead, sticking with "IL-2: Clod Blitz" as it is. There's plenty there to play with. You'll get way more value, and long term support but with a caveat. Team Fusion, wrongly have associated the price of this DLC with each new module of "IL-2: Great Battles". Why wrongly? Because the latter is a new product, constantly updating and with great mod support and "Desert Wings" is based on an ageing product which shows. Hopefully the new 4K TrueSky update will breathe new life into an old dog and this DLC. All we need now is a Pilot Career.