Take On Helicopters
 

Helicopter sim based on the Bohemia's ArmA engine, with what looks to be a beautiful Seattle terrain. Currently in pre-order beta stage.

http://takeonthegame.com/

Anyone have a chance to try this? Impressions so far?

Weren't some of it's features released in a recent AA2 patch as a sort of taster? I don't have the game installed just now so I can't confirm.

There's sort of a demo that plugs into Operation Arrowhead as a mod. Had a go at it a bit, proper chopper sim. Think they've since updated it, more working switches and the like. :hmmm:

All that's missing is a real damage-model, it shares what is in Arma at the moment (it just morphs into a charred wreck upon damage). Surely that will be different in the release. :yep:

Little preview: Larkin About: Take On Helicopters Test Flown

Quite looking forward to this. Bit apprehensive about Bohemia's track record for broken releases, but with the familiar engine there's no doubt that even with a problematic launch it will be sorted soon enough. Not to mention it can grow into so much more than what it is at release.

I liked this bit -

:har:

Edit, the on ITV bit should be scored through but subsim doesn't have that!

Was on the fence, but don't see any "it's broken!!11!" threads yet... so I'm pulling the release version down at the moment. 14.62GB for the installer... sacrifices will have to be made on the games drive. :hmmm:

oh the irony
 

I can:

• Effectively pilot a Ka-50 under combat conditions.
• Effectively pilot a A-10C under combat conditions
• Fly a commercial Boeing, Airbus or Learjet anywhere and deliver my passengers safely and comfortably.

I can not:

• Hover this thing:

http://i268.photobucket.com/albums/j...0-29_00001.jpg

I'd say they got it right: feels like flying the Ka-50 in DCS with the AP channels turned off. Actually, it's a heck of a lot more difficult. Maybe a tad over-modeled, certainly not something dumbed down (assuming you set it to advanced mode).

Thank god there's auto-hover available no matter what you set the difficulty to. :D

By stomach feeling, that makes sense. It is much lighter in weight and more agile, so to be nervous and sensitive to control, I would expect.

Very. Really makes you appreciate the Ka-50 for being so easy to fly.

Right, so completed the career thingy. There's 10 career missions total, 3 "back-story" ones where you pilot a military version as your brother, and a hand-full of government/civil contracts. Seems that some of those are actually randomized, so they are different each time they are played (think of emergency services missions, hauling cargo as a sling-load, stuff like that).

All in all, I came away feeling it is rather light. For example, you can buy more helicopters but over the missions I played I didn't earn enough to actually do so, apart from a training version of the light helo. You start with a light helicopter and pretty early on a heavy is added to the collection, but a medium has to be bought. Little weird that on an average play-though it remains out of reach.

Also, you can buy additional parts, such as a winch, camera dome and FLIR pod, but not all of those parts actually have a use. The benches and FLIR for the light for example aren't required for any missions I've seen, though it's possible there are still a few variations to unlock. (after the career missions are done, you are dropped back to the heliport, so you can continue flying)

The business management aspect is pretty much non-existent: after each flight, when you get back to the heliport, it seems to randomly assign something that needs maintenance for a helicopter occasionally. You can then do a walk-around inspecting the components to identify the problem and lower the cost. It's possible to inspect any helicopter when you're at the heliport, but it is not required to figure out if something needs attention (interface thingy pops up when you approach a helo, telling you either that it's fine or that there's an unknown problem. You can figure it out by going to the heliport menu as well: if there's a cost listed under "maintenance", something is broken). There are no running costs that I've noticed.

The physics are... alright. There are some inaccuracies, best explained here: http://forums.bistudio.com/showthread.php?t=126712. Basically some torque effects seem to induce a roll rather than yaw, and the ground effect is exaggerated. Once you enter it, the helo starts bobbing up and down, making take-offs and landings rather awkward. And especially the medium helo rolls very aggressively; getting control of a mission mid-flight (happens a few times at first) has you fighting for control more than it should, until you can trim it out.



I'd say it's a nice helo sim that's a little light at the moment. $30,- would have been a better price, as the physics/flight-models need some polish and some more content would be in order.

Thankfully though, this is BI: I'm sure there will be support for the title, and the existing Arma community gives it a good chance of receiving all kinds of add-ons. I feel this one will become more valuable over time, as more polish is added with patches and more content becomes available, likely both payed and free.

From the description of the what came with the initial release it sounded a bit light, but like you say - the BIS community will come up with the extras. It's one that I'll buy, but not at full price - currently £31.99 on Steam - never seen anything with that price before!!! :-?

Steam now has it as a demo, less than 5 Gigs. Downloaded but not played yet. :up:

i tried this game and i think its really awesome.those who dont like this game i say just wait for the take on helicopters hinds addon to be released on 15 march .There will be good action with Mi-24 hind series helicopters.Who can say no to hind helicopters :DL

The Hinds DLC is released:
http://takeonthegame.com/hinds/

http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__...Snake_face.jpg
A Hind D? Colonel, what’s a Russian gunship doing here?