Rock, Paper, Shotgun

Take On Helicopters is going to getting some big fat Russian helicopters in its first DLC. Like this: “Highly detailed models of the Mi-24 V, Mi-24 P and Mi-35 Super Hind helicopters across a range of over 25 different liveries.” That is some Cold War helicopter sex, right there. It’s also going move away from the commercial helcopterings of the base game, and allow you get back to Bohemia’s more traditionally shooty territories. They explain: “after launching the game, we felt there was room to complement Take On Helicopters with a more ‘action-packed’ experience. Our Hinds DLC is perfect for those who are seeking the adrenaline rush of flying a classic military gunship and getting into combat.” It’s coming out on the 15th of March and it’ll cost €12.99. There’s some kind of crazy bundle order deal, too, which you can read about over here.

What? What? It can’t really be just me who thinks of A-ha’s finest hour whenever Bohemia’s Take On Helicopters is mentioned, can it? Hmmph. Perhaps I can break the association by writing about the chopper sim’s new demo, which is out now. At 3.6GB it’s faintly monstrous, but the contents sound highly generous. You should take it on, take it on. It’ll be gone, in a day or twooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.

(It won’t be gone in a day or two). Full contents and moving images below.
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Take On Helicopters, Bohemia Entertainment’s civilian helicopter sim, has landed. Or taken off. Or remains hovering, terrifying, in the air, threatening to remove fingers from waving hands. Our lovely Tim was quite taken with it and now you can be too. It’s on Steam for $49.99 or £31.99 and is also available on a whole crate-load of international distributors. Tim recommended it for anyone with even a passing interest in flight sims, so fire up those rotors and watch out for crosswinds. The release trailer’s fuelling up after the jump, and features footage of some thrilling low-altitude flights through the tree line.

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Take On Helicopters Pre-Order Beta access thing is now live. The full game of commercial hovering is released on the 27th, but you can get it now if you are so inclined. For some insight into what the simulator contains you can read Mr Stone’s take on the thing, where he says: “Even if the campaign turns out to be a bug-spattered nightmare, I’ll still be recommending ToH to anyone with even a passing interest in simulated flight.”

Gosh.

If there is something I’d really like to be simulated, it would be a giant digging machine that could bore through to the deepest parts of the Earth and then shoot upward, bursting out of the ground and eating the entire Eiffel tower in its spinning jaws. One day that will be simulated. But not today. Today we wait for Take On Helicopters, a simulation of one of the helicopters that will no doubt buzz around the giant Earth drill-ship like flies, perhaps bravely allowing the heroes of the movie to leap onto the armoured drill deck and fight their way inside, before finally duelling the evil and insane drill-ship controller on the bridge, as a nuclear bomb’s timer ticks down to zero. Amazing stuff.

The Take On Helicopters trailer, which features impossibly handsome helicopters, some knees, and more dials than I know how to look at (but zero colossal rock-boring mole-craft) is below.
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Op Archers? Owners of Operation Arrowhead, anyway. If you are one of those people – as you should be if you like soldier simming – then you are entitled to a preview version of Take On Helicopters, the forthcoming commercial chopper game from Bohemia Interactive. It looks like this is a sort of add-on for Operation Arrowhead which demonstrates the new flight model and pilot animation using a “light chopper” (pictured). Perfect if you were wondering how you were going to be able to get through another weekend without some simulated hovering.

Earlier in the week I managed to have a chat with Bohemia boss Marek Spanel and one of the games he talked about was this: Take On Helicopters. It’s a civilian helicopter sim set at first in Seattle, and then on a more global stage. The game uses the Arma 3 engine, and a fresh take on the dev’s helicopter handling and controls. It will be an in-depth sim, but should be a little more accessible than you might expect, too. It’s about commercial competition, and managing a helicopter firm in tough times. For a game that features limited explosions or man-shootings, it’s looking fairly interesting.

My interview with Marek – which discusses this, Carrier Command, and Arma 3, will appear on Monday. You can check out the Take On Helicopters E3 teaser – which inevitably just features shots of a helicopter – below.
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