Rowan's Battle of Britain

Last updated

Rowan's Battle of Britain
Rowan's Battle of Britain Windows Cover Art.jpg
Developer(s) Rowan Software
Publisher(s) Empire Interactive
Platform(s) Windows
Release
  • EU: 8 December 2000
  • NA: 29 January 2001
Genre(s) Combat flight simulator
Mode(s) Single player, Multiplayer

Rowan's Battle of Britain, sometimes known simply as Battle of Britain, [1] [2] is a World War II era combat flight simulation game set during the Battle of Britain in 1940.

Contents

Gameplay

The combat flight simulation has both RAF and opposing Luftwaffe forces featuring over 800 square miles (2,100 km2) of sky and hundreds of aircraft.

Reception

The game received "generally favourable reviews" according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. [3] Samuel Bass of NextGen said of the game, "Detailed, beautiful, and polished to the nth degree, this is the WWII sim we've all been wating for." [1]

Sequels

The game was remade twice, first in 2005 as Battle of Britain II: Wings of Victory by Shockwave Productions, Inc., [12] [13] and again in 2007 as Air Battles: Sky Defender by Wild Hare Entertainment, a modified version of the above game with a more arcade-style gameplay. [14]

Legacy

On end-of-support of the game, the source code of the game was released by Rowan Software under the "Empire Interactive License" in 2001. [15] Following the source code release a group from the game's community [16] took up the support and produced several unofficial patches until 2005. [17] [18]

Related Research Articles

<i>Silent Hunter II</i> 2001 submarine simulator

Silent Hunter II is a 2001 World War II U-boat combat simulation published by Ubi Soft for PCs with Windows 95/98/ME.

<i>Fly!</i> Flight simulator software

Fly! is a flight simulator video game for Windows and Macintosh developed by Terminal Reality and published by Gathering of Developers.

<i>Streets of SimCity</i> 1997 video game

Streets of SimCity is a racing and vehicular combat 3D computer game published by Maxis and Electronic Arts in November 1997. The game features the ability to visit any city created in SimCity 2000, as well as a network mode, allowing for players to play deathmatches with up to seven other players. It is the last Maxis game to be developed and released without supervision by Electronic Arts, which acquired Maxis in the two months leading up to release.

<i>IL-2 Sturmovik</i> (video game) 2001 video game

IL-2 Sturmovik is a 2001 World War II combat flight simulator video game and is the first installment in the IL-2 Sturmovik series. The release focused on the air battles of the Eastern Front. It was named after the Soviet Ilyushin Il-2 ground-attack fighter, which played a prominent role in this theatre and is the single most produced military aircraft design to date. Along with its sequels, IL-2 Sturmovik is considered one of the leading World War II flight simulators.

<i>Red Baron II</i> 1997 video game

Red Baron II is a video game for the PC, developed by Dynamix and published by Sierra On-Line. It is the follow-up to the flight simulation Red Baron, released in 1990. Red Baron II was released in December 1997. A patch was released in 1998 that added support for 3D acceleration and renamed the game to Red Baron 3D. Red Baron 3D was also released as a retail product.

<i>Flight Unlimited II</i> 1997 video game

Flight Unlimited II is a 1997 flight simulator video game developed by Looking Glass Studios and published by Eidos Interactive. The player controls one of five planes in the airspace of the San Francisco Bay Area, which is shared with up to 600 artificially intelligent aircraft directed by real-time air traffic control. The game eschews the aerobatics focus of its predecessor, Flight Unlimited, in favor of general civilian aviation. As such, new physics code and an engine were developed, the former because the programmer of Flight Unlimited's computational fluid dynamics system, Seamus Blackley, had left the company.

<i>Call to Power II</i> 2000 video game

Call to Power II is a PC turn-based strategy game released by Activision as a sequel to Civilization: Call to Power, which itself was named after the Civilization series by Sid Meier; this game could not have "Civilization" in its title because the license to the Civilization name was lost.

Destroyer Command is a naval simulation released by Ubi Soft in 2002 and developed by the now-defunct Ultimation Inc.

<i>Flying Corps</i> 1996 flight simulation software developed by Rowan Software

Flying Corps is a 1997 World War I flight simulator developed by Rowan Software and published by Empire Interactive.

<i>Star Trek: Starfleet Command II: Empires at War</i> 2000 video game

Star Trek Starfleet Command II: Empires at War is the sequel to Star Trek: Starfleet Command and the second in the series of real-time space combat games, developed by Taldren, Inc. and published by Interplay. A stand-alone expansion pack was released in June 2001 titled Starfleet Command: Orion Pirates.

<i>European Air War</i> 1998 video game

European Air War is a combat flight simulator developed and published by MicroProse and published for Microsoft Windows in 1998. It is a sequel to 1942: The Pacific Air War. It simulates the Battle of Britain, and the Allied Air offensives in Western Europe during World War II in 1943–1945.

<i>Star Wars: Starfighter</i> 2001 action video game

Star Wars: Starfighter is a 2001 action video game, developed and published by LucasArts, that takes place right before the Battle of Naboo. The player unites alongside three starfighter pilots and is allowed to take control of several different spacecraft to help stop the invasion that threatens Naboo.

<i>Wings of Power</i> Add-on to Flight Simulator 2004

Wings of Power is a set of two flight simulation video games released as add-ons to Microsoft Flight Simulator 2004. They add vintage historical military aircraft to the game. Wings of Power: WWII Heavy Bombers and Jets was released in 2004, and adds 50 missions with some historical missions from real military pilot logs from World War II. Wings of Power II: WWII Fighters, was released on June 27, 2006. It adds five aircraft: Bf 109, P-51 Mustang, Spitfire, P-47 Thunderbolt, and A6M "Zero".

<i>Battle of Britain II: Wings of Victory</i> 2005 video game

Battle of Britain II: Wings of Victory is a Windows-based World War II combat flight simulator created by Shockwave Productions and released in 2005. It is a remake of Rowan's Battle of Britain. A cut-down version without the campaign was released in 2007, titled Air Battles: Sky Defender.

<i>MiG Alley</i> (video game) 1999 video game

MiG Alley is a combat flight simulation game, developed by Rowan Software for PCs with Windows, and was published by Empire Interactive in 1999.

<i>Janes WWII Fighters</i> 1998 video game

Jane's World War II Fighters is the 1998 combat flight simulation video game. Set in the European theatre of operations during World War II, it is part of the Jane's Combat Simulations franchise. The game was considered a commercial failure, and contributed to the end of the Jane's Combat Simulations line.

<i>SimCity Societies</i> 2007 video game

SimCity Societies is a city-building simulation video game developed by Tilted Mill Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts, and is part of the SimCity series. The gameplay is significantly different from previous SimCity titles, with a greater focus on social development. SimCity Societies was released in 2007, and received mixed reviews, with praise for the game's improved accessibility and visuals, but criticism for being oversimplified and having poor performance.

<i>IL-2 Sturmovik</i> (series) Video game series

IL-2 Sturmovik is a series of World War II combat flight simulation video games originally created in 2001 by Russian video game developer Maddox Games under the brand name 1C:Maddox Games, following its association with 1C Company. Maddox Games left 1C Company in 2011. Since 2012, 1C's new developers are 1C Game Studios and Team Fusion Simulations. Thus, 1C Company currently owns the IL-2 Sturmovik label and runs three different accumulated generations of IL-2 games.

<i>Gunship!</i> 2000 video game

Gunship! is a video game developed by the Hunt Valley studio at MicroProse and published by Hasbro Interactive for Windows in 2000. It's the third game in the Gunship series following Gunship (1986) and Gunship 2000 (1991). Hasbro announced in late 1999 that it would discontinue the development of military simulations. Gunship! was the last game in that genre from MicroProse.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Bass, Samuel (May 2001). "[Rowan's] Battle of Britain". NextGen . Imagine Media. p. 89. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
  2. 1 2 Boys, Ian (30 December 2000). "The Battle of Britain [sic]". Eurogamer . Gamer Network. Archived from the original on 24 January 2001. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
  3. 1 2 "Rowan's Battle of Britain". Metacritic . Fandom. Archived from the original on 14 December 2023. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
  4. Smith, Ted. "Rowan's Battle of Britain - Review". AllGame . All Media Network. Archived from the original on 17 November 2014. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
  5. McElveen, Nick (1 February 2001). "Battle of Britain". Computer Games Strategy Plus . Strategy Plus, Inc. Archived from the original on 25 May 2003. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
  6. Berg, Gordon (April 2001). "Truly Their Finest Hour (Rowan's Battle of Britain Review)" (PDF). Computer Gaming World . No. 201. Ziff Davis. pp. 92–93. Archived (PDF) from the original on 5 April 2023. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
  7. Geryk, Bruce (14 February 2001). "Rowan's Battle of Britain Review [date mislabeled as "May 17, 2006"]". GameSpot . Fandom. Archived from the original on 7 July 2001. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
  8. "Battle of Britain". GameStar (in German). Webedia. January 2001.
  9. Gerbino, Robert (15 February 2001). "Rowan's Battle of Britain Review". GameZone. Archived from the original on 3 March 2009. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
  10. Butts, Steve (20 February 2001). "Rowan's Battle of Britain". IGN . Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on 29 April 2023. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
  11. Klett, Steve (April 2001). "Battle of Britain". PC Gamer . Vol. 8, no. 4. Imagine Media. p. 77. Archived from the original on 15 March 2006. Retrieved 24 March 2021.
  12. Butts, Steve (28 November 2005). "Battle of Britain II: Wings of Victory". IGN. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on 3 December 2005. Retrieved 23 April 2023.
  13. Clare, Oliver (15 October 2005). "Battle of Britain II: Wings of Victory". Eurogamer. Gamer Network. Archived from the original on 28 September 2014. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
  14. Mahood, Andy (June 2007). "Air Battles: Sky Defender". PC Gamer. Vol. 14, no. 6. Future US. p. 57.
  15. Mitchell, Robert (19 November 2001). "The Return of MiG Alley?". CombatSim.com. Archived from the original on 28 November 2023. Retrieved 14 December 2023. Bob Mitchell: What has prompted you to release the source code for MiG Alley and Battle of Britain? Dave Whiteside: Because we are no longer doing flight sims [after Empire took us over at the end of 2001], and we would not be able to publish any patches that were required [no money was allocated to this], rather than let MiG die and all the code sit doing nothing it was considered a good idea, a swan song, if you like, for Rowan [after 13 years in the flight sim market].
  16. "Rowans's [sic] BoB and the BDG". BoB II Resources. Archived from the original on 28 August 2008. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
  17. 02.1.2005: BoB Version 0.99 available ! on bob-ma.org/
  18. BOB-MA Developer Group - Patch for Rowan's Battle of Britain to the BDG version 0.98. on netwings.org