1C Company and 505 Games have confirmed that a single-player demo for the Xbox 360 version of IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds Of Prey will be released via Xbox LIVE Marketplace on July 29th. The game includes the use of satellite photography as STRM database pictures, renowned for their uttermost precision, have been used to recreate the landscapes of war-torn Europe in remarkable detail. Building accurate 1940's environments using the latest in cutting edge satellite technology comes with a set of immediate problems, most obviously the 50 year time gap in buildings, foliage and other features, many of which did not exist at the time of the game's setting and others which are now long gone from the real word and need to be added. To combat this, the development team have collated and pored over hundreds of wartime photos, documents and maps, painstakingly removing unwanted additions and recreating missing landscape features. The Xbox 360 and PS3 version were developed by Gaijin Entertainment, while DiP Interactive handled the Nintendo DS one and Dynamic Systems the PSP version. IL-2 Sturmovik: Birds of Prey will be available on September 4th in the UK and on September 15th in North America.
Update: new details on the handheld versions are now available, as well as screens from both the Nintendo DS and PSP versions.