NEW DCS Kola Map: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly & FIRST IMPRESSIONS! 

Hey guys! I hope this video helps you guys figure out if this map is for you and its worth your hard earned dollars! (Or Pounds, Rubles, Euros or Canadian Rubles, etc)! **Correction, I said Ugra Media developed Sinai Map When in Reality it was OnReTech**

Still waiting for Vietnam

Kind of over the early access model. Gonna start buying modules when they are complete and on sale.

Ah, my youth on F19 Stealth Fighter, Commodore 64, it lives again!

Im at least glad we get a map that is finally green. I'm so tired of the same-same dirt maps, we already have had enough of them for a few years now. Maps like this, of east Europe, Vietnam, Korea, and Alaska are some of the the more variety we need now

No coniferous trees? The map seems to me to be on the same graphic level as an x years old Caucasus. The textures of the ground cannot be compared to a map of the South Atlantic... The whole map looks plastic and unbelievable to me. I don't need precision but I need to believe that I'm flying over real ground, not a mesh of terrain.

Orbx has a great rep for making maps... but honestly this doesn't look like anything to get excited over. I was expecting to be blown away, and this doesn't look substantially better than Caucasus. It looks like it's years away from completion.

50 euros is stip for a map, especially without any new asset

One thing I did notice that isn't mentioned anywhere is that the asphalt could use a bit more texture. In real life, that piece of Road 4, where the base is located, has cracks along the right and left, and the roads are rough from the snowplow. The same goes for the taxiways at Rovaniemi, but the runways have really nice textures already. However, this is nitpicking and should not be a priority on the development road map.

A video that’s not an hour and a half?! Now this is the content I like 😂

As one that has been with Orbx since the FS9/FSX/P3D days, I can tell you that this Kola map is not on par with the high standard of the PNW region in FSX/P3D, and that was $100 15 years ago and it was worth it. This however is not worth the $52 they are asking.

I find it a bit strange that they haven't included the Swedish Airforce base in Luleå (F 21), even though it is located within the maps boundaries. It's the main Swedish airforce base in the area, Kiruna and Vidsel are more like auxiliary bases to F 21. 🤔

Buying it, but for the first time feeling like I shouldn’t.

Really solid interview! Showed some cool locations I haven't seen in any others yet and was very fair and honest regarding the drawbacks. Definitely excited to pick it up sometime in the future and reminisce over Red Storm Rising.

As always, amazing video Spud!

I was soooo excited for this map and would have bought it day 1. But the fact that - even after weeks - I still don't know if or when the F-15E will be finished, makes me not want to buy anything in early access anymore. Sorry, OrbX, i know it is not your fault.

I'm anxious to see how they continue to populate the map. The massive expanse of flat nothing that is the center just feels like mindless void for now. However, I'm super excited to see servers implement more targets and strike missions amongst the mountains. Don't get that enough on Caucasus.

What a beautiful map! And great review, thx!

Are the trees indestructible? Is that one man pad going to be able to kill every because he is hidden by a tree you can't shoot through?

Great review. Thanks. 🙌🏻

I'm still Undecided on this one. Maybe on sale.

I'm gonna fly low in the Viggen! :)

Great content, noticed the bland tarmac and similar qualities to the South Atlantic map, but think this map has far more potential. Thanks for the quality DCS content and 'Keep Flying' (even upside down}.

Thanks for the review Spudknocker. Soon I’m going to need a bigger SSD for DCS with all the new content that is coming out.

Thanks Spud. I love it and will go for it.

Looks pretty damn good to me, already.

I bought South Atlantic with it first came out. Empty but i loved flying around while a carrier fleet cruised in bay. Bought Sinai immediately. One of the best vr experiences flying in the black hawk at sunset with the pilot door open with the silhouette of the pyramids in the background. Sometimes, these things are worth it to enjoy the art. But, i don't see the appeal of this map

Super vidéo 👍 Thanks and good Weekend

i am looking forward to fly around in Lofoten! I grew up there :D

I am from the north of Norway, so bought it just for that. Will see if I recognize my home town. EDIT: Found it and it resembles quite well, especially the airport. Great stuff. EDIT 2: it is Lakselv (BNK)

Hope they add Southern Norway and the baltic area soon as well.

Thanks mate but dont worry about just WW3. Numerous airstrikes against German shipping took place inside the Norwegian Fjords meaning some fabulous terrain for challenging anti ship and A2A in ww2 aircraft.

That is beautiful!

To support Orbx I bought... GB North for XP12 :-).

Good fair and balanced opinions, thanks for sharing!

It’s not finished, I’m not bothering with DCS early access anymore until I see proper reviews. I was stupid and assumed that winter would be included as default due to the location, but what do I know 😢…

Hey nice videos as always. I tried your graphic settings video and it looks so good now. It runs constantly on 70fps with really good settings. But sometimes when i change the perspective from cockpit to outside, i get extremely framedrops. Also it runs more stable in cockpit than in external view. Do you know wich setting i could put down to maybe help the problem?

Great video, thanks for posting! It looks good already, not Sinai good in terms of detail (that one is amazing) but good. I love the area as a Swede but also due to the fact that one can play out everything from WW2 to WW3 here.

Cool, that map will remind me of the old country, Southeast Alaska

Falklands with a different name...but no assets, I know it's early access but I feel a bit disappointed tbh, but time will tell I guess, probably still be in ea in 5 years.

I have a few hours on this map so far and i really enjoy it.

You don’t like long flights. You like long stories before the flight. Plus they are great stories. I just sat down to start creating a template for Kola. I about fell out of my chair when I saw all the submarine’s already in place. Now just got to take screenshots from google earth and start placing static planes at some of the airbases.

This map is cheap for such a huge terrain. Also, it will improve over time. The possibilities for WW3 scenarios are huge and it's much more fun to fly over than just another desert.

I would say thats a fair assessment of the map. It really reminds me of when the SA map was first released, kinda rough. It’ll get better though so I’m happy with my purchase.

Did you play on the Ed MT version and if so, any FPS stuttering? Great video

If I didn't know what he was talking about I wouldn't have had the slightest chance of recognising that pronunciation of Bodø xD Jokes aside, really hyped for this map although the south-west of Norway is way better looking than the north (though the north obviously makes more sense in a combat sim).

I’m willing to give them a chance. I’ve being playing on this map with Micro-prose F-19 Stealth Fighter, and later Jane’s F/A-18 Hornet for years. It may take time to get the map polished up but it will be worth the wait for me. I would love to try and recreate the campaign from Jane’s in DCS!

Amazing video and nice commentary, learnt some history! I am a MSFS simmer and dont know much about DCS, it looks fantastic. I am not into online multiplayer and wanted to ask - can this game be played solo? Me vs. the AI enemy? Thanks!

Are the buildings destructible? What are low flying textures like, does it look good in my KA-50

Curious as to what date/time & weather settings you were using?

One interesting fact is that it’s never get dark here during the summer or hardly any daylight during winter. Otherwise fuel management will be important since it is long distances here.

Thanks for the preview, excellent and honest as usual. I'm on the fence with this. Been to Norway for winter exercises, Bardufos and then up into the artic circle...C O L D... The coldest 3 months possible, but many incidents that I'll never be able to do again. SO, is this a map that is going to expand and be the scene of WW2, (Sink the Tirpitz) , Convoy PQ-17, are we all joining the RNoAF and finally getting the Viggen experience of a lifetime. £43 is chunk out of the pension, and Afghanistan is coming....not off the coast of Norway, but it is coming. Might wait until a Sale later and enjoy more aircraft modules in between....must see what the pension rise is at the end of the month and of course will it be finished in my lifetime.....I don't actually worry about that, can't afford to. lol

Looks very good. Alas, my computer can't run DCS anymore.

It’s a great map, loads of potential!

Reminds me of EF 2000 V2.0

Great video Spud! Being a Swede myself, I'm pretty excited for this map to get fully released.

I thought their would be more impressive ground texures for a new scenery even for Early Access. I would have thought it would have been on par or better than Caucasus map which is pretty old now. I wish someone would explain why we even need Early Access. I look at what happen last month with Razbam, KSP 2 and Heatblur F-4 and I think it's time to stop with Early Access, and Pre Orders because the risk is two great for the customer and timelines are way to long to complete.

updated Caucasus map, without roads that ends in the middle of nowhere. Added dirt roads both in forests and in mountains. Su 25UB and Mi28 modules. Caucasus is a region where live tens of nations and each of them has its own culture and language........

Early Access is always a gamble for any developer. 1, they get very useful feedback but 2, it can be at the cost of early bad reviews that might stick around even for the finished version, damaging future sales. Let's hope Orbx use the feedback (positive ans negative) to prioritise resources for an awesome final version.

I love it.

would love to see latin america map yes Cuba jamaica dom rep puerto rico .. venezuela cura cao and so on

I'd have it now if I could use my miles to get it

You want to play WW3 Spud? Just wait a few weeks and you can play it without a computer! The "Game Over" will be sudden and without warning!

Looks like the map I've been waiting for, but I'm going to wait even longer for this to be finalized before I purchase. Not going to pay for a beta

It makes me so sad that the south Atlantic map is getting rolled over between this and all the drama. I love the sa map and i think it's very interesting.

i´m so happy there is a soviet map in DCS and i´ll buy it thats for shure. but not now because i wait for the F4 Phantom. The Phantom has higher Priorety for me.

How is it running, performance-wise? Is it a heavy, cpu demanding map, like the Marianas or Syria? Or is it a more optimised (as best as possible) and not so much of an fps killer, like the Persian Gulf?

Finally the Viggen got a decent map to shine. By the way, has anyone tried it on Combined Arms ?

I never buy in early access after the Razbam debacle but when its finish i will look at it

I like it 🎉🎉

According to some dude on discord you cant even put the Kuznetzov in its own IRL mooring cause they modeled it too shallow. That is not an EA lets fix it later, thats a general geometry issue that shouldnt be there from the start. Ppl pay a AAA game price for this ? No thank you.

Very interesting quick review on this new map. It greatly helps me to decide to buy it or not. And the decision is NOT to buy it. At least now. For several reasons. The main and first one is : not enough airports. And even with all 24 airports, the distances are quite too big. I do not want to be an airliner flying 300 NM to the AO and again 300 NM back to the base. And except during WWII, this area did not have any conflict. So, campaigns and missions would only be "if...". I do not pronounce me about the quality of the map. ORBX is a reference in FS since FSX and sure it will be updated, upgraded and optimized, unlike RAZBAM.

Thanks for doing the Red Cross work here. Caucasus, PG, Sinai and Syria have the expanse necessary for large operations. KOLA, meh.

I Like the Green map ❤

01:44 They need to update the Caucasus map at some point too.

Welcome to Sweden ✌️😎

* Sinai is by OnReTech

Thanks Spunkknocker...............................

@Spudknocker. Ok, I'm curious. Being from the Caribbean myself, what desert island are you talking about?

They should make one world map like microsoft simulator

I really like it.. But will there be any servers with any sort of population on them? I doubt it unfortunately.

How about performance?

Everybody wants a "Vietnam" map. Kola is slowly getting there. Huge map, very long distances, sparse air bases, and trees....

early access is good enough

where did you get the 80s music?

Once Baltic Dragon and Requiem release their F16 and F/A18 campaigns I will get it. Not before that.

I guess HypOps woluld have to redo his entire future video.

Really a beautiful map but I can’t decide to buy Kola map or a new aircraft (chinook or kiowa)I can only pick one😢

it has potential but i was a little disappointed with the "flat" map style.I have not flied over the east side as yet so could be better If you can look past the low detail but this will be a great dogfighting playground as you say. I dont think its my just better than ok pc specs as other maps currently POP but i will play with some settings

Seriously! This is far from par with what we should expect from a 2024 map. Falcon BMS 4.38 will set the standard…so wait for it! 💪🏼

I don’t wanna buy a map that has issues now, and hope it will get better. This isn’t an investing simulator, it’s dcs. I want to buy a finished product, or at least something that doesn’t have glaring issues.

I wish I could sell all my DCS stuff!

ED rushed OrbX. That's what happened. Then you get a very early release like this. But I know they are working hard on it.

Spud, I really respect your decision to respectfully decline their offer. Although the obligatory, "....I was provided the map...the module..... I was not pressured, demanded or any contigencies placed on me by "Whoever" developer to review the product in any manner OTHER than my objective opinions about the product..."...Although there is NOTHING WRONG with accepting and more importantly testing and providing feedback. Human nature immediately flips the bias and prejudice switch in human's circuit board whether it's realized or not. I doubt someone who becomes established or highprofile enough in DCS and is recognized and contacted does immediately instill a sense of gratitude and appreciation. Regardless how objective someone is attempting to be there are likely few people that are able to not be impacted or influenced....the person doesn't want to burn any bridges and have appreciation directed at them as being a one and done situation Yet, the most difficult seperation to make is when you are communicating with the developer during testing a relationship is established whether they realize it or not...unless you are an old grumpy man like I am with zero hesitiation to praise and to be critical, constructively and respectfully of course....the tendency to not dig too deep into the realties can lead to a less than objective review. I understand MSFS2020 and ED's foundations are night and day. HOWEVER, Orbyx did something I am not aware of them ever doing before with X-Plane or MSFS2020....and with the pending release of MSFS2024 that is being touted as making another significant leap in their products does highlight the reality that ED's decision to maintain and stick with their decade old system absolutely hinders 3rd party developers such as ORBYX (they stated it did), and likely did with HEATBLUR as well. IMO, there is writing on the wall with MSFS2024 team beginning to build relationships with 3rd party developers that were exclsuive to ED...the inclusion of more military aircraft from the jet age....one doesn't have to large leap to envision MSFS2024 team or a division already working on or considering entering airspace that has been and to this day remains exclsuive to ED without a single competitor. Regardless if MSFS2024 system, foundation is different there is zero denying it is somewhat modular allowing 3rd party developers to push their skills and technologies to the limit in MSFS2020 and MSFS2024 but the same 3rd party developers must throttle back and take the time and resources for them to create and release a product that will not reflect badly on them due to the limitations of the flight sim their product is being integrated with. I realize the flight modeling and all the whistles and bells with the most obvious the weapons systems muted in MSFS2020...if anyone believes these military aircraft are being introduced into MSFS for people to buzz realtime migrations of Wildebeast on the Serengetti in a F-14 IMO are not seeing what I am seeing. Due to this reason, I am surprised at ED managments decision to continue to remain steadfast with their current foundation...seemingly having covered every square nano-meter and squeezing everything out of their tried and true engine that they can. However, what concerns me is the rapidly if not acceleratiion occurring in technologies that are being utilized by gaming and simulator companies...What will the technlogy and possibilities be 5 years from now...More importantly for all of us that have invested resources into DCS how wide will that divide reach. The old adage or excuse I read so often is they are 2 different sims, targeting different flight simmers and for different purposes. While that is true my only rebuttal to that is which one of the 2 has the foundation now to encroach into the others airspace if they chose? We know that answer. As an old new player having accumulated less than 4 hours in DCS although I purchased numerous modules, maps and campaigns beginning before I had a PC to run DCS...I often think of the approach I've been forced to take in business and decisions as the CEO...and several years ago perhaps further back the developer of X-Plane learned of the behemoth working towards a revolutionary and innovative approach, new technologies, etc with at the time the upcoming MSFS2020....He recognized his core engine would render him obsolete and be a non-factor, crushed by MSFS2020...so he took his lumps for 1.5-2 years (if it was that long) to do what he had to do...put a new engine into his old bird to keep her flying an viable.... While this may never be an issue for ED that is being based on the very dangerous and naive fact that MSFS2024 or a subsidary or another start-up, a former developer, etc that is able to use their expertise to create a legitimate competitor to DCS....that day will come at some point...My concern is how large will the divide be...how many 3rd party developers produce products with the latest tehnology for MSFS team and ED second...Perhaps ED will, has been or is currently working on the new "engine" so many talk about.... WAGS message made it clear they were focusing on obtaining new players to DCS....why was that pivot made now...My guess there is information known that is not available to the public due to NDA's and CA's...but from my perspective it seems ED is anticipating an encroachment into their airspace that goes beyond potentially poaching some 3rd party devs... ps. I do not own and have never flown MSFS2020 sim...My understanding is the MSFS2024 release will have dynamic, real time options including animal migrations, seasons, things like the Northern Lights, real-time flight tracking of civilian and military aircraft that provide transponders to be picked up (obviously not during combat or military ops) in addition to live ATC embedded...all of these things while being less taxing on a persons PC components, RAM, VRAM and storage...it will be those things that will seperate the haves from the have nots IF another entity decides to enter the air combat space... For now, I just wish there were embedded generic start-up bindings preset in DCS...which for me has been the most frustrating barrier Ive encountered. I'm open to discuss and surprisingly can remain objective if ED feels the need to reach out to a new player with real life flying experience.... I'm pulling for ED...and am pleased Orbyx decided to undertake this project although they were limited or throttled in the process...

i bought the sinai map when it released, it looks great but no server ever really runs it. And I have the feeling it will be the same with this one. so I don't really see the point in spending so much money, if we are fairly gonna see it used. i would rather wait for Afghanistan. Sure its an other desert map but it actually saw combat and there is a bunch of history there. Wich is something that draws people in. Kinda missing that on this map

Bought it, spent a few hours flying around. Textures are disappointing but the worst thing is the performance in VR. Its worse than Syria, more akin to the Marianas. But... it's EA so I hope it improves and its a fantastic location brining memories of F19 by Micropose!

Does this map run performance wise like Syria?

It's nice to finally do some flying in my own country. Just wish they included the whole map of Norway 😞

VR performance compared to other maps?

Fun fact that no one asked for: Kola (Cola) means "ass" in Mexican Spanish xD