I have played alot of BF42, BFV and some BF2. The flying aspect although cool is a pain for me, since I prefer a little more realism. Since the maps are so small I know they had to make concessions for gameplay. In BFV though I do love riding on a slick to the hot zone!
But for flying IL2 is still the best for WW2 sims, hands down!
Hopefully in the next game from Maddox, Storm of War, their will be some action on the ground, players can control. They have been working on another game called World War 2 RTS which is a strategy type game but I think they might of been toying with the fact of having player controlled ground elements in their next flight sim.
I know their are other games such as Aces High and Targetware but they don't make me feel like I am actually flying a ww2 plane as well as IL2 does.
I tried Aces High again a few months back, and it had some cool features but it just seemed like a fancy version of CFS1!
Even after flying IL2 since the demo days (5 years or so) I see things in this sim which still surprise me. One of the first coop missions I made for IL2 was an IL2 bridge strike, at night, in the snow... lets just say it still looks good even after playing some of the newer games such as BF2. As you fly your IL2 down low over the snow, take out a bridge and commence to pounding the convoys; your cannons flash, lighting up the snow, the little dudes run from their vehicles just as you turn their little trucks into a dark spot of the road!