Hand your controller over to your gran or mum and watch as they tilt their head and shift in their seat as they take a corner in a race or attempt to explore the world in an FPS. Oh, how it makes us laugh! Except Ace Combat makes us do just that - every sharp high-G tilts our heads. See, Ace Combat 6 draws you in. It drags you to the edge of your seat and makes you gnash your teeth at every missed shot or dodged missile.
Although it's often referred to as a flight simulation, Ace Combat 6 is no more a simulation than Top Gun is a documentary about the RAF. Every plane handles differently, but we're fortunate enough that they don't handle and fight like the real thing or else we'd spend a lot of time firing missiles at one another from ten miles away or, more likely, upside down in a field.
Shake that enemy pilot by dropping into a canyon and leading him on a tour of sheer rock faces, zip beneath bridges to scare off pursuers and, should you be feeling especially suicidal, fly through a tunnel carved into the side of a mountain where only the bravest will follow.
Do a barrel roll!
It's a game that tests that kind of bravery throughout. Snap decisions made in the heat of combat will haunt you forever; those few miliseconds you took to line up a crucial missile on the enemy fortress may result in glorious victory or sudden deadly-projectile-related explode-o-death.
It's still an air combat game, of course, and they're never everyone's mug of cocoa, but Ace Combat 6 is the best game of its type in a very long time. Even once you've gotten over the visuals and learned the lay of the land on the game's thirteen missions, every level is still an assault on the senses - attacks coming from all directions; targets to the left, right, above and below; dazzling sunlight and blinding rain. It's almost too much; but if you can stick it, step up to the plate and grab a taste of liberation, you can be our wingman any time.
Comments
17 comments so far...
Railgun_Sniper on 20 Nov '07 said:
Ace Combat has it's haters, but this looks like it could be fun.
Looking forward to it!
FatBoyFonz on 20 Nov '07 said:
Is there online multiplayerness?
RioPapa on 20 Nov '07 said:
This game looks stunning, but I always seem to fly around for ages not really doing anything on these type of games.
Think i'll wait until it's out & here people's opinion.
Dajmin on 20 Nov '07 said:
I've been looking for something different for the 360 recently, and this is sounding pretty good so far.
I'm with Fonz though - I want it with multiplayer!
Sadly, the odds are that if it wasn't mentioned in the review it's not there.
hollywood111 on 20 Nov '07 said:
that was a pretty lame review??, no talk of the online side & you seemed to really like it didnt have any downers & only got an 8?...
dandoc2 on 20 Nov '07 said:
demo was good but being the first decent flying game on the 360 will be great as over g and blazing angels sucked
FatBoyFonz on 20 Nov '07 said:
Although how much fun would it be online since your usually firing missiles from miles away to a nondescript dot in the sky?
Mappman on 20 Nov '07 said:
The demo on XBL was the first time I'd ever played this series and I thought it was really cool. Very satisfying blowing things up with heat-seeking missles from several miles away!
I'll definitely be buying this bad boy!
wudragon on 20 Nov '07 said:
Right on! this is the sorta thing i bought my 360 for. Chocks away chaps, tally ho, rodger and out etc...
deadmartyr on 20 Nov '07 said:
The abundance of missiles attached to your planes has always put me off with the Ace Combat games - I want more focus on dogfighting and reserving my missiles for emergencies. I do like flight games to be arcade-like, but I'd like a bit of tactics as well, and having to re-arm missiles rather than having 50 or so.
MrPirtniw on 20 Nov '07 said:
i thought it said there was a 16 player online multiplayer mode on the back of the box... could be wrong though.
just finished project sylpheed, which is an ok shoot em up, but this looks the absolute mutts nuts. Graphically it looks like footage at times- and no irritating manga children in the cockpit this time! Hurrah!
Anonymous on 20 Nov '07 said:
there is multiplayer dogfighting defo be picking this on friday
Anonymous on 21 Nov '07 said:
The demo of this was pretty damn intense!!!
Seriously one game i was thinking about picking up.
oh 2 points
1) they arent tiny dots in the sky, u can pretty much make out that htey are fighter jets, especially when you see their smoke trails
2) Multiplayer ooooh yeah \m/
pocket1 on 21 Nov '07 said:
It definitely has online multiplayer, and also online coop which is what im looking forward to
nevernow on 22 Nov '07 said:
What exactly is the no stick in Europe thing?
Dajmin on 23 Nov '07 said:
It means we get no officialy supported joystick for the 360. Cause flight sims are obviously better with a stick than a pad.
And yes, the demo advertises multiplayer, so I might look into this too
The_Rookie on 2 Sep '09 said:
I can't really express my love for this game. Having the dream of being a Fighter Pilot since I was like 4 years old, you can imagine how this game got to me. It's simply the most beautiful, fun, exciting, well constructed aircraft game I've ever played, with a plot worth of being a movie.
All I really gotta say is that this was one of the games of my life.