Tom Clancy seems like he’s associating his name with a variety of games these days, and not just tactical shooters, albeit all of them having a military theme of some sort. The latest offering, HAWX, hopes to take to the skies with the aim of shooting down its nearest rival: Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation.
I must admit that I’ve always had a bit of a soft spot for air combat games. It’s probably because I had delusions of becoming a pilot whilst growing up and spent many pleasant hours flying around stark battlefields in games such as F-15 Strike Eagle [1], and Gunship 2000 [2] – basically I would play anything from Microprose back in the day. I am always keen to see how any air combat game fairs; perhaps with the hope of rekindling a long lost passion.
With HAWX we’re thrust into the world of the PMC (Private Military Contractor) as an ex-USAF pilot now working for Artemis, whom have recently secured a defence contract with Brazil in the year 2021. In this demo you get to play through a couple of missions, although the first of which is really nothing more than an elaborate tutorial to familiarise oneself with the controls whilst practicing some rudimentary air combat against some remote drones. It does however demonstrate the difference between “assistance on” and “assistance off”. The latter apparently gives you more manoeuvrability but forces you to adopt a distant view of your aircraft, rather than a chase or cockpit camera angle - which to be honest you’re either going to love or hate. Personally, this view isn’t for me, and I found it incredibly disorientating. I want to feel like I’m flying a multi-million pound military fighter, not controlling a remote controlled plane I just purchased from Toys R Us. At least it’s an option – so everyone should be happy.
I tried out the demo of Blazing Angels 2 on Wednesday. My impressions of the first game were that it was an average arcade flight-sim. It had some flaws but was something I may consider playing if I was at a very loose end. And I’m inclined to think the same about this game as-well.
The demo lets you play the single player mission “Rain of Death” which sees you flying over Germany on the Zingst Peninsula as part of the Operation Overlord offensive taking out V2 rockets as they launch. Once you’ve taken down enough of the rockets you’re joined by your wingmen and proceed to destroy as many ground targets as possible. Finally you have to protect the incoming naval strike force as they approach the coast. Before the mission starts you can select your aircraft from either the German “GO 229″, “DO 335″ or the Russian “Yak 15″ and as the name suggests this game is about the more advanced fighter technology of WWII. You also have the option of upgrading your aircraft from a number of categories such as “aiming assistance” when spending Prestige points. These points are accumulated from flying missions and can be spent how you see fit.
I found the controls easy enough to handle and you have the option of using either “Arcade” or “Simulation” flight controls. Like the previous game you can order your wingmen to attack targets, defend or perform an ability which are all easily accessed via the D-pad.
From the demo I can’t see that the look of the game has improved much over its predecessor, and I would say it was “functional”. However, with just the one single player mission to try, which was at night and in rain, it probably wasn’t the best envoy to use as a showcase.
This second installment of Blazing Angels appears to offer more of the same but with some improvements, such as the aircraft selection, upgrades and prestige points. If you liked the first game then I’m sure this will be right up your street.
The Ace Combat 6 - Fires of Liberation demo has been around for a few weeks now and I thought I’d give it a go. It’s a fairly small download at 309 MB but the demo still gives you a good dose of gameplay.
The game is a flight sim, but it is only semi-realistic and although the countries and places are fictional the aircraft in the game are based on realistic designs. The demo allows you to sample the first mission from the campaign mode entitled “Invasion of Gracemaria” and as you’re scrambled from your airbase it sees you defending the skies from a hostile invasion. The controls are fairly complex to start with and make use of most buttons on the Xbox 360 controller, but they are not too overbearing and once you’ve had some time with the game you will soon get the hang of it. Additionally the demo provides either “Normal” or “Novice” difficulty levels with novice providing slightly easier flight controls so you don’t have to worry about yaw control.
I found while playing the demo I relied heavily on missiles rather than the aircraft cannon and luckily, as it’s only semi-realistic, you get a healthy supply of ammunition which didn’t come close to running out.
The game runs very smoothly with great graphics overall, and it’s only when you get really low do you find that some of the ground scenery for the city (not objects such as buildings) are just textures. I thought the backing track and sound FX all suited the game and there’s quite a lot of background chatter going on between pilots to add to the atmosphere. However I found I didn’t really hear what was said most of the time as I was concentrating on taking out the next target.
Initially I was disappointed with the camera views on offer as I thought the default chase view was the only one available but after a some experimentation I found that you could change the views between “chase”, “cockpit” or “HUD” via pressing the right joystick control.
Overall I enjoyed this taster of the game and I’ll be keeping an eye on it as the release date approaches later this year.
Project Slypheed is a sci-fi space combat shooter and is now available for your perusal from Xbox Live Marketplace and is just 613MB to download.
The demo allows you to try out the extensive tutorials along with an actual combat mission, in which you have to escort and defend a number of cargo vessels for 15 minutes as they try to reach “Vonnegut Base” Before jumping into combat I’d recommend that you try out the tutorials first as each one introduces you to the nuances of your ships controls from basic handling, weapons, and wingmen to more advanced maneuvers.
You have to read the briefing before you’re allowed to take off and start the main mission, but after this you can research and customise your ships weapony. Once into the mission things quickly hot up as you’re thrust into the defence of the cargo ships with multiple enemy targets including fighters and capital ships to contend with.
I usually like space combat shooters / simulators and initially had high hopes for this game. I enjoyed the tutorials but unfortunately once the main mission started I just couldn’t quite get into it. I think the main reason for this are the engine trails left by friendly and enemy fighters. Once there are multiple enemies on screen at once, all hurtling around you, it all becomes a little too confusing for my tastes. Aesthetically the trails look quite nice, but to me they’re just a visual impairment.
The production values seem to be quite high and there’s a good CG intro movie which hints at elements from the main story. Graphically it’s quite hard to appreciate this game. Although capital ships and backdrops look good, enemy fighters don’t hang around long enough for you to get a good look at them and you’ll spend a lot of time chasing a targetting recticle.
Part of me really wants to like this game, I think I’m longing to play a space combat shooter and I’ll therefore reserve judgement until the final game is released. If you’ve played the demo let me know what you thought.
