Ace Combat: Assault Horizon

[TeeKup]

Been keenly following this game for a while, its right around the corner and I know I'm buying it, especially after this:
GmsrMUnTBzE

Other trailers:
BNYWO8RrdPE
z7Wcbe3ETMg
r90QAE0mMHE

[Amit]

All that Apache stuff gave me a woody. WAIT IT'S ONLY ON CUNTSOLES :(

[nuttyyayap]

Just as I was about to make the thread...
Anyway, I preordered the limited editon being the fanboy I am, anyone here (aside from teekup obviously) getting it/gonna play multiplayer?

[Pooky]

Kinda interested in getting this for 360. I used to play arcadey flight shooters like Rogue Squadron all the time, I kinda miss that style of gameplay.

[Warsaw]

Y U NO BE IN STRANGEREAL!?

Getting it.

[TeeKup]

Yeah I'll miss Strangereal, but hopefully they'll go back to it in their next one.

BTW Demo is on Live right now.

[nuttyyayap]

Demo's confusing, but really, REALLY fun!

[=sw=warlord]

In B4 Soldlancer.

[TeeKup]

Demo was...awkward because the feel and movement of the aircraft was changed. Then again they did it with AC6 and I got used to it pretty quick.

My complaints still stand with the Cloase-Assault Sytem. It's a neat feature and all but I don't like being so zoomed and focused on a single target, it detracts from my spatial awareness which inhibits my ability to detect threats. Yes they've developed other "quick-time" event counter measures incase an enemy uses the CAS on you, but in other AC's that wouldn't have happened because I would have detected him before he even got in gun range. Also I HATE the extended zoom they put on the "track target" button. It used to not zoom at all or very minimally, now it zooms so much the massive body of my F-22 prevents me from seeing anything at my 12:00. Really obnoxious.


I still have faith for the game, maybe like AC6 I'll just get used to all this. I've never had a real formal dislike about mechanics in the Ace Combat series, I hope this isn't the first to do so.

[Patrickssj6]

In B4 Soldlancer.
I took a real life picture of him
http://img7.imagebanana.com/img/qxmcgvi0/1316197608840.jpg

Game looks really good. Might download the demo.

[Cortexian]

I would only ever dress up as Fluttershy so that's obviously not me!!

Since I don't play games on my consoles (they're just used to stream various bits of media), I will never play this unfortunately. PC release plox.

[TVTyrant]

WHEN IS IT COMING OUT!?!?!?!?!?

I cant fucking wait!

[TeeKup]

I feel unbelievably betrayed and insulted. This game is such a ridiculous convoluted mess of flashy gimmicks and bullshit scripting it's retarded. Namdai turned this into the air version of modern warfare 2. Every single previous ace combat have been well made and well presented games, I just don't understand it. This game is stupidly easy, amazingly tedious. There is no coherent story, the game started with ZERO context from the beginning.

WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED THIS SERIES!!!

[Pooky]

I've been asking myself that about just about every major franchise release in the last few years.

[TeeKup]

The Good

Online play is fun
Lots of explosive audiovisual spectacle
Impressive re-creation of real-world geography.

The Bad

Dogfights require little skill
Chopper missions require little skill
On-rail missions are long and boring
The entire game is all flash, no substance.

In Ace Combat: Assault Horizon, the last action you take is not to participate in a thrilling dogfight, or to victoriously soar through the clouds in an F-14 Tomcat. No. The very last thing you do in this airborne action game is to press a button to pump your fist in the air. No single moment exemplifies the spirit of the new and soulless vision of Ace Combat better than this display of alpha male bravado. Assault Horizon provides heaps of the visual spectacle you'd see in a summer blockbuster--but absolutely no depth. Gone is the devotion to heartfelt storytelling of previous Ace Combat games. Gone are wingmate commands, varied mission objectives, and even (mostly) the fear of crashing into anything. Assault Horizon is about being in your face. Like most visual spectacles, those in this game draw your eye for a short while, and even provide some shallow entertainment. But no matter how loud and bright the explosions get, they can't disguise the obvious: Assault Horizon is so easy and repetitive that it almost plays itself. It is so busy being a movie that it forgets to be a game.

Most missions put you in the cockpit of an aircraft and whisk you to the skies, where fighters and bombers soar through the clouds, waiting for your missiles to strike. Like previous Ace Combat games, Assault Horizon is more of an arcade flight combat game than a simulator. You fly a number of different aircraft, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. But they are similar enough that you feel immediately comfortable regardless of your choice. In the sky, you lock on to enemies and let your missiles fly when they are in range, or speed in close enough to let loose a barrage of machine-gun fire. These are real-world jets, albeit ones that don't need refueling and that carry an unrealistically large amount of ordnance.

Assault Horizon takes the arcade aspects of previous games and distills them even further. Now, you don't even need skill to triumph in the air; when you close in behind an enemy jet, you can tap the shoulder buttons to initiate dogfighting mode. In a dogfight, the camera zooms in, and you automatically follow your target in a minigame in which you must hover your reticle over your foe and fire missiles when it turns red. Dogfights aren't fully on rails, however. You can break out of the dogfight if you need to evade other aircraft, and must maneuver to keep your intended victim within your sights. You can also turn the tables on fighters that engage you in this manner, tapping your bumpers at the right time to circle behind and change your role from victim to executioner.

Dogfighting mode makes a slick first impression. The cinematic camera angles impart a sense of speed and danger as you hurtle through the air at the mercy of your enemy's whims. When your fatal missile hits its mark, the camera might cut away from the action to show the flaming wreckage plummeting downward. It's a flurry of fire and metal that's enjoyable to watch and listen to at first. Sound effects are bombastic, without ever drowning out radio chatter. The blurry ground textures of previous Ace Combat games have been replaced with nicely detailed cities. Most past installments occurred in fictional settings, but Assault Horizon takes place in our own familiar world. Care obviously went into the choice of locations. Dubai, for example, is an effective backdrop because its man-made geography is instantly recognizable from the air.

But games aren't just meant to be seen; they're meant to be played. And Assault Horizon falls quickly into a rut because its entertainment value lies solely in the production elements. The gameplay? Hollow and repetitive. Everything has been reduced to a minigame. Need to win an air superiority mission? Initiate dogfighting mode again and again. Done deal. Have to take out a series of ground targets? Initiate another kind of on-rails sequence that removes any potential challenge. Even landing is a minigame in which you just hover a cursor in the right place. You can sometimes (but not always) avoid dogfighting mode if you want a more traditional flight combat experience, but doing so hammers home how thin the missions are. Previous Ace Combat games had you taking on giant airborne carriers, flying through caverns, and battling in monsoons. Assault Horizon's few attempts to mix things up--an attack on an aircraft carrier, taking down a few bombers--are comparatively trifling.

The Modern Warfare series' influence on the game is painfully obvious. When enemy aircraft explode, oil and blood splatter against your windshield as if the laws of physics and common sense don't apply. That blood is the same raspberry hue you see saturating the screen in Modern Warfare games, though this isn't the only way Assault Horizon tries to rip off that shooter franchise. In between jet flying missions, you might get behind a helicopter's window turret and shoot at bad guys, or paint ground targets from your bomber before bombarding them with missiles. These additional gameplay elements wouldn't seem like a bad way to mix up the action and provide variety, but as delivered, they are exceptionally monotonous. For example, one turret sequence lasts for more than 12 minutes. That doesn't sound like very long, but when you're just mowing stuff down with a gun that requires you to be only slightly accurate with your aiming, it's an eternity.

The Modern Warfare series' influence on the game is painfully obvious. When enemy aircraft explode, oil and blood splatter against your windshield as if the laws of physics and common sense don't apply. That blood is the same raspberry hue you see saturating the screen in Modern Warfare games, though this isn't the only way Assault Horizon tries to rip off that shooter franchise. In between jet flying missions, you might get behind a helicopter's window turret and shoot at bad guys, or paint ground targets from your bomber before bombarding them with missiles. These additional gameplay elements wouldn't seem like a bad way to mix up the action and provide variety, but as delivered, they are exceptionally monotonous. For example, one turret sequence lasts for more than 12 minutes. That doesn't sound like very long, but when you're just mowing stuff down with a gun that requires you to be only slightly accurate with your aiming, it's an eternity.

OMG fire and smoke and whoosh!

Helicopter flight missions owe even more to the first-person shooter genre than do those boring detours. Flying a chopper is much like playing a shooter, except that you can raise and lower your altitude. Otherwise, you might as well be playing an FPS--a very easy FPS. Like with jet combat, fiery visuals and sound suck you in at first. Demolishing multiple ground targets at once with your missiles produces a flourish of flames and chaotic close-ups. It's fun to watch for a bit. But from moment to moment, you do the same thing time and again: position yourself so you have a line of sight, lock on to your target, and shoot. The targeting lock is incredibly sticky, so little skill is required. Just lock and shoot. Lock and shoot. Should a missile come your way, hit your bumpers and perform an evasive barrel roll to avoid it. Evasive maneuvers can be disorienting, given that you might finish one facing a completely different direction than before. But that doesn't hinder the action, which requires very little from you. Lock and shoot. Lock and shoot. Quick-time event. Lock and shoot. Where game flow is concerned, it's as shallow as it comes.

You wouldn't generally look to a flight combat game for a poignant narrative, but the Ace Combat series has a history of interesting stories that give weight to the action. Assault Horizon's opening is promising. One of your first dogfights has you screaming past towers and buildings in an F-22. There's no actual danger of crashing during this dogfight, though it effectively conveys the illusion of narrow escapes from the jaws of death. As it turns out, the battle is a nightmare in which you imagine your own death. Afterward, you meet your fellow pilots and learn of the international alliance to which you belong, as well as the insurgent threat you face. But once the plot is in full swing, nothing happens that you can't see coming, and the dialogue turns to standard airman chatter and mission briefings. A few attempts at emotion are appreciated, but it's hard to care about these characters when almost every line they utter is to move the plot, rather than to develop them as human beings. Compare this to Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation, which explored the effect war had on pilots as well as their loved ones, and voiced multiple points of view--not just that of the "good guys." It allowed itself to ponder. Assault Horizon's story comes down to that final fist-pump: all bluster, no substance.

The game's online component doesn't suffer so much from the campaign's fundamental flaws, though this aspect also looks to modern shooters for inspiration. As you play, you earn points that are used to unlock various enhancements: increased machine-gun firepower, automatic counter-maneuvers, extra rocket capacity, and so forth. Whether or not you have any of these improvements equipped, competitive play is entertaining. Dogfighting mode appears here too, but the unpredictability of human players gives it a little more zing, as does the ability to assist dogfighting teammates with the press of a button. Deathmatch and Domination modes hold few surprises; Capital Conquest mode is where Assault Horizon soars. Teams of up to eight players each attack enemy targets until they can descend upon the opposition's base. It isn't the erratic nature of human opposition that makes this mode so enjoyable; it's the flexibility. Whether you choose a fighter, bomber, or attack helicopter, there's a role for you in battle. If you'd rather cooperate than compete, two others can join you in campaign missions, though the addition of other players does little to freshen the stale battles.

When a beloved series moves in a different direction, it can be simultaneously exciting and terrifying for its fans. Ace Combat: Assault Horizon is a vivid reminder of why players are wary of change. There's nothing wrong with having a flair for the dramatic, and at first, you might find yourself swept up by the theatrics. But in this case, the drama comes at a cost. Assault Horizon has little to say--but it says it loudly, over and over again, hoping to fool you into thinking you're having a blast. The explosions say, "Look how exciting I am!" The overblown soundtrack screams, "Listen to me--I'm epic!" The illusion is effective at first, but it won't be long before you see through the trick. This flight action game looks exciting, but it never backs up its looks with compelling gameplay.

AC:AH Got a 5.5, it's previous installment got an 8.5. AC:5 got an 8.3 and AC:Z got a 7.9.

[TVTyrant]

So... Don't buy it??? Damn I was excited too.

[TeeKup]

Don't waste your money.

I would sooner buy MW3 and buy back MW2 than buyback Assault Horizon. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Making your games more accessible RUINS them. You can TRY and get more money that way, but the game itself will end up as a worthless pile of dirt. Here I was thinking Namco couldn't possibly be that stupid.

[nuttyyayap]

Well maybe they'll do what they did way back when with Electrosphere and change the format back to the original after a failed now concept?
We can only hope...

[TeeKup]

Electrosphere was so good for its time, I swear. I think I'm going to go back and grind through AC:5 and AC:Z.

[nuttyyayap]

Yeah, Electrosphere was awesome.
Just the japanese market didn't like it.
Oh well, the Round Table beckons. Fuck this game.
"Dead mans words hold no meaning."

[TPBlinD]

Been playing this series since the Air Combat on PS1 <3

[Cortexian]

It's okay, Battlefield 3 comes out soon.

It has jets and helicopters and stuff.

[Warsaw]

I guess I'll go back to IL-2...


:ross:

[TVTyrant]

I guess I'll go back to IL-2...


:ross:
What are you, Ross's alt now?

[Warsaw]

No, but Ross and I have always been the ones on here who always get hard-ons for realistic games, and we were both the the top two flight sim junkies on Modacity. He didn't introduce me to IL-2, though. I already had it.

[Amit]

Assault Horizon "Enhanced Edition" launched on Steam (http://store.steampowered.com/app/228400?snr=1_41_4__42) yesterday. It's the first Ace Combat game to ever touch Windows. Definitely gonna need to check this out.

Doesn't look like true Ace Combat, but it's as close to the other games as I'm ever gonna get for PC.

The only "Enhanced" features I can find on the product description is this:


Exclusive for PC : Improved graphics (resolution up to 1900x1200) ; online play up to 16 players and a huge bonus content pack (8 aircraft, 2 maps, 27 skins, 9 skills upgrades).

[Patrickssj6]

No, but Ross and I have always been the ones on here who always get hard-ons for realistic games
v600wVK2yfY

:P

[TeeKup]

Someone tell me if this abomination is any better on the PC.

[nuttyyayap]

Someone tell me if this abomination is any better on the PC.
Nope. I'm up to the mission "Siege", and aside from high res textures and being on PC, it's the same.
"Shit!" "Damn!" "GUTS!"
Forget this game. PC port of Fires of Liberation plox.

[TeeKup]

Ive been asking for a PC port of Fires of Liberation for years. Imagine that game with mods. omg.

[Pooky]

A++ best flight game since Rogue Leader.

[Amit]

Ive been asking for a PC port of Fires of Liberation for years. Imagine that game with mods. omg.

:ross:

[t3h m00kz]

plane porn is a thing by the way

rest easy with that info

[Amit]

plane porn is a thing by the way

rest easy with that info

:mech3:

Why did I come back to this thread?

[TeeKup]

I googled it for the hell of it, because I honestly didn't believe it.

I'm so done with the internet for tonight.

Good day everyone.

[Tnnaas]

Old news. Didn't mookz (maybe it was Tyrant) (my bad) Cagerrin post some for ross?

[Cagerrin]

Yep.

It was me

As someone who's never played an AC game and has no inclination to own a console, is this worth it?

[Cortexian]

It's better than Hawx, if you liked the Hawx style of arcade flying shooting game then try it out.