I just want to say that I've never played an Ace Combat game before but one of my friends absolutely loves the series.

The reason why I'm posting because I seen one of my friends at work pick up the controller bundle at EB Games and I have to admit it looks pretty sick. You know its kind of peeked my interest into actually playing one of the games.

Its not really my style of game anyway, but you never know I might enjoy it. It seems like like a lot of the GFF members are big fans of this game series and I thought I should really give it a chance. One of my friends sent me tracks from Ace Combat 4 & 5 and the music from this game actually sounds pretty good.

So what ace combat games would you recommend for a beginner, I'll probably rent it first, just to get my feet wet and see if I like it. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

Ace Combat 2 - Yes, it's a PSX game, doesn't matter. Pick it up, and enjoy it's definitely one of the best entries in the series. The world in which the rest of the games is established here, with this struggle being a coup on the Usean continent (IIRC, same one where AC4 takes place)


Ace Combat 4 - The way the story's told (slideshow + narration) in this one simply puts a smile on your face. The chatter is a nice addition (especially during that one escort mission), though 5 suffers from too much of it. The music is still awesome, it doesn't let you down there.


Ace Combat Zero - Yeah, yeah you should probably play 5 first, even though this takes place way before that game. Your wingman is actually aggressive and rather smart ( uses special weapons correctly and often). Live action story segments with the former aces might not be your thing, but it's the ACES team switching things up again.

tl;dr - Have fun. Even the ones I excluded are a blast, these are just the ones I think you should definitely check out.

Being able to pull off an Itano Circus/Macross Missile Massacre is always cool (but Project Sylpheed is the current champ in this department). The gauss guns are somewhat plausible, being offshoots from Stonehenge/Chandeleir developemt; unlike DEWs, you have to lead them on target.

Amen to that. How many times have you wished you could do this during something like, oh I don't know, Whiskey Corridor...?

The term you're looking for, I think, is boresight mode; and yes, it was quite handy. With L3 now being used for landing gear control, maybe they could have used 'double-tap Y' (in the same context as double-clicking a mouse) to toggle boresight mode.

Also, on a very irrelevant side note here, I love the steady progression of actual character they've given the AWACS planes since 5. Ghost Eye is definitely my favorite so far, at least out of Thunderhead from 5, Eagle Eye from Zero, and now him. I'd include Sky Eye from 4, but aside from the birthday quote, he really didn't say a whole lot.

Whoever voiced him did a damn good job as far as line delivery and quality is concerned, especially in Mission 1 when he's trying to convince all the pilots to abandon Gracemaria.

So yeah. Massive <3 for Ghost Eye.

It's called handicap at weapon level 1, those kids are bitching about how their F-22s dont work against my F-16 anymore.

I thought there wasn't any Voicechat online, or is there?

They hit you up on their "recently played" list and send you little nasties. Man I hate immature welps.

Oh there is. It can be set to either Team or Open Com, I believe.

Also there's an open lobby pre-game. We really need to get a GFF game going next weekend or at the next available opportunity.

Ace Combat 6. A few thoughts.

Overall, extremely good, although I would still rank it lower than any of the previous games. With a stronger story, more diverse missions, and better soundtrack, it could have been the best. I'm hoping some of the newer elements, especially allied support, will be incorporated into future games.

Complaints:

1. Weak story. Unmemorable, boring characters. Noticeably bad voice acting with extremely irritating and repetitive dialogue. The theme of "dance with the angels" became worn out and overused within the first few missions, making the player want to skip cutscenes altogether.

2. Cumbersome lock-on system, making target tracking and selection a chore to cycle through. Slightly dumbed down flight controls.

3. Incohesive mission structure. No memorable dogfight engagements, at least not in the traditional sense. Too many ground based attack missions with similar design.

4. Soundtrack is a bit too soft. No standout choral tracks or much needed militaristic bombast. Ironically, the main theme of the game is one of the best ever written.

5. Weak and uninspired superweapons. Game is far too easy, even on hard.


Postives:

1. Classic Ace Combat formula. Immediate success.

2. Beautiful graphics. Utterly impossible to render planes more realistically. Ground based graphics are sharper and more believable. Awesome, if somewhat overdone, particle and HDR effects.

2. Ability to command allied forces adds an entirely new element of combat. Players feel truly connected with their fellow pilots, groundmen, and infantry support. Battles are engaged simultaneously, at land, sea, and air, presenting a never-before-seen theater of warefare. Macro display of war feels exhilarating, giving the player a sense of being a small part of a larger conflict.

3. Technical problems aside, AC6 boasts a successful online mode. While enjoyable, I still view this portion of the game as more of a novelty. Not quite ready for full scale dogfights. Lack of experienced AC veterans also waters down the experience. Overall, well implemented first attempt, though.


Overall: 9.7/10

Finally finished the game, and boy was mission 13 a pain the ass, mission 15 was close there too. Thumbs up to the Allied Assault system, awesome how their support actually gave results (loved the part in Mission 12 where they all come to support you at the end). I agree with Zeal about the targeting system, it was annoying trying to get the target you want, especially during the last mission. The toggling system they got going for the map/radar I wasn't too fond of either, it was kinda annoying too. It would have been nice if they had kept it where you held to the button to zoom out. The soundtrack was pretty good, but could have been better especially the last mission's choral track (wasn't as epic as the previous games), the credits piece was probably the best IMO.

Oh and anyone else notice how the lip-sync, mouth-movements were a little off? Seems like they actually modelled them to suit the Japanese VAs this time.

I LOVE HATE how broken the CFA-44 makes multiplayer.

That damn EML cannon is fucking hilarious. Pretty much the antithesis of the XLAA using faggots, but it feels so CHEAP. Rip off two shots, down an asshole. No talent required. While funny, completely god damn BUSTED too.

Should not be an option in multi, regardless.

Yeah, superplane should be removed from multiplayer altogether.

It also breaks the hell out of campaign. Ace difficulty with that plane is easier than normal using regular planes. I burned through Ace in under two and a half hours with it, with an S rank in at least 11 missions. I will use it again to burn through normal, attempting the "beat the game really fast" medal and the "no damage" medal, once I am done with the "only use your machine gun" medal, with an attacker for the "attacker only" medal, which will suck bad in mission 13.

Hahaha, I really need to stop lazing about and finish unlocking that shit. Gonna be awesome.

Although like I said over the 360, the superplanes have ALWAYS made the game ridiculously easy. Got tired of flying in circles with Ofnir and Grabacr in AC5? Introduce them all to LASER DEATH with the ADF-01 FALKEN. Mission over.

Same with the ADFX-01 MORGAN in Zero, only the laser had a longer recharge time. Same thing though, all of the enemy ace squadrons lasted a good ten seconds. All you had to do was fire at one on the outside of the formation and just strafe the rest of them with the still going beam. I can't wait to give the CFA-44 a shot, it looks fucking ridiculous, you guys are such goofy bastards for using it in our matches online today.

Well, you can't use the rape rockets online, only the giant sniper cannons, so that makes it a tiny bit less broken than it could have been.

Only a tiny bit though.

Oh, ok. I was gonna ask why nobody was using the rape missiles.

Hey russ, how's that machine gun only thing workin for you?

Mission 9's attack angles prove...troublesome.

I haven't gotten that far yet, I am at like mission 7. For mission 9, I will abuse the hell out of allied attack. Which, I have basically been abusing allied attack for all non-ground, non-B-52, non-A10 targets. Anything that flies and is faster than an A10 gets blasted by my buddies. I am not looking forward to the end of mission 13, or the early parts of mission 15.

I believe that the gauss guns require a bit more skill to use than the DEWs precisely because you can't just sweep it across the formation (and, at longer ranges, it's either dead-on or no cigar). However, I haven't tried using it in versus matches (is it my imagination, or are co-op setups rare to nonexistent? Perhaps I should create one sometime).
That said, I nominate the SAAM as the nerves-of-steel and hope-your-six-is-covered weapon.
Certainly either is better than the sheer quantities of X*AAs being flung around...

I tried a machine gun only free mission run of mission 9 just to see something, and it's not the allied attack shit that's troublesome. On normal, when you don't have a core to attack or a cockpit to shoot at for the smaller battleships, it's easy enough to match airspeed and strafe the engines.

What IS troublesome, is the fucking Aigion's cockpit. The attack angle is all super messed up. You have to come at it from an angle nearly parallel to the Z-axis and attack it from underneath, coming upwards.

What will be stupid is the end of mission 13, the beginning timed portions of mission 12, the final dogfight where you lack allied support in mission 11, and the drone takedowns in mission 7. Mission 15 is something that's relatively easy to do with guns, most of the time when I do it I use the damn things to strafe the shit out of giant cannon anyway. Just save two volleys of allied fire for those bullshit AA towers and you'll be fine.

I'm thinking a machine gun run will be 80 times easier in either the CFA-44 or the F-22/SU-47, simply because using an attacker to machine gun at some of those points will be...well, it'll be more annoying than anything else.

Perhaps. I know russ said he wasn't that great with them, but I still feel it's cheap. It's definitely not HARD to hit a guy with 'em. Especially at close range.

As for matches, it seems the only thing people ever make are team games. Never any fuckin' free-for-alls. Like, ever. And I've only ever come across two siege battles. Co-op is there occasionally though. Drop your gamertag and I'll try helping you with 'em? Or just add me. "Colonel Skills"

The hard part of mission 15 will be at the beginning when there are a bunch of Strigons all over the place, but once your teammates eliminate them, it'll be easy going. I would be apprehensive about using the CFA-44 for a machine gun run because of how unstable it is, so flying at low speeds to destroy some of the cooling units/shielding on one pass would be troublesome. But we will see when I actually get to that part.

And the mission 9 cockpit and core parts may be challenging, but the way I approached them with missiles was actually from an angle from below/front, so I'm fairly well mentally prepared for that. I will probably crash into it at least once though.

Well, yeah, you sort of had to go that way. There's no other way of doing it. The angle with the guns is much steeper though due to no splash and no course correction.

Like this:


http://colonelskills.belkanairforce....ttackangle.gif

Your ultra-realistic diagram "with guns" is the angle I usually took with missiles, so I'm alright.

I like how it's totally to scale too.