[Multiplatform] Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. MAGIC FUCKING GATES AND HARRIERS DOING COBRAS

Ubisoft have announced a new title in the Tom Clancy range, and rather than taking on the role of another foot-soldier (however advanced), wannabe Mavericks can take to the skies as a jet fighter. From the teaser trailer and initial screens that have been released the graphics look pretty damn impressive, though I imagine those are somewhat pre-rendered shots.

Ars Technica put up some information:

Originally Posted by arstechnica.com

The new title features over 50 planes, a lengthy campaign with drop-in, drop-out four player co-op, and online dogfighting for up to 16 players.

...

"The story begins in the year 2012. As the era of the nation-state draws quickly to a close, the rules of warfare evolve even more rapidly. More and more nations become increasingly dependent on private military companies (PMCs), elite mercenaries with a lax view of the law. The Reykjavik Accords further legitimize their existence by authorizing their right to serve in every aspect of military operations. While the benefits of such PMCs are apparent, growing concerns surrounding giving them too much power begin to mount."

Other than Ace Combat there aren't really any other jet-fighter games out there so I can't help but see this as good news and hope that it turns out well. I especially like the whole "drop-in, drop-out four player co-op" idea. Co-op in Halo 3's campaign is an incredibly enjoyable experience, though being able to drop-in at any point with friends would have made it even better.

H.A.W.X will be heading to PC, 360 and PS3 later this year.

[ IGN Preview ]

How ya doing, buddy?

Well, for 360, there is Over-G Fighters, which is basically an Energy Airforce game, only even buggier somehow! (DO NOT ASK HOW, PLANET EARTH DOES NOT KNOW.) That was far more simmish than AC, though. Also it was shit broke, so.

Despite all the "Tomclancysoft presents Tom Clancy's: How to make the army look like lulz" titles we've been getting every fourteen and a half minutes for the past thirty six years, this has a tiny bit of potential from the co-op standpoint. The last few TC games have all had decent or better co-op experiences, so perhaps this will work fine too.

A plane list would be nice, or are they gonna go with retarded shit like OH HEY GUYS THE F/A-18A AND F/A-18C ARE DIFFERENT PLANES HUR HUR. If we only get a couple of airframes, that could be AGGRIVATEDFACE. It'd be super nice if we got all sorts of stuff like MiG-21s or something, but breath ain't being held for non-American aircraft, here. Maybe we'll get lucky, who knows.

Here's what I'm NOT looking forward to though:

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There is also a Vs. mode where up to 16 players can battle online for experience points and in-game cash, which is used to unlock new weapons.

How does one balance weapon unlocks in an aircraft game? I can see it in something like Call of Duty, where realism takes a back seat to lulz, but even in Rainbow, where some of the variety of weapons makes some of the upgrades of the higher ranks less pronounced, but in an aircraft game...you've got what? Everyone starting with AIM-4s and upgrading to AIM-120s? That's not gonna work.

Maybe it'll be better, like Vegas 2. We can only hope. But it'll have some ridiculous amount of XP needed to hit the highest rank again. PLAY 30000 MATCHES TO GET TO THE HALF MILLION XP YOU NEED. YOU GET 150 POINTS PER MATCH. ACHIEVEMENT WORTH 20 POINTS.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

If this is a fairly sim-ish effort I might be interested. I really enjoyed Blazing Angels but the dogfighting in that, arcadey as it is is all about getting behind the other guy and using your cannons. I've never got into the whole AC thing of having 50 odd missiles. The best flight sim of all time remains in my eyes, Strike Commander and if this is half as good as that I'll buy it. Essentially, if they make pitch/roll control the default it'll be good, if it's pitch/yaw I won't bother.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Eurogamer have a new hands-on preview of this up, and it's sounding like it could be somewhat promising. Some highlights:

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Two things immediately mark HAWX out as one to watch: the impressively slick 60 frames-per-second game engine and the intuitive controls.

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"We really want the game to be accessible very quickly, so that you immediately feel like you're in control and can have fun killing enemies, or just manoeuvring, and feeling in control. You have a huge possibility to improve yourself - to learn the manouevres, make more flips, and push the plane to the closest possible stall limit and give you more manoeuvrability. This is part of the skill - depth and accessibility at the same time."

Quote:

In common with other Tom Clancy games, there's a subtle but not overbearing degree of strategic command over other units, allowing you to call for assistance in both single and multiplayer by pressing up or down on the d-pad. In multiplayer, you're able to instruct your team-mates to attack your target, and they can press up to accept or down to cancel. Voice recognition will also be included, allowing players to bark a limited array of orders over a headset like a hassled Tom Cruise.

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Overall, more than 50 licensed aircraft feature, with even more promised post-release via downloadable content.

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As was the case in Rainbow Six Vegas 2, a fully-fledged experience system is prevalent in all aspects of the game, both offline and on, unlocking useful items as you progress, from more powerful weaponry to skins and more advanced aircraft. "The spirit is the same. You play in the order that you want. Whatever you do during the game will be rewarded by experience points, so you don't have to worry about starting at the beginning of the campaign," says Simon.

Quote:

The easy-to-use Enhanced Reality System (ERS) acts like a sky-based Sat Nav system, gently pointing you in the right direction without holding your hand too much. The new external camera system works far better than it logically ought to, while the use of real-world satellite data helps give the game that sense of place that few flight combat games have ever been able to pull off convincingly. Factor in the intrigue of a decent storyline, and the extra context given to it through weaving the narrative into several concurrent events in other Tom Clancy games, and it suddenly all starts looking an exciting and convincing prospect. And gutsy.

[ source ]

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I'm really, really hoping you can force off some of the assists in the options when creating a multiplayer room. Tomclancysoft games like Vegas have let you put limits on what wepaons people can use, so I hope that level of choice carries through to this.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Massive bump for demo. Which is out. On Live.

I need someone who's not a genre fan to comment on the damn thing. Because despite the fucking ridiculous magic gates and god forsaken HARDCORE LIMITER REMOVAL LOOK AT HOW AWESOME THIS LOOKS camera that basically just wants you to do Cobras all day, I'm not entirely turned off by the experience. Because fuck me if it isn't really damn pretty, and the co-op campaign could be cool.

In the end I'm completely neutral towards it. It really depends on how much fun the co-op boils down to, really. Need to try 4P demo stage.

Someone else play it and give impressions please. And enjoy the wonderful voice work, lmao.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Is there co-op in the demo? Either way, I'll probably grab this after work tonight, give it a go.

FELIPE NO

4 players, yeah. Two missions included, one the hilarious tutorial with the unfortunate cloud cover that makes it harder than it needs to be to learn the limiter cam.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Yeah it's a 4 player co-op demo. Live capability and all.

Also fuck that camera. It would be nice if it followed your target instead of giving you a side scrolling perspective half the time.

Game looks GORGEOUS THOUGH. Skills and I played it for about 20 minutes. Lulz were had.

Also either the F-16 is really shitty (likely) or the planes fly like bricks in assistance mode.

Most amazing jew boots

We'll have to get some 3/4-player action going later then.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Is this demo on the PSN store as well? Ive been wanting to try this game out, me being an Ace Combat fan and all, and not having a 360. Id wanna try out the mode where you have a chase view, rather than that other mode where it shows a larger scale of you and another plane. That mode that im talking about, is the stupid "this lane will appear to help you fly" thing removable? Because I dont need help flying lol.

EDIT: Nvm, I checked wikipedia for demo date. Fucking 360 getting all the shit first... -___-;

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by Karasu

...is the stupid "this lane will appear to help you fly" thing removable? Because I dont need help flying lol.

Having played through the demo I can reassure you that yes, use of ERS is entirely optional... you'll probably bother with it only for the sake of filling out certain challenges, especially if you've cut your teeth on Ace Combat, AFDS, et cetera. As for assistance-off mode, I found myself using that mostly for evasive purposes.
With that out of the way, it appears we have a contender here, especially with co-operative play being part of the total package from the word 'go' (a nice touch about this is that you can see who else might be engaging a particular target).
Oh, and two amusing things about the Su-35's beam-riding missiles:

1. they can acquire surface targets; and
2. you've gotta wonder about the 'boss' flight when all four of them went down as a result of taking one to the face

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

It's ridiculous though that they force that camera view upon you in assistance off mode. If all you're doing is removing the G Limiter why the fuck can't I keep a decent viewpoint? It's a shame that in order to do anything worthwhile, you HAVE to enter that mode. In something like versus multi you're going to be in it the entire time or your performance will suffer, and that'll be about as fun as taking your dick off with pliers.

I was speaking idiomatically.

yea, the ers thing and forced camera is pretty retarded. I'm not even the greatest Ace Combat player even I lol'd when it told me to do that shit to hit tanks hiding behind buildings. Like really? Nice presentation though.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Given you have to actively press the button to engage the ERS stuff, I thought it was a really neat addition for people who might not know or have figured out the best way of manoeuvring. The ERS gives them a chance to learn by example, rather than die flying into a building or failing to avoid a missile when they just fly directly at things.

I agree there should be a way to pull of the high-G moves without the weird camera, but I don't think it's all that bad either. I don't know, I liked this, though perhaps not enough to think about getting it right off the bat. Definitely want to see what it's like in co-op.

FELIPE NO

I'm not a plane game person by any stretch, and I found that the camera for the assistance off mode was ludicrous. Side-scrolling plane game? No fucking thanks. I only got a few seconds with the other mode before my 360 pooped itself, but that felt better.

Game looks FANTASTIC, though. Holy shit. Say what you will about Ubisoft's game design but their engines kick ass.

XP in a plane game strikes me as an even worse fit than XP in Rainbow Six.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

XP fit perfectly in Rainbow. All the best weapons are immediately available and the ones you unlock are simply for a bit of variation. Nobody who knows what they're doing ever wears armour in vs mode anyway so it's all just cosmetic stuff. About the only thing you might need to unlock is the shield and I've never seen someone using one in a vs match.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Well, the performance of the three aircraft in the demo all indicate the differences are pretty much just cosmetic too, if that means anything. Hopefully the unlockables is more than just these predefined weapon packs for aircraft.

And I found ERS gives you a far, FAR more deliberate and sweeping trajectory to follow than you need. I laughed at the dive bombing bit.

ASSISTANCE MODE OFF or whatever laughable bullshit they call it would have been better serviced by a decent lock on cam. There's a ton of these as examples which are less hectic. I understand both targets and yourself are faster and more maneuverable than in most others to feature a camera like this, but it's entirely possible to accommodate that and not be entirely too spastic.

How ya doing, buddy?

For those interested: Tom Salta has been gracious enough to make available for download from his official site a trio of this game's music tracks. While the actual page can be found here, I've provided the MP3s' actual URLs for convenience (right-click, save as)...

• 'Artemis Ascendant';
• 'Ready Aurora'; and
• 'The Unthinkable'

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

After giving the demo a try yesterday, the whole thing felt like an extremely poor man's Ace Combat 6. The first bit of the mission taking down landing crafts and bombers was fun, but the Assistance Mode Off thing feels gimmicky and clunky in general. Limiting high-G turns to only that mode was frustrating and made the second part of the mission against "aces" unnecessarily difficult. I suppose the whole point is to marvel at the planes' movements with the pulled back camera, but it just irritated me and made it hard to keep an actual missile lock.

The ERS gates were okay, but pretty pointless. The red gates for dodging missiles are just silly since a few quick turns accomplish the same thing, and it isn't hard to get behind targets without the blue gates. Dive-bombing tanks to get around buildings is neat, but it got old pretty fast. Hopefully that isn't standard through the rest of the game.

It wasn't bad, but I'll wait for this to hit the discount bins.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I've still not played the demo for this (Last Remnant install is using basically my whole hard drive) but I'm still quite tempted to get it anyway. Is it possible to play it just from the in-cockpit view and with all the flying aids just turned off?

I was speaking idiomatically.

It might be possible, but I don't think so. The four aces at the end of the demo mission are way too fast to keep a lock on without being able to perform quick turns, and you have to go into the wonky Assistance Mode Off for that. Still, despite all my complaining the demo wasn't bad.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Well, yeah, I was hoping to have the assistance thing turned off all the time. I'm sure I read an interview with one of the developers saying that was an option, the idea being that the plane's handling was nerfed with it turned on to even out fights between casual (Read shit) players and hardcore ones. I guess the equivalent is how auto-aim doesn't give you headshots in FPS games.

FELIPE NO

In that case, your answer is no. You're stuck in that terrible side viewpoint with Assistance Mode Off, which is its whole problem. The developers made it really clear that they want you to use that as much as possible since the tutorial mission only teaches flight with it off, so it's strange that they didn't put more effort into making it less awkward.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

That's a shame. I guess I'll have to download the demo and give it a go then.

Jam it back in, in the dark.