Just watch the replay after a mission, that'll give you a sense of speed.Ragdollmaster wrote:What you don't really realize when watching a video/playing a game like Ace Combat is the ridiculous speed of these jets.
Ace Combat missiles are actually relatively dumb. There are no flares or chaff (at least that the player can use), and you can dodge the missiles easily (unless its a QAAM...which are fire and forget...), by taking a sharp turn and hitting the afterburner.Plus, heat-seeking weapons aren't infallible, they can be muddled by flares and dodged by quick air maneuvers. Laser-guided weapons are, as far as I know, non-existent in air-to-air combat. How hard do you think it is to peg a jet moving at mach 2 with a laser long enough for a missile to hit it- when you're on yet another jet moving at nearly the same speed? Even ground-based anti-air defenses, like SAMs, just use thermal and UV sensors. Laser targeting is really only used on stationary buildings and ground vehicles.
Why get into gun range when you can blast someone from miles away with a homing missile? I mean besides the satisfaction of shredding your target with hot lead and flying through the beautiful explosion of their wrecked aircraft and listening to the little hunks of metal tinkle as they bounce off your air frame? Oh right, the cost of repairs. This is why we have AC games, because it makes it awesome, and it doesn't cost taxpayers money if you go down in a flaming ball of fire.Now, yes, dogfighting isn't really that common anymore seeing as ground-air defenses are typically better than air-air in the sense that they are cheaper and constantly operating, unlike jets which have to be (rather expensively) made, fueled, deployed, etc. But there's nothing wrong with today's arsenals that would make dogfighting impossible or even all that hard.
AC games have some of the oddest, and sometimes cheesiest storylines. They make sense in their universe, and they all link together (the timeline is pretty extensive), but they're still silly. Let's take Ace Combat 6, for example:Typical Ace Combat storyline quality is probably on par with some of the best (whether you like Penumbra, Halo, MGS, Bioshock, or some other epic of a game, it's up there among them)
The neighboring country Estovakia (or something Russian sounding), is devastated by a meteor that breaks up in the Earth's atmosphere and it rains down on their country, destroying their economy. They decide a military government is the best way to get them back on their feet and attack the country of Emmeria...with manta-ray shaped flying aircraft carriers and advanced fighter craft. Its your job to help retake your country and win the war. While all this is going on, there's a story about a mother and her missing daughter and a rogue tank crew that wants to go and steal gold. "Go fly with the angels." Bitch.
AC7 is supposedly losing its Strangereal setting, which sucks. I think it starts in Miami or some-such.Once again, you're basing the fact that there's a Russian accent in the trailer and a military setting to mean this is a generic modern warfare clone.
Zero had some awesomely designed, "experimental" planes with doom lasers attached (why fire missiles when you could shoot LASERS?) and you could twist them in so many different directions you could fire backwards and flip the plane on its axis. Watching replays was hilarious (dogfights 100 feet above the ground...). AC6, went back to all real planes (at least in design), it also has online multiplayer, which is fun, but a little unbalanced because some of the downloadable skins for the planes make them overpowered (apparently pasting cute anime girls on your planes gives them the power of God). Also, QAAMs are completely broken, you can fire at a target you're not even aiming at and they're faster than the regular planes on full afterburner. Singleplayer is a blast though.I personally haven't played Zero, 6, or any of the portable installments, but based on reviews and recommendations they're as equally varied and well-thought out as the previous installments.
They get full licensing for the planes, and they're highly detailed. Watching missiles and bombs regenerate on the weapon racks makes you do a double take sometimes, but hey, game mechanics, having to fly back to base repeatedly would be boring.The military jargon is also part of the theme of AC. It's always been one of those series heavy on details and realism (to reasonable extent) The planes are, to probably within a few pixels, totally accurate in their modeling
What?and their performances are equally realistic.
The Ace Combat series is a plane-nut/military-nut's wet dream, its like playing Top Gun instead of watching it. Complete with over the top drama, love interests, and banter between wingmates. If that isn't your thing, then AC probably isn't for you.The fact that the pilots aren't screaming obscenities like leftover grunts from Killzone and Gears of War fits in with the rest of the game's style. Just because the kiddies making games these days feel it's necessary to make the entire dialogue military code doesn't really mean that AC is another bandwagon jumper.
