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You mean "Yutkobanian" accents It's true, they did sound kind of Russian-y (at least in 5- I think the ones in 4 and Zero were a bit more neutral on the accents), but they weren't flat out called "Russians". Plus, those were all full-scale wars between multiple countries, as opposed to this "mercenary" cliche that seems to be popping up everywhere.

EDIT: OK, upon further review, I don't think this will be as anti-Ruskie as I feared. Looking in the trailer, it's clear that NATO and Russia are allied and fighting against a splinter group or mercenaries of some kind. The fact that the most badass of these mercenaries happens to be Russian is essentially a coincidence. Good on you, Namco.

Update:



This is the gameplay of the level shown in the original debut trailer. It confirms my hypothesis about the camera modes- in addition to the Close Range Assault / Dogfighting Mode, there will be the standard Third-Person View, Canopy View, and HUD View that have been present in the previous games. I think the gameplay looks fantastic and that the CRA and quicktime dodges are both done really well, although CRA looks a little dizzying

I figured I'd revive this old thread because Assault Horizon came out (of the closet...gar har har...) earlier today. After playing the game for about 3 hours, I can honestly say, I enjoy the reboot, its not perfect, but its a nice change. I've been talking about it with a local friend of mine who is a complete Ace Combat nut, and he really hates some of the changes (We'll see what the game is like when we take it online, I'm only a few hours into the campaign while he finished it in a day of playing nothing but AH).

First off, Project Aces has gone for the cinematic, in-your-face, Modern Warfare style campaign this time. Missions sometimes have minor quick time events (eg: press Y to look here, interact-with, etc.) and between some of the missions is a partially interactive cut scene that allows you to look around while the scene goes on. Then you're immediately thrust into the next scene/mission and the only pause in the narrative is when you choose your plane, color, and weaponry. Load times are quick and there are (finally) mid-mission checkpoints, although they do sometimes save at weird times. The missions have switched between jet fighter, chopper, gun turret, AC-130 (almost ripped straight from Modern Warfare), and then back to jet fighter, so the variation keeps things interesting.

As far as I know, the story is set in 2015 and you're part of some joint operation and there's some terrorists with a super-doom-weapon-of-doomy-doom called Trinity. The story is supposed to be written by some famous military author but the pace is so quick that I don't really give two shits. I have a plane/helicopter/turret/bomber/AC-130 with weapons, there are red dots all over my radar, I shoot them. End of story. It may get more interesting as the game goes on, but we'll see.

Gameplay-wise is where its going to make it or break it for AC fans. First off, if you didn't like the look of DFM (that camera that auto-follows the enemy plane while you try to keep a target lock and shoot missiles and guns), well...tough shit.

You will be forced to use DFM at some point when you fight certain enemies that dodge all your missiles that you fire outside of that mode. You do "auto-follow" (Its more like you're locked in a winding tunnel with the enemy plane) the target around (you can break out of DFM mode at any time with the press of a button) but you have to constantly fight to keep the enemy in range and locked-on, so its not like the game automatically kills the guy for you. The enemy can also lock you in DFM mode if they get behind you and if you jam on the air brakes and time it right, you can quickly counter their move and get behind them and lock them in your own DFM mode. It creates this whole DFM/Counter-DFM/Counter-counter-DFM mechanic that's pretty fun. You CAN kill regular enemy planes (any non-leader or unnamed plane) by doing the old "lock and shoot" method of firing missiles, but AH has moved the combat closer and long range sniping with missiles is less useful than it was before.

Speaking of control, go to the Options and change the control settings from "Optimum" (easy mode) to "Classic" (regular flight controls), and while you're at it, make sure "Flight Assist" is turned off (this is the thing that partially flies for you in DFM and automatically pulls up before you hit the ground).

DFM looks fun, as in like actual classic dogfighting, though I was a little worried about the controls. Can you barrel roll and do vertical loops in the "Classic" control scheme? I loved being able to move freely in three dimensions in the previous games and got a bit worried when I was watching the gameplay video as it seemed like you wouldn't be able to pull off flips anymore.

Yeah, definitely, the Classic control setup uses the old Ace Combat controls so you can perform barrel rolls, stalls, loops, Immelmann turns, yaw control, etc. You even have to manually roll the plane and pull into turns to change direction.

Awesome, that's what I was hoping for.

So I tried some multiplayer Deathmatch and I like what I see. Like I said in the earlier posts, they moved the combat closer, but that doesn't prevent you from shooting missiles at long ranges (in fact, a number of my kills were from long ranges because people weren't paying attention). DFM is in full effect during multiplayer, but the person following is lead around by the nose by the target, so if you can outfly the person following you, you can get them to crash into buildings and the ground. You can counter DFM the same way as in single player and Deathmatch is quite frantic as you fly around dodging missiles while dodging the person who has you locked in DFM mode at the same time. Good times.

As for plane balance, the more recent planes do have fancier features like partial radar stealth and the ability to flip 180º on a dime, but the older planes can still keep up if you fly right. I flew an F-16C against things like the F-22 and F-35 and did decent enough (The QAAM still feels unbalanced because of its high speed and one-shot kill status, although newer planes can outrun them and older planes can out-maneuver them). The other advantage of using an older plane is that when someone kills you, they don't get as many points as they would for shooting down a modern plane.

Grayswandir wrote:Yeah, definitely, the Classic control setup uses the old Ace Combat controls so you can perform barrel rolls, stalls, loops, Immelmann turns, yaw control, etc. You even have to manually roll the plane and pull into turns to change direction.

Makes me wonder how accurate it is ... Does it account for G's on your body?

Say I roll to the left, then force the stick forward rather than up so I actually turn right than the usual left. Would there be some sort of repercussions for doing that?

Generally in a scenario like that a pilot would black out so they can't do that. Therefore, in a dogfight they can get a hint as to what direction a plane is going to go.

Grayswandir wrote:As for plane balance, the more recent planes do have fancier features like partial radar stealth and the ability to flip 180º on a dime, but the older planes can still keep up if you fly right. I flew an F-16C against things like the F-22 and F-35 and did decent enough (The QAAM still feels unbalanced because of its high speed and one-shot kill status, although newer planes can outrun them and older planes can out-maneuver them). The other advantage of using an older plane is that when someone kills you, they don't get as many points as they would for shooting down a modern plane.

It's too bad I cant go up in a biplane ... I'd own the skies red baron style.

Assaultman67 wrote:Makes me wonder how accurate it is ... Does it account for G's on your body?

Nope.

Say I roll to the left, then force the stick forward rather than up so I actually turn right than the usual left. Would there be some sort of repercussions for doing that?

From what I've seen, you turn slightly slower. Its useful in some situations though, such as when you're trying to keep track of a target, turning with the stick forward instead of back is more stable and you can easily just roll the plane more if you need to move faster.

It's too bad I cant go up in a biplane ... I'd own the skies red baron style.

I've seen people going up in Apaches and Hinds. The upside is that you're so low the people in the jets can't really shoot you without risk. The problem is that the jets go so fast that you can't get a target lock on them long enough to shoot them with missiles.