Discussion
I've got a copy and it is a good game, the single player is fantastic for the most part but the multiplayer is crap.
The single player campaign has a good mix of missions, but for the most part heavily favours mixed-role planes. For example on the missions where you have to destroy a lot of ground targets within a time limit, the A-10C is fantastic with it's unguided bombs that have enormous destructive power and of course, the 30mm autocannon, but all of these missions involve a segment where high mobility is required, such as taking down a swarm of enemy drones or chasing down escaping fuel trucks. The A-10C just isn't fast or maneuverable for these tasks. Another mission sees you taking down an enemy fleet, but the map is huge and to hit the score limit you need to be able to move around the various areas of the map quickly, which the A-10C just can't manage. Likewise, the pure fighter planes don't have powerful enough weapons to really make quick work of ground / fleet targets so you end up picking the middle of the road stuff for a lot of missions.
Towards the end of the game, once you've saved enough money to unlock the final planes they are superb it must be said, with the final jet on the Osean tree (F22-C iirc, Osea have all the NATO stuff) having access to some super powerful guided bombs that can lock onto four targets at once. Once I've finished the game I'll start unlocking the Erusean tree, who have all the Soviet stuff.
I don't think the campaign is all that long but the gameplay is super fun so it's good decent replay value, most of the missions are easily doable with most of the planes available, however there are some missions where you're pretty locked into using certain planes, but for the most part you can play what you want, you'll just score less, earn less cash and get lower ranks if you use less effective tools for the job. On the subject of ranks, don't worry about scoring high ranks or completing the special hidden objectives too much, getting an S rank is very hard early on but a lot more doable once you can go back and replay all of the missions in an end game jet with all of the upgrades.
Sadly the multiplayer is a load of crap. No tactical gameplay, no strategy, no objectives to accomplish, just kill the enemy team until you score enough points. Virtually every match I've played ends by timeout. The gameplay is utter crap, with every single game turning into a swirling ball of jets doing high-G turns until someone runs out of speed and takes a hit from a missile. Whoever has the best plane will win. There are capped lobbies where you can limit the plane and upgrade potential, but at whatever limit you set, there is still one plane that is better than the rest and everyone picks that.
I feel like this is a massive, colossal missed opportunity. Imagine how good this game could be with a team of 3 or 4 friends, taking on co-operative objectives. You could set players into roles, have everyone doing different things and working together to do what Ace Combat does best - high speed, semi-tactical combat on huge maps with varied target types. Instead we got a super low effort deathmatch or team deathmatch offering, pathetic.
They are offering a season pass for this game, I'm holding off on purchasing until I see what it will offer - if it's co-op MP or more single player content then I'd glady pick it up, if it's just more stuff for the s
tty deathmatch mode then I'll skip it.
The single player campaign has a good mix of missions, but for the most part heavily favours mixed-role planes. For example on the missions where you have to destroy a lot of ground targets within a time limit, the A-10C is fantastic with it's unguided bombs that have enormous destructive power and of course, the 30mm autocannon, but all of these missions involve a segment where high mobility is required, such as taking down a swarm of enemy drones or chasing down escaping fuel trucks. The A-10C just isn't fast or maneuverable for these tasks. Another mission sees you taking down an enemy fleet, but the map is huge and to hit the score limit you need to be able to move around the various areas of the map quickly, which the A-10C just can't manage. Likewise, the pure fighter planes don't have powerful enough weapons to really make quick work of ground / fleet targets so you end up picking the middle of the road stuff for a lot of missions.
Towards the end of the game, once you've saved enough money to unlock the final planes they are superb it must be said, with the final jet on the Osean tree (F22-C iirc, Osea have all the NATO stuff) having access to some super powerful guided bombs that can lock onto four targets at once. Once I've finished the game I'll start unlocking the Erusean tree, who have all the Soviet stuff.
I don't think the campaign is all that long but the gameplay is super fun so it's good decent replay value, most of the missions are easily doable with most of the planes available, however there are some missions where you're pretty locked into using certain planes, but for the most part you can play what you want, you'll just score less, earn less cash and get lower ranks if you use less effective tools for the job. On the subject of ranks, don't worry about scoring high ranks or completing the special hidden objectives too much, getting an S rank is very hard early on but a lot more doable once you can go back and replay all of the missions in an end game jet with all of the upgrades.
Sadly the multiplayer is a load of crap. No tactical gameplay, no strategy, no objectives to accomplish, just kill the enemy team until you score enough points. Virtually every match I've played ends by timeout. The gameplay is utter crap, with every single game turning into a swirling ball of jets doing high-G turns until someone runs out of speed and takes a hit from a missile. Whoever has the best plane will win. There are capped lobbies where you can limit the plane and upgrade potential, but at whatever limit you set, there is still one plane that is better than the rest and everyone picks that.
I feel like this is a massive, colossal missed opportunity. Imagine how good this game could be with a team of 3 or 4 friends, taking on co-operative objectives. You could set players into roles, have everyone doing different things and working together to do what Ace Combat does best - high speed, semi-tactical combat on huge maps with varied target types. Instead we got a super low effort deathmatch or team deathmatch offering, pathetic.
They are offering a season pass for this game, I'm holding off on purchasing until I see what it will offer - if it's co-op MP or more single player content then I'd glady pick it up, if it's just more stuff for the s
tty deathmatch mode then I'll skip it.Agreed on the multiplayer and it would be great if you could do the single player missions as a squadron, that way people could pick the A-10 and attack the ground stuff safe in the knowledge that they have support in the sky to deal with the enemy aircraft.
Have you guys mastered the post stall maneuvers? Very cool that the aircraft with super maneuverability can do them.
Have you guys mastered the post stall maneuvers? Very cool that the aircraft with super maneuverability can do them.
eybic said:
Is this worth getting without the VR aspect?
Yes because they only made the VR mode for the first three missions of the campaign, so it's not a fully-fledged VR game. VR will go the way of 3D movies so this could still turn out to be one of the better VR experiences even if it's very short.Regarding the stall maneuvers, they're not difficult to do but they're not really necessary. There are very few enemies that will even come close to challenging you in a dogfight and the multiplayer mode just doesn't have the level of tactics or strategy to make them useful. They look cool but that's about it. Maybe if MP games were bigger and objective based, you might spread the planes out a bit more and get some deeper one on one dogfighting, but at present the MP is just a swirling ball of plane doing high G turns and spamming as many missiles as they can in five minutea.
Mastodon2 said:
VR will go the way of 3D movies so this could still turn out to be one of the better VR experiences even if it's very short.
Has to be one of the dumbest things I have read on here for a while. There is a whole VR thread that would suggest otherwise. The 3D comparison is usually trotted out by those who haven't tried VR or can't afford (or justify) VR. For those of us who do have it we recognise the potential and there is sometimes the pain of being an early adopter but there are plenty of excellent titles for VR and more coming. It has, for example, transformed SIM racing. IL-2 Stormakov is just simply stunning in VR as is Elite Dangerous. You might want to give it a try before declaring it a dead platform!
geeks said:
Mastodon2 said:
VR will go the way of 3D movies so this could still turn out to be one of the better VR experiences even if it's very short.
Has to be one of the dumbest things I have read on here for a while. There is a whole VR thread that would suggest otherwise. The 3D comparison is usually trotted out by those who haven't tried VR or can't afford (or justify) VR. For those of us who do have it we recognise the potential and there is sometimes the pain of being an early adopter but there are plenty of excellent titles for VR and more coming. It has, for example, transformed SIM racing. IL-2 Stormakov is just simply stunning in VR as is Elite Dangerous. You might want to give it a try before declaring it a dead platform!
geeks said:
Has to be one of the dumbest things I have read on here for a while. There is a whole VR thread that would suggest otherwise. The 3D comparison is usually trotted out by those who haven't tried VR or can't afford (or justify) VR.
For those of us who do have it we recognise the potential and there is sometimes the pain of being an early adopter but there are plenty of excellent titles for VR and more coming. It has, for example, transformed SIM racing. IL-2 Stormakov is just simply stunning in VR as is Elite Dangerous. You might want to give it a try before declaring it a dead platform!
Put your dummy back in. I didn't say its dead, I said it's going the way of 3D cinema. An interesting experiment tried, and failed, previously. It doesn't add enough to the gaming experience at the moment, maybe one day but not with the current tech. The whole thing of waving sensors around in your living room is pretty crap. It's not a particularly expensive thing to get into either so that argument falls down too.For those of us who do have it we recognise the potential and there is sometimes the pain of being an early adopter but there are plenty of excellent titles for VR and more coming. It has, for example, transformed SIM racing. IL-2 Stormakov is just simply stunning in VR as is Elite Dangerous. You might want to give it a try before declaring it a dead platform!
Gaming is my main hobby, if I thought it was worth it I'd have signed up ages ago.
ruprechtmonkeyboy said:
geeks said:
Mastodon2 said:
VR will go the way of 3D movies so this could still turn out to be one of the better VR experiences even if it's very short.
Has to be one of the dumbest things I have read on here for a while. There is a whole VR thread that would suggest otherwise. The 3D comparison is usually trotted out by those who haven't tried VR or can't afford (or justify) VR. For those of us who do have it we recognise the potential and there is sometimes the pain of being an early adopter but there are plenty of excellent titles for VR and more coming. It has, for example, transformed SIM racing. IL-2 Stormakov is just simply stunning in VR as is Elite Dangerous. You might want to give it a try before declaring it a dead platform!
Mastodon2 said:
Put your dummy back in. I didn't say its dead, I said it's going the way of 3D cinema. An interesting experiment tried, and failed, previously. It doesn't add enough to the gaming experience at the moment, maybe one day but not with the current tech. The whole thing of waving sensors around in your living room is pretty crap. It's not a particularly expensive thing to get into either so that argument falls down too.
Gaming is my main hobby, if I thought it was worth it I'd have signed up ages ago.
Given that 3D Cinema is pretty dead, your assertion is the same thing. Also you said 3D movies not Cinema /pedant/ Gaming is my main hobby, if I thought it was worth it I'd have signed up ages ago.
The immersion you get on VR is far and above what you get without it, case and point the titles I mentioned earlier alongside a whole genre of games.
I also think you don't really understand the tech, I have two sensors on my PC, they fit neatly on my desk and take up no room, no waving about of things other than the controllers.
Honestly, if you haven't tried it then you can't really say it doesn't add anything to the experience, if gaming is your thing, take a trip to Milton Keynes and try mine, if I can't change your mind in an hour of messing about then I never will
EDIT to correct assertion, not ascertain
Edited by geeks on Thursday 24th January 13:59
Wobbegong said:
fk me the last mission is infuriating 
Don't read unless you're stuck on the last mission. k me the last mission is infuriating It's quite easy, the two drones aren't that difficult and can be downed by out-turning them. Once you get behind fire your special missiles, swap the standard and give them both. They've got quite a lot of health so rinse and repeat until they go down.
In the second half of the mission, just go slower than you think you should. Just set your plane level, cruise through and use the rudders for steering, don't roll the plane at all. There's virtually no time pressure here at all so go as slow as you think you need to.
In the final area just fly clockwise, slowly enough and you can hit all the targets in one rotation. Then just go to the central column and fly straight up, job done.
I'm currently playing it. Only doing the VR bit at the moment as I'm loving the VR experience.
I just hope more VR content comes out in the future.
I recorded one of my sorties. Not sure you can fit 80 missiles on a real F18 though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYm9Xrfa83w
I just hope more VR content comes out in the future.
I recorded one of my sorties. Not sure you can fit 80 missiles on a real F18 though.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HYm9Xrfa83w
I've got a copy for my PS4-Pro. It's a really stunning game and the frame rate seems to be a pretty solid 60fps in 4K.
If like me, you are new to the Ace Combat series, it's basically like Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X which was on the PS3/XB360 and Steam , but done with a lot more story line surrounding the game play. It's very Japanese like that.
Controls feel nice and responsive and after the last couple of flops, Namco have really taken their time to make a modern masterpiece.
Don't be fooled into thinking this is a Flight Sim, it's nothing of the sort.
If like me, you are new to the Ace Combat series, it's basically like Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X which was on the PS3/XB360 and Steam , but done with a lot more story line surrounding the game play. It's very Japanese like that.
Controls feel nice and responsive and after the last couple of flops, Namco have really taken their time to make a modern masterpiece.
Don't be fooled into thinking this is a Flight Sim, it's nothing of the sort.
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