Ace Combat: Assault Horizon has a lot in common with your average Hollywood summer blockbuster; it’s big and loud, it’s brash and silly, it’s epic and explodey, and it’s awesome. It’s Michael Bay: The Video Game, or it’s Call of Duty: Aerial Warfare. Somehow, whatever you call it, it’s all of your favourite action games rolled into one… IN JETS.

Now, this is not Ace Combat 7, you guys. Gone are the anime segues and batty storylines and in swoop brutal dogfights at breakneck speed across a backdrop of international terrorism. It’s a full-on rebirth for the franchise, with the tag-line for the game imploring us to ‘Make Metal Bleed’ – a far cry from the early days of the vibrant and colourful Japanese flight-em-up.

The first phrase to terminate from your vocabulary when considering Assault Horizon would have to be ‘flight-sim’. This game is all about action, or “Machine Gore”, as Namco Bandai so delicately put it. Helicopters, fighter jets, bombers and gunships are all present in the game, and for the first time in an Ace Combat you can now also participate as a gunner upon an aircraft, as opposed to pilot.

Multi-player options are scant, to be honest, but totally bad-ass, with modes like 8 v 8 Team Battle, which consists of 4 pairs of wing-men duelling in the skies, allowing you to act out all of your favourite Top Gun fantasies (apart from the volley-ball scene); and Capital Conquest, in which teams of pilots are tasked with attacking or protecting a city. There’s also the opportunity to take on 8 of the single player missions in co-op with a couple of friends, so you still get to argue over who ends up as Goose.

But what about the promise of this epic game-play and bombastic, Michael Bay-hem magnitude of fighter jet fragging? Sure, online jet-killing is all well and good, but the real test of this new Ace Combat has to be its well documented foray into storytelling that doesn’t involve 112 missions or a character called Scarface One.

Well, I’ve always enjoyed a bit of the old Ace Combat, so needless to say I was pretty excited to see this new direction Assault Horizon was going to take me in. The story, penned by New York Times bestseller (and ‘military author’) Jim DeFelice, lays down a heavily Western yarn about a bunch of terrorists that have managed to bag themselves a superweapon. Spanning a ton of real-world locations such as Dubai, Russia, Washington DC and Paris, Assault Horizon takes the franchise on an express elevator to Hell and back, complete with enough volume to peel the flesh from your bones.

Controversial. That’s probably what you’re thinking, if you’ve ever played any of the ‘classic’ Ace Combat games. However, this is a different time, and I can’t say I blame Namco for having the stones to not only mess with one of their most beloved franchises, but also to take one look at what the kids love these days – that’s Call of Duty, for those asleep at the back – and just go right on ahead and stick the thing in F-15′s.

So, we step tentatively into the shoes of one Lieutenant Colonel William Bishop, leader of Warwolf Squadron (yeah, you heard that right, WARWOLF) and all-round jet fightin’ cowboy. Not knowing exactly what to expect, I dived straight in, like any man hungry for carnage and let me tell you something, you guys; I murdered me some planes.

The game wastes no time dropping you into the thick of it in the middle of a huge dogfight over the city of Miami. The first thing to note – when you’re not blinking at the frankly insane amount of carnage exploding all around you – is the level of detail poured over this game. From the huge, satellite-mapped locations, right down to the nuts and bolts of each airborne killing machine, Namco have got this right on the money.

Each location is instantly recognisable and swooping low through buildings in the cities reveals no expense has been spared in ensuring every inch is authentic; the highways even have cars careering along them. It really is pretty breathtaking stuff. Well, it would be if it weren’t for the fighter planes trying to blow your face off.

The controls are largely carried over from previous Ace Combat games (well, Ace Combat 6 on Xbox), but then there’s the awesome introduction of one of the new mechanics – namely pressing the left bumper when a circle is visible around an enemy jet.

This flicks the combat into ‘dogfight mode’, and the game essentially becomes a widly intense over-the-shoulder shooter, as you frantically strive to keep the bad guy in your sights. This is where the rollercoaster part of Assault Horizon jumps in and takes over. You find yourself whirling through scripted chases through canyons, buildings, or whichever environment you’re currently blowing up.

While careening through these sequences in dogfight mode, you have two options: pepper your rival with machine gun fire, or hold out for a lock-on to blast him with your missiles. The overall run may be clinging to rails, but the wild dodging of your enemy Ace ensures you have to keep the sticks twiddling all the way to the bitter end. Add to this the fact that he can try to counter you – effectively making the hunter the hunted – and you’ve got yourself a thrill-ride.

All the while you attack, you’re treated to so-called “metal carnage”, in which shattered and shredded scraps of metal effluence whirl around, and oil spatters the screen like viscous, black blood. It’s totally badass, and when Zack Snyder’s Patented 300 Slow-Down Effect takes control of the camera to crawl through mid-air slo-mo take-downs (a bit like Burnout), you know it’s time to punch the wall and put ‘Back in Black’ on full blast.

It’s pretty sweet, you guys, especially as you slowly get to grips with counter manoeuvres which enable you to flip back over an enemy that’s up your ass and cram your missiles right up his tail-flaps. Another unique feature is the option to turn the in-flight HUD off entirely (apart from your sights), which instantly makes everything seem far more cinematic, and in my opinion, way better.

The different game modes scattered throughout the game go a long way to making sure it gets far from boring, with LOUD helicopter gunship missions being a highlight, along with bombing runs on strategic locations and – especially for all of those CoD fans – the now classic AC-130, or “did you see that how well that dude exploded?” Okay, none of them are perfect, and there is a tendancy for the jet missions to teeter perilously on the edge of that whole ‘fend off another wave of MiGs’ format, but luckily Namco have been savvy enough to keep switching it up before it ever gets too monotonous. Plus it’s jets, you guys, you’re fighting Jets WITH JETS!

It’s been a long time coming for a full-on, big budget makeover for flight games and Assault Horizon has absolutely nailed everything that people love about games not based in planes and put it into a game with goddamn planes in it anyway.

It ain’t perfect. Ace Combat: Assault Horizon is like a rock show that you scored free tickets for but the beers are £40 a glass. Then again it doesn’t matter because the band is so killer that the volume blows your pre-conceived notion of what an overpriced bar is into outer space. It’s not the best time you’ll ever have listening to shredding guitars and explosions, but it’s close, and screaming around in fighter jets is badass, you guys. That never gets boring. Ever.

Missions in Microsoft Flight are designed to guide the player through the game objectives, from simple tasks like flying to a waypoint to performing challenging aerobatic routines to transporting scared passengers through bad weather at night.

The Flight team have also said that “players can fly “story-based” missions such as finding a missing person or playing a key role in an event. Another way to play is flying jobs such as carrying cargo or passengers from one location to another using piloting skills and knowledge to get them to the destination safely.”

If that all sounds like too much work then you can always “choose to fly freely without guidance in order to simply enjoy the beauty of the world, fiddle with the knobs and switches in the cockpit, or put an aircraft through its paces” say the Flight team.

According to the development team Microsoft Flight has also been “designed for a wide range of players, not just a typical simulation enthusiast” and like modern console and PC titles the game will also use “awards, achievements, and experience points to “reward” players that accomplish something in the game.”

Source: Microsoft Flight

Microsoft Flight will be released sometime in 2012.

With joypad in hand and headphones in place I took control of an Lockheed Martin F-22A Raptor fighter jet in the midst of a full scale air assault above Miami. Right from the start I experienced one of the game’s big new features; close-range assaults or dogfight mode. Once I’d flown close enough to an enemy plane, tapping Left Bumper and Right Bumper together locked me into the close-range assault mode. If I were in a real plane, I would have been able to literally smell the jet fumes from the enemy aircraft’s engines, they were so close. Well, I could until I blasted his aircraft out of the sky using a combination of my machine gun and missiles. Keeping the enemy in sight long enough to get a missile lock whilst avoiding all the ground or air-based obstacles was a lot of fun. This games takes the Top Gun movie or Afterburner arcade game approach to air combat. I had smouldering bits of aircraft fuselage splattering all over my screen as I flew though his fiery death. Utterly brilliant.

A Pilot’s Perspective

Bogey Down!

The head-up display (HUD) showed my airspeed, altitude, attitude indicator and the status of my weapons on screen. The HUD also highlighted other enemy and friendly aircraft, along with other points of interest like ground targets. All standard stuff. Now that I’d won my first dogfight I was able to explore the scenery and check out the aircraft’s handling characteristics.

As far as the mission weather was concerned there were a few clouds at 4,000 feet with 10 kilometers or more of visibility. Almost perfect conditions for flying. I reached the maximum in-game altitude of 40,000 feet in no time with full afterburners powering me high into the troposphere. At this altitude I could see vast swathes of the city of Miami stretching far into the distance. It was quite impressive. Incidentally the real-life service ceiling for the F-22A is reported to be 65,000 feet, so the game was quite a bit off being completely authentic.

Once I’d flown closer to the ground (about 39,940 feet closer thanks to a vertical dive), I followed a few roads and freeways and flew through some palm trees for kicks. The scenery stands up well under close inspection as real satellite imagery has been incorporated into the game, alhough none of the foliage is solid. You can fly through it all if you are low enough. The game does allow you to fly around gawping at the pretty scenery if you want to.

I wasn’t able to test the landing characteristics of the aircraft at any point during the mission. Instead my plane crashed and burned onto the runway. Not the kind of landing someone would walk away from and certainly not one that would impress my flying instructor.

The F-22A itself was far more responsive and quicker that anything I’ve flown in real life. It can perform steep turns at anything up to 90 degrees without developing a potentially lethal spiral descent. The F-22A has excellent departure resistance making it extremely difficult to force the aircraft from controlled flight despite aggressive control inputs from me as the pilot. I was able to quickly scrub airspeed, side-slipping the aircraft through the air by applying opposite rudder to the direction of the ailerons. This meant I was flying the aircraft sideways through the atmosphere. I was restricted in how much side-slipping I could perform so the aircraft wasn’t totally sideways, but it still was a extremely effective way of quickly dumping airspeed. Once I’d got my airspeed approaching 100 knots aircraft entered a deep stall and plummeted towards the ground. Of course, applying full power and raising the nose resolved that little issue. For new pilots the flight assistance options includes automatic stall prevention allowing you to concentrate on the air combat rather than the nitty gritty of flying and avoiding stalling the aircraft in mid-air.

Cruisin' along

Summary

The F-22A is a remarkably nimble and stable aircraft in flight, which is hardly surprising when you see it in action during the intense close-range assault mode. I felt totally at ease flying between skyscrapers to chase down enemy aircraft. The nicely detailed environments along with the inclusion of aspects of real flying such as the mechanics of the aircraft help generate a feeling that you are flying it for real. Ace Combat: Assault horizon provides an adrenaline filled flying experience, perfect for all wannabe jet fighter pilots.

Ace Combat: Assault Horizon is due for release on the 14th October 2011 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.

Uncharted 2′s multiplayer was pretty awesome and huge amounts of fun to play, especially the co-op missions. So I’m expecting Uncharted 3′s multiplayer to be something a little bit special. Based on the trailer and the screen shots, Naughty Dog are really trying to make the multiplayer locations as spectacular as possible.

Ok, I may have a bit of a thing for planes and airports, but come on, fighting whilst a plane is taking off. How awesome is that? Although the airport has got a serious breeze blowing through it by the looks of that wind sock in the pictures below. That’s a 25-30kt wind right there. No wonder the buildings look a bit shabby. Take-offs and landings would be a bit sporty too :-)

Finally, the multiplayer beta kicks off on the 28th June 2011 for PSN Plus subscribers and InFamous 2 owners. Everyone else gets to play from 5th July 2011.

Screenshots:

Uncharted 3 is due for release on the 4th Nov 2011 only on PlayStation 3

Not that’s a lot of Zombie killing! One of the big features of Dead Rising 2 is the ability to customise your Zombie killing weapons using duct tape. If you don’t understand just how awesome duct tap is, check out these pictures:

This aircraft was badly mauled by a bear (hunting for the food left inside). After using several crates of duct tape the pilot had fixed up the aircraft and flew it home. Yes, that’s right, flew it home.

Now just imagine what weapons you’ll be able to produce in Dead Rising 2 with duct tape.

Dead Rising 2 is released on the 24th Sep 2010 on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

Currently there is no UK release date, however, you can pick up the US version of about 20 GBP from PlayAsia.com. Here’s some screenshots and gameplay video (including a mid-air collision!)