Because I haven't been hyped for a game as much as I've been hyped for this for a loooooong time, I did a stupid and staid up until the game unlocked for me at midnight, then played for about 2 hours.
And, wow, is this game good. It is absolutely buttery smooth on my PS4 Pro, it's filled with the sort of cool callbacks that will make long-time fans of the series go "Ahhhh" while possibly not even registering for newcomers; The flight physics are probably the best in the series so far, and the addition of clouds and winds give the gameplay a depth that the series has lacked thus far.
Let me expound on that last part a bit more: One of the difficulties in mission design for a game like Ace Combat (and, to a much larger extent, for games like FreeSpace) is that most of the gameplay happens in empty space. There is no terrain to speak of to hide in, nothing that allows you to break contact easily and, conversely, nothing that makes it easy or natural for the AI to ambush you. By introducing clouds and air currents, AC7 gives you these options and adds a layer of navigational challenges that previous games had to artificially enforce (by restricting your altitude so that you have to fly in canyons, for example). This makes the game, in my opinion (and bear in mind that this is a very preliminary opinion) the best in the series so far.