[Swifty]

Ace Combat 6 was on the precipice of falling into the pit most console developers suffer in adding arbitrary gameplay features. "It can be coded in and it looks cool, so it must have substance." Sure, it wasn't Sky Crawlers or Starfox style "Press-A or some arcane combo to win" but stuff like High-G maneuver, random lead pursuit missiles at arbitrary lead pursuit offsets, and allied assault (aka, fill your kill meter to make all friendly AI fire special weapons that they should be using indiscriminately) felt tacked on and not cohesive. I bet you the cinematic chases in Assault Horizon are just going to be quick time events whenever you happen to fight near skyscrapers. :\

I understand the problem most designers encounter when designing a flight combat game in that the gameplay can become quite monotonous. I just don't understand the bizarre gameplay constructs they force out in order to break the mold. Rail on console IL-2 all you want, at least Gaijin Entertainment went the high route and provided a pretty decent light sim instead of trying to produce an action game.

[StarSlayer]

Ace Combat 6 was on the precipice of falling into the pit most console developers suffer in adding arbitrary gameplay features. "It can be coded in and it looks cool, so it must have substance." Sure, it wasn't Sky Crawlers or Starfox style "Press-A or some arcane combo to win" but stuff like High-G maneuver, random lead pursuit missiles at arbitrary lead pursuit offsets, and allied assault (aka, fill your kill meter to make all friendly AI fire special weapons that they should be using indiscriminately) felt tacked on and not cohesive. I bet you the cinematic chases in Assault Horizon are just going to be quick time events whenever you happen to fight near skyscrapers. :\

I understand the problem most designers encounter when designing a flight combat game in that the gameplay can become quite monotonous. I just don't understand the bizarre gameplay constructs they force out in order to break the mold. Rail on console IL-2 all you want, at least Gaijin Entertainment went the high route and provided a pretty decent light sim instead of trying to produce an action game.

So long as its not a perquisite for winning I don't really care if they add silly features I won't use.  You don't have to use allied assault in AC6, and so long as I am not forced to use some quick time event in ACAH it shouldn't be an issue for me. 
As for BoP my main issue with it was the controls not being intuitive, that and some disappointment as to how BnZ aircraft handle.  It's still pretty fun ripping up enemies with a 109G though.

[freespacegundam]

Really hope the final game looks better than that...so far the air combat looks slightly worse than AC6...and the ground and people look quite horrifying.

Also not big on the QTE combat...as someone said earlier it looks more like they're trying to emulate HAWX a bit...and I hated that game.

Hope this works with the flight sticks we got with the 360 version of AC6...can't play a flight sim game without those.

[General Battuta]

I played the HAWX 2 demo.

It is awful. Awful.

[Mobius]

Why?

[Dilmah G]

Maybe they turned take off and landing into a quick-time-event?

I personally like QTE's, but that's not the point.

[General Battuta]

Why?

Bad handling, a lot of quicktime-event style gibberish, the story and voice acting are abominable, and it doesn't look anywhere near as gorgeous as AC6 did several years ago.

[IceFire]

Why?

Personally.

Graphics are only OK but not really that astounding.  There are many many other games out there with better graphics.  Ace Combat 6 which came out years ago still looks better.

The planes handle terribly.  They don't feel like real planes. They don't feel like anything at all... you have this sort of uncontrolled floaty feeling.  They respond too quickly but then at the same time don't have any sort of precise feeling either.  In short it's just horrible. I loved the way that Ace Combat aircraft handled (it was appropriate for the genre)... I love the way that IL-2 and LOMAC aircraft handle. HAWX 2 is none of these.

The sound is also pretty bad.  Voice acting is ok but the sound effects, aircraft sounds, missile sounds (the worst bit)... all of it sounds horrible. Some of it doesn't even sound at all what it's attached to.  The missile sound for instance... what is that?!

All in all it's better than HAWX but only by a little.

[General Battuta]

Why?

Personally.

Graphics are only OK but not really that astounding.  There are many many other games out there with better graphics.  Ace Combat 6 which came out years ago still looks better.

The planes handle terribly.  They don't feel like real planes. They don't feel like anything at all... you have this sort of uncontrolled floaty feeling.  They respond too quickly but then at the same time don't have any sort of precise feeling either.  In short it's just horrible. I loved the way that Ace Combat aircraft handled (it was appropriate for the genre)... I love the way that IL-2 and LOMAC aircraft handle. HAWX 2 is none of these.

The sound is also pretty bad.  Voice acting is ok but the sound effects, aircraft sounds, missile sounds (the worst bit)... all of it sounds horrible. Some of it doesn't even sound at all what it's attached to.  The missile sound for instance... what is that?!

All in all it's better than HAWX but only by a little.

Yeah, I was gonna comment on how truly atrocious the missile sound is - it's barely above Atari 2600 levels of quality - and the handling is, indeed, floaty and awful and so very inferior to AC6.

[Unknown Target]

I liked the idea of the original HAWX; it was fun, assistance OFF was awesome (if you figured out how to use it with the ****ing AWFUL camera view), and the graphics were great.

But it was littered with terrible design decisions (all aspect missiles, broken multiplayer, AOFF camera view, ****ty as ****-tastic **** storyline) that it was held way back. I know I could have done better.

[Roanoke]

I've been playing AC6 recently and 1) Missions are much too long 2) Everyone stop saying "dance with the angels" it is ANNOYING!! 

[IceFire]

I've been playing AC6 recently and 1) Missions are much too long 2) Everyone stop saying "dance with the angels" it is ANNOYING!! 

Dance with the angels... you'll (hopefully) get over that little saying and enjoy a really great game.

How long are the missions for you?  Takes me about 10 minutes for most.

[MR_T3D]

mission 3 is pretty long, but some are worth the time, such as the desert landing.
so much fun with the A-10

[mister J]

I've been playing Joint Assault on solo for a few hours now... it seems like it would be really fun to play with a friend. Otherwise it pretty much handles like ACX.

the orchestral soundtrack is pretty epic though.

[Mobius]

Otherwise it pretty much handles like ACX.

Awesome.

[StarSlayer]

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/uk-series-ace-combat/704410
 
I dunno, that didn't leave me confident.

[achtung]

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/uk-series-ace-combat/704410
 
I dunno, that didn't leave me confident.

I really feel like they've tried to take a lesson from HAWX. If they have, they've made a horrible mistake.

[The E]

I'm still confident.

[MR_T3D]

it sounds like they've changed the core, the soul of the game, which was free flight and dogfighting.
I don't like the new things, other than steel carnage, which would be ballan in an Ace Combat 7.

[mister J]

no, please don't take away the free flight dogfighting aspect of AC... I don't want a snazzy looking rail shooter

Oh man, Joint Assault is kicking my ass right now.

Spoiler:

since money is scarce, the best plane I have at the moment is a MIG 1.44... then I go to last stage/boss... first you have to fight several aegis destroyers which seem like they were armed with QAAMs... I take those down while I take down a few bombers. Okay, fine. Then you fight the enemy squadron you've been fighting against the whole game. I take down three of four planes easy peasy. But when I get to the last plane, Sulejmani... this guy is pulling all sorts of crazy $#!+ on me. I thought that Pasternak in AC6 was a handful with his sharp 90 degree turns and burst missiles, but this guy's flying is INSANE. He's doing barrel rolls, instant 180s, he's even pulling Cobra Turns and Pugachev's Cobras on me. When he gets to his third stage, he simply refuses to get hit by missiles, EVER. After going through his fancy prancy Macross level crap I get him down to less than 25% but he always kills me with a missile after 180 turning on my face. FML.

And this is on NORMAL. lol. I've played all the ACs since 3 and this one is the hardest missions I've ever fought.