Ace Combat 6 (360)

[navyboy]

Gamespot game it an 8.5, yet the review was surprisingly much more positive with a lot of praise. Very few flaws were mentioned in comparison to the ign article yet it didnt get a "blazing high" score. I think gamespot usually review games a lot more harshly - they gave Ratchet and clank a 7.5 (by far the lowest score), ign gave a 9.4 and the average was high 8's, low 9's. But at least their reviews are written well. And the funny thing was that this reviewer seemed to know what the game was about, unlike the ign reviewer who didnt know anything about the series. The ign guy took the piss out of the sound being overdone while the gspot person praised the epic music, immersive sound effects etc - the stuff AC's known for

[OME6A]

Eff reviews, I'm psyched. I can't wait to get home, throw on some George Thorogood and The Destroyers, and fire up the afterburners.

[OME6A]

Well, I've spent some time with this game, and let me just share some thoughts. Truth be told, flight games are not my thing. I did thoroughly enjoy this game's demo though, thus prompting me to buy it.

To sum it all up, I don't think that anyone involved with making this game has actually ever played games, or played multiplayer games.

First, let me start with the campaign, which is not able to be played as co-op, despite what you may have read on the box. The story of the game goes something like this: Your country is invaded, you have to take it back. The missions themselves are entertaining and enjoyable, however it's everything else that gets in the way of a good experience.

There's your wingman, who is about as useful as Jester on a good day. This guy pretty much does nothing. You can assign him a target, and if you wait about 10 minutes he'll actually kill it. Or, you can assign him to cover you, which actually means he'll just constantly nag you with enemy positions.

Then there's the missions, which aren't that bad. The worst part is when you die. When you respawn, it's from your last checkpoint, and there are not many of them. Some missions have more than six different parts to them, and there's maybe one checkpoint in the whole god damned thing.

Even the obvious, of creating a checkpoint when you land during a battle to repair and restock is overlooked. It's so frustrating because some of these missions take nearly two hours to get through.

So if you get to the very end and then die, you can pretty much bet your testicles that you'll be starting over about half way through the mission, and that's if you're lucky.

Then there's this retarded, waste of time sub-plot right out of a bad movie, where some chick's been seperated from her daughter. Cut scenes pertaining to this are played between missions, and they're pointless. They're even more pointless because their entire audio track is considered background music. What this means is that if you are like me, and you turn off the background music in every game, you're not going to hear any of this audio.

Lastly, the most frustrating thing about the campaign is how you go about getting planes. Now, you'd think that your country's air force has a selection of planes for you to choose from, based on the mission at hand. WRONG. You have to "buy" your planes, and weapons for that matter, with points you're awarded for completing missions.

Now onto multiplayer. This game's multiplayer is probably the biggest snoozefest since Battle Stations: Midway. What's worse is that it is so cumbersome to move through. The entire setup is crap, and a clear and distinct result of the creators of the game having never played a multiplayer game. Ever.

So what's wrong with it? Well, for one there are no pictures or descriptions anywhere of anything. There is one seige map, 6 team battle maps, 6 battle royale maps, and 2 "co-op" maps. None of them offer any sort of description, name, or image to give you an idea of what the map is, it's terrain, time of day, weather, objective, or number of players it is intended for.

That's not so bad, right? Wrong. Eff You.

It wouldn't be so bad if you could play a game, and the host could then change the map. But no, it doesn't work that way. When a host creates the room, that's it. You're stuck with that map, that mode, and that number of players. If you want to change any of it, the host has to close and remake the room from scratch. Then comes the added fun of inviting everyone back to the room.

Then in the lobby, as well as in the game, there's no indication of who's talking. Ever. So anybody could just say or do the most retarded sh*t in the lobby or throughout the game, and you'd have no idea who was doing it. Aside from that you also have the issue of trying to effectively communicate with your teammates, which is a chore when you don't know who is talking.

Also incredibly aggrivating is the fact that there are no pictures or descriptions of the planes you have to choose from. So, you essentially have to go by trial an error since it takes days to unlock these planes through campaign. This wouldn't be so bad if they gave you the effing ability to change your plane during the game, but they don't. Instead, you are left to the luck of the draw, hope you pick a decent plane, otherwise you will have a miserable game and probably stab yourself in the eyes while you wait for the match to end.

And that's another thing. You can't join or invite people to a match that is already in progress. They can't even spectate or wait in the lobby. Yet another indication that nobody involved with this game has ever played a game online.

I will say that the in-game visuals are amazing, both in campaign and multiplayer, and that there is no visible lag what so ever.

What does look like crap is the menu system. I seriously thought that it was 2004, and I was playing a game on the PS2 any time I ventured into the menu. It's akward and ugly.

All in all, I give this game a very generous 6 out of 10, and will probably trade it in before finishing it.

[E. Writer]

It's official, I'm not getting it. Thank you for further convincing me, Omega.

[NUN-PUNCHER]

I agree with OME6A. This game has huge potential that is just wasted. Major changes are needed with the MP. Targeting system doesn't work well at all. The visuals are nice but when it comes down to the gameplay it's fossil-like. I really thought that the story would've had something to do with modern times instead of some bad romance novel. No Middle East Maps ??? I was also dissapointed that you can't go through SP Campaign with 3 other friends. I feel sorry for the people that forked over the chunk of change for this game for the flight stick.

Not being able to change the maps in a lobby, is just flat out awful.
No Voting system whatsoever is even worse.
I did get suckered in to getting the Halloween skin off the marketplace for 200 Points that only goes on the F-15. Pretty nice having a jak-o-latern scheme on the jet with Happy Halloween on the wing and " Trick or Treat " on the missles ( Whenever the camera blesses you with a view of them )

I'll be trading this in for Homer

[.Nameless.]

The only real problems I've had with the game so far are that the XLAA (Long-range missile) doesn't seem to track when it's locked on unless you fire it at the farthest possible distance from your target, and even then it depends if it actually wants to work. And those cutscenes in between the missions are retarded. At first I thought that the chick was your wife, but then it turns out that she's some random girl who looks strikingly similar to the other girl she meets. Also, the fact that you can't see who is talking sucks.

[Dboyz-x.etown]

This is your first Ace combat, Isn't it?

Still good news for me, as long as the Xbox community keeps on loosing respect for this game, the more likely Namco is to bring the series back to the PS3.

[OME6A]

Originally Posted by Dboyz-x.etown

This is your first Ace combat, Isn't it?

Still good news for me, as long as the Xbox community keeps on loosing respect for this game, the more likely Namco is to bring the series back to the PS3.

It is, but I'm not sure what the relevance of your query is?

I play a lot of games, and I'm paid to develop things that people have to interact with. I know a bad, cumbersome, aggrivating setup and poor user experience when I see it.

[navyboy]

Originally Posted by OME6A

It is, but I'm not sure what the relevance of your query is?

I play a lot of games, and I'm paid to develop things that people have to interact with. I know a bad, cumbersome, aggrivating setup and poor user experience when I see it.

Its obvious that its your first AC since the things in the campaign you are complaining about are standard in the AC series. The cutscenes in the previous games were awesome, i dunno about ac6 since i dont have a 360 to play it on. However, i dont understand why you are frustrated about that "buying the planes" thing. That adds tonnes of replay value as you try and "soup up" your hanger, sort of like gran turismo. This has been standard in the AC games and its probably my favourite feature. IT would be LAME if you could just start of with the best planes in the game as there would be no point in having more than 2-3 planes in the game. Imagine playing gran turismo 3 and as soon as you start you get the formula one car, that would be imbalanced, boring and far too easy. Same thing goes for AC. It is the first time the series has gone online and considering that a lot of namco games lack multiplayer, its not hard to imagine that the online features dont work well. However i do think, the core, fun gameplay would still remain once you get in the game. The wingmen have always been useless, and that means you have to be the "godlike ace" - its the same thing in all the AC games. However, allied attack looked quite devestating from what i can see in the vids

Ps, how far are you in the campaign? It usually gets good once the plot starts unfolding as you get towards the ending. Also on the gspot review they said the first 5-6 missions maybe a little bland but the story gets interesting in the latter missions.

[OME6A]

I'm at mission 8.

I understand that buying planes may add replay value for you. However, at the other end of the spectrum are the gamers that don't have the time to replay a game to unlock stuff.

For us having to do that has a negative impact on our experience with the game. Most likely it'll lead to us moving on to a different game faster than we probably would have if there wasn't that hassle.

Different strokes for different folks.