Grand Theft Auto IV – Had a lot of free time this week so I decided to get back into GTA4. This game I bought at launch and after playing it for about 30 minutes, decided I would eventually pick it up again later. Well, I started playing it this past weekend and I got hooked. Already beat the storyline, and am now just trying to clear all of the extra stuff. I’m surprised how much I like the game today, and realize now why it’s so good. Expect a (quite overdue) review on it next week.

Ace Combat 6 – All done! Sucks that 400 of the 1000 Achievement points are multiplayer based, but what can you do. Maybe I can go pick up Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. now…

Left 4 Dead – The free DLC has arrived for the game, consisting of Versus for the two other campaigns, as well as a new Survival mode for all four campaigns and a new lighthouse level. I already sold my 360 version, but I’ve been playing it a bit on the PC. I have to say, going from a 360 controller back to mouse and keyboard is really difficult. I’m so out of it when it comes to gaming on the PC now that I’m trying to map the Left 4 Dead controls to my Logitech PC control pad just so it can feel like I used to play it on the 360. Talk about regressing! Anyway, I need to play the survival a bit more to see if it’s really good but for now I’m not too impressed. It feels like I’m just playing the finales to each of the scenarios again, and I wasn’t that big of a fan of them to begin with. Now it’s even harder since regular infected still pour out at the same time as the tanks so it definitely doesn’t send you to a happy place when you play this mode haha

In my initial impressions for the game, I was complaining about how difficult the game was. Once I discovered that you were able to have your Allied forces assist you in the more troublesome spots in the game, I was able to get through areas that I thought were ridiculously tough. Now I feel the game is not too hard, provided you can handle arcade flight sim games where down is up and up is down. For the most part, I’ve enjoyed my time with this short game as it had a lot of hardcore things for me to do to complete it, but overall, I don’t know if it’s that good of a game. Read on for my review for a game that I bought nearly two years ago but didn’t get to play until now.

Good
- still one of the best arcade flight sims on the 360
- lots of unlockables and challenges for the more hardcore player
- co-op, while very limited, can be pretty enjoyable

Bad
- weak story
- short game
- lack of matchmaking and empty multiplayer

Ace Combat 6 was also originally released in a $150 special edition bundle consisting of the game and an official flight stick.

Intro
The Ace Combat series, while developed in Japan, seems to have quite a following on both sides of the Pacific. It was original released on the Playstation 1 back in 1995 and named ‘Air COmbat’ in the United States. Since then, a new Ace Combat game has been released every couple years on the Playstation 1, Playstation 2, and PSP systems. Thus it was a huge deal that Ace Combat 6 was released exclusively for the 360, and to this day, a Playstation 3 version has yet to be released. Ace Combat fans were probably quite disappointed that the series jumped ship to Microsoft’s system, but perhaps Namco found the 360 an easier console to develop on (no surprise).

Ace Combat 6 sales in the United States have hit about half a million, and it has been made into one of the 360′s Platinum Hits titles. What’s also interesting is that Ace Combat 6 is one of the top selling 360 games in Japan. When the game originally launched, it sold over 80,000 copies its first week, and the 360 saw more sales that week than the PS3 (a very notable thing in Japan, since the Japanese don’t really like the Xbox). Since then, it’s gone on to sell about 100,000 copies total, and is the ninth best selling 360 game in Japan, beating out even Halo 3 there. While 100,000 may seem tiny in the United States, the biggest selling game in Japan for the 360 is Blue Dragon, at about 200,000 copies sold.

Cutscenes in the game follow a woman trying to re-unite with her daughter.

Storyline and Premise
In Ace Combat 6, you play the pilot with callsign Talisman under the Garuda team of the fictional Emmerian Air Force. The game starts off with country of Emmeria being attacked by its neighbor Estovakia. Talisman and his partner Shamrock are instructed to protect Emmeria before they discover Estovakia’s ace squadron, Strigon Squadron. The 10 members of Strigon team are much more difficult to kill than other enemy aircraft, and serve as the main antagonist to Garuda team. Ordered to withdraw, Garuda team and the rest of the Emmerian military temporarily give up the capital in order to regroup and fight back at a later date. The storyline progresses with the Emmerian forces fighting to regain control of their country and putting a stop to Estovakia once and for all.

The game itself shares many similarities to older Ace Combat games in both gameplay and the use of a “storyline based on a fictional world”. Ace Combat 6 takes place across 15 missions that can be beaten in about six hours on a regular playthrough. In between missions are cutscenes that are given from other characters in the game that are on land, and generally not associated with the missions themselves. They just sort of provide a viewpoint of how some are affected by the war. They may be interesting to some players, but can be skipped without really affecting the actual gameplay.

If an enemy has a missile lock on you, your HUD will be completely red to indicate danger.

Gameplay Mechanics
Mission Structure
About two thirds of the fifteen missions are structured in such a way that there is a bit of freedom. Within these ten or so missions, there are generally between 3-6 operations going on. In order to complete the mission, the player is often tasked with completing most of the operations. Namco wanted the game to have more of a full scale war-like feel, so there could be allied forces engaging the enemy on ground in one area trying to re-secure a city, another group of allied forces attacking the port from the sea, and another group of allied fighter jets engaging the enemy air targets. The player is then asked to complete any operations he wishes, so he can choose to assist in the naval battle, the ground battle, or the air battle. Once the operations are complete, the mission is either completed or it moves to the next part where there is only one operation, such as destroying a final base or a final enemy.

Missions themselves generally have a time limit of about 45-60 minutes, and if you’re using missiles you can pretty much blaze through them much quicker than that. But when you decide to want to use your machine gun to kill everything, that’s when you’ll probably appreciate the extra mission time. There are also checkpoints in the missions, generally awarded after any single operation is completed.

Returning to Base
One of the big things in the Ace Combat series has always been returning to base to rearm or repair your aircraft. This can often happen if you’ve expended all of your missiles, or if you take too much damage. In Ace Combat 6, you are able to return to base by either flying across the map to the dotted line on the radar (which represents allied territory), or you can land at an airfield on the map that you have captured (some operations in a mission revolve around securing an airfield).

In both cases, you will be given the option of whether you’d like to manually control your landing on the airstrip or to skip the entire procedure altogether. Some people enjoy the idea of piloting an aircraft and being able to land on a runway, as it takes some skill so that you don’t actually crash and burn, but it was nice that you can skip it all if you feel the process is too mundane and just want to get back to the action as soon as possible.

Aircraft
I’m not exactly a fighter jet enthusiast, so the 15 licensed aircraft usable in the game seemed pretty similar to one another. F-16s, F-14, Nighthawks, etc. are all real life aircraft manufactured by companies like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, and Grumman. The biggest differences I saw in the aircraft differences were their top speeds and potential weapon loadouts.

All of the fifteen usable aircrafts in the game fall into one of three categories: Fighters, Attackers, and Multi-roles. Every aircraft is equipped with a machine gun and missiles as its primary weapons, but the secondary weapon slot is customizable. Each aircraft has 3-4 different weapons to choose from, and the possible secondary weapon options depend on the aircraft’s category. For example, fighter jets tend to have very strong air-to-air secondary weapons, such as being able to launch six missiles at once against air targets. Attackers are more like bombers, so they are slower but have secondary weapons that are strong air-to-ground such as auto-targeting bombs. All in all, it is possible to beat the game with any jet so it’s really up to the player.

Allies
In Ace Combat 6, you have one wingman that you are able to ask at any time to either cover you, or to attack a designated target. Having the wingman cover you means he will go after any enemy target that is chasing you. To be honest, the wingman doesn’t really do much in the game, and it’s possible for him to even be shot down himself.

The bigger and much more useful feature is the Allied Attack and Allied Cover commands. While you only have one wing, there are generally four or five other pilots flying out there in the same missions as you, and each of them has 2-3 wings themselves. Throughout the course of a mission, if you can destroy targets and complete operations, your Allied Meter fills (almost like a Super meter from fighting games). It can fill up to five bars, but it only takes one bar to call for an Allied Attack or Allied Cover. Allied Attack asks for all 10+ other allied fighter jets to attack several targets of your choice, so they will fly to you and help you engage what you are fighting. Allied Cover has the 10+ other allied fighter jets take out any enemy targets chasing you, which is extremely useful in situations in the game where you may have more than a handful of fighters on your tail.

Co-op Multiplayer
There is “some” co-op in the game. While it’s not a full blown co-op through the campaign, but rather, two lengthy missions similar to the campaign where up to four players can work together to take out the enemy targets. It’s really a shame that there were only two missions, but Namco released free DLC that allowed for two more missions to bring it to a total of four co-op missions. The mode actually feels more competitive than co-operative, since each of the four players has a score that increases based on targets they destroy. So while it may be loosely called “co-op”, it’s more about who can get the highest score by the end of the mission and it works very well. If you crash or get shot down, there’s a respawn time penalty, which allows other players to shoot down targets and up their score, so whoever can kill the most targets (there’s literally over a hundred so there’s more than enough for everyone) while not dying will most likely achieve the highest score.

Adversarial Multiplayer
There are three adversarial modes in multiplayer: Battle Royale, Team Battle, and Siege Battle. Each mode (as well as Co-op) can be played ranked or unranked. Players create lobbies and wait for others to join, and matches can be set with a max of 16 players. However, during the time I tried to play, it seemed like the only game type that had any players at all besides co-op was unranked Team Battle. I guess it’s safe to say that the adversarial multiplayer in Ace Combat 6 is pretty much dead. But for those wondering, Battle Royale is pretty much straight up Deathmatch where every player is for himself and Team Battle is Team Deathmatch with two teams trying to get the highest score by the end of the match by shooting down the other team. Siege Battle is the more interesting one to me, as it is more of an objective based mode where one team is designated the Attackers and the other team the Defenders. The Attackers are tasked with destroying a specific target on the map, while the Defenders have to prevent them from doing so. Unfortunately, I was never able to try the mode out as no one was playing it.

You are able to save replays for every mission, in case you are interested in watching your sorties and how awesome you were.

Achievement Design
While the actual game is quite short, the Achievements designed for the game really extend the replayability. I would have preferred that almost half of the Achievement points weren’t devoted to multiplayer, but for the single player Achievements, you’ll be playing a while if you want to grab them all. Most of the single player Achievements are pretty self explanatory – beating each level, unlocking different aircraft, colors, etc., but the most difficult single player Achievements to unlock revolve around specific Medals that you need to collect in game. Each of these medals could have honestly been an Achievement in and of itself, but instead Namco just decided to set aside an Achievement or two for simply unlocking all medals.

The medals range from the relatively simple to very hardcore. Simple ones are killing a certain number of enemies, a certain number of enemies with the machine gun, and using only one type of aircraft. The hardcore medals revolve around beating the entire game in under 2 hours and 15 minutes, beating every stage of every difficulty with an S rank, and going through the entire game using the machine gun only. Needless to say, while an initial playthrough of the game may take only five or six hours to beat, getting all of these medals (and thus all of the single player Achievements) will take closer to 25 hours. Thus, the Achievements do a good job of really extending the gameplay time, but whether you want to play the same missions over and over is not for everyone.

Namco has dozens of DLC paint jobs for aircraft, in case you want to pay a couple dollars for some anime girls to adorn your fighter jet.

Final Thoughts
This game is nearly two years old, and part of me feels that the game is at a disadvantage because I’m reviewing it based on today’s standards versus 2007′s. And to be honest, in 2007, I would have given the game a higher score. I guess it’s sort of unfortunate, but today I will give it a B-. The game’s missions are pretty varied and entertaining, but the main problem of course, is the game’s short length as well as its silly storyline. The gameplay is solid, but it pretty much feels like a carbon copy of the PS2 versions of the game, so there really isn’t anything more revolutionary about it. Multiplayer is probably its biggest selling point, since it’s the first Ace Combat game to have it. It would have probably been enjoyable two years ago, when we weren’t already used to matchmaking, stats, and everything else we see these days. There were also dozens of rooms to play games in, unlike today where you’ll be lucky if you can find a 16-player room with four other players.

It’s hard for me to recommend Ace Combat 6 to anyone today that hasn’t played it yet, as the game’s “time” has since passed. Granted, it can be found for cheaper these days, but there are lots of old titles that I would recommend over this one to gamers that are new to the 360. It’s short, perhaps a bit too hardcore, and the multiplayer is dead so you may already be too late to the party on this if you pick it up. But if you’re a fan of flight games, this is still one of the best on the 360 (mainly because it’s one of the only ones). At some point I will want to play Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X., just so I can see if that game is more fitting for this day and age, or if Ace Combat 6 still holds the air combat crown on the 360.

Besides the two DS games I’ve been playing lately that I wrote about this week, I’ve also spent my gaming time on the following:

Battlefield Heroes (PC) – I just got into the beta this week, so I’m still exploring it and will give some impressions on it soon. It’s pretty crazy since I’m coming from Battlefield 2 and Battlefield Bad Company experience, but so far it works. It’s cartoony and web based so it’s relatively simple, but you create a character and level up through playing so it has an MMORPG style feel. It’ll also be free to play, but EA will be making money on it through advertising and charging for in-game items. It could work, based on what I’ve played so far – but of course, I personally won’t be paying for anything.

Ace Combat 6 – In my initial impressions, I thought the game was ridiculously hard. It was only shortly afterwards I finally figured out how to get help from other fighters, making the game a lot easier. Combine that with the fact that the best fighter unlocks in the game when you beat it on hard, and now I’m smiling and singing that I can actually unlock all of the single player Achievements in the game. And here I was thinking I was going to have to give up on this game for being too hard…

Halo Wars – Hit the Lieutenant rank this week by playing a ton of multiplayer. I stopped playing 1v1 just because at higher levels the game seems to be more about rushing, and I wanted to play more “full” games. Thus, I spent most of my multiplayer this week playing 3v3 Random Team, and I won about 2/3 of the games. Instead of 10-15 minute games that I used to play 1v1, they’re now 30-40 minute big games where everyone expands and techs to their end game unit. Definitely a lot of fun and I realize now how powerful a scarab with 5 engineers is for the Covenant. Probably going to take a break from it for the time being, now that I’ve unlocked all of the Achievements I wanted to unlock for the game. Maybe I’ll give it a spin later once the rebalance patch comes out.

I’m finally attacking my backlog once more now that I’m not interested in any current 360 releases. I picked up Ace Combat 6 on release day back in 2007, and for some reason or another, I never got around to it until now. For fans of the series, you’ve most likely already bought and played through it already, but for others who are unsure and want to learn more about this game, read on.

I’m a fan of the Ace Combat series. I never played any of the originals, but after trying out Ace Combat 4 on the PS2, I was hooked. The game actually gave me fond memories of the old Star Wars X-Wing/TIE Fighter PC flight games, but of course, Ace Combat takes place in a more contemporary setting. As as an arcade flight sim, your role in Ace Combat 6 is to pretty much provide air support for your ground units in a way by destroying designated enemy targets all over the field of battle, while at the same time also engaging enemy fighters.

In all of the Ace Combat games I’ve played, including Ace Combat 6, you take control of a pilot in a fictional universe with two neighboring nations at war. You’re never fleshed out on your background, but instead the cutscenes revolve around a few specific characters affected by the war. It’s somewhat strange and jarring to finish a mission, and then a cutscene plays with a woman trying to flee the country since it’s at war before you’re on to the next mission. The cutscenes themselves are actually pretty cheesy at times too, and to be honest, you can skip through all of them and not really miss much of anything since they don’t relate to the actual gameplay and missions themselves.

The gameplay is tried and true Ace Combat – so much in fact that it literally feels just like its predecessors on older game systems, but with an HD coat of paint. The game itself is actually quite short. There are 15 missions total, and I ended up beating the game on Medium difficulty with a clock time of under 6 hours. However, in over half of the missions, there are various objectives, and you only need to complete a majority of the objectives to beat the mission. That means on subsequent playthroughs, you can play the other objectives for a little more variety.

In the game you have a wingman that you can instruct to either attack a certain target, or to cover you. Covering you means he will attack any enemy that is targeting you, so it can very helpful in the thick of battle. You’re able to choose from a variety of purchasable fighter jets that you unlock from beating a mission, and in the midst of a mission if you run out of missles or take too much damage you can head back to base to resupply. Takeoffs and landings are still present in this game (as they were in previous games), but if you’re like me and you don’t care much for them, you can skip those segments altogether. Finally, there’s the ability to record replays of your takeoffs/landings and the missions themselves if you’re interested in just reliving your fighter jet scream through the skies.

The game is very difficult. I think my 6 hour clear time on Medium difficulty is a lot less than what I spent just retrying missions, since there were several levels that I had to replay over and over again because they were just so difficult. The game starts out pretty easy enough, but when you get past the halfway point, things just get out of control since you and your wingman end up having to engage dozens of enemy fighters and the odds are really not in your favor. I almost threw my controller a few times (and I’m usually a very patient person) just because of the ridiculous odds that you go up against. Destroying stationary ground targets is a cakewalk, but enganging a dozen skilled enemy fighters is a monumental task: your missle locks will barely hit them since they will fly in such a way that they will avoid them, and then you have the rest of the ones you aren’t targetting instead targetting and launching missles at you. On any other day where the odds are against you in a video game, this could be kind of fun, but in Ace Combat 6, you really have no advantage to even out the playing field against skilled enemy fighters – especially in large groups.

The game has checkpoints after you complete any objectives in a mission, but it can still be very frustrating to have to restart at the last checkpoint when you’ve spent 15 minutes before dying on the next part. Mission 9 is the worst one of all, as there’s no checkpoints and it’s the mission I hate most in the game as you have to play through about 45 minutes of it without dying. I’m trying it now on my second playthrough on Hard difficulty, and for once this is a game that I’m considering giving up just for my sanity. It’s somewhat sad too, because the game seems to be built for multiple replays since higher difficulty modes unlock with subsequent playthroughs, and on higher levels there are more challenging objectives and enemies, etc. But for me as a hardcore gamer, I had to struggle to beat it just on Normal difficulty! How the heck am I going to beat it on more difficult levels?

Do I recommend it? It’s tough to say really. At its current price point of only $30, you could do worse, but if you weren’t that interested to begin with, there’s nothing to really see here. The game is short, frustratingly difficult, and no one really plays the online much anymore perhaps due to the lack of matchmaking or any sort of stat tracking. If you’re interested in an arcade flight sim these days, Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. may be more fitting as it’s a recent release, is more accessible, and has more contemporary features.

Rhythm Heaven (DS) – I just started playing this game and I’m having a total blast. It’s so wacky and hilarious that I can’t help but love it. Unfortunately for me, the game really is about rhythm and my rhythm is terrible. I started writing about it here, but then realized I could write enough about it to give it its own impressions article. I will instead post it next week to give it its proper spotlight.

Halo Wars – Been spending most of my time on the multiplayer aspect of the game lately. What’s funny is that I’m discovering that 2v2 is the most difficult of the three types. Right now I’m 10 and 2 for 1v1 and I think I’m in the positive for 3v3, but I’m practically losing every 2v2 game I play in. I feel like for 1v1 I have a good feel for counters and strategy, so I can pretty much hold on my own against anyone, and 3v3 is usually about just massing. But 2v2 is a different beast altogether, because it incorporates some gameplay from both 1v1 and 3v3, but not completely so it’s difficult to figure out what to build. Plus it seems like all the good players are playing 2v2 or something! Oh well…I’m sure I’ll get better as I continue to play.

Ace Combat 6 -Oldie but I finally broke it out of its shrinkwrap since I was slightly interested in Tom Clancy’s HAWX game and told myself that I can’t pick that up until I at least beat Ace Combat 6. For those wondering, it very much is more of the same as its PS2 predecessors, for better of worse. I’ll get some detailed impressions out on it soon.

Street Fighter IV -Started tearing my way through the Challenges and playing my brother of and off. What’s interesting is that I’m starting to play other characters more nowadays, and I’m even starting to feel like Sagat is getting boring after coming back to him. But who knows how serious I’ll really get into this game. Still, I figure being able to use other characters will also at least allow me to get better at Street Fighter IV overall, since I’ll know more about how each character fights. I’m surprised though that I’ve almost logged 50 hours. The game is really good and keeps me coming back. That’s really rare for a fighting game these days.