Tom Clancy's HAWX

[Eight Rooks]

No-one else noticed this go up/was interested?

I've seen some very scathing comments on other forums and... hmmm.

As a massive Ace Combat fanboy I do actually like some of what they're trying to do; I'm not sure if it counts as "dumbing down" when arcade flight sims are generally fairly dumb to begin with, but trying to make it easier for people to play Top Gun is a pretty decent aim. Not sure how well it works, though. There's a training mission and a single-player, with the option for XBox Live play - training takes you through the mechanics, roll, bank, climb, dive, stall... and the air drifting, the single-player mission proper puts it to use.

It's just compared to AC6 this can't help but suffer to some degree, fancy aerobatics or not. Looks worse, sounds much worse (EDIT: Jesus, the voice acting is horrifically bad), battlefield seems much smaller, and while the third-person view seems capable of some pretty snappy tricks it makes me feel ill and seems wildly difficult to get the hang of. Time and again I keep realising I have no idea where my plane's pointing or even if I'm actually right way up. I like it - I'll give the demo a little more time - but the only way this seems likely to unseat NamcoBandai from their position is through the strength of the Tom Clancy brand.

[museumsteve]

I'm really enjoying it, perhaps just cos it's different from AC6. I was pretty disappointed with AC6 after the awesome PS2 outings.
I like the 'assistance off' mode, once you get the hang of it it's good fun dodging missiles It will be a great addition for online battles with your mates.
I'm not too keen on the chap that's always shouting over the air (the soldier on the ground), he's very annoying.
I have high hopes for the full game but I will admit I am probably getting it as much for being a Clancy game as for it being an air combat game.

[Eight Rooks]

More gameplay thoughts - huh, the automatic attack corridors on your HUD are actually pretty neat. Plus the third-person view has a certain appeal... thing is from first impressions it's still not as cinematic, as downright thrilling as watching AC's battlefields even from inside the cockpit. I think it's a pretty good idea Ubisoft just haven't capitalised on effectively (surprise, surprise) - this really needs a lot tighter controls and some smarter camera angles. But the demo is fun, sure, and God knows we could do with another franchise in this particular genre. It hasn't won me over completely but I could well buy this.

Oh, and AC6 plays as well as or better than any of the PS2 titles. Fail! The sheer size of the maps made all the difference to me - HAWX is good, but it's not a proper battlefield and still looks worse than Project Aces' graphics engine. Some of the smoke effects are awful.

And again, the voice acting is appalling. Seriously. The "soldier on the ground"? Dragon-something-or-other? He really does sound as bad as some of the low-budget PS2 JRPGs who had friends of the developers dragged in to do the voiceovers.

[Charlie]

Didn't like it myself. Thought it a blatant AC6 rip-off and, like most imitations, not as good as what it's trying to copy.

[EvilBoris]

Can you tell me what makes it an Ace Combat rip off?

I've seen a couple of people mention this already but as far as I'm concerned it is an Arcade Style Fighter Jet Combat game, surely there is bound to be some similarities like Planes+Guns + control pad?

I quite enjoyed the demo myself and playing it from the cinematic view made a nice change to other games I've tried like this, even if I didn't realise that the plan actually handles totally differently (you can't roll you just bank then turn)

[Charlie]

Well, the controls and camera anglea are identical. And I don't mean similar. I mean identical. I don't think it's as pretty as AC6 either, the particle effects aren't as impressive.

One area where it does improve on AC6 though is the ground which up close got really blocky in Namco's game. Doesn't do that in HAWX, stays nice and sharp.

[Eight Rooks]

Eh, I still don't like the ground textures compared with AC. I don't know why it is, there's just something about their whole colour palette/use of shaders etc. that makes HAWX look very... soulless. The water in particular is awful. AC's still looks lo-fi and fake but it's a lot less jarring than this. I'll take scale and better artistic direction over visual fidelity any day.

Still, I'll say it again - I am a massive AC fanboy yet although this does a lot of things worse and works with some very similar features I do like it a fair bit and wouldn't call it an outright rip-off.

[ChrisF]

Copy n paste of my post over on the Marketplace thread...

Quite enjoyed the HAWX demo. Not really into flight games, and after Ace Combat 6, I never wanted to see another again... but, yeah, I liked HAWX. Controls well, nice presentation, and the graphics on the terrain are nice for a change!

I still stand by that. I'm not buying the game though as I'm not THAT into it. I enjoyed what I played though.

[EvilBoris]

Well, the controls and camera anglea are identical. And I don't mean similar. I mean identical. I don't think it's as pretty as AC6 either, the particle effects aren't as impressive.

You mean a cockpit view, an external view and a hud view?

[Tobal]

Wasn't to impressed, graphics are sub par, damage to buildings looks Ps1 era textures, and while "Limiter off" mode does look cool and is really good against missile locks it suffers when trying to turn your defense into attack, it nigh on impossible against fast moving targets to soley use the "Limiter off" mode and switching back and forth between them to overcome it made me ill.

One thing i did think almost worked well was the EDT option, giving a flight path to the target but for some reasondoes not give a path out, i fly into the city using EDT on a tank but it only lead me in there and left me to fly into a maze of buildings after taking out the tank.

The battle field itself was small and way to many objectives at the same time, just made me feel rushed, at least in the big battles of AC6 with 3/4 objectives at the same time, i still felt i time to clean up at whatever mission objective point i started on and move on to the next.

[GordonJ]

I quite enjoyed the demo myself and playing it from the cinematic view made a nice change to other games I've tried like this, even if I didn't realise that the plan actually handles totally differently (you can't roll you just bank then turn)

You can, before you begin the mission there's an assist mode handling screen which you can set to normal or expert, setting to expert means you roll and normal makes you bank.

Had a brief play around and had fun with mates in a four player coop game, think I'll wait for it to hit the bargain bins. Coop was so much fun but didn't think too much of the game itself.

[Charlie]

You mean a cockpit view, an external view and a hud view?

Haha. No. I was thinking of the distance the plane is from the camera (in third person view) and, particularly, the camera angles obtainable via the right analogue stick.

[yesteryeargames]

did no one pick this up? i got it from play with the free faceplate today.

[Dirty Sanchez]

I've got it, via Feb compo.

Enjoying it but very early days yet, theatre of war seems tight for a jet. Second mission is frantic, but only played though(failed, first time through).

Not tried the voice commands yet, can see this being a boon later on.

Range on seems a bit short for the missiles, ground war mixed with air war is a tricky balance given the limited range.

[saturn-gamer]

At first I thought this was an AC6 killer but going back to AC6 made me realize it isn't. And AC6 isn't my favourite AC, not by a long shot. I like all AC's since part 2 better, for 3 the JP version.

The edge HAWX has is the 60fps that feels good, AC6 didn't have it yet the Ps2 outings did.

I don't like the gameplay of HAWX, and Ass. off was fun for a while but I crave the old style camera without assist. For the time being, i'll return to the JP Electrosphere on Disions side for my dogfighting needs.