HAWX 2

[Starglider]

Didn't see a review thread for this, so let me just say that it's crap. I suspected it would be, but I am psychologically compelled to buy any arcade flight sim, so...

The game is packed with gimmicks, but most of them boil down to 'shoot the glowing dots on the 2D IR scope'. They're ok I guess, as a diversion. However the actual flight sim part is completely shit, much worse than the original HAWX. The missiles are the most useless I've seen in a modern flight sim game, due to a combination of ridiculously short range window (minimum vs maximum) and flare spam. Nearly all the enemies like to play 'mob you and get as close as possible, then float around at stall speed too close for your missiles to lock'. Early on you can do high speed wide circles to avoid this, but later on most enemies get near-infinite quantities of 98% effective flares. On the few occasions the missiles do lock, they have ridiculously good tracking so it isn't like there's much skill involved lining up shots. It's far more sensible to rely on your gun, which has infinite ammo, high damage and very favorable collision detection. So effectively it's a crap version of Blazing Angels. The aircraft handling is fairly bad as well; the turn rate is high but the angular inertia seems excessive, such that it's harder to aim than it should be. Although the 'off mode' gimmick from the first game is still available, it is now virtually useless (because you're relying on gun kills all the time, and don't really need the extra maneuverability) - I played through the whole game without finding a use for it.

The second major problem, after screwing up the first game's reasonably competent air-to-air combat, is the mission design. There are lots of them and they're each pretty long, but almost without exception you concentrate on a tiny area of the map at once. There are no expansive battles and for the most part pretty few targets on the map at once. In campaign mode the game dictates which plane and special weapon you use for each mission, so no variety there (although you can select in free flight mode). Personally I found the missions both boring and frustrating; there are several places in the game where you can easily be killed by things you couldn't realistically anticipate. Your standard missiles don't work on ground targets, and strafing is a PITA due to the wonky handling. Oh and finally there's no feedback to indicate you've been hit (no screen shaking etc), so if you don't notice your health going down dying from one hit comes as an unexpected shock. I found the game quite hard, but almost all of that difficulty came from the escort missions, where you frequently have a ludicrously short time to kill all the enemies before the troops you're protecting die. Your wingmen are even more useless than usual for these games; there is a token 'allied support' gimmick in a couple of missions but it isn't really relevant. Generally the designers make a desperate effort to keep the excitement level up, which fails miserably.

The final problem is the graphics, which are mostly crap. Apparently the designers put so much effort into the flashy tacticool stuff in the interfaces and the IR vision that they couldn't be bothered to make a decent 3D engine. The landscape shows a lot of triangulation and popping, nearly PS2 level. The water is awful; ships have reflections but mountains don't, which looks really stupid. There are a few passable bits of music, I liked the Terminator-style early stuff, but the later levels have really boring music (and a laughable attempt to do an Ace Combat style dramatic finale). Even the planes somehow look worse than the first game, and there are significantly fewer of them (e.g. the YF-12 has been removed). The story is the usual brand of Tom Clancy insurgent/Russian nationalist stupidity, which is delivered with gusto and too many characters for you to really get attached to any of them.

Thus I would say that unless you also suffer from a tragic compulsion to buy console flight sims, avoid this. It's considerably less fun than Top Gun : Combat Zones (on the GameCube), my former 2nd worst console flight sim, although it can't compare to the absolute worst of the genre, Heatseeker on the Wii.

P.S. Also completed Battlefield : Bad Company 2 this weekend and that was a sequel I actually liked. I missed the helicopter section and it's a shame there was only one free-roaming level (a pretty small one at that), but it was a pretty polished and entertaining bit of FPS silliness. Better than Wolfenstein, although as expected the single player was fairly short. I didn't mind the ludicrous amounts of fog/smoke too much as a gimmick for one game, although it would be really annoying if it caught on and all FPSes adopted the 'cannot see anything but muzzle flashes' look.

[Stark]

BC2 is all about the multi, the SP was apparently better in the first one.

[Brother-Captain Gaius]

Well, this is kind of refreshing to hear, in a way. Ubisoft's utterly wretched DRM fooled me once with SC Conviction, and as much as I like HAWX in a mindless "pew pew yay jet fighters" kind of way, there was no way I'd get suckered into their DRM scheme again.

[General Zod]

Well, this is kind of refreshing to hear, in a way. Ubisoft's utterly wretched DRM fooled me once with SC Conviction, and as much as I like HAWX in a mindless "pew pew yay jet fighters" kind of way, there was no way I'd get suckered into their DRM scheme again.

There's no DRM on consoles.

[Stark]

You can just crack the DRM out anyway. I lol at all the people stupid enough to get kicked out of Settlers 7 by DRM if their latency is too bad instead of just cracking it.

[Scottish Ninja]

That's pretty disappointing to hear; I had high hopes for HAWX 2 but apparently they decided to bring back escort missions, the least fun part of HAWX.

In fact, I'm fairly certain that no one has ever enjoyed playing an escort mission in any game ever.

And to hear that it still looks awful is pretty hilarious, considering that my friends and I were laughing about how HAWX looked significantly worse than AC6, which came out some three years before it.

Pretty amazing though that somehow I expected that Ubisoft would actually have taken a relatively competent title like HAWX and ironed out the flaws to make a good sequel, instead of deciding to amplify everything they did wrong with it.

[Vympel]

I'm playing HAWX right now, it seemed fine and I thought if HAWX 2 was similar I'd probably get it budget off Steam, like the original. But oh well, if it sucks, I'll just wait for the next Ace Combat on PS3!

[Starglider]

That's pretty disappointing to hear; I had high hopes for HAWX 2 but apparently they decided to bring back escort missions, the least fun part of HAWX.

I've never had a problem with them in the Ace Combat games, either the 'protect the ground forces' ones or the 'escort damaged aircraft ones'. I didn't have a problem with the 'defend the refinery' etc missions in the original HAWX either. The thing is, those were larger levels with more targets and more time, so that you could adjust your strategy, respond to requests for help and missing one strafing run didn't fuck things up. In HAWX 2 the areas are too small and the time limits too short for any of that (e.g. defend the marines suicidally driving straight into an ememy fleet and oil rigs full of missile launchers, which I retried about thirty times).

Pretty amazing though that somehow I expected that Ubisoft would actually have taken a relatively competent title like HAWX and ironed out the flaws to make a good sequel, instead of deciding to amplify everything they did wrong with it.

They seem to have concentrated on putting in the 'AC-130U Spooky gunner' and 'helicopter UCAV pilot' segments, which look and sound very tacticool but are essentially long, very easy and kind of boring 'shoot the glowing dots'. I don't know how the 3D engine and AI managed to regress from the first game, you'd think that they deliberately fucked it up.

[Shroom Man 777]

Hahaha. So this means Ace Combat is still TOP GUN. Oh yeah, beach volleyball!

Ace Combat thinks its dangerous? It knows its dangerous.

Crash and burn, in my ass.

Shame Ace Combat looks like it's following HAWX stupid Tom Clancy bullshit. Fuck that shit.

[Edward Yee]

Other than "assistance off" and voice commands, plus the missile and gun buttons being switched, HAWX used the same controls as Ace Combat! I will note that escort missions can actually be enjoyable if the escortee's AI and stats don't suck... that's just usually not the case. See "every time that a Dynasty Warriors commander rushes Lu Bu."

Considering that the Ace Combat games had missions where you were the one attacking escortees, I'd be interested if the new one could have a way to make the AI escorts ferocious enough to be able to drive off the player, as opposed to being able to speed past them straight to the target -- in effect, being on the other side of what you were doing in escort missions. Only one I can remember specifically was the AC4 escort of the defectors' plane, but I thought that the AI attackers were almost too happy to engage you specifically instead of focusing on the target and trying to slip by you.

With AC6, I did like how some of the escorts were optional operations that if successful would result in Allied Support. (Did more successes within a mission merely increase how often you could call on it, or did it actually affect the "damage output" of such support requests due to more units being able to attack?)

[Vendetta]

I've never had a problem with them in the Ace Combat games, either the 'protect the ground forces' ones or the 'escort damaged aircraft ones'. I didn't have a problem with the 'defend the refinery' etc missions in the original HAWX either. The thing is, those were larger levels with more targets and more time, so that you could adjust your strategy, respond to requests for help and missing one strafing run didn't fuck things up. In HAWX 2 the areas are too small and the time limits too short for any of that (e.g. defend the marines suicidally driving straight into an ememy fleet and oil rigs full of missile launchers, which I retried about thirty times).

The other issue is that in previous Ace Combat games and HAWX 1 the AI tends to be about as aggressive as a startled kitten. Whenever you had to defend anything before you basically had time to have a nap in the middle of the mission and it still wouldn't have been destroyed. This is also one of the reasons why air combat gets into close in circlefights now. Previously you might have one enemy plane per mission that might put up a bit of a fight, now they all at least try not to die instantly, and so there's more to air combat than "get tone, spam missiles".

However, most of the changes appear to have been made in the name of multiplayer balance, minimum lock distances break up missile spam, HSMs only lock on to air targets but are longer range and more powerful than JSMs, etc.

I didn't have any real problems with the mechanics in the campaign, but I thought it was too short, too easy for the most part, and had far too many missions with UAVs. UAVs are OK in a game where you're otherwise limited to tromping around as an infantryman, but when you're already flying something shinier and much faster they're just dull.

[Vendetta]

(Did more successes within a mission merely increase how often you could call on it, or did it actually affect the "damage output" of such support requests due to more units being able to attack?)

Which operations you completed determined which allied units would be available for allied support. It generally made little difference except when it was the helicopter unit because they were slow and took a little longer to get to launch position.

[Sarevok]

Hahaha. So this means Ace Combat is still TOP GUN. Oh yeah, beach volleyball!

Ace Combat thinks its dangerous? It knows its dangerous.

Crash and burn, in my ass.

Shame Ace Combat looks like it's following HAWX stupid Tom Clancy bullshit. Fuck that shit.

Hawx not only has a nonsense plot it also has terrible gameplay, bad graphics and no memorable music to justify its existence.

I haven't played Ace Combat but from what I hear it had some great flying and background music to balance out the nonsensical story.

[Shroom Man 777]

The nonsensical story is not a minus for Ace Combat. It's part of its charm, man.

That's why setting it in a real world with a Tom Clancyesque plot is pure bullshit.

[Vendetta]

Let's be clear here, the Ace Combat plot has been "Oh Noes The Russians" for ages now, except it called them Rustobanians or some nonsense, and there were secret nazis pulling their strings.

If Assault Horizon is a real ace combat in the real world, the endboss will have to be an AI Hitler or something. Which you'll fly into a bunker under the Reichstag to blow up.

[Shroom Man 777]

Let's be clear here, the Ace Combat plot has been "Oh Noes The Russians" for ages now, except it called them Rustobanians or some nonsense, and there were secret nazis pulling their strings.

I dunno who the badguys in AC2 were. In AC3, it was megacorporationy cyberpunk stuff. In AC04, yes, it was Rustobanians or some shit. But they got asteroids and you don't even play Americans. In AC5, it really WAS Rusbotanians, but also weirdo technothrillery stuff with corporate whats its. In ACZ, it was the damn Germanians.

But the thing is, by not being set in the real world, their "Oh noes the Russians" also has trappings of things that are not-Russians, and they can festoon the games with crap that's totally out-of-this-world. Weirdo railgun cannons, funny-named countries, and geopolitical whatsits that can't even work in reality (ASTEROIDS!). So, yes. Ace Combat has been "Oh Noes The Russians" for ages now. Except not really. But yeah.

If Assault Horizon is a real ace combat in the real world, the endboss will have to be an AI Hitler or something. Which you'll fly into a bunker under the Reichstag to blow up.

That would be more awesome than any shit Tom Clancy could crap up.

[Edward Yee]

"A enemy jet? In MY Fuhrerbunker? Bringen sie mir Fegelein! *hits tabletop with fist* FEGELEIN! *hits tabletop with fist again* FEGELEIN FEGELEIN!"

So far I haven't heard of any gameplay changes to the AC series... wonder what the new superplane will be?

[Starglider]

So far I haven't heard of any gameplay changes to the AC series... wonder what the new superplane will be?

I vote for the B-1R. It may turn like a pig, but it carries 300 QAAMs and 1000 JDAMS.

[Edward Yee]

... making it a high-capacity Foxhound? (Never could pull off "zoom and boom" in the AC games, it usually devolved into a maneuverability/turning-fest unless I had to go to multiple areas rapidly.)

[Darksider]

To be fair the Tom Clancy games haven't really had Russians as bad guys in a while. His (and by "his" i mean whoever is writing the stories while Clancy sits on his fat ass and collects a royalty check, 'cause we all know he isn't doing it anymore) new fetish seems to be Latin america. The last two Ghost Recon and R6 games have had Mexican/South American rebels as opponents, and the original H.A.W.X. had an EEEEEEEEEEEEEVVVVVVVVVVVIIIIILLLLLLL PMC.

[Vympel]

Artemis has to be the dumbest enemy in the history of video games. I mean Christ - a PMC attacking the USA so that they'll be left alone to pursue military contracts, and then pissing off every other country (like Japan) in the process. Clearly, the CEO of Artemis is a GENIUS.

[Edward Yee]

It gets worse -- having non-disgruntled USAF flyboys in the AOs without an external override on their controls? That's even before coming up with the idea of attacking Air Force One...

[Ritterin Sophia]

You can just crack the DRM out anyway. I lol at all the people stupid enough to get kicked out of Settlers 7 by DRM if their latency is too bad instead of just cracking it.

Some of us wouldn't even know how to go about cracking a game.

[PeZook]

Artemis has to be the dumbest enemy in the history of video games. I mean Christ - a PMC attacking the USA so that they'll be left alone to pursue military contracts, and then pissing off every other country (like Japan) in the process. Clearly, the CEO of Artemis is a GENIUS.

I don't mind evil PMCs (let's face it: they ARE pretty bad), but...this sounds awesome. In an Ace Combat sort of way, of course

[Vympel]

Let me set the scene for you:-

Artemis is contracted by Brazil to fight against the unidentified 'Los Trinidad' coalition of miscellaneous Latin American countries. They do well. Then the USA decides it doesn't like the instability, and deploys forces to support Brazil, relegating Artemis to a support role for American forces- which harms their stock, somehow.

What does Artemis do? Oh, well first they don't want to support American forces very much, so they tell you to give the minimum amount of assistance possible, and then obviously try and sabotage your aircraft systems so you can't help. You do anyway, because you used to be with the USAF, naturally.

Then Artemis breaks its contract with Brazil in favor of a more lucrative one with Los Trinidad, foolishly ordering you to attack an American carrier battlegroup (which, amazingly, includes three Kirov nuclear battlecruisers. I shit you not) at the end of a mission where you were defending them. You leave Artemis and go back to US service.

Artemis then attacks CONUS, causing havoc across the whole country, capturing Norfolk naval base and stealing tactical nuclear missiles, seizing control of Chicago, deactivating America's missile defence system, launching EMP weapons to knock out American satellite communications, and launching attacks against US forces overseas to prevent them from returning to the mainland, including violating Japanese sovereignty in an attack on an American carrier group.

Like I said - GENIUS.