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After Prince of Persia and EndWar, this is the third major Ubisoft retail release to come out protected not by any intrusive yet ineffective DRM scheme but simply by gamers' honor. And, on top of that, it is a very good game.
There hasn't been a similar game released for some time now: simplified arcade-like action with easy controls, breath-taking cinematics and impressive graphics that will run in full even in mid-range PC systems. My advice: as with any flight combat game, using a joystick will make things so much more enjoyable and intuitive.
If you are more of an authenticity buff (and still have tons of free time to spare) I would advise going with a combat AddOn for Flight Simulator or a good old Jane's title. You will find no realistic cockpit and detailed controls in H.A.W.X. So, is this flight combat game dummied down? Well, yes. But I promise you: you will have FUN like never before!
Hammerheading over cityscapes and coming in from the Sun over the desert has never been more easy to master. The electronic aids and bare-minimum controls will let you enjoy the fights and start mastering them early on.
This is a 4star game but I decided to give it full marks just because the Canadians at UBISOFT keep walking the narrow path towards a DRM-free future. It cannot be easy to take such bold decisions during such a tight economy. They deserve our support.
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This is a pretty game, lots of action, lots of things to blow up, makes a lot of noise and seems to be a game aimed at kids. It is not in any way a flight sim except that it happens to take place in airplanes. And thats where any similarity to a flight sim ends.
The planes fly like they are on rails, there is no inertia whatsoever. Engines accelerate the planes with vertical climbs not making much difference to speed. You can jerk a high AOA turn and the speed stays pretty much constant. You can go inverted and pull loop a few thousand feet off the ground~ and make it. There is no speed compression, you can turn as sharp as you want at any speed. You can target enemy aircraft and ground targets about 2-3 seconds apart and fire on them from high off angles and speed at close range and still hit.
Not much of a sim, but fun as a game. EZ entry for people with no knowledge of flight sims or desire to learn all the stuff that goes with it. Its a console game adapted to a PC platform~ nuff said.
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UPDATE
I have to say that I continue to be impressed with this game as I play it more. I may have under appreciated the graphics, I find that the use of the satellite imagery to be a great thing and probably much cheaper than having designers start from scratch in a fictional world like Ace Combat series.
I think the Cape Canaveral map is cool but while playing I was reminded of an Ace Combat 4 map of basically the same thing, the Magellan Straits, Caribbean, Afghanistan, Middle East(Probably Arabia), Central African, and all of the 17 maps are really great. Another thing is that in the first mission, Juarez, Mexico, you support the Ghosts in the earlier GRAW games which is a nice tie in and I'm pretty sure you support the Rainbow Team from Rainbow Six Vegas in the Nevada map. Other noteworthy planes are the YF-23 that lost out to the F-22, the XA-20 Razorback which I've never seen anywhere else, X-29 demostrator, Harrier, EA-6B Prowler, Mig-21, A12 Wing, and other curiosities.
Something I wish was included was fully destructible environments, your missiles splash in the water but don't effect buildings or trees. Another thing that would be great would be add-on maps or a map editor in which we could use google earth imagery or some kind of expansion packs for helos, gunships or even prop planes. All in all I have to update my rating to an 8.5, since I'm a non-console player I can't compare it to the latest Ace Combat but I'm sure it more than holds it's own against it.
GENERAL THOUGHTS
Yeah this is a fun game that reminds me very much of the Ace Combat series for consoles of which I have not played since I became a PC only gamer. It's not a sim by any means but if you want that get the Microsoft flight sim or any of the other ones available on PC. I have to disagree with IGN's review of 6.7, the author clearly misses a lot of the details, such as the ability to release flares when an enemy has you locked, the changeable paint schemes and others, and has an animosity towards this game that is not called for, for me this game is between a 7.5 to 8.5 depending on how much you like the arcade modern jet combat game. I would say for me it's an 8 and that's 4/5 stars here.
The novelty of this game is really what is cool. I'm not much of a sim player and outside of that ,at least for PC gamers, there's not much in the way of cool jet fighter games. Who wouldn't want to fly one of these technological masterpieces but not have to worry about all the details that the real guys do? Not to mention the real-world locations, which is not offered in the Ace Combat series. My review is from a single player offline only POV and not really using any of the bots you can command, as it didn't really make much of a difference but I have to say I have not played this game to the end yet.
STORY
Well it's a pretty minimal story, and thanks for that I don't really follow that much in a game like this or racing games either. I still remember the silly and embarrassing Ace Combat 4 story although I did like the art style involved. This has just an ex-air force pilot(YOU) switching to a private security company that has no loyalties other than money and when it takes a contract to attack your country you rebel. That's all I'll get into as you can get a summary from the official reviews elsewhere. It takes place in 2014, standard Tom Clancy near future time setting.
GAMEPLAY
Well like I said this is an arcade game, meaning you can do about anything with your jet and as long as it doesn't hit the ground you will not be punished for it with things like flameouts or losing control. The combat is non-realistic as well, when you are under attack you can use flares and wildly maneuver your plane in any which way and it always works. Also it's a little too easy on normal difficulty, I had no trouble killing Su-27's, Apaches and various ground targets in the older FA-18 Hornet; I would expect and Su-27 to be a bigger challenge.
Also there is no need to worry about fuel as it's not even on your HUD as well as you being armed with nearly 200 missiles for every mission, even AceCombat5 had limitations that made the game a bit more strategic and challenging. Missiles can't be instantly fired in succession there's a bit of a waiting period after firing 2 to fire more. Your cannon/machinegun is unlimited as well but can't be used continuously as it get's hot and is a primarily burst weapon. The cluster bombs are awesome as well as the conventional large ground bombs with the usual HUD visualizations of trajectory and spread area.
That said it is kind of interesting to turn off the "assistance(HUD Forward View)" with left-ctrl and switch to a side view of the plane you are flying instead of the assisted normal swingman view, it's a little weird and I have not tried any missions with it on. There are no landing sequences to worry about either.
Another thing is if you hold down the missile fire button the camera will switch to the missiles view which is pretty cool. There's also something called the ERS which takes you step by step to an enemy kill, it makes it way too easy and really should be used for training purposes only.
TECHNICAL
I had no problems with the installation on Windows XP and the game picked up my Logitech Rumblepad 2 when I went into the controls settings and specified the joystick. The default settings were fine for my joypad. I have a midrange system and had no trouble getting 1680x1050 with all high. I'm using Q6600@2.4Ghz, 4GB RAM, 8800GT512.
GRAPHICS
These were standard to good, I would say nothing mind blowing but nothing too bad either. The jets all look like their real world counterparts and the real world cities look accurate since they are supposedly based on real satellite images, although they are limited in area. I wasn't hugely impressed with the Los Angeles area, being a resident of LA, I didn't see the Hollywood sign or other things other than the main downtown section. Also the Southern Nevada part is OK I suppose, mainly empty desert and what I assume to be Lake Mead, I used to live in S. Nevada and didn't really see much that was recognizable, I don't remember there being a Hoover Dam but I could be wrong.
The maps that stood out were Chicago, DC, Tokyo, and Rio. There's about 17 maps. The stars are really the planes as they should be.
I liked the water on the screen effect you get when going through rain. The explosions are standard this generation to look at but the explosions from the ground battles are pretty neat if nothing special. The way to really get a good view of the plane and surroundings, if not really all that conducive to play, is to use the assistance off setting using left-control. In summary the graphics are good this generation, that's not really a problem though since it's just cool to have a game like this finally for PC gamers.
SOUND
Pretty standard, everything sounds right from what I know. I turn off/down the music since I don't thing most fighter pilots are allowed that sort of thing in combat anyways and I don't need it to give me a better gaming experience as this is only a game. Some may like the drama enhancement you get from it but I'm not one of them. The explosions are pretty nice, you would of course never hear them like that in a jet but it's a game!
EXTRAS
One thing you should go and get from a third party is a plane and mission unlocker. There are massive amounts of real world planes here and I want access to them immediately, like the SR-71 Blackbird, F-117 Nighthawk, F16, F15,F14,all the migs, Mirage, Typhoon, A10 Warthog, F35 Joint Strike FIghter, F4, older 60's planes, awesome new looking Russian planes, experimental planes, F22 Raptor, next next generation USA planes, Jaguar, F-111, and probably others I've missed. As well as different loadouts of missiles for each planes specialties like precision bombs, ground target bombs, cluster bombs, air to air bombs or a mix of them particular to each plane and it's capabilities. I would guess there are at least 50 planes here not counting the variants of the same plane. My favorites include the F-15 Active, F-117, A10, SR-71, etc.
There are no helos,prop planes, gunships or heavy bombers here, this is all jets, but you do take down Apaches and other helos in missions. The planes also have at least one more selectable paint job, like the F-117 Nighthawk has the standard Stealth Black and also has the Camo pattern for daytime missions. Also there are multiple variants of each jet like the standard F16 and the upgraded F16c which I believe is the non-export USA edition or exported to close allies only as well as variants with different selectable paint jobs.
All of this stuff is unlockable only after finishing in the different difficulty settings or getting better ratings after missions or some online only stuff but who wants to do all that, search for the Hawx unlock on google and have a blast right away!
CLOSING
I recommend this to anyone who likes arcade flying games and doesn't want too much of a challenge. This game is great if you like jets in general and want the chance to fly them in a game with a wide variety. It's not a must have game, unless you are a lover of modern jets, but if you are looking for more variety in your game collection get this one. Of course this is not a fifty dollar game by any means so get it used when the prices come down, I'd say new in the forty dollar range. I'd say if you have the latest Burnout PC game or miss/enjoy the Ace Combat console series and seek a breather from the FPS's, RPG's, MMOG's and other dominant game types, this would fit nicely into your collection.
Honest reviews on Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.
First off, I'll admit I'm a simulation type guy. I've played in-depth games like the JANES series, Microsoft FSX, and the sort. However, even I get tired of managing all those switches all the time and I just want to dance around the sky and blow things up. If thats what you want, than HAWX is definitely worth a look.
First off, the graphics are the game's strong attribute. The landscape and the planes are beautifully modeled. The effects however, such as flak, missiles, enemy fire, and certain explosions, seem to be lacking in authenticity when compared to the graphical quality of everything else.
The flight model is obviously very simple and easy to use; I wouldn't recommend hooking up a complex control system to play this game. I tried my Saitek X52 system with rudder pedals, didn't work so well. But a Microsoft Sidewinder with a throttle slider and twist-style stick works outstanding.
The one area that will be a challenge is when the assistence mode (AKA the alpha limiters for those aviation buffs) is turned off. This will allow some very high angle-of-attack manuevering and snap turns. However, the other reason this mode is challenging is because the camera viewpoint in this mode is normally off to the side of your plane, keeping your plane and your target in the same line of sight. But when you get into these close-in tight dogfights, the camera can't seem to keep the enemy plane in view for more than a few moments, and good luck trying to engage with guns in this mode if you run out of your three dozen missiles. Luckily, gun ammo is infinite, and bursts are limited to the gun's heat build-up.
Overall, this game makes me appreciate the other flight sims out there that are extremely realistic, but works in a pinch if I need to give my brain a break and blow stuff up. The one remaining downfall of this game is it is VERY much like the Ace Combat series, its practically a twin. And the missions can get somewhat repetitive. At the time of this review, I've only played ten missions in, so we'll see what remaining missions have in store.
Bottom line, definitely a console arcade game for the PC, shallow learning curve, repetitive gameplay, but awesome graphics and fun, if unrealistic flight modeling. Head to head matches will probably be the main focus of HAWX fans...Lastly, this is just one man's opinion, so feel free to try the game and make your own conclusions.
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When you don't even pay $6 for a game like this....how can you complain. (I bought the PC Download that is less than $5.50)
Seriously though, I played a couple missions and it's a good looking and interesting fighter/flight game. It's certainly not a sim, and it takes some getting use too..but as I said before...it's worth 4 stars in my book as far as price versus content.
