If you want, call this Ace Combat 7. Notable is a distinct lack of dancing with the angels, but you must be in ACE MODE at all times. Platforms: Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. Release dates: October 11 (NA), October 13 (JP), October 14 (EU) Abandoning the Strangereal world of prior Ace Combat games, Assault Horizon takes place in the real world, including cities such as Paris, Miami, Dubai, Moscow, Washington DC, as well as non-specific-city locations such as East Africa, the Pacific Ocean, and confirmed post-launch DLC locations for multiplayer such as Tokyo and Hawaii.

Ace Combat Assault Horizon Gotta Stay Fly For Machu Picchu

Flyable helicopters, AC-130 gunship sequences, and even chopper door gunner. From what I hear there aren't many of these and the majority of the campaign is jets, as it should be, but more bullet points on the box is more bullet points on the box. There look to be some good Russians and some bad Russians. I'm not going to pretend this is original, or even what I want to see, but there you go.

Jim DeFelice, writer of AC:AH (and some milporn novels I'm sure none of you will admit to having read) offered this explanation. The Aces team had a number of other things on their wish list, including staging the story on as many continents and in as many geographic locations as possible. There was another subtle little requirement, though this one wasn’t actually articulated by anyone. We all knew we wanted to have as many cutting-edge aircraft in the mix as possible. That meant not only that Americans would have to play a key role in the story, but so, somehow, would Russians. Because between those two countries, you have most of the world’s front-line jets.

For those of you scratching your head and saying 'uh, China?' He wanted them to be in the game, but they aren't.

I'm sure if you think real hard about a Japanese developer making this game, you'll come up with the contextual reason he was polite enough not to mention. Let's discuss jets, as this is where the real action is. AC:AH introduces a new system, called Close Range Assault, alternatively known as Dogfight Mode (DFM) depending on where you look.

AC:AH's developers wanted the game to not be akin to AC6 and prior where you basically have a pile of green targeting boxes, you fire your ridiculous number of missiles at long range, and see a nice black puff of smoke in the distance, repeat, mission success. CRA is designed to make you get up close and personal. When you're behind an enemy you can lock on with LB+RB (or L1/R1) and go into CRA. You have to keep them inside that circle, the not imaginatively named assault circle, and you can light them up with your guns (which do more damage the closer you get - there is no foreign object damage in the world of Ace Combat) or missiles. My take is that CRA is actually interesting. It's not the greatest thing in the world, but it's interesting. Also, enemy flight leaders (aces) will use it against you.

You can evade the circle just like they can (in theory) and break you out of CRA, or they can perform a variety of acrobatic maneuvers and turn the tables - doing a kulbit or similar to change from pursued to pursuer. Of course, you can do that to them too.

It is, in fact, a completely viable tactic to shout at your TV, 'Goose, I've had about enough of this shit. I'm gonna hit the brakes and he'll fly right by.' For the most part, though, flying a jet is like flying a jet in Ace Combat.

You have your missiles, your guns, your special weapons. You will be using CRA but unlike a certain mode in a similar game we will not name, it's not friggin' useless. Multiplayer: Concerned about anime plane girls? Well, not likely. Instead, you get a skin editor built in. Terrorize your foes in this ultimate vehicle of death: That's not to say there won't be skins available, probably for pay (this IS Namco), but it's less 'creepy animu girl' and more 'Solo-Wing Pixy.'

Yes, that one's confirmed to be ingame. Also, unlike AC6's $180 DLC that consisted of nothing but reskins and no actual new content, new airframes and maps are already confirmed for DLC. AV-8B, YF-23, and in a return to prior AC form, a new fictional jet - but this time, from Macross mecha designer Shouji Kawamori. If there are no swarm missiles for an Itano Circus, there is no hope. There are two modes (at least) in MP so far. TDM - obvious. 'Capital Conquest' - this one looks interesting.

8v8, where you can fly fighters, bombers, or helicopters. Each team has an objective (usually bombing the shit out of the other team's priority target) and each aircraft has different roles to play. So yes, if you want to be Liquid Snake and try to take out two F-16s in an Mi-24 you can do this.

Whether or not it'll be effective is up to Kojim-er, your skills. Having played enough AC6 MP to realize it all turned into people turning in tight circles spamming QAAMs, I'm hoping the more objective-based Capital Conquest mode, along with the variety of airframe types available (rotary and fixed wing) will do something to revitalize that scene. And I've seen video of Capital Conquest where a B-1B carpet bombing an aircraft carrier. If you don't like that, something is wrong with you. Demo: There is one, on XBL and PSN.

It contains the first mission, which is an overly-scripted tutorial level, and the third mission, where you fly an Apache around using controls very much inferior to Apache: Air Assault which is a damn shame. As I understand it, this is/was a tradeshow demo.

It is my hope that the rest of the game will not hand-hold you through scripted events like the demo does, so keep in mind it's not a good demo. Whether that means the game is good or not, well, I have my hopes. Don't like how the planes fly? Make sure to reset the control scheme to Original. 'Optimum' controls are what used to be 'beginner' mode. 'Original' controls are what used to be the Ace Combat defaults, i.e.

You actually have yaw control, you can actually roll your aircraft, it actually flies like a plane. I have gotten many people to change their minds on the game from this alone, so it's downright stupid of Namco to have set the default to this Optimum lie without making it clear the original AC flight scheme is still alive and well. Shut up already Psion, jeez FINE. I leave you with these. E3 2011 trailer: Gamescom 2011 trailer: (Namco has opinions about what Americans want vs Europeans, apparently) Jim DeFelice, AC:AH author, writes about writing ACAH. AC:AH introduces a new system, called Close Range Assault, alternatively known as Dogfight Mode (DFM) depending on where you look. AC:AH's developers wanted the game to not be akin to AC6 and prior where you basically have a pile of green targeting boxes, you fire your ridiculous number of missiles at long range, and see a nice black puff of smoke in the distance, repeat, mission success.

CRA is designed to make you get up close and personal. When you're behind an enemy you can lock on with LB+RB (or L1/R1) and go into CRA. You have to keep them inside that circle, the not imaginatively named assault circle, and you can light them up with your guns (which do more damage the closer you get - there is no foreign object damage in the world of Ace Combat) or missiles.Not having played the demo, I'm curious as to how this differs from regular dogfighting in the older AC games. Does the cannon always hit as long as the target's in the circle, or do you still have to get the reticle in the right spot? I brought this up in the random gaming thoughts thread, but the demo thoroughly meh'd me on this game. And I'm a huge AC fanboy, so that is saying something. They are pushing DFM so hard that they made it basically impossible to hit targets with the gun without it because (as I realized after playing some AC6 last night) they took out the aiming reticule that shows you where the bullets are actually going at the distance the target is at (when not in DFM mode).

And then I found flying a helicopter absolutely worthless as the controls don't have anything to do with how a helicopter actually controls, the controls are (and this isn't rolling in the direction, or throttle up or down, it is literally moving in this direction) up/down, left/right, forward/back, turn left/right. Where is my my got damn throttle or roll forwards/back to move forwards or back? The entire mode felt like I was flying a RC toy, not a intricate machine. I actually should have realized I wasn't going to like it as soon as I got in a plane and left/right on the left analog stick defaulted to turning left/right, not rolling.

Not having played the demo, I'm curious as to how this differs from regular dogfighting in the older AC games. Does the cannon always hit as long as the target's in the circle, or do you still have to get the reticle in the right spot? You have to get them in the reticle, which is much smaller, inside the assault circle.

The demo contains a tutorial mission (which is not so good of a demo mission, imo) which explains this but if you keep the enemy in the circle, you lock on a missile. As soon as it turns red you can fire a standard missile which will home in and hit them for damage/a kill. If you put your gun crosshair over them and fire, then you can score gun hits. So there is some element of skill required to place guns on target, even in CRA/DFM. I actually should have realized I wasn't going to like it as soon as I got in a plane and left/right on the left analog stick defaulted to turning left/right, not rolling. As I said above to Tempor, the original scheme is there, and it is unforgivably dumb of Namco not to have made that clear if they want the existing fanbase to buy this game AND try to draw in new buyers. Fact is, Ace Combat series sales have been declining so it was adapt or die, but there are smart ways and dumb ways to do it.

E: also I agree there's no excuse for the helicopter controls. Apache did them so well on a gamepad, just copy that. Shamelessly copy that! As I said above to Tempor, the original scheme is there, and it is unforgivably dumb of Namco not to have made that clear if they want the existing fanbase to buy this game AND try to draw in new buyers. Fact is, Ace Combat series sales have been declining so it was adapt or die, but there are smart ways and dumb ways to do it. I know the option is there, and changing it back to un-fucked was the second thing I did once I started playing (the first thing I did was try to roll and turn and realizing that it was fucked). I just meant as an overall indication of what they are trying to do with the series, defaulting to turn instead of roll should have set off giant warning flags in my head.

Apple will release OS X Mountain Lion later this month, the ninth release of OS X in its 21-year history. In 2001, OS X was a bet-the-farm move by an Apple that was on death's door, having. Nine lives of marion barry. Culture Nine lives for Mac OS 9. In an about-face, Apple Computer says it will sell some machines after January that can boot into Mac OS 9, the older version of the company's operating system. Mac OS 9 Lives Website & Forum. Select a Power Mac G4 tower (or PowerBook G4 laptop). These Power PC units will be the fastest units that can still boot directly to OS 9 and they will have more cache (memory that resides within the CPU that cannot be changed). News: The Mac OS 9 Lives Forum is dedicated to. Installing, Maintaining, and Extending the functionality of Mac OS 9 Each Section can be Expanded or Compressed by clicking the Title of the section.

I agree with you that DFM is interesting, but I'm not sure I'd call it good. It certainly is entertaining the first few times, but I'm wondering how long this gimmick can possibly appeal to me without just getting tiring, especially with what I said above, which is that shooting down planes with the gun outside of DFM has become much harder with the loss of the aiming reticule.

That and DFM seemed to take basically no skill at all, it does 99% of the flying for you, your only job is to do that extra 1% to get close. I've been saying it for the past couple of years, and I'm saying it again here. Ace Combat 5 story/missions/cutscenes/etc on Ace Combat 6's engine (larger areas and more enemies) would be a got damn amazing game and I would pre-order it the instant it was announced for full price. I think DFM in the single-player will get kind of old eventually, true, but it depends on how often you have to use it. I'm hoping I don't get crammed into it every five seconds by a TGTLEAD enemy. In multiplayer, now, that's where I think we're going to see whether it's a make or break.

I can see the potential there, especially since some plane types can't use it. How they're going to balance bombers against fighters against helicopters is definitely something I want to find more details on. Also, this is my hope, but I believe the demo was set on stupid easy mode. It has to have been. If the AI is more aggressive about getting you into DFM, or breaking themselves out of it, actually making it less of that 1% effort, then we're talking.

If I have to set the game to Ace of Aces to get any challenge (thus, enjoyment) out of it, so be it. But there'd better be the damn option, you know? Definite question mark. I recently replayed AC6 and I'm going to marathon 04 and Zero this weekend. But I have to say at least so far, 6. Did not age well.

At the very least I understand why they made their changes, even if I'm frustrated by several of them. Famitsu liked it, at any rate. The top-scoring game of the week had to beat out some pretty hot competition to earn its Platinum award, but apparently it deserves it, because Famitsu found hardly anything to fault with the title.

'The story's dramatic and full of suspense,' one reviewer began. 'The gameplay possibilities are vast, letting you get on everything from helicopters and bombers. The game's really become a massive action epic, letting jet fans and regular gamers both enjoy it on an even kill.

I'm not completely complaint-free, but I am completely addicted!' I believe that'll be in one of the DLC packs, there have been eight airframes announced including that one. So far, we know Tokyo and Hawaii maps, plus: ASF-X Shinden II CFA-44 Nosferatu Su-37 Terminator Tornado GR.4 AV-8B Harrier II Plus YF-23 Black Widow II F-15S/MTD Ka-50 Hokum. On another note, there will be at least one free F-15C skin download: Namco sponsored a community skin contest, which was won by a talented guy I know from SA with the Death Rider design. I'm just gonna link to the AC facebook gallery: (I'll rehost if someone needs - it may say 'you have to log in' but I just hit cancel and it lets me browse without logging in).

Hmm, I really enjoyed AC6, which is my only exposure to the series, but I'm gonna wait and see how this game is reviewed before I think about picking it up. My turn offs from the demo were the DFM mode, which I don't understand the point of as it seems impossible to not win once you get into it, and the fact that you can do a barrel roll or whatever that evasion move was in a helicopter. Not that I even needed the move to beat that mission. And what's with the horrible third person angle for the helicopter and the close in third person zoom for the jet? You've been able to carry absurd numbers of missiles since at least Ace Combat 04; recent games have bumped up the SP weapon loads as well, but the starter F-4E in AC04 has 60+ missiles plus special weapons. Higher-end planes carry more, even when it's pointless.

AC6, it's true, gave you truly ridiculous weapon counts like the starter F-16C carrying 99 standard missiles because the Allied Assist/multiple objective battlefield was designed to be sprawling battlefields with obscene numbers of targets for the taking, and your armament needed to scale up to match. AC6, it's true, gave you truly ridiculous weapon counts like the starter F-16C carrying 99 standard missiles because the Allied Assist/multiple objective battlefield was designed to be sprawling battlefields with obscene numbers of targets for the taking, and your armament needed to scale up to match.

I understand the reasoning. It would be more easily masked if they weren't using real-world planes, like the aforementioned F-16. AC6 was my first introduction to the series.

The horribad plot/voice acting and missile loadouts were off putting. AC6, it's true, gave you truly ridiculous weapon counts like the starter F-16C carrying 99 standard missiles because the Allied Assist/multiple objective battlefield was designed to be sprawling battlefields with obscene numbers of targets for the taking, and your armament needed to scale up to match. I understand the reasoning.

It would be more easily masked if they weren't using real-world planes, like the aforementioned F-16. AC6 was my first introduction to the series. The horribad plot/voice acting and missile loadouts were off putting. What's a matter, Abulia?

Don't you want to dance with the angels? Cue terribad FMV. Then fly nothing but the Nosferatu. Prior ACs had more fictional aircraft, ACX has a ton of them, but the whole draw for the fanbase is flying sweet-ass performance jets you'll never fly in real life. So sure, they could mask it, if they wanted to ruin the draw of the series. And honestly, if missile loadouts are that offputting to you, I genuinely can't help you. That shit's your problem.

The awful VA/plot of AC6, on the other hand. Welcome to the brotherhood.

We all hated it too If you find a PS2 and a copy of Ace Combat 5, though, do give it a try. It's better than 6, though it may not have aged as well. It is pretty long in the tooth.the whole draw for the fanbase is flying sweet-ass performance jets you'll never fly in real life.

Might as well buy a toy F-22 and run around making 'zzoooommmm!!!!' Noises, it would be as much like flying a real jet as this, or any previous AC game is. But, having no particular attachment to realism in my games, the demo was shockingly fun. I actually like the dogfight mechanic, which had me dodging buildings and cranes and stuff while in pursuit in a very cinematic way. Even the graphics were better than expected (the TV commercial looks like ass.) I'll play the chopper level later, but so far this might get a spot in my rent queue. The awful VA/plot of AC6, on the other hand.

Welcome to the brotherhood. We all hated it too Fuck dancing with the angels. The Razgriz story in 5 was so good. I'm actually almost done with 04 and I have to say for all I've heard this game owns, it's really rough. 5 - which was the first PS2 Ace Combat I played - definitely held up better. AC04's weakest point, I think, is the missions.

They're all 'score x,000 points blowing up random tanks on the map' and the only way to do it effectively is to use UGB(M) or UGB(L) and go to town. What I do like is that the progression of every Ace Combat (start on defensive; gradually kick enough ass to turn the war around singlehanded, take out an enemy superweapon, win the game) is done very well. Stonehenge is a known, logical threat from mission 1, and while taking it out was somewhat disappointing at least the structure of the game dealing with it was OK. And those cutscenes are terrible.

AC6 isn't, unfortunately, alone at sucking. I'm very tired of unguided bombs no matter how good I am with them (at this point, very). BeauMK, that reminds me. For anyone on the fence about this, Redbox claims they'll have it October 11. I'm sure Gamefly et al will, as well. So that's an option.

Actually Gamefly is what I usually use. Since it's a fixed cost I'm pretty liberal about what I throw on there. I got the last Ace Combat based purely on the Unskippable video. I had to see just what kind of game could spawn cut scenes that bad. Just finished the helicopter demo, and it was a quite a bit more frustrating than the jet one. The HUD was sort of hard to interpret sometimes, and it's hard to do the stupid barrel roll evasion without accidently wasting rockets instead. It's kind of fun popping around buildings and taking guys out though, when you can bring it all together.

The awful VA/plot of AC6, on the other hand. Welcome to the brotherhood. We all hated it too AC6 was my first experience with the series, which I was excited to try out as someone who played a lot of Wing Commander / TIE Fighter in his formative years (this isn't the same, of course, but at least it's almost kind of in the same genre). There's bad VA, and then there's this.

I've played lots of games with dumb plots, or cheesy, over-the-top voice work, but this was the first game in which it was bad enough it made me want to stop playing after a while. After we chose one of the stories, I fleshed the story into a narrative outline, focusing on four different pilots. Two of the pilots were fighter pilots – the characters that became Colonel Bishop and Guts in the game. (I should explain that, in modern air force terminology, a fighter can also take a ground attack role. Very few fighters can “only” do one role – the A-10A, a superb attack plane – comes quickly to mind as a notable exception.) Another was a helicopter pilot – DR or “D-Ray” in the game – and the last was a bomber pilot – Jan Rehl. (Jan actually now starts the game coming back as a gunship pilot. Her evolution, and the AC-130 itself, is a separate story; that all came about during later discussions.).

Soon afterwards, I started working on the cut scenes. One of my goals from the very beginning was to tell the story through gameplay as possible. This meant not only that the missions had to be tightly integrated into the story – the missions always flow from them – but that things that part of the story is told in the missions themselves. This made for more work as we finished the cut scenes and started to get down to the missions. Not only was the team very concerned about how the missions would flow, but the dialogue had to be honed very carefully. And of course, the missions had to be conducted in a very realistic manner.

Working with them, I was part writer, part military consultant, part designer. So he at least makes it sound like there's a real amount of effort which went into crafting the story, whatever it turns out to be. Of which we know nothing earth-shatteringly interesting yet, good Russians, bad Russians, war in East Africa, WMDs, and presumably the main character (you, Bishop) are going to have to deal with Markov - 'Akula' - the primary antagonist. Also, it's rather refreshing how the cast isn't 100% white guys.

I have to give him credit for that. For anyone interested in multiplayer: Shows the skin editor, customizable missile contrail colors as well as jet colors (hot pink all day every day), selectable/customizable callsigns, and some Capital Conquest gameplay. The awful VA/plot of AC6, on the other hand. Welcome to the brotherhood. We all hated it too Fuck dancing with the angels.

The Razgriz story in 5 was so good. I'm actually almost done with 04 and I have to say for all I've heard this game owns, it's really rough. 5 - which was the first PS2 Ace Combat I played - definitely held up better.

AC04's weakest point, I think, is the missions. They're all 'score x,000 points blowing up random tanks on the map' and the only way to do it effectively is to use UGB(M) or UGB(L) and go to town. What I do like is that the progression of every Ace Combat (start on defensive; gradually kick enough ass to turn the war around singlehanded, take out an enemy superweapon, win the game) is done very well. Stonehenge is a known, logical threat from mission 1, and while taking it out was somewhat disappointing at least the structure of the game dealing with it was OK. And those cutscenes are terrible. AC6 isn't, unfortunately, alone at sucking.

I'm very tired of unguided bombs no matter how good I am with them (at this point, very) My favorite part of AC04 is the final mission and the attack on Stonehenge. When all of the opponents are like 'He's got a ribbon! Oh shit, they've ALL got ribbons!' AC04 was my first Ace Combat and I still have a special place in my heart for Mobius 1. Megalith was the last mission. Don't get me wrong, I liked hearing them all flip out over a ribbon emblem too. It's not like I dislike 04, per se, but I went from finishing 04 to the first mission of Zero, and it flies so much better.

I mean, you'd hope so what with Zero being five years newer, but it really puts into sharp relief just how much Namco improved once they got used to the PS2 and could concentrate on better flight handling and mission design and general polish. And ditched that annoying 04 narrator kid guy.