I love theAce Combatgames, and the greatest slight I ever suffered in this generation’s console war was the fact thatAce Combat 6: Fires of Liberationwas (and still is) an Xbox 360-only title. One would think that Namco Bandai, a company known forscrewing over people who like platform exclusives to stay that way, would have wised up and ported it to the black box o’ Blu-ray already. But they didn’t (yet), and I’m still butthurt about it.
Thankfully, the newAce Combat: Assault Horizonis a multiplatform title bound for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and it looks pretty damn good. Judging from the trailer (courtesy Gamespot) it seems that helicopters, barrel rolls, destructible environments, F-22 Raptors, missiles, explosions, RPGs, Miami, a dude named “Akula”, and ejection seats can be confirmed. “Steel carnage” is promised.
It looks bitchin’ to me, and some super-cinematic QTE-like sequences make me think that Project Aces might be taking a few lessons from itsSky Crawlersgame. Which is nice, because plain ol’ turn-and-burn can get a little boring sometimes.
My only concern is that, like the upcomingAce Combat Joint Assaultfor the PSP, this new game seems to use real-world situations and locations, rather than the fictional nations of previous games. Why am I concerned? Real-world stuff implies “realism”, and “realism” doesn’t allow forgiant flying fortressesand laser beams andsmarmy melodramaandusing a goddamn jet fighter to blow up a space station as it drops from orbit. If I wanted to fight unscrupulous PMCs or “ze Russians” I’d playTom Clancy’s H.A.W.X.again.
