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Video Game: Starhawk
aka: Star Hawk

Starhawk is the Spiritual Successor to the online-multiplayer-only Warhawk, both of which are Playstation3 Exclusives. While still heavily focused on multiplayer, Starhawk features a single player campaign which is structured such that it introduces the player to the core mechanics of the multiplayer.

It's sometime in The Future. You are Emmett Graves, a hired gun and "Rift Salvager". Out here on The Final Frontier, there has been a new gold rush for "Rift Energy", a valuable but dangerous power source. Graves was partially mutated by this energy, but a Power Limiter on his back keeps him human. The Outcasts, who worship Rift energy, and viciously attack those that try to mine it across the galaxy, weren't so lucky. Together with his good friend Cutter, Graves protects independent Rift Energy harvesting operations from the Outcasts, also called "Scabs." They have a ship called Annabelle, which can drop prefabricated structures from orbit on command, as do players online.

The multiplayer includes up to 32-person matches of Team Deathmatch and Capture the Flag, as well as four player cooperative wave defense. Players are given an entirely unsettled landscape to riddle with bunkers, turrets, barriers, and vehicle depots. The developers specifically wanted to capture the fast pacing of pulling a trigger on a gun when building an encampment.

The Official Trailer can be found here

On November 14, 2012, Emmett was confirmed to be one of the first two DLC fighters, packed alongside his rival, Kat, in Playstation All Stars Battle Royale.

Starhawk provides examples of:

Animal Theme Naming: Every single vehicle is named after an animal.
- Hawk :Jet Mecha
- Razorback :jeep
- Sidewinder: hoverbike
- Vulture : Jet Pack
- Ox :Tank
- Grizzly Mini Mecha
Badass: Graves.
- Badass Mustache: Cutter sports the bushy British gentleman's 'stache.
Batman Can Breathe in Space: Graves doesn't seem to wear a full suit in space, just goggles and a breather mask plus some thick, winter-weight clothing.
Battleship Raid: In the penultimate level, perhaps as a Call Back to the original Warhawk.
Beam Spam: Beam turrets, though fairly high in rift expense, are still largely seen in clusters to the chagrin of any unwitting hawks.
Big Bad: The Outlaw.
Book Ends:
Emmett: "It all started with a spark. A flash of blue gold."
The Corruption: What rift energy does to humans. It makes them look stereotypical voodoo witchdoctors, but replaces the paint emulating skull and bone with actual exo-skeletons and eerie blue glow between chitinous plating. There's a reason rift-mutants are called Scabs.
Crapsack World
Expy: The Hawks look and transform like Decepticons.
Death from Above: All combat equipment is dropped from the sky, even if a person or giant robot is standing on the landing zone. You receive a Trophy the first time you do this.
- Kill Sat: And the delivery is from orbit.
Drop Ship: Annabelle. It drops everything from soldiers to vehicles to buildings.
Drop Pod: How you start some missions, and how your reinforcements arrive when you build an Outpost.
Eldritch Abomination: Rift energy. It's used as a highly efficient power source, but it's actually an amorphous Energy Being that compels those exposed to it to worship it, protect it, and keep others from harnessing it. The exposed become Scabs, exoskeletal mutants whose flesh is gradually replaced by Rift energy. Then there's the final boss battle, where energy takes on a physical form seemingly all its own and can reanimate dead Scabs by smashing them together into new ones.
Frickin' Laser Beams: Beam Turrets.
King Mook: The Outlaw. He doesn't do anything the regular Scabs don't do, excepting the strange stun effect he places on Graves whenever he needs to do some Boss Banter.
Glowing Eyes of Doom: Graves and the Outcast, who are somewhat like conduits for rift energy.
Ground Pound: The melee attack the mechs. Even if you dodge the strike, you may still bite it from the shock-wave.
- The Hawk, which can turn into a jet, uses a powerful stomp in its mecha form.
- The Grizzly, a smaller, non-transforming Mini Mecha, uses a spike to
Hey, It's That Voice!: Steve Blum as the Sheriff of White Sands.
Homing Projectile: Two kinds, both usable by the Hawks: Swarm Lasers, which can lock onto multiple targets or all eight onto one target, and the much more powerful but single-shot Homing Missiles.
Jet Pack: Vulture Packs.
Lovecraftian Superpower: Scabs gain durability and strength at the cost of gradually becoming gigantic, flaming, mutant skeletons.
Macross Missile Massacre
Made of Explodium: Including buildings and walls. Reclaiming a structure even displays the option with a little bomb in the recycling symbol.
Magnetic Weapons: The sniper rifle is actually a scoped rail gun and the Grizzly comes equipped with a gauss rifle.
Multi Track Drifting: Powersliding with the Razorback or Sidewinder is one thing, but you can also do so with a Hawk in the air, or in space. In much the same way as in Freelancer, Starhawk uses inertia when it feels like.
Mini Mecha
New Old West
Old Save Bonus: If your PS3 has a save file of Twisted Metal (the 2012 Reboot) and it's not pre-owned, then you get an extra Outlaw skin for multiplayer that makes them look like Sweet Tooth.
Pre-Order Bonus: Those who pre-ordered the game at Gamestop in North America got a new co-op map, some multiplayer skins, a new Multiplayer Homeworld Lobby, as well as the soundtrack and the original Warhawk for PS1.
Recycled In Space: It's a game made to appease Warhawk fans, set in space stations and other planets.
The Reveal: The Outlaw is actually Logan, Emmett's older brother, who was mutated fully by Rift Energy. This reveal comes early on and the focus is therefore purely on stopping him and putting the past in its place.
Revolvers Are Just Better: Graves' signature Galloway Revolver, which is closer in appearance to a Hand Cannon and indeed, does very high damage per shot as compared to your other primary weapon, the Kinetic Rifle.
Ridiculously Fast Construction: Justified in that these are relatively small, prefabricated structures which are ready to be used on impact.
Scarf Of Ass Kicking: Graves. It even billows in the wind.
Sickly Teal Glow. Rift energy and those mutated by it.
Shotguns Are Just Better: The Union Shotgun. Even the Transforming Mecha has one in the Flak Cannon, which, like all of its weapons, can be used in flight or ground mode.
- Short Range Shot Gun
Sentry Gun: Two kinds: Small anti-personnel machine gun turrets which slot onto certain structures, like walls and bunkers, and large beam turrets for anti-vehicle work, that have connectors for wall sections.
Sentient Cosmic Force: Rift energy.
Smash Mook: Apex Warriors.
Space Battle
Space Fighter
Space Western
Spiritual Successor: To Warhawk, but the base and vehicle building is reminiscent of Battlezone.
Stuff Blowing Up
Tank Goodness - The OX tank, which can fire regular explosive shells and switch to an artillery mode, with a handy dotted line indicator showing your firing arc.
Transforming Mecha
Tower Defense: The build and battle system has some elements.
Voice with an Internet Connection: Cutter.
Volcanic Veins - The Outcasts, who have been exposed to rift energy, known for its its persistent, flashy blue glow. Emphasis on Emmett's right arm, which still lacks bulk in the chitinous armor.
Weekend Inventor: Cutter, who invented insta-buildings dropped from orbit and the technology to keep Emmett's mutation from taking over.
Was Once a Man: Scabs.
Zerg Rush: Scrapper Scabs come in the largest hordes of any wave of enemy, but only use melee attacks.