Ace Combat

References to older games, get!

Ace Combat: From AAA to Free-to-Play in 20 Years

Thought I might want to post up this little piece of news, especially since nobody's mentioned anything about the beta this year.

EDIT: Gah, looks like somebody did mention the beta's opening on the previous page. Oh well, some news is better than no news, eh?

edited 27th Feb '14 1:50:04 AM by SgtRicko

Reviving this thread just to let people know that Ace Combat Infinity has been out for a while (I missed the release date and I blame that on moving). So if you own a PS 3 go get it.

It's actually pretty great honestly. I mean yeah, it's F 2 P, but the actual combat is better than even AC 04 or 6.

I liked 06?

I liked 04 and 6. I need to go check out Infinity at some point, though I travel for work so I'm away from my PS 3 more often than not. (I'm typing this on my laptop at their airport as we speak, waiting to get on a coast-to-coast flight. Yaaaaay!)

While I'm posting in this thread, there was a question that was bugging me the other day. From the song "Dogfight" in Assault Horizon, about 50 seconds in, it transitions from hard rock guitars to a more mellow instrumentation, and the melody comes in for the first time. I swear I recognize that tune from somewhere else in the franchise, but damned if I can remember where exactly. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

Song embedded for your convenience:

edited 6th Jul '14 12:52:10 PM by NativeJovian

It really fits the style of Ace Combat's music actually. Ace Combat 6 has a lot of that too where things go soft to hard and vice versa (Liberation of Gracemeria comes to mind.)

It's the Ace Combat theme, a variation on it. It started off as Razgriz in Ace Combat 5:

a different version, similar to the one used later in AC 6, was used in Reprisal (go to 3:19 here)

Ace Combat Zero featured a sort of inverted version of the Razgriz theme as its main theme. (Go to about 39 seconds in)

Ace Combat 6 did a major key variation on the Razgriz theme, the best example probably being Liberation of Gracemeria (Go to about 3:10 in). ACAH's theme, which you're referring to, is actually very close to AC 6's theme, it's just slightly simplified and shortened.

My friend claims that the linneage of the Ace Combat theme goes back to AC 04 with Moebius's theme, but I don't quite hear it personally.

And yeah, say what you will about ACAH on a whole, but it's OST kicked ass. Liberation of Gracemeria is a kick ass song though. Love how it builds.

edited 6th Jul '14 1:52:25 PM by Scherzo09

RE: AC 6; its scope was superior to the games based on AC 5's engine, but I think the scope of the battlefronts sort of sacrificed a sense of tension to most moment-to-moment battles (compared to 04 and Infinity I mean). Missions felt simultaneously more bloated and yet subdued, partly thanks to the much more atmospheric OST. I mean I still admire its scope, but ACI just feels so much tighter for the most part.

So Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Enhanced Version is part of Steam's free to play for the weekend thing.

It's also on sale for $5.

So, I recently got Ace Combat 2 3DS Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy and it's actually pretty great. At first I was skeptical because I was uncertain how well it would translate to a handheld (and a system with fewer shoulder buttons and one fewer analog stick), but it actually works pretty well. The game's a bit short, but I suppose the original probably was short, too.

Gameplay-wise, it does a pretty impressive job of bringing the main series gameplay to a handheld, and in terms of games I've actually played, it's basically Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War (ace squadrons, modern aircraft, one wingman) meets The Sky Crawlers Innocent Aces (customization, maneuver system, and (optional) prop planes).

Oh, and shooting down four TLS-spamming FALKENs with an F6F-5 Hellcat is great, if surprisingly easy due to the AI not being nearly as dodge-happy if you don't have a missile lock and the Hellcat and Zero having extremely tight turning radii and extremely powerful machine guns.

edited 24th Jul '14 8:30:25 PM by Balmung

So the PC controls in Assault Horizon blow ass.

Use a flight stick or a 360 controler?

360 controller is gone and I don't have a flightstick.

Eh, the game seems pretty poor anyway, I'll give it a pass.

It occurs to me that, at least in this thread, I haven't really heard anything good about AC:AH.

Thats because there is not any hing really good about it....

....

Okay the ASF-X Shinden II is pretty cool, but you cant use it until post game. :/

edited 24th Jul '14 9:25:39 PM by Imca

The shark mouth on the PAK-FA is neat but that's about all I got.

I can't be the only one who generally enjoyed it, can I? =/

You can't say the music isn't great, at least, and I actually like the DFM.

DFM might have been okay if it was optional, but it is forced, which is where it draws m ire.

Plus I hate the departure fom strange real, and even more then that from AFGNCAAP.

I liked 5 and Zero the most out of all the Ace Combat games.

6 and Assault Horizon have to be my least favorite.

Have any of you guys had a chance to play Infinity yet? I've shelled 100 hours into it and have yet to spend a dime on it.

This makes it extra unclear why they called the Ace Combat 2 remake "Assault Horizon Legacy", when it has absolutely nothing to do with Assault Horizon, as it's set on Strangereal, has an AFGNCAAP, doesn't have helicopters, and doesn't have DFM.

Still, if I wasn't clear, I recommend AHL if you have a 3DS and can find a used copy.

I liked Assault Horizon a lot. The DFM was a little rough in places (I didn't like it when it forced you to play on rails for a bit so it could show you some zomg supercool cinematic setpiece — mostly because your target tended to be invincible until the setpiece was done, so there was no way to tell if you needed to keep shooting at it or not) but overall I didn't mind the system at all. Nor did the departure from Strangereal or actually making the player character a character instead of a blank slate bother me. The one thing that I did miss was the sub-mission and allied support system from Ace Combat 6, which were the best parts of that game for me. The helicopter/gunner/bomber missions made for a nice change of pace without overshadowing the core fighter plane gameplay at all, and I found the story to be the most enjoyable since AC 04. (Not that the story was particularly deep or anything in ACAH, but AC 5's was irritatingly preachy for my tastes, AC 0's was disjointed and never really clicked with me, and AC 6's had a lot of potential but failed to realize it due to a combination of poor execution and some bizarre plotting decisions near the end.)

Basically +1 on all of this for me. Only difference is that I've never played any of the games before AC 6. I suspect that consequently I'm not quite so... invested in Strangereal or the blank-slate-PC tradition as some people.

edited 24th Jul '14 10:31:14 PM by gaunt88

Oh, in regard to the other topics touched on recently: I haven't played Infinity at all yet, though I keep meaning to give it a whirl (traveling for a living makes it tough to get qualify video game time in). I don't think I've ever played any of Ace Combat's multiplayer, honestly, so I'm not sure how I'd feel about Infinity, but it's not like I've got anything to lose by trying it out.

And about the PC version of ACAH — what exactly is "enhanced" about it? Are there new features or improvements or something to the PC version that aren't on the 360 version? Or is it just "better graphics"?