Ace Combat Thread?

CUM HISTORIA

<<A red aircraft? I've never seen a paintjob like that before>>

>>15198531
MUTAT VALDE RAZGRIZ

So, have any of you guys played the AC3 JP fan translation?
It was pretty good IMO. Context is really a powerful element of game design people don't talk much about.
I've played the western version long ago, but seeing all those apparently disjointed mission setpieces suddenly having all these interesting backstories, characters and motivations behind, it made them actually engaging and memorable.

>>15198367
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6eOs1SSQyk

>>15198367
Am I the only one hoping you work with an AI copilot even in stuff like multiplayer matches considering the trailer for the story seems to talk about AI pilots.

>>15199615
What if YOU are the AI?

>>15199538
I'm currently playing it, just missing Cynthia's route.
So far so good, that fight against Dision in the hyperspace was nuts.

よう 相棒 まだ生きてるか?

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>>15198367

Yo buddy, here comes the snow

Ace Combat Zero was the pinnacle of the franchise, and I hope 7 can beat it.

>>15199775
>fight against Dision in the hyperspace

I thought that was a geofront?

>>15198367
What is it about Zero that makes it rise higher than the others in meme status?

>>15201971
No no no, that's in another route.
The fight he's talking about is inside the Electrosphere itself. And it's all trippy as hell.

>>15199971
I liked 04 better, but Zero was definitely more refined

>>15199538
I didn't like it as much as the ps2 collection but it was still a good few days of playing. I also missed the radio chatter.

>>15199675
Already been done.

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>>15202105
Cheesy live action cutscenes and a likeable rival character.

>>15198367
Playing Zero for the first time is FUCKING AMAZING
>laser beams
>nukes
><<yo buddy, you still alive?>>

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>>15202517

>>15202109
Oh shit I've only beaten the Neucom routes and I think I'm currently on the standard one where you don't leave uepo

>>15202516
The live action thing certainly was a weird choice.
FMV by that point was already just a regretfully silly trend of the past, wasn't it?

>>15202509
What if it turns out you are actually an young Simon?
>one of the captcha street sign words is a fucking long german name
Alternatively, turns out you are Belka.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wba6XWbpT-k

>>15202584
I think it worked in the games favour. It felt like a documentary.

>>15203212
I think that's what they were shooting for, yeah. That's one of the (many) things I love about the PS2 trilogy, each game has its own style of storytelling both in visuals and in execution.

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>>15198367
I think it's safe to say Ace Combat is pretty /m/.

As a complete newbie to this series..

What games would you recommend to a newcomer such as myself?

>>15205077
4 is widely agreed to be the best starting place, it does an excellent job introducing you to the general gameplay style and story themes of the series. Play 5 and 0 (and 6 if you have a 360) next, then go back to the PS1 games whenever you find the time because they hold up quite well. Pretend Assault Horizon doesn't exist, unless you want to see for yourself how bad it screwed the pooch. The handheld games are okay and worth checking out if you find yourself wanting more AC.

>>15205089
Alright, thanks for the recommendations Anon. Gonna give them a try.

>>15199538
Gameplay ranges from mediocre to infuriating, but it's bearable. It's a shame that a lot of the planes that you get early on end up feeling really sluggish.

And yeah, while the different campaigns are nice, I feel like they end up feeling pretty samey anyway due to the player always having to kill Dision and them re-using certain elements. I lost count how many times you're forced to destroy the Sphyrna, for instance.

It had some nice ideas, and I find the artstyle really unique, but the game isn't as good as I hoped it would be. 3 is something that could've been re-done today and made much better, especially if they decided to experiment with the concept of experiencing missions from different angles.

I'd probably put AC3 at the bottom of all Ace Combat games, aside from obligatory bad stuff like X2, Assault Horizon, the GBA game, etc.

>>15199971
I haven't played 4, but I have to say that I preferred 5 to Zero. Zero's gameplay mechanics were genius, but it didn't feel as full of a game as 5. 5 had a long ass story and lots of gameplay, which made it feel like a burger with a one and a quarter inch thick patty, fresh lettuce, tomato, and onion, and all the condiments you need, while Zero seemed short and it gave you only one wingman, so the command system didn't feel as important, and as a result, felt like quick DLC for 5. It's like a quarter pounder. You'll eat it, and it'll taste good, but it isn't nearly as good as the thick ass burger you had before. I haven't finished Pixy though, so maybe I'm wrong.

Also, AC: AH wasn't a bad game, if you think of it as something that isn't an Ace Combat game. The story is good, and actually isn't just "USA IS GOOD AND RUSSIA IS BAD," it's really just "TERRORISM AND COUPS ARE BAD AND ALLIANCES ARE GOOD." I really enjoyed the plot and the rivalry, and I got really attached to the characters, and genuinely hated the antagonist. The final battle was extremely gratifying and the soundtrack was orgasmic. The game definitely needed to have the DFM and AFM shit removed, and the helicopter level's zoom function shouldn't have been set up so zooming locked your crosshairs in a little square, and as a result the gameplay felt restrained. However,the lore, soundtrack, and character development were awesome. In the end, AC: AH is a good game on its own, but as an Ace Combat game, it doesn't hold up.

>>15199538
>So, have any of you guys played the AC3 JP fan translation?

No the only version I could find of it with a working link wouldn't patch right and if I tired to play it anyway it crashed on the boot screen

>>15205685
>awesome lore
What lore?
Its literally our world, and the BIG BAD SUPERWEAPON is a fucking fuel air bomb, not even a nuke like you'd expect.

New to the series, currently playing the 3DS game as my first. What's the general consensus on it among fans? I find the combat very exhilarating and the soundtrack fits well, catchy tunes.

From what I read the Attack Maneuvers and Evasive Maneuvers aren't present in previous games. They do feel somewhat cheap since logically a pilot wouldn't have such ridiculous feats happening.

The rival battles against the red jet are tense, do other rival fights in the series offer much?

Assault Horizon was in the Humble Bundle I bought recently, and it would be the first Ace Combat game I play if I ever boot it up.

Am I in for a decent entry or am I looking at a black sheep among the franchise?

>>15205989
It's not good for an Ace Combat game. Get a PS2 and AC4, 5, and Zero.

>>15205989
What >>15206001 said, it changes the gameplay very much. I'm >>15205953
and would say play the PS2 ones as others say it if you have a 3ds you might like that one.

>>15205866
The part that gets glossed over is that the Nosferatu was a cold war plane in that continuity.

Which has a lot of batshit insane implications, considering where we are even today at railgun tech.

IMO the tech curve would've progressed such that Infinity would be the canonical sequel to AH. Surely a giant space rock is all you need for the PMC war economy to take hold eh?

Also to provide a contrasting point of view, I actually think AH fails in key places as a game, but as an AC it's an experimental title that explores some really interesting design choices, such as the increased emphasis on the different aircraft mission roles, the greater attention to audiovisual design such that you aren't just flying a plane that beeps at you when you hug the ground, all the way to having you dogfight near an active hurricane. IT'S A HURRICANE, AND IT ACTUALLY AFFECTS YOUR FLIGHT PERFORMANCE. NOT EVEN THE STRANGEREAL SAGA HAS THAT SO FAR.

Mistakes were made, and I can't say I fully enjoy it as a game due to stuff like the abuse of DFM for cutscene setpieces, but I deeply respect and in a lot of ways still somehow enjoy the game for being AC at its most experimental, covering material I'd love to see explored further in the future.

Capital Conquest deserves to come back.

>>15205989
It's the black sheep.
The PC port is a solid one and the paint editor is a great time killer, but it's sort of janky and not exactly firing on all cylinders at all times due to how much the game wants to sell its gameplay gimmick to the player.

Like, it can be a lot of fun, especially when you embrace the kayfabe of it all, but at the same time it's sorta stupid and not representative of the typical experience.

>no one mentioning SHARK BASTARD
If you want a job done right you gotta do it yourself.

SHARK BASTARD

Anyways it looks super pretty and has enough crazy bullshit to more or less fit in with the other ACs even if it's not real strange, but DFM yo.

>>15206028
>such as the increased emphasis on the different aircraft mission roles

I don't know. The arbitrary locks on plane selection in the campaign always bugged me the wrong way. Then again, personally, I seldom picked attackers by choice in 4 and 6.

>>15206124
You're not wrong, but at the same time it's not like you'd field a Raptor for deep interdiction.

I think the silliest it gets is that the F-2 got classed as an attacker, sure it's a boat scuttler but it's built more like a multirole than a dedicated water splasher.

>>15206183

Guess I'm just not an attacker kind of person. Never got used to ASM either, feels like all I'm doing is getting walloped in the face while hoping that I'm hitting the right targets.

>>15205779
Where did you get it?
I don't remember where I got my version but it was probably from emuparadise like most other roms/isos.

>>15206215
ASM is a bit more honest about what it is compared to DFM: here's your flight plan, here are some targets, your weapon cool down has been reduced significantly, now strafe the targets in one go.

It has its problems, the routes are mostly prebaked single use paths, but it has its place as a mechanic, the attacker wants to tank hits while shitting firepower all over the ground, ASM is your limit break tactic for that.

>>15205989
It's Project Aces' weird experimental phase where they tried to be Call of Duty. It didn't go very well.
If you really want a pale imitation of AC with CoD spilled all over it get HAWX instead.
Otherwise, emulate the PS2 games, or X for the PSP if your PC isn't up to that task.

>>15206252
Hawx doesn't have capital conquest tho

I mean sure it has mods, but CC tho

Really hoping AC7 will touch on or at least hint at how the hell did AC3's corporations are the new nations thing happened so fast.
2020 and still no signs of the very concept of countries declining.

>>15206282
It'll probably co opt Infinity's take on the aftermath of Ulysses, how it fostered corporatocracy via a PMC economy enabled by heavy automation of production.

Seeds of the corporatocracy are shown in 5 via Grunder, and X being a conflict meant to shill Fenrir and Gleipnir to prospective investors. All 7 needs to do is show the increased relationship the MIC has with war.

Shinden 2 is a sexy beast and it deserves to be transplanted into the Strangereal world.
Specially if we're going into the same further timeframe of ACX where there were a lot of fictional jets all over the power spectrum.

>>15206291
Maybe they'll get Kawamori to make another sexy superplane.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUPpY5YtLWI

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>>15205089
tfw AH was my first

>>15206469
>HAND ROLLED

>>15205631
Completely wrong. First off the only ace game where your wingmates are worth the pixels they are rendered with is 6 the rest of irrelevant. Also, Zero has a LOT more content than 5. You only need to play through 5 twice to see absolutely everything, and a lot of those levels are super short and a pain to play through as they are little more than interactive cutscenes. Zero meanwhile has enough content for at least three play throughs. Out of the Trilogy 5 is by far the weakest.

>>15205089
X is very good, other than the terrible fps drops. I don't think the emulated version has that trouble. The 3DS game is also good but it is very short and will get kind of old after you beat it a few times. It is also really easy but I guess it is like that because of the lack of precision in the controls. Joint Assault is also good, it's a prequel to assault horizon but plays like a more traditional ace game. It is what AH should have been.

Does anyone want AH?

I picked up a spare steam code for it earlier

>>15206490
>it's a prequel to assault horizon
Really? I thought it was its own real world universe, like Infinity.
Speaking of which, what's the final verdict on Infinity, people?
Haven't got to play it yet, is the freemium bullshit too strong?

>>15206496
Sure.

>>15206481
Eh, 6's required babysitting or cashing in meter. The blues did more things on their own, but you lost a lot of control over Shamrock compared to what Zero or even 5 let you do.

Meanwhile Pixy is by himself a kill stealing asshole who will mop up chunks of targets if you even give him an inch to work with. His and PJ's AI were significantly tightened up over the Wardog goobers who could barely follow a simple command.

>>15206503
JA is its own AU.
Infinity is a scam, complete trainwreck of imbalance and freemium shenanigans.

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post yfw they go full Macross Plus and have you fight against an insanely overpowered drone fighter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvZ4xAle6r0

>>15206506
https://www.humblebundle.com/gift?key=qKcd2yFVfvDX5rAw

If you're too slow and miss it, It's only a dollar at humble bundle

>>15206563
Got it. Thank you very much.

>>15206549
>going up against new final boss superplane
>so far so dogfightable
>then it tranforms and punches your F-22 in the face

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>>15206884
>You win the game by crashing your plane into the superplane via 2FAST2FURIOUS

>>15206563
AH tends to be super cheap almost all the time anyway, the more noteworthy part is that usually when it's on a sale like this the multiplayer lights up for a short while.

Seriously, something that everyone needs to give a chance at least once in their lives is a round of Capital Conquest.

>>15206549
I wish we got another Plus. Ah, whatever, Macross is dead.

>>15208359
They really baited us with Delta.
I remember hearing early info that the story would revolve around two PMC/VF development companies duking it out in their newest VFs.
You can guess the level of my disappointment.

>>15206234
Yeah it was, They have 2 versions and both give the wrong md5 check

>>15208286
Domination with choppers is better.

>>15205866
>total devastation without fallout
The practical downside to nukes is you wind up ruining areas that you don't want to obliterate, and you can't occupy the space that you DID blow up.

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>>15208359
Plus is shit

The only likeable character in the whole story is Sharon, everyone is dull as shit.

If i want a gritty grotty dogfight, better go with Yukikaze.

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>>15209753
>Criticizes one show for having dull characters
>Praises another with even duller characters

>>15209785
But the dull characters in Yukikaze are actually a plot point.

I just finished reading both books and fuck, they're never going to release the last one in English are they?

>>15209753
what's the name of this plane

>>15209785
Yeah, the problem is one was intended to be deeply characterized cast but its fucked up badly, and the other one was INTENTIONALLY written to be a dull character but improve gradually.

Fucking read the book m8.

>>15210234
It's called Super Slyphid

>>15210653
Sylphid, not Slyphid.

Specifically, it's an OVA-exclusive variation of the FFR31-MR Super Sylph, the FFR31-MR/D.

The OVA has Ikuto Yamashita designing the Super Sylph to look like >>15209753 as opposed to what could best be described as an F-15 Eagle variant in Shoji Hasegawa's interpretation of the design (Kow Yokoyama's was more like a dart but that's a story for another time), but on top of that there are two different versions of the Super Sylph in the OVA: the regular MR has its ventral fin pointing forward when folded up, whereas the MR/D has it pointing backwards, among a few other improvements.

</NERD_TRIVIA>

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>>15210679
Yukikaze would have been much weirder if I had spent my time reading it thinking Super Sylphs looked like this.

>>15210745
Honestly I think it would've been an incomprehensible brick wall of fuck if not for the OVA giving a visual point of reference.

It's a work that I feel is actually greatly helped by having some sort of visual accompanying it. Even LN illustrations would be welcome, it's such a headtrip of a series at times.

>>15205631

Zero's still an excellent game, but god does it suffer from a shitty final battle. As it turns out, taking all the awesome setpieces from the earlier levels and cobbling them onto a small jet you can only attack from one angle makes for a lame boss battle.

>>15199538
Read up on AC3 recently. Apparently it's in the same universe as Galaga, Galaxian, etc just set a few centuries before those games? Shit is weird to think about.

>>15210782
I strongly disagree, having to go head on and actually risk getting blown out of the skies just to get a clean hit is one of the hypest things in the franchise, doubly so when you do it in shit planes barely able to move like the Fishbed.

It's the culmination of so many little details as the game converges upon a single conclusive moment: TWO KNIGHTS OF THE SKY, JOUSTING TO THE DEATH.

Never played any of these games. Should I just go in release order or are the early ones so out of date mechanics/gameplay wise I should skip them?

>>15210810
Just play as many as you can get your hands on.

Sure, the original PS1 Air Combat looks like jank even compared to its immediate sequel, but you learn to appreciate the evolution of the franchise as you play each one and consider how and why such and such game differs from another.

That said, if you're concerned about it, production order mostly kicks in with the stretch of 04, 5, Zero and 6; 04/6 and 5/Zero are sorta built off of a story arc, with Zero being a direct prequel to 5 and 6 following up on lore introduced in 04. Past that the franchise is largely a sequence of standalone games, most of which are in a shared setting save for a number of functionally AU entries, up to the 3DS game which remakes AC2 along with lining up the plot to fit more the lore established in 04 through 6.

Long story short though, if you want to be up to pace with any AC discussion, you're going to be playing the PS2 games of 04, 5 and Zero. That's pretty much the absolutely required playing.

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>>15210745
Those massive ventral control surfaces were an actual design element used in the XF8U3, and the NAA proposal for the F-15 program.

>>15210653
>one was intended to be deeply characterized
Uh, not really. The entire point of that OVA was always the technical aspects. Watanabe and Kawamori but a fuckton of effort into it, went to airforce bases, and did a lot of research into making it the best representation of flight they possibly could in animated form.

>>15210839
To be fair, the Super Crusader doesn't have it quite as outrageous as the Kow Sylph. They're out there, and I feel they influenced Hasegawa's Maeve and how that plane's tailfins are more like variable fin-stabilizers, which the Super Crusader sorta has going on where its takeoff/landing configuration has the ventrals tilted off more like horizontal stabilizers...

It's best rectified IMO by Yamashita's relegation of the ventral fin as being part of the TARPS pods for both the MR and MR/D, and how they fold up along the pitch axis so as to not clip the ground while still being an iconically huge structure in their own right. I recall Hasegawa's reducing the ventrals to being more like an F-14's, but I'm not exactly in a position to dig up a reference image for that just right now.

</MORE_NERD_SHIT>

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>All units, follow Mobius 1.

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>>15209785
>>Praises another with even duller characters
Did you only watch the first episode?
>>15210863
Speaking of outrageous design elements, the Fand II went a bit overboard with the forward swept wings.

>>15210975
When I saw this design I expected a reveal where it splits into 2 planes one being unmanned.

>>15210975
>>15209753
I really love Ikuto Yamashita's design aesthetic.
one of his elements I've noticed that he uses a lot are these protrusions that look like the sails on submarines.

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>>15211469
Yeah, his work for Yukikaze was great.

>>15211469
What, you mean his fin fetish?

It's a well documented one at that, really.

Definitely gives a more alien vibe to the OVA's designs. As I recall the design goal was to convey the technological advancement of the FAF's arsenal through use of designs that would look unable to get off the ground, a sort of hyper-accelerated version of real world trends where FBW and the evolution of computer technology permitted radical yet practical aircraft designs in the late 20th century.

At any rate, stuff like the Fand II definitely look like the product of an over the top arms race micromanaged on the human front by smart computers, you can see where human touches and aesthetics end and looks-crazy-but-the-math-works-out machine design begins.

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ITANO CIRCUS SOON

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>>15211969
>those high detail cockpits
>you can see your legs and arms move in cockpit view
I'm just a bit sad that their missile contrail game isn't as good as AC6.

>>15209321
1.1 worked fine for me when I patched it with the 2.0 patch. There's still some things that are in Jap though.

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>>15211914
>>15211469
Does anyone have the Making Of videos for Yukikaze?
I can't find a torrent for it.

>>15212826
>Jam
My sides

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>>15212829
Mave-chan is incredibly moe.

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>>15213129
>naming it after the Black Widow even though its based off of the CFA-44 and looks nothing like the YF-23
This image triggers my autism something fierce, fucking deviantart taconiggers.

>>15213138
>the f-22 was chosen over this
I mean I like the 22 and all, but this guy is a sweet looking craft

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>>15213226
The YF-23 is a beauty.

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>>15210768
Maybe in another world

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FUCKING BORDERS
BUDDEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE

>>15212826

>Trying to have a normal breakfast but the alien whalesong syndrome kicks in

>And your hair and clothes and the weekly jam ration start getting psychedelic

I've always found that droning oddly relaxing.

>>15216586
FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCKYOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUU FUCKING FACE ME YOU FUCKING FAGGOT STOP RUNNING AND TURN TOWARDS ME GODDAMMIT FUCKING SHOW ME YOU'RE BETTER COWARD I CAME TO AVALON TO JOUST NOT TO CHASE A COWARD IN A BOOTLEG SU-47 AROUND AND WASTE TIME I HIT YOU FUCKING FAIR AND SQUARE EACH TIME AND WHEN MY FUCKING AWACS TELLS ME TO JOUST WITH YOU I DEMAND A FUCKING JOUST SO STOP FUCKING RUNNING
I posted this on /k/ yesterday, so if this becomes the Ace Combat Navy Seal copypasta, know that it was /k/'s, not /v/'s.

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Is there any behind the scenes stuff for Zero's cutscenes?

>>15210809

I can respect that opinion. It comes off as not risk, but tedium to me, combined with a bit of HOLY SHIT HOW DO WE END THIS ARMS RACE FUCKIT PUT ALL OF IT ON A PLANE THAT'S GOOD WRITING rather than some sort of chivalrous duel. Additionally, the last thing the actual combat mechanic benefited from was "Even fewer things you can do in the ace duels"--it would've been great if they could capture a sense of greater risk, but all I felt during it was a particular tedious engagement.

Agree to disagree and all that. I can certainly see how it was fitting in the overall trend of the game, which is certainly a positive, I just think the execution forgot that it does, in fact, need to be fun--or at least not extremely unfun because there's only one way to do this battle and fuck you player for disagreeing. If you enjoyed it, more power to you though, I just wish it didn't strike me as a major letdown. I was hoping for an actual even battle between two pilots--with similar planes, not one that was just a flying missile-and-laser complex with a 'SHOOT HERE UNTIL DEAD' marker--but I suppose there was no way to make that sufficiently challenging in the end?

>>15216586

I will say it was a sexy looking aircraft.

>>15220639
Eh I think it's a case of mileage varying.

Then again if you stop to think about it, boss fights in the franchise have been iffy when they aren't you vs the superweapon.

I don't think Namco-ACES really has a plan for designing ace encounters that truly rely on a particular strategy; even Zero allows you to brute force just about everyone even though the squadrons have their own AI quirks. But when you get enemies that require you to play a certain way, there's an increased potential for frustration. While you find issue with that in Zero, for me it was at least clear what to do, they even have a cutscene that tells you GO HEAD ON.

You want an idea of a boss that pisses me off? Markov, final fight in Assault Horizon. Unlike most people I'm pretty ok with Assault Horizon UP UNTIL THIS ASSHOLE'S FIGHT, not only is DFM being abused as a cheap in-game cutscene apparatus and ruining the moment like it does whenever it's used that way, but in fighting Markov there's nothing about it that really conveys what the devs intended you to do. You DFM him and he throws an itano circus at you that you have to break off to evade, so it's like they don't want you in DFM, but if you aren't hounding him he flies up your own tailpipe and mows you down, and the net result is the sensation that everything you do is wrong.

I can pick up on cryptic bullshit at times, but Markov was me wondering what exactly the fight was centered on. Did they want me to show I mastered their gimmick, or did they want me to show I can play Ace Combat clean and without the core mechanic that I was expected to use the very moment the game begins?

Similar problem manifests in Sky Crawlers: Innocent Aces, but I'm thinking what they wanted me to realize was that clouds break line of sight, something they're revisiting with 7. Doesn't stop Orishina from being a cunt though.

>>15198367
AC is pretty /m/. Jet Fighters are closest thing to what we could call a real life Mecha.

>>15220728

Assault Horizon doesn't have a whole lot going for it, and Markov isn't it I would agree. I got tired of AH well before that point, which I'd accept as not giving it a proper try.

I certainly see where you're coming from--for me, it was case of failed execution, trying to force you do something differently and failing. I can't think of a AC-style game that actually DOES aerial jousting well--and coming from DCS, it's really not something you look for, it's why we're planes and not tanks, but it could be out there.

As simplistic as the SOLG takedown was in 5, I thought it was more effective in the end as a conclusion--environmentally a near-perfect juxtaposition with the polluted skyscape and long claustrophobic tunnels of the prior level, nothing but open sea, open sky, the city of Oured and one big-ass doomsday weapon plummeting down at you (as dumb as it was on the face). But again, each to their own.

>>15222741
Actually I like Markov, he does his job of earning your ire, I just hate how much of a retard I feel with that final stage because the only viable tactic I could come up with was bouncing in and out of DFM which causes the gameplay logic to sorta shit itself and make him suddenly a cakewalk.

Otherwise he actually really nails that quintessential asshole antagonist, and of what little character development remained in the final game his entire spiel is the most personal of an AC antagonist I can think of, seeking revenge against both sides of the Cold War for circumstances that led to the death of his wife in a bombing gone wrong. He's memorable for me in a good way, his grievance is a bit more personal than, say, that of the Belkan diaspora. I mean there's Pixy and his WHAT HAVE BORDERS GIVEN US soapbox but I feel that that's more a philosophical issue he acted upon rather than a truly personal one, even considering he was Belkan himself.

But that's just my sentiment.

It's like, I guess you could say it's like a twisted version of Shamrock. A man who could've been an ally in another context, but is instead an enemy born of circumstances not under your control.

>>15222821
>he does his job of earning your ire
He was the most fucking generic antagonist character I've ever seen in a videogame.
The Modern Warfare series had better, or at least more memorable villains.
Markov just shows up once or twice to launch some gay cruise missile at something, and then we get treated to a brief plot exposition explaining how he's salty at America for accidentally bombing his wife dead, and then you get taken for SHARK BASTARD'S wild DFM ride. I didn't hate him for anything he did the plot, because he basically did nothing, I hated him because it was an utter chore to fight him.

>>15212265
but will non-VR cockpit view be just as detailed though?
I'm just getting hype over the thought of finally having easy access of 360 degree head swivel during engagements.

>>15222896
The non-VR cockpit view will be more detailed than VR, due to the hardware limitations, and the necessity of keeping VR at a smooth 60fps.

Markov's got IMO the best of the enemy ace themes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e04zxzEmZW8

Is ace combat infinity any good? Merging the superweapons from strangereal with the real world seems interesting.

>>15222907
No, its trash.
I played it from the beta to about one year after release, and then dropped it permanently.
Any positives it has are cancelled out by its irredeemable fuel system, and every player has a level 20 super plane so nuggets are basically flying around dishing out hitpoints on AA guns while everyone else is one shotting F-22 Raptors and Carriers.

>>15222874
To be honest, I found that the difficulty of the final duel made me hate him for everything he was worth. He made me mad, like, REALLY FUCKING MAD, and I think that made me enjoy beating him much more. I think I actually made a connection with him from the hate.

>>15220728
btw is Innocent Aces good?

>>15223525
Innocent Aces is alright, bit iffy in some respects but it's a pretty interesting prototype to Legacy on the 3DS.

It's obviously an Access Games/B-Team project as opposed to the Namco/A-Team proper, their handiwork is readily apparent what with their fondness of the tuning system and all, but it's alright.

>>15222874
ModWar had only one better antag the way I see it, and I'd argue Shepherd's larger amount of screentime helps his case, making him a starring role as opposed to a guest like Markov. You're right, Markov is not in-your-face levels of involved in the plot, hell it's hard to really claim AH had a plot considering how skeletonized it was. He's there to shoot missiles, instigate betrayals, and create a lot of drama that's largely out of focus for whatever reasons Bamco decided on. It's bare bones, practically a B plot alongside what presumably would've been the A plot in Bishop's repeated nightmares and second-guessing of his ability.

Beside, I would even say that the archetype Markov represents is better embodied in a later CoD, in BO2's Menendez, but even so his grief is conveyed through a "sins of the father" motif targeting the Mason family that just so happens to include burning down the world order, whereas Markov doesn't have a personal vendetta but rather grievance with the world order of the times.

That said I haven't kept up on cowadoody past Ghosts so I dunno if they bothered on the characterization front in any of the later games; I mean, they did hire Kevin Spacey for AdvWar but I never played that one so I dunno how well they handled his character.

>>15222907
Lorewise it's pretty cool in a fanservice way.
As a game though it's trash as the other anon explains.

>>15225254
Kevin Spacey was weird. At first he was just your standard megacorp leader with the whole "governments don't work, we do" schtick, then he was revealed to be profiting off of a series of terrorist attacks that let his megacorp get huge (again, standard megacorp leader), then he went full retard with "we just made a bioweapon that kills anyone who's not an employee and we're gonna let it loose".

Yeah.

So what did you guys think of RaidersSphere4th? I thought it was pretty good even though it had performance issues and no yaw. Some of the early space planes were kind of ugly but the final planes were pretty sexy.

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>>15202539

Why do people dickride pixy in the ace combat community? He's not a good antagonist, and his "betrayal" didn't even make any sense at all.

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->>15230051
He's a Belkan who chose to be a mercenary for Ustio because he believed it was for the good of his country as a whole. Having to kill his fellow countrymen made him cynical about nations, that nationality is meaningless in war, onyl ideology stays strong.

However, seeing the allied forces firebomb Hoffnung made him question what he was fighting for, and when the June 6th nuclear bombings occurred, he decided to defect to AWWNB, believing in the idea that wars are caused only because of peripheral things like borders, race. and nationality.

He's also a cool pilot with cool one-liners.

>>15230051
Voice actor that isn't cheesy as fuck, actually has a personality, flies a bitching plane, gets great quotes, has the second best paint scheme in Zero (after Gault).

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>>15231134
>>15231134
>Voice actor that isn't cheesy as fuck

>>15231151
Well, he's cheesy, but he's a good kind of cheesy. Like cheddar, instead of american.

>>15231279
He's no better than the rest.

>>15206252
>Otherwise, emulate the PS2 games

Shit that's possible now?

>>15231501
Its been possible for years, Buddy.

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>>15230051
Did you play 5 and had to deal with the most annoying wingmen in the series who managed to hit a sweat spot of being both useless, and insufferable with their in-game conversations?

Pixy's pragmatism and shitting on Wardog's proxy in Zero, PJ, And then killing him for raising one to many death flags. immediately made his stock rise among the fanbase. Also, he's full of good one liners and has a reputation of his own right.

This is the Round Table, dead /m/en's words hold no meaning

>>15231741
It also helps that Pixy is actually really aggressive as a wingman and if you want dem sweet sweet S ranks you gotta go hard or else he'll mop up your tagrets

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So, is "Zero" Keiki Kobayashi's magnum opus?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=80XAJKqRU9k

>>15231815
I prefer Avalon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wV_5dXjygEU

>>15231741
>parroting the PJ is a wardog proxy bullshit
>Black_Knight
Opinion disregarded.
Pixy feels like two different characters smushed into one.

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>>15231815
Phoenix Rising is his most underrated

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t6Nfk_CNcq0

The lyrics are pure gold

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>>15232159
The fuck is this disney shit?

>>15198367
the Nosferatu's loadout was the most futuristic/ impressive of all the fiction craft
Twin Gauss Rifles
with the macross missiles too obscene for online play

what a beast

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>>15232190
rail gun pods soon

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>>15232159
Cross Rumble has an incredibly underrated OST.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FRxDcF-dxw

>>15232278
>plane has panels, rivets everywhere, generally looks well detailed
>that railgun pod

thats literally "my first mod" tier

holy fuck at least give it a fucking texture

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>>15232296
Not the best example

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>>15232311
>plane dating from the 70's has rivets and grime everywhere
>sci fi weapon pod has clean lines and looks seamless
not seeing the problem here

How's Joint Assault overall?
Reading about it, I don't know if I wanna try it out. On one hand, it's set in the real world like Assault Horizon, but on the other hand, it's not Assault Horizon.

>>15232520
So being set in the real world is more of an insult than Assault Horizon's gameplay?

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>>15232159
>Someone out there likes phoenix rising.
Good taste anon

>>15232556
Not really what I meant. The real world setting is initially a red flag because of what AH did with it (generic CoD terrorists/russians plot), but it's alleviated by not necessary meaning the rest of AH comes with just the setting.

>>15232568
>>15232159
>>15231815
And now:

ACE COMBAT: THE BROADWAY MUSICAL

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bt1F4Pgp6fQ

>>15232582
I swear, I feel like I'm the only one who actually appreciates the work that PA put into making AH feel authentic. All of the planes have correct roundels and markings, including the tail codes for real air force bases. All of the planes also have voice warnings in the language of the plane's origin. They did a good job modelling the cities too. I was pretty pleased to see they didn't forget the Ostankino Tower in Moscow.

>>15232314
That's because you have shit taste, It's better than AC2 and 5 by light years when you hear it during the mission it plays.

>>15232762
he's probably a basic bitch who only knows megalith, agnus dei, and comona at a stretch.

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>>15232159
>Cross Rumble
>his most underrated

Kobayashi had nothing to do with that game's OST. Go Shiina did most of the orchestral pieces from that game, including that one.

Is Noah's Cradle for 3DS any good? It kind of looks like a more sci-fi Ace Combat.

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>>15232660
Hopefully the warning signals from AH will be present in AC7.

>>15198367
Is Ace Combat 7 gonna be loaded with pre-order exclusives ?

>>15233026
It has six levels and seems to be a bit of a budget game.

>>15240471
Yes. Also GameStop exclusive Mountain Dew jet skins and Doritos bags skinned AAMs.

>>15240753
>the exhaust is doritos flavor dust

>it actually clouds up the canopy

>>15240713
I mean it's five dollars so I'm not expecting much. Fuck it, I'm going to get it and let you fags know what I think of it because there aren't a lot of reviews of it online.

>>15240753
>You're not going to believe this Jean-Louis! ALL OF THEM HAVE DORITOS INSIGNIAS!

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Okay so I just played through this in a single sitting and here are my thoughts

Let's start off with the good things: the unique gameplay gimmick of the game is that you can kind of "drift" and turn on a dime by holding down Y. This is really cool and adds a lot of intensity to dogfights. The graphics aren't particularly great, but they get the job done and the game has a neat aesthetic. The music is suitably "sci-fi" though not very memorable. What story is there isn't too bad though the translation is pretty iffy (i.e. it's when its should be used, "Prorogue").

Now onto the bad. The single biggest problem is that the difficulty balance is FUCKED. Some missions even into the lategame are literally over in three seconds, while others drag on WAY too long. Later in the game enemies are complete damage sponges, even with the strongest weapons. Oh yeah, you can also get the strongest weapons within the first chapter because the game throws a ton of money at you. The second biggest complaint is that the game can be really disorienting. With AC you often have a horizon to help you keep your bearings but no such luck here. This isn't helped by a terrible radar that does a poss poor job telling you where enemies are in relation to you so you'll often find yourself being pinned down by enemy fire and having no way to see where they are. It doesn't really help either that enemies can fire at you even when they're pointing away from you so following the positioning of their shots rarely helps.

Continued next post

>>15241942
(cont)

The next problem is that there is zero mission variety, every single mission starts with you and a group of enemies flying towards each other and every mission ends either when you shoot down every enemy or the enemy aces that sometimes appear. A lot of missions are out righted repeated too due to the way progression works, where you have to fly out in sorties to chisel down the bar that represents enemy control in the current area. The only exceptions to this monotony are the end bosses of each area/chapter, all of which are comprised of taking on an enemy ace (which really consists of unloading your strongest missiles into it the second you lock on) and taking down an enemy fortress, which in later levels is an absolute pain in the ass because you need to take down a squadron of bullet sponge fighters first to make it lower its shield for five seconds and if you don't kill it in that timeframe you have to take on another squadron at which point you might as well just restart the mission because you're going to be too low on health and ammo. And finally, there is some serious slowdown when firing missiles at multiple enemies, even when the 3D is turned off. And you'll want to keep the 3D off, because it's downright headache inducing (I'm saying this as someone who usually keeps it on for most games).

So tl;dr unless you're like me and have played through every AC multiple times and are craving for anything even remotely similar, I'd give this one a pass. There are some neat ideas but the overall execution is too shoddy for it to work.

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Quick /m/ whats your favorite fictional plane design from AC?

Mine is the Wyvern

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>>15242191
Props to Wyvern for original wing gimmick, and imma let you finish, but Shinden 2 is the best plane design of all time, of all time.

>>15241942
Holy shit I thought I was the only one who bought this
It fucking sucks

>>15242392
F-3 version is better, but we'll never see that rendered in an AC will we? Just the ASF-X.

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>>15242392
Kawamori sure loves that variable wing gimmick

>>15198531
Huh?

>>15220639
>>15220728
>>15222741
>>15222821
Have you anons played Joint Assault? Sulejmani in the final mission pulls the same shit as Makrov, except you don't have DFM to chase him.

>>15245642
God bless that man.

>>15245642

I'm assuming by variable wings, you meant variable sweep wings?

I didn't play an Ace Combat with the Shinden in it but I'm pretty sure it doesn't have variable sweep wings.

The VF-22 has aero-elastic wings.

>>15246650
Not personally, but I've heard the stories about Sulejmani and his dickplane.

Him, Orishina and Markov are three consecutive strikes on the record though, unless you let Innocent Aces slide for being a spinoff.

I do think the B team at least figured out a better way to handle gimmicky boss fights by the time they did Legacy, the maneuvers system is more immediately intuitive in how you use it to duel with ZOE, since it'll countermaneuver you if you get greedy and try to missile spam but at the same time mastering the system is met with positive feedback in how simply shooting it with the guns doesn't proc the countermaneuver.

Of course, Legacy learned from past mistakes: DFM was overly intrusive in its debut game, and TCM in Innocent Aces was a bit bloated in execution, so all Maneuvers had to do was be something that didn't detract at all, be optional but still a natural part of the game flow if used.

That said, Legacy still has some weird jank to it in how the ace encounter phases work, squadrons will arbitrarily turbo boost out of your range just to set up different phases of a battle, it's weird. Still worth it for those Albireo chucklefucks tho, they're great.

>>15246973
Variable geometry wingtips meaning the XB-70 up and down wing thing.

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>>15232655
>ACE COMBAT: THE BROADWAY MUSICAL
I'd actually love to see that.
Just imagine, the dogfights being represented as the actors hanging on wires with plane overalls thingies like in pic related throwing toy missiles at each other.

>>15247012
Too bad Legacy is such a shitty game in general. Planes handle like total ass in that game.

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>>15247855
You should go find videos of the old takarazuka LoGH where all the fleet actions are dance battles between the cast and extras standing on platforms that move around and go up and down. Also, lasers.

>>15242392
I DLed AH again to play some Shinden, but couldn't get the second mission. Again. It's just so terrible. Thank god AC7 comes out on PC.

>>15247973
>implying 7 will let you fly through a hurricane

That said if they homage Hurricane at all in any subsequent AC that'd be great, it's not exactly the most spectacular setpiece out there but it's a fucking cool scenario nonetheless.

>>15247973
Speaking of which. I only ever played assault horizon. And I want to play the rest. How should I approach this? Any must-plays? Any games I should avoid? What can be emulated?

>>15247984
See >>15210829

Also I wouldn't really suggest emulating the ps2 games unless you've got analog button support with your controller of choice.

>>15247988
>unless you've got analog button support
Well shit. Guess I'll just watch the walkthrough then.

>>15247984
Okay, here we go.
Must play: The PS2 trilogy, 04, 5 and Zero. Fairly emulatable with minor issues on a good enough PC. 04 has more issues, but they can be dealt with.
More stuff: 2 and 3 for the PS1 (important: get the fantranslated version of 3, the actual international release is a mangled corpse, also 2's gameplay is significantly less polished and the story is still a placeholder text instead of the actual storytelling of 3/04 onwards), and X for the PSP. All emulate perfectly even on shittier machines.
Haven't played so I can't give an opinion: Assault Horizon Legacy/3D Cross Rumble (actually a remake of 2, has nothing to do with AH itself), Joint Assault, 6, Infinity and the mobile shmups no one cares about.

>>15247991
You don't have a PS2?

>>15248012
Nope. Last console I had was Ziliton, a chinese nes.

>>15247855
WHEN YOU'RE AN ACE YOU'RE AN ACE ALL THE WAY
FROM YOUR FIRST SCORE TOP PLACE TO YOUR LAST DYING DAY
WHEN YOU'RE AN ACE LET EM DO WHAT THEY CAN
YOU'VE GOT A WINGMATE AROUND, HE'S A FAMILY MAN not anymore

>>15248021
PS2's are dirt cheap, get one before they become collectible.

>>15248185

>become collectible

I doubt you ever have to work about that, but be prepared for some unreliable hardware. Shit, Sony had lost a class-action lawsuit for PS2 unreliability when the console was NEW, time hasn't made those first models any more sturdy. You'd be safer with a slim I think.

Still, it's got a great library that still holds up. I use a BC PS3 for that reason, I had three PS2's die out from under me for different reasons.

>>15248262
You better watch out for that PS3. They are also notorious for dying.

>>15247398

Those are folding wings. The YF-21 / VF-22 has aeroelastic / flexible wings.

>>15248680
How well will those actually work in real life?

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>>15251875
Folding wings or aeroelastic wings?

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>>15253262
Aeroelastic.

>>15254965
that's more like shape shifting

>>15255678
My question is still valid.

>>15255678

It's called an aeroelastic wing in the official materials.

>>15259253

Actually, it's a combination of aeroelastic and variable camber wings.

>>15199538
Coming in straight from AC1 and 2 the flying felt like piloting bathtubs