Ace Combat 6 - First Look Preview

The Ace Combat series of games has seen considerable success since its first incarnation on the PlayStation as Air Combat (Ace Combat in Japan) back in 1995. Since then, there have been five sequels (including Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War, prequel to Ace Combat 5) for Sony's machines, the last one being Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War on the PlayStation 2. The global sales of these six games make it the most commercially successful flight game series still in production, with over 10 million copies of the various titles being sold.

So, what now for the series? As it seems like the sky's the limit (I can only apologise for that terrible play on words - my editor made me do it). The series has only gone and jumped onto the Xbox 360 as Sony loose their exclusive rights to yet another stalwart Sony franchise and, once again, it may well be a very costly loss as Ace Combat 6 has the potential to be something very special over here in the West. It certainly has had limited success over here in the past compared to its following in Japan, which makes Namco Bandai's decision to release the title on the Xbox 360 slightly dubious given the low number of Xbox 360 unit sales in Japan, but that could all change with Ace Combat 6.

The most instantly striking thing about AC6 is the stunning visuals - the planes really do look photo-realistic (but more on the graphics later). While we're on the planes though, AC6 will feature no fewer than 15 real life military aircraft including the F-16 Falcon, RAF Tornado, F-15 Strike Eagle and F-22 Raptor - there'll even be a Flying Fortress as one of the mid-game bosses. As Namco Bandai has acquired the licenses to these aircraft, they've been able to detail the same HUDs in the cockpit view that you'd find in real life, which is a nifty little touch.

In addition to these real life aircraft, which took the developers a month and a half each to model, there will also be a range of fictional planes which have been based on the designs of various actual aircraft (i.e. an F-14 Tomcat's tail here, a Typhoon's cockpit there). The maps are also an impressive feat. Each one is 100 square kilometres in size and they are based on real world telemetry that AC6 developers have re-designed for the game.

The single player game will once again feature a fictional storyline. You fly the flag of your native Gracemeria, while your enemies are the Estovakian's (with suspiciously Russian accents). The story is told through some nicely stylised cut-scenes which reek of the 80s classic Top Gun - just how we love it over here at TVG - and takes place on the Anean continent north of Yuktobania (featured in Ace Combat 5), during 2015.

Prior to take-off (which is manually controlled, as is landing and mid-air refuelling) on each mission, you're tasked with choosing munitions for both you and your wingman. You can then instruct your wingman in-flight, which will come in handy as there are simply too many tasks for you to deal with by yourself. Each mission will feature multiple objectives, of which players can choose which ones they want to complete (with the exception of primary objectives of course). There will be considerable allied support (both on the ground and in the air) for each mission and working with this support is critical to your success. You have to defend your allies as well as order their support, otherwise they'll deplete quicker than you can say "fly-by".

The multiple objectives, variety of support units (as many as 100 ground units in each mission), as well as both night and daytime objectives, will ensure that you never fly the same mission twice, making for a good degree of replayability in the single player game. All in all, Namco Bandai estimate that one playthrough of the story will constitute about 15 to 20 hours of gaming, which is a fairly hearty amount of content in our book.

So, the single player game seems to be in good shape from what we've seen, but the feature in AC6 that has caught our attention like an advert with the word 'sex' in it, is the multiplayer game. 16 players will be able to battle it out over Xbox Live in four different modes. There's 'Battle Royale' that's basically a deathmatch in the skies, 'Team Battle' that's self explanatory, a co-op campaign that has been crafted specifically for the multiplayer game, and 'Siege Battle' where you have to either attack or defend a base. The concept of carving up the skies with high-g turns (done with a deft use of the brake and throttle at the same time), while dog-fighting against 15 other fighters on Xbox Live has got us so hot under the collar, we're considering changing our gamertags to Maverick, Ice-man and Viper here on the TVG editorial team.

The graphics are another mouth watering prospect in AC6. Throughout the ages, flight games have had a tendency to look mightily impressive. Remember how game shop shelves were full of flight sims for the PC and Amiga in the early 90s? And these titles always seemed to provide the graphical cream of their generation? Perhaps it's something to do with rendering landscapes from a high virtual altitude, or maybe it's that the metallic curves of a fighter jet simply lend themselves to videogame design, but from F-15 Strike Eagle to Gunship and the original Microsoft Flight Simulator to F-16 Falcon Combat Pilot, the genre has had a history of titles which are visual master classes for their respective eras.

Sure, Ace Combat 6 is more of an arcade game than it is a sim, but it looks the part in any case. Both the landscapes and planes really do look photo-realistic at times; let's just hope that these visuals don't get toned down too much for the online game modes.