Ace Combat 7PS4

[Scaff]

First 30 minutes of the game, including the first mission and a look at the menus. PS4 Pro footage.



Will give PSVR a go tonight and get some capture footage up using the elgato, so it's in 1080p and 60fps.

 

[Jawehawk]

Well, I had the Strangereal Edition on pre order, but as it turns out, that edition isn't making it to Denmark... Thank you Namco for being incompetent...

Got the standard edition at a discount, although not actually cheaper than if I had ordered it online to begin with when factoring in the train tickets... Think I'll see if the Japanese collector's edition is still available off of Amazon, as that Steelbook looks really nice and I want the artbook. So long as I have a Danish copy of the game for use with the DLC.

Surprised that the rear of the game case says "discover 50 aircraft". That's a lot more than the promised 30.

Thank you!

 

[Tired Tyres]

Nice review here.

https://metro.co.uk/2019/01/18/ace-combat-7-skies-unknown-review-flying-high-8357968/

 

[Flaren89]

Playing on PS4 slim. Streaming it on Twitch and then exporting to YT.

So far, it is really nice, feels how it would need to feel. With its pros and cons. Last AC I played was Infinity, which had the "fast turning" thing and the same tree-upgrades we find in this AC7, but the way was done in ACI was utterly OP (because P2W, you know...). Both things are built here to help, but are not something that will change 1 to 100000 the gameplay.
My major corncerns are:
- Low number of aircrafts so far, and most important missing my favourite one, which was a contant in this series: F-117A...;
- Gun firing is awfull like all AC games less that Infinity in which I could optimally use it a lot, same goes with similar pointing SP.W.;
- Basic controls are overall good, but in habit with ACI I find myself to often press the wrong button, leading to a crash in the ground or that I don't dodge missiles.

 

[Veinz]

I'll buy this eventually, based on the review below. I loved this series when I was a kid.

 

[Jawehawk]

The MiG-31 is great fun to use online. Buzz in firing long range semi active homing missiles, and be gone before they even know what hit them. The speed of the thing is insane. For anyone not packing long range weapons, it's virtually untouchable, as it is only within range for a few seconds. Shame that ground target haven't been incorporated into the mix, so that attackers would have a place online.

Most people seem to us American planes online.

Does anyone know if this game's going to support motion control via the 6-axis feature in the controller? If it does I might just pull the trigger. Pun intended.

I can now report that there is no such option in the game. Sorry.​

 

[Scaff]

PSVR mode.

This is the first mission (with carrier takeoff and landing and free flight mode.

F/A-18 used in both



The VR mode is excellent and I wish we had more of it.

 

[TurboTacho]

Tried it the first time, the graphics just took me apart. Really impressive gameplay though I'm real bad at this point of time...having to make lots of dynamic adjustments in-flight to get my accuracy going.

 

[Slapped]

I had it pre-ordered - I thought what the hell, why not.

I’ve now deleted the game in utter disgust.

Why? because I made the mistake of trying the VR mode. After that there’s no way I could ever play this game again in “flat earth” mode - This game should have been built from the ground up and released as a pure VR title with no appeasing to flat-landers whatsoever.

I will never again buy a game from a Japan based studio that uses VR as a selling point - so many disappointing japanese titles that claim to have VR, but totally fail to deliver on that front.

Yes, before anybody asks, I did know that the VR content was going to be limited, but having experienced it I’m at a loss as to why the developers pretty much gave up on it.

 

[Wolfe]

It's definitely a proper Ace Combat game, and so smooth. 👍 👍 I kinda wish the high-G turn feature had not returned because it makes the game somewhat too easy, but it's fun to twist around and take out targets so efficiently. The soundtrack has the right feel and sound, though I haven't heard any standout memorable songs yet.

I got my F-14D with little delay, and I'm several missions into the campaign so far. I like the feel and thematic tone of the game overall -- so far it is somewhat reminiscent of AC3.

 

[Flaren89]

Completed the first walkthrough on Hard more right this afternoon (CET Time). Below #1 of the 3 walkthrough parts, for those interested to watch it, uploaded from my Twitch livestreaming. For #2 and #3 just check on the channel or search them.

Have to say, game is awesome. Gameplay perfect, storyline perfect, graphic perfect (for PS4 slim hardware) and great soundtrack.

In the walkthrough I've crashed a few times because of doing a horrendously mixing misunderstanding buttons layout between old ACs, ACI and this AC7. Mostly I messed up the fact that L2-R2 and L1-R1 are inverted compared to Infinity, and I think now is worst because I find myself to use L1-R1 finger on the L2-R2 for acceleration and braking / Fast Turning, so when I need to use the yaw, I messed up and ending in a crash.
Also by default the only way to fast turning is to press both L2 and R2, just after campaign I found out that there is an ACI-like option to enable also use of that by pressing only L2 while turning, but ends up often to slow down too quickly.
And as always, flying on chasecam like I did in this first walkthrough, mostly to show yaw-dropping graphics, gun firing is utterly terrible. I was a master of gun firing to the point of hosts kick me from WWII planes Co-op because I outscored a lot of people. But in ACI I often used cockpit cam. Here is not possible to use, as cockpit takes too much of the screen, which blocks sight of terrain for A2G bombs and such, so I think that for Ace difficulty I'll go for the nose cam.

Still have to try online, hoping it is not a loop-mess like it was in ACI.

Flaws:
- Low number of aircrafts in my opinion, only X-02 is in as original plane atm, with completely missing F-117A which was at this point a constant in AC games.
- Despite great gameplay and plot, I think it misses the goosebumps of other ACs, mostly in final missions which with soundtrack were always back-chilling. Here is still good, but I think something misses.

All in all, atm I'd give this a solid 8/10, maybe 9/10.

 

[Flex0r]

PSVR mode.

This is the first mission (with carrier takeoff and landing and free flight mode.

F/A-18 used in both



The VR mode is excellent and I wish we had more of it.

Must say it sounds awesome too in your vid, that little rattle of the fuselage from the engines of other aircraft.

Only a little sad that there are no actuator sounds, at least I didn't hear them yet in any of the aircraft I've flown with thus far.

 

[Tappajakoala]

I bought this game yesterday and today tried it out. Had to do first campaign mission since game was still installing stuff into ps4 hard drive.
Reason I got this game was I wanted to experience flying with VR set.
Oh boy it was amazing feeling. Bugger though the resolution is so "bad" I feel like flying without eye glasses on. But otherwise the 3 dimension and ability to seek enemy plane with own eyes and still sense where plane is heading at is amazing.

I wait for day when some game studio will make proper WW1 and WW2 airwar sim rely strongly on VR!

 

[PsuPepperoni]

F-22 VR
Great fun. I just find it a little disappointing for a game that's all about planes to have such an unrealistic flight model compared to games like GTA and The Crew which only have planes as an extra feature.

 

[Paulie]

I hate VR all together, so I'm glad it's not a big part of the game.
I'm loving it so far, classic AC gameplay experience. I was hoping for PvE like Infinity but maybe they add it later in the game, otherwise Attackers are fairly irrelevant. Been tearing it up now I have the right parts in under-2000 cost lobbies with my F-4E. The Mig-21 is a better dogfighter but I love F-4s so I'm pretty happy it's useful.
Let's do this!

 

[Jawehawk]

I'm going to start this off by saying that I like the game, but.... I want to setup a loudspeaker constantly playing the missile warning audio at the Project Aces office. Maybe then they'll realise how obnoxious it is, and that designing "difficulty" around missile spam is poor design.

"Hard" mode is bull:censored: with bull:censored: on top and extra bull:censored: on the side. Literally nothing but constant barrages of missiles up your ass every single split second. It's especially obnoxious in the missions where you have to score a set amount of points, as the constant missile barrages mean you spend more time performing evasive maneuvers than destroying targets, which in turn means you fail the mission. The far too short time limits for the missions relying on kill score, compounded with the excessive enemy missiles, makes "hard" mode garbage. The return line is also pointless on hard, as you flat out don't have enough time to use it. Lastly, forget all about using the A-10 on hard, because its slow speed makes it impossible to reach the different targets in time.

I'm so ****ing sick of listening to the missile warning alarm... Every single enemy targets you, and only you, and they do so constantly. You never have time to line up a gun shot, nor do you have time to line up a good missile hit. All you can do is fire the moment you hear the tone, and then break off, hoping that the missiles connect. Your wingmen might as well not be in the game, 'cause they sure as hell don't do anything. The AI in the 5th game was at least capable of attacking, and eventually, destroying a target of your choosing.

 

[Downhill Dino]

I'm going to start this off by saying that I like the game, but.... I want to setup a loudspeaker constantly playing the missile warning audio at the Project Aces office. Maybe then they'll realise how obnoxious it is, and that designing "difficulty" around missile spam is poor design.

What would they do otherwise to make it harder? I can only think of to make them more agile (that's definitely frustrating) or have higher health which might be ok.

 

[Jawehawk]

What would they do otherwise to make it harder? I can only think of to make them more agile (that's definitely frustrating) or have higher health which might be ok.

Make them perform evasive maneuvers more often so that you need to be more careful with setting up a good shot? They're perfectly agile, but sometimes, they fail to even try to avoid really easily avoided missiles. Upping the damage on enemy missiles would also be fine. There are certain encounters in the game where the AI uses genuine dog fighting techniques to trick you and get a good hit on you, and while I understand that some level of uniqueness need to be retained by these encounters, taking some of the elements from them and adding them to the standard enemies wouldn't be a bad thing. Additionally, making enemy missiles harder to dodge would be a better alternative to spam.

I played Unsung War and Zero on Ace difficulty whenever possible, meaning one missile hit meant a full mission restart, however, they didn't spam this amount of missiles. I'm not exaggerating when I say that some of the large scale encounters in 7 on Hard has such an insane number of missiles being thrown at you that you can hardly ever fly in a straight line, and that simply isn't fun. There are specific story related sequences where it fits in, but during standard gameplay, where you have a time limit to adhere to, and no real AI allies to take some of the pressure off of you, it's frustrating.

My rant came after having died twice in a row in the very last seconds of a 15 minute destruction mission, wherein the vast majority of both runs were spent listening to the missile warning siren and constantly trying to dodge while also fulfilling the point quota. The mission itself, mission 15, is brilliant, but it's not fun constantly having missiles on your tail. I wouldn't say it's challenging so much as it is just frustrating. The missiles themselves aren't hard to dodge, but destroying enough targets within the allotted time while constantly having to dodge them, is. It's cheap difficulty as far as I am concerned. On my last failed attempt, I had 10 seconds left, and were just 100 something points off of the goal. I was out of missiles, so had to use the gun against a Rafale, and I succeeded, but just as the Rafale blew up, so too, did I. The only reason I was out of missiles, was because the constant missile barrages made it impossible for me to actually position myself properly. Instead, I just had to let loose whenever I had tone. That is not fun challenge. It's BS.

 

[Silver-Sylph]

F-22 VR
Great fun. I just find it a little disappointing for a game that's all about planes to have such an unrealistic flight model compared to games like GTA and The Crew which only have planes as an extra feature.

AC has never been about realism in terms of physics atleast.

 

[Jawehawk]

AC has never been about realism in terms of physics atleast.

But that doesn't mean it wouldn't benefit from a more realistic approach. Making planes more unique through more realistic representation would go a long way in increasing the longevity of the game I think. I think the physics are okay, but the game, the multiplayer portion in particular, would benefit greatly through the inclusion of basic representation of energy levels and stalling being an actual factor.

 

[shoemaker]

Does anyone reckon microsoft flight simulator will come to xbox ? This looks too arcade like for me i think.

 

[Silver-Sylph]

But that doesn't mean it wouldn't benefit from a more realistic approach. Making planes more unique through more realistic representation would go a long way in increasing the longevity of the game I think. I think the physics are okay, but the game, the multiplayer portion in particular, would benefit greatly through the inclusion of basic representation of energy levels and stalling being an actual factor.

I personally havent played the game yet since I'm getting it on PC but most games of this genre suffer from this same problem online. Everyone just flies in circles the whole time and its rather dull. If anything HAWX was the best online when it came to this because you could fly in this super maneuverable mode and it did take skill to do maneuvers that could get you kills but stalling was very easy and also a tactic, it was highly unrealistic but made it fun.

Also is the F-15S/MTD in this game because thats always my goto plane in AC.

 

[Jawehawk]

I personally havent played the game yet since I'm getting it on PC but most games of this genre suffer from this same problem online. Everyone just flies in circles the whole time and its rather dull. If anything HAWX was the best online when it came to this because you could fly in this super maneuverable mode and it did take skill to do maneuvers that could get you kills but stalling was very easy and also a tactic, it was highly unrealistic but made it fun.

Also is the F-15S/MTD in this game because thats always my goto plane in AC.

I've played a littler over 50 online matches thus far, and am finding it quite good. 1V1 fights can definitely become a matter of trying to outturn one another, especially seeing as there is no real downside to bleeding energy. That said, the clouds and, depending on map, the canyons/buildings on the ground offer a nice setting for some really intense dog fighting where quick reflexes and positioning takes center stage. Personally, I find it much more fun using less than optimal planes, such as the Starfighter and MiG-31, as they force you to adopt strategies not often seen in the matches, and thus means you won't be engaging in turning fights.

It's been too long since I've played HAWX for me to remember how those matches were like, but I do recall that special abilities, such as EMP strikes, were important aspects in terms of shaping up the gameplay.

And sorry, but no, the F-15S/MTD is not in the game. Only experimental fighters or technology demonstrators, aside from the fictional ones, are the YF-23, SU-37 and SU-47.

 

[BoneSawTX]

Played it, finished it. It’s not bad, it’s not as a good of story as the previous games and no missions I really want to go back and play. Previous games had 5-6 missions I could play over and over with different aircraft, nothing here. Got tired of the drones and constant missile spam. 6/10.

 

[Paulie]

Some of you have touched on this already, but it seems the aircraft are indeed more generic than what we had in Infinity. I remember Infinity having some unspoken rules, like Fighters had better missile homing than other types. An Attacker would have had Buckley's chance of hitting another jet, and now I see a Su-34 doing very well for itself in a PvP lobby. Whether the difference is still there and just not as pronounced I can't say. I found it strange also than an F-35 has better mobility than a YF-23. I like both jets, they're two of my favorites, but I would expect the Black Widow to be a better dogfighter in every respect.
*Waits for an A-10 to get MVP in an online match.

 

[Flaren89]

Some of you have touched on this already, but it seems the aircraft are indeed more generic than what we had in Infinity. I remember Infinity having some unspoken rules, like Fighters had better missile homing than other types. An Attacker would have had Buckley's chance of hitting another jet, and now I see a Su-34 doing very well for itself in a PvP lobby. Whether the difference is still there and just not as pronounced I can't say. I found it strange also than an F-35 has better mobility than a YF-23. I like both jets, they're two of my favorites, but I would expect the Black Widow to be a better dogfighter in every respect.
*Waits for an A-10 to get MVP in an online match.

I think maybe a latent difference in homing is there, but definitely the only difference in canonic ACs is the damage they deal. And which isn't much of a difference still, mostly considering that best attackers are usually mid-tier, so that top tier fighters might have almost same damage output to ground forces as attackers, but deal also almost much more damage to air targets.
F-35 is a plane that was built for mobility, it is really small compared to others. And YF-23 was built more towards speed. F-22 should be in the middle-way of the two in the real world.

Also about missing planes, here is a list (long one):

- F-16F (and F-2A is considered multirole while it is in real an attacker);
- F-16XL
- EA-18G
- EA-6B
- A-6E
- F-4G
- F-5E
- F-14A
- F-14B
- F-15 S/MTD
- F-15SE
- F-20A
- FB-22
- Maybe more variants of F-35 (in Infinity the A was a fighter, B a multirole like here the C);
- F-117A (God hating them for this)
- X-29A
- AV-8B
- ATD-0
- Panavia Tornado
- J35J
- Su-24M
- Su-24MP
- Su-25TM

Fictionals missing
- ADF-01 (Maybe season pass?)
- ADFX-01 (Maybe season pass?)
- ASF-X Shinden II (appeared only in non-canonical games)
- CFA-44 Nosferatu (Maybe season pass?)
- R-101
- GAF-1
- X-49
- XFA-27
- XFA-33
- ADA-01B

 

[Jawehawk]

I think maybe a latent difference in homing is there, but definitely the only difference in canonic ACs is the damage they deal. And which isn't much of a difference still, mostly considering that best attackers are usually mid-tier, so that top tier fighters might have almost same damage output to ground forces as attackers, but deal also almost much more damage to air targets.
F-35 is a plane that was built for mobility, it is really small compared to others. And YF-23 was built more towards speed. F-22 should be in the middle-way of the two in the real world.

Also about missing planes, here is a list (long one):

Talking real life here, the F-22 is far superior to the F-35 in mobility. The F-35 is heavy, fat and, despite having one of the most powerful fighter engines ever, underpowered. It can achieve good AoA angles, similar to the F-18, as well as thrust vectoring fighters, and it has good transonic acceleration, but its impressive performance features stops there. The F-35 was not designed to be a dog fighter. The F-22 was.

The F-35 relies on its (likely soon outdated) stealth features, and probably the world's most advanced sensor suit in a fighter jet. The latter is what will give it an edge. Too bad its internal weapons compartment is so pathetic that it won't be able to do much with that edge.

 

[Scaff]

Damn AC7 did good sales wise.

http://www.pushsquare.com/news/2019...es_high_with_biggest_uk_launch_for_the_series

 

[Veinz]

Just downloaded the standard edition along with Ace Combat 5. Pretty excited for this game, I'm currently waiting for my daughter to take her nap so I can try it out already.

 

[tbtstt]

My pre-order copy arrived on Friday (first time I have pre-ordered a game for several years) so I managed to get a few hours in over the weekend. I'm just over halfway through the campaign now and loving it so far. Visuals look fantastic and the whole things plays exactly as an Ace Combat game should.

I have downloaded AC5 but not fired it up yet. I intend to finish the AC7 campaign on normal, replay it on hard (which will hopefully earn me enough credits to buy most of the aircraft), give the online a quick look and then I'll probably start on AC5.