Ace Combat 4 (PS2)

Having never played a previous game in the Ace Combat series I decided to give Ace Combat 4 a bash. This game as with most these days starts off with yet another yawn inducing story scene. A big anti-asteroid gun used as a tool for shooting down aeroplanes or something, and some boy talking about playing a harmonica with an enemy pilot who killed his parents zzzzzzzzz. Thankfully you can skip these. Watch the mission briefing, hop into your plane and off you go. There are 3 different camera views you can choose: in the cockpit, a sort of on the nose of the plane view, and a view from behind the plane. The controls are pretty simple, ...  Read the complete review

Ace Combat Distant Thunder is the fourth instalment in the visceral flight combat series from those lovely people at Namco. As with previous instalments, the game focuses more on being an arcade experience as opposed to an in-depth simulation and yet a level of depth is still maintained. The story of the game is moderately complex which, for an arcade game, is somewhat of a rarity. It's based on a war between two parties, ISAF (the good guys) and the Erusians. You see the Erusians built a great stonking cannon to shoot down asteroids that were threatening the planet. However, they soon realised the potential of the cannon as an anti-aircraft weapon and ...  Read the complete review

Ive been a long time fan of the Ace Combat series and was blown away when this came out on the PS2, the first thing that i found that was a welcome change is a decent storyline!basically the plot is that meteors have caused massive destruction, the worlds governments build a defence system call stonehenge to defend the world, trouble is one nation realises they can use it to shoot down planes so take over it and so begins the war, which is where u come in. The story is told from the perspective of a child and goes through all the climatic periods of the war which really drives the story along and makes u want to keep going, this is top notch and i dont want to ...  Read the complete review

I bought this after reading user reviews on the Gamespot US website. Most readers had given it at least a 9 out of 10 overall, so I thought why not give it a go. Boy am I sorry I did. What a terrible game. It's only plus point is the nicely drawn graphics, but the rest of the game is sadly lacking in all aspects. The sound effects in game are very poor indeed. It just doesn't give a realistic feeling of flying and shooting down other planes. The machine gun and explosion FX are particularly meat-less. The planes themselves give you a decent feeling of flight, but the actual missions are samey and way to short. This game wouldn't last ...  Read the complete review

People, people, Ace Combat 4 Distant Thunder is the utopia of flight combat simulators. You cannot miss this one, after all, it appeared in the top 10 in Japanese and American charts for Playstation 2 games. I know you have untill the end of January to wait before you can get your hands on a copy, and it will be worth the time and money! The reviews that all magazines and websites I've seen were awesome! Just look at the screen shots, the movies, the review ratings and the immersive storyline which is present this time!!! The aircraft, yours and the enemies, are high polygon affairs, say 10'000?? That's about right! Enjoy flying up to 20 different aircraft, ...  Read the complete review