Atari signs up Namco X360 pair

By Tom Bramwell Published 22 June, 2007

Ace Combat and Eternal Sonata.

Atari has stepped up to publish Xbox 360 titles Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation and Eternal Sonata. The latter's also known as "Trusty Bell", and both are the developmental output of good old Namco Bandai.

The publisher expects both games to arrive in PAL territories in the autumn.

Ace Combat 6 introduces online multiplay to the flight combat series for the first time, with 16 players supported for now (Namco wants more), co-operative options and leaderboards. A dynamic mission system governs the single-player game, allowing you to influence the outcome of an ongoing war in the Anean Continent with your aerial acrobatics. You can check out shots in our Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation screenshot gallery.

Eternal Sonata is quite different. It's called "Trusty Bell: Chopin's Dream" in Japan, and as that name suggests, somewhat ludicrously, it's focused on the music of Frederic Chopin. Apparently three hours before death, Chopin entered a dream world and went on a magical adventure. "Mental" in quite a lot of senses. Well, two. Anyway, you can read a more interesting account of its progress in our Eternal Sonata first impressions from last year's Tokyo Game Show.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (23) Latest comment 5 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • Benno #1 5 years ago

    first

    i dont have much enthusiasm for the next ace combat game - the others were pretty naff

  • LeD #2 5 years ago

    I can't wait for both these games. I've been told playing them feels like a LUCID DREAM.

  • kissthestick #3 5 years ago

    great news

  • menage #4 5 years ago

    Yeah!!!!!!

    Great news. Sonata looks beautiful.
    Edited by 1 at 22/06/07 @ 09:02

  • Der_tolle_Emil #5 5 years ago

    Good news!

  • souljacker2000 #6 5 years ago

    duno about sonata, could really b shit... but on the other hand could be amazing

    Ace combat 6
    no thanks

  • captainrentboy #7 5 years ago

    Mehhh, some of the screenies of Ace Combat look pretty darned sexy, whilst others look like Dog plop :/ If it gets decent reviews it might be one for my collection, even though the last flying game I played was..... ermm.. Pliotwings on the N64.

  • menage #8 5 years ago

    "eternal sonata (well, the demo) made me love rpg's again after final fantasy XII crushed my soul and then kicked it repeatedly with very big boots""

    lol, that wasn't a good period in your life then was it?:)

    FF12 did suck though, boring beyond belief.

  • Wash #9 5 years ago

    Eternal Sonata demo was pretty sweet. Looks promising.

  • Daikon #10 5 years ago

    @Benno

    Thanks for sharing that with us. Now go away.

  • Caimbeul #11 5 years ago

    Daayyyyytooooonnnaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

    oops wrong game.

  • davisorle #12 5 years ago

    Ace combat is the only game of the kind that I've ever enjoyed playing. I still remember the enthusiasm with the first Ace combat. Eternal Sonata, I cant say anything about it cause till now I keep forgeting to download the demo :/ ( and i wont do it again right now... ) I do hope though that it will be really good. It sounds promising.

    (btw I know its out of subject but when are they going to post at EG about the rotten BR disks? lmao. I read it 5 minutes ago. Id just like to see the defenders of this site talk about it. It's always funny.
    http://me gagames.com/news/html/hardware/... )

  • The-Bodybuilder #13 5 years ago

    >"FF12 did suck though, boring beyond belief. "

    Didn't EG give it a 10?

  • Les #14 5 years ago

    "FF12 did suck though, boring beyond belief."

    For real?! It's the best FF ever in my opinion, but then, it's quite subjective obviously. I like the mature storyline and the battle system is magnificent.

  • Gurgeh #15 5 years ago

    Eternal Sonata was #2 in the all format software chart for Japan last week which is quite something given how few 360s there are over there

  • The-Bodybuilder #16 5 years ago

    @ Gurgeh

    Watch it dissappear into the dark pit of gaming charts.

  • Scimarad #17 5 years ago

    Looking at the lack of enthusiasm for Ace Combat 6 and Eternal Sonata makes it all the more clear why I don't find the 360s library as great as most 360 owners. I can't wait for these 2 but I'm starting to think my taste doesn't agree with the average 360 owner that often...

  • menage #18 5 years ago

    "Looking at the lack of enthusiasm for Ace Combat 6 and Eternal Sonata makes it all the more clear why I don't find the 360s library as great as most 360 owners. I can't wait for these 2 but I'm starting to think my taste doesn't agree with the average 360 owner that often... "

    My feelings , maybe I'm a PS3 player after all:p (I'm still in love with 360 though).

    "For real?! It's the best FF ever in my opinion, but then, it's quite subjective obviously. I like the mature storyline and the battle system is magnificent.
    "

    I understand why people love it, it's just not for me. The battles we a cluttered mess (I don't like NPCs running all over the place) and the battle system took a large part of the actual gameplay out of your hands, which I find quite stupid considering it's a game. I don't like setting up gambits and then watch the game play itself.

    I only played for like 8 hoours hough, but I didn't get that RPG vibe that I was searching for. Bought Disgaea 2 instead.

    Edited by 1 at 23/06/07 @ 11:32

  • davisorle #19 5 years ago

    @The Bodybuilder
    ""FF12 did suck though, boring beyond belief. ""
    "Didn't EG give it a 10? "

    And what's so weird about it? I think you already know the answer to that... Its EG dude. What is sad though is that FF12 was supposed to be that amazing game with its gameplay when they actually made it so fn lame. I can, for the first time thank god FF12 didnt come out on the 360 cause Id feel so bad paying for it knowing I could have waited for Dirt and The Darkness! Even Hour of Victory might be more entertaining. It's just that system of FF12 that got on my nerves. When I saw a friend playing instead of getting jealous like I expected from a game like that I got tired and started complaining so we could put the goddamn movie on.

    Anyway, both tittles from Atari/Namco are more than welcomed. It's all matter of taste in games. I hope I'm into playing them when they come out cause if I don't feel like it, it wont really matter to me how much I like them. I'll just ignore the fact they ever got released.

  • Kostabi #20 5 years ago

    Online dog fighting! weee!

    Shame it'll all be about fire and forget missiles. Hurry up with the new Crimsons Skies Mr Microsoft, please.

  • menage #21 5 years ago

    Great idea, would be a suitable answer to Warhawk!
    Edited by 1 at 24/06/07 @ 12:09

  • NegativeZero #22 5 years ago

    Autumn is September to November. The US date for Eternal Sonata is September and Ace Combat is November. Does this imply that we'll get these two at around the same time as the US for once?

  • Scimarad #23 5 years ago

    It's not anything like Warhawk so isn't a suitable answer to Warhawk. Personally I wasn't even aware Warhawk was a question...