Ace Combat X: Skies of Deception Comments by Dave McCarthy

Hey, ho bloody F1R5T!

Well worth getting up early for this.
:-/

Haha you beat me to it =P

I've loved Ace Combat so far, but if the series is to survive Namco has to come up with something special for the nextgen installment.

Noooo! I had high hopes for this one.

When can we expect the Killzone Liberation review? It's in stores now, but I'd like to read a EG review first.

The game was pretty poor IMO... the voice acting was really bad and the gameplay wasn't a patch on Ace Combat 4, the best of all the Ace Combat games.

As a game in its own right, and if you compare it to combat flight sims on other platforms

Now why should you do that? For this reason alone, the review is a 2/10.

What gives??? All through the internet, Ace Combat X received great reviews. Don't take my word for it, just go and have a look.
I'm certainly buying it.

@SeesThroughAll

Yeah I'm getting a bit sick of handheld reviews being judged against their console brothers. It shouldn't enter the equation whatsoever. Just review the game on its merits.

Comparing this against similar games on other platforms is perfectly legitimate. What are you supposed to do? Pretend that the last 10 years of the genre haven't happened just because there are no similar games on the PSP? I've played this stuff on other consoles, and if this sucks more than most of those I want to know about it.

@SeesThroughAll

Yeah I'm getting a bit sick of handheld reviews being judged against their console brothers. It shouldn't enter the equation whatsoever. Just review the game on its merits.

Nah, that's perfectly alright. I am an Ace Combat fanboy, I want to know if it's in any way a comparable experience to the PS2 games - which it obviously isn't, as the review tells me. Besides, you missed the "as a game in its own right" line.

Is it good though herod? I need some new PSP games, this could be ideal bus material.

In any case surely a complaint about lack of control and a complaint about a game being unsuitable for a platform amount to the same thing in this case?

What gives??? All through the internet, Ace Combat X received great reviews. Don't take my word for it, just go and have a look.

Exactly. And what's more, most of the other reviewers do mention that the gameplay omissions simplify the game, but still allow it to be suitable for a handheld. Controls have even been praised. PSP games can come technically close to PS2 games, but at the end of the day, they should not play the exact same way. Period.

This is like the LCS -> VCS missions "improvement". People complained about the simpler missions, forgetting that they actually were fine for a handheld. R* tries to please people, and the result? The missions became as punishing as the console ones, but actually became even more frustrating because they were being played on a handheld.

"Comparing this against similar games on other platforms is perfectly legitimate. What are you supposed to do? Pretend that the last 10 years of the genre haven't happened just because there are no similar games on the PSP?"

The PSP is a portable console and meant to be played in situations where you can't play a home console, so comparisons with home console games are meaningless because you're not likely to be in a situation where you can switch from one to the other.

It would be like comparing the space in a car and the space in a house, you can't drive a house so what's the point of comparing them?

Um, read a few reviews of cross-platform games on the DS, then.

Most other DS games can't really be compared that easily because they're pretty unique. And if they aren't, they do get compared all the time. Show me a single review of NSMB or MarioKart where the games aren't compared to the non-handheld versions.

Itīs perfectly OK to compare this to other games in the series because it clearly wants to imitate the look and gameplay of its PS2 counterparts. Dave was only mildly entertained, hence the 5.

All other reviewers seem to like it more (average score around 8) so I will give it a try, nevertheless.

I've tried this (never played any other AC game before), and didn't find it to be anything special. It certainly looks and sounds the part, , but the missions I played seemed to just be a case of 'fly around until you find some enemy planes/ ground units, then lock-on and take them out with your missiles, and repeat.'

Not the sort of thing that would hold my interest for too long, especially with so many great PSP titles available now.

K

Why isn't the analogue stick large and the D-Pad small, i just don't get it!!!!

With a large analogue stick precise control would be a lot easier, most games use it a lot more than the d-pad. the psp sucks as a games machine for this reason alone. When i look at games like this i just think "uck bad analogue stick control" and put them back on the shelf.

Sony make a psp with the d-pad and analogue stick swapped around!!!!

Itīs perfectly OK to compare this to other games in the series because it clearly wants to imitate the look and gameplay of its PS2 counterparts.

Yeah, that's what I meant. If they're going to bill it simply as a new Ace Combat, then I want to know what it's like in the context of those games.

In my experience, DS games get reviewed with how much better they are than GBA ones, PSP games are reviewed with how much worse they are than XBox 360 ones (this is not an exageration, this actually happens). However, the site most blatant in this stupidity, Gamespot (who gave the unforgivably bugged Lego Star Wars 2 a HIGHER score for graphics than the PSP version, so obviously people dissappearing completely so levels are unfinishable is the graphical edge they were looking for) give this game 8.2/10

Average score on Metacritic is 81

Make your own minds up what you feel about this review. I'll reserve judgement until I've played it. But anytime I hear the "It's not good for playing on the train/bus" excuse used for marking down a handheld title I can pretty much guarantee it goes in the mental dustbin as far as opinion forming goes.

If it isn't designed for ADHD sufferers it doesn't meet some people's criteria for what handheld gaming should be.

Excelent point Hughes!! lol


" herod
06-Nov-06 09:19:51

Partly that's due to the limitations of Sony's hardware: the game is more difficult to control than previous Ace Combat games, primarily because the lack of a second analog stick means that it's difficult to yaw and pitch or roll at the same time.

TOTALY UNFORGIVEABLE"

Except, real jets are "also" flown with one stick.

Left - right, banks.

Up - down, pitch and yaw.

This reviewer is a moron, sorry. It's obvious he's digging for anything bad he can find.

Shame on you Eurogamer.

BTW it's currently an 8 on gamerankings.
http://www.gamerankings.com/htmlpages2/9...

@Canadian_Mike
Tottaly agree with you.

Except, real jets are "also" flown with one stick.

Left - right, banks.

Up - down, pitch and yaw.

This reviewer is a moron, sorry

err- no.

Stick controls Pitch and Roll. Yaw is controlled by pedals, not the stick.

Ace Combat on PS2 maps yaw to the right stick- I don;t know what ACX does, but it's probably not as good.

you can alter the control setup , making the game far better.

use shoulder buttons for yaw.

Thx RFT,

Got my yaw's combined with my pitches.

http://quest.nasa.gov/space/frontiers/ac...

...either way, i don't see the PSP needing another stick for this game.

Errr...lack of a second stick ? Since AC4, the right analogue stick has only been used for the camera. One stick is all you need. Just won't be able to enjoy the scenery as much....

Needs Infrastructure mode.