Tom Clancy's HAWX Comments by Kristan Reed

Finally, an alternative to Ace Combat. I like the GRAW crossovers too.

PMCs attacking the US? I detect a hint of Metal Gear Solid 4 :P Not really, they both just feature PMCs.

I love air combat games, so I'm really looking forward to this one, especially co-op. I'm not the kind of person to say every game needs online, but I'm glad it's in this one.

Looks okay, but I'm not going to be convinced until I get a chance to play a demo or something. Dire voice acting and horrible plot aside, Ace Combat 6 is still the most enjoyable console-based air combat game, and while this looks good I get the impression that they might try and overcomplicate it or make it too 'realistic'.

One thing that I remember seeing in footage of this a little while back was the way that the camera pulled back to a fixed camera miles away when you were dodging missiles. That was probably the thing that raised my eyebrows the most - it seemed like it would jar you out of the gameplay. But it might be great. Impossible to tell until we can play it.

HAWX is still one of the shittiest game names I've seen, though.

This writeup now means I've got another game to look forward to :)

"negative Ghostrider, the pattern is full"

:(

I'm sorry I didnt quite catch you there, the problem with flight combat games is that they are "a bit limited for people who were not a big fan of air combat games or planes". We better get started on an Elder Scrolls for the Mario crowd then...

I am seeing a cockpit screenshot there - which is great. Hadn't they said there'd be no internal view at all? Hope it's not just a cutscene.

One thing that I remember seeing in footage of this a little while back was the way that the camera pulled back to a fixed camera miles away when you were dodging missiles. That was probably the thing that raised my eyebrows the most - it seemed like it would jar you out of the gameplay. But it might be great. Impossible to tell until we can play it.


Hm, did you really read the interview at all? :p

It's the one feature everyone who has seen it in action seems to be extremely impressed with.

Eurogamer: Do you think Tom Clancy ever bothers to play them himself?

Thomas Simon: I'd be happy to show him [HAWX] and demo it for him, definitely. I mean, planes and Clancy are a natural mix. In 'Clear And Present Danger', [there's a] special operation where planes go and bomb a car to kill drug lords, for example.

I know, I know, I should be used to it by now : interviewer asks straight question, interviewee dishes out some spun B.S. that avoids the point entirely because the real answer (in this case) would have been "he hates games, thinks they're for retards, he lets us use his name against a whole wodge of dosh and suckers buy this game, yay". [corrected my own spelling]

I think that unless an interviewer is gonna call the interviewee on what's obviously a fluff answer that the interviewer would have been better off leaving the question out. If the interview is meant to be a polite conversation (obviously), please leave out that angle of questioning because all I learn from the guy being interviewed is how much of a B.S. artist he is and it tells me nothing about the game.

Sorry for not contributing anything useful myself. I'm off to jump into the lake.

Show some footage, then we'll talk...more excitedly!
As is, it seems like it could be very good.

What I would love to see is being able to control the first person / cockpit view with the sixaxis, at least as an option, so that I can look around freely using the sixaxis while doing everything else I can do with the plane using the analog sticks and other buttons (would like that in cockpit view of Gran Turismo too by the way, thank you). That could create a gameplay experience that really ups the ante in terms of immersion that matches how these fighter planes work with pilots in reality. And hopefully be a lot more fun as well.

"So while they are still manoeuvring to get a shooting opportunity on me, I'll be locking and shooting and dodging. So when they will be shooting, they will already have two missiles coming to them while I'll be moving and dodging - and they will be still."

What? I have real difficulty understanding what sort of maneuvers he's doing there. Normally someone is behind you if they're trying to lock on, so how the fuck is he shooting back? Has it got Firefox in it and rear firing missiles? And why are they still? Is he fighting a helicopter.

Do I have to think in Russian?

Also..

"I wait for one to shoot, because it means he's going to have reload time, and I'm going to have something to do."

Reload time? RELOAD TIME? Does he need to crawl out onto his wing and load up another missile before he can fire? In every flight sim I've ever played I can fire off all my missiles as fast as I can repeatedly press fire, after which I can't fire again until I've landed and re-armed. What's he on about with reloading?

I'm so confused by this guy.

@UncleLou: It's the one feature everyone who has seen it in action seems to be extremely impressed with.

Well, I wasn't impressed when I saw some video of it a while back. It might look better in reality, but I don't give a shit how it looks, I care about how it plays. I want to feel like I'm flying the aircraft directly, not indirectly. It looked like the sort of thing where they would arbitrarily shoehorn in some token sixaxis bullshit or something. But as I said, I want to actually try it myself before forming any strong opinions.

It looked like the sort of thing where they would arbitrarily shoehorn in some token sixaxis bullshit or something.

It really, really does not look like that at all. Fair point that it might ruin the feeling of flying, but I think you are underestimating the feature, or rather its meaning for the game. It seems to be the core mechanic of the game, rather than a gimmicky afterthought.

And of course it's about how it plays - I say it again, it's the one feature everyone who saw the game in action, or played it, seems to be extremely impressed with.

I am really looking forward to this, by the way!

Was great when my staffer and I wasted the two Ubisoft guys playing in the E3 suite in a 2v2 fight. The only thing that bothered me was the dogfight cam. I come from PC flight sims and need a padlock view from within the cockpit, not some wonky angled view from outside.

-MP
http://www.GamingShogun.com