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[Putnam]

Ooh, just beat Ace Combat 3 on the Neucom path. The ending was incredibly unsatisfying in the most satisfying way possible!

It ended with one of my wingmen dead, one completely unhappy, and the third god knows where, as if to say "you couldn't help anyone even if you wanted to!"

God damn.

[Putnam]

I've gone a bit loopy because, as it turns out, nobody's played Ace Combat 3. This kind of bothers me. People call Ace Combat 04 the game that introduced an alive battlefield--nope, Ace Combat 3. People say that Nagase provided a good example of a female role in an Ace Combat game for the first time--nope, two of your three starting wingmen in 3 are women and the third is pretty... bland. His seiyu was typecast as hell, so he doesn't have much character except YELLING URGENTLY.

And now I've tangented.

[Man of Paper]

My favorite PS1 game was Air Combat. Shit was so cash. It sparked my love for aircraft, and to this day I know more about combat aircraft that automobiles.

I somehow missed playing all the Ace Combats up to 4. I'm actually looking at it right now, too. Right next to AC5 and on the shelf above Zero. I've put more time into those games than I have just about any other console game (can't say the same for handhelds, Monster Hunter Freedom Unite has about 450 hours on it). Nothing feels more satisfying than being able to master the more complex maneuvers in a game that doesn't have the ability to control most of the aspects of your plane.

Taking out Stonehenge and Megalith were two of my favorite moments of any game, and the epic music they use for the last missions of 4 and 5 are friggin epic. So epic, in fact, that I have them play when my fortresses get besieged by significantly sized vile forces of darkness.

I've heard excellent things about 3, but I'll be damned if I haven't seen it anywhere. I haven't touched 6 because it's Xbox exclusive, if I recall correctly, and I heard it gave up a lot of the neatness for more arcadey combat. How they get more arcadey, I have no idea.

[sluissa]

I only have experience of a couple of ace combat games, however I do think they're a great series. For more like it, you can check out the H.A.W.X. series. It's almost a direct copy just with a real world setting and a more westernized story. The story of HAWX isn't as good as the Ace combats I've seen, but since the gameplay is almost a direct copy, for some people it might be worth the playthrough. I haven't tried the sequel.

I still remember some of the original Ace/Air Combat. It has the lofty position in my history as the first game I completed fully. The potential selection of planes was staggering to me at the time. Being able to choose different planes for different situations just excited me to no end.

[warhammer651]

I've played most of the series, save 2 and 3 on the PS2, and My favorite one was 0. Assault Horizon (except for the 3ds game) can go to hell though. Seriously, regenerating health in a game about aircraft? A protagonist that talks? What the fuck devs?

The helicopter segments ween't too bad though.

[inteuniso]

Someone needs to make a HoI 3 mod in the Ace Combat world.

[warhammer651]

Someone needs to make a HoI 3 mod in the Ace Combat world.

but then we have to worry about stuff other than the sexy, sexy battles for control of the skies. Like building the right amount of aircraft. or, god forbid, the army and navy

[darkrider2]

I owned 4 and its still lying around here somewhere, but my PS2 has been broken for years, tears man, tears of agony.

Acecombat 4 was probably my favorite even though 5 was really good, if just because it had the shattered skies mission with the giant furball of planes duking it out. The only time I've been able to get a furball like that in 5 was in the 8491 mission (tough as hell to kill em all).

Also zero's soundtrack was pretty freaken awesome, especially the ace battles music. And its got those B17 missions for the aircraft furball.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I actually fought better after he [chopper] died. I didn't know a game could do that.

[Putnam]

Yeah, Ace Combat 04 is like Ace Combat 2 done right--good, non-repetitive missions with a story that doesn't let it detract from the gameplay.

The problem with Ace Combat 3 is that it gets a bit too deep into the story, enough to make the missions follow the story as opposed to the other way around. For example, the... 3rd? 4th? mission of the game has you following around General Resource's ace Abyssal Dision and his wingman Keith Bryan. Dision and Keith tell you to keep up for about a minute and then you shoot down some targets with your gun. It's a way to introduce you to Dision and Keith, but it's kind of forced. Plus, the guy flies like some of the more insane pilots in Ace Combat 5.

Then they shoehorn in some airdropped chemicals from Neucom that you need to shoot down with your gun. Yeah, the entire missions, as it turns out, was a tutorial mission to tell you how to shoot your gun. I'm playing on hard, I don't need to know that! (Hard was the hardest difficulty in AC3)

EDIT: If there's one thing I really think that they did better in later Ace Combat games, it's the music. AC3's music is generic electronic stuff, very Ridge Racer (which makes sense, since the Ridge Racer series has made more reference to Ace Combat 3 than the Ace Combat series has...).

Also, the remake of Ace Combat 2 on the 3DS has got me excited for the possibility of further remakes.

[Putnam]

Haha, just saw the actual ending of Ace Combat 3.

Spoiler: Ending spoilers for Ace Combat 3 (natch) (click to show/hide)

Holy shit. People misunderstood that, I think. It appears that Simon does not delete Nemo--he sends Nemo to SARF, as he knows that the events that transpired will happen soon enough and will, no matter what Nemo chooses, result in the death of Dision at the hands of Nemo. This is exactly what Simon wants.

[Mictlantecuhtli]

I've gone a bit loopy because, as it turns out, nobody's played Ace Combat 3.

AC3 is by far my favorite.

[Putnam]

Necroing because there's a new game coming out that takes place in the real world BUT it has Stonehenge and Aigaion and Nosferatu and Ulysses and all that other stuff.

[Itnetlolor]

Necroing because there's a new game coming out that takes place in the real world BUT it has Stonehenge and Aigaion and Nosferatu and Ulysses and all that other stuff.

Are you talking about Assault Horizon?

Considering one of the locations you battle in is Miami; I'm curious if it's a good idea to place a Stonehenge-equivalent in the Bermuda Triangle. Legends/myths about that location, along with rogue waves and such, makes that an ideal place to keep something of such magnitude as an OP border patrol for the East Coast of the US. General area is scary enough with disappearing aircraft and boats. If the myth is a lie, then security is damn good about making sure you disappear without a trace; kinda like an East Coast Area-51 in the middle of a different kind of desert (an ocean).

Too much air-traffic and curiosity nearby? Use a weather-device (a tin-hat HAARP equivalent) to make hurricanes to keep prying eyes away from there. Considering the technology used in the Ace Combat games, it makes the most sense.

[Flying Dice]

Ah, now I'm nostalgia tripping hard about that mission in 6 where you had to fly down the barrel of a giant railgun. Good plot aside, that game had some truly batshit insane moments, and that last mission was a great twist that managed to not be entirely transparent.

[Itnetlolor]

Ah, now I'm nostalgia tripping hard about that mission in 6 where you had to fly down the barrel of a giant railgun. Good plot aside, that game had some truly batshit insane moments, and that last mission was a great twist that managed to not be entirely transparent.

That statement reminds me of a mission in Airforce Delta Strike where you had to do that to 3 navarone batteries, AKA The Leupold Battery (3 railguns as long as a city each), while they're firing as well, and you have to destroy them from the inside. That same game had it's share of insane missions as well, including flying jets in space, or using a VTOL to destroy other VTOLs and helicopters in a central hub of a subway (purely tunnel mission, real tight space, almost no room for error, and it was a pretty large level for being just tunnels). But what was awesome about it was after beating it at least once, you can unlock the Vic Viper as a flyable OP craft, ripple cannon included for bombing, with the Gradius music included as you fly (different for atmo and space missions).

Like any other Konami combat sim, Twinbee was also unlockable, along with other arcade aircraft.

EDIT:
Wrong company, fixed.

Other missions include taking down tornado generators by flying into the tornados from above, into the cyclones, and having a split-second to destroy the generators from within the tornados themselves. Come and think of it, the game may as well be called Violation of Common Sense with Planes... and In Space, While We're at It.