F-ZeroOne

Finally finished the campaign last night. Is it just me, or is Shamrock the unluckiest wingman in Ace Combat history? And, oh, yet another example of unrequited love between an AWACs and a pilot in Ace Combat. Is this what its like in real life? "Viper Zero-Three-Tango-Niner, sending you strike co-ordinates now, you big stud."

Strange tid-bit from the movie world - the forthcoming remake of that British wartime classic, The Dambusters, is to be scripted by Stephen "Brain The Size of Kent" Fry. This has raised one or two eyebrows, especially if the rumours that Alan Davies will be taking the role of Wing Commander Guy Gibson are true...

"The Colour of Magic" was the earliest book in the Discoworld series, which has gone on to be more and more refined ever since. Everyone has their favourite Pratchett book or sequence, but for me I'd suggest "Guards, Guards!", ""Men at Arms" and "Feet of Clay" as a good starting point.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7141458.stm I don't know how popular his books are in the US or the rest of the World, but in the UK he was IIRC our biggest-selling author until J.K. Rowling came along. To quote perhaps his most well known character: THERE IS NO JUSTICE. (and no, thats not shouting, thats quoting. If you'd like to know where the difference is, might I suggest starting with Terry Pratchetts Mort?)

The Luftwaffe thought that, too, until about the end of the summer of 1940.

True. But we also gave them all the design errors, too.

Eric "Winkle" Brown, the great British test pilot, was an advocate of this arrangement and IIRC tests have shown that it increases "G"-tolerance. David r.e. Lightning - we had to protect the domestic industry somehow...

Just as bloody well too - you lot were going to call the P-38 the "Alabama" before we lent a hand...! (Mind you, the most famous British fighter of all time very narrowly escaped being called the Supermarine Shrew... ).

I'm a little way into the game now; delayed partly because of the later UK release and partly because Mass Effect is competing for attention. My initial impression was that it felt a little flat. Ace Combat has never had great voice acting, but it did the job, and it worked most of the time (Ah, Chopper and Thunderhead, how we miss your little chats... ) but this one seems a touch worse than usual. I still like the Estobakian accents, though. I just have a thing about mock Russian accents... The first couple of missions also feel a touch, I don't know, lifeless. Maybes its because I played the heck out of the first mission in the demo. However, Ace Combat 6 mixes it up by adding the Allied units - and suddenly, things brighten up. Thats not just you up there fighting for Gracemeria - its you and GhostEye and Dragon Breaker and Barracuda! It adds interest to what you're doing, and boy, do you feel bad when Barracuda team gets wiped out because you were too busy strafing tents all the way over the other side of the battlefield... (er, sorry, guys. Better luck next life). It also becomes apparent that the game is more dynamic with lots of nice little touches; for once, it actually looks like all the people you're supporting are actually doing something, and with the Allied support feature, they do. And for perhaps the first time ever in an Ace Combat game, you have Wingmen who are actually useful. Not only that, but they can be shot down, too. Hopefully not by you. Theres other nice little touches - ESM, which aids you or the enemy if you're in its radius, being able to land at newly captured bases, and upgraded SAMs. They blow up just the same as the old ones. Theres some disappointments - the Assault records are a bit barren (strangely, your own forces can now feature here, and I'm wondering if you earn some sort of achievement if due to your tent-strafing oversights everyone else gets fragged... ), and Ace Combat games are always better with more featured aircraft, not less. The story is growing on me, after a somewhat cringe-inducing start; its interestingly presented, and theres some nice cut-scenes - although we all know that A-10 pilot wasn't really trying, because if he was, that Fiat 500 would have been atomised... But Ace Combat 6s biggest strength is this - its looks absolutely, jaw-droppingly, gorgeous. Move your HDTV up to the window and just play the opening trailer. See how many people you can make drool against the glass...

Okay, thanks for answering the question.

Overall, its a pretty good series, although theres a somewhat bizarre segment in the middle of its run which was caused, I believe, by the series being so popular that the number of episodes were increased and this wasn't planned for... its a good old rip-roaring yarn for the most part, and if you liked Laputa, Mysterious Cities of Gold, or Turn-A Gundam you should like this.

Tally ho, chaps! Finally got the UK release of AC6 today, though I haven't had a chance to play it yet and I've also got Mass Effect to work through... Just a question out of sheer curiousity - on-line, has anyone tried pairing up as a lead and wingman...? I suspect the AC style of combat makes "lone wolfing" easier, and I guess there might be technical problems, but I'm just wondering if anyones given it a go...

How to own if you're in a SR-71: "One day, high above Arizona, we were monitoring the radio traffic of all the mortal airplanes below us. First, a Cessna pilot asked the air traffic controllers to check his ground speed. ‘Ninety knots,’ ATC replied. A twin Bonanza soon made the same request. ‘One-twenty on the ground,’ was the reply. To our surprise, a navy F-18 came over the radio with a ground speed check. I knew exactly what he was doing. Of course, he had a ground speed indicator in his cockpit, but he wanted to let all the bug-smashers in the valley know what real speed was. ‘Dusty 52, we show you at 620 on the ground,’ ATC responded. The situation was too ripe. I heard the click of Walter’s mike button in the rear seat. In his most innocent voice, Walter startled the controller by asking for a ground speed check from 81,000 feet, clearly above controlled airspace. In a cool, professional voice, the controller replied, ‘Aspen 20, I show you at 1,982 knots on the ground.’ We did not hear another transmission on that frequency all the way to the coast." Quote taken from an item on Defence Tech (http://www.defensetech.org/archives/003869.html#comments).

If it helps, that was very much a problem for real fighter pilots too... Meanwhile, at a remote airbase in a green and pleasant land... "Control, this is Fury Squadron. Any trade for us yet?" "Checking... negative, Fury Squadron. Remain on stand by until called for." "Don't wish to cause a fuss, old chap, but thats what you said last week. Its getting to be a bit of a frightful bore, what?" "Fury Squadron, transmission coming in. Stand by... " "They're killing us! They're killing us! They're all over us! Help us! Someone please help us, for the love of - BBEEEeee... " "Finally! Control, this is Fury Squadron, ready to scramble... " "Negative, Fury Squadron. Your assistance not required at this time. Stand by." "Oh, for the love of... this is a jolly poor show, really. Fury Squadron, standing by... " Yes, AC6 has been postponed another week in the UK...

Speaking of cool UK hardware names, I forgot that one of the missiles in the inventory is the Storm Shadow. That right, evil-doers - we can fire NINJAS at you!

Indeed there is. And the UKs premier military research and development organisation is called QinetiQ, and if you don't get the significance of those Qs, you don't watch enough Bond films. However, the best people for names are the British squaddie; after problems with the Armys new BOWMAN radio system, they decided it stood for "Better Off With Map And Nokia"...

It seems that any UK-based Ace Combat pilots really are going to be "the Few"; AC6 comes out here on the same day as Mass Effect and seemingly every other triple-A title thats planned for release EVER. Still - target rich environment, what?

UK to get unmanned fleshy one aerial destroyer units: http://www.baesystems.com/ProductsServices...onstrators.html And if you're not worried by that, then you should perhaps know that the communications system they'll be using is called Skynet...

The release of Ace Combat 6 in Japan has meant an upsurge in X-Box 360 sales there - in fact, it actually sold more (by a few dozen) then the PS3 during the week of AC6s release!

A thought has just occurred to me. If I was in charge of BAE Systems, I'd be paradropping salespeople into Tokyo right the heck now...

Interesting little tidbit resulting from the F-15 grounding - because the JASDF has recently had to ground its F-2 fighters due to a crash and now its F-15s, the air defence of Japan currently rests in the hands of a young, hotheaded, emotionally charged but skilled orphan and his giant, blue and white robo - - oh, hang on, thats Gundam. No, the air defence of Japan currently rests on F-4 Phantom IIs...!

Dash it all, you beat me to it. This used to cause problems for the great Fleet Air Arm test pilot Eric "Winkle" Brown, who would often find himself landing some never-before-seen prototype at a RAF base and then have to explain why he was wearing a Naval uniform...

The UK satire show "Have I Got News For You" had fun with this - "Behave, President Putin, or we'll send in millions of our invisible tanks! In fact, they could already be there!"

Yes, I saw a bit of this a couple months ago and liked it quite a bit too.

Recent discoveries in the RAF film archives have revealed that certain assumptions about "the Few" may have to be revised: (possibly NSFW due to language).