Ace Combat: Assault Horizon

[Shaorin]

i never knew that PHOENIXes could be mounted on the outboard pylons. is that actually possible?

Yes.

i guess that means i can get away with mounting a pair of PHOENIXes, right where i have shaved away

the molded-on SPARROWs on the outboard pylons of the REVELL 1/48 F-14D i've been working on.

((i felt that mounting the four PHOENIXes on the undercarriage, as dictated in the instructions,

kind of spoiled the lines of the fighter, and, while i HAVE been considering leaving the model bare of missile armament,

i've also been considering mounting a PHOENIX and a SIDEWINDER on each outboard pylon,

and if i could plausibly get away with that, then i think i might just go on ahead... ))

[David Hingtgen]

To be correct, you'd need Phoenix pylons to mount a Phoenix under the gloves---each weapon has a unique adapter in that location. You'll note that the aft fin of a Sparrow mounted there exactly matches the angled cut-out at the rear of the adapter.

However, I don't think I've ever seen Phoenixes loaded on the glove pylons INSTEAD of on the belly. Generally, the first 2 spots that a Phoenix go are on the belly up front. Then the rear. THEN they go under the gloves.

About the only exception will be when carrying a single Phoenix on one side, while the belly is full of bombs and a LANTIRN pod is on the other side---because bombs absolutely can't go under the gloves and the Phoenix is needed more for balance than anything.

As for Sidewinders----they can always go on the stub pylons on the outside of the main glove pylon, with any weapon. An F-14 will never need to be without Sidewinders no matter what else it carries.

[Fly4victory]

This is what the "optimal" control setting ends up being on the HOTAS. There is an "original" control setting, don’t know if will improve anything, but that is it for options.

Not impossible.... just not fun....and sadly makes HAWX seem better.

Edit:This is jet only and Excellent photo, Dave.

Edited April 4, 2012 by Fly4victory

[D.D. Ivanov]

I wouldn't suggest playing it with a flight stick, i tried with my T-Flight HOTAS X and it was a horrible experience. I had to go play LOMAC and Falcon 4 for six hours straight to cleanse myself.

[Old_Nash]

Ace Edge from Ace Combat 6 not serve in the Assault Horizon?

[Chronocidal]

I don't think it's supported actually, which I remember a bunch of people being extremely pissed about.

And honestly, that control scheme is just STUPID. What idiot would use the throttle and rudder controls to control the view, then assign the rudder and throttle to buttons? And using the trigger and pickle button to run the throttle??? I'm sorry, but that just makes no freaking sense at all. If that's what the developers called "optimal" then that explains a LOT about why that game is so different from previous AC games.. it was written by people who need a good slap upside the head with a book about aircraft.

Where's the facepalm smiley when you need one?

Edited April 5, 2012 by Chronocidal

[Fly4victory]

As Shiroikaze said ACAH sees the Hotas X as a regular controller. The Hotas X doesn't work at all with PS2 games on the PS3. Again no luck for the old Ace Combat fans.

I concur with Chronocidal. The layout is stupid and could have been easily fixed with giving the player the option to assign button functions. Really happy that I didn't pay full price or import a Japanese copy. Now if Thrustmaster came up with Roxy on the PS3, I'd never touch a dual shock again.

The thing that gets me is Apache Air Assault hasn't dropped in price at all. I thought the reviews were over inflated, plus the name assault equals UH-60/CH-47 not AH-64, but I guess the market still likes it.

Just have difficulty paying full price for non-Japanese games.

[D.D. Ivanov]

You CAN remap buttons on the T-Flight HOTAS X to have an actually fitting control scheme, save for the rudder which must be split between the throttle and the stick. The problem is the fact that this is through the stick's built-in remapping, which resets every time it turns off. Not worth it, in my opinion.

Apache: Air Assault was produced by Activision, what do you expect, reasonable price drops? At least Gaijin has their games released at sub-standard prices anyways.

[Fly4victory]

Yes, should have been more specific.

That is why I want Roxy so the "programming" can be saved and re-loaded to the stick based on the game you are playing.

[wm cheng]

Thanks for all the feedback, I guess I watched on the sidelines as AC6 sailed by on the XBox, I can watch this AC:AH sail by too.

[D.D. Ivanov]

Maybe if Namco Bandai hadn't ditched more than half of the fanbase, and instead made Ace Combat 6 multiplatform, we would have gotten Ace Combat 7 instead of AfterBurner: Jim DeFelice Edition. Instead, Namdai decided to blame AC6's poor sales on a stagnant formula, and gave us a rail shooter with planes.

That's not to say 6 was a great game. While the gameplay and graphics were a step up simply due to new hardware alone, the story was horribly derivative from its own predecessors and the online was poorly thought-out.

[Chronocidal]

AC6 was fun to play, and extremely pretty too. It just would've been much better if you could turn off the voices, because the story just was plane lame. (ha.)

The platform jump really did hurt it though. Not only did they ditch their entire existing playstation fanbase by moving to the competing console line, but the addition of charging for features that used to be unlockables really made me sad. Not to mention the fact that jumping platforms seemed to mean they were forced to leave all bonus content from previous games out entirely (unless you're willing to fork over extra money ).

Plus.. after being spoiled rotten by 50+ planes from the previous two games, the lackluster selection in AC6 felt like a slap to the face. If they had offered DLC aircraft, I might have actually bought some.. but leaving out so many favorites from previous games just seemed like they got lazy.

Granted, the selections in AC5 and Zero were a bit on the excessive side, but AC used to be like the Gran Turismo of aircraft franchises. Half the reward is unlocking aircraft that you want to fly just because you like them, regardless of whether they're the best aircraft or not. It used to be fun being able to pick any number of planes if you wanted to challenge yourself, or if you just love the look of certain aircraft. With these newer games.. it's like they've taken on the trend from RPGs of forcing you to upgrade to the newest equipment as soon as it becomes available (or worse, dictating to you what aircraft you can use in any particular mission ), because otherwise you won't be able to continue.

It's like they've just become completely out of touch with what fans of these games actually enjoy, and are trying to force changes that no one asked for, just for the sake of being able to say they're "innovating." I seem to see that everywhere really.. and it's getting really depressing.

[Fly4victory]

Master Folgie, glad I could help.

Like most have said this is a frustratingly good looking rail shooter with oil splotches. It really does feel like Rebel Assault. Not using the close combat and still get the stupid oil splatter, sometimes have no choice but to use the close kill on leaders.

I really wanted to like this and only got the cheep NA version to test the Hotas before getting the Japanese version for the VF-1S F-14. I swallowed Another Century R for the VF-25 but can’t do it with ACAH.

I know that you cannot disable the close combat and I haven’t tried on-line but the game may be better on-line if everyone doesn’t use that close combat function.

Edit: Yes, on seemingly all flight games I'd have the pin switch off for all the crappy radio chatter.

Edited April 5, 2012 by Fly4victory

[Ghost Train]

I just watched the first episode of the second half of Fate Zero and that pretty well done dogfight between 2 JASDF fighters vs a Kraken and a Vimana... so I wouldn't be surprised if we see a Berserker F-15J DLC in the near future .

[aerocombatpilot]

Thanks for all the feedback, I guess I watched on the sidelines as AC6 sailed by on the XBox, I can watch this AC:AH sail by too.

Well, don't feel to bad. I've had AC:AH since Christmas and I haven't gotten past the helicopter mission yet!! So it's been sitting on the shelf since the day after Christmas collecting dust!!

[shiroikaze]

I just watched the first episode of the second half of Fate Zero and that pretty well done dogfight between 2 JASDF fighters vs a Kraken and a Vimana... so I wouldn't be surprised if we see a Berserker F-15J DLC in the near future .

With the way the planes move in multiplayer, it'll feel right at home.

[Fly4victory]

Has anyone tried the Hori PS3 flight stick?

http://www.amazon.com/HORI-PlayStation-3-Flight-Stick/dp/B006IOAJHG/ref=sr_1_56?ie=UTF8&qid=1336398360&sr=8-56

According to one review it has L2/R2 and L1/R1 one touch for ACAH.

More importantly, wonder if it works with AC5 and AC0 when played on the PS2 games are played on the PS3.

[Chronocidal]

Any specifics on how remappable that thing is, and whether it can be reprogrammed outside of the games you use it in? That seems to be a serious pitfall of console HOTAS systems, since it seems no two development teams can ever agree on what buttons you should be able to use for what.

Interesting though, that particular throttle looks like a slightly reworked Saitek X45 throttle. Also nice to see someone finally realizing that a full analog hat switch is a must, since consoles tend to stick with auto-centering view controls (that particular issue made me want to strangle the devs for hawx.. they didn't realize that PC hat switches don't work that way, and it wound up making the view control absolutely useless).

Honestly... given the option, I wouldn't mind using something like this on my PC instead. It's at a much better price point than all the other recent PC sticks.

Actually, now that I think of it, I'm really impressed.. Including the buttons to do L1/R1 and L2/R2 simultaneously is something that EVERY flight controller should have. It's one of the problems that a multitude of developer miss entirely when going between mappable functions and axes. You can't simultaneously push the throttle both directions. I've seen some really stupid mitakes by some development teams in games, where they give you the option to use a joystick/throttle as a control option, but don't have the sense to realize that a key game function requires you to activate the "throttle up" and "throttle down" functions at the same time.

Edited May 7, 2012 by Chronocidal

[Fly4victory]

the buttons to do L1/R1 and L2/R2 simultaneously is something that EVERY flight controller should have.

Thats the biggest problem with remapping the Hotas-X.... can't yaw left and right at the same time to activate the close combat feature.

To be honest I haven't played ACAH since the start of April.

The rail shooter ground attack mission sucked the life out of the game. How can you ruin an A-10 mission? They found a way.

Just went back to AC5, AC0 and got a cheep copy of Apache. Finally a decent helicopter game.

[Chronocidal]

Wait.. I haven't bought or played it (past that terrible demo) but you mean they seriously gave you a rail shooter mission in an A-10??

And to think I considered picking it up if I found it cheap. Thanks for the warning.

[Fly4victory]

Sorry for the bad news.

Yes on your approach to the group of targets the game expects you to close combat so you really don't control your flight path and in the middle of low level flight it cuts to the close ups of stuff blowing up and splattering. Not the best time for distraction.

That was when I had to walk away. Unlike hard games or levels in the past you had a sense of satisfaction when complete but with ACAH all I got was frustration.

…So much that I went back to flying the AC PS2 games with my thumbs.

[wm cheng]

Yes, I too would love to get more detail on how the buttons are mapped - can't even find a web site that will discuss the stick in any detail!

[McHenry]

I recently got this game and I'm having a hard time enjoying it, I find I have a hard time controlling the plane when you lock on to your enemy with R1 and L1. It just doesn't feel like Ace Combat to me.

[Keith]

I recently got this game and I'm having a hard time enjoying it, I find I have a hard time controlling the plane when you lock on to your enemy with R1 and L1. It just doesn't feel like Ace Combat to me.

Welcome to the club... Just wait until you get to the extremely boring and very un-acecombat like parts where you have to mow down "terrorists" with a helicoptor mounted machine gun.

Edited May 11, 2012 by Keith

[Chronocidal]

I hope they just come to their senses before releasing a new one. Or at least release HD updates of the old games.

I really would love to play Ace Combat 3 one of these days, especially if they bother to port the story this time.

[TheLoneWolf]

I think this game would've been better received if it just didn't have the name Ace Combat attached to it. Yes, the Ace Combat formula was beginning to show its age and lose its profitability, but for better or worse, pseudo-realistic dogfighting was AC's signature formula. But downgrading the dogfights only pissed off the series' core following, and I doubt it pulled in any new followers because they've long associated "Ace Combat" games with a genre that doesn't interest them. A new name would've allowed everyone to judge the game de novo. Alas, marketing guys are deathly afraid of starting new IPs and would prefer to run existing franchises into the ground.

I hope they just come to their senses before releasing a new one. Or at least release HD updates of the old games.

I really would love to play Ace Combat 3 one of these days, especially if they bother to port the story this time.

I think AC 4, 5, and 0 are good candidates for HD conversions. AC 3's textures would have to be redone for the ground up, so I doubt that'll ever happen.

[David Hingtgen]

I still think AC2 had the best music in the series.

[reeoyuy]

Speaking of AC2, is it true that AC:AH Legacy for 3DS is a remake of AC2? I remember I saw the name and logo of TSF Scarface and something about coup (the plot of AC2) in early trailer.

[Chronocidal]

I had heard something about that, though what caught my eye in the 3DS trailers was that the interface/font/etc looked like a return to AC4 in style..

And then the F-22 started doing button activated barrel rolls, and I lost any interest I had.

[reeoyuy]

If anything, I hope Legacy sell well so the developer can see that Strangereal universe is still profitable.

[mikeszekely]

I picked up Legacy today. I only have time to play one mission, but it feels A LOT more like classic Ace Combat than the console versions did. It's been too long since I played Ace Combat 2, so I can't say if it's a straight up remake, but yeah, there's at least some throwbacks too it. If you have a 3DS, it's definitely worth a look.

[D.D. Ivanov]

It still has stupid "press X to cobra" maneuvers, so I have no interest.

[mikeszekely]

It still has stupid "press X to cobra" maneuvers, so I have no interest.

It's still optional, so just don't do it if it bugs you.