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H.A.W.X.
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HAWX Hands-On
We kick on our afterburners and fly into a massive dogfight with Ubisoft's newest Tom Clancy property.
by Hilary Goldstein 
May 26, 2008 - For years, Namco Bandai has owned the console skies with its Ace Combat series. Finally, a worthy challenger has appeared and put Ace combat in its sites. Ubisoft's latest Tom Clancy title, HAWX (High-Altitude Warfare Experimental Squadron) is a welcome blending of simulation and arcade fun. With a whopping 50 licensed planes and the use of real satellite data, HAWX certainly brings with it the authenticity we've come to expect from a Tom Clancy game.
Coming this September to PC, PS3 and Xbox 360, HAWX offers up intense -- and often deadly -- dogfights and a true challenge for those wishing to prove themselves to be Top Gun material. Using GOI satellite data, Ubisoft is able to ensure the areas you fly over are the real deal. When we took to the skies to battle an onslaught of MIGs in Rio De Janeiro, the entire topography was exact to the real life locale. And yes, even the famed statue of Jesus was standing, arms outstretched, at the mountain top. And no, we did not try and shoot it down. Ubisoft describes the use of GOI data as "flying over Google Earth on crack." We're inclined to agree.
We played our first HAWX mission using a standard controller. For 360 owners, the Ace Combat flight stick will work with HAWX and most standard PC flight sticks should be compatible for those who own a computer. If you don't have a flight stick yet, don't worry. Ubisoft is working to release a proprietary stick for PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 in time for HAWX's launch.
If you've grown used to Ace Combat or any other flight sim, jumping into HAWX takes a bit of an adjustment. The biggest departure from other flight combat games is the use of pilot assistance. With the assistance on, the computer in your plane will place some limitations on your movements to prevent you from stalling. It also allows you to use some additional technology -- the most useful being the ERS system, which we'll get into in a moment. The camera with assistance on follows close behind your plane giving you a perfect perspective for targeting enemies.
 Yes, the game really looks this good.
Don't think of assistance on/off as difficulty settings. You will use these two modes interchangeably throughout each mission. With a double-tap of the brakes, you turn assistance off and with a double-tap of the thrusters you turn it back on. It's a quick and easy transition and one that we got used to very quickly. Though you lose the great view of your plane when the assistance is off, we found it far easier to maneuver in this mode. Plus, you get to pull off some swank tricks -- and can enjoy the thrill of trying to pull out of a stall moments before slamming into the ocean.
With assistance on, you have the use of the very helpful ERS system. If you target an enemy, you can tap the ERS button and an intercept path will illuminate. Follow the path and you will connect with your target. This can also be used to get out of the way of trailing missiles, but isn't as effective as just turning off assistance and then doing a sly maneuver to lose the heat on your ass. We should mention that as a final safety measure, you can drop one of a limited number of flares to guide the heat-seeker away from your plane.
While the ERS is a bit of a n00b button, even experts will find it helpful in certain areas. Targeting a tank that is sitting between several skyscrapers seems almost impossible to do by sight. But ERS can guide you high into the sky and then have you loop straight down to target the tank safely. Figuring out this move and pulling it off successfully without using the ERS will prove difficult even for expert pilots.
The demo level was a real eye opener to the difficulty being planned by developer Ubisoft Romania. The skies were littered with bogies. On the right side of the HUD, you're given specific objectives. For this mission we had to shoot down a certain number of bombers and tanks. The MIGs patrolling the sky quickly became a barrier between fulfilling the other objectives. So even though the MIGs aren't a priority to progressing the mission, ignoring them actually makes the task tougher. The more MIGs on screen, the more missiles will be tailing your ass. And nothing disrupts a mission faster than having to constantly shake missiles. Thinning out the other adversaries in the sky is only going to help make the final objective easier to accomplish.
Switching between assistance on and off became second nature within the first five minutes of dog fighting. We found it easiest to fly with assistance off, turning it on when the target was near as the camera view gives a far better perspective for targeting. Flying an F-22, we had the choice of cannons -- which were fairly useless in this scenario -- and heat seekers. Two missiles were enough to take out any enemy. And locking on was easy enough. You just need to cycle through targets with the press of a button and once you are close enough, the target icon turns red. Pop off two missiles and usually that's that. You can also switch to a special missile volley. The ammo is limited here, but allows you to target multiple enemies at once. And since the bombers fly in a quartet, this weapon option becomes a big help.
 Fly the friendless skies.
Our only issue -- and a concern we hope Ubisoft Romania addresses -- is that the radar is actually too simplistic. You get yellow triangles for enemy aircraft and yellow squares for ground targets. But nothing indicates which of these are your objectives. Finding the bomber squadron among dozens of MIGs was frustrating to say the least. The UI is something that can easily be fixed with color coding for primary objectives.
HAWX will include squadron commands, but for the purposes of this first hands-on demo, Ubisoft didn't want to overcomplicate things. Commands will likely be placed on the d-pad and will allow you to have an effective wingman, something that will be needed considering how hectic the skies get in HAWX. You can also look forward to jump in/out co-op online play. That way if you can't stand your AI wingman you can bring in a friend at any time to play Goose to your Maverick.
Our time with HAWX was brief, but showed considerable promise. Though Ubisoft assures there is plenty of "arcade" to go with the simulation aspects, this is certainly a more serious endeavor than Ace Combat. You probably won't fight any giant floating battle stations. Instead, you'll have to worry about a sky full of planes piloted by aggressive AI. We can't wait to take them on.
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05-27-2008, 07:31 PM
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