Thursday, July 12, 2007

E3: Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation


Take to the skies! One of the most talked about 360->PS3 conversions, and definitely one Sony should have held onto (other than for being pretty much the only decent console flight sim) for pride reasons, comes Ace Combat 6 for the Xbox 360. Due to be released worldwide on October 23rd, 2007, the demo is already up on Xbox Live.



Xbox Live is heavily supported in the game with 16-player Battle Royale and Team Battle modes (though Namco has stated aims to raise it to 32 players), cooperative play, leaderboards, and downloadable content. The single player campaign features a dynamic mission system that changes the tide of the war based on your performance and that of your teammates.



Ace Combat 6 takes place in 2015 in the Anean Continent, north of Yuktobania, a country featured in Ace Combat 5: The Unsung War. It also features the effects of the Ulysses Asteroid, as seen in Ace Combat 04.

The game will have new countries: the Republic of Emmeria (whom at least one of the player's characters is loyal to), Kingdom of Nordennavic and Federal Republic of Estovakia (which has been shown to be an enemy at least in one mission.) The player's squadron is the 28th Fighter Squadron, 8th Air Wing "Garuda", with the player's call sign being "Talisman".



If the player helps other military forces (such as naval and ground forces) complete their objectives, then the player can call in their support if necessary.

A joystick will be available when this game ships. Called the Ace Edge, it consists of separate joystick and throttle components which connect to the Xbox 360 via USB. As of June 11, 2007, EBGames and Gamestop stores in the U.S. will be taking pre-orders for an Ace Combat 6 flight stick bundle. The minimum reserve down payment is US$25, and the full price on release date, in total, is US$149.99. It is unknown when pre-ordering will end.

There will be only 15 licensed aircraft in Ace Combat 6, with a large special weapons payload for each. Aircraft color customization is available for gamers to tweak their own aircraft.

A demo was released as a free download on the Xbox Live Marketplace on July 11, 2007 (in which the player is tasked with defending the Emmerian capital city of Gracemeria against attack by the Estovakian air force and airborne forces, and sees the first encounter with the Estovakian superweapon Nimbus and the Elite enemy squadron Strigon, leading to the eventual evacuation of the city by Emmerian forces.)

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