25.4.2009

H.A.W.X is a futuristic air combat game that allows you to pilot various planes to complete around 20 missions.Story:H.A.W.X has a great single player mode with an engaging story line. The game is set around 10 years in the future. You play the role of a US Air Force fighter pilot whose H.A.W.X squadron is disbanded shortly after the first mission in the game. You and your team mates leave the Air Force and join Artemis - a private military company (PMC) - travelling all over the world providing air support for any country and organisation willing to pay your employer for your services. Its not long before Artemis comes into conflict with the US government,which is where the story really picks up.For those who have played Ghost Recon II, there is a nice nod to that game as some of the characters make cameo appearances in H.A.W.X. In fact, the first mission has you providing air support for one of the missions that appears in Ghost Recon II.Planes:There is a large number of planes available to choose in order to complete each mission, from classic fighter planes like F14, F15, Migs to more modern planes such as F117A, Euro Fighter, F22 Raptor and the upcoming Joint Strike Fighter. There are even real life prototype planes such as the F15 ACTIVE. Completing missions gives you valuable points which unlock other planes and/or weapons. You can even unlock different skins for some planes.Each plane has its own attributes such as Speed, Armour and Handling. Additionally, every plane has a rating which corresponds to the planes effectiveness against Air to Air and Air to Ground targets. Once you choose the plane, you have the option to customise it with different types of weapons. Choosing the right plane and weapons go a long way to successfully completing each mission.Gameplay:H.A.W.X plays more like an arcade game than a traditional flight sim. This may come as a surprise to those familiar with other Tom Clancy games such as Splinter Cell or Ghost Recon, both of which place an emphesis on realism. But in honesty, the arcade experience works very well as the action is breathtakingly fast which only adds to the games appeal.In true arcade style, you are given an unrealistically large weapons arsenal. There are three levels of difficulty to choose from (Normal/Hard/Elite), each of which determines the number of weapons you start off with. The harder the game, the less weapons you get and the more damage you suffer from enemy hits. On Elite, one good hit from a SAM will blow you out of the sky, whereas on Normal, your plane can take lots of punishment.One novel feature introduced in H.A.W.X is the Enhanced Reality System (ERS). With ERS set to ON, a series of triangular shaped gates are projected in front of your plane. Flying through these gates will assit in getting a lock on an enemy target. For mobile targets such as planes and helicopters, ERS will display the flight path required to lock on. For targets that are hidden behind buildings/mountains etc, ERS will display the optimal flight path to score a successfull hit. ERS can also be used to evade enemy missiles. If a missile is heading your way, activate ERS and the flight path to dodge the missile will be displayed.H.A.W.X provides a number of views to choose from. You can select a view from the back of the plane, or cockpit view or a HUD style view. There is even a missile view - very reminiscent of Airwolf.There is also an 'Assistance Off' mode where you get a sort of long distance 3rd person perspective view of your plane and the surroundings. In this mode, your plane can perform maneuvers which normally your plane could not do. The disadvantage of this mode is that it is easy to stall the plane. This mode is tricky to get used to but it does allow you to evade missiles and lock onto enemy planes easier if playing in Elite mode. Its easy to turn this mode on or off so you don't have to use it if you don't want to. It doesn's take anything away from the game if you always play with Assistance On.Missions:The single player campaign is highly diverse. Missions involve dogfighting, providing close air support, bombing enemy camps, there is even a mission where you have to protect Air Force 1. Its clear that a lot of thought has gone into designing each level and your are not just forced to only destroying the enemy in every level - which would become very repetitive. Once a mission has been completed, you can play it again to improve your score and gain more experience points.Multiplayer:H.A.W.X has good support for online multiplayer mode where you can go up against a number of human opponents. Multiplayer mode also allows you to pick up points to increase you rank.Summary:The game has an intersting one player story mode which will have you hooked for many hours. There are a huge number of planes and weapons to unlock and there are also challenges in the game to complete for added points and replay value. ERS is an interesting addition and Assistance ON/OFF mode adds to the depth of the game by introducing the threat of stalling the plane. Overall, this is a great purchase and a fine addition to the PS3 library.

17.3.2009

Although I can fully understand where M.G. Eustace is coming from with his review, I think the the star rating is rather harsh and dont let it put you off. As a realistic flight sim, yes it isnt that accurate,(this can be changed slightly by puting the game in a higher handling difficulty which makes it more realistic to control, but this only goes so far) but it doesnt pretend to be so.That said the game is great fun. Reviews i have read of the PS3 and Xbox360 versions(that were released 2 weeks prior to the PC version) state that the offline gameplay can get boring quickly. I havent foudn this to be true. The demo version only allows you access to a training mission and one other mission.I have enjoyed playing this one mission over and over again massively.The demo version allowed you to gain 3 ranks and unlock 2 extra planes. I could not notice a real difference between the planes handling wise, but they did allow u to experience a range of weapons. A cannon seems to be a standard weapon on the planes, but I found it little use. It is inaccurate and minor adjustments to ur aim is difficult. There were 3 weapons availible in the demo. A standard fire and forget missle, which finds itself usefuly for most targets whether they are land see or air. The second were radar guided missles. These had a much longer range on them, but you had to keep the target selected and in your sites till the target was it. I found it always did find its target. Thirdly was a unguided bomb. This was easy to use as when selected a circle appeard on the ground as to indicate where the bomb will land.When flying there is two modes, assisted and unassisted. In assisted mode, you can change your view to inside the cockpit, on the nose or outside behind the aircraft. The computer keeps your plane in the air speed wise (you can still crash ofcourse). In unassisted mode, the plane is yours. Your can use ur airbreake and reduce thrust so you stall while in the middle fo a turn to flip your aircraft quickly to get behind a following enemy. During this mode you are stuck in a third person view which is off to one side, not directly behind you. At first this bugs you a bit as you thing it would be easier if u could still use ur cockpit or standard outside view, but in reality it isnt the case. After playing the game for a while it becomes obvious why the developers have made it as it is. Because in this mode you can pull fast flips and turns, a cockpit view would make it near impossible to keep track of where your are. the only time you realy use the unassisted mode is when in a 1-1 dogfight and the enemey is following your every move. (you need to be able to see ur plane and the enemy's plane. It doesnt take long to get a hang of flying in the mode, and it also gives some nice cenematic views at the same time.In conlcusion I think this game will be great, especialy with the potential that the online play has. I've certainly re-orderd my copy.

5.3.2009

First let me say that this review is based on the demo available on the PSN.The game is a good promise, and since Ace Combat was stolen from the Playstation, this is the only game in that category that is on the same level as AC.Now, i'll start with the pros:1) Easy learning curve. Doesn't take long to get going and destroying all the enemies with radical manouvers.2) It's fun! I would like to see a little bit more realism in terms of physics, but this is an arcade style fighter plane game, and it is fun to play.But you should be aware that the demo has only 2 levels: a tutorial and a mission. So I don't know how repetitive the game is going to be... And that stands as a question mark.Cons:1)

5.5.2009

I love flight all simulators. Some are seriously complex (MSFX; Lock On; Falcon 4). Some not so complex (IL2 series; Wings over Vietnam; Wings over Europe). H.A.W.X. is not complex at all. As other reviewers have stated. It's not really a flight simulator. It's an action game in the sky.However, this doesn't matter. It's designed to be fun and easy. It certainly delivers. You can load it up for the first time and be streaking around the skies, making your first kills momemts later.My main PC was broken when it arrived. However, I chanced loading it onto my back-up system. It warned me that my graphics card and memory were below minimum spec. However, to my surprise, it ran with barely a glitch.

10.3.2009

Flight sims are rare, good flight sims are rarer, and a good flight sim for a console is a once in a decade event.The game requires skill, and perhaps a bit of luck, making it overly enjoyable to those who like a challenge. The AI powering the planes is realistic.Also, the game (like other Tom Clancy games) features speech recognition, making life ALOT easier when your in a tight dogfight.Story-wise, it's quite good; not only does it have a fairly engrossing story, but it ties in with the other games quite well. The voice actors are to be commmended as well, for really getting into character.But, there are bad parts:1.

15.3.2009

Without a doubt H.A.W.X is a great game, but i suppose after playing Ace Combat games, you feel that theres something missing, and i find that missions are less exciting, than in, for example, Ace Combat 4 in the mission megalith you fly through tunnels at the edge of crashing but at 1000mph,(oh yeah, speaking of mph, in H.A.W.X. you either get kph or knots and i don't understand either), but was a really fun, exciting mission and there is none of that in H.A.W.X. It's too bad that there wont be any Ace Combat games coming out for the PS3, because if there were i would choose them over H.A.W.X.But H.A.W.X, isn't all that bad! some details...GOOD. Great use of E.R.S (you'll learn what that is in the game).

17.3.2009

I love this game! I've finished playing the game on 'Normal' and am getting ready to plunge in at 'Hard'.I have tried my hand at every Tom Clancy game on the XBox360 to date and this is my favourite. As an aside, I really did want to like Tom Clancy's Endwar but just found some aspects of battlefield control counter-intuitive. Although, I am hoping there will be a sequel with improvements; there is no denying how innovative that game is.Back to H.A.W.X.. The missions are varied and exciting; better and more realistic than those I came across in Ace Combat 6. The controls are intuitive, Wingman control is prompt, and the view from above exciting.My favourite feature in the game is the ERS,

6.4.2009

We all like to hark back to the 'golden age' of computer games and wax lyrical about classics such as Defender, Lock-On, Pacman and Donky Kong. When you actually play these games again though,the limitations really come across. They were repetitive and the hardness curve was always a bit off (either too hard or too easy), and the controls were.... well, your hands always ended up hurting!HAWX is based around the old style arcade arial combat simulators, and has all the advantages/disadvantages this entails.Its nice, its pretty, its immediate, but it lacks depth... but thats rather the point of arcade games. Plays well with a joystick (remember those?), but don't expect a strategic game,

13.1.2011

First of all, I'm no big realistic-flight sim player. The main thing that persuaded my to buy this game after trying out the demo was the graphics, the arcade style action and the fact that I didn't have to spend hours reading a manual. The graphics are far better than any I've seen in similair games so far. I enjoyed nearly all the single-player levels. There were only a couple of levels that bored or frustrated me. After finishing the admittedly quite disappointing final level I was very much looking forward to the multiplayer game. Sadly, trying to connect to servers is very frustrating and only works occasionally.

11.4.2009

To expand on my heading, this is a GAME! Not an attempt at a real-life reality flight simulator ( which I also play - see Over Flanders Fields - a splendid WW1 airsim ).This release does what it says on the tin - an aircraft-based flight game!If you take it as presented, it absolutely excels in fun. Top Gun for the noughties. Just don't come in expecting to manage your cannon ripple-time, avoid G-LOC, watching for bingo fuel, Blue-on-Blue incidents, high-alpha manouevres and so on! It ain't Lock On! It comes full of stuff to do in singleplayer ( not tried MP yet ), achievements to get, level up & so on. Graphically it's absolutely bang on top form; my OK-ish PC can run it maxed out - no slideshow framerates here.

4.3.2009

It takes the game to a new level, like playing a proper arcade cabinet. I could not believe it was only £30 on Amazon. These joystick throttle combinations used to cost over £200. And it works perfectly on all games for both Ps3 and Pc and has a specific Hawx button profile aswell as profiles for other flight and space sims. I hope this review does not get censored. This is the only joystick that works on ps3 and its sad noone knows about it. I just could not go back to playing Hawx with the dualshock/sixaxis, it felt so awkward.Hawx has the best ground textures I have ever seen for a flight sim. Also Ubisoft has given it the fun factor that Tom Clancy games have. It so easily could have been a boring,

19.8.2009

Firstly I would like to mention control methods, I was surprised when the game didn't handle very well with a Joystick and Throttle (Saitek X52 flight set) it felt cumbersome, nothing like the flight sim gliding I'm used to. The same goes for mouse and keyboard controls, but using an Xbox controller... Well that was brilliant. The game seems to have been designed to work best with a Xbox controller, it improves the experience massively!Next I would like to mention it has a realistic plot, that maybe goes a bit fast for normal people unlocking everything as when you unlock a plane there are also 2 non-standard weapon packs to unlock for it,

2.3.2009

i played the demo, thought it was mad fun, so that made me buy the full game...and no regrets at all...its so much fun, all 18 missions on normal are..well easy, but put it on elite mode and wow! its so much better...the assistance off mode makes taking on 3 or 4 bandits solo while your "Wingmen" fight off the helicopters, naval units and tanks is just well..fantastic :). mid air brakeing swoops you around the back of your target and BANG...fire ur missles and a nice mid air explosion occurs!:) and if you get bored on your own, y not join 3 other people and get competative for the kills!The multiplayer on the other hand is not so great...boring dog fights and most games with missiles OFF wich

23.2.2010

I am into flight games. I find this game overly simple and arcade-like compared some of the examples on PC and XBOX360. But I still had lots of fun playing it. It is very easy to finish in the hardest setting and the game feels very rewarding as you play it. If you are into flight games it should take you no more than a day or two to beat the game.There are limited but good online play options for this game such as 4 player coop and team deadmatch. These are a lot fun once you can connect to the game servers, which seem to shut down quite often. Also I don't understand why the online play is limited with 8 player only. These games are no more complicated than the first person shooters such as Killzone 2,

24.3.2009

without a doubt a brilliant game, iv waited years for a top notch flying game to come out that wasnt a boring sim! and when i saw tom clancy was doing it, it was a must, huge fan of all his games, and also the way that ghost recon is integrated into a couple of the missions is great thinking! controls are easy to learn and leave u in complete control, only problem being i find it hard to control when you turn assistance off as the camera angle changes to a side view. i havent finished it yet, but i get the feeling the end is near (i wont spoil the story) but have only played it for about 2 or 3 days, and even then, only a couple of hours a day! but having said that, its still well worth the money,

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