Energy Airforce: aimStrike! let'sPlay! chaffFlare!

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Let's Play! > Energy Airforce: aimStrike! let'sPlay! chaffFlare!

«‹›2 »

SelenicMartian: Sep 14, 2013; Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

What
Energy Airforce: aimStrike! is a 2003 PS2 combat flight sim released only in Japan and Europe, yet featuring purely American flyables. It's the middle offspring in the Energy Airforce trilogy, wedged between the original 2002 Energy Airforce (PS2, no US release), and Over G Fighters released worldwide for the Xbox 360 in 2006.

The Trilogy
We're not going to play the original Energy Airforce, for a number of reasons I'll talk about when there's nothing better to do. But here's a starter:

It's more that just the cover art.

I've never had any MS console, so I've got nothing on Over G Fighters, but the Internet claims that a lot of voice work from aimStrike! was recycled in the third game.

Sadly, its cover has lost the gargoyle mascot.

Stuff
Emulation saves the day for this LP because I can render and record the sim at a higher resolution than normal. The aircraft and cockpit models are surprisingly neat and detailed for a PS2 title and are worth showing off.

The game does encourage real-life plane chat as the only unlockables besides flyable fighters are numerous clips of aircraft and weapons. So, this is going to be sort of a simplified sequel to the archived Strike Fighters 2 LP, which ended with us flying an F-16A in the early '80s. Aim Strike! starts you off in an F-16C and stops at the F-35B.

On the realism scale Energy Airforce is not too far from SF2, but the control scheme is obviously simpler. It beats SF2 in some areas, such as having a replay recorder, or the ground controller being helpful without prodding.

The Main Run

video 13.3

The Leftovers

video 26.2

SelenicMartian fucked around with this message at 08:54 on Jul 2, 2015

# ¿ Apr 7, 2015 23:24

Adbot: ADBOT LOVES YOU

# ¿ May 20, 2024 11:49

SelenicMartian: Sep 14, 2013; Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

Egads, an update!

video 2.1

video 2.2

video 2.3

# ¿ Apr 7, 2015 23:25

SelenicMartian: Sep 14, 2013; Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

Best carrier landing yet!

video 3.1

video 3.2

And there's this :stare:

video 3.3

# ¿ Apr 11, 2015 04:32

SelenicMartian: Sep 14, 2013; Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

Hah! A minor adjustment made a gif possible

And here's a reduced size version

# ¿ Apr 11, 2015 21:29

SelenicMartian: Sep 14, 2013; Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

Soup Inspector posted:

But on a more serious note, is there any specific reason why you keep getting seemingly spurious Master Caution warnings whilst flying to and from the actual mission area?

Gamepad sticks aren't very precise and every time ~~you~~ I pull too hard the beep comes up.

Supposedly EA has a limited support for simple sim joysticks, but I haven't tried it out.

# ¿ Apr 12, 2015 18:31

SelenicMartian: Sep 14, 2013; Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

A flawless mission

video 4.1

video 4.2

No chutes.

Anyway here's Vote #1

Mission 2A - Intercept.

Mission 2B - CAP. I suspect, the briefing map is not telling the whole truth.

Where to?

SelenicMartian fucked around with this message at 06:52 on Apr 14, 2015

# ¿ Apr 14, 2015 05:24

SelenicMartian: Sep 14, 2013; Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

Davin Valkri posted:

Is there any reason why you always take off with an asymmetrical loadout? Will they not let you take 4 AIM-120Bs?

It didn't happen in the recordings but I've seen all or most of my AIM-120s miss in missions.

# ¿ Apr 14, 2015 06:32

SelenicMartian: Sep 14, 2013; Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

Right, the thread is sitting on the fence so I'll vote for 2A and get on with recording. Fulcrums!

# ¿ Apr 16, 2015 05:34

SelenicMartian: Sep 14, 2013; Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

Worship the ball.

video 5.1

video 5.2

video 5.3

# ¿ Apr 18, 2015 04:53

SelenicMartian: Sep 14, 2013; Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

This was a bad idea.

video 6.1

video 6.2

# ¿ Apr 21, 2015 06:54

SelenicMartian: Sep 14, 2013; Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

SIGSEGV posted:

Also, your A-10 cockpit extinguisher label reads "fire extingdish".

Subtitles spell "Operater" and I think in the first F-16 cockpit one of the RWR warning lights reads LANCH.

# ¿ Apr 21, 2015 17:25

SelenicMartian: Sep 14, 2013; Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

At least, I'm not flying a Mustang this time.

video 6.3

# ¿ Apr 22, 2015 15:18

SelenicMartian: Sep 14, 2013; Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

EasilyConfused posted:

Can you shoot yourself down with a Harpoon in the game? Or real life for that matter?

Never tried that in the game. Yet.

Welcome to the worst base

video 7.1

video 7.2

And here's a different take on the unlocked clips.

video 7.3

So, what do we fly next?

# ¿ Apr 25, 2015 03:14

SelenicMartian: Sep 14, 2013; Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

F-16UD it is. Recorded the mission.

# ¿ Apr 27, 2015 06:18

SelenicMartian: Sep 14, 2013; Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

Galaga Galaxian posted:

But remember, Selenic has much better luck bombing in F-16s!

About that...

video 8.1

video 8.2

# ¿ Apr 29, 2015 04:43

SelenicMartian: Sep 14, 2013; Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

The future is LockMart :911:

video 9.1

video 9.2

# ¿ May 1, 2015 05:51

SelenicMartian: Sep 14, 2013; Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

"I've got a lock on the enemy plane... Oh no, I don't!" :downs:

I don't know if any F-35 is hidden in the first EA since I haven't beaten it, and it doesn't even have a FAQ written for it. The one and only FAQ for aimStrike says a cleared save from EA could supposedly unlock all of its flyables in the second game right from start, so that might be the reason they kept the prototype in the sequel.

Oh, I also got this in my recordings somehow... I wonder if anyone will recognize it just by the picture.

video 9.3

# ¿ May 1, 2015 20:50

SelenicMartian: Sep 14, 2013; Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

Galaga Galaxian posted:

A Barnstormer Biplane, a Saab 21 lookalike, and a Bf-109 (and not even mislabeled Me-109!) that is quite an oddball set of planes.

Unlockables include a couple of UFOs, an autogyro and an F-117. Imagine that one sucking on a train.

# ¿ May 2, 2015 11:41

SelenicMartian: Sep 14, 2013; Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

I'd love to but I really can't come up with any commentary for it, and there's a lot of crazy flying involved in getting to the volcano.

# ¿ May 2, 2015 18:07

SelenicMartian: Sep 14, 2013; Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

Soup Inspector posted:

It seems like the X-35 is no trickier for enemy radars to lock on to than your other aircraft - so I'm presuming that means Energy Airforce doesn't model stealth, then?

It's time to find out in the new edition of Desert Bus

video 10.1

video 10.2

# ¿ May 6, 2015 08:50

SelenicMartian: Sep 14, 2013; Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

EasilyConfused posted:

By the way, why don't Soviet carriers have catapults? Hasn't that been a standard piece of equipment for carriers since the 1920s or 1930s?

The first Soviet carrier for fixed-wing aircraft happened in 1975. http://www.rjlee.org/rcar.html

# ¿ May 6, 2015 13:14

SelenicMartian: Sep 14, 2013; Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

Things go boom.

video 11.1

video 11.2

video 11.3

# ¿ May 8, 2015 09:27

SelenicMartian: Sep 14, 2013; Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

I think LPI is crossed out if it's not applicable, e.g. in the nav mode when your radar is off anyway.
Recording raw footage for the next update took me an hour and a half. :stare:

I can vouch now that enemy radar-guided missiles do work, they just take ages to fire.

# ¿ May 9, 2015 15:10

SelenicMartian: Sep 14, 2013; Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

Cascading structural failure.

video 12.1

video 12.2

video 12.3

video 12.4

Probably a coincidence...

So, what will it be, 5A or 5B?

# ¿ May 13, 2015 12:06

SelenicMartian: Sep 14, 2013; Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

5B it is then.

For now, have this

video 12.5

# ¿ May 15, 2015 12:50

SelenicMartian: Sep 14, 2013; Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

Hi, Bruce!

video 13.1

video 13.2

video 13.3

:siren:

THE LEFTOVERS :siren:

Aircraft: A-10, F-16, F-16UD, F/A-18, F-15, F-22, X-35, F-35

Scenario 1 (Fishbeds & AAA)

Scenario 2 (Fulcrums)

Scenario 3 (SAMs)

Scenario 4 (Flankers & bullshit)

Scenario 5

# ¿ May 19, 2015 07:45

SelenicMartian: Sep 14, 2013; Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

Warthogs in heat

video 14

# ¿ May 21, 2015 21:29

SelenicMartian: Sep 14, 2013; Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

Best mission chatter so far?

video 15

# ¿ May 26, 2015 06:12

SelenicMartian: Sep 14, 2013; Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

The old anime had a scene with Harriers hovering in ambush.

The existing Area 88 game did give you an F-20
http://www.mobygames.com/game/snes/un-squadron/screenshots/gameShotId,46682/

Oh, it was also ported to ZX Spectrum :psyduck:

# ¿ May 26, 2015 06:49

SelenicMartian: Sep 14, 2013; Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

video 16

...golf?

# ¿ May 28, 2015 04:05

SelenicMartian: Sep 14, 2013; Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

The obligatory helicopter boss.

video 17

Here's what's left again.

2-3C is the very last carrier mission, which of the three scurvy dogs do we fly in it?

Also, the F-15 still doesn't have a video unlocked and there are only three AA missions left: 2-2B, 3-2A and 4-3A.

# ¿ May 30, 2015 05:14

SelenicMartian: Sep 14, 2013; Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

The unlocked F-15 video will teach us about its greatest ability

video 18

# ¿ Jun 3, 2015 05:10

SelenicMartian: Sep 14, 2013; Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

There's so much poo poo going on the second video has longer commentary than the first. You can read the threat display by now.

I also noticed it much too late that I fired the first two bombs at a Ka-52.

video 19.1

video 19.2

# ¿ Jun 6, 2015 04:07

SelenicMartian: Sep 14, 2013; Sometimes it's not the bomb that's retarded.

Kibayasu posted:

Do planes even carry that many chaff-flares?

If an old ebay listing is to be believed a single dispenser housing 30 cartridges of whatever is small enough to be fitted anywhere but the pilot's armpits.