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Who is the best Ace Combat protagonist?
This poll is closed.
Cipher 79 32.24%
Phoenix 9 3.67%
Mobius 1 84 34.29%
William Bishop--lol get out 24 9.80%
SHOOT VISARI 49 20.00%
Total: 245 votes
[Edit Poll (moderators only)]

 
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Cooked Auto
Aug 4, 2007

If you will not serve in combat, you will serve on the firing line!




NobleSixFour posted:

Not only is the Death Rider skin cool, it's free! (At least on 360, I can't speak to the other platforms)

It came for free with the PC version at least so I assume it's the same with every other platform as well.

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NobleSixFour
Jul 12, 2016
One thing that would honestly improve my opinion of Assault Horizon is if they ever put in a QF-16 skin. Which I would then proceed to NEVER not use. Because lols.

Psion
Dec 13, 2002

eVeN I KnOw wHaT CoRnEr gAs iS
That would mean you're not using the F-16 Patriot and that would be the worst mistake

PunkBoy
Aug 22, 2008

You wanna get through this?
Ooh, sorely tempted to throw my hat in for a commentary spot on AC 5. It's my favorite in the series, and there are a bunch of missions I would love to talk about (or just talk about the game in general).

nine-gear crow
Aug 10, 2013
Blockade

Mission 4: Operation Hunting Hawk – November 7th, 2004


Overview: With the Erusean Aegir Fleet massing at Comberth Harbour in preparation for a naval invasion of North Point, ISAF deploys Mobius 1 to disrupt the Erusean air supply corridor into Comberth in order to delay the fleet's deployment.



Guest Commentator: I am joined once again by Skippy Granola for this video. Shattered Skies was also Skippy's first Ace Combat game, as it was for many people when they first experienced the series, I would imagine. So it holds as special a place in his heart as it does in mine.






I AIN'T GOT poo poo FOR YOU PEOPLE SUCK MY DIIIIIIIIIII—

While both Comberth Harbor and the Aegir Fleet get namedropped in this mission, it's kind of pointless to talk about them here, seeing as how they'll be much more relevant in a rather short while. This is also the part of the game where things level off somewhat briefly in terms of overt lore. Don't worry, we'll be back in full swing with our next update.

All told, Blockade is actually the last of the disguised tutorial mission of Ace Combat 04. Sitting Duck teaches you the basics of 04's engine, Imminent Threat teaches you air to ground combat, The Northern Eye rams the Return Line down your throat, and Blockade teaches you direct air to air combat. Lifeline, coming up next, is going to be our first "normal" mission in 04.

Beyond that the only other thing to talk about for this mission is the track that plays over it, which is also called "Blockade". As a mission track goes, this is hands down my favorite track for an Ace Combat mission, which is saying something because these games have a lot of good music. It's not my favorite AC song over all, that honor goes to "Zero," which will never be surmounted, even if Ace Combat 7's soundtrack features a track where Keiki Kobayashi physically emerges from my television and hands me $1,000 just for listening to it. Others in the thread have pointed it out, but the track was "remixed" in that "I'm not sure you understand what the term 'remix' is there, guys" style, in the track "First Flight" from the Ace Combat 5 soundtrack. I'll be sure to mention it when we get to First Flight itself in 5.

Personally, I always felt that "Rendezvous", which was one track up from "First Flight" on the AC5 soundtrack, catured more of the spirit of "Blockade" than "First Flight" ever did. :shrug:

And that's it for this update, see you all in Lifeline!





    Rigaux
  • Plane: Mirage 2000D
  • Mission 4
  • Spawn conditions: Appears north of E-767 jammers at the head of the convoy.

Kadorhal posted:

Ace Number Four is Rigaux. Named for Fernand Rigaux, born 1905. Belgian astronomer who primarily worked from the Royal Observatory at Uccle, Belgium. Discovered seven asteroids in the 1930's, including 1292 Luce, 3280 Gretry, and 4908 Ward in September 1933, 1378 Leonce in February 1936, and 7000 Curie in November 1939. He also, with his colleague Sylvain Arend, co-discovered the comet 49P/Arend-Rigaux in 1951. Died 1962, at 56 or 57.






Tracks featured in Mission4:

DISC 1

nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 18:23 on Apr 24, 2023

Dr. Snark
Oct 15, 2012

I'M SORRY, OK!? I admit I've made some mistakes, and Jones has clearly paid for them.
...
But ma'am! Jones' only crime was looking at the wrong files!
...
I beg of you, don't ship away Jones, he has a wife and kids!

-United Nations Intelligence Service

nine-gear crow posted:

Tracks featured in Mission4:

DISC 1

I'll be perfectly honest; I'm glad Skippy was commentating over this video instead of me because all I would say is "SHUT UP AND LISTEN TO BLOCKADE DAMMIT"

I kind of love how this mission is kind of cut and dry on its own, but this one track makes it one of the most memorable parts of the game. That is something else.

Shinjobi
Jul 10, 2008


Gravy Boat 2k
Yeah, I loving love that song.

Condoleezza Nice!
Jan 4, 2010

Lite som Robin Hood
fast inte
What is this, Crow? Why can't I vote for the actual best protagonist, Garuda 1 a.k.a. Talisman? :cmon:

nine-gear crow posted:

Tracks featured in Mission4:

DISC 1

The best track of the game, bar none.

Sally
Jan 9, 2007


Don't post Small Dash!
i'm still choked there's no DASH RENDAR for best pilot, considering his appearance in previous lps...

nine-gear crow
Aug 10, 2013

Fanzay posted:

What is this, Crow? Why can't I vote for the actual best protagonist, Garuda 1 a.k.a. Talisman? :cmon:


The best track of the game, bar none.

You'll get your chance to vote for him in the Ace Combat 6 poll just wait.

All things in due time.

Cooked Auto
Aug 4, 2007

If you will not serve in combat, you will serve on the firing line!




gently caress yes Blockade. That track sold me on the AC04 soundtrack as a whole.

First Flight from AC5 is the homage/cover version of it. Which is also used for an honestly great mission with an amazing cinematic intro to it.
It did not actually get a remix in infinity unlike a couple of other AC04 tracks that will show up later.

But it should be mentioned that Blockade is the first track of the AC:Infinity soundtrack.

ninjahedgehog
Feb 17, 2011

It's time to kick the tires and light the fires, Big Bird.


I know it's in a different key, but come on, Crow, how do you not hear this?

Blockade (2:39):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haEoo0RHu-Q&t=159s

First Flight (0:30):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgNGtGI-XbM&t=30s

Also, the Blockade tune isn't nearly as good as Operation Bunker Shot and I will fight people about this. :colbert:

rocket_man38
Jan 23, 2006

My life is a barrel o' fun!!
AC04 has an amazing ost. Agnus Dei is amazing. Zero is my all time favorite though. That track can't be beat.

nine-gear crow
Aug 10, 2013
I've updated the above post with some ramblings on things.

nine-gear crow
Aug 10, 2013
Also, I'm not promising we'll be getting a look at all these games, but we'll at least be looking at a few of them in one way or another before we're done.

So with that, the shape of things to come:






























HOTLANTA MAN
Jul 4, 2010

by Hand Knit
Lipstick Apathy

nine-gear crow posted:

You'll get your chance to vote for him in the Ace Combat 6 poll just wait.

All things in due time.

the correct answer to whatever this poll is is "Windhover"

nine-gear crow
Aug 10, 2013
[redacted]

"Where should I tell the driver we're headed?" / "GEHENNA! We're going to Hell!"

nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 02:42 on Sep 11, 2016

Psion
Dec 13, 2002

eVeN I KnOw wHaT CoRnEr gAs iS

Blind Sally posted:

i'm still choked there's no DASH RENDAR for best pilot, considering his appearance in previous lps...

it's to be fair to every other option, as obviously any poll with DASH RENDAR would be 100% votes for him

as it stands, the poll is implicitly for second place.

Shei-kun
Dec 2, 2011

Screw you, physics!
I watched this on a Saturday, so you're good, buddy.

Kadorhal
Jun 3, 2013

Look, just sign the stupid petition. I've got stuff to do.
Ace Number Four is Rigaux. Named for Fernand Rigaux, born 1905. Belgian astronomer who primarily worked from the Royal Observatory at Uccle, Belgium. Discovered seven asteroids in the 1930's, including 1292 Luce, 3280 Gretry, and 4908 Ward in September 1933, 1378 Leonce in February 1936, and 7000 Curie in November 1939. He also, with his colleague Sylvain Arend, co-discovered the comet 49P/Arend-Rigaux in 1951. Died 1962, at 56 or 57.


I'm in agreement on Blockade being one of the best tracks in this game. I am very happy that Infinity uses it for the training mission you can fly at any time to test poo poo out.





infinty?

nine-gear crow
Aug 10, 2013

Kadorhal posted:

Ace Number Four is Rigaux. Named for Fernand Rigaux, born 1905. Belgian astronomer who primarily worked from the Royal Observatory at Uccle, Belgium. Discovered seven asteroids in the 1930's, including 1292 Luce, 3280 Gretry, and 4908 Ward in September 1933, 1378 Leonce in February 1936, and 7000 Curie in November 1939. He also, with his colleague Sylvain Arend, co-discovered the comet 49P/Arend-Rigaux in 1951. Died 1962, at 56 or 57.


I'm in agreement on Blockade being one of the best tracks in this game. I am very happy that Infinity uses it for the training mission you can fly at any time to test poo poo out.





infinty?

Oh yeah, gently caress I forgot the Assault Record for this one.

Nanomashoes
Aug 18, 2012

Is it weird that I've beaten this game like 10 times and don't remember this mission at all?

paragon1
Nov 22, 2010

FULL COMMUNISM NOW

Nanomashoes posted:

Is it weird that I've beaten this game like 10 times and don't remember this mission at all?

Nah, I don't think it's weird. It's a featureless gray cube of a mission outside of the soundtrack.

Serperoth
Feb 21, 2013



nine-gear crow posted:

Also, I'm not promising we'll be getting a look at all these games, but we'll at least be looking at a few of them in one way or another before we're done.

So with that, the shape of things to come:

And here I was, thinking my warning advice hadn't been heeded.

Seeing these games I'm realizing how bland AC1 was in comparison, even to 2. But there's a definite progression from 1 to 2, it feels like.

Nanomashoes
Aug 18, 2012

paragon1 posted:

Nah, I don't think it's weird. It's a featureless gray cube of a mission outside of the soundtrack.

It's weird because I can usually rattle off the stage name and even the mission codename for every level in this and 0 but this... it was a complete blank except for the music.

Psion
Dec 13, 2002

eVeN I KnOw wHaT CoRnEr gAs iS
Yeah, the mission is wholly unremarkable, but Blockade isn't. 04 hasn't had a remarkable mission yet, really - partially because they're still doing tutorials and partially because 04 only has a few really good missions :ssh:

in my opinion #7 and #8 are the first two good missions, but they're really good, so it's worth it getting there

Psion fucked around with this message at 23:20 on Sep 11, 2016

NobleSixFour
Jul 12, 2016
About what Skippy and Crow said about the Ken Burns-ness of Zero: Whenever I play Inferno or the San Salvacion mission I can't remember the name of, the music and atmosphere always make me feel like I'm watching a documentary about the mission.

ETA: Crow, FYI, the suggested video flag thing still lists your current LP as AC2.

Second edit because I don't want to double post but no one else has posted in the last 24 hours somehow: Yesterday on Youtube I found supercuts of every line said in all of the PS2 ACs, totally free of any BGM. Useful if you want your text alert to be Pixy screaming COME ON!!!, I guess. Obviously don't listen to the 04 or 5 ones if you don't want to be spoiled.
04: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6eOs1SSQyk
5 (sorted by wingman!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YMfznRchtvQ
Zero: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOHFYqFIt8k

NobleSixFour fucked around with this message at 14:09 on Sep 13, 2016

Inglonias
Mar 7, 2013

I WILL PUT THIS FLAG ON FREAKING EVERYTHING BECAUSE IT IS SYMBOLIC AS HELL SOMEHOW

ninjahedgehog posted:

I know it's in a different key, but come on, Crow, how do you not hear this?

Blockade (2:39):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haEoo0RHu-Q&t=159s

First Flight (0:30):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cgNGtGI-XbM&t=30s

Also, the Blockade tune isn't nearly as good as Operation Bunker Shot and I will fight people about this. :colbert:

They also seem to be at different tempos, but I am not a musician.

Psion posted:

Yeah, the mission is wholly unremarkable, but Blockade isn't. 04 hasn't had a remarkable mission yet, really - partially because they're still doing tutorials and partially because 04 only has a few really good missions :ssh:

in my opinion #7 and #8 are the first two good missions, but they're really good, so it's worth it getting there

#11 is another good one if you ask me, also in part due to the soundtrack.

Inglonias fucked around with this message at 19:15 on Sep 13, 2016

Dreamsicle
Oct 16, 2013

I liked #5. :shrug: It was better than #16 for ground attack at least.

rocket_man38
Jan 23, 2006

My life is a barrel o' fun!!


TIL: NEVER google "Mobius 1" or "Cipher and Pixy".

SIGSEGV
Nov 4, 2010


Hang on, let me check if I can find some awful porn fanfic for ace combat.

Yes, there's, of course, an erotic MLP crossover one (many, in fact) but there's more. Apparently Pixy is pretty popular.

E: I shouldn't have tried reading one for fun. I really shouldn't.

SIGSEGV fucked around with this message at 18:01 on Sep 14, 2016

NobleSixFour
Jul 12, 2016
Pixy is a total bron(y?/ie?) though. Totally owns many fedoras.

SIGSEGV
Nov 4, 2010


Nah, he's strictly a leather jacket and aviators guy.

Definitely plays volleyball.

Lunethex
Feb 4, 2013

Me llamo Sarah Brandolino, the eighth Castilian of this magnificent marriage.
I just wear a cowboy hat and boots everywhere I go.

And only those two items.

Son Ryo
Jun 13, 2007
Excuse me, do you know where Saiyans hang out?
Sorry for the long delay, but I'm back with more Sky Crawlers! Mission 11 opens with orders to attack an Ace Combat-style superweapon, the giant cannon Amoebic. We're informed that the Amoebic will be non-operational, which almost guarantees that it'll either be operational or become operational during the mission. Seems to be a fairly standard air-to-ground mission, otherwise. And, yep, the first thing in the mission is a shot from the Amoebic. It resembles a number of weapons we've yet to see in Ace Combat, so I won't go too deeply into its capabilities. The plan is for the original members of Cougar Squadron (The player, Aozasa, Kaida, and Daiba, which I have to wonder if I've gotten confused before...) to go in and attack first, and the newbies show up later as backup. I go in too cocky and get shot down twice almost immediately. After reevaluating my approach I go in a bit more carefully and manage to take out the cannon, but Aozasa and Daiba get story-killed while I do. If we're counting this as a real Ace Combat game, this would make it the first Ace Combat superweapon that I haven't crashed into and died at least once. Yes, even that one. And that one.

I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but the newscasters seem oddly blase about the fighting, as if it's all for show or something. They sound more like sportscasters than newscasters ("And another Rostock fighter's gone down for the count!"). Anyway, after taking out the cannon, the newbies come in with rocket launchers and basically carpet-bomb the area. The guy giving orders seems like a real dick-- maybe the player will be the one switching sides, instead. Ukumori mocks Aozasa and Daiba for being weak and getting killed, and Kaida goes completely off the reservation and shoots at him (but doesn't down him). The mission then changes to shooting down Kaida, instead. I don't really want to kill him, so I try dodging his attacks and waiting out the dialogue, but it doesn't seem like I have any choice in the matter, so I go ahead and shoot him down. Are we really meant to sympathize with the kids more? Because they all seem pretty awful...

An anime cutscene after the mission shows the battle from Aoshina's perspective (The crazy chick obsessed with fighting Cheetah). She seems to be seriously losing it. jealous of Kaida for getting to fight Cheetah-- I'd be surprised if the battle with her doesn't come sooner rather than later.

The briefing for Mission 12 is almost literally "There's a base here. Go attack it. That is all." which I hope means some interesting story stuff will be happening. The squadron is warned to avoid idle chit-chat due to the radio waves being weak, but the mission starts out pretty easy, so the chit-chat ramps up quickly with everyone either enjoying how easy it is or complaining about being sent on such an easy mission. Some of the targets are labelled as 'C.BOX', and I sure as hell can't make out what it's supposed to be from the model-- a cardboard box? It's just a box, but I still blow them all to kingdom come with bombs-- here's hoping nobody was hiding inside.

Things finally get somewhat interesting when I come over a mountain to find a lab heavily defended with flak guns and anti-air. The enemy deploys their new plane, the Incident, to defend as well, but it's nothing special. I guess you're not expected to die here since there's no checkpoint, but a badly-timed Maneuver leaves me headed straight at the ground so I have to sit through the easy first part of the mission again. But no more surprises show up after I finish everything off, and nothing else story-related happens, and the mission just kind of ends without much fanfare.

Mission 13 has the player without his squadron personally escorting a VIP, an engineer who literally rides in the plane with you. For some reason, you're forced into a plane that's heavily armored, but fairly slow, and it's has its weapons removed again, and predictably the enemy shows up almost immediately. Even the machine gun fires very slowly, so instead of shooting them down I decide to just leg it to the goal for once. There are strong winds again, but not much is around to crash into unless you decide to evade the enemy fighters by hugging the ground, but they're so unskilled (at least on Normal) that it's really not necessary.

Midway through, an unnamed 'Enemy Ace' shows up with a very familiar-sounding voice. However, she says stuff like "I haven't seen moves like that since..." and "Those moves... It couldn't be..." which makes me think if it is Aoshina, it's probably some sort of copy or maybe she's been brainwashed. However, it's still easy to make it to the goal, and she doesn't pursue you very far (or very hard). I even take the time to swing by and take out a ship, the only ground target on the map, in case it's an ace or it unlocks something. I do get a part and a couple of new planes after the mission, but who knows if destroying the ship had anything to do with it. There's no cutscene after the mission, and I don't hear anything about Aoshina having defected, so I'm starting to wonder if there's just some random female 'Enemy Ace' flying around who happens to know Cheetah from somewhere... I don't remember fighting any. I'm pretty sure I've only fought one Ace squadron so far, if at all.

Blastinus
Feb 28, 2010

Time to try my luck
:rolldice:
Crap.
Namco's Forgotten Masterpiece: Let's Play Ace Combat Advance





Or: An object lesson in why you never agree to LP a game sight-unseen.

Ace Combat Advance was released, as the name might suggest, on the Gameboy Advance in February of 2005. It was developed by a company called HumanSoft, best known for

What's it like? Imagine a top-down shooter with the blandest music, grainy graphics, unsatisfying explosions, and no production values. It has some moments and definitely starts to pick up in the second half of the game, but is otherwise a definite bargain basement product that is likely to kill, at most, an hour or two of your time before slithering right out the other ear the instant you put it down.

Let's enjoy it together!



This game would need a plot to have spoilers, so go ahead, I guess. The game is divided up into 12 missions with only the flimsiest of ties connecting them together. Feel free to correct me on any errors relating to the story, as I haven't bothered with reading the manual. Crow has made some hints to the effect that it's related tangentially to the main plot of the series, but that's the extent of my knowledge.



Mission 1: Checkpoints (It's down there, genius)
Missions 2/3: Containers/Defend the Island
Missions 4/5: Oil Rigs/Patrol
Missions 6/7: Bridge Convoy/Airport Attack
Missions 8/9: The Bombers/Yamato
Missions 10/11: Spy Game/The Oil Refinery
Mission 12: Finale

Somebody fucked around with this message at 12:17 on Nov 21, 2017

Blastinus
Feb 28, 2010

Time to try my luck
:rolldice:
Crap.
Mission 1: Checkpoints



From a company too obscure for a Wikipedia article...



Comes a game so lazily made...



It doesn't even have an intro sequence.



Just straight into the main menu, and right into a new game.



As far as I can tell, the only noticeable difference between the two difficulties presented is that Ace cuts your ammo in half and adds a lot more enemies, so in the interests of sanity, I'll be playing on Novice.



Once again, no intro text. As I mentioned in the OP, I haven't played any other Ace Combat games or read up on the series, so I'm going to assume that we're in some bizarre offshoot of reality where corporations have their own military force that mostly consists of airplanes.

Judging by the logo, we're part of some organization called the UAD, which I'm assuming means United Aerospace...something. Probably Division. Why we've gone to war against this airplane-favoring conglomerate is as of yet unknown, but I'm assuming it's because they're evil. Or maybe we are.



Every mission gives you an optional task to perform in addition to your primary objective. It's in our best interest to do so, for reasons which will become abundantly clear when we tackle Mission 2.



As we progress the game, more airplanes will be available for our use. Right now though, we've got to deal with this piece of junk.

Here's a quick rundown of the stats:

Speed: Determines how fast you go. Self-explanatory.

Air-to-Air/Ground: Your effectiveness against air/ground targets. Also gives a general hint about what your plane's loadout will be like. Planes that favor Air-to-Ground will also tend to start with more anti-ground armaments, and vice versa.

Mobility: Turn speed. Important for dogfighting.

Defense: How much damage you take, or don't take, as the case may be.

As you can plainly see, our starting plane, the incredibly fictitious F-C Talon, is pretty darn bad at everything except attacking ground targets. That'll be handy for this mission before we discard it for literally anything else.



Once we've locked in our plane of no-choice, there's the question of which sub-weapon to take into the mission. As you can see, our options are fairly limited with this rig, but they'll be enough to get the job done.

Our first contestant is essentially a shotgun. Individually weak, the mini-missiles fired by the Cluster Missile can be pretty nasty if they all hit at once. Trouble is, it's Anti-Air only, which means you can't hit ground targets with these, and we'll be focusing primarily on the ground this mission.



While you'd think that these seeking missiles would obviously win the nomination, the big problem with these puppies is that they're fairly weak, requiring two shots to kill your average ground-based target. I think we can do better.



These, for instance, are amazing weapons of destruction. While they are dummy-fire projectiles, they make up for it by being incredibly powerful, able to kill almost any ground-based target in a single shot. We'll be going with the AGMs for this mission, and in fact for most missions where we need to destroy objectives on the ground.



We've got the plane, we've got the missiles...



We have liftoff!



Unlike its more powerful console-based predecessors, Ace Combat Advance is played from a top-down perspective, which provides a fairly narrow field of vision on the ol' 240x160 GBA screen.



Fortunately, a modern aircraft has a variety of instruments to help the everyday pilot having an out-of-body experience. The most important is the radar. This sucker will save your life.

Also, take note of that timer in the upper left. You're on the clock all the time in AC Advance so it's vitally important that you finish your tasks quickly, which is what the red/green gauge on the right is for. That's the Boost Meter, and defying all reason, it actually fills red to green as you hold the boost button down. Boosting is absolutely essential in this game, since your standard pace is alarmingly slow, even in the fastest flying machines, so managing your Boost Meter is of vital importance.



You might have noticed the missile counter in the lower left as well. All aircraft have 96 weak-ish homing rockets, and pressing down on the D-pad will switch to whichever armament you chose during the briefing.

As you can see, we've only got 20 of the AGMs, so we'd better make every shot count.



Ooh, but first! Aerial combat!



More on that when we don't have a plane that turns like a flatbed truck.



As we get closer to the highlighted dots on the radar, our HUD starts flashing red and an alarm starts blaring. That can only mean...



...Something we couldn't possibly have seen coming.

SAM (Surface-to-Air Missile) sites are going to be the bane of our existence throughout the LP. The missiles come out quickly and more or less the instant that the SAMs appear on screen. And until we get a plane with better defense, those things HURT, taking off 15% on this rig in particular.

You might have noticed during that clip that we're lower to the ground than usual. Since we're automatically drifting forward all the time, pressing up on the d-pad makes us dive downwards instead, allowing us to fire our gatling gun and mini missiles at ground targets. The secondary armaments can only fire at air/ground targets, so if we picked an anti-air weapon, that would be our only way to deal with targets on the ground.

Plus, if we're being fired at, a quick dive is actually a pretty effective dodging tactic.



I don't think they ever give this guy a name, so I'm just going to call him The Chief.

As mentioned in the briefing, our objective is to get to these tower-ish things one by one. We don't actually have to destroy them or the SAM sites to beat the mission, just fly on by, but if we want to get the secondary objective, then all targets highlighted in yellow have to be destroyed.



The game's nice enough to tell us, if we couldn't tell by the radar, that we've taken care of secondary targets in the area. Time to move on.



Really, the radar's your best friend in this game, since you can see targets before they actually come into view, and the dummy fire missiles especially have a surprisingly long range.



If you want to avoid getting shot to pieces, it's best to take advantage of this fact as much as you can.



Trouble is, we're running low on ammo and we're only on Nav Point 2. We could switch to just using our gatling for the rest, but there's a better solution...



: Mother arrives in 8 seconds.

You see, Ace isn't riding on this mission on his lonesome.



If you press the Select key, after a short while, a blue waypoint will appear on his map. What's over there, you ask?



Our own personal tanker and a mound of corny dialogue.

: Thanks, gee, I sure am thirsty.

: Well, drink up! It's happy hour now.



And with that, our health and ammo are topped off.

The game lets you call Mother as many times as you need, but the big concern is time, since you often have to fly in the opposite direction of objectives in order to meet her. In addition, you can still be attacked while you're being refueled, so it's only somewhat effective as a panic button.



Uh, hey buddy, you're flying a little close there-



Well, crap. Planes can and will smash into you, and while that'll take out these little grunts, it'll also remove a good chunk of your health. And needless to say, the AI's not very good at avoiding collisions.



Third nav point, and this one's got an additional SAM guarding it. I suppose I should mention that they don't home in on you, just fire straight ahead, so if you take them at even a slight angle, their shots will just fly on by. That's a major argument for using homing missiles instead of the AGMs, but then I'd be chewing through ammo faster.



Rinse and repeat.



Almost there! Last nav point is at home base itself, but we're not done with the ground targets.



: Go on with it, Mother.

: Let's do it. You owe me one.

: You are full! Go get them!



And that's it for the secondary objective! Time to return to base.



You can tell you're getting close when you see the white dots on the map.



And...done!



I hope none of those fireworks hit the planes.



When it comes to rankings, it's all about the secondary objective. If you accomplish what they tell you to, you're guaranteed an S. Getting an S rank is somewhat important, since the next plane we unlock via story progression is a pretty good contender for the title of worst aircraft, for reasons I'll explain in the next mission.

Coming Up: We take aim at General Resources' most crucial asset: shipping containers!





F-C Talon

Speed: Terrible
Air-to-Air: Laughable
Air-to-Ground: Decent
Mobility: Like a man in a robot costume
Defense: Not the worst, surprisingly

20 Unguided Air-to-Ground Missiles
30 Homing Air-to-Ground Missiles
40 Air-to-Air Cluster Missiles

Analysis: This plane's only saving grace is that it's got a fair amount of ammo. Once the missiles run out, it's more-or-less useless.

Sally
Jan 9, 2007


Don't post Small Dash!
oh god this game looks brutal.

:rip: blast

Leif.
Mar 27, 2005

Son of the Defender
Formerly Diplomaticus/SWATJester
I can't tell if that game looks hilariously awesome or the most unfun slog I can imagine.

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nine-gear crow
Aug 10, 2013
Blastinus right now. Face first into hell on a whim. Good luck, buddy.

:patriot:

nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 04:15 on Sep 16, 2016

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