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Who is the best Ace Combat protagonist? This poll is closed. |
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| Cipher |
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79 | 32.24% |
| Phoenix |
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9 | 3.67% |
| Mobius 1 |
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84 | 34.29% |
| William Bishop--lol get out |
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24 | 9.80% |
| SHOOT VISARI |
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49 | 20.00% |
| Total: | 245 votes | ||
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Lifeline Mission 5: Operation Early Bird – November 19th, 2004 EXTRA: Tagging A Yellow Overview: ISAF moves to further cripple the Aegir Fleet at Comberth by striking an Erusean-controlled petrochemical plant and off-shore oil drilling complex along the east coast of Usea, south of Expo City in an early dawn raid. As the mission draws to a close, Mobius 1 comes face to face with the dreaded Yellow Squadron and its ace Yellow 13 for the first time. Meanwhile, in San Salvacion, the Storyteller Boy encounters 13’s wingman, Yellow 4.  NOTE: Be sure to also catch Blastinus's ill-adviseded trip into Ace Combat: Advance. Guest Commentators: I am joined in this video by Lazyfire, who is our second Ace Combat LP commentator hattrick after Jobbo_Fett in the second video. Lazyfire has recently started work on a LP of Call of Duty: Black Ops III, in addition to wrapping up Call of Duty: World at War recently, meaning that barring Advanced Warfare, he is officially out of Call of Dutys to LP!    AQUILA (YELLOW) SQUADRON Federal Erusean Air Force, 156th Tactical Fighter Wing, 1st Tactical Fighter Squadron Members:
Formally known as Aquila Squadron, the 13 plane division code named Yellow Squadron is, by all accounts, the crown jewel and pride of the Federal Erusean Air Force. No single squadron on Usea since the end of the first Continental War of 1998 boasts a more impressive and deadly combat success ratio than Yellow Squadron. Their name sends ripples of fear through ISAF pilots and soldiers, and their appearance on a battlefield is often enough send enemy planes running without a fight. The squadron was originally founded after the end of the Continental War in memory of the former top ace of the FEAF, Col. Edgar Grint, who had died in combat during the war. The Erusean military government, however, covered up the fact that Grint had defected to the Usean Rebel Forces during the war, instead emphasizing that he died a hero, rather than died fighting for the wrong side. When Erusea launched its surprise attack on the rest of Usea at the start of the Shattered Skies crisis, Yellow Squadron acted as the tip of the spear for its aerial assault on the ISAF member states. Yellow Squadron alone accounts for almost as many confirmed aerial combat kills as Stonehenge. Despite having a thirteen plane pool, the principle core of Yellow Squadron is a five-plane formation headed by Yellow 13. The remainer of the squadron operates on detached service elsewhere around Usea conducting missions of lesser import than those that require the attention of the “proper” Yellow Squadron, primarily acting as a morale booster for Erusean troops and pilots on the battlefield more than anything. In the months since ISAF was driven off the mainland, Yellow Squadron has since been recalled to the Erusean occupied San Salvacion City in western Usea, within close intercept range of Stonehenge in the Delarus desert. There the squadron acts, officially, as the principle guardian and interceptor flight for the Stonehenge Turret Network itself, and as well as a last line of defense for the Erusean homeland itself. A motion re-assign a squadron of newly developed EASA X-02 Wyvern fighters to the Stonehenge guard position in order to free up Yellow Squadron to conduct mobile operations elsewhere on Usea, however, is currently tangled up in the Erusean parliament, which is reluctant to place the fate of a vital weapon such as Stonehenge in the hands of an as yet unproven X-plane super fighter. As such, Yellow Squadron remains on guard near Stongehenge at all times. However, now that ISAF has begun its counterstrike operations against the Erusean military, Yellow Squadron finds itself deployed on increasingly longer range strike and intercept missions to counter its aerial presence on Usea. In terms of behind the scenes trivia, Yellow Squadron was at one point going to be called Gold Squadron. The localization staff of the American version of Shattered Skies believed that Yellow was “too weak” of a name for the principle antagonist squadron of the game, but Kazutoki Kono, the game’s art director, and other members of the 04 production staff insisted the name remain Yellow Squadron, which it ultimately did. Yellow Squadron itself was actually one of the first things created for Shattered Skies, according to the game’s director Sunao Katabuchi. His development of Yellow Squadron inspired the rest of the production team to create Mobius 1 as a character who would be a fitting rival for not just Yellow 13, but the entirety of Yellow Squadron itself. Katabuchi explained in a Reddit AMA, "...when I came up with the idea with the Yellow Squadron the developers came up with [Mobius] 1. It was a good environment where we were able to [inspire] each other." Yellow Squadron as a whole, and Yellow 13 in particular, is one of the most iconic and enduring elements of the entire Ace Combat franchise. The Yellow Squadron colours have appeared in nearly every post-04 Ace Combat in the franchise in one form or another, both on enemy Aces and as playable alternate paint schemes or DLC. And for the record, I try to make use of the Yellow livery as often as I can in multiplayer situations, as glimpsed in the Ace Combat Zero Multiplayer Disaster video and the Good Friday 2016 Extra Life stream of Ace Combat: Assault Horizon Legacy with Cirv and ACES, aka “the last thing I did before I went in the hospital and almost died of H1N1.” And I assure you that if we ever do dip into multiplayer for Ace Combat Infinity and Ace Combat 6, I will be flying Yellow colours there as well. And one last thing to point on w/r/t Yellow Squadron’s proper name. “Aquila” is Latin for eagle, and Yellow Squadron’s mission patch depicts both an eagle and the constellation Aquila itself. So you can clearly see what Albireo Squadron from Assault Horizon Legacy was trying its damndest to ape in retrospect, huh?   YELLOW 4 Real Name: Katie W[NAME REDACTED]* Callsign(s): Yellow 4 Age: Mid 20’s Sex: Female Nationality: Erusea Signature Plane: Su-37 Terminator Voice Actor: None The precise identity of the pilot known by the TAC name "Yellow 4" remains a mystery due to the Erusean government sealing, and in some cases destroying, the records of many of its top pilots and soldiers out of tactical paranoia. Partially recovered documents released by ISAF Intelligence reveal a portrait of by all outward accounts a model soldier, the envy of any military around the world. Flight Lieutenant Kathrine W[LAST NAME REDACTED] serves as the second-in-command of the vaunted Aqulia Squadron aka Yellow Squadron, the guardians of the Stonehenge superweapon and the crown jewel of the Federal Erusean Air Force. Unlike her fellow pilots on Yellow Squadron, and just like her commander, Yellow 4 forswore a pilot callsign and instead preferred to be referred to by her TAC number. Along with 13, she was one of the continuous presences on Yellow Squadron's roster. While other pilots would rotate in and out of Aquila, or head up other divisions of the squadron elsewhere on Usea, 4 remained a member of the core five of Aquila. Yellow 4, beyond that, serves as the eyes in the back of 13's head, protecting him from any and all threats both in the air and on the ground. The two have an inseparable relationship. She has been under 13's tutelage or command for nearly all of her career in the FEAF since graduating the air force academy in Farbanti, and rumor has it within Yellow Squadron and its on-ground flight crew that their relationship extends beyond that of commander-second or mentor-student, possibly into the realm of romance. Though with 4's stern professionalism and 13's aloof geniality, it's hard to tell, really. * The name "Katie W" comes from the behind the scenes storyboards showing an ad hoc kill count/squadron roster for Yellow Squadron written on the wall of the Sky Kid bar. While in the actual cutscene, many of the names are just scribbles, in the storyboard, multiple names are clearly legible including one that spells out Katie W--the rest of the name is covered over with a piece of paper tacked to the wall. It's the only female name included on the wall, and the Storyteller Boy notes that Yellow 4 is the only female pilot on Yellow Squadron's roster. Ipso facto...   VIDEO GAME CENSORSHIP Oh god yes let’s touch this topic with anything but a 30 foot pole.  Anyways, Shattered Skies has the distinction of being one of the few, if not the only game in the Ace Combat franchise that got whacked with the censorship stick. 04 had the unfortunate distinction of coming out hot on the heels of the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington D.C., so certain intestinal elements were altered for its North American release which we will cover in a subsequent update. Beyond that, the frame narrative of 04 was also slightly darker in the Japanese version, which was altered in the North American and European releases to comport to, for lack of a better term, “Western” cultural sensitivities and to prevent the game from getting an M rating from the ESRB or an 18 rating from the PEGI, both of which would have severely limited the game’s mass market appeal. The scenes in question involve the Storyteller Boy’s various confrontations with Yellow 13 across the game. In the original Japanese version of this mission’s interlude, the Storyteller Boy is described as having pickpocketed both a knife and gun from an Erusean soldier, either of which he intends to kill 13 with when he confronts him. The vignette in question was edited and the line and frame depicting and describing the acquisition of the gun is removed. A subsequent frame showing the Storyteller Boy hiding the gun under his jacket as he prepares to face 13 is also redrawn to show his hand clearly visible over his coat and no gun in his possession. The remainder of the scene plays out as normal, but with the added tension of Yellow 4 managing to intimidate what she doesn’t even realize is an armed potential threat. Personally speaking, I think the censored version works a lot better than the original version. While the gun and knife may give the Storyteller Boy a degree of increased agency as a character, as well as show that he’s actually got a level of skill, determination, and perception beyond what you’d normally expect an average 12 year-old boy to possess, it also takes the story in an unneeded direction, in my opinion. The Storyteller Boy works better as a character driven by impotent and futile rage who learns to put that rage aside as he comes to see both Yellow 13 and Yellow 4 as people and eventually as friends. While the element of the knife and gun adds tension to the situation, it weakens the characterization over all. But that’s just my opinion. Additional instances of alternations to the game between versions will be highlighted as they appear, but they’re few and far between.  
Kadorhal posted:Ace Number Five is Mrkos. Named for Antonin Mrkos, born January 27th, 1918. Czech astronomer and, again so far, the most active of the game's namesakes, discovering thirteen comets and 274 asteroids between 1977 and 1991. He was also the second Czech citizen to set foot in Antarctica, and the first to reach the southern pole of inaccessibility, as a member of the 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition from 1957 to 1959; the second flag to ever be raised in Antarctica, in fact, was a Czech flag (after that of the USSR). He also came along with the 7th Expedition from 1961 to 1963 to study auroras. Died May 29th, 1996, at 78 years old.   Tracks featured in Mission 5: DISC 1 DISC 2 nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 06:15 on May 3, 2021 |
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Sep 16, 2016 06:25
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I've been thinking this for years, but I would love to see AC 6 style missions with Joint Assault style multiplayer. Because it was fun to bomb around through the campaign with even a bunch of pubbies and just be pretty much be what a squadron composed of Mobius 1, Cypher, Phoenix and Nemo, or any other setup of the player characters would look like. Sadly it was very limited, being on the PSP and all, plus for the most part being limited to the missions balanced for single player, with the special missions being the only exceptions. But if you had that style of multiplayer on an AC 6 battlefield, with multiple sub missions going on at the same time, it would be pretty drat cool. Imagine. While a couple dudes are going at it in a massive furball on one side of the map, their buddies are escorting the ground troops, but making a game of it by seeing who can destroy the most targets with only supersonic bombing runs. A mission update has an ace squadron a dozen strong spawn in, but your combined alpha strike takes out half of them before they get in range. As an aside, I can see all the AC protagonists as disciplined, calm and collected soldiers who are grimly doing their duty. Except the Joint Assault one. That one I just see as some idiot in a superplane whooping and hollering or cackling madly as they keep the afterburners on at all times, getting into a competition with their wingmates to see who can do the most damage this time. I probably spent too much time on the multiplayer mode of that game.
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Sep 16, 2016 07:09
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Ace Number Five is Mrkos. Named for Antonin Mrkos, born January 27th, 1918. Czech astronomer and, again so far, the most active of the game's namesakes, discovering thirteen comets and 274 asteroids between 1977 and 1991. He was also the second Czech citizen to set foot in Antarctica, and the first to reach the southern pole of inaccessibility, as a member of the 3rd Soviet Antarctic Expedition from 1957 to 1959; the second flag to ever be raised in Antarctica, in fact, was a Czech flag (after that of the USSR). He also came along with the 7th Expedition from 1961 to 1963 to study auroras. Died May 29th, 1996, at 78 years old. An interesting bit about the plane choice is that it's also a reference to a manga that ran from 1999 to 2001 called Red Prowling Devil, starring a female mercenary named Naomi who flew a MiG-29 in the same crimson paint scheme. They're also the only ace I ever found on my own in this game. I never looked very hard, to be fair.
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Sep 16, 2016 07:30
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You're not gonna believe this, Jean-Louis, all of their names are redacted!
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Sep 16, 2016 07:54
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Whoever is in charge of the base really needs to call the IT guy on the computer that runs the briefings. Its hard drive is clicking something fierce. I've always been confused by the units on the "distance from target" display. Is it in decameters or something? Why is ~800 the limit of the range on the missiles here when ~5000 is the limit for your missiles in 5 and zero?
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Sep 16, 2016 12:45
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Sep 16, 2016 12:46
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Not going to lie Crow, that intro you edited in for the Yellows was great.
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Sep 16, 2016 14:22
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No Ace Combat 7 news at TGS, it seems.  Inglonias posted:I've always been confused by the units on the "distance from target" display. Is it in decameters or something? Why is ~800 the limit of the range on the missiles here when ~5000 is the limit for your missiles in 5 and zero? Yeah I've always been confused by that. Speed is clearly in MPH (or KPH if you're a filthy commie) but the range units make no sense at all. It's probably deliberately vague, because if missile ranges were anything close to realistic you'd get a Slammer lock-on up to a hundred nautical miles out and finish entire missions with your eyes glued to the radar screen.
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Sep 16, 2016 14:38
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Crow, I must say I disagree with you--I think Invincible Fleet is a much different mission than Lifeline, and I way prefer it. I think that might be because in Lifeline you're just plinking away at an endless queue of ground targets that aren't moving or really making it difficult in any way, then in Invincible Fleet you're trying to bag them all before they can pull up stakes (not reflected in gameplay necessarily, but the atmosphere is still there). Also, another possible reason for the game title: This is, after all, after the impact of the asteroid Ulysses 1994XF04.
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Sep 16, 2016 14:55
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Fun Fact , the story cut scene in the video is the first of three that got censored for western audiences, in the Japanese version The Kid has a knife to stab Yellow 13 with and a pistol he stole from drunken soldier. The picture and all mention of his weapons were replaced by the shot of the outside of bar and a scene of The Boy reaching into his jacket was changed to have his hand outside of his jacket instead. Why this was censored should be obvious and the other two censored scenes were censored for the same reason as this one.
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Sep 16, 2016 15:19
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Well, that mission's going to be one hell of an ecological disaster for the region. I don't envy the poor bastards trying to contain this oil spill.
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Sep 16, 2016 15:23
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Cythereal posted:Well, that mission's going to be one hell of an ecological disaster for the region. I don't envy the poor bastards trying to contain this oil spill. Gives new meaning to "blowout preventer". Not to mention "top kill".
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Sep 16, 2016 15:36
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Crow, I am so very disappointed you didn't use this BGM for your experiment video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z58x2tPz95c
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Sep 16, 2016 16:48
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Brunom1 posted:Crow, I am so very disappointed you didn't use this BGM for your experiment video: I actually convinced him to use Drumfire, but he had already made the video like a month ago so 
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Sep 16, 2016 16:53
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Cythereal posted:Well, that mission's going to be one hell of an ecological disaster for the region. I don't envy the poor bastards trying to contain this oil spill. 
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Sep 16, 2016 20:46
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NobleSixFour posted:Also, another possible reason for the game title: This is, after all, after the impact of the asteroid Ulysses 1994XF04. The real reason is much, much more  .The Japanese word for the number four is pronounced the same as the word for death, so they have the same sort of stigma attached to it as, say, most Western cultures have about 13 (or 23 in me and my friend's case  ). And because Japan, they're much more willing to go out of their way to avoid it. Hence the number for the fourth Ace Combat having a zero attached in front of it so it wouldn't kill the series, especially after the kind of money that went into Electrosphere's development because of poo poo like Production I.G's cutscenes.
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Sep 16, 2016 20:49
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It took infinite missiles and instant reload, but you tagged one. It's not cheating if they cheat first!
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Sep 16, 2016 22:35
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NobleSixFour posted:Also, another possible reason for the game title: This is, after all, after the impact of the asteroid Ulysses 1994XF04. That's from asteroid naming conventions. I think it got mentioned earlier in a different thread, but 1994 is when it was discovered, and XF04 is something else I forget.
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Sep 17, 2016 04:13
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Cythereal posted:Well, that mission's going to be one hell of an ecological disaster for the region. I don't envy the poor bastards trying to contain this oil spill. Honestly one would figure the massive number of meteorites that hit the planet kind of make a little oil spill look tame when it comes to ecological disasters really. Brunom1 posted:Crow, I am so very disappointed you didn't use this BGM for your experiment video: Speaking of BGMs, thanks for sticking Blockade in my brain, can't get that thing out now  . No wonder you praised 04's soundtrack in the video.
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Sep 17, 2016 04:43
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Nanomashoes posted:That's from asteroid naming conventions. I think it got mentioned earlier in a different thread, but 1994 is when it was discovered, and XF04 is something else I forget. The X means it was discovered in the first half of December. F04 means it was the 106th object identified in that period (although I believe in reality it would've just been 1994XF4 without the 0 again).
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Sep 18, 2016 00:24
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Kadorhal posted:Production I.G's cutscenes. Production I.G did the cutscenes for Electrosphere? It looks much worse than literally anything else I've ever seen from them. Ghost in the Shell it certainly ain't.
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Sep 18, 2016 00:39
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HerpicleOmnicron5 posted:Production I.G did the cutscenes for Electrosphere? It looks much worse than literally anything else I've ever seen from them. Ghost in the Shell it certainly ain't. Well, how do you feel about 3D and Cyborg 009? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrmbrbQ6c40 (I don't actually mind the CG, but goddamn was the rest of that a shitshow.)
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Sep 18, 2016 00:48
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ACES CURE PLANES posted:Well, how do you feel about 3D and Cyborg 009? Although, comparing RE:Cyborg's CGI to Electrosphere's CGI is a bit unfair as you're comparing 1999's CGI capabilities to 2011's CGI capabilities. The technology has changed a lot since then.
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Sep 18, 2016 01:35
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Oh, no, it's definitely not fair, but I've heard people talk about that movie as if it had the worst art of anything ever. I dunno, I think that's really good looking personally, but I'm weird. It's not as weirdly variable in quality as the Berserk OVAs, not charmingly jank like Sidonia, and not outright terrible like Berserk 2016. Could be much worse. Also I hope you're all ready for the biggest, baddest, most exciting blowout 20th anniversary Ace Combat special from TGS 2016, because here it is
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Sep 18, 2016 07:20
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Yeah, that actually looks really nice. The cityscapes not so much, but the characters look great.
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Sep 18, 2016 13:30
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ACES CURE PLANES posted:Oh, no, it's definitely not fair, but I've heard people talk about that movie as if it had the worst art of anything ever. I dunno, I think that's really good looking personally, but I'm weird. It's not as weirdly variable in quality as the Berserk OVAs, not charmingly jank like Sidonia, and not outright terrible like Berserk 2016. Could be much worse. Also, calling it now, that bird is totally Ace Combat 7's protagonist. No more pilot suits filled with springs and joints like the past protagonists, now it's a tiny bird committing war crimes.
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Sep 18, 2016 19:44
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AradoBalanga posted:Oh trust me, I've seen janky CGI in the past as well. RE:Cyborg is nowhere near some the worst I've seen either.  Wouldn't be the first time.
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Sep 18, 2016 20:12
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He's got a girlfriend back at the base.
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Sep 19, 2016 06:27
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So apparently getting a full-time job means you don't have many opportunities to do work on other things? Whatever. Here are two updates to make up for missing a week. Now to figure out how to make up for the second week I missed. Probably nothing. Oh, there was some audio bleed from my mic into Kadorhal's for our videos. I did my best to cut it out. Missions 07 to 09: Fragile Cargo, Demilitarisation, Moonlight Flower Part 03: A Rare Aurora (wingman: Lunethex) We spend our evening helping a drunk man stumble home, at which point he starts attacking us, which is so rude. What a way to end a day. There was another guy hanging around, and I dunno, maybe he wanted to help, but he gave off a really suspicious vibe, so we tricked him into leaving us alone. Then we were meant to go meet up the next day with Megan and this cool guy named Keith to go get smoothies and watch the sunset, but Keith never showed up! To top it all off, on our way home we get lost, and we keep getting bad phone reception when we try to call for help! That's such a weird string of bad luck, I mean really, what are the odds? Missions 10 to 12: Maze, Escort, Stratosphere Part 04: An Eagle Piloting A Blimp (wingman: Kadorhal) All our friends want help today. There's a new person at school who's caught one of our friends' eye, and they ask us to casually stalk him and see what his interests are so they'll know what conversation topics to bring up. That seems reasonable and only a little creepy, but you know what they say about picking noses. I mean I hope you do, or that would have been a weird thing for me to say just then. We also made friends with the new rich kid; and good thing, too! He keeps drawing bullies over to beat him up for being a total nerd! If only he'd stop being a total nerd. This guy was a sick lad, though, and treated us to drive through on the way home. And he even offered to pay for the damage when we kept on crashing into the sides of the drive through instead of actually going in. And then a bunch of kids wanted help getting their ball down from a tree. I still don't know how they got it stuck up so high. Had to disturb a bird's nest to get it down. It sure does feel good to be a good samaritan!  These sets of missions bring back some of what we now know as Ace Combat staples from AC2. Like I mentioned to Crow in the first video, the skeletal structure of most of the missions in AC2 became the building blocks for a lot of the series. We've got our classic canyon run mission, our "radio interference is blocking missiles, only one thing to do" mission, a couple of escort missions, and the frankly glorious return of the high-altitude mission. The mission in AC2 was a nice idea, like taking a deep breath and ducking under the water to find where you dropped your stupid little swim wallet, only upside-down. In practice, it's really linear, and there's the obvious limitation of high altitude being more of an on-off switch than a gradual ascent. The high-altitude missions in Electrosphere show how much better the engine is with the transition from low to high altitude being far less noticeable mid-flight, and putting you in a specialised plane lets you stay up there for as long as you want and appreciate the cool visuals. It's just unfortunate that the only planes you get to fly in these missions (plane, singular, for the export version) are more or less impossible to do anything with other than fly in a straight line. And the game puts us under a strict time limit to get targets that are doing more than flying in a very straight line, that's cool. I'm always a fan of canyon run missions, and coming back to this one after so long makes me realise how little actually happens in it. To be fair, usually not a great deal is happening in those missions anyway, with a couple of exceptions, but most other games make up for it with copious radio chatter. When I was younger, I enjoyed the tense feeling the altitude limit and canyon walls gave off, which was compounded by the music. I still get a bit of that as I'm older, but it's certainly missing something.   A/F-117X Nighthawk is a mysterious loner hot boy who came to town. Nobody knows much about him but he always needs to flip his hair out of his eyes and he can be spotted at lunch wherever there are shadows, one hand always over half of his face. He's caught the eye of basically everyone at school, including some of our friends, so we have to do a probably totally reasonable round of recon to find out more about him. Curiously, I don't think anyone saw him after that…
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Sep 23, 2016 12:22
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https://twitter.com/thef35/status/779343288276955136 It begins. And of course it is only appropriate that it opens with something breaking.
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Sep 23, 2016 17:01
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One of my favorite parts of Infinity was how many planes had a hypothetical JASDF sea-blue camouflage paint scheme. Off the top of my head the Raptor, Typhoon, both F-35s and a couple of the fictional ones all had them.
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Sep 25, 2016 00:11
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Invincible Fleet Mission 6: Operation Rough Seas – November 23rd, 2004 Overview: ISAF launches a massive air strike against the so called “invincible” Erusean Aegir fleet stationed at Comberth Harbour. Destroying the Aegir fleet will remove Erusea’s primary offensive force in western Usea from the battlefield and eliminate any further military threat to ISAF GHQ on North Point. It will also open a vital strategic corridor back into FCU territory on the mainland in preparation for ISAF’s impending counterstrike operation.  Guest Commentator: Joining me in this video is ACES CURE PLANES, because he asked me “So who are you getting to sing the Usean anthem at the end of Invincible Fleet?” and I replied “You.”   THE AEGIR FLEET Prior to its destruction at the hands of the Independent States Allied Forces, Erusea’s intimidating Aegir Fleet, led by its flagship, the battleship F.E.N.S. Tanager and its stalwart captain, Matias Torres, was one of the largest detached naval armadas on the planet, rivaling the might of even certain fleets in the Osean Maritime Defense Force. On account of its size and success rate in combat situations, the Aegir Fleet has been nicknamed the “Invincible” Aegir Fleet by the Erusean military government—a term that was even adopted by ISAF as shorthand for how daunting a task sinking it would prove. Originally stationed at the Erusean port city of Anchorhead, the Aegir Fleet missed the majority of the first Usean Continental War of 1998, having been mysteriously deployed on a “training mission” to the Razgriz Straights north of the Emmeria-Estovakia border in the Arctic Circle shortly before the outbreak do the war. There were many inside the FCU government and military command at the time, however, who questioned the Aegir Fleet’s puzzling deployment, speculating that the Eruseans had deployed it specifically to keep it out of the fight, lest it fall into the hands of either the Allied Forces or the Usean Rebel Forces, and to ultimately use it as a bargaining chip or leverage for one side or the other as the war drew to a close and an obvious victor emerged. Of course, these allegations were never proven, let alone publicly voiced, as the FCU desperately needed Erusea’s support at the time due to severe military losses to the Rebellion both in defections and casualties. The Aegir Fleet ultimately did see combat during the Continental War near the tail end of Operation Belissima, assisting the FCU Navy in its decisive sea battle with the URF fleet at Snider’s Top during Operation Final Countdown—where ex-Federal Erusean Air Force Ace Edgar Grint was ultimately killed—and helping to liberate and secure the former URF provisional capital of Saint Ark during Operation Kingpin. Also present at the battle was Matias Torres, severing as a gunnery chief on the F.E.N.S. Fenris, fighting on the side of the Usean Allied Forces. Following the freeze in relations between Erusea, the FCU and the Independent States after the end of the war and the Ulysses 1994XF04 impact, the Aegir Fleet was recalled to Anchorhead for a massive retrofit and expansion as part of the Erusean military buildup of the early 00s. The four years between Ulysses Day and the start of the Shattered Skies crisis saw the Aegir Fleet nearly double in size in terms of ships and sailors to crew them. When the Erusean Army stormed into Delarus to take control of Stonehenge, the Federal Erusean Navy also set sail to secure dominance over Usea’s coastal waters with the Aegir Fleet at the tip of its spear. From there, the fleet largely acted as a dispersed entity throughout the Second Continental War, running down the scattered remnants of the ISAF Navy that failed to evacuate to North Point before being recalled to Comberth Harbour en mass in preparation for a naval strike against ISAF GHQ in North Point City. In addition to the Iowa-class battleship Tanager, the Aegir Fleet also consisted of the Kitty Hawk-class aircraft carrier Geofon, the Hatakaze-class guided-missile destroyers Beluga, Lazuli, Kolga, and Fenris, the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile Aegis cruisers Raven, Condor*, Magpie*, Sparrow*, and Finch*, the Cassard-class frigates Herne, Thiassi, and Taisch, and the Los Angeles-class nuclear submarines Beowulf-π (pi) and Beowulf-ν (nu), among other vessels. * These four ships do not appear in “Invincible Fleet” itself, but audio extracted from Shattered Skies’s sound files contains lines from SkyEye identifying these ships and confirming their sinking.  COMBERTH HARBOUR They city of Comberth is one of the larger industrial maritime ports on Usea alongside Anchorhead and Port Edwards. It is eastern Usea’s premiere port city and naval station, serving Expo City further along the east coast, as well as Faith Park and Los Canas. The city is known for its vast industrial sectors, a very progressive urban core, and several world-rewound tourist attractions such as the Comberth Space Needle, Science Center, and the Comberth Harbour Bridge, the which is the largest suspension bridge on Earth and spans the entire width of the Comberth Harbour bay mouth. Comberth Harbour’s design was based largely off the American port cities of Seattle and San Francisco. The city features similar geography to both the Elliot Bay and San Francisco Bay areas, including a large suspension bridge that crosses the mouth of its harbor and intersects an island midway—a combination of both the Golden Gate and Bay Bridges. Much like that one mission in Ace Combat 2, “Invincible Fleet” was also originally slated to feature a pair of buildings in the Comberth skyline that looked suspiciously similar to the World Trade Center, which would become engulfed in smoke as the fires from the ships docked in the port billowed out into the metropolitan area. According to Ace Combat 04’s art director (and later Ace Combat series producer) Kazutoki Kono, the towers and smoke event were hastily removed from the game at the last possible second before it went to print as the September 11th terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center had just occurred two days prior and that particular set piece suddenly appeared in bad taste to have in a game such as this.  ÆGIR There’s a lot of Old Norse mythological references on the Erusean side of Ace Combat 04 and the Aegir fleet is our first big encounter with one of them. Aegir, also spelled Ægir, in Norse mythology was a sea Jötunn, or giant somewhat analogous to Poseidon/Neptune of classical mythology and strongly associated with the ocean. He was known for hosting his share of rager parties for the Æsir—aka the upper tier of the Norse gods such as Odin and Thor, and had nine daughters. Beyond that, there’s not much more to say about him. There’s been a slew of things named after Ægir, at least according to Wikipedia, including one of Saturn’s moons, and—most fittingly—several ships, submarines, and entire classes of ships.  TANAGER The Tanagers are a biological family of birds found primarily in the tropical regions of the New World, specifically throughout South America, where 60% of family is found. They are noted primarily for their bright coloured feathers, and for being among the birds that Charles Darwin studied in the Galapagos Islands, where, upon observing their varied beak shapes, which had adapted to be inclined to disparate survival tasks, helped lead to Darwin postulating the theory of evolution.  KOLGA Also known as the “chilling wave,” Kólga was also a sea Jötunn and more specifically one of Ægir’s nine daughters in Norse mythology.  BELUGA Do I really need to explain what a Beluga whale is?  RAVEN Do I need to explain what a Raven is too—actually; in this case I do because it also tacks back to Norse mythos. Ravens play a large role in Old Norse myth through their association with Odin, the All-Father. Odin was noted as having two raven familiars, Huginn (though) and Muninn (memory), who would act as his observers in the mortal world of Midgard and would report back to him on the auspicious dealings of certain humans (and gods who meddled in their affairs, like Loki tended to do). So in this instance, it was actually kind of clever of Project Aces to name the line Aegis cruiser that appears in this mission the Raven, as the Ticonderoga-class Aegis cruisers are notable for their powerful radar and guided-missile systems, effectively making them the eyes of any fleet they are attached to.  GEOFON An Old English word meaning “giving” and connected with the Gemanic sea goddess Gabia, which is alleged to delineate from Gefjon, who was the Norse goddess of ploughing and farming. Gefjon is also implied to possess some connection with Grendel’s mother in the Old English poem Beowulf, but the connection is not elaborated on in the poem beyond a passing gloss of comparison.  THIASSI The Jötunn Þjazi (commonly translated as “Thiassi”) is a giant in Old Norse mythology who commonly takes the form of a massive black eagle. Þjazi is a minor recurring antagonist to the Æsir, whose most notable deed was kidnapping the goddess Iðunn (Idunn) after Loki lured her out of Asgard specifically so that Þjazi could swoop down and abduct her and take her back to Þrymheimr in Jötunheimr. He is later killed by the Æsir after they force Loki to infiltrate Þrymheimr and rescue Iðunn under pain of torture and death—because let’s never forget that Odin is just as big of a prick as Loki is, he just has better PR people.  FENRIS The monstrous giant wolf Fenrir (fen-dweller), also known among other names as Fenrisúlfr, is one of Loki’s sons in Norse mythology, along with the world serpent Jörmungandr, and his daughter Hel. Fenrir is prophecies to be the one who kills Odin during the final battle at Ragnarok, who then in turn will be slain by Vidar, one of Odin’s sons, who is one of the few survivors of the climactic battle. Some scholars, like Andy Orchard, theorize that Fenrir is a conflation of other Norse hounds such as Garmr (the namesake of Galm Team from Ace Combat Zero), or rather the inverse and that they are actually extensions of Fenrir.  BEOWULF The titular hero of the Old English epic poem Beowulf, one of the oldest surviving works of English literature. Beowulf is basically the Scandinavian Hercules, a larger-than-life hero who accomplishes great deeds, both seen and recounted second-hand in their respective stories, who are also kind of assholes when you boil them down. The main story of Beowulf the poem finds Beowulf the man sailing from his home in Geatland to the domain of King Hrothgar in order to settle an old debt held between Hrothgar and Beowulf’s father Ecgtheow. He arrives to find Hrothgar’s lands and hall ravaged by the beastman Grendel, who attacks only at night and has cost the lives of many of Hrothgar’s men. Beowulf then fights and defeats Grendel, tearing his arm off and beating him to death with it, as Grendel was immune to all manmade weaponry. After much celebration, however, Hrothgar’s keep is then attacked by Grendel’s Mother, seeking revenge for the death of her son. Beowulf then tracks her to her lair and kills her. He then departs back for Geatland and later becomes king. After ruling prosperously for 50 years, his reign comes to an end after a dragon awakens and begins menacing Geatland. Beowulf sets out to slay it to protect his people, but is mortally wounded in the battle himself, and names his apprentice Wiglaf as his heir before dying. By and large, Beowulf is basically Old Norse fanfiction, which tons of Norse references sprinkled through it, but is largely absent any intervention from the “classical” Norse deities and forces that otherwise crop up in other tales of its ilk. I wasn’t all that taken with it when I watched it, but if you’re looking for a somewhat pertinent connection between this LP and the other LP I currently have running of Killzone 3, then go hunt down the 2007 CGI Beowulf, which stars Ray Winstone aka Admiral Orlock as Beowulf himself, Sir Anthony Hopkins as King Hrothgar, Crispin Glover as Grendel, and Literally Angelina Jolie as Grendel’s Mother.  HERNE First mentioned in popular media by William Shakespeare in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Herne the Hunter is a ghostly spirit taking the form of a horned man riding a hunting steed that rides the wilderness with his hunting dogs in search of quarry. He is often associated with pagan hunting deities. Certain scholars trace the mythic origins of Herne back through similar deities in Anglo-Saxon mythology, all the way back to Odin himself, who they claim to be an analog to Herne.  TAISCH This is perhaps the most obscure of the glosses for the named ships in “Invincible Fleet”. According to the Collins Dictionary, a taisch is an archaic term from Scottish folklore denoting the apparition of a person whose death is imminent, like a premonition or a Greek eidolon. The other gloss comes from Wikipedia, which directs you to the article for “Second Sight” when you throw the word taisch into its search bar, which is a collective term for precognition, extra-sensory perception, and remote viewing. If there is a connection here to anything else we have covered, it eludes me at present. 
Kadorhal posted:Ace Number Six is Levy. Named for David H. Levy, born May 22, 1948. Canadian astronomer and science writer, discovered 22 comets either alone or alongside Eugene and Carolyn Shoemaker, and 53 asteroids between 1987 and 2008. In particular, he and the Shoemakers discovered the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 in 1993, which a year later collided with Jupiter. Also wrote a thesis titled The Sky in Early Modern English Literature: A Study of Allusions to Celestial Events in Elizabethan and Jacobean Writing, 1572–1620, the completion of which got him a Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in February 2010. At current one of the very few namesakes in this game who is still alive, at 68 years. Tracks featured in Mission 6: DISC 1  “The Hymn of Liberty” Federation of Central Usea National Anthem: ”Lyrics” posted:O'er azure skies And lastly, an overhead map of Comberth Harbour itself: 
nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 06:15 on May 3, 2021 |
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Sep 25, 2016 08:16
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Someone's DVD copy of Monk. Or Scrubs. Or the extended edition of the Lord of the Rings trilogy because they heard there was a funny scene of Gollum accepting an academy award.
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Sep 25, 2016 09:00
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frozentreasure posted:Someone's DVD copy of Monk. Or Scrubs. Or the extended edition of the Lord of the Rings trilogy because they heard there was a funny scene of Gollum accepting an academy award. Winner! 
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Sep 25, 2016 09:07
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The woo-hoo isn't an just an enthusiastic shout, it's actually part of the lyrics of the anthem.
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Sep 25, 2016 09:15
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Did we actually see that battleship during the mission? They called a carrier, but I don't remember a battleship.
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Sep 25, 2016 10:21
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Nuramor posted:Did we actually see that battleship during the mission? They called a carrier, but I don't remember a battleship. It's a blink and you'll miss it thing in the video, but the Tanager is actually the first ship I take out. There's a bit of conflicting information about what was edited. Acepedia links to a tweet by Kono which implies that the event happens in-game, while a video that comes up in the related links seems to suggest that it was only this promotional image that was edited to remove the towers of the Comberth skyline from it: It also highlights the changes to the frame narrative story segments that were highlighted following last week's update, and I will touch on the edits once I get the full post written up for it because I'm lazy.
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Sep 25, 2016 10:30
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I'll give crow a C for barely trying with the anthem. ACES get a B for his effort. But that is then immediately reduced to a C as well because of his dislike of delta wings.   Also, was the Sonic music supposed to come off that distorted?
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Sep 25, 2016 11:35
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Cooked Auto posted:I'll give crow a C for barely trying with the anthem. Yes.
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Sep 25, 2016 11:48
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Crow, The the "lasm" missiles for some reason take the ships out in one shot ( maybe they have a small damage radius to them), whereas if try to take out the ships with the normal missiles,like you did at the end of the video, you have take them out piece by piece.
Mr.Flibble fucked around with this message at 11:59 on Sep 25, 2016 |
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Sep 25, 2016 11:55
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