I guess I should specify that despite my complaint, I do think the rest of the game is really good, mostly due to the atmosphere and a distant secondarily due to the gameplay. I am looking forward to the next one.
I guess I should specify that despite my complaint, I do think the rest of the game is really good, mostly due to the atmosphere and a distant secondarily due to the gameplay. I am looking forward to the next one.
#4:
AC01.jpg
Ace Combat Zero:
The Belkan War
This deep jet fighter experience takes the following awards:
"Best jet fighter experience"
"Most videogame quotes to have made it on my bands' albums"
"Best characterised enemies"
"Longest time it to took to write a post about a game on the list so far"
"Best giant laser"
"Most nucleair explosions"
"Best 1 versus 1 aerial face-off"
"Best wingman"
I used to play the demo for Ace Combat 4 over and over. For a couple years I was in limbo whether I should buy an AC game. When I finally moved from allowance to a job on the side after school I got my hands Ace Combat Zero. It was a great decision.
Ace Combat Zero has been the most memorable jet fighter experience yet. The gameplay is solid but it’s presentation, pacing and deep dark undertone are where this game threads into the land of literature. Dogfighting gets the emphasis throughout boss battles with enemy ace squadrons. These are particularly interesting, as each has their own personality as a pack and as indivuals. While engines roar and missiles soar, these figures light political discussions we can overhear as enemy radio chatter. They often have idealist, philosophical views and the result is (like the previous game on the list) a game sparking my thoughts and makes me think about our world. Borders are the main theme but politics, economy and our right to claim and exhaust the earth also come into play.
Don’t underestimate what seems like detail: there has been some serious thought put into every line coming through the radio. Enemy pilot’s personalities have been considered, their morality questioned, their flight style described, their stresslevels perfectly portrayed as the battle heats up. Ace Combat Zero makes you feel for the enemy, and that is a very rare trait in the world of videogames. Towards the end I was almost rooting for the revolutionary (extremist) rebel organisation.
The fights with enemy squadrons grow even larger in importance when the game shows it’s intermezzo cutscenes with monologues of the pilots you have downed and survived.
The bigger picture is a morally grey conflict where the agressor becomes the defender and the defender the agressor. A lot of tragedies happen, and we follow what this does to both enemies and allies.
Which brings us to our wingman: Solo Wing ‘Pixy’. Our loyal companion grows morally conflicted and he shifts his priorities. For good reasons, as is perfectly explained. His motivations are totally understandable, even. Our paths seperate, and as later stated: we’ve become two sides of the same coin. Tragedy follows when the conflict is pushed to it’s apex. In the arena are just me and my former wingman. Both believe that they are fighting for good, but know they are also both the bad. There is only one outcome.
Ace Combat Zero has such an intriguing story and well written dialogue I have even used samples from the game for both studio albums I have made with my band the MAYDAYS. As listenable on the final track of the album 'MRK II':
Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xi-VY7_bc08
The radio chatter as listed in the lyrics and credits:
Pilot #1: "What are you fighting for?"
Pilot #2: "Clashing greed is the cause of all conflict."
Pilot #1: "What do you mean?!"
Pilot #2: "Neither nations or nationalities have meaning. We will erase these unnecessary borders.People live and people die - that's all there is to it. ... Are you fired up? We're going to start over from scratch. Territories, peoples, authorities: all will be liberated. The world will change. It's time."
If Ace Combat Zero was real and I were a fighter pilot, I may even be fighting alongside A World With No Boundaries.
Last edited by Pete for President; 02-12-2014 at 06:23 AM.
Someone really likes their fighter's jets.
I will always maintain that 5 is the better game, but Zero is damn enjoyable as well.
I sure do. I even somewhat considered to join the Dutch air force at some point. I had the right path for it on secondary school and everything. Luckily I backed out, as I would never want to be a person hurting others. I'd still love to fly one of those things. Maybe I'll step it down and become a small plane pilot at some point.Originally Posted by ToriJ
Both are very good indeed. I like the dark undertone and ace rivalry of 0 more. What gives 5 the upper hand for you?
5 felt like a good length to me while 0 felt too short for some reason. I also thought that most of the missions in 5 were downright perfect. Not to mention completely battrout insane half the time. It's really hard to top things like destroying massive submarines with doomsday weapons, threading the needle between radar detection ranges, and shooting down a space station with a doomsday laser of it's own. Compared to how balls to the wall 5 was, a lot of the missions in 0 felt a bit underwhelming. But every time you thought 5 couldn't possibly top a mission it would turn around and prove you wrong.
I haven't played a flight simulation game since Super Huey II. I didn't even know they made them anymore.
Some of those quotes are pretty good but... they can't beat the heartfelt, emotionally resonant ones from Pilotwings.
Pic1.JPG
Brings a tear to my eye
Last edited by Bubba; 02-13-2014 at 01:45 PM.
Looks like an instant classic Bubba
Agreed that 5 had a diversity in missions never attained again in any Ace Combat game. It had some epic stuff going! Only a few I didn't like much like the long one where you have to follow Pops for ages without anything really happening.
Games that didn’t make the list
Before we enter the top 3 I thought it would be nice to go over a couple games that I think deserve a mention even though they didn't make it in the top 25.
Please don’t be offended if I say something bold here, I just don’t have the time to go into each game too deep. These opinions are written quick and dirty.
God of War (1 & 2)
Good games, good level design and the story - while simple - is well told and presented. But in the end the combat and whole experience was a little shallow as it often doesn’t go deeper than a lot of gore. Also, quick time events.
Other Ace Combat games
4 is good. Cool story from a unique perspective presented in a very fitting artistic way. I found the missions a little random at times.
5 is good. It brings the most variety in the missions. The backstory left little impression.
6 is good. Dogfights were more challenging. I didn’t really get the support functions as I found it made things a little easy. Out of all Ace Combat games I find this one the least memorable.
Assault Horizon. Project Aces thought mimicing the disaster that was HAWX 2 was a good idea and went all Call of Duty on us with terrorists, AC130’s, a ton of explosions, the shallowest of stories, sneaky Russians and every other cliché in the book. All they had to do was do what they did best and make it profitable by having a small team on it, dedicated to the fans and don’t even bother with trying to reach a bigger audience. But Namco wanted gold and they didn’t get it. The multiplayer was pretty entertaining at least.
A certain shooter game.
Modern Warfare 1 was good and memorable memorable but I don’t own it. I had MW2 and played multiplayer for a fair bit. It was fun while it lasted but nothing too memorable. I'm also really through with the series and tired of the gameplay now.
Limbo
Great game. Don't own it though and only played through it once at a friend. Can't judge without a replay uhu?
Final Fantasy games
(Bare in mind I was late to the party with VI, VII and IX)
VI. Never finished it. I liked what they did with the flow of the game, deaths of characters and all that. But there’s a lot of game design flaws in there too. Sorry!
VII. Was pretty good and had memorable moments, but not very consistent.
IX. I know I know. It’s great, but I can’t help but feel most parts of disc 2 and 3 seem like filler.
XII. Enjoyed it. Had some good vibes here and there. But the battle system is kinda broken and level design is very inconsistent and often empty. Filler!
XIII. Don’t really know what to make of it. Creature design was well done, battle system worked. Level design was kinda poor and the game lacks variety, credible story and magic feeling factor.
Metal Gear Solid 2 & 4.
4 blew me away first time around, but after several playthroughs a few flaws became obvious and I can’t shake em. I really dislike how they let everyone on the “good” crew live. I must’ve mentioned it on several occasions already but Snake should have died, Raiden should have died or at least lost his arms/be in robot mode permanently, Meryl and Johnny should have died defending the door. Now that would be memorable and actually feel like the baddies could do some damage.
2 was good. Not very consistent unfortunately. Read some plans Kojima had for the game and they were even more psychedelic than how the game turned out. The team protested even! I probably would have liked the psychedelic stuff.
Deus Ex (the original).
I’m in the corner of shame right here. Bought the PS2 version a year and a half ago. Struggled with the controls so much as it had clearly been designed for pc. I gave up after 2-3 hours. Sorry!
First entry in the top 3 coming soon!
You know, I have to say that God of War has one of the best stories on the PS2. It sounds crazy at first, but when you play through it, it feels extremely appropriate. There's a definite greek tragedy/myth aspect to it that makes it feel authentic, even with everything else being pretty over the top. That story was very well told, and I think really holds up. It feels true to what you'd expect from greek mythology in a lot of ways and I really dug that. Sadly, I think 2 and 3 really lost their way from that. I don't think either was as well constructed story wise, and eventually descended into being a parody of itself, which is kind of smurfing crazy given how over the top everything else was to begin with.
Instead of having that tragic element, and Kratos being a character who, while completely impossible to like, was someone that by the end you at least understood and felt sorry for, the games really just became a case of, "here's Kratos. He's really angry and he takes it out on the greek gods in a brutal fashion." There was some actual depth there that was lost completely that made the original more than just the violence.
Agreed it indeed felt very appropriate considered the setting. To be fair I haven't played 3 so I don't know how it ends. Same as you, I kinda lost track of what was going on in 2. Judging by the ending of the original I think God of War was intended a one-game-deal at the time. Until post-release popularity kicked in of course.
streme Wheelie
Recognized Member
I missed a couple of entries. Whoops.
I loved Shadow of the Colossus. I didn't finish it but I intend to get the HD remake at some point and delve back in. Something about that world, in spite of its relative emptiness, feels very... alive.
Deus Ex: Human Revolution is a great game -- I'm playing the Director's Cut atm and enjoying the smurf out of the commentary -- but I took issue with the way the endings came about too. I thought it was nice that Adam Jensen (and the player by extension) was forced to make decisions and understand the world and listen to (or ignore) the various viewpoints, but being given the freedom to make whatever choice you want at the end makes it a little more hollow.
The endings themselves were good, but I would've liked to see the choices you make have an effect on what outcome actually takes place, rather than them supposedly helping you develop as a player. Let me try and explain that better. Deus Ex asks you to reflect on what you've seen and heard and done and then pick the best choice; I would've preferred the game to show me what I have subconsciously done so that I can then reflect on whether my position changed. Does that make sense?
Vice City is probably my favourite GTA game too. I liked the GTA III and that will always occupy a special place in my heart but Vice City nailed the package. San Andreas was a smurfing great time but I enjoyed that for the sandbox elements as opposed to the story, which I think is an integral element to a good GTA.
One would think that, but some of the bonus features in the first game went over some ideas they were thinking of using for a sequel. I remember two specifically. They both sounded cooler than what we actually got I'm afraid.
I mean, 2 and 3 were still enjoyable games in that they improved on the gameplay in the first one (I'd say 2 was better than 3 though), but there was more to that first game than just the over the top violence and I think the directors that took over after the first one missed the boat in that regard.
Most likely they figured it would be one game, but left open the possibility that it would be more, like most games that aren't part of an established franchise.
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