@winterfrostarian I'd love to see an artwork where it's just the main stuff of all games which acronyms are "AC" gathered up, just like that one artwork where all protags of famous games hang out at a pool party. Ace Combat, Armored Core, Assassin's Creed, Animal Crossing, Assetto Corsa and perhaps plenty more other games.
At 7:25 "weak missile tracking" is not entirely true. The game has a somewhat hidden 2-stage tracking to incentivize a different, more realistic playstyle. If you bruteforce it like AC2/4/5/Z/7, as in "go behind and spam" it will have weak tracking, but if you play it realistically the missile will have ALMOST GUARANTEED hit regardless of approach angle. It works like this: If you can judge the enemy and lead your nose ahead - at a region where your missile could fly straight and hit the enemy - a "SHOOT" prompt will appear. Firing the missile with this on will make the missile track it like an actual Sidewinder. You know it's successful when you hear the triple beep. This is why you often hear it on ground targets and helicopters, because there's no nose-lead needed. Some faster enemies like the F-14D and SR-71 might require you to aim ahead with them off screen. Yes, you still maintain lock quite a bit off axis. Ace Combat 3 has a similar mechanic, but it depends on optimum engagement range and there's no prompt. This is what pilots and simulation nerds call "the WEZ". Instead of going close in behind the enemy, find a furthermost enemy going at angle, put him on the edge of the HUD and fire 2 missiles in front of him as soon as it comes into lock range.
In reality, you should always predict using "Target leading" in the same way you lead for using guns. If you target lead, you give your missiles the optimal trajectory to be fires. Resulting your missiles to use target leading like it does in real life. You will also be given an audible cue to know you used target leading for your missiles.
good explanation, i don't really understand why someone would have a problem with the way missiles work in AC6. (I've never played the other games) it basically is weak missile tracking, if you're at the wrong angle it will just fly away. but that makes it more fun, and it kinda makes sense why there's no flares, you just dodge. I didn't like HAWX.
Brother, if any ace combat game simulated what an AIM-9X can actually do in terms of off-boresight shots and thrust vectored maneuvering, the game would be above and beyond assault horizon level easy
Also Ace6 proves that it’s Not Always about an Epic Cohesive Story that makes a Good Game , But about Pure gameplay, something that Makes you WANT to go play it again and Again
This was the game that got me back into the series. I played the hell out of it on my 360, completing the game on hard and unlocking the CFA44 was where the true power fantasy of this game came to be. Easily the most overpowered superplane in the entire series, when they brought it back for the AC7 DLC, they nerfed it massively. I believe the next in the series is Assault Horizon, a MASSIVE departure from the games up to now, I'm curious as to what you're going to say for that one.
Yeah and which is why Ace7 Is Massively Nerfed as a Sequel And Sucks SO BAD Partially Because “fans” Overpraise the Hell out of it for some reason When it Clearly Suffers from bad Development. But Whats Worse is that Stupid Devs Pumped our WORTHLESS DLCs Especially since Stupid Modders Already had What the DLCs were half a Year Earlier !?
I can’t believe you reviewed AC6 Fires of twice! Wait you mean this isn’t Armored Core 6 fires of Rubicon? Also Chole, I think you forgot to mention the introduction of the High-G maneuvers.
I'm surprised that you made no mention of the music this time, despite it being a discussion point in most of your previous videos. Perhaps it's my nostalgia speaking, as I greatly enjoyed AC6 back in the day, but I still maintain that "The Liberation of Gracemeria" is one of the all-time greatest Ace Combat tracks.
Did you left out the one big mechanic they added in AC6? Allied Support. The reason why there are so many enemies in each mission was because you are not suppose to take them on all by yourself. It won't take that long to complete if you using Allied Support because it will prompt all of your available ally to attack anything in front of you with an extreme prejudice and this will move support only craft to stick closer to you like the ESM craft. The Allied Cover does the same but anything that were attacking/behind you will get eviscerate by your ally and make them trail behind you for moment. If you use this mechanic right, you can keep using it back to back which is really fun to see your entire force engaging the enemy. It make you feel like you are actually be a part of combat force instead of main protagonist power fantasy. Hell, even both ground, and sea units will help you out if they can. Personally, gameplay wise, this is the best one in the series. The storytelling did get all over the place and somehow the mother and daughter story is the weakest instead of being the main highlight. It got overshadow by the Estovakian officer, and Emmerica misfit tank crew for some reason.
Fun fact, AC6 has both the weakest and the strongest base missile tracking in the series. When you're locked onto an enemy, and the FIRE symbol appears on the bottom of your screen, your missiles will fly faster and have stronger homing to some insane levels. Also, only the ability to change your wingman's plane was removed in Zero, you could still change their weapon, important distinction. Also also, not being able to change Wingman planes in Zero is a non issue. Their AI is the strongest and most useful in the entire series and fits the theme and story of the game. No mention of Strigon squadron? No going further into the Estovakian side of the story? No dancing with the angels? None of the classic lines from Strigon members either? Surprised you didn't even talk about the super plane you fight in Liberation of Gracemeria either.
I’d say AC6 is like the GTA IV or Super Smash Bros Brawl of the franchise. Considering the generation of gaming it was made in (Wii, Xbox 360, PS3,) some of the visuals and how drab it can get along with that oily late 2000s look, and how underrated and unique it was in retrospect.
My first ace combat game was this one. The dramatic music, massive battlefields, excellent graphics that still hold up to this day, and general vibe made me fall in love with the series.
I still get goosebumps about that last mission, Chandelier. As soon as you're able to move, you immediately get spiked from all directions. You're forced to keep the afterburners on full throttle, or you can easily die in the very first 10 seconds. And this is just on normal difficulty. That is among one of the hardest missions in the franchise, by far. The difficulty spike is MASSIVE.
The power fantasy isn't one-hit missile kills. That's just how missiles work -- planes aren't damage sponges IRL. The power fantasy is the sheer number of missiles you magically carry.
AC6 is such an underrated AC title. This has probably been said a lot by fans. Ive played AC since AC4 and I can say that a lot of the systems and mechanics in AC6 are truly ahead of their time. I really wish we can see a return of some of these in AC8
With the operations system in this game, I think Project Aces tried to implement some RTS-like elements to make the events feel bigger. That and the seriously upscales missions really do make it feel like you're in a big war with high stakes. Unfortunately, I think this is what drew turned a lot of people off from AC6 as it takes away the power fantasy that all the previous and succeeding entries offer where you are a singular badass ace pilot who single-handedly turns an entire war around. AC6 makes you feel like just another piece on the board while the other AC games puts you centerstage. That said, I actually kinda liked the operations system and having entire tank battalions and fighter wings at my beck and call. I wished the devs didn't get rid of it like they did and maybe implemented a toned-down version of it in later games (like a limited-use item or something)
I dunno, if anything the power fantasy is even stronger in AC6 just because of how much power you have at your disposal and the insane amount of enemies you're taking down in a matter of seconds. Even if you use allied attack liberally you'll still end up with a majority of the kills, and you always have the option of not using it. At the end of the day you're still pretty much single-handedly turning the war around, gameplay-wise if nothing else.
@@PositronCannonTrue, but it's a very different brand of power fantasy form the rest of the series. It also feels a lot less personal. You feel more like a field commander than an ace pilot which is what most players who play AC games want which is to make you feel that you can win this war on your own. To hammer this home, gameplay-wise, this is the only game in the series which actually puts you in a hopeless situation that you cannot win on your own (during the end of canyon-run mission, a mission type designed specifically to show-off solo skills) and have to hold out until your allied squadrons come rescue you. Again, this isn't a bad thing. I can see the appeal this might have to certain type of players. I myself enjoyed AC6 a lot. Just pointing out that it feels very different from the rest of the series.
@@nong333 have not played ace combat 6 but watched several lets play. and ace combat 6 felt like the first ace combat game where your aliases did something beyond spawn at the start drive to a location and just sit there (ether getting blown up if you did not deal whit the enemies) ace combat 6 they could in theory complete there own objective, like if a armor unit had the objective to capture B thats a airport defended by aircraft, tanks, anti air and artillery (if you completely ignored them they would get wiped out by the artillery) if you flew over the airport took out the artillery and then just honked the enemy air support (so that they could not hit the armor unit) they would knock out the air base tanks and anti air guns on there own and capture the airport. Even thought several tanks was marked as TGT friendly could kill them or at least most.
The bumpers make sense as speed, the triggers as yaw since you can now have pressure apply to hownhard you want your yaw to pull you. Its how it should be
Project Wingman, Also I never played the PlayStation consoles after PS2, and is it TRUE that gaming Industry just Completely did away with Pressure Sensitivity for Controllers !?
@@mrandrossguy9871 its not that.... only Sony produced a semi fully pressure sensitive controller with the DS2 and VERY VERY VERY early sixasis 3 controllers like if you got one of the OG PS3 fat consoles it will come with some DS2 like features since PS3 was still reverse compatible with the PS2 library today most controllers outside of their respective R2 and L2 are fully digital
I did call AC5 Air to Ground Combat. This is Air to Ground Combat 2.0. WIth all the new systems placed in Air to Air Combat was overtuned a bit. With High G turns, lower Missile Tracking, Eletronic Warfare, and stuff definitely made dog fights a bit more entertaining, but on the Flip Side tedious , most mission has 1 dog fight operation, 1 stop the bomber operation, and like 4-5 destroy ground targets, it made very little sense to get into dog fights that you waste to much time doing it other operations fail. I pretty much S ranked the game on the A-10 Warthog, with an occasional drop into the Strike Eagle when things needed some AA power. A major problem I had with this game though was Missiles, the graphics were great for the time, I liked how the Missile smoked so I can track enemy planes by how they shoot in the air, and it was fun to see different colored Smoke trails from the DLCs, But it came at the cost of what I call Smoke Blindness. Because of the graphic upgrade, and how big the missile trail smoke you lose visual distance, most of my deaths came with the line "oh crap I shot a missile". Last thing I miss the DLC for this game. First game to have DLC, and I think it did it well except for one problem. DLC in this game needs a Online Verification, even if the DLC data is in the save files, when the servers went down, they went down with it.. They had some fun DLCs as well, all the jets had Anime Girls skins from IdolM@aster on them, some of them were call backs from other games like, AC5 with a Purple F-14 ace that shot pink missiles, or the Razgriz that had such a great stability that can hover in mid air. Or even the OP Prototype Super Jet. It is just sad that all of that kinda disappeared when the servers went down.
DLC is still usable if you purchased it back when it was available on the store. The online verification step only checks with Xbox Live, which still works fine, and the game never used its own servers anyway. All the DLC I have on 360 still works to this day. That said, I don't know if it's still possible to re-download purchased DLC, it used to be doable through your download history but that was years ago, no idea if that still works. edit: actually even if my console is completely offline the DLC still works, so I have no idea what that verification on startup is about.
@@PositronCannon then I don't know what happened to mine because, I had the Protype, the Idolmasters, the F-14 Razgriz and Zipang. I loved running my Haruka F-22. but once the live services was taken down, I couldn't access any of my dlcs. and I see them in my save files
@@deckire The only case where I can see that happening is if your 360 isn't set as the primary/home console for your account. In that case it's expected that an online connection is needed to verify ownership of any downloaded content on the console (in general, not just for this game). But again, last time I checked (a few months ago) the online check still worked as it only requires an XBL connection, so even if the console wasn't set as primary it should still work. So I have no idea.
@@PositronCannon it is just strange, because every other game I have that has DLC, works fine, even Assault Horizon still let's me play my Shinden II and Kei Nagase F-2 The only thing I could think of is that, AC6 throws you face first into the front shop page for DLC and stuff. It notices that there is no xbox live service for the game anymore and shoots me off to main menu. If I click to check my dlcs it takes me back to the shop page and does the same thing looping me back to main menu. No game in my library does this, so it is the reason for my theory that it needed something server side that no longer exists.
@@deckire Really strange. It gets even stranger when considering something I forgot: I actually unplugged my 360 from the Internet a long time ago due to an issue with logging into XBL with my profile, and even then, I can still use the AC6 DLC no problem. It just skips the "checking DLC" screen after a couple seconds.
If you're liking your time with the Ace Combat series so far you should definitely do a b-b-b-b-bonus review after 7 on Project Wingman, a really neat indie game that modernizes and intensifies the original Ace Combat formula. Nice review!
I absolutely love this game only thing I missed out was the multiplayer. Nothing is better to have your allies and wingman actually being useful. The Ideal of dropping multiple UGB on different targets and to see the cluster bomb at work. I say to this day I'll only play Ace Combat 6 on my Xbox when I have the chance on my Xbox one S.
6 was actually a experiment on the new consoles as aves were gone so long the missions were also longer because technically playing two missions on one but this one alao had some of the best music in the series as well. It also my return to ace as I only had 4 for the longest time until I found 5 and Zero.
Personally, I hated the swap of the bumpers and triggers. I made sure to correct that "mistake" ASAP lol. Also, this game plays AMAZINGLY well when backwards compatible on the Series X
because its a game that was "ported" to series X if you pre-order AC7 it was available to you AC5 plays better though due to it being 100% reworked to work on the PS4
It's a shame that it hasn't been possible to (legally) get the DLC for the game for years. They made 5 "Ace of Aces" missions which are a lot harder than their original iterations in the main game. Missions 1-4 are no longer tutorial mode but are brutal huge fights, and 9 tasks you with taking out an entire sea armada before taking on the flying fortress (and the player aces from previous games). They are long though, which is one of the weak points of 6. I get they wanted to maximize the scale of the missions with the 360 hardware, but sometimes targets are pretty sparce like with the large mountain interception mission.
I remember this game very well actually. The bridge destruction and the air combat over the severed bridge was an image that got burned into my memory. I'm actually looking to play this game again in the future. Too bad it was the worst game to sell, but I really enjoyed it.
Do yourself a favor for when you get to AC7 and turn the BGM up just a hair. Charge Assault is like a "welcome back pilot". Or at least thats how it felt to me after a hiatus between games. Last AC i play before 7 was Zero. I do hope when you get to AC7 you can appreciate the soundtrack in that game.
Holy fudge. Losing wife. Losing kid. Losing ability to walk. Losing your wings as a consequence. My god, I now feel sorry for the guy. Man he is probably on suicide watch at this point.
If I remember correctly, he could still walk but it will take months after the end of the game to do rehab. But indeed, this guy lost everything and only stayed to follow his brother-in-arms, Talisman. He kind of reminds me of Dom from Gears of War which is a big reason for why he's probably my favorite Wingman in the series.
Another awesome review. I watch a lot of gaming reviews and this is a series I never played. Although I know that this is more an arcade game than a flight sim, flying games were hard for me to master. What intrigues me most is the artistic design and lore. A lot of familiar elements to really feel engaging but also the super weapons to make things special. I've also been following your Metal Gear series. Fantastic work.
Seems like my prediction about your opinion of the storytelling techniques (NOT the story itself) was pretty close! The story being told by 4 different concurrent perspectives (Melissa, Colonol Voychek, the uh...tank guys, and Talisman's briefings) was and still is very unique, even if like you said, it sometimes felt a little off. I'm surprised you didn't mention the high-G turns or the addition of checkpoints. The first time I died, I was about 20 minutes into a mission, and I had a minor heart attack because the previous games conditioned me into expecting to need to start from the beginning. You probably caught it, but just in case: Chandelier was located in the Razgriz Straits, where Wardog destroyed Hrimfaxi. They mention it in passing in the mission briefing, and its super easy to miss. Side note: Ghost Eye is my favorite AWACS in the series. It helps that he's voiced by DC Douglas (Albert Wesker, Legion in Mass Effect, Grimoire Noir in NieR and Pod 042 in NieR:Automata, and most recently G1 Michigan in the other AC6)
That's some really cool info on DC Douglas! I didn't know the actors, but by hearing the voices, I was thinking Grimoire Noir's actor played V2 Snail. I wouldn't have thought he played G1 Michigan.
Ahh! That's who I was thinking of! Grimoire/Grimoire. It's been a while since I played NieR. Thanks for the clear up. Still cool info. @@flyingtoastr2303
Yes! You noticed my mistake. Grimoire/Grimoire. It's been a while since I played NieR. Snail and Weiss are so alike! I'd like to see how they'd get along together. I've been doing a replay of AC6:FoL, and have to see pay close attention to the briefing for Chandelier this time. You've provided a lot of cool info!@@flyingtoastr2303
I got Ac6 in 2008 as i was lucky of having an Xbox 360 at time. I already had played the 3 PS2 games, and damn, this game is very good and mainly because of how much i played this game in my life.
This is my favorite AC game from a gameplay standpoint. No game, including AC7, has quite replicated the feeling of diving into battle. It's massive in scale and by far the most immersive. I guess you could complain about mission variety but I personally thought it was a worthwhile trade off. Especially with the operations system. As for the game being 15 missions long, that's a weird complaint considering you also complained about the mission length. I thought it was the perfect amount considering the scale of its design. If you're gonna have these types of missions, it only makes sense to have less of them. Personally, I always found AC5 exhausting to play through because of how long it is. 28 missions is far too much, unless you're gonna have branching paths like AC3. 15-20 missions is generally the sweet spot for Ace Combat.
The complaint about the smaller number of HUGE missions is ridiculous. It's like the old joke about cutting a pizza into four slices because you can't finish eight.
Enjoyable review to watch. Seeing that you mentioned that other AC6(FoR) makes me want to check out your Armored Core vids now. I do got a few points I want to make regarding this review. -4:14/12:00. You're playing on Easy or Normal difficulty. You would run through a bit more ammo if you play on harder difficulties. Do you really want to run out of ammo? I would think most people would think ammo shortages make the game boring. Just because you have ammo doesn't prevent a need to swap SP weapons, so I still want to land and rearm. -6:50 Plane stats were displayed in a hexagon chart in AC0 too. I like stats displayed that way as you understand the differences instantly. With AC7's large plane variety and hard to distinguish bars, I wish AC7 had numbers. -12:50 Yeah, the missions can be long. They are 30min long if you're aiming for an S-rank without using the CFA-44, otherwise you can speedrun the objectives. -15:35 WMDs are a nice get out of jail free card! Yes you get out fast, but they needed something to emphasize the significance of Garuda Team. I'm not arguing about the writing. -15:55 Destroying the Aigaion is my favorite mission in the franchise. You've got comfortable scenery, and then the Estovakian aerial fleet. The mission provides an awesome furball to be involved in. -This point isn't related to your review, but a comment I've seen said by many people from other places criticizing. I don't understand what people mean when they say operations start when you accidentally kill an enemy of that operation. I can avoid killing enemies of certain operations, but ops are still ongoing even without my accidental intervention. You can fail missions that you were no where near.
Ace Combat 6 was my introduction to the Ace Combat series and was easily my most played. Also, your retrospective is spot on IMO. 7:56 into the vid tho? foreshadowing lol
Years ago, I was trying to determine whether I would buy a 360, or a PS3. I was talking with my brother about it while going down the road one night, and I decided to go with the PS3 since I loved the Ace Combat series on PS2. He informed me that 6 had been announced as a 360 exclusive. Well, I got a 360, and the bundle with the flightstick. In short: I bought a 360 just for Ace Combat 6.
one missile to bring down a plane actually seems more realistic? I don't know, that's what hollywood had told me. Although I guess if enemies aren't also dodging those missiles, since I have also heard that missiles not hitting their targets is also very realistic.
I like Ace Combat 6 purely because it’s one of the Ace Combat games where you can just ignore the story and still have a fun time with the open gameplay
Ace Combat 5 had you fly the starter aircraft for multiple missions due to you not being the leader of Wardog Squadron yet. They did that solely cause once Bartlett is shot down and Nagase ultimately hands control over to Blaze, that is when you are leader and get to choose your squads planes. It would have been weird if they let you choose your squads planes when you start Ace Combat 5 as basically a rookie pilot and don't get to call the shots.
I find it odd that they would site extra power over the PS3 (that AC6 doesn't really use or at least doesn't need to) as reason for being 360 exclusive given that the series has never been on the most powerful console prior. I think being on the 360 was great but it shouldn't have been done by alienating the existing Playstation audience. On that note the holy trinity should've been ported to Gamecube and Xbox
15:40 having a suspension just for show is nice characterization of the people you work for IMO, its funny and dark. It happens a ton IRL where someone gets suspended for public PR then quietly unsuspended
@@notcoleHah I didn't grow up playing japanese games or watching media so honestly especially early 2000's media, I am not used to how sophisticated and dark the satire can be, like spec ops the line was huge here but that level of satire and dark twists are all over in neat and very poltically and historically interesting ways getting into early 00s stuff now If you'll indulge an early 2000s anime recomendation, that whole suspended for show/coporate satire reminds me of Black Lagoon, it opens with some really funny satire of coporate life and culture in japan, but because it is an international cast the dub is actually the way to go, super well done and regarded as better even. Its set in 1995 so it has some post cold war ace combat vibes but based on a mercenary torpedo boat so I would love an ace combat style boat game if you know of any btw. The plot and the turf wars between intelligence agencies (even within same country) and PMC's gives it ace combat naval edition vibes
Love this game. Totally fair critique, great video 👍. One of my favorite things to do in this game is use the SU-33s RCLs to take out the Aigaion and it's fleet. It destroys them so quickly, it great lol
Having played through AC6 again on Ace it is easily the hardest game in the series bar none but it's alot of fun to play. I will say I'm surprised you didn't mention High-G turns (since it's the biggest gameplay change to the series) or the Pasternak fight. Granted I don't want to think about Pasternak either, he could beat all of the previous Ace Squads/Pilots in the series in 1 vs all of them in a fight without breaking a sweat & still have missiles leftover for a 1v8 against the previous protagonists. Easily the most difficult/annoying Ace fight in the series & I never want to see anyone other then the protagonist using his plane again lol.
AC6 definitely deserves more respect ( especially with what comes after. AA isn’t a bad game, but it was definitely a title of its time ). I’m hoping some of the unique systems get revisited for AC8
I think my biggest issue is how little pure dogfigting there is. The missions that do have only aircraft dont give you the time to do it or you are really being encouraged to use the cover support to completely wipe out the horde tailing you especially with the cobras and insane acceleration things like the drones have.
You guys do realize that you can swap out throttle and yaw between trigger button and bumper button in option right..? All in all, Aigaion mission with Su33 + RCL is a joke... XD
Glad you are enjoying the series, the thing with 4-6, and especially 6, is that you lose a lot of the more difficult nuances on lower difficulty like normal settings. I noticed this in your 5 video as well, but once you get off normal damage is reduced and things like no more infinite ammo for the gun come into play in the game. Plus, it certainly seems like the ai is much better at higher difficulty
The hidden gem in the series, hidden because of Xbox exclusivity The allies being ACTUALLY useful is a great twist even though the series has been like "you are an OP pilot, changing the tide of battle alone" I wish they'd give us any port outside of Xbox but alas, the license fee issue on aircraft
I'm amazed to see an 20+ minue, mildly critical review of Ace Combat 6 that doesn't mention that one line. You know, that line. The one they keep saying. The one you are absolutely sick of by the end of the game. THAT line.
I rarely comment on TH-cam, because most of the time it seems pointless, but this video has a surprisingly competent discussion going. I don't know whether Ace Combat fans are this mature or your channel's audience in general, but I feel compelled to share my thoughts as well. (Fair warning: it will be long and sometimes might be straight up rambling.) Because of the title, I was affraid you're going to be too tough on one of my favorite games, but I think you made fair points. (Even if I don't necessarily agree with each.) This was my first Ace Combat, after all. Due to this I'm admittedly a little biased, but looking at it objectively I still think that perhaps it's the most unique entry in the series as a whole. It has the largest scope, unmatched by any other to date (including AC7), that makes you feel like part of a big army. I really loved the idea of the chosable operations, they give exceptional longevity to a game which - by default - was made with multiple playthroughs in mind. (I also liked the Ace Styles and the small differences they made in Zero for the same reason.) Because of this, I don't think 15 missions are too few or that they overstay their welcome. Dividing them into multiple smaller parts and addig frequent checkpoints makes completing them not too troublesome, on the other hand there are many enemies to shoot at and a permissive time limit to allow such indulgence, but if you concentrate only on mission critical targets, the entire campaign is doable in under 2 hours and 15 minutes. (There's even a medal for it.) The Allied Support System and landing on the battlefield are two things I desperately miss from previous and subsequent episodes alike. The High-G turn and "shoot" mechanic (explained in detail by another commenter, in short: if you aim in the approximate direction a plane is headed - denoted by the "shoot" message in the middle of the screen, hence my name for it - rather than directly at it, your missile will try to intercept them instead of following in their trails, yielding a higher chance of a hit) are also worthy additions. As for its relatively low sales figures, I think making it an Xbox 360 exclusive did it no good in light of its heritage on PlayStation consoles and the fact that it never had such mainstream appeal as, for example, the Final Fantasy series. (Although I'm happy they did, because otherwise I might never have gotten in touch with Ace Combat.) It was part of Microsoft's overall strategy in trying (and failing) to gain a stronger foothold in Japan by making deals to release previously exclusive, big and popular japanese franchises also (or only) on Xbox. It just didn't work out in the end, neither for Microsoft nor for Ace Combat 6.
6:54 oh i wholeheartedly disagree simply put, using graph to display numbers is a much better way to see the changes in stats between selections Yeah sure, numbers are not exactly difficult to read or anything, But with a graph ....you can do it without thinking about it, (it also helps people who struggle with numbers so much more)
Damn, I just finished watching and now I have to wait for another new vid again. Maybe I'll just rewatch all of these again to wait it out. In all seriousness, Thanks a tone for these great vids. I certainly agree that AC6 is still a great AC game but can get a bit long in the tooth with long play throughs. Best in just two or three missions a session. It could also benefit greatly from a more robust checkpoint system too so if you die your not stuck doing the entire mission again.
I've only played the first mission and wondered why some of these features aren't in 7. My problem is that the in engine cutscenes have doubled voice audio for whatever reson an i cant tell if the problem is my disc or the console.
Regarding mission length, the missions are absolutely not made to be that long, the time limits in the series have always been inflated as hell and essentially a non-issue so they should not be taken as proof of anything. If you're taking 30-40 minutes to beat the average mission in AC6 you're doing something wrong, whether it's not utilizing the mechanics and weapons properly (throughout the video I see a complete disregard for the SHOOT mechanic, which is key to using standard missiles properly in this game and turns them from the worst homing to the best by far), and/or trying to wipe out absolutely everything in the map, which is not necessary as even S ranks are quite lenient aside from one single exception. For reference, a regular (not speedrun, and in fact clearing up most enemies in each operation I choose) run of the longer missions in the game is 15-20 minutes for me, which is similar to the longest missions in AC04, 5 or 7. Except, unlike most of those, these can also be speedrun. At the end of the day AC6's missions are basically however long you want them to be, since there are no fixed timer missions (unlike AC04's or AC7's score attacks for example) and you can always just go for the TGTs whenever you want to get things done. Odds are if you destroyed even half of the optional targets in an operation you'll get S rank on it anyway. The part about lacking mission variety is true, but on the flipside it also means all the missions focus on straight-up core gameplay rather than gimmicks with little to no replayability, a very welcome change of direction after AC5 for many of us (ACZ had already corrected course but it was a smaller game and all). But it also means if you're not a big fan of (or aren't very good at) said core gameplay you're not gonna get that much out of it. edit: also the bit about how they changed back to stat charts instead of numbers is funny when you know how BS most of those stats are, *especially* in AC5. Having numbers actually only makes the BS more obvious.
I don't remember ever running out of time in the entire series. I suspect it's more of a failsafe in case you softlock the mission somehow (even tho you could just pause and reset or slam into the ground)
the first time i played ace combat in ps2 i was so amazed and scared at the same time.... especially the lazer mission and the weird stuff coming from the satellites , bro i was so scared of these...
As someone who has finished the ps1 trilogy, ps2 trilogy, both psp games, ps3 assault horizon, infinity and ac7, it sucks so much that this was a 360 exclusive. Air combat was among the first 3 games i have gotten for the ps1.
@@zethrenbeltran4071 as someone who never owned PS1 or PS2 Im glad it came to Xbox 360 though I always found it odd they never bothered to port it to PlayStation even later on, but I guess it has to do with licensing (planes/their manufacturers), kind of like with racing games. But ye if the series had remained on PlayStation only I doubt it would have never grapped my attention but on Xbox side there wasnt anything like this (maybe Crimson Skies on original Xbox) atleast not until Ubisoft made their HAWX games, so it was great to see so much variety on those earlier years of Xbox 360 and I think its also a testament how incredibly well Microsoft was able to get attention of Japanese developers by launching 360 earlier than PS3, giving developers new hardware earlier to build their next game on + as well all know PS3 was quite bit harder console to built games on for 3rd party developers atleast Too bad Microsoft dropped the ball after 360, they were doing so well back then and were pulling from all the right strings to get Xbox 360 as popular as it was and get new franchise to it especially from Japanese devs which original Xbox had seriously lacked
I was trying to mod my 360 and messed that up…. Badly. AC6 was a fun AC game with great soundtrack One of my favorite feature was definitely the operations, which gives a freedom of choice on how to approach things and the ability to command ground units. I really did feel like my actions were contributing to shifting the battlefield, more than the previous games. There were just a lot more options compared to previous. I did like that one mission in the desert canyons where you do a trench run through the canyon tunnels. And the agaion (???) was pretty fun to fight, albeit a bit too easy with bombs. Also idolm@ster to meme on the estovakians but, The biggest flaw of this game is that this should not have been an Xbox exclusive.
It takes you 30 minutes to complete a mission my average mission time on that ace combat 6 is around 15 minutes some are way shorter, like the second mission i can get it done within 4 minutes, the 3 mission around 7 minutes, mission 4 around 11 minutes, mission 5 around 10 minutes, mission 6 around 10 minutes, mission 7 around 13 minutes, mission 8 around 5 minutes, mission 9 around 8 minutes, misson 10 around 12 minutes, mission 11 around 9 minutes, mission 12 around 8 minutes, mission 13 around 26 minutes, mission 14 around 13 minutes, mission 15 around 19 minutes. Thats for my S rank on ace difficulty these mission can be done way faster. The missle tracking I will agree it is weak but if you shot your Basic MSL at the right time your missiles almost never miss, your missles are not always one shot at least your basic missiles aren't especially a higher difficulties. But overall a good review
I need to keep in mind that you actually play the series through released date order and not chronological order... Because man, i can't wait to see your opinion about AC7
Ok so first of all: yeah, ace 6 is underrated, I’d agree. But the main thing I found weird was that you got it off ebay for 30$. As someone who also got a pre-owned copy to play the game, I can say confidently that ace6 normally goes for like 10$, at least pre-owned from game stop. Just found that a bit weird, overall great video, now you’ve got the long haul ahead of you
Well they said they got a like near pristine copy and not just like a caseless disk. I know I try to get games close to store quality when I am hunting for them.
I think Zero is the best one, but 6 has a very special place in my heart as it and Assault Horizon were my first Ace Combat games. I think the AC6 demo might have been my very first experience with AC
Honestly, i loved this game. it was fun, i really liked the parts where you were breaking a siege, or sieging a fortified position yourself. the cutscenes/writing and rough translations could be a bit annoying. I liked the objective system, but i wish that you could choose to continue the first half of the missions after you complete the prerequires number of objectives (especially mission 5, 6, 10, and 13). for me, the increased missile damage makes the game feel more realistic, but the increased gun damage is *less* realistic. and i know, Ace Combat isn't exactly known for realism.
Yeah they would have been smarter to release Ace Combat 6 on both platforms. Making it multiplatform would make sense but making it 360 exclusive and thus cutting off access to the franchise's established fanbase was foolish. I played this at a Game exchange a few times and it is IMO better the Assault Horizon. I always hoped this would get a later platform re-release like Ace Combat 2 did when it got released on #DS as Ace Combat Legends but no such luck.
Bruh some planes in this game have 800 as a DLC The earlier Ace combats had decent arcadey ammo like 50 or even 30 missiles for how many targets there are duh
If you want more Ace Combat style games to review then I recommend checking out Raiders Sphere 4th. It's definitely not as good as any of the Ace Combat games, but it's worth a look at least.
Gameplay wise, AC6 was very similar to AC4. You could take your time through large ground battles, and resupply. It felt like you were in a large operation providing CAS. AC5, Zero, and AC7 were to fast paced and sweaty imo.
I tried to get invested into the story before, but I honestly didn't like it. I was fresh off of Ace Combat 5 when I took a look at Ace Combat 6, and I was like "Gameplay and story SEGREGATION is at play, because it feels like the cutscenes were just doing their own thing while you the player were just fighting the fight, and there was no relevance. Especially since they game tried to tie their relevance towards the end in a weak way" for the longest time and I still feel this way :(
I only realised today that this was backwards compatible with Series X, so I've just found a copy on eBay for £7.10 shipped. Looking forward to trying it out, as I have really enjoyed AC7 so far.
Great video, this is the last AC game that i played, last year I bought a xbox 360. For me, it is a fine game with cringy dialogue in the cinematics, im glad that you ejoyed the game more than i did
This was played on an Xbox One! I tried to get it working on emulator but it's just too buggy even if you download the Xenia branch that's been modified to run it better 😭
This was played on an Xbox One using the backwards compatibility feature! (hence the 1080p footage) I tried to dump the copy and get it working on an emulator like usual for even cleaner footage, but there are just too many bugs even when using the version of Xenia made specifically for AC6.
I still cant stop thinking about how similar ace combat 6's name to armored core 6's
And also published under bamco.
@@marksayosmejia7251makes me think fires of Rubicon is a reference
@@StrayedGuy Well, you know what they say:
Ace Combat is just Armored Core with jets. Armored Core is just Ace Combat with mechs.
@winterfrostarian That's a good question.
@winterfrostarian I'd love to see an artwork where it's just the main stuff of all games which acronyms are "AC" gathered up, just like that one artwork where all protags of famous games hang out at a pool party.
Ace Combat, Armored Core, Assassin's Creed, Animal Crossing, Assetto Corsa and perhaps plenty more other games.
At 7:25 "weak missile tracking" is not entirely true. The game has a somewhat hidden 2-stage tracking to incentivize a different, more realistic playstyle. If you bruteforce it like AC2/4/5/Z/7, as in "go behind and spam" it will have weak tracking, but if you play it realistically the missile will have ALMOST GUARANTEED hit regardless of approach angle. It works like this:
If you can judge the enemy and lead your nose ahead - at a region where your missile could fly straight and hit the enemy - a "SHOOT" prompt will appear. Firing the missile with this on will make the missile track it like an actual Sidewinder. You know it's successful when you hear the triple beep. This is why you often hear it on ground targets and helicopters, because there's no nose-lead needed.
Some faster enemies like the F-14D and SR-71 might require you to aim ahead with them off screen. Yes, you still maintain lock quite a bit off axis.
Ace Combat 3 has a similar mechanic, but it depends on optimum engagement range and there's no prompt. This is what pilots and simulation nerds call "the WEZ". Instead of going close in behind the enemy, find a furthermost enemy going at angle, put him on the edge of the HUD and fire 2 missiles in front of him as soon as it comes into lock range.
Right
The [SHOOT] made the Missiles
INTERCEPT
Instead of CHASE
Underrated point and one reason I love 6 so much. It just adds to the immersion as well
In reality, you should always predict using "Target leading" in the same way you lead for using guns.
If you target lead, you give your missiles the optimal trajectory to be fires.
Resulting your missiles to use target leading like it does in real life.
You will also be given an audible cue to know you used target leading for your missiles.
good explanation, i don't really understand why someone would have a problem with the way missiles work in AC6. (I've never played the other games) it basically is weak missile tracking, if you're at the wrong angle it will just fly away. but that makes it more fun, and it kinda makes sense why there's no flares, you just dodge. I didn't like HAWX.
Brother, if any ace combat game simulated what an AIM-9X can actually do in terms of off-boresight shots and thrust vectored maneuvering, the game would be above and beyond assault horizon level easy
Also Ace6 proves that it’s Not Always about an Epic Cohesive Story that makes a Good Game ,
But about Pure gameplay, something that Makes you WANT to go play it again and Again
Couldn’t agree more, 6 shines for that, and I can even find myself enjoying the story because the rest is so good
You're one-shoting planes with a standard missile because you're playing on NORMAL. Hard Mode onwards you still need 2
Or more
This was the game that got me back into the series. I played the hell out of it on my 360, completing the game on hard and unlocking the CFA44 was where the true power fantasy of this game came to be. Easily the most overpowered superplane in the entire series, when they brought it back for the AC7 DLC, they nerfed it massively. I believe the next in the series is Assault Horizon, a MASSIVE departure from the games up to now, I'm curious as to what you're going to say for that one.
Yeah and which is why Ace7 Is Massively Nerfed as a Sequel
And Sucks SO BAD Partially Because “fans” Overpraise the Hell out of it for some reason When it Clearly Suffers from bad Development.
But Whats Worse is that Stupid Devs Pumped our WORTHLESS DLCs Especially since Stupid Modders Already had What the DLCs were half a Year Earlier !?
I can’t believe you reviewed AC6 Fires of twice!
Wait you mean this isn’t Armored Core 6 fires of Rubicon?
Also Chole, I think you forgot to mention the introduction of the High-G maneuvers.
I'm surprised that you made no mention of the music this time, despite it being a discussion point in most of your previous videos. Perhaps it's my nostalgia speaking, as I greatly enjoyed AC6 back in the day, but I still maintain that "The Liberation of Gracemeria" is one of the all-time greatest Ace Combat tracks.
Ace6 ost was pretty Different on the Softer Orchestrated Side
I learned to Appreciate it though compared to how Bombastic the PS2 ost’s were
Chandelier gave me chills when I first heard it.
Did you left out the one big mechanic they added in AC6? Allied Support. The reason why there are so many enemies in each mission was because you are not suppose to take them on all by yourself. It won't take that long to complete if you using Allied Support because it will prompt all of your available ally to attack anything in front of you with an extreme prejudice and this will move support only craft to stick closer to you like the ESM craft. The Allied Cover does the same but anything that were attacking/behind you will get eviscerate by your ally and make them trail behind you for moment. If you use this mechanic right, you can keep using it back to back which is really fun to see your entire force engaging the enemy. It make you feel like you are actually be a part of combat force instead of main protagonist power fantasy. Hell, even both ground, and sea units will help you out if they can.
Personally, gameplay wise, this is the best one in the series. The storytelling did get all over the place and somehow the mother and daughter story is the weakest instead of being the main highlight. It got overshadow by the Estovakian officer, and Emmerica misfit tank crew for some reason.
He didn’t tho
The wrong AC 6 Fires of.... cut away was amazing
Fun fact, AC6 has both the weakest and the strongest base missile tracking in the series. When you're locked onto an enemy, and the FIRE symbol appears on the bottom of your screen, your missiles will fly faster and have stronger homing to some insane levels.
Also, only the ability to change your wingman's plane was removed in Zero, you could still change their weapon, important distinction.
Also also, not being able to change Wingman planes in Zero is a non issue. Their AI is the strongest and most useful in the entire series and fits the theme and story of the game.
No mention of Strigon squadron? No going further into the Estovakian side of the story? No dancing with the angels? None of the classic lines from Strigon members either? Surprised you didn't even talk about the super plane you fight in Liberation of Gracemeria either.
Imagine trigger seeing garuda being suspended for 30 seconds whiles he was locked away by something he did not do
True, but technically you could easily argue that Garuda had every right to fight back they were ambushed and strigon team was only going after them
I’d say AC6 is like the GTA IV or Super Smash Bros Brawl of the franchise. Considering the generation of gaming it was made in (Wii, Xbox 360, PS3,) some of the visuals and how drab it can get along with that oily late 2000s look, and how underrated and unique it was in retrospect.
Yeah especially the Visuals Were ARE Still Advanced Even better than DCS as it took the Advantage of PHOTOREALISM and did it Right !
8:00 - **Laughs in Unexpected Visitor**
My first ace combat game was this one. The dramatic music, massive battlefields, excellent graphics that still hold up to this day, and general vibe made me fall in love with the series.
I still get goosebumps about that last mission, Chandelier. As soon as you're able to move, you immediately get spiked from all directions. You're forced to keep the afterburners on full throttle, or you can easily die in the very first 10 seconds. And this is just on normal difficulty. That is among one of the hardest missions in the franchise, by far. The difficulty spike is MASSIVE.
The power fantasy isn't one-hit missile kills. That's just how missiles work -- planes aren't damage sponges IRL. The power fantasy is the sheer number of missiles you magically carry.
ADMMs are basically Itano's wet dream turned semi-real
The biggest sin of this game was how they criminally nerfed the F16.
AC6 is such an underrated AC title. This has probably been said a lot by fans. Ive played AC since AC4 and I can say that a lot of the systems and mechanics in AC6 are truly ahead of their time. I really wish we can see a return of some of these in AC8
You and me both !
With the operations system in this game, I think Project Aces tried to implement some RTS-like elements to make the events feel bigger. That and the seriously upscales missions really do make it feel like you're in a big war with high stakes. Unfortunately, I think this is what drew turned a lot of people off from AC6 as it takes away the power fantasy that all the previous and succeeding entries offer where you are a singular badass ace pilot who single-handedly turns an entire war around. AC6 makes you feel like just another piece on the board while the other AC games puts you centerstage.
That said, I actually kinda liked the operations system and having entire tank battalions and fighter wings at my beck and call. I wished the devs didn't get rid of it like they did and maybe implemented a toned-down version of it in later games (like a limited-use item or something)
I dunno, if anything the power fantasy is even stronger in AC6 just because of how much power you have at your disposal and the insane amount of enemies you're taking down in a matter of seconds. Even if you use allied attack liberally you'll still end up with a majority of the kills, and you always have the option of not using it. At the end of the day you're still pretty much single-handedly turning the war around, gameplay-wise if nothing else.
@@PositronCannonTrue, but it's a very different brand of power fantasy form the rest of the series. It also feels a lot less personal. You feel more like a field commander than an ace pilot which is what most players who play AC games want which is to make you feel that you can win this war on your own. To hammer this home, gameplay-wise, this is the only game in the series which actually puts you in a hopeless situation that you cannot win on your own (during the end of canyon-run mission, a mission type designed specifically to show-off solo skills) and have to hold out until your allied squadrons come rescue you.
Again, this isn't a bad thing. I can see the appeal this might have to certain type of players. I myself enjoyed AC6 a lot. Just pointing out that it feels very different from the rest of the series.
@@nong333 have not played ace combat 6 but watched several lets play.
and ace combat 6 felt like the first ace combat game where your aliases did something beyond spawn at the start drive to a location and just sit there (ether getting blown up if you did not deal whit the enemies) ace combat 6 they could in theory complete there own objective, like if a armor unit had the objective to capture B thats a airport defended by aircraft, tanks, anti air and artillery (if you completely ignored them they would get wiped out by the artillery) if you flew over the airport took out the artillery and then just honked the enemy air support (so that they could not hit the armor unit) they would knock out the air base tanks and anti air guns on there own and capture the airport.
Even thought several tanks was marked as TGT friendly could kill them or at least most.
There are people that genuinely got turned away by having allies be useful for once and not just cheerleaders in military aircrafts??
The bumpers make sense as speed, the triggers as yaw since you can now have pressure apply to hownhard you want your yaw to pull you. Its how it should be
Project Wingman,
Also I never played the PlayStation consoles after PS2, and is it TRUE that gaming Industry just Completely did away with Pressure Sensitivity for Controllers !?
@@mrandrossguy9871 its not that.... only Sony produced a semi fully pressure sensitive controller with the DS2 and VERY VERY VERY early sixasis 3 controllers like if you got one of the OG PS3 fat consoles it will come with some DS2 like features since PS3 was still reverse compatible with the PS2 library
today most controllers outside of their respective R2 and L2 are fully digital
I did call AC5 Air to Ground Combat. This is Air to Ground Combat 2.0. WIth all the new systems placed in Air to Air Combat was overtuned a bit. With High G turns, lower Missile Tracking, Eletronic Warfare, and stuff definitely made dog fights a bit more entertaining, but on the Flip Side tedious , most mission has 1 dog fight operation, 1 stop the bomber operation, and like 4-5 destroy ground targets, it made very little sense to get into dog fights that you waste to much time doing it other operations fail. I pretty much S ranked the game on the A-10 Warthog, with an occasional drop into the Strike Eagle when things needed some AA power.
A major problem I had with this game though was Missiles, the graphics were great for the time, I liked how the Missile smoked so I can track enemy planes by how they shoot in the air, and it was fun to see different colored Smoke trails from the DLCs, But it came at the cost of what I call Smoke Blindness. Because of the graphic upgrade, and how big the missile trail smoke you lose visual distance, most of my deaths came with the line "oh crap I shot a missile".
Last thing I miss the DLC for this game. First game to have DLC, and I think it did it well except for one problem. DLC in this game needs a Online Verification, even if the DLC data is in the save files, when the servers went down, they went down with it.. They had some fun DLCs as well, all the jets had Anime Girls skins from IdolM@aster on them, some of them were call backs from other games like, AC5 with a Purple F-14 ace that shot pink missiles, or the Razgriz that had such a great stability that can hover in mid air. Or even the OP Prototype Super Jet. It is just sad that all of that kinda disappeared when the servers went down.
DLC is still usable if you purchased it back when it was available on the store. The online verification step only checks with Xbox Live, which still works fine, and the game never used its own servers anyway. All the DLC I have on 360 still works to this day. That said, I don't know if it's still possible to re-download purchased DLC, it used to be doable through your download history but that was years ago, no idea if that still works.
edit: actually even if my console is completely offline the DLC still works, so I have no idea what that verification on startup is about.
@@PositronCannon then I don't know what happened to mine because, I had the Protype, the Idolmasters, the F-14 Razgriz and Zipang. I loved running my Haruka F-22.
but once the live services was taken down, I couldn't access any of my dlcs. and I see them in my save files
@@deckire The only case where I can see that happening is if your 360 isn't set as the primary/home console for your account. In that case it's expected that an online connection is needed to verify ownership of any downloaded content on the console (in general, not just for this game). But again, last time I checked (a few months ago) the online check still worked as it only requires an XBL connection, so even if the console wasn't set as primary it should still work. So I have no idea.
@@PositronCannon it is just strange, because every other game I have that has DLC, works fine, even Assault Horizon still let's me play my Shinden II and Kei Nagase F-2
The only thing I could think of is that, AC6 throws you face first into the front shop page for DLC and stuff. It notices that there is no xbox live service for the game anymore and shoots me off to main menu. If I click to check my dlcs it takes me back to the shop page and does the same thing looping me back to main menu.
No game in my library does this, so it is the reason for my theory that it needed something server side that no longer exists.
@@deckire Really strange. It gets even stranger when considering something I forgot: I actually unplugged my 360 from the Internet a long time ago due to an issue with logging into XBL with my profile, and even then, I can still use the AC6 DLC no problem. It just skips the "checking DLC" screen after a couple seconds.
If you're liking your time with the Ace Combat series so far you should definitely do a b-b-b-b-bonus review after 7 on Project Wingman, a really neat indie game that modernizes and intensifies the original Ace Combat formula.
Nice review!
Man i wish these games would be ported to PC
PS3 and 360 emulation is coming along, so eventually they should be emulateable
@@Jonen560ti it already is
@@Thatswildpimp360 still can't be emulated on PC, only PS3.
I absolutely love this game only thing I missed out was the multiplayer. Nothing is better to have your allies and wingman actually being useful. The Ideal of dropping multiple UGB on different targets and to see the cluster bomb at work. I say to this day I'll only play Ace Combat 6 on my Xbox when I have the chance on my Xbox one S.
6 was actually a experiment on the new consoles as aves were gone so long the missions were also longer because technically playing two missions on one but this one alao had some of the best music in the series as well.
It also my return to ace as I only had 4 for the longest time until I found 5 and Zero.
Huh..
Well then they experimented Again with Assault Horizon And Again With iNfinity Then AGAIN with 7 🤷♂️
Personally, I hated the swap of the bumpers and triggers. I made sure to correct that "mistake" ASAP lol.
Also, this game plays AMAZINGLY well when backwards compatible on the Series X
because its a game that was "ported" to series X if you pre-order AC7 it was available to you AC5 plays better though due to it being 100% reworked to work on the PS4
It's a shame that it hasn't been possible to (legally) get the DLC for the game for years. They made 5 "Ace of Aces" missions which are a lot harder than their original iterations in the main game. Missions 1-4 are no longer tutorial mode but are brutal huge fights, and 9 tasks you with taking out an entire sea armada before taking on the flying fortress (and the player aces from previous games). They are long though, which is one of the weak points of 6. I get they wanted to maximize the scale of the missions with the 360 hardware, but sometimes targets are pretty sparce like with the large mountain interception mission.
I remember this game very well actually. The bridge destruction and the air combat over the severed bridge was an image that got burned into my memory. I'm actually looking to play this game again in the future. Too bad it was the worst game to sell, but I really enjoyed it.
Do yourself a favor for when you get to AC7 and turn the BGM up just a hair.
Charge Assault is like a "welcome back pilot". Or at least thats how it felt to me after a hiatus between games. Last AC i play before 7 was Zero.
I do hope when you get to AC7 you can appreciate the soundtrack in that game.
Ok, what the heck? You can choose your landings in Ace Combat 6? That’s not even fair! Lol
Holy fudge.
Losing wife.
Losing kid.
Losing ability to walk.
Losing your wings as a consequence.
My god, I now feel sorry for the guy.
Man he is probably on suicide watch at this point.
If I remember correctly, he could still walk but it will take months after the end of the game to do rehab. But indeed, this guy lost everything and only stayed to follow his brother-in-arms, Talisman. He kind of reminds me of Dom from Gears of War which is a big reason for why he's probably my favorite Wingman in the series.
Another awesome review. I watch a lot of gaming reviews and this is a series I never played. Although I know that this is more an arcade game than a flight sim, flying games were hard for me to master. What intrigues me most is the artistic design and lore. A lot of familiar elements to really feel engaging but also the super weapons to make things special. I've also been following your Metal Gear series. Fantastic work.
Seems like my prediction about your opinion of the storytelling techniques (NOT the story itself) was pretty close! The story being told by 4 different concurrent perspectives (Melissa, Colonol Voychek, the uh...tank guys, and Talisman's briefings) was and still is very unique, even if like you said, it sometimes felt a little off.
I'm surprised you didn't mention the high-G turns or the addition of checkpoints. The first time I died, I was about 20 minutes into a mission, and I had a minor heart attack because the previous games conditioned me into expecting to need to start from the beginning.
You probably caught it, but just in case: Chandelier was located in the Razgriz Straits, where Wardog destroyed Hrimfaxi. They mention it in passing in the mission briefing, and its super easy to miss.
Side note: Ghost Eye is my favorite AWACS in the series. It helps that he's voiced by DC Douglas (Albert Wesker, Legion in Mass Effect, Grimoire Noir in NieR and Pod 042 in NieR:Automata, and most recently G1 Michigan in the other AC6)
That's some really cool info on DC Douglas! I didn't know the actors, but by hearing the voices, I was thinking Grimoire Noir's actor played V2 Snail. I wouldn't have thought he played G1 Michigan.
@@czh9773 You might be thinking of Grimoire Weiss? Weiss's pompous mannerisms definitely echo V2 Snail.
Ahh! That's who I was thinking of! Grimoire/Grimoire. It's been a while since I played NieR. Thanks for the clear up. Still cool info. @@flyingtoastr2303
Yes! You noticed my mistake. Grimoire/Grimoire. It's been a while since I played NieR. Snail and Weiss are so alike! I'd like to see how they'd get along together. I've been doing a replay of AC6:FoL, and have to see pay close attention to the briefing for Chandelier this time. You've provided a lot of cool info!@@flyingtoastr2303
I got Ac6 in 2008 as i was lucky of having an Xbox 360 at time.
I already had played the 3 PS2 games, and damn, this game is very good and mainly because of how much i played this game in my life.
This is my favorite AC game from a gameplay standpoint. No game, including AC7, has quite replicated the feeling of diving into battle. It's massive in scale and by far the most immersive. I guess you could complain about mission variety but I personally thought it was a worthwhile trade off. Especially with the operations system. As for the game being 15 missions long, that's a weird complaint considering you also complained about the mission length. I thought it was the perfect amount considering the scale of its design. If you're gonna have these types of missions, it only makes sense to have less of them. Personally, I always found AC5 exhausting to play through because of how long it is. 28 missions is far too much, unless you're gonna have branching paths like AC3. 15-20 missions is generally the sweet spot for Ace Combat.
The complaint about the smaller number of HUGE missions is ridiculous. It's like the old joke about cutting a pizza into four slices because you can't finish eight.
Enjoyable review to watch. Seeing that you mentioned that other AC6(FoR) makes me want to check out your Armored Core vids now. I do got a few points I want to make regarding this review.
-4:14/12:00. You're playing on Easy or Normal difficulty. You would run through a bit more ammo if you play on harder difficulties. Do you really want to run out of ammo? I would think most people would think ammo shortages make the game boring. Just because you have ammo doesn't prevent a need to swap SP weapons, so I still want to land and rearm.
-6:50 Plane stats were displayed in a hexagon chart in AC0 too. I like stats displayed that way as you understand the differences instantly. With AC7's large plane variety and hard to distinguish bars, I wish AC7 had numbers.
-12:50 Yeah, the missions can be long. They are 30min long if you're aiming for an S-rank without using the CFA-44, otherwise you can speedrun the objectives.
-15:35 WMDs are a nice get out of jail free card! Yes you get out fast, but they needed something to emphasize the significance of Garuda Team. I'm not arguing about the writing.
-15:55 Destroying the Aigaion is my favorite mission in the franchise. You've got comfortable scenery, and then the Estovakian aerial fleet. The mission provides an awesome furball to be involved in.
-This point isn't related to your review, but a comment I've seen said by many people from other places criticizing. I don't understand what people mean when they say operations start when you accidentally kill an enemy of that operation. I can avoid killing enemies of certain operations, but ops are still ongoing even without my accidental intervention. You can fail missions that you were no where near.
AC6 was one of my favorites. Alongside Zero and 3. Definitely the first game I 100% on
Ace Combat 6 was my introduction to the Ace Combat series and was easily my most played. Also, your retrospective is spot on IMO. 7:56 into the vid tho? foreshadowing lol
Years ago, I was trying to determine whether I would buy a 360, or a PS3. I was talking with my brother about it while going down the road one night, and I decided to go with the PS3 since I loved the Ace Combat series on PS2. He informed me that 6 had been announced as a 360 exclusive. Well, I got a 360, and the bundle with the flightstick.
In short: I bought a 360 just for Ace Combat 6.
I bought a 360 just to play this game^^ never regretted it.
one missile to bring down a plane actually seems more realistic? I don't know, that's what hollywood had told me. Although I guess if enemies aren't also dodging those missiles, since I have also heard that missiles not hitting their targets is also very realistic.
I like Ace Combat 6 purely because it’s one of the Ace Combat games where you can just ignore the story and still have a fun time with the open gameplay
Ace Combat 5 had you fly the starter aircraft for multiple missions due to you not being the leader of Wardog Squadron yet. They did that solely cause once Bartlett is shot down and Nagase ultimately hands control over to Blaze, that is when you are leader and get to choose your squads planes. It would have been weird if they let you choose your squads planes when you start Ace Combat 5 as basically a rookie pilot and don't get to call the shots.
I find it odd that they would site extra power over the PS3 (that AC6 doesn't really use or at least doesn't need to) as reason for being 360 exclusive given that the series has never been on the most powerful console prior. I think being on the 360 was great but it shouldn't have been done by alienating the existing Playstation audience. On that note the holy trinity should've been ported to Gamecube and Xbox
15:40 having a suspension just for show is nice characterization of the people you work for IMO, its funny and dark. It happens a ton IRL where someone gets suspended for public PR then quietly unsuspended
When you put it like that I actually like it a lot more!
@@notcoleHah I didn't grow up playing japanese games or watching media so honestly especially early 2000's media, I am not used to how sophisticated and dark the satire can be, like spec ops the line was huge here but that level of satire and dark twists are all over in neat and very poltically and historically interesting ways getting into early 00s stuff now
If you'll indulge an early 2000s anime recomendation, that whole suspended for show/coporate satire reminds me of Black Lagoon, it opens with some really funny satire of coporate life and culture in japan, but because it is an international cast the dub is actually the way to go, super well done and regarded as better even. Its set in 1995 so it has some post cold war ace combat vibes but based on a mercenary torpedo boat so I would love an ace combat style boat game if you know of any btw. The plot and the turf wars between intelligence agencies (even within same country) and PMC's gives it ace combat naval edition vibes
Love this game. Totally fair critique, great video 👍.
One of my favorite things to do in this game is use the SU-33s RCLs to take out the Aigaion and it's fleet. It destroys them so quickly, it great lol
Having played through AC6 again on Ace it is easily the hardest game in the series bar none but it's alot of fun to play. I will say I'm surprised you didn't mention High-G turns (since it's the biggest gameplay change to the series) or the Pasternak fight. Granted I don't want to think about Pasternak either, he could beat all of the previous Ace Squads/Pilots in the series in 1 vs all of them in a fight without breaking a sweat & still have missiles leftover for a 1v8 against the previous protagonists. Easily the most difficult/annoying Ace fight in the series & I never want to see anyone other then the protagonist using his plane again lol.
Strigons AI was no joke. Only ace squadron that ever gave me issues playing against. Even AC7s drones weren’t as troublesome
AC6 definitely deserves more respect ( especially with what comes after. AA isn’t a bad game, but it was definitely a title of its time ).
I’m hoping some of the unique systems get revisited for AC8
I think my biggest issue is how little pure dogfigting there is. The missions that do have only aircraft dont give you the time to do it or you are really being encouraged to use the cover support to completely wipe out the horde tailing you especially with the cobras and insane acceleration things like the drones have.
You guys do realize that you can swap out throttle and yaw between trigger button and bumper button in option right..?
All in all, Aigaion mission with Su33 + RCL is a joke... XD
Glad you are enjoying the series, the thing with 4-6, and especially 6, is that you lose a lot of the more difficult nuances on lower difficulty like normal settings. I noticed this in your 5 video as well, but once you get off normal damage is reduced and things like no more infinite ammo for the gun come into play in the game. Plus, it certainly seems like the ai is much better at higher difficulty
Was there ever an Ace Combat game where you could eject?
The hidden gem in the series, hidden because of Xbox exclusivity
The allies being ACTUALLY useful is a great twist even though the series has been like "you are an OP pilot, changing the tide of battle alone"
I wish they'd give us any port outside of Xbox but alas, the license fee issue on aircraft
Licensing for video games is like THE STUPIDEST THING EVER
Ahh yes Emmeria's finest when wingmen are actually useful... than useless that we get in AC7... hmmm Rubicon....
My favourite of the series flying down the barrel of a railgun will always be cool or taking down a flying aircraft carrier/fortress
I'm amazed to see an 20+ minue, mildly critical review of Ace Combat 6 that doesn't mention that one line.
You know, that line. The one they keep saying. The one you are absolutely sick of by the end of the game.
THAT line.
I rarely comment on TH-cam, because most of the time it seems pointless, but this video has a surprisingly competent discussion going. I don't know whether Ace Combat fans are this mature or your channel's audience in general, but I feel compelled to share my thoughts as well. (Fair warning: it will be long and sometimes might be straight up rambling.)
Because of the title, I was affraid you're going to be too tough on one of my favorite games, but I think you made fair points. (Even if I don't necessarily agree with each.) This was my first Ace Combat, after all. Due to this I'm admittedly a little biased, but looking at it objectively I still think that perhaps it's the most unique entry in the series as a whole. It has the largest scope, unmatched by any other to date (including AC7), that makes you feel like part of a big army. I really loved the idea of the chosable operations, they give exceptional longevity to a game which - by default - was made with multiple playthroughs in mind. (I also liked the Ace Styles and the small differences they made in Zero for the same reason.) Because of this, I don't think 15 missions are too few or that they overstay their welcome. Dividing them into multiple smaller parts and addig frequent checkpoints makes completing them not too troublesome, on the other hand there are many enemies to shoot at and a permissive time limit to allow such indulgence, but if you concentrate only on mission critical targets, the entire campaign is doable in under 2 hours and 15 minutes. (There's even a medal for it.) The Allied Support System and landing on the battlefield are two things I desperately miss from previous and subsequent episodes alike. The High-G turn and "shoot" mechanic (explained in detail by another commenter, in short: if you aim in the approximate direction a plane is headed - denoted by the "shoot" message in the middle of the screen, hence my name for it - rather than directly at it, your missile will try to intercept them instead of following in their trails, yielding a higher chance of a hit) are also worthy additions.
As for its relatively low sales figures, I think making it an Xbox 360 exclusive did it no good in light of its heritage on PlayStation consoles and the fact that it never had such mainstream appeal as, for example, the Final Fantasy series. (Although I'm happy they did, because otherwise I might never have gotten in touch with Ace Combat.) It was part of Microsoft's overall strategy in trying (and failing) to gain a stronger foothold in Japan by making deals to release previously exclusive, big and popular japanese franchises also (or only) on Xbox. It just didn't work out in the end, neither for Microsoft nor for Ace Combat 6.
6:54 oh i wholeheartedly disagree
simply put, using graph to display numbers is a much better way to see the changes in stats between selections
Yeah sure, numbers are not exactly difficult to read or anything,
But with a graph ....you can do it without thinking about it, (it also helps people who struggle with numbers so much more)
Damn, I just finished watching and now I have to wait for another new vid again. Maybe I'll just rewatch all of these again to wait it out. In all seriousness, Thanks a tone for these great vids. I certainly agree that AC6 is still a great AC game but can get a bit long in the tooth with long play throughs. Best in just two or three missions a session. It could also benefit greatly from a more robust checkpoint system too so if you die your not stuck doing the entire mission again.
I've only played the first mission and wondered why some of these features aren't in 7. My problem is that the in engine cutscenes have doubled voice audio for whatever reson an i cant tell if the problem is my disc or the console.
That's only an emulation issue last I checked. It's the only real way to play the game these days anyway.
@@Tman2bard :(
Regarding mission length, the missions are absolutely not made to be that long, the time limits in the series have always been inflated as hell and essentially a non-issue so they should not be taken as proof of anything. If you're taking 30-40 minutes to beat the average mission in AC6 you're doing something wrong, whether it's not utilizing the mechanics and weapons properly (throughout the video I see a complete disregard for the SHOOT mechanic, which is key to using standard missiles properly in this game and turns them from the worst homing to the best by far), and/or trying to wipe out absolutely everything in the map, which is not necessary as even S ranks are quite lenient aside from one single exception. For reference, a regular (not speedrun, and in fact clearing up most enemies in each operation I choose) run of the longer missions in the game is 15-20 minutes for me, which is similar to the longest missions in AC04, 5 or 7. Except, unlike most of those, these can also be speedrun.
At the end of the day AC6's missions are basically however long you want them to be, since there are no fixed timer missions (unlike AC04's or AC7's score attacks for example) and you can always just go for the TGTs whenever you want to get things done. Odds are if you destroyed even half of the optional targets in an operation you'll get S rank on it anyway.
The part about lacking mission variety is true, but on the flipside it also means all the missions focus on straight-up core gameplay rather than gimmicks with little to no replayability, a very welcome change of direction after AC5 for many of us (ACZ had already corrected course but it was a smaller game and all). But it also means if you're not a big fan of (or aren't very good at) said core gameplay you're not gonna get that much out of it.
edit: also the bit about how they changed back to stat charts instead of numbers is funny when you know how BS most of those stats are, *especially* in AC5. Having numbers actually only makes the BS more obvious.
I really don’t know why he keeps fixating on the timer after the sixth game
I don't remember ever running out of time in the entire series. I suspect it's more of a failsafe in case you softlock the mission somehow (even tho you could just pause and reset or slam into the ground)
This was a great game!!! Great gameplay, great story.
Loved this game, but.... boy did I feel uncomfortable every time I heard, "GO DANCE WITH THE ANGELS!" lol.
That means "GFYS" and that was the best part of this game.😂
I distinctly remember hearing "Get him, head right once more!" more often in missions than the "Go dance with the angels" in cutscenes lol.
Finally some more AC6 coverage!
I got mine pre-owned from gamstop for 15 bucks years ago.
the first time i played ace combat in ps2 i was so amazed and scared at the same time.... especially the lazer mission and the weird stuff coming from the satellites , bro i was so scared of these...
surprised you didn't mention the High G turns, which IIRC was the first time they show up in the series, and they've made a return in AC7.
As someone who has finished the ps1 trilogy, ps2 trilogy, both psp games, ps3 assault horizon, infinity and ac7, it sucks so much that this was a 360 exclusive. Air combat was among the first 3 games i have gotten for the ps1.
@@zethrenbeltran4071 as someone who never owned PS1 or PS2 Im glad it came to Xbox 360 though I always found it odd they never bothered to port it to PlayStation even later on, but I guess it has to do with licensing (planes/their manufacturers), kind of like with racing games.
But ye if the series had remained on PlayStation only I doubt it would have never grapped my attention but on Xbox side there wasnt anything like this (maybe Crimson Skies on original Xbox) atleast not until Ubisoft made their HAWX games, so it was great to see so much variety on those earlier years of Xbox 360 and I think its also a testament how incredibly well Microsoft was able to get attention of Japanese developers by launching 360 earlier than PS3, giving developers new hardware earlier to build their next game on + as well all know PS3 was quite bit harder console to built games on for 3rd party developers atleast
Too bad Microsoft dropped the ball after 360, they were doing so well back then and were pulling from all the right strings to get Xbox 360 as popular as it was and get new franchise to it especially from Japanese devs which original Xbox had seriously lacked
This game is great, but for me there's no F-4E playable ain't a masterpiece for me
Next review gonna be Sky Crawlers for the Wii? (the hidden, unofficial 'probably doesn't count' deep cut Ace Combat game)
He’s not reviewing it. Nor is he reviewing the mobile Ace combat games like Xi or Northern wings (I’m pretty sure). I’ve asked him this on stream.
@@legomania2427 let’s hear it from the horses mouth then ?
@@APerson-ni1gb scour through the Ace Combat 3 vods then.
I was trying to mod my 360 and messed that up….
Badly.
AC6 was a fun AC game with great soundtrack
One of my favorite feature was definitely the operations, which gives a freedom of choice on how to approach things and the ability to command ground units. I really did feel like my actions were contributing to shifting the battlefield, more than the previous games. There were just a lot more options compared to previous.
I did like that one mission in the desert canyons where you do a trench run through the canyon tunnels.
And the agaion (???) was pretty fun to fight, albeit a bit too easy with bombs.
Also idolm@ster to meme on the estovakians but,
The biggest flaw of this game is that this should not have been an Xbox exclusive.
It takes you 30 minutes to complete a mission my average mission time on that ace combat 6 is around 15 minutes some are way shorter, like the second mission i can get it done within 4 minutes, the 3 mission around 7 minutes, mission 4 around 11 minutes, mission 5 around 10 minutes, mission 6 around 10 minutes, mission 7 around 13 minutes, mission 8 around 5 minutes, mission 9 around 8 minutes, misson 10 around 12 minutes, mission 11 around 9 minutes, mission 12 around 8 minutes, mission 13 around 26 minutes, mission 14 around 13 minutes, mission 15 around 19 minutes. Thats for my S rank on ace difficulty these mission can be done way faster. The missle tracking I will agree it is weak but if you shot your Basic MSL at the right time your missiles almost never miss, your missles are not always one shot at least your basic missiles aren't especially a higher difficulties. But overall a good review
I need to keep in mind that you actually play the series through released date order and not chronological order... Because man, i can't wait to see your opinion about AC7
This was one of my favorite games on my 360 and was happy to see it's backwards compatible with my series x.
I CANNOT WAIT FOR THE REVIEW FOR THE UNDERRATED, MOST LEGENDARY ACE COMBAT GAME EVER. ASSAULT HORIZON, HERE WE
Ok so first of all: yeah, ace 6 is underrated, I’d agree. But the main thing I found weird was that you got it off ebay for 30$. As someone who also got a pre-owned copy to play the game, I can say confidently that ace6 normally goes for like 10$, at least pre-owned from game stop. Just found that a bit weird, overall great video, now you’ve got the long haul ahead of you
Well they said they got a like near pristine copy and not just like a caseless disk. I know I try to get games close to store quality when I am hunting for them.
I never thought how Ac6 sounds like Ac6? Crazy!
Ive said it before and Ill say it again, Heavy Command Cruiser is my favorite Ace Combat mission ever
I swear to God, this game turned 'Go Dance with an Angel' into a trigger phrase for me
Same with “rightO” and “thatsomthin”, “shit” and “follow trigger n you’ll make it”
🤢
I think Zero is the best one, but 6 has a very special place in my heart as it and Assault Horizon were my first Ace Combat games. I think the AC6 demo might have been my very first experience with AC
i didnt even know this game existed util 7 came out and i was like wtf where is 6? and it was on xbox only... that sucks
Because Only XB-360 rules :P
Honestly, i loved this game. it was fun, i really liked the parts where you were breaking a siege, or sieging a fortified position yourself. the cutscenes/writing and rough translations could be a bit annoying. I liked the objective system, but i wish that you could choose to continue the first half of the missions after you complete the prerequires number of objectives (especially mission 5, 6, 10, and 13). for me, the increased missile damage makes the game feel more realistic, but the increased gun damage is *less* realistic. and i know, Ace Combat isn't exactly known for realism.
Yeah they would have been smarter to release Ace Combat 6 on both platforms. Making it multiplatform would make sense but making it 360 exclusive and thus cutting off access to the franchise's established fanbase was foolish. I played this at a Game exchange a few times and it is IMO better the Assault Horizon. I always hoped this would get a later platform re-release like Ace Combat 2 did when it got released on #DS as Ace Combat Legends but no such luck.
Which is part of the reason the Fanbase is just a re tarded mess now that “troubled development” Ass7 was Multiplatform
21:19 Like hell you will! You'll see me here again for the MGS3 video!
Right...?
Please tell me that's next up, I'm so hyped for you to play it!
no comment...
@@notcole I GUESS I'll just HAVE TO enjoy your other professionally made, extremely entertaining, and insightful content 🙄
I did dirty things with the cluster bombs and F-15E.
I lold when I saw the 250 missiles for that F22 that pretty ridiculous
Bruh some planes in this game have 800 as a DLC
The earlier Ace combats had decent arcadey ammo like 50 or even 30 missiles for how many targets there are duh
I'm just picturing a F22 with 250 missiles on it lolol
Can't wait for you to play Ace Combat 7!
If you want more Ace Combat style games to review then I recommend checking out Raiders Sphere 4th. It's definitely not as good as any of the Ace Combat games, but it's worth a look at least.
Aero Wings !?
Gameplay wise, AC6 was very similar to AC4. You could take your time through large ground battles, and resupply. It felt like you were in a large operation providing CAS. AC5, Zero, and AC7 were to fast paced and sweaty imo.
I tried to get invested into the story before, but I honestly didn't like it. I was fresh off of Ace Combat 5 when I took a look at Ace Combat 6, and I was like "Gameplay and story SEGREGATION is at play, because it feels like the cutscenes were just doing their own thing while you the player were just fighting the fight, and there was no relevance. Especially since they game tried to tie their relevance towards the end in a weak way" for the longest time and I still feel this way :(
I only realised today that this was backwards compatible with Series X, so I've just found a copy on eBay for £7.10 shipped. Looking forward to trying it out, as I have really enjoyed AC7 so far.
And with Emulators and “Xenia”
You can play the Lost DLCs I believe
One shot missiles? What level are you playing it on!? In hard, expert, and ace, you'll need 2 or sometimes 3!!
aw... you didnt make a "thick" joke, its a staple of AC6 at this point. oh well, its a good review regardles
Great video, this is the last AC game that i played, last year I bought a xbox 360. For me, it is a fine game with cringy dialogue in the cinematics, im glad that you ejoyed the game more than i did
All I want to know is how you got the cutscenes to play on an emulator
This was played on an Xbox One! I tried to get it working on emulator but it's just too buggy even if you download the Xenia branch that's been modified to run it better 😭
@@notcole Ahh got it! Yeah that seems to be the way to play it. It surprises me that the pixelated missile trails weren't a result of the emulator.
I'm perplexed...Have you played this game on the Xbox 360 or on emulator ? If you did on emulator, how did you got past the mountain of bugs ?
This was played on an Xbox One using the backwards compatibility feature! (hence the 1080p footage)
I tried to dump the copy and get it working on an emulator like usual for even cleaner footage, but there are just too many bugs even when using the version of Xenia made specifically for AC6.
Go dance with the Angels!
here is why play hawk x2
there the controls is reverse
2, i saw some of Ace Combat sponsorship logos on this game
Huh. The civilian sounds like Zafina from Tekken.