Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. chat forums for Xbox 360,

Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X - Demo & First Thoughts

Emmie87

"THFC"

Regular

on 15/02/2009 at 9:37:13PM

Total Posts: 2971

For those of you who do not know - the demo for the game is now avaliable to download on Xbox Marketplace.

I have to say this game really creeped up on me, i had only ever heard pb mention it once or twice and never paid much attention to that because i am not a huge pilot sim, or airplane shooter games. The Ace Combat series had not been my thing and i found them to get boring really fast.

Figuring it is Tom Clancy, pb recommended it and it was free to try i downloaded the demo and was not expecting much, well the 25 mins i played i have really enjoyed! You have the ability to play a tutorial mission or a real mission where you can play on LIVE with friends or strangers. It was all very easy to get used to, even to someone with no previous gaming experience (besides on 10 mins on a ps2 demo) with these kind of games.

I assume that the co-op mission side of things just add more enemies, other than that it would probably only be enjoyable with friends, as the participation from your helpers seemed slim to me, but with headsets and a few friends i can imagine things get a bit serious as you dog fight your way to victory.

Graphically i was pleased with what i saw, the towns, citites and terrain below does show a pretty high amount of detail as you fly close, the sky is vast and clouds will obstruct your vision, the ocean will glisten in the sun and show shadows from items above.

So i am really enjoying this game so far, with not knowing much about it, i have no idea on plot or what else may be in store, but from what i have have seen so far we have a great looking game which teaches the user to be a more than capable pilot within a 5 minute tutorial. Making the campaign mode fun, unlike some flying games where there are loads of controls and you end up crashing every 10 seconds.

I have to say i may pick this game up, i imagine the online mode would be a lot of fun, dog fighting with your friends and going up levels. You get a taste of going up levels in the demo and from what i gather you are rewarded with new planes and attacking options. By completing certain aspects or doing particularly well in others you recieve bonus points and awards which push the levels up a bit quicker.

So far a strong game, and one i am hoping to be able to pick up. If you have not yet done so i would suggest downloading the demo. Let me know what you think and if your first impressions of this game are as good as mine. I think it is due for release in about 20 days so time to start submitting them cheats and writing plenty of chat posts people!

Thanks for reading and look forward to seeing what everyone else has to say about Mr. Clancy's latest edition to his wide range of games.

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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 Replies:

"Shoryuken!"

Regular

on 16/02/2009 at 11:00:12AM

Edited: 16/2/09 11:02

Total Posts: 10397

H.A.W.X is set between Ghost Recon AW2 and Endwar. In fact, some of the missions are set during GRAW2 and you'll see familiar scenarios that you might have played in that.

It's slick but I'm worried about how much more arcadey it turned out to be than they promised.

The PSN will have the demo on 26th Feb due to the errors that were found in both versions, the 360 one wasn't pulled in time and you'll find complaints about freezing and black screens because of it. They'll probably patch it though.

It's also disappointing to see that they've cheated when it came to the scenery. Sure it looks nice in screenshots having all that proper mapping in place, but when it's moving you realise that only some of the landscape is raised and all the other buildings are flat, it can be quite jarring at times.

Anyway, in a way it works better as a more arcadey style game than a sim and it's a possible title for me later in the year.

For flight fans the next big thing is going to be Birds of Prey on PS3 and 360, which promises to be the nearest thing to a flight sim on a console. That title is due out in September.

Also worth noting Battlefield 1943, which is a download title coming to XBL and PSN only. It's a slimmed down Battlefield but with some interesting air combat options. Should be interesting to see what they can fit into a download only title though.

Emmie87

"THFC"

Regular

on 16/02/2009 at 11:46:05AM

Total Posts: 2971

Hmmm some good points in there but maybe as a non fan of this genre of gaming the ease of controls and focus on fighting has drawn my attention away from what fans of the genre expect.

As a new comer to the style i found it very enjoyable and have yet to notice any black screens or freezing *you know i will now*

I am strongly considering picking this game up, i will have to have a look at some more aspects of it, i can see it becoming repetitve and boring but we will have to see.

If i am lucky enough to win another GAD i may use it to pick this title up.