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What was your favourite Ace Combat LP? This poll is closed. |
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| Ace Combat Zero |
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22 | 24.18% |
| Ace Combat 2 / Assault Horizon Legacy |
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3 | 3.30% |
| Ace Combat 04 |
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7 | 7.69% |
| Ace Combat 5 |
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13 | 14.29% |
| Ace Combat 6 |
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3 | 3.30% |
| Killzone 1 |
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43 | 47.25% |
| Total: | 91 votes | ||
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  Yes. I know it’s not Ace Combat X. We’re getting there, trust me. For now, we’re going to take a (hopefully) brief detour through the recently departed Ace Combat: Infinity, aka Namco’s unsubtle interest check to see if anyone actually wanted Ace Combat 7. Spoiler alert: they totally did want it. Infinity has its own… I guess you could call it a storyline and worldbuilding elements to it, so we’ll kind of gloss over the important things in each mission, but if you’re expecting me to give the level of fucks I normally do in the proper Strangereal LPs, then keep holding your breath for Skies of Deception. This is just a glorified holding pattern LP while I get re-settled in my life after a few major personal transitions. The big thing to note is that I did not record any of the footage I am going to be commenting over for this LP. All the footage for this project was graciously provided by ACES CURE PLANES and motoh, with minor supplementary footage volunteered by Ace Combat Fan from YouTube. I’ve never actually played Infinity myself, truth be told, but the thing about modern Ace Combats is that if you’ve played one, you’ve played them all. And trust me, in a way I’ve already LP’d Infinity several times over... When am I going to update this? Whenever I feel like it. Despite it getting its own thread Infinity is first and foremost a side-project as Killzone: Shadow Fall still demands the majority of my LP work time. Games covered thus far:
  Ace Combat: Infinity was released in 2014 as a free to play game on the PlayStation 3. The game was Project ACES’s desperate saving throw after Assault Horizon knocked the franchise into a tailspin with its wild miscalculation of a premise. While still set on real world Earth, Infinity sought to distance itself from Assault Horizon’s crushing verisimilitude by dragging in elements of the Strangereal setting wholecloth and laying them over the world with poster paste. Set in the year 2019, the story follows the exploits of a mercenary pilot codenamed Reaper, who joins one of the many PMC firms that cropped up in the wake of the Ulysses disaster. And if you’re starting to get a certain kind of vibe just from that brief description, then congratulations, you’ve tweaked onto Infinity’s big gimmick. I named this thread after Ready Player One because it’s just one giant stream of references pointing back at the Golden Trilogy Ace Combats meant to evoke nostalgia in players familiar with those games and to try and manufacture love and loyalty for Infinity, because “hey look, it’s bringing back all this stuff from Strangereal. I remember Strangereal. I get that reference! And, to be honest, as much as I hate to admit it, it worked. We got Ace Combat 7 out of it. If not for Infinity, the franchise would have died with Assault Horizon. It’s shameless Strangereal pandering was kinda great, and it remixed and evolved those elements in intuitive ways, as we’ll see over the course of the LP. The game is loosely divided into two halves, a single player storyline mode akin to most Ace Combats, and multiplayer missions of varying types, usually remixes of superweapon battles or popular missions from the Golden Trilogy reshuffled as team battles where two teams of players compete against one another to earn the most points while completing the same objective. The storyline of Infinity was dropped after only one “season,” slamming to a halt at Mission 8, around the time Skies Unknown went into full production. So on it’s head, this will ostensibly be the shorest of all the Ace Combat LPs I’ve done this far, though we will be delving into the various multiplayer material thanks to ACES and motoh’s diligence.  For Infinity? Nah. There is no spoiler policy for this LP because Infinity is a cross-stitch corpse monster of Ace Combats past, so if you’ve been through the Golden Trilogy with me, then this is well-trod ground already. Moreover, it’s not like Infinity’s plot is anything revolutionary to begin with.  nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 06:32 on Jun 11, 2018 |
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May 28, 2018 02:21
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Lost Butterfly Mission 1: Operation Gambit – May 1st, 2019 Overview: A flight of unidentified and potentially hostile UAVs is approaching the former capital district of Tokyo. Bone Arrow Squadron of the Arrows Air Defense and Security PMC is scrambled to assist the JASDF forces in intercepting the drones. Taking off with the Arrows for the first time is a rookie pilot flying under the TAC name Reaper.  Guest Commentator: To kick things off and introduce this project properly, I am joined by ACES CURE PLANES, who graciously and somewhat hurriedly recorded the majority of the footage we’re seeing before the Infinity servers shut down for good at the end of March 2018. ACES, you might recall, has done LPs of Armored Core 2 and its expansion-sequel Another Age along with a host of co-commentators, including myself.    BONE ARROW SQUADRON Arrows Air Defense and Security Ltd. Private Air Force Members:
Squadron Composition: MiG-21bis (x1), EF-2000 Typhoon (x1), F-16F Fighting Falcon (x1), F-4E Phantom II (x1—Default plane, player determined otherwise) “Some call us ‘pirates’.” The Bone Arrow Squadron is the centerpiece of the Arrows Air Defense and Security private military contractor firm. The squadron consists of pilots from around the globe, most of them being ex-military (derisively referred to by some as “drop-outs”), though a few younger pilots, like Reaper, have joined the company with no prior military experience in their background after completing private combat qualifications training. The squadron is based out of Arrows ADS Inc.’s home airstrip at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar outside of San Diego, California. In lieu of a traditional AWACS unit, the squadron is commanded remotely by Goodfellow, Arrows ASD’s commander and intermediary representative. The names Viper, Omega, and Reaper are all shout outs to Ace Combat 04. Viper is the name of a support squadron that first shows up in Shattered Skies, but is also namedropped in 5, and Assault Horizon. Omega also hails from 04, and is a shout out specifically to Omega 11, who, thanks to the game’s tendency to recycle combat chatter dialog, tends to get shot down an awful lot. Reaper, meanwhile, is one of the nicknames appended to Mobius 1 near the tail end of Shattered Skies, so you can already see the trajectory that Project ACES is outlining for our latest silent, faceless protagonist. And yes, of course, the squadron’s name is a pun on “bow and arrow.”   REAPER Real Name: Unknown Callsign(s): Reaper, Rookie, Bone Arrow 4, Ribbon Age: Unknown Sex: Male Nationality: Possibly America Signature Plane: Player choice Voice Actor: None The newest member of Arrows Air Defense and Security Ltd.’s Bone Arrow mercenary squadron and a recent replacement for a previous rookie who had died on a recent mission. Like all Ace Combat protagonists save for William Bishop, Reaper is nameless, faceless, voiceless, and fictionally a non-entity in the world of the game. Even more so than than in the mainline games, there is absolutely nothing of worth that can be said about Ace Combat Infinity’s player character. Reaper appears, however, to be a mashup of Mobius 1, Blaze, and Cipher: a pilot known by the nickname of Reaper/Ribbon, who starts the game off in the lowly number 4 slot of their squadron, which also happens to be a blatant out-for-money mercenary group.  VIPER Real Name: Unknown Callsign(s): Viper, Bone Arrow 1 Age: 49 Sex: Male Nationality: Australia Signature Plane: MiG-21bis Fishbed Voice Actor: Uncredited The old warhorse. Viper is the flight lead of Bone Arrow flight and the in-field commander for the squadron. Gruff, cynical, and world-weary, Viper is an aging relic from the era before the Ulysses disaster and nearing the end of his career as a pilot. He has turned to mercenary work to get away from his ex-wife and make some money to retire on and has parlayed his experience as a former ace in the Royal Australian Air Force into a command spot for the Arrows PMC. Viper is basically an even more dickish version of Jack Bartlett from Ace Combat 5 and bares the name of one of the oft-repeating support squadrons from Ace Combat 04. We’ll see if he lasts longer as our flight lead than the original Captain Jack did in 5.  OMEGA Real Name: Unknown Callsign(s): Omega, Bone Arrow 2, Bailout King Age: 29 Sex: Male Nationality: United Kingdom Signature Plane: EF-2000 Typhoon Voice Actor: Uncredited Bone Arrow’s put-upon, barely competent second-in-command under Viper. A young man of British Pakistani heritage, Omega is the squadron’s laughing stock given his tendency to get shot down or at least put his foot in his mouth over the radio during missions.  BRONCO Real Name: Unknown Callsign(s): Bronco Age: Unknown Sex: Male Nationality: Unknown Signature Plane: F-16F Fighting Falcon Voice Actor: Uncredited Bronco is literally just there to fill out the Number 3 slot in Bone Arrows just so there’s no gap between Viper, Omega, and you.  GOODFELLOW Real Name: Unknown Callsign(s): Goodfellow, Commander Age: 47 Sex: Male Nationality: America Signature Plane: E-767 Voice Actor: Uncredited The commander of Arrows Air Security Ltd.’s Arrow Blades squadron and a high ranking member of AAS’s senior staff. Goodfellow is our AWACS operator, our briefing guy, and contract manager and intermediary between Arrows and the United Nations and other organizations who contract work out to the PMC. He is a similar character to an fills an analogous role to the operator characters from various Armored Core games. Goodfellow joined Arrows Air Security at some point after the Ulysses Disaster and worked his way up from a starting post to the mission commander position, eventually assigned to command over Bone Arrows group. His record as a commander has been fairly spotless thus far, though Viper appears to resent him as a commander, claiming he pushed the original Bone Arrow 4 too far too fast and ultimately got them killed. The veracity of these claims is open to dispute, however.  KVASIR Real Name: Unknown Callsign(s): None Age: N/A Sex: Male (?) Nationality: N/A Signature Plane: None Voice Actor: Uncredited At the moment, the entity known as Kvasir serves as the narrator of the interstitial story segments that precede each mission. Though who exactly Kvasir is telling all this to remains a mystery at the moment, as does whether he is actually human or—as is heavily implied—or an AI construct. Kvasir is named after the Norse god of knowledge. Kvasir was impaled on a spear and killed, and his blood was drained from his corpse and brewed with honey to create the Mead of Poetry, a draught that would grant its drinker unlimited knowledge.   ARROWS AIR DEFENSE AND SECURITY The employer of Reaper, Viper, Omega and Goodfellow, and one of the premier private air force companies in existence today. Arrows Air Defense and Security LTD. was one of many PMC firms to emerge from the chaos of the Ulysses Disaster and the unraveling of the global order. It picked the talent pool of discharged pilots from various national air forces clean after the nations of the world began to defund their militaries to compensate for rebuilding costs following the Ulysses impacts. Arrows has climbed to the top of the heap by being utterly ruthless, and fostering that same ruthlessness in its recruits. Arrows pilots are paid on a per-kill basis, provided their AWACS confirms the destroyed target was in fact hostile and not simply collateral damage. The top-earning pilots advance up the company’s chain of command, with promotion and benefit options opening up to whomever “works” the hardest and brings in the highest kill count. The current top-earning squadron for Arrows is its namesake, the Bone Arrow Squadron headed by the pilot known as Viper.  UNICS The United Nations Independent Commando Services. Abbreviated UNICS, it is the arm of the United Nations Forces (UNF) comprised of volunteer mercenary soldiers and private military firm hires. UNICS acts as the intermediary between the UNF and the numerous PMCs it contracts work out to, such as Arrows Air Security LTD. UNICS is often called upon to supplement UNF sanctioned operations, or sent into combat zones where the UNF’s direct involvement would be considered politically risky, thus facilitating the need for mercenary deployment to maintain plausible deniability. Members of the proper UNF often look down on UNICS and its contract mercenaries, often deriding them as “pirates” and taking childish pleasure in private that one of the more unfortunate pronunciations of UNICS as an acronym sounds suspiciously close to “eunuchs”.  ULYSSES DISASTER A global disaster brought about by the collision of a swarm of fragments of the Ulysses 1986VG1 asteroid with the Earth. Originally, Ulysses 1986VG1 was one of the many asteroid moons in orbit around the planet Jupiter. Discovered in 1986 by Eric Walter Elst at the Haute-Provence Observatory in southeastern France, it was was named "Ulysses" after the main character of Homer's Odyssey. The asteroid was calculated to have a stable orbit around Jupiter and was not categorized as a threat to life on Earth until 1994. At some point in that year, the asteroid Polyphemus, a Trojan asteroid of extra-solar origin, collided with Ulysses 1986VG1 and shattered it into tens of thousands of fragments and knocking it out of Jovian orbit. The fragments of Ulysses fell into an elliptical orbit around the Sun and were detected to be on a catastrophic collision course with Earth, with a projected impact date in early July of 1999. To combat this impending threat, the international community came together and designed a countermeasure system, the Stonehenge Turret Network system; a series of railgun platforms design to intercept and destroy falling asteroid fragments before they could strike the surface of the planet. Six STN facilities were constructed across the five populated continents at roughly equidistant locations to provide maximum coverage for each facility. The original Stonehenge Type-0 prototype was built in China. Following its successful trials and proof-of-concept exercises, five additional STN sites were greenlit for construction: the Type-1 site in America, Type-2 in Australia, Type-3 in Turkey, Type-4 in Namibia, and Type-5 in Argentina. Although the six STN sites preformed flawlessly on Ulysses Day itself, they were unable to intercept every asteroid fragment, and impact zones between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn suffered major damage. Northern and Central California and Nevada, Hudson Bay and the Canadian Maritime provinces, northwestern South America, the Yucatan peninsula, Mediterranean coast and southern Italy, central Europe, northern Russia, the Oceanian islands, eastern India, the Gobi desert, and the Japanese Home Islands took the brunt of the impacts. Facing a potential rebuilding cost of $1.845 trillion dollars (58% of global GDP), the nations of Asia and southeastern Europe rearranged themselves into regional federations and special economic zones. Across the globe, nations slashed their military budgets in order to rebuild their devastated infrastructures. Whole industries were rendered extinct in the economic upheaval, and resource scarcity during the rebuilding era led to numerous regional disputes. This led to a rise in private military firms, which stepped in to fill the void created by the dismantlement of national militaries and put many members of the “Lost Generation” of Ulysses victims back to work. The world is still recovering from the Ulysses Disaster even twenty years afterward.    AMERICA Full Name: The United States of America Capital: Washington, DC Continent: North America Head of State: President Government: Federal presidential constitutional republic Though it’s southern west coast and lower mainland was heavily bombarded by asteroid fragments, the United States of America emerged from the Ulysses Disaster in markedly better condition than many of its international compatriots. As refugees fled the devastation in California and Nevada, the Pacific North West and Eastern seaboard regions saw a massive population expansion, while others emigrated even further north and south into relatively unscathed Canada and Mexico. Even after slashing its military budget to help in the rebuilding efforts along the south coast, the United States alone still maintains the single largest military force on the planet and is the top contributor of dedicated units for the United Nations Forces or UNF. With the United Nations gaining more power and clout thanks to its co-ordination of relief and rebuilding efforts around the world and helping to resolve post-Ulysses disputes between nations and other factions, the United States has further solidified its position as a global power player by being the host nation of the UN General Assembly in New York City. The Stonehenge Type-1 turret facility was constructed in north western Illinois and its coverage umbrella protected the continental United States, southern Canada, Mexico, and the Caribbean Islands from oncoming Ulysses fragments. Despite the US being a signatory of the Comprehensive Space Warfare Ban Treaty, STN-1 and its accompanying targeting satellites remain fully staffed and on standby to this day, even though the last two US Presidents were elected on campaign promises to eventually close and dismantle Stonehenge. Any Stonehenge-related legislation has been stymied by the US Congress for the past two decades since STN-1 was relinquished to US Army control.  .svg.png) JAPAN Full Name: The State of Japan Capital: Tokyo (formerly) Continent: Asia Head of State: Emperor, Prime Minister Government: Unitary parliamentary constitutional monarchy The Japanese Home Islands were mercilessly pulverized by the fragments of Ulysses, with Tokyo suffering such a direct hit that the city was deemed unsafe for habitation and the capital moved back to its ancient home in Kyoto. However, some bitter survivors of the Ulysses Disaster blame China for intentionally allowing Japan to be bombarded with asteroid fragments while protecting itself and its allies on the Korean peninsula with its Stonehenge Type-0. These claims are largely written off as crackpot conspiracy mongering playing off long standing cultural tensions between the two nations, and no evidence of foul play on China’s part exists. However, the Chinese government has deemed the Type-0 targeting logs for Ulysses Day top-level state secret information, thus obscuring the matter by design. Many Japanese survivors of the Ulysses Disaster fled the nation as it began to falter and fell under the jurisdiction of the Special Economic Zones, emigrating to the United States, Canada, England and Russia as leading corporations in those nations tried to woo Japanese expats with all sorts of special incentive offers. Today, Tokyo, once Japan’s largest and most populated metropolitan area lies largely abandoned and crumbling into ruins, its skyline marred by the massive Jotoh Crater and the rising sea levels of Tokyo Bay consuming more and more of the city as the years progress.  _-_Crimea_disputed.svg.png) RUSSIA Full Name: The Russian Federation Capital: Moscow Continent: Asia Head of State: President Government: Federal semi-presidential constitutional republic[ While Northwestern Russia was hit hard by Ulysses fragments, Moscow escaped the wrath of the heavens by the skin of its teeth. With the Russian economy already teetering on the brink and rife with corruption before the Ulysses Disaster, the nation fell even further on hard times following the impact events of 1999. In order to deal with the radical change in the global economy post-Ulysses, the Russian Federation established multiple Special Economic Zones within its territory, such as Iyuli SEZ, and lobbying other nations to do the same to help alleviate global economic tensions. However, the Russians have been heavily criticized by the global community for the establishment and maintenance of its SEZs, despite their enduring success.  .svg.png) CHINA Full Name: The People’s Republic of China Capital: Beijing Continent: Asia Head of State: Prime Minister Government: Unitary one-party socialist republic Much like the United States, the People’s Republic of China emerged from Ulysses Day largely intact thanks to its Stonehenge Type-0 railgun network and its protection umbrella. China was able to take advantage of the chaos and destruction visited upon its international rivals to solidify its status as the leading global super power in the post-Ulysses world, finally bumping the United States down to second place for the first time in recent history, despite it functionally being king of the ashes. Early on in the International Space Guard initiative, China agreed to be the host nation for the STN Type-0 prototype facility, constructed in Gansu Province on the southeastern edge of the Gobi Desert. The People’s Liberation Army oversaw the hasty construction of the STN-0 site and it completed its initial trials in record time with the remaining five planned STN sites quickly greenlit thereafter. Much like the American STN-1 facility, China’s STN-0 never officially shut down either post-Ulysses Day. The Chinese government continues to staff and maintain the Stonehenge facility, despite its use as an offensive weapon being strictly forbade by international law. Unsubstantiated rumors persist that the Chinese have turned the weapon on rebel and dissident groups inside their own borders as part of their ever-increasing internal crackdowns.  .svg.png) TURKEY Full Name: The Republic of Turkey Capital: Ankara Continent: Asia Head of State: President Government: Unitary parliamentary constitutional republic The Stonehenge Type-3 turret facility was constructed in northeastern Turkey in the desert between Erzincan and Erzurum. The Eurasian nation was considered a controversial pick to host the third STN site, given its location and history of instability, but it was argued that the location chosen for the facility provided optimal coverage for central Europe, the Middle East, the Mediterranean and northern Africa. This estimation proved somewhat inaccurate, as eastern Europe, Italy, Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia suffered heavy damage from Ulysses fragments that STN-3 failed to intercept. As the world order collapsed following Ulysses Day, the Turkish government abandoned STN-3, leaving the facility to rot in the Anatolian dry lands as it shifted its focus towards economic recovery and restructuring. The Type-3 had become a white elephant for the Turks, who were all too happy to sign on to the international space weapon ban treaty to functionally be rid of the STN-3. However, with the facility sitting abandoned and under minimal guard, it appears to be ripe for the picking for any ambitious militant group to commandeer if they fancy themselves bold enough to try.   NAMIBIA Full Name: The Republic of Namibia Capital: Windhoek Continent: Africa Head of State: President Government: Unitary dominant-party semi-presidential republic Namibia was chosen as one of the three host nations for the Southern Hemisphere Stonehenge turret facilities. The south African nation would protect Sub-Saharan Africa from any incoming Ulysses fragments bound for impact sites south of the Equator. Compared to its sister sites, STN-4, built north of Etosha National Park, preformed more than admirably, keeping impact sites isolated to the Gulf of Guinea, northern Nigeria, southern Sudan, and the waters between the north coast of Madagascar and the Seychelles. To prevent it from falling into the hands of the various militant groups active in Africa in the wake of the global collapse brought about by Ulysses, the STN-4 site was quickly decommissioned and sabotaged by the UN following Ulysses Day. In the twenty years since then, satellite imagery shows the railgun installation to have largely been reclaimed by the Namibian desert after two decades of sitting derelict.  .svg.png) AUSTRALIA Full Name: The Commonwealth of Australia Capital: Canberra Continent: Oceania Head of State: Queen, Prime Minister Government: Federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy The western coast of Australia was pulverized by meteor strikes after a catastrophically lucky fragment slipped through STN-2’s firing grid and destroyed the Type-2 facility in the central Outback, leaving the entire continent and Oceania defenseless against remainder of Ulysses’ wrath. Queensland and New South Wales were utterly annihilated, as were the major Australian cities of Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, and the national capital of Canberra.   ARGENTINA Full Name: The Argentine Republic Capital: Buenos Aires Continent: South America Head of State: President Government: Federal presidential constitutional republic The Stonehenge Type-5 facility in Argentina was the last of the five STN sites to be approved and constructed. As such it was barely halfway operational by the time Ulysses Day approached. With STN-5’s northwestern turrets non-functional as the asteroid fragments began raining down, and STN-1 in American unable to compensate due to range limitations, the northern coast of South America suffered intense damage. Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Colombia, and the Amazonas State in Brazil took the brunt of the impacts thanks to STN-5’s incomplete coverage area. As South America collapsed into disorder and chaos following the Ulysses Disaster, Argentina was blamed for the damage suffered by the northern nations, compounding continental hostilities even further.   The Ace Combat Infinity soundtrack is largely curbed from the soundtracks of the previous games in the franchise, with the occasional new remix of certain tracks, such as the heroic remix of Blue Skies from Ace Combat 04, among others. I will try to keep this as comprehensive as I can though even if there’s no set tracklist for it. Tracks featured in Mission 1:
nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 02:43 on May 28, 2018 |
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May 28, 2018 02:22
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For the record, the campaign pass was like 20 bucks. I didn't think it was too bad because while it's technically twenty bucks for less than half a normal Ace Combat, there was also a challenge that got you 20 free units of stocked fuel the first time you completed mission 5, which would have come out to about the same price anyway. Also, double-checking shows that Gamestop's website sold the pass for like 13 bucks instead, which I'm pretty sure is how I got it. One thing I will miss about this game is Cipher's Draken. By the time I'd been burned out on the game waiting for them to add the Phoenix emblem to the tournament-rewards catalogue (which, of course, they finally did a full goddamned year after switching to that system) I'd upgraded that thing enough that I'm pretty sure real-world pilots would be pasted from the G-forces in a full-on turn. And I don't think there's anything more the basic mechanics of an Ace Combat game could do to make me feel like a total badass in an organic fashion. Also, I guess this is my cue to stop sitting on HAWX footage for close to two years now.
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May 28, 2018 03:59
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Getting in on the ground floor for this one! To be honest, I haven’t touched my PS3 in what feels like YEARS since I’ve bought my PS4. Hopefully they can port over Infinity over to the 4 and maybe bundle some AC7 content in there as well as a “thanks for playing this free game that almost no-one played on our previous console.” Hell, I’d be satisfied with a discount coupon for AC7 if they decide to go that route.
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May 28, 2018 04:13
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Well this game looks like a hot mess, hardly surprising since it was F2P shovelware. Really what stood out immediately for me though is that the main organization for the game -the UNICS - is spelled in such a way that it makes me want to pronounce it as "eunuchs". Given the choice between that and pirates I don't see why they're making such a fuss.
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May 28, 2018 04:15
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May 28, 2018 04:30
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Hell yeah! I really wish they gave us a full campaign, though. 
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May 28, 2018 04:37
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Oh yes, more planes and their mysterious tendency to explode when swarmed by magic, infinitely restocking missiles! I wasn't really expecting to see Infinity covered in this series, but I can't say I'm disappointed. I didn't play too much of the game, but I certainly liked the little bit I did over the little bit I played of Assault Horizon.
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May 28, 2018 11:14
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I do enjoy the fact that even a month and a half after the completion of AC2, nothing past Zero is archived. It's tough to recommend the LP series to people outside the forums when the paywall can go up at any moment.
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May 28, 2018 12:27
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Here we go again, hell yeah. I've never actually played one of these games but you've done a consistently great job with the LPs! Hopefully the new game is decent and keeps the series alive. I wonder if we'll ever see a remake of 3?
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May 28, 2018 13:42
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As part of the old Infinity Flight Crew, I'm glad to see that we've reached my only area of "expertise" since I'm still an Ace Combat scrub outside of that. Well, whatever qualifies as expertise when it comes to a literal dead game anyways.
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May 28, 2018 14:40
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Materant posted:I do enjoy the fact that even a month and a half after the completion of AC2, nothing past Zero is archived. AC2 is now on baldurk to get archived. 04, 5, and 6 aren't technically done yet, as I'm sitting on a ton of bonus footage for at the very least 04 and 5, it's just that splicing footage from like 10 different video sources together into several giant rear end videos is an amazing pain in the rear end and feels like a regression when I have other stuff still ahead of me to get through. One day it will all be finished and archived though.
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May 28, 2018 18:30
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Another LP so soon? I gotta update myself or else I'll end up dancing with the angels!
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May 28, 2018 20:22
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Feel bad for people who spent money on this crap just to have it shut down. Couldn't even be bothered to disable online support and just let people continue playing offline minus all their Freemium restrictions.
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May 29, 2018 00:26
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I've watched videos of some of the missions they lifted from previous games being played at max difficulty and the new gimmicks and twists they added seemed cool; like how in their lift of Sword of Annihilation has Excalibur defended by a laser reflector system and several squadron spawns as well. e.: some of the links to the previous LPs throw up 404 results on the lparchive, are the LPs for 5 and 6 up on there?
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May 29, 2018 02:51
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The Advanced Automated Aircraft Plant? Guess there really is an AAAP for that...
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May 29, 2018 03:40
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KazigluBey posted:I've watched videos of some of the missions they lifted from previous games being played at max difficulty and the new gimmicks and twists they added seemed cool; like how in their lift of Sword of Annihilation has Excalibur defended by a laser reflector system and several squadron spawns as well. An unfortunate side effect of the OPs being written with the Archives in mind without any of them being archived yet. Here are the proper links:
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May 29, 2018 03:44
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http://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zone/20971/this-is-what-a-boeing-f-32-wouldve-looked-like-if-lockheed-lost-the-jsf-competition Really unrelated but at the same time F-32 as it would've looked looks very much like an Ace Combat plane.
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May 29, 2018 20:31
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You can be my Bone Arrow anytime, Crow. I really hope that name sounds as silly in Japanese as it does in English. Also, Electrosphere was the best LP: I never would have believed that Ace Combat once had a game that was downright glorious in how weird it was, otherwise. thetruegentleman fucked around with this message at 22:09 on May 29, 2018 |
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May 29, 2018 22:06
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In other, semi-related, news the Kickstarter for Project Wingman has gone live: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/rb-d2/project-wingman Which also includes a demo. Something to tide people over until the next AC:I update or even AC7. And it's the first Kickstarter that I have backed. I even got to be backer #47. 
Cooked Auto fucked around with this message at 23:09 on May 29, 2018 |
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May 29, 2018 22:54
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The fusion of Strangereal and Real World is so bizarre. Do you happen to know what led to that decision?
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Jun 2, 2018 18:02
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WampaPartyEX posted:The fusion of Strangereal and Real World is so bizarre. Do you happen to know what led to that decision? ...Assault Horizon bombing by not being a Strangereal game?  That is my legit straight answer, by the way. After the last two non-Strangereal games they made (Joint Assault and Assault Horizon) turned out to be duds that no one was interested in playing, Project ACES asked “Oh, wait. Is it Strangereal that you guys were interested in all along? Is it the whacky setting we made up that really sells these games?” And the community responded with a deafening “YES!!!”. Followed by “No more Dog Fight Mode, please.”
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Jun 2, 2018 18:13
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nine-gear crow posted:...Assault Horizon bombing by not being a Strangereal game? Hey! I liked Assault Horizon! I thought it was a good game that just needed more time in development! And DFM was a good way to show off the game models, even though it was poorly implemented!
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Jun 3, 2018 19:39
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I enjoyed AH but it pales in comparison to the Strangereal games. It tries so hard to be cool and radical, and manages to hit some of those notes in spite of itself.
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Jun 3, 2018 20:01
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tech tree and making fun of infinity: 18 minutes mission: 2 minutes I don't blame you for that, I want to be clear. Just saying that as far as first impressions of the game go, um. Assuming it's accurate - and it looks to be - nowhere to go but up? Also this video explains a lot of Aces' wrong opinions about Wingman, so, there's that. "Bone Arrows" come on ...what is this, Skyrim?
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Jun 3, 2018 22:03
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Better and faster controlling games are good, slower and clunkier are bad, these are anything but wrong facts. 
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Jun 3, 2018 22:21
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Psion posted:tech tree and making fun of infinity: 18 minutes 1:30 of pointless intro 9:30 of explaining the tech tree and mocking Infinity 2:20 of intro cutscene 1:10 of briefing 6:00 of mission gameplay  Yes, the "boring" stuff is frontloaded into the first video. Hopefully Mission 2 will be more indicative of how things will play out/feel more like a proper Ace Combat LP update once I get it all together either for tonight or tomorrow.
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Jun 3, 2018 22:27
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nine-gear crow posted:1:30 of pointless intro i mean, I got nothing i was all set to defend a bad joke but you took the trouble to actually pull timestamps so I concede 
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Jun 3, 2018 23:06
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Great Migration Mission 2: Operation Bird Hunt – May 15th, 2019 Overview: An aerial convoy bound for Comona Base, a facility owned by Wernher and Noah Enterprises in the West Indies, is being tracked by UNF radar in the mid Atlantic. The convoy appears to be tied to Wernher’s illegal attempt to create a space-based laser satellite weapon in direct violation of the Comprehensive Space Warfare Ban Treaty. Bone Arrow Squadron is being sent in on behalf of UNICS to intercept and if necessary destroy the convoy before it reaches Comona.  Guest Commentator: I am joined for this mission by Cooked Auto.  WERNHER AND NOAH ENTERPRISES And our stand-in for Gründer Industries for Infinity is… As of the start of fiscal year 2019, Wernher and Noah Enterprises has become one the largest multi-national corporations on the planet. Owned and operated by the Noah Financial Institutions, the Belgian corporation started its life a humble defense contractor firm, but following its development and patenting of the Advanced Automated Aviation Plant system (AAAP), the company’s profits and popularity skyrocketed. Wernher was a key player in the push for the creation and later expansion of the Eurasian Special Economic Zones, such as Iyuli in southern Russia. As refugees flooded into the SEZs, fleeing the wars and devastation wrought by Ulysses, Wernher was there to meet them with bountiful (but comparatively low-paying) jobs at their SEZ facilities. The Special Economic Zones made Wernher incredibly wealthy and allowed it to expand its sphere of influence beyond mere weapons production. In the 2010s, Wernher and Noah opened an energy production and resource management arm, focusing heavily on solar and wind energy. Shortly thereafter they bought out many smaller scale information technology and private space development firms, consolidating them into Wernher and Noah Aerospace, the world’s largest private space firm. Wernher now owns and operates orbital launch platforms all around the planet from Florida and the Caribbean to central Russia. Controversy has dogged Wernher every step of the way since its emergence as a global power player, however. The company taken strident measures to ensure that its humanitarian work and charity spending match its ruthless capitalist endeavors, but human rights groups like Amnesty International, the UN Human Rights Council, and the International Labour Organization all consider WNE to be the single largest non-state human rights abuser on the planet, and decry its “humanitarian” work as hollow propaganda at best. Moreover, the revelation of Wernher’s alleged involvement in the Tokyo drone attack and its in-house development of the Orbital Laser Defense System (OLDS) under former head of Wernher and Noah Aerospace, Kacper Cohen, have lead to increased scrutiny of the company from all angles.  ADVANCED AUTOMATED AIRCRAFT PLANT Infinity’s conceit for the “How can we shove every aircraft ever into this game?” mechanic. In universe the AAAP is explained as having being a Wernher invention which basically allowed them to 3D print aircraft of any size and level of sophistication quickly, cheaply, and easily. That’s about it. Kvasir briefly glosses over it in his infodump for this mission, but it’s not something worth focusing on. Don’t worry about it. Tracks featured in Mission 2: nine-gear crow fucked around with this message at 04:58 on Jun 4, 2018 |
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Jun 4, 2018 04:47
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I know we all kinda gave poo poo to AC6 for trying callbacks without earning it, but Infinity doesn't even pretend to earn poo poo, it just does them all. It's a clip show with f2p grind! makes you wonder how it would've gone over if the fanbase hadn't been desperate for a Strangereal title, you know?
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Jun 4, 2018 06:57
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I mean, it's super fun to play, and in an arcade action plane game, that's kind of the be-all-end-all. The monetization and fuel schemes are dumb, but if the game was just shipped as a regular release AC game with a proper campaign and the multiplayer stuff was just a mode, there's no way in hell I wouldn't put it up at the top just by virtue of being so good to play.
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Jun 4, 2018 12:58
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Crow, the briefing said it was the USAF who didn't want to get involved with this sortie and further aggravate various Latin American countries, so they asked for the UNICS to handle it, since they're just PMCs with an UN deputy badge. That's why it was no problem that Viper IDed himself. Come on, man, keep up with the the plot! There will be a quiz later, questioning you on the geopolitical state of Realreal following the Ulysses crash.
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Jun 4, 2018 16:06
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The funny thing about the aviation-plant things is that it's the handwaviest of handwaves. They had the whole thing in the story about how military budgets were slashed (thus no plane designs we got after 1999) and then the plants sprang up and were able to quickly produce any craft so long as blueprints existed. Then they started adding poo poo that clearly wouldn't have been produced until after '99, so everybody's flying around in the 2008 version of the Su-35, the PAK FA, and the ATD-X (I still remember the big deal they made about adding that to the game when the real thing was unveiled). Still, it was at least an attempt to explain why the planes are all there in such numbers. Better than when they started adding the series' fictional craft like the Delphinus and FALKEN and the descriptions for them just plain forgot that this game isn't set in Strangereal.
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Jun 4, 2018 21:34
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Brunom1 posted:Crow, the briefing said it was the USAF who didn't want to get involved with this sortie and further aggravate various Latin American countries, so they asked for the UNICS to handle it, since they're just PMCs with an UN deputy badge. That's why it was no problem that Viper IDed himself. Cooked Auto and I were talking over the briefing and just kind of taking turns making fun of the worldbuilding and poo poo, so I kind of missed much of what Goodfellow saying. It's all cut out of the final video for the audience's sake, but trust me, I could not be moved to give a poo poo anyway
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Jun 5, 2018 01:51
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Could've sworn he said both USAF and UN wanting to stay out of this whole thing but whatever.
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Jun 5, 2018 10:28
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I like how the Delphinus maintains that Ace Combat 3 UI, right down to the Bulls-Eye pop-up. That's cute.
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Jun 5, 2018 14:58
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Am I in the ground floor? This is the ground floor, right? Where we sign up to dance with the (real-world) angels?
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Jun 5, 2018 19:06
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nine-gear crow posted:And, to be honest, as much as I hate to admit it, it worked. We got Ace Combat 7 out of it. If not for Infinity, the franchise would have died with Assault Horizon. I wanted to bring this up since it's the standard narrative from most AC fans, and Namco going back to Strangereal with 7 fits right in with that, but then I actually saw some concrete sale numbers. According to a post about Namco's earning calls, AC6 sold 700k copies worldwide in over four years, but ACAH sold 1.07m copies inside of seven months. Or, in other words, claiming "the franchise would have died" with a game which outsold the gently caress out of AC6 seven times as fast is, perhaps, not right. (Yes, I know AC6 was 360 exclusive and AH was not. Regardless. 7 months instead of 4 years for 1.5x the copies.) But then, they returned to Strangereal with Infinity, and that seems to have made them a bunch of money, though I have no numbers for it. So it's not like the fan desire for Strangereal was wrong either, and it's not like AH didn't make mistakes - oh yes it did. So, it's complicated. At the bare minimum, it's more complicated than "franchise dead, Infinity saved it." AH did its own amount of saving, and if the end result is Namco taking so long to release AC7 we get Project Wingman instead, well, I consider that a victory
Psion fucked around with this message at 00:03 on Jun 7, 2018 |
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Jun 6, 2018 23:56
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Psion posted:I wanted to bring this up since it's the standard narrative from most AC fans, and Namco going back to Strangereal with 7 fits right in with that, but then I actually saw some concrete sale numbers. According to a post about Namco's earning calls, AC6 sold 700k copies worldwide in over four years, but ACAH sold 1.07m copies inside of seven months. Huh. Now how about that. I did not actually know that about the sales numbers. Because just going off the fan and gaming press reactions whenever Assault Horizon is brought it, it makes it sound like it drat-well powerbombed the franchise through about five folding tables. I suppose timeline-wise there was more time between Ace Combat 6's release and Assault Horizon's than there (hopefully)will be between Assault Horizon and 7 because you had Infinity in there too, which for better or worse still counts as almost a full Ace Combat game. There's definitely some interesting "perception vs. reality" reaction going on w/r/t Assault Horizon where it sold respectively well in retrospect and yet people still hate it and blame it for wrecking the franchise. (Hello, Last Jedi)
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Jun 7, 2018 01:15
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nine-gear crow posted:and yet people still hate it and blame it for wrecking the franchise. There is a joke about that and the LP threads in there somewhere but I'm too knackered to find it.
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Jun 7, 2018 01:49
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