Tom Clancy’s H.A.W.X. Sells A Million

Good to hear. As far as I know, this team's other games (the Blazing Angels series) didn't do too well, so Ubi made the right decision by giving them another shot and slapping Tom Clancy's name on it. From what I hear its a much better game than the Blazing Angels series too. It's nice to hear some good sales news right now.

Mokon

I had it from Gamefly, and while the campaign is too short and far too easy even on "Hard", I enjoyed the multiplayer a great deal. There's something satisfying in hearing that "missile lock" tone. Not a classic, but I can understand the appeal.

GonePostal77

@Luke Plunkett: With expert settings you get the real load out when you go online. That means about 4 missiles and the rest is up to your cannons
I'm enjoying this game quite a bit online on the pc, although it has had a lot of problems with connecting to their servers in the past

@Fallible.: No, just a lot of people who don't agree with you.

Simba

@Luke Plunkett: But imagine how short all the missions would be if you only had about 10 missiles!

"Guess it goes to show that, despite the flight sim genre going into a coma in recent years, people still want to fly jets and shoot at other people in jets."

There are two things wrong with this sentence:

1: HAWX is not a flight sim, it's just an arcade game
2: The combat flight sim genre has just been resurrected by Eagle Dynamics who have graced us with DCS: Black Shark - the the deepest and most authentic simulation ever since Falcon 4.0. I give you that the Black Shark is not a fixed wing aircraft but there's also LockOn: Flaming Cliffs (simulates a Su-25T) by the same studio and the next simulation by them will be that of a A-10 Thunderbolt.

Although still way more realisitc than HAWX, DCS: Black Shark also features a pretty fun to play arcade-mode.

TheOddOneDies

I think the fact its "balls to the wall" daft fun is part of its attraction, i mean dogfighting in fighter jets that can shoot a dot a million miles away is rather daft at best.

Man, why this mediocre game?

How many copies did Ace Combat 5 sell? Now THAT was an awesome arcade flight-sim - it had the soundtrack, the story, and the gameplay (and in its time, the audiovisual) to be one of the greatest games of the decade.

Ace Combat 6 wasn't bad either, just not very good. Mediocre, though a bit better than HAWX.

HAWX itself is not that bad, just very generic and mediocre, and very ideologically charged towards propaganda.

Yeah, that sells you a million copies.

@Luke Plunkett:

True enough, but I work in aviation and I suppose that flight characteristic bothered me more than anything.

This isn't really a sim, though. It's not so much a combat flight simulator as it is a fast-paced three-dimensional shooter.

Can't wait for the sequel/expansion pack! Loved every single bit of it, even with the broken XP leveling.

I enjoyed it, personally, hadn't played anything close to a flight sim in a long time when I picked it up, I suppose that could have factored into it.

Ditto... either the demo was an exceptionally poor example of the game, or a million people have an opinion of games that is directly at odds with my own. I heard someone call it "Burnout Paradise with planes", which is why I bothered checking it out at all... and I have to say, Burnout it was not.

coil

The dearth of combat flight sims on the market has led me to re-activate my Star Wars Galaxies account on more than one occasion to get my fix. With games like Ace Combat and HAWX doing well, why is it that there are so few games in this genre being made?

Jeremy Turnley

@Good news everyone! I have terrible news! (Werrick): I was more put off by the fact I had 260 missiles.

where's my media create japanese console sales pie chart?hmm..pie

Played the demo, and after about 20 minutes I removed it from my 360. Decided it wasn't worth it even if I found it for $10.

I rented it and finished it and... it's fun. It is, it's a fun game. I even played a little online with it.

But it's also a bit of a joke. I mean, power-sliding? Really?

It's a Clancy game, right, so we're expecting a degree of realism, and a tone of seriousness to the game along with a feeling of urgency. Think back to the first Ghost Recon, or the very first Rainbow Spear games. They felt exceptionally real... by comparison HAWX (I'm not doing the stupid periods, fuck that) feels like an arcade, light-hearted, completely "fun" plane shooter.

I guess another way to put it is that HAWX feels very much like Rainbow6: Vegas... but less realistic. Anyone who's played R6:Vegas will know precisely what I'm talking about.

@icepick314: 360. Most games that are rented out are 360 games. I'd say a 3:1 ratio. But I live in Georgia, so those numbers could sway in bigger metropolitan areas or something. I wouldn't rent it on either system, though, and I get the rentals for free...

It gets rented rarely, though. The first week it came out people were clamoring for it, but its niche appeal has died down.

Rembrandt

Curse you, Luke, for mentioning Rogue Squadron!

Given that Factor 5 sounded dangerously close to bankruptcy last I heard, I'm still in mourning over the loss of the Rogue Squadron series.

nworobes

Given that I was one of the few who actually looked forward to blowing people away with seemingly endless supplies of purple missiles flying an F-14 with Azusa from Idolmaster painted all over it, I dont think this game is for me. I'll just keep patiently waiting for Ace Combat 7.

@PureEgo03: I was exactly the same, but some of the missions late into the game are fantastic. They really add a twist on the flight genre and they're pretty intense. They make the whole Escort ordeal worth it.

On the downside, shortly after playing some MP and beating the SP on Elite, I lost my Rank 30, my campaign save, my challenges, my planes and upgrades, everything. A glitch occured that said "Your save file is corrupt and could not be loaded, it will now be deleted".

At which point I took the disc out of the drive and sent it back to my mail game rental service immedietely. If I had brought the game, god knows what would have happened to that disc xD

Hooligunn

@Rembrandt:
which version gets rented?

360? PS3?

i find Ace Combat more recognized arcade flight sim than HAWX but it's not on PS3...

I rather enjoyed the game for the most part, but I have to admit that was some poor mission design with that multitude of escort missions. Might still go back and play it some more, just haven't found the motivation yet.

Working at Blockbuster, it gets rented occasionally. So that's nice for them, I guess. Sort of like when the occasional person comes in and rents Trainspotting. You know, except Trainspotting is good.

Rembrandt

I thought the game was pretty terrible, if not terribly average, and I'm usually pretty good at picking winners. I certainly didn't see this breaking the million mark.

There must have been a lot of desperate people.

@Rembrandt:

You expose yourself finally. The silent clerk at video rentals stores with judging eyes.

LanciePants

@Fallible.: Been waiting for a flying arcade game for a while, this really hit the mark for me and the thousands of others that are online every night. Well, once Ubi fixed the damn servers.

That said, I sold it the moment I got the full 1000 gamerscore. It wasn't THAT engaging, and I wanted to get back to Gears 2 and the TU3.

@sander_dutch: Maybe you should try to connect to their present servers?

Simba

@Kuciwalker: You should try it in the game. You'd be surprised how strong an A-10 is in Multiplayer. They're just downright brutal. That's why it's one of my favorite planes when I want to use the best gun plane in the sky. It's so damn easy to rip through stuff with the main cannon. And it's versatile.

Really wanted to get into this game, but it hung on startup whenever I tried to use my flight stick (X52) on the demo, so I gave up. Bah.

Sim9

@Mokon: Blazing Angels 2 isn't a bad game. BA1 was, but 2, not so bad. It was rather enjoyable when I got it for dirt cheap. But I prefer HAWX a lot more than BA2.

I downloaded the demo for the ps3...played it and I just didn't like the weird view. It's like a off to the side rearview that makes it hard to aim. I usually don't like the cockpit view so a good from behind view would have been nice. Didn't see anywhere else to pick different angle. I diddn't like it, deleted it.

Thai Tea

@coil: not sure which is dumber, someone calling it "Burnout with planes" or you for checking it out based on that.

themissing

@Penny29:
its just that we all think microsoft flight sim doesnt cut the cheese for us adrenaline fuelled junkies

Fauxe

Oh man those A-10's are so fucked, if those fighters behind them are hostile.

Kuciwalker

interesting...

@Simba: win

Penny29

@walls99: There's a demo? Even then though, you aren't missing much - imo.

I loved this game, it plays so sweet with the Hori Ace Combat 6 flightstick.

@Nutlink: Same here. After about 10-15 minutes of wrestling with that awful 3rd person mode in the tutorial, I decided I'd rather be playing games that didn't aggravate me with poorly thought out gimmicky trash. I really had my hopes up for a good console flight sim too, but I got...that. Whatever that was.

I am a big fan of the flight sim genre. I have most of the Ace Combat games on the PS1 and PS2 and also the one on the PSP. I was so looking forward to buying this game, but after reading the review on Kotaku I decided against it.

Played the demo on PS3. Patch for subtitles needed. End of complaint.

@Salen: I love how these arcadey flight shooters make the A-10 capable in dogfights, haha.

Regulus

@Simba: Lol, ah syntactical ambiguity.

@Luke Plunkett: I can't even ever recall Ace Combat giving one that many missiles. Sheesh.

@Werrick: Could you clarify your reference to R6:V? I find R6:V & R6:V2 to be the best Rainbow 6 games in existence, not only for their relevancy but for their actual attempt at a story. All the other Rainbow 6 games since the one on Nintendo 64 have left me feeling cold.

interim has his cake and is eating it too

There's just not that many flying games on consoles. For next Gen, Ace Combat 6, Secret Wepons, and HAWX are really the only ones that can claim being in that genre. If they're more like arcade games than flight sims, then fine. I loved Ace Combat 5 and had a blast with it, my only complaint being that it wasn't online. I hope the rumor that AC 6 will wind up on PS3 is true. Otherwise HAWX is the next best thing.

Favorite plane: A-10

hudnut19

@Hotaru99: Oh, you're one of those!

I love me some Ace Combat 6, and all the entries before it, but I really wish they'd try a bit harder to be relevant in the West.

interim has his cake and is eating it too

@Rembrandt: Randall.. is that you?

"Downtime's important. If I had to deal with all the fucking mouthbreathers non-stop without a break, I'd put my head in the deep-fryer. "

Maxx_Needs_A_V8

@DocSeuss: Yeah. They need to make Crimson Skies 2 already, so there can be a kickass new Crimson Skies game. I need to be blowing stuff up in the '30s against AIR PIRATES!

@CanaryWundaboy: I really enjoyed it, because, goddammit, there aren't enough arcade flight games.

DocSeuss

@Fallible.: Now what I want to know is how many of that million came free with computer parts.....(I got it for free with my new Intel Core i7)

Kyle McEvoy

@Fallible.: After the demo I thought it was a pretty dumbed-down game, too much for anyone's liking... then again, I love flight simulators.

@ColombianBan: same here. And what's with the cockpit-view being marked as "the easy way, something you won't like/use". It's like getting a FPS game and the game telling you "well, you'll just be a spectator", just push A from time to time; or getting an RPG and finding-out there is no EXP, no level-up, no skills/spells, no foes.

Now, I'm going back to Razgriz.

I'm always into the Tom Clancy games....but EndWar and this just sucked ass! The graphics on Hawx were terrible IMHO. Just come out with some more Ghost Recon and Rainbow Six games already!