Blazing Angels Review 138
- Title: Blazing Angels
- Developer/Publisher: Ubisoft
- System:360 (Xbox)
Autopilot won't help in the combat arenas, which move at a brisk clip. Each battle is broken down into a series of objectives. Your wingmen keep you appraised of the situation with audio cues and a great 'objective lock' feature. By holding down a button, your camera turns to focus on whatever you should be attacking. It makes three dimensional dogfighting a manageable (and enjoyable) experience. The focus of the controls seems to be entirely about putting you in the moment as much as possible. There are almost no HUD elements to clutter your view. Weapons have unlimited ammo, and a simple on-screen indicator tells you when you've got a good aim on a target. The controller's vibrate function, which in many games I find annoying, emphasizes the danger of the moment as your vintage craft shudders to greater speeds. While the sometimes necessary confusion of aerial combat can make for disorienting moments, the control scheme is intuitive and useful.
The missions themselves, unfortunately, don't live up to the moment-to-moment action. Once you're diving and wheeling against a pilot in the Luftwaffe, you're going to tend to forget the reason you're there. The distinct mission segments are utterly forgettable. They mostly consist of 'take out that unit' or 'keep that vehicle/building intact'. Mediocre setting elements could have been saved by good voice acting, but that's sadly not the case here either. Almost universally the voice actors go full out for 'recognizable stereotype', and sometimes don't even manage to get where they're aiming for. Probably most annoying are the extremely chatty enemies. As you shoot down opponents you'll be constantly bombarded with insulting commentary and annoyed exclamations. You'd think that the opposing forces would be running on different radio frequencies.Visually, Blazing Angels is a competent success. The 360's power is put to use creating a seamless and smooth combat experience and expansive observable vistas. The game's art direction has something of a softness to it, giving the appearance of flying through an old-timey photograph. The specificity of the art direction coupled with the title's speed results in a fighting experience that feels something like an homage to another Xbox title.
That title is Crimson Skies. One of the original offerings for the first Xbox, the alternate history flying shooter is a solid and enjoyable gaming experience even three years later. In comparison, Angels comes up short, but certainly not for lack of trying. Blazing Angels is ultimately an uncomplicated flying experience that aims for style over substance. It succeeds at simplicity where Full Auto failed. It does what it does very well, without technical hiccups, and backs that technical prowess with simple and fun gameplay. The brevity of the experience and the corny voice acting keep the game from being a long-haul title, but this one is definitely worth a rental. Rent it, play online, grab your achievements, and then move on to weightier games. With some of the hotly anticipated titles slated for later this year likely to run to epic lengths, this dime-store war story will feel like a nice change of pace.
controls for the Wii? (Score:1, Offtopic)
That said, this game looks interesting. I like the idea of a bit of "grit" back in the games -- too often it seems that studios are going for this ultimately high-res "too clean" look. Give me rain, give me poor visibility. Give me dirt!
Re:controls for the Wii? (Score:1)
Pilotwings Wii?
Re:controls for the Wii? (Score:2)
Re:controls for the Wii? (Score:1, Offtopic)
Hallelujah! May the game-creating gods hear you! Seriously, I LOVE bad weathers in games, it adds to the end of the world type feeling you can have in an action game. We need more.
Objective Lock (Score:2)
It's an old (and often missing) friend in the world of Aerial Warfare.
Re:controls for the Wii? (Score:2)
They both offer weather and all the realism you could ever want. You can even get a real HOTAS setup and rudder peddles.
Re:controls for the Wii? (Score:2, Insightful)
Yes, it's too bad its name evokes such a juvenile response. Perhaps you should pay more attention to your lessons, and concern yourself less with the sexual orientation of a gaming console's name?
Re:controls for the Wii? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:controls for the Wii? (Score:3, Insightful)
Lastly: "if it were possible for a console's name to be gay, Wii would be the name." It seems that you keep intending to use being gay as an insult. Actual Nazis, not the grammar kind, might be pr
Re:controls for the Wii? (Score:2)
'Blazing' Angels (Score:4, Funny)
Re:'Blazing' Angels (Score:1)
Re:'Blazing' Angels (Score:1)
Why Can't I Return an Opened Game?! (Score:1)
Repetitive missions need not be boring (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Repetitive missions need not be boring (Score:1)
Game came right after Red Baron, and its unprecedented success. Now speaking of which, this game also does an unparalelled job of taking the player to WWI atmosphere, it is a must-have for anyone who have played at least a computer game.
Back in 92-93, Aces of pacific came, which was an implementation of the principles invented in red baron (immersive career concept, a hi
the best sub sim hands down (Score:2)
looking at the screenshots i wonder (Score:5, Funny)
Re:looking at the screenshots i wonder (Score:2)
Re:looking at the screenshots i wonder (Score:3, Informative)
Historical photos from that time were not color. So basically it just looks odd. Color photos don't tint yellow, they use different chemicals that decay in a different manner.
Maybe something was wrong with the sun in those years and noone noticed.
Re:looking at the screenshots i wonder (Score:2)
Re:looking at the screenshots i wonder (Score:2)
Great, it can even go on game posters "See the world through the camera of the nazis".
Re:looking at the screenshots i wonder (Score:3, Funny)
Re:looking at the screenshots i wonder (Score:1)
Re:looking at the screenshots i wonder (Score:2)
Re:looking at the screenshots i wonder (Score:1)
Re:looking at the screenshots i wonder (Score:2)
Re:looking at the screenshots i wonder (Score:1)
Re:looking at the screenshots i wonder (Score:2)
Re:looking at the screenshots i wonder (Score:1)
Weeeeeeeeeee're off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz!
KFG
Re:looking at the screenshots i wonder (Score:1)
Re:PC upgrade vs 360 (Score:2)
Re:PC upgrade vs 360 (Score:2)
While I'm sure what you're saying is about 95% true, and I myself am a dedicated PC gamer, I must point out that all console games on all platforms, from the Atari 260 to the PS2, have demonstrated the ability to improve with age. Later games invariably have superior graphics etc to the earlier games. I've heard several explanations for this, the main two of which are: a) Programmers become more competent with the fixed and unchan
simliar (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:simliar (Score:1)
Re:simliar (Score:4, Informative)
It's not nessisarily a huge thing, but it is something to be aware of. Your best bet would be to try a demo first.
Re:simliar (Score:2)
Thank heavens it was a Gamefly rental. I sent it back the next day. It really wasn't any good.
Re:simliar (Score:2, Informative)
WarBirds (Score:2)
Red Baron rocks (Score:2)
WTF? (Score:2)
Re:WTF? (Score:2)
Seriously though, I wonder if they'll even bother releasing this one in the UK.
Re:WTF? (Score:1)
Funny you should mention that; Churchill's mother was the American Jennie Jerome [wikipedia.org]. Churchill was proud to be half-American, and bragged that one remote ancestor was an Iroquois Indian, though there is no genealogical proof of this.
-ccm
Re:WTF? (Score:2)
Re:WTF? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Informative)
In the context of this game, it's probably just a device to let the game designers start the action beofore 1942 and still have an American protagonist.
It's fair to say the advantage went back and forth. The British had the edge on equipment with the exception of a short period after the Fw 190 [wikipedia.org] came out but it was marginal. The Me 262 [wikipedia.org] actually had little impact mainly for strategic reasons.Re:WTF? (Score:2, Informative)
Mediocre title at best (Score:4, Interesting)
The missions are repetitive and ultimately boring. And the voice acting is VERY annoying.
The title had so much promise.
Re:Mediocre title at best (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Mediocre title at best (Score:1)
Re:Mediocre title at best (Score:2)
My biggest gripe? The water. The 360 has plenty of horse power under the hood... so why arent there some sembelence of waves?! Battleships sit mightly in the water as you shoot your infinite rounds into their hulls. They don't move. You drop bombs on them. They take d
The PC version is infested with the SF.virus! (Score:1)
Re:The PC version is infested with the SF.virus! (Score:1)
Good Combat Flight Sims; why not? (Score:4, Insightful)
A good friend of mine used to play WarBirds (http://www.totalsims.com/ [totalsims.com]) and used to tell such invigorating stories about how he'd be up all night with a map, a ruler and a caclulator trying to figure out the best route to bomb a historical target with his flight wing.
Wouldn't it be more fun to learn how a real WWII plane handled and what all the instruments did and get closer to the real experience?
Re:Good Combat Flight Sims; why not? (Score:3, Insightful)
For some, I'm sure it would be. Others don't want to spend all the time having to learn about how read an altimeter or how the payload affects fuel consumtion. They'd rather have a simple arcade-like flight game where the only things you need to worry about are either crashing into the ground or getting shot down. I like sim-like games, but sometimes I'm looking for somethi
Re:Good Combat Flight Sims; why not? (Score:2)
I enjoyed playing games like Crimson Skies, but when I wanted to go to the next level I found that most of the sims out there were aging, buggy and that had community level support (which was not enough).
If there was a serious flight sim out there today that delivered decent graphics and a good physics engine I'd be checking it out, that's for sure.
Re:Good Combat Flight Sims; why not? (Score:1)
And there are far more first person shooters than Barbie dress-up games. What's your point? What comes to market is influenced by many factors but one very important one is how games in a particular genre have sold in the past. There are more arcade-style flight combat games because historically those have sold better than more realistic flight combat games.
Re:Good Combat Flight Sims; why not? (Score:2)
Graphics are exceptional for a 4 year old title and the physics model is second to none. The AI is passable but still limited as it uses the same flight model as the player.
The only area where it falls down is the somewhat limited dynamic campaign system (which is developed by a 3rd party). Online play is, however, supposed to be stellar.
Re:Good Combat Flight Sims; why not? (Score:2)
Re:Good Combat Flight Sims; why not? (Score:1)
Some people get off on realism, some people are busy and like to jump in a plane and blow shit up going as fast as they can.
Re:Good Combat Flight Sims; why not? (Score:2)
Fun? Yes. More fun? Well, that's the magic of different games for different tastes. I'd love a return to the days when there were multiple flight simulators released every year. Unfortunately, I think the development costs have gotten too high compared to the size of the target audience. The action/arcade flight games have much broader appeal and so that's what we're
Re:Good Combat Flight Sims; why not? (Score:3, Interesting)
A video game is never going to have the stakes (your life) that real combat has, nor the months of flight training. So it makes sense to distill a game into the "interesting bits"
Interestingly Gamers Quarter [gamersquarter.com] #2 had a review of Steel Battalion that seems to indicate it's taking this approach; about as "hard sci fi" as you can get, with that giant dashboard accesory, and then heightening it by having "real character death"... you can't restore if you get kill
Re:Good Combat Flight Sims; why not? (Score:2)
It's out there, and it's called Aces High [hitechcreations.com]. It is "massively" multiplayer though, I don't know of any single player games like that.
Re:Good Combat Flight Sims; why not? (Score:1)
Shockwave's "Battle of Britain 2" is a single player title with realistic plane numbers, IOW around a 1000 airplanes over the the UK and about 300 so near that you can see them in 3D. It is a hardcore title with realistic physics and AI. Airplane graphics are good, terrain is realsitic but not state of the art. I may be biased though, as I am a developer ;).
Re:Good Combat Flight Sims; why not? (Score:4, Interesting)
I would happily pay $150+ to be able to play Longbow II in a high-res 3D environment with current graphical features -- it was engrossing enough in the primitive Voodoo-optimized version, and the game mechanics/AI would barely need to be tweaked at all. Sure it's exciting to fly an F15 at Mach 3 with your pants on fire, but for my money nothing was as fun as 30 feet off the ground at 300 mph, popping up over a hill to engage 12 hard targets in 2 seconds while jinking to avoid small arms fire. Or the thrill of flying a fast, vulnerable Kiowa scout, hovering just behind the trees painting targets for the Apaches and then getting the hell out of dodge before the Iranian air force realizes you're in the neighborhood.
Re:Good Combat Flight Sims; why not? (Score:1)
*eyebrow*
Re:Good Combat Flight Sims; why not? (Score:2)
Re:Good Combat Flight Sims; why not? (Score:1)
As it turns out, I worked at Origin in the QA department when Longbow and LB2 were being developed and tested. I was one of the very few people in the building who wanted more, not less, realism.
Full marks to the dev team for staying focused on a fun, high-fidelity flight sim. What a great game!
Re:Good Combat Flight Sims; why not? (Score:2)
Re:Good Combat Flight Sims; why not? (Score:2)
Physics model, check. Hardness, check.
1/2 scale Europe, one continuous playing field (you can fly from UK airfields to West German targets or vice versa), and there are 'unfilled' areas that are accessible but don't have anything to shoot (a squad I play with recently went to the Swiss alps and parachuted down to them finishing in an apparently disastrous landing attempt).
Player-driven High Commands with all the good and bad that can imply.
Relative t
Re:Good Combat Flight Sims; why not? (Score:2)
Not for the XBox 360's target audience.
Re:Good Combat Flight Sims; why not? (Score:2)
It is a VERY realistic flight sim. You can NOT 'yank and bank' like so many others..or you black out and die. The bullets fly on proper ballistic flight paths and deflection shooting is apropriatly hard. Fuel and damage are all realistic..and the multiplayer is very good.
Also for modern aircraft, i've found the realistic mode in Falcon 4.0 to be brutally realistic. Like in real life, one screwup and you die haha. Not sure i
Re:Good Combat Flight Sims; why not? (Score:2)
Re:Good Combat Flight Sims; why not? (Score:1)
"very grounded flying game" (Score:3, Funny)
Uhmmmm.... (Score:2)
I agree... (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, the game looks great, but it's not quite smooth. There is a, somewhat annoying, graphical glitch that looks not unlike the effect you get when you point a camera at a computer monitor and the two aren't on the same refresh rate. There's a band that scrolls across the screen that I can best describe as "off whack". Probably some variation on tearing. There's no excuse for that in a console game.
Other than that, though, it is a fun, albeit mindless game.
Re:I agree... (Score:1)
Re:I agree... (Score:2)
Holy Cow! (Score:1)
_Blazing_ Angels? Oh. (Score:2)
Jake disagrees again . . . (Score:3, Informative)
I will agree with you in the graphical department though. Aside from the tearing, the graphical presentation is fantastic, especially the cityscapes which seem to stretch on into infinity. Now . . . if only we could have Crimson Skies with these graphics, oh well.
New tagline (Score:3, Funny)
An Ubisoft joint.
It smokes the competition!
Biplanes for Intellivision (Score:2, Funny)
Kudos for uniqueness! (Score:2)
Re:Kudos for uniqueness! (Score:2)
RED ORCHESTRA LINK [redorchestragame.com]
Although it is Windows only and requires Steam installed it is a great shooter, especially if you dislike the run and gun play that other games have. This game has an infantry side and an armoured tank battle side to it, both focus on realism as much as possible while maintaining a great gameplay. It requires teamwork and tactics to win.
Also of note it is takes place
Doesn't anyone ask who wrote the review? (Score:1, Redundant)
slashdot, we post anything for a few bucks.
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Demo used Starforce, so... (Score:3, Informative)
No thanks. Even if it isn't as harmful as people say (I hadnt had problems with it on a game that used it - Still Life; but that doesnt mean it wasn't causing problems I wasnt aware of), they have shown their true colors by deliberately promoting piracy of products that don't use it (Stardock's Galactic Civilization II).
I refuse to purchase titles that use, and thereby support, Starforce.
selling games (Score:3, Insightful)
Unless that hype sells you a million unit on pre-sales. Video game fans are some of the stupidest consumers around, the game publishers get away with complete abuse of their customer base.
Sucks on the PC (Score:1)
This is the first time I returned a game because it was defective like this. And it wasn't easy to return it, had to argue with the manager.
Did they even test it with a joystick? They must have figure
Okay... (Score:1)
- The game has hardly any story-line (as the reviewer noted)
- The game suffers from a terrible horizontal tear when banking hard left or right
- The game feels like a ripoff of Heroes of the Pacific [heroesofthepacific.com] both effect wise and camera wise. Some of the trademark Heroes effects and camera movements are identical in Angels!
- You don't seem to have a sense of urgency or purpose in the game and dogfighting
Re:Okay... (Score:1)
Re:Okay... (Score:1)
Wrong wrong wrong. Heroes of the Pacific was developed by IRGurus, *published* by UbiSoft in the states, while published in Europe by Codemasters. Blazing Angels is developed and published by UbiSoft. Me thinks the UbiSoft guys were taking a long hard look at Heroes while they were getting ready to publish Heroes.
There IS a demo out... (Score:2)
The tearing alone was so utterly distracting I'm shocked this game even made it out the door. I find it hard to believe Ubi's QA department missed it.
Anyway, you can try before you buy, so take advantage of that.
Re:Don't care (Score:2)
Yeah, like that'll ever happen!
p.s.- You're an idiot.
Re:Don't care (Score:1)
Yes it is. The PS3 uses opengl, as well as other open standards.
Re:Don't care (Score:1)