Ace Combat 7 Coming to PC/Steam - Possible PC VR support?

Looks like another formerly console exclusive is coming to the PC, Steam specifically. Ace Combat 7 will make its proper debut on PC sometime this year. This is the first flight shooter to come out on PC since the half effort that was the HAWX series some years back.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/01/26/danger-zone-ace-combat-7-jetting-to-pc-too/

Some VR gameplay footage:



I am not sure if the VR modes will come to PC as well, but I suppose they can add in support for the Rift and Vive.

I am liking the return to the lore and styling before that abomination known as Assault Horizon.
http://gematsu.com/gallery/albums/a...-Combat-7-Skies-Unknown_2017_01-26-17_006.jpg

In regards to the VR modes, I'd be willing to bet at this point it will be a Playstation exlusive for a year like Resident Evil 7. Definitely looking forward to it either way

Looks good. And they corrected that mistake of of setting Ace Combat in real world. It has to be fight between crazy nations using batshit crazy weapons

Can't wait

Flogger23m said:

Looks like another formerly console exclusive is coming to the PC, Steam specifically. Ace Combat 7 will make its proper debut on PC sometime this year. This is the first flight shooter to come out on PC since the half effort that was the HAWX series some years back.

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Actually, Assault Horizon was ported to PC, making it more recent than HAWX.

Flogger23m said:

I am liking the return to the lore and styling before that abomination known as Assault Horizon.

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How dare you malign a game featuring the unquestionably greatest QTE ever conceived!?



The game was pretty mediocre, but it did its job of scratching my dog fighting itch given the veritable lack of options. Its depressing that this genre is almost instinct on both PC and consoles, can you imagine how fucking epic a game like Strike Commander would be on a modern engine?

I pretend that game never existed, even though it is at the top of my Steam library. On a side note, it will release roughly one decade after the last proper title. Amazing how time flies. Just glad it is coming to PC now.

I miss HAWX. Such a great game that never quite lived up to AC fame and grandeur of that series.

I was always disappointed that AC never became a staple franchise on the PC. The epic boss battles and crazy aerial weapons were what HAWX was missing. But instead we were stuck with a mediocre gamepad to play with on Playstation. Then Assault Horizon came out, and it thoroughly pissed me off with it's shitty flight mechanics. I mean FFS, I couldn't even do the most basic of aerobatic maneuvers in the default control layout.

Give me the full AC experience on PC and allow me to use a HOTAS setup in VR. I don't even care if I only use 5 or 6 buttons out of the dozens on the HOTAS setup. This is the kind of setup that would sell VR for me.

CaptNumbNutz said:

I miss HAWX. Such a great game that never quite lived up to AC fame and grandeur of that series.

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I wouldn't call it great; it was passable and the 2nd title dropped in quality a bit more. It lacked the effort and it seemed like the developers did not have much care for the game or subject. It could have just been rushed out, but it made no attempt to stand on its own. For example, the MIG-25 and MIG-31 shared the same 3D models. As did the F-15C and E. I think even the Mirage 3 and 2000 did, and those are two generations apart. The story of the 2nd game was essentially the same gibberish of Modern Warfare, right down to the small details like "ultra-nationalist Russians" who manage to sway an entire country. The sounds were also rather bland. The 2nd title also had some bad terrian hit boxes and some other humorous bugs (lasers appearing randomly in missions, blowing you out of the sky 5 seconds in the gameplay). I'd like to pin it all on Ubisoft upper management, but I feel even the developers themselves just did not care much about the project.

As for Ace Combat, I'd like to see some more changes to how weapons and the like are handled. But at this point I hope it just ends up living up to the reputation of past titles while coming to PC. As long as it plays more like 4 and Zero and less like 5, I'll be happy enough.

Saw that and I am liking how it looks as well as the lore. Not a fan of Erusea becoming a kingdom, but I suppose it may be plausible after ISAF sacked the capitol in 2005. With the president dead I imagine a forced regime change was enforced, but I can't imagine the ISAF having the man power to occupy the country long term. So they installed old royalty to appease the population.

Though I am wondering how Osea fits in this. Suppose we'll find out why Erusea and Osea don't see eye to eye when the game releases. Though even after the disarmament treaties in 2010, it seems as though Osea will have a much larger and more advanced military. Hence why it appears to be all (or mostly) unmanned based. Seeing the size difference of the countries and that Osea was and likely still is a super power, I suppose that makes sense.

Lets hope they don't fill it with too many cheesy catch phrases (AC6) or annoying and dumb wingmen (AC5).

At least they're bringing back the nice art style and interesting pieces of technology.



Stonehendge, or what remains of it:

Gameplay videos. Essentially, old Ace Combat with modern graphics. Better than the last two entries but I was hoping they would renovate the weapon systems. But I'll take this, as I am amazed the series wasn't axed as it was more or less on the chopping block.

A theory I read somewhere about the general story, which I think may turn out to be true:

Flogger23m said:

Gameplay videos. Essentially, old Ace Combat with modern graphics. Better than the last two entries but I was hoping they would renovate the weapon systems. But I'll take this, as I am amazed the series wasn't axed as it was more or less on the chopping block.

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Those are essentially the same gameplay videos. The first one has 2 minutes of intro mission briefing.

It looks like they've got a bit more work to do on the interface. The first few minutes as they go through the plane/armament selection screens you can see the Playstation buttons at the bottom (X, Circle, Square, L1/L2, R1/R2, thumbsticks, etc) but then when the plane is about to launch off the carrier deck you see an icon for the keyboard to press and skip the scene. If this was in fact a PC demo done with a gamepad, I would think it would have had the button layout for an Xbox Controller instead.

Aside from this, the game play looks fantastic. This is the kind of stuff that would get me to do VR.

Flogger23m said:

Looks like another formerly console exclusive is coming to the PC, Steam specifically. Ace Combat 7 will make its proper debut on PC sometime this year. This is the first flight shooter to come out on PC since the half effort that was the HAWX series some years back.

https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2017/01/26/danger-zone-ace-combat-7-jetting-to-pc-too/

Some VR gameplay footage:



I am not sure if the VR modes will come to PC as well, but I suppose they can add in support for the Rift and Vive.

I am liking the return to the lore and styling before that abomination known as Assault Horizon.
http://gematsu.com/gallery/albums/a...-Combat-7-Skies-Unknown_2017_01-26-17_006.jpg

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I'd rather play this on PC, but because I have a PS4 Pro with PSVR i'll stick with PS4 on this one.

Blade-Runner said:

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Okay, THIS got me really hyped. Classic fucking Ace Combat gameplay. The cloud, water vapor, icing, volumetric clouds, and realistic lighting through the clouds are all going to REALLY add to the realism and feel of the game. Can't fucking WAIT.

Oh hell yeah, a proper AC - cheesy cutscenes, experimental weapons, lots of explosions... not like that earlier, real world based. Pity, that we have to wait till next year :/

I hope they cut out the cheese a bit. But being a Japanese game that is more or less a requirement is it not? I can't think of a single Japanese game I played that didn't have something cheesy in it. The princess bit bugs the hell out of me. I can see a country being forced under a monarchy to appease the population after the regime was knocked down but with all the princess this princess that, it all just seems a bit too cheesy. But still looking forward to it anyways.

Edit: And this will make some people rage but the campaign is to be 4-5 hours long. Personally I am glad to have a game coming out that is not about grinding, fetch quests (Prey is an example), and being overloaded with tasks and menial side missions that get in the way. But 6-8 hours would have been better. But I am not sure if that counts cutscenes or mission failures, which traditionally have no checkpoints.

knowing some of the missions from esrlier series, it will be a lot of grinding in some of the later parts of game, especially when missions are aboutattacking mega weapons

MorgothPl said:

knowing some of the missions from esrlier series, it will be a lot of grinding in some of the later parts of game, especially when missions are aboutattacking mega weapons

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I don't consider dying a few times as grinding. Grinding is when you have to do a bunch of boring tasks or mini games in place of the main game to get what you want. Say to progress to the next mission, you need to play 10 repeating mini quests to get enough XP or raise a bar a certain level to progress the story. It has been seeping in from MMOs into SP games. Mass Effect 3 is a perfect example. Grind through 10 or so dull wave based MP sessions right before you launch the final SP campaign story quest to get all of the ending colors, I mean ending story. I can't believe they forced us to do that.

This should be like all the previous entries in the series, upon mission completion you move to the next one. And if it is like the older games, every mission is a story mission. Except for the side content, like the VR mode. I know previous games had side content (trial missions, arcade mode) but those were fun to play and didn't inject themselves partway through a campaign.

Just finished this, was a pretty mediocre experience and did a poor job of scratching my Strike Commander itch. Apart from the improved graphics I didn't find the gameplay to be that much better than Assault Horizon.

Now I need to find something else in my backlog to play.

Blade-Runner said:

Just finished this, was a pretty mediocre experience and did a poor job of scratching my Strike Commander itch. Apart from the improved graphics I didn't find the gameplay to be that much better than Assault Horizon.

Now I need to find something else in my backlog to play.

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The gameplay is a whole lot better than Assault Horizon. But the mission design in 7 still wasn't that great and had too many "boss fights" which are just tedious and boring after you finish them once. 6 had really good mission design with multiple sub-operations to take part in, like capturing an airfield, escorting bombers or focusing on ground targets. Too bad that will never get a PC port. I'd like to see a bit of a return to AC6 style missions in a sequel.

Flogger23m said:

The gameplay is a whole lot better than Assault Horizon. But the mission design in 7 still wasn't that great and had too many "boss fights" which are just tedious and boring after you finish them once. 6 had really good mission design with multiple sub-operations to take part in, like capturing an airfield, escorting bombers or focusing on ground targets. Too bad that will never get a PC port. I'd like to see a bit of a return to AC6 style missions in a sequel.

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I just don't remember the gameplay loop being that different, but I accept its been a long time since I played Assault Horizon. With AC7 the missions were pretty repetitive and the generally didn't offer any engaging mechanics (e.g. issuing commands to wing men), whilst also managing to throw in some rage inducing objectives like achieving minimum scores within a time limit.

The lackluster gameplay wasn't helped by the mediocre voice acting, terrible narrative delivery and the fact that large chunks of exposition are delivered by useless wingmen in the middle of dogfights. This made it impossible to care about the plot or any of the characters - it was just a pew pew experience that I have no interest in revisiting again.

Project Wingman is a much more true to form ace combat experience than AC7 could ever hope to be.

Blade-Runner said:

I just don't remember the gameplay loop being that different, but I accept its been a long time since I played Assault Horizon.

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Main difference is the forced on rail sections that were like an arcade shooter (an actual arcade game). In Assault Horizon, it would force you into pre-flight paths by taking control away from the player and enemies would fly directly in front of you. You'd have to hold the trigger down and kill them. Like an actual arcade game where you don't have movement control and you just play whack a mole with bad guys that pop up. There is a reason why that was the least popular game of the bunch, and isn't even for sale anymore (on PC). Only a few of the missions were normal.

Blade-Runner said:

With AC7 the missions were pretty repetitive and the generally didn't offer any engaging mechanics (e.g. issuing commands to wing men),

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Blade-Runner said:

whilst also managing to throw in some rage inducing objectives like achieving minimum scores within a time limit.

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It is pretty much impossible to fail a mission in AC7, though if you want to get S rank in certain missions the time limit is often very strict. You may have to install speed parts and skip killing some enemies if you want to get S rank. Mission 13 is exactly like this, you need a fast plane like A MIG-31, speed parts, and need to finish the missions ASAP with only a few secondary kills. Personally I didn't like that, but getting S Rank on all missions isn't a big deal to me anyways.

Blade-Runner said:

The lackluster gameplay wasn't helped by the mediocre voice acting, terrible narrative delivery and the fact that large chunks of exposition are delivered by useless wingmen in the middle of dogfights. This made it impossible to care about the plot or any of the characters - it was just a pew pew experience that I have no interest in revisiting again.

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The gameplay is good, the problem is the small amount of missions. And the annoying forced boss mini fights, which are present in a lot of missions. There are always gimmicky missions in AC games that are kind of boring (fly between the radars or instant mission fail). This one just had too many of them. That is kind of the problem with this series. Rather than improving the gameplay, they tried to change things up and the abomination known as Assault Horizon came to be. AC7 was clearly riding heavily on nostalgia, but IMO wasn't the best AC game. I'd still put that on 4. They need to bring back some AC6 style mission design so you have more of a tactical element in the missions and dump most of the "mini boss" fights. They can then revamp the entire special weapon mechanic and instead base it on weapon type (HARM, anti ship, anti tank, etc.) and add new units like long range SAMs, or radars/AWACS that vector in enemies to your position if not destroyed. Would again, add some more tactical elements to the missions and gameplay by having to prioritize support targets. Currently AWACS or ground radars are just big "please shoot me for points" targets. Give them a utility and allow them to actually support enemies.

As for the story, AC7 made little sense. Typical Japanese over the top nonsense. The story can be boiled down to a community joke and nostalgia. I was hoping for something... at least on par with the older games. 4 had the best story, then 5, and then 0. While 6 had good mission design, the story was also bad. Assault Horizon I will pretend didn't exist. If they can at least get back to the PS2 era of story writing that would be good. But I am honestly hoping for something better.

NightReaver said:

Project Wingman is a much more true to form ace combat experience than AC7 could ever hope to be.

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This is a good game, and essentially an Ace Combat fan who made a clone. The story and lore is atrocious. The voice acting is also horrible given the low budget. But the gameplay is okay, as is most of the mission design. It plays very similar to the regular missions in AC4/5/0/7. Of course it is a low budget game largely made by one person, so keep that in mind. I thought it was certainly enjoyable but had hoped he would've tried to develop the gameplay more instead of being an Ace Combat clone.

Flogger23m said:

I thought it was certainly enjoyable but had hoped he would've tried to develop the gameplay more instead of being an Ace Combat clone.

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Eh, that's fair. I was just happy that it was the closest thing I'd get to a PC version of the PS2 AC games outside of running on an emulator.

NightReaver said:

Eh, that's fair. I was just happy that it was the closest thing I'd get to a PC version of the PS2 AC games outside of running on an emulator.

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Yeah it is a solid game for what it is. When you keep in mind that largely one guy made most of the game and keep that in perspective, that is fairly impressive. I'll replay it again sometime. Maybe there is a mod that removes the character dialogue as that was the worst part.

Is ac7 worth buying for $10 off green man gaming? I liked an x360 ace combat game I tried for a couple of missions once a long time ago... I don't remember which one though.

GoldenTiger said:

Is ac7 worth buying for $10 off green man gaming? I liked an x360 ace combat game I tried for a couple of missions once a long time ago... I don't remember which one though.

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Eh, if you really need an AC fix I suppose. I thought the focus on UAVs was incredibly lame.

GoldenTiger said:

Is ac7 worth buying for $10 off green man gaming? I liked an x360 ace combat game I tried for a couple of missions once a long time ago... I don't remember which one though.

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I have 18.8 hours logged against it with no time spent in MP or the DLC missions, if you are after some pew pew sessions and do not expect a groundbreaking experience then its not bad value.

Blade-Runner said:

I have 18.8 hours logged against it with no time spent in MP or the DLC missions, if you are after some pew pew sessions and do not expect a groundbreaking experience then its not bad value.

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Yeah for $10 you can't go wrong. If anything, it is a break and change of pace between the typical Witcher/Assassins Creed/Zelda/whatever open world game.

I actually liked the MP but I assume it has been dead for a while. If a game needed cross play, this was it.