Poor Warhawk. You've been the butt of so much discussion -- most of it negative -- without actually having any real negativity directed at you. First there was the now-infamous showcase of the SIXAXIS at E3 last year with then long-haired producer Dylan Jobe gesticulating wildly for effect (though as anyone who owns a PS3 now knows, it was clearly for show), then, more recently, rumors of trouble in development land over at Salt Lake City, UT-based Incognito Entertainment gave way to whispers of entire parts of the game getting scrapped and a move to being an online-distributed game.

Well guess what? Them rumors, they be true. Warhawk is now PlayStation Network exclusive. Moreover, as a downloadable game, it has been retooled to be a multiplayer-online experience. No more offline (or at least single-player) action happening here, kiddies. Is it a bummer? Yeah, definitely, but to hear the Incog guys tell it, the single player sort of, well, sucked, and they had what they feel is a strong enough base in the gameplay to crank out a compelling 32-player online experience in both the land and air.

Think of it almost like an Incognito take on the Battlefield series, but whereas DiCE's sandbox shooter is primarily a first-person, land-based experience, Warhawk, as the title implies, stays true to the roots of the original PS one game that put developer Singletrac (who are now largely the founding fathers of Incog) on the map. Battlefield's aircraft are unwieldy beasts that usually take more than a few tries to get a handle on -- often at the expense of a whole group of friends riding support going down with you.

In stark contrast are the Warhawk's controls (one of two aircraft in the game, the other being the Nemesis), which of course use the SIXAXIS, but it's entirely optional, as should be the case for most games that use the motion-sensitive controller. Since the craft is vertical takeoff and landing-capable, it actually provides two different modes for attack: pure flight dogfights and hover-assisted strafing runs on the poor saps below, and the craft morphs between modes fluidly.

Perhaps the folks on the ground aren't complete saps. With the ability to man turrets or hop into a handful of vehicles like tanks and Jeeps or shoot it out on foot, there's still plenty of variety in the game's near half-dozen different armaments. The levels, too, spread out over five worlds with five levels apiece, should provide enough scenery to keep players hooked. Since you can go from being on foot to tearing ass through the unfriendly skies, the game scales wonderfully too (pure dogfight options are, of course, out there too).

We took the game through its paces last night, jumping into a handful of both air and ground battles, and we were delighted to find that the game is not only quite the looker (all those goodies like volumetric clouds, motion blur and depth of field effects are here, and it's still a treat to go from shooting it out on land to soaring through the open air in search of some missiles to throw up someone's tailpipe). In fact, the single-player aspect must have been really crappy, because the multiplayer is beautifully animated and lit, with your customizable character (everything from clothes to skin to decals to paint schemes on your craft) running with a gait that suggests an almost Pixar- or Team Fortress 2-like cartoony bounce.

Though the game will have its own dedicated servers (like seemingly all online PS3 titles), the option to use your own PS3 as a dedicated server a la many PC shooters, complete with full stat tracking, is certainly there should you want to arrange a clan match with some buddies. Really, though, the treat here is in just playing a console game that delivers a Battlefield-level sense of scale -- and in fact it's much larger than any other sandbox shooter out there. Though they're different beasts, the on-foot and in-air controls (the latter of which is the only SIXAXIS waggle-controlled bit), both feel smooth and responsive. Even the drop-in, drop-out local multiplayer is handled with a slick split-screen option that seamlessly lets a friend hop in and then bounce as they see fit without it disrupting the game terribly.

"Smooth" is actually a perfect word for what Warhawk has become. The nature of being multiplayer-only will certainly turn people off, but this is the sort of experience that is coming to define the PlayStation Network; meaty, expansive downloadable games that feel in a lot of cases like something you would buy on disc, but don't cost nearly as much. We're not sure of what price point Warhawk will eventually settle upon (that's something that the Incog and Sony folks will likely be hammering out all the way up until the game hits later this year), but if it manages to kiss that $20 sweet spot, it's doubtful many will bitch and moan too much about the lack of an offline option.

We can't wait to see how the shifted focus will affect the rest of the game's development. So far, we've really only been able to check out one world from the first time the game was unveiled to now, so it'll be interesting to explore the nooks and crannies of some of the new on-foot levels to see just how detailed Incognito can get the levels. As soon as we do, we'll make sure we fill you in on the deets.