Blaze of Glory
Blazing Angels may be the first flight game to sport SIXAXIS controls, but that doesn't mean it's any more innovative. Fortunately, the game itself isn't half bad.
Published: December 12, 2006
I've got a little confession to make: I'm a flight game fuh-reak. I digested the encyclopedia that was Falcon 4.0 game manual, bought PC flight sticks just to have more functions at my fingertips, burned hundreds of hours playing Sierra's Aces games and LucasArts Secret Weapons games. Maybe it was growing up with a grandfather that was an Air Force jet test pilot (back before they did such pussy stuff as "wear earplugs," which makes for some awesome stories, but has rendered him nerve deaf in both ears). But, as I've gotten older, my tolerance for phone book manuals and $200 flight sticks has narrowed.
These days, though, I'm just as happy to jump into the virtual cockpit with an [ps2game=416]Ace Combat[/ps2game] game rather than anything else. Fittingly, Blazing Angels is a flight game in the vein of Ace Combat, though it doesn't come anywhere near the same levels of storyline or interface refinements. That's not to say it's not a decent flight game, and by nature of the fact that there aren't any flight games on the PS3, it'll probably motivate some folks to buy it just to get their fix, but I'd remind folks out there that you can play those PS one or PS2 Ace Combats on your PS3.
Blazing Angels pulls from a fictional storyline of a gung-ho fighter pilot looking to get some early action in World War II. Rather than waiting for the US to enter the fray, a handful of pilots head to England to help the RAF repel the axis powers. Along the way, you build a personal squadron of three fellow aces, each with their own skills. Joe is a bumpkin, but he can fix up your plane if you take damage provided you can punch in a simple sequence of buttons when prompted; Frank is a yammering chatterbox, but a surgical ace that's fantastic at taking out targets, and Tom is perfect at watching your ass and protecting you if need be.
Though you won't always fly with all these guys at the same time, at least one of them will be with you most of the time (there are a few solo missions, and for the PS3 version, Ubisoft dumped in two new missions: "Pre-Emptive Strike" in the North Sea and "New Georgia" in the Pacific, along with 10 new planes), and along with the pre-mission cutscenes, it gives the game a little personality. Unfortunately, there's so much radio chatter that they overlap, and the subtitles don't help, as they're often completely obscured by the sky.
The other big addition to the PS3 version was the addition of motion-controlled flight mechanics. By turning on the SIXAXIS' motion-sensitivity, you can control most plane functions by just using the controller to pitch and steer. The problem here is that even with the later, more advanced planes, there is still a noticeable delay in even minute controls, and when dogfighting, you need to have the kind of quick response that analog sticks afford. The motion controls are a nice touch, but you can't control yaw with them, necessitating the use of the right analog stick. The controls for things like locking onto a target are remapped too, so if you get use to one configuration, it can take a little relearning to do the other.
Though the game starts out the dreary, blackened skies of Europe, it slowly progresses into the later stages of World War II, and that's when Blazing Angels starts to seriously shine. Forgoing the somber tone of the early levels, the Pearl Harbor and Midway missions are bright, clear, and loaded with targets both in the air and on the ground. Even when things move from Europe down to Northern Africa on a hunt for the Desert Fox, it feels a little less claustrophobic. It's just a shame that, thanks to some huge see-saws in difficulty, some players will never get that far. The very first mission saddles you with a checkpoint that requires an absolutely flawless bombing run. It took me a good 10 tries to pass just that one part, yet I sailed through the second mission.
These days, though, I'm just as happy to jump into the virtual cockpit with an [ps2game=416]Ace Combat[/ps2game] game rather than anything else. Fittingly, Blazing Angels is a flight game in the vein of Ace Combat, though it doesn't come anywhere near the same levels of storyline or interface refinements. That's not to say it's not a decent flight game, and by nature of the fact that there aren't any flight games on the PS3, it'll probably motivate some folks to buy it just to get their fix, but I'd remind folks out there that you can play those PS one or PS2 Ace Combats on your PS3.
Blazing Angels pulls from a fictional storyline of a gung-ho fighter pilot looking to get some early action in World War II. Rather than waiting for the US to enter the fray, a handful of pilots head to England to help the RAF repel the axis powers. Along the way, you build a personal squadron of three fellow aces, each with their own skills. Joe is a bumpkin, but he can fix up your plane if you take damage provided you can punch in a simple sequence of buttons when prompted; Frank is a yammering chatterbox, but a surgical ace that's fantastic at taking out targets, and Tom is perfect at watching your ass and protecting you if need be.
Though you won't always fly with all these guys at the same time, at least one of them will be with you most of the time (there are a few solo missions, and for the PS3 version, Ubisoft dumped in two new missions: "Pre-Emptive Strike" in the North Sea and "New Georgia" in the Pacific, along with 10 new planes), and along with the pre-mission cutscenes, it gives the game a little personality. Unfortunately, there's so much radio chatter that they overlap, and the subtitles don't help, as they're often completely obscured by the sky.
The other big addition to the PS3 version was the addition of motion-controlled flight mechanics. By turning on the SIXAXIS' motion-sensitivity, you can control most plane functions by just using the controller to pitch and steer. The problem here is that even with the later, more advanced planes, there is still a noticeable delay in even minute controls, and when dogfighting, you need to have the kind of quick response that analog sticks afford. The motion controls are a nice touch, but you can't control yaw with them, necessitating the use of the right analog stick. The controls for things like locking onto a target are remapped too, so if you get use to one configuration, it can take a little relearning to do the other.
Though the game starts out the dreary, blackened skies of Europe, it slowly progresses into the later stages of World War II, and that's when Blazing Angels starts to seriously shine. Forgoing the somber tone of the early levels, the Pearl Harbor and Midway missions are bright, clear, and loaded with targets both in the air and on the ground. Even when things move from Europe down to Northern Africa on a hunt for the Desert Fox, it feels a little less claustrophobic. It's just a shame that, thanks to some huge see-saws in difficulty, some players will never get that far. The very first mission saddles you with a checkpoint that requires an absolutely flawless bombing run. It took me a good 10 tries to pass just that one part, yet I sailed through the second mission.
