Bandai Namco Shows Off Gamescom Trailer For 'Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown'

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Bandai Namco is at Gamescom this week, and it showed off yet another trailer for Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown. The latest footage shows more intense aerial dogfighting action, but it also reveals the cause of the war between the Osean Federation and the Kingdom of Erusea.

Within the first minute of the video, we hear the voice of an Erusean princess who condemns Osea because of the “forced construction of its giant space elevator” within the boundaries of Erusea. This act by the Federation sparks a war between the two nations, as Erusean planes fight Osean aircraft in the skies near the elevator.

In previous trailers, we saw a jet with orange-colored wings. The new trailer shows more of that same plane, and other pilots are afraid to fight it because it can quickly flank its target and shoot it down. It has speed and agility that's unlike other conventional fighter jets in the game. It could be an experimental aircraft, or perhaps its pilot isn’t afraid to make daring maneuvers in the air. Every story needs a villain, and it seems like the orange-winged plane fits that role in the campaign.

If you want to play Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown in virtual reality, you’ll need to purchase it for the PlayStation 4. Bandai Namco told us that the game will have exclusive VR content for those using PlayStation VR. There’s also no word yet from the studio in regards to HOTAS (hands-on-throttle-and-stick) support.

If you want to learn more, check out our hands-on impressions of the game in VR from E3. Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown makes its debut sometime in 2018 on the PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

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NameAce Combat 7: Skies Unknown
TypeShooter, Aerial Combat
DeveloperBandai Namco
PublisherBandai Namco
PlatformsPC, Xbox One, PlayStation 4
Where To BuyAmazon
Release Date2018
Rexly Peñaflorida
7 Comments Comment from the forums
  • 10tacle
    I hope they have a PC demo of this as I'd like to see how much of a sim vs. arcade flight combat game this is. I got spoiled early on with the Jane's hard core combat flight sims between 1998-1999 (Longbow 2, F-15, F-18). Those were serious sims and you had to study a 120+ page manual to learn how to manage the systems and weapons....like the real thing. Now I just have FSX with Saitek's X52 HOTAS controller for fighters and helicopters and CH Products flight yoke and rudder pedals for regular aircraft.

    I guess those days are gone in this era of short attention span gamers who would rather just jump in the cockpit while airborne and shoot at stuff.
    Reply
  • DRosencraft
    @10TACLE, let me save you some time then - this is the Ace Combat series, and a game supposedly returning to the series' rots, so there will be little sim aspect to this game. Control is simplified, payload is vastly expanded, and general relative performance between aircraft is highly, compressed. It should still be a really fun game, but a Sim like you described, it is not.
    Reply
  • 10tacle
    Thank you for the info DRosencraft. I'd just like to know if they have a "sim" option in realism settings or something like War Thunder for the PS4 which is what I use a Thrustmaster T.Flight Hotas 4 solely with. I'm still interested though having never played any of those series before and my PS4 friends who I played War Thunder with are looking at it.
    Reply
  • Avus
    Never treat Ace Combat series like a flight sim... Think more like Sega Top Gun arcade in cockpit view with little bit better flight model, amazing graphics + a cheesy story line and nice girls in the game... It is like Need for Speed series for fighter jets.

    If you want a modern version of Jane's combat flight sim, go take a look DCS World.
    https://www.digitalcombatsimulator.com/en/

    You probably need that 600+ pages manual to fly that A10
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WyYA0pjUKw
    Reply
  • leoscott
    Sounds great but it's totally fantasy. Any plane that could do what orange wings does would put the pilot in GLOC in seconds. The future of highly maneuverable fighters is remotely piloted.
    Reply
  • 10tacle
    20099943 said:
    Sounds great but it's totally fantasy. Any plane that could do what orange wings does would put the pilot in GLOC in seconds. The future of highly maneuverable fighters is remotely piloted.

    Well that's the difference between arcade flying games vs. combat flight sims. Even the old Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator series simulated G-lock by blacking out the screen if you pulled too many G's in a WWII fighter. FSX replicates that as well in fighters.

    Regarding high maneuver fighters, the days of close visual dog fighting died two decades ago with the 5th gen fighters (F-22 first, then the F-35, and soon Russia's upcoming Su-57). I don't think we'll ever see completely pilot-free military aviation in our lifetime. Drones are doing strategic close air support missions as well as intelligence loitering missions, but they will not be replacing the full mission capabilities of big hardware anytime soon (IE: the big guns and big bombs).
    Reply
  • DRosencraft
    I'm a big believer in a rounded gaming environment - having different games out there that reasonably fill different niches. Unfortunately I believe the gaming industry has grown old enough that it's hard for smaller niches like that for Ace Combat and for more dedicated flight sims to survive, let alone thrive. I think Ace Combat is the only title right now that fills its niche in terms of being an arcade style flight combat game that features a wide array of aircraft to choose from, with discernible differences between aircraft, not just different skins on the same behavior package. That being said, the last game that was anything remotely like that on the flight sim side was Flight Sim X from Microsoft. Who knows if or when another great flight sim will come along.
    Reply