Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X

I've just tried out this new combat flight sim and all I can say is it is great. Really fun to play, with easy to grasp controls, amazing graphics, and easy to understand mission way points.

The game is more arcade orientated than most flight sims. With most PC flight sims you are presented with an encyclopaedic manual and a control system requiring the use of nearly every key on your keyboard. While such detailed and accurate flight sims are interesting, I can't say they have ever been much fun. Even taking off and landing can take a day of reading and control familiarity.

HAWX doesn't bother with accurate control systems using loads of buttons tired to every realistic control of the real aircraft. Instead the control system is pure arcade in design, and it is best played using an Xbox 360 controller (which it dorectly supportd), although you can use keyboard and mouse controls if you wish.

The control system on a 360 pad is very easy to get to grips with. Left and right triggers accelerate or brake the aircraft, and the LB and RB buttons control the yaw to accurately move you left and right. With the left thumb stick controlling the movement of the craft. Very easy to get to grips with.

With the right stick controling the game camera. The rest of the controls are for weapons and targetting. Hit Y to lock on to a target. X to see a path to your next target lock, A to launch a missile once target lock is aquired, and B to fire your cannons. And finally the D pad is used to cycle through weapons options, and to switch wingmen.

And that is about it. Very easy controls.

The graphics are quite something. Using real satellite imagery they are highly detailed and look great. The landscape is also fully populated with plants, trees and 3D buildings, and they all look very nice. The game also has some great DX10 effects. Smoke, clouds and other particle effects look amazing, as do explosions. If I could pick faught with the graphics it would be the sea, which looks too flat and like a shiny glass surface. But that is about all.

The game is also smooth to play. I increased all of the graphics settings to maximum, inluding anti alisasing to 8x and DX10 effects to full, and it still averages 65fps, with a max of over 100fps.

But where it counts most, gameplay, it also delivers. As I've been saying, the game is arcade orientated, so don't expect the game to give you the sense of being in a real fighter. Instead you get the thrill of flying a fighter, but the easy controls of an arcade game. Targetting is easy and it auto locks on if you keep the target close to the centre of our sight, or you can cycle through the yellow targets with the Y button. Get a red lock and launch a missile.

I've only played through the first main mission but that was good. No real need for a tutorial. Just load the game and play.

HAWX is a game for those that enjoy the idea of flying around shooting enemies, but don't want to get lost in complicated control systems or hard to understand technical details. If you want to have some fun flying around, with 2 wing men to your side, attacking loads of enemies and defending and guarding friendly forces then this is a great game. If you are looking for something a bitmore serious that accurately emulates the real combat fighters and the protocols of war then it won't be.

It is a modern day After Burner.

It only got average reviews so far, some say it gets boring with the time. Maybe I will get it when it goes down to under 10£.

It only has 16 missions, so won't take too long to complete. As for getting boring. As with most arcade style games they have limited variety. It is a shooter at heart, with some great graphics and good flight mechanics and controls. If you don't expect more from the game then it is good.

It can also be played online against and/or with others as wingmen, so that might add to the game's longevity.

I think that it is a great game for PC...
The only game of this type that i have played...it is ACE COMBAT for PS2...and i love it...
It is not a simulator, but there is no other game like this for PC...
This game remembers me the old schol "After Burner...":thumbs: