Blazing Angels Review 138
- Title: Blazing Angels
- Developer/Publisher: Ubisoft
- System:360 (Xbox)
Autopilot won't help in the combat arenas, which move at a brisk clip. Each battle is broken down into a series of objectives. Your wingmen keep you appraised of the situation with audio cues and a great 'objective lock' feature. By holding down a button, your camera turns to focus on whatever you should be attacking. It makes three dimensional dogfighting a manageable (and enjoyable) experience. The focus of the controls seems to be entirely about putting you in the moment as much as possible. There are almost no HUD elements to clutter your view. Weapons have unlimited ammo, and a simple on-screen indicator tells you when you've got a good aim on a target. The controller's vibrate function, which in many games I find annoying, emphasizes the danger of the moment as your vintage craft shudders to greater speeds. While the sometimes necessary confusion of aerial combat can make for disorienting moments, the control scheme is intuitive and useful.
The missions themselves, unfortunately, don't live up to the moment-to-moment action. Once you're diving and wheeling against a pilot in the Luftwaffe, you're going to tend to forget the reason you're there. The distinct mission segments are utterly forgettable. They mostly consist of 'take out that unit' or 'keep that vehicle/building intact'. Mediocre setting elements could have been saved by good voice acting, but that's sadly not the case here either. Almost universally the voice actors go full out for 'recognizable stereotype', and sometimes don't even manage to get where they're aiming for. Probably most annoying are the extremely chatty enemies. As you shoot down opponents you'll be constantly bombarded with insulting commentary and annoyed exclamations. You'd think that the opposing forces would be running on different radio frequencies.Visually, Blazing Angels is a competent success. The 360's power is put to use creating a seamless and smooth combat experience and expansive observable vistas. The game's art direction has something of a softness to it, giving the appearance of flying through an old-timey photograph. The specificity of the art direction coupled with the title's speed results in a fighting experience that feels something like an homage to another Xbox title.
That title is Crimson Skies. One of the original offerings for the first Xbox, the alternate history flying shooter is a solid and enjoyable gaming experience even three years later. In comparison, Angels comes up short, but certainly not for lack of trying. Blazing Angels is ultimately an uncomplicated flying experience that aims for style over substance. It succeeds at simplicity where Full Auto failed. It does what it does very well, without technical hiccups, and backs that technical prowess with simple and fun gameplay. The brevity of the experience and the corny voice acting keep the game from being a long-haul title, but this one is definitely worth a rental. Rent it, play online, grab your achievements, and then move on to weightier games. With some of the hotly anticipated titles slated for later this year likely to run to epic lengths, this dime-store war story will feel like a nice change of pace.
Repetitive missions need not be boring (Score:2, Informative)
Re:simliar (Score:4, Informative)
It's not nessisarily a huge thing, but it is something to be aware of. Your best bet would be to try a demo first.
I agree... (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, the game looks great, but it's not quite smooth. There is a, somewhat annoying, graphical glitch that looks not unlike the effect you get when you point a camera at a computer monitor and the two aren't on the same refresh rate. There's a band that scrolls across the screen that I can best describe as "off whack". Probably some variation on tearing. There's no excuse for that in a console game.
Other than that, though, it is a fun, albeit mindless game.
Re:WTF? (Score:3, Informative)
Amazingly, the Polish air forces even mounted a reasonably effective defense during the German invasion of Poland. Flying 158 woefully obsolete PZL P.7 and PZL P.11 fighters [xs4all.nl] they managed to destroy between 100 and 200 German aircraft.
Incidentally, the highest scoring US ace of the European theatre was a Polish-American who served in the Polish Air Force. Francis Gabreski volunteered for the 315th (Polish) Fighter Squadron "Deblinski." Later he founded an exchange program between the Air Corps and the Polish Air Force and flew for the US. He ended the war with a total of 30 kills. In Korea he added 6.5 more.
Re:looking at the screenshots i wonder (Score:3, Informative)
Historical photos from that time were not color. So basically it just looks odd. Color photos don't tint yellow, they use different chemicals that decay in a different manner.
Maybe something was wrong with the sun in those years and noone noticed.
Jake disagrees again . . . (Score:3, Informative)
I will agree with you in the graphical department though. Aside from the tearing, the graphical presentation is fantastic, especially the cityscapes which seem to stretch on into infinity. Now . . . if only we could have Crimson Skies with these graphics, oh well.
Re:WTF? (Score:5, Informative)
In the context of this game, it's probably just a device to let the game designers start the action beofore 1942 and still have an American protagonist.
It's fair to say the advantage went back and forth. The British had the edge on equipment with the exception of a short period after the Fw 190 [wikipedia.org] came out but it was marginal. The Me 262 [wikipedia.org] actually had little impact mainly for strategic reasons.Demo used Starforce, so... (Score:3, Informative)
No thanks. Even if it isn't as harmful as people say (I hadnt had problems with it on a game that used it - Still Life; but that doesnt mean it wasn't causing problems I wasnt aware of), they have shown their true colors by deliberately promoting piracy of products that don't use it (Stardock's Galactic Civilization II).
I refuse to purchase titles that use, and thereby support, Starforce.
Re:simliar (Score:2, Informative)
Re:WTF? (Score:2, Informative)