Ace Combat 6

I had a moment the other day. I drove to Minot (that's in North Dakota folks) to buy a game. I had several older games to trade and a couple of movies. Considering the cost of gasoline, I would have purchased COD4 locally but the local Walmart Not-So-SuperCenter didn't have it yet. Not sold out, DIDN'T HAVE IT YET. So I scrounged up the required trades to make up for the gas cost. So, Topcop63, theHaugen and I carpooled to GameStop. They took all of my trades and with the extra club member percentage got over $50 towards a trade in. Only one problem, NO COD4!! All they had were reserved copies. I usually reserve games but I couldn't do it this time so I was stuck out. They checked the other two stores in the area and they didn't have any either.

I could have taken the cash and looked elsewhere. But, I would have only gotten a little over $40 buck without the Edge member increase and that would have made it a little expensive including the gas money (hindsight being what it is, I will not be letting an extra $10 get in the way again).

They didn't have COD4 but they did have one copy of Ace Combat 6. I had been going through a decision delima. I wanted both games but could only afford one. One of my buddies online had lobbied for me to get AC6, I liked the AC series so I bought AC6 (for $9 after the trades were figured in).

I was done but, I had two other friends with me. Topcop63 was NOT happy with Gamestop and was feeling a little disappointed that he was not yet in possession of COD4. So, we checked another store, the local Target. Haugen and I waited for him to get back and when he was walking towards us we could tell it did not go well. He looked a liitle befuddled. He looked up, just a little daized, and said, "They have the games but said that Corporate has decided not to release the game until the 11th". WHAAAAAA!!!!

That's right, Target, in their infinte wisdom, had decided to hold off releasing COD4 until 5 days after the official release date. BTW, the 11th was going to be on a SUNDAY (today as a matter of fact). That made no real sense but, oh well, it's their business. Of course, we had to then listen to Topcop's many rantings about vengeance and justice on the way to BestBuy.

When we got to BestBuy we walked past the guys at the door. they were smiling, Topcop wasn't. They asked him if they could help him, he ignored them. they asked, "Can we help you with something", he said, "I'll let you know in a minute". Not happy. Thankfully, his almost catontonic stooper was shortlived as BestBuy had plenty of copies of COD4. He forked over his cash and we returned to our little burg to play our repesctive titles.

Well, that was a tangent and a half.

Back to Ace Combat 6. great graphics, and overall an awesome game. A little short at just over 5 hours for completion but fun and an interesting story with the cutscenes. I did have one issue with the game. The Ace Combat series has always been touted as a Flight Combat Simulator. To me, simulator means that it's trying to be as close to realistic as possible and, for the most part, it is. However, I have always hated how they make the antagonist planes nearly impossible to shoot down until they are ready for you to shoot them down for the sake of story. Also, when you go up against Pasternak in one of the last missions it has an almost irritating arcade feel to it. Why, because there is no way that a human could make those movements and survive. not only that but, a human wouldn't occasionally stay still to give you brief moments to be able to shoot them. It turned it into staying alive by turning for several minutes and waiting for the few opportunities given to shoot him. THAT was arcade and it SUCKED!!!

The rest of the game was very well done. A little bit too much of an Ace Combat 4 rehash BUT otherwise worth the time. I have yet to play the online multi-player. Primarily because the guy who had talked me into buying AC6 (((cough)) Amos ((cough))) went out and also bought Call of Duty 4 and hasn't been playing the game he lobbied so hard for me to get to play with him. i would call him an asshole but, he is providing me with an Uber-Cheap Halo 3 to replace my cracked one so, I can't complain too loudly.

I rented COD4 the moment I had a chance and have been playing it with the guys. I should have spent the extra money and got it instead of AC6. After I've tried the multi-player a bit and have unlocked a few more achievements I will most likely sell AC6 in buy COD4.

Rent AC6, Buy COD4. THAT's my opinion anyway.