Over G Fighters he proposes himself as a shy exponent of "simulation" games against the numerous "arcade" present on the shelves
The game structure: classic, no frills and surprises.
The variety of missions was much higher in Blazing Angels, where we were called to perform the most disparate tasks. Over G Fighters he proposes himself as a shy exponent of "simulation" games against the numerous "arcade" present on the shelves. Unfortunately, in reality it has very little simulation as there are a series of inexplicable flaws inherent in the game itself. Sometimes it happens to break the plane for having made it veer too much, sending it in "Over G" or in an extreme situation. Too bad that the latest generation fighters such as the F16 have a "fly-by-wire" control system interpolated by an on-board computer that avoids too sudden movements and wrong maneuvers. Furthermore, compared to any other game of the genre, it is almost always possible to avoid the enemy homing missiles, you just need to dive slightly, increase the speed and sow them. Too easy, if that were also the case in reality. But there is a gem: often you will see the screen become completely red, other times black. All this also occurs among real pilots and depends on the fact that the blood tends to go towards the legs when they are subjected to positive G. When in the presence of negative Gs, the blood collects instead towards the head, and this explains the red color.
Arcade or simulation?
The game is developed by the Japanese of Taito and in the old continent was bought and distributed by none other than UbiSoft. Incredibly, despite the short life of the Xbox360, this is the second title of the "airplane" genre in the Microsoft machine lineup. The first was that Blazing Angels always under the UbiSoft label, demonstrating the fact that the famous French house has an eye towards this type of products. During the review this will be our yardstick, without forgetting all those "cornerstones" mentioned in the introduction that represent a bit of the genre itself. Over G Fighters it fits into the "simulative" trend, or in any case pseudo-simulation, although a console software can be at least in comparison with a PC. The game presents itself well, with many options inserted in an original and stylish menu, even if slightly confusing. Scenario, Challenge, Multiplayer are the main modes, and unfortunately for those unfamiliar with foreign languages, everything is written in English without the shadow of a translation. The Scenario has a kind of thread represented by a sketch of history, just to justify the missions present, 75 in total. We are part of an elite air force team with national security duties and we will be dispatched to fight all over the globe.
The category of "airplane" shooters on consoles has a long tradition that comes directly from the legendary 8 bits. Obviously the very famous film "Top Gun" helped a lot to make this type of product appreciated also in Spain, and from the 90s onwards it has been a continuous succession of releases of this kind. The beginning of it all was, to tell the truth, thanks to that legendary "Afterburner" created by SEGA and Yu Suzuki in 1987, of which the new chapter is being worked on right now. The history of the great air combat games also goes through the splendid Aerodancing that saw light on Dreamcast in three editions and the famous Ace Combat series on Sony consoles. All games that have helped to create a genre, to perfect it, to reinvent it over the years and to make it popular with the general public. Xbox360 arrives today "Over G Fighters": let's find out together if this title will be able to give us new emotions, up there in the clouds!
Multiplayer and Xbox Live.
As might be expected, the best things come from online multiplayer through Xbox Live !. The mode is well studied, through the rooms (as happens in Ghost Recon or Halo2, for example) it is possible to chat, set the options and then launch the game. Over G Fighters it does not suffer from any slowdown in the game, but this was easily understood given the too old graphics engine, which we will talk about later. You can play up to 8 at the same time, in the Arena free-for-all, or in a one-on-one challenge, or by organizing into two teams. In the menu you can choose your vehicle, customize it with the weapons and the amount of fuel on board. Finding an available game is very fast, almost instant. Joining a much less team, "Could not join" will appear very often before you start playing unfortunately. Perhaps due to the inability of the system to insert a pilot while the others are playing, as happens for example in Ghost Recon. Giving directions and commands from the cockpit of your fighter is very satisfying, but this is regardless of the actual quality of the game itself.
The slowest supersonic fighters in military aviation?
The 3D engine used by the Japanese developers is perhaps the worst element of Over G, so much so as to be inadequate even for old gen consoles such as PS2 and Xbox. For once, the comparison must be sought not in the good Blazing Angels, which boasted structures and effects of all respect, but in the by now ancient Aerodancing for Dreamcast, at the time extraordinarily beautiful but today more than outdated. The aircraft models do not differ from those already appreciated on the SEGA machine: realistic but not as real as one would expect from a "next" machine and its millions of polygons. There is no effect applied: the backdrops are made up of a blue texture for the sea, or a brownish texture for the hills. Some locations such as cities boast a few hundred polygons, with textures to forget. The shadows cast on the planes are nice, but they are things already seen and that do not strike, especially in light of the inadequacy of the poly count and the effects applied.
Some locations such as cities boast a few hundred polygons, with textures absolutely to be forgotten, perhaps comparable to a Nintendo64 more than a console like Xbox360
The slowest supersonic fighters in military aviation?
Even the water is simply, how to say, blue. Monochromatic. Without waves, without polygons, without reflections. Trees are ugly textures applied over an ugly texture that represents the terrain. A set of ugliness that we will hardly see all together like this. The developers have well thought of giving us the opportunity to look around us through the right analog, so that we can better notice these bleak scenarios. The musical side is sufficient, the classic songs vaguely rocking and in "loop" frame the various missions and menus. However, the effects are very bad, poorly sampled and quantitatively poor. Maybe even realistic, who knows, maybe no one has ever really got on a military fighter, but often having a flap raised or a missile in search of us causes a deafening and absolutely cacophonous noise, never heard in other similar games (which perhaps will be less simulation, who knows). The game also enjoys a feeling of absolute slowness, which certainly does not help to convey the idea of being at the controls of a supersonic fighter.
Comment
Over G Fighters has a bit of a problem. The first, undoubtedly, is the technical aspect, absolutely not suitable for a Next Gen console like Xbox 360. The title Taito tries to be a complete game through its many options and a long scenario mode even if it is repetitive. Fighters are too slow to respond, perhaps too simulation for a console game, and not very fun to fly. Ace Combat has been schooling in recent years, but obviously Taito has deserted the lessons. A game for true fans of the genre, offering some good multiplayer games on Xbox Live and little else.
For
- Very long single player mode
- Play via Xbox Live
- Too repetitive and simple missions
- Graphically inadequate
- No Spanish language localization
- General feeling of slowness
The achievements to unlock.
Over G Fighters boasts another negative record: that of the vagueness of the objectives to be achieved. Viewing the game screen, in the 360 dashboard, a series of unclear indications will appear, moreover in English to worsen the situation. Not that there is much variety: they fall into two categories. Reward for the scenario and "premium" reward for online play. Clicking on any of the 38 "missions" to perform the explanation will always be the same: "meet certain conditions to earn this achievement", or "do something to get this reward", ok. The total is still 1000 points, but it really was necessary to do more.
The game structure: classic, no frills and surprises.
The basic structure of Over G Fighters it is the classic one of almost all games of this genre. The real problem, which can be found immediately, is the repetitiveness of the missions themselves. Throughout the game we will be called to always perform the same maneuvers: hook, aim and fire. Once the enemy is down, that's it. The initial difficulty is very low, and the first 20 missions follow each other very quickly and blandly. Many are similar, if not the same: "lock" enemy fighters and fire missiles in bursts. Which are both automatic and therefore we do not even have to make the effort to aim, they will certainly hit. After a while the missions will become more difficult, for two reasons: the enemy AI will be more aggressive and the amount of fighters will increase. Not big formations, it will still be five, six, seven planes, some naval ships at times. Beside us there is always a support hunt that helps us and that is sometimes fundamental as the enemies manage to shoot it down very rarely, and in this sense the AI is too unbalanced towards us, and the challenge factor suffers a bit'.
