The best flight sim on xbox 360
This is not an arcade flying game, it can be played that way but the controls suffer from it. I will discuss the flaws first. The overall presentation as far as cutscenes go and story is quite bad, the cartoon style briefings leave a lot to be desired. They lip sync and don’t move while they brief you. The music is terrible, but its easy to turn it off or use your own music. All the things that make the game bad are pre-flight things, once you get to the runway, everything changes!

The gameplay is great IMO, graphics are good other than the close ground terrain when flying low. Dogfighting is a thrill and tough, landing safely will make you proud, the planes all have different radar sections and some have a little stealth so they are tough to target and track. There are lots of planes and they all handle differently, also lots of different weapons to arm them. Before missions and online you can load your plane with what you like. Wanna dogfight other planes mainly?, bring lots of sidewinders and AAMRAAMS, need to attack a ship?, grab some harpoon missiles, got some ground targets?, use laser guided bombs and cluster bombs or slam-mer missiles from miles away. The freedom to equip your plane to suit your style of play is great. Some planes are good for air to ground battle, and some are best at dogfighting, using the right craft for the job is crucial.

Single player is kinda easy and repetitive but it serves to unlock more planes, and it’s good practice so i don’t mind. Also, the challenge mode is great, make a custom flight scenario, dogfight with or without a wingman, or just free fly. I play these modes more than the story, i just wanna finish the story for all the planes.

The last thing i will discuss is the arena mode. The single player arena is tough but fun and similar to the multiplayer arena. I will talk about the multiplayer arena though, it starts with up to 8 people getting into 4 teams of 2. It can be played with only 2 people though and the computer will take the other teams. You select a plane, what weapons you want and then you start out on a runway. Ok, the way it works, the 4 teams all have a color, and each team has it’s own carrier group, escort ships, airfield with main HQ, other ground targets, and different types of planes. The goal is to destroy the enemies bases, all their assets, or just the major targets like the HQ building. The map is HUGE, plenty of room to do any outflanking you could want. If you fly from one side to the other in a jet, it would take at least 15 mins or more. There is one white neutral airfield in the middle of the map that everyone can land on. At ANY point in the game, you can go to your airfield or the neutral one and switch weapons or just refuel and re-arm and repair. The enemy can come attack your assets at anytime so you can choose between defense, offense, or a mix of both. Thats when a wingman and weapon selection comes into play. Will you equip a dogfighter plane with all air to air missles and just play defense against the enemy planes while your buddy goes on the offensive with bombs and air to ground missiles? OR will you both go on the attack, or both go on offense. Thats where the fun comes from, choosing your own role in the skies. I like to have me and my wingman both equip long range ship missiles, fly to one of the enemies, and take out all the sea assets we can in the first strike to eliminate all the SAM sites and anti aircraft guns, then we fly back to base and land and re-arm with air to ground missiles and bombs and go attack the airfield. You always need a few air to air missiles in case you are spotted by any enemy planes.

It’s mega exciting to have all this going on at once, plan an attack and fly with your wingman all the way to the enemy, you two both have your own set of targets. As you get close, you break apart and both go after different targets, dodging AA fire and having to evade the occasional missile. One time, i had dropped all my ordanance, and was just doing flybys on the enemy airfield, and my buddy came diving in from really high up and dropped a bomb on the HQ building! It was great because i was flying right next to it so i saw everything! It’s like a perfect marriage between action and strategy, choosing what to attack, what to defend, and what to use. IMO, the best flying game I’ve ever played.