When grumpy old people like me yell at you youngsters for being responsible for the death of a good portion of gaming, you dismiss us as the menopausal gamers we are, reminding us that the size of the industry today is unprecedented and it's arguably the most successful branch of the entertainment industry.
While this is certainly true, one would be naive to dismiss the homogeneous reality that looms over gaming at the moment. Nine out of ten shooters play the same, most games steal-- ahem, I'm sorry, I mean are inspired from other games and you can trace all the similarities transcending genres and just taking over any game of any genre of any target-audience. I made that point during my strategy games episode and I stand by it.
What most people probably don't remember is that one of the first casualties of the current situation were flight sims. Arcade flight shooters like HAWX try to pass themselves off as "sims", but they can't hide their arcade nature and Ace Combat has been a mix of Afterburner and Top Gun, with a little of Area 88 in the story department from the start.
This situation cost the life of many companies; the near-perfect simulator that was Microprose's "Falcon" (one that is allegedly using the same code as the Airforce's training simulators for the F-16 fighter jet) remained the gold standard, but with the exception of a re-release in 2005, it hasn't been heard of since. Other companies that thrived in the late '90s in the genre, like JANE, disappeared after games were all about your sandbox and your Halo.
JANE was active for several years and produced a number of simulators, mainly jet-based (though they came out with chopper and, IIRC, a tank one as well), with their crowning accomplishment being "JANE's USAF" (that means United States Air Force), their most in-depth flight sim, which -I shit you not- supported voice-recognition, in an effort to eliminate some of the complicated functions on the keyboard.
Well, after years of living in the dark, little JANE is trying to get back into the game with a new fighter jet title, called "JANE's Advanced Strike Fighters". Only, the industry doesn't look kindly on the flight sim anymore. Besides, the genre was literally nowhere to be seen for about a decade and even arcade jet shooters have only been consistently represented by Namco's Ace Combat series through those years.
So, instead, J.A.S.F. is an arcade flight shooter for the PSN and XBLA. The release date is TBA and we know little for the game, but it's safe to assume it will be a sub-standard arcade budget title that will likely not surpass any Ace Combat past the PS1-era games. I'm saying this with the sincerest compassion and support for the studio, but that's just sad; if not for them, then certainly for us, as gamers.
While this is certainly true, one would be naive to dismiss the homogeneous reality that looms over gaming at the moment. Nine out of ten shooters play the same, most games steal-- ahem, I'm sorry, I mean are inspired from other games and you can trace all the similarities transcending genres and just taking over any game of any genre of any target-audience. I made that point during my strategy games episode and I stand by it.
What most people probably don't remember is that one of the first casualties of the current situation were flight sims. Arcade flight shooters like HAWX try to pass themselves off as "sims", but they can't hide their arcade nature and Ace Combat has been a mix of Afterburner and Top Gun, with a little of Area 88 in the story department from the start.
This situation cost the life of many companies; the near-perfect simulator that was Microprose's "Falcon" (one that is allegedly using the same code as the Airforce's training simulators for the F-16 fighter jet) remained the gold standard, but with the exception of a re-release in 2005, it hasn't been heard of since. Other companies that thrived in the late '90s in the genre, like JANE, disappeared after games were all about your sandbox and your Halo.
JANE was active for several years and produced a number of simulators, mainly jet-based (though they came out with chopper and, IIRC, a tank one as well), with their crowning accomplishment being "JANE's USAF" (that means United States Air Force), their most in-depth flight sim, which -I shit you not- supported voice-recognition, in an effort to eliminate some of the complicated functions on the keyboard.
Well, after years of living in the dark, little JANE is trying to get back into the game with a new fighter jet title, called "JANE's Advanced Strike Fighters". Only, the industry doesn't look kindly on the flight sim anymore. Besides, the genre was literally nowhere to be seen for about a decade and even arcade jet shooters have only been consistently represented by Namco's Ace Combat series through those years.
So, instead, J.A.S.F. is an arcade flight shooter for the PSN and XBLA. The release date is TBA and we know little for the game, but it's safe to assume it will be a sub-standard arcade budget title that will likely not surpass any Ace Combat past the PS1-era games. I'm saying this with the sincerest compassion and support for the studio, but that's just sad; if not for them, then certainly for us, as gamers.
Still makes sweet, sweet love to his Logitech flight stick that no game will support no more.
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