Day 83 of Eric Vs. 365 features Ace Combat 7, a dark horse candidate for 2019 Game of the Year. This game is a great full package of tons of content, great gameplay, and awesome presentation that makes it appealing whether you're a franchise vet or a newcomer. And it has a JPEG dog as a big fun cherry on top. Click to read more and watch gameplay.
I fully intended on covering Ace Combat 7 much earlier than this, but it never felt like the right time before. I bought it at launch and played it in February 2019, but that was right around the same time I was struggling for motivation and was trying to change how reviews were going to work at PSXBoxIndies. I did make changes - no scores, more conversational coverage about games - but instead of re-invigorating me to keep working it had the opposite effect and I stopped posting anything entirely - both on YouTube and PSXBoxIndies - for a while. Fast forward to June and I had the bright idea to play 365 different games - one a day for a whole year - and my motivation returned. So, here we are, finally covering Ace Combat 7.
The one thing I want to say about Ace Combat 7 is that the criticisms of this, and every other flight combat game, is that there isn't enough variety. "Oh, you just fly around in circles and push a button when your reticle turns red. Over and over and over again." is what the naysayers say. That's never actually the reality, though. By changing the weather, by flying at night, by forcing you to stay below radar, or fly through narrow canyons, or through a dust storm, or making it more difficult to identify friend-or-foe, and a number of other variables these games can have a ton of variety that drastically changes how each mission plays out. The naysayers don't care, though, as they've already moved on to the next thing they'll complain about but never actually play. Oh yeah, I went there.
For this video I just wanted to show off a couple of my favorite missions. The first being #7 where you're flying low through narrow canyons during a thunderstorm and then have to fight an ace pilot. And the second being #20, the final mission in the game. I know, I know, spoilers and such, but mission 20 is freaking awesome. I honestly don't care about spoilers, because seeing something and doing something are two totally different things in my opinion, but if you don't want to be spoiled, don't watch I guess. Whatever.
