Sounds good. What's the structure of the game like. I'm tempted to order this, but the very mention of Burnout and Rougue Squadron have turned me off a little. Is it fast fast fast? Will it fill the gap until Climax comes to the home consoles?

I saw a controls video, it looks like the Nunchuck is the control stick for tilt and so forth, is that right?

I played umm ubi soft ww2 fight game on the 360, err, Blazing Angels, and that was shockingly poor control, where they has separated the two axis of the normal flight control over the two analogue sticks...

An insane ABC'esque game, with Wii controls could potentiall rock.

Tell us MOOOOOORE about the controls.

I badly want to get hold of this aswell - but I need to hear more about the controls and the game's structure. I want to have faith but I dont trust Ubisoft

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It aint Ubi its Codemasters published and IR Gurus devved.... who did Heroes of the Pacific... which I played on the PC and it was obviously meant to be a console game... you know, huge icons, wierd control options... just not a PC game.

http://www.codemasters.co.uk/heatseeker/

Codemasters have pubbed some pretty slick, full on games in the past, they usually have a good vibe.

Fuckit - I'm gonna get hold of a copy,

If it's rubbish - I will end the existance of this pitiful planet.

*edit - what version is out? - I cant find it anywhere.

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Hmm poor game, but the controls aren't as bad as all that. It's been a while since I played it, but I think there might be a limp control option for noobs, which 'helps' you out in the way you're describing.

Normal flight controls should have rudder and elevator on different inputs. A standard flight stick should control alerons (sp?) and elevator. The rudder is usually controlled with foot pedals and throttle on a seperate lever to the side. In the model plane world this normally translates to two 2-axis analogue sticks one for elevator and alerons and the other for rudder and throttle. The throttle control should have no return spring (difficult to implement on a gamepad).

But yeah apart from that Blazing Angels is pretty piss poor.

There are two control types:

ARCADE

Direction of flight is controlled by tilting either the remote or nunchuck. Aiming reticule is controlled with the pointer. This works really well. Feels natural and, in my opinion is far in advance of joypads or even flight sticks for this kind of arcadey shooter.

PROFESSIONAL

Same as arcade except you can roll the plane by rolling the controller to the left or right. Turning then becomes a case of tilting the plane on its side and lifting the nose up. This makes it much harder to manouvre but offers more flexibility.

As for the structure of the game itself - to compare this to Afterburner would be completely moot. It's not an on-rails shooter and is much more like Ace Combat or Rogue Leader. My comparison to Burnout is a reference to both the speed and the genreal feeling of arcadiness. There are no combos but there are bonus objectives during the missions - a bit like Goldeneye in a way.

OK.... sound like my kind of game!

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"And I'm Barry Hercules, Doc"

Indeed this does sound rather spiffing.

One question do you get to swoop under bridges and weave through skyscrapers and cayons whilst duking it out? A feature which is sorely lacking in a lot of these games.

Yes that is good question. Using the level as an advantage is something that is missing a lot of time. Do you play Crimson Skies? The areas have good design in Crimson Skies and can be used for both defense and offense.

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"And I'm Barry Hercules, Doc"

Nope not played that. Heard some good things about it though.

My list of games that fizz my whizz in the scary low level flying stakes is quite short. I can only think of 5 maybe 6 off hand and two of those are arcade exclusive.

1. TLL (Tornado Low Level) - Spectrum
2. Wing War - Sega Arcade
3. Sky Oddyssey - PS2
4. Wing Arms - Sega Saturn
5. Afterburner Climax - sega Arcade
6. NGEN Racing - PS1

Even taking that list there's only one game that really does it right and that's Wing War. I wonder if Mame emulation has got to a point where I can play this at home?

Good God man how could you not mention Star Wars Arcade ? Low level flying par excellence back in the day

There are a few moments when you can use the levels to your advantage - hiding behind mountains, ducking the bridges etc...but most of the time it's easier to just ascend above the clouds then dive back down, raining bullets and missiles on all and sundry.

Haven't seen any skyscrapers yet. Most of the environments are tropical rather than urban.

DOH! And the Sega Star Wars game too when you attack the empirial star destroyer.