Thought I’d try out a different way of reviewing a game for a change. My opinions on games tend to change as and when I play them, and different aspects external to the game can affect my current opinion of it. Usually in hindsight I’ll like the game to a degree and will have lost perspective on the previous reasons that made me feel like quitting it and giving up. So like twitter or posting on forums I’ll record my feelings with the game as I play through it.

As a note, here are the specs of the PC I will be playing this game on:

CPU: Intel E6600 2.4Ghz dual core
RAM: Mushkin 4GB PC2-8000 DDRII
GFX: Nvidia 8800GT overclocked
HDD: Western Digital 500GB SATAII
OS: Vista Ultimate x32 SP1

Update 1 – 22/03/09: PC gaming is for masochists

I’m playing this game on the PC, the install wasn’t that long, under 30 minutes anyway, definitely no “Gears of War” which still holds the record, imo, of the longest install time. Usually with games I always do a quick check to see if there are any updates out for it, to preempt any prompts to update when I load the game or finding bugs that could be patched. There is a patch on gamershell.com, so I installed it and then tried to run the game. I got a flickering black screen and then a crash to the desktop with a “dumpfile” error another quality PC port I see. I tried navigating to the install directory of the game and loading up the DX10 exe directly. This time I got a constant black screen, but I could hear the audio from the start up. After a large part of my day looking online, with some various solutions recommended, I finally found the solution, I needed to uninstall my current Nvidia drivers, and install the new ones from the Nvidia site. The game started ok after this. I set all the graphics to max and the resolutions to 720p and ran the in game performance test. My average FPS was around 45 so I should be able to play it without having to lose any of the eye candy. But as I was so irritated with the whole debacle I just loaded up Street Fighter IV on my PS3, noticed how simple gaming was on the console, and thought during some very satisfying “Hadoukens” when I would even get back around to playing HAWX again.

Update 2 – 30/03/09: DX10.1 is too much of a temptation

I usually game on my HTPC (well for everything except for FPS and RTS), as it’s hooked up to a nice big plasma screen and I can sit comfortably on the coach in front of it. However, I noticed that this game supports DX10.1, whereas my HTPC does not. I couldn’t help but feel that as I was watching the performance test run that I was missing out on some eye candy. So I re-installed the game on my main PC, which is a lot beefier. I enabled everything, including DX10.1 and bumped up the resolution to 1920×1200. It looks noticeable better on my 24″ LCD, so I think I will play the game on this. Here are the specs anyway of my main PC.

CPU: Intel E8500 4Ghz dual core
RAM: OCZ 8GB PC2-8000 DDRII
GFX: ATI 4870×2 overclocked
HDD: OCZ 128GB SSD SATAII
OS: Vista Ultimate x64 SP1

Update 3 – 08/04/09: Wow, I take a really long time to finish games

I finally got around to playing a few levels of this game. I’ve been splitting my time between Street Fighter IV and Naruto: Ultimate Ninja Storm. I don’t know, HAWX just isn’t pulling me in or away from these other games. I think they got the balance wrong when deciding how arcadey to make this game, it feels more like I’m flying in space than on earth, because at no time do I even factor in the effects of gravity. Also, even though the game looks fantastic, especially with all the bells and whistles on the PC, I find myself only paying attention to the 2D radar and HUD prompts for where the enemies are, I get the feeling if they removed all the graphics and just had a black background you could complete this game.

There is so much information going on in the HUD that I don’t even see the point of rendering the fighter jet and landscape. I thought it would get better when I unlocked the “Assistance OFF” mode, but it doesn’t. In fact it gets worse in my opinion, the camera zooms out and assumes these odd angles that keep you constantly guessing as to which direction you have to push the analogue stick in to bank left or right, or up and down. The assistance off mode, whilst relying on a simpler HUD, is a mess. They should of given the player the option of changing views, so you could take advantage of the reduced HUD but not have to watch your plane fly around from a mile away. All this being said, I do like the voice recog., I questioned its use at first, but there are times when you have your thumb on the left analogue stick and you can’t afford to take it off to hit the select button or a direction on the D-Pad, so it’s handy being able to talk into the mic to give orders to your squad, or switch between weapons

I dunno though, overall, it’s just not sucking me in. I’ll complete it alright, but I doubt I will even bother with the co-op or versus modes. I can’t imagine versus would be much fun as well. It would be like an FPS where everyone had aimbots enabled.

Update 4 – 15/04/09: Getting better, but not amazing

I think I’m fairly far into it now and close to the end of the single player campaign at least. The difficulty curve is really starting to stretch what is easy to accomplish with the analogue stick on the Xbox 360 controller. The mission I’m on atm has me attacking a fairly well fortified location and requires to follow a flight route exactly, it twists and turns at random so more often than not I find myself, with the analogue stick adjusting then over adjusting. I’ll get through it and I guess I’m glad it isn’t still as easy as the earlier levels, but I really can’t see there being much more life to this game after I’ve finished the campaign mode. Of the friends that I know that have it, none of them are really interested in playing the coop or versus. The pull just isn’t there. It’s a nice arcadey distraction from FPS or RTS PC games, but so far, that’s all it is, a distraction. I dunno, maybe my opinion will change if there is a decent crescendo to the finale of the game.

Update 4 – 17/04/09: As Peter Griffin would say “DONE!!!”

Completed this game last night. The ending did not work in changing my overall opinion of the game. In fact I felt it fizzled out near the end. There is a pointless level tacked on called the “Epilogue” which will have you asking “what was the point of that?” after you’ve finished it. Pretty much 5 minutes after completing it I’d exited the game and completely uninstalled it. Even though I found it mildly enjoyable throughout, I’ll never play it again. The coop and versus side of it doesn’t really interest me as, like other flight games I’ve played, when you play against real humans you always end up in this constant loop with someone else, chasing their tail. Overall I’d give it about a 7/10. Graphically its good, storywise it’s… meh… so so and the gameplay has flourishes of excellence but I felt it held me by the hand too much. Rent it. Play it. Give it back and forget it. Done.