The PC version is set for March 13 release (unless Ubisoft as usual decides to delay it even more).
Completed the demo & I'm blown away. This is just the game that I needed. Awesome flight action. Probably better than Ace Combat too. People interested in flight action games would be in for a serious surprise with this one. The demo consists of 2 missions. Both are set in Rio De Janerio, Brazil. The first one is like a training mission which would show you the basic flight controls & manoeuvres. It will also give you a heads up on the regular combat training as well.
The second mission was fully action packed. I had to defend the Rio city from enemy bombers & tanks. The tanks were a b*tch to destroy as they seem to be on ground level & in between high rises. Controls of the game are fairly easy. I used the Xbox 360 controller & it got automatically configured. So 'A' would be for missiles, 'B' for shooting bullets, 'Y' was to specify the nearest target & 'X' was to intercept & dodge. RT & LT were for Accelerating & braking respectively. Never used the RB or LB. D-Pad would allow you to switch between the type of missiles. Tapping the RT twice would allow you to access a feature called 'Assistance mode'. This would provide a weird camera angle & the distance for viewing the flight would be far off. This is an annoying feature to be honest. Not really that necessary.
In the demo version, you'll only have access to flying an F-16A Fighting Falcon jet, equipped with Joint strike missiles & Multi-target AA missiles.
Visually the game looks stunning. I was able to play the game @1280x1024 with 4X AA & everything on high (V-Sync OFF) & was able to get over 75fps at all times. It's brilliantly optimised. World details is pretty decent. Voice overs & alerts sounds are simply remarkable.
The demo just left me wanting for some more action. Really looking forward to the full game now. Hope it's long enough in the single player mode. Ubisoft didn't seem to include the 4 player co-op option in this demo for some reason. Although it was clearly stated that it would be available. Anyway the demo is definitely promising for arcade flight action games.
Some screenshots:
*www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/31814_xasfd/HAWX%202009-03-03%2011-03-11-25.jpg
*www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/31815_6bwmx/HAWX%202009-03-03%2011-04-31-64.jpg
*www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/31816_4myte/HAWX%202009-03-03%2011-04-46-15.jpg
*www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/31817_zb1ig/HAWX%202009-03-03%2011-08-03-10.jpg
*www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/31818_bjpow/HAWX%202009-03-03%2011-08-41-35.jpg
*www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/31819_iraps/HAWX%202009-03-03%2011-15-28-78.jpg
*www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/31820_rffgd/HAWX%202009-03-03%2011-15-48-09.jpg
*www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/31821_ipuuo/HAWX%202009-03-03%2011-16-14-51.jpg
*www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/31822_70iwu/HAWX%202009-03-03%2011-16-24-57.jpg
*www.imgx.org/thumbs/small/31823_t5caa/HAWX%202009-03-03%2011-28-02-10.jpg
