mikeszekely

I thought it was radar-absorbent paint. Nope. From what I read, an IR absorbent paint developed by Boeing, who was one of Lockheed's partners during that competiton. Okay, so it's true that some of the solutions used to reduce IR signature wouldn't apply to a valk in space, but my point is still valid. If the UN wants to make stealth a focus in their next-gen variable fighters, they're going to develop technologies to make stealth work. And with everything else that they've done with overtechnology, it's feasible to believe that they used OT to reduce the IR signatures of fighters like the VF-17 and the VF-22.

Right, so the YF-23 is faster. I never wanted to contest that. I just wanted to point out that they had the same engines, and just because the F/A-22 wound up with the 119s, doesn't mean the YF-23 had the more powerful engine. Just the YF-23 with the 120. I was given to understand that they decided to use the 119 because P&W had more experience with thrust vectoring. If that's the case, even if the YF-23 beat the YF-22, it might still have been fitted with the 119.

I'd have to guess that it is longer than Ace Combat 4. AC4 wound up with less than 20 missions, right? I think I read somewhere that there's over 60 in AFDS, but I'm sure that some of them count those "Mission Intercept" battles and what not. Sorry, haven't done the space missions yet. I'm stuck on this mission where there's these glowing diamonds. They blink on and off like Christmas lights. When they're off, you shoot them, and part of the enemy defense grid goes down, so you can try to shoot the core. Unfortunately, you'll die if you pass through when the diamond is on, an ace by the name of Pierre is trying to make sure you die anyway, they're buildings and laser grids that limit where you can go, and if you fly to high, you'll hit the enemy's plasma shield and die. Yeah... you definately die more in AFDS than in AC4. Oh, but the kicker is that the mission is timed, too.

That can be a disadvantage as easily as an advantage. Like for example, if I as mine what she wants to do, she'll say "I don't know" and play solitaire. She only decided to be affectionate whenever I'm getting into a videogame, and really don't want the distraction.

That goes without saying I would imagine. However......I would think that Overtechnology would give man the answer to the super-conductor and that would significantly reduce the heat signature. The heat's still got to go somewhere. Most of it straight out the back of the plane. There's really no way around it that I can see, aside from flooding enemy IR sensors with a bigger heat source. But you're talking about the same sort of challenges that today's modern stealth aircraft face. The F/A-22 uses IR absorbent paint, uses fuel to cool its leading edges, and has two dimensional nozzles that create a flatter exhaust plume that dissipates heat quickly. Now, if that's what we can do with conventional technology, I'm sure OT can come up with a few better. Black is fine for being hard to see in space, but what about in an atmosphere? One of the reasons the Raptor is usually a mottled blue-grey is that it's harder to see in the sky.

Mmmm... cushion... *drools*

That's an unfair statement. One prototype of both the YF-22 and the YF-23 used the GE YF120 engines, and one prototype of each used the Pratt & Whitney YF119. It's true that the more conservative YF119s were the final pick for the F/A-22, but that didn't guarantee that if the YF-23 would have won, it would have got the YF120 engines. I'll give you that the YF-23 was faster becasue it was sleeker (you could tell me it's lighter, too, I'd believe that), but you can't tell me that the YF-23 had more powerful engines if it was using the same engines as the YF-22.

Well, bearing in mind that I'm only comparing it to other console air combat games, not games in general, I'll give it a 7 out of 10, with 10 being Ace Combat and 1 being the truly crappy Top Gun. Like I've said before, AFDS has some interesting missions (and from what I've been reading, a TON of missions), more cool planes than you can shake a stick at, and adequate gameplay. I mean, if you've played Ace Combat, you can get into AFDS. It's really just that Ace Combat is so much more refined... you play AFDS, you handle it the same way you do Ace Combat, but it's just not Ace Combat. But considering that there hasn't been a decent air combat game since Ace Combat 4, AFDS is a nice change that will keep me entertained for awhile... at least until Ace Combat 5. AFDS is waaaaaaaaaay better than the Lethal Skies series. Well, a lot of the missions are your typical air combat fare. Several dogfights where you have to at least down the target aircraft, a few dogfights where you fight for the time limit, a mission or two where you have to destroy enemy ships, and one where you have to destroy an enemy fueling station. I've had some interesting ones, though. I've already mentioned the one where you have to take out the enemy subs that are hiding in ice flows. There was another high altitude mission where you had to hit these enemy transports. It was unusual because you couldn't go under the clouds (the operator said that high winds would break the fighter apart), but the transports were huge, and would dive beneath the clouds, so it was kind of like whaling. There was another stage where you have to defend a train, but there's a ton of other tracks with enemy trains that are shooting your train. And the most interesting one I've done was your canyon mission. You know the ones, you can't fly higher than the canyon walls? Except this one had these huge tires rolling through the canyon. The most memorable moment in that level was when you have to dive into this tiny ditch at the bottom of the canyon to escape being crushed by two rollers in a row.

I don't want you to run out to the store too fast, David, but I found this pic on the AFDS website...

According to IGN, here's some of what I'm missing. Apparently, though, they're going to list more in another article, so it's still not all of it... Jian-Ji 6 JIN Su-20 Fitter C Su-27SMK Franker B A-10A Thunderbolt A-4M Skyhawk X-29A F-20 Tigershark MiG-19PFM Farmer F-104G Starfighter Jian-Ji 7 MG Buccaneer S2D Su-27LL-UV(PS) HiMAT MiG-23ML Flogger G F-108 Rapier F-5A Freedom Fighter F-117A Nighthawk A-6E Intruder F-14D Tomcat MiG-27K Flogger J Jaguar GR1 Sea Vixen FAW2 MiG1.44 MF1 F/A-18C Hornet X-31A MiG-25PDS Foxbat Jian-Ji 8 Finback A F-16XL F4D-1 Skyray X-32A Su-30MKI F-16C Block 50 Fighting Falcon Tornado GR1 On Konomi's AFDS website, they have pics that add the following- F-2A F-15E Strike Eagle Jian-Ji 12 S-37A Berkut Eurofighter Typhoon IL-2M3 Sturmovik Spitfire Mk-24 Su-37 TSR2 Yak-141 Freestyle F-1 Su-34 They don't have pics or any info confirming or denying that these are in the game, but there's a disclaimer about Konami using the folling under license from Lockheed... F-102 Delta Dagger F-111F F/A-22 Raptor F/A-35B X-44 YF-12A

Oh, you're still fighting against modern jets. The P-38 was slow, but very maneuverable. And they added rockets to it.

Yup, you are correct, the Japanese release name is "Air Force Delta - Blue Wing Knights', not Blue Sky Knights, my mistake. I was thinking of picking this game up, but might hold off now. Does anybody know if this game features the Eurofighter Typhoon? (my favorite modern fighter). Graham Aside from what's on my list, the only aircraft I know for sure that's in the game but I haven't unlocked are the F-117, The X-32, the F-16XL, and if I assume from the cover of the game, the Berkut.

Why's everyone so hard on Ace Combat 3? Because of a few totally fictional planes, and the rest were at least loosely based on real ones? You guys gotta get past that, because Ace Combat 3 had some of the most original missions, like chasing the train and bombing the virus thingies. As far as magazine/internet reviews go, you gotta remember that air combat games are one of those things that the average gamer (or the average reviewer) just doesn't get into. Basically, if you like Ace Combat, you'll get some enjoyment out of Air Force Delta Strike. You just gotta set up a custom control scheme similar to AC4, and then it plays strikingly similar, and yet somehow not as good. You do learn to tune out the radio chatter during missions, but it gets old between missions, and it's really annoying to have that guy chew you out everytime you fail a mission. But I do have to give credit to Konomi for coming up with some of the most original missions since AC3. The mission I'm on now, for example, is tracking down and sinking enemy subs hiding inside ice flows. Sadly, for every cool mission you get to do, there's two or three dogfighting missions... which would be fine, if dogfighting was more like Ace Combat. For some reason in the Air Force Delta series, enemies tend to cut 180s and nail you while your wingmen just fly around like idiots... Okay, now for cool planes, I can't say too much. Seems that there's 134 aircraft in the game, but not all are playable. The game counts a lot of helicopters, bombers, and AWACS aircraft in that 134, although I still feel confident to say that there's over 100 playable aircraft. I'm still fairly early into the game, I think, and I can tell you what I unlocked. I can only guess what the others are. Anyway, here's what I got. I'm typing it exactly as it's listed in the game, so any discrepencies or unofficial code names, don't blame me, blame Konami. F-5E Tiger II MiG-21bis Fishbed N Su-20 Fitter C MiG-29SMT Fulcrum C YF-17 Cobra Su-24M Fencer D F5D-1 Skylancer Jian-Ji 8IIM Finback F Su-7BMbis Fitter A F-106 Delta Dart FC-1 Figher China P-38L Lightning Lightning F6 T-58VD Flagon B Yak-38 Forger A A-5A Vigilante F-105D Thunderchief Su-25A Frogfoot A-7E Corsair II RF-4C Phantom II P-3C SH-3H Sea King Ka-52 Hokum 8 Mi-35 Hind E AC-130H Spectre B-1B Lancer B-2 Spirit C-5B Galaxy SR-71A Blackbird U-2R E-2C Hawkeye E-3C Sentry YAL-1 ABL Tu-160 Blackjack M-17 Mystic A-50 Mainstay

Air combat shooters on the consoles have been, for the most part, love them or hate them. I've played and loved every version of Ace Combat since Air Combat. Lethal Skies (both of them) and that Top Gun game, though, have been complete crap, IMHO. (Oh, for the record, I never played Aero Wings or Aero Combat Elite Acadamy.) The one series that's always been kind of noteable for it's mediocrity is Air Force Delta. I played through the Dreamcast version... it was okay. I played Air Force Delta Storm (Xbox)... meh. And now we have Air Force Delta Strike on the PS2. So how is it? So far, I've found it to pretty similar to the first two... air combat that's not as good as Ace Combat's, but similar enough to be fun. Anyone who's played Ace Combat 4 will be able to get into the game pretty quickly, although I strongly reccomend creating a custom control setting that's a bit more similar to AC's. (It's like the guys at Konomi knew AC uses a good control scheme, but didn't want to look like they were copying it, so they came up with a control scheme so ridiculous that you'd want to change it anyway.) Like Ace Combat, there is supposed to be some underlying story here... but instead of being narrorated in mildy interesting cutscenes, it's told by irritating anime characters throughout the whole game... before missions, after missions, during missions... you'd think with all that storytelling, the story would make sense, right? Not really... Where Air Force Delta really shines, though, is the ammount of aircraft Konami crammed into the game. Supposedly, there's around 130, including fighters, bombers, WWII era prop planes, prototypes, and a few fictional ones, including the Vic Viper from Gradius. Fictional craft aside, the ammount of aircraft in this game almost makes it the Gran Turismo of air combat games. Having a lot of planes does come with disadvantages, though. You see, there are nine characters in the Delta Squadron (three in each element)... and each character starts with a different plane. As you play through missions, you'll usually be allowed to pick from from different members, and different missions are assigned to different elements. Each pilot has their own money, and each pilot has different planes he can buy and fly than the others, which is a little annoying at times (Moreso because the computer keeps seperate records for each character, so if you want to know how many enemy fighters you shot down, you have to add them up for each character...). Also, you don't start with much, and it's a long time before you even work up to an F-16. Expect to spend much of the early game flying foreign fighters from the 50's and 60's. All-in-all, we don't have a lot of choices for air combat games on the PS2. While Air Force Delta Strike has it's flaws, it's a much better tide-me-over-til-Ace Combat 5 than any of the other air combat games on the PS2 since AC4. Plus, it's only $40.

Thanks for all the info, guys! I lack the patience to download any video over 5 minutes in length, due to the fact that absolutely no form of broadband is available in this apartment. I ordered Evolve Plus from Animeniacs along with part 3 of Macross Zero, each were only $11.50. As for the first one, I think I can rent it at my local anime store, so I'll check it out there. If it's really just kind of fanboy stuff, does it really need subs? For the most part, I didn't feel like I needed them for the 20th Anniversary Macross fanboy stuff DVD. Hey, it looks like some of the CGI stuff is from the PlayStation 2 games. Is that right?

That's my point. We'd never seen anything like it, so it was memorable to us as kids. But lots of things were memorable to me as a kid, and not all of them are as good as I remember.

Cause Macross World isn´t just about toy , models and games. If people actually looked outside the forums they would realise all the info gathered in the MW main site , of course all they care about is the Forum´s toys section and that´s it. I've hit the main page, Aegis. And aside from scans from the magazines and books, it's not exactly overwhelming in content. There's a reason we're always directing people to the Compendium instead of the MW front page. I will agree with you on one thing... MW isn't about the toys, models, and games. MW is about the community. One of the reasons this is the only forum I post at is because of the community... most of us have been here for awhile, some of us for quite awhile. When you see a post by a member, rarely do you say to yourself, "who the heck is that guy?" I recognize people like lebhead as being one of the resident RT experts, David as being the plane guru, and I recognize you, Aegis, for trying to start some of the more interesting discussions instead of the same old "I just saw Macross Zero part XX and it ruled!" That's why most of us don't go outside the forums anymore. Need some info? One of us has it. A pic? One of us has it. Something else? One of us probably has it. The combined resources of the board members have outstripped what the main site has to offer. It even blatantly informs you that the news is in the forums. For the record, I never go to the toys section. Macross toys/models are too expensive for my blood. The only toys and models I've ever bothered with are a few Megaman, and a few Gundam. I spend most of my time here in the Movies and TV Series board and the Other Anime and Science Fiction board.

I'd for one would miss the magazine updates. The forums are great, but the scanned magazine pictures have given me tons of inspiration to go out and build models in ways I hadn't tried before. I totally understand that this site is a labor of love, and it pays nothing. Even if there isn't another update for a year, I have to thank Shawn for all the work he has put into this site so far. I don't know if they quit, but a lot of people that got the magazines posted the best stuff in the forums.

Best death ever? Hardly. I don't know about most of you guys, but for me, the first time I saw this was as Robotech, and as a young boy. Now, this was back when most of the cartoons on TV were American, with just a sprinkle of Japanese shows (the complete opposite of today, I've noticed). In American cartoons, people didn't die (Well, in the movies, maybe... Optimus' death... I cried in the theater...). So, to see a main character go, that was really something. As an adult, I've see countless more death scenes (and probably half of them from Gundam... ). And while Roy's death was tragic, it lacks the power of some other death scenese I've seen. In the movie, it was even worse. At least in the TV series, it was one of those "war is pointless and tragic" deaths. In the movie, it became the cliche "die so the main character can live" deaths. My call for best death? *SPOILERS* Uso's mom, in V Gundam. Kinda similar to Z Gundam, to Camille's mom's death, sure, but being that Uso was younger, and his mom got crushed by a freaking battleship... that's probably a bit more traumatic.

If it's easier on Shawn, why not simply get rid of everything but the forums? News, toys, models, games... it's all covered in the boards anyway.

Seems there's two, the first Gundam Evolve and Gundam Evolve Plus. Well, out of curiousity, I ordered myself a copy of Evolve Plus. But what I want to know is, what exactly are they? Is there some story to be found? Did I waste my money? Should I try to find the first one?

Mobile Suit Gundam may suffer from poor animation due largely to its age, but it still remains a groundbreaking series with memorable characters and an excellent story. Zeta Gundam is, by far, the best of all the Gundam series/movies/OVAs I've seen. ZZ Gundam had a ridiculously corny start, but once you get around it, ZZ Gundam really picks up and ends up being one of the better Gundam series. And I thought Moon Moon was actually kinda cool. Victory Gundam had the worst beginning ever, and that includes being worse than ZZ's. ZZ may have had a corny beginning, but V was just borning until they went into space. By episode 32, I can say that the story picks up, but the characters are still pretty bland. Also, it's like the polar opposite of Gundam X... Gundam X was a AU Gundam that felt like a UC Gundam, and V Gundam is a UC Gundam that feels like an AU Gundam. AU Gundam is definately more kiddie than UC Gundam. This isn't really a UC elitist opinion, but a marketing fact. The whole point of AU Gundam is to attract new fans without having to explain the backstory of Gundam, Z, ZZ, Char's Counterattack, F-91, and V (here's hoping they forget about G-Saviour). That's not to say that AU Gundam sucks... I like Wing, even if it's my least favorite (that I've seen), and I loved X.

Look at the picture carefully. The blue screen is clearly at an angle. And whoever made this image cropped the tops of the two photos to follow the angle of the text. But look at the photos themselves... they are clearly not at an angle, however their tops are cropped. Somebody made this picture. And a blue screen with text about a new Robotech series with a picture of some Japanese men in white lab coats and a second picture of the Tatsunoko building added on later really doesn't mean too much.

Y'know, Mechamaniac, I was willing to cut you some slack, what with your far superior knowledge of 12" Gundams, etc... But then you had to go and cast disparaging remarks toward Pabst! I'll take Pabst over Bass any day! But if you were to mention Samuel Smith vs. Milwaukee's Best (the Beast)... then I might follow your logic. S'okay, though... as I've said before and I'll say again - Diff'rent Strokes rule the world. Personally I dig the old animation better, it just has a classic quality (like Disney's Bambi or Dumbo) that new anime just doesn't seem to measure up to. I like both, but I can see where you're coming from with your preference. Just don't dis the PBR again! Except First Gundam and Zeta aren't really beers at all... they're fine aged wines. And while I'm on the topic, Wing and SEED aren't really beers either... they're more like Mountain Berry Blast Kool-Aid with extra sugar. The beers would be the one-year war OVAs, which were well animated, but lacking sorely on story. Y'know, empty carbs.

Unfortunately the older fans are even worse. The bulk of the Gundam fanbase sadly are just completely obnoxious, especially the UC elitists. nothing wrong with being a UC elitist I'm gonna go with Skippy, here. I mean, sure, I'll admit that it was Wing that got me into Gundam. And I'll admit that Wing isn't bad, per se. But by now, I've seen every Gundam except for V, Turn A, G, and Seed, and Wing was by far my least favorite. It (kinda) has the Gundam themes... but they take away the seriousness of UC Gundam and replace it with a boy band (minus the music). Not to mention that it's pretty irritating when the younger fans refer to Char as a lame ripoff of Zechs, no matter how many times you explain to them that Char came first.