The first person camera! Maybe this could be a half life style, fully immersive narrative? VR? With the premise maybe we’ll be able to have some less linear mission structure like ACX? Or maybe fleet or base building?! THE POSSIBILITIES! Oh and that narrative premise is so topical.

God I can’t wait! (i need a new pc :( )

PVP?

Man, what I wouldn’t give for more battle network…

Oh my love. Be still my beating heart. She is so perfect, and has no flaws. None, and everyone agrees that she is flawless and perfect. I actually love gimmick missions, and so do you. They add V A R I E T Y. And literally no one thinks the writing is overly preachy and if you do, I diagnose you with not existing. Think the old flight model was better? Interesting but no you don’t. What’s that? You say each plane having one baked in special weapon is a step back and compensating with a million variants isn’t enough? What a strange thing to say, good thing you didn’t say that! Think that chopper could have bailed into the river in the city? Understandable mistake but wrong. Now that you have been educated, you no longer think that!

(Honest thoughts, this is my favourite game of all time. I am not blind to the flaws but, for me, the game comes together in a way that in my eyes transcends it above all of those flaws… And also I genuinely don’t mind the gimmick missions, love the plot, and like all the minute aircraft variants.)

Ace Combat. Seems rather dull on the face of it but goddamn are the geopolitics compelling.

Circum-Pacific War. The Belkan War’s so overrated.

PA, please don’t make me do Demons of Razgriz without the tornado, the bomblet dispenser is so good for higher difficulties.

Man, you’ve got some sharp eyes! While I’d love a collection, I don’t think the licensing issues have been resolved so I’m not going to get my hopes up. That said, AC3 would not be bound by such constraints so there may be something there (just let me hope damnit!)

It seems that Bandai Namco are treating the “anniversary” as a year thing more than a specific day thing. Kono did say they’d try to have something ready for announcement this year. We got TGS coming up so there may be something there.

If 16 is the prospective PEGI rating, do you think we’re going to be dealing with some heavy subjects? Or maybe just some things in more fidelity? Or is this just rating creep? It seems the reason ACAH got the PEGI 16 rating was because you could shoot infantry troops in the helicopter and gunship segments and see the actual people you kill.

I’d like to submit my two favorite buddies from AC games for consideration.

Rusty from Armoured Core VI, especially the final fight against him in Breach The Karman Line. With that backdrop and his sweet ass AC sliding to a stop while you can hear the pure venom in his voice “Here we are… buddy…” as Steel Haze starts playing.

And then we have Ace Combat Zero, having just prevented the V2 launch, flying back to base when your wingman gets one shot by a fucking laser, and you see your former wingman, Pixy, in a hitherto unseen aircraft and hear the flamenco accompanied by that voice: “So, have you found a reason to fight yet… Buddy?”.

Similar themes across both, and both are absolutely iconic.

the end is never the end is never the end is never

I hadn’t considered it like that but yeah, if there was ever a game about nothing, the Stanley Parable is it.

The entire Ace Combat series, particularly from 4 onward are almost entirely comprised of the best music I’ve ever heard. I couldn’t reccomend all the specific tracks because i’d probably hit some sort of character limit but each game has a “flagship” track which I’ll highlight here:

• Rex Tremendae + Megalith -Agnus Dei-
• The Unsung War (special mention to First Flight)
• Zero
• The Liberation of Gracemeria
• Daredevil

Also will reccomend both the Metal Gear Saga (e.g. …Metal Gear Saga)

And the Boss themes from Metal Gear Rising

• Rules of Nature
• I’m My Own Master Now
• A Stranger I Remain
• The Stains of Time
• Red Sun
• The Only Thing I Know For Reap
• Collective Consciousness
• It Has To Be This Way

Never thought this’d be this relevant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69BMS6LIw8Q

Might be a bit more basic and/or wide in scope than what you want but just in case it’s worth picking up anything by Karl Kruszelnicki; AKA Dr Karl.

I know a skong fan, we’re not quite at that low yet.

Honestly though. I don’t really mind this slower release cadence. Really lets each entry stew and gives the series the breathing room it needs as a a more neice franchise.

“These verification systems are robust and effective, just take our word for it though. Don’t ask what they are, just take our word for it.”

I’m sorry, is this some sort of imperial joke I’m too metric to understand?

Working class Australia too. Dare, Ice Break, and Farmer’s Union flow through the blood of every tradie.

EndeavourOS. It’s the only one I tried that worked with my sound card out of the box strangely enough…

If that’s the actual splash screen that pops up when you try to access it (no, I’m not going to go to it and check, I don’t want to be on a new and exciting list) then kudos to the person who put that together. Shit goes hard. So do all the agency logos.