I have some experience in PC flightsims.
Since I have a PS3 for BR I thought it to be a good idea to try this on that console platform.
I got very frustrated with HAWX.
Not that the game is no fun or eyecandy (it sure is), but why can't we simply set up a (simple) mission in single player (like in versus) and play ?
This game is *very* time-consuming to level-up and (I simply can't progress) why not simply offer us (all) mission selection options to try out multiple planes/environments ?
It simply can't be that the PS3 version does not allo this in any way ... reviews of this game are proof of it (game reviewers will never dedicate days to simply level-up to get new planes etc.).
Why doesn't Ubisoft give us these 'cheat codes' ?

Well, it is what it is. It took me 3.5 months of periodic play in campaign and TDM to get all the trophies, complete most of the challenges, and get to level 40 and the rank of 5 star General of the Air Force.

http://forums.ubi.com/eve/foru...546/m/1131062287/p/3

http://forums.ubi.com/eve/foru...1007546/m/8361046597

Progression is slow, read the above threads to find tricks to try to get there since there are no known cheat codes to open everything up quickly.

If you get the PC version of HAWX, there are mod techniques to lower the XP to open everything up or do other things to the game.

http://forums.ubi.com/eve/foru...1006247/m/3881030297

Yes it would be nice to have cheat codes on the console to open everything up, but they don't exist as far as I know

Thx Dementor.
Congrats for your skills.
I gotta say I won't have the time, nor desire, to invest that much into it.
It would've been so easy for the devs to implement either a kind of 'cheat code' for mission ups or for a (simplified whatever) mission builder.
This is NOT helping the console crowd and it is IMHO keeping simmers awy from it.

The console is basically for arcade style playing and jumping in to the middle of the fire fight as quickly as possible, so if one wants true simulation, the console is just not the way to go (i.e. we don't really fly planes using PS3 or Xbox 360 or Wii controllers).

True simulation is really best done on the PCs -- very configurable such that you can truly perform as a simulation of the real thing ... We use joysticks, rudder pedals, manage the equipment and communications, actually manipulate a radar without the global I can see everything around me map and manually select and lock targets (a la F16 Falcon 1.0 etc...). Simulation is truly a lot more work and to fly a mission takes a lot longer from take off to reaching waypoints and managing the plane. There is nothing fast about it.

I've played all the Microsoft Flight Sims since the 1983 MS Flight Simulator 1 (lots of stick figure planes with the enemy mig actually completing 180 degree turns after they passed by you while you still have to make the standard sweep ... i.e. the AI planes had assistance off long before we did) to the MS Combat 1, 2, and 3 series on PC.

I've had all kinds of other PC flight sims that ran beautifully on older 80286 to 80486 pre-pentium systems. Janes Fighter Anthology ran on DOS machines. F18 Hornet sims allowed me to take off and land on aircraft carries on DOS 6 and Windows 3 or Windows 95 systems. Aces Over the Pacific and Aces Over Europe were beautiful WWII PC sims that only ran on the older DOS 6 systems and won't run on newer systems.

For W95/98/Me/XP systems, Falcon series was good. I forget all the sims that I have but some include Apache/Havoc helicopter sims, F86 Saber, B17, F15. I still keep the old legacy systems around to run these games.

Bottom line is for true sims, you just have to go the PC route. For arcade plane flying consoles are fine.

HAWx for PC runs as well as the console version assuming you have compatible hardware and I've posted elsewhere some of the tricks to mod the game so you can open up everything and have it available to fly around. I picked up HAWx for PC on clearance at Target for $8, did the mods and opened everything up so I can play through, but am still slowly working my way to get the 1.4 Million XP to get to 5 star so I can transfer the profile to any PC system without having to mod the system.

However, at the moment, playing HAWx on my PC (q6600 w/ 6 GB RAM, nVidia GT9500 with 1GB RAM with DVI hook up to a 19" HD monitor) game just doesn't beat having my PS3 console hooked up via HDMI to my 50" HDTV.

Dementor, you are a true simmer for sure.
BTW, I have played quite a lot of real 'sims' on PC myself, yet the problem I have with HAWX on PS3 is the fact it seems to be about being fast, more than being stategic in ANY way.
Reason why I AM interested in playing 'sims' on a console is what you describe: hooking that PS3 up to my 46" Bravia makes for a nice experience, better than any monitor. Plus the PS3 is one helluva fast computer.
I am now flying IL-2 BoP and like it a lot.
Maybe I am getting too old (slow) for this type of HAWX arcade gaming ?

quote:

Originally posted by simfan2009:
Dementor, you are a true simmer for sure.
BTW, I have played quite a lot of real 'sims' on PC myself, yet the problem I have with HAWX on PS3 is the fact it seems to be about being fast, more than being stategic in ANY way.
Reason why I AM interested in playing 'sims' on a console is what you describe: hooking that PS3 up to my 46" Bravia makes for a nice experience, better than any monitor. Plus the PS3 is one helluva fast computer.
I am now flying IL-2 BoP and like it a lot.
Maybe I am getting too old (slow) for this type of HAWX arcade gaming ?

Yeah, HAWx is fast in a lot of different ways:

1. It gets you right into the action with minimal delay involved in choosing checkpoints. Good if you just like to get into action.

2. Modern jets are of course fast, so the very game action is faster than anything one would have to deal with in helicopter, WWI, WWI, Korean Era, Vietnam Era, and early jet era flight sims.

3. The rate of turns and banking, however seem to fast with too many G's that I think that any maneuvers repetetively done in HAWx would actually tear the planes apart or cause the pilots to pass out in real life -- they should've put a red-out and tunnel vision blackout feature in the game in order to minimize the Assistance off nearly 180 degree turn ridiculousness that a human body wouldn't be able to tolerate (i.e. do that a couple of times in real life would likely result in enough disorientation that the pilot would either crash the plane or pass out and end up flying straight and level as an easy target)

4. There is little overall strategy other than to rapidly decide on the next target and shoot it down in the least amount of time. The game is more about rapid decision making in the heat of a close quarter dogfight than it is about setting up for the typical BVR (beyond visual range) shoot downs that give one time to think as in some flight sims.

From what I recall of the demo for IL-2 it seems there is a little bit more plane management involved and since the planes fly slower, there is time to think about what you want to do and how you want to approach and eliminate the target.

Console games on the big screen are nice. I used to hook up my PS2 on my 65" big screen with F1, Nascar, and Indy Car games. It's actually quite realistic like driving on the speedways themselves. I've been on the Indy 500 Motorspeedway in my own car and the Indy car view out the window looks like what it would look like when looking out the car (only difference is in real life, the track is banked so you feel the lean whereas I don't get that same feel on the 65").

I'm a bit myopic (near sighted), so the large screen for games (even first person shooters) is much nicer ... so much easier to see the target on a big screen than on a tiny PC.

I like the PS3 for driving games and flight games. I like the Xbox 360 for first person shooters (Halo, CoD, Bad Company). I like the PC for flight simulation (ability to mod, use full cockpit setups with joystick, throttle, and rudder control).

hawx is not a sim, its an arcade fligt combat game it is all about the sped and points and killing rather then tatics and other such realistic things