Over G Fighters

As we know the Xbox 360 is still very much Microsoft's baby, yet already we have two flight sim's form of Ubisoft's Over G fighters and Blazing Angels, however this is were the similarity ends.

While Blazing Angels is a more action orientated game, Over G is more of a fighter jet flight sim, that's not to say there is no action however, because there is in abundance.

Scenario Mode

There are three type of game you can play on Over G Fighters the first of which is Scenario mode. The storyline involves you are as part of the Special Peace Corps whose task it is to bring about world peace, however there are militant groups who are quite happy to stand in your way and it is here your mission begins, choosing one of five wingmen you work you way through the selected missions, the first of which is to chase down the three bogey aircrafts, this it has too be said is fairly simple stuff as they don't seem to offer much resistance, all you do really is take off, lock on your targets and it's mission accomplished.

The other missions as you would expect offer a more sterner test, these range from protecting ground forces, shooting down bombers and attacking enemy fighters, one things for sure though, you will certainly get used to pushing the start button and selecting retry as yet another enemy missile turns you aircraft into a pile of rubble.

Yet another missile hits my aircraft

Scenario mode also incorporates training, the most fun and frustrating of which is taking off and landing training. As we all should agree, taking off your aircraft is easy, just get on the runway, push the throttle up to full power and then pull up and away you go, landing however is anything but easy, to be fair most of the time when I have attempted it my aircraft did get on the runway, it's just that crashing into the runway at 150 mph can't really constitute landing, somehow I don't think British Airways will be hiring me as a pilot anytime soon.

Challenge Mode

The next game you can play is Challenge mode, basically you have two options which are Arena and Strike. In Arena mode you fly with two wingmen and try to kill as many of the enemies as possible, this will earn you a title if you are good enough, during the mission if you run out of weapons or your aircraft becomes too damaged to continue then you can return to the hangar and repair the damage and re-arm. This mode is good fun and gives you the chance to fly any available aircraft in the game.

Strike mode gives you the option to set all the conditions of your battle, this includes your wingman, the aircraft, it's weapons and the amount of enemies you wish to fight.

Multi Player

The last game and probably most fun is Multiplayer (or as I call it Xbox Live mode) this obviously explains itself, here you can have dogfights against individuals or indeed against up to 8 other players, there are also online rankings so you can check who the best pilot is, though I get the sneaking suspicion that whoever it is probably knows a thing or two about how to fly. 

Controls & Sound

The controls in Over G are very easy to master, the usual suspects are there such as pull down to go up and pull up to go down, it's also easy to swap between weapons, it's just a case of pushing X for guns, B for flares/chaffs, Y for all other weapons (such as missiles) and most importantly A fires them, the shoulder buttons are used for rudders  and thrust and the D-pad for landing/airbrakes.

You should be able to fly your aircraft fairly easily after 10 minutes or so, whether you can put up with the annoying music on the menu though is another story, whoever chose this must have been standing next to a jet engine too long as it is quite clearly the most irritating thing about the game. The other in game sounds as pleasing to the ear as I found the engines and firing of missiles to be realistic enough.

Summary

Over G Fighters just seems to lack something which Blazing Angels did not and that something is speed, at times it feels like the wind is making you fly at 30mph and this unfortunately takes something away from the game, it would have been so much better if it felt that much faster, my other criticism is that it just seems to lack the action that Blazing Angels has from the word go, although they are both completely different games you just can't help but feel that maybe this game could have taken a leaf out of Blazing Angels book when it comes to the on screen action.

The in game graphics do the job which they need to but are not spectacular, then again not many games so far that have got to the heights that Xbox 360 is able to reach, one thing that does look good though is the replays, it's not often I bother with these in games however it was great fun watching my aircraft struggling to stay straight as I took off and then get blown up by a missile and I have to say that it does look fantastic.

In summary I think that Over G Fighters is a fun game to play, I just don't think that it has the pull to keep my interest over a long period of time, I do think that Ubisoft's other title Blazing Angels offers much more, however in saying that if you love flying games, the military or aircraft simulations then this game is most definitely for you.