Some do, some don't. Multiplayer over Live, including co-op and deathmatch modes, has been confirmed for AC6.

Holy graphics!! this will look awesome on a 42"+ screen in HD..

Yeah, the powerline structures in one shot looked a little funky. Still, that's how they've always done terrain, and at least this time it looks like they're using normal mapping to give flat ground SOME sense of texture.

Rumor has it EBGames is going to be selling a special edition with an X360 flightstick for around $120. A little too rich for my blood, considering I've only owned one joystick I've ever been happy with (thank you, Saitek), and it appears Ace Combat 6 will be the only game to directly support it.

If they offer a stick, I'll buy it. The one that came with AC5 was a really outstanding peripheral. One reason I bought the Ace Combat 5 stick was that someone had developed PC drivers for it.

The stick that came with AC5 seemed to me like it was identical in almost every way to the Saitek X52.

A friend of mine has both and it's damned hard to tell them apart other than coloring.

Air to ground attack missions? Air to ground attack missions that are better than OVER-G FIGHTERS' Air to ground attack missions?

I hope!

sounds cool. Thanks, LM

No prob Swampy.

Ace Combat is a very arcadey series. The controls are pretty simple and comfortable (no dicking with submenus). On normal mode you have infinite gun ammunition and obscene amounts of ammunition (usually around 40-90 sidewinders and varying numbers of specials; my A-10 could carry around 8 FAEBs). On hard modes your ammo decreases and gun ammo is limited, though still by no means realistic (a real fighter will totally empty its gun in a few seconds of sustained fire, at best). There is no fuel limit but there is often a time limit. The physics model is OK; you can stall, you can cobra (supposedly), your rudder is for fine course adjustments but big turns are done by rolling and pulling up. There is no damage model but you can't take too many hits, particularly on harder modes. You can't use countermeasures (well, some jets have countermeasures as a special but they suck), but it's easy to break a lock by outmaneuvering the missile.

In short, in Ace Combat, it's pretty common for your jet to take out more than a dozen enemy jets in a single mission. I don't know if this will change in Ace Combat 6 since they seem to be putting more emphasis on battlefield tactics and larger scale battles.

There are also very arcade-style missions. In Ace Combat 5 there's one where you're in a little BAE Hawk and you've got to evade some F-15s by flying through a cave at high speeds, and there are some missions where the goal is to "cause sufficient damage to the enemy," that is, reach a minimum number of points in a certain amount of time. Each game also has one or more "boss" missions, where you need to take out a massive enemy craft with multiple strike points. At the end of Ace Combat 5, you're actually chasing a massive satellite as it crashes toward earth, dodging huge pieces that fall off it as you try to destroy it.

It's also way, way more cinematic than most flight sims. In Ace Combat 4 there's a mission where after you finish up, a massive column of light suddenly drops from the sky and fries some of your allies, and then you have to make it to the exit zone while dodging these laser bombardments. There's also a mission where a nuke goes off and you spend a few minutes just flying around trying to get your bearings since the EMP has scrambled your HUD.

If you have a PS2, go rent or purchase Ace Combat Zero. It's the best one so far and will give you a good idea of what to expect.

Yeah, it's probably more of a 30/70 split. Everything LOOKS incredibly accurate (the Japanese Air Self-Defense Force and many of the companies that make the jets are involved), but it's not a realistic flight sim.

Interview with Ace Combat 6 director Isaki posted on IGN. Some good info about the Living Battlefield system.

I'm curious as to if you have any control over the NPC units and how commands are going to be issued to the various units on the field.

Not sure where the pic comes from, but thats a Saitek X45 HOTAS system in Xbox clothes. Not the best HOTAS system, but one of. It has a place of honor on the wire shelf of controllers to my right.

I've not played any of the AC series, but if it is indeed "Arcadey" it strikes me that this is MASSIVE overkill. The X45 has dozens of key functions, all in three shift states, 6 variable axis (same as a gamepad) and a thumb mouse.

At least since it's an xbox controller it'll work on your PC for PC games. Those of us who don't have these controllers for PC will benefit from this.

Me want. NOW!

Also, at around 0:37... anyone recognize that bird, the one leading all the flankers? It looks like there's a rear shot of it at 0:41 that shows some thrust vectoring nozzles unlike any I've ever seen. Ace Combat always has a few fictional "super jets," just curious if maybe this is one. Either way, looks like a heck of a dogfighter.

It seems like the F-15's are the "good guys," so maybe they're going with a super jet as a boss enemy, like the ADFX-01 Morgan in Ace Combat Zero.

I'm glad they put the A-10 in the trailer. The sound of that vulcan is something they totally nailed in all the games, and one of the most unique and iconic sounds an aircraft can make.

I really wish they would not screw us by not using it ones we may already own the on the xbox.

Wow, that video was pretty sweet. This game just moved up my list from "slightly interested" to "can't wait".