What annoys me however is all of the things the game could easily have done better, with joystick implementation leading the list. Picture this: You're developing an action-oriented game that can just barely pass itself off as a flight "sim". You're going to be releasing it on multiple platforms, including PC. Therefore, it's a given expectation that many sim enthusiasts will likely break out their Saitek X52's and converted Steel Battalion controllers to give it a spin and try to get the best experience out of this game, right?

This then raises the question on why the game has a joystick implementation that feels so half-assed and untested. There are two easily-fixed problems that almost make using this control system worthless when compared to the stock keyboard / mouse configuration; the throttle function, and the input deadzone settings. The problems with the throttle are less of a concern, but enthusiasts will quickly notice how it's limited into just three specific speed settings: 'braking', 'normal', and 'fast' (afterburners). There's no fine-tuned analogue control, which means that precision HOTAS-based throttle setup you're using probably won't get any proper use.

What's more frustrating however is that the game's unchangable deadzone settings are hard-coded to be very large for some unknown reason, meaning joystick users will physically have to reef their sticks all the way to the sides in order to get any kind of response out of their planes (and again, this makes precise maneuvers almost impossible - don't bother trying to fly "nape-of-the-earth" if you're using a joystick, as you'll always end up a smear on the landscape). Since this issue borderlines on making the game much harder to play in contrast to the "virtual mouse" control mode, it's going to be pretty frustrating for flight sim fans trying to enjoy this game until the problem is fixed. This rant is targeted solely at those of us with fancy-pants controllers however; those relying on the keyboard / mouse or Xbox 360 controller configurations will be just fine.

As another big complaint, my LAN party group hit a few snags trying to get into co-op mode as well - mostly because we only had one copy of the game and no internet access. In order to play co-op mode "properly", you have to sign in through the Ubi.com matchmaking service and be online in order to join a session in progress. Lack of extra CD keys to do this was something we could solve, but the lack of internet access at the time was an unavoidable hurdle. This almost forced us to shelve the game for the LAN party until we noticed an extra co-op mode strangely buried under the game's "Versus" multiplayer screen, which enabled us to set up a co-op session over LAN, select missions, and go nuts. However, this mode annoyingly didn't include the pre-rendered mission briefings, meaning we had to externally open up the game's .BIK movie files in order to have any idea what we were supposed to expect in a given mission (and then manually extract the briefing speech from the subtitle files because the .BIK movies had no audio tracks). Ubisoft: I'll give you big bonus points for including co-op play in the first place, but seriously: what the hell?

There are a few more qualms I have beyond this such as the jumpy framerates in DX10 mode, the fact that the whole campaign can be beaten in about six hours if you don't count unlockables, and that the gameplay gets a bit repetitive after some time, but this ultimately goes to show how H.A.W.X is a game of contrasts.

I think what bugs me the most about this game is that I had my original expectations set pretty darned low before it came out in the hopes of being easily-impressed, and sadly, it ended up meeting many of these low expectations. Those of you PC-only gamers who are new to the whole "arcade-styled flight sim" genre and are also curious what all the fuss over Ace Combat is about really should give this a go - you'll probably have lots of fun. The more seasoned and cynical among us however will probably want to wait for the inevitable release of H.A.W.X.2, and hope that Ubisoft gets it better the second time around.

Questions or comments? We'd love to hear from you .