Rolling back to Birds of Prey, I unfortunately have to say that even with the flightstick acting as its natural companion it still seems to be a bit much for the limitations of the console platform to handle. The graphics - while jaw-dropping - tend to jump wildly all over the place and will occasionally dip as low as the single-digit range in a pitched firefight. The mission briefings are also not at all verbose, often leaving you with crucial details out of the mix until you're already in the thick of things. Okay, so maybe we don't need Ace Combat's awkwardly-voiced briefing style involving ten pages of back story and technical errata prior to every mission, but a little grid-based map with outlined objectives and some specific details on the actual tasks I'm expected to accomplish would be nice.

I also would like to see more flexibility out of the realism options - i.e. "Arcade" mode means you don't have to deal with the ultra-realistic flight physics, but the enhanced damage modeling isn't enabled until you bump the difficulty up to at least "Realistic" level. Some way of setting your own custom difficulty range would have been nice.

Still, these are minor complaints given the amount of content provided by the game across the various tutorial, single, campaign, and multiplayer-based missions - though I'll admit to some mild disappointment at the lack of a campaign co-op mode and despite how challenging the game can be at times (even at the least-realistic difficulty setting), it's still immensely satisfying lining up behind a target and squeezing off that perfectly-aimed barrage to rip off someone's wing and watch him tumble helplessly to the earth below.

Is the experience worth the purchase price of the game for average console gamers? If you've played Ace Combat and the like and want to try something a bit more involved, that would be a definite yes - even without the flight stick. If on top of that you're still an avid player of HAWX and the other flight sim classics on the Xbox 360 (or just happen to want a decent flightstick that you can also use with your PC), do yourself a favor and spring a bit extra for the Aviator as well. For the price point, I doubt you'll regret it.

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