Great read.

I must say it's a very well written article without inaccurate or outrageous claims. In fact I can't remember if there ever was a well written article about VF.

I must rant a little and show an example of how NOT to hype a videogame:

"This Virtua Flight Simulator (TM) is such a paragon of realism and depth. This so deep and realistic that you won't even be able to take off correctly without spending time reading 300 page manual from back to back. And it would take days before you can land and would take weeks before you score your first kill online after getting shot down over and over by veteran players who have been playing the series for years and invested thousands of hours. Again this is the deepest and greatest game out there and Ace Combat playing casuals noobs need not apply!"



Does the above make you want to pick up the game?

Bullshit.

But this is effectively what the VFers have been doing to "promote" the game for nearly 20 years. (Never mind, IMO, all these talk about VF's realism were pretty much full of crap anyway.)



I am glad to read Zero-chan's preview that emphasizes Sega's intention of the making the game more accessible (while the result is fully debatable at least doesn't hurt to point out this intention.) while not neglecting the game's heritage.

Agree to Zero, Hyun, and Myke!

Tempted to add to the points, but Hyun and Myke have made them very clear

Agree - I think leading to FS our mantra should be VF is easy to learn! VF is easy to pick up and play!

I beg to differ a little. Nobody decides to devote their time and money to a video game or any other leisure activity _BECAUSE_ it's easy OR hard. People, including you and I, decides to do so when it's FUN/ENJOYABLE. We played VF because it was FUN! Not because it was easy or hard! Everything else is a secondary/complementary factor.

The whole point should be that the VF is a fun/rewarding game and that fun/reward has become more accessible. If it's not fun it has no reason to exist any more, since it's not even that good looking game any more compared to the recent games.


Edit: Not much we can do about Sega turning off potential players with bad presentation/bad character design/bad voice acting and such--other than trying to convince people that the good will eventually outweigh.

You people do realize that Final Showdown was made to be easier for new players to pick up and play. That was not the case with older VF games, and I actually liked that. I understand the business though and get that if VF is to continue, it has to appeal to the lax/lazy minded gamers as well as gamers that are willing to put in time to learn a character properly.

As for the article, it was solid. They really went at it for people who either were new to the franchise or had not played it in a long time/never player it seriously. While I am sure they simplified the game to make it more accessible, I hope it will still be a challenge to master and for the right reasons unlike other fighting games(which I am sure it is).

Oh, and I disagree with the game not being good looking. VF 5 is still one of the best looking games period, let alone fighting games of this gen. Eh, visuals are subjective any way. No point in arguing opinions on that one.