Ace Combat: Squadron Leader (PS2)

(Herald rating: * * )

Fighter ace video games feel as if they still belong to that long-ago era when teenage boys used to spend all their pocket money on ridiculous-looking joysticks which served to make the computer games more realistic.

Combat simulators flourished on the PC, then made the jump to consoles with patchy results. Crimson Skies, the popular air combat game of a few years ago was a hit. But such games never have a show against the likes of the Grand Theft Auto or Gran Turismo series.

The fifth instalment in the Ace Combat franchise, however, is aimed at that niche audience which still likes all the action to take place in the air.

Ace Combat: Squadron Leader has 30 missions and 50 planes to fly - most modelled on real fighters, such as the MIG and F-16.

Missions range from simple mop-up jobs, where you take out enemy spy drones, to fairly complex dogfights and bombing runs. The developers have tried to heighten drama in the air by introducing unexpected twists - your squadron leader might disobey orders or a mission's objectives might radically change in-flight.

There is a hint of strategy involved, but they generally tend to degenerate into kill-or-be-killed duels.

I was initially disappointed that the game is set in an imaginary world with fictional global conflicts and adversaries. But that soon becomes irrelevant once the fighting starts.

As for the plot , Ace Combat has that familiar feel of passionate, Japanese story-telling that doesn't quite translate well to a Western audience. The dialogue is overblown and cliched. In the sky the banter between pilots is downright annoying.

"My senses are all numb. I don't even have time to be afraid," shouts your wingman at one stage, right before you try to silence him once and for all with an air-to-air missile.

This is no Microsoft Combat Flight Simulator. Realism has been forsaken for ease of play and missions that are paced to keep the players interested. We're talking arcade game rather flight simulator.

You can't vary your speed that much and there is no such thing as stalling your plane in a rapid ascent, or even running out of fuel.

Missile and bullet damage is inflicted on your aircraft with an unimaginative shudder, but the cut-away shots of your aircraft exploding as it ditches in the ocean or flies into the side of a hill are reasonable.

There are a lot of Pearl Harbor-style cinematic sequences, with airmen sitting around hangars talking about the tragedy of war and love lost. You will want to click through these to bypass the lame conversations.

A 13-part tutorial will teach you how to become a fighter ace - if you have the patience - and you can also issue simple commands to other squadron members using your controller.

Overall, the graphics are respectable but you spend most of the time at high altitude shooting at targets you rarely see up close.There is little in the way of cockpit detailing, but the weather effects look good, as do the plane exteriors.

The video replays of the missions give real perspective from different camera angles of the air battle you have just been engaged in.

I would liked to have seen more low-altitude strafing and bombing missions with greater detail in buildings, vehicles and scenery.

There's no scope for online network play, which is a shame as the hunter-pack aspect of air combat is great for multi-player battles.

Price: $100