H.A.W.X. promises to open up Ace Combat's closed gameplay

Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. lead designer Thomas Simon told MTV that although the team respects Namco's Ace Combat, they feel the gameplay is too closed and promise the H.A.W.X. will rectify that.

"What ‘Ace Combat’ did to the air combat genre is really great," Simon said. "They [Namco Bandai] really set the basics of that [genre].

"But we felt, in general, it was a bit closed…the frame was too tight and people are getting used to that; we wanted to refresh it a bit, so we opened it via new gameplay features."

In order to do that, Simon reckons you need to feel part of the world you're flying around in:

"We wanted to put it in the real world, so you’re not fighting in places that have no emotion," he explained. "If I’m fighting above Washington, it means something more to me. That was a real choice."

Ubisoft announced today that Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. is to be released for PC, 360 and PS3 in March.

By Mike Bowden