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By Zach Sprague | September 25, 2007

Warhawk for the PlayStation 3 is an incredible game . For those not familiar with Warhawk, the game is developed by Incognito

Entertainment for online combat. The Warhawk itself is an advanced jet fighter. It can hover, has afterburners, and is capable of carrying an array of offensive and defensive weaponry, mostly for air to air combat, but some designed for air to ground attacks. When not in the Warhawk you get to run around in third person view and utilize jeeps, tanks, fixed SAM and Flak Cannons, as well as many anti-personnel and anti-vehicle weaponry to annihilate your opponents.

The game ships with 5 different maps which scale depending on how many max players the server is set to allow. There are four game modes, Death Match (Free for All), Team Death Match (Team based frag fest), Capture the Flag, and Zones. The Death Match scenarios are intense and fast paced with as many as 32 vs 32 jets flying through the skies. In “capture the flag” your team must take strategic points to either defend your flag/base or capture the enemies flag. In “zone”, your team captures positions and gains points over time while your team continues to hold those positions.

More Info and Video after the jump

One of the most enjoyable features of the game is the variety. As a player you can either fight in a “dogfight”(air to air type death match) or you can engage in the fight by land to air or air to land. The games can be very fast paced and really has the capability to utilize good team mechanics if the players choose to work together.

Another great aspect of the game is the accumulation of stats along with a ranking system. However, for me the ranks and stats are not that awesome in and of themselves . The cool factor comes with the badges, ribbons, and medals you gain which , along with helping you rank up, gives you customization options for your character and your Warhawk. These customizations are new head gear or clothing options for your warrior as well as new paint schemes for your planes. This is cool because it adds variety, and gives the players something tangible and unique for playing the game, allowing them to be set slightly apart from the pack.

Aside from the standard fair, the game offers excellent game play with fast paced action. I personally enjoy the team based games where the fight is for objectives and not just fighting, though I do get some jollies out of all the destruction in the pure death match games. Upon playing Warhawk for the first hour I was a bit frustrated because I was not as “good” as I hoped. After spending more time with the game and playing the capture the flag scenario I was able to hone my skills and became enthralled. I thought to myself, if there is one game out right now that makes me happy I own a PS3, it’s Warhawk.

I even experimented with motion sensor flight using the six axis controller. Thankfully this is not a required control option for flight, but rather an interesting and challenging optional controller.

Oh yeah, visually the game is awesome and takes advantage of many of the advanced features of the PS3.

There are a few bugs that Incognito is working on fixing right now, such as the server claiming a game if full when it is not and the stats/ranks displaying incorrectly. Having said that, the game play itself is enough to keep you excited until all the bugs are fixed. All in all I think that Warhawk is at least worth the 40 bucks to download, but a 20 dollar bluetooth headset is not too bad if you decide to go with the Blueray Disc version. This game is fun and reminds me of the great times I had playing Day of Defeat years ago. It’s not perfect, but it is incredibly fun.

Now that Halo 3 is out, many people are beginning the inevitable “Warhawk vs Halo, which is better” threads. Halo is different, plus it is exclusive to the Xbox, while Warhawk is exclusive to the PS3. I enjoy Halo for its game play and because it is Halo. I enjoy Warhawk for its game play. The two games are in similar genre, but have distinctly different game play. Another factor, the PS3 offers free online play while the xbox charges a nominal fee for xbox live. Either way you are definitely going to have fun, I’m glad I have both!

Sample Gameplay:(Thanks chaingangsoldier69)

Topics: PS3 Games, PS3 General | 16 Comments »

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