Xbox 360 Previews

The Ace Combat series has never been interested in simulation levels of realism, but the latest version, dubbed Assault Horizon, has taken things even more into the arcade realm. Is it a dumbed-down attempt to snatch casual players? We don’t think so, at least based on the brief glimpse of gameplay we got recently. The newest Ace Combat goes for the standard near-future setting, this time in 2015 Africa, where the hero, William Bishop (there’s a hero’s name if we’ve ever heard one), must attempt to seek out and destroy some new-fangled weapon of mass destruction. You’ll get to play as other characters as well, but how important is the plot, really? What we want to know about is the flying.

We always thought missiles were the easy way out in most air combat games. Simply snag missile lock, fire and forget. It was always a bit anticlimactic and automatic, if you ask us. Ace Combat: Assault Horizon changes that with a new feature called “Dogfight Mode.” The results are unexpectedly intense.

Ace Combat Assault Horizon comes out on Tuesday, at which time we'll post our review, but until then we have a preview video showcasing one of the early missions. We tried to show off all the nifty doodads this latest Ace Combat brings to the table, but forgive us for a bit of greenhorn flying as we try to talk and dogfight simultaneously. In this mission, the sixth, we're trying to protect Dubai from a squadron of bombers supposedly carrying some terrifying new super-weapon, but there's plenty of...

After Afro’s father, the number one warrior in a futuristic, feudal Japan, is cut down by a ruthless gunman named Justice, you should expect vengeance to be had. And because Afro is voiced by Samuel L. Jackson, the biggest badass on stage and screen, eloquent swears will flow just as copiously as ninja blood. Based on the manga and anime of the same name, Afro Samurai tasks you with slicing through anyone unfortunate enough to stand in

Within seconds of picking up the pad we’d sliced a man’s head like a pineapple, heard more swearing in one minute than you’d see in an afternoon of Sunday League football and Samuel L. Jackson had turned up as jive-talking mentor, Ninja Ninja. All against the backdrop of a thumping new tune by Wu Tang Clan’s RZA. Good? Afro Samurai looks damned amazing.