Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII - PS3 Review

Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII
Published by Ubisoft

Reviewed by Matt Adcock

Arrgghhh – they’re all over me!! Multiple bogeys – every which way I turn, I’m pretty torn up and I don’t think I can shake ‘em… Maybe if I lead them in a suicidal dive through a heavy barrage of anti air flak? – To quote Han Solo “They’d have to be mad to follow”… With a swift tilt of the Sixaxis I’m barrel rolling into the cloud of AA fire, my machine guns blazing – enemy fighters are dropping left and right – for the first time I begin to allow myself to think that I might just make it...
Welcome to the Second World War’s Battle of Britain – from the inside of the cockpit! Yes Blazing Angels is a PS3 port of a game that has been available for over a year on Xbox 360 and PC, but that doesn’t stop it being an absolute blast to play (and they have thrown in extra content like 10 extra planes, a couple of extra missions, a new (exclusive) multiplayer mode, and the ability to fly your plane with the Sixaxis tilt controls).

This is your chance to pilot 50 authentic World War II aircraft, from the P-51 Mustang to the redoubtable Spitfire – it has an agreeable arcade style of game play that you can pick up in seconds but may find hard to put down as this version is blessed with a lot of ‘just one more go’ factor… Graphically the PS3 incarnation is the best yet – although being a port the developers haven’t bothered to sort out the occasional frame rate drops which are annoying when you notice them.
Flying by tilting the PS3 controller is a funky way to rule the skies and works better than I thought it would, the Sixaxis controller definitely needs to have rumble put back in for version 2 – Come on Sony, get these on the market ASAP!! - but if they keep making the most of motion sensitive game elements (flOw and Super Rub-a-dub are other great examples) then the ‘This is living’ claim of the PS3 marketing machine is starting to be an accurate description of innovative game design…
Single player bombing, torpedoing and dog fighting missions get progressively harder and the sense of team play in multiplayer (16 at once) aerial dogfights is great – although if they’re working on Blazing Angels 3: Supersonic Air Superiority it would be nice to have voice chat included too.

Overall this is a slick, solid game that will delight plane fans, and sits nicely alongside the awesome ground based Resistance: Fall of Man – the PS3 might be outnumbered world wide by Xbox 360 at a ratio of 3:1 but if it keeps on improving games made on the rival machine alongside adding it’s own unique exclusives, Microsoft should be looking over their shoulders and barrel rolling!!

Darkmatters rating system (out of 5):

ööö1/2 (chocs away!!)

Darkmatters: H O M E