Warhawk - Worth bothering with?

[Kaisha]

What subject says.

It seems a fair amount of players still play this, with it peaking around 15k players, to an average of 10-12k.

Does anyone here have a lot of experience with the full thing? I played the demo awhile ago and came away with good impressions, and the sale on PSN for it ($15 for the game, $10 for all three add-ons) perked my interest again, given the retail copy goes for $29 without the expansions, and a digital download just means faster load times for me and not having to handle a damn disc.

I just want something that's pickup-and-play friendly online, and Warhawk has an active community unlike some other particular games I bought for the same purpose (fucking Fat Princess & Worms).

Mainly curious if the game has any glaring issues I should know about, whether the add-ons are worth it (as in, do people actually own the damn packs so I can play full-matches using them), and whether or not I'm going to get my ass handed to me as a noob. The game seems to hold up well graphically too given it came out in 2007.

[Shojin]

Warhawk is a lot of fun and an underrated game. People tend to overlook it as it was released very early in the PS3 life time.

If you enjoyed the demo, you'll enjoy the full game as it is just more of the same. With more maps etc. Add-ons add some nice new stuff, like jetpacks, new transports with new maps. And it is one of the few games that actually has a dedicated servers and an awesome server list function.

[Jefe]

I can say w/o any doubt, I'm the most experienced WH player here.

First things first: Yes, the game is definitely worth the 15 bucks.

I started to play the game before they implemented the tutorials. You better spend time there and get the hang of it or else you will get slaughtered. I'm talking a Russian slaughter like in the battle of Stalingrad. I never had the chance to practice so it's gonna be a better experience for you.

Issues?

• The steep learning curve I mentioned, which I'd assume was addressed w/ the tuts.
• You'll probably stumble upon high ranked players w/ newbie accounts and get raped.
• This game actually requires skill compared to those other shitty games (MW2, Halu, etc.), spray and pray won't work.
• Once the other team gets the upper hand it's over 90% of the time. That means you'll get bombarded by warhawks for 20+ mins.
• Pussy ass teams who are afraid to fly warhawks (see above).
• Invisible bombs when you're flying.

Edit: Learn to fly, and learn it well. Use pro-flight. I can't count the number of times when my team was getting raped on the ground and I was shooting down the enemy warhawks.

[Shojin]

Flying Warhawks is the only thing that takes any skill, the rest is easy. The game has a freaking lock-on button which is basically auto-aim.

I'm pretty good in Warhawks and rarely get shot down by other Warhawks, if anything shoots me down, it's usually AA on the ground. Though, tanks are my fav. Granted I haven't played the game for months, but I've been busy with plenty of other games.

[Kaisha]

The demo I played had tuts which gave a basic run-about for Warhawks, including missile dodging, which appeared to be fucking hard at first since you actually need to outmaneuver the fucking things unlike most games these days where a loop-de-loop is all that's needed.

I'm under the assumption then that the Warhawks (being it the name of the game) are the primary means of taking over and getting around, but are the maps balanced with a handful of means of ground attack/defense that I could set myself up to doing as well?

I got no prob with a steep learning curve if it's skill based, usually means I end up enjoying the game more the longer I play.

Guess I'll go grab the game tomorrow if Sony issued a fix by then for the error the majority of us Pre-Slim owners are getting, and see how I enjoy it for a week, then grab the add-ons afterwards if I continue to do so before the sale is over since those packs have been out for ages.

[Jefe]

You will still have enough firepower to shoot them down. Warhawks are fragile as crap 1 and half hits from a rocket launcher and it's toast. Yes, you will be able to turtle.

Guess I should say my experiences are from a pilot's POV. According to my stat's I've played 560 hours >_>

[Soupbowl]

I bought warhawk when it first came out and I loved it. The only negative Thing I could say about it is, they really made the expansions system ass. Servers cannot mix and match the best maps of all expansions.

Anyways, game is fun, flying is fun totally worth the 15$.

[Kaisha]

Servers cannot mix and match the best maps of all expansions.

Ugh, I used to hate that shit way back in the Battlefield 1942 days. The add-ons are fun though right?

Anyways, is there a general community site people tend to go to for discussion and/or applying for a clan? I'm assuming the majority of players don't sport headsets, so a clan (even a nooby one) would be preferred, at least to get some teamwork going in the battles and perhaps learn a thing or two from a more experienced player.

Also, what is pro-flight Meteora? And what's with the invisible bombs thing, is it a glitch, or intentional gameplay element when flying?


In a gameplay vid on YouTube I also saw some large ship looking things in the air, are those by anychance portable spawn points or something? Would take me back to the days of playing Tribes if so.

Need to get more people involved in this while this shit is cheap. Would be a great time killer until FFXIII/GoW3 come out.

[Shojin]

In a gameplay vid on YouTube I also saw some large ship looking things in the air, are those by anychance portable spawn points or something? Would take me back to the days of playing Tribes if so.

You might have seen transport ships, they only come with one of the add-ons.

[Kaisha]

These puppies
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k6gNtqo8Sts

But yeah, this game is looking like a lot of fun, just hope it stays active for quite some time longer, even if it hasn't looked to have been updated in over a year. More content than Battlefield 1943 for the same price too.


With the option of hosting dedicated servers I'm assuming lag is never a real big problem? None of that host advantage shit.

[Kaisha]

I am totally digging this game. Loving the dynamic of the game with the air vs. ground combat, great controls, and crazy fast paced combat.

Had me a 30 second chase with another pilot who managed to dodge all my missile lock-ons, so I ended up chasing him through a deep chasm, loop through a couple holes in the wall structures, and took him out with the miniguns. Very satisfying. I tend to lean more on capturing points and using ground vehicles since no one seems to bother doing that.

Also enjoying that there's proper health bars; none of that auto-regenerating health crap that's been plaguing all online competitive console games these days.

Overall, loving what I'm seeing, other than completely bullshit trophy requirements.

The fast map loads and very fast respawn timer keeps the action flowin'.

[Qalbert]

jetpacks were my personal favorite, in terms of fun factor

[Jefe]

The swarm missiles are weak as crap, save them for ground enemies. The homing missiles are the most fatal since it will one-shoot a slightly dmged warhawk. What you want to do is have it locked, deal some dmg w/ your torrent and quickly boost and fire homming once you're very close to it. You will give them very little window to evade. Btw, never EVER chase after warhawks directly behind them since a mine is enough to shake off n00bs.

The lightning gun is very strong too. It deals the most dmg if you don't charge it. Keep an eye for enemy warhawks that are hovering trying to kill foot soldiers. If you attack them w/ the lightning they'll die right on the spot.

About TOW missiles: you want to be as close to the enemy as possible because it leaves you defenseless. I usually save it to clear the area/protect those trying to get the flag, but I don't hesitate to use it against pesky enemy warhawks.

[Kaisha]

Glad I got the pack last week, it seems they nixed the 3-in-1 DLC bundle on this week's PSN update which saved me $5. That, or buying it makes it disappear from the list due to it marking the individual contents as purchased. I kinda remember seeing the same thing happening with Super Stardust HD. Perhaps when you own all the content of a bundle, it disappears from the store list or something.
(since the download list never shows the bundle itself, but the individual downloads it contains)

jetpacks were my personal favorite, in terms of fun factor

I just had my first map with them the other day. Friggen awesome for finding sniping points once I realized you can bail from Warhawks midflight with them.

On another note, that's probably my only pet peeve with the game. You have to be basically right on the ground to dismount from the Warhawk normally. I guess it's to stop people from otherwise abusing it to prevent others from potentially missing out on points due to locked on missiles hitting a now unmanned craft. Well, that and the server list auto-refreshing itself whenever you join a server just to be greeted with the "Server full" message.

The swarm missiles are weak as crap, save them for ground enemies.

We talking all ground targets, or just crap that you can lock onto such as Anti-Air units? I've tried at times manually firing at infantry with both rockets and my machine gun, but they do jack shit for accuracy and barely hurt the guys.

The homing missiles are the most fatal since it will one-shoot a slightly dmged warhawk. What you want to do is have it locked, deal some dmg w/ your torrent and quickly boost and fire homming once you're very close to it. You will give them very little window to evade. Btw, never EVER chase after warhawks directly behind them since a mine is enough to shake off n00bs.

I've been trying to get better at time. My main problem is just keeping the thing locked on as most of the guys I try to perform this on skyrocket upwards once they see me locking on, which fucks my focus.

The lightning gun is very strong too. It deals the most dmg if you don't charge it. Keep an eye for enemy warhawks that are hovering trying to kill foot soldiers. If you attack them w/ the lightning they'll die right on the spot.

So rather than charging it fully (which seems to work grand on ground units. Fucked up a flag carrier just as he was 3 seconds from capping), just spam the button instead?

About TOW missiles: you want to be as close to the enemy as possible because it leaves you defenseless. I usually save it to clear the area/protect those trying to get the flag, but I don't hesitate to use it against pesky enemy warhawks.

TOW are the ones you manually control right? I use them while hiding in the clouds, but I've no idea if I'm viewable on radar or if my name shows through the clouds while I do that. Game doesn't really make stealth a clear thing other than pointing it out when using cloak, and when wielding knife as infantry. Speaking of clouds, do they look voxelled on anyone elses screen? And by that I mean it kinda looks like it's formed as a bunch of cubes as you get near and penetrate it. Probably the only game I've ever played where clouds are actually bloody clouds and are part of the gameplay.




I've played 13 matches so far, and still enjoying the game greatly. Part of it probably has to do with the extremely fast pacing of it, unlike crap such as Bad Company which is so slow to start with as well as getting around. Also loving that there are a bunch of games being hosted 24/7, am able to just hop in at any time of the day and play a quick round or two.

Speaking of rounds, do your results only get uploaded to the master server after you complete the run, or can you leave mid-game (sometimes I accidently join a server with 30 minute round timers, and I can't commit) and still get your earned points?

One last thing, since the game lacks a damn manual (I wish Sony would mandate digital-manuals for PSN purchased products like they do for PSX games), what do the icons and colours in the lobby mean?

All I think I know so far is that-

Trophy means ranked
Player Head means player-hosted
Dash line means dedicated
Blue text means official
Green text means either rookie server, or something for my current rank since it always auto-filters to the top of the list (which is a nice touch)
Green circle means open
Red circle means full (why can't other games have an icon for this?)

The only negative Thing I could say about it is, they really made the expansions system ass. Servers cannot mix and match the best maps of all expansions.

Is that still the case? One of the server filters seem to imply that a server can swap a particular DLC's type around as the info mentions you'll be booted from the given server if you don't have the one installed.


[EDIT] God damn PSN. Got booted from it as I was top of the leaderboard in Zone mode. (people don't seem to realize you get more points capping than you do playing TDM on it >.> )

I've been tempted to find a buddy to farm the bronze medals with. Some of them look like they need a stupid amount of luck to achieve otherwise.
(top of scoreboard for Deathmatch without a single death? Yeah right, maybe in a 5min round with 4 people)

[Shojin]

You very likely won't be platinuming this unless you plan to spend a lot of time and hard work with it. Just telling you that now.

[Kaisha]

Oh, I know. Requiring 1000 kills by basically every possible means just isn't happening, and I'm not willing to dedicate all my gaming time to just Warhawk for an entire two years just to get it. Still fun to get the achievable ones though. I'm surprised how many just randomly pop up during battle, and it makes me wish hitting the PS button during a trophy pop-up auto-navigates the XMB to the trophy in question so I can read the description.

So many pity trophies in the game. Got one for accidentally blowing myself up on my own air mine. >.>

This game is just a pickup-and-play title for me, and it's excelling perfectly at that. Able to get into matches nice and quickly, especially with the minimal load times provided by the harddrive.