Developed and published by Namco Bandai, Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation is an Xbox 360 exclusive released on October 23, 2007. Following its release, Namco Bandai has released several paint schemes for the planes that give them higher maneuverability, speed, armor, or payloads.

Plot

Ace Combat's story revolves around a conflict between the Republic of Emmerias and Federal Republic of Estovakia. When Estovakia invades the Emmerian Capital of Gracemeria, the player takes on the role of an Emmerian pilot called Garuda 1 whose call-sign is "Talisman". In addition to this main plot, the game tells several peripheral stories through cutscenes, including a mother on a search for her daughter who she believed died in the first attacks, a story about Lt. Col. Victor Voychek, the former leader of an Estovakian fighter squadron who was injured during the Estovakian attack on Gracemeria, the story of Sgt. Louis McKnight and his tank group, and the new Estovakian Squad Leader, Ilya Pasternak.

Gameplay

Annother interesting addition is the support of ESM auras. These are given to the player by either AWACS in the sky or emplaced radar stations. they provide increased targeting for normal missels as well as special missles. decreased effectiveness to the enemies weapons are also experienced, but not to a large extent. these auras can also overlap each other for an even more powerful effect.

Another Addition is the ability to select your starting position in missions. During the Briefing you are given different objectives to complete, usually only having to complete a majority of them before the mission is either complete or moves on to the next part of the mission. Each objective is given a letter heading, with a general idea of the kind of combat you will encounter (air-to-air, air-to-ground, air-to-sea, etc.). Each objective will not start until you enter the specified area where its located, this helps in that you don't have to fly all over the map to protect this unit or that unit and keeps you focused on just a small number of enemies, rather then a cluster of explosions. they also allow you to only see units from your current objective on your map which prevents you from deviating from your current objective and potentially failing it.

An extra resupply line is given in certain maps where there is either an airfield or carrier. When you fly in low to an air strip or carrier you are given the option to lower your landing gear and land real time in the game, rather then going to a seperate minigame. This is a great addition to the game, when these are available theres no need to travel 5 minutes or so out of your way in each direction to get to the resupply line at the edge of a map. these are normally in the center of the map and are not difficult at all to land on.

They also added Medals to be earned in-game for doing special feats. some are extremely hard to obtain, such as going through an entire campaign by only using a machine gun, where as some are somewhat simple, such as killing a certain amount of enemies.

The game was also released with a special edition that contained flight sticks they called the AceEdge Flight Sticks as well as a custom 360 face place. The Flight sticks are quite intuitive in that they keep the control labels of the normal 360 controler in case another game would benefit by making use of them.

Ace Edge Flight Sticks

Multiplayer

Ace Combat features several multiplayer modes:

Battle Royale

Deathmatch where up to 16 players try to shoot each other down to gain the most points. 

Team Battle 

Divides up to 16 players into two teams as they try to rank up more kills than the opposing team. 

Siege Battle

Co-op Battle

Downloadable Content

Following its release, Namco Bandai has released several paint schemes for the planes that give them higher maneuverability, speed, armor, or payloads.

Xbox 360 Game Installation