This is not well known game for PS2 - Energy Airforce: aimStrike! Developed by Taito Corporation, who published the game in 2003 in Japan and later in Europe by 505 Game Street. AFAIK there was no US release.

It's second game in the series, which ended on XBOX360 with Over G Fighters. I consider this one as a most solid in the series as it focused on realistic missions in a single large theater of operations.

The "campaign" took place over big map (around 500x400 km). There were no respawns of munitions known from Ace Combat games. The cockpit was realistically rendered and considering limited control options (game pad), the controls were really well thought out. Avionics were also pretty realistic - for instance you could use CCIP or CCRP mode for unguided bombs delivery (which will be shown in my future videos).

There is also Trainng which you can use to practise landings and using your guns, missiles and bombs.

On top of that there is a simple mission builder - Strike mode, where you can select mission parameters - select a map (here you can find several smaller maps found in first Energy Airforce) choose enemy units and start hunting.

I wish Over G Fighters was extension of EA:AS! But they went backward and did first Energy Airforce with more planes and Arena mode. Think of flying all those planes from OVG in realistic missions like in aimStrike!

But lets get back to the meat - in our first mission we are taking F-16C Falcon for a CAP.

Looking back at this game only shows how much detail was crammed into it. For instance notice that when you sit in your Viper on the apron with your throttle at idle static friction prevents your loaded aircraft from moving. Nudge that throttle forward a bit to overcome the static friction and when the jet begins to move you can put that throttle back to idle and the taxi speed will gradually increase. We saw that modelled in Falcon 4.0 when the BMS 4.32 was released in 2012. This was already here and IIRC even in first Energy Airforce from 2001!

Wow, that is impressive for a PS2 game. Looks good, and looks pretty detailed.

The game doesn't look that sharp on real hardware (PS2). In second video's description I talk more about that.

Another sortie this time in Super Hornet flown from the carrier.



Carrier landings are relly well done here.

Nice! I love that there were developers doing this on that generation of consoles. I never played Energy Airforce but I had a PS2 game called Aero Elite: Combat Academy and it was pretty awesome. It was also very sim-like and had lots of MANDATORY training as I recall and it was tough but oh so detailed! I wish I still had it.

Ah yes, the good other flight sim available for PS2. In fact it was 4th installment in the series known as Aero Dancing. 2nd and 3rd games were available even on Windows! The series started on Dreamcast as AeroWings. The latest version was indeed awesome, while the cockpits weren't as detailed as in Energy Airforce, the flight models, interesting scramble missions which could occur at any time when browsing through game menus, mentioned training missions which started with prop aircraft and advanced through more complicated jets. There were few interesting aircraft to fly like some amphibious craft which you could land on water and even some helos (OH-6, AH-1 and AH-64). The flight model for helos was little strange though.

It was also one of the few flight sims that properly modelled arrestor cables during carrier traps (F-14 Fleet Defender and Jane's F-18 did that before moderately well), you could observe in detail how the hook catched the wire!

Another thing that was a highlight for me was really good Harrier V/STOL implementation. One of the best in any sim I know to date.

On top of that it was the only flight sim for PS2 (that I know of) which let you perform aerial refueling - though it was a bit concealed (an easter egg perhaps). You had to choose free flight at particular map and find the refueller first.

If the game runs well on the emulator I will certainly be covering it thoroughly on my youtube channel.

I'm A HUGE fan of Over G!
Better than light sims on pc in my opinion.
Realistic loadouts, drop tanks, active and passive radar, carrier and runway landings...tons of details. Really good missions. Only the terrible briefings held the game back.
The large map in mp was huge. Took several minutes to cross. About 10 in an A10. Great game type..take out the fleet guarding enemy bases, the AWAC plane, AA guns and missiles, then hit the key parts of the base.
The campaign was excellent, especially after unlocking all of the aircraft.

That stealth fighter mission was so frustrating! Later I learned to stay off the radar and keep my distance and you could come right out of the canyon run.

The F-15E was a beast! The F22 was cool to watch drop bombs from the internal storage. If you mounted exterior weapons it ruined your stealth ability, as it should have.

You could get up to around 60k feet. Way above the clouds and you could see the curvature of the Earth.

Wish we had another game and on pc. I've got some videos on my YouTube channel from way back.

Yeah, OGF was my first game on XBOX 360. I still play it from time to time in Arena mode - just few days ago I unlocked my 34th airplane - Linda's F-15D. After that I took it for a spin, engaged some bandits between the airbase and the carrier. When my fuel was getting low I bugged out. With about 7% fuel left, 2 Sidewinders and 1 AMRAAM I encountered Big Boss on my way home. I couldn't lock him up with radar and when we merged I knew why - it was F-22 Raptor. After few moments I was able to get on his six, my Sidewinders had problems with tracking his heat signatuer so I tried getting few snapshots with guns. Unfortunatelly I missed, but finally got a lock with Sidewinders. So without hesitation I let loose two 9 Mikes which downed the Raptor (my rank changed from Ace Gambler to Ultimate Gambler). I was very close to my homebase and with 4% fuel left I headed straight towards it. If you played OGF you know that north of your home base there are A-10s flying around. One of those bastards locked me up (I wonder with what as A-10 don't have radar) and fired heat seeking missile at me when I was on final. Being slow with the missile on your tail is almost certain death in this game as you don't have the energy to evade. So I was downed by A-10 after downing the last Big Boss. To unlock that Boss' airplane you have to land after downing him and then batlle him 1 vs 1. That was my biggest bad luck in this game ...

Thanks for the history of the Aero games damson. I didn't know they had a long history. I'd definately be interested in watching your Youtube videos playing those on an emulator. I did not know some of those were on Windows as well! I never played OGF but you all make me want to. I have on Xbox 360 Birds of Steal and its very much a more simmy game. I wish it was on PC as a stand alone title.

I've started a plythrough of the Aero Elite Combat Academy. It runs pretty well on PCSX2 emulator only with some minor graphical glitches. Here's the first episode:



More are coming, as a matter of fact I have already recorder six and will publish a new one every day. There will be significant image quality update from episode 3 onward.

In first episode we will be looking at some basic flight training in T-3.

Second episode will cover more advanced lessons in T-4.

Third episode will feature first part of combat training in T-2 and first scramble mission.

In fourth we will continue combat training in F-1 with some ground pounding.

Fifth will cover ACM 1 vs 1 and 2 vs 2 in F-4EJ and another Scramble in F-14.

Sixth will be "graduation" style mission and credits, but that's not all as there is plenty more: CV operations, STOVL training, rotary wing training, Tiger Meet, Arcade and Free Flight mode which will also be covered.

IL2 Birds of Prey was before BoS, it was well done too, and without quite so much of the unlocking. MP was a lot of fun when that came out. Not as polished though.
War Thunder on pc confused me, I preferred BoS too.

Yeah I've still got Birds of Prey. Last time I installed it I realized it apparently has limited activiations. Not sure exactly how it works or if I have any left. I do remember England being quite pretty in that game. I never went through any campaigns though.