Ubisoft Takes to the Sky

Ubisoft has unleashed the first WWII flight combat game for Xbox 360™ with Blazing Angels™: Squadrons of WWII, which is also available on Xbox®. The game's producer and creative director, Ioan Palalau, stepped out of the cockpit long enough to discuss some details about the new game's take on the Second World War.

Death from above.

Palalau says that the Xbox 360 version capitalizes on the strength of the console. The theater of war is bigger and filled with even more enemies and allies than on Xbox. The artificial intelligence makes decisions faster. The overall quality of the sound and graphics are boosted, while the game runs at a constant rate of 60 frames per second.

"The special effects were enhanced and more visual flavor was added in all the maps of the game, while the sound received next-generation treatment," says Palalau. "It was challenging. We had to change a lot of the architecture in the code in order to exploit the multithreading capacity of the console, and we were very happy to get the extra memory and computation power of the first next-generation console. Xbox 360 offered us the occasion to bring Blazing Angels to the next level."

Blazing Angels' enhanced visuals bring highly detailed and authentic-looking planes and environments to life, making intensive use of environmental lighting and dynamic imagery. Palalau says that new, improved, and enlarged textures provide more detail for both planes and terrain.

"Players will see sun glare on their cockpits, light shafts streaking through clouds, and detailed shadows on the environment," says Palalau. "The endless cities, buildings, and facilities have also been enhanced to take full advantage of advanced lighting effects and shading to create an intense, realistic atmosphere for cities and military bases. Bullets hit planes and smoke dynamically streams from cannons and engines. Battle damage from bullets, bombs, and downed planes is visible and persistent on both terrain and buildings."

"The planes behave differently from the real counterparts—
you don't have a dozen switches and levers for takeoff;
you don't have just one bomb—that wouldn't be fun at all."

The team employed a "perception filtering technique" to create extended burn effects and motion blur, creating even more drama. Intense shockwaves from explosions fill the sky with debris using dynamic lighting and particle effects. Palalau says sound treatment is actively managed in accordance to what the player does. Sound varies depending on the scene in order to create a more immersive, cinematic, and dramatic atmosphere around the player.

Take to the Skies
Ubisoft has always paid a great amount of attention to the flying simulation with games like the IL2-Sturmovik series, Flanker , Lock-On, and Heroes of the Pacific. Palalau says that Blazing Angels is, at heart, a game for those who love flying WWII war birds with panache, shooting enemies like an ace and blowing things up with style.

"The game is easy to grasp and spectacular at the same time—you control the plane with one thumbstick, speed up with the other, and shoot with the trigger," says Palalau. "Because we think that HUD arrows and 2-D minimaps are not good enough for air combat, we designed a new camera system—the follow camera—which streamlines the experience of the game and adds a great cinematic feeling."

Beyond the classic air combat mechanics, however, Blazing Angels is even more complex, as the wingman's role becomes increasingly important in successive missions, explains Palalau. The game was built around the idea of comradeship, of war-forged bonds between the pilots forming the squadron.

Each of the wingmen has a distinct personality which translates gameplay-wise into his own special "ability"—the calm, composed Tom is the "shield," the choleric and flamboyant Frank is the "hunter," and Joe, the rookie pilot, is the "mechanic genius," able to find new ways to fix the player's plane even during the action.

Dogfights bring the war home.

"Losing a wingman means losing his ability—keeping everyone alive and using their powers strategically is the key to victory," says Palalau. "A key differentiation from the classic squadron you can find in this genre is that our guys have initiative. They are able to protect each other and act as a band of brothers without having to be commanded to do that. On the front line, the comrade is the one who is saving your life while risking his—without needing a command from his ranking officer."

In addition to the unique pilots, each of the game's 38 planes has its own distinct behavior and personality based on historical reality but placed in the context of easy and fun gameplay. A Zero knows no equal in a turn fight, but suffers badly once the adversary learns its weaknesses: poor roll rate, low speed, and weak construction. A Mustang is not the best turner, but a player can use its high speed to engage almost anyone else on his terms.

"The trick in Blazing Angels will be for the player to learn the advantages of his plane, and master them," says Palalau.

The Wings of War
Palalau says that in Blazing Angels' single-player story, you play a hot-blooded, idealistic American joining the RAF in the first days of the Battle for Britain. After your baptism by fire, you meet the future members of your squadron in particularly explosive circumstances and go on from there to build the Blazing Angels squadron.

The story of the game is the story of the squadron and the way four very different men (a cynical ace; an innocent, starry-eyed teenager; an idealistic young man; and a down-to-earth country boy) learn to fight together and help each other in order to survive the harshest air battles of WWII.

"Blazing Angels will do justice to WWII air combat what Brothers In Arms, Medal of Honor™, and Call of Duty® did for the WWII first-person shooter genre," says Palalau. "It will stand out from any possible crowd as being the most immersive and spectacular air combat game on a real war theme. The gameplay innovations were added considering the ease of use and the immersion of the players—the HUD is almost non-existent; the camera and enemy tracking system very friendly; and the perception filtering system adds to the atmosphere tremendously, gradually changing the scenery from the bright colors of peace to the gritty, dark reality of war."

Palalau says the team looked for realism in presentation—realistic-looking planes, detailed photorealistic environments, and true-to-life scenery. In addition, the story follows history in the mission settings (enemies, locations, etc.) and the plane parameters (performance and weapons), recreating the most important air battles of WWII on all the fronts where American pilots fought: Europe and the Pacific.

"The way the planes behave is obviously different from the real counterparts—after all, you don't have to push and pull a dozen switches and levers to take off; you don't have ammo just for a couple minutes of dogfight or just one bomb under your hull—that wouldn't be fun at all," says Palalau.

No time to take in the scenery.

Dogfights Fill the Air
When it comes to Xbox Live®, both versions of Blazing Angels serve up classic dogfight battles. But that's just the tip of the iceberg, as you're required to fly bombers or torpedo bombers; race, infiltrate and carpet bomb; carry on ground support assignments; manage your squadron; and also fly as a lone wolf, says Palalau.

"There are three multiplayer game types: solo, co-op, and squadron-based. The solo game modes cover the standard dogfight with some innovative variations like Aces High (first player to kill another becomes the Ace; only the Ace scores the kills) or Search and Destroy (every player must kill every other at least once to score)," says Palalau.

"The co-op allows for dogfight, kamikaze attacks, or bombing runs against A.I. enemies as well as playing the solo campaign missions cooperatively; as the missions are completed in the Campaign mode, they're unlocked for co-op play. The squadron modes are dogfight, capture the base, kamikaze, and bombing run."

Palalau says that the realistic sceneries, the accurate aircraft models, and the feeling of flying a real plane will lure hardcore gamers. Despite its arcade approach, the team always wanted the game to feel like you're flying real planes in real environments. So, the physics were implemented correctly and then the team streamlined the control scheme for making this great experience of flying and fighting available to everyone.

Article by John Gaudiosi