Over G represents the first Western release of Taito's Energy Airforce series. The game is an update of Aimstrike previously released on the Japanese PS2. Ubisoft have brought the game to the West largely unchanged from its Japanese release on the 360 earlier in the year.

Aimstrike was generally well received by its audience but it was not Ace Combat. Whereas Namco's title is an arcade game thinly based in reality, the Energy Airforce series are simulations. Thus Over G bears little relation to Ace Combat or its stablemate Blazing Angels. It attempts to capture the feel of modern warfare where air battles are predominantly fought over distance. Enemy targets can be shot down up to ten miles away, a distance where they barely register to the naked eye. Warfare is cold and impersonal; ending another pilot's life is not represented by a huge explosion or screams of despair but a puff of smoke on the horizon and a message of 'success' on the realistic HUD.

The enjoyment comes from the authentic atmosphere and will appeal to fans of PC flight simulations such as Janes or FA/18 Interceptor. However even those fans may be initially horrified by Over G Fighters. The default 'arcade' controls are woeful. Planes respond sluggishly and turn with all the grace and speed of a flying bathtub. To wring any enjoyment from the game it is essential to change all options from arcade to realistic. Not only does this make the game better, it bizarrely makes it easier.

This is typical of Over G, a game that does a fine job of simulating modern flight, but one that constantly throws obstacles in the player's way. The presentation that greets the player is poor and also deceiving. The hand-drawn representation of your wingmen and the generic rock soundtrack give the impression of a much lighter experience. This is where the 360's custom soundtracks come into their own, but Over G is better suited to Boards of Canada than Kenny Loggins. It's that kind of game.

That Ubisoft have failed to improve the presentation (including the awful standard font) is just lazy. What is unforgivable is the potentially game-crippling bug that it has shipped with. Any time an achievement is unlocked, the game will often crash before saving, requiring some missions (usually the difficult ones) to be played through twice. Thankfully there is the solution of pressing the guide button when the achievement message appears, but it's just another example of a workaround in a title that is consistently obtuse.

The achievement locations and the general structure are odd. The main campaign is split into eight areas of combat each with a number of missions. Usually three missions in each area are compulsory, but there is a selection of optional side-missions. Often it is the side missions that unlock both achievements and other aircraft, but as one mission is completed others will become unavailable. Only specific missions reward the player, who is blind to which contain the goodies. Thus one player could play through the campaign and unlock a multitude of varied aircraft and another might only collect a handful of stock planes.

This a problem that comes to a fore in the online mode. In its effort to realistically represent real modern fighter jets, the F22/A Raptor is a vast improvement over the other aircraft, as it is in real life. However this plane is only unlocked towards the end of the campaign and is very easy to miss. Miss it and the only way to unlock it is to play through the entire campaign again. Playing in the online skirmishes without this plane is tough. Unless the host agrees to lock it out, online battles can be extremely one-sided.

The campaign mode also suffers from an erratic difficulty curve with tremendous spikes in some of the compulsory missions hindered by unrealistic spawning enemies. Yet others are too easy with enemy aircraft circling in a daze waiting to be shot down. The difficult missions become a frustration when restarting requires skipping through the briefing and aircraft configuration screens again and again.

Yet despite all these flaws, Over G does command the air once it actually takes off from the ground. The controls, once altered at the options menu, are excellent even without a flight stick. The instrumentation is a step above the competition and the tactical depth goes far beyond what the simple campaign mode can offer. Although most aircraft are unlocked in the basic campaign, the real meat of the game lies in the challenge and extremely difficult H3LL modes, as well as online.

However there is a steep learning curve. Initially it might appear that avoiding a locked-on missile is an impossibility, but these are realistic representations of modern arms so it was never going to be easy. The solution is to learn what real pilots do. The game allows the player to flex their aviator muscles and perform barrel rolls, hammerheads and Immelmanns; but above all to use tactics rather than pure dogfighting skill to win the day. The better pilots will learn to avoid the missiles and set their own aircraft into position to launch an instant counter-attack.

If the question you are asking yourself is 'Is this game for me?' then ask yourself 'How patient am I?'. If you're the person who finds fun in lining a plane up perfectly to land on an aircraft carrier then you're possibly the person who will not mind the obstacles this game throws in your face. If you enjoy looking at an aircraft HUD more than soaking up the scenery, then you'll rarely be paying any attention to how bland it can be. Over G Fighters is the right game for the right person, but if your levels of patience are not up to it, leave it parked in the hangar.