Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War (2006)
Genres:Simulator
Themes:Action, Warfare
Game modes:Single player, Multiplayer
Story:The sixth installment in the Ace Combat series explores the Belkan War, a devastating conflict alluded to in Ace Combat 5. In the game's main story mode, the player takes control of a mercenary pilot, callsign "Cipher", taking part in the Belkan War by advancing through aerial combat, escort, assault, and defense missions. The story is told through the eyes of a reporter, 10 years after the conflict, uncovering secrets of the war by interviewing some of the pilots the player shoots down.Show more
Vote to bring this game to GOG and help preserve it.687
The Ace Combat series is rightfully known as one of the most accessible flight sims in history, combining realistic aesthetics with arcade physics to create an experience that feels gritty without needing an elaborate interface of instruments. But there was a brief time when the games were also known for their storytelling. Rather than relying on the most obvious, bombastic Hollywood tropes, Ace Combat told war stories more akin to All Quiet on the Western Front, or For Whom the Bell Tolls.
Even as the gameplay focuses on winning a war, the narrative concerns the people living through the war in the long term. Stories like Ace Combat Zero are more important now than ever, as we see conflicts in Palestine, Burkina Faso, and Ukraine. These are modern wars with advanced weapons produced at an industrial scale. Tools of murder are deployed against people who die never knowing why they were targeted, who made the decision, or what it was meant to accomplish.
These are stories about despair, where the individual pilot's feelings on the war are meaningless in the face of its inevitability. And they are stories about hope, in which people emerge from war more patient, more understanding, and intent on never letting it happen again.
Yes to everything user @thesmallpox said. My experience with Ace Combat comes from the perspective of a Muslim born in a post-9/11 world, where most war media was obsessed with revering Western war machines: the same machines responsible for the deaths of countless millions in neocolonial wars. Ace Combat provided a war story that, on the surface, seemed to be about heroes and cool planes—and it is—But Zero, while unable to shed the heroic framing, offered something refreshing, and something important, as user 'thesmallpox' puts it.
"These are stories about despair, where the individual pilot's feelings on the war are meaningless in the face of its inevitability."
Yet, in the more optimistic world of Strangereal, these are also stories about hope, ones that I wish more people would learn from. Once more, as user @thesmallpox puts it.
Need for Speed: WorldNeed for Speed: World was the fifteenth installment in the long-running racing video game Need for Speed franchise published by Electronic Arts. This iteration was co-developed by EA Black Box (rebranded Quicklime Games before closing in 2013) and EA Singapore. It was the first freemium MMORG in the Need for Speed series (though Motor City Online was originally conceived as a Need for Speed game) and was available on Microsoft Windows. World was released worldwide on July 27, 2010. However, people who ordered a "Starter Pack" had an early "head-start" in the game, which started on July 20, 2010.
Need for Speed: World, along with other EA free-to-play titles Battlefield Heroes, Battlefield Play4Free, and FIFA World, went offline on July 14, 2015.
FreelancerEight hundred years prior to the start of our story, bitter conflict divided all of mankind. A handful of colonists struck out on their own to begin anew - far away from the Earth and its turmoil. Several ships were launched with enough equipment and supplies to give the hundreds onboard a fighting chance - but since the area around far-off Sirius had never been surveyed, no one really knew what to expect. What they found was a new frontier of free-flowing natural resources, unexplored territories, great wonders and lurking dangers. Each ship, representing the clusters of people and their earthly place of origin, settled into different parts of the galaxy pre-selected by their ship-board computer to give them the best chance of survival.
Life was hard in the beginning, but over the 800 years the different colonies prospered and expanded their territories, claiming more and more systems for their own. Survival and propagation eventually led to growth and profit as each of the colonies developed specialties and fostered commerce. As the colonies grew and time passed their connections with their roots on Earth dwindled and they lost their memories of the conflicts of the past. Soon their attention was dominated by new, more immediate conflicts. Feelings of lost ancestral connection spurred anachronism in the look of the great cities, and created a somewhat distorted image of each colony's cultural heritage. In the ever-expanding outer edge of the territories, frontier lawlessness prevailed.
The Houses: Each shipboard colony that left Earth carried some memory of its origins in its name. The Liberty carried Americans, The Bretonia flew from The United Kingdom and surrounding territory, The Kusari from Asia, and the Rheinland launched with Germanic cargo.
As each ship settled and colonies began to expand, they knew little about each other and their advancing development. Finally, little by little, the individual colonies found each other and began to set up trade routes to link their systems for commerce and solidarity.
Today, with each colony firmly rooted in its respective corner of the galaxy, the colonies rely heavily on each other for trade and industry but also compete for resources and new territories in the Border Worlds. The colonies mandate member governments in "The New Alliance" within the Sirius sector. To control conflicts, each colony has forged alliances and treaties with others as they have grown. Competition remains fierce, however. Struggles rage for supremacy in business, commerce, resources, power and control. There can be tenuous peace between colonies' political agendas, but the grabs for holdings constantly unsettle the volatile frontier.Our Pick Top Trending Science fiction Sandbox
MechWarrior 2: BattlePackBattlePack is the re-release of MechWarrior 2, its first expansion and multiplayer ported to Mercenaries' engine.Action Science fiction
Fable IIISet 50 years after the events of Fable II, the continent of Albion (where the Fable series is set) is under the control of Logan, a tyrant king and the Hero's older brother[1]. The player's character, the "Hero", is forced into a quest to become a revolutionary leader to defeat Logan after he reveals his true personality to the Hero. Over the course of the first half of the game, the Hero will overthrow Logan and become ruler of Albion themselves. During the second half of the game, a strange force from Aurora, called The Darkness will threaten Albion and the player has to decide how to react to it.Open world Action Fantasy Comedy Sandbox
Harvest Moon: A Wonderful LifeHarvest Moon: A Wonderful Life will span a lifetime on the farm and follow the drama that goes with it. Not only must you build and successfully run a farm, but you must also build a successful life with family and friends! This new Harvest Moon experience will take the best qualities of the series and add more...more animals, more vegetables and more drama! What sort of life will you live?Open world Sandbox Romance
Three Kingdoms: The Last WarlordThree Kingdoms: The Last Warlord is a Turn-based strategy game based on a famous Chinese historical novel .
The Three Kingdoms was the tripartite division of China between the states of Wei, Shu, and Wu. The novel deals with the plots, personal and military battles, intrigues, and struggles of these states to achieve dominance for almost 100 years.Historical Warfare
IndyCar RacingIndyCar Racing is a racing game by Papyrus Design Group. It was released in 1993.
Dragon Ball: Xenoverse 2DRAGON BALL XENOVERSE 2 builds upon the highly popular DRAGON BALL XENOVERSE with enhanced graphics that will further immerse players into the largest and most detailed Dragon Ball world ever developed.
DRAGON BALL XENOVERSE 2 will deliver a new hub city and the most character customization choices to date among a multitude of new features and special upgrades.Action Fantasy Science fiction
Summer GamesSummer Games allows up to eight players to compete in a series of summer themed Olympic events. The gameplay is similar to the other entries in Epyx "games" series. Each player can choose a country to represent, and then takes turns competing in various events to see who will win the gold medal! The game allows you to compete in all of the events sequentially, choose a few events, choose just one event, or practice an event. The events available vary slightly depending on the platform, and may include:
Pole vault
Platform diving
4x400 meter relay
100 meter dash
Gymnastics
Freestyle swimming
Skeet shooting
100 meter freestyle
RowingAction
Digimon WorldDigimon world is a game that allows a player to raise their own Digimon and teach it to battle.Our Pick Top Trending Fantasy Science fiction