Over all: I waited a long time to review this. More than anything I was waiting for the Omega Dawn expansion to come out. Well I have it now, I was able to download it through booting up warhawk even before it hit the playstation network. It was $7.99 and a 144mb download. Ok now, so what is so great about warhawk? I think it captures the PC game feel of capture the flag very well in the over all mechanics. Like in battlefield and unreal tournament 2k4. It feels fast pace. You will have to control areas and take over bases like in onslaught mode in ut2k4, but you never heal the node or anything. You just stand by the flag to take over the base. The graphics look pretty good but won’t win any awards. I must say that the floating sky level looks phenomenal and really gives off that “we are way up in the sky” feeling. The game play is solid. The maps are done right and the areas can be huge or small. There are a lot of vehicles. Tank, Jeep, Warhawk, and the KT-424 drop ship. The flying is where this game has it nailed down. I wasn’t very good at first, because I didn’t know how to control the plane. There are two flying modes, hover and jet. Hit the triangle to switch into jet(and back) because you start in hover. Now it controls like a regular jet. In hover mode you float and use the r2 and l2 to control altitude. In jet mode double tap r2 to get a super boost, and use the right analog stick to do rolls, this is very fun and very effective at shaking off missile locks. Flying around the maps never gets old, Dog fighting never gets old, and that is what saves this title from being a run of the mill generic shooter. For the price, This is a no brainer. Its $39 bucks. With the outrageous prices of games these days, 65+ dollars after tax and shipping. It is nice to get a AA title at a PSP game price. I recommend buying the headset pack if you don’t have a bluetooth head set but that will put you up to 59 dollars. If not, get the regular blueray version for $39. If you get tired of it, you can trade it in or sell it and get some money back. With store downloads, you don’t have that option. Which kind of sucks (I hope they allow you to trade or sell downloaded games on the HOME network when it launches.). The omega Dawn Add on adds a lot of value to the game but brings the price up to about 50 dollars. If you really love the game and are tired of all the maps, this expansion really is the shot in the arm this game needed to stay fresh. The new drop ship adds a totally new gaming experience. You can get in a jeep with the flag, and the drop ship can pick up the jeep with the flag. This is awesome and makes the game a lot more frantic. Below, to get the video trailer to play please click on the “Warhawk - Omega Dawn Booster Pack - Trailer” text in the player window.

Ok what don’t I like about Warhawk? When you start up and log in, you have to agree to the user license over, and over, and over, and over every time you log in to play. THIS SUCKS! There is no single player mode. I like single player a lot, and feel even a sub par single player would of made me like this game a tad bit more. The graphics feel dated, especially after playing call of duty 4 and unreal tournament 3. Everything but the flying has this generic even keel feel and look to it. The character art is not that great. Very ww2 future dystopia, kind of like the Genine in Stargate Atlantis. But honestly those are my only complaints. Because I still play this game a lot, and with the expansion I see myself playing a lot more now that I am tired of Call of Duty and Unreal.

There are a lot of shooters out on the market. But none of them have the flying of Warhawk, and that is where this game delivers the goods. Even if you have the cream of the crop shooters on the PS3, none of those can give you that sense of flying and dog fighting like Warhawk can. So if planes are your thing, this is your game. Even if its not your thing, this game will win you over. The flying is special, everything else is pulled off well in a generic way, and holds it all together to make this game extremely fun. With friends you can play it split screen as well. Lan, or internet games. The other real highlight is, there are a ton of people playing this. The games don’t lag. There are dedicated servers for this, so none of this “host ended game” crap like on the xbox and call of duty 4. There is also a ranking system, that allows you to unlock mostly costumes and paint for your air craft etc. The good thing about this, and I praise this game over call of duty 4 because of this, the online games seem more even, so the rookies are not forced to play with the high ranking veterans. This really helps people not get overwhelmed when they first start playing.

Seriously, one of the best gaming experiences I ever had was when heavy sausage and I were playing online together, we would strategically park jeeps by the enemy flag then get the flag. The two of us would hop in the jeep. There is nothing like the rush of running away from air craft in the jeep trying to get back in your base with the flag. Driving the jeep is frantic when bogies are on your ass. Then if you are on the back of the jeep(the jeep holds 2), you can shoot down the aircraft chasing you with the machine gun. This is so amazing. One of the best times I have ever had in a game like this. Takes planning, strategy, and team work to get the most out of this game. But seriously, get with some friends and plan it out, and you will love this. Running away in the jeep with the flag is more fun than any other capture the flag I have played even in the AAA titles. So. Don’t look past this one if CTF is your thing.

6.5 Presentation
No story really. Just multiplayer. The menus are ok, but look kind of dated. But i had no problem finding servers.

7.6 Visuals
The game plays well, with a high frame rate. But you can tell this is due to a kind of bland and generic dated look. It’s not awful, but not at all cream of crop. It’s average. The high frame rate saves this.

8.0 Audio
The music is very well done. Sounds great. The sound fx are good. It’s tight.

8.6 Game Mechanics
The flying mechanics are what make this a AA title.. But every thing else is generic. Over all, GREAT.

9.4 Replay
I bought this last september. I am still playing it. With Omega Dawn and future add ons, this will be a gold mine for years to come.

7.9 Total Score.
(out of 10 / not an average)

This is not a system seller like call of duty 4, uncharted, ratchet and clank, and unreal tournament 3, but it is a nice addition to those AAA titles. And for the price, Warhawk is worth checking out. Go buy it Click here to buy Warhawk for PS3.

Music Listened to while writing this review: Toxic Coma - Unusual Proctology Best ov 1996-1998.