Anyways here is a review of The Act and Blazing Angels. Both are excellent games although The Act gets props for originality and for getting people into the game moreso than I have seen with other games at my place. The only other game I have seen people so addicted to is Indiana Jones to be honest. Blazing Angels and Big Buck Safari aren't far behind though.

The Act by Cecropia (UPDATED WITH THE HIGHER QUALITY VERSION, youtube version after the break)

Blazing Angels by GlobalVR

[The Game Grid Arcade] [Discuss on the Forum]

The Act (youtube)

Birmingham Vending and Global VR are proud to bring you Blazing Angels.

BLAZING ANGELS STORMS ARCADES, FECS AND TRUCKSTOPS WITH EXCEPTIONAL EARNINGS!

Blazing Angels, the visually stunning World War II flying game, is now ready for action. Wrapped in one of the most attractive cabinets GLOBAL VR has manufactured, this sit-down WWII replica engages players in six levels of air combat mission. Players can choose to fly the skies of London, Africa, Pearl Harbor, Midway, Rabaul and Ardennes. There is also an additional bonus level, Berlin. The multiple campaigns with varying degrees of difficulty appeal to all players. The 1st t level allows players to familiarize themselves with the flight controls and weapons while the remaining 5 levels offer challenges that are appropriate for everyone.

Operators are reporting strong collections from their Arcades and FECs; Blazing Angels is ranking in the top 5 video in those locations. Truck Stops report that Blazing Angels is their number 1 game across the country and is earning better than any game has earned in years!

Green label WWII arcade action comes to life in Blazing Angels

Take to the skies and test your combat skills fighting in true World War II battles.
Test your mettle as a fighter pilot in 6 WWII Campaigns (easy, medium or hard difficulty) that include London, Africa, Pearl Harbor, Midway, Rabaul and Ardennes. Beat a medium or hard scenario and fly an amazing bonus level… Berlin.

From the dogfights to clearly defined mission and objectives, players will engage in combat action that will keep them coming back again and again.

Game Features:

* Flight model is realistic yet easy to control
* Clearly marked targets make it easy to locate enemies… Perfect for beginners or experienced pilots
* 360 degree battlefield giving players a full flight model
* Perform loop de loops or turn the plane around to finish off a target
* Multiple mission objectives are communicated via text and radio chatter to players

Game Features:

· Green Label Game

· 6 Campaigns , 6 Dogfights

· 1 Bonus Level

· Missions communicated via text and radio chatter to players

· Able to perform aerobatics such as loop-de-loops

· Missiles and machine guns with unlimited ammo

· 360 degree battlefield

Realistic Flight Model
Easy to use Flight Controls
6 WWII Campaigns
Mission Objectives Communicated via Text and Radio Chatter
Cockpit Flashes upon Enemy Fire
Beautiful Global VR Designed Sit Down Cabinet
1 Year Warranty on all Electronics

Cabinet Features:

· Authentic looking WWII Fighter Cabinet

· 42” LCD HD Monitor

· Realistic controls

· Force Feedback Seat

· 5.1 Surround Sound

ASI opened to a greatly reduced show floor and major departures from leading corporations as Namco and Sega see executives move on.

Sega had a vastly reduced presence with only two videos to show: RaceTV's latest build with password, and Primeval Hunt. The latest software release for both - and that was it! Their booth was hard to find off the show floor with no large banners up for display to help attendees locate them.

Namco also had a limited video showing, with no new releases - redemption reigning king on their booth. The operation spoke off the record with The Stinger
Report about the Tekken 6 situation (not shown) and promised an official statement at the end of the show.

Global VR was a example of good video presence, with a large network
line-up of NASCAR, and the new Blazing Angels WWII flyer all getting major coverage in the video desert of the show.

Betson / Raw Thrills another major video winner - crowds flocking to blast the wild animals of Africa on Big Buck Safari - along with the launch of the kit from DRIFT, Raw Thrills rocked the show. Betson did confirm that they were still supporting Konami with one Dance Dance SuperNova2 machine on booth hidden away to one corner.

Andamiro had their latest Pump It Up Pro, and a new screen basher game (more to come on that later).

Finally in this brief run down of the video on the show floor TrioTech had their UFO Stomper, showing off the latest of the mini-games and drawing happy crowds to the physical stomper action.

Big anticipation to the public four hour session on Saturday, rumors thick on what can be expected.

[Discuss on the Forum]

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Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII by GlobalVR

Players: 1

Released: March 2008

Introduction

Blazing Angels Arcade is the latest game from GlobalVR to take a popular console title and bring it to arcades. Fly and fight in authentic WWII period fighter planes over six WWII campaigns over sites in Europe, Africa and the Pacific along with three different difficulty levels which can be selected by the player when they begin.
Game Mechanics

First off I should note that I have never played any title in the Blazing Angel's series until I played the arcade version, so I do not know how it compares to the console versions. But one thing that I did catch as I played the game was that it plays well as an arcade title, and it was better than I had expected. The game allows you to roam freely around the levels although there is no time to go sight-seeing as you have controls in place to make sure that you don't waste any time. First is the timer and second are the objectives. Each level has a couple of objectives to complete that will be given to you as you complete each task and for each objective the timer will reset according to how long it should probably take to complete that task. The objectives are always straight forward - destroy attacking planes or ground targets to keep them from destroying certain structures or so invading armies can advance. Depending on the difficulty, you may have assistance from wingmen or ground turrets that will assist you in dispatching all of the attacking enemies. Enemy planes first show up as yellow blips on your screen and your radar; they change to red when they are within firing range. Then the challenge is to line up your sights with the moving target and take them down.

Click on the post break below for the rest of the review

This is where the controls come into play. There are two joysticks that give you control of your plane - the one on the left is the throttle and moves up and down for slowing or accelerating and it also features a button on the side that when pressed will show you where your next target is. Then there is the flight stick located on the right of the cabinet that is used for aiming and firing. For aiming I found it adequate but it did take some practice to get some dead-on aiming when enemy planes were far away and evading my fire. There are no homing weapons of course so you have to strive to be accurate, which is where most of the challenge comes into play. There are two types of weapons - your standard machine guns and straight-firing rockets, triggers for which are located on the flight stick. The flight stick also has a button for your landing gear (which in the missions I played I never used) and a mini-thumbstick for giving out orders to your squadron (which is not explained in the game at all) which I assume correlates with an icon in the lower left corner of the screen which has indicators for what I believe is fall into formation, attack or defend.

As previously mentioned there are several stages to play from including London, Africa, Pearl Harbor, Midway, Rabaul, Ardennes and once those levels are beat, Berlin. There also is a dogfighter level which is a difficult round of eliminating enemy pilots. As has become standard with other GVR games, the stages themselves have a preset difficulty to them. There is only one easy stage and it gets harder from there. The easy level lets you get the hang of the game and after that you need to build up your skill otherwise you will fall. Interestingly enough they give you two lives to go through before you hit the game over screen - I am not sure if that is standard with the game or if it can be changed by the operator. In addition to the flight levels there is at least one level where you control a turret but I did not play that one.

Graphics

I am pleased to say that Blazing Angels looks excellent and appears far better in motion than in the screen shots posted to the GVR website. Of course that is normal these days but the 42" LCD HD screen is a start that really helps make this game stand out from some other games in the arcade but beyond that this is one title that looks just as good as a Playstation 3 title. I have not seen the PS3 version of this game in action but I wouldn't be surprised to see minor differences, if any between the two. There are no jagged edges on the graphics, motion blur and HDR lighting are employed throughout the game and the textures seemed fine. Landscapes go on far into the distance are are generally quite detailed. I also noticed no slowdown as I played so all around this is one of the more impressive graphical packages that one can get in the arcade right now. The only complaint I have is the contrast - in missions like London it can be a little difficult to see your targets in certain situations between the very dark setting(for some reason the targeting markers don't appear on occasion) and the glare on the screen.  I'd really recommend for operators to make sure that this is in a place where you won't get heavy glare from the surroundings. But it's not a major issue and on missions other than London it's easy to see what you need to attack.

I did notice that the attract mode was underwhelming. For some reason they used some low resolution footage of the game in action for explaining the basic steps of the game - I'm not sure why they couldn't do a demo of the actual game showing how to play for the attract mode.

Sound

Unfortunately the sound was turned down on the cabinet that I played this on so I didn't get the full experience. The soundtrack was fine but since the volume was so low I didn't get the satisfaction of hearing my shots which threw me off more than once as I thought that I wasn't firing when I actually was. From the sound system that I observed built into the cabinet, there is every indication that this one can pack a punch with the volume up a bit higher.

Cabinet

One of the most impressive parts of the arcade version of Blazing Angels is the cabinet. The sitdown cabinet is extremely detailed and well-lit and it felt like I was sitting in a cockpit cabinet when in fact I wasn't. The front panel is covered with artwork that includes gauges like you might find on an old airplane and those are backlit and even flash when you have taken heavy damage. There is artwork all over the cabinet and there are so many details that you'll probably miss a lot of it while walking through the arcade. The game has a large, attractive marquee and of course the giant screen. This is simply one great cabinet that will attract a crowd. I was at a distributor outlet and there was someone else there watching me play and jumped in as soon as I was done and I noticed them admiring the cabinet as well.

Overall

While I have never played Blazing Angels before this and I heard that it was a mediocre game on the consoles, I feel that it is a fun, addicting and challenging game for the arcade. It's not perfect - I still had issues with aiming at times and there was the occasional glare problem (and the sound was down but that was not the games fault) but overall it is something different for arcades. The only thing close is Afterburner Climax but even that is a different beast with it's frantic, on-rails gameplay. I have mentioned many times that arcades are in need of new blood beyond the light-gun shooters and the racers and Blazing Angels is a great start.

Now I gave you my impressionsof Global VR's WWII fighter pilot game back in January, but it's worth checking out Barcade'srecent review of the game. After all, it's always good to read another opinion, especially seeings as I only got to play it a couple of times at ATEi.

In Blazing Angels you are a fighter pilot during WWII. Test your flying and combat skills in 6 Campaigns that include London, Africa, Pearl Harbor, Midway, Rabaul and Ardennes. You can play on easy, medium or hard difficulty. Beat a medium or hard scenario and fly the bonus level, Berlin.

The flight model is realistic yet easy to control and the 360 degree battlefield gives players a full flight model. Clearly marked targets make it easy to locate enemies, perfect for beginners or experienced players. Perform loop de leeps or turn the plane around to finish off a target. Plus you have unlimited ammo. Multiple mission objectives are given to players via text and radio.

Not only is the game play fun, but the cabinet-a WWII fighter look alike-looks amazing, plus you get to view it on a 42" LCD HD monitor with 5.1 surround sound. The controls are realistic and a force feedback seat, make you feel like you are part of the action.

Blazing Angels is definitely worth a try.

[Discuss on the Forum]

Of course FECs will always have the advantage over small operators in purchasing games but it sucks for us small frys when there is pratically no chance we can raise the capital to purchase one of these games (much less pay them off in a reasonable amount of time). At least UFO Stomper is so drastically different that it won't be coming to home consoles ever but it would be far easier to swallow the price if it were more reasonable - say $10-15k less. Of course the only other interactive floor I know of costs around $20k (LightSpace) so these interactive floors aren't cheap no matter where you go.

[Via BHM Vending] [Discuss on the Forum]

(More pictures after the break)

Global VR have impressed me of late. Not just because they appear to be emerging as one of the big amusements videogame developers, not just because of the variety of games that they have in thier stable now, but because of the price they are releasing thier games at. What ever the industry, there is nothing better than some one coming in and mixing it up with the established companies. A lot of this has to do with deals they have in place with EA and Ubisoft, arguably two of the biggest consumer video game developers around. This allows them access to a huge variety of consumer games that are ripe of arcade conversion.

Now to the games on show at ATEi 2008. Probably the biggest showing on the stand hand to be the debut of Blazing Angels, a console conversion of an early 360 title. Now I haven't played the console game, and whether or not this will hinder or help my judgement of the arcade game I don't know, but here's my opinion anyway.

[Discuss on the Forum] 

(More pictures after the break)

This game differs greatly from its closest rival Afterburner Climax. Unlike ABC, Blazing Angels is not an on rails affair, but is free roaming. Obviously there is only so far you can go before you stray from you mission objectives, which include taking out enemy fighter planes and enemy targets. Which reminds me to tell you about the setting and the style of the game; the game is set in World War 2, so you're obviously you are flying older planes than those you pilot in ABC. Check out this link to our earlier post on the game for pictures. Graphically the game is decent, although I'm sure the 360 version had a bit more shine to it. I guess it all depends on the hardware it's running on.

As for combat, it could have been really tricky keeping this free roaming game simple enough for the arcade market. The thing that helps the combat work well is an additional button on the accelerator. This button spins the view round to your enemies targets for a few seconds. During this time you still have control over your plane and from what I played it was surprisingly easy to steer your aircraft in the right direction and line up for a shot at the enemy during this view point.

Cabinet wise, see for yourself in pictures. Personally I really like it, it really looks the business. Now all I'll be waiting for is the full motion version. This one has force feed back in the seat by the way. Overall I liked the game and is a refreshing change from the break neck speed of ABC.

Other games on the their stand were the recently released America's Army which, as you would  have seen in my videos, is a target based shooting game which takes you through all different types of scenarios like sniping, grenading and accuracy shooting. Pass the stage and you progress to the next and there are ten or so challenges to work through. Its nothing ground breaking but definitely has the potential to do well because of the high score tables and player having one more go to beat their personal best.

NASCAR was also present in three different varieties; standard, deluxe and motion. On their stand they had two motion and four deluxe hooked up for six person multiplayer action. Now this is where this game has the same potential to be as successful as the all time classic Daytona. The main difference between this and the Sega racer, other than licensed cars, different tracks and better graphics, is the slipstreaming system. This works fairly simply in the form of a bar the charges up whilst your in other cars slipstreams. Then once fully charged you make your over taking move and the boost is released. This makes for some hectic, non stop over taking during the 7 lap race. Suffice to say your very own Arcade Hero took victory with ease (makes a change!).

Lastly there was a new cabinet type for Paradise Lost in the form of Alien Extermination deluxe. Next up my round up of Namco Brent's stand, stay tuned.

And in case you were wondering, the show was awesome, so many great games and so much to tell. Stay tuned! First up we have videos of Global VR's latest offerings....

Blazing Angels 

Nascar

Americas Army

[Discuss on the Forum]

We should be seeing more of Blazing Angels Arcade from GlobalVR here soon as the game is debuting at ATEI, but until we get those pics we'll settle for some information straight from the developer. Blazing Angels: The Squadrons of WWII has already seen a release on the Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii but the arcade version should set itself apart with it's excellent cabinet which sports a 42" LCD HD monitor, 5.1 surround sound and force feedback seat.

Whether or not the game plays well or better than the console versions still remains to be seen (and again, we should have a report on that perhaps tomorrow) but one good thing to report is that the game looks good (unlike GlobalVR's Puck Off or America's Army) and some day we'll have to do a side-by-side comparison with the console versions (I did a quick check and it certainly looks better than the Wii version, not that such a thing is difficult to pull off). Until then, click on the thumbnails to see the game in it's current form. Hit the post break to check out the flyer for the game.

[GlobalVR Blazing Angel's Page] [Discuss on the Forum]

Here is the flyer for Blazing Angels Arcade, front and back (click to enlarge)

[Discuss on the Forum] (Click on the thumbnail below to enlarge)

Afterburner Climax, meet your competition. Then again the games are probably quite different as far as gameplay since AfterBurner is on-rails and this lets you fly around where you choose but this is the first plane fighting game that has hit arcades since Afterburner. We heard about this one months ago so it's cool to see it in what is perhaps the final form and we can't wait to try it out. From the press release it appears that the game has tested quite well (similar to NASCAR) but it remains to be seen how different the game is from the console experience. We don't know how it looks like yet (keep in mind, the graphic in the pic is probably fake, much like it was with America's Army) but at the very least we can assume that it will carry a decent price tag. The game will be available at ATEI in January so you can be sure that we'll have some video of that at the time. Thanks to The Stinger Report for the pic and press release (hit the post break to read the release from GlobalVR)

GLOBAL VR® TO DEBUT BLAZING ANGELS AT ATEI IN LONDON JANUARY 2008
SAN JOSE, Calif. – (December 5, 2007) --- On the heels of the introduction of EA SPORTS™ NASCAR® Racing and America’s Army, GLOBAL VR today announced that it will debut another soon to be hit title, Blazing Angels. Derived from UbiSoft’s blockbuster game, GLOBAL VR has taken one of the most exciting WWII flying games ever developed and created an experience that is unparalleled in today’s coin-op market. Gaming pilots will sit in the replicated cockpit of a WWII fighter plane and fly combat missions in some of the greatest air battles of the war. Players can enter the action flying the skies over London during the Battle of Britain, defending Parliament from an attack by the Luftwaffe. Exciting battles will follow over the North African Desert and in the South Pacific as players “dogfight” through the entire war. Pilots can maneuver their planes through dramatic 360 degrees turns as they attempt to out-wit, out-fly and outlast the enemy.

Known for its unique cabinet design, GLOBAL VR surpasses even its own expectations with Blazing Angels. Styled in true WWII fashion, this game’s cabinet will be the center of attention in any location. When asked to comment about the upcoming game title, Jim DeRose, GLOBAL VR’s President and CEO commented, “We have tested Blazing Angels thoroughly with our target audience and are convinced that this is a game that people are going to want to play. During the course of testing, players commented that the excitement of flying and the realism provided by the amazingly beautiful graphics are light-years ahead of any other game they have played. There is no matching the thrill of being in the midst of WWII combat action, and to make this game even more attractive, it is “green label”, making it suitable for every location.”

GLOBAL VR will be introducing Blazing Angels at ATEI to be held January 22^nd – 24^th at London’s Earl’s Court Exhibition Centre, where GLOBAL VR will occupy booth #2442. For more information or to schedule an appointment please contact GLOBAL VR at sales@globalvr.com.

UPDATE (7/6/08):

Here is a video review of Blazing Angels Arcade