Ace Combat Infinity

 is the latest entry in the Ace Combat series, announced on July 19, 2013 after a lengthy teaser campaign. Infinity appears to be the fifth Ace Combat game to take place on Earth; it is the first free-to-play game for the series, as well as the first digital-only release.

The game will be free to download and play exclusively for all PlayStation 3 users in the fall of 2013.

Plot
In an alternate reality, the (1986 VG1) asteroid, a  in real life, is actually on an elliptical path around the sun. In 1994, it is discovered to be approaching a collision with one of Jupiter's Trojans (the specific one named Polyphemus), which will send 10,000 meteors to strike the Earth. With no method to change the orbit of all of the meteors, the world's nations banded together to create the Stonehenge Turret Network, a network of eight railguns that would fire at the meteors to prevent as much damage to the planet as possible. Unfortunately, in July 1999, the asteroids crashed into the Earth regardless, causing a devastating loss of life and destroying 20% of its surface. Immediately after what was later known as the Ulysses Disaster, the world's governments crumbled.

The game takes place in 2019, 20 years after the Ulysses Event. A conflict has broken out between the United Nations Forces and another unknown faction. The Bone Arrow Squadron, a mercenary squadron owned and operated by Arrows Air Defense and Security (a private military organization), is hired by the UNF.

Three operations are known to take place during the story: Operation Fogbound, which takes place in Iyuli, Russia; Operation Crusher, which takes place in Turkey; and an unknown operation which takes place in Tokyo, Japan.

Gameplay
From what can be told so far, the gameplay of Infinity will follow the classic style of gameplay from previous console Ace Combat games, notably Ace Combat 04.

Close Range Assault, an integral component of gameplay in Ace Combat: Assault Horizon, was confirmed to not be included in Infinity. Gameplay elements confirmed for Infinity include a visible health bar on multiplayer opponents; non-target opponents colored yellow on the radar rather than green (this may be multiplayer-specific); and the traditional radar and aircraft info (ammo, health, reloading) along the bottom of the screen. Oil and shrapnel will splatter on the screen when an enemy close to the player's aircraft is destroyed, similar to Assault Horizon.

Two superweapons have been confirmed to appear in Infinity. The first is a heavy command cruiser named Moby Dick. The role of Moby Dick - whether in the single-player or in multiplayer, as well as its origins, purpose, and function - is unknown. The second is the aforementioned Stonehenge railgun network, which is one of the main plot elements of the single-player campaign.

Multiplayer
Ace Combat Infinity, a free-to-play game, will have a multiplayer experience alongside the single-player story campaign. Currently, the only details known about multiplayer is that it will feature a "competitive co-operative" mode where "skilled aces will form two teams and compete to inflict the most damage on a common enemy."

One co-operative mission featured in the game is a map only known as its operation name: Eternal Liberation. In this co-op mission, two teams will split off and engage the other team's ground targets and aircraft over an atoll bearing extreme similarity to the Comona Islands rocket base from Ace Combat 04. The aforementioned "common enemy" was not made clear, as the only footage of the mission over the atoll was of players firing on the other team's forces.

Another mission was featured above a mountainous region bearing similarity to Selumna Peak. Here, players engage the heavy command cruiser Moby Dick, which features an elaborate anti-aircraft defense system and numerous escort fighters.

Customization
In a first for the series, Infinity allows players to customize and set up to four different "Sortie Settings," which include the aircraft, special weapons, skills, and emblem that the player will be flying with during that sortie. It is currently unclear as to whether these will apply to single-player as well as multiplayer, or if they can be selected while respawning in multiplayer (if respawning is possible).

Similar to Ace Combat X, Joint Assault, and Assault Horizon Legacy, Infinity also has a user interface which, after unlocking an aircraft, allows the player to upgrade that aircraft through a technology tree. Players can tweak their aircraft by swapping out and upgrading their aircraft's armor, missile power, gun damage, engine power, power of certain weapons, and more.

Aircraft
Teaser 00 introduced the CFA-44 Nosferatu, PAK FA, Su-35 Flanker-E, and the aforementioned ASF-X Shinden II as the first aircraft confirmed for Infinity.

Teaser 01 added the MiG-21bis Fishbed, MiG-29A Fulcrum, F-14D Super Tomcat, and Typhoon to the list of confirmed aircraft. It also introduced an unknown type of drone aircraft (likely NPC-only).

Teaser 02 added the F-16C Fighting Falcon, F-35B Lightning II, Su-32 Strike Flanker, F-22A Raptor, Su-33 Flanker-D, and B-2A Spirit (likely NPC-only) to the list of confirmed aircraft. The official screenshots of the game released simultaneously also confirm the Su-25TM Frogfoot, MQ-90, and CH-47 Chinook (the latter two likely NPC-only). A promotional wallpaper later published showcased the F-2A Viper Zero, but this aircraft has not been seen in any gameplay footage as of yet.

The Ulysses Disaster trailer added the F-4E Phantom II, F-15C Eagle, F-15E Strike Eagle, A-10A Thunderbolt II, C-17 Globemaster, and Ilyushin Il-76 (the latter two NPC-only) to the list.

Teaser campaign
The game was first teased on June 14, 2013, when Kazutoki Kono (who directed Ace Combat: Assault Horizon and worked on numerous other Ace Combat games) tweeted a photo of his Japanese passport and his laptop, which displayed a revised version of the Project Aces logo with what appeared to be several objects approaching the ground from the sky. On June 21, 2013, the full-sized version of the logo was uploaded to the Project Aces Twitter account, and was set as the avatar and background image.

On July 10, a second image was uploaded to the Twitter account, containing part of a message, which read "ky fe||, the". Interestingly, the two L's in "fell" were formatted differently. This post was followed by another one a day later, consisting only of the word "closening" (meaning "to get close"), hinting that an announcement was imminent.

On July 11, a new website was set up by Namco Bandai, titled "PROJECT ACES NewTitle", which was subsequently announced through Twitter. The site contained the full teaser message, which read: "That day our sky fe||, the heavens split to create new skies." In addition to using the new Project Aces logo as its favicon, the code of the site contained the phrase "エースコンバット" (Ace Combat) as a keyword. It was later discovered that Namco Bandai filled a trademark for "Ace Combat Infinity" the same day.

Three times after the website's initial launch, the Project Aces logo background slowly faded into the page from the lower right corner. Finally, the second part of the sentence itself seemed to "split" into two parts, adding further symbolism to the message.

On July 15, however, the website completely changed, only showing a friendly radio transmission, indicated by the blue colored symbols around it: "<< Here comes the third strike! >>" Hours later, it was tweeted on the Project Aces Twitter account. On July 16, it was replaced with another friendly radio transmission reading: "<< All engines on Kottos 2 destroyed! >>" Once again, this message was tweeted a few hours later. On July 17, the image was once again replaced with a friendly radio transmission, this time reading: "<< Ridgeback One. Edge, report. >>" followed by the tweets a few hours later. Two hours after that, Kazutoki Kono wished everyone to "enjoy the official tomorrow."

Two hours before the Project Aces Twitter tweeted the Ridgeback One transmission, Kazutoki Kono stated that if the Project Aces Twitter reached 8,492 followers, he would release an image related to Ace Combat. When the number was met, he tweeted a picture of a soda bottle in front of a computer screen. The screen was displaying what looked to be a squadron emblem, consisting of at least two human bones possibly forming the letter A.

On July 18 at 1:03 PM EDT, Tony Shoupinou (Community Manager at Namco Bandai Games, who had previously shared the "ky fe||, the" image as well) posted "Tomorrow @ 9AM (Central European Time), we will fly again. Yay! I can't wait." on his Facebook wall. At 9:00 PM EDT that same day, the image on the teaser site was replaced, this time not by a friendly radio transmission, but by the universal sign for infinity "∞", in the color red.

On July 19 at 1:03 AM EDT, 12 hours after Tony Shoupinou's Facebook post, Kazutoki Kono took to Twitter once more to inform everyone to keep an eye on their screens at 1600hrs Japan Time (the same time Tony Shoupinou mentioned, which would occur in 1 hour and 57 minutes), and to look at "it" without him since he would be at a meeting. Whatever "it" was referring to was not known.

On July 19 at 3:00 AM EDT, the NewTitle website was updated once again. This time, a teaser trailer (later renamed to Teaser 00) lasting 46 seconds for what was now confirmed to be a PlayStation 3 game, titled Ace Combat Infinity, was added to the site.

On July 26 at 3:00 AM EDT, precisely one week after the teaser trailer was uploaded, a screenshot of the briefing for Operation Fogbound was uploaded to the Twitter account, with the promise of more information to come next week.

On August 2 at 3:00 AM EDT, precisely another week later, Teaser 01 was uploaded to the site, providing a wealth of information. Simultaneously, Namco Bandai Games Europe uploaded the video with a confirmation that the game was a free-to-play game, along with some details on multiplayer as well as a quote from Olivier Comte, Senior Vice President.

On August 30 at 9:59 AM GMT, Kazutoki Kono tweeted a picture of what appears to be the main menu of Infinity. A couple of hours later, an article was posted on Gaming Age, a gaming news blog, with the third teaser trailer as well as some screenshots of the game. The third teaser trailer was then uploaded a couple of days later to the NewTitle website, titled "Teaser 02". The same day, Project Aces announced that Ace Combat Infinity was due to release in the Fall of 2013, with the release date itself to be announced at the Tokyo Game Show on September 19th.

On September 19 at approximately 2 PM Tokyo local time, Namco Bandai began the free-to-play segment of their Tokyo Game Show 2013 event, including Ace Combat Infinity. Here, while First Flight and a remix of Comona were playing, Kazutoki Kono discussed the details about Infinity after showing the "Ulysses Disaster" trailer. Later in the day, the video was uploaded to the official YouTube channel. For some reason, the release date announcement was postponed.

Theories
One theory generated during the teaser campaign was a new game based around the time of the Estovakian Civil War, due to the first teaser message likely referencing the fall of the Ulysses 1994XF04 Asteroid and the Civil War, and the third teaser message referencing the Kottos airship. Another theory involved a remaster of multiple Ace Combat games at once, due to the various references to different games, including the Ulysses, Kottos, and Edge.

A discovery made on July 16 was that the teaser radio transmissions included a countdown. "Here comes the third strike" involved a 3 and "All engines on Kottos 2 destroyed" involved a 2. This was confirmed the next day, as the message "Ridgeback One. Edge, report" involved a 1, leading many to believe that July 18 would have brought a trailer or announcement of some sort.

Around the time the teaser website, NewTitle, was set up, a second teaser site (titled "NEW TITLE") was created by Namco Bandai for another title. Many theories surrounded this second website's possible link to the Project Aces website due to their simultaneous launches, but this website was eventually announced to be teasing Jump Legend Biography, a Nintendo 3DS game compiling certain Famicom and Super Famicom games.

Trivia

 * Teaser 00 makes two references to Mappy, a 1983 arcade game developed by Namco. The humming in the beginning is of the Mappy theme song, and Mappy himself appears as a silhouette on a pair of wireless headphones.
 * Interestingly enough, Ace Combat Infinity launches in 2013, which is the 30th anniversary of Mappy's release.
 *  seems to take place on Earth once again. However, unlike Joint Assault and Assault Horizon before it, set pieces from Strangereal are seemingly "retconned" into the real world. So far, this includes:
 * the fall of the Ulysses, known as the Ulysses Disaster;
 * AWACS Sky Eye, who keeps his name;
 * the Stonehenge Turret Network, which keeps its name;
 * and the entirety of the Estovakian Aerial Fleet. The P-1112 Aigaion seems to have been renamed to the Moby Dick, but the Kottos and Gyges seem to keep their names.
 * Infinity is likely running on the same engine that Assault Horizon utilized, since the Skill Sets, oil splatters on the screen, and explosion effects were introduced in Assault Horizon.
 * Teaser 02 includes a remixed version of Comona (song) from Ace Combat 04.
 * It is possible that Eternal Liberation may be part of, or the name of, a separate multiplayer mode where the teams fire on the other team's forces, but this is not confirmed.
 * September 19, the day the Ulysses Disaster trailer was shown, has symbolic meaning to the series. Operations Umbrella and Autumn Thunder both took place on September 19, as well as AWACS Sky Eye's birthday.
 * The Infinity symbol from the trailers bears a resemblance to the Mobius Squadron insignia, adding to the rest of the evidence that this game was heavily inspired by Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies.
 * At the end of the Ulysses Disaster trailer, an aircraft squadron is seen separating formation in a very similar, if not exact, resemblance to how the Silber Squadron separated formation in Ace Combat Zero: The Belkan War.
 * The Ulysses Disaster trailer also features a few hints to the COFFIN system:
 * At the beginning, while loading the elements of the main menu, "Establishment of neuromuscular connections" is mentioned as one of the things being loaded;
 * As the Ulysses asteroid is being explained a few seconds later, the video zooms in on a hexagonal pattern very similar to the ADF-01 FALKEN's cockpit;
 * and for a split second closer to the end of the video, the back of a woman's neck is shown with some sort of digital diagram on it, similar to the ENSI ports used by Rena Hirose in Ace Combat 3: Electrosphere.
 * There are quite a few Trojan references in Ace Combat Infinity as shown by the Ulysses Disaster trailer:
 * The terrorist group, Sons of Troia, uses an alternate spelling of "Troy";
 * Ulysses is an alternate spelling of Odysseus, who had the idea of a Trojan Horse;
 * Stonehenge is built in Turkey, the original location of Troy;
 * The Ulysses asteroid (a Jupiter Trojan in real life) strikes a Jupiter Trojan causing the large number of meteors.

Gallery

 * See the gallery for this article at /Gallery.