New Ace Combat due out next year

Armchair aces can rejoice: Namco Bandai announced today that they're coming out with a new Ace Combat for the PS3 and the Xbox 360 due out next year. According to Gamespot, the game will again sport single and multiplayer modes just as Ace Combat 6: Fires of Liberation did in '07. It also marks the first Ace Combat to debut on the PS3, though the series has come out on the PSP.

The trailer suggests that this is going to be a rebirth for the series, a "game changer" as another hint points out at the start and it looks to this fan that it's going to follow the cue of Joint Assault, Ace Combat's upcoming entry for the PSP. Previous Ace Combats on consoles and portables had taken place in a fictional world analogous to our own with licensed jets. This time, as you can hear the pilot mention Miami in the trailer after the global graphic, it sounds like it's going to take place in our own backyard.

The Ace Combat series has always prided itself on being an arcade flier's fantasy with lead rounds and gobs of missiles writing explosive poetry against impossible odds that only Michael Bay could dream of. The series might not have the kind of hardcore realism that IL-Sturmovik had brought to the table with its console debut, but it can always be just as fun sending multimillion dollars' worth of scrap to the ground by the squadron, Hollywood-style.

Can't wait to see more. For now, here's the trailer below.