POSTED 19/9/10


FLIGHT CONTROL HD

Firemint
PS3/PSN/Move (also on iPad, iPhone)

Wow. We actually think we’ve found a sound more irritating than those damned vuvuzela horns at the soccer World Cup. BEEP-BEEP-BEEP! BEEP-BEEP-BEEP!

Already a deserved smash on iPhone and iPod, Melbourne's Firemint have re-jigged Flight Control for the PS3, and popped on a very reasonable sub-$10 PSN price tag. For the uninitiated, it’s a simple but alarmingly addictive game with an overhead view of an airport area, where you must guide planes and helicopters of various sizes and speeds to safe landings by drawing routes with the Move controller or your DualShock. Let any two flying machines hit each other and before you can wail “oh the humanity” it’s game over.

It really is that simple, yet we’re completely hooked. Whenever we give Air Crash Investigation new episode fodder, we MUST do better. It's meal-missing addictive. Well, unless they're serving those multi-layer sangas with the crusts cut off...

We thought the DualShock would be meh, but it works OK. That being said, Move feels more natural, and is our ATC weapon of choice.

Sadly, there are unnecessary annoyances though – most notably that confounded aforementioned ‘BEEP-BEEP-BEEP!’. It’s a proximity warning advising that two aircraft are passing rather close. The problem is, you can draw two routes whereby your planes will comfortably pass without incident, but it'll still BEEP its tits off at you – the BEEP that cried wolf. So, once you've landed 50 or so planes and the hardness arcs up, it’s a constant cacophony of BEEP-BEEP-FUCKING-BEEP, and you can easily miss actual potential disasters. A more urgent warning's needed for real imminent emergencies – we’d suggest a hearty 'WA-OOGA!'. We do love a hearty 'WA-OOGA!'.

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