TOM CLANCY'S H.A.W.X. (Zero Punctuation)

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This week, Zero Punctuation reviews Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X.
Fast-talking Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw reviews a new game each week in this animated series that combines informed critique with cutting humor. Watch the next episode of Zero Punctuation a week early, only on The Escapist.
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[@Nikke-nn5mn]

i love how he said to avoid spoilers, wait until the credits, and the credits are full of spoilers for movies

[@ajorsomething4935]

your comment made me get that thank you kind sir

[@ThatFanBoyGuy]

All the famous spoilers, too, except for "Darth Vader is Luke's father"

[@michaelramon2411]

It's funny because "PMC stupidly invades the U.S. for some reason" is also the plot of CoD Advanced Warfare. And it's even dumber there.

[@TheJhouston]

+Michael Ramon Because they tried to rip it off from HAWX. They probably could have pulled it off too if anyone working for activision knew how to write.

[@williamwhitehouse8741]

That was never really adequatly set up,and also,did irons/Kevin spacey brainwash everybody but the 4 that escaped? I mean,seriously

[@bmckelvy5717]

America: "Grrr...." Russia: "Grrrski...."

[@bmckelvy5717]

+TheKeyser94 how... How the heck did all this happen?

[@bmckelvy5717]

+TheKeyser94 it was a simple comment! A crappy, crappy comment!

[@bmckelvy5717]

+shinybluegallade well... Thanks. And I meant Amerigo Vespucci, obviously.

[@christianfogarty2546]

I love how he just takes it into his own hands to spoil several movie endings during the outro for no reason

[@LadyArtemis2012]

I love the ending with the out-of-context spoiler signs. It's almost like a game trying to figure out what work is being spoiled.

[@derekquigley5816]

For anyone wondering, they are: Citizen Kane, Soylent Green, Planet of the Apes, The Sixth Sense, The Usual Suspects, and Sleepaway Camp.

[@Kerim9991]

@@derekquigley5816 I thought the last one was Ace Ventura lol

[@CPCGamer]

2:30 - W...Was that a sound effect?

[@JacobWilsonVO]

Yes. Yes it was sir. A subtle touch that makes all the difference

[@April_a26]

WHAAAA WHAT THE !@%$#

[@April_a26]

Jack Austin why?

[@April_a26]

Jack Austin then you don't want to know what happened to my leg

[@mozxz]

I've watched this many times, first time noticing that though

[@DavidJoh]

Wait. This game isn't about skateboards?

[@LegendLeaguer]

Tommy H.A.W.X.'s Pro-Clancy?

[@mapletreemon4834]

+LegendLeaguer exactly XD

[@noble300000]

+David Johnston What gave you the idea is was about skateboards?

[@DavidJoh]

Kermit the Frog I was joking about Tony Hawk.

[@MiaowGaiGar]

Kermit the Frog has no sense of humor. There's some irony.

[@takashiari1598]

Here it is Lady's and Gentlemen, the longest pause in Zero Punctuation history!

[@stalk8r]

I love that summary at the beginning.

[@Sabretoothsquirrel]

That picture of Uncle Sam going "OI!" makes me laugh my ass of every time!

[@13thvarebel16]

I had to rewind and watch again first time I saw it, for the same reason 😂😂😂

[@RDNintendo]

HELP YAHTZEE. I PUT MY HEAD IN A BUCKET LIKE YOU SAID BUT I'M WEARING HEADPHONES AND I STILL GOT SPOILERS. WTF DO I DO.

[@generico366]

Have this drill and damage that brain until all is forgotten.

[@saxa-uta]

This review has so many iconic moments, it's incredible

[@SquirrelN]

2:30 Did I just hear a sound effect of the flash light clicking on? I've watched this like 3 times and never caught that before.

[@NamelessPlayerOfficial]

Good to know that i am not the only who heard that...

[@SymphonyOfTerror]

Not only that, but the flashlight's light has a really subtle fade-in.

[@geeknproud321]

I enjoyed this game. It was an Ace-Combat-alike for modern consoles and PC!!!!!!!!! in an era that sorely needed it. Ace Combat 6 was 360 only so PC and PS3 gamers got left out of the fun. The production values for HAWX are good. The general build quality of the game is good. The gameplay is typical Ace Combat clone, done well, and is satisfying. The graphics were nice for the time. There's really nothing wrong with it. Even the story is okay and the voice acting and stuff is good enough. Sure it's a little stale but in general it's a good game and worth a couple playthroughs.

[@violinmadness]

The scaramanga comment gets me everytime, funny as hell

[@UsonoHoushi]

I chuckled at the pause. Looked at Yahtzee at the same time as the bug and other thing did thinking "why did you stop?"

[@FPoP1911]

Shout out to NCD guy who sent me here. It's June 2023 and... yeah the rant about PMCs hits different.

[@Oropher420]

Lol, same.

[@indianawilson6973]

The biggest joke in this is that Yahtzee doesn't think that a fedora is a silly hat.

[@CrescentGuard]

Alas, dear Yahtzee, your foray into flight simulators was akin to eating a three week old sushi roll in the hopes of experiencing Japanese cuisine. H.A.W.X. was an abomination for us flight sim fans.

[@SinerAthin]

His personality is rubbing off on his viewers...

[@Ninetails2000]

SinerAthin In the same way an electric belt sander rubs off on a pimple covered teen who just found his dad's Hustler....

[@TtotheG]

The best parts of flight sims for me was doing the exact opposite of what it wanted me to. The whole reason I play games is to do something I normally couldn't do, like realistically crash a plane into a building or do barrel rolls and vertical loops in a passenger liner.

[@rapturas]

It's the Call of duty of flight sims, but it has its place :P

[@SpeedsMcRonalds]

TtotheG I want a flight sim with a fully destructible environment. Then I can fly into buildings and watch them burst and fall over.

[@atrane365]

I love how he had to pause the final line, just to pad out the runtime a little bit

[@TheSacia1]

CUZ I'M P M C, I'm dynamite, P M C....honestly that made me laugh so hard when it came up in the vid xD

[@darkartsdabbler2407]

I do love that generic metal.

[@unknownuser3926]

Actually, we Americans salute the flag a total of 12 times a day. Get your facts right for once and use the internet.

[@wolfieinu]

+Alex Wolf I think he meant that that's Tom Clancy's self-imposed flag-saluting quota. But it seems like a major lowball estimate to me.

[@skarloey2653]

I do it 420 times a day. (I hope you were being satirical)

[@nicholaspriddy6509]

was there a flashlight click at 2:30

[@nomadwhy1166]

Yep

[@Light1c3]

4:19 I thought the video froze lol

[@lrmcatspaw1]

I love how the insect looks at yahtze expecting some more information.

[@VanguardFencer]

GAH! YAHTZEE HAS POSITIVE THOUGHTS!

[@jtroopa]

I will admit though, that the uber-patriotism portrayed in these kinds of games even make me uncomfortable. And it's mostly unrealistic; most people (or at least the ones I know) working in the US military treat it like any other government job. It's boring, uncomfortable, and boring. It's those super duper praise-uncle-sam dudes that you need to stay away from, because those people are absolute psychos.

[@hemidas]

It's simple, it's advertising. Product Placement not that different than for the other companies and sponsors.

[@jtroopa]

Jovan Mitrić That's... Actually an excellent point.

[@DragonflightProduct]

jtroopa Wearing a silly hat.

[@jackthompson7125]

You sound like a dirty commie who hates his country to me.

[@ArcturusOTE]

@@jackthompson7125 And you sound like one of those people who made lawsuits against video game companies Not because of unethical treatment of workers or copyright abuse but because VGs are violent somehow

[@startreker20]

The work around for the problem of having the US fight some enemy that would genuinely be a threat to the country is a thing not often enough explored. The way I see it you have three viable options: 1) create a new country that is super powerful or have one that already exists have a revolution. (CoD:Ghosts) 2) don't make the protagonists Americans, like what if there was a game about the Israelis during the six day war? 3)make up a new adventure friendly world that apparently imports modern real world weapons and such (Ace Combat)

[@SoysauceML]

Should've tried Ace Combat Zero instead.

[@GeorgePerakis]

He didn't even play Ace Combat 7.

[@Slender_Man_186]

@@GeorgePerakis that genuinely disappointed me looking back at his videos. Even as a new comer, this is a 9/10 series easily, and I’ve only played 7. If 4, 5, and Zero are as great as everyone says, which they seem to be, it’ll be a solid 10/10.

[@Exkhaniber]

@@Slender_Man_186 4, 5, and Zero are all amazing games. 6 isn't bad, either. It's enjoyable, just not spectacular as the others. I cut my teeth on 4 and it holds a special place in my heart. 7 is also great but it misses some key elements that made the other games better. The characters are generally unlikeable. The big running theme of the game "drones make war too easy and emotionally distant so it's too easy for a country to engage in hostilities when they are so far removed from the carnage it actually causes" is only lightly touched upon for most of the runtime and then they try to ham-fist it at the end and it just doesn't jive well. The big climactic battle with the best music and epic battle is the second-to-last mission for some reason, leaving you hanging with an extra mission that feels like useless filler. In fact, that last bit may be 7's biggest issue. It's like they tried to combine the epic final battle with a superweapon from 4 and 5, with the final battle with an equal foe from Zero, and ended up giving the game two endings which distract and detract from each other. My recommendation is - get your hands on 5 and Zero especially. You'll love them, and then I think you'll understand what I mean about 7 trying to ape the endings of both. If you find a way to play AC 4, you'll want to do that. There's a lot of background details in 7 that directly come from events in 4, which are amazing touches and elevate the experience of playing AC 7.

[@Skwalker]

Uncles Sam's annoyed face cracks me up every time XD

[@liam6550]

cold hard speculation... lol

[@42pointstar]

dude, I had to check to make sure my laptop didn't freeze when that happened. Imagine trying to hear your harddrive spinning and then 'WEARING SILLY HATS!' blurts out right on the express lane of your ear direct to your brain.

[@AgentTasmania]

Modern jet combat primarily consists of pressing one button and something on the other side of the horizon explodes.

[@OccamsWoodChipper]

That really was the silliest part of this game, the notion that one private company could possibly have the resources to seriously threaten the US military. You probably blow up enough planes in one mission to bankrupt Amazon.

[@fascistflounder8171]

Despite what a large number of people commenting on this video seem to think, unmanned aerial vehicles have pilots. The "unmanned" portion of their name refers to the location of the pilot, rather than the absence of one.

[@wolf92193]

3:55 That's the most epic Uncle Sam I've ever seen.

[@volmaaraldovahkiin5346]

I loved that pause at the end.

[@huntercoyle8196]

Heh... the PMC reminds me a little bit of Atlas from COD Advanced Warfare. With the entirety of the U.S. Air Force being Sentinel Task Force.

[@popular_dollars]

As an American, I would want to see a game that rightfully depicts me as an asshole.

[@physe8052]

As another American, I completely agree.

[@Paveway-chan]

As a Swede, these two comments make me both smirk and scratch my head.

[@gojira7824]

I think Spec Ops: The Line has what you're looking for, otherwise I don't know.

[@chefpitlostails4170]

+Erik Bergström as a norwegian i think your an ass

[@Paveway-chan]

hey microwave The Swede in the room is confused

[@CameronWasmund]

That pause at the end was the most intense youtube experience I've ever had. "Oh god what happened, He isn't rambling in his accent about things and other things." *stares blankly at screen*

[@f2pdad]

once i saw my friend playing this i was immediately reminded that it is almost exactly like "Air Combat" for the PS1

[@Conranos]

HAWX is like they tried to make version of Ace Combat but created a game with a shot story and hand holding game mechanics.

[@crazypete345]

Love the pause amd interaction at the end lol

[@Daemascus]

Hey remember when a PMC turning on the government that hired it and invaded the capitol of said government was an absurd Tom Clancy-ism?

[@93MANIAC]

Let's just say Tom Clancy really did his mother fucking homework when it came to his books

[@gordonbelowfranklin1607]

Hall of the mountain king is my jam

[@legionmethos3049]

I don't know about the current aircraft game but back in the day on PlayStation 2 I used to play Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies and it was all s*** ton of fun had a lot of replay value

[@TycoonTitian01]

He has literally been doing the same thing for so long that 240p was the highest quality

[@ericwatts8181]

That pause got me and the cricket dude.

[@CosmicCubensis]

So Yahtzee predicted Unmanned Drones?

[@dff8088]

Yes, he predicted them 47 years after their debut

[@noahfasoformoso]

A true proginy of our time

[@derrinerrow4369]

Gps Satellites, Unmanned Drones, FOOKING LASAH SOIGHTS!

[@felixdumbravescu2725]

@@derrinerrow4369 Oh hi Thatcher

[@DerpinPON3]

Simply adding silly hats would have made me remember it at least.

[@abnnr]

i love the gears of war reference at the end

[@kovulover]

What was that last spoiler for at the end, Sleepaway Camp?

[@Cekil1]

+Micheal Insanus It's for The Crying Game I think. Sleepaway works, too.

[@kovulover]

Either works. Thanks guys!

[@MyrmidonRadd]

"Disgruntled Insect people from the earths Core! ..........Wearing silly hats!" So, Team Fortress H.A.W.X: Mantis Edition?

[@walale12]

1:05 Dat Eurofighter Typhoon.

[@Shadowslash1]

4:16 I legit thought my video messed up or that I accidentally pressed pause, pauses are the scariest thing in this series ='(

[@ImSorryFive]

Normally when people use that over-used phrase it actually didn't escalate quickly but surprisingly in this case I'm inclined to agree with him.

[@IanCaine4728]

Kind of eerie how this explanation of the HAWX plot describes the plot of CODAW...well minus Kevin Spacey, but who could have seen that coming?

[@sgr90]

pretty sure the last remark is the plot to gears of war

[@robotsnake9374]

Wasn't that foolproof control system with a Stop and Start button also a joke in a Simpsons episode? I think it was Sideshow Bob's Last Gleaming.

[@ClaytonPajot]

THE LIGHTSWITCH HAD A SOUNDEFFECT!!!!

[@Rigel_6]

It's not like Ace Combat has done it all before... and better too.

[@ismaelassassin]

He didnt even took the chance to review ace combat 7

[@NightmareLyra]

Could also be from that one slasher film, Sleepaway Camp or whatever it was called.

[@Captain_Indecisive]

2:56 The drone. Am I the only one thinking of the TF2 soldier in the robot outfit?

[@recan777]

I love the soylent green reference.

[@tehEngineer3]

watching the spoiler section with the sound muted is rather hilarious

[@finn4019]

Man Yhatzee's gotta try Ace Combat (or now project wingman) since hawks was ok at best compared to those two. Actually, maybe a double review of Ace Combat 7 and Project Wingman might make for a good episode.

[@cherminatorDR]

I like how he mentioned Elite 2

[@93MANIAC]

1:55 I for one would not mind staring at the expensive military ass of a Grumman F-14 Tomcat for a few hours and also I am very proud to say that I got all of the spoiler references during the end credits even the last one

[@44R0Ndin]

Feel like having a go at War Thunder? It's a (mostly) Free to play multiplayer air combat simulation, WWII to Korean war era (F-86 sabres and Canberra bombers are about the most modern aircraft you'll find, and no missiles). By mostly free, I mean you can buy premium time and there are a few planes only available for "real" money, but you can earn everything else with in-game play time if you're patient about it. Realism is one of the big selling points of War Thunder, and to be honest, it makes H.A.W.X. look like flying UFO's, which isn't entirely inaccurate now that I think of it. To get all the realism the game has to offer, you'll have to play Realistic or Simulator battles. Arcade mode is still unrealistic, but it's more like flying a modern fighter jet without any missiles than it is like flying a UFO.

[@thobby120]

"If you're patient"

[@christopherzarcone1363]

Only if they wore silly hats, it would be completely stupid if they didn't

[@hachiroku9983]

+christopher zarcone Like your T-51 helmet. Ranger Armour for days bro.

[@christopherzarcone1363]

+New California Republic thanks man, got it for a killing

[@RhetoricalFilms9792]

That was probably the longest bout of silence in Zero Punctuation History.

[@Shizuko_Swiftail]

Tom Clancy does not actually have direct input on these games. Most of these are video game representations of his novels

[@LesPaulBJJ]

Well if he didn't have input before he sure as shit doesn't have input now. ... Too soon?

[@evanyoung31198]

***** No. None really cares about Tom. His books weren't good.

[@jamiemillington6023]

evan young that's just rude... I'd say that some of them were pretty gold

[@jamiemillington6023]

evan young I mean good... Damned auto correct

[@evanyoung31198]

jamie millington I just didn't like the books. I thought there would be a twist in the hunt for red october. There was none. Americans make no mistakes and the enemy will always fail. I was really expecting eagles to fly by every time a Russian was killed while someone played stars and stripes forever.

[@KrauwX]

1:44 WAGH~! positive thought?! i lolled

[@Lightscribe225]

A really big one. In fact the pond is so big, we give different parts of it different names because we're weird like that.

[@FizzleFX]

Love the long pause on the end

[@namkha209]

Wait until Yahtzee starts finding out that Ace Combat exists

[@fluffyInChains]

As a US Army veteran, I can pretty much say, he paints the American Military pretty accurately in almost all of his reviews.

[@brooksdanielgary]

I never noticed the movie spoilers in the credits before.

[@BackwardsAlphabet]

What!!!!! how would Yahtzee know what military technology would be 3 years in the future 2:09

[@arleas]

I miss Frontier Elite II :( That was the most awesome game. It was a sandbox game in an era when they didn't have sandbox games all over the place.

[@venusinverted]

Yatzee: WAH positive thoughts!!

[@zyad48]

"and possibly a promotion from ludicrously fast to theres a mosquito shaped hole in my teeth" XDD

[@JacobWilsonVO]

I persist thought Hawx was a fun flight sim. And the safety of mode wad a great new feature that looked good and was quite fun. I'm glad yahtzee likes it as well.

[@SakaNaomi]

Wow, 5 seconds of silence has never been so unnerving.

[@marchblaine]

OH MY GOD HE MADE A STOP IN HIS SENTANCE!

[@MyLPMaster001]

CoD: Modern Warfare has a very similar story, i think

[@Soopersil3ntassasin]

You want a good fighter jet sim play ace combat been playing that since the 3rd one and you should too

[@katherinesanderson8990]

Soopersil3ntassasin But he doesn't necessarily want a good fighter jet sim, he wants an entertaining game.

[@Soopersil3ntassasin]

Katherine Sanderson have you even played the ace combat games ace combat 5 had the best story I had ever seen in a game not to mention it was fun as shit I wanted to cry by the end is how sad the story is and yes my friend has showed me hawx and it is nowhere near as fun

[@katherinesanderson8990]

Soopersil3ntassasin No I haven't, I'm just saying that maybe not everyone finds fighter jet sims fun and I wasn't talking about the story (he mocked the story of hawx remember) but more about game play. Also just because Ace Combat is better doesn't mean Hawx isn't fun at all.

[@Soopersil3ntassasin]

Katherine Sanderson yeah I guess...I just remember whooping ass on the ps1 and ps2 those were some good times

[@simonenoli4418]

Loved the fucking shit out of those even though controls used to be rather stiff in AC3

[@stefanfr13]

Woah woah WOAH! A Zero Punctuation video i haven't seen yet?!

[@Spike674]

Yes, those are.... I forget what they're called but they're in south america.

[@lolableDude]

irjcfij4vijvnijemijjzwsxedcrftvgybhuefvokvuhfvjiguhvijnrgugijtv5hutv5jitugtv5kihnt5jimvhktvuhtkorjthtkfj sorry I smash my face into the keyboard with glee when I heard that he enjoyed this game. YAHTZEE you're amazing keep up the good work

[@warwatcher91]

Although jets should not be in permanent afterburner like they are in the game, you go through fuel real quick that way.

[@TheYeIIowDucK]

2:30 Did that flashlight just produce a SOUND EFFECT? In a Zero Punctuation video?

[@guardingdark2860]

1:50 There is a trick, or rather a knack to flying. The knack lies in the ability to throw oneself at the ground, and miss.

[@trauma50disaster1]

Just finished that’s how bad my backlog is, on pc and not bad. 4k60 and 1440/120fps and looked good to me. Dx10 is broke which Iocked out more gfx options. Story not fleshed out enough, knowing his blocks I can imagine making sense. Missions seemed too structured I wanted to play in the environment and win my way. Nice addition to add ers and 3rd person mode.

[@manishy1]

Meanwhile in 2014...

[@MrControll]

@@randomffrandombff9636 *Laughs in 2020*

[@Dr.Jean_Pepper]

i spending my thanksgiving break watching his videos,gonna be a good break

[@zeldafan159357]

Anyone realize that at 2:30, you can hear the flashlight click as it turns on?

[@mrjr1514]

i died at the moon joke XD

[@CleartheStone99]

help me, i can't stop watching these!