Pros: An addictive 32-person multiplayer war game that's balanced well, whether you're hoofing it or driving/flying.
Cons: Server problems can effect rank advancement at times. The SIXAXIS controls also aren't for everyone.
The bottom line: I've enjoyed Warhawk these last 4 months...and I think you will too. Online play is free. You can battle up to 31 people. It's even got an expansion pack now.
War is Hell. It's blood and guts. It's pain and loss. But sometimes, just sometimes, it's a day at the amusement park. Video games have simulated all kinds of warfare over the years: based on everything from depictions of famous historical engagements in World War II to the fictional battles visualized in science fiction fantasies. Gamers love their war games, too. They enjoy smiting their enemy across the genres that enroll them into a band of brothers to work as one or turn against each other and work as yourself, happening namely inside your first-person shooters and real-time strategy games. Yet, it's proven that action games can sometimes be just as competitive in the kind of activity that universally groups players to an online-centric game. Warhawk is one such title that bears this trait, proving that a flight-combat game can deliver hours of entertainment a day not just airborne, but maintaining the balance between foot patrol and gravity-based vehicular support.

Preceding Warhawk's summer 2007 release, the biggest issue concerning gamers was that Incognito, who is best known for the development on the (superior) Twisted Metal games, completely tore out the single-player campaign from the finished product. Even though this may have been an integral piece to the gameplay, it apparently wasn't so according to the company. They knew that it would take much longer for them to tweak problems with the artificial intelligence who couldn't keep up with the intensity of this fast-paced universe. So while Warhawk has no back-story, the good news is that it doesn't need one. As a reconfiguration of the first Warhawk that appeared shortly after the PlayStation's launch at the beginning of 1996, Warhawk is a frenzied and sparring multiplayer-only action game that gives you the option to spend $60 for the full game that comes with a bundled microphone, $40 for the Blu-ray disk minus the headset, or $40 for the full game as a PlayStation Network download sans the headset once more.

Warhawk works like this: up to 32 players can hop into any one of the hundreds of maps Sony and players both host and are customized at times (on the player's part), so long as the game isn't full already. Four gameplay modes are spread out across five distinctive maps with five additional patterns available to each map that can further modify the territorial boundaries and limitations of play area on custom games for a total of 25 map models in all. If you purchase the recently released expansion pack that sells for $7.99 on the PlayStation Store, Operation: Omega Dawn, you can also get five remodeled outlines of the original maps, one new expansive map with six additional configurations, and even a new dropship vehicle that carries up to seven people, one ground transport, and is lined with heavy armor and multiple guns. Amongst the modes of play are Deathmatch for piling all players against one another, Team Deathmatch to clash the blue team against the red, Capture the Flag to swarm in dueling teams with the priority of capturing and bringing back the flag to one’s base safely, and finally Zones, a game about securing each of the flag posts all around the map. Taking control over a given range strengthens your team's hold on that territory as the game generates weapons and vehicles for your allies. It also helps that once a flag is stood next to and shaded the color of your uniform it will act as a spawn point for future reference until controlled by the opposition. Whichever team retains more flag territory across the color-coding map by the end of the match wins it all.

While most gamers who've already played through a first-person shooter before may already be familiar with most of the play styles of Warhawk's third-person shooter format, the entertainment value in playing the game spurns from the range of weapons, vehicles, and tactics that players can actually utilize in their method toward victory. Quite the buffet, Warhawk packs together nine on-foot weaponry devices, seven futuristic airborne strategies, and now four overall vehicular transports to cart you and a buddy or six around from place to place. While cruising the skies in a Warhawk you'll be able to spray foes with bullet rounds or come across icons that refill your ammo for such tools as homing missiles for locking onto your prey, chaff grenades for escaping a similar event, lightning bolt blasts for a shocking spectacle, and deployable hover mines for the bad guy who by chance might unsuspectingly spring your trap. Likewise, there are several venues for taking enemies out on the ground, whether you're driving by jeep with a passenger and a gunner in the back, by tank with a cannon under the driver's control for half effect and a passenger to pop out at the lid for double the effect, or taking the long way to your destination by foot with one of many weapons. These consist of many standard formations you can pick up at their icon points on the map (as opposed to the Warhawk's future-bound models), from the default pistol and knife, to a rocket launcher or machinegun, and a flamethrower to my personal favorite, mines. These mines stick to anything and everything -- the ground, walls, the ceiling, heck even vehicles. You can place these sticky mines anywhere at your base or between bases, decorating the map for the approaching enemy with these one-touch explosives exhibiting a team-colored proximity field.

Just like all great games, balance is what sets apart the gnarly from the awful. Luckily, Warhawk is filled with the former. Most weapons work against any target, unless say you're using a flamethrower that only targets grounded troops against a Warhawk or a weakling pistol up against an armored tank. Actually, forget the pistol -- it sucks. But every other weapon has some merit to it, even the knife which removes your screen name from the gameplay map so that warhawks swooping overhead won't be able to spot you. And, there's not only just one way to play the game. Defeating your enemy is best met when teams can work together over intelligent strategies that are delivered via the microphone that comes included with the boxed game. Even if you're to buy the cheaper version of the game, you can get a different USB microphone and use that. But, like I said, there are multiple paths to completing your objective. Take for instance a tank. Sure a rocket launcher will lock-on and help to set them aflame. But hand grenades can deliver a similar effect, just as flamethrowers can burn their bodies pretty quickly. Or heck, you might as well go tank to tank while you're at it and allow other members do their business to it as well. See? There's an undeniable balance present throughout Warhawk. It makes the game whole. It makes the game completely replayable over and over again.

There is a trick behind playing Warhawk though, and that is that you must know how to aim manually. For you see, only by using the right analog stick will placing your weapon's target cursor in the facing direction of a bad guy or girl begin to annihilate him or her. Not only will you have to aim manually, but you'll also have to be able to fix your weapon's bead on the person that you're trying to defeat. Other than some light lock-on methods through missile or machinegun warfare, training to become proficient at realistically pinpointing your target can actually take a few days before you know how to play Warhawk, considering that the game doesn't have an in-game tutorial whatsoever. Heading in blindly, you're given the freedom to see what you can do with all the weapons you see scattered around the map. You can memorize the location of vehicles, weapons, and flag posts this way. It may take a few days, but it's not rocket science either. Firing a gun happens with the press of R1. Selecting a weapon is done with any direction of the d-pad. To access or dismount from a vehicle or a turret press square, and to pilot a vehicle use the X button (or R2 + triangle in the Warhawk's case). There's not a great deal to figure out control-wise, if you're using the conventional control method anyway. There is an option for motion-based SIXAXIS controls in the game. Having played the game a few times with these however, I would highly recommend you not use this play method as it's problematic. Once you hop in a vehicle, you'll be wondering how to switch back to the standard control option almost immediately as with every pivot you make of the controller, it will react with the vehicle that you'll be feverishly trying to find out how to combat this mess.

Compared to other high-ranking PlayStation 3 games, Warhawk unfortunately doesn't reach the spectrum of being one of the most divine games you'll ever see in action. Still, that doesn't mean that Warhawk isn't great to look at. Fleshing out pound after pound of effervescent beauty isn't Warhawk's goal. Its top priority is to provide players with a solid framework for an addictive multiplayer game, which it does. And yet, the way the game is captured on screen fits the high-definition spectrum, pumping out things like fantastic texture detail across each soldier's armored war outfit, doing their duty in the wrinkles and buckles of their beaten gray and brown army outfits. Desecrated environments bridge a portrait between futuristic and modern landscapes for the view you're going to get on the battlefield. Climbing hills scattered with broken pieces of building everywhere, leaping over walls on the ground with chunks missing, and driving through an enormous night-time wasteland with tiny bunkers, towering structures, and hilly highways paint the way through to give you an idea of what to expect around the environmental bend. Also, while the jeeps and tanks are spawned from today's times (or from World War II, in the tank's case), the dogfighting and ground pummeling warhawks roam the airways in a form that's a little more out there. These being small planes, they're of spanning triangular and cylinderized wing designs that aren't exactly from today. And you're going to need these bad boys too across great big maps that are sometimes broken up into sky pieces, or separated bodies of land that in some part can only be accessed via air traffic. Blanketing a tropical island with an enormous piece of land in the center that houses the main bases at each end, one map for instance has fragments of tinier islands at separate ends across the longitudes and latitudes of the land. In such cases as this, in Warhawk you'll have to take to the sky and fly, or wait around and let your team die. It’s your choice.

For the most part, Warhawk is about the sound in an audio array. An arrangement that suitably matches each weapon, you'll receive a chugging of machine-gun fire from the back of a jeep, or a whizzing of missiles from a plane vessel. You'll hear big booming blasts from out of a tank, or a detonated burst from the mine you just came in range of. There's a roaring sizzle from the flames of a flamethrower, and a distinctive looming hover noise given off by the game's new addition of its intimidating dropship vehicles. Once you get to know the noise of each thing you're dealing with, you'll become quite familiar with what's occurring -- whether you're hearing it from a nearby distance or while the danger is occurring right in front of you. And although there is a loud trumpeting orchestral soundtrack while browsing through the menus to setup, join a game, or do whatever, while during gameplay music is completely untraceable. This isn't necessarily a bad thing though, considering how music can be distracting when instead you'll need to listen to commands from teammates over the microphone pieces. If you've got a mic, you can tune in as well, and with a recent firmware update, even modify your voice to sound awfully squeaky or very base.

Now, my dear readers, it appears to be time to get down to some reader mail...

Dear Mr. ChromeKiller,

Can you cheat in Warhawk?

--G0riLlaMaN2002

Why yes, my simian friend. It is possible to shoot at and destroy your teammates. However, this act of evil is highly frowned upon and must not be taken into account. When you're on a team, you should be making sure your team wins instead of the other who's also trying to kill you and yours. Fire at the opposing forces, not your own.

Yo, Chromie!

I gotz like dis serious question: can U level up ur rank in Warhawk?

--MadCOWDizeeze

Hey cow. MOO! Boy, a lot of animals here today. As for the question, yes, your rank does climb upward as you perform certain tasks and rake in enough points. Starting at the lowly position of a recruit you'll climb the ladder to reach the top and become a General in the due course of time. Ranks can also serve to open up a treasure trove of new skins for your customizable character and vehicle sets. Want to change your skin from white to black or even a gray tone? You can do it!

However, there happens to be a glitch in Warhawk at times that prevents players from gaining new ground. It can be annoying to put in several hours of play and not be rewarded for the medals you're scoring that are tallied up with your points at the end of each match. To not be able to move forward is a bummer, but every so often Incognito will come along and fix whatever issues are hassling players.

Chrome Dome,

Would I be able to sign up for a clan membership in Warhawk?

--ChiCKenRobutt

Yes gobble goober, you can join in a clan. All you have to do is find one, then sign up. The best way to track down a clan is through the Warhawk message boards at http://www.us.playstation.com. You can even sign up for the clan I'm in, the Red Faction Army. RFA4life!

This seems to conclude our mailbag session. This is ChromeKiller signing out!

Warhawk is a benchmark for PlayStation 3 owners, just like Twisted Metal: Black was for PlayStation 2 owners the first summer after its fall launch. Incognito is at it again, this time restructuring one of their past PlayStation titles for a better future: a bigger future where getting online with a gaming console is easier than ever. Playing Warhawk is a lot of fun, seeing the game in action is marvelous, and hearing all the astounding sound effects is a real treat. This is a game you've got to own if you're a PlayStation 3 owner. If you don't have it yet, you're an idiot.