Downloaded and played the demo for this last night. This was my first time playing an Ace Combat game, and I must admit it was pretty fun. I might need to seriously consider buying it.

Oh my goodness, as if the previous shots of the color customization feature didn't hook me bad enough.

The demo was great, although the helicopter really only plays well from the first person view but as a long time fan I am impressed with the new direction and will definitely be picking this up.

The online also looks like it might be a welcome dose of originality in the FPS infested world.

The graphics are really nice, especially looking at the much larger amount of geometry and foliage on the ground in comparison to previous titles of the series (though jets now have less detail with simpler shading it seems which is imo a wise trade).
Concerning the demo I'm really disappointed with the direction the gameplay took. In the demo you are forced to use the CRA (the dogfight mode) to get rid of the leads. If you ignore the CRA system and try to fight them with conventional methods (like in the prequels), you'll soon find out that the leads have infinite flares and also won't go down, even after about 30 hits by normal or special rockets (i tried it out). So you have to use the at times enormously scripted and almost on-rails-like CRA "mini game" to trigger the scripts. Could have lived with it, if it was at least an optional feature to lure in the COD (yeah, sorry for bringing that stupid analogy up again) crowd, but forcing even players, who just want a classic AC experience without giving away two thirds of the controls when going into a dog fight, to use the feature is a bit much. It's even more tragic considering the games controls which are as always quite good outside of CRA. The focus on CRA can also be seen when looking at the machine gun which now won't activate the moving crosshair when closing in on an enemy. It's now exclusive to the CRA mode...
Also I'm not very confident concerning the story of the game, which will be written by some Tom Clancy like author. Hope it won't end up being as "exciting" as the story of Hawx was.

The graphics look great in those screens, but the demo looked pretty average in my opinion. I guess massive landscapes will probably always look pretty crappy up close in games like this. The aircraft looked pretty decent, but the gameplay just didn't hook me.

This just felt like an even more arcadey version of the Ace Combat I have played for 15 years. Being able to "bounce" off the ground and buildings mutliple times with little to no damage? Really? I know it isn't a hardcore sim or anything, but how do you explain that? They even start you with you the crappy default control scheme that won't even let you roll the plane.