GDC 2006: Warhawk Updated Impressions

As part of Sony's keynote address held in conjunction with the 2006 Game Developers Conference, Incog's Dylan Jobe got up to speak a bit about the company's upcoming PlayStation 3 flight combat game, Warhawk, an update to the PlayStation game of the same name. It's been quite some time since we've seen a game with the Warhawk name on it, and it's been a pretty long time since we've seen anything new about the PS3 version, as well.

Jobe's demo showed a plane flying around and fighting at dusk, complete with a nice orange sky. One of the focuses of the game is to provide a sense of "ambient warfare," meaning there will be plenty of fighting going on, not just the conflict or dogfight that you're currently engaged in, though details on how crowded the sky will get seem a little scarce.

The demo's focus put the player's plane up against massive airships that hover above a procedurally rendered ocean surface. Getting in close to the airship reveals some impressive detail, like weathered metal surfaces and very nice lighting effects. The game also appears to be able to push particles around very well, as evidenced in the tracer fire being shown in the demo.

While we're light on info about how the game will play, we can tell you that you will use a square reticle to target your enemies. Earth-shattering, we know. But the visual detail and particle effects are definitely impressive, and we're looking forward to seeing more.