Ace Combat never ceases to amaze and is still the reigning champ among combat flight sims.
If you have enjoyed previous Ace Combat games you will not be disappointed by Fires of Liberation. If you haven't ever played an Ace Combat this one is certainly a great place to enter the series.
While gameplay is solid as usual and missions vary in style and objective, one can't help but focus on the absolutely stunning visuals.
Ace Combat has always been known for great realism in its aircraft, but in this iteration the developer really put the focus on making the landscapes come to life. I have yet to play a console flight sim that provides such an immersive experience as Ace Combat.
On the other hand, (also typical of the series) the story is a cheesy mess of melodramatic fluff. You'd be better off skipping each cutscene and focusing on the gameplay.
My only real complaint is that level difficulty is inconsistent. One mission will be moderately easy followed immediately by one that is near impossible. Then you're back to easy again. I believe this is due to the fact that Wingman support is utterly useless, which makes any level with a lot of enemy planes that much more challenging.
In one particularly frustrating mission your comrades continually chime in over the radio to let you know that one or more of a dozen enemy fighters has a missile lock on you but they neither attempt to take out your pursuers (cover command) nor attack the target objective (attack my target command) whilst you shake the bogies off your six. There may be "friendly" planes occupying the sky with you but for all intents and purposes they are just spectators. As a side note, the lack of worth of your wingman is evidenced by an achievement you can earn for his taking out a mere ten enemy targets by your command, meanwhile you might eliminate 40-50 targets in a single level.
In the end, Ace Combat 6 is good for several hours of single player fun, not to mention multiplayer action.