Game Pick: HAWX PC

A short run on its gameplay..

Tom Clancy's HAWX flew on the PC on March 2009 and also available in other platforms. It is an aerial warfare game developed by Ubisoft and the gameplay revolves in the system they call ERS or Enhanced Reality System. Basically an ERS is designed to assist the player in a mission or more specifically in flying the plane. It has different components like radar,missile detection,anti-crash and so on.. The player can also disable this components to make the gameplay harder and like other Tom Clancy release, you can also issue a command to your AI squadrons. A first person or cockpit view or a third person view is also available. Multiplayer mode is also available.

So what makes it click?

Aside from its stunning graphics and terrains, Hawx is also more of an arcade type than a simulation game. This may sound bad to those aerial simulation fans but also appeals to a more general crowd. It's ERS system enables anyone to pilot a plane. It also packs more action and explosions compared to a simulation game. While it is acclaimed by some, others also criticize the lack of simulation experience in the game and the difference of some planes like the different variants of the F-15 is not realistic.

And for the game requirements...

Minimum System Requirements
OS: Windows XP SP 3/Vista SP 1
Processor: Pentium 4 @ 2 GHz/AMD Athlon 2000+
Memory:1 GB on Windows XP/ 2 GB on Windows Vista
Hard Drive: 7 GB Free
Video Memory: 128 MB - Shader Model 2.0*
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
DirectX: 9.0c or 10
Keyboard & Mouse
DVD Rom Drive

Recommended System Requirements
Windows XP SP 3/Vista SP 1
Intel Core 2 DUO 6320/AMD Athlon X2 4000+
1 GB on Windows XP/ 2 GB on Windows Vista
Hard Drive: 7 GB Free
Video Memory: 256 MB - Shader Model 3.0*
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
DirectX: 9.0c or 10
Keyboard & Mouse
DVD Rom Drive

Multiplayer: Broadband connection with 128 kbps upstream or faster / LAN connection

Supported Video Cards at Time of Release:
Shader Model 2.0: NVIDIA® GeForce® 59xx, ATI® RADEON® X8xx / 9800
Shader Model 3.0 / 4.0: NVIDIA® GeForce® 6/7/8/9 series, ATI® RADEON® X1300XT / X1650-1950/HD 2000/3000/4000 series, ATI® Crossfire, NVIDIA SLI

I haven't tried playing the game under the minimum requirements but based on playing experience, the minimum is quite low than expected for this kind of game. If it would run on this specs then great but I recommend running this game on the recommended system specs or higher for a maximum playing experience. You may also want to check the VGA graphics card performance test to have an idea on how will it perform on your system.

If your still not sure if it will run smoothly on your system, you could try a free demo which can be downloaded here.

Enjoy Gaming...