'Ace Combat: Infinity' trailer shows team missions

Take to the skies in two teams of four to take down giant aircraft and -- on the way -- each other.

Real-world-locations-such-as-Tokyo-feature-in-Ace-Combat-Infinity-Photo-AFP

Take to the skies in two teams of four to take down giant aircraft and -- on the way -- each other.

Announced early in August, Ace Combat's transition to a free-to-play PlayStation 3 game brought about as much fan concern as did the implication that it would incorporate some of the series' alternate reality roots.

The latest teaser shows a minute-long flythrough of a cooperative mission called 'Eternal Liberation' -- a suitably florid name fitting in with series tradition -- and pits two squadrons of up to four pilots against each other in a bid to put in a top performance, with money and fame up for grabs.

High in the sky or hugging the cityscape, players grapple for supremacy before an oversized, flying aircraft carrier appears, a cue for both quartets to engage with it.

It remains the only far-out element in a trailer that shows off real-world aircraft such as the US-made F-14A Tomcat and F-16C Fighting Falcon, and Russia's striking Su-32.

Various mechanisms that would allow publisher Namco Bandai to recoup costs can be glimpsed in the trailer, with players able to select different aircraft and equipment loadouts, applying various upgrades that will make their steeds more suitable for dogfight winners.

Annouced as a PlayStation 3 download and expected before the end of the year, 'Ace Combat Infinity' arrives late in the console's cycle.

November's PlayStation 4 already has dedicated flight sim in World War II era flight sim 'War Thunder' -- the game was released on PC via Steam mid-August -- while another free-to-play PS4 title 'PlanetSide 2' incorporates airborne vehicles into its fleet of off-world transports.