Ace Combat 7's E3 trailer showcases high-flying combat and awkward wording

YouTube

People in my Twitter feed were joking about the new trailer for Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown today, saying it had the funniest opening line ever. I didn't get it. "Do you wonder what it means to be a prisoner here?" is anything but amusing. Then I found out that I was watching the wrong trailer.

The trailer on Bandai's Japanese YouTube channel (and embedded above) is narrated slightly differently: "How penal is this penal unit, you ask? This place is a shithole." The "penal" homonym launched, if not a thousand, then at least two or three snickering dick jokes.

Ace Combat 7 is an arcade flight sim that combines real (visually, at least) modern-day fighters with a fantasy world of nations at war. The new trailer expands upon the setting of the new game somewhat by explaining, indirectly, that you have been sentenced to a penal (snicker) colony, where for some reason prisoners are put behind the stick of multi-million-dollar aircraft and sent out to do battle.

(Personally I think that if I was serving hard time somewhere and then someone handed me the keys to an F-35 I'd head straight for the Bahamas, but maybe the planes are equipped with proximity destruction devices, like that thing Rutger Hauer wore in Wedlock.)

Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown does not have a release date, but it's expected to be out this year. There's a website with more at acecombat.com.

TOPICS

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.