ACE COMBAT 8: WINGS OF THEVE Review – 32:9 Made Me a Believer

ACE COMBAT 8 in 32:9 Is Completely Ridiculous — in the Best Way

I barely play flight games and had never really played the ACE COMBAT series. Then I launched this on a 32:9 monitor. This is insane.

I do not know how many different ways I can say it: ACE COMBAT 8: WINGS OF THEVE is absolutely insane in 32:9.

Insane, insane good.

This has already earned a place among my Ultrawide Greats. The enormous field of view, missiles cutting across the screen, bombs dropping below you, hard turns, aircraft screaming past and the sheer amount of sky surrounding everything make this exactly the kind of game that reminds me why I love ultrawide gaming.

And the strange part is that I am not a flight-game guy. I had never really played the ACE COMBAT series. Outside of a few old Apache helicopter games years ago — the Jane’s AH-64D Longbow and Enemy Engaged: Apache vs Havoc era — this is not a genre I have spent much time with.

I just had to give this one a go. Now I am having an absolute blast.

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I Just Want to Fly This Damn Thing

There is something immediately satisfying about getting into the air, locking onto another aircraft, firing a missile and throwing the plane into another maneuver. The missiles, bombs and movement feel fantastic when the screen is this wide.

It is fast. It is spectacular. And on a super-ultrawide display, everything feels huge.

The widescreen presentation is a massive part of the experience for me. Some games technically work on an ultrawide monitor but never feel built for one. Others restrict the view, handle the interface badly or make you wonder why you bought such a ridiculous monitor in the first place.

This is not one of those games.

ACE COMBAT 8 makes the width useful. The battlefield stretches deep into your peripheral vision, other aircraft can sweep across a huge part of the display, and the scale of the clouds, terrain and sky becomes a huge part of the experience.

We have been testing games at 5120×1440 for our Ultrawide Greats series, and this is an easy addition. I have seen the same kind of payoff in games such as DOOM and Battlefield: when a game handles the extra width properly, the monitor stops feeling like a gimmick.

Here, the wider screen is part of why I am enjoying the game so much.

Story? Sorry, I Was Busy Flying

If you are looking for a deep breakdown of the story, this is not that review.

I have been far more interested in getting back into the aircraft.

There are cinematic sequences between missions where the game wants me to stop, watch and take in the story. Maybe I will appreciate them more on another run, but while playing for this review I repeatedly found myself thinking: can I just fly the damn thing again?

Eventually, I started skipping some of them. Hold ESC and get me back into the sky.

That probably tells you more about what is working for me than another three paragraphs describing a plot I was not concentrating on. The flying is the attraction. The combat is the attraction. The spectacle is the attraction.

For background on the campaign, multiplayer and launch details, our earlier ACE COMBAT 8 launch coverage goes into the official setup and features.

One Crash at the Worst Possible Time

My experience has not been completely flawless.

I had one crash to desktop in the middle of a flight.

That is one crash during my time with the game, so I am not going to pretend the whole thing is unstable based on a single incident. But crashing to desktop during a mission is about the worst possible moment for it to happen.

That crash is also the reason I am stopping at 9.5/10 instead of giving it a perfect score.

Outside of that, I am struggling to stop playing it.

I Paid for This Myself

I bought ACE COMBAT 8 myself.

I did not receive a free review copy. I was not given some special early test build. Nobody paid me to review it, and Fix Gaming Channel does not get paid for reviews.

People sometimes seem to think gaming outlets are constantly bombarded with free copies of every expensive release. We are not.

I really stretched things to get this one. I will have to save elsewhere to make up for buying it. That is not something I did because I needed to manufacture a review. Gaming is my world, I saw this game, wanted to experience it on my ultrawide setup and decided to spend my own money on it.

That also means I cannot separate the game from what it costs.

I Love It. I Still Do Not Like the Price.

This is where the review gets awkward.

The Bandai Namco US store lists the Standard Edition at $69.99, while the Deluxe Edition is $89.99. Either way, for me, that is a lot of money.

If you only have around $100 to spend on games and you are asking whether all of it should go toward this one, I cannot give everyone the same answer.

If you have a 32:9 monitor — or even a good 21:9 setup — part of me wants to tell you that you need to see this game as soon as possible. It is one of those experiences that helps justify owning a ridiculous ultrawide display in the first place.

But if buying one full-price game is a serious part of your budget, my advice is different:

Wait for a sale.

My heart says buy it. My wallet says wait.

If this cost half as much, recommending it would be ridiculously easy. At full price, I cannot comfortably tell everybody to run out and buy it, even while I am sitting here giving the game a 9.5.

If you are unsure and buy through Steam, remember the standard Steam refund policy: requests made within 14 days of purchase and with less than two hours played normally fall inside the standard refund window. If the game does not click with you, do not run past that two-hour mark expecting the standard refund to still apply automatically.

An Ultrawide Great

For someone who did not come into ACE COMBAT 8 as a fan of the series, this has been one hell of an introduction.

Missiles. Bombs. Ridiculous maneuvers. Huge skies. Aircraft flying across a 32:9 display while I sit there wondering why I ignored this series for so long.

I am having a blast.

The story has temporarily lost the battle for my attention, I had one ugly crash to desktop, and that price remains difficult to recommend without reservation.

But the experience of playing it?

9.5/10.

And for ultrawide players, ACE COMBAT 8: WINGS OF THEVE is unquestionably joining my Ultrawide Greats.

The gameplay will also appear on our Ultrawide Greats page shortly. If you are an early bird and it is not there yet, give YouTube around 30 minutes to do its thing.

Now let me get back in the damn plane.

ACE COMBAT 8: WINGS OF THEVE

Release: October 2, 2026 worldwide; the Steam page displays October 1 in some regions

Genre: Flight Shooting / Action

Developer / Publisher: Bandai Namco Aces Inc. / Bandai Namco Entertainment Inc.

Platforms: PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC via Steam

Related Reading

ACE COMBAT 8 Enters Early Access Ahead of October 2 Launch

Ultrawide Greats: Our Road to 20 Excellent 32:9 Games

Ultrawide Gaming Is No Longer a 1% Niche — The 2020–2026 Numbers Tell the Story

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