I would recomend for you to get Ace Combat 5 for the PS2 first. Its a $20 title, and probably the best of the series so far. This way, you will be able to see whether you will enjoy the game, and if you should spend the $60 on it. I can understand being lost in the demo, the AC series are not easy, but once you start playing, they really drag you in. It was really easy for me and my friend to get the demo perfectly from start because both of us played the games before, but for someone new its a bit tough.
Here are some hints, first, radar is very important. I'm not sure if I'm getting the keys right, since I don't have the 360, I believe pressing the X button (the far left one, same as square on PS2/3) would change the size of your radar. The red targets are the ones you have to destroy in order to complete the mission. The green targets are other enemy planes that you can destroy for points, but its only optional. The blue targets are friendly, you cannot lock onto them.
Now come the weapons. Your standard missles are mid to close range weapons, they lock on and try to follow the targets, but the only time they will hit is if you are directly behind the target, or the target is slow moving. Then if you press the back button once, you will switch to your special, in the demo you have the missles that can lock onto 4 targets at once. These missles travel a lot further, and do a lot better job tracking the target, but you have a lot less of them. Try to reserve them for the required targets. You also have machine guns, which can be fired by pressing the A button. I would not recomend a new player to use them, since they are pretty tough. You have to be very close to the target, when you are in range, another crosshair will appear. It will look like a big circle, and as you move, it will move throughout your screen, showing where your bullets will go, so if you are going up, the bullets will go below you, and so on.
Another very important thing is the radio. You often hear things that explain what you have to do. After you complete the main objective in the demo mission, you will see a cut-scene and will then have to escape the battlefield, because there is no way you can match the new planes that come on the field. The easiest way to do this is to tell your squadron to cover you (press down on d-pad), push the right triger all the way in and fly low. If you stay up high, you will constantly be targeted and shot upon, but when you fly right over the ground, then its nice and smooth.
I hope this helps you out, if you have any other questions, don't be affraid to ask, I'm obsessed with this game, so I know a lot about it.
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