It definitely looks awesome, but just like with HAWX, the flashy new control mode boils down to "Pull both triggers to render game unplayable".
Only instead of unplayable in the HAWX sense of being bloody awful, AC:AH is unplayable in the sense that the game doesn't want your input ruining its cool flight scenes. You get to wave your cursor around, occasionally press the missile launch or gun button, and that's about it. Aside from that, you just get to watch while your plane veers around all on its own past exploding scenery. Oh, and all enemy leaders have chaff missiles that will automatically shoot down any missiles launched while not in this mode, making it compulsory. And (in the demo at least), they appear one at a time, so you have to go through each scene in order.
In other words, the "Everything must be like Call of Duty" virus has jumped the genre barrier. Ace Combat is now a sequence of impressive but largely automated set pieces.
It's still fun in places, it certainly looks incredible, but... we're really not in Strangereal any more. I'll be buying it, but I don't think I'll be rushing to get the Collector's Edition at full price.
--
"I'm Commander Shepard, and you're standing in the biggest library in Citadel Space. Look me up."