I can’t imagine not playing it in 3D. Seems like it would be a meh game if not for the visceral swooping and being able to look all around that VR provides
I picked up Battles Over Pacific and played the initial mission. Played it twice actually since I exited after the first time to find where I turn on “real war” mode (the only way to play WWI Fighters). Flying a wildcat. You’ve got rockets, and can switch between cannons and machine guns. The cockpit now has gear and flap controls. The best part is that it has the projected/reflector/whatever you call it gunsight. It’s so cool as you turn in on a target, your head tracking it as you try to get it centered, and the sight pops into view on the glass.
Didn’t find where to change the difficulty, it is early access after all, but so far I love it.
Does the campaign work the same as the first game? I didn’t like it, usually I don’t like that kind of thing, is what I consider a simple random mission generator, not a ‘true’ campaign.
The mission board, planes shop, etc. all look basically the same so I’m guessing it will be the same. I haven’t read anything about it yet to know if there are plans to enhance things in that department.
Man, Ultrawings 2 is starting to feel more like a job than something fun. The game starts very easy at first, but smoothly increase the difficulty over time… and now I have to sweat to just to get bronze medals in some missions.
Cosmonous HIgh (from Job/Vacation Simulator guys) is out today
This design app seems very cool
Both Little Cities and Cities VR will launch on April on Quest, which feel so stupid… basically the only city management games in all the platform and they both have to release at the same time.
Here it’s the last trailer of Cities VR
Some devs, like the Espire 1 devs and Red Matter devs, are hinting they will appear on the Meta gaming showcase so we can think they will present their new projects. Among Us VR will be there too but that’s less news.
I still can’t understand the point of Cities Skyline VR. I can just about grok a city builder built from the ground up for VR, but I have never once played a Sim City style game and thought I wish I could see this in first person. Then again, I don’t really get the point of the first person modes for GTA either.
It kind of reminds me of when I played Sim Theme Park all the time, which I guess was also called Theme Park World in other parts of the world:
I still have some screenshots I took over two decades ago, which I thought were amazing at the time. But I guess riding your own theme park creations makes more sense than going through a Sim City-style city?
Ultrawings 2 update
I wrote some feedback to him in the Discord
“My feedback on the new upgrades: you should have made upgrades to be ‘+40% more fuel/ammo’. That way the player would feel less as if he was buying a cheat. Functionally would be the same (40% is more than enough to alleviate the limits on some particular missions) and that way it would feel as a normal plane upgrade. Right now it feels like a harsh overcorrection, you go from a design where you have to go careful with the fuel or ammo in some missions, to whatever dude! unlimited ammo/fuel! And because it’s an upgrade and not some accessibility option, it isn’t conveyed to new players than it’s something optional, that the missions CAN be done without the upgrades. Players are trained to buy upgrades in games whenever they can.
Also they should be toggleable but I guess that has less priority.”
By permanent, do they mean unlimited, or just that it carries over between missions? The latter would basically be what you’re describing.
Wooooo, multiplayer! Combat of course would be fun, but I would absolutely love air racing multi, as long as they could make it work where collisions weren’t too much of a problem (ie, I think it would either have to be no collisions, or else with collisions but with rally-style staggered starts).
Unlimited, as in infinite fuel or infinite ammo.
Permanent upgrade, as it can’t be sold or turned off, it’s forever installed in the plane.
I don’t like it, because the only parts where I want some help towards fuel/ammo is the Combat Ops missions. But once you buy it, it also applies to the normal jobs, screwing up the delicate balance of missions where the challenge comes from handling the fuel, for example.
I definately agree with that one. The original game had some beautiful glider missions where you really had to gracefully plan your runs on the targets to coast back in time. So far the Comet hasn’t felt as tight with fuel, and like you say the only missions I’m getting frustrated by lack of fuel are the combat missions, where it’s really annoying to spend five minutes shooting 7 planes down and then run out of gas 20 seconds from the strip. The mustang does not glide well.
The thing, the game was balanced with the limited amounts of fuel and ammo. He implemented this two months after the initial release because people complained how hard it made some specific missions, in special Ops missions where you literally could spend all your ammo before all enemies were destroyed, making it fail in a way that felt cheap. So it’s like an easy mode that once activated, can’t be turned off (for that plane, at least).
I just noticed FB changed how to do referrals. I have a simple link now
Looks like Warplanes Pacific has been released on Applab. What’s the deal here, if I buy it now, if/when it gets to the main store, do you have to buy it again or does the title simply carry over?
It carries over. It will be really the same title, it’s just that the AppLab games are ‘tagged’ to not appear on the official store when you browse it.
Even more, given they already published the first game on the official store, I doubt they will have issues doing it again, the hard part is to do it the first time. If they are publishing in AppLab surely is because they truly want to do ‘Early Access’ development.
DLC incoming to Ultrawings 2. Plane races in this game makes all the sense in the world.
I’m finishing up the game, I’m at 71%.
Alas, the last update seems to have broken a pair of missions, with the Haws in the stunt courses, they ask me to return and land into the airport, and I think the texture with the green/yellow/red areas is not loading, because I complete the job and land and it fails always.
Maybe, or else Oculus has to take time to vet the app, and they need funds sooner than later. In any case, I picked up Warplanes Pacific. It’s all right, very much the same game as WW1 but with faster planes, basically. It’s cool to take off and land from a carrier. That said, maybe it’s because of the excellent flight model of Ultrawings, but I’m really not feeling too much of an attempt at modelling stalls or loss of lift. You’re cruising along on the carrier approach, almost feeling like there’s no lower speed limit at all, and then your plane suddenly falls out of the sky, without any preemptive mushiness or wobbles that I’ve associated with risking too slow a speed in other sims. I’m also having trouble spotting planes, given that the distances are greater, it’s the first time I’m feeling the lower res of the Quest vs a hires monitor is impacting gameplay. I mean, it’s not a problem as I’m playing on medium, and they draw reticles around targets, but understanding the distance is trickier.
Long story short, though, it’s fun to shoot down planes in VR, as always, and that stays true for Pacific. But if I had to pick, Ultrawings 2 is head and shoulders better value, better feeling of flight, better mission design and better campaign. But hey for £10, pro que ne los dos?
You know, that just kind of pisses me off, because two devs can make something that looks that good, and Valve can’t be bothered? I would pay roughly $5 an hour of Alyx gameplay for the next five years.