1848

Ars has a great review up:

Unlike other RTS-ish games in VR, this week’s Brass Tactics is the first full-blown take on the genre to see a retail release. It’s not perfect—indeed, it has a couple of glaring issues ahead of its Thursday launch—but Brass Tactics is clearly a few steps above “just good enough.” It functions as a pure, solid RTS, while it also comes packed with nice VR touches. Best of all, thanks to a free, unlimited, works-online demo version, every single VR owner out there (even outside the Oculus ecosystem) can try it for themselves—and try it they should.

Also, done by Hidden Path (Defense Grid) folks…

1849

On discord it sounds like things have been improving with the mp issues, but still working on it.

1850

So it has a proper full-on single player campaign, & AI skirmish modes? Or is the typical VR thing of relying on the multiplayer crutch to provide longevity?

1851

from the review:

Meanwhile, the game’s eight-mission campaign starts off promising, with organic opportunities to teach players how the game works. Unfortunately, it jacks up in difficulty so wildly that I haven’t beaten it as of press time. I’ve repeatedly run into issues on “normal” difficulty in which I’ve laser-focused my entire build operation on a single path, just to try to chip away at my computer opponent, only to watch the AI generate more units, and more diverse ones, than I possibly can. Something is wrong with the campaign’s tuning, and I had to tuck my tail between my legs and opt for “easy” just to get through enough to at least explore and enjoy the game’s unit variety and tech-tree options.

1852

8 missions isn’t a lot but then I guess campaigns are rarely worthwhile in RTS anyway.

How about single player skirmish modes? Guess I’ll be trying the demo at least!

1853

Yes, there is single player skirmish, co-op, and multiplayer. All are available in the arena version. Arena is limited by the maps you can play on, and you aren’t able to make customized selections for what units you’ll have available in a match. You will be limited to the built-in defensive, aggressive, or balanced option.

1854

I’m not a big sports guy but Viveport has Knockout League as one of its selections this month. It’s pretty darned good. The visuals are really nice. Gameplay is fun. The combination of dodging, blocking and punching was quite a workout for an out of shape guy like me. I think tht it’s one of the better titles I’ve played on the Vive.

1855

Video of Brass Tactics being played for people curious:

This should be a @tomchick vs @Jason_McMaster installment

1856

Now that’s a good idea!

1857
1858

Interesting! Wonder how the Vive update will affect that. I like my Rift, but I would really like a higher resolution, especially for text.

1859

Agreed. I hope the new Vive does well. Although I am an Oculus owner I would like to see HTC & Oculus keep market parity and keep competing.

1860

One of the main thinks keeping me from a Vive 2, other than the fact that I already shelled out $400 for a Rift, is the controller. I really like the Rift Touch controllers, they feel great.

Wasn’t Vive or Valve or someone working on a Knuckles controller or something? I haven’t heard anything on that in quite a while.

1861

I seem to recall Tom went with the Vive? This is an Oculus exclusive.

1862

Valve was/(is?) working on the knuckles controller. I’d love to see what ends up happening with the stuff the Haptx people are doing, but it will probably be a decade before it is commercially viable for regular folks.

1863

Vavle is/was working on them. All we know, is that the Vive Pro will not ship with knuckles controllers.

1864

Bummer. Supposedly people are able to play through revive, but I’ve seen some comments where people have had trouble as well.

1865

Quick, everyone! How’s that Oculus working out?

1866

Fuck you and fuck oculus for their crap-ass software.

Just a fucking driver, like my printer, my HOTAS, my graphics driver and my motherboard. I dont need no storefront and home and all that shit.

Anyway, this certification gaffe has turned the oculus forum into a vertiable shitstorm of whiny entitlement rage. Truly stomachturning. No patience these kids.

1867

Yeah they really fucked up here. Then again they are owned by Facebook, the world leader in sloppy engineering practices so I am not too surprised. Hopefully they get it fixed asap.