Based on my limited time with it, I highly recommend playing Ultrawings 2 on the PSVR2, especially if you have any interest in a flying game for VR. Before I get started, important to mention that the game got released a few days early and is missing Day 1 patch that will be fixing a few things. This patch will release by the original release date of February 9th. It is a flight simulation game with ~300 missions (Jobs or Ops) covering a variety of mission types across different locations using 5 different air craft (Stallion, Phoenix, Comet, Hawk, and Dragonfly). It also lets you use Free Flight mode for any of the unlocked airports (locations) and air craft. There is also the option to play Multiplayer with up to 8 players in Free For All dogfights using the Stallion. As you complete missions or get kills in multiplayer, you earn $ which can be used in the Shop to unlock additional planes or upgrades to planes such as unlimited fuel or unlimited ammo (for solo modes). You earn more $ for getting Gold in the mission, but they can be passed with either Bronze or Silver completions. Missions that require landing successfully for Gold allow option to skip landing and accept Silver. The game features a Platinum trophy where main challenge would be getting Gold in all 296 missions. All trophies that require count of completion have tracking. There are a few challenge trophies unrelated to getting Gold or buying / unlocking stuff, but none for playing online. For the amount of content this game has, review estimates from Quest version of the game put it at 40+ hours. The early missions for any new plane you get will teach you the basics for that plane. The game starts you off with the Stallion, so I recommend you complete its License requirement of 4 short tutorial missions (under Jobs menu) before trying out an AI dogfight under Ops menu ( 20:55 ). I think this was sufficient for me to go into Multiplayer and play well enough where I placed 2nd last on first match ( 26:45 ) and 1st on second match ( 35:20 ). It is a lot easier to crash and up your death count than get kills to up your kill count. The winner at the end of each 10-minute multiplayer match is whomever had the most kills with the least deaths. The game supports 3 different control styles which gets selected based on what controller you use to "Press a button!" at game launch. Whichever method you choose changes the clipboard in the hub area that shows your controller layout. VR2 Sense controllers give you the most immersive experience having free control of both hands to interact with the hub area where you can pick up and use a pointer to interact with the menus. You can also pick up intractable objects with either hand. These objects give both a haptic and visual indicator if they can be grabbed (including from distance). Anything you drop re-spawns to original spot quickly. To go on mission, put on your helmet (Superhot VR style) after accepting mission. Focusing on Stallion, to fly your plane, you get to use your virtual hands to interact with various knobs, sliders, thruster and the control stick. Before you can do that, you will also be taught how to make a finger so you can turn on the plane. While flying you will feel excellent use of haptic feedback on whichever hand you use to grab and use the control stick. I've read that you can also fly using your analog sticks, but you can only fire your weapon by pulling the trigger while holding the control stick which is one of the fixes expected in Day 1 patch (no grab required to fire weapons). PS5 DualSense controllers give you a less immersive experience, but you may prefer this style if you don't like virtual control stick option. Your interactions are more limited, for instance you can't grab the clipboard showing controller layout to read it up close easier. All your interactions are handled by using head tracking to control a cursor and using X button to interact. To start mission, you click on helmet using same cursor you used to interact with any menu options after accepting mission. Focusing on Phoenix, to fly your plane, you select various knobs and tap X to set them to On. Instead of making finger to turn on ignition, you HOLD X on the key until the plane engine has started. While flying you will feel excellent use of haptic feedback as you use right analog stick to control physical movement of the planes control stick, which in turn controls the plane. Your left analog stick controls the thrust. I think some face buttons may control flaps / brakes depending on air craft as well. HOTAS controller option is very similar to DualSense in that you use headset tracking to control cursor to interact with menus and start a mission. The difference is that once flying you will control thrust and control stick using your HOTAS controller. The only supported HOTAS controller for PS5 at this time is the Thurstmaster T.Flight Hotas 4 available for ~$90. I've seen and read that there are some issues with the HOTAS controller working optimally that are expected to be fixed in Day 1 patch. I assume flaps / brakes depending on air craft are still controlled by some face buttons. I haven't tried HOTAS (yet), so between the two I tried, I personally prefer the VR2 Sense controller over DualSense option. I just found it more intuitive and natural than using thumbstick to control steering. I also like it better for mission type where you can be flying Phoenix with one hand and shoot balloons with the other (free aiming using VR2 Sense controller). These two control options can feel very different, but I think both are equally viable with their own learning curves. The game runs smooth and stable with crisp clear graphics and some aspects like the waters and sky box and some buildings look beautiful. It looks much better in the headset than in the video capture, which I always take as a sign that it is making use of the OLED HDR display panels of the PSVR2. I love the way weapons fire makes enemy craft start leaving smoke trails and how there seems to be variety to the way defeated craft either explode into pieces or go into uncontrolled crashes. I love how clear and open the air craft cockpits are that let you look around in VR and there is no reprojection of any kind through any of it. There is also great visual diversity between levels I've experienced already that not only look very different, but can also change the gameplay experience in exciting ways (taller buildings vs shorter buildings). The sound track is very muted and doesn't really stand out, so the star is really the sound effects. The Phoenix runs silently enough that you can occasionally hear the wind which sounds directional. The Stallion engine runs louder so I didn't notice the wind in that, but you can still hear weapons fire that feels directional whenever you are taking hits or landing hits while close enough that sound authentic. Crashing or getting killed is where things get loudest and where there might be subtle headset haptic complementing the audio visual shock of the moment. VR Comfort options wise, there are three presets available. I don't know the difference between them since the game uses icons that aren't detailed, but playing on minimal setting I did very exciting VR flying during the multiplayer dogfight matches and didn't feel any queasy / VR discomfort during or after. Things that could be better? * No voice-chat in multiplayer. Developer responded they had it working, but then it stopped. Not expected to be part of Day 1 patch, but something they are looking into. * Time to get into multiplayer is long (~1 minute). It finds the match quick enough (for now), but then makes you sit on runway waiting long before it puts you into the match. * Respawn time too long where it takes 1-2 seconds to show you got destroyed, then 10 second timer, then another 2-3 seconds to respawn you. * Quit option isn't available on results screen of multiplayer match, nor while waiting for match to start. It only becomes available after next match starts. * Some interface interactions don't have haptic feedback like touching options within cockpit where touching option highlights, but pressing further selects. * Using the thrust doesn't have awesome haptic feedback like using control stick. * Headset haptics could be added / increased for taking damage / getting destroyed. Neutral: * Solo mode crashes can send you back to hub to show you cancel / retry if you don't use the retry within the cockpit after failing fast enough. If you are interested in the game, it is in a polished state even before the Day 1 patch and very favorably priced at $20, so do yourself a favor and don't wait for a sale on this one. It will be a great pick up anytime because it has lot of content for solo mode, but multiplayer option is active and thriving right now and I don't know how long that will last. It is worth changing your plans a bit as I have to make time to play this one while it is hot. Edit (additional info): * Rudder control while using VR2 Sense motion controls is on the Left Thumbstick. * Flaps can be controlled while using DualSense controls using the D-PAD (Up / Down). * Developer has only tested / verified the T.Flight HOTAS4 is working. * Developer has not specifically tested and verified the T.Flight Rudder Pedals since they don't have that hardware, but they should also work (maybe not optimally?).
I don't know how long the multiplayer lobbies will last as populated, so I recommend when you get the game, don't prioritize the 300 single player missions, and hop into the multiplayer once you are comfortable with the basics using the Stallion starting plane. The multiplayer ( 26:10 ) of this game is missing voice chat, but even without that, is really fun. I'll be warming up with some solo content and then going into multiplayer as long as the Quick Match option remains reliable to find players to play against.
@@cusman that’s my worry with most multiplayerVR games lately lol. Some i’ve held off on because i don’t know if they’re populated enough to get matches. The last couple of games i tried playing multiplayer it’s not been great. It’s the same with D Day, looks fun and i love the 64 player matches (big fan of battlefield), but just not sure how full matches. I’ll definitely jump into multiplayer first though! Really tempted to get a HOTUS stick too. Been tempted to get one for armorer core for a while, so been able to use on in this too would be sweet! Might see you on this weekend if you’re around man! Thanks for the info!
@@EubyGamingRES I'm planning to play more of both D-Day Enhanced and Ultrawings 2 this weekend. Plus, I continue to play Walkabout Mini Golf with my wife and siblings as our social hangout game of choice. Ultrawings 2 wasn't on my radar for this week at all, but it just warranted making time for it. This game is something my wife is also very interested in to play this weekend and if she likes it, expects me to get HOTAS because I did commit to her when getting racing wheel for Gran Turismo 7 that I will get her HOTAS whenever there is a good flight game for her. Her b-day is coming up, so I'm going to be in HOTAS research mode.
@@cusman nice one! Has it been quick enough finding games in both d day and ultrawings? Walkabout is such a fantastic game! I always jump back on after a little break. That’s cool man, hopefully she likes it so you can get a HOTAS stick! The only one i’ve seen that seems to work on PS5 is the Thrustmaster T Flight Hotas 4 joystick. It’s a decent price which made me think to grab one too lol See what you think to that one!
@@EubyGamingRES D-Day Enhanced getting into multiplayer has no wait. Near instant from the time you click on Multiplayer on the menu, but how many players you get can be from ~20 in match to 40-50. It is more fun when there are 40-50. I am hoping for the weekend to have more players to get to the 50-64 player counts. When you complete a match, you stay in rotation, get a few seconds to vote for next map / check results and then the next game has begun. The developers are often in the game playing along with the rest of us (times I normally play), and I've seen YT people like MylesDyer and VR Grid in there as well. For Ultrawings 2, there are people playing (last night and this morning), but getting into multiplayer has a multi-step process where after you click Quick Match, there is some delay, then it puts you outside the lobby where you can see others playing while it displays a message that you are trying to join that game. Then after it has joined you, there can be further wait before it will spawn you into the match. It is slower to join and get started (~1 minute?), but once you are in, you can just stay in rotation as it moves from 10 minute match to next. There are still 10 second waits to respawn if you die or showing results or starting next match which can feel long.
If you are interested already from what you see in gameplay video, get it with confidence. I'll take my time to do a proper write-up as the game deserves later today.
If you are interested already from what you see in gameplay video, get it with confidence. I'll take my time to do a proper write-up as the game deserves later today.
I am disappointed that I do not know whether after your limited time with this game if you recommend playing it on PSVR2 or not. 37:28 I'm sold just on the dogfighting. If it's just like the first one, which it looks to be, I will need a fan blowing cold air on me so I don't puke.
This one is easy to recommend. I will be putting out the write-up which takes time later today. I did not feel any VR discomfort from my time playing on the "least comfortable" setting, but results can vary.
