What Have I Been Playing Recently?

So, what have I been playing recently?

I bought Sea Power a few weeks ago and love it.  I haven't been playing it much because the game is currently Early Access and it has bugs and lacks some features - it's lacking a save feature and the gameplay can be rather long in duration, so I either end the mission I'm playing prematurely or I don't play.

I've also been playing Nuclear Option.  I bought that game earlier in the year and it is really fun, but it's Early Access as well and is also somewhat buggy.  TrackIR keeps dying mid-game and it only happens with that game, so I know it's an issue with Nuclear Option and not the hardware or TrackIR software.  As well, other folks have been complaining that they're having issues with head-tracking with this game, too.  I'm hoping the developers fix the issue soon (some folks have claimed that the issue is no longer occurring in the beta testing branch).

I've also been playing more VTOL VR.  I did a bunch of flying today after not using my VR headset in ages.  I've been flying some of the Steam Workshop missions, which gives me practice and some fun.  What plane(s) have I been flying?  As usual, I've been flying the AV-42C...folks love to hate on that aircraft, but it's the A-10 Warthog of this game and I love ground/pound.  I've been wondering how to create missions and I was thinking on giving it a shot, but I've heard that the mission creation tools and mechanisms suck and that the next patch will offer more streamlined mission creation tools and mechanisms, so I think I'm going to wait for that.

I've also been thinking of pushing myself to return to Steel Beasts.  For a bit, I was playing fine and even created a mission/scenario to test things.  Steel Beasts can get busy really fast, though, because micro-managing the units is crucial to success and the more units you have to control the more busy it'll get - you want to control small units to get the most out of the missions/scenarios (company level is probably best).

After playing Sea Power, I'm also thinking of returning to C:MO (although, that game can get busy really fast, as well, on a whole different level than Steel Beasts).

Yeah, I also have DCS modules that I recently bought (the latest Blackshark and the Mirage F1), but I need fun, not study sims and while DCS can be fun, for someone new to the game, it plays as if it's homework.

As I've a bunch of vacation to use in November and December, I'll have the time to relax with PC gameplay.

TrackIR and FPS

I bought a TrackIR (version 5) a few years ago but hardly ever used it. I wanted to try to use it for flight sims but never got around to using it. Well, I dusted it off and used it to play some Arma 2 this past weekend. All I can say is....WOW! I should've been using this a long time ago. While I realize that not all games allow for head-tracking, Arma does (I've many of the Arma variants, including Arma 3). I also used it a bit to play some War Thunder. It was awesome there as well, allowing for a very immersive bit of gameplay (although I just used the test drive feature to test the hardware). To use TrackIR with War Thunder will also, for full immersion, require the use of HOTAS, which I do have (I've the Saitek X52 Pro throttle and stick combo), as well as rudder pedals, which I do not yet have (I'm in the process of deciding which to buy...I'm not looking for Gucci equipment...just some decent pedals to facilitate gameplay). I'll be testing other FPS games to see if they allow for head-tracking. I may also delve into other flight sims such as DCS and the IL2 series. Stay tuned.