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You've done it again with another fantastic update.

I'm running out of nice things to say about this game. Even if the actual playable content in this update is largely the same as the previous one, it still feels like a distinct step up in quality. The game already felt stable, and aside from one bug (that I'll mention later) I ran into no issues with this version either. Performance-wise I don't really know whether this demo really changed much (I got a couple of drops below 60 fps that I didn't notice before, but on the whole it was still very smooth at max settings), but in general I really liked this update just like all the ones before it. Great work!

First touching on the positives: I like the changes to conquest mode. The unified hangar with the scenarios is a big plus, as well as adding proper mouse support to the Conquest menu. Shifting it to air-to-air only makes sense, because honestly I only ever went for the air targets in the previous version anyway since the ground targets were so spread out. If you do add multirole modes to Conquest in the future, I would recommend grouping the ground targets up in bases and outposts that are actually worth the time to fly to and destroy, or maybe convoys of vehicles moving around the map would be cool. I'm sure you have plenty of ideas on that front. Also, the change to the final boss feels good IMO. I tried soloing the final Conquest mission a couple of times in the previous version and the virtually aimbot hitscan railguns nailed me with their entire volley both times no matter how hard I dodged, so the slowdown to the projectiles was a good call I think. They might even be a tiny bit too slow now, since I have yet to be hit by them after the change, but I haven't done a solo run yet so maybe they're actually good enough as is (plus, as soon as they spawned I was looping like a maniac, and I was using the Hornet, so I might not have given them a proper chance). Also, I like the updates to the sound design: The pings of bullet impacts are a very good touch.

Biggest plus for me: the guns. Just yes. I've only actually been hit by an AI fighter's gun one time, but from an aesthetic perspective alone they make a world of difference. Dogfights feel more dynamic and exciting, and it makes things look really cinematic sometimes when you look into a big tangle of fighters and see tracers going everywhere. Really glad you added this.

Now for cons: not much really. The only bug I ran into was a case of a fighter diving a few thousand feet underground on Operation Blackout (but it came back, so it's not a full game-breaker). Otherwise, I don't really have anything to complain about in this one (aside from maybe the same comment on the AA guns that I mentioned last time; they still don't feel like a very big threat). The only suggestion I would really make is one that was mentioned already by someone else: A more defined jet roar when other fighters pass you would really add to the immersive feeling of the game, as well as being able to hear the enemy's gun when they do a close pass.

That's all I've got. Great work again to you and your team, and I will be eagerly awaiting the 1.0 release in May.

As a parting note, here's a little montage I made as a bit of a tribute to the new demo. Keep up the great work!

I have a tiny bit of feedback on the air cruisers. I've seen/heard comments that right now they don't feel like a big threat but more just kind of a nuisance to shoot down, and I sort of agree.

It feels annoying to fire a volley of 8 MLAA's at a cruiser, just to only knock out one turret and the rest of the missiles are completely wasted because they hit the body at a bad angle and did no damage to the other turrets (I know that it's player error, and if I made sure to fire from straight above this wouldn't happen, but being forced into one attack angle adds to that 'chore' feeling of taking cruisers out).

Random suggestion: What if the cruiser's body had a set (large) health pool and every hit on the cruiser does damage to that pool, but destroying a turret/sub-system deals a significant chunk of damage to that pool (like 20% or something)? That way attacking the subsystems is still the most efficient way to kill them, but you don't end up with disappointing "misses" just because the angle wasn't quite right. I don't think any additional HUD element for the body health would be necessary, but just knowing that my shots are still doing something would make engaging the cruisers a bit less tedious.

As for the "not a real threat" feeling, I think the AA guns are the main culprit. A wide, random cone of bullets that rarely hit and only do 1-2% damage when they do doesn't give much feeling of danger. More accurate bursts that actually require evading could lead to cruisers (and ground-based AA guns) being something to actually respect and keep some distance from, rather than being able to fly straight over them without a scratch.

Just a thought to consider. I certainly don't think the cruisers are BAD in their current implementation; they're perfectly fine, but I do think they could be made a bit more interesting.

There are 2 ways I know of. The first is to connect and configure your controller through Steam. I believe that you'll have to add Project Wingman to Steam as a non-Steam game and launch it from there for this to work, but the controller setup seems pretty straightforward. The second option if you don't want to use Steam is to download and install DS4Windows to allow Windows to recognize your PS4 controller. In my case I also had to install PS4 Remote Play before my controller could be detected, but the plus side of this is that you can use the controller for any game, not just ones launched through Steam.

Hope that helps.

Just wanted to quickly say great work on this latest demo version! The new mission is nicely put together, well paced, and the voice acting and dialogue in it fit well. The Viggen is a great addition too. The model for it looks really nice, and it's a blast to fly.

Compliments on the soundtrack for the new mission too. It has a very distinct feeling to it compared to the other two missions, whose tracks were definitely good but didn't stand out from each other as well. The new track, plus the desert biome help give this mission its own character which I think is quite important.

Only bug I ran into while playing was the one I mentioned in my previous comment where the camera sometimes doesn't reset properly after tracking a target and ends up pointing at an odd angle from the plane (one time almost 90 degrees straight up). Other than that, gameplay was very smooth and solid for me.

Very excited to see where this game goes from here. Keep it up!

This game is excellent, and is far higher quality than I was expecting from something with an Alpha label. The visuals are fantastic, dynamic weather effects are great, and most importantly the gameplay itself feels really solid. Performance is also pretty good, running on maxed settings and usually hanging around 80 FPS. While recording it occasionally drops to 60, but never below that. (Specs below).

Difficulty is also spot on for the most part. The enemy AI is very well done IMO and dogfights on Hard difficulty are exciting and fun. Only really minor thing I would comment on is the tendency of one or two jets from a squadron leaving their group to chase you if you happen to pass a tiny bit too close while the rest continue to ignore you. It certainly doesn't hurt the gameplay at all, but I think immersion-wise it would be a plus if enemy formations worked with a tiny bit more cohesion (ex: if one plane in a formation detects you, all planes in that formation attack instead of just that one). Like I said though, that's REALLY minor and doesn't really count as a negative for me, just a thought I had.

The one outlier for difficulty for me is the two 'special' fighters at the end of Clear Skies. Facing one alone is pretty easy, even on Hard difficulty, but both at once is a pretty sharp spike in difficulty in comparison because of how aggressively they spam missiles. Even on Normal difficulty I've had times where a single wrong turn when trying to evade them has led to 3 or 4 missiles hitting me at once. They're definitely not unbeatable and I can regularly beat them in 2v1s now, but on my first couple of playthroughs it was like running into a brick wall compared to the rest of the enemies.

But, that's the only gripe I have with this game so far, aside from one time I played where the camera didn't centre properly at the end of a Chainlink mission. The rest of it is great, and I'm really looking forward to seeing what you do with it in the future.

Specs:

Win 10 64-bit

Intel i5-6600K quad core @ 3.5GHz

16GB RAM

GTX 1080 w/ 8GB dedicated memory