Gym Class VR Gets New Basketball and Baseball Modes

Gym Class VR has been around for a long time as one of the best VR basketball games out there.

Over time it has seen a lot of improvement with refining of its physics and mechanics, the addition of new game modes, AI opponents, courts, and cosmetics.

Though as you can see from the title of this article Gym Class is no longer just focused on the world of VR basketball, and now also includes game modes for Baseball and Football.

At the time of writing Gym Class’s Baseball and Football game modes are very rudimentary when compared to the long existing Basketball portion of the game, but they have also been very recently released and haven’t seen nearly as much development time and attention.

So let’s take a look at Gym Class VR Baseball and Gym Class VR Football to see what’s currently being offered by this VR sports game, and where future developments might hopefully take them.

Gym Class VR Football

Gym Class might not be a titan in the world of Virtual Reality Football yet, but it’s fantastic to see another VR football game out there, as there aren’t currently a whole lot to choose from.

Currently Gym Class Football is multiplayer only, with no Singleplayer bots, but a game is very easy to find by going to the multiplayer menu and joining a Football room.

Joining a Gym Class VR Football game

As for what you can do once you’ve entered a room… well as I’ve said previously it’s a bit limited at the moment.

Gym Class Football is less of an organized game of football with all of the rules enforced as in other VR football games.

It’s more of a loose practice arena, though if you really tried and got everybody to cooperate you could theoretically play a game of football.

Throwing the Football

Currently you can only really spawn Footballs and throw them around to other players.

So running some passes and drills is completely possible, and it is a lot of fun to go for a really deep pass that your buddy throws at you, but if you want a more organized football game you might want to go elsewhere, like NFL Pro Era 2.

Still, as far as arenas for messing around with a VR Football in multiplayer go, Gym Class’s Football mode gives a lot of freedom and it’s still a lot of fun to mess around and throw passes with others in Virtual Reality.

Another player failing to catch a deep pass

As for what would be nice to have in the future, the option to start a more formal game of football with some rules enforced, just as in Gym Class VR’s Basketball mode, would be fantastic, though maybe not as easy to create for the developers.

The physics could also possibly use a little improvement, though there are still some options for tweaking how your VR Football throws and handles. As always VR ball physics is sort of up to your opinion. What already exists is definitely serviceable for throwing passes and having fun.

It’s already enough to call Gym Class VR Football one of the best VR football games from the limited selection that we have, mostly because it’s Multiplayer, and the only other Multiplayer VR Football game option is NFL Pro Era 2.

Gym Class VR Baseball

Now for Gym Class’s Baseball game mode.

Just like with Football the Baseball mode is Multiplayer only and there are a ton of rooms available to join.

Joining a Gym Class VR Football game

Straight out of the gate it already has more options than the Football mode currently has. You can spawn baseballs at will and throw them for fun games of catch just like in the Football mode.

Now you can also pick up one of the baseball bats lying around and hit pitches.

Holding the bat and ball is a little janky

You don’t even need someone else to throw them to you, though that’s certainly an option. You just hit the ball spawning button while standing in one of the several batters boxes scattered around the field and a ball will come hurtling towards you.

This is great fun on its own, but does still need some work. The number one thing that would be nice to have in Gym Class VR Baseball would be adjustable strike zones. Hopefully there’s already a way to do this I couldn’t find, but looking everywhere and even asking other players didn’t reveal one.

As they are right now they’re extremely close to the ground and hitting the ball feels more like golf than baseball. The box that you see floating above the ground is where the ball will come towards, and they’re at about groin height for an adult.

Missing a swing when the ball is coming towards my knees

Not to mention that you can only hold the baseball bat with one hand, which is definitely the number two thing that would be nice to have in Gym Class Baseball.

It feels very awkward to swing the bat with one hand, though the bat does have some nice weight to it. Overall the physics feel even more rudimentary than the Football mode, and so the Baseball game mode does definitely need some work.

While it’s just as possible to get a game of Baseball together if the other players cooperate, it would also be nice to be able to start a game with scoring and rules enforced. Though the throwing physics are so difficult it’s hard to even throw a pitch from the mound to the batter’s box.

Another player throwing a patch from the mound, this took a lot of tries

Just like Gym Class Football, Gym Class VR Baseball is more of a sandbox than a way to play the game of Baseball, but it’s also a fun way to mess around with some VR Baseball.

Well that’s all for Gym Class’s new Baseball and Football game modes. While they really could use some work at the time of writing, it’s doubtful that the developers of Gym Class will leave them the way they are.

Just as with their Basketball game mode I have no doubt that they’ll continue to change and develop the Football and Baseball portions of the game over time so that they’ll stand as very fun experiences of their own.

For right now though, Gym Class is still free, and if you want to throw some passes with a friend in VR it’s still a great way to do that. Whether you try out Gym Class’s new game modes now or later, enjoy!

The 3 Best VR Football Games On the Oculus Quest 3 and 2

VR Football Games, like so many VR Sports games, are a fantastic way to enjoy one of your favorite sports in virtual reality.

For those who might be coming here looking for VR games about soccer, then check out the article about VR Soccer Games. This article is about VR American Football games.

Anyway on to American Football. Now you can run plays and throw epic touchdown passes in the comfort of your living room. No need to get dirty and muddy, no need to go outside and find a game when it’s cold or rainy outside.

Whether Football is in season or out of season you can always enjoy this sport in the comfort of your own home with these 3 great Virtual Reality Football Games on your Meta Quest device.

NFL Pro Era 2

The NFL Pro Era 2 Logo

NFL Pro Era and its sequel NFL Pro ERA II are the best looking and most thoroughly polished VR Football Games out there.

You really feel like you’re playing in an actual NFL game each time you play, surrounded by your teammates and trying to avoid opposing players. The sights and sounds of an actual stadium are all there and look about as good as they can as a standalone quest game.

Throwing a Touchdown in NFL Pro Era

In NFL Pro Era you can pick your favorite Football team and play through entire seasons of Football with them.

You can customize your character, collect achievement trophies, and most importantly play a lot of games of Football against both AI opponents, and now with NFL Pro Era 2 you can also play Football games against other players in Multiplayer.

The one biggest downside of the NFL Pro Era VR Football Games is that the only position you can play is Quarterback. So a lot of the possibilities that you have in flatscreen games like Madden just aren’t there.

Getting rid of the ball before being sacked in NFL Pro Era

This will be a trend in the Virtual Reality Football Games here, but it’s such a shame that in such a polished VR Football Experience most of what you’ll be doing is throwing the ball or handing it off for running plays.

While all of that is great fun, and NFL Pro Era definitely does well in simulating being a quarterback, a lot of the game is up to your semi random AI teammates in Special Teams or playing defense.

In NFL Pro Era you’ll be doing a lot of standing on the sidelines while your team doesn’t have possession of the ball and is on defense.

You’ll watch a lot of kickoffs in this game

If you want to know more about NFL Pro Era then check out our review of the game for more information on it.

If you do decide to get into NFL Pro Era then definitely skip the first game and just buy the sequel, NFL Pro ERA II.

The sequel has some enhanced Singleplayer features, and most importantly adds the ability to play games against others in Multiplayer, which the original was severely lacking. Otherwise the two games are very similar.

Gym Class VR - Football

The Gym Class Logo. It doesn’t show any Footballs, but it’s got footballs

You might be familiar with Gym Class as one of the best VR Basketball Games on the Oculus Quest 2.

Well now it’s also one of the Best VR Football Games as well. That’s right, Gym Class VR recently added, at the time of writing, a Football mode to their game.

Just like in these other Football VR Games you can go to a Football field in Virtual Reality and throw the virtual Football around.

Throwing the ball in Gym Class

Unfortunately at the time of writing that’s about where the Gym Class Football experience ends. It’s a little undercooked and experimental at the moment, and doesn’t really do much of anything any of these other games don’t do.

All you can really do is throw passes with other players, and playing an actual game of Football even with a full lobby is hard to put together, though it’s possible if you have a whole lobby of friends willing to do so.

The throwing physics aren’t great, and you can’t really tackle an opponent outside of slapping the ball out of their hands. It clearly needs more work to be a truly great VR Football Game.

Gym Class is a very social VR Football Game

So now you might be wondering why Gym Class is even on this list. Well that’s because Gym Class has come a long way in VR Basketball over time, and it’s likely to come a long way in VR Football.

I have no doubt that the Gym Class developers will be adding new features and making their Virtual Reality Football experience better over time. So even if it’s not great now you can still easily find a big lobby of other players, often much easier than in other multiplayer games like NFL Pro Era 2.

So if you want to throw the pigskin around with a stranger or get some friends together, keep an eye on Gym Class’s Football mode. We’re not exactly spoiled for choice when it comes to VR Football games, and Gym Class has shown that it can grow and become vastly better over time.

With some more updates, Gym Class’s Football mode might become the go to VR Multiplayer Football experience. Oh, and it’s free!

2MD: VR Football Unleashed ALL STAR

The 2MD: VR Football Unleashed ALL STAR Logo

Now when you first look at 2MD: VR Football Unleashed ALL STAR for the first time you might not be very impressed because of how the game looks.

You can see it in the logo. The players are blocky and not very realistic looking, but that’s part of the intended charm of 2MD.

While other VR Football Games are going for a more realistic look and gameplay like the Madden series of flatscreen games, 2MD is a more arcadey, fast paced, and goofy experience.

It’s not trying to play like a real game of Football, and plays more like the old NFL Blitz game on the N64, or the more modern Wild Card Football.

Making a pass while the ball is on fire

So sure 2MD isn’t much to look at, and most notably doesn’t feature a multiplayer mode, but in so many ways it offers more customizability, game modes, and things to do than any other VR Football Game on this list. (Side Note: There is a local multiplayer option in the PSVR version where a non VR player can play as the defending team on the TV, but according to the developer not many used this game mode.)

Most importantly of all, 2MD: VR Football Unleashed ALL STAR lets you do more than just throw, pass the ball, and occasionally run the ball.

It also lets you kick field goals, and most importantly of all lets you receive and run the ball after you throw it. This is simply an amazing addition to the VR Football scene, and while it’s fairly difficult it is absolutely awesome once you get the hang of it.

Receiving and trying to run the ball in 2MD: VR Football Unleashed ALL STAR

When you throw the ball as the Quarterback and it gets near it’s landing zone the game will switch your perspective to the closest receiver.

Then you try and catch the ball and run it as far as you can, spinning around and stiff arming opposing team members as you go.

You can also keep the receiver as a bot if you don’t want to do this, but being able to receive and run the Football yourself is absolutely fantastic and gives you many more options and control over how well you do in the game.

You can even make your own plays in this game

Of course you’ll also see that 2MD, as its art style suggests, is pretty goofy and arcadey. The gameplay is fast paced and gets you right back into throwing the ball as quickly as possible.

Even in exhibition games there’s no waiting and watching the opposing team play. You’re quickly told if they scored or not and get back into the game.

The players all move extremely fast and tumble into and over each other hilariously. The only annoying part about this is that it can be kind of hard to see over your linemen in front of you when you’re trying to throw the ball, and whenever you back up they immediately back up with you. So you can’t get a lot of space.

It would be nice if the defensive line was a little shorter, or a little further away

Still, 2MD lets you draw plays however you want to, giving you even more options. Despite how unrealistically the gameplay itself can seem this is really the most in depth Virtual Reality Football simulator for the Oculus Quest 2 and 3 out there right now.

Nothing else comes close in your options for strategy and execution, and if you don’t mind the cartoony look or rapid pace of gameplay then 2MD is a fantastic VR Football Game for huge Football fans and casual enjoyers alike.

As mentioned, the only downside is that it has no multiplayer, though there are a massive variety of Singleplayer teams to play against and game modes to try.

Well that’s all for the Best VR Football Games out there. Whichever you pick from this list, have fun out on the field. VR Football is a ton of fun, and hopefully after reading this list you find the game that lets you enjoy it too.

ARK VR Review and Setup Guide - ARK: Survival Evolved VR and ARK Park

So, you want to play ARK VR.

Of course you do! ARK: Survival Evolved is a hit survival game on the flatscreen for its incredible mix of base building, survival mechanics, and most importantly the ability to train and ride your very own dinosaurs.

Of course the only thing greater than nurturing a dino egg, raising a dino baby, and then riding that dinosaur on the flatscreen is doing all of that in VR! So ARK: Survival Evolved VR is a fantastic idea, and luckily the developers of ARK added VR support some time ago.

Of course not all games with VR support are necessarily great to play in VR, and so here we’ll delve into whether or not VR ARK is worth it and taking a look at the ARK game made specifically for Virtual Reality, ARK Park.

To give a quick answer, no ARK: Survival Evolved VR is not very good. In fact it’s pretty terrible, though you might be able to get it sort of kind of working correctly with a little luck and some patience. ARK VR hasn’t received an update from the developers in ages and was clearly not very well supported from the beginning.

ARK Park is an actually okay ARK VR experience, but also suffers from being old, looking bad, and not having extremely engaging touch controls or gameplay.

Though if you are really craving the dinosaur raising and riding experience, then ARK Park is probably your best bet, unfortunately it isn’t nearly as expansive as ARK: Survival Evolved, or offer nearly as much of an engaging experience.

That’s the verdict, but if you want to find out how to set up ARK VR and why we’ve come to these conclusions, then check out the detailed ARK VR review and setup guide below.

ARK: Survival Evolved VR Review

So as I just mentioned ARK: Survival Evolved in VR is bad, really, really bad.

It might be the worst VR mode to a flatscreen game that I’ve ever written about here on Reality Remake.

See how fuzzy anything past the rock looks? It’s even worse when you’re in VR

It’s very clear that the VR support is extremely minimal, and as we’ll cover in the setup section below, weirdly difficult to even get running due to poor optimization.

Though you don’t need to know about that to realize how poorly optimized ARK VR is, it looks absolutely terrible.

Everything is fuzzy even up close. The lighting is overwhelming in VR and looking anywhere near the sun is uncomfortably bright on reasonable settings, so you have to turn your brightness down, but then even somewhat dark areas are almost impossible to see properly.

These screenshots don’t look good, but even they don’t do justice to how difficult this game was to play in VR.

The settings menu doesn’t even look right

You have to squint a lot, whether it’s to see at anything more than five meters in front of you, or to look at any of the menus.

More than anything else what makes ARK VR hard to play is how poorly the VR view is adjusted for more modern VR technology like the Oculus Quest 3 or 2.

Your right eye and left eye pictures are smashed too closely together by default, and this not only makes the already poor visuals headache inducing, but also makes reading menus next to impossible unless you close one eye and focus really hard on the blurry letters.

Even getting some footage and screenshots was hard in ARK VR

Even when you get ARK VR running this is something you’ll have to do a lot, because unless you’ve gotten really lucky and your settings already happen to work well in Virtual Reality, you’ll be doing a lot of adjusting your graphical settings to get VR ARK looking at least somewhat presentable.

If you can deal with that then you might find ARK VR somewhat enjoyable.

All of the gameplay of ARK: Survival Evolved is still there, though the added immersive benefits of Virtual Reality are kind of lacking not only in the visuals.

There are no touch controls, and you’ll be using your mouse and keyboard still, which isn’t necessarily bad in and of itself. You control your arms with whatever tool you are using by moving your mouse around, and instead of moving your entire head like on the flatscreen your tool will point in the direction you’re moving your mouse.

If this worked well then it could be a fun VR game

This is actually a pretty cool system, but what makes it extremely annoying is just how broken ARK: Survival Evolved VR is.

I could never get my head to line up with my arms, so I always had to look over awkwardly to the right a little bit to actually see what I was facing.

Interacting with a lot of objects is also annoying, and you’ll often have to look up above the thing you’re trying to interact with for your interaction button to work. The hotbar doesn’t show up either, and so you’ll have to go into the inventory menu to change what you have equipped, or memorize what’s assigned to what key on your hotbar.

ARK VR is an unsupported mess that clearly never got the time and attention it needed to be playable. If you’re still interested then the guide on setting up and running ARK VR is further down in this article in the section marked “How To Set Up ARK VR.”

So what about the game that was meant for VR?

ARK Park Review

So the Virtual Reality mode for ARK: Survival Evolved is hot garbage, but there is also an ARK game made specifically for VR called ARK Park.

Though if you already own ARK: Survival Evolved keep in mind that ARK Park is a separate game that at the time of writing costs forty dollars on Steam. Whether or not this is worth it for a functioning ARK VR experience depends on how badly you want it.

When first starting ARK Park and (thankfully) launching it just like any other PCVR game with no additional setup steps or difficulties, it is clear pretty quickly that this game hasn’t seen a meaningful update in years.

It looks very fuzzy, but not as bad as ARK: Survival Evolved VR.

ARK Park is functional, if a little confusing, from the start

At least unlike ARK: Survival Evolved’s VR mode, the pictures of your two headset lenses are properly spaced apart, and you can see everything as intended. So while ARK Park doesn’t look great it is at least functional.

That’s going to be a theme here, it’s not great, but it does at least work.

Anyway your hands become futuristic teleporters in the game, even if you have slide movement enabled, and right when you start things are a little weird with the controls.

You’ll notice in the controls information screen and all of the tutorial prompts that ARK Park was clearly meant to be played using HTC Vive wands, which can be kind of confusing when you’re trying to figure out how to do things in the game using different controllers Even when the game tells you how.

ARK Park’s tutorial does have some obvious omissions like how to use slide movement. Move the left joystick while pushing it in.

I have no idea why the developers thought this would be a good idea, maybe to prevent you from moving yourself accidentally, but it is really awkward. Especially since slide movement is so slow.

Education game or dinosaur shooting simulator, you decide

ARK Park is one of the few VR games in which I’d actually recommend using teleport movement instead of slide movement.

Anyway once you figure all of that out you’re off to a tutorial that has some very cool moments but is far too long. You’re a tourist on one of ARK’s dinosaur islands, and instead of putting you in front of dinosaurs to start with you’re instead feeding and interacting with holographic dinosaurs first.

Considering there are many actual dinosaurs to interact with in the game, adding holographic versions to start with seems like kind of a waste of time, and just adds to the cumbersome length of the tutorial.

Though there is a very cool train ride, and soon enough you’re in the park itself.

At least seeing dinosaurs up close in Virtual Reality is awesome

From here ARK Park soon introduces you to what you do in the game. Collect dinosaur eggs, hatch them, nurture the babies, and then use, ride, and collect those dinos.

The first dinosaur ride is very cool, and then you’re off to learn how to collect resources, craft a weapon, and then shoot some dinosaurs in a tower defense segment.

Oh, were you expecting to fight hostile dinosaurs out in the wilds as you collect resources, keep yourself fed, and build a shelter? Well unfortunately ARK Park doesn’t provide a real ARK: Survival Evolved experience like that.

All of the combat is done in these odd tower defense segments where the dinosaurs run at an object you defend, and then you just shoot them with a variety of guns that all do not feel at all like guns.

You don’t even load them yourself like in most VR shooters, they just do a reload animation automatically when they’re empty.

The tower defense segments get very old very fast

There is some gathering and exploring a world, but not a huge overworld like in ARK: Survival Evolved.

Instead you get a few different and very small maps with some paths going through them. You gather resources by swinging a tool at an object, and you scan various pieces of wildlife as you look for eggs.

That’s about it. Looking at dinosaurs in Virtual Reality is cool, but the game itself is actually incredibly dull. There’s not much to do, and there’s not much to see other than the aforementioned dinosaurs.

So if you are really dying for any kind of ARK VR experience, give ARK Park a look as it’s the best one you’ll find right now. Though keep in mind that the only thing that makes this game like ARK: Survival Evolved or ARK: Survival Ascended is that you can raise dinosaurs. Interacting with them is the only interesting part, and that can’t prop up the game on its own.

Otherwise this game is probably never going to receive an update, and does not match the modern standards of VR gaming. It might have been okay five years ago, but now it looks bad and has repetitive and boring gameplay.

ARK Park is not even really a survival game, and all of the combat is just shooting dinosaurs that slowly run towards you.

How To Set Up ARK VR

When running ARK Survival Evolved in VR start by connecting your headset to your PC as you normally would to run any PCVR game.

If you’re using a Quest device such as an Oculus Quest 2 or 3 then start by connecting your headset to your PC using Airlink or Steam Link. If you’ve never done this before then check out how to do so in this article. While the article is specifically aimed at VTOL VR, you’ll find that the same steps work for any PCVR game, just run ARK: Survival Evolved instead of VTOL VR.

In short either run Oculus Airlink and run Steam VR from airlink, or run Steam Link to go directly to Steam VR. Then in your Steam VR home select ARK: Survival Evolved and start it.

Be careful once you actually start ARK: Survival Evolved though, because on your PC you’ll get a new window from steam asking you which of the various options you want to launch the game with. Only two of these will work in VR without crashing the game. The “extremely low memory” option or the “DirectX 10, Low-End Graphics” option.

The launch options for ARK: Survival Evolved

Since ARK VR is so poorly optimized any other option will cause the game to crash when you try to run VR mode.

Now you may or may not see the main menu of ARK appear in front of you in Steam VR home, and from there you can use your mouse to start or join a game. If you don’t see the ARK menu in Steam VR home then do so on your PC monitor.

Get into the game and once you’re there go to your Settings menu and go to Graphics. In the bottom right you’ll see a button that says “Enable VR HMD.”

The button to hit to enable VR mode in ARK

Once you do that put your VR headset back on if you were using your monitor, and you should now be seeing the game in Virtual Reality.

Of course as I mentioned in the review above you may have trouble seeing things. It’s hard to specifically tell you how to make your VR experience more pleasant, as that will depend a lot on what headset you are using and your graphics card.

If it’s difficult to see things then play around with your graphical settings like resolution and HUD scaling. ARK VR will never look great, but it can be manageable if you get your settings just right.

After running the game once and giving it a look you can also enable these options in Steam to try to get the game looking a little better by right clicking on the game in your Steam library, selecting Properties, and adding “-sm4 -d3d10” to the Launch Options at the bottom of the General tab.

Some additional launch options that may make the game look better

Anyway that’s all for this setup guide for ARK VR, and the review of both ARK: Survival Evolved VR and ARK Park. Hopefully this will work well enough for you to experience ARK in VR.

Hopefully the sequel to ARK: Survival Evolved, ARK 2, will offer better VR support some time in the future, or a mod will add decent Virtual Reality options to the game. For now that remains to be seen, and hopefully you can enjoy what VR ARK experiences are already available.

VTOL VR Gets New Plane: The EF-24G Mischief and Electronic Warfare Update

A couple of weeks after its announcement VTOL VR solo developer Baha has released the new VTOL VR plane known as the EF-24G Mischief to the public.

This new plane is purchasable as DLC on Steam for the price of twelve dollars, and is based on the real world F-14 tomcat. This plane also happened to be released on the exact same day of the year as the first flight of the Tomcat in 1970.

The EF-24G Mischief is intended as an Electronic Warfare fighter in VTOL VR, using jamming pods and sensors to hide from or confuse enemy missiles and radar systems.

Of course this new plane isn’t going to be the only one capable of utilizing jamming technology, with jamming equipment now available for other planes in this fantastic VR flight simulator.

There’s even some other new equipment available like the AIM-54 missile, but for now let’s talk some specifics on exactly what you can do with the EF-24 and more about the electronic warfare update, which massively changes VTOL VR.

The F-14 Tomcat In VTOL VR

The EF-24 is a very fun new addition to VTOL VR that makes great use of the new Electronic Warfare system.

On it, and various other aircraft like the F/A-26, you can mount AN/ALQ-245 Jammer pods, which allow you to spoof and jam signals for the enemy team.

We’ll talk more about this and the new Electronic Warfare system here shortly, but suffice to say it’s a massive change to VTOL VR that will completely revamp how the game is played, especially in Multiplayer, and the EF-24G is tailor made for it.

The AN/ALQ-245 Jammer Pod

The EF-24G Mischief itself bears many similarities to the F-45 (based on the real like F-35) in that the cockpit is extremely high tech when compared to older aircraft like the AV-42 or F/A-26. Though in many other respects this new plane is unlike any other.

Especially when using Electronic Warfare, there’s a lot of buttons to press on your various configurable touchscreens, and a lot of things to do to fly and fight as effectively as possible.

That’s why it’s great that the EF-24G is also a two seater plane. You can have a copilot in the back to handle the Electronic Warfare pods or weapons.

While it’s completely possible to fly this new plane by yourself, it’s much harder to manage everything on your own.

Being the passenger can be just as fun as being the pilot

Still, you can always by yourself a little time by zooming away, which the EF-24G is very capable of doing just like it’s real life inspiration the F-14 Tomcat.

It’s now capable of the highest speeds in the game, at least when you sweep the wings back, because just like the F-14 the EF-24 can sweep its wings forward or back for maneuverability or straight up speed.

This, coupled with the new missiles available to it, make the EF-24G a fantastic plane for countering enemy air defenses, and generally confusing them.

There are a ton of features, old and new, that you can use with this plane. So many that we won’t discuss them all here, though the size of the EF-24Gs manual speaks for itself.

If you’ve just gotten ahold of the EF-24G there’s also a whole new Singleplayer campaign for the plane which focuses on its strengths in countering enemy ground based air defenses. It’s a ton of fun and a great way to get to know your way around the new aircraft.

The new campaign is hard at first, but fantastic

Electronic Warfare in VTOL VR

Though by far the biggest change to VTOL VR is not only the addition of the EF-24G, but the addition of Electronic Warfare in general in this fantastic modern VR flight simulator.

You used to always be able to trust your radar and radar warning system to show you exactly where enemies were and what type of craft they were flying. That’s no longer the case.

That’s a lot of incoming missiles, shame they’re aiming at imaginary planes

The new jammer pods, which can be mounted on many of the aircraft already present in the game as well as the EF-24G Mischief, mean that no electronic system is guaranteed to work as you’d expect it to anymore.

These jamming pods are capable of doing a number of different sorts of electronic warfare and different frequencies. Guidance systems can be flooded with noise to become unreliable, DRFM can be used to make one aircraft seem like a whole wing of them, and even basic functionality like navigation and communications equipment can be interfered with.

It’s truly a massive change for VTOL VR, and opens up many more options in how you can approach each combat encounter, or how you can be tricked into approaching them in the wrong way.

What’s even more incredible is the further addition of the ADM-160J decoy missile.

The ADM-160J Decoy/Jammer Missile

This is a missile that, like the name says, functions as a decoy and is capable of making itself look like an entire aircraft.

Not only that, but it can help you triangulate targets for your own missiles, and has jamming technology of its own to misdirect enemy air defenses. Suddenly what might seem like another EF-24 approaching you could just be a decoy missile.

There’s no limit to how these new technologies present in the game can be used for any number of operations, and makes the depth of the air combat simulation of VTOL VR far better.

That’s not even mentioning all of the new assets available not only in the new campaign like huge Early Warning Radars, Enemy Radar Jamming Trucks, and Missile Silos, but also in the VTOL VR mission editor for mission creators to use.

So if you’ve always wanted to feel like Maverick from Top Gun yourself and rule the air in an F-14 Tomcat, or want to see the new ways the game can be played, now is a fantastic time to get back into VTOL VR or try it for the first time. Though all of this new technology does make an already complicated game even more complicated. Once you understand it though, it’s truly a masterpiece.

Into The Radius Walkthrough And Guide - The Eighth Mission - Kids Playground

Stuck in Into The Radius? Wondering where to go and how to get there for your next mission?

Maybe you would just like to see what is in store for you before you get there, or you’d like to know if you’re properly prepared for your next mission in the Pechorsk Zone.

Well don’t worry we’ve got you covered with this walkthrough and guide for Into the Radius VR.

In this Into the Radius walkthrough we’ll detail how to progress through the main story “Top Priority” missions, with a couple of guiding tips thrown in here and there to make your adventure smoother.

The focus of these walkthrough articles will be the story missions, but we’ll throw in some general gameplay tips and other useful loot locations near your objectives.

These articles will also assume you’re playing the game on the Normal difficulty mode with Tutorials turned on, which is highly recommended for your first playthrough. This walkthrough will still be useful if you’re playing on Realistic difficulty, but some details like vendor prices or enemy placement and numbers will be different.

Here is every article in our complete Into the Radius VR Walkthrough:

• Into The Radius Walkthrough And Guide - The First Mission - Equipment Retrieval

• Into The Radius Walkthrough And Guide - The Second Mission - Total Recall

• Into The Radius Walkthrough And Guide - Repeatable Missions

• Into The Radius Walkthrough And Guide - The Third Mission - Fixing A Leak

• Into The Radius Walkthrough And Guide - The Fourth Mission - Flash In The Dark

• Into The Radius Walkthrough And Guide - The Fifth Mission - A Probing Move

• Into The Radius Walkthrough And Guide - The Sixth Mission - The Intrusion

• Into The Radius Walkthrough And Guide - The Seventh Mission - A Farewell Feast

• Into The Radius Walkthrough And Guide - The Eighth Mission - Kids Playground

• Into The Radius Walkthrough And Guide - The Final Mission - Ouroboros

• All Into The Radius VR Endings and How To Reach Them

Here we’ll be talking about the eighth Top Priority mission that you get in Into The Radius, A Farewell Feast, which brings you back to Kolkhoz Zarya to explore and fight your way through the train station and summon a ghost train with a one of a kind artifact.

Kids Playground - Loadout

The Kids Playground mission involves a lot of medium to close range combat, so you don’t want to bring a weapon that’s meant for long ranges. Most of your fighting will be done in and around the train station, so an assault or battle rifle is ideal.

Since at this point you’ll be Security Level 5, you might as well sprint for the best. That’s why we’re using the FN17, the most powerful and versatile assault rifle in Into the Radius.

It does degrade quickly, but not so quickly that you will need to bring along cleaning supplies for this mission if using this weapon in your loadout.

Of course you don’t have to bring the FN17 (aka SCAR) yourself, and this mission is perfectly manageable with an upgraded SMG or Security Level 3 or 4 rifle. At this point you know what you like best, but make sure you’re ready for very heavy resistance.

A sample loadout for the Kids Playground mission

Other than your primary weapon you may want to upgrade your sidearm as well if you haven’t for a while. In this sample loadout we’re using the Desert Eagle, but other powerful pistols like the OC-33 or M9 are also great end game firearms.

If you can’t afford the upgrades just yet then don’t worry, you can still finish this mission as long as you have plenty of ammunition, healing items, and a full set of armor. While in many missions silencers can be helpful, for the Kids Playground mission they are actually arguably a drawback, and in any case are unnecessary.

Other than that this loadout is fairly standard, though if you have some grenades sitting around now might be a good time to bring some along and use them. They might come in handy when clearing out the train station, but they are not a requirement to complete the mission.

As always once you’re kitted out accept the mission and head off.

The mission description for Kids Playground on the Terminal

Getting to Kolkhoz Zarya

Just like in the last mission you’ll be headed back to Kolkhoz Zarya, and we’ll be taking the same route through Bolotky Village as last time.

So take the rope line leading to Bolotky and then immediately turn north. Your destination is at the northern end of the train tracks.

The route through Bolotky Village

Shoot the few enemies in the woods as you head north, and avoid the Web Anomalies.

As always you’ll probably run into a small cluster of enemies by the oil tanker near the rope line to Kolkhoz Zarya. They should be really easy for you by this point in the game, so don’t worry too much about them.

The route to Kolkhoz Zarya

Once you’re at the rope make sure your health is topped up, you’re well fed, and your magazines are fully loaded. Kolkhoz Zarya is where the fight really begins.

Kids Playground - The Train Station

Very conveniently this path will spit you out right next to the train station in Kolkhoz Zarya.

So you’re already near your objective, but you still have a choice of how to get inside. You could walk along the train tracks along the left side of the building and take the front entrance.

This is riskier than it may seem, as you can attract enemies from the fields further to the west, and even be spotted by the BTR. Not to mention once you get inside you’ll be in the middle of the trainyard and potentially surrounded by enemies on all sides. As you’ll see from this route we won’t be doing that.

The route to the train station in Kolkhoz Zarya

A less exposed approach to the train station, and the one that we will take, is to head around the right hand, eastern side of the building.

Go around the right side of the train station

Once you get on the east side of the wall you’ll see an anomaly field beside the building. Luckily you can get inside without having to walk through any anomlies.

Though there will certainly be enemies roaming around the exterior of the wall, so take them down. Once the outside of the wall is clear of enemies you’ll see a gate leading inside the train station compound.

The gate leading into the compound on the east side

Be careful when going through this gate. Once you go through you’ll possibly be exposed to a Mimic Solider in the rafters inside the train station.

A lot of mimics hide up in the upper catwalks and on top of the train cards inside of the train station. So one or two might be able to see you and fire on you as you go through the gate.

Taking out a Mimic Soldier from the gate

Take that mimic out and any that might walk outside to try and support it. Once the coast is clear get out of the gate and go to the right, where there is a long building.

You could go straight inside the train station if you want, you’ll want to clear it out anyway, but there will be mimics on either side of the opening leading into it on this side.

There are a ton of mimics inside the train station itself, and if you want to even the odds in the fight you have a few options.

Clearing Out The Train Station

There is a puzzle of sorts to spawn the train which carries the artifact, and we’ll get to that soon, but the main obstacle to your success in the Kids Playground mission is definitely the large amount of firearm equipped mimics in and around the train station.

Just running in is risky and will likely end up with you getting mowed down from a hidden mimic up in a rafter or waiting in ambush by one of the entrances.

So let’s play this smart. Once you’re inside the compound go the train yard through another gate, just keep going around the train station the way you’ve already been headed after taking that right from the gate.

The Train Yard

There are some train cars scattered around, and most likely a few enemies around them.

Take those enemies out, so that any that are left will only be inside the train station. Keep in mind that there’s likely also a Rift around, and if that Rift is inside of the train station it will respawn enemies if you take too long.

Either way you have some time, so a good strategy to use to lure some enemies out of the train station is to make some noise outside, which you likely did when clearing the enemies out outside of the train station anyway.

This will cause some of them to come wandering out, which makes them much easier targets.

Try to draw some of the mimics outside if you can

So take out whatever enemies you can lure, and then when you’re ready to go outside take the entrance on the western most side of the train station.

This way in has the fewest enemies watching it, and has plenty of cover.

Always keep an eye on the ceiling as there will be a few mimics that hang out up there and shoot down at you when they can see you.

Your first target should be the Rift if you can hear it. Once you’re inside go from firing position to firing position, wait for the mimics to come to you, and if they don’t go a little deeper.

Make sure you stay healed and methodically clear out the train station. There will likely be enemies hanging out in the corners and platforms, especially near the huge hangar door on the east side of the building.

The easiest way to get taken down is to be ambushed while out in the open, so stay near cover and be ready to react.

A lot of mimics will be on top of train cars or in hiding up high

Grenades aren’t necessary but can be especially helpful in flushing enemy pockets out without having to expose yourself to them, though grenades aren’t extremely effective in Into the Radius, so they’re more useful as a tool to force enemies to change position than to actually destroy them.

Once the train station is clear of enemies worry about completing the mission. Regardless there are some good loot spawns in there, and clearing the place out makes it easy to take everything that you can. Luckily you won’t have to walk back to Vanno.

Kids Playground - Solving the Train Puzzle

The puzzle to spawn the ghost train and the artifact it carries is actually very easy, you might even do it by accident while fighting the mimics in the station.

It starts with a black statue of a child out in the trainyard near the bridge to the north of the train yard.

The first child statue

Touch the statue and you’ll get your first clue: “If the driver’s cab is red, point your flashlight straight ahead!”

This refers to the train right in front of the smaller of the two gates into the train station. You’ll see it’s light glowing red. Shine a Head Lamp or other flashlight at the red light and you’ll hear a click as it disappears.

That’s the first half of the puzzle.

The train with the red light

Once you’ve done that, you’ll notice another child statue inside of the train station in front of one of the gates leading into the train yard itself.

Touch this statue to get the second clue: “If the driver’s cab in green, point your light and you will win!”

The second child statue

This refers to a second train that is right beside this second child statue.

Just as with the first train shine a Head Lamp or other flashlight on to the green light and you’ll hear a click as it disappears.

The green train

Once you do that just walk back out to the train yard, and you’ll see a big black train that looks like a mimic version of a train right in front of the gate that we took to get inside of the train station, or rather the gate with the train that had the red light.

This is the “ghost train” that I mentioned earlier.

The train that appears when you solve the puzzle

When you get close you’ll also notice your detector beeping.

Climb up one of the ladders on to the train car and use your detector to uncover the artifact that is the goal of your mission.

Uncovering the artifact on the train. Turn it in to complete the mission

Now all you have to do is leave. You can go back the way you came, or you can stay on the train.

It will shortly begin moving down the tracks, towards the little green flag on the edge of your map that marks a path back to Vanno.

If you haven’t already taken this path back and unlocked it then I highly recommend you stay on the train. Though if you haven’t already cleared the bridge that it will go across of enemies then they will fire at you as you pass by.

Escaping on the train

Luckily the train makes for an excellent piece of cover, so the fight shouldn’t be so hard, and you can just wait until the enemies are next to the train before lighting them up.

Of course if you prefer you can also just make your way across the bridge normally. If your playstyle is more methodical then being forced to constantly move towards enemies might not be ideal.

Once you’re back in Vanno turn in the artifact and you’ve completed the mission.

Whether you take the train or not, make sure to come back and open up that route back to Vanno, as we’ll be using it in the next, and final mission of Into the Radius, which I’ll cover in our final Into the Radius VR walkthrough article.