#UI Movie Reviews

[rafsanrajkin]

Movie App UI Design for Mobile using Figma for a buyer. Project link here: https://www.behance.net/gallery/214496103/Movie-App-UI-Design-For-Mobile-using-Figma

[telugufundahyd]

Revisiting Upendra’s ‘Super’ Dystopian Political Drama Ahead of its Spiritual Sequel, UI - Telugu Funda

Upendra is one of very few original voices of India. His films often get cult status. Ahead of the release of his latest UI on December 20th, let’s revisit UI’s spiritual prequel released in 2010, Super. 

Super is a story about Subhash Chandra Gandhi, the man who made utopian India possible with his unthinkable political philosophy. The story starts in 2030’s India where English-speaking foreigners, especially Britishers and Americans, are begging in front of the Warangal International Airport. The world economics are flipped in 2030: the dollar’s value has plummeted, Indian ethnic wear is seen as fashionable over the western wear, public spaces are filled with Hindu gods, Indians are considered as well cultured and foreigners are seens as only Rupee grabbing opportunists. As usual, the first thirty minutes was taken solely to position Upendra’s ideas of India in 2030 leaving the rest of the film to the quiet not-so-very-genetic plot of how he did what he did. 

Also Read: UI The Movie 1stSingle Set to Unveil a Musical Marvel

Aptly named, Subhash Chandra Gandhi, is a rich sentimental nationalist living in Britain, only to realise that his love for India as it is not worth it, the harsh reality hits him as he tries to solve the simple pension problem of a poor man. He also realises that the woman, Indira (Nayanthara) he married turns out to be a dupe set out to take vengeance for the injustice Gandhi allegedly caused to her elder sister Mandira. These realities make him a bad person from a good person and he sets out to teach a lesson to the whole India by becoming the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh. 

Also Read: Real Star Upendra Commands Dubbing for the Magnum Opus “UI: The Movie” in Hyderabad

Let’s get real. Upendra as a filmmaker is not for everyone. Upendra’s ideas are very eccentric. He is no less than an auteur. His cultural commentaries through the films like Upendra and A are quite problematic in the real sense. However, what makes Upendra a true genius is his borderline-satire fused with preaching of ideals, HIS ideals. His views on democracy, women, monogamy, sex, public decency etc might not be accepted by all. He never imposes his ideas as preachiness. He preaches. But, not through the spectrum of black and white, but through the true essence of character itself. To make thighs more difficult, he plays both the good and the bad in his movies. Oftentimes, the character transformation is not from bad to good, but from good to bad to good (the conclusion depends on U). Therefore, it becomes frustratingly difficult to understand if the filmmaker Upendra is speaking or the character that is passing on the message. 

Upendra’s utopian Super set in 2030 is a must-watch ahead of the release of his UI, the dystopian political drama set in 2040.

 UI is going to hit the theatres on December 20th, 2024.  Follow Telugu Funda on trending Social Media Platforms for more Cinema, OTT, Political, And Sports updates

[sashasspace]

MOVIE LOVER TRAIT BY SASHA'S SPACE

This CAS trait is for sims who love to watch movies. The movies from Movie Hangout and movie theater options from Growing Together are included in this trait. This trait is meant for child sims to elder sims. There are 34 in-game movies, so that means your sims will have 34 wants plus other social-related wants. Thank you so much for supporting my first-ever mod, the love language mod.

Packs Needed: Mostly Growing Together and Movie Hangout, but there are some wants that have Get Famous and one want is from Kids Hangout.

HOW DOES THIS MOD WORK? Your sim will wants to watch movies. For Growing Together’s movie theater wants, the symbol will all be the same. This is also true for Movie Hangouts. IMPORTANT NOTE: Sims who don’t enjoy a movie won’t have a want completed, so I recommend you to cheat it with UI cheats mod. Right-click over the want and complete it like that.

Child sim wants: Watch Moonlight Massacre III Watch SuperKids Cortex Catastrophe  Watch Lost Dog’s Journey Home Watch The Adventures of Spaceship Simulation Watch the Sheriff from Alpha Centauri Watch Yibs Yibs! Watch A Room with No Door Watch Of Tea & Treachery Watch VoidBop: The Movie Watch Critters from Mauven Forest: The Last Llama Watch Peter Barker’s Homecoming Hijinks Watch SuperKids: Agent Diaper Eat Popcorn Imitate movie scene Read books under the covers Discuss love for movies Complain about movie Talk about your favorite movie Talk about the movie you last watched Declare your favorite movie genre Text a friend about a movie Invite a friend and watch a movie with them Watch a movie Perform a puppet show Dream about the cartoon world Join the drama club Host a sleepover *you can use MizoreYuuki's mod that unlocks plan social events for child sims as a bonus way to complete the want if you want* Read the book from that one movie

Teens to Elder wants: Watch Simder Watch College Cram Watch Moonlight Massacre III Watch Roaring Vice Watch SuperKids: Cortex Catastrophe Watch Lost Dog’s Journey Home The Khlumzee Sisters Watch Diamonds Are For Sims Watch The Adventures of Spaceship Simulation Watch the Sheriff from Alpha Centauri Watch Yibs Yibs! Watch Of Tea & Treachery Watch VoidBop: The Movie Watch Princess Cordelia’s Pirates Watch Captain Sigma: Olympus Landing Watch All My Friends are Fred Watch Tournament of Honor Watch A Room with No Door Watch Critters from Mauven Forest: The Last Llama Watch Packs & Prejudice Watch Treasures of Aarbyville Watch The Great Pickle Capers Watch Dusk Glow 3: Shadowmoon Watch Peter Barker’s Homecoming Hijinks Watch Simder 2: Master Suite Watch Live and Let Diamond Watch Missing Handlebars Watch Gentlemen Corgi: A Memoir Watch SuperKids: Agent Diaper Watch Untamed Treachery of the Heart Eat Popcorn Discuss love for movies Complain about movie Talk about your favorite movie Talk about the last movie you watched Text a friend about a movie Declare a movie as your favorite genre Video Call Call a friend and talk to them about movies Cuddle while watching a movie Argue about movie Take a selfie with a movie star Ask for autograph Watch movie with Watch movie Gossip about actors Throw a movie party Movie and chill Create a movie review SimTube channel Reenact a scene on a mirror Ask a celeb for a hug  Ask to take a picture of a celebrity Talk about Starlight Accolades Go to the movie theatre alone Talk to a youngin’ about old movies **Adults and Elder sims only** Reminisce about past movies *Elder Sims only* Join the acting career **Young Adult Sims to Elder Sims only** Join the Drama Club *Teen and Child Sims only* 

I don't recommend this mod for people who use movie overrides because it may be a bit annoying to keep getting wants on movies you don't have in your game since you have an override. I'll consider making an override user-friendly version for this trait in the future♥

General mods I recommend for people who play with wants Wants Reroll by Lumpinou UI cheats by Weerbesu Searchable Pie menu by Twisted Mexi

Credits

Ravasheen for listing all the Growing Together movies

SimsVIP for listing all the movies from Movie Hangout

Zerbu mod constructor v5

Lot51 Tuning Builder

Sims 4 Studio

EA & The Sims

TwistedMexi Better Exceptions

Nisa K x Scumbumbo Tuning Error Notifier

Tee for teaching me how to create wants/buffs 🫶🏾

Cepzid for helping me with a situation goal

Jordy for motivating me and for inspiring me to add a scary buff+ starlight accolade tea

My amazing testers love you 🥹

Pose makers and the cc creators I used for the thumbnail tysm♥

To all my motivators, my family, friends, subscribers on YouTube, and all of you who’ve been leaving amazing comments on all my social media, I worked on this for you. Thank you for being part of this journey with me. To celebrate all my recent milestones, check my video out to join the giveaway for Growing Together and Movie Hangout to celebrate all my recent milestones. The video also shows how this mod works. This mod will be in early access for two weeks.

For any modder who wants to translate any of my mods, I don't mind if you upload it on your Patreon or any other website that monetizes, BUT I do not want you to post it on CurseForge. I would also like it if you keep the mods up publicly for download no early access/paywall. If any translator translates mods before the early access period, please wait till the mod is public to release it for everyone.

A bonus mod I recommend to help the in-game movie experience is the RVSN film reaper mod (movie theaters in all worlds). Btw I will create a Tumblr post on all my favorite mods for movie gameplay in the coming days!

DOWNLOAD EARLY ACCESS// Public August 25,2024

[codemerything]

LET ME RE-INTRODUCE MYSELF👋🏾

My former handle used to be "leaveblackbrosalone" but @a-fox-studies gave me this new handle and I use it everywhere now, so thank you so much!

My name is Emery I really love movies and music, I take it very seriously and I sometimes write reviews on Letterboxd. I'm heading towards being a full-stack developer (I almost forget to add this)

Programming Languages 💻

Javascript (Primarily) Solidity (Secondary) I'm yet to learn but eventually will when I map out a timetable for it. Node.js too

Skills 🤹🏾‍♀️

Technical Writing Graphic Design UX/UI - I like to do everything myself so I picked this up and I'm decent with it I have a couple of articles on my blog here I mostly like to talk about subtle nuances in tech and I will be writing more this year hopefully! check out my GitHub here(maybe you can use some of my .README styles lol) and check out my projects too ~!

I love to build projects and hopefully I will be building more this year and sharing some of my interests and daily activities here (daily activities posts are quite tough for me but I'll figure something out)

[saturniandragon]

Adra's Project Wingman In-Depth Review: Per Mission Experience and Commentary

(Caution: extremely long read. Please have snacks ready)

Project Wingman! Or so I've heard it more described as "a love letter to the Ace Combat franchise." Another arcade flight action shooter game similar to Ace Combat, and if I remember rightly, designed and developed by Ace Combat fans. Again I've spent years and years avoiding spoilers, although inevitably I began hearing a few things about it; it's like Ace Combat, it's set in alternate history, you can carry up to 4(!) different types of ordnance, and it's orange. So I guess like NFS Most Wanted (2005). Like Ace Combat 7 of course, I'm playing with my Xbox controller.

Which brings me to the first... quirk of the game. The menu interface. You control a cursor on the screen with your left thumbstick, and you have to carefully position it to the menu buttons that you want to access. The left thumbstick doesn't cycle through the menu buttons, you have to control a cursor with your joystick. Which I find to be a little on the negative side and I decided to just use my mouse to navigate the menu. Makes me wonder if this is a side effect of Project Wingman being developed as a PC game first and console second.

The last time I was met with this kind of UI controls was in the 2019 game "Observation."

However I am very impressed that the menu background isn't just a static image or a repeated video. It looks like a real time 3D rendered scene with planes flying above the treeline. Also what looks like a massive airship or a mothership trailing slowly across the sky. My hype level is up by 3 notches. I can't wait to start playing.

No fancy animation or a CGI video as the intro. Just a text that briefly tells the story about the game's world. Very much like David Szymanski's "Iron Lung" game. Seeing Sector D2 is not a massive game studio and just an indie developer, it's perfectly fine. And what I learned is that Project Wingman's universe is alternate history Earth that experienced some kind of massive natural disaster or calamity that changed the world forever, and new nations start to rise from the ashes. The game takes place 400 years after the event.

First briefing screen. Wow this orange tint really reminds me of Ace Combat Zero briefing screen. And I can also see the map of the Project Wingman world in the background. The continent of America has changed, not dramatically, you can see the general shape of the continent, but the west shoreline has practically split off from the rest of the continent. And a glimpse of what used to be Japan, China, Philippines and Indonesia, now reduced to just a few main islands, presumably the remains of the cataclysm mentioned earlier.

Apparently our protag is a mercenary pilot who goes by the name Monarch (as in monarch butterfly, I assume), who is a part of Hitman team, under the mercenary organization known as Sicario. And our client is the Federation? Is that a country, or a union like the one in COD Ghosts? Either way it brings me back to Cipher and Pixy, who were also merc pilots. In PW, apparently we're fighting a group of pirate pilots.

First mission, destroy some kind of research material that was deemed unsafe and fell into a group of merc pirates. A few ground targets, ships, and a few air targets. Alright, no big deal. My Ace Combat experience is more than enough for this.

I'm actually impressed with the voice acting. I've heard how difficult it is to voice act in a game or a movie that doesn't sound too cringey or too monotone. The guy doing the briefing actually does sound like he's done it probably a thousand times. I wonder if they hired a professional VA or just someone from the internal dev team.

Plane hangar. They give you 2 starter planes to choose. A T-21 (apparently a trainer plane that resembles MiG-21), and T/F-4 (a trainer plane that resembles F-4). I was going to use the Fishbed but the Phantom has slightly better stats, even though I'm bored with Phantoms, so I chose it. UGBL as secondary weapon, pretty standard.

First flight. Operation Red Current. AWACS Galaxy on station and OH MY GOD I HAVE A WIZZO. AND SHE HAS DIALOGUE LINES. The last time I had a wizzo was Ace Combat 2, but he just had generic repeating dialogues like missile lock/alert and stall warning. Your plane does form vapor clouds at Mach 1, something missing from AC7, so I loved that. Once again, for a small dev team, the voice acting is well done.

First set of ground TGTs clear. Ronin moving in. "Cordium" cargo? Never heard that before. They say it's too unstable, Federation orders to just clear it BOOM. MASSIVE EXPLOSION like an FAEB just went off. Mission complete, question mark? Another flight called Master Goose comes in the AO, flashing as friendlies. I don't really trust this but hey, I'm just a merc, not paid to ask questions.

If they turn out to be a fake squadron like the 8492nd, I'm gonna be... Well I don't know what I'm gonna be.

And there's a civil war in the Americas. Country of Cascadia being invaded by the Fed for natural resources. Our client is Cascadian Air Force now I guess. Is this like Belka trying to annex Ustio in AC0?

You know what, I'm too excited to have a wizzo. I'm gonna get another Phantom that isn't a Phantom (F/E-4). Big surprise, all of the SP weapons are available for use right away, no need to buy them separately. I like this game already.

Can I just say the explosions in PW from STDMs are so dramatic. Way more dramatic than AC7, it's like they hired Michael Bay. Not a bad thing though, it's giving PW identity. So it's not just a "Ace Combat we have at home"

Mission 2, all going well, fighting Fed border patrols until a massive airship came practically out of nowhere. At least this one doesn't have drones, just SK.27s and F/C-15s. A couple MLAAs later and it's down, but then no explanation as to what we just shot down. Oh well, at least we're with Cascadian AF now.

Mission 3. Rowsdower AFB. Once belonged to Cascadia now seized by the Fed on their conquest to expand their military (ala Belka), we're on a mission to take it back. Ooh, new aircraft for purchase. SV-37. I genuinely thought I unlocked a Flanker early in the game but it's just the Swedish dorito (Viggen). And it has MLAGs, if MLAA is Multi Lock Air to Air then I guess MLAG is this game's version of 4AGM. Only single seat though, I still want to hear more of Prez's dialogues. Maybe later.

Crosstalk squadron appeared, 5 Super Hornets. Grun Squadron flashbacks from Zero, anyone? Oooooh there's a health bar on the bottom of the screen for each enemy craft. I loved it. Wasn't much hassle fighting them, and we landed in Rowsdower.

Honestly I'm kind of impressed that as a band of pilot mercs, we have our own AWACS. Anyway next mission, aid Cascadian national guards from being overwhelmed by the Feds.

Two new aircrafts. CR.105 and SK.25U. I thought CR.105 is a Foxbat at first but it's delta wing design with no canards or tail surfaces. But its speed rating is off the rails, so I guess partly inspired by the Foxbat.

I'm buying SK.25U for Mission 4. Two seats and a boat load of A2G hardpoints. I sure hope there isn't any mission update where we suddenly have to fight an entire air force! (Thank fuck there isn't)

Really this game has the Frogfoot when Ace Combat 7 doesn't? Come on PA.

Next mission, Cascadian capital of Presidia. The Feds have taken over the city. Cover retreat of Cascadian armed forces. Multirole mission with tendency towards A2A. MG-31 and F/C-16 now available for purchase. Not sure if I trust a flying brick with wings for this mission, so Viper time. Guess I have to leave out Prez for this one.

Mission 5, over Presidia. WOW THIS CITY IS SO COOL with all the low hanging clouds. Though what's with all the needle towers/structures all over the city?

Thought we were done but the Feds sent out not just one or two other massive airships but FIVE of them to try and keep Presidia in their hands. I thought I shot all of them down but Mission Over text?? Did I fail??

Debriefing says Status: Success but Stardust said Presidia fell anyway. I guess it's supposed to be that way.

So far into this game, I'm developing the sense that Project Wingman is largely inspired by the classic PS2 AC titles (aka The Holy Trinity), I guess more towards Zero. The orange tint, no checkpoint system, the absence of aircraft tree, aircraft parts, merc pilot protagonist, but they also incorporate some modern QoL features like flares.

I think I would appreciate something present in AC but not present in PW; lock range indicator. You know the HUD in AC, just to right side of the pitch ladder, is a slider with a chevron that indicates the distance required for your ordnance to lock.

Mission 6, attack the Feds from the other front by crippling their energy production sites at Apodock Fracture, apparently in Yellowstone. Also they've been hunting for some material called cordium? Is that what caused the massive explosion in the first mission?

Two new aircrafts, Super Tomcat and Fulcrum! Two of my favorite aircrafts. But I had to choose the Tomcat because I miss Prez (cmon man I've been all alone in Ace Combat for years). Fucking hell it's expensive though. Better be worth it.

Yep they're hunting for cordium. We're ordered to destroy their containers. Fucking hell the SAMs in this mission are fierce, I got hit 3 times and was down to 23 health. And two more of those fucking Fed airships?? Just how many of these things are there??

Alright, mission completed. Almost. New blips on the radar, VX-23s and SK.37s. Federation Peacekeepers. Engagement Not Advised written in large text on my screen. I hammered the throttle and fly just meters away above the ground to avoid missiles and head to the return line. Reminiscent of the first time you face Yellow Squadron in AC04.

Crimson Squadron. Fed's top ace in Cascadia.

(I learned late that you have infinite flares in this game)

Mission 7. Cascadian Coast Guard seized a Fed battleship/cruiser off the coast of Cascadia. Just me and Hitman 3 this time. We're to provide air support although I kinda don't want to fly the SK.25U just to have its LASM. New aircraft for purchase called the... Accipiter. Whatever the hell that means. Apparently based on the Harrier. Not enough cash to purchase. Back to the Tomcat.

Think I forgot to read the weather report for this mission because it's stormy as fuck and the clouds are violent. I'm not sure who has the bigger balls to fly through such extreme turbulence, me or Monarch. It's actually very scary from cockpit view, everything shaking up around you and you hear the creeking and clanking from the plane's aluminum panels like they're going to break off at any moment. Oh well it's just an anti ship mission with a couple of air targets THE FED SHIPS HAVE RAILGUNS ON THEM WHY AM I FIGHTING MINI STONEHENGE AT SEA

Ok that's over now. New mission that's purely air to air mission. Take down Fed logistic planes while also avoiding shooting down civilian airliners. Weather cloudy. Two new aircrafts, Super Hornet-C and Flanker-B. But I'm still having way too much fun in my F/D-14.

Also I just learned that the seemingly random clicking noises when I'm flying is just a noise indicator of my missiles fully reloaded.

Mission 8, Briggs Mountain Range. Wait why is that civilian airliner the same as the Fed airship that I've downed multiple times before?

Doesn't matter. STDMs, HVSMs and MLAAs. One by one shooting down Fed Globemasters. Conservative with MLAA use because I totally didn't restart this mission because I accidentally shot down a civilian airliner. Then the true airship arrives. Airship Gladeus with two F/S-15s. The fucking AAM pods on the Gladeus are a nightmare to hit tbh, but mission done. More importantly no civilian casualties.

But I begin wondering, is there like multiple paths in this game like Ace Combat Zero? Like Knight, Soldier and Merc paths that are determined by whether you shoot N.TGTs or not. That's my goal for my second playthrough.

Mission 9. Raver mountains. Covert mission to take out SAM sites so we can push without losing planes. F/C-15 is now available for purchase.

But you know what, let's take the Accipiter for a spin. What was the last Ace Combat game that lets you fly a Harrier? None. Well, Assault Horizon, but that's not a true AC game. Woah, what is this, CGP? A shotgun gun pod?? Flechette rounds?? I don't fucking know how it works but I wanna try that shit out.

Alright, near CIWS units. Time to try CGPs, and... it's disappointing. Although I think my expectations were a bit too high. Well at least they didn't lie about it being a short range weapon.

And of course I did the tunnel runs in this place to destroy the containers. I'm an Ace Combat vet after all, tunnel runs are my bread and butter.

Mission 10, now the real deal. Solana Comms Array and the adjacent airbase... without Cascadian air force to help us. It's alright I guess, Monarch is already a one man army as he is. Or one man air force.

But I'm this far into the game and I still haven't found Project Wingman's equivalent of QAAMs. Maybe there will be a "HASM" (High Agility Standard Missile) or something. I guess it's time to try the Eagle for a spin.

And my thoughts? So worth buying the Eagle. Missed out on Prez, but when you attach second and third slots with MLAAs, you get 6AAMs in game. Awesome stuff. Fed is crumbling.

Mission 11, Bering Strait. Another purely A2A mission. The most expansive A2A battle ever committed, he says? We'll see to that WHOAA THIS IS LIKE THE MAYHEM MISSION FROM ACE COMBAT ZERO ON STEROIDS

And of course Crimson squadron shows up with a fuck ton of reinforcements. Totally reminding me of Schwarze squadron battle. But I'm not going down without a fight.

55 fighters, 3 SK.37s and 2 VX-23s downed by one humble F/D-14. I tried getting a close look at a VX-23 but couldn't make out what it resembles. My best guess is that it's probably something like Chengdu J-20 but couldn't see the fine details. Is there like a PSM mechanic in this game because those guys were pulling 90 Gs every now and then

Feds have issued retreat. Crimson 1 insists on staying, Crystal Kingdom order stands. Eventually Crimson obeys, and retreats the whole squadron.

If anything Ace Combat or movies have taught me, I predict Crimson is going to go berserk within the Feds. He's gonna think the Fed is too weak and just holding him back, he's gonna take Federation's most outrageous aircraft and weapon and use them to set a personal score with Monarch. I'm calling it.

I love Prez's reaction after Crimson retreated. Like yeah bitch, you better fucking run! I love her.

Alright, mission 12. Feds is absolutely crumbling after their airforce got decimated by Hitman. Multirole mission with heavy tendency towards A2A. Something about oil rigs facilities at sea.

It's railguns again, the same one that Fed ships were firing at me on previous mission with the Eminent Domain. Hitman 3 said something, why is this rig more heavily guarded than the comms array?

Mission update came up. Unknown target marked on my HUD, but I'm not firing yet. I fly close to the unknown to try get a visual but it's too damn dark to see anything, even with gibbous moon. Then something happened.

"Project Wingman is away."

What the fuck is that?? Project Wingman?? Something rapid just took off from one of the oil rigs. It's way too dark on my screen to see whatever it is, but it's roughly triangular AND IT'S SHOOTING RAILGUNS BACKWARDS AT ME WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK IS THIS THING

Apparently piloted by another merc named Frost? Monarch shot it down with HISMs and STDMs. Frost ejected but said something about releasing data pod. I suspect this is a Federation superweapon undergoing research. That will explain the amount of AA defenses all around it although of course the game's debriefing doesn't tell me anything.

Mission 13. There's a new Fed superweapon, an airship fleet by the name of Task Force 1. It's resting in a port, we're to destroy it before it's unleashing hell, I suspect. Although something about Kingdom of Sawaiiki, one of Fed's states, will probably get in the way.

Maybe I should expect neutral/N.TGTs.

Two new aircrafts. F/S-15 and... what the hell is this? "Chimera"? At the front it resembles Su-57 nose, but the way the wing blends into the body is a bit like F-16XL's cranked delta wing, and it also has a V tail like YF-23 (maybe that's why it's called Chimera). And it's 285k to purchase, I don't even have 100k credits. Why is this available to purchase right now?

Whichever the case I can't buy either of them. I'm going with the F/C-15, I'm gonna need its MLAG.

I think this mission is where the game can do with some optimization, because my frame rate was down from 80+ to 40 near the docks where there are a fuck ton of targets. But I don't want to compare this to Ace Combat 7 because this is a game from an indie developer. I'm sure they did what they could for optimization, and I'm not gonna blame them.

Mission itself was pretty standard. Nothing super interesting although the part where Hitman 2 had to radio out a long announcement to Kingdom of Sawaiiki that we have no beef with them, and telling Galaxy afterwards that it costs "2 bucks per word" is pretty funny. I love these conversations.

Mission 14. Grimwood coast, provide CAS for ground troops and prevent Feds from regrouping. But expect bad visibility he says from the forest fire nearby. I'm gonna gamble and take the SK.25U.

Oh shit, I guess we're working with firefighters as well now. I hope I don't have to protect them at some point because I'm essentially flying a tank. That has 40mm/65mm HE ammo for its main gun.

I forgot to say but the MLAGs in this game are phenomenal. The multilock ability of a 4AGM and the range of an LAGM? Slow reload speed but I'm sold. Who needs an A-10 anyway right

Feds in Grimwood have surrendered. They burned the forests for nothing. Also I keep hearing allies calling Monarch "The Crown" now, and in earlier sorties I also hear something along the lines of "how dare you take the name of a king as your own", "not all kings are just."

I'm developing the feeling that this game is fantasy medieval action adventure but with jets and airships instead of swords and magic. No hard feelings on that, I'm a huge fan of The Elder Scrolls series. So I'm looking forward to see how much this game plays into the mythological/medieval theme. Maybe like Ace Combat Zero, with how Cipher and Pixy did the aerial equivalent of jousting? We'll see.

Also there's this level of detail and touch of realism, that I think has never been done in Ace Combat before. When an enemy jet whizzes past you above Mach 1, you can actually hear the sonic boom from their wake. That's awesome.

Mission 15, Cascadian city of Prospero, the largest trade center apparently. Get rid of its air superiority elements and secure the airport. SK.37 is now available for purchase, yet I'm still under the required price for it.

I do have to comment on the way planes are painted in PW, or at least the default skins that you use. It's like plastidipped or cerakoted or something, like how guns are these days. Nothing really spells practical camouflage/camo pattern. But hey, maybe that's just how Monarch wants to look in the skies.

Liberate Prospero they say but they didn't say the Feds would be so desperate that they would LAUNCH 50 NUCLEAR CRUISE MISSILES JUST TO PREVENT CASCADIA FROM GETTING TO PROSPERO. THEY JUST BELKAN'D THE SHIT OUT OF THIS CITY. DID THEY JUST OPEN UP A VOLCANO FROM THE GROUND?

Hitman 3 just said Calamity. Is this what happened 400 years ago before the events of this game?

Fucking hell.

Mission 16, instant continuation from previous flight. Only me, Prez, Diplomat, Comic and Galaxy now. No idea if anyone else is alive. Flew over Rowsdower, no response.

Fuck, new blips on radar. It's the merc Frost from earlier. AND MASTER GOOSE FROM MISSION 1. I FUCKING KNEW THEY SHOWED UP TOO CONVENIENTLY

"You fired up? Come shoot me down." Yeah bitch I'll shoot you down in that fancy bitchass superplane you're flying. And don't you dare copy my boy Pixy's line from Ace Combat Zero.

(Just kidding, I love the devs for having her voice actor say that)

Fucking hell, I thought a swarm of MQ-101 drones was bad, but I never thought I'd be on the receiving end of an ADMM where each individual missile is a QAAM.

Stardust again. Contract to fulfill you say? Fuck you man, there's nothing else out there now. Everyone's got our number, even Diplomat and Comic's real name. Sicario is only 4 man band now, 5 if you count Prez.

Kaiser seems convinced after Stardust offered something to us. Whatever that is. Meanwhile I guess we're regrouping on an abandoned highway as a makeshift base.

2 months later.

Mission 17. Brite Fortress. One of the safe havens outside the whatever the fuck is happening out there.

I sold my Harrier to get some cash back. I'm done with the Super Tomcat. It's time for SK.37. It's only got AA hardpoints but I need to fly something else. Oh and an MGP. I've never used MGP in Ace Combat before but I'm gonna try this one.

Woah, what is this? AOA limiter? Replaces flares? Doesn't say what it is.

Alright, Brite Fortress. Railguns and airships as usual. At this point I've been desensitized to them, because I learn that the Feds is just Belka/Erusea hybrid. As in, a superweapon maniac.

Aw shit, they have a massive tank/train/land cruiser. This thing doesn't have any A2G weapons, but it has MGP. 4 of them. And AOA limiter, more like AOA unlimiter. Let's you pull off PSM-esque move while holding down L3 and turning sharp. I like it though, it replaces your flares but it doesn't restrict you to low speeds and a complicated QTE like Ace Combat 7, and you can perform it anytime as long as the indicator is ready.

Mission 18. Aw shit, we're back to Prospero now? I really don't want to.

Yeah, figured. Crimson showed up again. VX-23s and SK.37s again. But now I can at least match their crazy AOA maneuvers.

My first try I nailed AOA limiter module pretty quickly. If used right it's essentially a "teleport to enemy's 6" button. Well I didn't use it right. Got shot down.

My second try. If Crimson is calling it personal then so will I. I will spam this AOA limiter if I have to. Even Diplomat is absolutely fed up with Crimson's shit, telling him to shut the fuck up and turning off his radio. Learned that, other than spamming AOA, you have to firewall the throttle, make sure your speed never goes below Mach 1 even when turning. Got hit by a missile once, but this time I downed them. All 8 of them.

Crimson laughing maniacally on the radio as his plane falls. What a waste of pilot, Comic, I agree. But I'm feeling that won't be the last.

Mission 19, back to Presidia. Take out Federation's naval force.

VX-23 is now available for purchase. It is like Chengdu J-20/Lockheed F-22 hybrid. Well, more like F-22 with the wings swapped positions. Can't buy this one either even if I sell my SK.37. And I love this thing already because of its AOA limiter.

Naval force destroyed. Presidia is next.

Mission 20. Now I could really sell my SK.37 now to get the VX-23, I wonder if I should do that...

Fuck it. Yolo.

Presidia is liberated. Feds are surrendering. War is over. And then...

"KINGS"

....

No.

No, Sector D2. Please, don't.

Don't make Crimson 1 pull a Pixy on me for the ultimate mission.

I called it earlier. He's gone off the rails. He took the Fed's superplane and nuked everyone in Presidia with it except Monarch. Probably intentionally, to set a personal score with me.

But I'm not scared. Well, until he fired railguns on all directions, launched Project Wingman's equivalent of ADMM, and released force fields ala Arsenal Bird/Alicorn. When I thought this game would be like Ace Combat, I didn't think it would be "Ace Combat, but 150% more fucked up."

I employed the similar strat from before. Lock the third person camera at his plane, firewall the throttle up to Mach 2 and spam the AOA limiter. He's got 3 health bars in that superplane that's probably powered by cordium. If previous missions didn't emphasize on how orange this game is, well, this final showdown does.

Everything is orange. The skies, the ground, the sun, the missiles, the railgun trails, my HUD, half the time I couldn't tell if my missiles hit him or not because my interface was loaded with directional missile proximity indicators. Thank fuck the health bar is still perfectly readable.

"You signed this deal a long time ago." WELL I DIDN'T SIGN UP TO FIGHT YOU SPECIFICALLY NOW DID I. But you've decided that it's personal so bitch, COME THE FUCK AT ME.

"I'm Cascadian. You think I take joy in killing my own countrymen?" SO WHY THE FUCK DID YOU DO IT IN THE FIRST PLACE. YOU LET YOUR OWN PRIDE CONSUME YOU AND THOUGHT THEY'RE ACCEPTABLE LOSSES IN YOUR OWN PERSONAL BEEF WITH ME. FUCK YOU.

I danced with him in the skies for probably a good 15 to 20 minutes just trying to land one or two hits on him. A deadly aerial dance that involves jet fuel, multi lock missiles and nuclear railguns.

Three health bars depleted. My camera is still locked onto his PW.MK1.

"No, not yet..."

Then all my HUD element disappears.

He's not dead yet. Two health bars now on the bottom of the screen, one for Hitman 1 and one for Crimson 1. Fuck, I have to fight him again. I grazed my VX-23 on the railgun trail and took some damage. But I still have my wings. I can still fly.

Another 10 minutes of fighting. I'm gonna fucking joust him now like Pixy. Dozens of STDMs, hundreds of railgun projectiles and thousands of 20mm Vulcan rounds.

His last health bar is depleted.

...

But my camera is still locked onto his plane. The corpse of his PW.MK1 flailing through the clouds and trailing flames.

Why am I not seeing a chute?!

"Monarch..."

God damn it, Crimson, eject! Eject now!

"When you hear the thunder..."

There's no time for speeches, damn it! Eject!

"When the storm comes for you..."

Dying will not solve anything! Fucking punch out, god damn it!

"Remember me."

...

But he was a fighter pilot to the end.

Remember him, Monarch.

Because it's just you left.

No one else. No Prez, Galaxy, Diplomat, Comic,

It's just you.

As a final send off, I leveled out my VX-23 to the horizon, pointing towards the sun, and fly off into the distance.

Contract completed.

---

Project Wingman, completed. Wow. What a game.

The story, the gameplay, the graphics, the sounds, voices, visuals, everything.

I can tell it's all been made with passion and love. And it really is... a love letter to the Ace Combat franchise.

It may as well be an Ace Combat game on its own.

I never mentioned it, but the OST is also phenomenal. Especially on Mission 11. On par with Ace Combat. Maybe even better, for an indie game. Especially the credit song, the leitmotif that's been playing throughout the game since Presidia. I'm calling it Monarch's theme.

Wow, just wow. I nearly shed a tear.

You know I once read a quote, I don't remember if it was from this game or something else, but

War doesn't decide who is right.

Only who is left.

10/10. Phenomenal game. Sector D2, you are legends. Absolute fucking legends, you hear?

There are so many people backing this game on Kickstarter, on the order of hundreds. Maybe thousands. All their names are in the credits.

And it was all so worth the money you all have invested in the development of Project Wingman.

And for me, it was worth the money I spent on buying this game.

Enjoy your victory while it lasts, Monarch.

You may not have a throne, or anything left in your world.

But you are the king.

As for me, I'm gonna play the game again and try to understand the lore better. It seems that I have a tendency to hyperfocus on the task/quest/gameplay at hand. Probably gonna turn down the bgm and sfx a little bit so I can hear dialogues better.

[the12thnightproject]

Game Review, Part 2: Lovebrush Chronicles

Read Part One Here

By the time your character finishes the Eden routes, it's become clearer what is going on and what the threat is to Earth. I believe you can read the existing worlds in any order, but I suggest not doing so, because the revelations in each world build upon each other.

The third route, is actually more like route 2.5 - Awakening, and while there is less at stake here, the stories are darker, and none of them have conclusive endings.

In "Awakening" MC doesn't leave Earth. Instead, she and each LI go to a new "virtual reality theater" and experience a personalized movie experience. The LIs are told that the experience will read their subconscious to give them a movie about a possible future. What MC knows is that this experience is actually to wake the LIs up a threat to Earth (from, well, more details would be a spoiler).

Each of the awakening stories are sci-fi, and they deal with how MC and their LI's lives have been changed by the threat. Cael too gets a story here, but for him we get a story that might be about his past.

The Awakening stories are each about a third of the length of the other worlds' main stories, and if you've got stamina saved (and in this game, you can stack up your daily stamina between reading routes, so you can indeed have a lot banked) it's easy enough to get through all of these in a few hours if you are a fast reader.

Finally we come to the main story (Lost Bloodline) that was just released a couple of days ago, and I've only read that story's prologue. This one is being released in three different parts, with part one covering Ayn, Alkaid, and Clarence's story, part two will be Cael's (I believe) and part three will be Lars'.

From what I have seen of Lost Bloodline, MC's travel to this particular world was, unlike her other visits, unexpected and unwilling, and she does not know how to travel back to her own world. This world is a lush and vibrant planet populated by people who can turn into animals.

There are four factions who have dominion over certain parts of the world, The Lord of the Light (Lars), The Lord of the Wind (Clarence), The Lord of the Forest (Alkaid) and the Lord of the Night (Ayn).

In this route, Cael will (finally) be a LI as well, but at the beginning of this story, he's searching for MC, but he realizes that he is on the right world, but at a different place in their timeline.

As you can see from this and the previous post, there is an abundance of content in this game. Besides the main story, there are event stories that happen in between (and around) main story releases. These generally alternate between stories in the modern/true world that are tied to calendar events (New Years, White Day, Halloween) and stories that have fantasy elements (a story collection in which MC is a witch, a cyberpunk story involving a game, a historical fantasy associated with the lantern festival, for example).

(Someone has nicely put together a spreadsheet of story and event order here).

Additionally, you can unlock modern day stories by increasing your affection points with the characters and by collecting gacha cards. There is also a way to phone and text the other LIs (though Cael is notoriously bad at answering calls), and get mini stories there too. I'm amused that Lars is very fond of sending gifsets to MC. Modern Lars is kind of a goofball at times.

Speaking of the Gacha... the card collection you have is what you use to advance in the story. You put these cards in an array of "battle cards" and at various points in the story, they are needed to fend off an attack:

To level up the power on your cards, there is a "practice area" available on your home page:

And that brings me to one of the things I don't like about the game. The UI is very complicated, and it took me a good week of playing it before I got a sense of where everything is. Each of these areas connects to a daily task of some kind that you need to complete, or sometimes just check in, in order to pick up stamina or in game currency. It's not a simple go in and click one or two buttons. You need to hop all over the place (there's also an upstairs, and an island map that you zip through) in order to get your daily gifts. Again, once I learned where everything was, it became easier to go through it all, but there were a few days where I missed gifts because I simply didn't see that they were there.

(The good thing about training your gacha cards to level them up though, is that you can go in and program it on automatic, then go do something else for five minutes. You don't have to baby it.)

If you're still with me, here is my bullet list of pros and cons of Lovebrush.

Pro: Content, lots of content, a fascinating storyline that builds on the overall series lore world by world.

Con: Complicated UI

Pro: MC. She's great, she isn't overpowered, but she does have abilities, and generally most of the LIs respect those abilities (in face, the Eden version of Lars recognizes that she is stronger than he is and hires her as a bodyguard).

Con/Pro: Not all of the world route endings are completely happy. Winning often comes at a cost, and some endings are definitely bittersweet. Still, it adds to the tension and emotional connection to the story, but it's not like Cybird where there are happily ever afters in everything but the specifically marked tragic routes. (Not that there is anything wrong with that, I'm still an Ikesen uber, through and through).

Pro: If you make the wrong choice, you die, or end up in a time loop, or an eternal prisoner, however, this does not force you to return all the way to the start, you can just backtrack to the previous crossroad and make a different choice.

Con: If you are looking for steamy content, I haven't come across anything beyond a few kisses here or there.

Pro: That said, the stories have all been quite romantic and emotionally satisfying (and as I said, the Godheim Clarence story is gorgeous).

Pro: You get your own cat.

Pro: As you might be able to tell from the attached GCs, the artwork is gorgeous.