10 Tips To Make Metro Awakening Enjoyable

Hey VR gamers and Metro lovers. Here's a few ways you can increase your success and enjoyment of Metro Awakening aka Metro VR aka finally another quality Virtual Reality shooter that isn't another sandbox or procedurally generated roguelike.

Tip #1: Get A Nice AK

There are plenty of Kalashes to pick from in Metro Awakening.

Alright tip number one is probably the most vital in the entire game and that's to make sure to pick which AK you use wisely. Take the most tricked out version you can find.

There'll be plenty to pick from once you start fighting human enemies. Just put your current Kalash in your left hand, pick up the new one you want in your right hand and store it over your right shoulder.

Easy as pie. I personally recommend the stockless version for extra aiming mobility in the cramped metro tunnels. Yes, they're functionally all identical, but when you're playing the only Metro game with no weapon or equipment customization you've got to get that bit of serotonin somewhere.

Tip #2: Be Sneaky

Warm up your punching arm for Metro VR stealth sections.

So tip number 2 is probably going to be a little controversial but make sure you take advantage of stealth and knock enemies out when you can by just punching them on the back of the head or thwacking them with a weapon.

I could say this is to save ammo, but it's really because the ragdoll deaths of the human enemies are kind of hilarious. Especially after you just looney tunes style knocked them down with a single punch.

I guess this was just easier to make than then a knife that stabs people, but I guess Saints and Sinners already did that so why do it again.

Tip #3: Hoard Ammo

Don’t forget the mags in the rifles of your fallen enemies.

Tip number three is to make sure you take the mags out of your fallen enemies' weapons for the ammo. Resource management is like 70% of success in any Metro game and Metro Awakening is not an exception.

Though don't expect your enemies to have ammo that you can loot on their bodies like in literally any other Metro title. I guess having an amazing looting system where you're using your real hands to take supplies off of dead opponents would just be too immersive and amazing so the developers decided to just not do it.

Probably the same reason why they decided not to do weapon upgrades or throwing knives and the arsenal is like one fifth the size of that in any other Metro title.

Tip #4: Turn Your Brightness Up

Recharging the headlamp in Metro Awakening.

For number four the tip is to turn the brightness up. It's really dark, like super dark, in the tunnels of a metro in the post-apocalypse.

You do get a headlamp that gets recharged with a little recharging device a lot like the one Artyom has, which is insanely cool, but It'll still be generally easier to see if you turn the brightness up.

Tip #5: Stay Chill

The warning you see when starting Metro Awakening.

Don't worry though because in tip number five I'm addressing that this game still can be scary as all hell. You might have heard of or seen the arachnophobia warning when starting it up.

There are some jump scares that actually really land, and some sections that do a great job in classic Metro fashion of really building up the dread and anticipation. So basically don't have arachnophobia and make sure not to accidentally run into a wall or something and you'll be fine.

Tip #6: Be Patient In Chapter 1

Who knew an apocalyptic metro would have so many wheels to turn?

The sixth tip is actually the most important tip of all, but I saved it for later to reward you for watching this far into the video. Play the game in seated mode during the first chapter.

The Prologue starts out seeming really promising, but the pacing just gets absolutely murdered and Chapter One is all turning wheels and listening to people talk for way too long.

So take a seat and just kind of watch your way through. When you hit chapter 2 the game gets much more interesting very quickly.

Tip #7: The Gas Mask Is A Vibe

The gas mask is excellent in this Metro VR game.

Tip number seven is about just as essential. If you really want to make everything feel more immersive and apocalyptic then wear your gas mask even when you don't have to.

It really just multiplies the Metro vibes, and your filters don’t get used if you aren't in a radioactive zone so you can wear it for as long as you want to.

Tip #8: Center Yourself On Carts

Before turning this switch make sure you’ve got space to move around. You won’t be able to move in game for a while.

Oh and for Tip Number eight also make sure to stand in the middle of your playspace when you start one of the metro cart sections.

Since these sections are clearly the least functional pieces of the game you'll be rooted to that spot, so if you start the cart section while physically standing right in front of a wall you'll be annoyed when you hit your boundary just by placing your hand son the machine gun.

So make sure to center yourself before flipping that on switch and make sure you've got plenty of room for some stationary shooting. Otherwise you'll have to deal with it until the cart stops.

Tip #9: The Pistol Is Wack

The pistol looks and feels pretty good, but you just can’t carry enough ammo for it.

For tip number nine make sure to forget what I said about hoarding ammo when it comes to the pistol. For some reason the designers thought it would be funny to only let you hold 28 pistol rounds in reserve.

You'll find yourself often either having no ammo for the pistol after briefly remembering it exists and using it, or way more ammo than you can carry. It takes a whole mag to take down basically anything, and that's if you hit your shots, so the pistol is an easy weapon to forget after you get the Kalash.

I found myself using the AK almost all of the time anyway. The Helsing takes forever to reload if you miss and the Shambler doesn't show up until about six hours into the game, which is so late for such a cool weapon.

Tip #10: Don’t Compare Metro Awakening To Half Life: Alyx

Metro Awakening has its own unique charm among VR shooting games.

For the tenth and final tip I'd say make sure you don't compare this game to Half Life: Alyx. Half Life: Alyx still won't come to Quest no matter how many letters I send to Valve, and Metro Awakening is not about to unseat Alyx as the number one single player shooter adventure to ever come to Virtual Reality headsets.

If you think you're better at giving tips for Metro Awakening than me then prove it in the comments by outdoing my tips and tricks with your own.

This all being said Metro Awakening is about as good of a VR Metro game as we could have asked for given the state of the Virtual Reality games industry, and I've been absolutely binging it whenever possible.

Where the gameplay sometimes fails the immersion into the Metro world and the story of Khan kept me coming back.

5 Epic VTOL VR Campaigns for the F/A-26B That You’ll Love

Did you know that VTOL VR has an absolute ton of free community made singleplayer content? Here are just a few of the many free enjoyable singleplayer campaigns for the F/A-26B.

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Sky Wars

Flying over a city in the Sky Wars VTOL VR singleplayer campaign.

Let's start off with the highly rated Sky Wars. If you couldn't tell from the logo, this campaign by Fyrcat is very loosely based on the Star Wars movies, though everyone will still be using the usual VTOL VR aircraft instead of X-Wings and TIE fighters.

There's a story here, also loosely inspired by Star Wars, except instead of fighting an evil empire the enemy are the Oil Cartels. Though that's not really very important, really this is all just a vehicle for some vaguely Star Wars themed missions and opportunities for the campaign author to use a few sound bytes from the movies.

Not to spoil too much, but there is a sort of Death Star Trench scene, and you even get to be Red 5! Of course even if the Star Wars references don't sound all that appealing, this is a pretty great campaign for the F/A-26 that can be difficult without being unapproachably hard.

Strafing a ground target with guns in Sky Wars.

Though I did run into some bugs and failed triggers once or twice. Such as during an escort mission. The transport to be escorted ended up just flying in circles when a batch of enemy planes were supposed to spawn. Also, the author does have a habit of spawning enemy planes extremely close to you.

This is probably to force you to have intense close ranged dog fights instead of the usual AIM-120 missile duels. While this worked sometimes, most of the time it just ended up feeling cheap and unfair to suddenly be barraged with multiple close ranged missiles from a place that had been completely threat free moments ago.

The trench scene in the Sky Wars VTOL VR campaign.

Regardless, Sky Wars is a great campaign that is full of memorable and unique missions. I highly recommend it, and if you're a Star Wars fan then you'll get some fun references and chuckles out of it too.

Operation Tollgate

Striking ground targets as other explosions go off in the Operation Tollgate VTOL VR campaign for the F/A-26B.

Next let's talk about a campaign that is pretty new and, highly underrated, Operation Tollgate for the F/A-26 by Liao and Zulu.

I'm shocked there aren't more subscriptions and positive ratings for this campaign, because it is an absolutely fantastically varied and creative campaign for the F/A-26. The maps are an even mix of water and land, which gives a lot of opportunities to face enemy naval and land based units, just as the missions themselves are a fantastic mix of anti air and anti ground.

You might be fairly used to the standard for VTOL VR missions, well Operation Tollgate has some missions where things get really switched up in creative ways.

Like one mission where you must hit some enemy ground targets while evading the Combat Air Patrol above, or another mission where you can't rearm, and can only refuel at a tanker, so you better use your ammunition efficiently.

Flying up to a tanker in Operation Tollgate.

The briefings are thorough, and even have a nice section that recommends a loadout to you in case you're unsure. You also start with relatively primitive munitions compared to the AIM-120Cs, AGM-65s, and AIRS-Ts that you might be used to.

Instead you'll have to make do with AIM-7s and Sidewinders for a while, but when you complete enough missions and you get access to better munitions it really feels like you earned them, and like you need them.

The missions in Operation Tollgate have a very smooth difficulty curve, getting harder as you get better tools to tackle them with, and some missions even have unexpected curveballs and priority targets thrown your way when you might expect it to already be complete.

Defending an airfield from a night attack.

If you want missions that feel unique and have a fair mix of air and ground combat then try out Operation Tollgate. It really deserves more attention than it has gotten.

Artemis Campaign

The Artemis Campaign has the most detailed map I've ever seen in a VTOL VR singleplayer campaign.

Our third singleplayer campaign is the Artemis Campaign by Judge Dredd. The first thing that struck me about this campaign was the map. It is the most well made and detailed map I've seen for any VTOL VR campiagn, and it was actually not made by Judge Dredd, but a different person called ddDeath_666.

This map, called Greek Islands, has numerous cities, settlements, and airfields spread out on several islands. The terrain itself is wonderfully blended so that it looks natural, and the settlements have suburbs, downtown areas, and even remote buildings all connected by roads.

The campaign itself focuses mostly on a single large island, and there are some really great missions here, alongside a few lackluster ones where not much happens and you'll find yourself flying over the water for long periods of time. Still, the missions that are good in this campaign are impressive.

A low level airstrike on an airfield.

Though the odd thing about the Artemis Campaign is that it gets easier as you progress through the missions, rather than harder, the first three missions are actually the best and most impressive of the bunch. The later missions are still good, don't get me wrong, but don't have the same level of challenge and spectacle as the first ones.

Oh, and I do like the thought of only giving the player limited saves in this campaign, this is a great way to add some interesting challenge to missions by making the player wonder when they should use their limited pool of saves. It was a nice change of pace to get out of the habit of saving every five minutes just in case.

Liberation of Kuwait F/A-26

Monitoring a friendly target in the Liberation of Kuwait VTOL VR singleplayer campaign.

Our next campaign is the Liberation of Kuwait F/A-26 campaign by Judge Dredd, not to be confused with a similarly named campaign for the AH-94 (which is also excellent). These missions are very loosely based on the air war and following ground invasion of the nation of Kuwait, which was then occupied by the Iraqi military, during Operation Desert Storm.

The first mission starts off slowly with the some aerial reconnaissance using your TGP, and the rest is a tight series of four bombing and close air support missions.

That's almost entirely the focus of this campaign, close air support and strikes using smart munitions. You'll be spending a lot of time watching prospective targets or friendly forces with your TGP before getting the order on whether or not to engage. Despite not being a very difficult campaign it's a ton of fun and very tightly designed.

The map in the Liberation of Kuwait mod could use a little more detail, but it is serviceable.

The map is a little barren and not the best approximation of Kuwait out there, but the missions do a great job of integrating friendly forces into your objectives.

When you support friendly forces you'll also see those friendlies fighting on the ground, and so the missions really sell that you are giving vital support to real troops below. The missions are well made, immersive, and not overly intense. Mostly you only have to make sure to stay out of MANPAD and AAA range.

If you want a little leisurely precision bombing in missions polished enough to feel like they could be DLC, then give the Liberation of Kuwait campaign a try. Though, expect to spend a lot of time looking at the ground with your TGP.

Surveying an allied attack on a destroyed bunker complex.

Oh, and this campaign does have some fun little touches, like this guy who you are told to stop for to arm your weapons each time you fly a combat mission. Very cool. This is a very well polished and scripted campaign that does a good job of making you feel like part of an operation involving other units.

Defenders Of Kyiv

Defending an allied airfield with a low level airstrike in the Defenders Of Kyiv VTOL VR singleplayer campaign.

The last singleplayer campaign here is based on the still active Russo-Ukrainian war. Defenders of Kyiv by Innocence Of Children focuses on a small group of fighter pilots just before and during the Russian invasion of Ukraine on the northern Kyiv front.

The Russian military attempted to pull off a high risk and high speed operation to quickly capture Kyiv and force the Ukrainian government to flee or capitulate. In this campaign you are part of the Ukrainian military forces that prevented this from happening.

The thing that makes the Defenders of Kyiv campaign stand out from all other custom singleplayer campaigns in VTOL VR, even more so than its setting, are the wingmen that you fly with. Both are actually characters, with dialog and personalities. In fact there's a lot of dialog in these missions.

Your two wingmen, Joker and Queen, go from corny to dramatic very quickly when the invasion starts. Their banter fills out the quiet moments and gives each mission a greater sense of context and drama.

Your wingmen are actual characters in this campaign.

While English is clearly not the author's first language and there are a lot of minor errors in the script, the intent of the writing is a solid story, and the character drama hits as hard as the missions do. In terms of story and drama the Defenders of Kyiv campaign has to be the best one out there.

This campaign also severely limits what equipment you will have access to, especially earlier on. While you'll never get all of the fancy ultra modern missiles and ground attack munitions that you'll have access to in normal play, limiting you to less sophisticated weapons makes the campaign more difficult throughout, and changes the usual flow of air to air fights. It also changes how you engage ground targets, and unfortunately not in the best way.

Using old weapons means you'll be resorting to guns more than ever in the Defenders Of Kyiv VTOL VR campaign.

While being forced to rely on dumb bombs and missiles more than usual is interesting, it's more annoying than anything when you receive objectives to destroy fifty targets... and then even more after that.

While ostensibly you'll have your wingmen and other allied units helping you, they'll inevitably end up being shot down or run out of ammo before chewing through so many enemy ground targets. This leaves you using all your muntiions up over and over and needing to fly back to base a bunch of times to actually complete the objective. This gets kind of tedious, and I wish you didn't get such a massive amount of ground targets to take out at once.

Still, the briefings have great detail, and the battles on the ground are absolutely massive and impressive. This campaign felt really unique and fresh in a lot of ways. I highly recommend it.

If you've got a campaign for any aircraft that you think deserves playing then feel free to let me know in the comments. Have fun flying out there in VTOL VR.

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9 Ways To Terrorize A City In Monster: Titan’s Playground - A Great VR Godzilla Game

If you find yourself as a giant Kaiju Godzilla type monster in the brilliant Virtual Reality game Monster: Titan’s Playground then here's 11 ways to absolutely terrorize this little city. This is an amazing VR Godzilla game where you’re a massive monster just smashing your way through a city. Here’s how.

#1

The first way is to establish dominance by leaping along the city streets and on top of apartment buildings. The slam of your huge feet hitting the ground will surely strike terror into the hearts of the population.

You can even do a sort of VR King Kong type move by climbing a high tower.

If you want a more classically inspired monster invading city experience then you can always climb a tall office building, or even the massive monument across town, and throw stuff down at the locals.

#2

Of course buildings are for more than just climbing, they're definitely also for smashing. There's nothing like the look and feel of ramming your huge meaty kaiju fists through an apartment block.

Smashing a building with your huge VR Godzilla fists in Monster: Titan's Playground is amazing.

Or pounding your way from the roof to the foundations of a building. As a giant VR Godzilla monster you have the strength to easily blast through concrete and rebar like it's barely even there, laying waste to buildings in mere moments. This is absurdly fun.

#3

Though as you're terrorizing the city you should also make sure that the streets also aren't safe by destroying every form of transporation that you see.

The massive explosion made by a car in Monster: Titan's Playground.

Inadvertently, you also might help out the local environment and reduce pollution, though probably not by as much as the carbon emissions caused by the explosion a car makes when it hits a building and carves out a huge hole in the side. These cars make some seriously huge explosions.

Maybe they use the same engines as the cars from Fallout 4, especially since eating them will make you heal faster. Don't ask why.

#4

While you're throwing things you can also tear out chunks of buildings and throw them at other buildings, which is a weirdly efficient way to do some demolition work. There's just something majestic about seeing someone's living room bounce off of several other buildings and then careen off into the distance.

Throwing pieces of buildings into other buildings is such a satisfying VR Kaiju Monster move.

Tearing huge chunks out of buildings is so easy with your huge monster hands.

#5

That is, if you're not interrupted by the elephant in the street, and that's these annoying mechs from Super Mech Force that are always trying to stop your good time of smashing buildings and generally lowering property values. Though at the end of the day a city that doesn't fight back wouldn't be much fun.

There will be a lot of mechs to fight in this game.

Though there's got to be nothing more scary to your average onlooker than seeing the giant Godzilla monster pummel the mechs defending your city into the dirt. Or punching one in the chest so hard its reactor core explodes and sends mech pieces flying everywhere.

#6

While you're at it you can also use those destroyed mechs to take down huge buildings. Tossing the body of a mech meant to defend this city into a building is extremely ironic, and also super destructive.

Of course mechs can also be used to smash things for fun.

#7

Of course you'll have more at your disposal than just your fists to stop those pesky mechs and do some large scale remodeling. Your massive kaiju monster also comes with many equipment options ranging from arm mounted plasma cannons that melt armor and blast holes in buildings to shoulder mounted mini guns that will absolutely tear through a mech.

Blasting a mech with miniguns in Monster: Titan's Playground. You're not just VR Godzilla, you're a Mech VR Godzilla.

You're not just any giant lizard monster, you're a giant lizard monster sponsored by the finest minds at the SECRET EVIL LAB. Destroy more mechs and you get more upgrades, and wow are there a lot to try.

#8

Though as you start to face more advanced mechs you'll notice that their weaponry will get more dangerous as well. Don't worry though, because they seem to care just as little for the city they are fighting you over as you do. When the huge lasers come out you're practically required to hide behind some high rises to avoid it.

Mechs with huge lasers are scary, and they don't care if they destroy the city while trying to get you.

Bombs and missiles that Super Mech Force lobs at you can be snatched out of the air and thrown right back at them, or if you're particularily destructive you can always chuck them at buildings on purpose, or by accident.

#9

Of course you're not really a kaiju monster if you don't have some really deadly breath, and there's no way to assert dominance over a city more spectacular than setting fire to everything in sight with a massive jet of flame coming out of your mouth.

Nothing makes you feel more like an amazing VR Kaiju than breathing fire over the city.

The flamethrower coming out of your throat is so massive that it obstructs your view and quickly spread over anything that it hits, mechs, buildings, and passerby alike. Now that's how you terrorize a city as a VR Kaiju.

Want to get to attack a city as a huge VR Godzilla monster yourself? Then wishlist the game! At the time of writing, Monster: Titan's Playground is unreleased, but can be wishlisted on Steam.

I did receive a copy of this for free from the developer, and I ended up absolutely loving it and really want to see them add more features and more variation to the environments, among other things. So if terrorizing a city and fighting mechs as a VR lizard monster sounds fun to you then go to the steam page linked in the description and click the wishlist button. It's free and it would really help out a small developer with a fantastic idea for a Virtual Reality game.

VTOL VR - How To Use AH-94 Countermeasures

Here’s how to use the countermeasures (flares and chaff) in the AH-94 helicopter in VTOL VR.

Grab the combat collective stick. You’ll notice that there are two sticks on the collective lever to the left of your seat, one on top of the other. The combat collective is the one on top.

The combat collective in the AH-94 is used to release flares and chaff countermeasures.

Now hold down the trigger on the controller of the hand that is grabbing the combat collective and press the Y/B button (the higher of the two buttons on the controller) to release your countermeasures.

That’s how to use countermeasures in the AH-94. Remember that you can also turn off flares or chaff by clicking the green flare or chaff buttons on the dashboard to the left of the collective lever. Also remember that you can configure chaff and flare release modes by pressing the CMS button on an MFD.

The Walking Dead Saints and Sinners Aftershocks Walkthrough and Guide - Part 6 - Memorial Lane

Stuck in The Walking Dead Saints and Sinners: Aftershocks? Wondering where to go next? Maybe you just like to see what is in store for you before you get there, or want to look back and see if you missed anything in The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners: Aftershocks.

Don’t worry, I’ve got you covered with this complete walkthrough. These articles will detail how to progress through the main story missions as quickly as possible, with a couple of guiding tips thrown in here and there to make your adventure smoother.

Last time we followed a bunch of clues to the cache in Old Town. Today we’ll be recovering the sixth national guard cache, which the Tower and Reclaimed are fighting over on Memorial Lane.

This guide assumes that you are starting Aftershocks with the "Aftershocks Quickstart” option in the main menu. If you’re playing Aftershocks after completing the main campaign then some details might be slightly different, but the challenges you face in the missions will be the same.

If you are missing some of the recipes then you can still pick them up while doing the missions in this walkthrough, though they won’t be explicitly pointed out here. For a full list of all recipes in The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, check out our recipe guide article.

Spoilers will be as light as possible, but there will be story spoilers by necessity in this walkthrough. There won’t be any explanation of what is going on in the story beyond what is necessary to make the walkthrough make sense.

The Resting Place

Wake up and listen to Channel 47 as always, but beware that you might want to do a bit more prep than usual this time.

The task to get the cache in Memorial Lane.

For your trip to Memorial Lane you’re probably going to get shot much more than usual, so make sure to bring at least 2 bandages, probably 3 to be safe. Oh, and bring a lot of firepower and ammunition too. You may find yourself fighting through a ton of enemies.

Especially for this mission make sure to craft a bit of every type of item and store it in your base. That means food, ammo, weapons, meds, and anything else you might ever need. You’ve definitely got a ton of crafting supplies by now, so turn them into some useful stuff before you head off on this mission. You won’t regret it.

When you’re armed to the teeth and have your healing items ready in your backpack head off to Memorial Lane.

Traveling to Memorial Lane.

The Battle Of Memorial Lane

When you arrive in Memorial Lane it may be suspiciously quiet… that won’t last long.

Take a look at your map.

The map of Memorial Lane.

See that tree icon in the center of the map? That’s the battlefield that not only contains the cache, but also a bunch of Reclaimed and Tower soldiers fighting each other to the death over it. At least they’ll start spawning in and fighting when you get close enough.

For now make your way down Garrison street towards the house marked as blue on your map. There will be some tower guards in front of it.

The Blue House is lightly guarded.

While they won’t be initially hostile feel free to just blast your way through them to get inside of the house. Once inside head up to the second floor.

There will be another guard or two in there. Take them out before you settle down in this room, which contains a hunting rifle, some ammo and junk on the table, and a picture which shows you a picture of a national guard crate with a number on it.

This room shows you which cache is the correct one, and can be used for a little sniping as well.

There are a bunch of caches all over the battlefield below, but most of them are empty. Only one contains supplies and that is cache number 41. It is located on the red couch right beside the tree in the center of the battlefield.

Of course it’s a battlefield, and as you’ll be able to see through the hole in the wall leading outside, there are Tower and Reclaimed soldiers fighting over it (or possibly just standing around, depending on how it worked out for you.)

Regardless you’ll have to make your way down there. The problem is that soldiers will just keep spawning after they are killed. Infinitely.

So you can pick off a few from your perch in the house with the rifle if you like, but eventually you’re going to have to run down there and get to that cache.

Cache 41 itself, which is full of loot for you.

This is where the medical items come in. Once you open the cache there will be quite a bit of loot inside, and more soldiers will spawn and run in right to where you are as you try and grab it.

So you will need to balance grabbing the supplies in the cache with healing yourself. If you’d rather just leave with your skin intact you can also always just open the cache and then leave right after. It’s up to you, but this is definitely the hardest cache to actually loot.

Once you’ve got the goods run back over to the blue house that you started at and back up Garrison street to the boat you arrived in.

Something’s Wrong In The Resting Place

Once you return back to The Resting Place and walk back towards the bus you’ll hear some strange noises. Like somebody… tinkering? Rifling through things?

You’ll quickly realize what it is when you see two tower soldiers running away from your bus.

Thieves!

They’ve taken all of your crafting materials, and on top of that even your sleeping flask! Luckily any items that you’ve already stored inside of your bus are still left behind.

Well that just won’t stand. So read the next part of this The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners - Aftershocks walkthrough to get your flask, and some of your stuff, back.