Beat Hazard Pre-Ultra Update... Update

Another update came out, and it adds a startup screen to let you choose between the new gameplay and the classic gameplay.

Also, now it seems you can have five perks active without Ultra, rather than three.  The Instructions still say three.

Speaking of the instructions, I should have re-read them, as they've been updated for all the new stuff.  You get a perk unlock point (just one) whenever you go up a rank.  If you go up multiple ranks, you still only get one point.  Early on this is unavoidable, and with the songs I'm playing and the perks I have active, it's unavoidable later too.  It doesn't make much of a difference to me anymore since I have all the non-Ultra perks unlocked now, but it'll matter once I plunk down that $5 later this month.

I wrote that bosses can't be circle-strafed anymore, and that's not entirely true.  It depends on the weapon set.  Also, I haven't seen the lasers lead me since the second update, but I haven't played the same songs over again yet.

The perks make powering your ship up a lot easier than the old rank-based system.  I got to the point where I have Beat Hazard at the beginning long before Elite, which was the old point where that was unlocked.  I'm still not Elite yet actually, but I'm closing in on it quickly.

The instructions also mention that all the perks are active in Chill Out mode, so if you want to check out the new stuff before setting about unlocking it all (I'm guessing once Ultra is actually released), head over there.  I wonder if the "use bomb = track change" bug is fixed yet in Chill Out mode...

There's also some new leaderboards.  Somehow I got an update saying I'm now at rank 300 on the 7+ minute leaderboard.  I dunno how that happened, I'm guessing it's a combination of new scoring system and fewer people playing.

I also never mentioned that the game now has Twitter support.  If you let it, it will post updates when you get new high scores and so forth.  Annoy all your Twitter followers today!

Also, now when you start a song it starts louder than the sound effects, so much louder that it drowns them out, and the first time you die it gets quieter and stays that way for the rest of the song.  VOL powerups still don't affect the volume of the music.

I think that's about it for this addendum post.

Edit (7 AM): Back at Elite, all non-Ultra perks purchased and maxed, 30/42 achievements, and the only achievement left that I can get before Ultra comes out is the one for getting a million points on all the built-in songs.

Edit: (9:50 PM): Got that last achievement.  Ready for Ultra!