Author

Evan Marcus

Tech Geek, Entrepreneur, Gamer and #VR Nerd

11 VR Games to binge while stuck at home

Let’s be honest, life’s a little weird right now in the first half of 2020. Currently most of the world is staying indoors amid the Coronavirus pandemic. That being said, if you’re stuck at home and you probably are, might as well make the best of it?

If you’re anxious, worried, stressed…Some of these VR titles below can help you chill, smile and be entertained, while hopefully helping to relieve some tension, anger, sadness, and time amidst the current world climate.

1. Half-Life: Alyx is a glimpse into the future of Virtual Reality. Valve raised the bar with the original Half-Life back in the day, blowing away the player with an epic story, engrossing FPS gameplay and scary alien creatures. Half-Life also paved the way for mods like Counter-Strike and Team Fortress Classic to name a few.

Prediction…Half-Life: Alyx will pave the way for a new standard in VR titles based on this game alone. This is one of the best VR games to date and worth playing over any other VR title for the sheer detail, physics and story alone.

Overall story is between 15-20 hours, but the nerds out there looking for those 100% achievements can spend 25 hours + if not more.

Half-Life: Alyx 15-20 hours of Gameplay – Compatible with Vive, Oculus, Valve Index, Windows Mixed Reality HMD’s. [Play Area: Sitting, Standing, Room-Scale] (Retail $59.99) (Steam Exclusive)

2. SUPERHOT VR is one of those gems that only comes around a decade or so, a game on the surface that looks incredibly simple, graphics basic, yet it’s one of the most unique VR gaming experiences we’ve personally had. A masterpiece and a must have for any VR collection. The use of bullet-time and progression can get very creative as each level gets increasingly more difficult. Make sure you have enough space to punch and shoot for dear life.

Overall gameplay is between 5-10 hours, but the replay-ability of this game is very high. Yes, you will sweat, and potentially punch a light or a wall at some point, was it worth it…yes.

SUPERHOT: 5-10 Hours of Gameplay – Compatible with Vive, Oculus, Valve Index, PSVR, Windows Mixed Reality HMD’s [Play Area: Standing] (Retail $24.99) (Steam/Oculus/PS4)

3. Beat Saber, one of the most successful VR titles to come out in the space is something to put on most everyone’s list for a fun and musical orientated VR experience. In each hand/controller you have a light saber and must chop blocks when going to the beat of specific songs, with more detailed swipes going from left to right or up, down and the works. The leader-boards in this game are insane, we suggest starting in easy mode and godspeed if you even attempt any harder. Without a doubt one of the best ways to get a good exercise in Virtual Reality and enjoy it!

Beat Saber: Open-ended Hours of Gameplay – Compatible with Vive, Oculus, Valve Index, PSVR, Windows Mixed Reality HMD’s [Play Area: Seated, Standing, Room-Scale] (Retail $29.99) (Steam/Oculus/PS4)

4. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR is quite literally one of the best RPG’s made in the last decade (personal opinion of course) and in 2018 they ported the game with many wonderful tweaks to VR. To say the least, it’s a top tier VR experience and one that will give you 100’s of hours of gameplay depending on how you play. Exploring environments from the open mountains, towns, to underground caves and other secret areas breaths new life into the game for VR, not to mention swinging your controller as a Sword/Axe or using your controllers as a long bow while pulling back the arrow gives a vibration before shooting…The little details in Skyrim VR make it an exceptional experience and the port to VR is highly worth playing even if you played Skyrim previously. Worth every penny.

The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR: 100-200+ Hours of Gameplay – Compatible with Vive, Oculus, Valve Index, PSVR, Windows Mixed Reality HMD’s [Play Area: Seated, Standing / Room Scale] (Retail $59.99) (Steam/Oculus/PS4)

5. Moss brings a beautiful world, story and epic soundtrack to life from the eyes of a mouse in this third person, top down puzzle adventure fantasy game. A breath of fresh air from scary zombies, Moss is on a Zen scale of 9/10, ie. It will chill you out and make you smile. Gameplay is around 2-4 hours, not as long as the others but worth every minute. Replay-ability is medium to high.

Moss: 2-4 Hours of Gameplay – Compatible with Vive, Oculus, Valve Index, PSVR, Windows Mixed Reality HMD’s [Play Area: Seated, Standing] (Retail $29.99) (Steam/Oculus/PS4)

6. Boneworks Is an experimental Physics VR Shooter / Adventure. Players will be able to use found physics weapons, tools, and objects to fight across dangerous playscapes and mysterious architecture. This is an exceptional use of physics in VR and has shown that future games will need to adopt what Boneworks has brought to the table to be competitive moving forward. Similar to Half-Life: Alyx

Boneworks: 10-15 Hours of Gamelpay – Compatible with Vive, Oculus, Valve Index, PSVR, Windows Mixed Reality HMD’s [Play Area: Seated, Standing, Room-Scale] (Retail $29.99) (Steam/Oculus)

7. Asgard’s Wrath is an Oculus/Rift Exclusive, an action/adventure RPG based on Norse mythology. The bar has also been raised here, play as a god or go into mortal bodies, a bloody, beautiful RPG with a long enough story to play through for a while. There’s 6 total Saga’s to play in Asgard’s Wrath which gives the player a ton of content not to mention side content to explore. There’s a detailed combat system as well as puzzle system, definitely a game where players can sink a good amount of time into.

Asgard’s Wrath: 20-30 Hours of Gameplay – Compatible with Rift, Rift S [Play Area: Sitting, Standing, Room-Scale] (Retail $39.99) (Oculus Exclusive)

8. Stormland is an Oculus Exclusive Openworld Shooter / Adventure RPG with the ability to upgrade weapons, harvest plants, discover blueprints and items in the world. Stormland allows you to climb, glide and really move around the gameworld, a jungle-gym of sorts. Co-Op is also available so you can play with a friend, which makes it very appealing. The game overall is really fun but longterm replay-ability is low to medium once you’ve finished the main storyline.

StormLand: 5-10 Hours of Gameplay Compatible with Rift, Rift S [Play Area: Seated, Standing] (Retail $39.99) (Oculus Exclusive)

9. Blade and Sorcery is a violently fun medieval sword and combat game featuring superb physics and brutal/bloody combat. If you get shot with an arrow, it sticks inside you and you’ll have to physically pull that arrow out, and either throw it on the ground or use it against your enemy. This game was made by 1 dev so very impressive to say the least.

A fun physics and combat experience, similar to Gorn but more realistic overall. Remember to have enough play space around you so you don’t punch a wall or desktop monitor.

Blade & Sorcery: 5-10 Hours of Gameplay – Compatible with Vive, Oculus, Valve Index, Windows Mixed Reality HMD’s [Play Area: Standing, Room-Scale] (Retail: $19.99) (Steam/Oculus/Viveport)

10. GORN is a brutal, bloody and fun VR gladiator arena experience, where you fight, fight, and fight more. It’s more a physics engine then a full fledged game, less story, more bloody fighting with a variety of weapons. A great use of exercise for your arms and overall a fun experience granted it’s not for everyone. Make sure you have enough room or you’re going to punch something IRL.

GORN: 5-10 Hours of Gameplay – Compatible with Vive, Oculus, Valve Index, PSVR, Windows Mixed Reality HMD’s [Play Area: Seated, Standing] (Retail: $19.99) (Steam/Oculus/PSVR/Viveport)

11. The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners is a theme-park type zombie experience where the player has to scavenge for items and supplies while fighting off, well, zombies. The game overall has had good and bad reviews, at the end of the day it’s a fun VR experience but there’s been complaints for lack of detail in the gameworld to bugs with saves, graphics settings etc. That being said, if your into scary and intense zombie games, it’s worth checking out and does offer some good entertainment.

The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners 15-20 Hours of Gameplay – Compatible with Vive, Oculus, Valve Index, Windows Mixed Reality HMD’s [Play Area: Seated, Standing] (Retail $39.99) (Steam/Oculus/PS4 Spring 2020)

We hope you enjoy the list and please send us feedback via Twitter if you have any comments or suggestions! @vrdotorg

April 4, 2020 0 comment

Entertainment Games Software Videos

Half-Life: Alyx Announced

written by Evan Marcus

Welp… It’s happening, the most influential PC game of all time Half-Life (in my humble opinion) is launching their flag ship title Half-Life: Alyx VR. As an older nerd from the world of dial-up modems, Half-Life was one of the first games that blew me away, a game so well done from story to gameplay, that mods like Counter-Strike and Team Fortress Classic to name a few have spawned from it and are still being played to this day, creating one of the most successful franchises in the known galaxy for PC gaming.

Sure this isn’t Half-Life 3, but it’s still a completely new Half-Life universe designed exclusively for VR, and if anyone on this planet can pull it off, it’s Valve. For those of you younger ones who haven’t played Half-Life 1 or 2 yet, I’d highly recommend leaving this article, jumping on steam and downloading it. Sure graphic wise it isn’t up to par for today’s titles, but it’s the gameplay, story and immersion itself that for the time of release, was an absolute game changer and one of the best first person shooters around.

This is a big deal for VR, a really big deal. An off the top prediction on my end, millions of players will buy VR HMD’s just to play Half-Life: Alyx. People on the fence will cross the fence to play this game, people not even close to the VR fence will do the same. Half-Life 1 & 2 was truly one of the top tier games of our generation and making an exclusive Half-Life title in VR will single-handedly push VR forward not only for hardware, but raise the bar for other VR developers to provide better content.

For those buying VR HMD’s just for Half-Life: Alyx, should also be pleasantly surprised with other VR content available to them. I think this is great timing with the amount of new wireless HMD’s now available and costs becoming cheaper, a March 2020 release for Half-Life: Alyx feels right.

You can Pre-Purchase Half-Life: Alyx here.

What are your thoughts on the state of VR and Valves upcoming flagship title Half-Life: Alyx?

Tweet us: @vrdotorg

November 21, 2019 0 comment

Exclusive Hardware News

Valve Index VR Headset Coming this Fall

written by Evan Marcus

Valve has recently announced their upcoming next gen headset the Valve Index, an impressive display and improvement over the HTC Vive series and in the words of Valve, “Fidelity first.” The full package including headset, base stations and controllers comes in at a price-tag of $999 which can be Pre-Ordered on Steam. Shipping dates off Steam say September, but that’s also subject to change.

The headset this time around isn’t going OLED but instead LCD with a resolution improvement of 1440×1600 per display instead of the standard 1080×1200. The Vive Pro also has the same resolution at 1440×1600 but isn’t LCD, and from what Valve has said, LCD offers 50% more sub-pixels then OLED, resulting in greater sharpness for the same rendering cost.

The Valve Index Headset runs at 120Hz with full back-compatibility to 90Hz, as well as an experimental 144Hz mode. Higher framerates improve realism and optical comfort, allowing longer and more comfortable play sessions.

The Valve Index will also come with a much improved FOV, physically adjustable IPD (distance between eyes) and eye relief (distance from lens to eye) lets you optimize the field of view for your face. With these features, as well as the dual-element lens and canted optics, this headset provides 20° more FOV than the HTC Vive for typical users.

As for the Cameras on the Valve Index, it includes stereo, global-shutter RGB cameras made for computer vision, enabling applications like high-quality stereo pass-through. Also there’s a front expansion slot for a USB 3 Type-A port – specifically made for tinkerers and makers. Valve said more details about this will be coming in the near future, but it seems like they’re giving game devs, nerds and the curious a means to potentially “mod” or “tinker” with the device, pretty cool…

The audio also seems much improved from previous designs, this time offering “off-ear immersion” where the headphones don’t physically touch the ear, allowing sound to freely flow and interact with the geometry of your own head and ears.

Also no physical contact means cooler temperatures and a big improvement in comfort, each speaker’s position is also adjustable to find the sweet-spot if needed.

The controllers for the Valve Index have also been re-designed to enable natural interactions, high-fidelity hand presence, and long-term comfort from what Valve said. Valve Index Controllers combine complex sensor inputs to give you smarter hands in VR, unlocking a wide variety of new interactions, experiences, and gestures. Each controller uses 87 sensors to track hand position, finger position, motion, and pressure to determine user intent.

The Valve Index Base Stations 2.0 will offer more coverage, increased range and FOV. From what Valve said, with two base stations you can enjoy a 400% larger play space, compared to the previous generation. The Base Stations are also expandable, you can add a 3rd or 4th base station if needed to cover a tricky spot or to enhance the experience in bigger rooms and areas.

Compatibility Note: Valve Index Base Stations are only compatible with 2.0 tracking capable hardware. This currently includes Valve Index and HTC Vive Pro hardware.

Tech Specs for The Valve Index Headset:

Displays

Dual 1440 x 1600 LCDs, full RGB per pixel, ultra-low persistence global backlight illumination (0.330ms at 144Hz)

Framerate

80/90/120/144Hz

Audio

Built-in: 37.5mm off-ear Balanced Mode Radiators (BMR), Frequency Response: 40Hz – 24KHz, Impedance: 6 Ohm, SPL: 98.96 dBSPL at 1cm.

Aux Headphone Out 3.5mm

Microphone

Dual Microphone Array, Frequency response: 20Hz – 24kHz, Sensitivity: -25dBFS/Pa @ 1kHz

Cameras

Stereo 960 x 960 pixel, global shutter, RGB (Bayer)

Field of View (FOV)

Optimized eye relief adjustment allows a typical user experience 20º more than the HTC Vive

Optics

Double element, canted lens design

Connections

5m tether, 1m breakaway trident connector. USB 3.0, DisplayPort 1.2, 12V power

Tracking

SteamVR 2.0 sensors, compatible with SteamVR 1.0 and 2.0 base stations

Inter-pupillary Distance (IPD)

58mm – 70mm range physical adjustment

Ergonomic Adjustments

Head size, eye relief (FOV), IPD, speaker positions. Rear cradle adapter included.

Tech Specs for the Valve Index Controllers:

Inputs

A Button, B Button, System Button, Trigger, Thumbstick, Track Button with Force Sensor, Grip Force Sensor, Finger Tracking, IMU

Ergonomics

Adjustable strap with pivot, antimicrobial tech fabric

Connections

USB-C, 2.4GHz Wireless

Battery Life

7+ hours

Charging

900mA fast charging, 1100mAh capacity Li-Ion polymer battery

Tracking

SteamVR 2.0 sensors, compatible with SteamVR 1.0 and 2.0 Base Stations

Haptics

HD LRA

Tech Specs for Valve Index Base Station 2.0:

Range

FOV

160º x 115º

Expandability

Up to four base stations, up 10m x 10m playspace

Power

12V, compatible with existing HTC Vive power supply

May 18, 2019 0 comment

Entertainment Games

No Man’s Sky Coming to VR Summer 2019!

written by Evan Marcus

No Man’s Sky might be one of the best redemption stories in the gaming world, ever. The game was released in August of 2016 and was met with stark criticism, not for the game itself but for some of the features that were supposed to be in the game that were not ready yet. Because of this Reddit and other social platforms had a field day and exploded with a pitchfork mentality towards the devs and the initial game itself slamming it on steam with negative reviews.

This is also understandable, not getting features in a game you spent $$$ on can be frustrating, but at the same time this was coming from a small indie dev team that comprised of less then 20 middle aged humans, and well, life isn’t always perfect, sometimes things take longer then expected and initially that was the case for Hello Games and No Man’s Sky.

Having played NMS on day 1 of release and putting well over 50+ hours into the game after the first few weeks, I must say, even without some of the initial features like Multiplayer, the game was an absolute gem and something very different on the gaming spectrum then I’ve ever experienced before. The game itself is an adventure through the universe, giving players basically endless procedurally generated systems, planets, creatures and land to explore.

Each planet has a unique name, with unique creatures, some planets are toxic and some are earth like and the list goes on. Exploration, crafting, base building is just the tip of the iceberg in No Man’s Sky. If you’re the first to find a new unexplored planet, you’re also able to rename it to whatever you like. There’s basically an infinite amount of planets to explore with each one being for the most part unique to their own.

Over the course of the next few years, NMS released 4 major updates (all for free) Foundation, Pathfinder, Atlas Rises and the big kahuna NEXT. Hello Games really made a 180 degree turn, showing that not only a small indie dev team didn’t give up, but were more dedicated then ever to improve their game. I do personally think the initial backlash motivated Hello Games to work that much harder, and in the end “if” we’re even close to the end of this wonderful story, the game on a whole has improved a ton.

Speaking of New Features for No Man’s Sky, on the 25th of March Hello Games made a surprise announcement, with “No Man’s Sky Beyond” another major free update to the game coming in the summer of 2019, and yes VR will be included in this update! As a massive gaming nerd, VR geek and lover of all things Sci-Fi I can’t tell you how excited this makes me.

There’s no DLC’s for No Man’s Sky, you just buy the initial game and are basically rewarded with new updates as they come out (which is a rare sight these days), and as an owner of NMS on PC, I’ll gladly take a VR enabled update for free, thank you Sean and Hello Games!

Also proud to say the image below is of my first S-Class ship (hard to come by!) it’s called the Roadrunner, beep beep!

You’ll be able to play the VR version on PS4 and Steam VR and can still play multiplayer with your non-vr friends. They also stated VR will not be a separate mode, the entire game will be good to go in VR, booooo yaaaa!

What are your thoughts on No Man’s Sky? Send us a tweet @vrdotorg

April 10, 2019 0 comment

Exclusive Hardware News

Oculus Quest Announced for Spring 2019

written by Evan Marcus

Wireless VR is upon us folks and the Oculus Quest will be one of the first truly wireless HMD’s on the market at a price of $399 without those annoying cords! Of course the HTC Vive Pro will also have wireless capabilities but at a much higher starting price targeted at more of the hardcore gamer crowd, and the current Oculus Go is wireless but with overall lower specs. Granted the official move to wireless VR was just a matter of time and much needed in the space to move things forward.

The Oculus Quest will be a full standalone VR system with positional tracking and hand controllers. The Quest requires no PC, no wires, and no external sensors, not to mention 50 titles to start with for launch. Also apparently the tracking range is huge at 4000 square feet of space from what Barra described. Barra also mentioned porting games from the Rift to the Quest will be an easy feat, so we shall see.

Oculus Insight is the breakthrough technology that powers inside-out tracking, Guardian, and Touch controller tracking. This system uses four ultra wide-angle sensors and computer vision algorithms to track your exact position in real time without any external sensors.

The Oculus Quest will provide a display resolution of 1600×1440 per eye which is on par with the Oculus Go. Oculus Quest has also boosted their built-in audio with enhanced sounds and deeper bass. Overall, the Rift is still the most powerful which connects to a PC through a graphics card, while the Oculus Go is more affordable and easier to jump into VR, the Oculus Quest seems to be a nice fit in between the Go and the Rift.

The Quest is definitely a good mid tier move for Oculus and most likely will bring in many new people to VR. Now that Oculus has 3 products with 3 different price ranges, it definitely paves the way for mainstream VR on their platform.

Another exciting note is the planned titles for the Oculus Quest, not just VR games but a broad variety of genres which should please most people. One of the big ones is the Star Wars Exclusive ‘Vader Immortal‘ which is a VR series launching on the Oculus Quest in 2019. There’s many more titles planned like a Dark Knight Trilogy, Call of Duty and Blade as well.

March 3, 2019 0 comment

Exclusive News

7 VR Highlights from CES 2019

written by Evan Marcus

Our friends Cas & Chary recently attended CES 2019 and had some excellent highlights on the VR front! Here are 7 highlights including a great video rundown from Cas below.

#1. Nvidia claims 4 million PC VR headsets have been sold

Nvidia said during their CES 2019 press conference that 4 million PC VR headsets were sold. This number is most likely about the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. They also said that 3800 VR titles are now available on Steam.

#2. RTX 2060 / VirtualLink laptops & AMD 7nm Gaming GPU Radeon VII

New VR ready hardware was announced by both Nvidia and AMD. Nvidia announced the RTX 2060 GPU priced at $350 dollars. AMD also announced their next gaming GPU. The AMD Radeon VII.

Nvidia also announced laptops with the GeForce RTX chips, some of them will also include VirtualLink.

#3. HTC VIVE Pro Eye

A new VR headset that looks just like the Pro, except it has integrated eye-tracking allowing for foveated rendering.

#4. VIVE Cosmos

This is a new PC VR headset that can be used at home or on-the-go as teased by HTC. HTC has been pretty cryptic about the Cosmos, but this is what we know: 6DoF, 4 cameras, inside-out tracking, flip up visor, two controllers, it’s modular, it’s tethered. Might be able to be powered by a mobile device.

#5. VIVE Reality System

The VIVE Reality System is Vive’s own software platform similar to SteamVR’s Home and Oculus Home. It sounds basically like a menu, except shaped in a world in 360 degrees, allowing you to engage with the software in a more immersive way.

#6. Audi’s Holoride

The car brand Audi is working on a new VR technology that can help prevent motion sickness in car rides, making commute for passengers more fun. What’s interesting is their “Elastic Content” technology.

#7. TPCAST Air

This new device can stream PC VR applications through WiFi connections onto standalone VR headsets like the Oculus Go. TPCAST is also planning on adding support for the Oculus Quest in the future.

Cas & Chary’s original article was on Reddit as well as their YouTube video, please check out their channel and subscribe if you enjoy it!

January 21, 2019 0 comment

News

Dreamscape Immersive Location based VR goes Live Dec 14th at Westfield Century City, Los Angeles

written by Evan Marcus

Today we had the opportunity to visit Dreamscape Immersive’s location based VR at Westfield Century City in Los Angeles! Upon entering, you’re greeted by friendly staff that give you the option to sign-in and purchase tickets.

Currently tickets are $20 per person and guests have the option of viewing 3 different experiences (more to come later), Alien Zoo, Lavan’s Magic Projector “The Lost Pearl”, and the Blu “Deep Rescue”. Tickets are also available for advanced purchase online at Dreamscape Immersive.

Once your tickets are purchased, there’s a cool lounge area with a bar and artifacts from each of the experiences that are in glass cases. The attention to detail even before entering is pretty cool, and goes along well with Spielberg’s grand design.

Once in the lounge area, you’re given a few minutes to relax before the experience begins. Each experience is on different time schedules and have a specific length. For us today, we had the chance to venture into Alien Zoo.

Once the experience started, we were greeted by a guide who welcomed us and brought us down the hall into Pod 1. Before we entered the actual Pod, we were escorted to a sort of VR locker room where each of us sat down and were given instructions for putting tracking sensors on our feet and hands.

Currently at Dreamscape Immersive there’s 5 Pod rooms that can have up to 6 people. After our feet and hand sensors were put on and tightened, we had a backpack with a computer attached that was also connected to an Oculus Rift headset and strapped firmly to each of us. This of course makes it wireless so we can walk around without having to deal with coords.

After going through the steps (the guides were very helpful by the way) we were escorted into the main Pod room. At this point no pictures or video were allowed so you’ll just have to experience this for yourself :). The experience started with the group of us standing together in a circle, each one of us could see each others avatars and wave and do whatever we wanted, also since we we’re in such close proximity, we could talk to each other rather well if needed.

Diving into Alien Zoo, the visuals were great overall, but what really made the experience immersive (no pun intended) was the room we were in. The rails in the room were also visually in our headsets so we could grab the rails while moving inside of VR, not to mention vibration which was calculated with the experience as it progressed.

Besides vibration to make it immersive, there was water and mist that would be used at specific times during the experience (ie. going over a waterfall and feeling mist hit your face) which made it very cool. There was also a point where each of us in the group needed to pickup flashlights and basically picking up an interactive object inside the experience was really neat because we physically picked up a real object that was also integrated with the VR experience, adding to the overall immersion and story.

The one con I had is that it wasn’t long enough, the experience was around 12 minutes not including getting ready, and when you’re having fun, time goes by fast, but I’m sure future experiences on the Dreamscape Immersive platform will have different lengths depending on the projects.

Dreamscape Immersive will go live to the public on December 14th here in Century City, Los Angeles with other planned locations coming to Dallas Texas, Columbus Ohio, and New York for starters.

Definitely a fun experience for friends and family to share together, or to be completely honest, going solo and with strangers is just as fun :). For more information on Dreamscape Immersive, head over to their website below.

https://dreamscapeimmersive.com/

December 14, 2018 0 comment

Entertainment Games

PC Gamer Announces their most anticipated VR Games for 2019

written by Evan Marcus

We’ve always been big fans of PC Gamer, from the days of buying a physical copy of their magazine on the street, to the times they included “Demo Disks” starting with the 3.5 Floppy, yea PC Gamer has been around for a long time, our kids will never know the pain, walking 10 miles in the frozen cold snow, on foot just to grab the latest demo disk to install on a VGA computer running Windows 3.1 and DOS. *Cue Old Man Yells At Clouds Cut-Scene* Ironically I miss the 3.5 Floppy, not for the practicality but more for the physical touch, guess I’m getting old as well.

Anyways, getting back to the present, PC Gamer has recently announced their list for the most anticipated VR games in 2019 and it’s really good! We’re going to go over our favorites from their list, but please visit the official PC Gamer article HERE for the full shabang!

One of the Oculus exclusives that’s been on our radar as well is called Stormland and it looks absolutely fantastic.

The Tempest shattered your android body. Now you must journey through an ever-changing cloudscape to augment yourself and save your friends. Explore an expansive world with complete freedom—bound up cliffs, glide across chasms, and fly through the slipstream with velocity. Detonate explosives, harness electricity, and wield makeshift weapons to overcome titanium sentries and monolithic guardians. Play single-player, or explore forgotten ruins together.

Key Features:

Move with velocity. Explore the open world with exhilarating freedom. Fly through the slipstream, kick up a cloud ramp, launch up to a cliff, and glide back down with all-new Touch mechanics.
Discover a changing otherworld. The Tempest rearranges the Stormland to reveal new challenges—and new playgrounds of movement, combat, and scavenging. Your Satellite watches from above to guide you to the best upgrades.
Join a community of androids. Weather the storm together. Link up to the satellite, join up for Stormland raids, and collaborate on shared missions for the benefit of android gardeners everywhere.
Fight with freeform style. Equip makeshift weapons to overcome the Tempest’s army of synthetic troops and mutated creatures. Augment your android abilities to cloak your body, manifest shields, and harness electricity. Find new tech, build yourself up, and discover just how far you can push past the limits of your design

Graphically this looks like one of the best VR games to date, the story is compelling and the multiplayer/online features are going to make Stormland one of the standouts of 2019. Oculus Studios and Insomniac Games have literally raised the bar for VR and we thank them for that.

Next up on their list is Vacation Simulator, literally the complete opposite from Stormland in terms of story, Vacation Simulator is more of a “break from reality” literally it’s virtual vacation simulator, no pun intended.

Essentially the sequel to Job Simulator by Owlchemy Labs, this looks like a breath of fresh comedic air in the VR space. Owlchemy Labs has a solid track record for making great VR content, from Rick and Morty to Job Simulator, this will be worth a download once it’s released in 2019.

Lone Echo 2 literally gave us goosebumps watching the trailer, again another top tier title from Ready At Dawn and Oculus Studios. Without a doubt worth putting on your list for 2019.

Jack and Liv are back in the highly anticipated sequel to the groundbreaking zero-g adventure from Ready At Dawn and Oculus Studios. Return to the rings of Saturn on a journey that takes you deeper into the mysteries of space—past the very boundaries of time itself. Venture beyond the unknown in Lone Echo II.

Even though Borderlands 2 has been out for a while, the Borderlands franchise has been one of my personal favorite FPS’s of all time, from the unique art style to the smooth game-play, rare colored weapons/items and overall storyline, it’s an exceptional game series, so having Borderlands 2 come to VR is an absolute dream come true.

Currently Borderlands 2 is coming out for PS4 on December 14th, and from what PC Gamer said it will be an exclusive from Gearbox for a minimum of 5 months, but here’s to hoping it comes to Oculus and Vive and PC VR platforms in the near future. For those with the PSVR, get your dirty little hands on it soon and enjoy it! They also mentioned Borderlands 2 VR will have bullet-time to help with the bigger fights.

That concludes our summary of PC Gamer’s awesome VR list for 2019. There’s another 9-10 titles on their list that we didn’t cover so please head over to PC Gamer if you’re interested in seeing the rest of their most anticipated VR games for 2019.

Official Link: https://www.pcgamer.com/vr-games-2019/

December 6, 2018 0 comment

Games

Red Dead Redemption 2 Potential PC and Oculus Port Coming?

written by Evan Marcus

Recently released Red Dead Redemption 2 which is currently available only on Xbox 1 and Playstation 4 has some potentially exciting news…

The companion app for the game which is available for iPhone and Android was data mined (ie. data mining is defined as a process used to extract usable data from a larger set of any raw data.) and specific file names were found including “PARAM_companionAutoConnectIpPC” and “CommandIsPcVersion(void) 000000000166A12C” which suggests a PC version could be in the works. Also there were several mentions of Oculus which could mean a possible VR port as well.

Granted this is all myth and lore at this point, but Rockstar Games have incredibly well polished titles and would without a doubt increase sales for Oculus if this does happen. Personally if and when they do make a PC port with VR functionality, we could very well see it available on the HTC Vive as well, unless Rockstar strikes an exclusive deal with Oculus.

For now though, we have to wait and see, but this would be a massive win for VR if they do plan on bringing Red Dead Redemption 2 to PC.

October 29, 2018 0 comment

Education Exclusive Hardware

Vive Libraries Program launches in California and Nevada

written by Evan Marcus

HTC Vive has recently announced the Vive Libraries Program, which will start bringing VR to over 100 libraries in California and Nevada. Vive has donated 100 Vive headsets to public libraries across the state bringing VR to more people.

“This generous contribution by Vive is helping bring a virtual world of adventure and learning to communities across California. As more virtual reality stations take root across our library system, we are seeing positive learning impacts and visitors that are genuinely excited about technology and education.”

— Greg Lucas, California State Librarian

On the content side, Vive Studios has developed over 35 VR titles on the educational and experimental front, which will be available on the Viveport platform. This is a generous step in the right direction for individuals that don’t have access to premium VR content and great overall for libraries to adapt moving forward. Hopefully this can reach every state on the national level but it’s a good start. Below are titles that will be available in the Vive Libraries Program including a video.

Vive Libraries Program Content List

Adventures in Space

Amazon Odyssey

Ancient Adventures

Berlin Wall: The Virtual Reality Experience

Beyond Tokyo

Buzz Aldrin: Cycling Pathways to Mars

Calcflow

COSM Worlds within Worlds

Earthlight VR: Spacewalk

Everest VR

Jam Studio VR

Lifeliqe VR Museum

Lumen

Lunar Learning & Earthly Robots

MakeVR Pro

Mars Odyssey

Masterpiece VR

Masters of Design

Modigliani VR: The Ochre Atelier

Newton’s House of Forces

Oceans of Wonder

Operation Apex

Rad Robots

Realities.io

Remembering Pearl Harbor

Remind VR: Daily Meditation

SculptrVR

Stonehenge VR

Super Puzzle Galaxy

Take Flight!

The Night Cafe: A VR Tribute to Van Gogh

The Physiology of the Eye

TrueScale

Unabomber: The Virtual Reality Experience

Unbound

Wisemind

June 21, 2018 0 comment

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