The Game Awards 2018 held its much-coveted event last night in Los Angeles, awarding accolades to some of the best videogames available over the last 12 months. The show has grown so much in scale that it’s now used as a platform for big announcements, with Ubisoft revealing Far Cry: New Dawn, and Epic Games officially launching the Epic Games Store. When it comes to virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), these technologies are still on the fringe, with the only mention being the winner of the VR/AR category, PlayStation VR exclusive Astro Bot Rescue Mission.
It was almost a given that Astro Bot Rescue Mission would likely come out on top thanks to all the positive reviews the videogame has had, demonstrating that VR doesn’t necessarily need to be in first-person to offer an engaging and immersive experience.
That’s not to say that its competitors were of a lesser calibre, with Tetris Effect, Firewall Zero Hour, and Moss all deserving of a place. And Beat Saber did well considering its still an Early Access title on PC, and only just arrived for PlayStation VR.
In VRFocus’ review of Astro Bot Rescue Mission we gave it a solid four stars, saying: “While Astro Bot Rescue Mission isn’t quite as charming as Moss, or as superbly crafted as Mario Odyssey, it is a great old-school platformer for the VR era, bringing some of the best features of both 2D and 3D platformers of old and incorporating VR in a way that doesn’t feel awkward. This is a fun, lighthearted way to spend some time in VR, and worth checking out.”
Hopefully, in future years VR and AR will gain a more prominent place in the videogame industry and at these type of award shows. Until then VRFocus will keep championing the technology.