Microsoft’s special Windows “Mixed Reality” event today saw the unveiling of its latest addition to the VR family, the Samsung HMD Odyssey, and also announced that all VR headsets slated to ship before holiday season are currently in pre-order. With a fresh advert, the company is delineating just how portable and easy to use their new class of VR headsets are in comparison to competing room-scale PC VR headsets like Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.
Topping out at $500, the same price as the Oculus Rift, Microsoft is drawing a pretty specific picture with their new Windows VR headset spot, and there’s really no subtext about it: Open up your laptop (almost any modern laptop will do for basic programs), turn on the wireless motion controllers, plug it the headset, and put it on.
While Rift and Vive require their own room calibration setup process, making you mark your playspace so you don’t smack straight into a wall, Microsoft’s line of headsets use inside-out positional tracking thanks to a set of wide-angle cameras on the front. This also allows the headset to track the motion controllers, making it truly a plug and play experience without the need of external sensors or basestations of any kind.
Noticeably, the new advert emphasizes travel and experiences instead of gaming, something that ought to attract non-gamers to the newest VR ecosytem.
At Microsoft’s special Mixed Reality event today, the company announced that all of their VR headsets destined to ship this holiday season are accounted for, and are now available for pre-order including headsets from Acer, Dell, HP, Lenovo and the newly revealed Samsung ‘HMD Odyssey’. There’s still no word on a launch date for Asus’ futuristic low-poly headset.
Since Microsoft provided its list of OEMs the same reference design, all of the available headsets except Samsung Odyssey follow the basic specs below.
Windows VR Headsets: Basic Specs
Dual displays at 1440 x 1440 per eye
2.89” diagonal display size (x2)
Front hinged display
95 degrees horizontal field of view
Display refresh rate up to 90Hz (native)
Built-in audio out and microphone support through 3.5mm jack
Single cable with HDMI 2.0 (display) and USB 3.0 (data) for connectivity
Inside-out tracking
4.00m cable
Samsung HMD Odyssey
Leading the pack is Samsung’s HMD Odyssey, featuring a higher comparative resolution with its 2880 x 1600 OLED, pushing a 90Hz refresh and up to 110 degree field of view. Integrated audio and integrated dual mic array clearly put this ahead of its Windows “Mixed Reality” cousins, but it also comes at the price tag of $500 (with motion controllers), the same as an Oculus Rift.
The Samsung HMD Odyssey will be available later this year in the US, China, Korea, Brazil and Hong Kong, with pre-orders beginning in the US only on October 3rd. US launch is slated for November 6th.
At the lowest price tier for $400 (with controllers) is Acer’s retro-styled headset. Like all headsets in Microsoft’s lineup, it features a halo-style head strap and a flip-up design, although it uses less expensive materials in its construction, making it seem a little more plasticy than the others while offering the same basic functionality. Shipping October 17th.
Smooth and futuristic, Dell’s Visor falls in line with some premium styling that will set you back $450 (with controllers). A rubberized texture gives the headset good grip without collecting finger prints, and was supposedly weighted in strategic spots to be more comfortable for longer play sessions. Shipping October 17th.
HP’s headset is more business than play in styling, with its facial interface featuring cutouts for eye glasses to go along with its sober grey scale tones. HP matches Dell in pricing at $450 (with controllers). Shipping October 17th.
Another headset that looks like it means business is the Lenovo Explorer. With styling that looks at home with Lenovo’s line of ThinkPads, the headset sits at the lowest price tier of $400, of course offering all the same functionality. Shipping October 17th.
Revealed on the Japanese PlayStation blog, Sony is making a few minor adjustments to new Move controllers, timed with the arrival of the updated PlayStation VR headset.
In a surprise update to the PlayStation FAQ, Sony announced that PSVR is getting a hardware refresh that includes integrated audio and new Processor Unit (aka breakout box) that can handle native HDR pass-through.
Initially launched in 2010 as a PS3 peripheral and integrated with the console’s ‘PlayStation Eye’, PS Move has gone through no appreciable change on its road to become the PSVR’s main motion controller. PlayStation Camera, the sensor that tracks both Move and PSVR headset, has seen a hardware update last year in preparation for the PSVR’s launch, an alteration that improved tracking significantly of the motion controllers.
According to the official Japanese blog, Sony will also be releasing a new version of the PS Move controllers that will change the connection terminal from mini USB to micro USB, meaning Sony will likely begin licensing official charging cradles for the updated design. The new product number is CECH-ZCM 2 J.
The new updated Move with also have a longer battery life, with a 3.5V 1900 mAh built-in lithium ion battery, an improvement over the early model Move that packed 3.7V 1350 mAh.
It’s unclear when both updated PSVR and Move will be introduced in the West, although Sony says they’ll be updating soon.
HTC today announced a new Vive hardware bundle featuring a free copy of Bethesda’s upcoming Fallout 4 VR, a VR port of the entire game that lets you haunt the Wasteland like never before.
Customers who purchase an HTC Vive starting today will now receive a free redemption code well ahead of Fallout 4 VR’s December 12th launch. Currently available for pre-order through Steam, the new Vive bundle represents a $60 savings.
The company currently offers a $600 bundle which includes the Vive headset, two wireless controllers, two base stations, link box, earbuds, and Vive accessories.
HTC says existing Vive customers who purchase Fallout 4 VR will also get a bit of a consolation prize with a free 3-month Viveport subscription, available prior to the game’s launch. Much like premium video services like Netflix, the subscription service lets you play any number of Viveport’s 250 games and experiences.
According to a Steam survey, HTC Vive still holds a majority marketshare of the VR headsets in operation on Steam platform, although Oculus’ Summer of Rift Sale, which saw the Rift + Touch bundle slashed to just $400, has put a significant dent in the company’s overall marketplace supremacy. A bundle featuring one of a most-anticipated VR games in recent history could be instrumental in attracting new customers.
Just in time for Halloween, TheExorcist franchise is getting an episodic VRhorror adventure soon, with the first two chapters due in October. Called The Exorcist: Legion VR, the experience promises to let you finally take part in what the creators calls “a variety of increasingly disturbing exorcisms” across a five-chapter narrative.
Created by Wolf & Wood, the minds behind A Chair In A Room: Greenwater, and based on the works of William Peter Blatty, The Exorcist: Legion VR takes you around the globe as you discover multiple tools to use in your encounters with ancient supernatural entities.
Developed especially for VR, the experience features support for motion controllers, including blink teleportation and “free roam” locomotion options.
1 of 4
image courtesy Wolf & Wood
image courtesy Wolf & Wood
image courtesy Wolf & Wood
image courtesy Wolf & Wood
The creators say run-time for each chapter will vary, with the average session running approximately 20-25 minutes.
There aren’t any specific launch dates yet, but he studio maintains that chapters will come out monthly, with the first two coming before Halloween.
Chapter 1: Chapel and Priest’s Office (October)
You arrive at the scene of a grisly crime in a small Boston parish. Yellow police tape adorns the room. There’s blood everywhere … even on the ceiling. It’s sinister business, and things are about to get much, much worse.
You arrive in the isolation ward of a secure hospital. In the corner of the padded room is a lone female strapped to a gurney. She babbles incoherently…
Chapter 3, 4 & 5: Nursery, Morgue, Excavation Site
Sony today announced that a new PlayStation VR model is in the works focusing on some issues surrounding ease of use.
Sony is still playing it sparse with technical details, but it seems the new model is more of an iterative hardware refresh, including an updated design featuring integrated headphones and a slimmer, more streamlined connection cable.
The new PSVR model, numbered CUH-ZVR2, will also support High Dynamic Range (HDR) pass-through natively through its new Processor Unit. The current PSVR model (CUH-ZVR1) technically supports HDR pass-through, but you have to fiddle with HDMI cables every time you want to enable it or buy an external switchbox if you wanted the clarity and maximum color reproduction the PS4 can provide.
CUH-ZVR1, image courtesy Sony
Unfortunately for owners of the original CUH-ZVR1 model, the new model’s Processing Unit (aka breakout box) won’t be backwards compatible, so you have to buy the new headset to benefit from it.
To differentiate the new from the old, the packaging for PSVR will “change slightly when the new model hits stores,” the company says in a blogpost, visibly adding the new model number on the box.
Sony says they’ll be sharing details on the launch timing in North America at a later date, and that pricing of the PSVR bundles will remain the same.
Gunfire Games’ newest Oculus Rift title, From Other Suns, is currently in open beta until October 1st. Drawing major influence from the popular sci-fi rogue-like FTL: Faster Than Light (2012) and various first-person shooters, From Other Suns sets you and your crew (AI or multiplayer) on a multifaceted first-person quest to return to Earth.
Gameplay
The game is essentially defined by its two major tasks; get the ship to Earth in one piece by killing, salvaging, trading and jumping from system to system – and board ships so you can either rid them of enemies for a negotiated reward, or raid their cargo bay of their necessary supplies.
opening a channel to the fleet commander
It’s all a bit of a balancing act, as your ship is comprised of several life-supporting systems like oxygen generators, engines, shield generators, etc. Keeping these intact and making sure you aren’t getting riddled full of holes is really your number one priority to keeping your ship moving forward.
The second most important thing is managing your supplies and making sure you have them in abundance, including missiles, fuel, and important systems upgrades that will let you jump farther, or give you a decisive edge in your next encounter with hostiles.
at the command station checking out the damage
To add more anxiety to the game’s resource management (while under fire mind you) systems will go offline periodically when in a firefight with an enemy ship, or if the enemy transports over and starts manually firing away. Predictably, once your ship is shot to hell and both shields and hull are at 0%, you’ll be greeted by a game over screen.
This is doubly so when the enemy ship has the ability to jam your FTL drive, stopping you dead in your tracks so you’re force to engage.
firing on a pirate ship
On the offensive side of things, once you encounter a ship that needs help ridding themselves of hostiles, you then get a chance to teleport over and engage in the first-person shooter portion of the game. Playing with a live crew of two other people, you could hypothetically leave one person on the ship to repair systems while the other two head off as an ‘away team’ to mop up the robot/organic foes on the other ship—all the while keeping open comms between you.
The FPS part of the game makes heavy use of stim-packs that regenerate your health, and a wide variety of guns that you can snatch off your fallen enemies, including everything from plasma shotguns to high-powered pulse pistols that shoot out bouncy energy beams. Enemy ships seem to always have a place to reload your weapon when in need, so running out of ammo isn’t really an issue.
a wrist-mounted map with enemy-sensing radar
Getting killed transports you consciousness back to the ship, and reawakens you as a bipedal robot. As long as a single organic crew member remains in the party (aka meat-bag), the mission can continue forward. The moment your token meat-bag dies though, it’s game over.
I started in a single-player private match, which staffed the ship with a few AI that you can order around to fix various systems. This was fun, but ultimately pretty lonely for my tastes. I had to see if I was going to become the power-hungry captain I was always destined to be in the game’s three-person multiplayer mode.
Going in for a multiplayer session really reminded me of the fun you can have with Star Trek: Bridge Crew (2017). Although your jobs aren’t assigned, so you could technically hotswap anyone from the tactical station to the command station if need be, a natural group dynamic tends to emerge.
trading and upgrading at a space station
While the open beta is more like a demo, limiting you to 10 FTL jumps before cutting you off, you can play the open beta as much as you’d like with the knowledge that the procedurally generated enemy ship layouts and variable enemy size, which grow and shrink depending on how many live crew members you have, will always offer a slightly different experience.
Comfort & Immersion
Locomotion is offered in a few major flavors: first-person smooth forward motion with snap-turn (aka ‘comfort mode’), first-person with smooth forward motion with smooth turning mode, and third-person ghost mode that lets you navigate a remote-controlled version of yourself, then teleport to your chosen position. There is no blink teleport option, but I didn’t really miss it to be honest. In terms of comfort, this all provides a big enough range of locomotion to suit almost anyone’s needs.
Immersion-wise, the inverse kinematics (IK) system that is supposed to artificially create natural joint movement in characters, is so far pretty wonky. The silly ambling walk of a live avatar takes you out of the experience somewhat. The lack of positional voice audio is also somewhat strange, as there’s no appreciable difference between talking to someone far away, and someone up close. I understand the reason for this design choice, but it’s decidedly less immersive to have constant radio chatter when you want to talk with someone face-to-face.
Without turning this hands-on article into a review, we’ll just say you have to try it for yourselves. The open beta lasts until October 1st, and while there’s no official launch date yet, but we’ll diving in for a full review as soon as we’re given access to the full game, so check back soon.
Varjo Technologies, a Helsinki-based startup known for its ‘human eye-resolution’ display intended for VR headets, today announced it’s closed an $8.2M Series A funding round that aims to support the upcoming launch of Varjo-branded enterprise VR/AR/XR products.
The Series A was lead by European venture capital fund EQT Ventures Fund, followed by Lifeline Ventures Fund III, The Venture Reality Fund, private investor John Lindfors, Foobar Technologies, Presence Capital Fund I, Bragiel Bros I, and Sisu Game Ventures.
With its eye on producing its own enterprise-facing headsets housing what Varjo calls a ‘Bionic’ display, the company says a Varjo-branded VR/AR/XR products will begin shipping to professional users in late Q4, 2017.
comparison showing standard VR headset display next to Varjo’s 20/20 prototype, image courtesy Varjo
“Varjo is fast growing from a startup to a best-in-class global supplier of VR/AR headsets,” said Urho Konttori, CEO and founder of Varjo Technologies. “We are now moving past research into the development stage and are so glad to achieve this in collaboration with EQT Ventures. We clicked the moment we met with them – the team literally started on go-to-market strategy during our first meeting. With EQT Ventures, we not only have a VC, but a true partner in growth.”
Varjo calls their prototype “20|20”, saying that it’s specifically designed for professional users and with resolutions more than 70 times beyond any currently shipping or announced head-mounted display.
Varjo’s prototype hiding inside of an Oculus Rift, image courtesy Ubergizmo
Tech Crunchgot a hands-on with an early demo of Varjoi’s tech back in June, which packed a pair of high-resolution Sony MicroOLED displays measuring 0.7 inches diagonally, boasting 3,000 pixels per inch (PPI). As a significant jump from Oculus Rift of HTC Vive‘s 447-461 PPI, the chief complaint with these microdisplays is they typically don’t provide an acceptable field of view (FOV) for the purposes of VR, but Varjo says their upcoming VR headset will ultimately deliver an 100 degree FOV, just shy of the Rift or Vive’s 110 degree FOV.
The company is so far staying mum on any other specifics surrounding their headset.
Rec Room (2016), the popular social VR app for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, is coming soon to PlayStation VR. Production studio Against Gravity announced Rec Room‘s PSVR release via the PSVR reddit page, saying that the game is slated to arrive by the end of this year.
Rec Room offers a slew of active social games using the respective systems’ motion controllers. With the specific aim to get you up and out of your seat, the app features co-op ‘Quests’ that take you on battles through classic sci-fi and medieval settings, and has a number of group activities like paintball, disc golf, and 3D charades. Whatever it is, Rec Room always seems to give you a reason to come back, and it’s such an excellent experience (when not chocked full of ankle-biters, but hey, who would’ve thought kids like games too) that we put it on our ‘Top 5 Games for HTC Vive’ list.
Against Gravity maintains that PSVR support will include cross-play with Rift and Vive at launch, and just like the PC VR version, will be entirely free. That includes no ads, in-app purchases, subscriptions, paid rooms, or micro-transactions of any kind.
The studio is currently taking applications for its beta, which they say will be on a closed, PSVR-only server during the testing period. Only players connecting from North and South America can apply, something Against Gravity says has to do with the available PSVR regions Sony is currently allowing them to use prior to launch. The studio says regions could be added in the future however, and will push a separate form if Sony allows it.
There’s no firm date yet for the beta’s starting point, but Against Gravity Community Designer Shawn Whiting says it should kick off in “weeks, not months.”
It was a hard decision, but you’ve decided to go with the HTC Vive as your first ‘serious’ VR headset, a room-scale device that released early 2016 as a result of a decisive collaboration with Valve. Here we take a look at our top 5 games for Vive, and a little more information you might need to get you started.
The Vive is a powerful ally in the fight against marketplace fragmentation, as it draws content from Steam, Viveport—and with the help of Revive, a software hack that lets you play Oculus exclusives. Right out of the box, you’ll have a room-scale setup, something that the Rift requires at least one additional sensor to claim, all the while delivering comparable standing and seated experiences as well.
Before we go any further though, you’ll find that you have access to a number of games on our Best 5 Games for Oculus Rift list thanks to the Revive hack, so make sure to check out some of the guaranteed fresh Oculus exclusives, and all the games that support Rift and Vive equally well. In any case, all of the games below are natively supported for Vive and purchasable through Steam.
5 – Moss
Once a PSVR exclusive, Moss (2017) has now made its way to PC VR headsets, letting you control your cute little mouse buddy, Quill, on your adventures through a large and dangerous world. Stylistically, Moss hits a home run with its impressive diorama-style visuals and interactive elements that lets you, the player (aka ‘The Reader’) move puzzle pieces around and also take over the minds of enemies as Quill slashes through the world to recover her lost uncle. Puzzles may not be the most difficult, but Moss has effectively set up a universe begging for more sequels to further flesh out the enticing world Polyarc Games has created.
While Moss is primarily a seated game, you’ll enjoy it just the same regardless of the Vive’s room-scale abilities.
See why we gave it a [7.9/10] in our review on PSVR.
4 – Budget Cuts
Budget Cuts (2018), the first-person stealth VR game from Stockholm-based indie studio Neat Corporation, first released came into the world via a free demo in 2016. The demo, which quickly became a breakout success in the early days of consumer VR, demonstrated a unique portal-teleportation mechanic, that, when married with the ability to throw knives at robot guards, spelled an instant hit—at least from a basic gameplay perspective. Two years later, the full release of Budget Cuts is here and it’s definitely been worth the wait.
At the time of this writing, it still suffers from some bugs. Although when everything goes right, Budget Cuts makes the top 5 cut for delivering Vive players a uniquely room-scale stealth assassin game that will have you cowering for your life underneath virtual filing cabinets.
Find out why we gave Budget Cuts a [9.2/10] in our review.
3 – The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR
Bethesda’s Skyrim VR (2017) was once a PSVR exclusive, but ever since it made its way to Steam (Vive, Rift, Windows VR), the game has really come into its own on PC VR platforms. Thanks to the average VR-ready gaming PC’s ability to render the open world at a much higher resolution, you’ll really feel like you’ve stepped into the world of Skyrim, replete with trolls, dragons, and a seemingly endless list of things to do and places to explore.
Created by Prague-based indie team Beat Studio (ex-Hyperbolic Magnetism), Beat Saber(2018) is a funky and incredibly stylish rhythm game that will have you slicing blocks to the beat of high-BPM dance music. While the idea is simple, the execution is magnificent. Beat Saber gives you 10 songs, each with four difficulty levels to master, the highest being expert which will have you feeling like a 21st century techno-jedi.
Based on the PC/console version of SUPERHOT (2016), the strategy-based first-person shooter was re-imagined from the ground-up for VR headsets in SUPERHOT VR (2016). As an entirely new game in the same vein as its flatscreen counterpart, the iconic red baddies (and their bullets) move only when you do, so you can line up your shot, punch a guy in the face, dodge a bullet, and toss a bottle across the room, shattering their red-glass heads in what feels intensely immersive and satisfying—because you’re doing it all with your own two hands. That and you’ll feel like a badass no matter whose basement you live in.
Fallout 4 VR: Fallout 4 (2015), the post-apocalyptic adventure from Bethesda Game Studios is here in its entirety in VR. Like Skyrim VR, it gives you a vast open world to explore, but suffers from some optimization issues that require the user to tweak before really enjoying it.
The Gallery: Heart of the Emberstone: It’s a longer, stronger and more immersive experience than the first in the series, The Gallery: Call of the Starseed (2016), and shows that Cloudhead Games has put in the hours producing a visually and emotionally adept story that feels like it hasn’t outworn its welcome. Puzzles are innovative, and while they aren’t particularly difficult, they always reward you with something worth pursuing.
The Mage’s Tale: Crafting elemental magic, exploring foreboding dungeons, battling giants and stealing their treasure. There’s all of this and more in The Mage’s Tale. Althoughstory-wise the game comes too close to campy and played out for its own good, it’s still a solid investment for the enterprising young wizard among you.
Vanishing Realms – Letting you battle an army of skeleton demons through an archetypal fantasy world, Indimo Labs’ sword-swinging adventure game is likened to ‘Zelda in VR’ by pushing the boundaries of what VR is capable of and delivering that much sought after sword and shield combat experience.
Raw Data: Raw Data is a heavy-hitting, fast-paced game that’s more than just a simple wave shooter. While it presses all the right buttons with atmosphere and feel, the game is on the bleeding edge of virtual interaction, which sometimes doesn’t work as well as it should. Despite its technical flaws, it’s one of the best VR shooters for HTC Vive and Oculus Touch out currently.
Arizona Sunshine – Vertigo Games’s Arizona Sunshine (2016) puts you in the midst of the archetypal zombie apocalypse, and even though we gave it a [7.5/10], it proves to be a solid entry into the FPS genre. Suffering some finicky controls and an even more finicky multiplayer, this zombie shooter almost made our list.
Subnautica–Out of Steam Early Access this year, Subnautica lets youpilot your own submarine, craft your underwater base, explore lush coral reefs, volcanoes, cave systems, and survive the harsh realities of the deep by out-smarting the game’s sometimes dangerous fauna.
GORN – Games that require you to use hand-held weapons don’t seem to work as well as shooters in VR. Maybe it’s the lack of haptic-feedback, but that certainly doesn’t stop them from being immensely fun just the same. Set in some barbaric future where floating heads look down as you smash topsy-turvy, weapon-wielding gladiators, Gorn proves to be charmingly ridiculous.
Onward – A fan favorite with a hardcore playerbase, the OD green of mil-sim shooters Onward gives you that VR battle you’ve always wanted, including tactical team-based gameplay and plenty of guns. The game itself is still fairly early in development, as it doesn’t have ranked matches yet, making it a bit intimidating from a beginner’s perspective. It’s creation is a true feat of will as it’s amazingly maintained by a singular developer.
Pavlov VR – Incorporating classic maps from games such as N64’s Goldeneye and Counter-Strike, Pavlov serves up a slice of familiar gameplay in a new VR setting. Featuring bots, and several modes including search-and-destroy and casual fast-paced solo play, Pavlov is the CQB death match standard FPS fans have been waiting for.
Project Cars & Project Cars 2 – You probably don’t have access to a garage full of super cars, but even if you do you’ll probably appreciate the ability to practice speeding around the track without ever having to leave home. The second in line, Project Cars 2 has a completely overhauled physics and tire models, making it a more true to life racing experience. You certainly can’t go wrong with either though!
Windlands – Originally developed in the early days of the Oculus development kits, Windlands has since added motion controller support to its fantastical ‘castle in the sky’ setting that lets you naturally grappling hook your way across what ultimately plays out as a giant parkour puzzle. It’s an intense experience, but well worth the feeling you’ll get from conquering the highest reaches of this beautiful and unique game.
If you didn’t see your favorite game here, let us know in the comments! This is a continually evolving list, so check back for the latest in Road to VR’s top Vive games.
Update (July 7th, 2018): We’ve done a long-due overhaul of the list, and bumped a few previous games to the honorable mentions list.
