Hands-On: Death Lap Channels Twisted Metal For Intense VR Combat Racing

Death Lap is a new upcoming VR combat racing game from OZWE Games featuring cross-play and cross-buy that releases “soon” for Rift and Quest.

OZWE Games just announced Death Lap not long ago, less than a month ago before Oculus Connect 6 in fact, and at OC6 we got the chance to talk with Alma Moya Losada, the Head of Marketing and Communications at OZWE, about the game. She also let us try out a build of the game running on Oculus Quest.

Death Lap VR Interview:

I was immediately reminded of Twisted Metal mixed with a more traditional racing game. The Twisted Metal games are great, but they’re more like arena fighting games that just so happen to give you vehicles as the characters. In Death Lap you’re still racing around a course, but have the addition of weapons and constant combat to deal with at the same time.

WipEout has weapons as well, but they’re more of an ancillary feature there — in Death Lap, the combat takes the center stage. Right now the game works by having you steer your car with the left analog stick of your Touch controller while you aim your weapon with your right hand in full 6DOF.

They said they’re experimenting with letting you steer using your actual left hand, but they said in testing it made people’s arms tired. However, it works well in other racing games I’ve tried like Touring Karts, but at least having the option would be nice.

Death Lap Reveal Teaser Trailer:

There are some limited power-ups you’ll come across, but for the most part every vehicle is installed with their own custom weapons so each time you race in a new car it’s a different experience. For my demo I picked the one with a rocket launcher. Trying to drive well and stay in the lead while simultaneously looking around to aim rockets and shoot ahead of vehicles, leading them, to get the splash damage of the explosion just right, felt really good and fun.

There’s no release date yet but Death Lap is coming out soon for both Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift with full cross-play support. The focus is on competitive multiplayer racing, as expected, but you can race against the AI as well if you’d like.

Check out our interview video above with the Head of Marketing for more details.

The post Hands-On: Death Lap Channels Twisted Metal For Intense VR Combat Racing appeared first on UploadVR.

Preview: Anshar Online – A Visual Treat for Oculus Go

Ozwe Games first dipped its toes into virtual reality (VR) development way back in 2015, releasing space shooter Anshar Wars and Anshar Wars 2 in the same year for Samsung Gear VR, one of the best looking titles at the time. The studio is back in 2018 with its next sequel Anshar Online which it debuted during the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2018. Due to support Oculus Rift, Gear VR and Oculus Go, VRFocus got some time with the standalone headset version and put it through its paces.

Anshar Online - GDC Screenshot

Anshar Online is a far more multiplayer focused experience than its forebears, offering an eight player multiplayer deathmatch mode, 5 player co-op and a 50 mission campaign. All of which can be played cross-platform no matter which head-mounted display (HMD) you happen to own.

Starting up the title on Oculus Go the first thing to strike are the visuals. As mentioned, the series has always been visually appealing but on Oculus Go the quality certainly jumps up a notch, with the dedicated LCD display offering a crisp, vivid image that’s not unpleasant to the eyes. This aids gameplay, with floating asteroids really popping out the screen and enemy fighters far easier to see.

The demo VRFocus tried didn’t actually include any of the online features, rather just a couple of the single player campaign missions. The first will be familiar to anyone who’s played the other Anshar Wars videogames, protect a large ship from incoming hostile fighters by taking them all out as quickly as possible. All in space and in a handy asteroid field.

Anshar Online - GDC Screenshot

Flight controls were still gaze based, so there’s lots of spinning around to do when dogfighting – thankfully Oculus provided swivel chairs – with the Oculus Go controller operating the weapon systems. The trigger fired the main gun, whilst the touchpad operated the lock-on missile. The trigger was fast and snappy, allowing for easy burst firing of the gun. The same couldn’t be said for the missile, with numerous chances to take down an enemy lost due to its refusal to fire when needed, requiring a sliding upward motion rather than a press.

The second location was ground-based, set inside a towering city. This level was much more of a challenge when it came to flying, as it was possible to weave through the skyscrapers when hunting or evading enemies. It must be said that gaze-based control schemes don’t quite lend themselves to this kind of tight gameplay, they’re fine in space, but in a city can prove to be somewhat vague and less than nimble.

Currently Anshar Online looks like it’s not going to break the series mould, merely refine it and up the ante with plenty on single-player missions and multiplayer options for that replay value. That’ll certainly be helped by the cross-platform support. As a showcase for Oculus Go Anshar Online certainly hits the mark, but it’ll need the support of Oculus Rift and Gear VR players to make half the title worthwhile.

A Glimpse At Interstellar War, Check Out These Anshar Online Screenshots

Another week begins in the world of all things immersive. March is rapidly coming to an end, with us pushing ever further into Spring (at least for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere). Last week the team were, for the most part, kept very busy in San Fransisco thanks to all that was going on at the Game Developer Conference, better known as GDC. The 2018 edition brought with it the usual array of news relating to virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), although as we wait for the next generation of headsets and the first from the main players to be in the standalone category perhaps not as much major news as might’ve been expected.

That said, we had annoucements from Unity, Unreal Engine and CRYENGINE, with more information about their updates and relationships with the forthcoming Magic Leap One. HTC Vive confirmed the international release of the Vive Focus. Google had plenty to say, including details of Google Play Instant. We got hands on with a number of videogames, including the highly anticipated Budget Cuts and the equally long-awaited Pixel Ripped 1989, as well as those coming to the Oculus Go – such as They Suspect Nothing and Vacation Simulator. We also gave our updated thoughts on how things had changed for the Oculus Go, which was appearing publically for the first time at an event since its reveal back in October at Oculus Connect 4.

To catch up on everything from GDC you can of course click here and find everything under the site tag. No doubt there’ll be plenty of interviews and follow-up features in the weeks to come as well. Before we hurtle into another week, one dominated by another American event, this one hosted by the team at NVIDIA we do have one further Oculus Go launch title to take more of a look at.

Anshar Online is set to be the next evolution of the popular Anshar Wars. With the title’s next iteration coming to Oculus Go it will bring with it a single-player campaign as well as its multiplayer side. That multiplayer will be able to be enjoyed with not just fellow Oculus Go owners but with friends from around the world who have Samsung Gear VR or Oculus Rift thanks to cross-play. A number of screenshots for Anshar Online were released by Oculus during the conference and you can now see those below.

VRFocus will bring you more VR and AR news throughout the day.

Anshar Online - GDC ScreenshotAnshar Online - GDC ScreenshotAnshar Online - GDC ScreenshotAnshar Online - GDC ScreenshotAnshar Online - GDC Screenshot

Oculus Reveal Launch Content For Oculus Go

In the run up to the release of the highly anticipated Oculus Go standalone all-in-one virtual reality (VR) head-mounted display (HMD), Oculus confirmed a number of titles that will be part of the launch content for the platform.

Anshar Online Screenshot 01

The Oculus Go HMD will provide users with a chance to experience stunning and immersive content all without the need for a mobile device or computer. With the all-in-one design offering three degrees of freedom (3DoF) along with an orientation-tracked controller, the Oculus Go will be a lightweight and portable solution for those wanting to experience VR.

Settlers of Catan (Catan VR) will be a launch title for Oculus Go offering players a chance to enjoy the hugely successful board game of the same name. Released today for the Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR, the Oculus Go release will be cross-play compatible with the other versions allowing players to come together and play regardless of the platform of their choice.

Catan VR - Screenshot

Anshar Online, the next evolution of the popular VR franchise, Anshar Wars, will bring a rich single-player campaign to Oculus Go that can be enjoyed alone or with friends. The massive multiplayer online (MMO) space shooter where six players will be able to seamless play cross-device with Oculus Go, Samsung Gear VR and Oculus Rift.

They Suspect Nothing invites players to complete a series of bizarre tasks, tests and puzzles to prove they are not human. Featuring over 20 mini-games, with downloadable content available as well, across a number of levels. Players must do everything they can to ensure they the robots suspect nothing and make it through the challenges.

Lastly from developer Owlchemy Labs, creators of the popular Job Simulator, will be the follow-up title Vacation Simulator. In a similar vain to Job Simulator, players will be able to join computerized companions beach-side for some virtual relaxation.

All of these titles will be available on Samsung Gear VR as well as the Oculus Go, offering players more choices when it comes to picking a platform to play on.

The Game Developer Conference is running all week and VRFocus will be sure to bring you all the latest from the show throughout the week.