Category: Area Man Lives

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The VR Drop: Driving a Living Metropolis

Welcome to another VR Drop where gmw3 looks at what XR videogames have been announced for the week ahead. There’s a superb collection to look forward to, from Early Access releases looking for community support to casual titles where you can sit back and relax to some virtual reality (VR) world-building.

Musical Range

Musical Range – Rockhopper Studios

First up is a rhythm action game called Musical Range, coming to Steam Early Access on Monday. This is a rhythm shooter with the rather unique mechanic of being able to bend and distort the notes after each shot. For the EA launch, Musical Range will have a selection of songs to try and achieve highscores on as well as a Freeplay Mode, shooting the notes to make your own music. Plus, there’s a custom song system where you can drop in sound files to play.

Area Man Lives – Numinous Games

This is a title gmw3 wasn’t sure would come to life, but it lives! Announced in 2020 as a reworking of Numinous Games’ much earlier Google Daydream title Untethered, Area Man Lives is part quirky radio drama and part mystery to solve, putting you in the chair of a local radio DJ. In this little bubble of radio paradise, you have to play some music, record commercials and most importantly, talk to callers and find out what’s going on and how you can help.

Little Cities

Little Cities – Purple Yonder

Developed by British indie studio Purple Yonder and published by VR powerhouse nDreams (Fracked, Phantom: Covert Ops) Little Cities is a delightful city builder coming exclusively to Meta Quest. With various archipelagoes to build on (Desert, Volcano and more), Little Cities is all about balancing the needs of residents by creating enough housing, factories and commercial properties whilst adding essentials like network coverage, power and the occasional airport. Unlike other city builders, Little Cities doesn’t bog you down with deep financial planning, keeping gameplay light with the option of hand tracking support coming in June.

Omega Pilot – Xocus

Having launched its futuristic racer Z-Race for PCVR headsets last year, Xocus is back with Omega Pilot. The developer created the entirely new Omega Pilot because Z-Race fans wanted one thing, a cockpit viewpoint, which couldn’t be done due to Z-Race’s control scheme. So now players can jump into the cockpit of these futuristic vehicles and race at ludicrous speeds through winding tubular tracks.

Omega Pilot

Afterlife VR – Split Light Studio

Now let’s finish on a VR genre that loves to scare us all, horror, with the Early Access release for Afterlife VR from Split Light Studio. Play as a young rookie cop who needs to go and investigate a mental health facility and…well, you know what happens; stepping into an insane asylum at night only amounts to one thing. There are puzzles, you have telekinetic abilities and shit is going to jump out at you. So bring a flashlight and a spare pair of pants.

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VR Adventure Game Area Man Lives Launches Next Week

Long-in-development VR adventure game, Area Man Lives, finally has a release date for next week.

The title, which is developed by That Dragon, Cancer studio Numinous Games, arrives on May 12th for Quest and PC VR. It’ll cost $19.99.

In Area Man Lives you play as a local radio host in a small town that becomes engulfed in a mystery. You’ll use your own voice to communicate with callers, solving puzzles that can lead to multiple different outcomes. Max Greenfield, Joel McHale and Ronan Farrow all lend their voices to the cast.

Area Man Lives Release Date Revealed

It’s been a long road to release for the project. Area Man Lives originally started life as an episodic series for Google’s Daydream platform. Named Untetheared, the series released two of its three episodes before Daydream’s demise left the final installment in limbo. A few years back, it was announced that the publishing arm of Myst developer Cyan would be helping to bring the game to other headsets under a new game with some changes. CityLights also assited with the release.

The game will be on show as part of the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. Are you going to be trying out Area Man Lives next week? Let us know in the comments below!

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Area Man Lives Continues To Look Like An Eccentric VR Experience In New Trailer

Earlier this year we reported that Numinous Games’ Untethered series was being resurrected by Cyan Ventures. Today, we have a fresh look at Area Man Lives.

This new trailer made its debut at the Upload VR Showcase: Summer Edition. Area Man Lives brings the series that started life on the ill-fated Google Daydream platform to PC VR and Oculus Quest next year. You take control of a radio DJ that starts to uncover strange goings-on in their small town. Best of all, you can use your headset’s microphone to actually reply to people calling in.

This trailer gives a hint about the game’s eccentric atmosphere and sense of humor, with just a hint of the wider story. It’s a little hard to talk about what you ‘do’ in Area Man Lives without getting into the story in Untethered so, for the sake of spoilers, we’ll leave this trailer to speak for itself.

We’ve always been drawn to Area Man Lives’ quirkiness, so it’s great to see the experience shaping up well. Numinous was, of course, the developer behind That Dragon, Cancer and publisher Cyan is best known for games like Myst and, more recently, Obduction.

We’re just getting started at the Upload VR Summer Showcase. We’ve already given you a first look at Solaris: Offworld Combat and early development footage of Wraith: The Oblivion – Afterlife. Stay tuned, because we’ll have fresh looks as Lonn, Blaston and Low-Fi.

Will you be checking out Area Man Lives when it releases next year? Let us know in the comments below!

The post Area Man Lives Continues To Look Like An Eccentric VR Experience In New Trailer appeared first on UploadVR.

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See An Exclusive Tease Of Area Man Lives At The Upload VR Showcase: Summer Edition

Great news for those of you waiting on an update on the next project from the developer of That Dragon, Cancer; we’ll have an exclusive tease of Area Man Lives at the Upload VR Showcase: Summer Edition on June 8th (final time TBD)!

Yep, developer Numinous Games will make its Showcase debut with a first look at its anticipated VR adventure. In Area Man Lives, you run a radio show in a small town, gradually becoming engrossed in a deep mystery. You’ll chat with characters over the radio as you get to the bottom of some truly strange goings-on. This looks like it could be a real quirky treat.

AREAMANLIVES

The project has some history, of course. It was originally intended as an episodic series for Google’s Daydream platform, but only released its first two episodes before Daydream met its untimely demise. Fortunately, Cyan Ventures — yes, a funding arm of the studio behind Myst — helped resurrect the project as an all-new experience earlier this year. We’re really excited to show you a first look at how it’s shaping up.

Not sure what an Upload VR Showcase is? Simple: they’re video presentations we hold at busy times on the videogame calendar to announce new VR titles and reveal new information about upcoming games and experiences.

Also joining this year’s showcase is Fast Travel Games, Low-Fi, Panther VR, Play Bunker and The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners. We’ll have plenty more teases leading up to the big day on June 8th, so check back for more soon!

The post See An Exclusive Tease Of Area Man Lives At The Upload VR Showcase: Summer Edition appeared first on UploadVR.

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That Dragon, Cancer Dev Resurrects VR Game As Area Man Lives For Quest, PC VR

Well here’s a welcome bit of news. Untethered, an incomplete episodic VR series that seemed destined to die alongside the Google Daydream platform it was exclusive to, is being reimagined for other headsets as Area Man Lives.

That Dragon, Cancer developer Numinous Games is returning to develop this new project, which is backed by Cyan Ventures, the funding arm of the developer behind Myst, Obduction and Firmament. Area Man Lives seems to use the same environment seen in episode 1 of Untethered and a similar mechanic; you embody a radio DJ in a small town in the USA.

The game requires you to physically speak out loud when recording radio shows, including interviewing callers. Check out the announcement trailer below though, admittedly, it doesn’t actually tell you much about the core game.

But Area Man Lives is a mystery game at its heart. As you listen to people dialing into your show, you begin to notice a strange pattern of events developing in your coastal community.

This is generally along the lines of what happened in Untethered, though the second episode was quite different. Numinous had been working on a third episode of the series but revealed in late 2018 that it had lost its funding, presumably from Google itself as its Daydream efforts started to decline. The episode was put on hiatus and, frankly, we didn’t expect to see it resurrected. Based on screenshots, it looks like this version will feature full hand controls (the original only incorporated Daydream’s single motion controller).

As it stands, the game will be coming to Oculus Quest, PC VR headsets and “a handful of other headsets”, which we hope means PSVR.

You can wishlist Area Man Lives on Steam now. Excited to see Untethered return? Let us know in the comments below!

The post That Dragon, Cancer Dev Resurrects VR Game As Area Man Lives For Quest, PC VR appeared first on UploadVR.

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Become a Vocal Radio DJ in Quirky Drama Area Man Lives Later This Year

Way back in 2016 Google launched a mobile headset called Daydream View and as part of the initial lineup of titles was a little virtual reality (VR) mystery called Untethered by Numinous Games. Google may have abandoned the headset in 2019 by ceasing sales and Pixel 4 dropping support, the studio has decided to give the videogame a new lease of life, re-imagining and completing the experience, turning it into Area Man Lives.

Area Man Lives

The core idea of Untethered remains the same putting you in the seat of a small-town radio DJ, entertaining their listeners with music and taking their calls to hear what’s going on. Area Man Lives is basically an over-the-top radio drama where you have to use your voice to talk with your listeners, piecing together info on this odd town and how your actions can influence your audience.

“If it all feels like too much, don’t worry, you’ll have your lonely producer, the resident skeptic, to guide you on your way, not to mention the vaguely British female voice inside your head,” explains the synopsis. “When an unusual area man calls into the station asking for your help, you have to act fast. Will you trust the area man, or do your best to thwart his plans? Is there anything you can do to save the area man from himself?”

“Numinous is such an exemplary group of humans, with an uncanny ability to tell stories that resonate with life,” said Rand Miller, CEO and founder of Cyan in a statement – Cyan Ventures is publishing the title. “It’s humbling for us to be able to help in some small way as Numinous continues to sub-create small worlds that make the big world just a little bit better.”

Area Man Lives“Who wouldn’t want to collaborate with Cyan? They are first-class world builders who know how to capture the imagination of their players. We’ve always wanted to re-imagine our first VR title Untethered, and give it the ending its fans deserved. We were waiting for the right partners, and boy have we found them!” 

Area Man Lives is slated to arrive on 30th June 2020 for Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Valve Index headsets. It’ll feature original music from the comedy folk duo Future Folk, Jill Sobule (Supermodel) and more, with the soundtrack coming out on vinyl. As further updates are released, VRFocus will let you know.