Audica – Page 2 – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

November 1, 2019

The VR Game Launch Roundup: Guns, Golems & Galaxies – Start new Adventures this November

As the run-up to Christmas begins, the virtual reality (VR) offerings are at an all-time high, with first-person shooters (FPS) and rhythm-action titles particularly popular this week. Make sure to check out our accompanying video and keep following our various social media feeds to get all the latest VR news and updates.

Galactic Rangers VR – DGMA

In this first-person space adventure, immerse yourself into an epic space battle fight your way through endless hordes of enemies and asteroids as you venture deep into space. Made in the spirit of many classic arcade cabinet games, this fast-paced VR extravaganza features a range of different weapons and powerups to assist your adventure.

Supported platforms: Oculus Rift/HTC Vive/Windows Mixed Reality
Launch date: 5^th November

Audica – Harmonix Music Systems

A mixture of Beat Saber and the classic Shoot ‘em Up’s, set in a huge galactic arena, you fire at different oncoming targets to an original soundtrack. Currently, in early access, the videogame in its present form features 24 tracks of Harmonix’s award-winning music gameplay. This VR “rhythm shooter” features an online leader board, a range of difficulty levels, practice mode and additional environments and weapons.

Supported platforms: PlayStation VR
Launch date: 5^th November

Into the Radius – CM Games

Mobile game studio, Creative Mobile (CM Games) presents its first VR title in the form of Into the Radius. In this single-player shooter, utilise a range of realistic guns with equally realistic mechanics to survive in this cold, open-world, post-apocalyptic, ex-soviet setting featuring both a campaign and ‘free-roam’ mode. Currently, in Early Access, the final game is to have over 15 hours of playable storyline.

Supported platforms: Oculus Rift/HTC Vive/Valve Index
Launch date: 6^th November

Pistol Whip – Cloudhead Games

The newest addition to the ever-growing rhythm-action genre for VR comes Pistol Whip. New from Cloudhead Games, the studio behind The Gallery series, this is an action-rhythm first-person experience where users shoot, melee and avoid targets to your own choice of song. Designed as a ‘pick up and play’ title, Pistol Whip features a simple control scheme and each scene features its own unique soundtrack. Challenge and compete with your opponent’s thanks to online leaderboards and with top-notch comfort-first game design, you are guaranteed an enjoyable experience without the risk of motion sickness.

Supported platforms: Oculus Quest/Oculus Rift/HTC Vive/Valve Index
Launch date: 7^th November

Golem – CM Games

In this new PlayStation VR exclusive, you play as an injured child, Twine, who has developed an extraordinary ability. While completely bedridden, you have the power to see the world through the eyes of stone golems. You are able to control their movements, as you explore the ruins of an abandoned city and collect artefacts on your travels. First announced back in 2015, this long-awaited title also featuring a new original soundtrack from Destiny and Halo composer, Marty O’Donnell.

Supported platforms: PlayStation VR
Launch date: 8^th November

October 8, 2019

PlayStation VR Marks Third Anniversary With Game Sale & Updates

Next week will be the third anniversary of PlayStation VR’s launch and Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) wasn’t going to let that pass by without some sort of celebration. To mark the occasion, SIE has announced a special PlayStation VR Anniversary Sale, updates on some of the titles coming to the headset, as well as the most popular experience in Europe and North America.

To start with, players can look forward to some interesting new videogames while some others have been given launch dates/windows:

Bonfire – Baobob Studios – 22nd October
Audica – Harmonix – 5th November
Paper Beast – Pixel Reef – Early 2020
Pixel Ripped 1995 – ARVORE – Spring 2020
The Room VR: A Dark Matter – Fireproof Games – Spring 2020

As for the top ten PlayStation VR experiences from each region, they are:

North America	Europe
The Playroom VR	The Playroom VR
PlayStation VR Worlds	PlayStation VR Worlds
Until Dawn: Rush of Blood	Resident Evil 7 Biohazard
Resident Evil 7 biohazard	Until Dawn: Rush of Blood
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR	Gran Turismo Sport
Beat Saber	Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare Jackal Assault VR Experience
Job Simulator	The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR
Batman: Arkham VR	Astro Bot Rescue Mission
Superhot VR	Farpoint
Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare Jackal Assault VR Experience	Driveclub VR

Last but not least is the PlayStation VR Anniversary Sale. For Europe the sale starts tomorrow 9th – 23rd October, while in North America the sale has already begun, ending 22nd October: With savings up to 60 percent off, here are the EU titles on sale:

PlayStation VR’s actual anniversary is on 13th October, so there could be some other surprises in store this weekend. For further updates, keep reading VRFocus.

October 1, 2019

Audica Is Coming To Oculus Quest Later This Year

Announced at Oculus Connect 6 last week, Harmonix’s music shooter Audica is coming to the Oculus Quest sometime this year.

Just Announced at #OC6: #AUDICA is coming to the @Oculus Quest this year! pic.twitter.com/KGMxUUGxpS

— Harmonix (@Harmonix) September 25, 2019

Released in early access on SteamVR and Oculus Home for Rift earlier in the year, we had mixed feelings about the game. The gameplay is clearly inspired by Beat Saber, and offers “plenty to sink your teeth into” for fans of rhythm games. However, ultimately David noted that “if you’re picky about styles of music or already enamored with Beat Saber, we don’t think there is enough here to pull you in just yet.” That being said, it’s an early access release and still in development, so we didn’t give it a final score.

Despite still being in early access on PC VR, the game is now also coming to the Oculus Quest at an unspecified date before the end of the year.

There’s a lot going on for the rhythm shooter at the moment. This Quest announcement comes hot off the back of a similar announcement for a PSVR release coming in the fall. The game also released an update last week which featured a Borderlands 3 tie-in. The update lets players use the Maliwan Pistol from Borderlands 3 in Audica, although the item is just an aesthetic one and doesn’t change the gameplay in any way. The update also featured some minor changes as well, including Twitch chat integration.

Have you tried out Audica? What did you think? For those Quest and PSVR owners who haven’t, will you pick up the title when it launches in the next few months? Let us know in the comments below.

The post Audica Is Coming To Oculus Quest Later This Year appeared first on UploadVR.

September 30, 2019

Borderlands 3 Guns In VR Via Harmonix’s Audica!

The post Borderlands 3 Guns In VR Via Harmonix’s Audica! appeared first on UploadVR.

August 28, 2019November 5, 2019

Rhythm Shooter ‘Audica’ Launches on PSVR with 4 Exclusive Songs

Harmonix, the veteran music game studio behind the Guitar Hero series, released their latest VR game Audica on PC VR in Early Access back in March. PSVR users have been patient, but now the unique shooter-meets-rhythm game is available today on PSVR.

Update (November 5th, 2019): Audica is now available on PSVR. In addition to the songs listed in the article below, the PSVR launch includes 4 free songs exclusive to the platform:

asms – “Reeds of Mitatrush”

Darren Korb ft. Ashley Barrett – “We All Become (from the Transistor: Original Soundtrack)”

James Egbert ft. Nina Sung – “Exit Wounds”

James Landino – “Funky Computer”

The studio is also making five downloadable songs available right away, purchasable on their own or as a package deal.

5 Seconds of Summer – “Youngblood”

Ariana Grande – “Into You”

Billie Eilish – “bad guy”

Imagine Dragons – “Believer”

Post Malone – “Better Now”

The original article announcing its fall launch window follows below.

Original Article (August 28th, 2019): Harmonix released the news on a PS blogpost, saying that Audica will arrive on the PSVR platform sometime this Fall.

The studio says they will reveal more details surrounding exact date, price, and full soundtrack in the coming months (see update).

At launch, Audica is said to include four arenas, a variety of blasters, a suite of customization options to personalize the gameplay experience, and a campaign taking you through the game’s 30+ song soundtrack.

We had the opportunity to go deep in our first preview of the game before it hit Steam and the Oculus Store ($20) a few months ago. The studio has since pushed several quality of life updates and included more and more songs to its playable soundtrack.

As the PlayStation platform doesn’t have any official Early Access program, we imagine Audica will likely launch out of Early Access on Steam/Oculus Store shortly afterwards.

Check out the trailer below:

The post Rhythm Shooter ‘Audica’ Launches on PSVR with 4 Exclusive Songs appeared first on Road to VR.

August 28, 2019

Harmonix’s Audica Is Coming To PSVR Later This Year

Rock Band developer Harmonix’s second PSVR title is on the way.

A port of its likable music shooter, Audica, will hit Sony’s headset later this fall. The company confirmed as much on the PlayStation Blog earlier today, though a specific date wasn’t given.

https://youtu.be/VyTbiFfss8o

Audica VR Rhythm Announcement Trailer – Harmonix (https://youtu.be/VyTbiFfss8o)

Audica is a little like a shooter version of, you guessed it, Beat Saber. The game has you blasting notes with different colored pistols to the tune of a beat. The game will launch with all four arenas and over 30 songs.

Artists include Dragonforce, DEADMAU5 and Knife Party and Harmonix says there’s more to come. It’s not clear if these will be via free updates or paid DLC.

Indeed, the game is currently in Early Access on PC and has had a host of songs added since launch. There’s also a level editor and a full campaign. Harmonix confirmed to UploadVR that the PSVR version will be feature-complete with the PC edition at launch. The PC version should also come out of Early Access when the game hits PlayStation.

In our Early Access review of the game (which we didn’t score), we took issue with Audica’s small number of tracks. We did, however, think the game was visually arresting. It could just do with being more intuitive. Hopefully we’ll find a more rounded product later on in the year.

While Harmonix has made a lot of VR games at this point, many of them have been exclusive to Oculus platforms. Audica is only the second Harmonix VR game to hit PSVR since its headset launch title, Harmonix Music VR.

The post Harmonix’s Audica Is Coming To PSVR Later This Year appeared first on UploadVR.

August 28, 2019

Rhythm Shooter Audica is Coming to PlayStation VR in 2019

This may be plainly obvious but rhythm action videogames in virtual reality (VR) are quite popular, very popular in fact. Back in the day, Harmonix was a leader in the genre thanks to Rock Band and then entered the VR arena with Audica for PC headsets. Today, Harmonix has confirmed a Playstation VR version is in the works and due out by the end of the year.

Audica

Unlike the most popular rhythm action title at the moment Beat Saber, in Audica there’s no hacking and slashing, instead you’re armed with two guns, one blue one orange. It’s pretty much about precision target shooting to a beat, hitting a variety of single and multiple colour shaded targets to a soundtrack featuring some of the best artists in the pop and EDM space.

Harmonix plans on having four arenas and a selection of blasters to choose from, as well as a suite of customisation options to personalize the gameplay experience. There will also be a fully complete campaign mode including over 30 songs:

1788-L & Blanke “Destiny”
AU5 & Fractal “Smoke”
Alison Wonderland “I Want U”
Donna Summer “I Feel Love (Afrojack Remix)”
DJ Fresh ft. Ms.Dynamite “Gold Dust”
James Egbert “The Space”
Jeff Allen “Lazerface”
Savant “Splinter”
Noisia “Collider”
Zedd & Grey “Adrenaline”

Audica

“Audica has been a passion project created by a small team of dreamers within Harmonix who set out to answer one very important question: Wouldn’t it be awesome to feel like an action movie star with the coolest soundtrack choreographing everything you do?” notes Jessa Brezinski Product Manager, Harmonix on PlayStation Blog.

Harmonix has still to reveal the exact date, price and song list for the PlayStation VR launch, just that it’ll happen later this year. When that occurs VRFocus will let you know.

June 10, 2019

E3 2019: Harmonix Announces DLC Plans For Dance Central VR And Audica

During our E3 VR Showcase today Harmonix announced that both its dancing VR game Dance Central and shooter-themed musical rhythm game Audica are getting new DLC releases.

For Dance Central the new DLC features include an official fitness app to track calories burned while playing and stats over time. They’re also evolving the game so that NPCs can challenge you to dance as well instead of just your real life friends to make unlocking new gear easier. And finally, Harmonix will be releasing six brand new songs for the game bringing the overall total up from 32 to 38. All of this is coming to both Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift platforms. For more on Dance Central, make sure and read our full review of the Quest version.

For Audica, the updates are quite a bit different. Since the game is still in Early Access its updates have been far more frequent with 10 total so far to date. Now later this month, it’s due to get its biggest update yet. The new update includes all-new songs, a new environment to play in, new weapons to alter the gameplay, and a revamped leaderboard.

Today, Audica is also getting an in-game editor to remix included songs which should offer enhanced replayability. Players can even share their custom song maps with the community as well. There’s even a community contest with prizes for custom maps.

Harmonix seems very committed to improving and updating both of these games, which is a great sign. Combined with the updates that Beat Saber continues to receive now is a good time to be a music game fan in VR.

Tagged with: Audica, Dance Central, Dance Central VR, e3, E3 2019, E3 VR 2019, Harmonix

The post E3 2019: Harmonix Announces DLC Plans For Dance Central VR And Audica appeared first on UploadVR.

April 15, 2019

‘Audica’ Adds Official Support for Custom Beat Maps (Using the Game’s OST)

Harmonix has officially released tools and documentation that will help users modify beat maps for Audica (2019), the studio’s recently released futuristic ‘rhythm shooter’.

The new system was created to allow players to re-use Audica’s existent soundtrack, and while the studio calls it “the first step” in creating a more streamlined ‘Audica Creator Initiative’, it’s unlikely we’ll ever see official support for custom tracks. A more laissez faire mod system, tantamount to how Beat Saber (2018) allows mods on PC, could land the studio in some unwanted trouble, the studio says.

“We strive to provide you with the best licensed music in our games, and we cannot jeopardize our partnership with the music industry by supporting or condoning IP infringement of any kind, including mods or customs that use and distribute copyrighted music without the proper licenses,” a Harmonix Discord mod says.

The studio says their long-term goal is to make Community Maps easier to access from within the game itself, possibly by letting users download and rate maps without leaving the headset.

“How far we go in developing this feature will depend on your feedback, so tell us what you think and let’s make something awesome!” the studio says in a blog post.

How to Download & Play Community Maps

Harmonix plans on streamlining this process in the future. With its most recent update though, Audica now features a folder in its game files where users can drop downloaded Community Maps; you’ll also find the tools and instructions for authoring maps there too.

Here’s the default folder location for both the Steam and Oculus Store versions:

Steam: /steamapps/common/Audica/community_maps
Oculus Store: /Software/Software/harmonix-project-k/community_maps

Community Maps for Audica’s OST can be found in the #audica-community-maps channel of the official Discord server (invite).

Simply download whatever Community Map you want to play and drag into the game folder community_maps/maps/. Make sure the file name follows the format [short songname]_[map name].[filetype] in order for the map to be read by the game. Eg: destiny_awwbees – Hyper Mode.mid.

Start up the game, and you should see the new map has been added automatically.

Harmonix has also posted a basic guide on how to create custom maps on the Audica website, however the studio maintains users unfamiliar beat map creation “may find the process has a steep learning curve.”

If you’re looking for more help outside of the included instructional file, the company’s Discord server is a good place to start (invite above). Mods aren’t allowing talk about custom tracks though, so you may need to look elsewhere if you’re dead set on blasting away to your favorite songs.

The post ‘Audica’ Adds Official Support for Custom Beat Maps (Using the Game’s OST) appeared first on Road to VR.

April 11, 2019

Harmonix Adds Official Modding Support for Audica

For those looking for a musical change away from Beat Saber then Harmonix’s latest Audica may just scratch that rhythm action itch. This week the studio has released the next update for the virtual reality (VR) title, embracing the creative modding community by introducing Community Maps.

Audica

Harmonix has released authoring tools and documentation for Audica, allowing players to create fully-supported, alternate target maps for the soundtrack. “We’ve been listening and heard that you all want more support for custom content, and today marks the first step in what we’re internally calling “the AUDICA Creator Initiative” with the introduction of Community Maps,” states the studio in a press release. “Our goal is to provide a platform for our incredibly creative modding community to showcase their talents to all of AUDICA’s players.”

The studio goes into detail in a blog posting, with the core of it being that to make Community Maps you’ll need a basic understanding of Reaper to proceed. Any maps made can then be shared on the Harmonix Discord channel for others to download and play. Plus, maps automatically get official leaderboards.

Or for those that just want to play the maps, head to the same Discord channel and find the #audica-community-maps sub-channel. Being an early access title this process on Audica isn’t particularly streamlined which Harmonix is planning to improve in the future. For now, you’ll just have to carefully follow the blog instructions.

Audica

After the release of Rock Band VR in 2017 Harmonix return to the VR scene last month with a first-person shooter (FPS) style rhythm game called Audica. Gameplay involves two guns, one orange and one blue, with which to shoot a variety of single and multiple colour shaded targets.

“Audica is a bold experiment by Harmonix, trying to mix up the rhythm action genre with mechanics that only VR can truly provide. It really does sit on a knife edge between standout gameplay design that keeps you on your toes and just being overwhelmingly complicated, assaulting your senses from every direction,” VRFocus wrote in its preview.

As further updates are released for Audica, VRFocus will keep you posted.