Category: Battlezone

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Battlezone Out Now for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive

After months of waiting Oculus Rift and HTC Vive owners will now be able to play Rebellion’s tank-based shooter Battlezone which has officially launched today.

Originally a PlayStation VR day one title, Battlezone puts players in the cockpit of a futuristic tank called the Cobra, taking it into battle against a myriad of opponents, including other small to heavy tanks, minelayers, flying drones and UFO’s. Battlezone is a homage to the original 1980 title by Atari and there’s even an option to recreate the original graphics.

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Featuring both single-player and mutiplayer co-op modes, Battlezone has procedurally generated levels so each play through is different, with maps offering small, medium and large options. There’s also several tanks to chose from with more to be unlocked as players progress. Additionally, there’s a wealth of customisation options available, from decking out the tank in new designs to various weapon loadouts and upgrades for the best destructive capabilities.

For the PC release the studio has optimized Battlezone for Oculus Rift with Touch and HTC Vive, offering new features such as ultra-high resolution textures, customisable super-sampling and higher resolution shadow maps. The title also includes all the updates from the Playstation VR version.

Available on the Oculus Store, Steam and through Rebellion’s own website, for the launch the studio is offering a 15 percent discount for early adopters, dropping the price from £29.99 GBP down to £25.49. Steam lists the discount ending on 18th May, while the Rebellion store has the offer ending on 17th May.

VRFocus reviewed the HTC Vive version of Battlezone, giving the maximum 5-stars, stating: “PlayStation VR owners have been enjoying Battlezone for months, if you own an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive you don’t need to have second thoughts about this, Battlezone is one of the best VR titles out there.”

VRFocus will continue its coverage of Battlezone, reporting back with the latest updates.

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Review: Battlezone

For the launch of Sony Interactive Entertainment’s (SIE’s) PlayStation VR, British studio Rebellion brought Atari’s classic 80’s title Battlezone into the 21st century. A tank-based shooter set in a cyber reality that’s hard not to compare to films like Tron, Battlezone now supports Oculus Rift and HTC Vive (reviewed) so their owners get to see what they’ve been missing out on, and they’re likely to be very impressed.

Straight from the off, Battlezone lets you know what it is and what you’ll be doing – if you’ve managed to avoid coverage like this. There are no fancy intro screens, video’s, or elongated fluff to wade through, as soon as the videogame starts you’re sat in a hulking tank with lights, screens, levers and all sorts dotted around you. Everything feels and looks solid, giving an overwhelming sense of power and control at your finger tips. The tank design is highly stylized, especially the environments, but the inside isn’t too OTT that this couldn’t be some futuristic concept vehicle.

Battlezone image

To begin with you’ll have three tanks to chose from, Light, Medium, and Heavy, each with its own loadout and particular strengths and weaknesses. As you progress through the title you’ll be able to unlock not only more tanks but a wide array of customisations to swap weaponry and increase its effectiveness for those harder difficulty levels. This is an area Battlezone excels at, Rebellion has really gone all out to offer as much flexibility as possible.

But to play around with all of that you need to kill some enemies and find supply points on the map, there’s no hot swapping, adding a further tactical element to the proceedings. First off, you can either go in solo or head into multiplayer. If you’re playing single-player then you can select a range of map options (size, difficulty) and Battlezone will procedurally generate one – so everytime you play will be different – as such vital locations like supply points will be randomly placed. Doesn’t sound like too much bother does it? That’s until you realise that you need to get to the map’s end location – a central AI core housed in a volcano – as quickly as possible or the Nemesis tank will be unleashed – souped up enemy that will test your driving skills to the limit, so taking diversions have to be weighted up.

Even with all these options, when it comes down to it, what is Battlezone like to play? Two words, intense and addictive. Battlezone is essentially a first-person shooter (FPS), so you can actually strafe in a tank to duck behind cover, quickly swap between various weapon attachments and bomb around the arenas to your hearts content. Controls feel snappy and agile, with the light tank able to quickly nip between cover, while the heavy tank soaks up the damage without feeling too cumbersome.

battlezone new featuresBattlezone is arcade VR action at its finest, with options galore allowing players to uniquely hone their combat strategies. With both extensive single-player and multiplayer modes there’s enough here for countless hours of gameplay, so you can comfortably sit cocooned inside these rolling machines of destruction and never get bored, because quite frankly, it’s too much fun. PlayStation VR owners have been enjoying Battlezone for months, if you own an Oculus Rift or HTC Vive you don’t need to have second thoughts about this, Battlezone is one of the best VR titles out there.

100%

Awesome

  • Verdict
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NVIDIA Launches Game Ready Driver for Rebellion’s Battlezone

Graphics card manufacturer NVIDIA is a massive supporter of virtual reality (VR) – as it helps to sell products – and one of the ways it does so is through regular launches of Game Ready drivers, ensuring its cards are suitably optimized for the latest videogames. Today’s latest batch of drivers sees dedicated support for Rebellion’s tank-based shooter Battlezone.  

While the Game Ready driver is now available for PC users, the actual title hasn’t yet launched. Rebellion held a week long closed beta for Battlezone last month, allowing Oculus Rift and HTC Vive players a glimpse at what’s to come – PlayStation VR owners have been able to enjoy the title since launch day.

Battlezone image

Since the beta closed the studio hasn’t revealed when it plans to launch the shooter for PC users, but with the Game Ready driver now available that could occur fairly soon. NVIDIA’s last driver release happened towards the end of April, with Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality, Wilson’s Heart and Batman Arkham VR all featuring. At the time the latter two hadn’t actually launched.

The PC version of Battlezone will see improvements over its console sibling, with updated higher resolution textures and other graphical additions. While Oculus Rift users will also get support for Oculus Touch included.

If you’ve not been following VRFocus’ coverage of Battlezone, its an homage to Atari’s classic 1980 arcade game of the same name, a neon drenched first-person tank warfare videogame which features both single-player and multiplayer modes. There are a variety of tanks available depending on your play style and masses of upgrades on hand to personally tweak vehicles as needed.

VRFocus will continue its coverage of Battlezone, reporting back with the latest updates from Rebellion.

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Polybius – The Urban Legend Made Real

Developer Llamasoft recently announced that they were launching a new videogame for the PlayStation VR, a ‘trance shooter’ titled Polybius. The title raised some eyebrows among those of us with an interest in videogame history.

Polybius is a gaming urban legend dating back to the early days of videogame arcades. The story has spread amongst videogaming communities since the 1980s, but it was the advent of UseNet that allowed the rumour to explode to such an extent that it is known of all over the world.

The story goes that there was, in certain American arcades, a mysterious arcade cabinet containing a game called ‘Polybius’. In versions of the story where gameplay is described, it plays much like Tempest. Players who experienced the cabinet began to experience strange symptoms: migraines, memory loss, nightmares, nausea. Then, silent grim-faced men in black suits would show up to collect data from the arcade cabinet for unknown purposes.

It makes a good spooky story, of course. The reality is probably considerably more mundane. Early test builds of Tempest had the tunnel spinning while the ship and lane remained in place, but this version was known to cause vertigo and motion sickness in some playtesters – symptoms that are sadly all-too-familiar to players of modern virtual reality (VR). If any of these early versions managed to escape into the wild, well, it sounds like a great basis for an urban legend to me.

It’s also pretty curious that one of Llamasoft’s previous titles was Tempest 2000, a remake of the old Atari arcade videogame, which was likely responsible for the whole rumour in the first place. And with the new VR Polybius looking as trippy as psychedelic as it does, it certainly seems to fit the theme.

Polybius screenshot 1

Nor are Llamasoft the only ones on the VR gaming area to play with old urban legends in their new titles. The 1980 arcade title Battlezone had its own set of rumours, namely that it was possible to drive outside the edge of the map and climb the mountains to reach a volcano and a castle. Nonsense, of course, since 1980 vector graphics were not even remotely capable of this. Didn’t stop people spending fruitless hours trying, though, to the point where Atari had to introduce a feature in later versions where an instant death missile would strike the player if they spent too long without shooting anything.

Amusingly, though, is that in Rebellion’s VR remake, what is the final mission? Why, a volcano, of course! After all these years, Battlezone players can finally drive up those tantalising mountains and explore the volcano.

What other urban legends will come to life in VR? Only time will tell.VRFocus will, of course, tell you if and when they do.

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Battlezone PC Impressions: Rift And Vive Finally Get A Great VR Tank Combat Game, Now Available

Battlezone PC Impressions: Rift And Vive Finally Get A Great VR Tank Combat Game, Now Available

Update: Battlezone is now available on Steam for Rift and Vive and on Oculus Home for Rift. The list price is $39.99, but is currently 15% off as a launch discount.

Battlezone from Rebellion was absolutely one of the best PlayStation VR (PSVR) launch titles when Sony’s headset launched late last year. It combined the immersive power of sitting in a cockpit in VR with the thrill of engaging in intense combat all wrapped up in a retro-futuristic vibe that bled 80s nostalgia. The original Battlezone was re-envisioned through the lens of a Tron-like dystopia.

When we heard that the tank combat game would finally be making its way to the more powerful PC-powered Rift and Vive headsets, we were excited to take it for a spin. The beta has been running strong for the past week (it ended yesterday) and after spending some time with it, we’re coming away very happy with where the title is headed.

Fundamentally it’s the exact same game. You still sit forward-facing in a chair with no need to move your head more than 180-degrees. You still have a controller in your hand (I played on an Oculus Rift mostly using an Xbox One controller, although there is motion controller support) and you still play through a semi-randomized assortment of levels for each campaign. But it just feels better to play this time around.

The PSVR is the least powerful of the big three VR devices and a side-by-side comparison of Battlezone on Sony’s headset and then Oculus’ headset really proves that point. Textures are much higher resolution and everything from shadows to lighting are improved. The feeling of reaching out and interacting with the console inside a futuristic super tank via motion controller will be surreal for players, but I think the most reliable and effective way to play the game will still be with a trusty gamepad.

For those that passed on following Battlezone since it was only on PSVR previously, the game lets you play with up to four total other players. You can play alone with AI partners, search for people online, or play with friends, but no matter which you pick communication is extremely important. Combat is fast and intense, but also incredibly tactical. Maneuvering the battlefield and knowing when to use your turbo to slide out of the way of enemy fire is extremely important.

Instead of playing through a series of predefined missions, the game is actually procedurally generated as well. You can adjust the game length and difficulty before starting, then a board is created with various missions, events, and objectives spread across. This way no two games are ever the same. As you play you can unlock new weapons, customize your tank, and take ownership of your journey to topple the enemy.

What we played felt about as close to finalized as you can get for an unreleased game. For more information about Battlezone you can read our original review here and look forward to a release on the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive very soon.

What do you think of this game finally making its way to PC VR headsets? Let us know down in the comments below!

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VRTV: Cyber Tanks, Traditional Tales and… Bill Gates?

Thursday means it’s time once again for your scheduled update of the headlines from the last week courtesy of VRTV, and this on this episode there’s quite the mix of stories for Nina to go through. With everything from new Betas and multiplayer updates for established game titles. To a new party game, a new virtual reality (VR) rendition of a traditional story and one of computing’s biggest names is getting into the Gear VR in a big way.

Click the video below for Nina’s round-up. You can find out more information about the stories mentioned via the links below.

On this week’s VRTV:

VRTV will back on VRFocus at the same time next week, and also on Tuesday where you can catch Nina’s VR review. Check out this week’s review of Lone Echo here.

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Future Tank Warfare Heads To PC, Battlezone PC Beta Announced For Oculus Rift And HTC Vive

One of the highlights of the PlayStation VR’s launch line-up was undoubtedly the return of Battlezone. The classic tank warfare game which gained a new lease of life via virtual reality (VR) thanks to Oxford-based, UK developers Rebellion. Best known for their work on the Sniper Elite series of games.

The good news for VR PC owners is that they too will be soon be able to enter the procedurally-generated fray thanks to a forthcoming Beta release for both the (previously announced) Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. The closed Beta, set to launch on Wednesday, 19th April 2017 and last for a week will be accepting registrations via the Battlezone website until this coming Thursday, 13th April. After which a limited number of users will be chosen to take part

Rebellion have confirmed the PC version, optimised for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, will contain updated higher resolution textures and other graphical features, whilst Rift users will also see support added for Oculus Touch. Improvements and content previously released as updates for the PlayStation VR version will also be included and customisation DLC on the PlayStation Store will also be made available on the Oculus and Steam stores.

However, for those hoping for news on cross-play between PSVR and PC versions unfortunately no mention was made of this in Rebellion’s press release.

VRFocus hope to bring you impressions of the PC version of Battlezone, and how it handles compared to its PlayStation VR counterpart very soon.

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Rebellion rolls out large content update for Battlezone

PlayStation VR launch title Battlezone will today receive a large content patch courtesy of developers Rebellion. The update will introduce new playable content as well as new cosmetic items.

The videogame is getting two new difficulty settings on either end of the spectrum. New players or those struggling with the game can enable Beginner level, while hardcore experts can go for Extreme level. Both of these will be free, and for those who take on Extreme level, beating it will net the player a new Trophy and a new tank loadout. There are three new tank loadouts to collect in all, which will require players to beat Extreme level three times to get them all.

Battlezone

As usual for a Battlezone update, new levels, maps and events will be made available for free. The development team have said the new levels will be ‘swimming in lava’ so expect those new levels to form part of end game content. There’s also two new missions called ‘King of the Hill’ and ‘Conquest’, though Rebellion have not yet offered details of what they will consist of.

A new enemy and a new weapon are also being added: the Jet – a fast, powerful, but fragile new foe, and the Railgun, which requires charging before firing a single powerful blast. Cosmetic items such as new bobble-heads to decorate your tank with as well as new skins to give your tank a unique look, are also included.

Battlezone Classic Mode_2

In addition, Rebellion has announced that players will have the opportunity to ‘Play with the Devs’ in special sessions, which can be found in the Events tab on the PlayStation 4 menu.

The last Battlezone update came in December 2016, featuring Classic Mode, harking back to the original design. Last month saw Rebellion confirm an Oculus Rift version was in the works, although the studio hasn’t revealed a release date yet.

VRFocus will bring you further updates on Battlezone and other PlayStation VR games when they come in.