Battlezone [Review: 8/10] is one of a handful of PlayStation VR (PSVR) titles celebrating a five month anniversary this March as the headset and its launch games near the half-year mark. In recognition of this, developer Rebellion is dumping a lot of free new content on you today.
Headlining this update are two new difficulty modes for the tank battler. The first, Beginner, is designed to help people struggling with the current modes but the second, Extreme, aims to push them even further. Think of the later as a Very Hard mode with a new trophy to earn for those that can see it through and three new tank loadouts for anyone that can complete it three times over.
There’s also a new weapon to help you tackle the challenge: a Railgun. It lets you charge up and then fire a massive blast that will deal lots of damage. You can use it against a new enemy, the Jet, which soars overhead and rains down machine gun fire upon you. Rebellion is also adding some new missions to the game set in lava-filled environments, and these will be all be free too.
There’s some premium additions too. The developer is offering bundles of Skins for tanks and Bobbleheads for your cockpit. It’s also got a new Bobblehead based on its PS2 shooter, Rogue Trooper, which it’s currently busy remastering for PlayStation 4.
If you haven’t already checked out Battlezone for PSVR then now might be the right time; we called it one of PSVR’s “brightest shining gems” when it released last October. “Battlezone offers super tight controls and immersive gameplay in a clean, attractive package that has easily become one of VR’s best titles,” Games Editor David Jagneaux said.
The game’s also due to launch on the Oculus Rift at some point in the future, though no word on an official release date yet.
Der englische Spielehersteller Rebellion bestätigte, dass Besitzer einer Oculus Rift bald das Spiel Battlezone in VR genießen dürfen. Eine Review für Playstation VR findet ihr hier.
Battlezone wird „in den nächsten Monaten“ für die Rift erscheinen
Auf dem Virutal Reality Evolution Event in London wurde die Neuigkeiten erstmals veröffentlicht. Der Senior Producer James Valls verkündete, dass das Veröffentlichungsdatum von Battlezone für die Rift innerhalb der nächsten Monate sein werde. Dadurch können sich alle Besitzer einer Oculus Rift bald in die futuristischen Panzergefechte begeben. Ein genaues Datum gab er jedoch leider noch nicht bekannt.
Dennoch geben die Nachrichten Anlass zur Freude für jeden Fan der Serie, denn die letzten Neuigkeiten zum Oculus Rift Support gab es 2015 auf der Entwicklerkonferenz Oculus Connect 2. Danach hielten sich die Entwickler bezüglich weiterer Informationen bedeckt.
Panzergefechte innerhalb der Virtual Reality
Battlezone ist eine Hommage an den gleichnamigen Atari Klassiker von 1980. Im damaligen Arcadespiel konnte man seinen Panzer innerhalb einer neongrünen Spielwelt in First-Person-Perspektive lenken und Jagd auf gegnerische Panzer machen. Dies war sowohl im Singleplayer als auch im Multiplayer Modus möglich. In der neuen Version hat sich einiges getan. Die heutige Grafik sieht zwar optisch nicht bahnbrechend aus, besticht jedoch durch die Retroästhetik. Nicht nur grafisch, sondern auch inhaltlich kann sich das Remake sehen lassen. Der Spieler kann je nach Spielart und Taktik zwischen unterschiedlichen Panzern wählen. Außerdem gibt es unzählige Upgrades zur Personalisierung der Fahrzeuge, wie lasergesteuerte Raketen, Schildboosts oder Maschinengewehre. Die Kampagne des Spiels ist für einen bis vier Spieler ausgelegt. Interessant dabei ist, ob es im Multiplayer Modus einen Cross-Realm-Support für Playstation VR, Oculus Rift und HTC Vive Nutzern geben wird. Bisher sind diesbezüglich noch keine Informationen veröffentlicht worden.
Selbstverständlich halten wir euch wie immer über neue Ankündigungen zum genauen Veröffentlichungsdatum oder Cross-Realm-Support auf dem Laufenden.
Sony Interactive Entertainment’s (SIE) PlayStation VR has got its fair share of exclusive videogames, Resident Evil 7 biohazard being one of the most well known. Another is launch day title Battlezone by Rebellion. But that’s soon to end as the studio has today confirmed Oculus Rift owners can expect to see it soon.
At the Virtual Reality Evolution event in London, UK, Rebellion’s James Valls said that Battlezone will be coming to Oculus ‘in the next few months’ enabling Rift users to engage in some futuristic tank combat.
Rebellion had confirmed way back in 2015, at the Oculus Connect 2 developer conference in Hollywood, California, that the title would support Oculus’ headset, but since then has kept quiet on when that was going to happen.
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.
With titles such as CCP Games’ EVE: Valkyrie showcasing the virtues of cross-platform support – allowing PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive users to fight it out – Rebellion has yet to say if it’ll be going down a similar route for its multiplayer mode.
As VRFocuslearns more about Rebellion’s Battlezone plans for Oculus Rift, we’ll report back.
VRFocus is a media partner of today’s Virtual Reality Evolution event, taking place in London. We’ve already seen a number of talks and discussions about virtual reality (VR)’s future and we’re on hand to bring you via liveblog this afternoon’s videogame related panel “The Gaming Experience”.
On the panel today are –
Sam Gage: A member of the BAFTA VR Advisory Group and the Lead Virtual Reality Designer at The Third Floor, Inc with experience in both VR and augmented reality (AR) titles.
Michael Hampden: Lead VR Designer at SCE London Studios who worked on PlayStation VR launch title Playstation VR Worlds.
James Valls, Senior Producer at Rebellion who oversaw work on the company’s PlayStation VR re-imagining of Battlezone.
Jolyon Leonard: Lead Designer at Force Field VR the Amsterdam-based dedicated VR studio.
Being dropped into the cockpit of various vehicles is one of the most fun and immersive experiences of VR. Whether in competitive arenas or in outer space, throwing on your VR headset and settling into your powerful ship or mech is empowering and fun. Estudiofuture specializes in 3D animation, video production, and VR experiences across educational and entertainment disciplines and their new game, Fusion Wars, is aiming to bring a white-knuckled arena shooter to the Samsung Gear (with an eventual Rift release also planned).
In Fusion Wars you pilot a tank in a futuristic arena with a very Tron-like aesthetic to it. Those aware of the PS VR exclusive, Battlezone, will immediately recognize the aesthetic. There are bright colors and sharp edges with not too many layers to the visuals, so it maintains a degree of simplicity and sameness across the levels. The sound is dominated by laser beams and rapid weapon fire coupled with explosions over the top of a song that is likely influenced by the most recent Tron: Legacy film. It seems a missed opportunity not to at least have a slight design difference and different music on the various levels.
The game has full (required) controller support, so you pilot a propelled tank that you can move forward and backward with your controller’s triggers. You boost and fire with your hands while you aim at your targets by turning your head and you take out enemies with two firing modes you switch between while seeking out an objective. It takes some getting use to, especially when attempting to move, aim, and fire in reverse, but it became second nature overtime.
Within the levels, you take on waves of different types of enemies and even a few boss-like tanks and structures as you return fire and pick up health to stay in the fight. You seek out fusion cores in order to move on to the next level, but you’ll have to take out all the enemy spawn gates in order to do so. The flow of gameplay takes place across four difficulty settings: Cadet, Agent, Legend, and Insane.
Fusion Wars is a co-operative experience on multiple levels. Immediately, the base experience is an online co-operative one and you can fuse with a teammate to create a super tank that one player fires from within while the other drives. In addition to that, the game is cross-purchase and cross-play, so once it’s available on Oculus, players can play on both devices and team up with players on either platform. While listed as only in Early Access right now, the game is mostly feature complete. It’s already looking like one of the better multiplayer titles on the Gear VR and it still has potential to grow further.
There’s a solid effort to tailor the comfort levels to different players via a moderate and high comfort setting in the options. With the moderate option, your sight is dimmed and narrowed as the tank turns and the max setting narrows your field of vision to an even higher degree. I experienced slight discomfort when moving at high-speeds on the middle setting, but none at all on the higher setting though it was annoying to have a reduced field of view when turning. The option can be turned off if you’re better acclimated to virtual experiences with this type of movement.
Final Score:7/10 – Good
Right now you have a capable and fun game that doesn’t sacrifice speed and excitement but includes design that makes it a comfortable experience for players at different points of acclimation to VR and on different platforms. I didn’t come across a great many players online, but the eventual Rift release along with the PvP patch should change that in a big way. At is there’s already a solid amount of content available and with the further updates and new players entering the fray from the Rift, the value will certainly be there.
Read our Game Review Guidelines for more information on how we arrived at this score. You can purchase Fusion Wars on the Oculus store for Gear VR at the price of $6.99.
