Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan announced today that the company is laying off 900 PlayStation employees, or around eight percent of the company, which will affect a number of its first-party game studios. This includes the closure of Sony’s London Studio, which created VR action-adventure game Blood & Truth (2019).
Ryan announced the news in a company-wide email today, noting that layoffs will affect a number of PlayStation studios across across the Americas, EMEA, Japan, and APAC.
The email wasn’t specific on where the layoffs will occur, with employees in the US expected to be notified today at some point. In the UK, the company says PlayStation’s London Studio will “close in its entirety.”
As the studio behind PSVR exclusive Blood & Truth, PlayStation’s London Studio was last working on an unannounced online co-op combat game, set in modern fantasy London. It’s expected the game is now cancelled as a result of the studio’s closing.
Ryan says headcount reductions will also affect Firesprite, the studio behind the Horizon franchise, including PSVR 2 exclusive Horizon Call of the Mountain.
This follows recent news that Sony is making PSVR 2 officially compatible with PC VR games, as the company hopes to release some sort of PC support for the headset later this year. Reading between the lines somewhat, it seems Sony is strategically scaling back on first-party content right now, which means an uncertain future for the sort of anchor content PSVR 2 needs as its heads into its second year.
This story is breaking. We’ll be updating soon once it’s more clear exactly which studios in the US are also involved.
Obviously, the PSVR headset is not capable of 4K visuals, but this boost to the native resolution, performance, and everything else will result in a much sharper, clearer, and more detailed image inside the headset still.
Another bottleneck here is that, in my experience, when you have a PSVR headset plugged into the PS5, the share function does not allow you to capture 4K footage directly like it does in non-VR games. I haven’t been able to test if that is still the case here or not. This shouldn’t affect things for playing, but it makes it difficult to show what it’s like for others to see.
We already covered this news, but we’ve got a lot more specific details now from PlayStation London Studios’ Technical Director, Bruno Ribeiro. Here’s what he had to say:
“Blood & Truth uses dynamic resolution in all platforms, that means that it adapts its internal resolution to the action so that we achieve a perfect frame rate at all times. The PS4 Pro version tops out at 1440p (2560×1440) and on PS5 we allow it to go up to 4K (3840×2160). Even though the PSVR display is only 1080p, all those extra pixels will be combined for a higher quality final result!
Like most high end PSVR games, Blood & Truth on PS4 runs at 60 frames per second, with a re-projected 120hz output on the headset. On PS5, it runs at 90 frames per second, with a 90hz output, leading to a more responsive game and better image quality under motion.
On PS4, we use different levels of detail for assets depending on distance and scene complexity. On PS5 we use the highest detail version available at all times…We’ve tweaked this on PS5 to force higher quality output across the whole game.
The increased speed from the PS5’s SSD (solid state drive) also means we can load textures much more quickly, so as you move around the levels we can stream the best possible resolution. It’s things like this that make the game world come alive!”
Hopefully more PSVR games get this kind of treatment. Upping the resolution, framerate, and texture quality across a large chunk of the library would make the PS5 a much more appealing purchase for PSVR gamers.
Let us know what you think down in the comments below!
Obviously, the PSVR headset is not capable of 4K visuals, but this boost to the native resolution, performance, and everything else will result in a much sharper, clearer, and more detailed image inside the headset still.
Another bottleneck here is that, in my experience, when you have a PSVR headset plugged into the PS5, the share function does not allow you to capture 4K footage directly like it does in non-VR games. I haven’t been able to test if that is still the case here or not. This shouldn’t affect things for playing, but it makes it difficult to show what it’s like for others to see.
We already covered this news, but we’ve got a lot more specific details now from PlayStation London Studios’ Technical Director, Bruno Ribeiro. Here’s what he had to say:
“Blood & Truth uses dynamic resolution in all platforms, that means that it adapts its internal resolution to the action so that we achieve a perfect frame rate at all times. The PS4 Pro version tops out at 1440p (2560×1440) and on PS5 we allow it to go up to 4K (3840×2160). Even though the PSVR display is only 1080p, all those extra pixels will be combined for a higher quality final result!
Like most high end PSVR games, Blood & Truth on PS4 runs at 60 frames per second, with a re-projected 120hz output on the headset. On PS5, it runs at 90 frames per second, with a 90hz output, leading to a more responsive game and better image quality under motion.
On PS4, we use different levels of detail for assets depending on distance and scene complexity. On PS5 we use the highest detail version available at all times…We’ve tweaked this on PS5 to force higher quality output across the whole game.
The increased speed from the PS5’s SSD (solid state drive) also means we can load textures much more quickly, so as you move around the levels we can stream the best possible resolution. It’s things like this that make the game world come alive!”
Hopefully more PSVR games get this kind of treatment. Upping the resolution, framerate, and texture quality across a large chunk of the library would make the PS5 a much more appealing purchase for PSVR gamers.
Let us know what you think down in the comments below!
The 23rd annual D.I.C.E. Awards were held this week and there were some surprising winners and losers across the various categories, not least the virtual reality (VR) sections. While big-name titles like Hideo Kojima’s Death Stranding only took home two awards from eight nominations, Cloudhead Games and Sony London Studio were the big VR winners from the event.
In the category of ‘Immersive Reality Technical Achievement’, Asgard’s Wrath, Blood & Truth, Pistol Whip, Stormlandand Westworld Awakening were all nominated. Blood & Truthwas the eventual winner.
One of VRFocus’favourite PlayStation VR titles of 2019, Blood & Truth mixes high action gameplay with a tightly woven storyline and cinematic cutscenes as you play a Special Forces officer trying to take down a crime lord. It got a full five-star review: “While you don’t have the freedom of Borderlands 2 VR for example, with Blood & Truth you have a far more focused videogame that knows what it wants to achieve, and that’s put a smile on your face. From start to finish Blood & Truth is one hell of a ride, a finely choreographed John Woo movie that’s all about sheer entertainment.”
The other category was ‘Immersive Reality Game of the Year’ with Asgard’s Wrath, Blood & Truth, Pistol Whip, The Curious Tale of the Stolen Petsand Trover Saves the Universe all up for the coveted award. That went to Cloudhead Games’ rhythm-action shooter Pistol Whip a videogame which has received lots of positive feedback from players. VRFocus’ review went onto say: “Pistol Whip is huge amounts of fun even on the easiest difficulty setting, suitable for VR players no matter their skill level.”
Pistol Whip arrived in November 2019 supporting Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Valve Index and Windows Mixed Reality headsets. December saw the studio release the “High Priestess Update” adding a new scene and updating the modifiers. Cloudhead Games recently released a new scene called “Akuma”, inspired by the Neo-Tokyo of anime action classics like Akira and Ghost in the Shell. The update also laid the groundwork for monthly content updates, each including a free new scene, leading up to the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2020.
After a slow start, 2019 rounded out to be an undeniably strong year for consumer VR, setting up a springboard into a big 2020. Here’s an overview of the major happenings in VR over the last year, and a glimpse of what will come in 2020.
5 Major New Headsets and What They Mean for the Market
2019 started out slow as the industry waited with baited breath for the launch of the latest wave of headsets, but things started heating up once they finally hit the market. Here’s a look at the biggest headset launches of 2019 and what they’ve meant to the industry so far.
Oculus Quest
Image courtesy Oculus
Oculus Quest is surely the most important headset to launch in 2019. We called it the “first great standalone VR headset” in our review, thanks to a reasonable $400 price point, full 6DOF tracking (which allows it to play games functionally on par with high-end VR headsets) and no PC required.
As a standalone VR headset built on smartphone hardware, Quest can’t compete in the graphics department against high-end PC VR headsets, but there’s no question that it’s the class leader in ease-of-use (a place where tethered headsets are still struggling). And if you happen to have a gaming PC anyway, Quest also doubles as a PC VR headset.
On those fronts, Rift S seems to have largely succeeded; its $400 launch price was half of the launch price of the original Rift with Touch controllers, and we certainly haven’t been missing the external sensors of the original since getting our hands on Rift S. Thanks to the backing of a strong content library, Rift S packs a lot of value, making it easy to recommend as the best entry-level headset for PC VR.
Valve Index
Image courtesy Valve
After tons of speculation, Valve finally jumped into the VR headset space with its own first-party hardware in 2019. While the company had originally collaborated with HTC to create the Vive, this time around Valve opted to handle everything on their own.
In our review we called Index “the enthusiast’s choice” thanks to category-leading visuals, ergonomics, and audio, as well as solid controllers. And while it’s a lovely headset once you’re inside, there’s no denying the significant $1,000 price tag and sub-par ease-of-use due to external tracking sensors and last-gen boundary setup.
Still, Index is a hugely important headset because it acts as a high bar that future headsets can strive toward and demonstrates the continued existence of an enthusiast class of VR consumers who are willing to pay for a high-end VR experience. But it’s also made for an awkward relationship between Valve and HTC who are now positioned more as competitors than partners.
Vive Cosmos
Image courtesy HTC
In 2019 HTC launched Vive Cosmos, its first true successor to the original Vive headset. Like Facebook with Rift S, HTC opted to make its latest headset easier to use by ditching external tracking sensors for inside-out tracking.
In our review we called Cosmos “a decent headset up against stiff competition.” Indeed, worst-in-class tracking and iffy ergonomics has left Cosmos overshadowed by the considerably less expensive Rift S and the more expensive but higher-fidelity Index. And while HTC had positioned Cosmos as a move toward a more user-friendly headset, the device’s awkward reliance on Steam (despite a Viveport front-end) arguably takes it a step back in user-experience compared to the original Vive.
While Microsoft and its other VR partners seem to have largely abandoned the Windows VR platform, HP surprised us in 2019 with the launch of Reverb, its second VR headset. While it’s still stuck with Windows VR (and the worst-in-class controllers that come standard with such headsets), Reverb leads in pixel density, making it a compelling choice for simulator enthusiasts who tend to value resolution above other specs.
While Reverb’s launch in 2019 shows that HP is seriously committed to PC VR, it hasn’t done much to alleviate the feeling that Microsoft is knowingly allowing the Windows VR platform to wither away.
Big VR Game Launches and Growing Developer Success
Since the first consumer VR headsets hit the market in 2016, developers have been steadily honing in on what makes a great (and successful) VR game. While it’s been a painfully slow process for developers and consumers alike, 2019 saw the launch of games which have objectively moved the needle forward in VR game design and set new records for developer success. Here’s a look at the most important moments in VR gaming in 2019.
Beat Saber’s Full Release and Developer Acquisition by Facebook
Image courtesy Beat Games
It wasn’t long after Beat Saber’s early access launch in 2018 that it was a clear success for its small indie developer Beat Games. Later that year the game launched on PSVR where it remains one of the best rated games on the platform. In 2019, Beat Games added new music & features and brought feature-parity to all versions of the game, culminating in a full launch out of early access alongside the launch of Quest on May 21st, 2019.
Even before the game launched on Quest, it reached a huge milestone as the first VR title—as far as we know—to have sold 1 million copies. This staggering success caught the attention of Facebook, leading to the surprise acquisition of Beat Games. This was likely primarily a defensive move in order to keep platform competitors from getting their hands on what is surely Quest’s most important game. But there’s an offensive element too: Facebook seems keen to accelerate the game’s adoption of new Oculus platform technologies aimed at driving user engagement.
Asgard’s Wrath Delivers the First Great VR RPG
Image courtesy Oculus
Purportedly VR’s largest game production yet released, Asgard’s Wrath capitalized on the longstanding desire for a meaty VR-native RPG. Players were treated to some 30 hours of content and a game which has been called a “must buy” by many. We thought enough of the title that we gave it our 2019 Game of the Year Award for the Oculus Rift.
The Oculus Studios-backed title appears to have been a success, but it also sets a very high bar for third-party (and mostly indie) developers to follow.
Stormland’s Innovative Open World and Developer Acquisition by Sony
Image courtesy Insomniac Games
Developed by veteran game and VR studio Insomniac Games, Stormland raised the bar in VR open-world game design with an innovative take on locomotion which offers players a sense of large scale freedom rarely seen elsewhere in VR. The game successfully combines a handful of different locomotion schemes and integrates them with satisfying combat for a core gameplay loop that’s easy to love.
We expect VR game design concepts from Stormland to proliferate into VR titles in 2020 and beyond. For its contributions we gave the title our 2019 Design Award for Excellence in Locomotion.
While Facebook scooped up Beat Saber’s Beat Games, Sony acquired Stormland’s Insomniac Games in 2019. Though the company probably bought the studio primarily for its success in the non-VR space, it was a strategic blow to Oculus nonetheless.
Blood & Truth Proves PSVR is Still Going Strong
Image courtesy SIE London Studio
Blood & Truth was PSVR’s biggest game to launch in 2019 and managed to delight players with an action-packed narrative full of interesting moments. Blood & Truth is an impressively crafted experience that is not only expertly designed around the limitations of the aging PSVR, but even manages to raise the technical bar for character rendering and performances on any VR platform, even against much more powerful PC hardware.
By making nearly everything in the game physical and interactive, Boneworks delivers on player’s expectations of agency in a way that often goes far beyond its contemporaries. In the game, just about every object, enemy, and weapon is physically interactive, leading to moments where novel ideas—like, say, using a coffee mug as a melee weapon—actually work. While the heavy emphasis on physics can be frustrating and wonky at times, it’s hard not to feel a sense of added embodiment when your ideas about what’s possible in the game world are satisfied in a realistic fashion.
For its part, Boneworks is a flag in the ground which represents perhaps the most interactive physics sandbox seen in VR to date, and a proof point that glimpses the immersive benefits which come from more realistic virtual interactions—something we expect to see developers expand on into 2020 and beyond.
Star Wars: Vader Immortal Successfully Brings Big IP Into VR
Image courtesy ILMxLAB
While the number of great VR games is steadily growing, only a small handful of titles so far have been based on major franchises, and of those that are, even fewer still have actually been made from the ground-up for VR.
Star Wars: Vader Immortal is shining example of bringing a massively popular intellectual property into VR in a way that feels authentic and enjoyable. It’s key to have major franchises jumping into the VR landscape to pique the interest of mainstream consumers who may not be interested in VR as a technology unto itself; it’s even more important that the execution of big IP in VR is done well so that new users don’t get a bad taste from their first experience.
On that note, Vader Immortal—which was released in three parts over the course of 2019—hits all the right notes. It’s engaging and easy to play, thanks to a focus on narrative and immersion, rather than raw gameplay, making it a great first-time VR experience; it’s also one of the most visually impressive games available on Quest. So it’s no wonder why we gave the game our 2019 Game of the Year Award for Quest.
While only a small handful of indie VR studios so far have found this sort of ongoing success, Superhot VR shows that, for projects of the right scope, there’s considerable (and growing) developer opportunity in VR.
Peering Into 2020
So, 2019 was a big year for VR in many ways, but what does 2020 hold? Here’s a few reason why we think 2020 will be VR’s biggest year yet.
Oculus Quest 2
Image courtesy Oculus
There’s no doubt that Facebook has been happy with the traction of its latest standalone VR headset, Oculus Quest. The company is moving quickly to build out the headset’s software features—like adding hand-tracking and PC support with Oculus Link—and it’s all but certain that Quest 2 is already in the works. The big question is when.
While Oculus’ history with the Rift would suggest that it would be several years from one headset to the next, VR as a market is much more defined today than it was back in 2016 when the first headsets hit the market. With the resources Facebook is pouring into Quest, we doubt there will be a similar three year span (like with Rift to Rift S) until the next Quest headset.
There’s reason to believe that Quest 2 will be announced in 2020. The biggest, perhaps, is that the current headset is based on a fairly old Snapdragon 835 processor which puts a pretty hard limit on what can be done with the headset by both Facebook and third-party developers. Moving to a more advanced hardware platform like, say, Qualcomm’s recently announced Snapdragon XR2, would open the door to substantial improvements. Of course, that’ll only happen if the price is right; Quest’s reasonable $400 price point is a big part of its appeal.
And then there’s Oculus Rift 2. Facebook launched its second PC headset, Rift S in early 2019, but it was a bit of a side-grade and cost-down to the original Rift rather than a true successor. In 2019 Facebook showed some very impressive prototype VR headsets with major advances in optics and form-factor, but has yet to announce Rift 2.
The prototype tech seems like it will form the foundation of Rift 2, but there’s a bigger question on our mind: will Quest 2 and Rift 2 be the same headset? This would be an ambitious move, but there’s already some hints that it’s the direction Facebook is headed.
Along with cross-buy between many Quest and Rift apps, Facebook is trying to unify its VR userbase to make a broader audience for developers. If every customer that owned an Oculus headset could play both standalone Quest content and PC-powered Rift content, that’s a huge win for the ecosystem.
Alternatively, rather than combining Quest 2 and Rift 2, Oculus could keep Quest as its lower-end product line while positioning Rift 2 as a piercer but higher-fidelity headset to compete for against Valve’s Index in the VR enthusiast space.
All Eyes on Half-Life: Alyx
Image courtesy Valve
There’s no doubt that the Half-Life: Alyx, the upcoming made-for-VR game from legendary developer Valve, is the most anticipated VR title of 2020. And it will have ramifications beyond the existing VR market; many mainstream gaming and tech publications which rarely (or effectively never) cover VR will be picking up the requisite headsets and hardware to take a good close look at the game when it launches. Half-Life: Alyx will be the biggest opportunity to date for VR to show mainstream gamers why it’s worthy of their attention.
Big Oculus Games on the Horizon
Image courtesy Ready at Dawn
After a string of not-so-great titles from Oculus Studios, Facebook’s first-party VR publisher, between 2017 and mid-2019, Asgard’s Wrath and Stormland ended the year as wins for the Oculus content library.
Oculus Studios also has placed big bets on several highly anticipated games set to launch in 2020: Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond, Lone Echo II, and Phantom: Covert Ops. It remains to be seen whether these games will become key additions to the Oculus content lineup or go down in history as flops, but the outcome is important because Facebook is effectively the only company in town that’s funding big VR titles from third-party studios.
Beyond games, Facebook is also set to launch its brand new social VR platform, Facebook Horizon in 2020. Despite being one of the world’s leading social media companies, Facebook’s social VR strategy has been chaotic at best, but it looks like the company is finally trying to consolidate its efforts into a platform that’s more universally available across its biggest headsets in 2020.
Facebook Horizon | Image courtesy Facebook
Facebook Horizon will be the only first-party social VR application of its kind, and it has the potential to seriously shake up the social VR space which is currently dominated by third-party VR apps.
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What were your personal ‘most important moments’ in VR for 2019 and what are you looking forward to most in 2020? Drop us a line below!
So it’s the end of the year and what a 12 months it has been for virtual reality (VR) fans. With hardware makers pushing out more and more headsets Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) has taken a far more relaxed approach by letting PlayStation VR continue to do its thing. The headset has had some excellent videogames appear and here is VRFocus’ pick of the best.
First and foremost this is a list of the best PlayStation VR videogames which launched in 2019. Which means there are several titles which appear on other ‘Best of lists’ that won’t appear here. Beat Saber is a prime example. While the highly popular rhythm-action experience left Early Access in May, that was only for PC (including an Oculus Quest edition). The PlayStation VR version launched in November 2018, hence its omission.
The Best PlayStation VR Games of 2019:
Blood & Truth
Hailing from Sony London Studio, Blood & Truth was the biggest PlayStation VR exclusive of the year by a long shot. Mixing intense action gameplay with a tightly interwoven storyline and cinematic cutscenes, the title showcased what could be achieved with PlayStation VR. VRFocus’review gave it a full five stars, saying: “From start to finish Blood & Truth is one hell of a ride, a finely choreographed John Woo movie that’s all about sheer entertainment.”
Ghost Giant
Zoink Games’ Ghost Giant, on the other hand, is a very different beast; loveable and kind-hearted. A puzzle adventure where you play the titular Ghost Giant, an invisible friend to a lonely boy named Louis. Placed in the centre of a living cartoon world, you can interact with a lot of the world, helping not only Louis but the other town residents as well.
Perfect for gamers of all ages, Ghost Giant is a relaxed experience full of child-like wonder, being able to open houses and peer inside to see the richly detailed worlds. Great for when you don’t anything too hectic.
No Man’s Sky: Beyond
A summer update adding VR support rather than a dedicated VR videogame, even so, No Man’s Sky: Beyond was a major addition from Hello Games. With a massive procedurally generated universe to explore, new planets to discover, unusual creatures to find and other players to team up with, No Man’s Sky: Beyond offers quite possibly the most VR gameplay for your money. Plus the there’s the added benefit that the update was free for those who already own the original version.
Unless you really don’t like sci-fi and flying around in spaceships, then No Man’s Sky: Beyond is a solid addition to any VR library.
Tetris Effect
How do you make one of the greatest, most iconic puzzle videogames even better? Give it to a team which includes Enhance Games and let them work their magic. Offering both VR and non-VR gameplay, the core Tetris mechanics remain untouched with some added extras for those well versed in the puzzle title.
The big change comes for the visual and sound design, with a feast for your eyes and ears. Needless to say, while the non-VR version does look and sound nice, the effects are far more pronounced and engaging. And when it comes to addictive gaming Tetris Effect doesn’t disappoint.
Trover Saves the Universe
When the guy who helped co-create Rick & Morty decided to found his own videogame studio and then create a VR title, you know it’s going to be a little different from the rest. Trover Saves the Universe has that weird and zany humour Justin Roiland is known for, combined with a third-person adventure, where you control Trover, a little purple eye-hole monster trying to save the universe from a beaked lunatic named Glorkon, who just so happens to have kidnapped your dogs and put them in his eye sockets. Exactly…
Angry Birds Movie 2 VR: Under Pressure
So what about proper multiplayer titles? While No Man’s Sky: Beyond does feature multiplayer, you can’t enjoy it when a few friends are around. That’s where Angry Birds Movie 2 VR: Under Pressurecomes in handy. Exclusive to PlayStation VR, the title uses the social screen (TV) to allow up to four people to play locally, one in VR and three via the TV. The job is to collect treasure and not let the submarine you’re in suffer too much damage.
It’s a fast and frantic videogame where the VR player is the captain, with a different viewpoint and tasks to the other players. Thus encouraging everyone to have a go in VR. There is a single-player mode but Angry Birds Movie 2 VR: Under Pressure is all about the social gameplay.
Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted
What’s a ‘Best of’ VR list without a horror title thrown in to scare you. Bringing the classic franchise into VR, Five Night’s at Freddy’s: Help Wanted combines all the original mini-game levels with a bunch of new ones. Not for the faint-hearted, Five Night’s at Freddy’s: Help Wantedis full of jump scares as you try to survive the night in the Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza security office, or repair vents in the depths of Circus Baby’s Entertainment and Rental.
When it comes to playing VR horror keeping the lights on won’t help, you need nerves of steel and Five Night’s at Freddy’s: Help Wanted certainly helps test that.
A Fisherman’s Tale
Released all the way back in January by French studio InnerspaceVR, A Fisherman’s Tale is another puzzler for those who like something a little different. Clinching the VR Game of the Year at the VR Awards 2019, A Fisherman’s Taleis an experience about perspective and a little wooden sailor.
Delightfully charming in its design and gameplay, the single-player videogame centres around a lighthouse which you’re both inside and outside of. Confused? Don’t worry as it’s all about picking stuff up and learning how to manipulate your surroundings. Great for new and veteran VR players alike.
Vacation Simulator
A followup to the insanely popular Job Simulator, Vacation Simulator is like one massive toybox split across three different regions, a Beach, Forest and Mountain. Inside each one are loads of mini-games to complete as well as other fun stuff to play with. Challenges range from building sandcastles and making burgers to throwing snowballs and a little skiing.
With light-hearted humour throughout Vacation Simulatoris another VR experience suited for all players, designed to showcase how immersive and unique VR technology can be in comparison to standard videogames.
Concrete Genie
Another title which isn’t purely VR, Concrete Genie’s main campaign isn’t VR compatible. Instead, the title has two ‘VR modes’, the ‘VR Experience’ campaign which has a basic narrative and is required to complete before unlocking ‘Free Paint’, so you can let your creative ideas go wild.
With a visually stunning aesthetic, Concrete Genie offers an interesting mix of VR and non-VR gameplay depending on what you fancy at the time. Plus it’s a creative stop-gap until Dreams eventually arrives in 2020.
Every year is the biggest year for virtual reality. It seems more developers are delving into VR to explore the medium, hone their techniques and find out what works and what doesn’t. Virtual reality fans walk a similar path; every achievement in this burgeoning medium sets a new bar, and a new expectation of something greater as a result.
Now, a little under four years since the big names in hardware released their first generation consumer headsets, we live in a time when a number of VR games have actually approached the best that any gaming platform has to offer. And although this next decade is slated to include big titles from established studios, next-gen hardware built by the biggest in manufacturing, and experiences that teeter on complete photorealism, it’s these formative steps that are defining what’s fun, meaningful, and technically possible.
In our third annual Game of the Year Awards, we again celebrate those VR games—those stories that can only be told through the act of suspending your disbelief and immersing yourself in another world, head-first.
Without further ado, Road to VR’s 2019 Game of the Year Award winners:
Sanzaru Games and Oculus Studios brought Asgard’s Wrath to life as a part of the Oculus initiative to fund less, but bigger titles for the Rift platform. And outside of some PC-to-VR ports, it doesn’t get bigger than this melee-focused action RPG, which puts you squarely in a world that’s surprisingly alive, and boasts a depth in gameplay and visuals that make it truly something to behold. There’s little filler in the 30+ hour adventure, but even if you go for the meatiest bits, you’re looking at very least a hearty helping of gameplay that should last you well into the double digits.
While this Norse-inspired adventure doesn’t occupy an open world, it feels impressively large in scope as you traverse the game’s many layers, including moments when you need to either be god-sized or mortal-sized to solve puzzles and engage in epic combat, and when you have to control your chimeric animal pals to act as both keys to specific puzzles or order around as essential combat partners.
The game’s gestural-based combat takes some time to massage into muscle memory, but once you get down the basic moves of parrying, blocking, and countering, the game really starts to take flight. And when you begin matching those moves with more difficult enemies, many of which have their own combat styles, you’ll quickly learn that Asgard’s Wrath demands nothing short of precision (i.e. no wildly waggling your controller).
How much you like the puzzles or combat is basically subjective, but one thing that’s positively undeniable is the game’s visual finesse. Although object interaction wasn’t notable, Sanzaru expertly showcases its attention to detail as one of the key pillars of immersion. Textures, character animations, level design, all of these things are impressively realized, making it one of those games that begs for your attention long after you complete its twisty-turny story.
Wary of other rhythm games in the wake of Beat Saber (2018) hype? You shouldn’t be, as Cloudhead Games thrusts into the genre with its addictive and mightily impressive title Pistol Whip.
Pistol Whip successfully marries rhythm and shooting, and gets mega style points in the process, as it draws on things like the John Wick film series and Equilibrium (2002) for inspiration. You might also describe it as a fun mashup between Superhot VR (2017), Beat Saber, and Smash Hit (2015).
Like any good arcade game, cognitive load is high in Pistol Whip. You’re tasked with returning fire and dodging incoming bullets from scores of enemies—approaching the sort of flow state you achieve in a bullet hell game, except you’re using your whole upper body to physically flow to the beat. Its bass-heavy music goes particularly well with the punchy tones of your gunshots.
The more you fire on-beat, the more points you get, forcing you to not only shoot accurately, but to feel the music and really immerse yourself in the cool, stylized world. The song library is still a little on the low side, but it doesn’t stop the game’s replayability from being both extremely high and ultimately super satisfying.
PlayStation London Studio heard loud and clear from players of PlayStation VR Worlds (2016), the studio’s PSVR launch title, that VR needed more of the narrative-driven action teased by the ‘London Heist’ mini-game. And in Blood & Truth, the studio delivered, full stop.
Blood & Truth is the fully fleshed out vision that ‘London Heist’ deserved. Set in the midst of two warring crime families, the game takes players on an action-packed journey with strong gun and shooting mechanics, richly detailed environments, and action set pieces made to make you feel like you’re the star of your own action movie. With a smart approach to locomotion (which lets players focus on the fun) and thoughtful details (like the ability to twirl pistols around your finger for extra flair) the game manages to hit a consistently satisfying note throughout.
We also really enjoyed the scene where the player sneaks into a modern art museum, which London Studio used as a genius way to pepper the game with some rather unique VR moments that otherwise would have lacked context.
Blood & Truth is an impressively crafted experience that is not only expertly designed around the limitations of the aging PSVR, but even manages to raise the technical bar for character rendering and performances on any VR platform even against much more powerful PC hardware.
Note: VR games which were available on other VR platforms in previous years were not considered for our Quest Game of the Year award.
From the earliest days of VR you can people talking about how cool it would be to wield a lightsaber. And as VR matured over the years that talk slowly moved toward wanting a full-blown VR game in the Star War universe. There were teases… oh there were teases. ILMxLab itself put out the 10 minute Trials on Tatooine back in 2016, but it only made one thing clear: this wasn’t enough.
That project, along with other pioneering VR work by ILMxLab, like Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire at The VOID, finally culminated in Star Wars: Vader Immortal – Episode I, the first of a three-part narrative adventure on Oculus Quest.
Not only is Vader Immortal – Episode I (and the two following episodes) likely the most successful fusion to date of consumer VR and one of the worlds biggest media franchises, it’s also a stunning proof that you don’t need high-end computing power for an engaging and immersive experience.
For players taking their first steps into VR with Quest, Vader Immortal – Episode I is an ideal opening act that strikes a great balance between narrative and gameplay. Though this singular episode doesn’t run very long, it takes players on a thoughtfully crafted journey that sells the feeling of actually being part of the Star Wars story.
And for the more hardcore gamers that can’t quite get enough Vader Immortal – Episode I‘s ‘lightsaber dojo’ offers up wave-based combat which is challenging and engaging enough to easily triple the time spend in the campaign portion of the game. And as the first part of a trilogy, Episode II & Episode III are already available for players to continue the story.
Five Nights at Freddy’s took the Internet by storm back in 2014 with its memorable jump scares and bizarre re-imagining of the Chuck E. Cheese restaurant/arcade attraction. Now, Steel Wool Studios has rebuilt the game from the ground-up as a Freddy Fazbear-brand VR experience, which includes a number of minigames in addition to the good ol’ classic task of evading the deadly animatronics from your curiously unsafe control room.
Object interaction is well designed in Five Nights at Freddy’s VR, which helps ground you in the world, and it’s really well polished on the graphical side as well. One big part of what makes FNAF VR great though is sound design, as you’re forced to not only look at the CRT monitors to see where each of the monstrous creations could be lurking, but you also have to listen for them clanking around. Ambient noises such as spinning fans and flickering lights really crank up the fear factor as you frantically pick apart what’s an important sound and what’s simply background filler. The lack of sound is even worse, as any FNAF fan can attest to.
Taking a big screaming Freddy to your face when you eventually fail to correctly manage resources is about 100 times scarier in VR; you simply can’t look away. You’d be forgiven if you’d rather watch someone else play from the comfort of your couch and a security blanket than actually dive in head-first based on how immersive and scary Five Nights at Freddy’s VR truly is.
Stormland, like most great VR games, is very much designed around its locomotion. While all too many VR games have players slowly (and boorishly) walking from A to B, Stormland makes moving around part of the game’s core fun.
This is achieved first with an expansive world. The game is set in a world where floating islands jet out of a sea of clouds. The disparate islands are a marvel to look at as the sun strikes them just right, and knowing that they are real places that you can actually travel to makes them that much more alluring.
Second, Stormland makes its movement between important gameplay spaces fun by making it interesting and different from the typical locomotion. When you set foot onto the cloud sea, you immediately kick into speedy slipstream which has you jetting around at high speeds. While we’d normally expect this kind of quick movement in VR could make players dizzy, developer Insomniac Games realized that trying fast locomotion to broad body movements goes a long way to helping players remain comfortable. And so when you slipstream along the clouds, you keep your arms pointed outward in a superman pose and steer based on the direction they face.
Third, Stormland mixes and mashes locomotion schemes to give players freedom. Slipstreaming gets you from island to island quickly, but what do you do when you get there and find that the precipice is hundreds of feet overhead? Nearly everything in the game can be climbed with a laser that projects to nearby objects from the palm of your hands, and you can even grab a wall and ‘fling’ yourself for some extremely quick cliff scaling. And once you’re up there, you can glide naturally through the air to land on unsuspecting opponents or even cruise toward your next island destination.
With these gesture-driven locomotion schemes working together effectively, Stormland gives players a thrilling freedom of movement that’s unsurpassed in other titles. We hope (and expect) to see future VR titles borrow heavily from the foundation of excellent locomotion that Insomniac built into the game.
Available On: Steam (Vive, Rift, Windows VR), PlayStation (PSVR)
Release Date: August 14th, 2019 (VR mode)
PC-to-VR ports aren’t “perfect” for a number of reasons. It can come down to the limitations of aging game engines, a misunderstanding of what makes VR great, or the basic lack of time investment to fully realize a true VR version. Here, No Many’s Sky bucks the trend by presenting a fun and fully-playable VR mode, which thankfully came to all users this summer for free as a part of the base game on PC or PlayStation 4.
The VR mode is basically exactly what you’d imagine from No Man’s Sky in VR;blasting off into space is magical, exploring planets is awe inspiring, riding around in exovehicles is really awesome. It also looks great too, as the rich and vibrant universe demands even more inspection from the immersive viewpoint of a VR headset. That’s not to say we didn’t have our gripes with No Man’s Sky’s VR mode, as it largely ports over the same 2D inventory scheme as in the flatscreen version, and suffers from some clunk around the edges, the latter of which seems to have gotten better over the course of the last few updates.
But what really attracts us to No Man’s Sky is the utter vastness of the universe. The game is rife with opportunities to become a pirate, trader, fighter, bounty hunter, farmer—so much so that every quality-of-life update seems to tip the balance in favor of staying in the VR headset as opposed to just firing the game up on a flatscreen—the true mark of a great VR adaptation.
Available On: Oculus (Rift), Steam (Index, Vive, Rift)
Release Date: August 27th, 2019 (Early Access)
Until You Fall might seem like an odd choice for an Excellence in UI accolade, but the game succeeds here by knowing what to avoid in the game as much as what to add to it.
This rogue-lite melee combat game does a lot well, but in the interface department it makes several especially smart choices. For one, Schell Games was smart enough to realize that—in a game where players would not be using weapons other than their own—the ability to drop your weapons would merely add useless clunk to the game. Instead, weapons are summoned into players hands whenever they squeeze the grip buttons. This not only serves as a supremely efficient version of a ‘holster’, but it also feels really bad-ass to manifest your blades in the palm of your hand just before diving head first into a fight.
What’s more, when players aren’t holding their weapons, their hands become useful for other critical game tasks. Turning your palm upright reveals a menu of stats which speaks specifically to the weapon assigned to that hand. The menu floats above your hand, making it easy to optimally position, and disappears when you don’t need it any longer.
The game has also pioneered a very satisfying ‘crushing’ interaction which serves as a very engaging way to make important choices and selections. At the end of each room you get to pick between three different power-ups. When you decide which one you want, you reach out and grab it and continue to squeeze your grab trigger until you crush the power-up and consume its energy. With the addition of haptics and sound effects, it feels great every time, so it’s no wonder that we also see this same interaction used back in the forge for selecting and upgrading weapons.
And then there’s the game’s block and attack indicators. When enemies are attacking you you’ll see blue 2D block indicators appear showing you where to place your sword to block the attack. Although these can look and feel ‘arcadey’, their function outweighs any visual concerns; knowing when to block and where is part of the way that Until You Fall manages to set a deliberate and satisfying combat pace. Equally ‘arcadey’ but important and satisfying are the attack indicators. Once you break through the opponents shield you’ll get the opportunity to start a combo. In a combo you can dish out tremendous damage, but only if you strike along the indicated line in quick succession. Here too, great haptic and audio feedback make this feel awesome and satisfying.
Boneworks is a prime example of how independent developers who have the freedom to take risks can make huge contributions to their field. With two VR titles previously already under their belt, Stress Level Zero set out to make a no-compromise physically simulated VR experience.
By making nearly everything in the game physical and interactive, Boneworks delivers on player’s expectations of agency in a way that often goes far beyond its contemporaries. In the game, just about every object, enemy, and weapon is physically interactive, leading to moments where novel ideas—like, say, using a coffee mug as a melee weapon—actually work.
While the heavy emphasis on physics can be frustrating and wonky at times, it’s hard not to feel a sense of added embodiment when your ideas about what’s possible in the game world are satisfied in a realistic fashion. Things as simple as being able to push enemies away from you with the barrel of your gun—or as morbid as stabbing through multiple enemies simultaneously with a claymore—show a glimpse of the rich interactivity that is the ultimate goal of VR.
For its part, Boneworks is a flag in the ground which represents perhaps the most interactive physics sandbox seen in VR to date, and a proof point that glimpses the immersive benefits which come from more realistic virtual interactions.
Wolves in the Walls started out in life as an Oculus Story Studios project, although Facebook shuttered its first-party VR studio before the experience could be finished. It would have been a real shame if this highly immersive and well-realized retelling of Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean’s eponymous children’s book wasn’t completed as a result. Thankfully, some ex-Story Studio veterans created Fable Studio and picked up the mantle to finish what Oculus had started.
Releasing its final chapter in November, the end result culminated in an intriguing and engaging story that centers around eight year-old Lucy, whose wild imagination has her convinced that wolves live in the walls of her home.
One of the biggest takeaways from Wolves in the Walls was how much digital humans can provide a sort of emotional immersion that will no doubt play a fundamental role in the VR games and stories of tomorrow. As cartoony as she was, it feels like Fable Studio really made it impossible to disappoint little Lucy. You’re her only friend and ally, and it’s too cold-hearted a prospect to break that trust, even just to see what happens if you don’t pay attention to her when she reaches out for assurance. In so doing, Wolves in the Walls shows off Pixar-level character design, which comes part and parcel with a rich color palette, cohesive set design, and a depth of animation expertise—all of which makes you genuinely feel like you’ve jumped into the pages of the book.
Fable Studio based their VR experience on a solid source material, but drawing you into that story would have been fruitless if you couldn’t connect with Lucy on some level. Here, she’s a real enough person to make you care about where the story ultimately goes, leaving you with a solid moment of self-reflection on your own ‘wolves in the walls’ once the credits roll.
Note: Games eligible for Road to VR‘s Game of the Year Award must be available to the public on or before December 13th, 2019 to allow for ample deliberation. Games must also natively support the target platform as to ensure full operability.
The road toUploadVR’s Best of 2019 awards starts here! Every weekday for the next fortnight, we’ll be revealing one of the ten nominees for our Overall VR Game/Experience of the Year, counting down to the reveal of our full list of categories and nominees later in December. Today we’re looking at Blood & Truth, the follow-up to London Heist that delivered a true PSVR-exclusive blockbuster action romp.
Back when the PSVR first launched it released alongside a game collection that delivered handful of demo experiences that served as a gateway to what was possible with a new medium like VR. The most popular of the bunch, London Heist, was a brief first-person shooter about a robbery gone wrong full of amazing facial capture animations and thrilling shoot outs. That demo package’s developer, Sony’s London Studio, then expanded on the concept into a full game, which became Blood & Truth.
When I reviewed Blood & Truth earlier this year I honestly approached it with a bit of trepidation. It’s not so much that I wasn’t looking forward to the game, but demo events I had attended left me concerned about the movement system, the lack of analog sticks on the PSVR controllers, and how linear it all seemed.
Luckily, once I got my hands on it and actually played the finished game for myself, I was able to appreciate how well everything came together.
I still think Blood & Truth would have been better on more advanced hardware, but it was still one of the best VR games this entire year. The action is relentless and the slower moments were a welcome respite that allowed for a surprising amount of character progression and narrative depth. It’s also gotten a steady stream of updates since launch to continue increasing its value offering even further.
Perhaps more so than any other VR game we’ve played this or any other year, Blood & Truth really emulates what it would feel like to be in an action movie like a James Bond film or The Getaway. Everything from intense car chases, casino shoot-outs, and tense interrogation scenes are here on full display.
Notably, it came out right around the same time as Defector, an Oculus Studios spy-action title from Twisted Pixel, but delivered on its promises far more robustly and is easily the better game. There are lots of different experiences that put a gun in your hand and ask you to shoot scores of virtual people in VR, but few of them make you feel like an action hero as acutely as Blood & Truth.
Blood & Truth is a PSVR exclusive available now. Read our full review for more details!
Sony’s PlayStation London Studio, the developer behind PSVR exclusive Blood & Truth, is already at work on their next VR exclusive project, Road to VR has learned. Considering the timing and scope of London Studio’s work, we expect the title will target next-gen PSVR 2 and PS5 hardware.
PlayStation London Studio has been on the leading edge of VR game development from the earliest days of PlayStation VR. The studio was responsible for the PSVR launch title PlayStation VR Worlds (2016), a collection of mini-games which remains today one of the best introductions to the possibilities of VR gaming. The studio’s latest project was the PSVR blockbuster Blood & Truth (2019)which raised the bar on storytelling, interaction, and graphics on the platform.
London Studio’s Next PSVR Title
Blood & Truth concept art | Image courtesy Sony London Studio
Considering its contribution to the medium, it’s great news to hear that London Studio isn’t finish with VR just yet, in fact it may just be getting started.
While the studio hasn’t outwardly announced that a new VR exclusive title is in the works, Road to VR has come across recent job listings which confirm that studio is ramping up its team for a new VR title. All seven of the studio’s current job openings are for VR specifically, and several make it clear what’s on the docket (our bolding below):
VR – Tech: Game AI Programmer
PlayStation London Studio is looking for an experienced AI Programmer to join the Gameplay team, working on their next exclusive virtual reality title following the recent launch of Blood & Truth on PSVR.
VR – Tech: Gameplay Programmer
Working with creatives and the wider technical team, you will utilize your experience and passion for developing gameplay, realizing the creative ambition for our next VR title.
We don’t expect to hear officially about London Studio’s next VR title until the middle of 2020 at the earliest, but with the job openings describing an emphasis on “exciting combat focused gameplay,” it’s likely that the studio intends to continue with the shooter genre. Blood & Truth set forth a working formula, and its story conclusion left the door open for a new chapter; we wouldn’t be surprised to find that the next title is in fact ‘Blood & Truth 2’, but we also wouldn’t put it past London Studio to dream up something entirely new.
VR Ambitions
While PlayStation London Studio has a lengthy game development history dating all the way back to 2002, the studio has recently embraced VR as its central pillar. VR is clearly the main focus on the studio’s official website; snippets of text on the site highlighting VR development and another recent job listing make obvious the studio’s direction and ambition (again, our bolding below):
VR – Production: Production Director
Sony London Studio is leading the charge in building AAA VR games—our vision is to become the World’s Best AAA VR Games Developer—and, with our most recent release, Blood & Truth, we’ve taken a bold step forward towards this ambitious vision.
[…] You will develop and grow the competencies of the current production team towards our AAA vision. We are looking for you to join us with pushing the boundaries within the VR medium and setting the bar for the rest of the industry to follow!
London Studio’s Next VR Game Will Likely be on PSVR 2
Early PSVR ‘Project Morpheus’ prototype | Photo courtesy Sony
We don’t have concrete evidence that London Studio’s next VR title is being made for PSVR 2 and PS5, but there’s a handful of clues pointing in that direction.
First, the timing. Launched in late 2016, PSVR is now more than three years old. While it’s still a leading VR platform, the hardware—both the headset and the console that powers it—is starting to clearly show its age. With London Studio focusing on AAA scope, their development timeframe for a new VR title is likely in the order of one year at a minimum, but likely closer to two years. If the studio’s next big VR title launched in late 2020 or even 2021, it would need to run on a seven year old console and a four year old VR headset.
Sony has all but confirmed that PSVR 2 hardware is in the works for PS5. As a first-party PlayStation studio, London Studio is in the ideal position to already be working on a game targeting next-gen PSVR hardware. Not only is the studio in the right place, but it already has an established history of working on PSVR launch content with PlayStation VR Worlds which shipped alongside PSVR—if anyone is getting early access to PS5 and PSVR 2 dev kits to build a launch title, it’s London Studio.
Further, more of the studio’s recent job postings allude to work on next-gen hardware and experiences (our bolding below):
VR – Design: Level/Mission Designer
PlayStation’s London Studio is looking for Mission Designers with a wide range of skills to join an experienced team of developers working on the future of VR gaming. As a 1st Party Studio our remit is to produce games which show the exciting potential of the latest PlayStation hardware.
VR – Design: Technical Game Designer
The team have already released VR Worlds and Blood & Truth and are moving on to the next big thing in VR – and we want you to join us!
Signaling PlayStation’s Commitment to VR
Image courtesy PlayStationpla
This isn’t just good news for fans of Blood & Truth and London Studio, it’s a clear signal that PlayStation’s commitment to VR is as strong as ever, if not stronger. Allowing an entire first-party studio to devote itself to AAA VR is no small investment, especially when that studio could just as easily be working on titles that address the much larger non-VR market.
This isn’t the only evidence that PlayStation is still gung-ho on VR either, the company is still focused on growing its library of VR content and aggressively marketing PSVR right alongside PS4 and PS4 Pro.
And while it surely wasn’t the primary reason that Sony acquired Insomniac Games—the veteran VR developer behind several Oculus exclusive titles, including Stormland (2019)—there’s a good chance that PlayStation will let the studio see what it can come up with on next-gen PSVR hardware.
Between Beat Saber, Pistol Whip, Audica, and plenty more, it’s fair to say that rhythm games are a key VR genre. And while we didn’t expect it from Blood & Truth, the gritty PSVR-exclusive shooter, we’re happy to see the game get its groove on in its latest and final ‘Challenge’ DLC update.
After launching earlier this year, Blood & Truth has seen three DLC updates which have expanded on the game’s core shooting mechanics with shooting-range challenge modes like Time Attack, Skeet Shooting, and Trick Shots.
The fourth and final DLC update brings a surprising rhythm shooting mode to the game. The update offers four stages set to songs from the title’s soundtrack; London Studio explains:
You’ll need to shoot each vinyl-shaped target that appears on the specially-created rig, with more points awarded the more on time to the beat your shot is – and how close you are to bullseyeing the target. To help you perfect your timing, a colour-coded ring will overlay onto a target when it’s time to shoot. And don’t worry about reloading: all guns in this mode have infinite bullets and are on automatic.
Chaining successful shots will activate a multiplier, which is your ticket to earning a spot on the Challenge’s online leaderboard.
The studio notes that both aim and timing contribute to your score.
Image courtesy PlayStation London Studio
But that’s not all for this update. Those who played through Blood & Truth’s solid campaign will recall the club scene where there’s an interactive DJ deck that lets you mess around with some music and effects before the fighting breaks out. In this latest update you can now get in front of an expanded version of the DJ deck, which now has six different tracks, for unlimited remixing without worrying about dodging any bullets.
Ghost Giant
No Man’s Sky: Beyond
Tetris Effect
Trover Saves the Universe
Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted
Vacation Simulator
