Oculus Connect 6 isn’t the only event this week for VR fans.
Tomorrow at 1pm PT, Sony hosts its third State of Play broadcast. Naughty Dog’s eagerly-anticipated The Last of Us: Part II is set to be the star of the show. That said, we’re hoping for another healthy dose of PSVR installments from this update. We’ll bring you all the latest announcements of course but, for now, let’s go over some predictions we have for the show.
Iron Man VR Release Date
This seems like the most obvious choice, no? Iron Man VR was first revealed earlier this year (in a State of Play, no less) for 2019. We haven’t really seen much of the game since, bar repeat viewings of the original demo. If Camouflaj’s highly-anticipated adventure is still coming this year, we’d expect some definitive information tomorrow.
North West Studio Reveal
For almost as long as PSVR has been available, now, Sony has been building a new studio dedicated to the device in the north of the UK. We last reported that the team was hiring for an ‘AAA VR game‘ in January and even today it’s still got listings going. It’s possible we could finally see what the team has been working on at this week’s show. At this point, though, we’re starting to wonder if this might be a PS5 project.
Astro Bot 2
We’re going out on a limb here. It’s been almost a year now since Astro Bot warmed the hearts of almost every PSVR player out there. The game was a critical hit and remains one of the most fondly-remembered PSVR titles. A sequel surely makes sense given its popularity. Give us more inventive levels and maximum adorableness.
PSVR Comes To PS Plus
Traditionally, Sony announces its next slate of free PS Plus games in the middle of the last full week of the month. This State of Play comes very close to meeting that window, which has us wondering if Sony might have something special to announce. It would be a real treat if the company finally committed to monthly PSVR games on the service. We’ve seen a few offered as extras, but it’s high past time we got them added monthly.
GORN/Budget Cuts/Doctor Who Spotlights
Earlier this month we highlighted a bunch of PSVR games still to come this year. Now would be a good time for Sony itself to highlight some of those releases, like the PSVR versions of Budget Cuts or Gorn. Perhaps a sizzle reel quickly brushing over what’s left for the last few months of the year is in order?
Is it just me or are things a bit quiet on the PSVR front lately?
Sony’s headset has had a great year so far with releases like Blood & Truth. But we’ve been so hyper-focused on No Man’s Sky VR that we’re left looking at the end of the year wondering what else is on the way.
Turns out there’s quite a lot.
PSVR 2019 Games
We’re likely due a new version of Sony’s State of Play broadcast to tell us more soon, but we’ve rounded up some of the best-looking PSVR 2019 games still to come this year. There’s only a handful of titles published by Sony itself but, from what we can tell, third parties are more than picking up the slack. Here’s what we know is on the way before the year’s out.
Espire 1
Judging by the reaction online, Espire 1: VR Operative is probably what most of us are looking forward to before the year’s end. This VR stealth game is essentially Metal Gear Solid 2 in VR, presenting players with a dizzying amount of options to sneak around levels unseen. We’ve played it a few times now and it’s shaping up nicely. Though we haven’t seen it on PSVR, the Quest version is looking good, which gives us hope. The game’s out September 27.
Doctor Who: The Edge of Time
We saw a great VR animated short in the world of Doctor Who earlier this year, but now it’s time for the main event. Developer Maze Theory is working on a narrative-driven VR experience that tours the world of Who. You’ll travel to different times and meet iconic villains, solve puzzles and go on the search for the Doctor herself.
Golem
It’s hard to believe that Golem is really coming out. This debut project from the former Bungie developers at Highwire Games was announced before PSVR itself had been released. It was due for launch in early 2018 before a last-minute delay saw it sink into the shadows for well over a year. But we now know it’s coming this fall, and we remain as intrigued by its first-person sword combat and unique story as ever. Let’s hope it measures up to expectations.
Gorn
The PSVR version of Free Lives’ bloody gladiator sim is still in the works for a release this year. On PC, Gorn is one of VR’s most brilliantly over the top and lovable games, offering pure carnage as you whack, slice and stab your way through waves of meatheaded goons.
Iron Man VR
Iron Man VR feels like something of a technical miracle. Despite PSVR’s limited tracking, the game does a pretty fantastic job of letting players spin around as you zoom about skylines, blasting enemies out of the air. Still, we’ve only seen a very small portion of what we’re told is a full adventure with its own story. If Iron Man VR really is coming this year, we’re hoping to find out much more about it in the very near future.
Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son
A sequel to Groundhog Day in VR is probably not what you thought you’d be getting out of your headset this year. Nevertheless, Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son is one of the most genuinely promising VR games on the horizon right now, looking to combine story and interaction in meaningful ways, with some entertaining minigames strewn in along the way. We’ll find out what it’s made of when the game releases on September 17.
The Walking Dead: Onslaught
If you couldn’t tell, the VR tie-ins are coming thick and fast this season. Survios has more than proven it’s capable of handling the expectations of series like Creed and Westworld, however. With that in mind, we’re looking forward to seeing what the team can bring to the medium with its first linear, narrative-driven VR shooter (and its first shooter in general since Raw Data). Set during the events of the show, this promises more zombie murder than you can shake a stick at.
Budget Cuts
Espire 1 isn’t the only stealth game sneaking onto PSVR. A port of last year’s popular VR indie hit, Budget Cuts, is also due to arrive on sony’s headset. In Budget Cuts, you sneak through office cubicles, dodging enemy robots and occasional tossing a knife or two their way. The PC version of the game had a lot of issues when it first launch but there was an enjoyable core. Hopefully, that will be able to shine through in the PSVR version too.
Final Assault
Indie developer Phaser Lock Interactive has been in VR for some time, and Final Assault is one of its most polished and best releases to date. On PC, this is a rewarding VR RTS with incredibly detailed visuals and fun multiplayer modes. We know the game’s making its way over to PS4 later this year and we’re hoping it holds up across the board.
Concrete Genie
Concrete Genie’s tale of bullying and companionship holds a lot of promise, but we’re just as interested to check out the extent of its VR offerings. The game will have two VR modes at launch, one featuring its own mini-campaign and another that lets you wield a PlayStation Move controller to paint to your heart’s content. We’ll be really interested to see how the game translates into VR when it launches on October 8.
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What other PSVR 2019 games are you looking forward to? Let us know in the comments below!
Neat Corporation revealed the first ever footage of Budget Cuts running on the PlayStation VR.
Neat Corp first announced that a PSVR version of the game was in the works back in January and showed the new footage today during our E3 VR showcase.
The developer partnered with UK-based developer Coatsink for the port to PlayStation. Coatsink is one of the few studios with years of experience in mobile VR and PlayStation VR development. The developer released six games on Oculus mobile platforms, one of which was ported to PSVR. The studio also worked with PlayStation 4 for their non-VR title Shu.
Budget Cuts was originally a tech demo for the HTC Vive back in early 2016. It was one of the first VR experiences to integrate a teleportation mechanic into the lore of the game itself. Players are equipped with a “translocator” device which fires a ball shaped locator in an arc. Once it lands, in front of you you see a portal which you can look through to preview where you’d end up. By hitting the grip trigger you then teleport through.
The full game launched over two years later in June 2018 for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. Neat Corp managed to turn their impressive tech demo into a full fledged 3-9 hour game (it varies greatly based on playstyle). In the same tweet that originally announced the game for PSVR, Neat Corp also stated that they would “look into” an Oculus Quest port after the PSVR port was finished.
Budget Cuts will launch on PlayStation VR in fall of this year.
Having announced it was working on a PlayStation VR version of its stealth adventure Budget Cuts, Neat Corporation has today revealed a new update for the PC version, titled Budget Cuts Arcade.
The new update is focused towards replayability, adding a new game mode as well as an additional four levels. As the name suggests, the new Arcade mode has been designed for VR arcades as well as home use, with a focus on scoring as many points as possible. Accessed via the arcade cabinet in the main menu, the Arcade mode will have its own difficulty settings, 8 new collectibles (2 per level) and music to play to.
The new ARCADE difficulties are:
Beginner
guards do not hear translocation sound.
knives and other sharp objects do NOT break.
guards take a long time to actually spot you.
guards have very low aiming accuracy.
guards are very sensitive to damage.
Experienced
guards do not hear translocation sound.
knives and other sharp objects do NOT break.
guards spot you quicker than in Beginner mode.
guards are be better at aiming than in Beginner mode.
Veteran
guards WILL hear your translocation sound unless you sneak-translocate.
knives and other sharp objects DO break when hitting NPC.
guards spot you VERY quickly.
guards have VERY high aiming accuracy.
guards are pretty resilient to damage except headshots.
The update also adds a bunch of improvements to the main experience itself, not only fixing glitches and other abnormalities but also making the ‘Extra’ difficulty in the main campaign a bit trickier.
To celebrate the release of Budget Cuts Arcade Neat Corporation is having a massive Steam sale, knocking 50 percent off the normal price. The sale will run from 14th – 19th February 2019, starting at 10am PST (6pm GMT) today.
Budget Cuts is a stealth experience set in a world full of robots. You play an employee at mega-conglomerate TransCorp who finds out their job is in danger. After a mysterious package arrives you must then head out and save your job. VRFocus will continue its coverage of Budget Cuts, reporting back with all the latest updates.
Good news colleagues! There’s an all-new reason to jump back into Neat Corp’s Budget Cuts this Valentine’s Day.
The indie dev today launched Budget Cuts Arcade. It’s a new mode for the original game that you can access by finding the arcade cabinet in the menu. As the name suggests, Arcade Mode is all about scoring. It includes four brand new levels that will push your sneaking skills to the absolute limit. There’s a local leaderboard system so you can challenge friends to beat your best and three difficulty levels will help you find the right fit. Eight new collectibles can also be found in this mode.
Unsurprisingly, the mode is also intended for use in VR arcades around the world.
It’s great to see Budget Cuts getting more content. The campaign’s short length was one of our main complaints when we reviewed the game last year.
That’s not all that’s new in this update, though. There are some tweaks made to the game that make the hardest difficulty “a bit more difficult” and fix various other bugs. Again, issues with bugs were one of the biggest talking points in our review, so we welcome any fixes. To celebrate the launch, Budget Cuts is set to have a half-price sale for a few days, too.
Expect more from Budget Cuts later this year. Last month we reported that Neat Corp is bringing the game to Sony’s PSVR headset, and may even port it to Oculus Quest too. Fingers crossed we hear more about that soon.
Last month the 2019 Game Developers Conference (GDC) announced that its annual Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCA) would be taking place, with five virtual reality (VR) titles chosen for the ‘Best VR/AR Game’. While that particular category winner is selected by judges, you the public also get your say in the Audience Award. Online voting has now begun, with some of the best VR titles going up against some of the best console and PC videogames.
There are 22 videogames up for nomination in the GDCA, with the five VR titles being Tetris Effect, Moss, Budget Cuts, Astro Bot Rescue Mission and Beat Saber.
Additionally, there are the Independent Games Festival Awards (IGF Awards) which take place at the same time. Alas, when it comes to VR content the IGF Awards don’t have a lot to offer, with Polyarc’s Moss the only VR candidate.
Last month GDC released its annual Game Industry Report, which survey’s nearly 4,000 developers from across the globe, revealing some highly interesting stats when it came to VR development and how popular certain headsets are.
This will be the 19th annual Game Developers Choice Awards and will be hosted once again by Tim Schafer, LucasArts industry veteran and founder of Double Fine Productions (Psychonauts 2). Just like any major event featuring VR or AR tech, VRFocus will be at GDC 2019 to bring you all the very latest news and announcements relating to the XR industry as they happen.
Originally announced back in 2016, Neat Corporation’s stealth experience Budget Cuts didn’t have a smooth run up to launch, suffering several delays before it arrived for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift in June 2018. This week the studio has confirmed it’s working on a PlayStation VR version, whilst considering the possibility that Budget Cuts may eventually come to Oculus Quest.
In a recent Twitter conversation, Neat Corporation responded to an inquiry about Budget Cuts coming to Oculus’ upcoming standalone headset. To which the studio said: “right now we are working on a PSVR version of budget cuts – quest will require even more of a performance optimization but we will look into it once we are “done” with PSVR!”
Whilst there are no further details on when this might happen, at least PlayStation VR owners know they’ll be getting one of the more unique and well-received PC VR titles from 2018.
What would be great is if Neat Corporation managed to squeeze Budget Cuts onto Oculus Quest, which has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 mobile processor on board. This could prove to be tricky for some of the larger Oculus Rift titles such as Budget Cuts, although not impossible as videogames like The Climband Moss are being ported over. Oculus Quest would be a natural home for Budget Cuts as the title features plenty of sneaking around, hiding in vents and other small spaces, ideal for a wireless headset.
Budget Cuts is a stealth experience set in a world full of robots. You play an employee at mega-conglomerate TransCorp who finds out their job is in danger. After a mysterious package arrives you must then head out and save your job. To do this you need to sneak around the facilities, using whatever vents, ceiling crawl spaces and more to remain hidden. Should you be spotted then it’s time for some knife throwing action.
When Neat Corporation releases further details regarding Budget Cuts, VRFocus will let you know.
Entwicklerstudio Neat Corporation arbeitet derzeit an der Portierung des VR-Stealth-Titels Budget Cuts für PlayStation VR (PSVR) und Oculus Quest, wie die verantwortlichen Devs per Twitter verkünden. Wann die Konsolenversion erscheint, ist allerdings noch nicht bekannt.
Budget Cuts – VR-Stealth-Titel für PlayStation VR (PSVR) und Oculus Quest in Entwicklung
Budget Cuts wurde erstmals im Jahr 2016 für die HTC Vive vorgestellt und überzeugte bereits damals in seiner Demo-Variante die Testspieler. Der finale Release verzögerte sich daraufhin bis zum Jahr 2018. Seit dem ist der VR-Titel für Oculus Rift und HTC Vive in den entsprechenden digitalen Stores erhältlich. Nun gibt es Neuigkeiten zum dystopischen Stealth-Titel, denn Entwicklerstudio Neat Corporation kündigte in einem Twitter-Post die Arbeit an einer PSVR-Version des Spiels an:
right now we are working on a PSVR version of budget cuts – quest will require even more of a performance optimization but we will look into it once we are "done" with PSVR!
Auf die Frage hin, ob man eine Version für die kommende Oculus Quest plane, gaben die Entwickler ihre Zukunftspläne bekannt. Demnach arbeitet das Team aktuell an der Umsetzung einer Konsolenportierung für PlayStation VR (PSVR). Erst nach Veröffentlichung dieser, möchten sich die Entwickler einer Umsetzung für die Oculus Quest widmen. Wann die PSVR-Version fertiggestellt wird, ist aktuell noch nicht bekannt.
Innerhalb von Budget Cuts übernehmen die Spieler die Rolle einer menschlichen Arbeitskraft in der TransCorp. Das Unternehmen ersetzt seine Mitarbeiter zunehmend durch Roboter, um Gelder einzusparen. Auch ihr erhaltet als einer der wenigen übrig gebliebenen Menschen eines Tages einen verhängnisvollen Anruf. Um nicht das nächste Opfer der Human-Resource-Abteilung zu werden, begebt ihr euch auf eine gefährliche Mission durch die Bürokomplexe der Organisation, um unbeschadet zu entkommen. Dafür nutzt ihr Portale zur Fortbewegung und weicht den Sicherheitsrobotern der Firma aus.
Wir haben den VR-Titel bereits in seiner PC-Version für euch getestet. Was euch darin erwartet, erfahrt ihr hier und in folgendem Video:
The developers behind groundbreaking VR title Budget Cuts are working on a PSVR version of the game.
The stealth title started as an early HTC Vive demo allowing players to teleport from place to place and throw knives at robots. After a multi-year production cycle, Budget Cuts released for PC headsets last year with thrilling gameplay that was held back by some bugs. The game has seen several updates since release, though, and its recent reviews on Steam skew toward very positive.
right now we are working on a PSVR version of budget cuts – quest will require even more of a performance optimization but we will look into it once we are “done” with PSVR!
The PSVR version Neat Corporation developers are working on is likely to have some significant changes to account for forward-facing tracking on the headset. Nevertheless, that’s a big new title to look forward to for PSVR headset owners. We reached out to members of the Neat Corporation team to see if there’s a planned launch date for this version and we’ll update if we hear back.
As far as Oculus Quest, developers might find difficulty bringing the game down to the forthcoming standalone and its Qualcomm-based chipset. If it does make the jump to Quest at some point, though, it could be a perfect fit for the wireless system as the PC version of the game makes excellent use of 360-degree movement freedom.
Developer Marko Permanto recently recounted some early designs for Budget Cuts. The video, embedded below, does a good job showing how the creators started to hone in on their intuitive teleportation and inventory system in the game.
Neat Corporation, the team behind Budget Cuts (2018), originally wanted to bring its VR stealth adventure to PSVR back in May. After a delay due to the global slowdown, which pushed that date to July 10th, the studio is again marking a definitive launch date in stone: September 25th.
Update (July 3rd, 2020): Neat Corp has released a PS blogpost outlining its new September 25th release date. Ostensibly as a form of recompense, the studio has also built a new PSVR-exclusive level called ‘Panopticon’.
Update (May 7th, 2020): Neat Corp has announced in a recent tweet that Budget Cuts for PSVR won’t be launching in May 2020 as previously planned. The delay, which is due to the global slowdown, is pushing the release to July 10th. We’re glad to hear that the team is taking the extra time to nail it down, and continue on with their work in these uncertain times.
Update (March 23rd. 2020): – Neat Corporation, Coatsink, and Perp Games today announced that the original Budget Cuts will be coming to PSVR on May 15th with a simultaneous digital and physical release. There’s still no word on whether a Quest version is still in the mix.
Original article (January 20th, 2019): Budget Cuts puts you in the hum-drum world of an endless office complex. Just as you’re about to die of boredom, a fax comes through that warns you of impending doom. All of the humans in the office have been mysteriously replaced by worker drones, and it’s your job to get past the deadly security bots with only throwing knives and your trusty portal-style teleportation gun to figure out what happened.
While we genuinely liked the game, unfortunately it was plagued with performance issues early on which actually forced the team to reschedule launch well after reviews were already out in a bid to smooth over some of the game-breaking bugs that made their way to some reviewers.
That said, Neat Corp has plenty to do to get the physics-based stealth game in shape for the decreased graphical and CPU power of the PS4. Another hurdle to jump over will invariably be the PS Camera’s smaller, front-facing tracking volume that will no doubt require users to make heavy use of snap-turning locomotion in addition to the game’s native teleportation scheme.
Whatever the case may be, we’re hoping it does well enough to bring the game to Oculus Quest, because it’s clear a virtually unlimited tracking volume would be an insane addition to a game that gets you dodging, ducking, and cowering under virtual desks for your life.
We’re going out on a limb here. It’s been almost a year now since Astro Bot warmed the hearts of almost every PSVR player out there. The game was a critical hit and remains one of the most fondly-remembered PSVR titles. A sequel surely makes sense given its popularity. Give us more inventive levels and maximum adorableness.
