Get ready to scream your head off at your virtual friends; Spaceteam VR is on the way.
Cooperative Innovations today announced that it has licensed the award-winning mobile game from Sleeping Beast Games and is developing a VR version of it. The game will be coming to both home-based headsets and VR arcades later this year.
Living up to the developer’s name, Spaceteam is all about cooperating with friends to pilot a spacecraft. In the original version, each player operates different parts of the ship’s interface. Their friends get orders on the screen that they have to call out and the relevant person responds. On mobile, that means sitting around in a circle and screaming directions at the top of your voice in hopes that the right person hears you over everyone else. It’s a little nuts, to say the least.
We can easily see the game translating to VR. Imagine sitting in a cockpit next to your friends and frantically pulling levers and flicking switches at their command.
There’s still a lot to learn about the VR version of the game, though. Studio CEO & Founder Simon Barratt says that an alpha version will be making its way to testers soon. You can also sign up to a newsletter here.
Cooperative Innovations itself is based in the UK and is working on several VR projects. We’ve been following the team’s first project, Raiders of Erda, for some time now. It’s a multiplayer VR dungeon crawler that looks like it could scratch a Skyrim itch. The studio also recently revealed a VR/AR avatar mapping system named Ikabod.
Developer Sanzaru Games just patched the Nuke Defense mode and Data Runner enemy into the Oculus Rift exclusive. In Nuke Defense players must battle their way over to and then deactivate nukes. But, rather than just pressing a button, Nuke Defense takes a page from Keep Talking And Nobody Explodes. Players need to enter a code displayed on a terminal and then pull a corresponding cable. Get it wrong and things go boom.
The Data Runner, meanwhile, is a tougher enemy type that collects data on the player. You’ll be given a limited time to take them out before they transmit that data back to other evil people.
Elsewhere, Sanzaru has tweaked a few things. The game’s default difficulty is now ‘Beginner Mode’, which will introduce players to the challenge at a more gradual pace. There’s also a heap of character tweaks, all of which and more you can see here.
As always, it’s great to see Marvel Powers United getting more free stuff. Our main issue with the game was its lack of variety and Sanzaru’s definitely been committed to resolving that. All that said, it’s starting to look less and less like that we’ll see any new heroes added to the game as DLC. It’s been over six months since the game launched and we haven’t seen any new characters. That said, Oculus did tell us that Iron Man was a possibility last Septemeber.
We’ll keep our fingers crossed for a surprise as Avengers: Endgame approaches.
Elsewhere, Sanzaru is working on another new game, Asgard’s Wrath. It doesn’t star Thor (at least as far as we know).
Well here’s a surprise; Dick Wilde 2 is in the works and it’s coming next month.
Developer Bolvërk Games announced the sequel to its popular wave shooter today. The original Dick Wilde cast you as a hillbilly that cleared swamps of vicious wildlife using home-made weaponry. For the sequel, Bolvërk is adding in a literal raft of requested features. Check out the trailer below.
For starters, there’s now co-op play. Two friends can team up as Dick’s apprentices to tackle a new range of levels together. Crucially, this feature is cross-platform across all headsets so you should be able to find friends to play with ease.
It also looks like levels in Dick Wilde 2 will have linear progression, whereas players were stationary in the original. As you fight your way through the hordes you’ll also be able to buy new weapons. Elsewhere the game is adding new difficulty settings (the original was pretty brutal), more power-ups and varied boss fights.
The original game was a polished wave shooter, though we took issue with its tone and humor. In a press release, Bolvërk touted the game as a ‘fantastic commercial success’ so we were probably alone in that one. It was a great workout, though! We’re looking forward to seeing how the sequel holds up.
Dick Wilde 2 will launch on PSVR, Rift and Vive in February. The PSVR version will support both the Move controllers and the snazzy PlayStation Aim controller. No word yet on other versions but this sure looks like a good fit for Oculus Quest, no?
It doesn't matter if you prefer teaming up to shoot aliens or solving a few quiet puzzles. Our list of the best co-op games has you and your friends covered.
Ein neues VR-Spiel aus Japan vom Entwicklerstudio Ship of Eyln wird in Kürze auf der PlayStation Experience in Amerika vorgestellt. Das VR-Abenteuer Medusa and Man für PlayStation VR (PSVR)bringt ein erfrischendes Spiel-Setting in die VR, denn der Titel bedient sich der griechischen Mythologie und einer tragischen Liebesgeschichte, um die Spieler durch seine Level zu führen. Dabei könnt ihr im Co-op-Modus gemeinsam spielen oder im Singleplayer-Modus beide Charaktere steuern.
Medusa and Man – Co-op-VR-Abenteuer aus Japan
In Medusa and Man für PlayStation VR (PSVR) dürft ihr gemeinsam mit einem Freund in die Rolle der mythologischen Figur Medusa oder ihrem menschlichen Geliebten schlüpfen, um euch durch die Geschichte des Spiels zu kämpfen. Die Gorgone Medusa ist in der Lage, durch ihren Blick alles in Stein zu verwandeln – leider ebenfalls ihren Geliebten, weshalb sich die beiden niemals anblicken dürfen.
Dies offenbart interessante Gameplay-Mechaniken, denn zum Lösen der verschiedenen Rätsel und Kämpfe sind die Fähigkeiten beider Charaktere nötig. Achtet ihr als Medusa nicht auf eure Blickrichtung, so verwandelt ihr euren Mitspieler zu Stein. Der männliche Weggefährte ist mit einem Schwert bewaffnet, um sich seinen Feinden zu stellen. Während eurer Reise begegnet ihr jeder Menge Monster, die es zu bekämpfen gilt. Bisher wurde nur wenig zum VR-Titel offenbart, jedoch veröffentlichten die Entwickler eine Wüstenumgebung mit riesigen Sandwürmern, Fledermäusen und Schleimkreaturen, die euch an den Kragen wollen.
Das Spiel besitzt sowohl einen Singleplayer- als auch einen Co-op-Modus. Im lokalen Multiplayer übernimmt einer der beiden Spieler die Kontrolle der Medusa mit einer VR-Brille, während der zweite Spieler auf dem TV spielt. Die Steuerung funktioniert dabei folgendermaßen: Mit der Trigger-Taste verschließt ihr die Augen, um eure Fähigkeit aufzuladen. Durch eure Blickrichtung zielt ihr daraufhin auf die Feinde, wodurch euer Steinstrahl ausgelöst wird. Die Fortbewegung findet per Stick und 3rd-Person-Bewegung statt. Im Singleplayer kontrolliert ihr beide Charaktere, die Controller werden einem der beiden zugeordnet.
Wann Medusa and Man für PlayStation VR (PSVR)erscheint und welche weiteren Spielelemente es enthält, steht aktuell noch nicht fest. Der VR-Titel soll jedoch auf der PlayStation Experience am 9. und 10. Dezember in Kalifornien vorgestellt werden. Wir werden euch über Neuigkeiten zum PSVR-Titel auf dem Laufenden halten.
Onward rocks. The, military-sim, multiplayer shooter won our award for Best VR Shooter at the end of last year and was in the running for best overall game as well. Onward pits two teams of up to four players against one another on one of seven maps. Teams have to use intelligent communication, informed strategy and an array of realistic firearms to either protect or capture each map’s objective.
Onward is a multiplayer-only game, a huge risk for a VR-only title, but no matter what time you log on, you’ll always be able to find multiple Onward matches to jump into. This speaks to the quality of the game and the ravenous community it has inspired since launch. What’s even more impressive is that Onward was created by essentially just one man. A first time game developer named Dante Buckley who dropped out of college to make it happen. He is only 20 years old.
We recently had the chance to speak with Buckley again to discuss how the game has grown since we last interviewed him and what new features fans can expect him to add in 2017 and beyond.
“It’s been cool,” Buckley said, in his typical understated fashion, when asked how he’s been enjoying the success of his game.
Never one for self-promotion, Buckley is much more excited to discuss the future of Onward. We asked him to share what sort of upgrades, additions, and add-ons fans of the game can expect from him in 2017. He began with one word that should be music to many players ears: co-op.
Right now, Onward players can only battle it out against human opponents. But, according to Buckley, he is currently working on adding a mode in which players can work with their friends to wage war against AI opponents instead.
“Pretty much I want to create a way for players to work together against an AI,” Buckley said. “Something I’ve learned is how important it is to build multiplayer experiences that players can enjoy together.”
Buckley is keeping the details on this new modes exact rules, features, and release date to himself, but did say that fans can expect to see it by the end of this year. Coming sooner than the co-op mode, however, will be Onward’s first new map to launch since the popular Suburbia battlefield released several months ago.
“There’s definitely going to be a new map in the next patch,” Dante revealed. “I won’t say right now when that patch is hitting or what the new map is, but I think people will really like it.”
In addition to adding a new map, Buckley is also working hard to make sure the existing maps in the game are fair and balanced to players. “Right now not every map is 100 percent balanced so that’s something I’m definitely paying attention to and working on updating regularly as patches come out,” he elaborated.
Co-op is not the only new game mode Buckley wants to add to Onward. He also detailed his version of an escort game mode that could work within the existing team structure of the experience.
“Basically what I want to do is make one person on one team a high value target,” Buckley explained. “He’d only have maybe a pistol and it would be his team’s job to make sure he gets all the way across the map to a designated safe zone. The target can’t really fight back on his own so this mode would definitely be more about running and hiding and using really good teamwork.”
Buckley also shared that he is working on revamping Onward’s loadout system to make it more balanced. Right now, players can select one of several classes and pick their favorite main weapons, side arms, grenades, etc. for that class. Dante’s vision for the future, however, involves a point system that forces players to be more strategic about what armaments they select.
“Each player would start out with a set amount of points at the start of the game,” Buckley said. “Then each thing you pick for your loadout would have a certain cost that you have to spend. I think that will help balance some issues and also give players a chance to be more strategic and specialized.”
There are a lot of changes coming to Onward this year, but Buckley is also clear that much of the game will not change. According to Buckley, the game’s punishing realism, minimal HUD, and library of weapons will all remain primarily unchanged as these new features get added.
Onward is available now on Steam for $24.99. You can play it on either the HTC Vive or the Oculus Rift with Touch controllers. For tips and strategies on getting started with the game, make sure to check out our Onward Field Guide.
You may not have first thought of submarine simulations when you theorized about the prospects for multiplayer virtual reality games. You probably thought about space-based flight, first-person shooters, and exploration-based puzzle games like the majority of our new industry. When you watch the trailer below though, it all makes sense.
In actuality, manning a submarine deep below the ocean’s surface feels about as applicable of a brave new frontier as the deep black sea of stars above our heads.
Atlantic Ghost is a currently in-development submarine simulation game that puts you and a crew of comrades into a submarine tasking you with controlling it and completing missions in a realistic simulation environment. We first got wind of the game when one of the creators, Karel Airapetjan, posted a brief gameplay video on Reddit. Naturally, we reached out to get more information.
“Back in 2008 I suddenly discovered that I liked submarine simulations,” Airapetjan explained over email. “Sadly there was no VR industry back then. Fast forward to August 2012 when the Oculus Kickstarter was announced and my first thought was that I wanted to build a virtual submarine for this and I pledged for the headset on the very first day. So as soon as we got our development kit we started to build a German TypeVII U-boat. At first it was going to be a single player only game with a short narrative…but everyone in the VR industry knows how fast things are changing. In 2014 we were lucky enough to get a tour of the Valve offices. We had a chance to try out their VR roomscale prototype and after coming out of that room we suddenly knew the direction that we wanted to take our game.”
A year later in 2015, the team got the chance to try the Oculus Toybox demo for an early taste of the prospects of social multiplayer VR and the concept for Atlantic Ghost started taking shape more clearly.
“Suddenly it all made perfect sense, working together as a team in a submarine,” Airapetjan said. “To this day I wonder why we did not think about this sooner.”
It’s not just strictly about multiplayer though, even if that is where the most enlightening experiences will likely happen. There is going to be a short story mode in single player still, including narrative explanations for the holographic ghosts you see in the screenshots and video that are alluded to in the title. The multiplayer experiences will be loosely tied to that story. You could even play the multiplayer segments alone if you wanted, but good luck managing an entire submarine alone by yourself. Dividing tasks and assigning duties is key to survival — similar to the gameplay flow of Star Trek: Bridge Crew.
“Before Bridge Crew was announced I was sitting on YouTube for hours and looked how people are playing Artemis Spaceship Bridge Simulator,” Airapetjan said. “I was fascinated by how the entire social aspect molded the gameplay experience. How different people and their body language affected the entire gameplay loop. The only problem was that to play this game you required all this equipment and people had to be in the same physical location. Thanks to VR, anyone can play these types of games in their home.”
Currently, the plan is to include only one single submarine: The Type VII. Despite the lack of diversity though, Airapetjan explains that the actual submarine is planned to be replicated with as close to 1:1 accuracy as possible. This is geared towards being a true simulation in VR, not just a gamified submarine combat experience — with some modern or “futuristic” as it were alterations for ease of gameplay.
“One good example is attacking the enemy ship,” Airapetjan elaborates. “We have a torpedo calculator but there is no good way to get readings from periscope in the game at the moment due to the low resolution of VR headsets. Mast height and bearing is hard to tell if you are looking trough a small hole on a texture that is rendered on a lower resolution through the HMD. So we do have some automated processes that help players out in this regard.”
In regards to actual game objectives, when playing in multiplayer the goal is to “sink as much tonnage as possible”. Elements such as the weather, time of day, convoy routes, and sub protections will be randomized each time you play. If those sound like superficial or cosmetic differences, they aren’t.
“Every element will affect the gameplay differently a bit,” Airapetjan said. “It is super hard to calculate torpedo attack in rough seas but it also makes your escape a bit easier since enemy sonars are receiving a messier signal and have to rely on bigger guesswork.”
Another big part of these types of simulation games is the prevalence of failure. Difficulty has to be high enough that you won’t win every time, but low enough that when you finally do succeed you feel like you earned it. In other words, they want to ensure that failure is still fun.
“We are trying to create a gameplay loop that contains three crucial elements: 1) Find and intercept convoy, 2) Plot your attack, 3) Evade enemy depth charges and escape. All these elements require communication and teamwork. You are free to do everything alone but having good companions makes everything so much more fun.”
A typical multiplayer session is expected to last 1-2 hours, so this won’t be a casual pick up and play experience by any means. That is unless you’re terrible, your captain makes bad calls, and you’re dead in under 30 minutes. That’s totally possible and perhaps likely at first.
None of the roles are locked down as gameplay elements like they are in Star Trek: Bridge Crew, anyone can do everything so it’s all about actual verbal communication and teamwork. This allows players to switch roles on the fly as a situation evolves.
Atlantic Ghost is currently in development for the HTC Vive as the primary target, but they hope to officially support the Oculus Rift and Touch as well. The only stipulation is that it requires constant 360-degree turning and quick movement, making it a challenge for non-360 setups.
The team is currently only three people right now, but they’ve been dabbling in VR creation ever since they got their DK1 and made “tons bad demos” to learn. No date is set yet, but it will be releasing a private testing session first, followed by Early Access on Steam, then a full release after that.
With over 450 reviews tallied on Steam, Serious Sam VR is holding with a very positive rating for this intense and gruesome wave shooter. We previously covered the blast from the past when it was nearing launch into Steam’s early access and now it’s getting a massive new update that may attract new users and inspire previous owners to pick up the controllers again. In fact, you no longer have to go alone as Serious Sam VR is adding a co-op mode that works for any of the current levels.
Serious Sam VR is currently still in early access and goes for $39.99, but is offering a solid amount of visually appealing and polished content. In the game, you control Sam as you attempt to save the galaxy from an onslaught of small and absolutely massive monsters. This new update is bringing even more value to the title by letting you team up with a friend as you fight from the BC Saratoga ship. You can co-op with two HTC Vive units, two Oculus Rifts, or a combination of the two. There are also new weapons and a couple new difficulty modes to experience: Tourist, which we can assume lowers the difficulty a great deal, and Serious which likely takes it up to the next level. Both new difficulties are available in single and multiplayer.
Early access is a useful space to iron out issues brought to developers via the community, introduce new features until the full scope of the game is apparent, or even to gauge interest in the game’s current status. Serious Sam VR was already doing well in it’s current form but new additions of this caliber along with gameplay balancing and enhancement will bode well for the game once it releases in its full form. Check the game out on Steam.
I’m still patiently waiting for my dream fantasy RPG in VR. Mythica showed a lot of promise, but ultimately failed to get the support it needed and is back to hibernation for a while. Vanishing Realms, while great for what it is, was far too brief and limited to scratch my itch fully. SoulKeeper VR is gorgeous, but I doubt it will have the open world I seek. Now Redemption’s Guild, a Kickstarter project in development by Unlit Games aims to deliver on a multiplayer RPG promise with some lofty aspirations.
Redemption’s Guild is being described as MORPG, or a multiplayer online roleplaying game (not to be confused an MMO, or a massively multiplayer online game.) As you can see in the footage below and screenshots throughout, they’ve currently employed a rather whimsical and approachable art style, something we’ve seen in many other VR games from Rec Room to Craft Keep VR.
There are six stereotypical classes to choose from: Knight, Elementalist, Ranger, Cleric, Berzerker, and Rogue. You can assume how each of them play based on names alone, more than likely. Game modes include Adventure, which is a small-scale open world environment with small quests and obejctives, Arena, a wave-based survival mode against a flood of enemies, and a Labyrinth, a maze full of deadly enemies designed to be the most challenging type of content. As you can tell, this isn’t a massive, sprawling adventure, but rather a smaller scale, tightly designed, action-packed romp for up to 4 friends.
Between games, there will also be a Tavern for people to congregate in and come together. This is where you can switch classes, assign abilities, change equipment and appearances, and more. In many ways, the game takes on a very classical fantasy roleplaying tone, with the caveat of immersive VR mechanics.
Using motion controllers inside the VR headsets, you’ll actually have to physically fight and interact as your characters. Reach up and block attacks with your sword. Cast spells with your hands. Fire arrows from your bow. It’s much more intense than simply pressing buttons while looking at a screen.
As of now, Redemption’s Guild hasabout $1,400 pledged of its $33,000 Kickstarter goal with only two weeks remaining, meaning prospects are frankly not looking very good. However, there is still hope for the project’s future, according to Michael Lepard, owner of Unlit Games.
“We have been in contact with Valve and some other companies, so that is looking very promising,” Lepard told me via email correspondence. “We also are building a solid prototype and we may be able to push it to Early Access. Then use those funds to finish up the game. Depending on if our Kickstarter gets a little push at the end or not, we may do a flexible funding goal through IndieGoGo, with the same rewards given out to our backers.”
Having a contingency plan in place is always smart. The game is currently in development for the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, with planned PS VR support if the company is approved as a Sony developer. The estimated completion date, according to the Kickstarter if it’s funded, is December of 2017.
When Oculus Touch launches in December it may already have its killer app releasing right alongside it. Dead and Buried is one of the most exciting titles coming to the already jam packed platform. Developed in-house by Oculus Studios, Dead and Buried is a multiplayer shooter that takes place in a literal ghost town. You assume the role of an other-worldly gunslinger brought back from the grave in order to shoot some bad guys…or some good guys.
We first saw the game demonstrated at an Oculus press event during GDC 2016. At that point, the only gameplay option available was a 2v2 deathmatch that took place in an old-fashioned saloon. Even in its unpolished state, Dead and Buried was still one of the most memorable and enjoyable demos that Oculus showed off at that event. Months later, at Oculus Connect 3, the company pulled back the curtain on the new and improved version of this hotly anticipated title.
The new version of Dead and Buried steps up an already interesting experience with the addition of two new game modes: horde and co-op. The horde mode, which Oculus Studios co-developed with Gunfire Games, lets you take your guns off of your friends and aim them instead at wave after wave of undead enemies.
The main antagonist of horde mode is a banshee-esque witch and her zombie army. You and three friends spawn into one of four cover points set up horizontally from one another. Your job is to gun down monstrosities trying to peel away your cover, and have you for dinner, while keeping yourself and your friends alive.
If you’re killed during the round you remain out-of-service until the next one begins which means there are some true hero-moments where one player can save a session for the rest of the team. There are a variety of enemy types to be aware of including standard zombies, suicide bombers, and even snipers. Each wave gets successively harder and the demo we saw culminated in a boss fight with the witch herself.
The horde mode had our team shouting like maniacs in the middle of a crowded convention hall without hesitation. It’s challenging, entertaining, and a fantastic example of co-operative multiplayer gaming, which is something we have not seen much of on VR platforms just yet. Anyone who’s ever played “what would we do in the zombie apocalypse with their friends will enjoy this immensely.
Every great western needs a great heist and Dead and Buried is no exception. In heist mode you and a friend will compete against two other human opponents as either a duo of lawmen or a posse of outlaws. The robbery, of course, takes place on a train that is divided into several different levels. In each level you need to kill your opponents a certain number of times to either advance up the train as the bandits, or push them back as the sheriffs.
If the ne’er do wells reach the front of the train then they must accomplish one last objective by breaking into a safe using a classic dial-style combination lock. But it won’t be easy as Johnny law is still hot on their tail, guns a-blazing. In this final level one outlaw takes on the safe while another takes on the fuzz with a large shield to aid him or her in that ignoble quest.
Trying to physically spin a dial in real time while bullets are exploding all around you is…stressful to say the least. During our attempt at the great train robbery we dominated all the way until the safe and then lost in spectacular fashion. But maybe we wouldn’t have if DAVID KNEW HOW TO USE A FREAKING SHIELD. Deep breaths Joe, deep breaths.
As fantastic as these two new gameplay modes are, Oculus Studios confirmed on the show floor that there is still more content to be packed into what is shaping up to be a must-have title for day one of the Oculus Touch launch. These other updates include more heists, more guns, and we’re sure, a whole lot more fun.
Dead and and Buried releases on December 6, the same day as Oculus Touch.
