Since Halloween is over and Christmas is coming up, that means that various retailers, particularly in North America, are gearing up for the big sales on Black Friday. As part of this preparation, Target are advertising some very cheap prices on PlayStation VR bundles.
Target have already started to advertise for their Black Friday deals, among those is an impressive $100 (USD) discount that will apply to all of its PlayStation VR bundles for 23rd November, 2018.
The retailers are particularly promoting the PlayStation VR bundle that includes Creed: Rise to Glory and SUPERHOT VR. Usually priced at $350, for Black Friday, the price is dropping down to $250.
The bundles comes with the PlayStation VR headset, two PlayStation Move controllers and the PlayStation Camera, which means everything is ready to hook up to the PlayStation 4 right out of the box.
Target is also offered two other bundles. One of which includes DOOM VFR, and Astro Bot Rescue Mission, both of which are titles that got excellent marks from the VRFocusreview team, with the DOOM VFR review saying: “Ultimately DOOM VFR stands as a fine example of just what can be achieved with the FPS genre in VR as of today, lining-up against Robo Recall as an action-heavy experience that throws the rulebook out of the window.”
Where the Astro Bot Rescue Mission review said: “Astro Bot Rescue Mission is a great old-school platformer for the VR era, bringing some of the best features of both 2D and 3D platformers of old and incorporating VR in a way that doesn’t feel awkward.”
With the 1TB PlayStation 4 bundled with Spider-Man also available at Target for a discounted price of $200, its possible for a user to walk into a store on Black Friday and walk out with everything they need to start VR videogaming.
For future coverage on discounts and offers on VR hardware and software, keep checking back with VRFocus.
Yes, Halloween is out of the way and now the real terror is almost upon us; it’s time to start talking about Black Friday deals.
Early as it may be, the first PSVR Black Friday deal has just been spotted. Target is set to slash $100 off of the price of the recently released Creed hardware bundle, taking it to $249.99. That’s a pretty significant saving; this bundle includes the headset, camera and two Move motion controllers before throwing in Survios’ excellent boxing game and one of the all-time great PSVR titles, Superhot VR, on top.
But the saving doesn’t stop there. Target is also taking $100 off of two other PSVR bundles with also feature big games. First, there’s a bundle featuring last year’s Doom VFR for $200 (which we weren’t super keen on), but easily the better of the two is the Astro Bot pack, which features last month’s critically acclaimed VR platformer and another one of the best VR games of the year, Moss. That pack is also $200, but none of these bundles include Move controllers as they can all be played with the DualShock 4 that comes with your PS4.
Black Friday takes place on November 23rd and you can be sure there’ll be a mountain of deals to announce in the weeks leading up to it. No doubt HTC and Oculus want in on the money, too.
No one should be buying any VR games this week because you should all be spending that money on Valkyria Chronicles 4, just saying.
Anyway, if you’re still insisting that money be spent on PSVR then there’s plenty of places to spend it. We’ve got the latest game from Survios and some other interesting experiments.
Dark Eclipse, from Sunsoft
Price: Free-to-play
A new VR MOBA from a well-known Japanese developer. Dark Eclipse has players fighting for control of the battlefield by giving orders to three Leader units that will build towers and tear down your opponent’s structures. It’s got a great navigation system, though we suspect the game will have matchmaking issues in the near future. At least give it a try, seeing as it’s free.
Creed: Rise to Glory, from Survios
Price: $29.99
The latest game from Sprint Vector developer Survios is a tie-in to the upcoming Creed sequel. Slipping into the gloves of Adonis Creed, you step into the ring to take on opponents in a story that bridges the gap between the films, training with none other than Rocky Balboa himself in your downtime. Creed is the best all-round VR boxing game yet, though it’s the multiplayer support that really makes it.
The Grand Museum, from Owlgorithm
Price: $9.99
It’s great to see a more educational experience land on PSVR. This is a virtual museum that lets you explore historic art from across the world, each of which has been photo-scanned from its real-world counterpart. It’s not a game, then, but it’s a great example of the other kinds of experiences PSVR enables.
LA-based developer Survios has been prolific in its virtual reality (VR) releases in 2018, with the launch of Sprint Vector at the start of the year and Electronauts this summer. That would usually be enough for any team but that’s not stopped them rolling out quite possibly their biggest title yet, movie tie-in Creed: Rise to Glory.
From past experiences most gamers will know that videogames based on movies tend to have a troubled history, trying to mimic and usually failing at capturing the wow factor of the silver screen. So can Creed: Rise to Glory break that mould and provide an exhilarating experience that puts you in the shoes of Adonis Creed? It sure can.
There are a wealth of options to choose from right at the start but it’s the career mode that forms the core of Creed: Rise to Glory. Here you play Creed, still a young upstart who’s trying to make a name for himself and leave the shadow of his famous father – hopefully you’ve seen the Rocky films. To do this you need to train and fight through underground matches, learning not only how to punch but to defend as well.
Creed: Rise to Glory is very much a mix of arcade and simulation gameplay, you can go in all guns a blazing and probably win, taking a more methodical approach however will reap greater rewards. Before you step anywhere near a ring you’ll need to train, with punching bags, speed balls and all the other boxing equipment you’ll need. Depending on how well you train will then denote your stamina for the upcoming fight.
A number of controls schemes work in unison in Creed: Rise to Glory aside from purely punching. On Oculus Rift (reviewed) you hold down A and X then swing your arms to walk forward, and then spin them left and right to walk in that direction when fighting. It’s a system that takes a moment to get used to whilst dodging and punching, working perfectly well after a few tries. What’s great about it is fact that fights aren’t stationary you can move around the ring for a more natural experience – just make sure your play area is clear or something will get punched.
Like any boxing videogame the punching mechanic has to work flawlessly or the whole experience becomes a chore. This is thankfully something Survios has quite clearly mastered, offering virtually any noticeable latency so that the actual power put into punches has an effect. What this also means is Creed: Rise to Glory is a solid workout that’s going to make you sweat, soon upping that heart rate after a few rounds.
Adding to the realism is Virtual Stamina, where your character starts to tire, so you’ll need to block and properly dodge to avoid those incoming blows as it regenerates. Get hit too many times and you’ll of course go down, at which point Survios has introduced a novel out of body experience where you have to run back to the ring. The more often you go down the longer the distance becomes, further adding to that energy expenditure.
The career mode offers a reasonably decent amount of gameplay, if maybe a little short. But to keep you coming back for more there’s the Freeplay and PvP options. Freeplay is still single-player, this time letting you choose all the various facets of Creed: Rise to Glory. Whether that’s more training, redoing past fights or selecting the different fighters you previously faced to see how they stack up.
And then there’s PvP mode, where you can go online and fight anyone around the world with any character. Up until this point Creed: Rise to Glory has been pretty much flawless in its gameplay mechanics and visual design. However did suffer several hick ups for this review, with a couple of matches suffering so badly from lag they had to be abandoned. When it did work PvP wasn’t quite up to the career 1:1 standard but not too far off. With Survios’ previous online record with the likes of Sprint Vector being good hopefully this is quickly ironed out for all those fighting fans.
Survios has once again done an outstanding job, with Creed: Rise to Glory helping cement the studio as one of VR’s premium content developers. You don’t have to be into boxing to enjoy this title, and for those who enjoy VR fitness it certainly ticks all the boxes. You may lose interest in the story but there’s enough to keep most players involved for quite some time.
From Knockout League to Thrill of the Fight and a litany of exercise-focused apps, there are plenty of ways to get your VR boxing fix right now. If you like slamming your fists into punching bags and beating virtual enemies into a pulp, then you have plenty of avenues to pursue that. But there isn’t a reliable way to strap on boxing gloves and go toe-to-toe with another real person in VR — at least, not until Creed: Rise to Glory from Survios.
Once upon a time there were a couple of Rocky boxing games on the PS2 and Xbox (Rocky and Rocky Legends) both of which were lackluster at best. Before those we of course had Punch-Out!! on the NES and SNES, which Knockout League replicates well, similar in ways to the Ready 2 Rumble series. When I first played Creed VR back at GDC 2018 the first comparison that came to mind was Fight Night with the mixture of realistic graphics and sim-lite gameplay. What I actually found isn’t that deep, but still left me satisfied.
In Creed: Rise to Glory you take control of the titular character, Adonis Creed, in a hodge-podge experience that’s part prequel to the first movie and part bridge to the sequel that releases later this year in theaters. The Campaign mode is really more like a bare bones Arcade-style experience that has you fighting a gallery of foes back-to-back that get increasingly more difficult as time goes on. You’ll even notice a few boxers that were featured in the original film.
Freeplay is a bit like Campaign, but you can just hop into whatever ring against whichever opponent you want. There were a lot more rings to pick from than I expected, but honestly you only look around at the environment before the match starts. Once that bell rings your eyes are locked on your opponent. Make no mistake though: the real highlight of Creed VR, interestingly enough, is the PvP multiplayer. That feature wasn’t even revealed until very recently but it was by far my favorite part of the game.
Fighting against AI is fine, but eventually it just boils down to pattern recognition and timing. The easier boxers won’t have as many combos and won’t block as much and even the hardest ones have certain tells to look out for. But when you play against real life human opponents, everything changes. People are unpredictable, they can try and bait you, or fake you out, or even taunt you over the mic. You can see a couple bouts of me fighting against Ian Hamilton up in the video above.
Regardless of game mode the mechanics are always the same. You’ll need two motion controllers for whichever platform you choose (I played on Rift using Touch) and plenty of space. Like, a lot of space. It’s tempting to just make sure you have enough room to stand up and stretch your arms out, but that’s not enough space. You need to be able to lean back, duck, bob from side-to-side, and take at least two steps in either direction if you want to really experience all that this game has to offer.
Creed VR does a great job of actually tracking your hand movement well and translating that into the game. Punch speed and strength does make a difference, as does where on the body your hits land. Grazing the side of their head or just slamming into their blocking fists isn’t going to do anything — you need to make solid contact with their face or body to do damage. That means a mixture of body movement, straights, uppercuts, hooks, and everything else. The more you treat Creed VR like a boxing simulation, the more success you’ll have.
Since the body animations and IK for your avatar’s simulated body all work well, it really does feel like your bobbing and weaving around inside the ring. Notably, I can’t recall many moments in which I wasn’t able to accurately do what I wanted because of tracking or control limitations. However, the one exception to that is it seems like during PvP most people are vulnerable over the top of their block on the crown of their head. If you just do a hammer fist maneuver or seven sweep your hand quickly over their block it will register as a hit even if you’re not really punching. Of all sports, boxing feels like the perfect match for VR and adding multiplayer just makes it even better.
Survios also developed what they’ve dubbed a “Phantom Melee” system to help simulate stamina loss, becoming staggered, or getting knocked down. Obviously those are all real things in boxing that need to be addressed, but if you’re playing a VR game, the developer can’t reasonably restrict your character or remove you from control. So instead, “Phantom Melee” is a bit like a mime system.
For example, if you get winded and over-exert your arms, they’ll turn red and you’ll have to bring them up to your face to regain stamina by resting. This also helps prevent people from just flailing around wildly because their character will get winded too fast, not be able to block well, and get dropped very quickly. Then if you get nailed really hard and become staggered (basically meaning stunned) then the game will show silhouetted versions of your fists in the air that you have to match the pose of to regain control. In this way, it forces you to pretend like your hands are flung upward as a result of a big punch.
Finally, if you get knocked down, Creed VR actually has you drumming your fists as fast as possible as if you are sprinting back to your body. It’s sort of like an out-of-body experience, like you got punched so hard your opponent sent your soul flying out of your body and you’ve gotta get back to it before the countdown is over.
All of these systems add up to matches never having much downtime, which is great, and it maintains the experience in multiplayer so that you can still do things like knock down your opponent or stagger them like you can against AI enemies without breaking immersion. I just wish the posing and miming bits weren’t quite as finicky, because sometimes it was a little frustrating not being able to regain control fast enough.
The final piece of the Creed VR puzzle are the training mini games. When you’re waiting on a PvP match to start or just wandering around the main lobby area, you have the entire floor of the gym open to explore. There are heavy bags you can use to practice flurry punches, dummies for combo training, moving directional bags for dodging, and more. All of the little mini games are fun and actually do a decent job of helping you hone actual tactics that you can apply inside the ring.
I don’t have any real boxing experience, but I used to go to a boxing gym for my workout and the trainers would have us do a lot of similar drills before we sparred and it’s really clever to see how those concepts are gamified and established inside VR. My biggest issue with them though is that the hit detection seems a bit off, especially on the combo dummies.
Final Score:8/10 – Great
Creed: Rise to Glory is the best all-around boxing game VR has seen yet. While its serviceable campaign mode lacks the depth and variety that we’ve come to expect from Survios releases and some of the controls are a bit finicky, it more than makes up for it with a litany of training mini games and an addictive PvP mode. Trading blows, ducking shots, and scoring a powerful knockout against someone in immersive VR is about as close to an actual boxing match as you can find from the comfort of your own home.
Creed: Rise to Glory is available starting today on Steam, Oculus Home, and PSVR for $29.99. And read our Content Review Guidelines for more information on how we arrived at this score.
Survios’ Creed: Rise to Glory finally steps into the ring today, though it’s missing a key feature on Sony’s PlayStation VR (PSVR) headset.
Last week we reported that the VR boxing game was getting an online player vs player mode, allowing friends or strangers to punch each other in the face. At the time, Survios confirmed that the game would support cross-play, meaning people wearing different types of VR headsets could still play together. Following the news, Survios confirmed to UploadVR that this feature would work between the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive but not PSVR.
We’ve asked Survios for the reasoning behind this decision. “Survios has been a big supporter of VR multiplayer with all our titles and Creed: Rise to Glory is no exception. The game supports cross-platform across HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, but is not available on PSVR at this time,” Head of Studios Mike McTyre told us. “The team has been busy focusing on delivering the most polished title possible for its September 25 launch. Survios has a track record of updating its products post-launch with an emphasis on the community’s response to determine which features are the most desired. So we’d love your feedback!”
PSVR players will get a sort of trade-off in the form of an exclusive character – Young Rocky. In the main game the older version of the boxing legend will help train you, but you’ll only be able to fight him in the console version.
It’s a shame, as cross-play is a great way to help flesh out online communities for VR games, and Rift and Vive owners would no doubt benefit from having PSVR fans join them. Games like EVE: Valkyrie and Rec Room, for example, do support cross-play across all three headsets. Still, given that we were looking forward to Creed even before we knew the online mode existed it hasn’t shaken our confidence in the game too much; we still think it’s going to be a contender.
Creed: Rise to Glory hits Rift, Vive and PSVR on September 25th.
Get your hand wraps and virtual boxing gloves ready because I just heard the bell ring and it’s time to get ready to fight! Creed: Rise To Glory releases tomorrow, September 25th, for PSVR, Rift, and Vive and we’ve got 10 Steam copies ready to hand out, for free, no strings attached. All you have to do is enter into our giveaway right here or down in the widget below.
Winners will be randomly selected. All of our keys are Steam keys, which means they will unlock the game with native support for either Rift or Vive.
For more on what we think of the game (our full review will be live at 7AM PT on September 25th) here is an excerpt from our most recent hands-on preview from a pre-E3 event over the summer:
The core of what makes Creed special among VR boxing titles is how it threads the needle between silly, arcade boxing like Knockout League and realism-focused simulation along the lines of Thrill of the Fight…Boxing as a sport is a great fit for VR because of how active it is and how focused it is on hand movement. Since motion controllers (and headsets) do a great job of tracking movement already, it’s a natural fit.
Winners will be selected at approximately 4PM PT on Tuesday, September 25th, 2018, the day the game launches. If you’d rather not click the link above, here is the embedded contest widget:
Last week saw quite the selection of virtual reality (VR) videogames come to PlayStation VR, with the likes of Ubisoft’s Transference, dark puzzle experience Blind and Downward Spiral: Horus Stationall making their mark. This week isn’t quite as bountiful but there are still some worthwhile titles to be had.
The big launch this week is actually a multiplatform experience, Creed: Rise to Glory by Sprint Vectordeveloper Survios. This is one VRFocus has been looking forward to, as it may just offer the best boxing mechanics yet in a VR title. You’ll play as young startup Adonis Creed, looking to make his way up the ranks and become a champion in his own right. To this end you’ll be able to train and build up your skills in a story-driven Career mode, training in iconic gyms and fighting some tough combatants.
Alongside the single-player career players will also be able to go head-to-head in a cross-platform PvP mode, showcasing their VR boxing talents to the world. And there’s an appearance by the great Rocky Balboa.
For those after a VR fighting experience that’s a lot less energetic then there’s always Dark Eclipse. This is classic multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) fighting, where players command a team of three leaders – chosen from a roster of 15 available characters – each with their own unique characteristics and abilities. Gameplay will involve a drag-and-drop control system which combines real-time strategy (RTS) mechanics with the action of a MOBA.
Lastly, for a far more casual and educational experience there’s The Grand Museum VR. Having previously launched on Steam over the summer this virtual museum environment contains 82 models of real-world ancient works of art, originating from many ancient cultures of Europe, Asia and Northern Africa. The app allows users to investigate the archives and discover the history of the art pieces.
Should any other VR videogames make an appearance this week, VRFocus will let you know.
Despite the rise of virtual reality (VR), there still are not very many videogame publishers out there who are dedicated solely to producing VR titles. Fewer still have had the opportunity to be invited to host a Steam Publisher Weekend. In fact, thee is only one name on that list, since Survios are the first VR-exclusive publishers to be granted this opportunity.
Survios are behind some of the biggest and most popular VR titles on the PC VR platforms, having brought Raw Data, Sprint Vector and Electronauts to users, and are also the publisher behind the highly anticipated CREED: Rise to Glory.
Raw Data was developed and published by Survios as a first-person action-adventure title where players infiltrate the dangerous Eden Corp, searching for evidence of their illegal activities in a cyberpunk sci-fi setting. The title is currently on Steam with a 60% discount, dropping the price to £11.99 (GBP) from the usual £29.99. An even better deal is the deluxe edition, which includes the original soundtrack alongside the base game at a price of £13.37, a 64% discount on the usual price.
Meanwhile, fast-paced extreme-sports simulator Sprint Vector lets users get exercise from within VR as they run, jump and climb through a platform-based obstacle course. Sprint Vector is now on Steam for £11.49, a 50% reduction on the usual price of £22.99. Or the deluxe edition containing the OST along with the base game is also available, priced at £13.74, a 60% discount.
For fans of rhythm games, virtual DJ titles Electronauts lets users create songs, mix together your own DJ sets and perform in the virtual world. Electronauts is 40% off the usual price on Steam right now, bringing the price down to £9.29 compared to the usual £15.49.
For those looking forward to groundbreaking boxing title CREED: Rise to Glory, can also take advantage of the sale to snag a pre-order for the upcoming title, since it is currently on a 10% discount, bringing the price down to £21.41 compared to the standard price of £23.79.
For future coverage on special offers and discounts in VR, keep checking back with VRFocus.
Creed: Rise to Glory – Survios bestätigt Online-Multiplayer-Modus
In Creed: Rise to Glory dürft ihr in der Rolle des Adonis Creed in den Boxring steigen, um euch euren Weg an die Spitze zu erkämpfen. Mit Rocky Balboa als persönlichen Coach an eurer Seite dürft ihr eure Boxfähigkeiten verbessern und euch dadurch den Titel des Champions ergattern.
Entwicklerstudio Survios gab bisher diverse Spielmodi, wie einen Story-, Exhibition- und Trainings-Modus bekannt. Wenige Tage vor dem Release des Titels verkündeten die Verantwortlichen nun ein zusätzliches Feature: Die VR-Boxsimulation ermöglicht euch, auch im Online-Multiplayer gegeneinander zu spielen.
Entsprechend dürft ihr per Quick-Match-Option ohne lange Wartezeiten weltweit gegen andere Spieler/innen kämpfen. Ihr habt die Wahl, ob ihr gegen eure Freunde oder Fremde Boxer/innen antretet. Ob der Multiplayer auch im Crossplattform zwischen PC-Brillen und PSVR funktioniert, ist derzeit leider noch nicht bekannt.
Creed: Rise to Glory erscheint offiziell am 25. September für PlayStation VR (PSVR), Oculus Rift und HTC Vive. Die Vorbestellungen sind bereits zum reduzierten Preis auf Steam, im Oculus Store sowie im PlayStation Store eröffnet.
