Category: Defector

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E3 2018: All the VR Games of Day One

The Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) opened today, bringing together the videogames industry at the Los Angeles Convention Centre for the famous annual event. VRFocus is in attendance at the show and getting hands-on with all the latest and greatest that virtual reality (VR) entertainment has to offer.

PREY

On the show floor this year are Kevin Joyce, CEO & Editor, Peter Graham, Senior Staff Writer, and Nina Salomons, Video Content Producer. The team visited a variety of publishers and independent developers, as well as hardware manufacturers, sampling some of the newly announced VR titles and some experiences coming very soon.

The likes of Bethesda Softworks (Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot, Prey – Transtar VR), Ready at Dawn (Echo Combat), Sony Interactive Entertainment (Ghost Giant), FromSoftware (Deracine), Disruptive Games (Megalith), Squanch Games (Trover Saves the Universe), Firesprite (The Persistence) and Twisted Pixel (Defector) feature alongside HTC Vive and DisplayLink’s showcase of the wireless adapter technology. Highlights of all of this and more can be seen in the video below.

What’s happening with Polyarc post-Moss release? Exactly where does Echo Combat fit into the Lone Echo collection from Ready at Dawn? How does The Elder Scrolls: Blades VR edition perform alongside the tablet, smartphone, console and PC editions of the videogame? Is Gungrave VR going to be a rebirth for a beloved series, or a fly-by-night wonder? Why are Survios showcasing CREED: Rise to Glory on nearly every booth at the event? VRFocus endeavoured to get answers to all of these questions and more today, and will be bringing you all the latest news from E3 2018 as the show continues.

Ghost Giant - Screenshot

Furthermore, there’s anticipation for what’s coming tomorrow; will Enhance Games’ Tetris Effect be the videogame of E3 2018? How about Sony Japan Studio’s Astro Bot: Rescue Mission? There’s also Rebellion and Dream Reality Interactive’s (DRi) Arca’s Path, Multiverse Inc.’s Seeking Dawn and new hardware offerings from Thrustmaster, Cybershoes and Captoglove to come.

You can find the highlights from day one at E3 2018 in the video below, and be sure to stay right here at VRFocus as we bring you all the latest news, previews and interviews from the show floor as the event continues.

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Defector: Action-Spionage-Exklusivtitel für Rift erscheint Ende 2018

Auf der PAX East 2018 kündigte Oculus den Exklusivtitel Defector von Entwicklerstudio Twisted Pixel Studios (bekannt für Wilson’s Hearth) für die Oculus Rift an. Im letzten Monat hielt man sich über genauere Informationen jedoch noch bedeckt, nun veröffentlichten die Verantwortlichen am Wochenende neue Details und erste Einblicke zum Ende 2018 erscheinenden Action-Spionage-Titel.

FPS-Action-Spionage-Titel Defector

In Defector dürft ihr in die Fußstapfen von James Bond treten und als Elitegeheimagent in Undercover-Missionen die Welt retten. Dafür stehen euch ganz im Stil der bekannten Action-Film-Agenten diverse Feuerwaffen, einzigartige Gadgets und schicke Autos zur Verfügung. Zusätzlich schmückt sich der VR-Titel mit dramatischen und atemberaubenden Action-Szenen sowie abwechslungsreichem Gameplay.

Defector-Oculus-Rift-Action-Spionage

So stürzt ihr euch in übertriebene tödliche Stunts, um beispielsweise hinter dem Steuer eures schicken Sportwagens aus einem fliegenden Flugzeug in der Luft abzuspringen und in das nächste Flugzeug  zu wechseln. Dort erwarten euch direkt feindlich gesinnte Widersacher, die es mit jeder Menge Feuerkraft zu bekämpfen gilt. Neben den bleihaltigen Schusswechseln bietet das VR-Spiel ein intelligentes Kampfsystem für den Faustkampf in Mann-gegen-Mann-Situationen.

Zudem verändern sich Story sowie die damit verbundenen Action-Momente je nach persönlicher Entscheidung in verschiedenen Situationen. Entsprechend bestimmt ihr selbst, wie ihr die gefährlichen Herausforderungen löst, wodurch jede Entscheidung innerhalb des Adrenalin erzeugenden Action-Feuerwerks zwischen Leben und Tod bestimmt.

In einem Interview erläuterte Josh Bear, Entwickler von Twisted Pixel Studios, dass sie den Spielern mit ihrem neuen VR-Titel ermöglichen wollen, in die Rolle eines ultimativen Geheimagenten zu schlüpfen. Dabei soll sich Defector wie eine Mischung aus Mission: Impossible und Fast and the Furious anfühlen und eine ebenso hochwertige Qualität wie Wilson’s Heart bieten.

Defector soll Ende 2018 exklusiv für die Oculus Rift erscheinen. Genauere Informationen über ein exaktes Veröffentlichungsdatum oder einen Verkaufspreis sind derzeit noch nicht vorhanden.

(Quellen: Oculus Blog | Road to VR | Videos: Oculus Youtube | Road to VR Youtube)

Der Beitrag Defector: Action-Spionage-Exklusivtitel für Rift erscheint Ende 2018 zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

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Defector is Wilson’s Heart Creator Twisted Pixel’s new Spy Adventure

After releasing its successful virtual reality (VR) title Wilson’s Heart in collaboration with Oculus Studios, Twisted Pixel has now revealed details on its next Oculus Rift exclusive project, a spy caper called Defector.  

Defector image1

Moving away from the dark, twisted narrative of its debut experience, with its black and white visual style and point to point teleportation, Defector is a no holds bar action adventure, arming players with guns and gadgets galore in a bid to complete impossible objectives.

The team explain on the Oculus Blog: “Whether you’ve imagined navigating high-stakes situations with James Bond’s British charm or La Femme Nikita’s ruthless efficiency, Defector puts your wits to the test in a series of pulse-pounding missions. With gadgets, intel, and a little bit of luck on your side, you just might make it out alive.”

Action seems to be the name of the game in Defector, with Twisted Pixel set to deliver massive set pieces alongside branching gameplay so that even the smallest decision can have an effect on a missions outcome.

Defector image3

As the announcement trailer neatly showcases, players will have to become adept at switching between dual wielding pistols, dodging not only bullets but exploding aircraft, then occasionally dabbling in some hand-to-hand combat when the need arises, alongside making those important life or death calls.

Defector has been slated for released on Oculus Rift later in 2018. If you want to check out the quality of Twisted Pixel’s work then you can always read VRFocus’ review of Wilson’s Heart. As further details about Defector are released VRFocus will keep you updated.

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Oculus Studios’ New Title ‘Defector’ Aims for High-octane Set Piece Action and Branching Narratives

Oculus Studios today revealed their latest Rift exclusive, Defector, a high-action first-person adventure from Twisted Pixel, the studio behind Wilson’s Heart (2007). Defector aims to put players in the shoes of a veritable action movie spy, with gadgets and guns aplenty.

Set to launch in 2018 as an Oculus exclusive, Defector is shaping up to be quite a departure from Twisted Pixel’s first-person psychological thriller Wilson’s Heart. And while they’ve traded the prior game’s black and white aesthetic and ’40s era motif for a full color modern day setting, there’s still a clear emphasis on cinematic presentation. A major difference though is Defector’s emphasis on branching narratives, optional objectives, and an abandonment of the node-base movement scheme which left Wilson’s Heart feeling rather restrictive.

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Image courtesy Twisted Pixel
Image courtesy Twisted Pixel
Image courtesy Twisted Pixel
Image courtesy Twisted Pixel
Image courtesy Twisted Pixel
Image courtesy Twisted Pixel

I got a chance to go hands-on with an early build of the game where I got a feel for the game’s new locomotion options and gameplay.

At the start of the outset, you’re asked a series of questions which determine which kind of locomotion you’d like to use; the core of it is based on free movement with snap-turning, which felt plenty comfortable to me throughout my initial 15 or 20 minutes of play. At the start of the demo I opened a small box in front of me and picked up an earpiece and placed it in my ear, then a special contact lens and placed it in my eye. The ear piece allowed me to hear my handler buddy who fed me helpful instructions and intel, while the contact lit up an augmented reality-like HUD display in front of me—both smart ways to create plausibility for necessary avenues for instruction and information.

The demo I played had me on a large, luxurious plane where I was attempting to covertly infiltrate my way to the head honcho without making anyone suspicious of my motives. I’ll let the full demo playthrough (above) speak to the gameplay, but there’s two interesting things worth calling out: the first was the moment that one of the burly henchmen gave me a virtual frisking, where I had to actually raise my hands above my head while he checked me for weapons (if I put them down he’d get angry and shoot me). It was wonderfully uncomfortable in a way that simply wouldn’t have been at all if I wasn’t in VR, making it a really rather smart use of the medium that I haven’t seen before.

And the second interesting thing is the game’s focus on branching narratives based on player choice, which can lead to some significantly different action. In the demo I played I was given the choice of whether I wanted to jump out of the plane or fight my way out. Both choices led to totally different segments of the game: one had me clinging for my life to the outside of a plane in a sort of climbing mini game, while the other led me into a gun fight, a fist fight, and ultimately to driving a sports car out of the plane’s cargo hold. Below you can see the alternative later segment with the sports care finale:

Speaking with Creative Director Josh Bear, he told me that the studio’s aim with Defector is to put players in the shoes of the ultimate spy, like a mixture of Mission: Impossible and Fast and the Furious. While the game’s price and specific release date haven’t been announced yet, he said that the studio is aiming for a similar quality bar and scope as Wilson’s Heart.

Bear also said that the studio learned a lot from the development of Wilson’s Heart, and the widespread feedback that players didn’t want to restricted to node-base movement motivated the studio to offer more freedom in how players move around in Defector. He further said that Defector wants to make cinematic action but keep the player engaged, citing moments in Wilson’s Heart where things looked good but players were just watching what was happening at times rather than participating. You can catch my full interview with Bear above.

The post Oculus Studios’ New Title ‘Defector’ Aims for High-octane Set Piece Action and Branching Narratives appeared first on Road to VR.

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Hands-On: Defector Makes You The Star Of Your Very Own Mission: Impossible VR Adventure

Hands-On: Defector Makes You The Star Of Your Very Own Mission: Impossible VR Adventure

Editor’s Note: We’ve recently played an updated demo since this preview originally published on April 13th, 2018, and since the core mechanics (and our thoughts) are the same we’ve republished this hands-on once again. More coverage to come.

Becoming a secret spy is the ultimate fantasy for a lot of people. You get to drive fast cars, use special gadgets, and take down international crime syndicates with style and flair. Not to mention the awesome J.B. names like James Bond, Jason Bourne, and Jack Bauer. Defector, the latest VR game from Wilson’s Heart developer Twisted Pixel, taps directly into that fantasy to deliver a fast-paced thrill ride of an action game.

The closest thing to Defector I’ve seen in VR so far would have to be PlayStation VR World’s The London Heist, which is the basis for Blood & Truth, another upcoming PSVR-exclusive from the same London Heist team. What Defector does is take that core concept of being an action hero and layer it with heaps of espionage and branching missions.

The gameplay video above shows a great example. About a third of the way through the mission I’m presented with a decision: should I strap the parachute on myself and jump out of the plane to try and grapple onto the neighboring plane? Or should I shoot my way through the cargo bay and drive a sports car out of the plane like a complete badass? You get to see both outcomes if you watch the entire video.

Twisted Pixel was clear when I talked with them about the game that they want their missions to have real, meaningful branches that actually alter the course of the story and gameplay. While the overarching narrative will stay the same regardless, the path you take to each mission’s conclusions could be dramatically different — as mentioned above. This not only incentivizes multiple playthroughs (especially when considering each mission’s laundry list of bonus objectives) but it gives the player an increased sense of agency which is so crucial in VR games.

On top of that, Defector really did make me feel like a Mission: Impossible-esque spy. During dialogue scenes I can pull up a dossier full of information on my target to analyze their personality and weaknesses. How I handled conversations directly influences things and contributes to how the level might play out.

Even though my demo ended with me driving a car out of a plane (Fast & Furious style) the developers teased that it was one of the more tame levels by comparison. I’m not sure my heart rate can handle something much more intense than that. I could feel my adrenaline pumping and my stomach lurching as I plummeted towards the other plane after leaping from an expensive muscle car. Honestly there’s nothing quite like it in VR right now.

Ultimately it’s going to come down to how well the levels are balanced overall and what type of gameplay variety there will be. If every mission boils down to walk around under cover or hiding, take out some enemies, then executive a bombastic escape plan, it’s gonna get real boring real fast.

But I’ve got my fingers crossed that they have a few tricks up their sleeves. The gunplay felt good and accurate, requiring me to take cover in the environment and aim my shots well. The demo featured full smooth locomotion (a far cry from Wilson’s Heart’s pre-scripted teleportation spots) and once I enabled smooth turning it really opened up the possibilities for gameplay. In a way, it feels like the game Blood & Truth desperately wants to be but can’t.

Defector has the potential to set the tone for the next coming wave of VR-only titles. In an era that’s currently dominated by VR ports of non-VR games (LA Noire, Skyrim, Fallout 4, Resident Evil 7) it will be interesting to see if a built-for-VR first title like this has enough juice to command the discussion for longer than just its launch week. At least it isn’t another wave shooter.

Defector is slated for a 2018 release exclusively for the Oculus Rift with Touch. Let us know what you think of the game so far down in the comments below! And for more on Twisted Pixel’s work in VR, read (or watch) our Wilson’s Heart review right here.

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The post Hands-On: Defector Makes You The Star Of Your Very Own Mission: Impossible VR Adventure appeared first on UploadVR.

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Oculus Rift: Neuer Exklusivitel Defector für PAX East angekündigt

Zur Feier des zweijährigen Jubiläums der Oculus Rift bietet Oculus aktuell diverse Vergünstigungen, Aktionen und Gewinnspiele für Besitzer der VR-Brille an. Neben den Feierlichkeiten kündigte das Unternehmen einen neuen Exklusivtitel von Entwicklerstudio Twisted Pixel Studios (bekannt für Wilsons’s Heart) an, der erstmals auf der PAX East 2018 debütiert. Bisher wurden lediglich der Titel Defector sowie ein Logo bekannt gegeben.

Defector – Neuer Exklusivtitel für Oculus Rift wird auf der PAX East 2018 enthüllt

Jason Rubin, Vice President of Content bei Oculus, kündigte für das Jahr 2018 eine neue Firmenpolitik zur Veröffentlichung von VR-Titeln an: So lautet das neue Motto Qualität statt Quantität. Entsprechend erwarten uns dieses Jahr zwar weniger Rift-Exklusivtitel, dafür sollen diese jedoch „größer und besser“ sein als bisherige Veröffentlichungen.

In diesem Sinne kündigte das Unternehmen neben den derzeitigen Feierlichkeiten zum zweijährigen Jubiläum der Oculus Rift, in einem Blogpost einen neuen Exklusivtitel für die VR-Brille an: „Die Leidenschaft der VR-Community inspiriert uns und wir freuen uns, euch zukünftig weitere Meilensteine vorstellen zu dürfen. Im Laufe der Feierlichkeiten zum Jubiläum der Rift solltet ihr ein Auge auf die PAX EAST werfen, um die Veröffentlichung eines neuen Titels aus den Oculus Studios aus erster Hand mitzuerleben. Das Entwicklerstudio Twisted Pixel Games präsentiert darin ein originelles Spielkonzept, das ihr nicht verpassen solltet.“

Das neue Spiel Defector von Entwicklerstudio Twisted Pixel Studios soll erstmals auf der PAX East 2018 vorgestellt werden. Mit Wilson’s Heart präsentierten die Entwickler bereits ein gelungenes Psycho-Thriller-Adventure in Grautönen mit spannender, immersiver Geschichte und gruseligen Schockmomenten. Neben Logo und Titel sind bisher noch keine weiteren Informationen zum anstehenden Spiel bekannt.

Wilsons Heart

Die PAX East findet vom 5. bis zum 8. Mai 2018 in Boston in Massachusetts statt. Wir werden euch über Neuigkeiten zum Exklusivtitel auf dem Laufenden halten.

(Quellen: Oculus Blog | Road to VR)

Der Beitrag Oculus Rift: Neuer Exklusivitel Defector für PAX East angekündigt zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!