Category: Discussion

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Community Download: What Do You Want From Oculus Quest 3?

Community Download is a weekly discussion-focused articles series published (usually) every Monday in which we pose a single, core question to you all, our readers, in the spirit of fostering discussion and debate. For today’s Community Download, we want to know what you want from the eventual Oculus Quest 3?

During the most recent Facebook earnings call, CEO Mark Zuckerberg made a passing comment about future upcoming hardware projects. You might have seen some places report on that as some kind of implicit Quest 3 announcement, but that wasn’t what happened. Not even a little bit.

We all know Facebook is working on its next VR headset already because obviously they are. The Quest 2 is out, Rift, Go, Gear VR, and Rift S are dead or dying, so naturally what’s next, aka something like Quest 3, is all they’ve got on their plate in terms of hardware. It’s not news to say that at this point.

But what we don’t know is what will it be like compared to the Quest 2 and will it be worth making the switch for current Quest owners?

Mark Zuckerberg Quest 2 Earnings Call Pre-order

Will the Quest 3 be a big leap forward and not see the light of day until late 2022 or 2023? Or will we see another iterative upgrade later this year or next year? In fact, it’s entirely possible the next VR headset from Facebook isn’t even the next entry in the Oculus Quest line at all, it could be something else entirely.

It’s worth keeping in mind that there was only one year between the Quest 1 and Quest 2 so even though the differences between them may seem significant in some technical ways, from a user experience perspective it’s more like the difference between a PS4 Pro and a PS4 than it is like a true numbered iteration improvement.

I think most people would agree field of view needs to start expanding for VR headsets at this point, especially for Quest 3. We’re reaching the realm of diminishing returns for resolution quality, at least until technical power is strong enough to really take advantage of the pixel density, or foveated rendering is advanced enough to really push the envelope in areas where your eyes are focusing. Eye tracking could potentially help a ton with all of that. But in the short term, expanding field of view would be a great way to increase immersion and cut down on distractions.

What other advancements do you want to see? Just better graphics, wider field of view, and more games? Maybe a longshot wish that Quest 3 will abandon the Facebook account requirement? Let us know down in the comments below!

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Community Download: Which Non-VR Games Would You Most Like To Play In VR?

Community Download is a weekly discussion-focused articles series published (usually) every Monday in which we pose a single, core question to you all, our readers, in the spirit of fostering discussion and debate. For today’s Community Download, we want to know which non-VR games or series do you most want to see adapted for VR?

Some of the biggest and best VR games on the market are ports or remakes of non-VR games. Examples like Superhot VR and Skyrim VR immediately come to mind. Others may be new VR entries in existing franchises like Half-Life: Alyx, or in the case of Hitman 3, popular VR support for a popular series.

Going a step further, we’ve also got plenty of examples of intrepid modders adding VR support to otherwise non-VR games, such as in the case of DOOM 3, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Alien Isolation, the original Half-Life, and more. Or sometimes the actual developers going back to add VR support to older games, like System Shock 2.

And before you angrily tell me in the comments about VorpX, a 3D injector that can add stereoscopic visuals and head tracking to non-VR games, that’s not the same thing. I’m talking about true, complete VR support here.

Point being: players love to revisit their favorite worlds from new perspectives. Playing something fresh and new is great, but there is something truly special about that feeling that you’re setting foot inside of a familiar place with the added immersion of VR to really enhance the experience even further.

There are lots of franchises out there that feel like a perfect fit for VR that still haven’t gotten the treatment though. Dishonored is an example I keep coming back to personally, especially after the extensive VR experience Bethesda has paired with Arkane’s work on the Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot game. Recent releases like Cyberpunk 2077 or even Kingdom Come Deliverance are other great examples.

What about you? Which non-VR games do you most want to see get new entries with VR support  or get adapted for VR for an existing game? Let us know down in the comments below!

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Community Download: Do You Plan On Playing Medal Of Honor VR?

Community Download is a weekly discussion-focused articles series published (usually) every Monday in which we pose a single, core question to you all, our readers, in the spirit of fostering discussion and debate. For today’s Community Download, we want to know if you plan on playing Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond when it releases later this week?

Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond is just around the corner. The latest shooter from Respawn Entertainment drops exclusively for PC VR later this week on December 11th on the Oculus PC Store and SteamVR for Rift, Vive, and Index and it aims to deliver a full single-player campaign that lasts over 10 hours, a wave-based survival mode, and online multiplayer.

You can read our first impressions of the online multiplayer here as well as our round up on everything you need to know about the game’s modes, maps, guns, and more. The recommended specs are high, as is the amount of hard drive space required, so this is certainly one of the beefiest VR games to date that puts it up there in the same tier as Half-Life: Alyx and Asgard’s Wrath for sheer digital footprint required.

So, that brings us to the ultimate question: Do you plan on playing Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond when it releases? If so, which PC VR headset will you use? Are you holding out hope for a Quest port of some kind?

Let us know your plans later this week once Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond releases down in the comments below!

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Community Download: Should HTC Completely Give Up On Consumer VR?

Community Download is a weekly discussion-focused articles series published (usually) every Monday in which we pose a single, core question to you all, our readers, in the spirit of fostering discussion and debate. For today’s Community Download, we want to know if you think HTC should just accept the writing on the wall and completely give up on consumer VR?

Today HTC announced that its upcoming Cosmos Play headset, the cheaper version of its new Cosmos line that seemed marketed as a more affordable consumer option, is now no longer a consumer device at all. In fact, they’re pivoting that headset to focus on enterprise customers instead.

If you’ve been following VR for at least a few years now, this probably doesn’t come as a big shock to you. Following the breakout success of the HTC Vive in 2016 as the first-ever room-scale consumer VR headset, launched in partnership with Valve as the flagship of SteamVR, they haven’t made many choices that put consumers first. From the HTC Vive Pro, Pro Eye, Vive Focus, Cosmos, and now Cosmos Play, not to mention several other variations of those brands, they’ve had enterprise customers at the forefront for a while now.

Back in January we published an editorial covering this exact topic, essentially claiming that HTC is going to need to make this pivot if they want to stay relevant in VR. Seven months later, that notion is coming to fruition it seems.

So, we’ve reached a big fulcrum point here for HTC. The ultimate question hanging over its head, a company that still lists several VR headsets on its website as available to purchase for consumers, including the more expensive higher-end version of the Cosmos, the Cosmos Elite. is: Should HTC finally and completely give up on consumer VR? Why or why not? Should they plan a comeback in the future?

Let us know down in the comments below!

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Community Download: What Do You Want From The PSVR State Of Play?

Community Download is a weekly discussion-focused articles series published (usually) every Monday in which we pose a single, core question to you all, our readers, in the spirit of fostering discussion and debate. For today’s Community Download, we want to know what you want to see most at the upcoming PlayStation State of Play that will feature PSVR games prominently?

Following the news this morning that the DualShock 4, PS Move controllers, PS Aim controller, and PS4 Camera will all work with the PS5, excitement for the future of PSVR is certainly high right now. Notably, DualShock 4 controllers will not work with PS5 games on the new console, only backwards compatible PS4 and PSVR games. It’s still great news because it means if you have a PSVR now, you can buy a PS5 and know that your existing VR hardware is going to work thanks to a free adapter.

Then, earlier this morning again, Sony announced another State of Play presentation is on the way this Thursday at 1PM PT. In the announcement tweet they also went several steps further to clarify a focus on upcoming PS4 and PSVR games, a few check-ins from the PS5 showcase, but then also specifically warns it won’t have any big PS5 announcements.

The State of Play will be over 40 minutes long! Here’s the original tweet:

Which brings us to the topic at hand: What do you most want to see from the State of Play? Since it’s almost certainly not including any PS5 games or any mention of PSVR 2 hardware, what are your realistic predictions? And what about your most unlikely?

The post Community Download: What Do You Want From The PSVR State Of Play? appeared first on UploadVR.

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Community Download: What Is The Best VR Shooter?

Community Download is a weekly discussion-focused articles series published (usually) every Monday in which we pose a single, core question to you all, our readers, in the spirit of fostering discussion and debate. For today’s Community Download, we want to know what you think is the very best VR shooter?

There are lots of great VR shooters out there. From the ultra-realistic types such as Onward to the bow and arrow focused In Death, there are tons of different ways to shoot things in a VR headset. We’ve even got Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond still coming, presumably, this year.

In fact, we’re in a bit of resurgence with the Oculus Quest getting so many ports these days and new releases hitting PC. For example, Into the Radius just came out on PC VR with its unique apocalyptic Stalker-esque vibe and now we’ve got In Death this week on Quest, followed by Onward for Quest next week.

And with all those different methods it’s bound to cause some division. I know that personally I prefer Onward to Pavlov despite their control schemes being mostly the same. So much in VR has to do with how something feels and you can’t really explain that in words very easily. Even if a game has the same bulleted list of features and mechanics it doesn’t mean it feels the same in the headset once you’re controlling stuff with your hands.

So that brings us to the week’s discussion topic: What do you think is the very best VR shooter out there? Is it a specific an FPS gun-based game, or do you love a shooter that features a different weapon?

Let us know down in the comments below!

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Community Download: What’s Your Scariest VR Horror Moment?

Community Download is a weekly discussion-focused articles series published (usually) every Monday in which we pose a single, core question to you all, our readers, in the spirit of fostering discussion and debate. For today’s Community Download, we want you to close your eyes and think back to the scariest VR horror moment you’ve experienced in a headset.

Horror and VR go together perfectly. Usually when playing a good, atmospheric horror game I’ve been known to turn off the lights, put on headphones, and try to limit all outside distractions so I can get properly immersed. That’s the best way to make sure the scares really hit home and get under your skin.

If you’re not getting goose bumps with chills down your spine, then what even is the point?

There are lots of great VR horror games and now with last week’s release of the new game mode in Affected: The Manor as well as Layers of Fear VR on Quest, and now this week’s release of Five Nights at Freddy’s VR on Quest, we’re due for a bit of spooky summer thrills.

In terms of scariest moment though, It’s hard for me to pick just one moment. I’ve reviewed many of the best VR horror games out there, from Resident Evil 7 VR and Until Dawn: Rush of Blood to A Chair in a Room: Greenwater, The Exorcist VR, and more. There’s a lot of great moments.

To this day though, the thing that sticks out most in my memory is from Resident Evil 7 on PSVR when, I’ll just say “she” to avoid spoilers, lunges at you near the beginning of the game, with her deformed and rabid face, and stabs you with a knife. It was so up close and personal it honestly made me uncomfortable. Then she chops off your hand and for a split second my heart sank and I really think it convinced me I was in actual physical danger.

It’s still the only VR game to literally give me nightmares because of how visceral it all felt.

What about for you? What’s the scariest moment you’ve had in VR?

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Community Download: What Do You Hope Rockstar’s Next VR Game Is?

Community Download is a weekly discussion-focused articles series published (usually) every Monday in which we pose a single, core question to you all, our readers, in the spirit of fostering discussion and debate. For today’s Community Download, we want to know which VR game you want to see published by Rockstar next, now that we know one is coming?

You know what’s exciting? The topic question isn’t even pure speculation this week! We literally know that Rockstar has hired Video Games Deluxe, the studio that worked on LA Noire: The VR Case Files for them, to work on a new AAA open world VR game. There’s a job listing to prove it!

Here’s a video with more details:

However, what we don’t know is what that AAA VR game is going to be exactly. Could this be another VR version from one of their existing open world franchises, like Grand Theft Auto or Red Dead Redemption? Or perhaps this is a brand new IP built from the ground up for VR. Either way it’s extremely exciting news.

A few years ago I wrote a list of other Rockstar games I’d love to see adapted for VR and my thoughts remain relatively unchanged. After playing GTA 5 in VR using mods I’m sold that type of game would be immensely fun, especially with motion controllers.

On the one hand it’s disappointing Rockstar won’t be unleashing their in-house talents on a VR project anytime soon, but maybe we can at least explore some of the immense worlds they’ve created.

Let us know what you think down in the comments below!

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Community Download: Which Superhero Deserves Their Own VR Game Next?

Community Download is a weekly discussion-focused articles series published (usually) every Monday in which we pose a single, core question to you all, our readers, in the spirit of fostering discussion and debate. For today’s Community Download, we want to know which superhero you’d love to see in a dedicated VR game next after Iron Man?

With Iron Man VR releasing in just a few short days on July 3rd, this Friday, it’s an exciting time for PSVR gamers. One of the most well-known and truly iconic superheroes of all-time is entering the immersive realm of VR with his own, dedicated game complete with a robust campaign and lots of depth — at least, according to the developers.

We’ve gotten the chance to take on the role of lots of iconic superheroes over the years in VR, such as Batman in Arkham VR, several Marvel characters in Marvel Powers United VR, and even as Spider-Man specifically in the free Far From Home VR experience. But now we want to imagine what another fully-fledged made-for-VR superhero game would be like that focuses on a single hero.

Superman is one of the most notoriously difficult characters to get right in games, but maybe playing as him in VR would offer that sort of empowerment you’d seek. Or, perhaps a full game building on the web-slinging of Spider-Man could be fun. Teleporting between dimensions and using your hands for magic, like Doctor Strange, could be a blast too.

Let us know what you think! Which superhero do you think deserves their own dedicated VR game next after Iron Man VR?

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