Category: Doctor Who

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Doctor Who: Edge Of Time Update Adds 10th Doctor’s TARDIS

A new update has arrived for Doctor Who: Edge of Time that adds in new collectibles and the TARDIS interior featured in the 9th and 10th Doctor’s eras.

The update is a tie-in with the cross-medium ‘Time Lord Victorious’ event, which tells a loosely connected story featuring the 10th, 9th and 8th Doctors across the Doctor Who extended universe, including audio dramas, games, books, comics and more. The new Time Lord Victorious update for Edge of Time adds in the TARDIS from the Russell T. Davies era of the show, which was first piloted by Christopher Eccleston as the 9th Doctor and then by fan-favorite David Tennant as the 10th.

You can access the new TARDIS in the Edge of Time directly from the main menu, however, it will appear to be in a powered-down state. In order to bring the TARDIS back to life, players will have to find special artifacts hidden across the game’s main levels. Some of these artifacts will be tie-in objects from other Time Lord Victorious stories, such as the novels or audio stories, including a hastily-repaired version of David Tennant’s screwdriver that’s featured in one of the upcoming books, All Flesh is Grass.

While these artifacts add some replayability to Edge of Time’s campaign, your excitement for the update might depend on how ready you are to play the entire game again. It’s incredibly cool to have an iconic TARDIS interior added to the game, but in it’s powered down state it has very little interactivity. We’re told there is an easter egg of sorts in store, though, if you are able to power on the TARDIS by collecting all the artifacts.

The Time Lord Victorious update is available now for Doctor Who: Edge of Time on Oculus Quest and PlayStation VR. We asked whether the Steam version of the game is getting updated as well and a representative explained via email that it is “just PSVR / Quest for the time being”.

You can read our review of Edge of Time here.

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Doctor Who: The Edge Of Time To Get New Content Later This Year As Maze Theory Expands Series

UK-based Maze Theory is extending its catalog of Doctor Who games, including updates for its VR debut, Doctor Who: The Edge of Time.

The studio today announced that it’s developing two new, non-VR games to extend the story started in Edge of Time into a trilogy. One of these will release on traditional consoles and the other will launch on mobile.

Over email, Maze Theory told me that The Edge of Time itself will receive updates to help better tie it to these new entries. Not only that, but the team is also planning to add new content to the game for an upcoming Who-universe event called Time Lord Victorious. Taking place across multiple formats, the story will unite past Doctors in a massive new adventure. Some of this will be all-new story content, some will be traditional updates, and some will add new features and items that relate to the wider story.

Elsewhere the developer is hard at work on its next VR game, Peaker Blinders – The King’s Ransom. Set to release in 2021, the game will also come to traditional consoles. In the game, players will join the titular gang, spotlighted in the BBC TV show. In April last year Maze Theory received a grant to develop new AI technology for NPCs in the game, getting them to react to your interactions.

Finally, Maze Theory is continuing to work on its own IP, Engram, which started life at The Vanishing Act. This was actually the first project we saw from the developer a few years back, and we were really impressed with its use of room-scale tracking and storytelling. No word yet on when this one will surface, but we’ll be eagerly following updates.

Plenty more to look forward to from Maze Theory, then.

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NVIDIA Increases RTX Cards Sharpness In The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, VRChat

NVIDIA is expanding on its Variable Rate Supersampling feature by adding support for five new apps, including The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners and VRChat.

Variable Rate Supersampling (VRSS) launched back at CES in January. It’s a driver-level feature that dynamically increases the render resolution by up to 8x, but only in the center of the view (where you’re most often looking in current VR headsets).

The company’s benchmark chart claimed a roughly 50FPS increase over using regular full-view supersampling of the same quality.

VRSS has to be manually enabled for each game. It will only apply when there is enough GPU headroom left over to do so, and as such you’ll still be able to maintain refresh rate frame rate in VR (avoiding sickness).

If you want more detail on VRSS, see our article from its announcement.

This is a driver-level feature, so it doesn’t need integration by developers. However it only supports a whitelist of games NVIDIA has verified to work with it. At launch that figure stood at 24, but this week NVIDIA is adding the following 5 titles:

  • VRChat
  • Budget Cuts 2: Mission Insolvency
  • The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners
  • Doctor Who
  • PokerStarsVR

The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners is arguably the hottest VR game right now, and VRChat is the most popular social VR platform.

NVIDIA claims that it will continue to test more VR games and will add them to future driver releases.

You can enable VRSS for these games, and the other supported titles, in the NVIDIA Control panel. Read our guide on how to do this.

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Doctor Who, Curious Tale Getting Physical PSVR Releases In EU

Two of PSVR’s most recent games are coming to retail stores via boxed release soon. Well, at least they are in the EU.

Maze Theory’s Doctor Who: The Edge of Time and Fast Travel Games’ The Curious Tale Of The Stolen Pets are both set to land disc releases in the coming weeks, courtesy of Perp Games. Curious Tale goes first on February 28 and Doctor Who comes a little later on March 13.

Both games originally launched in late 2019 as digital exclusives. Doctor Who is a likable adaptation of the British sci-fi show starring Jodie Whittaker. You play as a new companion to the Doctor that takes a whrilwind tour through space and time to stop the dreaded reality virus. We thought the game had its charms, though ultimately wasn’t quite as ambitious as the show itself can be.

“Who is at its best when there’s a hook; a gimmick so playful and innovative that anyone can get carried away in the madness that ensues,” we said in our review. “Instead of testing those waters, The Edge of Time settles for bringing the series’ most tried and true elements directly into headsets in hopes of winning over dedicated fans. It plays more like a rejected episode of the TV series rather than something that fully embraces its platform. The Who faithful be satisfied in that safety, I suspect, but I personally can’t help but wish this was a little more dangerous.”

Curious Tale, meanwhile, is a cutesy puzzle game from the makers of Apex Construct. Though it’s a little on the short side, we really fell for its charming animation and wholesome story.

“It’s genuinely difficult to play the game without a smile on my face and I only hoped for more creativity, more whimsical delights, and more exploration of the character’s forgotten past,” games editor David Jagneaux said of it. “It borders on feeling too shallow at times, but all-in-all does a masterful job of exploring its themes before it’s all over and that’s all you can really ask for from a puzzle game of this temperament.”

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Doctor Who: The Edge Of Time Holds Up On Oculus Quest With Some Concessions

Like so many other VR games before it, Doctor Who: The Edge of Time feels destined to do best on Quest. Facebook’s standalone VR headset doesn’t require Who die-hards to buy an expensive PC or PS4 on top of new VR gear just to step into the shoes of one of the Doctor’s companions. Fortunately, this version of the game offers up a decent, if not perfect, conversion of its counterparts.

Visually, Doctor Who on Quest keeps the core of the experience intact with a mostly smooth, clean art style. The differences are clear; the Quest version’s textures are undoubtedly blurrier and the lighting work appears to have been simplified, but no less so than we’ve seen in other Quest ports. Impressively, it looks like all environmental objects keep their place, too.

There are some environments that don’t fare quite as well as others. The forests on the first planet, for example, have been turned into a contrasting set of textures that never quite mesh together. But most levels, especially those set indoors, hold up just fine. I did encounter one crash near the start of the game that had me repeating the initial Tardis sequence, and there was one unusually long load time, but these didn’t persist in the 30 minutes I spent with this version.

Other than that, this remains the same solid tribute to the sci-fi series as seen on other platforms. The Edge of Time is still a surprisingly scary experience — something you might want to warn any first-time VRers about — that ticks the boxes for Who fans. As a broader VR adventure game it’s on the safe side and it never gets too inventive with its source material. But for the debut game from a new VR studio based on a beloved franchise that is more used to bad spin-offs than it is good ones, this is a pretty pleasing result.

Now that all the ports of the game are done, I’d love to see Maze Theory eventually return to Doctor Who with a deeper, more daring sequel. There are too many weird and wacky concepts to explore in this universe to let slip through the cracks in time.

Doctor Who: The Edge of Time releases on Oculus Quest on January 23rd. 

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Amazing Free VR Experience Doctor Who: The Runaway Hits Steam This Week

Great news for Whovians and VR lovers alike; the excellent Doctor Who: The Runaway is coming to Steam soon.

A new listing for the short piece confirms a January 16th release. The Runaway is already available on the Oculus Store, though there’s been some confusion as to what regions it could be downloaded in. Hopefully this Steam release puts an end to any misunderstandings and also opens the experience up to HTC Vive and Valve Index users, too. It’s available for free on Rift so we’d expect that to be the case here too. We’ve reached out to the BBC to confirm all of this, just in case.

Update: The BBC confirmed to us that the experience is releasing on Steam tomorrow. Not only that, but it’s coming to YouTube too!

The Runaway is a great little short starring current Doctor Jodie Whittaker. Serving as an acting companion, you find yourself in the middle of the Tardis, helping the Doctor to care for an explosive teenage alien named Volta. Juggling Volta’s stress with avoiding pursuit from a police force hunting him down, you steer the Tardis to safety and wield the Doctor’s iconic sonic screwdriver.

The piece boasts wonderful animation and considered interaction, making for a wholly delightful 10 minute VR trip. Even if you’re not a fan of the show, it’s definitely worth checking out.

Sadly it was one of the last experiences released under the BBC’s VR Hub label, which shut its doors in 2019 while the wider organization continues to work on other projects. It’s not to be confused with Doctor Who: The Edge Of Time, which is a full VR game already available on Steam and other platforms.

Will you be picking up Doctor Who: The Runaway on Steam? Let us know in the comments below.

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Doctor Who Oculus Quest Port Pushed Back To Late January

Doctor Who: The Edge Of Time originally hit PC VR and PSVR headsets in November 2019. At that time, developer Maze Theory had planned to bring it to Oculus Quest in December. You’ve probably noticed that didn’t happen.

But, fear not, you shouldn’t have too much longer to wait.

Doctor Who Oculus Quest Delayed (A Little)

A recent tweet from the studio confirmed that the team is now targetting a January 23 release for the Quest edition. “We’re just trying to ensure we do everything we can to make this game as good as it can be,” the tweet says, “plus include all the recent fixes and improvements. Thanks for you [sic] patience.”

It’s not surprising to see the Quest edition delayed a little given that the platform isn’t as powerful as a PC or a PS4. Lots of games hold their Quest version off for a month or two to give the team time to properly optimize.

The Edge Of Time should make for a worthwhile addition to any Quest library, though. In the game you play as a companion to the Doctor that heads off on a universe-spanning trip to stop an ancient enemy from releasing a deadly virus. Jodie Whittaker lends her voice as the Doctor and famous foes like the Daleks appear throughout.

In our 3/5 review, we said the game does a good job of bringing many of Doctor Who’s most beloved elements to VR, though it’s lacking the spark of innovation that the best episodes of the show have.

Will you be picking up Doctor Who on Oculus Quest? Let us know in the comments below!

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GIVEAWAY: Win Copies Of Pistol Whip, Doctor Who VR, And More!

Happy Holidays, VR fans! Over the weekend Perp Games continued their VR Advent Calendar series of videos in which they’ve been partnering with VR media publications like UploadVR and other content creators to give away select VR games, like Pistol Whip!

For our partnership with Perp Games we’re happy to giveaway four extremely different titles (such as Pistol Whip and Ninja Legends) that are sure to scratch at least one of your gaming itches:

 

 

Doctor Who: The Edge of Time

Excerpt from Jamie Feltham’s Review:

“Who is at its best when there’s a hook; a gimmick so playful and innovative that anyone can get carried away in the madness that ensues. Instead of testing those waters, The Edge of Time settles for bringing the series’ most tried and true elements directly into headsets in hopes of winning over dedicated fans. It plays more like a rejected episode of the TV series rather than something that fully embraces its platform. The Who faithful be satisfied in that safety, I suspect, but I personally can’t help but wish this was a little more dangerous.”

GIVEAWAY: Win A Free Copy Of A Doctor Who: The Edge of Time On Steam!

 

Pistol Whip

Excerpt from Ian Hamilton’s Review:

“Pistol Whip’s multiple difficulties and modifiers like Deadeye and Dual-wield add depth to a game that’s more addictive and satisfying than Beat Saber. This is neither fully a shooter nor completely a rhythm game yet it ticks off both boxes and does so exceptionally quickly in a stylish package. The 10 launch songs, all in the same general musical style, are a bit limiting. Pistol Whip, though, is already the game that brings me back to my VR headset again and again, and I expect that to be the case for months to come. I’ll be in the group waiting for more official scenes to arrive, trying to finish a few more songs in Deadeye mode on hard, showing the game to others and hoping someone figures out how to add custom maps and songs.”

GIVEAWAY: Win A Free Copy Of Pistol Whip!

 

Ninja Legends

Excerpt from David Jagneaux’ Preview:

“Although I initially wrote off Ninja Legends as just another wave-based VR game recycling assets and gameplay mechanics, it’s actually really fun and well-made with an addictive slow-motion system and satisfying ways to slice enemies in half and lop off body parts…It’s got a very cartoon-style aesthetic which helps alleviate the subject matter and lets you focus on the fun of a good slash. What makes the system so fun is that it isn’t canned animations at all. If you slice through an enemy with enough force you can actually cleave the character model itself into bits.”

GIVEAWAY: Win A Free Copy Of Ninja Legends!

 

HellBlade: Senua’s Sacrifice Non-VR Version

NOTE: This is not the VR version of the game, Perp Games instead sent us codes for PS4 (NA and EU), Xbox One, and Switch. We do not have any PC VR codes to give out unfortunately, Perp Games only provided non-VR codes.

Excerpt from David Jagneaux’s Review of the VR version:

“In Hellblade you take on the role of Senua as she descends into the depths of Nordic Hell, otherwise known as Helheim, on a quest to save the soul of her lost lover. Throughout the adventure you’re besieged by twisted, demonic creatures that engage you in ferocious melee combat. The journey consists of battling back these deranged creatures, exploring dark, twisted worlds, and uncovering the meaning behind cryptic symbols and puzzles….a remarkable achievement in visual and sound design…”

GIVEAWAY: Win A Free NON-VR Copy of HellBlade!

Thanks for entering and good luck! Which of these games do you hope to win most: Pistol Whip, Doctor Who VR, Ninja Legends, or the non-VR version of HellBlade?

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Doctor Who: The Edge Of Time Review: A Few Sonic Screws Short Of A Winner

List off the must-have moments you’d expect from a Doctor Who VR game and The Edge of Time often delivers.

There’s that bit where you walk in and out of the Tardis, struggling to get your head around its physics-defying dimensions. There’s the bits where you hold your Sonic Screwdriver to a lock and enjoy an entirely unearned sense of slickness when it clicks open. And, yes, there’s the bits you contemplate ripping your headset off to spare yourself the mounting horror of being hunted by Weeping Angels.

Edge Of Time lives and dies by this fan service. It can at times sweep you up in its ridiculous antics and take you along for the ride with a giddy smile on your face, just as the best Who episodes do. Much like any season of the show, though, the quality in delivery varies wildly throughout, leaving a lingering wish that developer Maze Theory had leaned on the VR antics just a little harder.

You play as an unnamed companion to the Doctor here, traveling across different times and locations to stop a new threat. The Doctor herself is locked away somewhere inexplicably far off, only ever appearing through holographic transmissions. Jodie Whittaker is on typically fine form in the moments she does appear, though it’s often to lend the narrative a drowsy dose of exposition. An AI partner instead joins you for most of the game, sounding suspiciously similar in tone and wit to Whittaker herself. She’s essentially a stand-in Doctor that leaves you longing for the genuine article.

In that sense, Edge of Time often feels like it’s been adapted straight from a TV script rather than specifically developed with VR in mind. There’s a heck of a lot of standing around and listening to other people explain why something is terrible rather than you seeing it for yourself. In fact, the game almost entirely avoids meeting any friendly allies or aliens face-to-face, making it hard to form a connection with the cast and often leaving the worlds lifeless, despite crisp visuals. It seems like a missed opportunity not to be staring down Cybermen or shaking hands with lizard people.

Doctor Who The Edge Of Time New (3)

Plus the series penchant for nonsensical last-minute twists doesn’t hit as hard when they’re essentially delivered over an intercom.

It’s frustrating given there are many moments of pure VR excellence here. An early encounter with a monster in a laundrette gives you a hilarious fright, for example, and The Tardis has been brought to virtual life with genuine love and care. For a second, you might even think you’ve really been whisked away to the set of the show.

Comfort

The Edge of Time offers both smooth locomotion or teleportation with all the bells and whistles. You can edit movement speed, turn type, blinders and more. There are a few moments of forced smooth locomotion, though they shouldn’t be too problematic.

For better or worse, though, Edge of Time does scares the best. It might even do them a little too well for the most dedicated Who fans. There’s a few of the biggest jump scares I’ve had in VR here. Those Angels, for example, keep your heart rate up in easily the game’s most impressive sequence, making you painfully aware of your every move and too scared to even turn around. Other levels carry an uneasy atmosphere that makes seeing the game through an unexpected challenge.

It’ll be enough to stop some fans in their tracks, so much so you could argue Maze Theory goes in a little too hard on the horror. That said, the concept of the Angels in VR is one that’s tough to pass up and the studio does the premise justice. I just would have liked to have seen more of the wonder and awe of many of the Doctor’s adventures to balance out the moodiness.

Many of the game’s other ideas are repurposed from traditional tropes. There’s a handful of puzzles that are snappy to solve, though never feel unique to the franchise itself. Redirecting lasers to open doors could have been lifted straight out of any other game and, well, I’m pretty sure finding a safe code on the back of a picture is in every other VR game.

Your late-game encounter with the Daleks, meanwhile, results in fine, formulaic stealth segments followed up by a fun, forgettable on-rails shooter. For Who diehards, these moments will no doubt delight, but they don’t disguise relatively stripped back game mechanics. They help round it out to a respectable two to three-hour runtime, which I tackled in one sitting without ever feeling bored, if not always illuminated.

Perhaps Doctor Who’s biggest enemy is Doctor Who itself. There’s so much wacky potential for a feature-length VR game here that meeting those expectations is almost impossible. We saw just a snapshot of that in the BBC’s excellent Runaway VR short, an animation bursting with the charm, wit and invention the series is known for stuffed into 13 minutes. The Edge of Time is grittier, deeper even, but it doesn’t match the personality, bravado or intuition of control. Perhaps there’s a lesson to be learned there.

Who is at its best when there’s a hook; a gimmick so playful and innovative that anyone can get carried away in the madness that ensues. Instead of testing those waters, The Edge of Time settles for bringing the series’ most tried and true elements directly into headsets in hopes of winning over dedicated fans. It plays more like a rejected episode of the TV series rather than something that fully embraces its platform. The Who faithful be satisfied in that safety, I suspect, but I personally can’t help but wish this was a little more dangerous.

Final Score: :star: :star: :star:  3/5 Stars | Just Okay

Doctor Who Edge Of Time Review

Note: We are changing our review scheme to a five-point scale, without half points, rather than a 10-point scale with half points like before. All past reviews will stay as they are, but all future reviews (that includes games, non-game apps, hardware, and more) will all be reviewed using the same five-point star rating scale. Expect the visual representation of this new scale to change with a more attractive style soon.

You can read more about the new scoring policy here.

 

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Doctor Who VR Arcade Game Spinning Out Of Home Release This Month

Want to jump into the world of Doctor Who but don’t own a VR headset yourself? Fear not; we have a solution.

As you may know, UK-based Maze Theory will launch Doctor Who: The Edge of Time on home-based VR headsets this month. This will be a feature-length, story-driven experience in which players will travel time and space in a mission to help the Doctor herself. Later on in the month, however, the developer will bring an abridged version of the experience to arcades around the world.

This 20 minute experience will adapt three of the original game’s levels for arcades. That includes some iconic moments, like exploring the Tardis in VR and, for the brave, going face-to-face with the horrifying Weeping Angels. The full game, meanwhile, includes an expanded story where the Doctor (voiced by Jodie Whittaker), is trapped at the Edge of Time. You have to stop a new villain from unleashing a universe-destroying virus.

The experience will reach over 100 arcades via providers like Synthesis VR, SpringboardVR, Ctrl V and Vive Arcade. You can see a full list of locations right here. VR arcades have become an increasingly important part of helping developers raise revenue whilst headsets continue to grow their install bases.

Look for the experience at your local arcade starting November 23rd. That’s Doctor Who day, apparently. Meanwhile, The Edge of Time hits PC VR and PSVR headsets on November 12th. A Quest edition will arrive around a month later.

Will you be seeking out the Doctor Who VR arcade game or will you be getting the home version? Let us know in the comments below!

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