Sparc (2017), the VR sport from EVE Online developers CCP Games, is hosting a free weekend for Rift players on Oculus Home. Temporary free access has already begun, and will conclude on February 4th at 11:59 PM PT (local time here).
Initially launched in April 2017 on PSVR, Sparc is a unique VR sport that pits you in a 1v1 skill-based match; it’s a little like a racket sport from some neon, Tron-inspired future. Sparc, which features multiplayer game modes, as well as single player challenges and training modes, was later released on HTC Vive and Oculus Rift with crossplay last November.
Unfortunately for Sparc, CCP has since shut down the Atlanta-based branch tasked with creating, selling off their Newcastle branch in charge of EVE: Valkyrie (2016) as well. While development on Valkyrie continues under Sumo Digital, no new content has been created for Sparc, leaving it essentially to wane alongside capable, but ill-serviced games such as Eagle Flight and Werewolves Within.
To many virtual reality (VR) aficionados, last week’s announcement that Rockstar Games would be bringing L.A. Noire to the HTC Vive is the latest in a long line of AAA videogame publishers taking their time to recognise the potential of the medium. To most however, it’s an early bet on a technology that isn’t yet mainstream. The truth, of course, lies somewhere between.
VR as we know it has existed for a number of years now, but still the general perception is that it’s a new technology that’s not quite found its feet yet. And few could blame the larger videogame audience for making such a judgement. The hardware is expensive, the big publishers and bigger videogame titles are yet to throw a stone into the pool and the true selling points of the medium are evasive until you find an experience that truly captivates you and try it first hand. Despite the fact that the core VR audience has had their consumer hardware for over a year, the core videogames audience is still largely unaware of what VR is capable of.
Ubisoft and 2K Games have made small efforts to test the waters, and Square Enix will arrive on PlayStation VR with Monster of the Deep: Final Fantasy XV later this year. And that’s the position we’ve been in for some time. Ignoring Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) for a moment – acceptable as the company itself is a platform holder akin to Oculus VR – the most any of these publishers has offered thus far is an experiment.
You could of course argue that Rockstar Games are also experimenting with L.A. Noire; after all, it’s not ‘Grand Theft Auto VR’. However, for a company with as much weight to put behind their titles as Rockstar Games, the fact that the VR release was announced alongside the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch updates for the videogame is a huge leap forward. It’s a peer, not an underling.
The fact that Oculus Home still has ‘beta’ in block capitals emblazoned on the application more than a year after launch is telling. VR as a whole is still in ‘beta’, and we’re now seeing the investment labours from Oculus VR, HTC, Valve, SIE and many others come to fruition. For many, this holiday season will be when VR truly arrives as its then that the big videogame franchises will come to the medium. For those of us who have been riding this train since the Oculus Rift Kickstarter campaign, it’ll be a pivotal period that will be remembered for years-to-come.
Single-player games can immersive and rewarding, but when the campaign is done and all the AI foes have been slain, you need to know when you finally hit that ‘multiplayer’ button that can play with actual human beings. Here we take a look at multiplayers games that will let you play together—be it on PC VR headsets through Steam or Oculus, or on PlayStation VR.
VR’s overall playerbase—even across the major headsets—is still a pretty small community in contrast to console/PC gaming. So while the multiplayer lobbies won’t be busting at the seams like you’re used to in flatscreen games, you’re still bound to find a group of casuals, die-hards, and try-hards populating the servers.
Here’s what we think are the best cross-compatible games for Rift, Vive, Index, or Windows MR players on PC, and for console players on PSVR. You’ll find a longer explanation below our top 5 list detailing more about PSVR cross-play (spoiler: there’s only a few).
5 – Sparc
CCP’s 1v1 sports game Sparc was their last virtual reality title before shuttering their VR studios late last year. While CCP has basically called it quits on VR for now, there’s still plenty of reasons to pick up Sparc if you’re looking to connect up with a buddy.
Sparc is by all measures a great game, but it’s even greater that you can play mano-a-mano against any one of your VR headset owning goons you call friends. Sparc suffers from the same issue as many cross-platform VR games though, i.e. no support for friends lists outside of the platform you’re on, but you can always host a game and hope for matchmaking serendipity—the silver lining to a smaller user base means you’ll probably be able to match up with your friend easily.
Catan VR (2018) brings the best-selling board game Settlers of Catan to pretty much every VR headset out there, with dedicated community of players on PC VR headsets, PSVR, Oculus Go and Gear VR. You’re certain to meet Catan-lovers from all over the world, so who knows how your game will improve or what friends you’ll make along the way.
Although online play is the main focus of Catan VR, there’s also a single-player mode with ‘Catan AI Personalities’, which were designed with guidance from Catan creator Klaus Teuber.
Space Junkies (2019) is a team shooter from Ubisoft’s Montpellier studio that puts you into zero-g for some pretty familiar Unreal Tournament-style action. Although Ubisoft pulled the plug on development only a few months after the sci-fi arcade-style shooter was released, there’s still a sizable chunk of meat on the bones here, making it one of VR’s most finely-polished and fun team shooters out there.
Full cross-play adds some disparity in input; PSVR players could technically have a leg up on the competition due to DualShock 4 allowing for quicker target acquisition, although you may just find dual-wielding with motion controllers way easier and ultimately more satisfying.
You don’t have to be a Trekkie (or Trekker) to see why sitting at the bridge of a star ship, cooperatively taking down hostile aliens is a really engrossing way to lose an entire afternoon/evening. With its 4-player multiplayer, you can go through the game’s half-dozen campaign missions, or alternatively experience an infinite number of procedurally-generated missions in the company of other PC VR and PSVR-owners.
Created by Ubisoft’s Red Storm Entertainment, Star Trek: Bridge Crew is worth it if only to say you’ve been where no man’s gone before.
Social apps are a fun way to talk and interact with people in VR, but if you don’t have something fun to do while you’re actually there, the novelty ultimately wears off. Anti Gravity’s Rec Room is a great way to experience fun activities like paintball or dodge ball, but the real meat of the game likes in their co-op ‘Quests’ and PvP battle royale game Rec Royale. Of course all of this is served up in a lovable cartoony environment while you have a chat with people from all over the world, or just your best buddies if you so choose. Did we mention it was free. Yeah, we can’t believe it either.
Rec Room isn’t only a great game, but it allows all players regardless of platforms to meet up, create friends and sally forth to take on all activities without the issues we mentioned above.
Let’s face it: there aren’t many other cross-play multiplayer titles that currently work on all three major headsets. It’s a fact we’ve been living with since the headsets launched in 2016, and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better due to two very real roadblocks outside of the friends list issue a large portion of cross-platform games suffer from. While platform exclusives wall out a large percentage of would-be users, the ugly truth is studios simply aren’t going head-first into VR multiplayer games like they once were. Time after time, VR games that primarily feature multiplayer support have fallen to the wayside because of low hourly active user numbers, and perfectly fun games like Werewolves Within and Eagle Flight stand as testament to this.
If you buy a game and the servers aren’t populated with players, you probably won’t wait around too long for a match; it creates a vicious cycle that tends to spell the death of a game if a hardcore playerbase isn’t built-in due to things like active Discord servers or subreddits to keep people engaged outside of the matchmaking screen.
Thankfully for SteamVR headsets owners, Steam is a great resource for guaranteed cross-play on multiplayer titles; many games available through Steam offer VR support for Rift, Vive, Valve Index, and Windows VR pretty much on a de facto basis. Conversely, with a SteamVR headset and ReVive at your disposal, many Oculus Rift multiplayer titles are technically cross-play capable if you’re looking to hack your way in. It’s a pretty strange way of vaulting over the friends list roadblock, but entirely feasible if you’re motivated.
Update (January, 20th 2020): We’ve done a long-due overhaul of the list reflecting the latest developments in the games, and their cross-play abilities. We’ll be periodically updating this list as new games come out.
Ubisoft’s upcoming VR shooter Space Junkies, announced at last year’s E3, is promising some fast-paced, first-person action fueled by jet packs and an impressive assortment of guns. Getting into a multiplayer demo, I got a chance to fly high, whip around corners at some pretty impressive speeds, and get my hands on a unique array of futuristic weapons that completely stole the show.
Update (03/28/18): We had a chance to dive back into ‘Space Junkies’ at GDC 2018. While not substantially different from our past two times with the multiplayer zero-g shooter – the first at E3 and the second at Oculus Connect in October 2017 – there are some quality-of-life updates worth mentioning from our third time with ‘Space Junkies’.
Improvements include a verifiable tutorial level that takes you through the basics of locomotion and gun firing. This was the first time we’ve seen the tutorial, which before was conducted informally by Ubisoft staff.
Ubisoft’s big improvement this time around was a unique hand gesture system, letting you intuitively make a thumbs up sign, an ‘ok’ sign, a ‘hang ten’ sign, a ‘shush’ sign, and a heart sign when you depress both hold buttons and touch your index fingers together.
image courtesy Ubisoft
There’s also more characters to choose from, including several armored humanoids and reptilian/insectoid aliens. The latter wasn’t so great at replicating the hand gestures since they only have three fingers, although the results are pretty comical. The game’s inverse kinematics system still works very much like Echo Arena’s, letting your body trail behind you as you float in space.
image courtesy Ubisoft
In the demo I played, oxygen wasn’t present, although it’s unclear if this was merely for the purpose of the demo or if they dropped the mechanic entirely. Only armor and health pick-ups were available in GDC demo.
The game has undergone closed alpha access, and is soon heading into closed beta, so these quality-of-life improvements are certainly both a welcome sight, and showing a clear path to its 2018 release for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. In all, the game is approaching a level of polish that very much puts it in the ‘nearly done’ category.
Our original impressions from E3 are below, which give you a better idea of the game’s locomotion, shooting style and general gameplay.
Original Article (06/16/17): Adding a layer of dimensionality to the VR shooter genre, the addition of jet packs lets you quickly zip around the space-based arenas with ease. Using Oculus Touch, it wasn’t very long until I got a handle on the two-stick movement scheme and I was riding around corners and making a quick dash for cover.
Critical to note for Space Junkies: calling it ‘zero-G’ is a bit of a misstep. The game doesn’t allow you complete freedom of movement in the 3D space, as there’s still a fixed up and down to the world, making it feel more like a traditional shooter in level design than a freewheeling spacewalk. In fact, the developers are couching it as a microgravity environment and not zero-G.
image courtesy Ubisoft
The developers over at Ubisoft Montpellier told us they’ve been working on the game for over 3 years (prior to commercial motion controllers like Touch and Vive), and have integrated a number of tricks to make the frenetic action feel more comfortable. The standard 45-degree snap turn, aka ‘VR comfort mode’, is the default locomotion style, but there’s also a smooth-turning option that let you whip around quicker for those with iron stomachs. Like in Ubisoft’s Eagle Flight (2016), Space Junkies makes use of a FOV limiter that automatically engages during fast movement and collisions. All of it seemed to work fairly well, and I walked away with only a slightly heady feeling afterwards.
image courtesy Ubisoft
Balance is key to Space Junkies; you can boost anytime you have the juice, which can be collected around the map, but engaging boost makes you instantly visible to the enemy as a ghostly outline projecting through the level’s walls, making hide-and-seek nigh impossible when it’s on.
You also have to contend with your oxygen level, which acts as a health meter that dwindles down to nothing when you take damage. Like boosts, you can of course pick up fresh weapons and oxygen tanks scattered around the map, but you’ll have to risk getting caught in vulnerable, open spots to do it.
image courtesy Ubisoft
Weapons are also considered a consumable item, becoming useless after the last round is spent. Since there’s no reloading mechanic, you’ll have to make a frenzied dash for the next gun, and hope its something powerful. Guns range from two-handed machine guns and explosive slingshots to single-handed pistols and shotguns which you can dual-wield, all of which had a satisfying explosion or charge-up effect that left me with the impression of holding a substantial piece of kit. We’ll have more on the weapons of Space Junkies in a video due out later today.
Everything considered, Space Junkies is shaping up to the level of polish and comfort that Ubisoft has become known for with its previous VR titles. I’m not sure if the game’s 1v1 and 2v2 multiplayer combat will satiate my need for digital space carnage, but stay tuned for the full review when Space Junkies launches in early 2018 on HTC Vive and Oculus Touch for all the details on Ubisoft’s first VR shooter.
There are plenty of awards ceremonies for gaming, but few are as respected and prestigious as the annual DICE Awards, tied into the developer conference in Las Vegas. This year’s event featured the first VR and AR games to be recognized.
While console and PC juggernauts like Blizzard’s Overwatch walked away with most of the standard categories, new sets of nominations were included this year to recognize games appearing on VR headsets. First up was the Immersive Reality Technical Achievement, celebrating VR design, an important aspect of development in the tech’s early stages. It was Ubisoft’s first-person multiplayer flight game, Eagle Flight [Review: 7.5/10], that won the award, beating out stiff competition from the likes of Superhot VR [Review: 9/10], I Expect You To Die [Review: 7.5/10], Job Simulator [Review: 8/10], and even Tilt Brush.
The more hotly contested category, though, was Immersive Reality Game of the Year. This time is was Superhot’s turn for well-deserved glory, triumphing over a similar list of games including Eagle Flight, I Expect You to Die, Job Simulator, and Valve’s The Lab [Review: 9/10].
But it wasn’t just these categories in which reality-altering games prevailed. Mobile Game of the Year went to Niantic’s Pokemon Go, the hugely successful AR smartphone app that took the world by storm in 2016 as players headed out of their homes and into the world to capture virtual pocket monsters. Other VR compatible games like Thumper [Review: 9/10] and Driveclub VR [Review: 7/10] had been nominated in a range of categories, though didn’t quite make the final cut.
It’s a solid list of winners, representing the good start VR software had in 2016. In the year ahead we’ll be looking to titles like Epic Games’ Robo Recall and Bethesda’s VR port of Fallout 4 to up the ante even more and make next year’s awards an even more competitive and exciting event.
The 20th D.I.C.E. Awards have now taken place in Las Vegas honouring the industry’s top videogames, with several of the best known virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) titles receiving accolades.
There were two dedicated awards for VR experiences, with Immersive Reality Game of the Year being scooped by SUPERHOT VR from SUPERHOT Sp. z o.o. While the Immersive Reality Technical Achievement award went to Eagle Flight, developed by FunHouse and published by Ubisoft. In the Mobile Game of the Year category Niantic Labs’ massively popular AR videogame Pokémon GO came out top, adding to its growing list of awards having previously won Handheld/Mobile Game of the Year and Innovation Of The Year at the Golden Joystick Awards.
“For the past 20 years, the D.I.C.E. Awards have been bringing together the most talented, innovative and inspiring minds in interactive entertainment to recognize and celebrate the industry’s most outstanding achievements,” said Mike Fischer, president, Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. “We’re thrilled to congratulate all of this year’s award winners whose incredible games have amazed and entertained fans worldwide, and are truly an inspiration to us all.”
Eagle Flight first launched for Oculus Rift in October before making its way to PlayStation VR and HTC Vive by the end of 2016. SUPERHOT VR on the other hand is currently exclusive to Oculus Rift with support for Oculus Touch.
Pokémon GO players were treated to a big update this month adding 80 more Pokémon from the Pokémon Gold and Pokémon Silver video games, including Chikorita, Cyndaquil, and Totodile. Additionally, two new Berries, expanded outfit and accessory options, new gameplay mechanics and new Evolution items were included.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of the latest VR accolades, reporting back with more award winners.
Today the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences (AIAS) has announced the nominees for its two new virtual reality (VR) focused categories: Immersive Reality Game of the Year and Immersive Reality Technical Achievement. The nominees feature some of the best known VR video games on the market, across a range of genres.
The Immersive Reality Game of the Year category focuses on the title that best utilizes the attributes of the platform. Elements such as design, direction and narrative are all factored into the title selection, states AIAS.
The nominees for Immersive Reality Game of the Year are:
SUPERHOT VR – Developer: SUPERHOT Sp. z o.o./Publisher: SUPERHOT Sp. z o.o.
While the Immersive Reality Technical Achievement celebrates the highest level of technical achievement within an immersive experience. Elements like artificial intelligence, physics, engine mechanics, and visual rendering are all taking into consideration.
The nominees for Immersive Reality Technical Achievement are:
SUPERHOT VR – Developer: SUPERHOT Sp. z o.o./Publisher: SUPERHOT Sp. z o.o.
Tilt Brush – Developer: Google/Publisher: Google
While these two categories are purely for VR video games, immersive titles do crop up in several other categories. These include Driveclub VR for Racing Game of the Year, Pokémon Go in Mobile Game of the Year and Game of the Year, and I Expect You To Die in Outstanding Achievement in Game Design.
The awards ceremony will take place on 23rd February 2017 in Las Vegas after the 2017 D.I.C.E. Summit, live-streamed from 7:30pm PT/10:30pm ET via live.interactive.org.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of the 2017 D.I.C.E. Summit, reporting back with any further updates.
Ubisoft’s Eagle Flight featured a staggered release when it arrived for head-mounted displays (HMDs) last year. It launched on Oculus Rift in October, PlayStation VR in November and lastly HTC Vive in late December. Featuring cross-platform support Eagle Flight on Steam features 35 achievements to unlock and VRFocus has the full run down below.
In Eagle Flight players control an eagle flying through the streets and skies of a long deserted Paris, that’s been reclaimed by nature. The game has three different modes: Free Flight, Multiplayer, and Story, the multiplayer will allow up to six people to fight it out in the streets and skies, while single-player missions comprising ring parkour and shooting challenges.
Full Achievement List:
Fly Like An Eagle
Complete the flight tutorial
Eaglet
Complete the Notre-Dame chapter
Two Birds with One Stone
Eliminate 2 enemies with one Screech Wave
Bird of Prey
Complete the Louvre chapter
Feathering the Nest
Earn 3 stars on every Feather Rush challenge
Early Bird
Be the first eagle to catch the prey in multiplayer
Scarecrow
Complete the Basilica chapter
Hat Trick
Deliver 3 prey back to your nest in one multiplayer match
Free Bird
Complete the Pantheon chapter
Scavenger
Eliminate 100 vultures
Birdie
Finish an enemy attack with one less Screech Wave than targets
Dark Night
Defeat the Grim Falcon
The Sky Is Yours
Complete the Eiffel Tower chapter
Top of the Food Chain
Eliminate 50 falcons
Far Cry
Hit an enemy from over 500 meters away
And Now His Watch Has Ended
Eliminate 80 crows
Loyal Companion
Earn 3 stars on every Escort challenge
Hunter-Gatherer – Notre-Dame
Gather every collectible in the Notre-Dame district
A Bird In Hand
Earn 3 stars on every Chase challenge
Death From Above
Earn 3 stars on every Enemy Attack challenge
Catch of the Day
Earn 3 stars on every Find the Fish challenge
Champion
Earn 3 stars on every challenge
Hot Wings
Earn 3 stars on every Ring challenge
Out of the Belfry
Eliminate 50 bats
Ruler of the Underworld
Earn 3 stars on every Tunnel challenge
Feeding Frenzy
Deliver 100 prey to your nest in multiplayer.
Hunter-Gatherer – Pantheon
Gather every collectible in the Pantheon district
Hunter-Gatherer – Louvre
Gather every collectible in the Louvre district
Hunter-Gatherer – Basilica
Gather every collectible in the Basilica district
Magpie
Gather every collectible in the game
Hunter-Gatherer – Eiffel Tower
Gather every collectible in the Eiffel Tower district
Well-Traveled
Fly for 1,609 km total
Apex Predator
Eliminate 1000 enemies in multiplayer
While the Oculus and Steam winter sales have now ended, PlayStation VR owners are getting even more deals with 14 new titles added to the January sale.
Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) launched its PlayStation sale just before Christmas, with 13 virtual reality (VR) videogames included. Those discounts end today, but the newly featured titles below are on offer until 20th January 2017. The deals aren’t available in every territory so check your PlayStation Store to see which ones have been included, all the discounts and prices listed below are for the UK.
Ace Banana – £7.39 (was £11.49 GBP)
Eagle Flight – £24.99 (was £34.99)
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes – £7.99 (was £11.99)
So if you’ve still got some cash left over from Christmas now’s a good time to build your PlayStation VR library. For the latest PlayStation VR news, keep reading VRFocus.
VR as we know it has existed for a number of years now, but still the general perception is that it’s a new technology that’s not quite found its feet yet. And few could blame the larger videogame audience for making such a judgement. The hardware is expensive, the big publishers and bigger videogame titles are yet to throw a stone into the pool and the true selling points of the medium are evasive until you find an experience that truly captivates you and try it first hand. Despite the fact that the core VR audience has had their consumer hardware for over a year, the core videogames audience is still largely unaware of what VR is capable of.
And the aforementioned Ubisoft also have some interesting VR titles coming in 2018, with 
