Half-Life 2 is getting Nvidia’s RTX treatment with DLSS 3
Nvidia and the modders at Orbifold Studios announced Half-Life 2 RTX, which will support DLSS 3 and RTX IO.
Everything announced at Gamescom Opening Night Live 2021
Gamescom Opening Night Live was filled with some huge game announcements, including a Saints Row reboot.
Gamescom 2021 is Moving Forward with Plans for Hybrid Event
Like a majority of in-person events, Gamescom was cancelled last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, or rather held entirely online—however you want to slice it. Now event organizers say it will be held as a “hybrid event” this August, offering up its massive halls to press, industry and even private visitors.
Unlike last year’s all-digital presentation, event organizers say this year will include an entertainment area “especially designed for a reduced amount of on-site visitors, which focuses on the testing of new games live on-site including a digital queue management system.”
Organizers say the event will only be able to let a reduced number of visitors into the halls. How many, we can’t be sure, but it’s bound to be a starkly limited number in comparison to the 370,000 visitors that descended upon the venue in 2019. Gamescom 2021 is set to take place from August 25th – 29th in Cologne, Germany.
From a journalistic perspective, Gamescom has historically been somewhat of a mixed bag. It’s only a few weeks after E3 is typically held, so many of gaming’s most profound announcements are typically already out of the bag.
Still, the event plays an instrumental part in giving Europe-based gamers a taste of what’s to come. It’s also the go-to spot for Europe-based studios, artists, and other industry professionals to talk shop, and use the event in-lieu of flying all the way to Los Angeles for E3; that event is currently slated to be all-digital this June, possibly making Gamescom 2021 this year’s most important in-vivo venue for all things games.
We’re hoping to have feet on the ground at Gamescom 2021 to bring you all the latest in VR/AR gaming. Although Sony hasn’t said as much, the return of in-person events like Gamescom would be a stellar time to reveal the upcoming next-gen VR headset for PS5. Anyway, we can’t wait to get our hands on the newly unveiled motion controllers.
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Sorry, Medal Of Honor Native Quest Support Wasn’t Confirmed In New Trailer
Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond is an upcoming VR first-person shooter in development exclusively for the Oculus Rift platform from Respawn Entertainment, the creators of Titanfall and Apex Legends. But if you saw the latest trailer shown during the Gamescom Opening Night Live showcase, you might think it’s coming to Oculus Quest as well.
Admittedly, you’d be forgiven for thinking that because this newest trailer shows an image of an Oculus Quest at the end just before mentioning this in small print at the bottom:
“Compatible PC required. Link cable required for Oculus Quest.”
Honestly if you blink more than once you’re liable to miss it, but if you look really closely you can notice a cord draped behind the Quest there too. Naturally, Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond is compatible with Oculus Quest via Link when plugged into a VR-ready PC because, well, everything is. You still need the PC and Rift store to access the game, it’s not a new platform.
Other than the arguably misleading end to the trailer, it’s actually quite fantastic. There’s a less campy tone to it all when compared to the original announcement, visuals seem more polished and sharp, and I notice a bit more emphasis on blood spatter from gunshots, which makes sense, this is World War II after all. Still a bit surprising given past comments on violence from the developers.
We didn’t really learn anything new about the game other than getting a feel for its cinematic nature. The team at Respawn, some of which have worked on past Medal of Honor titles, seems to be tapping into the roots of the franchise by aiming for a more immersive movie-like experience over the gritty, grounded take that most modern military shooters go for these days.
For more details on Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond make sure and check out our past coverage on the game such as this detailed hands-on impressions from a year ago. There are still no details on the multiplayer offerings at all, but Facebook and EA have confirmed that more details on Medal of Honor are coming soon at Facebook Connect next month.
Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond is still slated for this holiday season as an Oculus Rift platform exclusive. Stay tuned to UploadVR for more information as it’s available and in the meantime let us know what you think down in the comments below!
PvP VR Shooter Tower Tag Is Free This Weekend As Part Of Gamescom 2020
The PvP VR shooter, Tower Tag, will be available to play for free this weekend as part of Gamescom 2020.
The free weekend will be available over on Steam, where the game is usually available for $19 in Early Access. The game supports Valve Index, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and Windows Mixed Reality headsets, as well as (presumably) Oculus Quest via Link if you have a VR-ready PC to pair with the standalone headset.
If you try the game out and like what you play, there will also be a 33% discount on Steam to entice prospective players to join the fight beyond this weekend. Developers VR Nerds also say that there will be two tournaments running as well, where participants can compete for a prize pools totaling $2000.
Tower Tag started its life as a location-based VR title, available in over 1,300 VR arcades in 40 different countries. It’s described as a “high-octane blaster fights with fast-paced movement, even in small play spaces,” and it uses a grapple hook mechanic for easy traversal and quick movement. You play in teams of 4, fighting to take control of tower platforms while wielding virtual blasters to fight the enemy.
The game pivoted away from a location-based model to a public release last month, launching in early access on both Steam and Viveport for PC VR. The developers confirmed that a standalone Oculus Quest port is also in the works, but without any specific release window just yet.
Have you tried out Tag Team? What did you think? Let us know in the comments below.
Gamescom 2020 has a long list of attendees from the gaming industry
It includes EA, Microsoft, Sega, Ubisoft, and more
What you should know about the Summer Game Fest
The Summer Game Fest involves a series of next-generation gaming previews and runs from May through August.
Gamescom 2020 Cancelled Following German Ban on Major Events
Gamescom, the world’s largest gaming event, won’t be taking place in Cologne, Germany as planned this August. Following a nation-wide ban on major events, Gamescom 2020 will be taking place online due to concerns surrounding the coronavirus (COVID-19).
Germany’s nationwide ban on major events is slated to last “at least until August 31st,” the German government says in an April 15th decree (German). Originally slated to take place the week of August 24th, organizers now say the expo will be happening digitally.
To what extent that’s possible—outside of livestreaming keynotes, game announces, and developer talks from Devcom—organizers still haven’t said. Organizers say more concrete information will be announced in mid-May, and that ticket refunds will be sent out to attendees in the meantime.
Gamescom is best defined by its giant exhibition halls where over 370,000 attendees last year waited in line last year to try out the latest games for the first time. It’s also essentially where Europe-based gamers and media get the first opportunity go hands-on with games traditionally unveiled at E3, which is held in Los Angeles in June.
As one of the last holdouts, Gamescom follows a string gaming and industry trade show cancellations, notably starting with Mobile World Congress in February. Facebook’s Oculus Connect developer conference was also recently cancelled, which typically takes place in late September.
Stay up to date on your local guidelines, public advice, and situational reports via WHO’s coronavirus site.
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Game Developers Conference moves to August — if COVID-19 is no longer a factor
GDC Summer will be shorter version of the originally scheduled event
PSVR Exclusive Paper Beasts Took Me On A Captivating Virtual Safari
VR press demos are usually pretty awkward. You can’t see where developers are pointing you, you’re learning controls for the first time and you can’t hear instructions over your headphones. They’re messy to say the least.
Éric Chahi doesn’t want messy; he wants an experience. In his tiny Gamescom booth, the designer of Another World (Out of this World in US) has rigged up a microphone to be heard inside PSVR. When I’m playing his fascinating new game, Paper Beasts, he can walk me through each area, point my head in the right direction and explain the digital miracles I’m seeing before me. It’s like being on a virtual safari.
Paper Beasts is unlike anything else you’ve seen in VR. It takes the awe of something like a virtual dinosaur encounter from Robinson or Ark Park and puts its own spin on it. You explore a fully simulated animal ecosystem, formed from an abandoned data server left to dwell and create life of its own. It’s an exotic bit of VR exploration that roots you right in the middle of a nature documentary. Papercraft creatures roam the sands, drinking from puddles of water and even succumbing to predators.
In its first level, I’m shepherded by a massive, multilegged creature. It’s an intimidating beast, initially towering over me like a giraffe, with as many legs as a spider and what look like paper bones protruding from its body. It’s a little like it had been infected with the cordyceps virus from The Last Of Us. But it stalks the land with grace, turning those first fears into a warm sense of custodianship.
As I start to tail behind my new friend, big cat-like animals start appearing from across the landscape. They stop just in front of me to take a drink, but I can pick up paper balls to feed them like I’m in a petting zoo. Their heads attentively follow their food with all the focus of a cat watching a bird. You can toy with them, pulling their prize back and forth, but they eventually managed to catch me out and nip it from my hands as I teased.
Wonder turned to harsh reality, though, when a bigger, meaner monster — painted in a warning red — showed up to feast. Without hesitation, it leaped on its prey and started to chow down on one of my friends. Chahi told me I could save them by picking them up with the Move controller, but I instead chose to watch. Disturbing the food chain, digital or otherwise, somehow felt wrong.
Observing the world of Paper Beasts is an eye-opening experience, then. But it’s your participation in it that really delights. At one point my larger companion gets trapped in some reeds in the water and I have to cut them off. In a nod to Chahi’s From Dust, sand can be pushed around to make trenches. Doing so near a puddle causes water to trickle into canals, heading in a direction of your choosing.
This isn’t just a safari sandbox, though. Towards the end of my demo a digital storm kicks up, sucking in the land and spitting numbers into the sky. It’s all my friend and I can do to try and get as far away from it as possible. It’s clear that, as fascinating as this world is, there’s a touch of tragedy heading its way.
Needless to say, Paper Beasts has something to say about our relationship with digital information. I’m looking forward to exploring more of that discussion as I make my way through its world. Moreover, I can’t wait to just spend time immersing myself in its dynamic ecosystem at my own pace. Chahi and co are promising multiple levels, each with unique creatures to discover and environments to traverse. The game’s due for release on PSVR in early 2020.
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