Gamescom 2017 – Page 3 – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

August 25, 2017

Hologate VR Showcases Their Turnkey Multiplayer Platform at Gamescom

VR Arcades and out-of-home, location based virtual reality (VR) is becoming increasingly popular. With Hologate’s opening in July with their Presence VR in Munich Germany Nina discusses Hologate VR.

With up to four players you can play with or against each other with no motion sickness, in HTC Vive headsets. You have the options to choose between two games, but the game showcased at Gamescom was a first-person shooter, sci-fi VR game where four players have to take down hoards of robotic drones, dragons and enemies. VRFocus put on a prototype haptic vest on and managed to play for 10 minutes, this is the average game time you get.

With teamspeak you are able to communicate with your friends or strangers, as you hide and duck under shields for cover. At the center of the four players is an area where you can power up your weapon, but you have to communicate as only one player can have access to this power up at a time.

Hologate is seeking to expand is working on a free-roaming warehouse scale project named Hologate X, which will be opening up in the near future. Although it seems that Presence VR is the only Hologate at the moment it looks like they will be expanding to Beijing and Los Angeles in the near future. Global scoreboards will also allow players in different countries to compete against one another.

To find out more check out the video below.

August 25, 2017

‘Assassin’s Creed’ sneaks into ‘Final Fantasy XV’ in ‘Assassin’s Festival’

Ubisoft and Square Enix have announced a collaboration that brings the Assassins into the world of Final Fantasy XV. The free DLC, Assassin's Festival, will be a limited-time event with combining gameplay elements from both series.

The post ‘Assassin’s Creed’ sneaks into ‘Final Fantasy XV’ in ‘Assassin’s Festival’ appeared first on Digital Trends.

August 24, 2017

Will ‘Final Fantasy XV’ have mods on PC? Hajime Tabata says “maybe”

'Final Fantasy XV' game director Hajime Tabata talks about everything new in the upcoming PC port of Final Fantasy XV, plus the possibility of other new features like mod support.

The post Will ‘Final Fantasy XV’ have mods on PC? Hajime Tabata says “maybe” appeared first on Digital Trends.

August 24, 2017

bHaptics’ TactSuit Promises Better Actuator-Based Haptics at a Lower Price-Point

Gamescom is one of the few truly gargantuan expos dedicated to gaming, holding within its massive Zeppelin hanger-sized halls all manner of ostentatious booth featuring all the big names in gaming. But it’s not all glitz, cosplay, and long lines at Gamescom. Back in the more demure B2B area, only accessible to trade visitors and press, was bHaptics, a Korean startup that recently joined HTC’s Vive X Accelerator Program specializing in actuator-based haptic devices, all of which ideally fit together to create a greater sense of immersion for VR games and experiences.

Everything in the TactSuit kit is wireless (Bluetooth Low Energy), which includes a vest and two ‘Tactosy’ arm bangles. There’s also a head-mounted haptic piece that wasn’t present at the show, which bHaptics explained to me was because it’s still in prototyping, and that unlike the picture shown below, which is more of a headband, it would either replace or fit over the foam gasket in either HTC Vive or Oculus Rift.

Initially strapping on the vest, I was told you have to cinch it tightly to your body so you get solid contact with each of the 40 actuators (20 on the front, 20 on the back), something that felt more or less comfortable at first. However getting more and more into the zombie shooter demo, which unleashed an array of different enemy types at me from 360 degrees, I started to feel the vest’s material hold in more and more heat. I would guess that longer playtimes (in excess of 20 minutes) would see some discomfort in users. The entire kit, headpiece included, contains a total of 87 actuators.

Lets get this out on the table before I go any further. Buzzing actuators, like those in smartphones and motion controllers alike, are pretty limited in the type of tactile sensation they can simulate. For example; a short, strong buzz would be good for a gunshot, and a long, weak buzz for a simple touch. The more the actuators however, the greater the ‘touch resolution’, which can create other sensations either by activating multiple actuators at once, or in a specific sequence. Think about getting shot in the stomach by a pulse rifle. The interior shot is hard and fast, and actuators on the periphery of the shot only gently buzz in a wave extending out from the shot. You can also simulate things like a slice across the chest or back in any direction, or an electric shock which sends the whole vest’s worth of actuators in a chaotic tizzy.

Anyway, zombies were lurching towards me from all sides, and feeling a claw ripping down my back for the first time, which was really just a line of actuators activating in sequence, was a surprising as it was terrifying. My brain filled in the necessary gaps, as I learned ‘buzz = bad’ in a short order. Soon the horde had me surrounded and my whole vest was buzzing wildly, with me frantically shooting to get them off of me.

As for the arm bangles, they’re a piece of the kit that do essentially one useful function: activating when you fire a gun to give you more perceived kick-back. This I found less useful for the purpose of overall immersion, and I may chalk it up to the demo, but the frantic shooting resulted in two constantly buzzing forearms. The bangles can technically also allow for more detailed haptic feedback because of their higher ‘actuator per square inch’ resolution, but I’m not sure what it would accomplish outside of having to learn what certain buzzes mean in the context of a game.

In the end, I learned that actuators alone do not a perfect haptic solution make, but you certainly can’t deny the novelty of strapping into a vest that lets you feel the digital realm in any capacity. I’m still not certain it’s really for me just yet though. At “less than $549” for the consumer version (coming later this year), TactSuit customers will likely fall into two camps; enthusiasts at the forefront of VR gaming, and out-of-home entertainment parks like the Korea-based Lotte World, which currently hosts VR games using the set-up. There’s always the question of support too. Like many new VR peripherals, the onus falls on individual developers to import TactSuit’s plugin into their projects, so the list of games that will work with it depends entirely on the game developer’s appraisal of whether taking the time to do so will be a profitable use of their time. It’s a vicious cycle that’s hard to break out of, but there’s no telling what customers want and how loud they’ll be about getting it.

The post bHaptics’ TactSuit Promises Better Actuator-Based Haptics at a Lower Price-Point appeared first on Road to VR.

August 23, 2017

REZ Infinite’s ‘Area X’ is a Hint of What’s Coming Next

REZ Infinite made its virtual reality (VR) debut last year on PlayStation VR, and subsequently arrived on PC head-mounted displays (HMDs), the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, earlier this month. With the videogame having been met with a great deal of critical acclaim Enhance Games would be foolish to not consider delivering more REZ to such a keen audience, and franchise creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi is already hinting at what’s coming next.

Rez Infinite AreaX 02 “We have many plans and talking about REZ Infinite; ‘Area X’ is like a prologue to the next future REZ, and so this is just the beginning. So I’m thinking what is the next REZ experience,” stated Mizuguchi in an interview with VRFocus at Gamescom, Cologne. “I’m waiting for the new technology.”

When questioned about what technology this might be, Mizuguchi seemed particularly interested in the possibility of mixed reality (MR) devices.

“Maybe yes, maybe yes. But the new technology gives the influence to our ideas and inspiration. When we got [Xbox] Kinect a few years ago, [we said] okay let’s make a conductor experience with synesthesia, so we decided to make Child of Eden with Ubisoft.

“PSP – this is a new technology 15 years ago – ideas like Lumines; easy puzzle game with music. All the time it’s like that. VR is like this (pointing to REZ Infinite).”

Referring back to Child of Eden, Mizuguchi stated that the timeline for REZ offers yet more hints as to what his plans for the future of the franchise might be.

“Child of Eden is like a spiritual sequel to REZ; so REZ, Child of Eden, what is next? So if you play ‘Area X’ you can feel something new hint to the next one.”

Mizuguchi goes on to discuss the future of VR, his hopes for improving hardware but also what the future may contain for other emerging mediums.

“Maybe VR is just the beginning? Merging into MR and AR and very exciting thinking about the future.”

REZ Infinite is available now for PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. VRFocus will keep you updated with all the latest VR titles from Enhance Games, including the full interview with Mizuguchi-san coming soon.

August 23, 2017

Hands-on: ‘Stifled’ Oozes Style With Its Terrifying Visual Re-imagination of Echolocation

Stifled is an upcoming first-person horror game from Singapore-based studio Gattai Games. Heavily featured at this year’s Gamescom, in no small part thanks to their partnership with Sony Interactive Entertainment that’s seeing a number of Asian-born titles coming West, we got a chance to pop in and see just what the five-person developer team have accomplished.

Experiencing an early level of the game, I found myself standing beside an overturned car somewhere in a forest. The darkness surrounded me, the only light was the small interior light bulb of the now useless vehicle. Without much context to go on, I made my way into the foreboding forest, issuing a few ‘hello’s along the way to send out multiple shock waves of radar pings, something the game allows by way of the PSVR’s integrated microphone. A perpetually babbling brook ‘lit up’ my way to some sort of water processing plant, the scene of my first encounter with one of the game’s shrieking monsters.

Winding my down to the guts of the facility, my footfalls on the metal steps awoke a two foot-tall monster. A wild shriek accompanied its own radar pings, its blood-red lines eclipsing my white ones. Even a slight clearing of my throat seemed to tip it off to my location as I went further through the level, trying to distance myself as much as possible in the dark and trying my best to navigate with only minimal echolocative pings.

Admittedly, using my voice to activate the echolocation ping eventually started to grate on my nerves a bit, but thankfully there’s a button that lets you send out a ping with a randomly generated “woah!” or “hello?” from your character. This saves you from saying “hello” every 5 seconds, but also makes you less aware of the times when you genuinely open your mouth for a cursory (and genuine) “oh fuck.” In a game where the wrong noise can get you killed, I’d imagine you’d learn pretty quickly not to do this, but it’s hard not to be startled by the little red monster guy when he’s screaming for your blood and coming your way.

While the bulk of the game takes place in a wire mesh monochrome world, a portion will invariably unfold within the safety of lit areas, as only genuine light sources let you see in technicolor. Speaking to developer Justin Ng, he admitted the game was cheap in terms of graphical resources required to run it, but it was clear the game is anything but cheaply made. While it could be accused of being visually sparse, I found the black and white (sometimes red) color scheme an interesting twist to what could have just as easily been a run-of-the-mill stealth game.

Originally slated to release on Steam for Vive and Rift in December last year, the game was indefinitely postponed for polishing. Presumably it was shortly thereafter that Sony contacted Gattai with the proposition of a deal to publish Stifled on PSVR. While a Steam page still exists, Ng tells me the game is set to launch on PSVR ‘pretty soon’. There’s no word yet on when Oculus Rift and HTC Vive will get support after its initial launch on PSVR.

The post Hands-on: ‘Stifled’ Oozes Style With Its Terrifying Visual Re-imagination of Echolocation appeared first on Road to VR.

August 23, 2017

Hands-on: ‘Skyworld’ is a Charming Turn-Based Strategy Game With Fast-Paced Real-Time Interludes

Skyworld, a turn-based strategy game from Arizona Sunshine (2016) developers Vertigo Games, was initially introduced to the world as a demo during HTC Vive’s first public showing back in GDC 2015. At this year’s Gamescom, we got a hands-on with the ostensibly near-finished game, which should be releasing soon if the developers want to hit their Fall 2017 launch date.

Looking down at the round playing board, a wooden table already populated with various resource-gathering buildings set around a giant mountain in the middle, I was pitted against game designer Paul van der Meer in a quick skirmish that took me through the basics of the game’s 1v1 combat.

In a 20 minute demo, I was introduced to the game’s TBS ‘Overworld’, or the game board seen in pictures and the initial 2015 teaser trailer, and an RTS potion of the game that lets you battle with various units that you can summon in real-time (mana permitting).

While in the Overworld, where much of the game takes place, you can pop up a variety of menus, including a satisfying lever that lets you flip the board over mid-game to reveal a space for upgrading structures and increasing the power of your units.

Represented by your standard playing cards featuring offensive and health points, these unit cards can be used in an RTS mini-game, or what the developers called a ‘General Battle’, where each side’s solitary generals clash on a separate game board from the Overworld. Destroying the enemies castle in this mode results in continued free rein for your general, a 6-inch model that you can move around the game board to take over new land so you can set up new resource gathering structures, make more units etc and eventually conquer the Overworld. The opposing side’s general then must wait until the re-activation timer runs out.

The majority of my time was dedicated to playing the RTS-driven General Battle instead of fiddling with game’s resource management-focused TBS Overworld, but my hunch is having the two combined, even with only two lanes open for attack around the round board—left or right, as it were—creates an interesting twist on the classic turn-based strategy game that is bound to strike a chord with fans on the genre. Motion controls add a bit more physicality however, like the wooden mallet that lets you demolish your own buildings to make way for new and better ones. You can also count on plenty of satisfying levers and steampunk-ish machines abound.

The game will feature two teams to choose from, good and bad, although I was told that currently there are no differences outside of the visual aspect between the two, which includes identical abilities for your General Battle cards and Overworld structures and units. The developers maintain this can change however in the coming months before launch. I was also assured that while there are many game boards to play on, that they will all follow the same basic design of containing a centerpiece structure that essentially creates two lanes of attack.

An interesting bit in all of this was the social aspect. Standing (or sitting, you decide) across from your opponent’s avatar is a natural way to play a game like this, but because the game board is round, and you have the ability to rotate it to get a better look at the action, you inevitably end up standing next to each other to get a good view of what’s going on, creating and interesting social dynamic when you don’t know who you’re playing against. The developers insisted some anti-griefing measures would need to be brought into place so you couldn’t, say, wave one of your many menus in front a person’s face or get too close to someone for their own comfort. While your menus appear as ghostly outlines so your opponent doesn’t know exactly what you’re up to, it could still be annoying in the wrong hands.

Finally, I was told that online crossplay between HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and Windows Mixed Reality headsets will be possible, and that all three versions of the game will launch simultaneously on their respective stores. It’s uncertain if Skyworld will suffer the same fate as so many other games boasting crossplay, i.e. the lack of communal friends lists that makes it hard for friends to easily get together and play. We’ll be keeping our eye on Skyworld as it heads closer to launch.

We’re here at Gamescom all week, so check back for more coverage and hands-on articles with all of your favorite upcoming VR titles.

The post Hands-on: ‘Skyworld’ is a Charming Turn-Based Strategy Game With Fast-Paced Real-Time Interludes appeared first on Road to VR.

August 23, 2017

Gamescom 2017: Project Cars 2 Trailer veröffentlicht

Für Besitzer einer Oculus Rift oder HTC Vive sah es bisher in punkto realistischer Rennspielen mau aus. Im Gegensatz zur PlayStation VR (PSVR), auf der das Gran Turismo-Franchise als VR-Titel erscheint, müssen PC-Spieler auf den Rennspaß verzichten. Doch dies soll sich zukünftig ändern, denn das Entwicklerstudio Slightly Mad Studios veröffentlichten auf der Gamescom 2017 einen Trailer zur Rennsimulation Project Cars 2. Der VR-Titel soll sowohl für PC sowie für Konsolen am 22. September 2017 erscheinen.

Project Cars 2 – Eine realistische Rennsimulation in VR

Der neue Trailer zeigt deutlich, worauf das VR-Rennspiel Wert legt: eine realistische Physik-Engine und großartige Grafik. Sowohl die Autos und Rennstrecken, wie auch die Wettereffekte sind wunderschön animiert. Beim Fahren auf Eis, Matsch oder nassen Straßen sorgt die Physik-Engine für ein möglichst realistisches Fahrgefühl. Zudem soll das Spiel mindestens mit dauerhaften 60 FPS laufen, verkündeten die Entwickler.

Project-Cars-2-Oculus-Rift-HTC-Vive-PlayStation-VR-Xbox-One-VR

Die Rennsimulation Project Cars 2 von Slightly Mad Studios lässt Spieler ihre Fahrkünste auf äußerst realistischen Rennstrecken auf die Probe stellen. Dafür stehen bis zu 180 verschiedene Autos zur Auswahl. Jedes der unterschiedlichen Modelle besitzt seine eigenen Stärken und Schwächen, weshalb nicht nur das Können hinter dem Lenkrad für einen Rundensieg entscheidend ist. Und auch die Rennmodi variieren, denn man hat die Wahl zwischen einem Rallycross-, Endurance-, Touring- oder einem Formula-Modus. In jedem dieser Spielmodi muss man verschiedene Fahrkünste auf unterschiedlichen Strecken beweisen, wodurch für Abwechslung und Langzeitspaß gesorgt ist.

Project-Cars-2-Oculus-Rift-HTC-Vive-PlayStation-VR-Xbox-One-VR

Doch nicht nur im Singleplayer kann man über die Fahrstrecken rauschen, sondern die Entwickler wollen auch einen kompetitiven Multiplayer-Modus integrieren. Im Online Championship-Modus sollen die Kontrahenten gegeneinander antreten können. Damit wäre der VR-Titel vielleicht zukünftig auch eSports-tauglich.

Ob der Nachfolgetitel Project Cars 2 die Schwächen seines Vorgängers ausbügeln kann, bleibt abzuwarten. Das erste Spiel der Reihe überzeugte ebenso mit starker Grafik, doch war es voll von Bugs und Glitches, die den Spielspaß schnell eindämmten.

Project Cars 2 soll am 22. September 2017 für Oculus Rift, HTC Vive auf Steam, PlayStation VR (PSVR), PS 4 Pro im PlayStation Store sowie Xbox One erscheinen. Für Vorbesteller kostet die PC-Version derzeit 59,99 Euro, während die Konsolen-Adaption für PlayStation 4 für 69.99 Euro erhältlich ist.

(Quellen: VRFocus | Steam | Video: Bandai Namco Entertainment America Youtube)

Der Beitrag Gamescom 2017: Project Cars 2 Trailer veröffentlicht zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

August 22, 2017

Hands-on: ‘The Talos Principle VR’ Feels Like It’s Come Home in Virtual Reality

The wildly popular puzzler The Talos Principle (2014) from Croteam is soon to be making its way to VR in a separate version, playable on SteamVR-compatible headsets; i.e. HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. Getting a chance to go head-first into Talos VR at this year’s Gamescom, I walked in asking myself if I actually wanted to spend the 20ish hours it takes to beat the game, in VR; and if given the choice between the two—the monitor and the VR version—that I would prefer to play in a headset instead of on a flatscreen. While my 20 minute demo didn’t exactly answer that question in full, a few things have certainly changed about how you interface with the game, making it a necessarily slower, but much more immersive experience to boot. And you know us, we like immersion.

The demo took me through the game’s third level (Land C), a verdant, castle-filled world where trees dot a medieval age ruin. While the puzzles and backdrop are entirely the same as the 2014 flatscreen title, I was told by Croteam’s PR and Community Manager Daniel Lucic, that some serious love went into getting the VR version just right, as it “almost took as long as [the original] Talos to make,” which Lucic qualified as a little over a year. In that time, presumably, the developers took everything they learned from Serious Sam VR (2017) and applied it to Talos, a game that first saw experimental, albeit imperfect VR support in 2015 on the Rift DK2.

Even then, Lucic tells me there’s still some work to be done to make the game more visually appealing to VR players, like adding ivy to help break up some more obvious repeating textures—something you might miss playing on a monitor, but a clear eyesore viewing from within a headset. As for scaling, what little I played looked indistinguishable from dedicated made-for-VR games, so no weirdly large or mismatched bits to speak of, but that may have more to do with the game’s general sparseness and already massive architecture.

With the addition of motion controllers, the world also become more interactive, with plenty of puzzle pieces to slot into blocky sigils, and beam reflectors or force field jammers at your disposal to make your way forward through each successive gate. Placing these just right, especially the reflectors, feels easier in VR than on the monitor version, if only because you can get a better line-of-sight so you can connect the beam source to the receptacle.

Unlike the monitor version, zooming around at high speed to get back to the puzzle’s beginning to retrieve a needed object isn’t really a great idea from a comfort standpoint, so the default walking speed is a bit slow to accommodate. This may irk some, but I found the surroundings so interesting, and well-suited to VR that I couldn’t help but stop and smell the digital roses. And yes, it’s just as pretty as you’d imagine it to be in VR, albeit some anti-aliasing issues with tree shadows that looked a little too sharp to be believable.

The game will feature a number of locomotion styles including instant and blink teleportation, ‘comfort mode’ snap-turn, and smooth-turning locomotion. This ultimately allows the player to interact with the game in any way they want, be it seated or in a standing, room-scale space.

There’s sill no official word on exactly when we’ll be seeing Talos VR hit Steam, but Lucic tells me that developers in Croteam are speculating on a late 2017 release.

We’re here at Gamescom all week, so check back for more coverage and hands-on articles with all of your favorite upcoming VR titles.

The post Hands-on: ‘The Talos Principle VR’ Feels Like It’s Come Home in Virtual Reality appeared first on Road to VR.

August 22, 2017

Hands-on with the HP OMEN X Backpack PC

Wireless virtual reality (VR) may no longer be a far off fantasy, with the likes of TPCast and DisplayLink both creating viable solutions. PC manufacturers are going down a different road however, building mobile ‘backpack’ rigs that can still offer user freedom from annoying cables, and without the need for transmitting masses of data through the air. Back in June, during the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), HP announced its latest iteration, the OMEN X Compact Desktop, which VRFocus has now got its hands-on.

This backpack PC first came to light last year as a concept, aiming to bring consumer grade components to a fledgling market. So it’s packing an Intel Core i7-7820HK processor, 16GB DDR4-RAM, and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 – this is in comparison to the HP Z VR Backpack unveiled earlier this month aimed towards enterprise, packing an NVIDIA Quadro P5200.

Trying out the PC at Gamescom this week, HP has made it as user friendly as possible. After donning the backpack harness, the person demonstrating the rig simply popped it out of its docking station – with the attached monitor showing a desktop image and Steam running – locked it into position on the harness and handed over a HTC Vive. The cable was a shortened down version, providing ample head movement without being long that it would get in the way.

Straight away, it was noticeable how light the entire assembly was. If you’ve ever had a high-end gaming laptop – VR-Ready or not – you’ll know how bulky and heavy they are, especially when carried about in a suitable bag. The HP OMEN X is certainly around the same size, but when wearing it, it almost felt like it wasn’t there.

On demonstration was nDreams’ newly announced Shooty Fruity, a title about scanning shopping items and gunning down rogue fruit. While the VR backpack handled the videogame with ease, never dropping a frame or stuttering, it was a bit of a shame that something more demanding wasn’t used, Lone Echo for its amazing vistas and grabbing mechanics, or Raw Data for its high octane gun battles.

Even though the OMEN X is designed as a consumer PC, it’ll most likely find its way to VR arcades, which are growing in popularity and might not want to send loads of VR signals wirelessly when groups are playing. The demo didn’t really showcase how well the backpack PC would hold up to lots of jarring movements, which will happen in first-person shooters (FPS) when surrounded.

HP OMEN X Batteries

The actual build quality of the OMEN X seemed fairly robust – whether it would take an impact from a player falling over on it is another matter – so heavy usage doesn’t look to be an issue. Another good feature are the two hot-swappable batteries which plug into the bottom of the unit, allowing one to run the PC as the other is changed out for a fresh power pack.

Generally first impressions are really good, why wouldn’t you want a VR-Ready backpack PC to enjoy VR gaming completely untethered. Well the cost of Oculus Rift and HTC Vive maybe dropping, as well as suitable PC’s to run them. Backpack PC’s on the other hand aren’t cheap or going to be cheap anytime soon, with the OMEN X having a suggested retail price of $2,499 (USD), a significant investment for the at home user. That’s why these type of PC’s will likely see more use as enterprise solutions for the time being. Give it 12 to 18 months and they might become a more viable solution for the average consumer.