After remaining a PSVR exclusive since its November release, Crytek’s gorgeous Robinson: The Journeyrecently popped up on Oculus Home and has now come to Steam. Following the unfortunate lack of VR controller support, a rocky Steam release has been met with a major bug preventing many players from launching the game, and no official support for the HTC Vive.
Robinson: The Journey launched on PSVR in early November, and it seems a brief period of exclusivity has lifted, with the game hitting the Oculus store and now Steam over the last few days. The game is the second full VR title for Crytek, who also developed the Oculus exclusive The Climb.
The title follows a young boy and his robotic AI caretaker who have crash landed on a planet inhabited by lush foliage and dinosaurs both friendly and fierce. While the game’s undeniably gorgeous visuals are an achievement for the young VR market, the gameplay was hampered by the awkward use of a static gamepad to handle many first-person hand interactions (much of which seem to have been purpose-built for motion controllers).
A critical bug is preventing a significant number of users from launching Robinson: The Journey the game on SteamVR at all. The game’s discussion forum is filled largely with complaints of players not able to play the game due to a ‘Platform Error’. Crytek developers have acknowledged the bug on February 10th and purportedly issued a fix, but many players are still reporting the issue as of today.
We downloaded the title to test it and are also unable to launch the game due to the error. Data from SteamSpy suggests the issue is affecting nearly 100% of users, with just 2 users recorded as the game’s all time peak players.
With its launch on Steam, Robinson: The Journey is now available on all three major VR platforms, but only two of the major headsets. That’s because, while SteamVR is designed to be interoperable with many PC VR headsets, the developers have chosen to launch the game on Steam with official support only designated for the Oculus Rift. With the Vive outnumbering Rift users on SteamVR 3 to 2, that leaves the game unsupported by the majority of VR headset users on SteamVR.
In ‘Robinson: The Journey’, you control your hands with a gamepad, not hand controllers.
These issues are underscored by the unfortunate lack of VR controller support in the game, which we elaborated on previously:
Like Robinson, Crytek’s The Climb also initially launched only with support for the gamepad, but that was before Oculus launched Touch. Crytek eventually made a major update to The Climb which brought Touch support to the game which, again, felt made-for-motion-controllers from the beginning. Hopefully Robinson will see the same treatment, but presently there’s no indication of whether or not that will happen.
Gamepad-only support makes a little more sense on the Rift though because every Rift comes with an included gamepad. The Vive however comes standard with motion controls, so even if the game supported the Vive on SteamVR, only players who separately have a compatible gamepad would be able to play (unless the developers took the extra awkward step of allowing the Vive’s motion controllers to emulate a static gamepad).
It’s been a rocky launch for Robinson on PC, which is a shame given that it’s presently one of VR’s most highly produced games, with its AAA graphics looking even more impressive in the PC version.
COMPOUND is a VR hobby project from developer ‘NotDead’ which aims to immerse you in a world of lovingly crafted pixel art, retro-styled first person shooter.
Update (4/6/17, 11:48PM PT): Compound has received a major update with v0.03b and has launched on SteamVR as a demo. Developer NotDead has released a new video showing the many improvements in action (see video heading this article).
A laundry list of tweaks has brought significant improvements to the game, including weapon tweaks, more varied and interactive environments, and improved audio. Here are the highlights (see Compound’s official page for full release notes):
Pistol rebalance
Total sewer overhaul
Total audio overhaul
Difficulty options
Most objects including dead bodies can be picked up and thrown around
Made critical hits clear to the player
Items despawn, blink before disappearing
Better splash screen
Lots more I’ve probably forgotten!
In the next “mini update” promises customizable controls (including a left-handed mode), additional locomotion options (including an enhanced comfort mode). Following that, priorities will be on new weapons, enemies, and levels.
Original Article (2/12/17): Ironically, there is a risk that the over abundance of so-called ‘pixel art’ video games in circulation these days of the nostalgia-fuelled art style is in danger of beginning to look tired and dated. There’s also an erroneous belief by some that creating effective pixel art titles is somehow an easy way out for an indie developer. However, creating really effective pixel art is hard, and it’s even harder when you’re mapping that art onto a realtime 3D world designed to be experienced in VR.
Enter Compound, a “VR hobby project” by developer ‘NotDead’, a virtual reality shooter which lovingly embraces it’s jumbo pixels textures and fuses the look with appropriately simplistic yet elegant gameplay.
Compound throws you into an underground world, filled with futuristic-looking bad guys sporting woefully ineffective armour and marksmanship skills which would embarrass the average Stormtrooper. You have two weapons at your disposal, a laser pistol with infinite ‘ammo’ and an SMG style energy weapon. You wander the titular underground compound, shooting bad guys (I didn’t ask to stop why they were bad it must be said) and security robots, grabbing ammo and burgers (for health) as you go. Shoot everyone and get to the end of the level. That’s pretty much it in terms of objectives.
But the beauty of Compound is in its execution. The SMG for example requires to be physically reloaded with ammo you’ve collected in your inventory – a nicely satisfying mechanic. You can drift around the levels using ‘artificial’ locomotion (aka full locomotion) or teleportation – and it’ll doubtless make purists happy that you can switch between either method on the fly. Strafing and physically dodging projectiles is great fun and as you dart around the world, one heavily inspired by id’s genre-defining Wolfenstein (1992) in terms of colour palette, you quickly warm to your blocky alternate reality surroundings.
As stated, Compound is a one-man hobby project right now and can the latest version of the demo can be downloaded for free from the developer’s home page here and works on both HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. The developer also states they have high hopes of the project growing beyond its homebrew roots stating “I hope this project eventually evolves into a very fleshed out VR roguelite with a large number of items, weapons, enemies and characters. A non-VR version is also in the works.”
Slightly Mad Studios has begun the promotional campaign for Project CARS 2, revealing a new trailer and some new details. Now due ‘late 2017’, the game has confirmed VR support for PC, while PSVR support is in development but not yet promised.
The Project Cars 2 media blowout has begun, with an official ‘announce’ trailer, new screenshots and footage following the recent leaked trailer. Some of the clips remain, but the shots of Ferrari and Porsche models have disappeared—probably saved for a future ‘reveal’, as the inclusion of these legendary manufacturers is a huge deal for the title. Instead, we get a good look at some exciting new models, such as the Aston Martin Vulcan and Honda/Acura NSX road and race versions, along with some stunning footage of Fuji Speedway, a track that many Gran Turismo fans will be familiar with.
1 of 10
The official website has been updated, restating some of the known features about the game, and clarifying a few other details. Virtual reality is, as expected, once again supported on PC, primarily for the Rift and Vive. In fact the developer states, “VR, 12K, 21:9, and triple-screen support built-in,” which will go down very well with enthusiasts; calling out all of these display options immediately ticks boxes that were missing in the first title.
By targeting console and PC racers, the original Project CARS had the incredibly difficult task of meeting the needs of a very wide audience; it worked for some, but never really hit the mark for many enthusiasts, and it struggled to appeal to the casual player with its confusing UI and menu presentation. With the sequel, Slightly Mad Studios have pushed hard in both directions, claiming to have ‘raised the bar’ on simulation, while improving the experience for the beginner too.
Speaking to Gamereactor, game director Stephen Viljoen describes how the free-form career mode of the first game was lost on many players, as they simply didn’t realise that you could start with any racing discipline, and that the progression through a season was unclear. Now that the sequel includes even more motorsport types, such as Rallycross and IndyCar, it has been essential to present the career paths and various options in a more logical manner, so we can expect to see major improvements to the UI.
In an ongoing Q&A on the GTPlanet forums, CEO Ian Bell has been answering some of the more specific concerns, such as the state of gamepad support, which was considered to be less intuitive than Forza and Gran Turismo.
“We’ve massively reworked our pad input filters to try to pre-empt what the user wants to happen, in coordination with what actually happens in game. It’s been rewritten from scratch and we’ve been influenced a lot by what our competitors do here… I think it’s a very affirming experience for pad users now”.
And addressing a PC-specific concern regarding the poor performance of the first game on AMD graphics cards, both in VR and otherwise, in comparison to Nvidia equipment, “we’re massively better on AMD cards now. Particularly on dual+ setups.”
PlayStation Access’summary video of the major features skilfully avoids the elephant in the room, PlayStation VR support. Project Cars on PS4 was once due to receive VR treatment, but it never happened, so the team is being more cautious about what they say this time. In an interview with Red Bull, creative director Andy Tudor reveals that they are actively trying.
“With PSVR we can’t confirm that it’s definitely coming, but our team are hard at work on it. The reason I can’t confirm that it’s definitely going to come out is because there’s a lot of work required to get the game running to our standards. Because of the two screens that you need, because of the frame rate that you need to keep up in order for the whole experience to be comfortable, and because of all the stuff we’re throwing into the game”.
With ‘over 170’ licensed cars and ‘the largest track roster of any console racing game’, Project Cars 2 will no doubt be an impressive collection of content, but more importantly, it appears to be addressing many of the criticisms of the first game. Simply by having more time to iterate on their existing technology such as the advanced tyre model and dynamic track system, the sequel is surely set to be a more mature, polished product.
Knockout League (2017) is a single-player, arcade-style boxing game that promises to get your heart pumping as you duck, block, and punch your way to victory. Harking back to NES classic Punch-Out!! (1987), you learn pretty quickly that a storm of punches—the moral equivalent of button-mashing—will get you nothing if you can’t time them correctly to your opponent’s repertoire of moves. So while Knockout League can’t promise what you might call “boxing sim” realism, it definitely delivers a lot of fun along with the stark realization that I clearly don’t get enough exercise.
Knockout League Details:
Developer: Grab Games Available On: Oculus Touch, HTC Vive (Oculus Home & Steam) Reviewed on: HTC Vive Release Date: January 24th, 2017
Note: This game is in Early Access which means the developers have deemed it incomplete and likely to see changes over time. This review is an assessment of the game’s current state, and will not receive a numerical score.
Gameplay
The game starts out with a simple training session that details all of the moves you need to know as you go against the 4 available opponents; Brazilian fighter ‘Tri-Tip’, warrior princess ‘Crimson Fang’, saber-wielding pirate ‘Scurvy Jones’, and posh English octopus ‘Sir Octopunch’.
Each of them has a signature power move that they unleash, oftentimes after you attempt a KO. Of course, taking one of these to the face can mean a near instant game over, but dodging a few punches afterwards thankfully lets you recoup your health automatically. You’ll know when you’re almost down for the count though, as each punch landed on your soft, baby face makes the world a little less colorful and also applies a ‘punch-drunk filter’ to further distort your vision.
The moment you time it just right though, and successfully dodge or block the move and deliver a series of counter blows, you really can’t help but feel like Rocky Balboa (the times he didn’t get beaten, obviously).
Knockout League reallyseems like its ready for prime time with its patently smooth scene modeling and character animations, but the paltry sum of only 4 AI opponents means you can complete the entire game in about an hour. This can be forgiven somewhat since it’s still in Early Access, and the developers have said they’ll be adding more unique opponents and additional game modes in the next 3-5 months. Hopefully it will be enough time to add more features, because as it stands currently, there isn’t any type of spendable in-game currency or any other customization options outside of picking your own name.
That said, this is one of those games you’ll force on your friends and family to try, because while definitely a shorter experience, it’s something that is sure to get plenty of laughs while testing the aerobic ability of everyone involved. Playing through each boss is certainly a workout, one that left me heaving a little more than I rightly should.
Immersion
Since this isn’t a boxing simulator, you should know there’s a few limitations put on you from the very beginning. Firstly, don’t think that you can back away from a punch in Knockout League or use the whole ring’s space to your advantage, because the game only provides you with about a square meter of space to move in—and that’s regardless of how large your room-scale setup can manage. Leaving this pre-set area will pause the game, so this forces you to actively engage your opponent in a few ways that the AI can react to, necessitating ducking and moving either to left or right of punches instead of instinctively backing up.
Fights are forward-facing, so besides ducking and moving out of the way of punches, you’ll have to block too. This wasn’t exactly my strong suit, as I could rarely activate a block in time. I couldn’t really tell if it was my fault, or the fault of the game, because quickly bringing my hands up to cover my face and activating the split-second blocking mechanic usually resulted in a smack to the jaw. I quickly learned to block though on the last boss, Sir Octopunch, because he would toss multiple impossible-to-dodge, boxing-glove clad tentacles at a time.
Punching, like in Punch-out!! is extremely mechanical, and relies purely on your ability to find out when the AI opponent is vulnerable—usually before a signature powermove, leaving them wide open to a sock right in the kisser. This, again, is another time when you have to abandon your real world expectations of fighting. There was zero reaction because I didn’t punch at the AI’s specified time, even when opponents seemed vulnerable and I clearly landed punches to an unprotected spot like the stomach or the head. Knockout League is an arcade-style game, so you’ll have to train your reptile brain to accept all of that as the punches fly.
Comfort
There is no artificial locomotion in Knockout League, meaning there’s little chance that you’ll feel any different from walking around in the real world. This makes this, and games like this, an exceedingly comfortable experience to play for extended amounts of time.
Through no fault of its own, Knockout League can get your VR headset a little sweaty after a while, so if you’re seriously thinking of playing the game for more than 15 minutes, you should consider some sort of removable cover to protect your headset’s facial interface from absorbing your smelly, bacteria-laced face goo. Both Best Buy and individual sellers on Amazon offer suitable solutions should you want to stop living like a grease-faced ham demon.
Summary
While still in Early Access, and in need of more features, opponents, and general customization to bolster replay value, ‘Knockout League’ is by far the most fun you’ll have getting punched in the face. The game’s art direction and atmosphere is extremely competent and the opponents movements, although necessarily predictable, give you quite a workout. There’s no denying the game’s charm as it harks back to arcade boxing days of old.
A popular horror title on Gear VR, the latest instalment of the Affected franchise will be coming to Oculus Rift with Touch motion controller support in February, according to developers Fallen Planet.
The Affected series and developers Fallen Planet can probably be considered OG’s of the virtual reality horror scene at this point. The original title appeared with Oculus Rift DK1 support back in the day, with support for DK2 coming later. The series’ first commercial release came to the Gear VR in last year in the form of Affected: The Manor, and was well received by our brave and intrepid horror guinea pig Chris Madsen. Chris wrote at the time:
This is the most polished version yet with new effects such as gazed based triggers, alternative paths to follow and awesome staged events that made the series so much fun to begin with. The controls are simple, moving forward by holding down the touch pad allows users to focus on the dilapidated environment and unnerving events unfolding around them. Priced at $2.99, The Manor is a purchase that will keep on giving as you demo it again and again to those wanting a taste of VR horror. The reactions alone will be worth the price of admission.
Now, Fallen Planet have announced that they’ll be endeavouring to scare the crap out of desktop PC users with both Oculus Rift and HTC Vive versions on their way.
The Oculus Rift version of Affected: The Manor on will ship in February, available via the Oculus Store, and will sport full Touch motion controller support. The HTC Vive version will follow soon after, with the team promising to include both room scale and motion controller elements into the completed title and delivering “an extreme level of immersion”.
Affected: The Manor was expected to arrive on PC VR last year, with development pushed back owing to “big changes” at the studio.
Seattle-based VR studio Against Gravity has today announced they have received $5M in seed funding to continue to build Rec Room, the studio’s social VR platform.
Only launching last summer, the app has quickly become a success story, winning over fans on both Steam and Oculus Home with high marks. Rec Room seems to have found a winning formula with its over-the-top, YMCA-style social space, which gives you the ability to do everything from playing leisure sports to fist bumping, letting you create a ‘team’ so you can stay together as you tour the app’s many activities.
Rec Room is markedly more emotive than other social VR platforms, plastering your avatar with a melange of cute emojis that seem to cycle at a nearly human-level. Even if the emotes aren’t tied to your actual facial position though, you really can’t help but smile at them (really, it’s all in your brain).
The studio says that over 100,000 users visited Rec Room in the second half of 2016, having played over 1 million games, exchanging over 1 million high fives, and firing nearly a billion paintballs at each other—just one of their many games including dodgeball, 3D charades, disc golf, and zero-G paddle ball.
Future improvements to the platform include streamlining the UX and refining systems that can help minimize trolling and harassment. “We want to make it easier to find your current friends and to make new ones. We also plan to give you more ways to interact with those friends, both inside VR and out (oh my!).” writes Against Gravity CEO Nick Fajt in a recent blogpost. “With your help, we’ll be improving and extending both active and passive systems that let you manage specific situations based on your personal preferences, and that help us understand broad community trends to minimize bad interactions in general.”
Fajt formed Against Gravity after working as the Principal Program Manager on the HoloLens team at Microsoft, building the studio with previous HoloLens Creative Director turned CCO Cameron Brown. Fajt maintains the company will be keeping Rec Room free to download, “so anyone can join our community.”
New footage from upcoming racing simulator Project CARS 2 for PC, PS4 and Xbox One has surfaced on YouTube. Slightly Mad Studios’ new game is expected to launch later this year with support for virtual reality like its predecessor, and hopes to address the criticisms of the 2015 original.
We’ve known about Project CARS 2 since its controversial early announcement in June 2015, just a few weeks after the launch of the first game, which arrived in a state of inconsistent quality. Visually stunning, with an interesting career mode and plenty of content, it hoped to bridge the gap between PC and console racing sims. It received mainly positive reviews, but drew criticism from enthusiasts due to its bugs and questionable physics.
Although Slightly Mad Studios improved the game over the following months with several major patches, it never really reached its full potential as a sim, but eventual support for the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and OSVR headsets was very welcome, and well-implemented.
If you have suitably high-end hardware to match its demanding engine, it remains one of the most visually-impressive VR titles available.
Project CARS 2 is expected to enhance VR support on PC, but a potential PSVR mode for the PS4 version has not been confirmed at this stage. The original game was once due to support the headset, but the chances of it happening diminished over time.
Once again, Slightly Mad Studios had used their crowdfunding platform to assist the development of the sequel, meaning that leaks are inevitable, despite the more secretive development process this time around. A ‘trailer’ (above) recently surfaced on YouTube, which revealed a chunk of new, in-game footage. This turned out to be a placeholder intro for the game used for internal presentations, and does not represent the final quality of the game, according to the developers, evidenced by the variable framerate and placehold user of music from Pirates of the Caribbean.
However, it does include some interesting looks at new cars, such as the Ferrari 288 GTO, Lamborghini Huracán Super Trofeo, Porsche 935/80, and Jaguar XJ220S (manufacturers that were absent from the first game), along with footage of new tracks like Long Beach, the rallycross track in Hell, Norway and a Canadian ice track. It also demonstrates some of the upgraded technology, with a significantly-improved dynamic time of day and weather system. With all of this footage coming from out-of-date builds, the final product should look even more spectacular.
Slightly Mad Studios CEO Ian Bell recently hinted at a September 2017 release date, and while it could slip like the first game, it sounds like they’re readying a marketing push very soon, with the real trailer due early this month. Bell has boldly stated that the title, which is still in development, has already ‘raised the bar for simulation’, with new rendering, physics, force feedback, drivetrain, differential and tyre modelling systems. Fingers crossed it can deliver, and continues with support for multiple VR headsets.
This game is in Early Access which means the developers have deemed it incomplete and likely to see changes over time. This review is an assessment of the game’s current state, and will not receive a numerical score.
At its core Racket: Nx is a game about a racket, a ball, and a futuristic dome. Players will come to love all three: the thwack of a good hit; the sweeps and whooshes of a ball whizzing overhead; the pop and fizz of particles as a target is hit sweetly right in the centre. Here comes the ball again… line yourself up and take the next shot. It succeeds in making you feel like an heroic player as you unleash fierce volleys and subtle dinks.
We have written about Racket: Nx a couple of times before. Now, launched today into Early Access on Steam, (ahead of an anticipated late 2017 full release) we have a chance to revisit the latest version, this time with the much anticipated multiplayer support enabled.
Gameplay
I’ll cut right to the chase: the multiplayer is a blast. Fast, fun, satisfying and guaranteed to bring out the competitive streak in anybody. The avatars are really expressive—I’m going to go with ‘Alien Lizard Robot with Sound Activated Brain’ as the best descriptor here—so you can see the effect of play on your opponent as they lunge for a fast moving ball or pull off an impossible seeming back hand while the integrated chat makes sure you’ll hear every grunt and curse as play progresses. And there will be cursing, believe me.
Unfortunately, due to a last minute issue, it looks like Racket: Nx will launch with a small bug that sometimes hangs the game when you opt for a rematch. Exiting back to Steam and restarting the game gets it working again. It’s the only blight on an otherwise very impressive Early Access debut, and hopefully can be resolved soon.
In the multiplayer mode the arena moves through a set number of waves and, at the end of the final wave, the player with the highest score takes the win. Each wave features a different set of target types all around the players and offers a unique challenge. Every point you score takes a point away from your opponent, and vice versa, so there’s a lovely tug-of-war aspect at play here after you both start with 50 points. You will take it in turns to strike the ball, whose excellent and very satisfying physics haven’t lost anything in the months of tweaking since the demo.
Each time the ball hits the wall surrounding the arena it will change colour, alternating between your colour and your opponent’s, and will then return towards the appropriate player with the angle and speed determined by the previous shot. In this way you can make life difficult for the opposition simply by applying excessive power to a shot or ensuring the ball will return from an unfavourable angle. If they miss their shot the ball will pass them by, hit the wall, and then it will be your turn again and they just lost a chance to put points on the board.
In essence when you strike the ball its trajectory feels real, controllable, and believable. When the ball is returning, however, it’s more game-like as it homes in on the next player and you really feel like you’re inside a futuristic sport arena playing hyper-Squash.
There is a welcome element of gamesmanship and far deeper tactical play than I was expecting, in terms of shot selection and thinking a few hits ahead and taking advantage of a slip (literal or figurative) from your opponent. Added to this, the game features power-ups: cells that require multiple hits to break down with the player that lands that final shot reaping a bonus, warp cells that suck the ball in and spit it out randomly through another warp point, hit streaks, moving targets, and the ability to angle your shot just so and see it slide across multiple cells thus raking in the points; and later on there are negative cells that drain your score….
At time’s it’s breathless entertainment, and a good rally will have you laughing at the sheer thrill of it all. It feels very pure, very old school, and very polished. For a game in the vanguard of the initial VR wave—embracing the most modern gaming tech—in the hands, it whisks you back to playgrounds and simpler times.
After spending an hour in the new multiplayer mode with developer One Hamsa’s Community Director Carsten Boserup (and despite being heavily beaten by Carsten in every game we played) I had a great time. As the matches ebbed and flowed I did occasionally find a flurry of good form that felt very rewarding.
One Hamsa describe this as a VR Sport game, and they want player skill and ability to be front and centre. It’s easy to see how, with regular play, I could evolve and improve as a player to the point where I would be far more competitive, as with any “real” sport.
Despite an hour of energetic but friendly competition, the game didn’t leave me exhausted. Obviously a lot will depend on your individual build, level of fitness, style of play and what you want out of the game. Those simply looking for a fun sports game can just play it in a more relaxed way. Those looking for a moderate workout, or as a way to burn some calories, can play it more energetically.
No matter how you game, you will want to make sure your play area is sufficiently spacious and clear. I’m quite tall, with a long reach, and was conscious at all times that a sudden lunge or desperate swing could end in disaster. Equally, it’s all too easy to potentially get caught up in the trailing cables if you’re not careful. By now most VR gamers are accustomed to this but newer players will want to take extra care.
The ‘Alien Lizard Robot with Sound Activated Brain’ avatars actually fit fairly well within the feel of the game.
On the single player side there is a Solo mode featuring five challenges, each of which has a different and escalating combination of waves to master. This is a great mode in its own right, and very difficult to beat, but also acts as a primer for the multiplayer. The enemy here is the clock, as you fight against time to clear each wave, making just a little more progress each time.
When playing solo you can squeeze the trigger to change the ball’s trajectory by attracting it to the racket like a magnet, and the risk here is that the ball can shatter your racket if you don’t release the trigger in time, costing vital seconds as it regenerates. The reward is that you can potentially set up some crucial shots that keep you in the game.
There’s also an Arcade mode offering infinite play against the clock, but the Custom mode (whereby you can build and share your own set of waves) is currently unavailable, clearly intended for a later version.
Racket: Nx is available via Steam for the HTC Vive initially, though the developer has confirmed to Road to VR that they plan to add Rift and Touch support later this year. Though there isn’t yet “official” support, apparently people have been able to play it on the Rift through SteamVR, but I’d advise waiting a while to see the extent to which it’s playable in this way (as the game is built for 360 tracking, which not everyone with Touch has). As we move through the three planned quarterly Early Access updates (with tweaks and hotfixes as necessary in between) One Hamsa’s feature and post-Vive plans should become clearer.
It’s in those plans that the potential of Early Access could be maximised. While the developers have their own vision of where they want to take the game in the coming months, they are very much looking to the community to help shape their priorities and suggest new avenues that the game might explore. Modding is potentially on the table if there’s enough interest, and—given its Unity underpinnings and presence on the Steam platform—I’m certain there would be no shortage of people keen to experiment.
It’s a shame we have to wait until the end of the year for the finished article then, but there’s already enough here to warrant your consideration if you enjoyed the demo (available for free on the game’s Steam page), and the promise of more to come.
At $20—a price that will likely rise throughout the year as features are added—it falls into what we might consider the lower middle tier of VR pricing. Some people might baulk at the value proposition, and on the face of it there are cheaper VR experiences, but in a dollar-per-hour analysis there is a lot of potential play to be had in the game and the production values are above the norm.
Most of you will know from trying the demo whether this floats your boat, and whether it’s worth twenty bucks to you or not. If it is, I hope to see you in the multiplayer. I’ll be the tall British guy with the insane power shot who is slowly improving, match after match.
Immersion
The whole package is presented neatly with a front end that smoothly moves between modes, builds up the 360 arena around you at the start of each match and explodes it away at the end. The sense of presence is excellent and the sound is clear and precise, which lends an air of believability to the notion that you’re bounding a futuristic ball off of futuristic walls using a futuristic racket.
It’s not Discs of Tron (1983), but it is very much like being in the Tron universe. Everything seems very real and solid, from the game world to the simple act of hitting the ball.
Comfort
The fact that you are always located in the same position whether selecting options or playing the game means that comfort is excellent throughout. You are always in control in how you move in your play area and where you look; the only discomfort might come from the act of exercise itself, as it’s all too possible to wind up for a really big hit and overstretch yourself if you’re not careful.
You’ll want to make sure your play space is on the upper end of recommendations. Don’t play this if your ceiling is low or there are walls close to the edge of your play area unless you can be very disciplined in your movement.
The whole experience is so comfortable that spending a lot of time in the game is very pleasant—at least until the warmer weather arrives, at which point you’d better have air-conditioning or things are going to get very sweaty very quickly.
We partnered with AVA Direct to create the Exemplar 2 Ultimate, our high-end VR hardware reference point against which we perform our tests and reviews. Exemplar 2 is designed to push virtual reality experiences above and beyond what’s possible with systems built to lesser recommended VR specifications.
Summary
In Racket: Nx the HTC Vive can claim another worthy roomscale experience. It feels like a real sport, and when you’re in there everything else just fades into the background as you find yourself in the zone trying to beat your previous performances or the opponent standing opposite you. Time will tell how much One Hamsa can evolve and broaden the experience throughout its Early Access run, but what we have here is a very impressive beginning. Even if you’re not quite ready to jump in now, this is one to watch.
This game is in Early Access which means the developers have deemed it incomplete and likely to see changes over time. This review is an assessment of the game’s current state, and will not receive a numerical score.
SUPERHYPERCUBE, a spatial reasoning puzzle game for PSVR looks to be soon headed to the Vive through SteamVR. And while SteamVR normally supports the Rift, a developer protest could exclude the headset.
SuperHyperCube is most succinctly described as a ‘Tetris (1984) for VR’. But that alone would betray the game’s unique take on depth-based geometric gameplay—that works uniquely well in virtual reality—and its distinct and superbly directed art and sonic stylings.
In the game, players are tasked with reorienting a 3D shape to fit through a 2D hole. It sounds pretty easy—and it is, until the shapes become increasingly complex, ramping up the engagement of your spatial reasoning centers as your brain attempts to reconcile the rules of two dimensions simultaneously.
Developed by Kokoromi and published by Polytron, SuperHyperCube made its debut as a launch title alongside PlayStation VR back in October. And there it has remained, garnering a 4 out of 5 star rating with its $30 price.
But now it seems the game will be soon coming to the HTC Vive and SteamVR. A tweet from Polytron today portrayed the Vive’s controllers in the unmistakable style of SuperHyperCube.
Rift Support in Question
With support for the HTC Vive, that means the game will almost surely be landing on SteamVR. And while SteamVR technically supports the Rift too, Polytron had proclaimed back in September that they would not pursue support for Oculus’ platform, following revelations that Oculus’ founder, Palmer Luckey, was involved in politically polarizing dealings. A situation that might have been eventually swept under the rug, had the election not turned out as it did.
Interestingly, you can see that the Vive trackpads in the Twitter tease show a d-pad and buttons that are laid out just like those of the PS4’s controllers, except the button mappings use the same XYAB layout as you’d find on an Xbox One controller. An oversight, or a clue? We’re not quite sure. It could be as innocuous as showing that the game (which relies on a gamepad on PSVR) would support Vive players using an Xbox One controller connected to their computer. But, the fact that every Oculus Rift comes with an Xbox One controller included adds an additional wrinkle to the situation.
It isn’t clear if Polytron’s original intent was to never see the game played on an Oculus Rift headset, or they simply didn’t want to put the game on Oculus’ distribution platform (which would thereby give the company a share of the game’s sales). In the latter, it’s possible that the company will allow Rift users to play the game via SteamVR (as the revenue share would go to Valve instead). We’ve reached out to the company for comment.
– – — – –
One other major question is whether or not the game will make use of the Vive’s roomscale tracking capability or its motion controllers. On PSVR the game relies on a gamepad for seated play, which really only has the player leaning from side to size to look around the shapes. One could certainly imagine a lot of fun, new gameplay which would employ the Vive’s motion controls and expanded tracking volume, but such an addition would probably mean a major reworking of the game. More likely, we’ll see a simple port to start, though we’d be happy to see SuperHyperCube take on a life of its own on the Vive.
Launched as part of Basemark’s VRScore benchmarking software, the Crytek developed VR tech demo Codename: Sky Harbor, is one of the most visually impressive examples of VR cinema around.
Direct from our time with Basemark’s promising virtual reality benchmarking suite, VRScore, here’s a full play-through of the included Crytek developed demo Codename: Sky Harbor, a sci-fi fantasy mini-epic that demonstrates what high production values and a keen sense of design can bring to an immersive experience. The VR short film puts you in the body of a lowly maintenance droid as he’s flown through the chaos of a hectic sky battle, before crash landing, becoming trapped – witnessing a series of impressive set pieces before he’s freed.
It’s a reminder that Crytek, and its Cryengine, have been behind some of the best looking VR out there. From the company’s early VR experiments with tech demo Back to Dinosaur Island through to Robinson: The Journeythey certainly have a way of building virtual environments with scale and presence. It also makes me long for more short, cinematic experiences like Sky Harbour, a genre of VR which feels shamefully underpopulated right now.
As of now, Sky Harbor is only available as part of Basemark’s VRScore benchmarking software, which is available to corporate customers now but will arrive in its free and professional guises in Q2 2017.
A critical bug is preventing a significant number of users from launching Robinson: The Journey the game on SteamVR at all. The game’s discussion forum is filled largely with complaints of players not able to play the game due to a ‘Platform Error’. Crytek developers have acknowledged the bug on February 10th and purportedly issued a fix, but many players are still reporting the issue as of today.
