Meta is streaming some free Lionsgate movies each month to Quest 2 owners, who can watch together in Horizon Home with friends in the United States.
Lionsgate movies like Gods of Egypt (3D) and Leprechaun can be watched together with friends in Meta Horizon Home. The free movies from Lionsgate will change monthly, Meta announced in a blog post, and this content is only available to people living in the United States. A Meta representative told UploadVR that in the future “we’ll explore the possibility of adding movies that are available to users outside of the US.”
The latest feature lets people watch “2D and 3D rectilinear content together on a giant screen” much like startup Bigscreen has enabled with its VR service for years. Notably, Bigscreen went head-to-head with the company formerly known as Facebook a couple years back by contesting its platform fees for movie rentals. The startup continues to build its own synced video watching functionality, first launching free movies and recently making it easy to watch YouTube together.
Meta Horizon Home, meanwhile, was added to Quest this month with a key feature being the ability to invite friends to share your home space “as soon as you put on your headset” to see content like Alex Honnold’s recent 360-degree video release together. Cowatching traditional 2D content was promised late last year with the official announcement of Horizon Home, but Meta was non-specific about what videos would be watchable with the system.
Meta benefits from being the default experience you get with a Quest 2 headset and uses platform-level features starting with a “Party—a VOIP call that lets you hang out and chat with friends in VR” which you can then use to “invite some friends to your Meta Horizon Home.”
The Lionsgate movies are available alongside a range of 360-degree content in the Oculus TV app.
The Oculus Rift might have been discontinued this year but there’s still plenty of support for the PC-based headset. Today, Bloober Team has announced the launch of Blair Witch: VR Edition for the platform, bringing improved graphics to make the horror experience that little bit scarier.
The Oculus Rift edition continues Bloober Team’s expansion of its Blair Witch videogame, originally starting out on PC and consoles in 2019. It was then overhauled in 2020 as Blair Witch: Oculus Quest Edition, adding new control schemes and features tailored to virtual reality (VR) gaming. Now it’s time for Oculus Rift owners to step into the cursed Black Hills Forest and try to make it out the other side.
If you’ve played the original non-VR version then you’ll notice plenty of differences in Blair Witch: VR Edition. Whilst the narrative and locations remain the same in VR you’ll be able to interact with most objects, picking them up, throwing them, opening drawers, doors, and gates, even breaking branches if you so wish. The same goes for the puzzle elements with handles, buttons, opening locks with a key, and inputting padlock codes all requiring that physical touch.
One of the key mechanics in the videogame is your pet dog Bullet, who’s helpful not only as a companion in the creepy woods but also for sniffing out clues. You can pet Bullet, give him new collars, feed him treats, shake his paw and give him objects to sniff and hunt down.
If VR horror isn’t scary enough, Bloober Team also decided to add new sounds and in-game events to surprise and scare the player, including additional creature encounters. Blair Witch: VR Edition will also include better models, improved lighting, further draw distance, and improved AI.
VRFocus was impressed by Blair Witch: Oculus Quest Edition,saying in its review: “If you’re a big fan of VR scares intertwined with a decent story then Blair Witch: Oculus Quest Edition will have you shaking in your boots.”
Blair Witch: VR Edition will be available on the Oculus Store for Oculus Rift today, at 6pm BST (10am PT). There’s been no mention of a SteamVR version but the studio has confirmed a PlayStation VR edition will arrive this summer. For further updates keep reading VRFocus.
Games built on film franchises are rarely good for a reason. Many suffer from comparatively lower budgets and seem to fundamentally lack creative flexibility. More often than not, this ends up leading to a clumsy replication of the source material and a big disappointment on the part of the player. Thankfully, this isn’t true for Blair Witch, the story-driven psychological horror game first launched on PC in 2019, and now rebuilt for Oculus Quest. The VR port is a bit rough around the edges, but even with its momentary jankiness and lower graphical fidelity it delivers a dark, bone chilling story that forces you head first into insanity.
Blair Witch: Oculus Quest Edition Details:
Available On: Oculus Quest Release Date: October 29th, 2020 Price: $30 Developer: Bloober Team Reviewed On: Quest (2019)
Gameplay
Rebuilt for VR, Blair Witch: Oculus Quest Edition immerses you in the haunted forest first conjured up in The Blair Witch Project (1999), the breakout ‘found footage’ horror film which spawned a slew of sequels, books, and video games.
Taking on the role of ex-policeman Ellis, you join a search party for a missing boy who’s gone missing in Maryland’s Black Hills Forest, a place where even daytime feels dark and claustrophobic. Things aren’t as they seem though, as Ellis battles with demons (both literal and personal) and marches deeper into his own troubled past as he picks up a trail leading to the boy. No spoilers here, but there’s multiple endings depending on actions you take throughout the game.
Image courtesy Bloober Team, Lionsgate
The game suggests wearing headphones for a more immersive experience, but you’d be forgiven for sticking to Quest’s built-in audio if you want to keep some filter between you and what lies ahead. Honestly, the game is intense and comes with a trigger warning because of the realistic depictions of post-traumatic stress, and—you know—horrible monsters chasing you through the forest.
Jump scares are few and far between, but are timed well enough to keep you on your toes. In the end, it’s less about fighting the monsters head-on, and more about unraveling the story through the eyes of a man who is recovering from PTSD in the worst place imaginable. You only have a flashlight, old-school cellphone, CB radio, a camcorder to reveal hidden secrets and play found footage, and your trusty German Shepard, Bullet. No guns and no melee weapons.
Image courtesy Bloober Team, Lionsgate
Although sometimes one of the biggest immersion breakers (more on that in Immersion), Bullet is overall an awesome addition. He alerts you to baddies ahead, uncovers key items, and keeps you on the trail which sometimes isn’t where you’d think to go. It’s so much nicer having Bullet around than a constantly chattering guide to force you through the experience, and also leaves you with your own thoughts on how to accomplish tasks that lie ahead. You can pet him, call him back with your whistle, command him to seek, and let him sniff items to get you on the right trail.
The cellphone is a cool addition too, as you receive calls and text messages that give some flavor to the story. Dialogue between you and your significant other Jess never feels super important to the story, but there are times when an SMS will really creep you out. The radio does essentially the same job to stay in contact with the rest of the search party, albeit without text messaging.
Image courtesy Bloober Team, Lionsgate
My most favorite addition by far is the camcorder. Found footage scattered throughout the game not only lets you see key moments in the story as they’re captured by a certain antagonist, but also lets you magically conjure elements in your location like a key item, or clear a pathway that was formerly blocked. There’s a few times in the game when looking directly at monsters results in your grizzly death too, which forces you to physically look away from any oncoming demon and follow a trail revealed by the bewitched camcorder.
Outside of using the camcorder there aren’t a lot of puzzles to solve, which is a shame. Puzzles are mostly momentary fetch quests which don’t rely on anything more than a good spatial memory of the level. Inventory is also pretty lackluster, as objects magically disappear from your hands, never to be seen again. Love it or hate it, the game’s body-mounted holsters were always a source of confusion, forcing me to look down to accurately grab the cellphone and not the radio, or the flashlight and not the camcorder. Some physical separation here would have made it much less frustrating. A journal of all your findings was equally pretty useless, and should really only be used if you’re taking the game in much smaller bites than I did.
Image courtesy Bloober Team, Lionsgate
In the end, it took me around five hours to play straight through, although your mileage may vary as you seek to unlock multiple endings. Immersion-breakers aside, I really enjoyed my time with Blair Witch. Its apparent lack of sidequests makes it worthy of really only a single playthrough and not much more.
Still, it was an intense trip that was soaked with existential dread and phycological terror. Sure, you can die and be thrown back to your last checkpoint, but it’s the bumps in the night and the unexpected thrills that definitely leave its mark.
Immersion
While the story and overall basic structure of the game’s one-way trip through Black Hills Forest is really well done, some of it felt somewhat shoehorned into VR. Cut scenes are done via immersion-breaking 2D windows which I really wish simply weren’t there.
Gripes aside for a moment: the games tension comes in a wide assortment of flavors that really seeps into your reptile brain. Creepy bumps in the night scare you away from the periphery of levels, dilapidated interiors force you to confront grizzly deaths, and the threat of meeting a demon around any corner is very real. Disjointed bits of the game confused you, and keep you wondering what’s real, or if any of it’s real in the first place. Photos of supposed victims litter the world, and you’re always left guessing if you’ll find your own polaroid snapshot among the bunch. Ok, more gripes now.
One of the biggest things you’ll notice is overall graphical quality. On the original Quest, it’s predictably lower than the PC or console versions as most levels are muddy and samey feeling. I’m still waiting on receiving my own Quest 2, so I wasn’t able to verify whether the headset’s extra horsepower from the Snapdragon XR2 significantly improved render distance and texture quality, two of my main gripes. Bloober Team says Quest 2 improves the quality of textures, 3D assets like dog fur, and foliage density.
Image courtesy Bloober Team, Lionsgate
The king of jank though is undoubtedly Bullet, which is a crying shame. Oftentimes I’d find him running at full clip into a cluster of trees, where he’d remain in his infinite forward bound. He’s sweet and helpful, which offsets this a bit, but seeing him run through a minecart or robotically readjusting to get through obstacles was still a let down. You can pet him, tussle his ears and even feed him for a laugh, but there’s hardly ever a peaceful moment when it really makes sense to take the time.
As is, it’s still pretty amazing what the studio was able to do on the modest Quest 1 hardware. Much of the game is dark and very foggy, which forces you to focus on near-field objects. It’s not to say you can’t sense the game chunking away and loading the bits just outside fog—there was definitely some jank there, as trees would pop in and out of view at times. Loading screens are also a bit of a pain, as you’ll be stopped multiple times throughout any of the 17 chapters to load a new section. Thankfully there isn’t any backtracking, so these screens only really appear in about 20-minute intervals.
Comfort
While the game has been re-engineered around the need for VR support, and many of the standard locomotion and comfort options are available, level layout requires you to go up and down inclines like hills and bumps in the road, which can be a little uncomfortable. One instance of an impossibly twisted house was a turn off, although fairly brief.
Both hand and head-relative forward locomotion is available alongside the ability for smooth forward and teleporting. Comfort-specific stuff, like variable snap-turn and VR blinders are also available to keep you from feeling too queasy as you make your way through the densely-packed levels.
Thankfully the game comes with both standing and seated standing modes, which comes with a manual height adjuster for fine-tuning.
Horror fans are in for a treat next month as the critically-acclaimed survival horror videogame Five Nights at Freddy’sis getting turned into a virtual reality (VR) experience. Called Five Nights at Freddy’s VR: Help Wanted, the title has been confirmed for PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift, and HTC Vive.
Lionsgate, in partnership with Scottgames, Steel Wool Games, and Striker Entertainment have brought Five Nights at Freddy’s VR: Help Wanted to life, with the adaption set to feature new experiences that highlight the original videogame and each episode of the one-of-a-kind series.
“I’m incredibly excited to bring Five Nights at Freddy’s to virtual reality and give fans a new way to experience the franchise,” said Scott Cawthon, founder of Scottgames in a statement.
For the first time players will be able to use motion controllers to interact with the door and light controls in the offices, pick up objects in the repair games, press buttons on the video switcher, solve puzzles, and activate their flashlight. Iconic locations have been recreated, challenging players to survive the night in the Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza security office, or repair vents in the depths of Circus Baby’s Entertainment and Rental.
“We are huge fans of Five Nights at Freddy’s and also recognize the original games’ design is perfectly suited for virtual reality. The title is an impeccable piece of video game mastery,” said Creative Director and Co-Founder of Steel Wool Games. “We’re thrilled Scottgames and Lionsgate chose us to lead the development of this project as it’s a game we’ve idolized.”
New features have also been added, allowing players to earn collectables that can be used at the prize counter. They can also find plushies, bobbleheads, action figures and more if they dare.
“For as long as we have been talking about virtual reality here at Lionsgate, we’ve dreamed of helping bring Five Nights at Freddy’s to VR,” said Daniel Engelhardt, Senior Vice President of Interactive Ventures & Games at Lionsgate. “The original games are tailor-made for VR. It’s a beloved franchise.”
Five Nights at Freddy’s VR: Help Wanted is scheduled to arrive across all platforms in April. When an exact date has been announced VRFocus will let you know.
In an avalanche of PSVR news today, Sony announced that Five Nights at Freddy’s is coming to PSVR. acclaimed survival horror video game. It’s not exclusive though, as the VR adaptation is officially coming to PSVR, Oculus and HTC Vive in April 2019.
The game, dubbed Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted is a collection of VR experiences based on the original Five Nights at Freddy’s games, “but it includes several new experiences as well,” Steel Wool Studios’ co-founder Jason Topolski says in a PlayStation blog post.
It isn’t a simple port of the original game either, Topolski says:
“For the first time, characters and situations from the entire Five Nights at Freddy’s series can be experienced in VR. Some games that seem familiar may surprise you in new terrifying ways.”
The studio says that players will be able to use either DualShock 4 or PS Move motion controllers to interact with the door and light controls in the offices, pick up objects in the repair games, press buttons on the video switcher, solve puzzles, and activate your flashlight. We assume other VR platforms will also focus on motion controller support.
The game will also include new features the the series, including collectibles such as plushies, bobbleheads, action figures and more.
The game was built in partnership by Lionsgate, Scottgames, Steel Wool Games, and Striker Entertainment. The game is said to launch on all supported platforms sometime in April.
Oculus Venues, the social VR app for large-scale live event viewing, is continuing its screenings this fall with more NBA games, scary movies, and stand-up comedy nights. Check out the schedule below.
Update (5:15 PM ET): An Oculus spokesperson has informed us that NBA games are entirely free, and don’t require an NBA League Pass to watch. The information has been corrected in the article.
Venues allows you to virtually attend events with friends and family while sitting in the stands filled with other viewers. You can download the app on Oculus Go and Gear VR.
NBA games, captured by Next VR, may don’t require the regular NBA League Pass (see update). In addition, everyone who attends an NBA game in Venues will get season-long access to an NBA jersey from one of the teams you watched for your Oculus Avatar.
Image courtesy Oculus
Availability of streams may be subject to your location, with at least US residents getting access to all licensed content. Some users in other countries have reported a region lock on Lionsgate film nights, so make sure to pop in and check it out before you dedicate your entire night to a splatter-filled Saw binge-fest leading up to Halloween.
Fair warning: you’ll also need a Facebook account to log-in to Venues.
Check out the schedule below for the full line-up:
Oculus Venues, the social app that allows ‘thousands of users’ to watch live events en masse in VR, is now available on Oculus Go and Gear VR starting today. The company has also published a full list of upcoming live events (below).
Announced last year at Oculus Connect 4, Venues lets you connect with friends and thousands of other VR users to watch live events like concerts, sporting events, stand-up comedy, movies, and more.
Many of the live events are captured specifically for VR headsets by NextVR, including stand-up comedy from the Gotham Comedy Club, live concerts from bands via School Night, content from the NBA and MLB, and the International Champions Cup pre-season friendly soccer matches.
Concerts by Vance Joy, Chromeo, Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats, and Everclear are hitting Venues all throughout the summer. Other events hitting Venues later this summer include films screenings from Lionsgate Films, featuring Reservoir Dogs (1992), Sinister (2012), Apocalypse Now (1979), and National Lampoon’s Van Wilder (2002).
Most Gear VR-compatible smartphones work with Venues, excluding Samsung Galaxy Note 4 and Samsung Galaxy Note 5. Oculus’ Code of Conduct is also in full force, with community moderators on-hand in Venues.
Oculus says they’ll be highlighting Venues events in Oculus Go and Gear VR’s ‘Explore’ section where you can subscribe to upcoming events and launch them from there.
Check out this summer’s Oculus Venue showtimes below:
May Showtimes
May 30 // Vance Joy // 7:30 pm PT
May 31 // Gotham Comedy Live // 7:00 pm PT
June Showtimes
June 4 // School Night! Live from Hollywood // 8:00 pm PT
June 6 // MLB: Arizona Diamondbacks @ San Francisco Giants // 12:45 pm PT
June 7 // Gotham Comedy Live // 7:00 pm PT
June 9 // Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats and The Head And The Heart // 3:55 pm PT
June 11 // School Night! Live from Hollywood // 8:00 pm PT
June 13 // MLB: Los Angeles Angels @ Seattle Mariners // 1:10 pm PT
June 14 // Gotham Comedy Live // 7:00 pm PT
June 15 // Chromeo // 6:50 pm PT
June 18 // School Night! Live from Hollywood // 8:00 pm PT
June 20 // MLB: Atlanta Braves @ Toronto Blue Jays // 9:37 am PT
June 21 // Gotham Comedy Live // 7:00 pm PT
June 22 // Everclear // 10:00 pm PT
June 25 // School Night! Live from Hollywood // 8:00 pm PT
June 27 // MLB: Kansas City Royals @ Milwaukee Brewers // 11:10 am PT
June 28 // Gotham Comedy Live // 7:00 pm PT
July Showtimes
July 2 // School Night! Live from Hollywood // 8:00 pm PT
July 5 // Gotham Comedy Live // 7:00 pm PT
July 9 // School Night! Live from Hollywood // 8:00 pm PT
July 12 // Gotham Comedy Live // 7:00 pm PT
July 16 // School Night! Live from Hollywood // 8:00 pm PT
July 19 // Gotham Comedy Live // 7:00 pm PT
July 23 // School Night! Live from Hollywood // 8:00 pm PT
July 25 // International Champions Cup: Manchester United v AC Milan // 8:00 pm PT
July 26 // Gotham Comedy Live // 7:00 pm PT
July 28 // International Champions Cup: FC Barcelona v Tottenham Hotspur // 8:00 pm PT
July 30 // School Night! Live from Hollywood // 8:00 pm PT
There is a school of thought within advertising that says ‘content is advertising, and advertising is content’. As virtual reality (VR) has developed as a medium, and increasing number of companies and brands have begun to subscribe to this idea, producing immersive VR experiences to advertise their output, such as the Jigsaw Virtual Room, created to promote the latest film in the Saw franchise.
Created using the popular videogame engine Unity, the Jigsaw Virtual Room is created to offer and interactive advertising experience. The experience features props from the Saw movies, along with a typically unnerving voiceover from Jigsaw himself, actor Tobin Bell.
The Jigsaw Virtual Room will be available in a few ways, as part of the Home screen on the Samsung Internet VR app for Samsung Gear VR users, and will also feature as part of VR graphic novel in Spiraloid’s Nanite Fulcrum. Nanite Fulcrum will be available on Samsung Gear VR and Oculus Rift.
“The Jigsaw Virtual Room is just the beginning. Now that we’ve proven broad-reaching, deeply immersive ads are possible, we expect to see this trend continue with formats including VR, AR, 360 mobile video, and playables,” said Julie Shumaker, VP of Advertiser Solutions at Unity. “Brands will have the opportunity to tell their story in a way that elicits emotional, memorable interactions. As the development platform with the highest reach in AR, VR, and mobile games, we are excited to see what marketers will do next.”
“Advertising in VR combines the storytelling power of immersive content with the guaranteed reach of a media buy,” said David Edwards, SVP of Digital Marketing at Lionsgate. “We’re thrilled to have worked with Unity on this campaign, bringing Jigsaw into an engaging VR ad experience.”
VRFocus will bring you further news on interactive VR ads as it becomes available.
Fans of hit TV series The Walking Dead have been eagerly awaiting the chance to get their hands on the upcoming The Walking Dead: Our World augmented reality (AR) app since it was announced by developer Next Games earlier this year. Attendees at the famous New York Comic Con may soon get the chance.
The Walking Dead: Our World was inspired by the phenomenally successful Pokemon Go, following a similar structure of location-based gameplay with AR elements, though with a considerably darker take on the concept.
Next Games have teamed up with Lionsgate to showcase The Walking Dead: Our World, which will demo to the public for the first time at New York Comic Con. Fans will be able to get their hands on the title, which is planned to feature a mixture of objects and characters from the TV show whilst taking advantage of features present in the real world.
Not much information is currently available on exactly how The Walking Dead: Our World will play, so Comic Con attendees who make it to the Lionsgate booth will be getting a surprise as they get the world’s first look at the app.
Next Games previously worked on The Walking Dead: No Man’s Land, and as part of the company’s appearance at the Lionsgate booth, representatives will be talking about how they integrated season 8 of The Walking Dead TV show into the videogame story.
New York Comic Con will take place from 5th-8th October, 2017 at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Centre in New York City. Next Games will be appearing at the Lionsgate booth, #210.
VRFocus will bring you further information on The Walking Dead: Our World as it becomes available.
Now available for Samsung Gear VR, Now You See Me: Back to Macau is the first major hidden-object videogame designed specifically for virtual reality (VR). The title features six missions based on the Now You See Me motion-picture franchise from Lionsgate.
In Now You See Me: Back to Macau, the player assumes the role of Special Agent Price. Assigned to find the whereabouts of the “Four Horsemen” band of magicians depicted in the film, who have disappeared yet again after another narrow escape, players will become a part of the world of Now You See Me reimagined in 360-degree VR.
Each mission has 50-100 possible items to uncover, with new puzzles and 20-30 items that reveal themselves each time you play.
Now You See Me: Back to Macau is available to download for Samsung Gear VR now, via the Oculus Store. VRFocus will keep you updated with the latest new releases for mobile VR formats.
