One of the most anticipated Oculus exclusives, Lone Echo II, has been delayed from 2019 to Q1 2020.
Released in 2017, Ready at Dawn’s Oculus exclusive Lone Echo set an impressive bar for VR interaction, locomotion, and storytelling, and remains one of VR’s most critically and popularly acclaimed games.
Lone Echo II is set to be a direct continuation of the original game. Initially announced in 2018 and set for release sometime in 2019, Ready at Dawn today confirmed that the Lone Echo II release date has been pushed back to Q1 2020.
“Today we confirmed that Ready At Dawn is bringing Echo Arena to Quest. In consideration of that project, we decided to push Lone Echo II out to 2020 so that we can give all our attention to that title once [Echo Arena on Quest] is out. We’re taking the time we need to do these titles justice,” Ru Weerasuriya, Ready at Dawn’s CEO and Creative Director, tells Road to VR.
Beyond that, the launch of the Rift S may have played a role. The headset uses inside-out tracking which requires line-of-sight to the controllers in order to maintain tracking. Lone Echo’s unique zero-G locomotion scheme was originally conceived for the external camera tracking used on the original Rift and may run into occasional tracking issues when played with inside-out tracking.
As Echo Arena is headed to Quest (which uses inside-out tracking like Rift S), it sounds like Ready at Dawn is confident that the inside-out tracking won’t fundamentally compromise the gameplay. But for Lone Echo II, the studio may have wanted more time to tweak the game’s various interactions to make sure it’s a smooth experience throughout. Last month the studio briefly spoke to the inside-out tracking on Rift S, saying it is “working closely together with Oculus to bring the highest quality tracking to Echo VR on the Rift S.”
Ready At Dawn announced today it is bringing its Echo Arena multiplayer to Oculus Quest “in all its glory.”
During UploadVR’s E3 VR showcase, RAD CEO and creative director Ru Weerasuriya revealed the popular Oculus Rift multiplayer game will make the zero gravity jump to the Oculus Quest standalone VR gaming console.
The Irvine-based studio is also continuing the groundbreaking 2017 single-player VR adventure Lone Echo with Lone Echo II for Rift and Rift S. Weerasuriya previewed the upcoming PC VR game during the showcase as it continues the close relationship explored in the original between Captain Olivia (“Liv”) Rhodes and Jack, an artificial intelligence.
“You’’ll be able to reprise your role as Jack in this story,” said Weerasuriya. “Lone Echo II really reinforces this idea that you and Liv are like family and that you and her basically will go through anything against all odds.”
Ready At Dawn is the studio behind PlayStation Portable games in the God of War and Daxter franchises and they took the jump to VR with their Echo series for Oculus headsets. The Echo games explore a variety of interactions in zero gravity with Lone Echo focused on the intimate storytelling of VR. Echo Arena is a bit like the sport played by the kids in Ender’s Game and its active gameplay makes for highly competitive matches and it is embraced by Oculus as a VR esport. Similarly, Echo Combat is a first-person shooter spin-off from Echo Arena that features gun-based shooting in zero gravity. Ready At Dawn recently announced optimiziations for the Insight tracking system deployed on Rift S as well.
With Echo games forthcoming on both of Facebook’s Oculus Touch-equipped systems, look for Ready At Dawn to lead the way in showing what’s possible with storytelling, interaction and multiplayer on both Rift S and Oculus Quest.
Facebook is launching a replacement for the Oculus Rift this Spring called Rift S.
Every Oculus VR headset launch so far has been accompanied with a collection of new games. These five major Oculus exclusives launching this year could be Rift S’s big hitters.
All five games are fully funded by Oculus Studios, Facebook’s VR content division. All will work with the current Oculus Rift headset. Rift S is a refresh, fully backwards compatible.
Stormland
Insomniac Games
Stormland is a AAA open world co-op adventure from Insomniac Games.
The game features a vast open world that is part procedural and part hand-crafted. It also features mechanics like crafting, gliding, and climbing. The graphics look incredible from what we’ve seen when we went hands-on with it. This honestly may be the best looking made-for-VR open world title yet.
Insomniac’s previous VR titles were the 3rd-person Lovecraftian adventure Edge of Nowhere [9/10], a lackluster top-down view brawler Feral Rites [5/10], and 1vs1 wizard dueling game The Unspoken [9/10]. Outside VR they’ve developed hit titles like Spyro the Dragon, Ratchet & Clank, Sunset Overdrive, and the Resistance series. More recently they developed Marvel’s Spider-Man.
In Asgard’s Wrath you take on the role of a Norse God with the power to inhabit the bodies of mortals. Throughout the 30+ hour adventure you’ll frequently swap back and forth between the perspectives of a towering God with an epic sense of scale and the perspective of on-the-ground mortal warriors to take advantage of the game’s brutal melee combat.
Lone Echo 2 is the sequel to the hit 2017 voice acted story from Ready at Dawn.
We loved the original Lone Echo, giving it 8.5/10 in our review, stating that it was a “landmark achievement” in locomotion, UI, and interaction, and that the character-driven storytelling creates “a compelling sense of presence that few VR games could hope to match”. Our biggest complaint was that it simply felt incomplete, making us hungry for a full-fledged sequel.
Not much is known about Lone Echo II yet, but if it’s anything like the original, it’s sure to be a title to look out for.
Defector
Twisted Pixel Games
Defector is an action packed spy game that turns you into Jason Bourne (or James Bond, if you prefer). Originally slated for 2018, the game was delayed to some time this year.
We’ve tried this game a few times now — most recently at Oculus Connect 5. Each time we tried it we had a blast. This game probably won’t make you think a whole lot other than deciding how to smooth talk your way out of trouble, but its exhilarating over the top action sequences are downright fun.
Twisted Pixel previously developed Wilson’s Heart [9/10], an incredible VR black & white mystery thriller reminiscent of The Twilight Zone.
Untitled FPS
Respawn Entertainment
At Oculus Connect 4 in 2017 it was announced that the developer of Titanfall is working on an Oculus Rift exclusive for launch in 2019.
No details have been given so far, other than it is definitely not a Titanfall VR spinoff, but given Respawn’s impressive catalog with Titanfall, Titanfall 2, and Apex Legends all outside of VR we’re expecting big things from this shooter.
What do you think will be the big games poised to carry Rift S (and for that matter, Rift itself) this yea? Let us know down in the comments below!
Ready at Dawn released a 6DoF trailer for the sequel to their hit high budget VR game Lone Echo. The trailer is downloaded from the Oculus Rift store and is rendered in real-time using the game’s engine, instead of being a simple 360° video.
The experience is a roughly 1.6GB download which takes up just under 2GB of space once installed. It takes place aboard the Kronos II mining station from the original game, featuring a monologue from Captain Rhodes and lasts for just under 6 minutes.
Lone Echo II was announced at Oculus Connect 5 in late September. As well as the 2D trailer (above), Ready At Dawn released a 360° video trailer for Oculus Go and Samsung Gear VR. 360° video content is popular on 3DoF platforms like these, but does not work as well on Rift where the user is accustomed to moving their head around in VR scenes. This true 6DoF trailer is a tailored solution for Rift users.
We loved the original Lone Echo, giving it 8.5/10 in our review, stating that it was a “landmark achievement” in locomotion, UI, and interaction, and that the character-driven storytelling creates “a compelling sense of presence that few VR games could hope to match”. Our biggest complaint was that it simply felt incomplete, making us hungry for a full-fledged sequel.
Not much is known about Lone Echo II yet, but if it’s anything like the original, it’s sure to be a title to look out for. We’ll keep you updated on any further news about the game.
It’s that time of the year when Oculus grabs all of the virtual reality (VR) attention with its fifth annual event, Oculus Connect 5 (OC5), taking place in California over the next couple of days. Of course VRFocus is there to bring you all the latest news and announcements from the conference so we caught up with the head of Oculus Rift team Nate Mitchell to find out more.
Being the consumer focused event that OC5 tends to be there are plenty of videogame announcements from some of the biggest developers in the field, with the likes of Insomniac Games showcasing its upcoming sci-fi adventure Stormland, Phaser Lock Interactive with Final Assault and Ready at Dawn with Lone Echo II and Echo Combat.
While 2018 has certainly been a big year for Oculus with the launch of Oculus Go back in May, Mitchell predicts an even bigger year ahead saying: “2019 is going to be the year of some of the best content that we’ve seen to date. And I think that’s showcased here [OC5], but it’s the development community taking everything to the next level. And so if you’re a gamer there’s never been a better time to jump into VR.”
Alongside all the videogames to play over the two days there will be plenty of talks and sessions for guests to attend, teaching developers the latest VR practices, and how to make awesome immersive content for Oculus Rift.
Check out the video below to see learn more about what Mitchell has to say regarding the VR industry, not only just for home users but also for the industry at large, whether that’s training and simulation or location-based entertainment (LBE) which has been rapidly growing over the past couple of years thanks to companies like The VOID and its Star Wars: Secrets of the Empireexperience or Zero Latency and its territory expansion.
VRFocuswill be bringing you the latest hands-on from OC5 so stay here for further updates.
Auf der Oculus Connect 5 stellte Oculus neben der neuen VR-Brille Oculus Quest zudem die neusten VR-Titel vor, die uns bis 2020 erwarten. Dazu zählen Lone Echo II, Stormland und viele weitere Titel für Oculus Rift.
Oculus Connect 5 – Lone Echo II und Echo Combat
Entwicklerstudio Ready at Dawn präsentiert den nächsten Teil der Lone-Echo-Reihe Lone Echo II. Doch neben dem Sci-Fi-Titel wurde der Release-Termin zum gravitationslosen VR-Shooter Echo Combat bekannt gegeben: Der nächste Teil des Echo-Universums erscheint offiziell am 15. November für Oculus Rift.
Oculus Connect 5 – Defector
Auch Twisted Pixel Games veröffentlichte in einem Trailer ein neues Level zum kommenden Spion-Titel Defector. Der VR-Titel soll 2019 veröffentlicht werden.
Mit Final Assault erscheint ein RTS-Titel im Setting des Zweiten Weltkriegs für Oculus Rift von Entwicklerstudio Phaser Lock Interactive. Dabei kommen klassische Strategieelemente, wie Ressourcen Management und Truppen-Management zum Einsatz.
Oculus Connect – Space Junkies Closed Beta
Ubisoft eröffnet heute die zweite Closed Beta zu Space Junkies. Innerhalb der Betaphase des VR-Shooters werden neue Spielmodi, Maps, Objekte, Charaktere und Features vorgeführt.
