Quest’s latest fitness app Liteboxer has added a new free tier to its subscription model, giving users unlimited access to a selection of workouts without committing to the premium paid tier.
Liteboxer launched two months ago as another paid fitness subscription service on Quest, following in the footsteps of similar offerings from Supernatural and FitXR, available for $18.99/month with a seven-day trial period. Two months on, the service is now offering a free tier as well. While Supernatural and FitXR both offer seven-day trials, Liteboxer is the first to offer a tier for unlimited free access. It includes unlimited access to over 65 workouts, including some with real trainers and music from “chart-topping artists.”
That being said, the service’s Universal Music partnership featuring tracks from high-profile artists like Lady Gaga, Ariane Grande and more is exclusive to the paid $18.99/month subscription. Alongside premium music, the paid subscription grants access to 300+ workouts, daily content and extra workout environments.
While most VR fitness apps feature some form of virtual boxing, the Liteboxer service is actually a virtual adaptation of a physical product. Ironically, the physical Liteboxer works similar to a VR rhythm game – you punch a circular arrangement of six targets as they light up to the beat of music tracks.
Liteboxer VR brings this full circle, allowing you to box against a virtual version of machine, set to a variety of music tracks. The app supports hand tracking as well, so you can put the controllers down and gets as close to the real thing as possible. Support for Hand Tracking 2.0 has also been implemented, so your punches should be tracked more reliably than ever.
Meta is planning to release new versions of its Quest headset in 2023 and 2024, The Information reports.
A Four-Headset Roadmap
Meta plans to release four virtual reality headsets between now and 2024, according to an internal road map seen by The Information (subscription required), including two new Quest headsets.
The road map rounds out its four-headset plan with code-name Funston, a second version of Cambria, set for release in 2024.
All in all, that’s two new Quest headsets and two versions of the higher-end Cambria line releasing between now and the end of 2024. As noted in the report, these dates are all subject to change. The nature of developing such complex hardware, along with now-common pandemic and supply chain delays, means that targeted ship dates will often slip.
It’s unknown whether Stinson and Cardiff are the Quest 3 and 4 that Zuckerberg referred to last year. While Quest 2 followed this numbered naming convention, releasing as the second generation of the Quest product line, Stinson and Cardiff may not be full generational leaps. There’s a chance either headset releases as a mid-generation refresh or as a variation of an existing Quest headset at a higher or lower price point, with different features.
Each week we will be taking a look at some of the upcoming videogames, demos and unique experiences available through Oculus App Lab for the Meta Quest headsets. Many of these videogames come in varying states of completion, so each title is subject to change.
This week we’re shooting some hoops, untangling wires and… running away from babies?!
Blacktop Hoops
I feel like basketball games, or games which have a basketball mini-game, are a dime a dozen. It’s an easy sport to replicate in VR, although it’s difficult to get it right. So, those that feel like playing the sport for real are more of a rarity. Enter Blacktop Hoops, probably the best basketball game I’ve played in VR, hands down.
In order to get a sports game right, everything needs to feel natural – you need to forget you’re in VR, holding motion controls. With just a few buttons, Blacktop Hoops transports you into a pick-up game in a one on one game. The ball feels intuitive; pretend to dribble the ball and it bounces to the ground and back to your hand; bounce it on a diagonal towards your off-hand and you’ll perform a crossover dribble.
When you want to shoot, simply pull the trigger and use your off-hand to steady the shot. Once you let go, the ball soars cleanly, there’s no awkward physics, it makes you feel like you can shoot threes all day. There’s even a jump button to dunk or set up a fadeaway throw. My only issue is with movement. Using the thumbstick to move feels like wading through jelly at times, which often gives the AI an advantage. Even on the easiest setting, I was finding myself turned around looking for the ball while my opponent was swishing the hoop.
It’s only in alpha at the moment and it’s completely free, so it’s worth downloading to stay in the practice mode and feel like Steph Curry for a while.
Cable Salad
Weird name, right? It’s easily explained if you’ve ever seen film footage of old telephone centres, where receptionists would pull out random wires and shove them into random holes in order to connect a call. That’s Cable Salad in an elevator pitch. You stand in front of a socket and must plug in the right cable to send a message to a person on the screen. The only issue is, the cables trail over, under and roundabout, so it’s like solving a maze.
You get points for connecting the right person and the mazes get harder and harder. It’s a pretty simple concept, really. Oddly, in between rounds of playing telephone, you get to grab a toy dart gun and shoot some holographic floating targets. I’m not sure why, but it’s still good fun to be had.
It might all be very simple – though the cable mazes can get deceptively tough – but the game takes place in a kind of workshop which is wonderfully animated and realised. There are sparking robot arms, junk cluttering the shelving and a general sense of mild chaos. I’d love to see this fleshed out with a story.
Baby Tag
Okay, stick with me on this one. Remember that scene in Trainspotting where Renton is desperately trying to kick heroin and he sees the scary baby crawling across the ceiling? Yeah, well, someone put that into a game. Kind of.
Baby Tag does exactly what it says in the name; you play as a baby in a nursery and have to avoid being tagged by other babies. You use the motion controls to crawl or slide across the floor, but weirdly, you can also climb sheer surfaces by tapping the grip buttons. Personally, I began to treat this game like a survival horror, instead of the cute mini-game it’s meant to be.
Dashing away from rampaging babies covered in green slime, which I believe represents the germs that most kids carry, is frankly terrifying. Looking around the room, as the babies charge towards you is worse than staring down hordes of zombies in Left 4 Dead! It certainly spurred me on to avoid being tagged.
Sadly, there’s not much game here, but if you want a laugh, or to be frightened like a 1990’s drug addict, give it a shot.
The latest update for co-op FPS game After the Fall is available now, adding new weapons, maps and modes.
This update, titled Shock & Awe, is the latest in a series of content drops as part of the game’s ongoing Frontrunner Season. Available on Quest 2, PSVR and PC VR, it adds four new weapons – the Shockwave Power device, the Rage Booster, the Warhead and a tommy gun, unlockable via floppy disks.
If you want a closer look at the new weapons, Stockpile map and PvP mode, you can check out some footage in the trailer embedded above.
So far, the Frontrunner season has included a new horde mode, a new enemy type, new maps and lots of new weapons. With this drop, the season’s updates are complete. The big question now is what will be included in the game’s second season, and if Vertigo Games will provide it for free or at cost.
Aardman Animations announced a new collaboration with Atlas V and Meta to bring a new Wallace and Gromit VR experience to Quest 2.
Wallace and Gromit: The Grand Getaway will release for Meta Quest 2 in 2023, which Aardman says will be the “next step” for the pair’s adventures in immersive media after the mobile AR experience ‘The Big Fix Up’, which released last year for iPhone and Android.
Here’s a description of The Grand Getaway, direct from Aardman:
In ‘The Grand Getaway’, holidays are in the offing for Wallace and Gromit. Sun, sand, and the chance to test out their latest contraption, Auto-Caddy. But Wallace has his dates mixed up – they have to be on the other side of the country in just half an hour! There’s only one thing for it… they’ll take the Rocket. But a mishap with the controls sends Wallace, Gromit and Auto-Caddy hurtling off course. Will this be a holiday to remember?
Funded by Meta, The Grand Getaway will be a co-production between Aardman and Atlas V, allowing players to “walk around, explore and get hands-on (or paws-on!) within the world of Wallace & Gromit.”
Aardman is an animation studio known for a myriad of successful animation properties, movies and shorts, including Wallace and Gromit, Chicken Run, Shawn the Sheep and more. Atlas V, meanwhile, is a production studio that has also worked on animated movies, but focused around immersive VR experiences and narratives, such as Gloomy Eyes, Battlescar and Madrid Noir. It will work on this new Wallace and Gromit experience in association with studios No Ghost and Albyon.
I was a big fan of Madrid Noir – it made some interesting stylistic choices with how it framed narrative in an immersive medium. There were sections where the animated characters were staged like a stage play occurring around you, with dramatic lighting and environments that almost looked like a movie set. The history of strong stylistic presentation makes me excited to see what a Wallace and Gromit collaboration with Aardman will look like. On paper, it’s a match made in heaven.
Each week we will be taking a look at some of the upcoming videogames, demos and unique experiences available through Oculus App Lab for the Meta Quest headsets. Many of these videogames come in varying states of completion, so each title is subject to change.
This week we’re crossing the cosmos, blasting hundreds of bullets and playing at cacti in wartime.
Star Stuff: A Way for the Universe to Know Itself
Yes, I know, the title is quite a mouthful. Now, I’ve played a lot of meditative titles on the Quest recently. The ability to transcend our reality to find a crumb of serotonin is appealing to most, but aside from TRIPP’s Quest app, many of the so-called ‘calming’ experiences do little more than place you in a static environment and pipe in some free YouTube soothing music.
Star Stuff opens with a quote from Carl Sagan, focusing on our place in the universe. Now, I don’t know about you, but when I think of my place in the grand scheme of things, I feel pretty insignificant. All of this wonderful and mysterious energy pulsing around us can have a calming effect, however. Precisely because it’s all so much bigger than us. So when Star Stuff plonked me into a starfield from the Milky Way and began to play soulful music, I actually felt calmer.
Then I realised what the app actually wants you to do. Because I was sitting down, I didn’t realise it at first, but hundreds of stars, moons, and small planets, were leaking from where my body was positioned. I ran my hand through the particles, watched as they flew out and away from me, drifted and danced. Before I knew it, ten minutes had passed and I was waving my arms like a born again spiritualist. Did I feel more at peace? I actually did. Will I ‘play’ it again? Maybe, I’ll definitely recommend that people take a few minutes and experience it.
GUNSdemo
As with the previous entry in this roundup, there are lots of games and apps which achieve what’s done here; in this instance, allow you to shoot a variety of weapons. Now, there’s not a great amount of guns here; some pistols, a shotgun and an assault rifle, but gosh, the animations and models are just fantastic.
I think what GUNSdemo did, which made me take notice, is make everything feel like it has weight and heft. The Assault Rifle feels large and slightly cumbersome, it kicks back with every bullet fired, the sharp metallic sound of dropping and reloading a magazine feels slick. The pistols have a great animation when using the off-hand to pull back the slide before firing, similarly to the shotgun which reloads by pulling back the slide as an empty shell flies out.
The area in which you test these guns is limited currently; a type of old farm with a few targets, but hopefully, the developer expands this over time. There’s so much attention to detail that it can’t be ignored. For example, many games I’ve played in VR which allow you to look down a rifle scope make it too clunky, or the image in the sight is muddy. Here however it’s beautifully crisp and seems to compensate for the motion controls, meaning shooting isn’t a chore. I only hope this stretches out into a full game release or is buffed with more guns, targets and environments.
Cactus Cowboy – Plants At War
Plants at War opens with a skit of a kid (cactus) being asked by his grandpa (cactus) “are ya winning son?” In true meme fashion. It cracks a wry smile, the kid (cactus) is annoyed the latest shooter isn’t available in VR, which spins into a story about how grandpa (cactus) fought in ‘the war’ and we take his role. After a short cutscene and tutorial, we’re thrown into a D-Day style beach landing, where worm-like bugs are attempting to wipe out the cacti people.
As the boat approaches the beach, the credits roll through the sky above and the developers suggest Plants at War is “a game of questionable quality”, a bit of a misdirect, because the game is actually remarkably good. What might stymie the game however is its timing; many of the accents are Eastern European, the visuals within the cutscene feel eerily close to current conflicts, which is life repeating itself. At points I felt a little uncomfortable with the action, despite the brilliant gun handling, animations and the scale of the world created.
Of course, any game depicting war will feel awkward in the current political climate. Cactus Cowboy – Plants At War tries to make itself as silly as possible, which goes some way to easing that concern. Underneath all the jokes and oddball moments is a very solid shooter which relies on the kinds of gunplay seen in the aforementioned GUNSdemo; everything feels like it has purpose and the mechanics of each gun makes for seriously involved play.
Loading and cocking a gun feels, for lack of a better fitting word, ‘cool’. Like, ‘Matrix in 1999 cool.’ The difficulty spikes (cactus pun) a little unfairly at times and there were moments I found myself wandering around a battlefield unsure how to interact with things like mortars, but when the game is a simple ‘run and gun’ shooter, it’s bags of fun.
Schell Games confirmed a PSVR 2 release for Among Us VR this week, stating that the game will be available “when the headset releases.”
A new gameplay trailer debuted this week for Among Us VR, which is set to release during the 2022 holiday season for Quest and SteamVR. It showed some of the first in-depth gameplay for the title, revealing how the 2D classic will translate into headsets.
A new @AmongUsVR teaser trailer was shown during the Meta Gaming Showcase.
The game will be available on Meta Quest and SteamVR at launch this 2022 holiday season. It will be available on PlayStation®VR2 when the headset is released. Wishlist the game now! pic.twitter.com/kG902Z9T4C
However, Schell Games put out a tweet after the show confirming that a PSVR 2 version will also be available, but only once the headset itself actually launches.
Among Us had also already been confirmed for the original PSVR headset though this tweet doesn’t mention that version. We reached out to Schell Games to confirm this version is still in the works and will update this article if and when we hear back.
The gameplay trailer for Among Us VR was just one of the many that debuted yesterday at the Meta Quest Gaming Showcase. We also saw the announcement of Ghostbusters VR, Bonelab, Red Matter 2 and Espire 2. You can see everything else that was announced here.
Despite launching first on Quest, the team at Bit Planet Games ensured us that the PC VR version is not a scaled up version of the Quest 2 release. In fact, it’s the other way around. You can check out the PC VR launch trailer embedded above.
The developers say that the game should shine with the higher specifications on PC compared to standalone hardware, too.
The only caveats for now are that HOTAS support isn’t included for PC VR at launch (but it is coming soon) and multiplayer isn’t quite ready yet. Testing for the latter feature is ongoing, but you can access an early build that’s likely to have stability issues. If you want to access multiplayer on PC regardless, you can find the access code on the Ultrawings Discord server. Until multiplayer and HOTAS support are finished, the game will remain in early access on Steam.
In our review of the Quest 2 release, we called Ultrawings 2 “a super sequel you won’t want to miss”, awarding the game a rare Essential label. You can read the full review here.
Audio is super important when it comes to virtual reality (VR), coming only second to the visuals themselves. Excellent spatial audio allows a player to hear where a bullet came from or really enjoy the latest music pack on their favourite rhythm action videogame. Yet the sounds produced by VR headsets can really be a mixed bag, from the excellent Valve Index speakers to the adequate, yet not exactly thrilling, Meta Quest 2 setup. While headphones are one option – especially if you’re a bit of an audiophile – Rebuff Realities’ new VR Ears make for a viable alternative option.
The VR Ears have been a while in the making. Crowdfunded back in May 2020 the product was originally due out the same year before delays pushed the launch back into late 2021. They’re not headphones but rather off-ear speakers – much like the Valve Index – which have their own benefits as well as limitations.
Setting up your VR Ears
Right out the box, the VR Ears look like a well-built accessory, with an all-plastic design that doesn’t feel too cheap. Rebuff Reality has ensured maximum compatibility for almost any VR headset, with supplied connections supporting Meta Quest 1 & 2, Oculus Rift S, Valve Index, HTC Vive Pro and PlayStation VR. For the purposes of this review, gmw3 tried the VR Ears on two of the most popular, Quest 2 and PlayStation VR.
The VR Ears work by clamping onto the headband frame of the headset, with four rubber widgets (two on each side, one upper and one lower) tailored to comfortably grip each arm. Because of their excellent versatility, the VR Ears can adapt to not only the headset but also the location of a person’s ear, thus making the initial setup very finicky and once completed I had no desire to go through the process again. Setting it up for other players becomes a faff I definitely wanted to avoid.
It’s because of the small hex key bolt holding the speakers onto the bracket, which is hidden behind the clamps frame. Meaning, that to make even the slightest rotational adjustment up or down requires taking the whole thing apart. Like I said, finicky. It is worth it though, especially if nobody else is using the headset as there’s no need to alter anything once finished. Getting each speaker directly over each ear is critically important, greatly affecting sound quality and loudness.
And so as I found, the VR Ears weren’t exactly designed for swapping between Quest 2 and PlayStation VR. If you’re fortunate to own a couple of VR headsets definitely stick with one and from this experience it would be PlayStation VR.
Almost snug as a bug
Why PlayStation VR? Well, it comes down to comfort mainly. Like any VR accessory weight is always an important factor and coming in at just over 200g, that’s certainly hefty addition to the Meta Quest 2’s 503g. Using the standard Quest 2 strap with the VR Ears wasn’t too bad, to begin with, but that extra weight soon became more and more noticeable and uncomfortable, especially in more active games like Beat Saber. Pairing the VR Ears with the Elite Battery pack faired far better thanks to the improved weight distribution but again – even when moving the clamps further back on the arms for a more central weight – that front pressure began to return.
Unlike the PlayStation VR with its Halo strap. This was wonderfully comfortable for longer VR sessions and I almost forgot the VR Ears were attached. The issue for PlayStation VR was the distance the speakers were from my ears, affecting both audio quality and sound leakage.
Having used normal headphones, in-ear headphones and off-ear speakers found on Quest 2 and Valve Index, I’m all for the latter. And that’s where the VR Ears really do benefit, as my ears don’t get hot and sweaty playing one of the many active titles available for VR nowadays. Having that air gap is cooling and comfortable in a way normal headphones can never be.
Now listen here!
But what do the VR Ears sound like you ask? To put it bluntly, good but not wow. Compare them to Quest 2 or PlayStation VR’s own audio solutions and you’re instantly getting an improvement. However, Valve Index owners aren’t going to want to swap over, the VR Ears just aren’t as good.
After testing across numerous games like the subtle noises from Quill in Moss: Book II, thumping Skrillex tunes in Beat Saber or the audio chatter in VRChat, the VR Ears produce rich mids and highs yet fail where the bass is concerned. The VR Ears need a good 20-30 hours of use (bedding in as some like to call it) before they really start to show their true colours, with a mid-range that’s full-bodied and mellow whilst the top end has detail and clarity the Quest 2’s audio could never match.
But for those that love rhythm-action games or just the low-end rumble of some meaty bass, the VR Ears provide a flat, uninspiring delivery. Playing a Skrillex song in Beat Saber should be epic, with some huge bass drops yet there were none, sadly, even when played loudly. That led to another issue which I’ll get to.
Even so, for a PlayStation VR owner who is still using the supplied in-ears, the VR Ears are a much better solution. I found that they were a bit too far away from my ears – which would’ve affected the bass – and they come with spacers which certainly weren’t needed. On Quest 2 the gap was reduced yet the audio quality between both remained almost identical.
Turn it off and on again
These might be quirks more than issues but in any case, they were annoying, hampering the user experience because it meant having to find the VR Ears’ perfect setting.
The VR Ears need a good two-hour charge via a USB-C cable – no cable or wall charger is provided I may add – to get what is claimed to be a 6 hour run time. I’d say around 5 hours is being more generous, good for most VR sessions.
However, that was never in one stint as the VR Ears would, like clockwork, turn off after 20 minutes of use. No rhyme or reason, they’d simply switch themselves off. I could instantly turn them back on again – I did that 3 times during a single hour on Moss – but that’s not the point. And it seems to boil down to volume. The VR Ears don’t like being near the upper limit of the volume range which is hampered by the headset’s own volume setting. On the Quest 2, for example, its volume needs to be at max so the VR Ears have ample range, otherwise, they’ll be off before you know it. And they always switched off during a narrated section so I’d miss story details.
A Sound Verdict
The VR Ears really were a mixed experience that it is hard to definitively give a solid recommendation to. I did like them as an audio upgrade to what the VR headsets tested currently offer although their bar is already quite low. It really comes down to whether you want an off-ear speaker rather than a normal pair of headphones.
I currently switch between my Bowers & Wilkins PX and some older Yamaha Pro 400’s and the difference is night and day with the VR Ears. The lack of any robust bass hampers some VR titles whilst the far more balanced top end saves the day, perfect for social multiplayer experiences where voice clarity is key.
The Oculus Store listing for Stress Level Zero’s Bonelab gives us our first look at the Quest 2 graphics compared to the PC VR footage shown in the trailer.
Bonelab was unveiled yesterday at the Meta Quest Gaming Showcase. It’s the next game from Stress Level Zero, and a follow-up to the studio’s 2019 PC VR title, Boneworks. While Boneworks never released on the Quest platform, Bonelab will launch later this year for both PC VR and Quest 2.
However, the footage shown in the trailer above was captured on PC VR, with Stress Level Zero developer Brandon J Laatsch writing on Twitter “the Quest 2 version will feature identical gameplay when @90hz”. That leaves us wondering how the Quest visuals might differ.
With store page listings for Bonelab on Quest and Steam going live, we’re able to compare the screenshots from both listings and get a glimpse at the Quest 2 visuals.
It’s obvious that the screenshots aren’t 1:1 recreations — poses and positions slightly differ, but it’s clear that objects and areas are the same in each.
The difference between Quest 2 and PC VR is pretty apparent — most notably, the lighting doesn’t seem as stunning on the former and looks a bit flatter in general. That being said, the Quest visuals still look pretty strong overall.
It’s also worth keeping in mind that placing these screenshots in a side-by-side comparison doesn’t do the Quest version any favors. When you’re actually playing Bonelab on Quest 2, the differences will probably be less apparent than they are here.
Are you looking forward to Bonelab? Let us know in the comments below.
A new 
