Oculus Rift Games – Page 28 – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

November 22, 2017

Best VR Experiences to Introduce Your Family to Virtual Reality Over Thanksgiving

Image based on photo courtesy Steve Voght (CC BY-SA 2.0)

The turkey is in the oven, the cranberry sauce is in the can, and your VR setup is in the box ready to be shown off to the family at Thanksgiving. Since you’ll be doing a fair bit of VR evangelizing on the big day, an important question remains before you can plug your unwitting relatives into ‘the final computing platform’: what do you show off first?

Assuming you aren’t actually hosting Thanksgiving, undoubtedly the easiest VR systems to lug around would be the selection of mobile VR headsets currently on offer, namely Google Daydream and Gear VR. With a little careful planning though, you can pack up your PS4 console and PSVR, or your entire Vive/Rift/Windows VR system—just make sure the house has adequate space (and electrical outlets!) for room-scale gaming. Unless otherwise requested, you should probably also keep sessions short and simple for VR newcomers.

Here’s a few recommendations for getting Grandpa, Grandma, Uncle Ted, Aunt Rachel and your little cousin Skippy McDingus into VR for the first time:

Gear VR

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Smash Hit (2016): With its constant forward motion and a simple objective (smash the glass), almost anyone can understand Smash Hit. The game’s futuristic setting and great soundtrack also help give off the “woah, I’m in the future” vibe.
Minecraft (2017): Little Skippy will do and learn anything to play Minecraft in VR. Set up a station in the corner, put on a 10-minute timer and get all the Little Skippies taking turns.
Oculus Video: Load up a movie and toss your Uncle Ted in for his own private cinema. Yes, Ted. You can watch *other things* too.
Within: Let’s face it – most 360 video is crap. Within however offers a wide selection of curated content that looks pretty darn good considering both mono and stereoscopic (3D) 360 video still isn’t where it needs to be technically speaking. Still very much worth a gander.

Daydream

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Mekorama VR (2017): A quiet puzzler for Aunt Gracie, Mekorama VR tasks you with guiding a wibbly little robot pal through a series of 3D puzzles – of course with ever-increasing difficulty.
Bait! (2017): Somebody in your family loves fishing. I’m not even going to make up a pretend name. (also on Gear VR)
LEGO BrickHeadz Builder VR (2017): Ok. So it’s not Minecraft, the delightful little building app comes in second place with the ability to build LEGO structures without the need for clean up.
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (2017): While pretty thin in the gameplay department, the overall “wow” effect is big with this little Harry Potter Universe game that lets you explore the film’s world and even do a little magic too.

PSVR

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Farpoint (2017): While it’s an intense trip for sure thanks to the immersiveness of holding the PS Aim controller while actually having to locomote across the map, there’s somebody in the group who’ll appreciate the ability to walk distant planets and shoot the ever-living shit out of the native inhabitants.
Allumette (2016): Sit grandma down for a story about a young orphan girl who lives in a fantastical city in the clouds. It’s a tear jerker, so make sure to give gam-gam a big hug from us all.
Fruit Ninja VR (2016): Just like the popular mobile game, Fruit Ninja on PSVR is easy to understand. Fruit goes up. Fruit gets sliced. Have a competition to see who can get the highest score!
PlayStation VR Demo Disc 2 (2017): PSVR’s updated demo disc is jam-packed with upcoming games and crowd favorites. Most are short enough to plug in a person for a quick 10-20 minute play session. Oh, and definitely play Moss.

Rift & Vive (and Windows VR)

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Google Earth VR (2017) – Oculus and SteamVR: The controls may take some explaining, but giving a loved one the opportunity to travel, especially if they aren’t physically able, is going to really be a special moment. Travel the sights and revisit distant places you never thought you’d see again in the flesh.
Space Pirate Trainer (2016) Oculus and SteamVR: Han Solo doesn’t have anything on your Auntie Rachel. While it’s fundamentally just a wave shooter, it’s by far one of the best-looking and feeling out there.
Bigscreen Beta (2016) Oculus and SteamVR: Pop on a video and get your relatives reeling at the future possibility of never having to buy a TV ever again.
Coco VR (2017) – Oculus: Pixar’s first VR experience is absolutely astounding. Ideal for the first timer of any age, the experience can last anywhere from 15-30 minutes per player. check out our hands-on here. Vive and Windows VR headset users have had varying levels of success with Revive, so it’s definitely worth a poke.
The Lab (2016) SteamVR: Valve’s collection of mini-games and photogrammetry scenes are top notch, and warrant more than just a few minutes of you time to explore ever single bit of what’s on offer. Kids and adults a like will love the Longbow, Core Calibration, and Xortex.

Don’t Miss

Superhot VR (2017): PSVR, Rift, SteamVR
Job Simulator (2016): PSVR, Rift, SteamVR
Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes (2016): Daydream, Gear VR, PSVR, Rift, SteamVR
EVE: Valkyrie (2016): PSVR, Rift, SteamVR

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November 16, 2017

Pixar’s First VR Experience ‘Coco VR’ is Astounding, Raising the Bar on VR Movie Tie-ins

Coco VR, Pixar’s first-ever VR experience, has a pretty specific goal in mind; getting you to see the film in theaters when it opens next week. That’s at least the mindset I had before putting on my Rift, a result of a malaise that comes from playing nearly every ‘brand engagement’ tie-in ever produced for VR (they’re free after all). Popping into the experience and putting me face-to-face with the main character Miguel, it became clear that Coco VR was going to be different.

Initially teased at Oculus Connect 4, Coco VR can be experienced in either single or multiplayer mode, the later of which lets you pick up to 3 other players from your Oculus friends list.

Entering the experience, you’re transported to the house of twelve year-old Miguel. Standing in front of the family’s ofrenda, Miguel explains the candle-lit altar commemorates his passed family members. Called away by his mom to help with dinner, you drift off into a dreamlike state, led by an infectiously cute alebrije, or a mythical creature central to Mexican folk art. This was the moment when it dawned on me that Pixar had effectively created one of the best-looking VR experiences to date, movie tie-in or otherwise.

Dropped in the Tienda de Ropa (clothing store) where Ceci, a motherly skeleton, gives you free rein to try on a few different outfits, I start customizing my avatar. Placing a pair of pants and a stripped shirt on a tiny mannequin, I see the clothes appear on me in the mirror.

Besides locomotion and object interaction, the game’s instructions aren’t thrown in your face, encouraging exploration instead of forcing you to complete objectives. Rustling through a random drawer, I find a small map and a checklist of things to do and explore.

The film’s otherworldly ‘Land of the Dead’, populated with a cast of skeleton characters decorated in the style of the traditional Mexican holiday Día de Muertos, is ridiculously charming.

Teleporting around the main Plaza, you can do a number of activities, probably the least interesting of which is to watch the movie’s trailer at the open-air cinema, a near-constant focal point in these sorts of experiences. The meat of the experience is in the other activities, all of them well refined exemplars. You can go on a Disney-style ride around the village, travel up an outdoor elevator, take selfies with silly hats and mustaches, listen to a skeleton band perform music, and even dance around on stage yourself – replete with a crowd of adoring fans that clap and mimic your movements. My favorite was the Estudio de Arte, an art studio jam-packed with concept art from the film as well as other works. Buttons placed in front of the studio’s sculptures, paintings and sketches activate an explanation behind each work, and even teach you a little about the tradition behind the calaca, the skeleton figures featured in Día de Muertos.

Pixar’s Coco VR could have easily been just a good-looking 5 minute experience, or even a 360 video (groan), but the company has clearly invested the time in understanding the medium for what it is: interactive, explorable, social, and shareable.

According to an Oculus blogpost, the team behind the actual film worked closely with their VR counterparts to create assets and animations that stayed true to the movie. Magnopus, the team behind Blade Runner 2049: Memory Lab, brought the art to life in VR, adding social and interactive layers. Oculus collaborated with both teams, providing creative and technical feedback from early development through to completion.

And this likely isn’t the last we’ve seen from Pixar either. According to Disney-Pixar’s Coco VR Producer and Academy Award-winner Marc Sondheimer, “VR is the natural next step in our evolution, letting people experience these worlds in living color.” We can’t wait to see what’s next.

You can download Coco VR for Rift here. A version for Gear VR is slated to launch November 22nd.

And yes, you can also play in Spanish. ¡Qué suerte!

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November 15, 2017

‘The Exorcist: Legion VR’ First Episodes to Launch on Rift & Vive November 22nd

The scariest time of the year has come and gone, and although we were expecting the first two episodes of The Exorcist: Legion VR in time for Halloween, fans of the film franchise and The Exorcist TV series probably won’t mind one bit. Created by Fun Train and Wolf & Wood, the episodic VR horror-adventure is set to release its first two installments November 22nd.

The game’s story diverges from The Exorcist III (1990), its source material, in telling its own standalone tale over the course of 5 chapters. Stepping into the shoes of a detective, you try to solve the mystery of a priest’s grisly murder. (it was probably demons)

Both Chapter 1: First Rites and Chapter 2: Idle Hands are slated to release on Steam and the Oculus Store November 22nd. The developers say the last 3 will follow soon after, and all episodes will eventually release on Viveport and PSN for PlayStation VR. The creators say run-time for each chapter will vary, with the average session running approximately 20-25 minutes.

First Rites will launch at $4 for the first week during Black Friday, making it a 20% discount off the normal experience, with Idle Hands available at $5.

Developed from the ground-up for virtual reality, The Exorcist: Legion VR supports motion controllers and a few specific locomotion options including blink teleportation and free roam locomotion options. The devs say the game plays equally well in room-scale, standing, or seated.

Here’s a quick breakdown of what to expect:

Chapter 1: Chapel and Priest’s Office

You arrive at the scene of a grisly crime in a small Boston parish. Yellow police tape adorns the room. There’s blood everywhere … even on the ceiling. It’s sinister business, and things are about to get much, much worse.

Chapter 2: Hospital Office & Padded Cell

You arrive in the isolation ward of a secure hospital. In the corner of the padded room is a lone female strapped to a gurney. She babbles incoherently…

Chapter 3, 4 & 5: Nursery, Morgue, Excavation Site

The story continues…

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November 15, 2017

‘Alvo’ Wants to Be ‘CS:GO’ for VR, Launching with Cross-play for PSVR, Rift & Vive in 2018

Indie studio Mardonpol, makers of Quiz Night Tonight! (2017), is dialing in on CS:GO territory with its recently released trailer which shows all of the trappings of the popular PC shooter, replete with Italy-inspired map, AWPs, and bomb planting galore. The game is slated for a 2018 with its release targeting cross-play for PSVR, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

Alvo first appeared on Sony’s list of 60+ upcoming games in 2017 and 2018 back in October, but we weren’t all that sure exactly what it was, or whether it was a PSVR exclusive or not. Now, Mardonpol says they’re not only making it for PSVR with Aim support, but also for Vive and Rift too.

Here’s a quick rundown of what the game is promising:

Search and Destroy – a 5v5 round-based game mode, where one team attempts to plant the bomb and the other must defend the sites and/or defuse the bomb.
Deathmatch – you versus everyone. Last man standing wins.
King of the Hill – a game mode based on capturing control spots all over the map, and holding them. The team with the most amount of points at the time limit will win.
Online bots – in the case aren’t enough users online

Since it’s likely early days for the studio, further info on the game is still sparse. You can sign up for beta access here. Check out the Steam page here.

It’s safe to say the trailer below doesn’t include actual in-game footage, but it certainly raises an eyebrow.

The post ‘Alvo’ Wants to Be ‘CS:GO’ for VR, Launching with Cross-play for PSVR, Rift & Vive in 2018 appeared first on Road to VR.

November 15, 2017

Co-op VR Space Survival Game ‘From Other Suns’ Now Available – Launch Trailer

From Other Suns has been one of the more anticipated Oculus titles since its announcement earlier this year. Today the co-op space survival game launched on the Oculus store priced at $40, and a new launch trailer shows you what to expect.

From Other Suns is a co-op survival FPS set in space, and clearly draws inspiration from 2012 indie hit FTL: Faster Than Light. While the latter is a top-down strategy game tasking you with keeping your ship in tact and your crew alive as you make FTL jumps across the universe, From Other Suns in VR takes things into a first-person perspective, adding an elements of first-person shooting, navigation, and physical inventory management. And while Faster Than Light is single-player only, From Other Suns offers co-op with up to three players.

A new launch trailer for the game has cropped up which highlights the game’s action, but also the potential for comedy when players make their own improvised fun, either by roll-playing or trolling each other for laughs.

In our review of From Other Suns, Road to VR’s Scott Hayden finds:

‘From Other Suns’ might be too brutal for the casual weekender going solo, but its ability to provide online multiplayer significantly changes the amount of fun you’ll have. While not as immersive and detailed as we’d hoped, the game presents a fairly solid shooting experience and hectic ship resource management to pump up the adrenaline. However you play, you’ll need to be determined to bang your head against the wall until you beat it though, because you can sink hours into it with only a few measly achievements to your name.

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November 14, 2017

Hands-On: ‘Star Shelter’ – Survival in Zero Gravity

Stranded in space with just an AI voice and your broken ship for company, you must scavenge for materials to survive, searching random debris floating nearby using motion-based, zero-gravity locomotion. Needing some polish but highly playable in its current state, Star Shelter is available now on SteamVR Early Access with support for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.

This compelling space survival game is described as a ‘rogue-lite’ due to its procedurally generated world, and the significant resource management required to succeed—but presented with real-time, action-orientated gameplay. Perhaps it also refers to the not-so-devastating ‘permadeath’ of your character; dying in the game makes you restart as a different person (a new name appears in your pod), with your personal inventory wiped, but any progress you’ve made in completing objectives—along with your ship inventory and upgrades—are retained. Apparently this ties in with the backstory for the game, but you won’t find much in the way of lore at the moment, something that might be added at a later stage of development.

Lone Echo Locomotion

As mentioned in their first video blog, the developers at Overflow Games happily admit that Ready at Dawn’s zero-gravity VR adventure Lone Echo (2017) was their reference for the movement system in Star Shelter. Indeed it is very similar, although the ‘grip’ function is on the main triggers by default, and the wrist-mounted propulsion is activated by the grip buttons (or grip triggers on Touch), which might feel odd for Lone Echo/Echo Arena players.

You can swap these functions to bring the control scheme closer to Lone Echo, but currently this is somewhat flawed, as the main triggers are always used to activate certain commands, meaning that the inverted setting activates unwanted propulsion on any trigger command. The good news is that manoeuvring in zero-gravity by grabbing objects with the motion controllers continues to be a great locomotion system that’s immersive and comfortable for most players without the need for teleporting.

Unfortunately, this means Star Shelter can’t escape a direct comparison to one of the highest-quality VR productions ever created, and it falls short, feeling less intuitive, and more prone to glitches. Though this is to be expected considering this is an indie project compared to Lone Echo’s AAA sheen.

The game can be forgiven for lacking the complex hand animation system of Lone Echo, but it does seem odd that your character has practically no body, with no arms, legs, or even torso aside from a small chest piece. Along with this limited body presence, the movement doesn’t feel quite as natural in terms of maintaining and adjusting your momentum. Most notably, you will often come to instantaneous stops when bumping into walls, rather than bouncing in a more realistic manner. That said, there is some enjoyable physics at play here, particularly the recoil of your weapon, which propels you backwards if you’re not holding onto anything.

Unforgiving Survival Gameplay

As a survival game, it is perhaps fitting that the optional tutorial doesn’t really give the player a thorough training; instead there is a strong suggestion that you’re expected fend for yourself. Being thrown into the deep end might be an ideal opening sequence for fans of the genre, but it could discourage some players expecting a shallower learning curve. There is certainly no downtime in the opening moments of the game, as you find yourself immediately floating in space surrounded by debris, with four main stats of oxygen, nutrition, energy, and health to maintain, and broken ship to fix if you want to sustain yourself in the long run.

Oxygen is the biggest issue at the beginning, as you’re constantly consuming the limited supply, and your wrist thrusters also use it—at an alarming rate. Small oxygen canisters floating among the debris can sometimes be difficult to find due to the randomised nature of the environment, and instead of being a safe haven, your ship almost feels like a hindrance. It will replenish your suit, but it also has a limited oxygen supply (at least before you can upgrade it), and is constantly under threat from random comet strikes.

It took me a while to acclimatise to the management systems, partly because the wrist-mounted UI feels a little confusing, and partly because the relationship between your ship and suit (and the way they share and replenish resources) is not well explained. This meant inefficient use of oxygen just moving around the ship itself, and several deaths from suffocation. I don’t believe the game is necessarily too difficult—the balance is probably right—but if the systems were explained better from the start, it would avoid the frustrating trial and error learning process for new players.

The game is listed on Steam as suitable for seated, standing, and room scale VR setups, but you’re at a serious disadvantage without a reasonable amount of space to move. Whether you’re collecting an item, scanning some debris, or simply reaching for another surface to grab, a limited standing or seated play space means you’ll be using your thrusters to make small movements more regularly, wasting that precious oxygen. There seems to be some kind of forcefield in the middle of your ship, presumably to reduce your momentum when you’re close to the floating UI. I found this to be infuriating, as it felt like it was preventing me from leaving my own ship (something you have to do countless times) without wasting more oxygen.

Unfinished, But a Promising Start

The developers appear to be rapidly improving the game and squashing bugs with regular updates, but I found number of small issues during my testing. Front-facing seated and standing VR users who require the rotation function might find the Vive touchpad inputs too sensitive; I was often accidentally rotating my view when trying to activate the scanner. (Perhaps that’s not a significant problem, as Vive users are far less likely to be using a front-facing setup in the first place, and the rotation works better on Touch with a positive flick of the analog stick.)

Speaking of the scanner, the effect features a glowing texture that seems to animate across the geometry based on the velocity of the object. This looks odd at the best of times, but I found that if I happened to be very close to the object I was scanning, particularly if it featured a large surface, the moving texture would cause vection, making me feel like I was moving instead, which I suspect could be a nausea trigger for some players.

While the Oculus Touch ergonomics feel more suited to this kind of game, the grip function did not appear to work on my left controller, unlike when using the Vive. Some of the option toggles for controls and graphics settings seem to work the opposite way round on first selection—and the shadow and ambient occlusion options seemed to really hurt performance.

The visual style is restrained, with little in the way of detailed geometry or textures, so it is surprising that the game struggled on a GTX 1080 with those effects enabled. I also experienced a few clipping problems—mostly inconsequential—but I was able to clip my head through the wall of my ship, giving me an oxygen warning as if I was outside without a closed helmet, and occasionally important objects would become stuck in other surfaces.

Work-in-progress problems aside, Star Shelter is an interesting take on the survival genre; Lone Echo movement with survival sim gameplay is a compelling combination. The result is an odd mix of relaxation and high stress, as the serene quiet and effortless movement in space combines with the constant danger of energy depletion and threats from comets and random drone attacks. The sense of exploration once you hack into nearby ships is also quite powerful, although this is likely dependent on the number of assets available to be randomised in order to keep that feeling fresh.

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November 11, 2017

Popular SteamVR Shooter ‘Onward’ Launches for Oculus Rift in Early Access With Cross-play

Onward (2016), the popular VR FPS known for serving up its ‘no-frills’ squad-based action, is now in Early Access on the Oculus Store. The tactical mil-sim shooter, which aims to appeal to fans of traditional shooters like Rainbow Six, Ghost Recon, or Counter-Strike, now features cross-play between both versions of the game—purchased through either Oculus or Steam.

Onward has supported Rift through SteamVR since it moved into Steam Early Access back in August 2016, although admittedly the Touch optimization was less than ideal until recently, with Touch getting a fresh button remapping a few days prior to launch on the Oculus Store.

As a bid to appeal to traditional FPS-players, Onward doesn’t feature teleportation—a common method of traversing large maps in VR—but rather has what you might call a ‘traditional’ locomotion scheme: smooth forward movement is locked to the physical direction of your hand, leaving you with the ability to look in a direction regardless of where you might be headed. As a locomotion style built initially for Vive’s trackpad, it’s had somewhat of a mixed reception on both platforms; either you can stomach it, or you can’t. Onward also offers a front-facing mode for Rift players that mitigates some of the discomfort by allowing snap-turning, and also lets you control your forward, backward and strafe controls via hand position and Touch’s joysticks themselves.

Oculus rates Onward a ‘moderately comfortable’ experience.

Onward dev and founder of Downpour Interactive Dante Buckley, who remains the driving force behind the game, says the team tightened down on Touch’s button mapping after its free weekend two months ago.

“We took a lot of the feedback from the free weekend and used it to help us shape a better control scheme for Onward,” says Buckley. “This new default control scheme is default, and we’ve added in some options for players to further tweak the experience to suit their preferences.”

The Early Access game features objective based game modes in 5v5 online multiplayer, and solo/coop multiplayer vs AI. With 30 different customizable weapons available, there’s plenty of ways to support your squad.

As a game that requires players to use coordination, communication, and most importantly marksmanship skill to complete objectives, giving players on both platforms equal attention is fundamental to keeping things fair. While the locomotion scheme is still an acquired taste for many, the hardcore adherents to the Onward way of life will continue to proselytize the game for its ability to deliver a traditional shooting experience—something many big studios have shied away from.

November 10, 2017

Oculus: EA’s Acquisition of Respawn Entertainment Will Have No Impact on Studio’s VR Title

Titanfall developer Respawn Entertainment has announced plans to join EA, one of the world’s largest and most influential videogame publishers. The acquisition of Respawn, which will cost EA up to $455 million, won’t impact the studio’s recently announced VR title, says Oculus.

It was announced last month at Oculus Connect that Respawn Entertainment is developing an unnamed Rift exclusive VR title set for 2019. At the time, Oculus’ Head of Content, Jason Rubin, said that he constantly gets asked when the world’s leading developers will begin creating VR games. He remains steadfast that they will come, and asked for patience, but also said that he was ready to “made a down payment on that promise today.” That was the lead up to the reveal that Oculus Studios would be publishing a Rift exclusive title developed by Respawn. Little has been revealed about the game, including a name, however, the 2019 release date suggests a full VR title with a lengthy, AAA development period. The studio has confirmed that the forthcoming Rift title is not a Titanfall or Star Wars game.

This week EA announced that it will acquire Respawn, paying $151 million in cash, up to $164 million in stock for employees, and up to $140 million in bonuses based on the success of forthcoming titles. Respawn claims the move was to ensure the studio could achieve its long-term goals, not because it was in financial trouble.

For those looking forward to Respawn’s first major step into VR, the studio notes that there will be no layoffs or major organizational changes, and that “titles currently in development will continue uninterrupted.” Oculus concurs, telling Road to VR that the acquisition isn’t expect to have any impact on the project.

“[…] we are extremely excited to be working with not only one of the greatest devs in the industry, but also to be working with one of the greatest publishers on the planet,” Rubin said. “Good times, and good for VR.”

Depending upon the success of Respawn’s VR project, the acquisition could potentially act as a trojan horse for getting EA more involved with VR. The massive publisher hasn’t delved deeply into the young tech—there’s not VR game to date that’s reeled in enough revenue to be more than a drop in the bucket for EA’s bottom line—but they aren’t ignoring it entirely.

EA’s Star Wars Battlefront (2015) launched with a special VR mission exclusively for PlayStation VR. Though it was a single level, it was well received and, tellingly, built on the company’s own Frostbite engine—meaning the publisher has invested time into adapting their core engine for VR rendering. Unfortunately Battlefront II won’t have any VR content.

‘Shooty Fruity’ Coming to All Major VR Platforms December 19th, Launch Trailer Here

UK-based studio nDreams, the minds behind The Assembly (2016) and producer of Bloody Zombies (2017), and Near Light today announced that its upcoming tongue-in-cheek shooting game Shooty Fruity is slated to simultaneously launch on PlayStation VR, HTC Vive and Oculus Rift on December 19th, 2017.

Shooty Fruity basically turns you into a multi-tasking deranged grocery store clerk as it challenges you to keep your job of scanning, packing, serving fruits all while shooting the hell out of slightly more intelligent (and frightening) mutant fruits. Shooty Fruity gives you plenty of customizable weapons including C4 launchers, flak cannon-style shotguns and more.

From the trailer, it looks like there’s some definite influence from Job Simulator (2016), with its silly job training pretext and deadpan voice overs. We haven’t had a chance to dive into the fruit-shooting Shooty Fruity (say that 10 times fast), but we’ll be bringing you the review on launch day, so check back then.

Anyone who pre-orders the game, or buys it over the holiday season, will get free exclusive content, including the “explody bear” grenade and the “Golden Guns” skin pack.

The game will be priced at €20/$20/£16. Preorders are available on PSN and Steam.

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November 9, 2017

‘Serious Sam 3 VR: BFE’ Launches on Steam Today

Croteam, the minds behind the Serious Sam franchise, has released its fourth Serious Sam-themed VR game: Serious Sam 3 VR: BFE (2017) for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

Now available on Steam, Serious Sam 3 VR: BFE is a fast-paced shooter serving as a prequel to the original Serious Sam: The First Encounter (2001). While it’s technically a VR port of the 6-year old Serious Sam 3: BFE (2011), and not really designed from the ground-up for VR, that’s probably not going to bother a lot of hardcore first-person shooter fans as they step into the shoes of Sam for the fourth time. Taking place during an epic final struggle against Mental’s invading forces, you shoot down beasts in a way fans of the franchise will immediately resonate with; by walking up and blowing their heads off with your own two hands.

A big difference from Croteam’s first VR game, Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope (2017), is the inclusion of artificial locomotion so you can explore the game’s expansive levels in the same vein as Croteam’s second and third Serious Sam VR games—Serious Sam VR: The First Encounter (2017) and Serious Sam VR: The Second Encounter (2017).

The game supports a few teleportation styles as well as smooth movement presets, with or without comfort mode. Also included are Croteam’s ‘advanced VR controls’, something the company says is “meant for the hardcore VR gamer.”

“Wishes of the VR community are always in the back of our minds, and we’re very excited to round out our virtual reality offerings in order to provide them with the full Serious Sam experience,” said Croteam VR lead and all-around nice guy, Davor Hunski. “Our goal was to deliver intuitive, thrilling and fun VR games and, hopefully, we made that happen.”

The game boasts a number of multiplayer modes like Co-op, Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, Capture the Flag, Last Man Standing, Last Team Standing and Instant Kill. Supporting both Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, you can bet you’ll want a room-scale tracking setup to get the most out of the 360 carnage.

Serious Sam 3 VR: BFE normally costs $40, but is currently 10% off at $36. The offer ends November 16th.

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