I played The Walking Dead: Betrayal with one of its developers and they backstabbed me
The Walking Dead: Betrayal is shaping up to be a solid social deduction game that swaps space and sci-fi for a zombified postapocalypse.
Owlchemy Labs’ Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality Nominated for an Emmy
When film franchises are made into videogames disaster usually tends to strike, with the content offering a sub-par experience. That’s not always the case, especially when it comes to cartoons, with Owlchemy Labs, Adult Swim Games and Other Ocean Interactive creating the rather good Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality for virtual reality (VR) headsets. That work has now led to an Emmy nomination for the teams.
Securing an Emmy Nomination in the ‘Outstanding Creative Achievement in Interactive Media Within a Scripted Program’, Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality is up against Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why, Mr.Robot, Silicon Valley and Westworld for the prize.
“We are blown away by our nomination— it’s an enormous honor to be selected for an Emmy! The nomination is a fantastic statement about the value of high quality room-scale VR and experiences built explicitly for the medium,” said Andrew Eiche, Chief Technology Owl and Cable Slinger, who was the production lead on Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality, in an email to VRFocus. “To have Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality selected alongside the other incredible experiences from such well-known properties is a huge validation for the work that we are doing in VR. We are excited that VR as a medium is getting the mainstream recognition that we believe it deserves.”
Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality first hit HTC Vive and Oculus Rift in April 2017. The teams then finally brought the videogame to PlayStation VR a year later as both digital and physical copies. Due to its popularity the title managed to secure the top download spot for Sony Interactive Entertainment’s (SIE) headset in April.
VRFocus reviewed the original launch edition on PC VR, giving it a full five stars: ““If you enjoy this style of interactive VR experience then you’ll appreciate Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality even if you’ve not seen the cartoon, there’s even sections catering to first-person shooter (FPS) fans. Really though this is a video game for those that love Rick and Morty, and quite frankly that’s no bad thing. Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality is a madcap, fun filled adventure from start to finish, perfectly suiting VR’s qualities, it should not be missed.”
If Owlchemy Labs and Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality do see success at the 70th Emmy Awards, VRFocus will let you know.
Review: Giant Cop: Justice Above All
Ever remember playing with toys as a kid, cars, trains, figures, basically anything that made you feel like you were master and overlord of a tiny world in your hands? Well now you get to do it all over again on Oculus Touch with Other Ocean Interactive’s Giant Cop.
Giant Cop is a light-hearted toy sandbox where you’re are cast as the newest recuit for the pint-sized Micro City, a massive 200ft police officer. It’s up to you to keep law and order, dispensing a playful form of justice that’ll see you arrest rabble rousers, cover graffiti, and hunt down cabbage dealers.
With a funky 70’s theme, Giant Cop is a solely singe-player experience that’s as much about exploring the world and seeing what’s interactive as it is about completing the campaign. And there’s certainly plenty to pick up and play with. Grab inhabitants and fling them about, cause some destruction blowing up cars or grab a baseball bat to hit a home run into the sea. There’s so much to see and do it can be almost bewildering at points.
As for the campaign, this really helps introduce Micro City and the other levels. In terms of gameplay though it does come up short. If you concentrate on the campaign you’ll get through it quite quickly – probably around a couple of hours or so – but there are some side missions to beef this up. Unfortunately a great deal of the campaign has you on one task, looking for stuff – almost like a virtual reality (VR) version of Where’s Wally (or Waldo for the US). That would be fine in short increments but for an entire campaign, it certainly could’ve done with some expansion.
There’s another glaring issue with Giant Cop that needs to be noted, and that’s movement. Other Ocean Interactive has created wonderfully intricate cityscapes, with a beautiful art style that encourages you to get in there and explore. But to get about you need to teleport, and you can only teleport to fixed locations. This is made even more frustrating due to these points facing you in a certain direction, there’s no manual camera control to rotate the world. Spotted a collectible that’s behind you, if you’re only using a two sensor setup then its going to prove difficult to collect, and if your play area is quite small they might be near to impossible.
If you can deal with the teleportation – or you have three sensors – there’s a lot to like about Giant Cop. As a way to showcase your Oculus Touch controllers to VR newbies then Giant Cop would be a good place to start, Other Ocean has really packed the city with stuff.
But for experienced VR enthusiasts it can feel more like a flesh out tech demo than a real all-round videogame, as it mainly focuses on picking objects up and having a play. While great for quick play sessions, longevity will likely be an issue as there’s only so many times you can pick up a small NPC and throw them across the city for a laugh.
70%
Awesome
-
Verdict
Take the Law Into Your Own Hands with Giant Cop for Oculus Touch
Giant Cop: Justice Above All has been launched today on Oculus Rift and Touch, bringing tongue-in-cheek action inspired by cheesy 70’s cop shows to the platform.
Developer Other Ocean Interactive originally developed the game with standard keyboard and mouse controls in mind, but they soon discovered that bringing the title into virtual reality (VR) was what made it come alive.
The player takes control of a super-sized cop and charged with the mission of fighting organised crime in the metropolis of Micro City. That isn’t the only activity available to the player, though, there are also many hidden objects and collectables available to find, and with the sandbox-style setup, it is possible to let the imagination of the player run wild.
“We had one guy who turned over every car and piled them on top of one another,” says Newfoundland Studio Head Ryan Hale. “Another lady tried to put all the beachgoers into lawn chairs for a sun tan, and one guy was breakdancing as he played. Our QA team loved playing in VR,” Hale adds. “The new technology meant new challenges and a whole new way of exploring games and discovering the endless possibilities—and how to break them.”
Thanks to a deal with Skybound Entertainment, Giant Cop even has characters from hit TV show The Walking Dead hidden in the game as Easter Eggs, which are only available to players who have Skybound Insiders membership.
Giant Cop: Justice Above All is out now in the Oculus Store at a price of $24.99 (USD). A version for HTC Vive and PlayStation VR is expected later in the year.
VRFocus will continue to bring you updates on Giant Cop and other Oculus Rift releases.
Giant Cop: Justice Above All New Screenshots
Developer Other Ocean Interactive have released some more screenshots for upcoming virtual reality (VR) title Giant Cop: Justice Above All in which the player fights crime as a super-size cop.
Other Ocean announced earlier in the week that the title is due to be launched at the EGX Rezzed event in London, UK on 30th March. It will be launched on Oculus Rift at a price of $24.99 (USD), with versions for HTC Vive and PlayStation VR to follow later in the year.
Giant Cop has been a feature at various videogame and VR events for some time now, as a result VRFocus have gone into a fair bit of depth about the gameplay experience, which involves the player taking the role of a giant in a miniature world, using their disproportionate size to fight crime and help the citizens of Micro City.
You can view the new screenshots below.
VRFocus will continue to bring you news on Giant Cop: Justice Above All and other new releases.
Oculus Touch Title Giant Cop: Justice Above All Delayed Until 2017
With Oculus Touch only a week away from launch its going to be an important festive season for Oculus. Over the last few weeks developers have been announcing supporting experiences for launch but today Other Ocean Interactive has revealed its title Giant Cop: Justice Above All will now be delayed until next year.
In a statement on the developers website the team state: “We know we’ve been pretty quiet lately; development is going well and we are keeping our heads down, working hard on Giant Cop. Creating a compelling narrative experience in virtual reality is no easy feat but the team is committed to releasing a game that meets a high standard. For this reason, we have to delay the release of Giant Cop on the Oculus Rift + Touch by a few months.
“This means that our plan to bring Giant Cop optimized for Vive and PSVR are also delayed, but we believe the extra development time will make the game better.
“We know this announcement is going to disappoint a lot of people, but we want to make sure we get this right, so we ask for your patience as we continue to work hard on Giant Cop: Justice Above All. We’ll be updating our website & storefronts over the next few days with some new information, so stay tuned!”
If you’ve not heard of Giant Cop: Justice Above All, players police Micro City as an enormous officer than can pick up criminals and throw them into a police station. There will be bank heists to foil, car chases to stop and all manner of other criminal activities to fend off to keep the city in check.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of Giant Cop: Justice Above All, reporting back with any further announcements.