Cloudhead Games is teasing the reveal of Pistol Whip Encore next week.
A tweet put out yesterday mentions a Feburary 24 date for the reveal. There’s a small graphic showing the silhouettes of two players that we’ve seen before, but there’s otherwise no information on what Encore could actually be.
If you follow the game’s track record then we’re likely talking new tracks and themes, perhaps with some additional modifiers. Pistol Whip has been regularly updated since its launch a few years back, with new levels introducing different styles and even entire campaigns to the rhythm shooter. In August 2021 it raised the price of the game to $29.99 to reflect all the additional content it had put into the package.
The term ‘Encore’ does present some interesting questions, though. Could this perhaps be Cloudhead’s last piece of content for the game? If so, what exactly could the studio be preparing to give it a proper send-off? And will this be a free update or a premium expansion?
We’ll have to wait until next week to find out. In the meantime, give us your best guesses for Pistol Whip Encore in the comments below.
Cloudhead Games released Pistol Whip’s new narrative campaign Smoke & Thunder alongside a complete rebuild of the game’s modifiers system.
The release marks a key moment in Canada-based Cloudhead’s journey as its hit rhythm shooter expands in scope from the original 10-scene debut in late 2019 honed around an incredibly satisfying auto-aim system. Today’s release on PC VR, PSVR, and Quest grows the scene collection to 28 tracks and two tight campaigns with new weapons like BoomStick unleashing splash damage on baddies alongside a new modifiers and leaderboard system. Instead of a game that encourages players to get the highest scores by picking the hardest modifiers, now every combination of scene difficulty, modifier, and weapon choice carries its own leaderboard. So players can practice sharpshooting by making threatless targets who can only be hit in the head, or change a few modifiers to turn it into an intense bullet hell that’s kind of like a rhythmic Expert+++ mode.
On August 15th, three days after release, Cloudhead is also increasing the price of Pistol Whip to $29.99 from its original debut of $24.99. The move echoes a strategy employed recently by Aldin Dynamics with its Natural Magic update to Waltz Of The Wizard, reflecting the hope of long-time VR developers growing their teams to build deeper VR games. There’s no paid downloadable content in Pistol Whip, at least not yet, so the price increase is a bit like an exit from early access that rewards early-in supporters with a dramatically expanded game while those jumping in from August 15 support Cloudhead’s growing team and Pistol Whip’s expanding scope.
In the 15-minute video interview below with Game Director Joel Green we covered Pistol Whip’s latest changes and Cloudhead’s overall path to release. There’s chapter markers to jump to whichever section interests you — we talked about the size of the team, the new play styles and how they select music for the game — and we’ve transcribed the whole thing below if you want to read along below.
How Does The Styles System Change Pistol Whip?
[00:00:00] Ian: Hello everyone and welcome. We’ve got Joel Green in our studio today. He is the game director for Pistol Whip and the new update for Pistol Whip is out now you can go and play it. Joel, tell us what is in this latest update and how it changes the game.
[00:00:15] Joel: Yeah, sure. Thanks for having me. The new update is, you know we always say this but it is so far always been true, it’s the biggest thing we’ve done yet. It’s kind of a two-part update. There’s two huge new things in it. We’ve got of course our brand new campaign Smoke & Thunder, if you played 2089, it’s basically the same kind of format with five linked scenes that tell a story with cut scenes and voice acting and all that. And this time we went to the wild west, but it’s a bit of a weird west type of story with was some cool tech in there. It’s a really cool story about two sisters. I don’t want to spoil too much more than that but it’s super fun, a little more of a lighthearted adventure vibe than 2089 was, which was more of like a Terminator / Blade Runner kind of vibe. That’s the big story campaign. That’s five new scenes and whole bunch of new mechanics and all that. The second part of it is Styles system. So this is something we’ve been working on for a really long time. Basically what it is, is a revamp of our whole modifier and leaderboard system. And it’s designed to let players play the game how they want to play. We’ve always had modifiers in the game but we were never really happy with how they functioned in the game and we noticed that they really kind of pushed people towards just playing with the modifiers that let them score the highest. It’s basically a complete overhaul of our modifier and leaderboard system that lets you create crazy combinations of modifiers combined with weapon types and then kind of save them as these preset styles and remember them and use them in the future. And we also have ways to find the most popular styles. So it really opens up the game to a whole bunch of replayability. And then on top of that, every single style has its own set of leaderboards. So it’s a complete overhaul how we’re doing that and it’s really cool because instead of having one score on each scene, you can have a different score for each way to play and there’s so many leaderboards, there’s literally millions of leaderboards. So you can actually find new ways to play a new places to go and kind of bring your friends to those boards and discover different things every day. So it’s really just like all about replayability and making the game into this sandbox remix mode.
How Has Pistol Whip Grown From Start To Now?
[00:02:36] Ian: Recap for me sort of the story here for making Pistol Whip. Were you always the game director? How has the game sort of grown from start to now?
[00:02:45] Joel: Yeah, Pistol Whip was originally developed with a very small team, I think there was only seven or eight of us on the dev team. And it was quite a short, small project and we made it quite quickly and then started kind of showing it to people, showing it to Oculus, bringing it to conventions and things. And it was clear that people really latched onto the core gameplay. So we put a bit more time into it and a bit more effort and managed to get it out within that year. And the response was so amazing that we very quickly realized that we wanted to grow the team and figure out a long-term plan for the game. Cause we just had so many ideas for what we wanted to do with it. So we basically kind of restructured the team and hired a whole bunch of new people we now have, Cloudhead is over 30 people now. And the dev team for Pistol Whip I think is around 20, so I became the director around right after we launched. So the whole kind of post content plan has been something that I’ve developed with the rest of the team.
Why Are You Raising Pistol Whip’s Price?
[00:03:46] Ian: And the price is changing at this point, right? You’re going from $24.99 to $29.99 shortly after release. You’re actually giving a couple of days to get even all this new content at the lower price. Can you explain the thinking there and what you’re trying to go for?
[00:04:01] Joel: Yeah, totally. We wrestled for a long time with whether or not we should get into paid DLC. Like we have to be able to continue to fund the dev team as it gets bigger and as the game kind of gets more ambitious in scope. So of course paid DLC is kind of the obvious choice. And we wrestled with doing that for a long time. We weren’t sure if the campaigns were going to end up being paid DLC. But eventually we had a suggestion from one of our lead developers that like, what if we just keep it really simple and as we continue to add tons of content to the game, let’s just raise the price a little bit. And that way everybody who’s kind of bought in and is already fans of the game in our community, our loyal kind of base, t hey don’t have to pay any extra, but if you’re getting in now to the game and you’re getting all this extra content, then we think it’s still a super super good price and fair price for the game. So it just seemed like a really good way to make that leap and it really keeps our community together too. So you’re not like, ‘I want to play on the scene, compete with my friend,’ but I don’t have the DLC that they have. So it just felt really good to kind of keep it all really simple still.
[00:05:09] Ian: That’s a really interesting strategy and I saw it being done by Aldin Dynamics with the Natural Magic update for Waltz of the Wizard. They did the same thing, they upped the price, and it kind of reflects sort of an experienced developer’s attempts to grow an indie small team into something larger and increase the scope of their projects and keep people coming back, not divide the community, give them kind of an alert that this is going to happen. It’s like the reverse of a sale.
[00:05:40] Joel: That was super important part of it was that we give people time to get in at the current price, obviously we feel like the game is totally worth the new price, but we didn’t want to just like spring that on people right before the new update. So yeah, right now you basically have until I think three days after the game launches, like on the 15th is when the price goes up, you can get in and get Smoke & Thunder and all that. And then after that, it’ll go up and we’ll continue to keep updating the game.
[00:06:08] Ian: I’m really curious to see if this catches on with more devs, cause it’s such a unique experience of the VR ecosystem where you do have dev teams that were so small. It’s so important that we express to our audience out there how small these teams are and how that $5 difference really has a dramatic impact on the number of people being able to develop these things.
[00:06:30] Joel: You’re right, the industry is still growing, we’ve been very lucky and we’ve done really well with Pistol Whip and we’re super happy with that, but at the same time, when you’re talking about having a proper team of developers that isn’t working tons of overtime constantly, and is actually being paid the way they all deserve to be paid, it costs a lot of money and it’s super important that we find business models that work for the gamers as well as for the studio. So this one, after a lot of thought, just felt like the right thing to do cause, like I said, it keeps it simple, still lets people get in at the lower price. But also kind of acknowledges all of the work that we’ve done over the last year and a half. We started with 10 scenes and we’re going to be at 28 after this one. We have tons of modifiers that have been added. We now have five weapon types that have been added. There was one weapon type before, and now there’s five different weapon types that all feel different and play different. So yeah, we’re very confident that the game is totally worth that asking price at this point. And yeah, we’re happy, the community seems to have responded really well to it as well.
What Is Your Favorite Style Of Play And Why Is It The BoomStick?
[00:07:34] Ian: So let’s talk about this update. What is your favorite way to play?
[00:07:39] Joel: I have a few. We haven’t really talked much about the BoomStick yet, but I’ll talk a little bit about it here, I guess, cause this is Launch Day. So the BoomStick is a splash damage weapon. It is super fun, if you’re into rag dolls, it’s like the fun thing to do, when you have groups of enemies, you can blast them and you’ll get an AOE and kind of like throw the rag dolls all around. One thing I love about it is that you don’t actually have to hit the enemies, right? Like any good splash damage weapon, you can hit the ground or environment, and near enemies, and it’ll still take them out. So I actually love combining BoomStick with Deadeye because that way, like the auto aim isn’t sucking the bullet towards the enemies. And you can kind of like pick spots on the ground to initiate the splash damage. And sometimes you can even hit like more enemies than you could by hitting an actual enemy directly because you’re kind of like maximizing the AOE. So I’m a super big fan of that one. I’ve been enjoying playing through scenes- just like sometimes when I get surrounded by enemies- I’ll just point straight down and shoot the BoomStick and have it take out anyone around me, like stuff like that you just couldn’t do before that’s super fun. Another one that I really like which surprised me, cuz I’m not usually super crazy about deadeye, but I started playing deadeye with headshots, which is called head hunter is one of the new mods and that one makes it super tough to hit anybody because you basically have to hit them in the head and there’s no auto-aim, which sounds really painful, but it’s really cool. Maybe if you combine it with threatless, which stops the enemies from firing, so it’s almost more like a target practice and then you get these really small targets, but they’re not threatening you, so it almost becomes like kind of a sniper mode or you’re really focused on just taking them out without dodging too much. So it’s like just feels totally different than anything we’ve done before. And the cool thing is those are all leaderboards, right? Like previously in Pistol Whip, if you put on modifiers like that there’s probably no way you were going to be able to beat your high score or really get anywhere on the boards with a weird combination of modifiers like that. But the cool thing about the Style System is that now, even that kind of strange way of playing still has its own set of leaderboards. So anyone who enjoys that and thinks that’s cool and unique, they can still compete in that exact style.
How Do You Select New Music For Pistol Whip?
[00:09:59] Ian: So I did the campaign and, no spoilers here, but I was pretty hooked on the new music, incredible stuff in there, really, really fun to hear that different style. I’m curious, how are you going about getting new music for the game? How does that selection process go?
[00:10:17] Joel: Good question, Ian. It’s not easy. I’ll say that, as the person who has to do the music licensing, for the most part of course there’s other people helping, it’s tricky, music licensing is really, it’s a tricky world of lawyers and contracts and terms, you know, a lot of different parties involved, but it’s also the beating heart of this game. We know that, it always has been. As the audio lead, I’ve always known that the music in Pistol Whip was by far my most important job, like getting the right music for the game was really the most important thing I could focus on as an audio lead. So I put a lot of time and effort into it. We always wanted to kind of push into different genres, right? Like with each update and just get some variety and see what else we can do. The whole team actually spent like a week just listening to stuff on YouTube and Spotify and wherever, trying to find stuff that might fit. And they just were kind of spewing it all into a slack channel, just constant links and all this stuff. And I kind of went through it all and, and took all of those suggestions and found the ones that seemed like they were really good for the game and also were going to be like possibilities for licensing. And then we just start emailing and calling people and making deals. It takes a while and we managed to get pretty much everything we wanted with this one and I’m super happy with it because finding rock music that fits Pistol Whip is tricky. Because you need a strong beat in Pistol Whip, for the gameplay to really know when you’re supposed to shoot. You have to have just the right kind of music, but I think we really nailed it with this one. I hope people love it.
Are There Dream Songs You’d Love To Have?
[00:11:51] Ian: I’ve asked the licensing question from some other devs and it’s such a hard thing. You’ve got to be a certain size to be able to bring those people to the table and talk. Do you have this list of dream songs you would love to see in Pistol Whip? You just haven’t been able to bring them to the table yet?
[00:12:06] Joel: Of course there’s a world music that would be amazing for this game, absolutely. Our kind of philosophy around music and Pistol Whip is that the game requires really great music for everything to work well, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be like top 40, stuff that you totally recognize. For us, it’s just about the music tracks being great and being right for the game. So we try not to focus too much on like whether or not it’s some huge artist that everyone’s gonna recognize and more just about really getting the right track. And when we’re building these campaigns, it’s even more important than just five good tracks. Like we actually have this story kind of planned out in advance, and then we go and look for the music that’s going to help tell that story. So every track is picked specifically for the tone that it sets and making sure that lines up with that moment in the campaign. So, yeah, it’s about a lot more than just kind of the overall popularity of the song for us. It’s almost a little more like traditional game music licensing and scoring where it’s about: how does this serve the game rather than just like it being a cool song that everybody knows?
Is Paid DLC In Pistol Whip’s Future?
[00:13:15] Ian: It feels like this game as it is now is starting to resemble so much of what you kind of set out to do at the start. And you found this incredible way of evolving it and still keeping this audience, like the community together, like you talked about earlier, not doing the DLC packs, even though I think we have talked in the past and I knew that it was kind of an open possibility. Are you going to be able to keep from doing DLC or are you going to go to the DLC route? What does that look like for you?
[00:13:45] Joel: It’s a great question, the truth is we don’t know. We’re basically taking it one step at a time. This was the decision this time to up the price a bit, but down the road, I think my take on it personally, is a paid DLC can be done really well and it can be done really badly. I think we all, as gamers have seen examples of both. So if we do it, we would do it really well so that people felt like they were getting what they wanted out of it for a great price. We would do our best to adjust the game systems to make sure that it wasn’t too much of a hindrance in the game itself. But there are zero plans to do that right now. We’re just pretty much focused on getting this update out, and obviously we have some plans for the future too, but we’re not really making any decisions.
Is There Anything Else You Want To Add?
[00:14:30] Ian: Is there anything else you want to add about this update today and where you’re going with Pistol Whip next?
[00:14:36] Joel: I would mostly just like to say thank you to the team. I’m super proud of what we’ve built and this stuff comes out and it just kind of feels like, yeah, those are cool ideas, but really a lot of this stuff has been like a year and a half in the making and it was really difficult to pull off. And the team knows how hard it was to do. Everybody’s really proud of it and really happy with where we ended up so I just want to mainly give a shout out to them and then huge shout out to all of our community and fans. We have a really loyal fan base that loves the game and gives us tons of good suggestions and we really listened to that. So thank you to everybody who loves the game and everybody who’s been making it.
Today Pistol Whip gets a major free update called ‘Smoke & Thunder’, bringing five new levels to the game tied together into a mini-campaign (similar to the prior ‘2089’), as well as a complete refresh of the game’s modifier system, offering more customization than ever before. Like ‘2089’ before it, ‘Smoke & Thunder’ successfully delivers a fresh dose of fun, this time built entirely around dual-wielding.
Smoke & Thunder
Pistol Whip has always had an optional dual-wielding mode which is personally my favorite way to play the game. So you won’t be surprised to know I was pretty happy to find that the entire ‘Smoke & Thunder’ mini-campaign, delivered today as a free update to the game, is all about dual-wielding.
Instead of a sci-fi adventure, this time ‘Smoke & Thunder’ throws things back… way back, to the Wild West. Across its five new songs it introduces two new weapon types and new threats to the game, all culminating in a fun boss-fight.
The story of ‘Smoke & Thunder’ is really just a loose thread to connect each level, but it’s quick and to the point, and there’s once again some excellent comic-style artwork to keep your eyes happy while you listen to brief exposition. I actually would have enjoyed a bit more depth this time around, but hey, this is a game about channeling your inner John Wick, so I can appreciate the focus staying on the shooting.
At the outset you’ll be introduced to the six-shooter which, unlike the game’s usual semi-auto pistols, only has—you guessed it—six shots (instead of 15). But you get one in each hand for a total of 12 shots between them. Half the fun in ‘Smoke & Thunder’ is finding out how to find the right rhythm of firing and reloading to make sure you’re never caught without a bullet in the chamber.
And you’re going to need to master that skill right quick, because just as you’ve gotten used to the lower bullet count you’ll be introduced to another new weapon type: the boomstick. And this time, you’ve only got two shots per-gun.
But what the boomstick lacks in capacity, it makes up for in power. Each shot delivers a blast that not only kills two-shot enemies in a single shot, but will also kill any adjacent enemies thanks to a small area-of-effect. ‘Smoke & Thunder’ gives you plenty of opportunities to strategically aim for the middle of a trio of enemies to take them all down with one shot, which is especially important considering you only get two shots per-gun before reloading.
After getting to flex your powerful new guns for just a bit, ‘Smoke & Thunder’ introduces a shielded enemy type that can withstand two shots from even your powerful boomstick.
While that doesn’t sound much different than the game’s regular two-shot enemies, it actually adds a lot of strategic decision making. Since you’ve only got two shots per-gun, you can decided to take down an enemy with two shots from the same gun (thus triggering the need to reload one of your guns) or with one shot from each gun (saving a bullet in each gun for when you need it next).
Image courtesy Cloudhead Games
‘Smoke & Thunder’ is at its best when you find the perfect rhythm between shooting, reloading, and dodging. At times I found myself slipping into a satisfying ‘skiing’ style where I’d double-tap with one gun then swing it down to reload, while simultaneously raising the other gun to shoot, and continue to alternate that pattern. At several times I felt like I was really in tune with the beat and the level, which is when Pistol Whip truly shines.
The final level of ‘Smoke & Thunder’ reaches a climax with a boss that has a few new tricks up its sleeve. Not wanting to spoil anything, I’ll just say that I enjoyed the challenge it threw at me.
Ultimately ‘Smoke & Thunder’ succeeded in making me feel like a gun-slinging badass… I only wish I could do some pistol spinning for style points.
Popular VR rhythm game Pistol Whip is getting another major expansion called ‘Smoke & Thunder’ which will introduce the game’s second mini-campaign. Set for a release date on all platforms on August 12th, ‘Smoke & Thunder’ is a package of five new levels and songs tied together by an underlying narrative theme. A new modifier system will also come with the update, letting players remix the gameplay of any level.
Developer Cloudhead Games says ‘Smoke & Thunder’ will also see the debut of an original, never-before-heard song from synthwave band Magic Sword, which has been featured in the game previously.
Pistol Whip ‘Smoke & Thunder’ is now set for an August 12th release date on Quest, PC VR, and PSVR. The expansion will be free to all existing owners of the game, which is currently priced at $25, however Cloudhead says the game’s price will increase to $30 after August 15th. Considering the content that’s been added to the game since launch, the price increase feels entirely justified; from the game’s initial launch in late 2019 with 10 levels, the ‘Smoke & Thunder’ update now makes 28.
Image courtesy Cloudhead Games
The Pistol Whip ‘Smoke & Thunder’ update also completely revamps the game’s modifiers with a new system called ‘Styles’. With Styles, players can mix and match modifiers to create unique challenges and playstyles, with each unique Style combination getting its own leaderboard for players to compete. Styles will also allow players to use new weapons (like those introduced in ‘2089’ and ‘Smoke & Thunder’) in any of the game’s levels which will bring a remixed experience to old favorites.
Cloudhead Games’ Pistol Whip is adding its Smoke & Thunder campaign on August 12th alongside a complete overhaul of its modifiers system.
The new “Styles” system included with the update is meant to unlock endless replayability, from playful dance modes to ultra hardcore bullet hells. There’s even John Wick’s lethal pencil in the new update. Cloudhead’s developers joined us earlier this summer for an exclusive preview of the new system which you can check out in the video below.
The new version of the game will release on Oculus Quest, PCVR, and PlayStation VR headsets on August 12. After nearly two years of near-constant free updates, the developers are increasing the price of Pistol Whip to $29.99 (from $24.99) starting on August 15. Last month, Aldin Dynamics did something similar with its Natural Magic update for Waltz of the Wizard. The higher prices reflect developer’s hopes to expand the scope of their products and draw in additional buyers as VR brings in new players, while also grandfathering in existing game owners with new content.
Smoke & Thunder is a western-themed campaign with new weapons and mechanics as well as a new boss fight. Cloudhead launched its first campaign, the sci-fi-themed 2089, late last year. The new campaign includes tracks from The Heavy, Black Fire, Bones UK, Devora, alongside a “never-before-heard” song from Magic Sword, according to the developers. The mode also includes new voice talent, with sisters Jessie and Tess voiced by Victoria Hogan (Kingdom Come: Deliverance) and Avalon Penrose (Hades). Players who have beaten the campaign can combine any scene they want with any weapon and a long list of modifiers.
We’re excited to give Smoke & Thunder a try and know there are a lot of fans out there who are ready for a reason to jump back into Pistol Whip. Is the new “Styles” system going to bring you back? Let us know in the comments below and check back with UploadVR.com soon for more updates.
Pistol Whip developers recently offered a deep dive look at the upcoming “Style System” overhaul of its modifiers with an up close look at new melee weapons, including “The Freaking Pencil”.
Pistol Whip debuted in 2019 and, since launch, its pretty much been the virtual embodiment of the John Wick franchise. Spoiler alert I guess, but the big screen assassin played by Keanu Reeves is known for his ability to kill someone with nothing more than a pencil and, soon, you’ll be able to do the same in Pistol Whip.
“We had to do it, as soon as we started talking about putting in melee weapons,” Project Lead Joel Green said. “You can customize it however you want it to look.”
Check it out around the 13:40 mark in the hour-long preview we livestreamed this week:
The new system promises to remake Pistol Whip in pretty fundamental ways by allowing players to choose from a wide range of play styles. There’s a knife, hammer, brass knuckles and, yes, a pencil included in the update alongside other new weapons. The new weapons can be combined with level difficulty selection and new modifiers to play the game — and compete for a spot on the leaderboards — in a huge combination of ways ranging from hyper-intense bullet hell to a laid back dancing mode.
The new Style System will debut alongside the Smoke & Thunder campaign that developer Cloudhead Games teased back in April. We can’t wait to dive in with the new styles and figure out our new favorite way to play one of VR’s best games.
So the traditionally ‘biggest videogame event of the year’, the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2021 has now concluded and it was a very mixed bag of announcements wasn’t it? Heavyweights like Microsoft/Bethesda and Nintendo certainly helped carry the show when it came to all the normal fair, whilst quirkier entries from Limited Run Games gave the event some much-needed frivolity. As for all the virtual reality (VR) news, there were some updates, too few surprises and some glaring omissions which could’ve stolen the show.
The Good
Let’s start with the good stuff and there were some highlights worth mentioning. A Township Tale by Australian team Alta was definitely one of them. A big open-world role-playing game (RPG) that has been available direct from the studio for PC VR headsets for a little while now is getting a native port to Oculus Quest. A virtual server can be created for up to eight friends to team-up, choose various classes and explore the world together. Most importantly, there’s not long to wait for A Township Tale which arrives on 15th July.
When it came to updates Cloudhead Games’ Pistol Whip didn’t disappoint by officially unveiling the new Style System to mix up the rhythm action gameplay. It’ll be a bumper summer update as it’ll be combined with the new Smoke & Thunder campaign.
Another update that VRFocus is looking forward to and isn’t too far away is Waltz of the Wizard: Natural Magic. This is a magical videogame that seems to keep going and going, with developer Aldin Dynamics constantly enhancing the title. The update will add new ways to cast magic spells and offer new locations to explore and fight monsters in.
Looking ahead into next there’s the visceral Samurai Slaughter House by Tab Games. Instantly bringing back memories of MadWorld for Wii thanks to the black and white aesthetic, Samurai Slaughter House is a physics-based combat where the only splash of colour comes from the enemies blood. It’s coming to PC VR headsets in 2022.
The Dull
Then there were the announcements which really didn’t feel like proper E3 news, lots of brief videos with a bit more gameplay but no launch dates or anything really tasty.
Green Hell VR,Song in the Smoke, Rhythm or the Universe: Ionia, and Against are all exciting projects which saw new footage arrive or went behind the scenes yet there was no wow factor, nothing that jumped out genuinely new.
The same could be said for Windlands 2 finally coming to PlayStation VR this summer, a whole three years after its original debut for Oculus Rift. It’s nice for PlayStation VR owners to get access as well as a physical version, however, there was no mention of new content to spice up the reveal.
And then there was NERF. The next project from Secret Location, NERF Ultimate Championship only provided a teasing cinematic trailer for the 2022 shooter. A surprise, most definitely. A good one, well we’ll have to wait and see.
The Glaringly Absent
So what was missing, or more accurately, what were we hoping to see that never materialised? There were three VR titles VRFocus was hoping to see appear in the press conferences, two from Ubisoft in the form of Splinter Cell VR and Assassin’s Creed VR, and Resident Evil 4 from Capcom.
Only revealed back in April and the first confirmed Oculus Quest 2 exclusive, Resident Evil 4 is a collaborative effort between Capcom and Oculus Studios to bring one of the best versions in the franchise into VR. It being reworked for the standalone headset with new controls allowing you to dual wield guns and melee weapons for the first time. The last update came during the Oculus Gaming Showcase which was only a couple of months away so some new footage would’ve been nice. A released date definitely wasn’t expected, with a 2021 launch currently earmarked a date will likely arrive during Facebook Connect.
Splinter Cell VR and Assassin’s Creed VR, on the other hand, is a very different scenario. These were both teased by Ubisoft at Facebook Connect in 2020 and nothing has been heard of them since. If ever there was a time to drop some details it would be E3 week. Any info on either of them would’ve been the big VR reveal of the week, instead, Ubisoft’s big news was a sequel, Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope for Nintendo Switch – loved the original so that’s a bonus.
Keep that VR chin up
Don’t dispair though, this isn’t the end of VR. This summer has some awesome VR videogames on the way like Sniper Elite VRfrom Rebellion and Just Add Water, Fracked by nDreams, Winds & Leaves by Trebuchet, and Song in the Smoke from 17-BIT. Plus Resolution Games has Realm of the Rat King DLC for Demeo coming or if there’s a Zero Latency location near you there’s always Far Cry VR.
Pistol Whip (2020), the action rhythm-shooter from Cloudhead Games, is getting a update this summer that will bring both a so-called ‘Styles System’, which aims to remix gameplay by letting you choose from a number of new modifiers, and the game’s next Western-themed campaign.
The studio, which announced the news during UploadVR’s recent game showcase, says the Styles System will let you both choose from preset gameplay modes and customize them for new a different gameplay styles: e.g. big-headed enemies, bullet hell-style enemy fire, and a selection of different weapons seen throughout the game’s multiple campaigns.
This will allow you to modify gameplay practically any way you want and ‘remix’ any campaign level, Cloudhead says.
The new Styles System (seen in action above) is slated to arrive alongside the game’s next campaign, which is called ‘Smoke & Thunder’.
Smoke & Thunder was first teased back in April, and takes on a distinctively Western flavor as it spins the story of a Wild West gunslinger in search of her missing sister. We’re expecting a healthy dose of dual six guns and spaghetti western tropes aplenty.
Both are said to come at some point this summer, launching on all supported platforms including Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift, SteamVR headsets, and PSVR.
Denny Unger, CEO of Pistol Whip developer Cloudhead Games, touched on the difficulties of funding large-scale VR games in a recent series of tweets.
On Monday Unger, who helped found Cloudhead nearly a decade ago, noted that he’d seen a lot of people asking where the next ‘big’ VR game was. More specifically, people have been asking where is the next Half-Life: Alyx-caliber game.
“It’s important to recognize that many studios like ours have “those games” sitting in limbo,” he wrote. “BIG ideas require BIG budgets & we’re maxing out what works to financially power up BIG ideas later.”
By “what works”, Unger is almost certainly referring to the success of Pistol Whip, Cloudhead’s third main VR game that launched in late 2019. The game’s one of a number of titles that’s performed well on the Oculus Quest platform among other headsets and is still supported with new DLC and updates to this day – we just showcased the new Style System at the Upload VR Showcase last week.
“Cloudhead Games is 29 people at industry standard rates (and growing), the bulk of those are producing Pistol Whip content, which some might consider a “small game” comparatively, Unger continued. “Now think about something like Alyx and the people power/budget required there.”
Last year, a member of Cloudhead wrote on Reddit that the studio would love to return to its original VR series, The Gallery, but it would need the market to be bigger before it could really justify the third entry.
Bigger game publishers, meanwhile, remain reluctant to fund large-scale VR titles while the install base remains comparatively small to traditional consoles. That’s why Facebook is making deals directly with companies like Ubisoft to get new versions of Assassin’s Creed and Splinter Cell into VR, rather than Ubisoft funding these titles on its own steam.
There are larger titles on the way to look forward to, though. Stress Level Zero’s next game is likely to be revealed this summer and may fit the tone Unger is touching upon after the success of Boneworks. Capcom is developing a VR port of Resident Evil 4 for Oculus Quest 2, too, and we’re yet to see what Sony is lining up for its next VR headset for the PS5.
What do you hope to see out of VR’s next big game? Let us know in the comments below!
Cloudhead Games’ Pistol Whip became an instant hit when it first arrived back in 2019, providing visceral rhythm action gameplay found nowhere else. Content has been regularly added including a five-stage campaign but this summer the videogame is going to get a whole new lease of life. Previously teased as “The Concierge” update, that name has now been dropped as Cloudhead Games reveals the new Pistol Whip Style System.
If you’re well-acquainted with Pistol Whipthen you’ll know it has a unique visual and gameplay, shooting enemies to some thumping tunes. If you wanted to mix things up there were the modifiers activating dual wielding guns, the removal of aim assist and much more. The new Pistol Whip Style System will allow you to remix scenes in a multitude of ways.
Essentially, a “Style” is a preset which contains three variables, Weapon Type (determines weapon behaviour), 5 x Modifiers (alter gameplay mechanics) and then the Intensity rating. After selecting a scene you’ll see the Style menu to the left where you browse various styles across four categories Basics, Featured, Trending and Favourites. These styles have been curated by the developers as well as the community. The Featured section for example will recommend two new styles every week if you just want to start playing right away.
Or for those that want to create their own you have the customise mode. Here you can modify a preexisting style or build a brand new one. Cloudhead Games will also introduce a new mod called Bullet Hell where enemies unleash massive volleys of projectiles to really keep you ducking for cover. Additionally, all the campaign scenes can be played with any style.
So when does the new Style System arrive? As Cloudhead Games revealed back in April as part of its Pistol Whip: Smoke & Thunder announcement, both the new campaign and feature set land together this summer. So not only do you get new ways to experience Pistol Whip but there will be a whole new Wild West campaign to enjoy.
Take a look at the announcement video below to see the Pistol Whip Style System in action. As further updates are revealed, VRFocus will let you know.
