PlayWay S.A. – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

July 27, 2021

Get Your Chef on With Cooking Simulator VR This Week

Virtual reality (VR) is not only a great gaming platform but an excellent place to learn new skills. What happens when both of those are combined? You get videogames like Cooking Simulator VR, which is set to serve up some culinary delights for PC VR users in a few days.

The work of GameBoom VR, a developer and publisher behind Thief Simulator VR and Into the Darkness, Cooking Simulator VR is an immersive spinoff of the studios’ 2019 title. Offering a highly polished, realistic kitchen equipped with all tools and gadgets a budding chef needs, the VR version will let you truly get hands-on with the cooking process with over 80 recipes to prepare.

Offering gameplay modes including career and sandbox, there are 140+ ingredients to slice and dice your way through, from meat and fish, through to fruit, veg, dairy products, and various liquids, as well as herbs and spices. With realistic physics and advanced cooking mechanics, you can take your time to cook the perfect steak or learn how to multitask and bring a whole meal together.

Even with the realism, there are still gamified mechanics like being able to unlock new skills as you progress through the career mode. This is where you can really find fame as a superstar chef, cooking up gastronomic delights as more and more customers come to your restaurant.

While the essence of Cooking Simulator VR is about realism if you’re really serious about your food, there’s plenty of opportunities to have some fun. Create as much chaos as you like, don’t do the dishes, practise those in-air slicing skills or see what happens when a gas bottle is put in a microwave – seriously don’t do this for real.

Cooking Simulator VR is set for release this Thursday, 29th July 2021 on Steam for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Valve Index and Windows Mixed Reality headsets. To see what else this week has in store check out Friday’s The VR Drop for more info. As always, keep reading VRFocus for all the latest VR videogame arrivals.

February 10, 2021

Pop the Hood With Car Mechanic Simulator VR in Q2 2021

Virtual reality (VR) isn’t just a great gaming medium it has lots of practical use cases such as training and education. But what happens when those worlds combine? Well, you get projects along the line of Car Mechanic Simulator VR which is scheduled to arrive in Q2 2021 for PC VR headsets.

Taking Car Mechanic Simulator 2018 and giving it a VR overhaul, you’ll be able to find out what really makes a car tick without the need for expensive tools or getting covered in grease. Car Mechanic Simulator VR challenges you to build a repair service empire, taking old junkers and tuning them back to working order to sell on and upgrade your garage.

You’ll be able to do this in a number of ways, utilising the Barn Find module and Junkyard modules to locate old cars that require restoration. Car auctions will also be available where you can sell your collection or add to it. There will be 42 cars available, 10+ tools to collect and thousands of unique parts to play with.

And that’s where the core gameplay lays, getting into there and swapping components, fixing engines, repairing brakes, respraying bodywork and much more. While Car Mechanic Simulator VR isn’t going to train you to be a mechanic it might just teach you a little about how vehicles work so they don’t seem as daunting the next time you have to change a bulb.

Naturally, fans of the 2018 videogame will now be able to actually go hands-on utilising Oculus Rift, HTC Vive or Valve Index’s motion controllers to hammer, unscrew and physically swap parts. Car Mechanic Simulator VR also features randomly generated missions to keep you continually busy.

While VR is inundated with shooters and rhythm-action videogames, titles like Car Mechanic Simulator VR are far rarer. Wrench is one of the only other examples of this type of experience. As further details regarding Car Mechanic Simulator VR‘s launch are released, VRFocus will let you know.

October 30, 2019

Thief Simulator VR Wants to Steal Your Attention in November

Once Halloween is out of the way it’s then time to look forward to Christmas, a time of giving. Or you can go in the complete opposite direction and have some fun practising a little thievery with GameBoom VR’s soon to be released title Thief Simulator VR, now scheduled for a November launch.

Thief Simulator VR

The team dropped an announcement trailer at the end of September, showcasing what the final version would look like. A release was initially slated for the end of October but this was then pushed back.

In a statement, the studio said: “Thief Simulator VR has been created for almost the entire last year, and we put all our hearts into this project. We are looking forward to seeing our game in your hands. However, we all understand how business works – a wrong release date could cause other games to steal (pun intended) our visibility in digital stores. The current Steam Halloween Sale would take away our visibility, and we want our game to reach as many players as possible, which will convert into the resources needed for its further development (and Prison Simulator VR). For this reason, we decided with our publisher that Thief Simulator VR will appear on the market on November 12, 2019.”

That puts the videogame a couple of weeks out, arriving on Steam Early Access for HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Windows Mixed Reality and Valve Index. Offering free-roaming sandbox neighbourhoods to explore with different houses to stakeout, players will be able to lock pick doors, smash everything in a house, steal cars, jump through windows, and more. Once back at their hideout players can disassemble stolen cars, hack phones and tablets to then sell on. With the cash, they can purchase new tools and gadgets to rob richer more secured homes.

Thief Simulator VR

GameBoom VR notes that at launch Thief Simulator VR will have the same amount of content the standard Thief Simulator videogame had when released. During Early Access the studio aims to add another neighbourhood, more items and a New Game+ mode.

As Thief Simulator VR nears its release, VRFocus will keep you updated on the latest announcements.

October 4, 2019

Thief Simulator VR Looks Like the Ideal Cat Burglar Trainer in Latest Trailer

Being burgled is never pleasant or something you want to experience, losing valuable possessions and feeling like your home isn’t secure. That being said, the classic thief image is a romantic one, a classy, skilled character who isn’t necessarily bad, they just like stealing things which involve a challenge. Gameboom VR is currently working on Thief Simulator VR, an experience which definitely leans towards normal burglary rather than extravagant heist, and from the latest trailer looks a lot of fun.

Thief Simulator VR

Thief Simulator VR isn’t some basic smash and grab burglary sim as the team is planning on a rich immersive experience. A single-player videogame with a narrative which revolves around paying off a debt to a mysterious family by robbing houses, you’re able to free-roam sandbox neighbourhoods and choose your target carefully.

You’ll be able to gather intel and observe your target like a military operation, learning who lives inside and their movements, what’s actually inside and is it worth your time, as well as what security is there to overcome? Other variables can include neighbours, are they noisy or quiet?

As this is a simulator style experience Gameboom VR is going for realism. For example, security with be greater on the more lucrative properties so you’ll need to work your way up by doing smaller jobs, learning new skills and buying useful equipment along the way. There’s no infinite backpack in Thief Simulator VR so you’ll need to be clever about what you pinch, leaving behind useless items to save space for the expensive stuff.

Thief Simulator VR

While you can hack phones and tablets in your hideout, erasing serial numbers and removing security to sell them in pawnshops you’ll also be able to steal cars which can be driven back to the hideout and then be disassembled, selling the parts online.

Of course, it’s not all fun and games, you’ll need to be on the lookout for any unexpected guests who will call the police if they spot you.

Currently, Gameboom VR expects to release Thief Simulator VR onto Steam Early Access towards the end of October, supporting Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Valve Index and Windows Mixed Reality headsets. For continued updates, keep reading VRFocus.