3 Xbox Game Pass titles you should play this weekend (May 10-12)
Wondering what to play on Xbox Game Pass this weekend? We recommend these titles from Tango Gameworks and Arkane Austin, studios that Microsoft just closed.
Starfield isn’t on PS5, but you can play these great alternatives on PS Plus
From The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim to Outer Wilds, there are some great Starfield alternatives available via PS Plus.
Weird West is a western RPG that lets players pick their poison
Weird West is an upcoming RPG that gives players the freedom to choose how they survive in the wild west.
Prey VR Listed, Then Removed For PSVR
A UK retailer has listed, then promptly removed Prey VR for PSVR on its website.
Twitter news account Nibel originally reported the listing, which we saw with our own eyes and screencapped below. It’s since been taken down, though it only contained a placeholder packshot. We reached out to Prey publisher Bethesda earlier today but the company hadn’t replied by the time of publication. It wouldn’t be the first time a new Bethesda game has leaked via a retailer, though.
If there’s any validity to the listing — which a quick search on Wayback Machine confirms was created today — it doesn’t necessarily mean a full port of Arkane Studios’ 2017 revival is on the way. Prey actually already got some small VR support in the form of a bonus escape room-style mode and, later on, support for headsets in its Typhoon Hunter multiplayer mode. They were fun, if insignificant little additions to the main game.
We’d most likely expect this to be a repackaging of the game with its VR modes clearly marked out, then.
Then again, it’s possible that these modes stemmed from the team’s own work getting the full game to work in VR. Prey is an expansive first-person role-playing game that would definitely work well inside headsets. It’s mix Bioshock-style combat and atmosphere is perfectly suited. Whatsmore, Arkane was also behind last year’s Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot, so the team is certainly experienced with the tech. If there is any truth to it, we’d expect to see it on PC VR devices, too.
All the same, we wouldn’t get too excited until we hear something official. Would you play Prey VR? Let us know in the comments below!
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Five More Huge Game Franchises That Got VR Support Even We Forgot About
Earlier this month we highlighted five huge gaming franchises with VR support you’d forgotten about.
Well, rather embarrassingly, we forgot about a fair few, too.
So we’re back with another round of forgotten VR tie-ins. Remember, we’re not talking mods or well-known ports here; this is strictly a list of franchises we’re dreaming of getting VR support… when they actually already have. We just forgot all about them because, well, they’re often very forgettable.
Rise of The Tomb Raider/Tomb Raider VR: Lara’s Escape
Yes, Lara Croft already made her headset debut but it wasn’t quite what we expected. The optional VR mode for Rise of the Tomb Raider, launched in PSVR’s release window, traded bangs and booms for a slow-paced exploration of the iconic Croft mansion. It might not have been exactly what fans wanted, but it was pretty fascinating to explore Lara’s life in this way.
Then there’s the slightly more bombastic free app to promote that movie everyone also forgot about. A free download on Gear VR, it was a much more explosive affair, though still not the full Tomb Raider VR experience we hope to see one day.
Monster of the Deep: Final Fantasy XV
Final Fantasy has a bit of a weird history with VR. Ahead of PSVR’s reveal, Square Enix demoed a strange first-person shooter that tied into the world of Final Fantasy XV. The company showed it to press at E3 one year, but people thought it was universally underwhelming. Fast forward a few years and the company released a Final Fantasy XV… fishing game.
But! Monster of the Deep was actually a pretty good time, with amazing visuals and a play to the fantastic art design of FFXV’s many monsters. Again, though, it’s just not really Final Fantasy, is it? Here’s hoping Square brings the scale and excitement of one of its usual-sized adventures to VR soon.
Assassin’s Creed VR
Another weird history here. The only Assassin’s Creed VR experience you can try at home is one that ties into not classic games like II and Black Flag but… the movie. Yes, that pretty pants Michael Fassbender one from a few years ago. It mixed 360 and 3D elements and has you watching a Fassassin (not a typo and I wish I’d thought of that earlier) do some fighty stuff. Not super exciting.
But! There are better Assassin’s Creed VR experiences, they’re just for arcades and still not super Creed-y. Ubisoft’s made a handful of great multiplayer escape rooms using the IP, though they steer away from direct naming just so you don’t expect to stab anyone in the head.
Prey
Prey’s VR support is quite funny, because it was practically forgotten before it even came out. Promised by Bethesda and then hardly mentioned again, the first part of this support popped up almost at random. It didn’t bring the original sci-fi epic to VR but instead took a series of environments from the main game and morphed then into VR escape rooms. They actually weren’t bad, either.
Then, later on, the game’s curious multiplayer mode, Typhoon Hunter, got VR support too. It was a nice addition but arrived far too late for a game a lot of people had already played. Prey II needs full VR support, please.
Kingdom Hearts III VR Experience
This is probably the most recent entry on the list but, honestly, we’ll forgive you if you’ve already forgotten or are instead trying to forget about the eloquently-named Kingdom Hearts III VR Experience. Actually, by the series’ standards, that’s one of the better names. The game brought a handful of scenes from the series into VR for the first time, including our first full VR meetings with Goofy and Donald Duck.
But there just wasn’t much to it other than sitting through those scenes. Some ended with strange light shows recapping other events in the series thus far. Thinking about a true Kingdom Hearts VR game with a range of Disney characters really makes our mouths drool, so hopefully that happens soon.
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Bethesda’s Prey Adds Surprise Multiplayer VR Support
Way back in December 2018 Bethesda and Arkane Studios’ Prey got the first of two-promised updates adding VR modes. We had all but given up hope that the second mode would arrive but, surprisingly, it just launched.
The free update adds VR support to Prey’s Typhon Hunter multiplayer mode, which is included with the Mooncrash DLC. In Typhon Hunter, a group of players control small, spider-like aliens that can take on any form. They use this ability to hide within an environment, perhaps as a box in a corner, for example. Another human player is tasked with seeking out the others and killing them before they kill you.
It’s a wonderful premise and we’ll be excited to see how it holds up in VR, which is sure to make the experience much more jumpy. We assume that, as with the first VR update, this is only available on the PC version of Prey. We’ve reached out to Bethesda to ask after possible plans for PSVR support.
The first VR update added an all-new, escape room-style puzzle mode to Prey. It recycled some of the game’s original environments. We thought it was polished but a little underwhelming. You could see through the entire thing in less than an hour, for example, and there wasn’t any of the complexity of the wider game’s combat and RPG systems. We haven’t tried Prey’s multiplayer VR support, but perhaps the combination of the two might make this an attractive prospect to VR owners.
What’s Next For Bethesda?
With Prey’s latest VR release, Bethesda has just one prospective VR project left that we know about. That’s the teased VR support for The Elder Scrolls: Blades, though we haven’t seen an update on this since the game’s reveal at E3 2018. Bethesda gave us Skyrim and Fallout 4 in VR, so we’re hoping the company at least has some new VR ports in the works, if not all-new games.
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Prey’s VR Support Is A Polished, Underwhelming Escape Room Campaign
Bethesda’s previous VR efforts have been as ambitious, if not always as successful, as VR gaming gets. By pouring through its back catalog the publisher has given us takes on Doom, Skyrim and Fallout 4 to revisit inside headsets with ports that ask players to overlook a few awkward inevitabilities in return for massive worlds to explore. The trade-off, many would argue, is worth it, but with Prey’s VR content Bethesda takes a more familiar route.
Instead of adapting all of Arkane Studios’ 2017 (rather brilliant) first-person shooter into VR, Prey’s new Typhoon Hunter update adds a much smaller VR ‘campaign’ consisting of three escape room-style missions that take anywhere between 10 to 20 minutes to solve each. These levels strip back much of the original game’s core mechanics, like combat and free movement across a semi-open world, in favor of some relatively simple puzzle solving. It’s basically another one those smaller experiences like Gran Turismo Sport or Rise of the Tomb Raider‘s VR extras.
They’re fun excursions into the wider world of Prey, even if they’re relatively uneventful and quickly forgotten. Each mission takes place before the main campaign, tying into characters and environments that you’ll have encountered the first time around.
I’m usually not one for VR puzzle games, but Prey’s puzzles felt a little too easy even for me. The first environment, for example, really only needs you to just find objects and documents that will give you the answers, whereas the final level can be solved in almost no time at all. They are varied, at the very least, but escape room fanatics will be disappointed at the challenge on offer here.
One could argue, though, that this is less about solving puzzles and more about experiencing the game’s expertly-crafted atmosphere with a headset on. It is indeed a joy to revisit some of these areas in VR and it benefits from the level of polish Arkane put into the main game. It’s rare to find environments that are this detailed and, frankly, believable in VR. You can pick up most objects and there is at least one of the original game’s most recognizable moments (neuromod installation) recreated, but it’s also hard to deny that the absence of many of the game’s central mechanics leaves it all feeling a bit lifeless.
There could have been so much more to it, too. Prey’s most infamous enemies, mimics, take on the shape of objects in a room and then spring out at you when you least suspect it, and the game’s deep combat system, which is clearly influenced by BioShock, would have been fun to explore in VR. Add in side-quests and an intriguing story and you have something that would have been really interesting to revisit inside a headset. Instead, you’ll only be able to see all of the enemies and weapons behind glass in an appreciated if unremarkable virtual museum.
There’s also some weird choices made in the design. If you bring your hand to any surface your virtual self won’t follow you as you move through it. It just stays stuck to the wall as if you’d lost tracking. We all understand that the lack of haptic feedback in VR makes this a (literally) touchy issue, but it feels stranger to see your hand get stuck than it does to see it imitate your actual motions. You can’t help but wish Arkane had looked at what practically everyone else is doing inside VR.
A bit of a missed opportunity, then. We do know that there’s going to be VR support for Prey’s multiplayer mimic-hunting mode early next year which should provide some funny jump scares, but the original game’s measured pacing does feel well-suited for the platform, moreso than Doom ever did. As it stands, this feels like a step back for Bethesda’s VR efforts.
Prey’s VR content is available as part of the Typhoon Hunter DLC or available in the game’s Mooncrash Edition with support for the HTC Vive on PC and PSVR on PS4.
Tagged with: Prey
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‘Typhon Hunter’ VR Multiplayer to Launch in Early 2019, VR Escape Room Next Week
Prey: Typhon Hunter, the final update to Prey: Digital Deluxe and Prey: Mooncrash, is set to release December 11th on PC, PS4, and Xbox One, although VR users will have to wait a bit longer to jump into the 5v1 multiplayer prop hunting action.
Like PropHunt in Gary’s Mod, one player is assigned as the hunter (Morgan Yu) while the others try to hide out and evade detection as typhons, the game’s alien race of mimics that can turn into everyday objects like mugs, chairs—practically anything you can think of.
Bethesda says in a blog post that VR support for Typhon Hunter is slated to arrive sometime in “early 2019.”
A VR-only single-player escape room dubbed TranStar VR is launching on December 11th however. TranStar VR is set just days before the disastrous events of Prey, tasking you with solving puzzles in various locations across Talos I. “Each map will have its own unique story and objective,” the studio says.
TranStar VR also comes along with an expanded TranStar Museum, inspired by the museum in the Talos I lobby. You’ll be able to get up-close-and-personal with everything from spacesuits and Neuromods, to weapons and several Typhon aliens. An interactive tour will also let you dive a little deeper into history of TranStar and Talos I.
The studio has been shy on detailing exactly which VR headsets will see support, although they’ve said it’s coming to PSVR and PC VR, the latter likely entailing support for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift.
Typhon Hunter and TranStar VR are free to users who own the Mooncrash DLC or Prey: Digital Deluxe edition.
New players will be able to purchase Prey: Digital Deluxe for $40 to receive for the whole kit and caboodle; existing Prey owners can upgrade their game to Prey: Mooncrash for $20.
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Bethesda to Begin Rollout of Prey’s VR Updates This Month
Last year Bethesda Softworks released the well-received first-person shooter (FPS) Prey, by Arkane Studios. Of late the company has begun to embrace virtual reality (VR), releasing titles like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR and Doom VFR in 2017. Then during the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2018 the company made a surprise reveal that Prey would be getting its own VR content in the form of a couple of updates. Those updates are due to begin rolling out next week.
The VR updates are an addition to DLC package Prey: Mooncrash which arrived during the summer. The first is Typhon Hunter, adding a multiplayer element to the single-player experience. This isn’t a standard team deathmatch affair, instead, one player becomes the main protagonist while up to five other players become shape-shifting mimics.
The mimics deadliest advantage is that they can transform into nearly any object, able to lay in wait until the opportune moment. Of course, they have a downside, they only have one life. The aim of the mode is for the mimics to live until the timer runs out, while the main character player has to kill them all within the time limit.
Typhon Hunter will be available for Prey players – so long as they have the Mooncrash DLC – on 11th December for free. The VR version isn’t quite ready, set to arrive in early 2019.
TranStar VR, on the other hand, will be available on 11th December. This is a single-player escape room mode designed exclusively for VR, allowing players to solve puzzles across some of the most memorable locations on Talos I. Maps such as Yellow Tulip, Sim Labs, and Morgan’s Office will each have its own unique story and objective.
In addition to the escape rooms, the TranStar VR update includes the TranStar Museum, enabling players to get up close and examine props and other objects from the videogame. For further updates from Bethesda regarding VR content, keep reading VRFocus.
Prey’s Long-Awaited VR Content Is Coming Next Week
Good news! The Prey VR content that Bethesda announced at E3 back in June hasn’t been lost in a black hole; it’s coming out next week.
The company today confirmed that the Prey Typhoon Hunter DLC will be releasing on December 11th. While there’s a bunch of updates for the standard game here, VR fans can look forward to a new single-player escape room mode named TranStar VR. This new experience is set days before the events of the original game and casts you as TranStar employees trying to solve puzzles and make their way out of various locations first seen in the game’s campaign.
There’s also a new museum mode that will allow you to inspect a bunch of Prey assets in VR. Meanwhile, the actual Typhoon Hunter multiplayer mode, which has players hunting for shape-shifting mimics, will be getting an update that adds VR support in early 2019.
These new modes will be free to anyone that owns the Digital Deluxe edition of Prey or that picked up the Mooncrash DLC. The VR content will support the HTC Vive and PlayStation VR headsets. Elsewhere, Bethesda is also going to be publishing a VR spin-off of Wolfenstein next year too.
Tagged with: Prey
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