There’s just over a week to go until Christmas, which likely means platforms such as Steam have got some big sale plans in store for their annual winter offerings. If you happen to be looking for a new videogame to play today, then VRFocus has found a selection on Steam you may want to take a look at.
Being Steam, the following titles will support a range of head-mounted displays (HMDs), including HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and Windows Mixed Reality. Always double check compatibility before purchase as not all experiences support each device. Some of these offers are time limited.
That’s your lot for this week, come back next Sunday for another discount selection when VRFocus will be looking at what Oculus has to offer PC VR players.
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.”
Image courtesy Bethesda Softworks, Arkane Studios
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.
Image courtesy Bethesda Softworks, Arkane Studios
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.
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.
Last year’s reboot of Prey was met with significant critical acclaim, and Bethesda Softworks are looking to increase the lifespan of the title with a brand new downloadable content (DLC) pack, known as Mooncrash, coming soon. Free to all owners of the videogame, the new DLC will include two virtual reality (VR) components; the multi-player orientated Typhon Hunter and a single-player experience, TranStar VR.
While Typhoon Hunter wasn’t playable at this year’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), TranStar VR appeared it what seemed to be a near-final form. There’s no telling at what point in the videogame the vertical slice VRFocus experienced took place; but given the ease of interaction and the lack of threat it’s likely to be very close to the opening section.
The entire sequence takes place in a large room, which will appear familiar to anyone who played the original release. All the basic utensils of the world of Prey are contained within – recycling machine, fabricator, looking glass – and they must be used as the same fashion as previously done in order to complete the task at hand. The demonstration that VRFocus witnessed was very light on the action; without time constraints or any imminent threat whatsoever, it was purely a case of joining the dots to reach the end.
Ahead of the player’s starting point is a piece of tech with a missing component, which the player is informed by an adjacent screen that they must find to engage the required process. Next is moving to a PC to gather information, solving a puzzle through hidden messages on whiteboards, recycling items to create blocks of specific types of matter; the same kind of puzzles as seen in the original Prey but with far less obvious signposting.
The experience culminates as the player finds typhon energy littered throughout the space which, upon collecting a certain amount, things take an unfortunate turn. It’s the first instance of any kind of obstruction that the player will encounter, and is remains very limited in such a way even then.
As interesting as the potential for a Prey VR experience could seem, TranStar VR has some significant issues at present. As stated throughout this preview, there is neither reason nor rhyme for completing the objectives in front of you. There’s no time pressure, no risk of failure and no opposition. All of the objectives feel somewhat disjointed; while it’s often very appealing to find a videogame which doesn’t attach obvious signposts to each and every interaction in the modern industry, it’s also not particularly encouraging to be left without anything other than a breadcrumb trail of ‘this object goes here, generates new object which goes here’. Furthermore, at present Prey – TranStar VR only allows for teleportation movement. There is no smooth locomotion option in the E3 2018 preview build.
Whether or not Prey – TranStar VR will find reason and perhaps even tension in later areas of the videogame remains to be seen, however at present it feels like a step backwards into the type of VR experience that early adopters were witnessing back in 2015. Given Bethesda Softworks VR output to date it’d be hard to bet against Arkane Studios, but at present the hopes rest upon the shoulders of the as-yet-unseen VR multiplayer mode, Typhon Hunter.
2017 was a landmark year for virtual reality (VR), with not only the hardware maturing but also a number of huge entertainment properties making their way to the medium. Leading the charge was Bethesda Softworks, with adaptations of three of their most popular videogame experiences. Now, at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2018, the publisher has confirmed three more titles are on their way, and this time VR is coming closer to home.
The first VR title confirmed at this year’s event was a brand new standalone experience set within the Wolfenstein universe, Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot. Following a fashion similar to DOOM VFR, Wolfenstein: Cyberpilot takes place two decades since the events of Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus. It expands on the storyline presented within the bloodline titles while casting the player in a new role: in this case, a fire-breathing Panzerhund and other familiar war machines. The second title, an expansion to 2017’s Prey reboot, presents an interesting new competitive mode, playable against non-VR players. Set to be offered as part of the with Prey: Mooncrash update later this year, Prey – Typhon Hunter pits one player against several others cast as Mimics with nothing more than survival being the objective.
An additional new gameplay mode coming to Prey offers a single-player escape room scenario, called TranStar VR. As one of several TranStar employees the player will be faced with finding a solution for puzzles laid out ahead of them in different environments from the Talos I space station.
While these all sound like incredibly enticing gameplay opportunities and potentially huge boons to the entertainment side of VR, the third title is undoubtedly the most interesting. Presented as a videogame built for smartphones, The Elder Scrolls: Blades is apparently coming to every conceivable format; including consoles, PC and VR. In fact, according to Todd Howard, Director and Executive Producer at Bethesda Game Studios, it would appear that The Elder Scrolls: Blades will hit ‘most every head-mounted display (HMD) aside from PlayStation VR.
“This is an Elder Scrolls game that you can play however and wherever you want,” stated Howard during Bethesda Softworks’ pre-E3 press conference yesterday. “And we are going to bring Blades to every device and system we can; phones, PCs, consoles, also virtual reality on mobile, all the way up to high-end VR on PCs.”
That is of course not confirmation that The Elder Scrolls: Blades won’t launch on PlayStation VR, but the wording seems very specific. Time will tell on that front.
Right now however, what we do know is that with The Elder Scrolls: Blades, VR is being treated as part of the standardised array of formats. Players will be able to enjoy playing The Elder Scrolls: Blades on their smartphone against players in VR, or on their console with VR players. Exactly how this will play out is not yet known, but the fact that one of the biggest videogame producers in the world is looking at VR as a peer to smartphone, console and PC gaming is undoubtedly an exciting takeaway from this year’s E3.
But given last year’s successful VR push it’s no wonder Bethesda Softworks are looking to bring more titles to VR. The publisher has quickly become synonymous with some of the most exciting and enduring experiences available through the relatively youthful medium and in 2018 will be looking to cement that position way ahead of the maturing of VR for mainstream audiences. There’s still a chance that Ubisoft might pull something out of the bag during their pre-E3 press conference later today, but as things stand Bethesda Softworks are looking to take home not only the E3 mantel for VR, but also 2018 as a whole.
Bethesda today announced at E3 2018 that DLC for Prey (2017) is coming, and that two VR-compatible game modes will be available soon—a single player escape room game and a multiplayer game called ‘Typhon Hunter’, both of which will be available later this summer as part of the Mooncrash DLC, or in the Prey: Digital Deluxe.
In Prey, the main baddies are the typhon, an alien race of mimics that can turn into things like moon rocks, mugs – basically anything.
Typhon Hunter is a multiplayer gamemode in Prey: Mooncrash, which essentially plays out like a game of cat and mouse; hunt the typhon disguised as a trashcan or Windex bottle. According to Bethesda, the new competitive VR mode pits the series’ protagonist Morgan Yu against mimics that will stalk, hunt and hide in plain sight as they try to take Yu down.
Typhon Hunter will also be available outside of VR, which is good news for keeping the playerbase healthy.
Arkane’s Typhon Hunter update is also said to include a solo escape room in VR mode called ‘TranStar VR’. In TranStar VR, you solve puzzles in the Talos I space station. TranStar VR will also be downloadable later this summer, as a free update with the Mooncrash DLC or the Prey: Digital Deluxe.
During their Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) 2018 conference Bethesda revealed two virtual reality (VR) experiences for their popular title Prey. These new VR releases will bring a new single player experience set in the Prey universe to VR players along with also supporting the upcoming Prey: Typhon Hunter multiplayer mode, that was also announced during the E3 2018 conference.
Prey: Typhon Hunter is a new multiplayer mode that will invite players to play a game of hide-and-seek in which one player will be tasked with hunting down a number of other players who will be disguising themselves as mimics. The VR mode will allow players to become fully immersive within the Prey universe as they hide, or seek, in an intense sci-fi multiplayer experience. No matter if players are a minic or playing as Morgan Yu, both roles will be playable within VR.
Announced alongside the Prey: Typhon Hunter VR multiplayer mode will be an escape room VR mode, called TranStar VR. This new mode puts players in the boots of a TranStar employee, solving mysterious puzzles in some of the most gorgeous environments from the Talos I space station. This immersive mode will be releasing later this summer along with the release of Typhon Hunter, which is also planned for a summer release.
Bethesda have released a number of VR titles before with The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim,Fallout 4 and DOOM getting VR versions across PC and consoles. All of these releases were met with positive praise on release with VRFocus’ Editor Kevin Joyce describing DOOM VFR in his review saying: “DOOM VFR stands as a fine example of just what can be achieved with the FPS genre in VR as of today, lining-up against Robo Recall as an action-heavy experience that throws the rulebook out of the window. It’s true that the visual quality has suffered dramatically and the control systems could be seen as far too awkward by many, but the fact that DOOM VFR pushes so hard against the VR grain makes it well worth any PlayStation VR owner’s time and money.”
There is currently no details on which platforms or headsets will be supported by Prey: Typhon Hunter VR mode and TranStar VR, but both are set to release in the summer as a free update with the Mooncrash DLC or owners of the Prey: Digital Deluxe version. VRFocus will bring you all the latest from E3 2018 and the upcoming Prey VR experiences, so stay tuned for more.
