HUMANITY, a undeniably unique looking title from Tokyo-based design studio Tha LTD uses massive crowd simulation with an apparent focus on on puzzle and RTS-like gameplay. The game was revealed today and announced to be headed to PS4 in 2020 with optional PSVR support.
Though the studio is being intentionally vague about exactly what kind of gameplay players can expect from Humanity, the reveal trailer shown off today is enough to pique our interest. Road to VR editor Scott Hayden suitably described the snippets of gameplay in the trailer as “like Lemmings and a tower defense mixed with existential angst.”
With an original style and hordes of simulated crowds, the game looks like it’ll involve elements of physics-based puzzling and maybe even some RTS-like combat. Studio Tha LTD is being intentionally vague about how the game will actually play, though it promises to reveal more next year.
Developer Tha LTD is working with creative studio Enhance—founded by Tetsuya Mizuguchi, known as the mind behind Rez (2001)—which is aiding in both publishing “as well as contribut[ing] to level design and general gameplay consulting.”
“From the first early demo I saw, I couldn’t get HUMANITY out of my head,” says Mizuguchi. “The whole look and feel of it—manipulating these teeming masses of people—was mesmerizing, especially in VR. I knew right away it could be something special, which is why I couldn’t be more excited to help a visionary like [Tha LTD founder] Yugo-san realize its full potential.”
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Image courtesy tha ltd.
Image courtesy tha ltd.
Image courtesy tha ltd.
Image courtesy tha ltd.
It’s a seemingly natural fit thanks to Mizuguchi’s experience in realizing games with stark visual-audio styles, including VR-optional titles like Rez Infinite (2017) and Tetris Effect (2018).
Humanity is due out in 2020on PSVR and will include optional PSVR support, though we’re expecting it will be a controller-only game.
During the PlayStation State of Play presentation, Sony announced that L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files will be available starting today on PSVR.
L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files launched on PC VR headset back in 2017, offering up discrete slices of the original L.A. Noire which launched as a non-VR game way back in 2011.
The VR version of the game is getting a surprise launch on PSVR today, Sony announced during its State of Play presentation. While we haven’t seen the game actually hit the store just yet, we expect it to be priced near $30 (the current price of the PC VR version).
Image courtesy Rockstar Games
The crime-solving gameplay of L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files has players scavenging for clues, interrogating witnesses, and getting into high-speed pursuits as they track down criminals in a 1940’s Los Angeles setting.
Posting over at the official PlayStation Blog, Rockstar says the PSVR version of L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files includes three exclusive mini-games “designed to take full advantage of the game’s unique VR mechanics.”
Boxing: Step into the ring as Cole Phelps and take on 12 different opponents
Speedcar Racing: Race classic 1940’s “Speedcar” vehicles against AI opponents on three new dirt tracks
Shooting Galleries: Keep your eye in with target practice in four different shooting galleries, each with their own challenges, targets and weapons
Additionally the title has seen tweaks and technical upgrades “specifically built for the PlayStation system including greater draw distance and upgraded visual fidelity; new sitting and standing modes (including a new ‘Crouch’ button for easier object inspection); enhanced navigation, locomotion and weapon tuning.”
Not entirely unexpected for a title which was ported to VR from 2011 source material, we didn’t find the 2017 PC VR version of the game particularly compelling due to clunky gameplay and immersion-breaking design. In our review of L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files we scored the game 5.8 out of 10 (on our linear scoring scale):
Rockstar’s attempt at revamping 2011’s LA Noire for VR is respectable, but it seems that they bit off significantly more than they could chew. What seems on paper like a great idea—to repurpose a detailed open world and innovative facial motion capture—needs a lot more time and effort than the studio was ready to put in. L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files is more of a scavenger hunt than detective work; a near miss that underutilizes its most engaging elements and does so much to keep immersion at bay.
Those who own the non-VR version of L.A. Noire for PS4 can get a 25% discount on VR Case Files by purchasing the VR version through the non-VR game’s menu.
Espire 1: VR Operative, Digital Lode and Tripwire Interactive’s hotly-awaited VR stealth combat game, may have been delayed a day before it was originally set for release back in September, but now the studios say the time is nigh for the game’s launch; it’s now slated to arrive on November 22nd.
Update (November 20th, 2019): Espire 1: VR Operative is officially slated to arrive on November 22nd, coming to Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Valve Index, Windows Mixed Reality, and PlayStation VR.
The original article follows below:
Original Article (September 23rd, 2019): Originally planned for release on September 24th, Digital Lode and Tripwire Interactive announced today—one day before its planned launch—that Espire 1: VR Operative is going to be delayed by several weeks.
The studios say in a Steam community post that launch, which is now slated to take place sometime in Fall 2019, has been delayed due to “a few lingering issues that were not so readily apparent in previous testing.”
“Currently we have found some stability and performance issues, that while not always impacting the player, will be frequent enough with sustained play that we feel it would hinder your enjoyment.”
The game has been under development for a few years now by the Melbourne-based Digital Lode, and was previously scheduled to release sometime in August. The studios subsequently pushed back launch to September 24th, an announcement that came only a few days before the end of August.
Espire 1 is a story-based single-player VR game centered around stealth and espionage, with not only a healthy does of gun combat, but plenty of novel locomotion and game mechanics to boot. Take a look at the GDC 2019 gameplay play-through to see a bit of what Espire 1 had on offer:
Espire 1 is priced at $30, and is targeting a variety of platforms, including HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Valve Index, Windows VR, PSVR, and Oculus Quest.
Cloudhead Games, the studio behind The Gallery series and Aperture Hand Labs, today announced that its upcoming ‘action-rhythm FPS’ Pistol Whip is set to arrive on November 7th.
Pistol Whip is said to include cross-buy for the Oculus Store version, meaning you’ll only need to buy the game once to play on either Rift or Quest. The game also supports HTC Vive, Valve Index, and Windows VR headsets via Steam and Viveport.
The studio maintains that Pistol Whip is also heading to PSVR soon, although it hasn’t mentioned any specific release window yet.
In case you haven’t seen the game’s E3 2019 reveal back in June, the unique action-rhythm shooter is being billed as ‘part Superhot and part Beat Saber‘; it also includes a runner-style movement scheme that sends you hurdling through an abstract crystalline world that’s teeming with baddies that need to be shot—and providing they’re close enough—pistol whipped to pieces.
Cloudhead says they were also inspired by action films such as John Wick and Equilibrium, and if the new trailer is any indication, it’s pretty easy to see how.
“As a VR-centric studio, we’ve always placed a focus on player agency in VR. With Pistol Whip we wanted users to feel like their favorite action hero, planted in the center of an unstoppable action sequence,” said Denny Unger, Cloudhead CEO and creative director.
To supply the rhythm-based game with music, the studio has partnered with Montreal-based Kannibalen Records to deliver what it calls a “pulse-pounding 10-song soundtrack,” which is said to include music by EDM bands such as Apashe, HVDES, and Black Tiger Sex Machine. Cloudhead says regular music and level updates are planned for post-launch.
You can wishlist Pistol Whip on your preferred platform below:
Following an update earlier this summer which added a New Game+ mode, mini-game challenges, and online leaderboards, a new Blood & Truth update today adds a Hard Mode, a handful of new shooting challenges, and some new trophies for completionists to chase.
Blood & Truth, easily one of PSVR’s top games in 2019 (our review here), gets a free update today which will give players reason to dive back in to London’s underground. London Studio detailed the update over at the official PlayStation Blog.
In addition to shooting challenges that were previously added to the game post-launch, this update adds five new skeet shooting challenges that will test your ability to shoot clay pigeons out of the air with your trusty shotgun.
Authentic Skeet In our Authentic Skeet experience, you move between eight stations shooting at high and low clays launched as singles or doubles. 25 is a perfect score but we’ll be timing you to sort the hotshots from the wannabes.
Extreme Skeet Move between eight stations on London’s rooftops, shooting high and low clay launches as singles and doubles. Look out for additional targets between stations for extra points.
Endurance Skeet Here, clays are launched from high towers. Lose a life for every clay you miss. You have three lives but can earn a lost life back with three consecutive hits. Hit as many clays as you can before you run out of lives.
Puzzle Skeet Hit three targets to release a colored clay. Lights switch on with each hit target tell you which color clay you need to shoot next. Hit the Clay to move on to the next set of targets, miss and you need to hit the three targets again to relaunch the clay.
Action Skeet This is our training challenge, which includes static and launched targets. You can polish your skills in here.
There’s also a hidden gnome in each of the modes which will earn you a new trophy when you find all five.
The update also brings Hard Mode to Blood & Truth, and players can choose to play individual missions in Hard Mode or start a full Hard Mode playthrough with New Game+ (which allows players to use their unlocked arsenal from a previous playthrough at the start of a new campaign). A new trophy is awaiting those who tackle the whole campaign in Hard Mode.
Hard Mode is pretty much what it sounds like… London Studio says that enemies are more accurate while the player has less health which is also slower to recover. The game’s ‘Precision Mode’ slow-mo feature is also reduced in Hard Mode, but painted as an invaluable tool because enemies will be less accurate if you use it while moving.
To tackle Hard Mode, the studio reminds players they can use silencers on their weapons to take out enemies quietly, use their off-hand to steady the weapon’s recoil (even on pistols), and equip scopes and laser sights to be more accurate.
The game’s online rankings are also getting a separate Hard Mode leaderboard for those who want to vie for the top score.
Words I never thought I would say: the iconic ’90s film Groundhog Day (1993) finally has a sequel … and it’s a VR game. Although I don’t think anything can live up to the original—game, film, or otherwise—Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son shows it’s capable of delivering some sincere moments that definitely stick. A healthy amount of tedium may be best left to a film montage sequence, although it’s hard to complain too much about doing the same thing over and over considering the source material.
Developer: Tequila Works Publisher: Sony Available On: Steam (Vive, Rift), Oculus (Rift), Viveport (Vive, Rift) PlayStation Store (PSVR) Reviewed On: Rift Release Date: September 17th, 2019 Price: $30
Gameplay
It’s present day, and Phil Connors has passed away, leaving his family to mourn his death with a yearly memorial service that’s exactly one day before Groundhog Day. His youngest son, Phil Connors Jr., is a snarky, egotistical 20-something who’s just like his dad was before he broke out of his life-changing, sisyphean time loop 26 years prior.
As a hip-kid-influencer on his way to a big meeting with a streaming video company, Junior is trapped in his hometown of Punxsutawney, doomed to live the same day over and over until he can learn to accept his flaws, let go of his ego, and reconnect with his friends and family. He’s not there for all that though, but rather to monetize his dad’s memorial service in a vlog before finding out that he’s snowed in. Déjà vu, all over again.
Image courtesy Tequila Works
Groundhog Day VR is in essence an updated rehashing of the original film, one that I found to be a genuinely sincere take on things. Thanks to the game’s cast of talented voice actors, it delivers some key moments that will definitely hit you right in the feels. If you’ve ever lost a parent, ruined a friendship, wished you could help someone but didn’t know how, Groundhog Day VR delves into all that, and in a way that may have you sitting back and reflecting on your own life. Although its overall story is tarnished somewhat by the lack of any real laugh-out-loud humor, instead tending towards dad joke-level humor and aimless sarcasm from Junior the story’s emotional beats definitely do their best to impress.
As a side note: sadly, the game does away with the same comedic morbidity from the original film—i.e. Phil Sr. finally coming to the end of his rope and killing himself in funny and interesting ways. There are a few ways to reset the day unexpectedly, namely drinking alcohol until blackout, spraying yourself in the face with spray paint, and drilling into your own head, but nothing that felt unique or particularly surprising. This strikes me as a bit of a misstep, considering the game doesn’t shy away from other adult themes. I was hoping to save lives, and put my own in danger, but the VR sequel decides to be a little less risqué than its namesake.
Although I basically liked the story, and its cast of quirky characters, I found the gaming side of things to be a bit of a letdown. Essentially, you’re given a dialogue tree in every NPC interaction that I found was less about user choice, and more about following your prescribed duty. Whether you like it or not, you will screw up everything in every way. Whether you like it or not, you will become nice person and you will repent.
If find this lack of user choice a big part of the game’s flow; it’s less about connecting the dots on your own and being clever, and more about beating your head against the wall until you’ve checked all the boxes on your list, where you’re eventually given a decent response that doesn’t make you sound like a piece of shit. Although these ‘correct’ responses are highlighted for later use, it’s an absolute bore having to listen to the exact same dialogue for the umpteenth time (somewhat forgivable considering) and deliver the same dialogue too.
Image captured by Road to VR
There are a number of mini-games too, which make for sometimes interesting breaks. Although none of them were geared toward skill-building for later use, and rather act as hurdles to jump over (and in some cases over and over), they’re varied and interesting enough to keep you going, which more often than not results in unlocking the all important dialogue shortcut so you can skip some of the tedium later on. It’s not until about halfway through that you’re given those dialogue shortcuts though, so you’ll find yourself repeating both NPC and your own unskippable dialogue until things speed up closer to the end and you finally see the light at end of the tunnel.
In the end, it took me about five hours to complete. Besides a few easter eggs hidden throughout, there isn’t much reason to head back in if you’re already finished the story. The creators maintained it would feature a branching story, but that’s only true in the context of what you decide to work on first, be it the relationship with a long-lost lover, or pleasing your mom by finishing a statue of your dad in the park. Everything must be done before the game is over, and it’s not intertwined enough to make one decision really affect another.
Besides some less than engaging gameplay elements though, Groundhog Day VR had enough in store to get me through this in a single sitting. I personally found it pretty entertaining, but not necessarily rising to the heights of ‘fun’.
Immersion
Character design is charming, although animation can be pretty rough around the edges in Groundhog Day VR at times, which is unfortunate because I can really see that the broad strokes were well-intentioned here.
drinking a smoothie with the lid on, Image captured by Road to VR
NPCs stayed well enough away from the uncanny valley with their cartoony style, but the fit and finish of the characters left something to be desired. On a flat screen, it may not be so apparent, but in VR a weird mouth movement, clipping into another character, or engaging in dialogue on top of another NPC can really take you out of the scene. Instead, I found most of the game’s memorable moments were presented in still-frame flashbacks where dear old dad teaches you about life.
Another impingement on immersion was overall poor object interaction. Items have only one or two grippable areas, and not always in the most comfortable or logical places. Simply repositioning a menu in your hand or reaching for a glass becomes a game of skill in and of itself. A yellow highlight appears when you’re close to picking up items, which essentially works as a visual cue, but that doesn’t stop you from really mangling objects if they’re too close together and you don’t delicately pick them up and set them down.
The worst offender by far in terms of object interaction was the guitar, which plays a fairly important role later in the game. Getting through that part was a nightmare, which thankfully was a one-off mini-game, but strumming the instrument was so off-kilter that you’re almost guaranteed to activate a wrong movement if you’re not extremely careful.
Overall though the settings are extremely cohesive, and really bring in the small town feel that the film exudes.
Comfort
While not the most immersive, teleportation is by far one of the most comfortable ways of getting around in VR. There isn’t any other movement schemes besides snap-turn for users with front-facing sensor arrangements.
Although there is an automatic seated option, which raises your virtual height up to standing level, seated users may still have issue with reaching both higher and lower objects. I played mostly seated, although there were time when I had to physically stand up to reach a bottle on a high cabinet, or bend over to get a coin on the ground. I think a better force-grab would have addressed this, but it’s simply not present in the game.
The ‘Beyond’ update to No Man’s Sky (2016), which brought VR support to the game alongside a host of improvements, is admittedly far from perfect. Hello Games seems to be chewing through some of the biggest gripes VR gamers have though, notably the game’s graphical fidelity on PSVR.
To that effect, the studio announced that they’re bringing some optimizations to all VR platforms, and not just PSVR.
Battlewake is a pirate ship combat game that seems to have it all; not only does it boast a campaign for both solo and two-player co-op, but also online PvP and a co-op ‘ongoing missions’ mode—certainly nothing to sneeze at in terms of a VR game. All of this ultimately gives it a more secure footing where multiplayer-only titles may have faltered in the past, but some might still walk away from this mostly well-polished arena battler craving something just a bit deeper.
Developer: Survios Available On: Steam (Vive, Rift), Oculus (Rift), Viveport (Vive, Rift) PlayStation Store (PSVR – EU version coming soon) Reviewed On: Rift Release Date: September 10th, 2019 Price: $30
Gameplay
Let’s get one thing out of the way before heading into the review proper: Battlewake is not Sea of Thieves in VR. Although there’s a lot of interesting things going on with this plucky little arena battler that may seem like they would translate to a larger, more expansive title, Battlewake decidedly focuses on discrete nautical arenas where you battle in a ‘one person, one boat’ style experience. It’s different, and not in a bad way, although you should definitely tailor your expectations before heading in. Now, on to the review.
Battlewake’s 20-chapter campaign follows the story of four captains, each of which has their own specific boats, weapons, and two levels of ultimate attacks—one that charges up more rapidly for smaller and more frequent attacks, and the big boy that eventually lets you spawn massive area-based effects like hurricanes, krakens, and title waves. And for whatever critique that follows, ultimates are unequivocally awesome.
Image courtesy Survios
Campaign mode promises a variety of medium-sized arena maps, but they basically fall into four categories: tropical, icy, swampy, and volcano-hellscape. Most maps present their own environmental quirks too—swamps provide better cover, volcano-hellscapes assault you with raining debris, icy maps have giant floating icebergs, and the tropics can get pretty stormy, generating large waves capable of obscuring potential targets at times. You don’t need a compass or anything to find your way around either because the maps are small enough so you’ll never get lost. If you happen to have your back turned to an objective, a floating symbol will tell you which way to go.
Although the later stages do present more of a challenge, I only ended up dying twice throughout the entire campaign, which took me exactly two hours to complete. I chalk these deaths up to initially misunderstanding how the targeting system works; it requires you to physically point either your left or right hand at the enemies, lock on to the target while tracking it, and wait for the reticle to shrink and pulling the trigger, signifying that you’re getting the most accurate shot possible. Ammo is infinite, although there’s a cool-down time for most weapons, which typically include a weak forward-facing gun, stronger cannons or ballistas on your two sides, and a closer range weapon on your rear.
Image courtesy Survios
I’ll talk more about the control scheme in the Immersion section below, although it was ultimately an easy way of shooting and navigating the boat that I think anyone can pick up in short order.
With no apparent difficulty settings, and the ability to pick up health from the crates that enemies leave in their wake as you damage them, the campaign turned out to be fairly easy once the controls schemes became second nature.
Enemy variety is however pretty lackluster, and includes small kamikaze-style vessels, a few unremarkable boats of varying sizes, and either a large boss boat or an island fort, each of which have more health and their own unique ultimate attacks to avoid. Outside of lining up correctly to target any given ship, you don’t really need any special tactics to kill anything in the campaign; just point, click, shoot, rinse and repeat.
If I don’t sound too hot on the campaign, that’s because I’m not. I felt like it could have woven a more engrossing story than the disembodied (and admittedly talented) voice actors provided. It also could have offered up some deeper gameplay to break up the standard flow of arena-based missions. Instead, you’re left with a one-way trip through a pretty predictable premise that felt like more of an extended tutorial than anything else. You don’t make any game-changing decisions, you definitely never leave your boat, and you just sort of sample what the game’s multiplayer has without really engaging with the story or anyone in it.
Adding insult to injury: after beating the last boss, which was only marginally more difficult than the previous one, you’re abruptly thrown back into the captains lodge for an unceremonious ‘You won! Thanks for playing!’ and a credit roll. It’s a shame the game ended so easily and with such little fanfare; there’s truly a lot going on for Battlewake when it comes to locomotion, environment, and its awesome ultimate powers, but the entire campaign felt pretty unremarkable.
Image courtesy Survios
The campaign isn’t everything though, and outside of the story mode, replay value comes in one of three flavors. You can co-op with up to four people in the infinite mix of objectives called ‘Warfare’, play in a 10-player online deathmatch called ‘Plunder’, or alternatively return to the campaign with a buddy for a two-player co-op run.
Warfare mode presents you two specific currencies. Tankards of grog are dolled out after each completed mission, and you can use that to continuously level up your ship’s basic HP, firepower, and ultimate power, all of which helps you battle the increasingly tough enemies. Coins can also be earned to be used on permanent upgrades too that you can carry over to deathmatches, although they’re harder to gain than grog in general thanks to ever-increasing unlock prices.
Image captured by Road to VR
I took a little while to gel with Warfare. Even playing with another person for a good 30 minutes, it ultimately felt more like a casual shoot-out than a real challenge. Going in with the max number of people does provide the best chance for competitive friction to occur, although Warfare may really only be valuable for farming XP and maxing out your ships for PvP. While you can technically play Warfare by yourself, it’s definitely more fun with a few other people, as you scramble to make the most kills and subsequently get the best loot at the end of the mission.
The ‘Plunder’ PvP mode instead presents a pretty standard shooter formula, as it puts ultimate boosters in specific spots on the map, and has up to 10 players duke it out. It is does diverge slightly from the formula though, as you can always tell where other players are on the map; you see both their name and health bars at all times, even when they’re camping behind a rock.
Unleashing the Kraken ultimate, Image courtesy Survios
Here, the power differential truly counts. The more you play deathmatch or Warfare co-op, the more coin you can potentially earn, thereby letting you permanently upgrade any one of your four ships. Some ships are by default better at long-range shooting, and others have more powerful closeup shot—pretty much what you’d expect from a bog standard free-for-all shooter.
If you’re looking for some uncomplicated PvP and a few random missions to play to fill out, Battlewake may not be a bad choice, but more variety could have ultimately added a ton of value to what, at least functionally, is a well-polished and functional pirate game.
In the end, Battlewake might better appeal to arcade audiences and new VR players, as its simple control scheme and uncomplicated gameplay makes for a good entry point into VR. At-home users who are mostly already over the VR honeymoon phase however may find Battlewake interesting, but too simplistic to truly warrant the repeat business VR multiplayer titles desperately need.
Immersion
One of the most (and arguably least) immersive bits about Battlewake is its control scheme. Some controls are based on direct object interaction, which generally feels pretty great. You can turn the wheel to maneuver the ship, and pull either of your lateral anchor handles to execute a tight turning maneuver; both offer a surprisingly satisfying way of guiding your ship through tight passages and scrambling to get out of the way of an oncoming kamikaze ship.
At the same time, there are a few less immersive controls here too, namely the reticle-based shooting system that activates different weapons depending upon where you’re trying to shoot. It’s all a bit of a strange mix, having physical controls mashed up with what essentially amounts to an abstracted laser pointer that comes from your hands. I know it’s done for convenience and ease of use, although the most convenient control isn’t necessarily the most immersive, I find. It’s definitely a balancing act, and I admit I’d rather have a quick and dirty solution for fast action than a slower solution when you’re in the heat of the moment, which in and of itself is a type of immersion too. When you stop thinking about the empty teacup on your desk and knock it over because you’re frantically turning your steering wheel like a madman, that means the game has done a pretty good job of immersing you, at least in the short term.
Both the art style and map designs are cohesive and well-built, although textures are a bit on the muddy side. As a separate issue, a VR headset with a sharper display than my standard OG Rift would also be a boon for anyone looking to play Battlewake, as distant enemies and environments can be hard to make out. While playing in Warfare mode with a friend in a Valve Index, it was immediately apparent that I was at a slight disadvantage in my Rift, as he had an easier time identifying baddies than me and therefore prioritize higher value targets better.
Comfort
Like all of Survios’ titles to date, Battlewake explores some pretty interesting territory technically speaking. I played for several hours at a time, and never felt a whiff of motion sickness, which is quite a feat for a game set entirely on a swaying, rocking boat.
Unlike a physical boat though, which can definitely upset the stomachs of motion sickness-prone users, Battlewake surprisingly provides a comfortable user experience. This is because you’re not exactly tied to the mast, so to speak, and you’re not exactly taking on the full brunt of the sea’s forces.
Instead, you’ll notice that as waves get worse, the ship will actually move somewhat independent from you, giving you more stability as a result. This can be irksome when you’re reaching down for the anchors, only to find they’ve moved a few inches behind you because the waves are tossing you so badly, but I’d rather take a look to relocate a handle than lose my lunch.
Snap-turn is also available so seated players can keep a better eye on their six without having to physically turn around.
Finally, Survios has implemented an optional FOV limiter that creep in to gently obscure your peripheral vision—or whatever’s left of it in the cramped confines of the VR headset. This helps to reduce the apparent motion you naturally sense when near-field objects whiz by you.
Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland loves VR, and his latest VR game, Trover Saves the Universe (2019), is getting its first DLC drop next month.
Called ‘Trover’s Important Cosmic Jobs’, the free DLC is headed to all supported platforms on October 8th. Trover Saves the Universe supports both PC and PS4 console as well as PSVR, HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and Valve Index.
According Trover—the weird eye-baby monster protagonist that help you along your way to find your stolen dogs—you’re going on a trip to where he actually works, Important Cosmic Jobs (ICJ).
There’s little else to go on for now, as Squanch Games says more information will arrive closer to the DLC’s launch, although the studio did release a PAX West trailer showing an extremely brief clip at the end.
Funnily enough, as soon as Trover’s introduction to the DLC starts, the reel runs out of tape, and you’re left wondering just what awaits.
Space Junkies (2019), the multiplayer sci-fi arena shooter from Ubisoft Montpellier, has reached a pretty significant impasse; the studio is pulling its previously planned support for the flatscreen version of the game, and issuing its final update on PSVR and PC VR headsets.
In a brief blog post, the studio says that they’re no longer actively developing for Space Junkies. The servers will still be open to VR players, although if you’re looking for more content from the multiplayer arena shooter, you’re out of luck.
Here’s the full statement below:
Hello Spacers,
We will be bringing the Space Junkies non-VR open beta to a close on Wednesday August 28th at 9am UTC.
While this is the end of our journey in terms of development of the game, the team is proud to have achieved what we set out to do: create a fun and fast-paced competitive FPS in VR.
The game servers will remain open and accessible to players who purchased the VR version of Space Junkies so that Spacers can continue to take on each other in the many community tournaments we’ve seen since launch.
The current plan, however, is to not release the non-VR version of the game.
Be sure to join our official Discord to keep in touch with other Spacers.
Released in March 2019 on PC VR headsets and PSVR, we gave Space Junkiesa solid [7.7/10] in our review, noting however that the admittedly standard arena shooter experience would need more than smooth visuals and Unreal Tournament-style gameplay to keep users happy in the long run.
After launch, the studio issued several updates and also organized multiple community events in an effort to stimulate ongoing user support. The game was most recently featured by ESL in Season 3 of the VR League, which saw over $25,000 go to finals winners.
Although it seems fairly early to call it quits—it’s only been a little over five months since launch—Space Junkies has benefited from the most updates and developer attention as far as Ubisoft VR titles go.
Many of Ubisoft’s VR games have basically languished after launch, including Eagle Flight (2016), Werewolves Within (2016), Transference (2018) and the VR mode in Trackmania Turbo (2016), with Star Trek: Bridge Crew (2017) as the sole exception thanks to its paid DLC centered on the Next Generation missions.
So while it seems Ubisoft has basically been treating VR as an experiment since the hardware’s general launch in 2016, it’s clear the company hasn’t given up on VR as a whole. Unearthed by VRFocus, Ubisoft is apparently hiring a 50-person team to lead an unannounced ‘AAA’ VR title now, so the company as a whole seems far from deterred.
