Job Simulator (2016), the popular simulator parody game from Owlchemy Labs, served up a sequel on PC VR headsets back in April—its more laid-back cousin Vacation Simulator (2019). Starting today, users on PSVR can get into fun too, and just in time for the summer vacation season.
In case you haven’t heard, Vacation Simulator is a bit different from its whimsical, career-minded predecessor. Instead of running through a number of fun, but largely disconnected activities, Vacation Simulator injects the franchise with not only a story of its own, but a much larger connected world filled with a wide selection of objectives that you can choose to fulfill to move forward in the game.
While it definitely keeps the feel of the first in the franchise, Vacation Simulator offers such a larger number of activities that you can basically pursue at your leisure, from light puzzles to more physical activities, giving you the points you need to access all three vacation areas (Beach, Forest, Mountain).
If you’re looking for an in-depth look at Vacation Simulator, check out our (spoiler free) review and find out why we gave it an extremely solid [8.8/10].
Developer Beat Games last week revealed a new ‘360 mode’ for their VR hit Beat Saber. Notes can now come from all around the player instead of just straight ahead. While it feels like a fun new way to play, it makes beat mapping considerably more complex. It’ll take innovative and creative mapping to really make 360 mode great, and for that, Beat Games should turn to its community.
Beat Saber’s primary mode throws a series of blocks at you from directly ahead. It’s simple and straightforward, but can be very challenging at high levels, which is part of the reason why Beat Saber has such broad appeal. A new ‘360 mode’ planned for Oculus Quest allows beat maps to send lines of blocks at you from arbitrary directions as the song plays out.
At E3 2019 I got to play an early version of the 360 mode. As a relatively high-level Beat Saber player, I found it very intriguing and I see a lot of potential, but it’ll take more time to discovery what kind of note patterns really make this mode shine feel unique and awesome.
You can think of the 360 mode much like the normal mode, except that the direction where the blocks are coming from can rotate around you on the fly. No matter which direction they’re coming from, they’re still traveling in straight lines, but notes can come along multiple tracks at once with different angles to you. Lines on the ground are used to show where you can expect the next string of blocks and to give you an idea of which direction you should be facing.
I got to play two songs, both of which were only mapped up to Hard difficulty. At first the songs started with notes coming head-on, but pretty quickly I saw the lines on the ground shift to indicate that notes would be coming from the side. The lines worked well to tell me ahead of time what to expect, and even slicing notes that moved between tracks felt pretty natural as they shifted gradually around me. However, sometimes the lines and note paths intersected in front of me and it was little more difficult to sort out the order of the notes because of the way they intertwined as they got closer to me.
In the end, playing in 360 mode was fun and different, and definitely felt like a new way to play Beat Saber compared to the standard mode, but it’s clear that it’ll take more time to learn how to make beat maps in the 360 mode which are really innovative and interesting. Ideally 360 mode should allow note maps which create totally unique movements for players compared to the standard mode. Because the design space of 360 mode is larger in scope though, it’s going to be more difficult to discover what really makes a great beat map.
In order to accelerate this need to learn what kind of 360 mode beat mapping could really be awesome, I think that Beat Games ought to put these tools out to their passionate communicate to see what kind of interesting 360 beat maps they come up with.
While the 360 mode could be a cool addition to Beat Saber, it could also represent ‘feature-creep’, which is dangerous for an indie team like Beat Games and for a game which thrives because of its simplicity.
Beat Saber already features the standard mode and ‘one saber’ mode, both of which have unique maps across four difficulties. That means that to make one song level for Beat Saber, the developers need to hand-craft eight unique maps if they want to serve every difficulty of both modes. Introducing 360 mode means not just more complex mapping, but four additional beat maps for each song (if they choose to cover all songs and difficulties with the 360 mode), meaning each song needs 12 hand-crafted beat maps.
Beat Games says that 360 mode will debut first on Quest because of its untethered 360 tracking, but it expects that a similar mode would come to other headsets later in a way that confines the rotating notes to some area in front of the player (so that they don’t get wrapped up in their cable), perhaps a ‘180 mode’. Without incredibly careful mapping and testing, it seems unlikely that 360 maps could easily be automatically converted into 180 maps though, so again, a 180 mode might mean yet more complexity and work when it comes to beat mapping.
Image courtesy Beat Games
Speaking with the developers though, it sounds like 360 mode is still very early and both the mechanics of how it works and the extent to which it will or won’t cover all of the game’s music is unclear. So we’ll still have to wait and see if it ends up being a boon for the game or extra baggage.
Fast Travel Games, the studio behind VR bow-shooting adventure Apex Construct (2018), announced their narrative-based puzzle game The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets is officially due out in November, coming to PSVR, PC VR headsets, and Oculus Quest.
Update (October 23rd, 2019): The Curious Tale of Stolen Pets is slated to arrive on November 14th, coming to the PlayStation Store (PSVR), Steam (Vive, Rift, Index, Windows VR), and the Oculus Store (Rift, Quest).
We went hands-on with the game at GDC earlier this summer, noting that while it’s planned to be fairly short game aimed at the casual player, its diorama-based puzzles and a heartwarming story truly take you back to a simpler times. The original article announcing the game (trailer included) continues below:
Original Article (June 11th, 2019): The game, which aims to transport players back to simpler times, sounds like a pretty casual affair; it’s said to include light puzzles that require you to trigger clues and reveal hidden pets in the environment by manipulating the game’s doodads in various ways. Fast Travel also says that there are no time limits so you can take the game at your own pace.
From what we’ve seen in the trailer (linked below), The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets is sporting a charming claymation vibe to go along with its miniature dioramas, the latter of which works really well in VR for some reason.
Experience an interactive tale of childlike wonder! Help your grandfather solve the mystery of the stolen pets by exploring wonderful miniature worlds crafted from the ground up for VR. Use a hairdryer to melt snow in a wintery landscape! Search the wreck of a pirate ship partially hidden under the surface!
According to the game’s creative lead James Hunt, The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets initially started out as his personal passion project; the studio then allotted what he calls a “small but dedicated” team to its creation.
“I wanted to make a game where players could take their time and marvel at the details in the environments, enjoy the music, engage with the many interactive elements in each world and solve light puzzles at their own pace to proceed – a kind of experience I felt has been missing in VR,” Hunt says.
Hunt came to Fast Travel after a three-year stint at Rovio, where he worked as senior animator on Angry Birds 2. Until recently, he had served the same role at Fast Travel, working on Apex Construct and other upcoming titles at the studio before transitioning to his current position as the game’s creative lead.
And it seems the studio has a pretty full plate at the moment. Fast Travel recently released Apex Construct on Quest, and is also currently working with Neat Corporation on the sequel to Budget Cuts (2018), Budget Cuts 2: Mission Insolvency, which is set to release sometime this year.
The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets is slated to launch in 2019 on Quest, Rift, PSVR, Valve Index, HTC Vive, and Windows VR headsets.
At E3 today, Rebellion unveiled some fresh gameplay footage and revealed more details behind Sniper Elite VR, the critically acclaimed shooter’s first VR game. The studio also confirmed that PS Aim support is definitely coming to the PSVR version of the game in addition to support for PC VR headsets.
Created in partnership with UK-based studio Just Add Water, Sniper Elite VR takes place in World War II Italy, set prior to the events of Rebellion’s latest entry in the series, Sniper Elite 4 (2017). Unlike previous Sniper Elite titles, the VR game is delivered in the first-person.
Image courtesy Rebellion, Just Add Water
With a brand new story written by Tony Schumacher, author of the John Rossett novels, Sniper Elite VR embeds you in the Italian resistance fighting against the Nazis where you’ll be able to explore an array of maps including villages, airfields, and underground bunkers as you fight back to rid Sicily of the U-Boat menace.
Weaponry is said to include sniper rifles (of course), SMGs, pistols, and the tactical ‘Welrod’ suppressed pistol to name a few.
Moreover, Rebellion says Sniper Elite VR will feature free movement, which in the video appears to include teleportation as a locomotion method at least on PSVR. The studio hasn’t mentioned its full list of supported locomotion methods, so we hope to find out more here at E3.
What’s particularly interesting is how Rebellion managed to include the series’ patented X-Ray Kill Cam. According to the video, the game whisks you on an on-rails flight following the path of your bullet, where you then get an up close and personal look at the bone-shattering results of a well placed shot.
Rebellion says they’re supporting PS Aim, Move controllers, as well as DualShock 4 gamepad on PSVR.
Sniper Elite VR is set to arrive on the PlayStation Store for PSVR, and for PC VR headsets via the Oculus Store, Steam, and Viveport. There’s still no launch date on the books, so we’ll just have to wait and see for now.
XR Games today announced that the franchise’s next Angry Birds VR game is set to launch on PSVR on August 6th; the game was created in partnership with XR Games, Sony’s VR team and Rovio Entertainment.
Update (July 23rd, 2019): XR Games releases a post on the PlayStation blog, revealing not only the August 6th launch date for the Angry Birds Movie 2 VR: Under Pressure, but also detailing a bit more about the game.
According to XR Games senior game designer Richard Boon, the VR player is the captain of the submarine from the upcoming film. The TV-based players are the crew of that submarine, doing repairs, crafting torpedoes and storing treasure, while the VR player is in charge of the TV players, and is able to help them out.
“The captain monitors event and grabs as much treasure as possible from the ocean, which the crew then store in the sub. In our user tests, some captain players directed their crew closely, others ran a looser ship. Some flung their crew around without even asking. The captain has a lot of tools to help the crew enjoy their game,” Boon says.
The original article announcing The Angry Birds Movie 2 VR: Under Pressure follows below.
Original Article (June 4th, 2019): Called The Angry Birds Movie 2 VR: Under Pressure, the game makes use of PSVR’s ‘Social Screen’ feature, serving up couch co-op gameplay for up to three non-VR users and a single PSVR player. The news was first reported by Hollywood Reporter.
Unlike previous Angry Birds AR/VR titles, which had to you aiming a slingshot for teetering 3D structures by your lonesome, Under Pressure has you teaming up with friends to run a submarine. The VR player is tasked with piloting the submarine while the ‘Social Screen’ players control the sub’s crew, including Red, Chuck, and new movie character Silver.
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Image courtesy XR Games, Rovio, Sony
Image courtesy XR Games, Rovio, Sony
Image courtesy XR Games, Rovio, Sony
Image courtesy XR Games, Rovio, Sony
Image courtesy XR Games, Rovio, Sony
We’ve only seen a few screenshots of the game, so gameplay still isn’t exactly clear, although it appears to provide some matching puzzles in addition to skill-based sling-shooting, with a top-down still showing flatscreen companions matching various boxes to create what appears to be a specific ammo type for the PSVR player to fire.
Angry Birds Movie 2 VR: Under Pressure is set to launch on PSVR alongside the film in Summer 2019; the film is slated to debut in the US on August 16th.
Trover Saves the Universe, the latest VR title from Squanch Games and the mind of Rick and Morty co-creator Justin Roiland, launched today on PS4 with support for both PSVR and non-VR. The game will launch for PC VR headsets via Steam next week.
Trover Saves the Universe is now available on PS4 for $30, and can be played in both VR and non-VR. It’s a third-person adventure game that’s clearly built around the zany, unique humor and voices of Justin Roiland, the co-creator of Rick and Morty and co-founder of Squanch Games. PlayStation Underground has a look at the final gameplay:
The game is also coming to PC next week on June 4th on Steam, with official support for the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, and also non-VR play. A 10% pre-order discount is in place until the game launches.
Trover Saves the Universe developer Squanch Games says that it’s planning to add ‘free DLC’ to the game by “keeping Trover at full price for longer than usual, instead of lowering the game’s cost over time and charging for new content.” That’s an interesting approach, though the company hasn’t offered any detail on what future content will look like beyond saying that players can expect “lots of new Trover adventures coming your way until it doesn’t make sense to do that anymore.”
Beat Games is getting ready to unleash their next music pack for Beat Saber (2018), VR’s popular block-slashing rhythm game.
The studio says the game’s second official music pack should arrive on June 10th, although they haven’t specified the artists, genre, price, or anything really at this point besides the launch date.
ATTENTION – WE HAVE THE DATE FOR OUR NEXT MUSIC PACK!
Mark June 10th on your calendars. It's gonna be huge!
*Guess in comments the name of the artist/band. The first three correct guesses win a free key for the next Music Pack after its release on June 10th. pic.twitter.com/phLygaJTZq
A few keen-eyed Twitter users have managed a pretty good guess regarding the contents of the next music pack however, matching up and then pixelating the album cover of Imagine Dragons’ single Natural.
Image courtesy Imagine Dragons
Launching in March, Beat Saber’s first music pack was Monstercat Music Pack Vol. 1, which included 10 songs featuring a pretty narrow array of electronic dance music, presented each with five difficulty levels: easy, normal, hard, expert, and expert+ modes.
The game’s first paid DLC music pack sold for $13, or $2 per song when purchased individually. While it’s uncertain, it’s possible Beat Games will try to hit that same price point for their second music pack.
Beat Games has confirmed that June 10th will be the global launch date for the next music pack, which will include support for all targeted headsets including Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Windows VR, PSVR, and Oculus Quest.
Sony’s next big PSVR exclusive, Blood & Truth is finally here. This action adventure aims to make players feel like the lead character in an action movie, and brings strong gunplay and big set pieces to the table. But its biggest contribution might just be the performances and visuals of the game’s virtual characters which are the best we’ve ever seen in VR.
Developer: SIE London Studio Available On: PSVR [Exclusive] (digital, physical) Reviewed On: PS4 Pro Release Date: May 28th, 2019 Price: $40
Gameplay
Though Blood & Truth features plenty of shooting, I’d classify it as an ‘action adventure’ more than a pure ‘shooter’ because of the way it guides you through a purposeful narrative. The gameplay is largely defined by its locomotion, which (for Sony’s first-party studios) is relatively ambitions. It uses node-based smooth locomotion, meaning there are predefined places you can go, but instead of teleporting, you slide smoothly from one node to the next. It isn’t entirely on-rails, but it feels pretty close because there isn’t that much variety in where you can go (even though it opens up slightly later in the game).
And while some might assume that this movement system was a necessary concession due to the lack of thumbstick on the Move controllers, I would argue that even if the controllers had thumbsticks, it’s an effective and smart design choice for the kind of game that London Studio set out to build. Not needing to worry so much about controlling your large-scale movement frees you up to focus on shooting and doing other things when moving between points, as well as focusing on your small-scale movements (leaning around corners and boxes). In the end, it works in service of a game that’s all about setting up action and set piece moments.
Gunplay and handling is also suitably refined. Instead of a complex inventory system, Blood & Truth gives you two handgun holsters at your hips and two heavy weapon holsters over your shoulders. Ammo is drawn from a satchel at your chest; a fresh magazine for whichever gun your holding is always there ready and waiting to be pulled out and stuck into your weapon. It’s an effective system, which—like the game’s locomotion—cuts out complexity in favor of focus.
Shooting feels good pretty much across the board thanks to a combination of good effects and sounds, though which weapon you choose doesn’t often significantly change your playstyle. You can aim down sights for precision, but ammo is plentiful enough, that unless you’re going for stealth headshots or long-range kills, you’re usually fine just roughly eyeing things up and spraying down range. There’s not a huge array of weapons, and even though you get access to some bigger guns later in the game, all of the weapons continue to feel valid throughout.
The game also includes some light weapon customization; you’ll be able to visit a safehouse where you can decide which weapons you want to carry into the next level. You can add a few attachments to each gun, and apply different paint jobs, all of which are unlocked with ‘star’ points collected across the levels by shooting hidden targets or finding other collectibles. The attachments—like scopes and silencers—don’t feel very consequential to the gameplay, but configuring your loadout and weapons is a smart bit of interactive downtime between all of the shooting.
Unfortunately enemies aren’t particularly varied, and rarely require prioritization or unique tactics. Most enemies are taken down most effectively the same way: just put plenty of bullets into them, preferably in the head region. The only exception is the relatively rare ‘heavy’ enemies that have riot shields; they can be most easily dispatched by activating the game’s slow-motion function (by pressing both Move buttons) that then shows little white targets on the enemy, which can be hit in succession for a quick takedown.
It feels like the VR equivalent of a quick-time event, and is generally pretty fun to do, but it also feels somewhat out of place with the rest of the gunplay. You can activate slow motion at any time actually, and while it can lead to some cool visual moments (as bullets, particles, and bodies go flying in slow-mo), it’s ultimately ancillary to the overall gameplay.
Luckily, Blood & Truth’s gunplay doesn’t overstay its welcome, thanks to it being spaced out by more intricate activities (like lock picking and climbing), action set pieces, and narrative sequences.
The action set pieces are fun, and essential to preventing Blood & Truth from inching toward wave shooter land, although few of them felt particularly memorable, which is probably because most are highly scripted, and don’t leave much room for the player to influence the outcome.
Image courtesy SIE London Studio
Actually, one of the more memorable set pieces in the game wasn’t driven by action (and, indeed, gave the player more agency)—part of the game sees the player sneaking into a modern art museum, which London Studio used as a genius way to pepper the game with some quite cool VR moments that otherwise wouldn’t have made much sense in the context of Blood & Truth.
Image courtesy SIE London Studio
But beyond the set pieces are the game’s truly unmatched virtual characters which deliver the game’s narrative and provide some reason behind the action. With photogrammetry, motion capture, and smart design, London Studio has raised the bar for virtual characters at a scale not seen in any VR game to date. The work they’ve done in this area is very likely to become a staple of future AAA VR games. Let’s talk about that (and more) in the Immersion section below.
And a quick note on game time: it took me about 4 hours and 20 minutes to complete the Blood & Truth campaign. And while that might seem on paper like a relatively short experience, I have to say that it felt quite a bit longer, probably because the game was very engaging didn’t feel like any of its mechanics overstayed their welcome. I applaud London Studio for not padding game time with more shooting segments, and instead making sure that each hour of gameplay has meaningful fun for the player.
Sony says the game includes some ‘time attack’ challenges, but this mode wasn’t available at the time of our review. In future updates, London Studio plans to add leaderboards (which will rank you based on a score given for each level), a New Game+ option (which will let you play the campaign with all of your unlocked weapons and attachments), Hard Mode (a higher difficulty level), as well as “additional challenge modes […] plus much more.”
Immersion
Image courtesy SIE London Studio
So let’s talk about Blood & Truth’s story and virtual characters. The characters are the primary drivers of the story, which starts out very personal, but wanes later in the game as it eventually relies on a nebulous secret organization as the reason why everything is happening. I found the monolithic ‘evil cabal’ trope a distraction from the much more personal story of two warring crime families.
Still, the characters themselves are really something to behold. Driven by a cast of talented actors (mediated by an excellent technical pipeline for representing faces and motions in VR at high fidelity), they look at sound great. In many of the game’s sequences, characters are acting right in front of the player, often speaking to you directly. They make correct eye contact, and the fidelity of their performance and visuals is just so good that it’s hard to not be interested in what they’re saying. In addition to excellent performance capture, the attention to detail on their varied outfits is top-notch, with convincing textures, folds, and lighting (especially the leather jackets).
Though hampered by a story that isn’t terribly memorable, the characters are used to mostly strong effect, especially in a sequence later in the game where one character doesn’t mind getting in your face. The writing and dialogue are mostly good, though your chummy rapport with most other male characters can be overbearing (par for the ‘action movie’ vibe, I suppose), but at least occasionally feels authentic.
Blood & Truth’s release is a bar setting moment for virtual characters and narrative exposition in a VR game, at least at this scope and scale.
Image courtesy SIE London Studio
London Studio’s efforts here really drive home how (when it comes to immersion) great content is the single most important factor. Even though PSVR’s visuals are quite lagging behind newer PC headsets, and even though PS4 Pro doesn’t have the power of a high-end gaming PC, Blood & Truth’s virtual character’s are so well rendered that it’s easy to forget about all of that and become feel totally engrossed with what’s in front of you.
However, there were a few missed opportunities, mostly involving interactivity with the characters. There’s only one moment I recall where you have an opportunity to make interactive contact with another character (a handshake), but several moments which felt like interactivity was missing. With character performances heavily driven by motion capture, I can certainly appreciate the technical challenge of building real interactivity into narrative sequences, but I hope London Studio can tackle that challenge in future titles.
Immersion levels generally for Blood & Truth are pretty high throughout. Although the narrative moments lack interactivity, there’s a good bit of it peppered elsewhere in the game. The game’s node-based movement system is smart not only for the reasons discussed in the Gameplay section (above) but also because it means that London Studio can put interactive items within arms reach at various nodes without the impossible challenge of making every object and item in the game interactive.
There’s a good range of items to find and grab throughout, from objectives and optional collectibles, to pointless (but still appreciated) objects like beer bottles which can be broken, cookies which can be eaten, and sunglasses which can be worn. It’s usually obvious what can and can’t be grabbed, which helps avoid those immersion-breaking moments where you reach for something and your hand inexplicably slips through it.
There’s also interactive moments and mechanics that are necessary to keep moving forward. For instance, players will often have to pick locks, climb ladders, complete small electric hacking puzzles, or climb through vents.
All are suitably interesting, and smart way to pace combat moments, but not as seamlessly integrated into the broader gameplay as I would have hoped. Lockpicking for instance is just a roadblock. There was never a moment in the game where I had to pick a lock under pressure (like to escape a dangerous situation).
In the gun-handling department, there’s a number of nice immersive touches. Every gun in the game can be two-handed. Even with pistols, if you bring your non-dominant hand close to your main hand, the hands will animate into a two-handed pistol grip, and I often found myself doing this naturally. Larger weapons are gripped by the foregrip, and for some of the larger weapons this seems to decrease recoil. There’s also some fun extras in the handling department: if you hold ‘triangle’ with a pistol, you can spin your gun around your finger like a badass gunslinger; if you’re using the revolver, you can put your off-hand up to the hammer, which lets you shoot faster (as if you’re fanning). Maybe there’s some others I haven’t found?
Comfort
Image courtesy SIE London Studio
I found Blood & Truth to be very comfortable throughout. The node-based smooth movement system seems to work very well, and is much more immersive than if it relied on teleportation instead. An optional Comfort Mode reduces some effects and adds peripheral blinders during movement.
Though it’s comfortable and generally works well, the node-based system does prevent you from backtracking at all (even if you turn completely around, previous nodes will no longer be active), which can be a little annoying. While during most of the time you’ll be looking at the node you want to go to and clicking the Move button, there’s also dedicated staffing buttons which will move you to any nodes that are adjacent. I didn’t find it uncomfortable (from a vestibular standpoint) to move sideways like this, but it did feel a bit awkward at times.
The game’s holster and reload system is generally pretty good, and at the start of the game you can calibrate where your hip holsters and ammo pouch should be, which is a nice touch. Still, it can be fiddly at times. The game is designed to be played seated, and I would sometimes find that my holsters were ‘in’ my couch, causing me to shoot when I tried to holster my weapon with the trigger (because I couldn’t get close enough to the holster). I would have raised them up to abdominal height rather than hip height to avoid this, but calibration only allows a horizontal adjustment. Sitting upright and at the edge of my couch help prevent this, though sitting in an armless chair would likely be the ideal.
You can easily pass guns from one hand to another (by reaching your non-dominant hand to the weapon grip and pulling the trigger) which is really practical, but if you do this accidentally in the heat of the moment (because shooting and swapping guns both use the trigger) it can be a little confusing. This also lends itself to some confusion when it comes to swapping weapons in the middle of missions.
You’ll frequently come across different guns in the midst of a mission, but they instantly replace the weapon that corresponds to whichever hand you pick the weapon up with. For instance, if I pick up a pistol with my left hand, it will automatically become associated with the left pistol holster. Occasionally though, if I want a weapon in my left holster that’s sitting to my right, it can be awkward (if not simply too far away) to try to reach over and grab the gun with my left hand. It might be possible to actually grab the nearby weapon with the most convenient hand and then pass it to your other hand and then holster it that way, but I’m actually not sure—which is the crux of the issue; the way weapons are assigned to hands and holsters isn’t spelled out very clearly, so I was just figuring it out as I went.
A few weapons in the game have scopes that zoom, but they are very small and generally hard to look through; arguably they are more effective without the scope attachment. London Studio could have looked to games like Farpoint for better ideas for how scopes should work in VR. While the non-zoom scopes on weapons like pistols and the SMG were less of a hassle, they too could have been made easier to use (first by making them larger). Furthermore, two-handed weapons (especially the pump shotgun) could be really awkward to use when enemies were far to your off-side because you can’t rotate your torso when seated to face them properly with a two-handed weapon grip. I also found that the pump on the foregrip on the pump shotgun would occasionally pop out of my hand; the game seemed to want me to reach much further forward for the ideal foregrip position than was comfortable for me.
Blood & Truth is set to launch tomorrow, May 28th. As Sony’s next big title after the hit platformer Astro Bot Rescue Mission (2018), the company is putting its best foot forward by featuring the action game in its own PSVR hardware bundle.
At $350, the bundle includes everything you need (minus PS4 or PS4 Pro) to get fully into VR. In the box you’ll find the PSVR headset, PS Camera, two PS Move controllers, Demo Disc 3.0 Disc, and both Blood & Truth Disc and Everybody’s Golf VR game voucher.
We’ve seen quite a bit of Blood & Truth over the past two years. Getting our first taste of the game in late 2017, it was immediately apparent Sony was throwing a good amount of time and money at the project in effort to approach AAA territory. As an outgrowth of the successful demo The London Heist, Blood & Truth is aiming to essentially bring the player into an action movie, replete with guns, explosives, and high octane chase sequences. We have our full review of Blood & Truth coming tomorrow, but it’s safe to say (based on our time with previous demos) that Sony’s London Studio has put a lot of love and polish into the game.
If you’re not fully sold on Blood & Truth (or the strangely positioned Everybody’s Golf VR), there is a cheaper PSVR+ Trover Saves the Universe & Five Nights at Freddy’s VR bundle launching on May 31st, although it doesn’t include PS Move controllers—something that costs around $100 if you buy them separately.
There are still a few older hardware bundles out there if you’re looking for a PSVR on the cheap, although make sure to check whether they include PS Move or not so you’re not stuck having to grab a pair after the fact.
Ahead of Tuesday’s launch of Blood & Truth, PlayStation has shared 13 minutes of new gameplay showing one of the early levels of the game.
Developed by Sony’s London Studio (the studio behind the excellent Playstation VR Worlds), Blood & Truth is a PSVR exclusive that aims to make the player feel like the lead character in an action movie.
To that end, one of the game’s early levels establishes the player’s backstory as an ex-military badass—which will probably help explain why they know how to use guns and explosives later in the game. New gameplay footage shows the level in its entirety:
The level is also used as an interactive tutorial without feeling too overt about it. Players will learn how to shoot, reload, climb ladders, and pick locks. The player will also get familiar with the holster system which allows you to stash weapons at your hips and shoulders, with fresh magazines able to be pulled from a pouch on the chest for reloading. At the conclusion of the level we see a car chase where the player rides shotgun (which will be quite familiar to those who have played ‘The London Heist’, the PlayStation VR Worlds mini-game which inspired Blood & Truth.
Blood & Truth launches on Tuesday, May 28th alongside a new PSVR bundle [Amazon] which includes the game. Keep an eye out for our full review on launch day.
ATTENTION – WE HAVE THE DATE FOR OUR NEXT MUSIC PACK! 
