Category: quest

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Oculus Quest 2 Elite Battery Strap Review – More Charge And Better Comfort Makes The Money Worth It

Is Facebook’s most expensive Quest 2 strap also its best? Find out in our Oculus Quest 2 Elite Battery Strap review!

Note: This review was originally published on October 9th.

So here it is, the last and most promising entry in Facebook’s trilogy of straps for the Oculus Quest 2 headset. The Return of the King to the standard strap’s Fellowship, if you will. As you might hope for the most expensive of the official Quest 2 accessories ($129 with a Carrying Case bundled in), the Oculus Quest 2 Elite Battery Strap offers the most comfortable way to experience the new headset, and it lets you play for longer, too.

But first, let’s recap. As we said in our full review last month, the Oculus Quest 2 is a smaller, more comfortable headset than its predecessor, but its fundamental design still presents issues. The soft, stretchy Oculus Go-like strap puts a lot of pressure on the front of your headset and starts to dig in. The $49 Elite Strap improves comfort considerably, though much of the weight is still located at the front of the kit.

The Quest 2 Elite Battery Strap features the same fundamental design as the Elite Strap. It’s got two clips you snap onto the sides of the headset, then a hard plastic ring runs around the back of your head with a soft strap sitting on top. A dial at the back of the device lets you tighten and loosen the fit to your head. As with the initial Elite Strap, it makes just getting into VR much faster and more hassle-free than with the standard strap. But there are a few key differences that make the Elite Battery Strap much better than even the Elite Strap

Battery Boost

The Elite Strap (Left) and Elite Battery Strap (Right)

Obviously the big addition here is the battery extender unit. The battery itself is housed in the rear compartment of the strap, alongside the dial to fit to your head. Then a short USB Type-C cable threads along the left of the strap, running up to reach the charging port in the side of the Quest 2.  You can charge the strap and the headset via another USB Type-C port just under the dial. From what I could gather, the Elite Battery Strap must be plugged into the Quest 2 to charge itself, and the headset’s charging indicator light will signal when both are at maximum capacity. Plugging in two USB cables to the Quest and the strap itself will only charge the former. Impressively, Quest 2 recognizes the battery extender when plugged in and lists separate gauges for both its battery and the core headset’s charge.

Elite Battery Strap Charging

So, how long do you get? Well, if you remember, I said the standard Quest 2 battery lasted me two and a half hours playing The Room VR from full to flat during my testing. With the Elite Battery Strap, I played Until You Fall and a few other titles for about three hours before the battery unit was depleted. But then I still had 75% reserve charge left on the headset itself for another two hours of play. So, all-in-all, we’re talking roughly doubling your maximum playtime with the Quest 2 Elite Battery Strap. Keep in mind that more passive apps like media viewers will drain the battery slower, too.

Oculus Quest 2 Elite Battery Strap Review – Case Included

The Quest 2 Elite Battery Strap might be on the more expensive end of Quest 2 accessories at $129, but Facebook is throwing in its $49 Carrying Case to sweeten the deal. We have a full written review of the case right here, but in a nutshell, it’s a great way to keep your Quest 2… in a nutshell. It protects the kit and keeps it out of harm’s way when it’s not in use and has a premium feel to it, so it’s definitely a big bonus.

Comfort Gains

The added weight included in the Elite Battery Strap (319g compared to the Elite Straps’ 173g) also comes with an appreciated side-effect. The heavier strap offers a nice counterbalance to the front of the Quest 2, helping to alleviate the pressure on your face just a little more than even what’s seen in the normal Elite Strap. The result is the most comfortable of all the accessories Facebook offers for Quest 2.

But the Elite Strap is about more than just comfort. As I alluded to earlier, it also makes getting into VR much faster, taking seconds to find a sweet spot to tighten to rather than fiddling around with the original strap’s two back toggles for ages. That makes it perfect for switching between other people. Unfortuantely you’ll see get VR face after long sessions, as you can see below.

Oculus Quest 2 Elite Battery Strap Review – Alternatives

I wrote about this a bit in my original Elite Strap review, but third-party accessories and comfort mods can do a great job of improving your kits comfort too. The VR Cover face lining is a great complement to any Quest 2 setup but it’s very possible that future strap designs get great comfort out of Quest 2, too.

Point being that, if comfort is your primary concern, you might see better and cheaper alternatives in the future. I still say that halo strap designs — seen on the PSVR and Rift S — are the most comfortable VR designs, placing weight on your forehead rather than your face. None of Facebook’s comfort options do this and I’ll be first-in-line to try out any mods that do.

On the battery front, Rebuff Reality also says its original VR Power Pack for Quest 1 supports the new headset, though we haven’t been able to test this for ourselves just yet.

Oculus Quest 2 Elite Battery Strap Review – Final Impressions

Elite Battery Strap On Head

The question on your mind is probably this: is the Oculus Quest 2 Elite Battery Strap worth the $80 difference from the original Elite Strap? It’s definitely a steep increase in pricing, but my answer is a pretty confident yes. For that extra money, not only will you get roughly double the battery life out of Quest 2 — which will come in handy for long play sessions of Population: One and The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners — but the added weight serves as a counterbalance to improve comfort even further, and the excellent Carrying Case is thrown in to sweeten the deal too.

It definitely makes Quest 2 a much more expensive proposition overall, so you might want to buy the headset first and see what mileage you get out of it but, if you’re already committed to standalone VR gaming, the Oculus Quest 2 Elite Battery Strap is a great add-on.

4 STARS

Oculus Quest 2 Elite Strap Review Points

The Quest 2 Elite Battery Strap can be purchased directly from Facebook for $129. Like our Oculus Quest 2 Elite Battery Strap review? Got questions? Let us know in the comments below!

Review Scale

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Population: One Microtransactions Explained – Not At Launch, Cosmetic Only

The developers behind upcoming VR battle royale game Population One commented on the nature of microtransactions in the game, after Reddit users spotted them in pre-release demo footage of the game.

A screenshot of Population One posted yesterday to r/OculusQuest pointed out the presence of microtransactions, which angered some commenters. Many users seem to feel that microtransactions have no place in a game that costs $30 to begin with.

Population: One Microtransactions Explained

Lots of online multiplayer games, especially in the battle royale genre, are free-to-play with optional microtransaction cosmetics or a paid ‘battle pass’ system that gives you rewards across a season of play. This has the benefit of keeping the game’s online population healthy with free-to-play users, while also maintaining a stream of revenue for the developers throughout the title’s life cycle.

Instead, Population: One has opted to go for another route – a paid battle royale experience in VR, which also has microtransactions. Population: One developers Big Box put out a FAQ yesterday to clear up some of the confusion surrounding the topic and confirmed that microtransaction purchases give you no competitive advantage in-game, and are purely cosmetic. There won’t be any pay-to-win features in the game, in other words.

“The only microtransactions we have planned are character skins and gun skins. We will not be charging for guns, maps or other functionality that will separate the player-base.” The $30 price for the base game gives you access to the entire game, including progression systems that grant you free cosmetics. Big Box also noted that the ‘free-to-play with microtransactions’ model was not viable for Population: One, as they “need to be able to support the cost of on-going development, servers, coders, artists, etc.”

The microtransaction store is not finished yet, hence why it was missing from some preview builds, and will not be available at launch. Microtransactions will be available launch with the first in-game event after launch, which will also be available to players who choose not to make any in-game purchases.

Population One Microtransactions

If you haven’t already, you can read our hands-on with Population One here, which launches October 22 for Oculus Quest and PC VR with full cross-play support. Big Box is also hoping to bring the game to PSVR in the future.

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Hand Physics Lab To Receive ‘The Grip Update’ On October 16

The Hand Physics Lab for Oculus Quest is set to receive its first major update since launch, The Grip Update, which improves interactions with objects and adds all new features.

Hand Physics Lab launched earlier this year in May, and provided users with a bunch of different scenarios that perfectly demonstrated the possibilities (and limitations) of the Oculus Quest’s controller-free hand tracking support. That being said, picking up items could sometimes be tedious and inconsistent in the original release. If the grip update does actually live up to its name, then the Hand Physics Lab can continue its reign as one of the best demonstrative hand-tracking experiences on the Quest.

The changes in the update involve more than just improvements to object interaction — there’s also UI changes and more props. You can see some of those changes in the trailer above, plus the developers gave a full breakdown on Reddit:

This is the biggest Hand Physics Lab update yet with a brand new predictive and dynamic snapping system allowing you to seamlessly and firmly grab objects. Along this new system, many new features and improvements are coming as well, including better hand and finger physics, controller support, telekinesis, teleportation, a brand new lab design, a friendly clone, a new UI, and many many new PROPS and setups to play with!

The Grip Update for Hand Physics Lab launches October 16 for Oculus Quest and Oculus Quest 2, available via sideloading through SideQuest. A private beta will also run before the official release, which you can sign up to in the game’s Discord server.

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Star Shaman Is Coming This Month, Great New Trailer Here

Funky-looking VR newcomer, Star Shaman, is releasing later this month, and it’s got a great new trailer.

The game is coming to PC VR and Oculus Quest before the end of October, but no specific date yet. We first revealed this debut project from Paris-based Ikimasho at the Upload VR Showcase: Summer Edition earlier in the year. At the time, it was still pretty hard to pick apart what you actually do in the game, but this excellent new trailer makes things much clearer.

Star Shaman Trailer

The trailer is another collaboration with VR video studio, Splitverse, which recently produced memorable trailers for Tarzan VR and Wraith: The Oblivion – Afterlife. It shows the player thrown into a world in which the ‘Architects of Entropy’ have brought the galaxy to its knees by destroying biospheres. Cast as a Star Shaman, you’re tasked with restoring planets to their former glory by ridding the world of evil forces.

Based on the trailer, that will involve shooting and slicing enemies down and casting spells with gesture-based controls. It looks like an active sort of wave shooter, though maybe don’t try out the incredible moves the player is pulling off in the trailer at home unless you have years of training as a gymnast and space not to backflip into your TV.

Star Shaman UI

We’ll be looking forward to trying out Star Shaman soon, then. The game will launch on the Quest store and be playable on both the OG Quest and Quest 2, as well as arrive on Steam and Viveport will support for all major PC VR headsets.

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Oculus Quest 2 Carrying Case Review: Solid, Stylish Build For Storing A Standalone

Want to keep your Quest 2 safe and secure? Read our Oculus Quest 2 Carrying Case review to find out if it’s the right option for you!

There was a time when owning a VR headset basically meant surrendering an entire room to it. Wires snaking across the floor from PC to device, external trackers peppered around shelves and ceilings; the experience was amazing but the maintenance was a nightmare.

But with the advent of standalone headsets like the Oculus Quest 2, VR finally becomes containable; after a play session you can tuck it away out of sight and out of mind. Still, even then you’re leaving controllers lying around the house and maybe a charging cable too. The Oculus Quest 2 Carrying Case gives you a sturdy place to store almost every piece of the puzzle.

Not only that, but it’s stylish enough to look the part in one of those fancy apartments you see in Oculus adverts that we absolutely all definitely own. That said, sold at $49 on its own, it’s a bit pricey, though there’s another bundle we’ll get to in a bit.

Oculus Quest 2 Carrying Case Review

Sturdy, Stylish Build

Oculus Quest 2 Carrying Case Review (1)

Crucially, the Quest 2 Carrying Case won’t leave you worrying about your headset’s safety. The outer material is sturdy and can take a knock – I could hold it in my hands and press my thumbs into the top and it never felt like it might buckle under the pressure. I’d happily tuck it into a bag and travel with it. If I had anywhere I could actually go right now, that is.

Read More: Oculus Quest 2 Review

If I had any concerns it would be with ripping the hinge between the lid and the rest of the case. It’s held together with the same fabric that lines the inside of the kit and doesn’t feel like it would stand up to too much strain if you pulled back on the lid hard, and might wear over time.

I also really like the visual design in this iteration, although Upload’s own David Jagneaux thinks it looks like a hairy egg. The outside of the device is covered in a fuzzy felt colored in a mixture of earthy grays. It gives the kit a sort of mythical tablet vibe which I’m pretty fond of. The zip, meanwhile, is embedded under the lid, which gives the top a nice seamless feel. That said the string attached to the zip is a little flimsy and could cause issues if it ever came off.

Space For Everyone?

Oculus Quest 2 Carrying Case Review (3)

Ironically, despite the fact that Quest 2 is smaller than its predecessor, the official Carrying Case is actually about 5cm longer than the Quest 1’s alternative. The kit stores everything the original did, including your headset, its controllers and space for the charging wire included in the box. However, instead of hiding the wire in a compartment under your controllers, this iteration has a separate space for it at one end of the storage area. Still, it’s the same width (around 21cm) and would still fit into most spaces you were storing your original Quest.

The controllers sit in the center of the case and, although it’s never quite clear if you’ve got them the ‘right’ way, they stay there even when shuffling the case about. The headset surrounds them with its strap, fitting in just right. One neat little touch is that the case supports all three iterations of the Oculus Quest 2 straps, from the one you get with the headset right up to the Elite Battery Strap it comes bundled with for $129.

Read More: Oculus Quest 2 Elite Strap Review

One small aside for regions outside of the US; the box I got showed a US plug fitting into the cable storage area neatly, but my UK plug couldn’t be squeezed in. Chances are you’ll need to carry that separately if you’re outside the US.

At $49 for the case on its own, the price is definitely on the steeper side, even if that is the norm for first-party accessories in the gaming scene. No doubt we’ll be seeing some cheaper alternatives once Quest 2 starts shipping, though, so you may want to consider holding back if Facebook’s premium touch doesn’t matter to you. Upload’s David Jagneaux swears by this third-party case for his Quest 1 and says it fits the Quest 2 reasonably well, although the controllers aren’t as snug.

Oculus Quest 2 Carrying Case Review – Bundle Choices

While $49 is definitely a big ask for the kit alone, it also comes bundled with the Quest 2 Elite Battery Strap for $129. We’ll have a review of that kit in the very near future and a video of the entire bundle too, but for now, I will say the Elite Battery Strap is a fair bit better than the current $49 Elite Strap and if you were considering getting the base Elite Strap and Carrying Case separately, the added battery charge and improved comfort definitely make this other bundle worth the extra $30 or so.

Oculus Quest 2 Carrying Case Review – Final Impressions

Oculus Quest 2 Carrying Case Review (4)

While the price is high for the standalone product, the Oculus Quest 2 Carrying Case does give you a clean, efficient and sturdy way to store your new VR headset. My personal advice would be to buy a Quest 2 on its own first, see if you’ll be using VR long enough and often enough to justify the $129 Elite Battery Strap and Carrying Case bundle and then go with that but, taken on its own, this is a nice bit of kit.

You can order the Oculus Quest 2 Carrying Case directly from Facebook. Have any thoughts on our Oculus Quest 2 Carrying Case review? Let us know in the comments below!

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Oculus Quest 2 Carrying Case Review: Solid, Stylish Build For Storing A Standalone

Want to keep your Quest 2 safe and secure? Read our Oculus Quest 2 Carrying Case review to find out if it’s the right option for you!

There was a time when owning a VR headset basically meant surrendering an entire room to it. Wires snaking across the floor from PC to device, external trackers peppered around shelves and ceilings; the experience was amazing but the maintenance was a nightmare.

But with the advent of standalone headsets like the Oculus Quest 2, VR finally becomes containable; after a play session you can tuck it away out of sight and out of mind. Still, even then you’re leaving controllers lying around the house and maybe a charging cable too. The Oculus Quest 2 Carrying Case gives you a sturdy place to store almost every piece of the puzzle.

Not only that, but it’s stylish enough to look the part in one of those fancy apartments you see in Oculus adverts that we absolutely all definitely own. That said, sold at $49 on its own, it’s a bit pricey, though there’s another bundle we’ll get to in a bit.

Oculus Quest 2 Carrying Case Review

Sturdy, Stylish Build

Oculus Quest 2 Carrying Case Review (1)

Crucially, the Quest 2 Carrying Case won’t leave you worrying about your headset’s safety. The outer material is sturdy and can take a knock – I could hold it in my hands and press my thumbs into the top and it never felt like it might buckle under the pressure. I’d happily tuck it into a bag and travel with it. If I had anywhere I could actually go right now, that is.

Read More: Oculus Quest 2 Review

If I had any concerns it would be with ripping the hinge between the lid and the rest of the case. It’s held together with the same fabric that lines the inside of the kit and doesn’t feel like it would stand up to too much strain if you pulled back on the lid hard, and might wear over time.

I also really like the visual design in this iteration, although Upload’s own David Jagneaux thinks it looks like a hairy egg. The outside of the device is covered in a fuzzy felt colored in a mixture of earthy grays. It gives the kit a sort of mythical tablet vibe which I’m pretty fond of. The zip, meanwhile, is embedded under the lid, which gives the top a nice seamless feel. That said the string attached to the zip is a little flimsy and could cause issues if it ever came off.

Space For Everyone?

Oculus Quest 2 Carrying Case Review (3)

Ironically, despite the fact that Quest 2 is smaller than its predecessor, the official Carrying Case is actually about 5cm longer than the Quest 1’s alternative. The kit stores everything the original did, including your headset, its controllers and space for the charging wire included in the box. However, instead of hiding the wire in a compartment under your controllers, this iteration has a separate space for it at one end of the storage area. Still, it’s the same width (around 21cm) and would still fit into most spaces you were storing your original Quest.

The controllers sit in the center of the case and, although it’s never quite clear if you’ve got them the ‘right’ way, they stay there even when shuffling the case about. The headset surrounds them with its strap, fitting in just right. One neat little touch is that the case supports all three iterations of the Oculus Quest 2 straps, from the one you get with the headset right up to the Elite Battery Strap it comes bundled with for $129.

Read More: Oculus Quest 2 Elite Strap Review

One small aside for regions outside of the US; the box I got showed a US plug fitting into the cable storage area neatly, but my UK plug couldn’t be squeezed in. Chances are you’ll need to carry that separately if you’re outside the US.

At $49 for the case on its own, the price is definitely on the steeper side, even if that is the norm for first-party accessories in the gaming scene. No doubt we’ll be seeing some cheaper alternatives once Quest 2 starts shipping, though, so you may want to consider holding back if Facebook’s premium touch doesn’t matter to you. Upload’s David Jagneaux swears by this third-party case for his Quest 1 and says it fits the Quest 2 reasonably well, although the controllers aren’t as snug.

Oculus Quest 2 Carrying Case Review – Bundle Choices

While $49 is definitely a big ask for the kit alone, it also comes bundled with the Quest 2 Elite Battery Strap for $129. We’ll have a review of that kit in the very near future and a video of the entire bundle too, but for now, I will say the Elite Battery Strap is a fair bit better than the current $49 Elite Strap and if you were considering getting the base Elite Strap and Carrying Case separately, the added battery charge and improved comfort definitely make this other bundle worth the extra $30 or so.

Oculus Quest 2 Carrying Case Review – Final Impressions

Oculus Quest 2 Carrying Case Review (4)

While the price is high for the standalone product, the Oculus Quest 2 Carrying Case does give you a clean, efficient and sturdy way to store your new VR headset. My personal advice would be to buy a Quest 2 on its own first, see if you’ll be using VR long enough and often enough to justify the $129 Elite Battery Strap and Carrying Case bundle and then go with that but, taken on its own, this is a nice bit of kit.

You can order the Oculus Quest 2 Carrying Case directly from Facebook. Have any thoughts on our Oculus Quest 2 Carrying Case review? Let us know in the comments below!

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Population: One Devs ‘Definitely’ Have Plans To Bring VR Battle Royale Shooter To PSVR

Population: One is fast-approaching launch on October 22nd and will be coming to both the Oculus Quest platform and PC VR headsets at the same time with full crossplay. But as it turns out, Big Box VR isn’t stopping their plans there. You can also read my latest hands-on preview right here.

In a recent interview about Population: One with the company’s CEO, Chia Chin Lee, and CTO, Gabe Brown, we discussed the past two years of development time, what it’s like to finally be building toward a firm launch date, and post-launch support.

You may not remember or know this but Population: One was originally a PC VR-only game. In fact, I played it way back at CES 2019 at the Vive Press Conference and really enjoyed it. This industry moves fast though and that version I saw back then never released.

 

Porting Population: One VR Battle Royale

“We basically rebuilt the entire engine over again, says Lee. “We built every single asset in-engine and wanted that to be delivered to any headset that became available. So it wasn’t even about Quest 1 or Quest 2, it was more about, ‘Can this work in a mobile device?’ Once that mobile device gets better and better, we want to extend that support.”

Brown continues: “On PC we had 24 players and on Quest now we have 18 currently. A lot of that had to do with rewriting a big chunk of Unity. The physics engine, PhysX, was too slow to run and it was running on the main threads. We had three cores so we needed to spread the work across all those cores and most game engines like Unreal and Unity don’t quite support that. So we had to rewrite a brand new, multithreaded, asynchronous physics engine, particle system, our own rendering engine, our networking layers runs asynchronously. So we had to write this new system that leverages quite a bit of super computing techniques for the mobile phone in order to make this possible…it was a big undertaking but overall we feel like this was the right investment because of the Quest, the Quest 2, and what the future of VR is going to be. We needed to be inclusive of all platforms.”

During the interview, following this description about inclusivity for devices with Population: One I asked about the potential for a PSVR version. Fortunately, it sounds like that’s already part of the plan.

“Definitely,” says Lee. “We want to be on every platform. But we have to first nail the Quest platform, then PC VR, and then we definitely have plans for PSVR.”

Population: One releases on October 22nd for Quest and PC VR. Let us know if you plan on playing down in the comments below!

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‘LOW-FI’ Creator Teases Prequel Game ‘AGENCY’ for Oculus Quest

Iris VR, the game studio behind cyberpunk titles TECHNOLUST (2016) and the still in-production game LOW-FI, teased some new footage recently of its Oculus Quest game AGENCY.

Iris VR says Agency is a prequel episode of LOW-FI, the non-linear cyberpunk game which first garnered support through a Kickstarter campaign late last year.

Blair Renaud, studio CEO and Creative Director, released a quick sneak peak of Agency, stating that they’ve just pitched the game to Oculus for approval. Renaud says the game’s tech demo is currently running on Quest 2.

Outside of that, Agency itself is still largely a mystery in terms of gameplay. If it’s anything like LOW-FI though, which is slated to put you in the shoes of a retro-futuristic cop for a non-linear jaunt through a cyberpunk slum, we’re sure to see plenty more tech-noir overtures to Blade Runner (1982) and Robocop (1987), and hopefully a bunch of classic gaming arcade cabinets too.

SEE ALSO
Unofficial Quest App Store 'SideQuest' Raises $650,000 From Oculus Founder & Others

As any VR developer can attest, Oculus has set a fairly high bar for content quality on Quest, something Oculus’ Content Ecosystem Director Chris Pruett says in a developer blogpost is “higher than we’ve ever enforced before.”

With the entry of Oculus Quest 2 arriving on October 13th, the company is no doubt looking to expand its content library to satisfy those upgrading from the original 2019 Quest as well as newcomers looking for games that make good use of Quest 2’s higher resolution displays and faster Snapdragon XR2 chipset.

The post ‘LOW-FI’ Creator Teases Prequel Game ‘AGENCY’ for Oculus Quest appeared first on Road to VR.

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‘LOW-FI’ Creator Teases Prequel Game ‘AGENCY’ for Oculus Quest

Iris VR, the game studio behind cyberpunk titles TECHNOLUST (2016) and the still in-production game LOW-FI, teased some new footage recently of its Oculus Quest game AGENCY.

Iris VR says Agency is a prequel episode of LOW-FI, the non-linear cyberpunk game which first garnered support through a Kickstarter campaign late last year.

Blair Renaud, studio CEO and Creative Director, released a quick sneak peak of Agency, stating that they’ve just pitched the game to Oculus for approval. Renaud says the game’s tech demo is currently running on Quest 2.

Outside of that, Agency itself is still largely a mystery in terms of gameplay. If it’s anything like LOW-FI though, which is slated to put you in the shoes of a retro-futuristic cop for a non-linear jaunt through a cyberpunk slum, we’re sure to see plenty more tech-noir overtures to Blade Runner (1982) and Robocop (1987), and hopefully a bunch of classic gaming arcade cabinets too.

SEE ALSO
Unofficial Quest App Store 'SideQuest' Raises $650,000 From Oculus Founder & Others

As any VR developer can attest, Oculus has set a fairly high bar for content quality on Quest, something Oculus’ Content Ecosystem Director Chris Pruett says in a developer blogpost is “higher than we’ve ever enforced before.”

With the entry of Oculus Quest 2 arriving on October 13th, the company is no doubt looking to expand its content library to satisfy those upgrading from the original 2019 Quest as well as newcomers looking for games that make good use of Quest 2’s higher resolution displays and faster Snapdragon XR2 chipset.

The post ‘LOW-FI’ Creator Teases Prequel Game ‘AGENCY’ for Oculus Quest appeared first on Road to VR.

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Battle Royale VR Shooter Population: One Lands This October For Quest And PC VR

Population: One finally has a release date set for October 22nd, less than a week after the launch of the Oculus Quest 2 on October 13th. Big Box VR is bringing their battle royale shooter to all PC VR headsets and Quest at launch with full crossplay support for $29.99.

Population: One – VR Battle Royale

Jamie, Ian, and I all got the chance to dive into Population: One last week together as a team and you can read my impressions from that hour-long play session right here or watch a bunch of gameplay in the video up above.

The comparisons to games like Fortnite are unavoidable and obvious. Not only is this a battle royale game in which players are tasked with being the last team standing as a toxic gas slowly encroaches on the map making it smaller and smaller over time, but it also features build-anywhere mechanics to spring up cover and quick structures on the fly.

What really sets Population: One apart though is that you can climb literally any surface. All you do is reach up and hold the grip button and you’re off climbing. You can also glide from any surface with an always-equipped glider so you never need to worry about fall damage. It complements the climbing system nicely.

Population: One will launch with a single map, several guns including assault rifles, SMGs, pistols, shotguns, and snipers, as well as grenades, and each match can hold up to 18 players across six 3-persopn squads. Your teammates can revive you if you go down, but if your team is wiped then you enter a spectator mode that lets you fly around the map in the sky to watch as things unfold.

population one screenshot image Population One Release Window population one screenshot image

“We’ve worked hard to bring POPULATION: ONE to as many platforms as possible by pushing the absolute limits of modern mobile VR chipsets,” said Gabe Brown, BigBox VR’s CTO and co-founder in a prepared statement. “We’re excited to see how players use the Vertical Combat System to compete and win starting on October 22nd!”

Population: One is slated to hit the Oculus Quest platform and all major PC VR headsets on October 22nd for $29.99. For more on Population: One, check out our hands-on impressions right here and keep an eye out on UploadVR for more coverage and a full review later this month.

Let us know what you think down in the comments below!