Category: SEGA

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VR vs. Nostradamus – Part 3

Okay boys and girls, this is the last week of this, I promise. But it does set us up nicely for what comes afterwards and there are some relatively big topics still to address. Before we get to that there is some other business to attend to, since I was asked whether or not this weekend just gone’s live streamed HTC Vive tournament counted for my ‘VR Only eSports Tournament’ prediction. In short, the answer is no. Had I been aware of it at the time of writing I would’ve been slightly clearer of course; but this tournament would need to be slightly bigger in scale than a live stream by one of the platform holders.  That said, it was very nice to see and another indication that perhaps what I inferred isn’t that far away.

Casting the runes out onto the carpet the fates say…
Bethesda Pulls The Trigger

It may be hard to recall right now in 2017, but do you remember the excitement at E3 when Bethesda surprised the world with not just a DOOM VR experience but a Fallout 4 experience as well? We’ve heard precious little about either experience since August and you’ve got to wonder what with the team have learnt whether or not we might see something more whole at this year’s E3. So that’s my prediction, Bethesda, a year later come back with a full and proper experience and not just a demo. VRFocus described DOOM VR as “a great showcase” and Fallout 4 as “woefully short”, but in all honesty I’d like to see both get their due on the HTC Vive.

If one of the more mainstream studios is going to be brave and be the one to go for it Bethesda is not a bad bet.

Staring at the dripping wax from the candle I see…
China Rises

We’ve talked about it on a number of occasions but whether it is industry or football, China’s rise to a true powerhouse (economic in this case) has been on the cards for some time. Ignoring the politics the country is very good at getting its ducks all in a row and China look set to be by the end of 2017 a VR power in waiting. Certainly it will become a talking point at the end of the year as to who will be the industry leader in the Asian block.

VR in China

Using a whirlybird fortune teller I can tell you will marry David from your Geography class, and also that…
Apple Waits

Will they? Won’t they? They will, but not just yet. Apple will of course enter the VR/AR fray at some point it’s as nailed on as you can get. As I’ve mentioned before the company is not keen to let rivals get a head start on them, but in this instance Apple might just be playing the smart long game. Letting everyone else do the developing and the building before storming in with something to kick off a Gen 3 perhaps?

For me though it’s more that Apple simply have other things to concern themselves with at this time. People aren’t happy with the company, they’ve still – somehow – got lawsuits and court cases about patents and tax to deal with and more importantly they’ve a product line that their customer base is growing in burn out and disinterest.  Do they really want to leap into battle against Facebook, Google, Samsung, Microsoft, etc?  A year to steady the ship with some solid crowd-pleasing updates and a 2018 when they can then go on the offensive.

Holding the swinging pendulum it indicates…
VR Does What Nintendon’t

So the Nintendo Switch (*insert click noise here*) announcement occurred and naturally everyone lost their minds, before a very high percentage proceeded to lose the contents of their wallets as well. 2017 I feel will bring much more of the same from ol’ Ninty when it comes to VR.

Person X isn’t keen, it doesn’t work. Person Y is keen, it does work. Person Z suggests it is something the company has to look into and in fact they are. Round and round and round it goes. Where it stops nobody knows. Least of all X, Y and Z.

No headset will be announced for the Switch – which is just as well in some ways based on the pricing of some of the peripherals. Nintendo will continue to um and arr and be grumpy that you, me, and everyone else keep asking them about it. Much like the SEGA advert of old, whatever anyone says when it comes to VR Nintendon’t and Nintenwon’t.

Reaching out into the void for consultation with the spirits of the dead I pause for a moment-
And Speaking Of SEGA…

Where the heck is SEGA? No really. If you look at SEGA historically they’ve been frightfully keen since they went third-party to get in on the ground floor with new technology and have something ready from the get go. Flinging an old franchise or an evergreen franchise at the tech in the hope that if it sticks it’ll see them in prime position. This has not worked particularly well in the past, (trust me, I’ve worked on some of them) yet they have persisted. Be it SEGA Superstars on EyeToy, Sonic Free Riders and Rise Of Nightmares (whose artwork seems to get plagiarised a lot on horror image asset packs) on the first Kinect. That Sonic deal with Nintendo on the Wii U? Remember that?

For VR though? They’ve had a couple of Hatsune Miku games of course. They did have those for launch of the PlayStation VR. (Not that they yelled particularly loudly about it.) But that’s tempered by the fact that,well… Their name might feature in one of the titles but Miku and the Vocaloid brigade aren’t exactly SEGA’s intellectual property.

hatsune-miku-vr-future-live_1

Has anyone even mentioned SEGA’s franchise library in the VR discussion yet? I’m not talking about Creative Assembly wafting a 360 video at us that one time. An actual SEGA game.

I predict 2017 will rectify that and we will have a familiar traditional SEGA franchise on the books for VR. Maybe even a resurrected one. There’s plenty to choose from. So many that it gives me an idea. Come back next week as I go through the ten franchises SEGA would be crazy not to bring to VR.

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‘Alien Isolation’ Is The Best VR Horror Game You’ve Probably Never Played

‘Alien Isolation’ Is The Best VR Horror Game You’ve Probably Never Played

VR and horror are a match made in Heaven (or Hell, depending on who you ask).  I’m a horror fanatic, and always have been ever since I played the first Resident Evil on the original PlayStation. It was always that sense of atmosphere, immersion and fear of the unknown that kept bringing me back for more. So naturally the first thing I did when I started experimenting in VR was look for some great horror experiences.

Dreadhalls, and Lost in the Rift were the first VR horror games that made me realize the potential there was for scaring the crap out of people in VR. As simple as those games are, they still scared me more than any other horror game I’d ever played at that point.

The full potential of the genre was realized when Sega released Alien Isolation on October 7th, 2014 and a few weeks later I had eagerly modded a couple of lines of code in the config file unlocking an “experimental” VR build of the game. Sega used the VR version of the game to help promote the 2D version during E3, and it worked as many a reporters came away scared silly by their first horror experience in VR. Luckily for us Oculus Rift DK2 owners at the time, Sega left the VR build intact in the final retail release.

Alien Isolation is still, to this day, the premiere showcase for what can be achieved when a AAA horror game is given the VR treatment. Since it’s still early for many big game developers to commit big budgets to VR projects, most recent horror games have so far been created by small indie teams and they generally feature simplistic game mechanics, low production values, and often rely on cheap jump scares to get a reaction out of people. Alien Isolation is able to leverage these AAA production values and create a game that can instead focus on world building, suspense, story, atmosphere, and gameplay.

VR surrounds you with visuals and sound in full 360 environments, providing the ultimate sense of immersion, and when the developer meticulously replaces your world with one of their design, the results in the case of Alien Isolation are remarkable. Developer Creative Assembly has taken the essence of the first Alien movie, and has captured the atmosphere, the 80’s stylistic future tech-noir, pumping music, high-quality  visuals, and used it all to faithfully recreate that feeling in the game.  The authenticity of the world is a big reason why this game works so well in VR.  It’s a fully fleshed out, darkly beautiful world that can be fully explored and interacted with.

I played a good portion of Alien Isolation on my tri-monitor surround setup in 2D and the transition to VR was far beyond what I’d thought the experience would add. Playing Alien Isolation in VR felt more like a dream now that I think about it. I can still clearly remember exact level layouts. I can remember walking the halls, and corridors of the Sevastopol – like I was there in person, more like a memory of being somewhere than just playing through a video game.

The sense of scale can only be realized through the power of VR, and it really is essential to achieving the sense of presence that the game can elicit. Presence is the holy grail of the VR experience, and Alien Isolation was one of the few games ever to make me feel like I was “really” someplace else.  You feel like you’ve walked the entire space station, multiple times, and can truly appreciate all the detail that went into the game’s great level design, and overall aesthetic. The atmosphere is genuinely terrifying and leaves your senses completely consumed. After experiencing Alien Isolation VR, I felt like a survivor, like I’d been a part of one of the best horror games ever made.

All that being said, he highlights of the experience  are undoubtedly the Alien encounters. Each moment is a suspenseful game of cat and mouse. Instead of just holding a button to peak out around a corner, or from behind a desk, or from under a bed, trying to spot the Alien from the other side of a TV screen,you are actually using your head and your body movements to try and keep your foe in visible range.  Being finally discovered by the Alien in VR, really is something that made my heart skip a beat (or two) and the fact that as I ran I could actually turn my head and look behind me as the Alien was bearing down on me is something that could never be experienced in standard flat 2D gaming.  The sense of fear is much more palatable in VR, and it’s really difficult to separate yourself from the horror unfolding around you.

Horror is a genre that people either love, hate, or love to hate. I sometimes ask myself why I want to put myself in such traumatic situations and I believe it’s the feeling of being alive, that fight or flight response, that really makes me come back for more. VR takes that fear to a new level, and with games like Alien Isolation it’s possible to get completely immersed and scared like never before. You live the horror around you, and there is no looking away (closing your eyes is cheating!)

The future looks very promising for horror VR with games like Resident Evil 7, Alison Road, Stifled, and Narcosis all coming soon.  Anyone who has played the Resident Evil 7 Kitchen demo will be sure to tell you that Capcom is not concerned with easing the potential millions of PS VR players into the awesome world of AAA VR horror.

With Sega recently confirming that they are in fact working on VR titles, the prospect of a fully-featured and more complete version of Alien Isolation running inside virtual reality headsets could be more likely than you think.

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‘Alien: Isolation’ is One of VR’s Missed Opportunities, But There’s Still Hope

Alien: Isolation is one of the best VR games never released. We look back at why the title was so revered by VR enthusiasts and that there’s now finally hope we’ll see an official VR release after all.

One of the best video games based on the hugely popular Alien franchise in many years, Alien: Isolation was taut, tense and just plain terrifying in places. The title was received warmly by critics upon release and seemed to indicate a return to form for a franchise which had suffered a seemingly endless string of sub-par video game entries. Everyone was happy, with the exception of VR enthusiasts.

You see, in the run up to Alien: Isolation‘s release on standard 2D gaming platforms, Oculus had featured the title prominently in its showcase line up whilst attending various gaming trade shows throughout 2014. Then demonstrated on the Oculus Rift DK2, people were treated to a special made-for-VR demo which had the player trying to escape the clutches of our favourite xenomorph, and it was a huge success, reported widely in the gaming press, such that Alien: Isolation‘s became one of the most anticipated VR releases ahead of the Rift’s consumer launch.

alien isolation oculus rift virtual reality

And then, nothing. Prior to the game’s release in 2014, Eurogamer asked Creative Assembly what was up with VR support in the full game and the studio stated that “At present, it’s just a prototype and does not represent a game currently in development at this point in time. It’s a truly amazing experience though and brings the game to life in ways we could not have imagined when we started the project. It’s one of the most terrifying demos you’ll ever play.” The title eventually disappeared from Oculus’ showcase list and the game was launched with no mention of virtual reality support.

Many in the VR community were disappointed and some more than a little angry that such a promising VR title, one that could have been such a powerful ambassador for VR as a gaming platform would now not materialise. However, to some community members, it seemed likely that the advanced level of VR support demonstrated in Alien: Isolation at trade shows indicated that a significant amount had effort had been put into the game as a whole to make it work. Therefore, it was pretty unlikely that support would have been removed entirely from the game prior to release and instead it was merely hidden, waiting to be unlocked again.

See Also: Alien: Isolation in VR is Beautiful and Terrifying
See Also: Alien: Isolation in VR is Beautiful and Terrifying

Sure enough, within just a few days of Alien: Isolation‘s full release, community gumshoes found that altering just a few lines of config files were enough to enable support for their Oculus Rift DK2 headsets. When this was done however, it was immediately obvious that the game’s VR support was even further along than many had hoped. With some minor exceptions, this game was fully playable in VR and what’s more, it looked incredible!

That’s not to say there weren’t problems. The very nature of Alien: Isolation‘s gamepad based locomotion and resulting yaw rotation meant that it could be uncomfortable for some and scripted moments in the game wrestles camera control away from the player, a definite ‘no no’ when it comes to VR comfort. These challenges, along with the fact that consumer VR headset releases simply hadn’t happened yet, would probably be the primary reasons as to why VR support wasn’t included in the released game.

Unfortunately, as Oculus’ development towards a consumer headset continued and their drivers and SDKs advanced, Alien: Isolation‘s unmaintained VR support became deprecated and it is now no longer usable without some serious hacking about on older runtimes. Which means, those wishing to sample the game’s immersive delights on their consumer Rifts (or Vives for that matter) were, to be blunt, shit out of luck.

Jurgen Post, COO Sega Europe
Jurgen Post, COO Sega Europe

Recently comments made by Sega’s European boss Jurgen Post, have stirred hopes that a fully VR enabled Alien: Isolation may now surface after all. Speaking to MCV, Jurgen said that “VR has caught the whole company’s attention,” going on to state, “We have a lot of VR kits in the office and people are playing with it. We are exploring ways to release games. We’ve not announced anything, but we are very close to making an announcement.” Heartening indeed, but Jorgen then went on to allude to titles which might be first on the VR release roster and, predictably, Alien: Isolation was mentioned. “We did Alien: Isolation about three years ago on Oculus Rift, it was a demo that was bloody scary,” said Post. “To bring that back to VR would be a dream and dreams can come true… VR will take time, but we will start releasing some titles just to learn. It is a platform for the future.”

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Nevertheless, there are some in the community who feel so passionately about being given the opportunity to experience the game on their consumer grade VR headsets, that they’ve started a petition to urge Sega to return to the title and finish what they obviously had begun years ago. The movement currently has over 750 signatures, and if you’d like to join the cause, head over to the Change.org page right here to show your support.

With virtual reality’s consumer push now underway, the need for substantial, triple-A content to entice people to buy into this fledgling technology is stronger then ever. Alien: Isolation, if done right, could be one of those key titles for Sega.

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