Developer Harmonix has revealed what new DLC is coming up for musical rhythm games Rock Band VR, Rock Band 4 and SingSpace this month.
As usual focusing on well-known songs by popular bands, Rock Band VR’s song library will be getting two songs that hit number 1 on the US Modern Rock Chart, which will be available to download for $2.99 (USD) each:
Green Day – Basket Case
The White Stripes – Seven Nation Army
In addition, social karaoke experience on the Samsung Gear VR SingSpace was launched earlier in the month and is already receiving new DLC tracks to add to the library. The title uses a subscription model where users can pay as little as $1.99 per month to get access to ongoing updates.
Last week saw classic Queen tracks Bohemian Rhapsody, Somebody To Love and Under Pressure added to the subscription library, and four more tracks will be made available to subscribers over the next two weeks:
Bad Romance
Black Horse & The Cherry Tree
DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love
No Scrubs
Rock Band 4 is getting additional tracks, too, with the following songs available to download for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 users for $1.99 each:
Montell Jordan – This Is How We Do It
blink-182 – Bored To Death
The Isley Brothers – Shout
MGMT – Kids
Keep an eye on VRFocus for further updates on upcoming DLC for Rock Band VR and SingSpace.
This week Samsung Gear VR owners can now enjoy some virtual reality (VR) karaoke either on their own of with friends thanks to Harmonix’s SingSpace.
The Rock Band VR developer originally announced SingSpace for the mobile head-mounted display (HMD) in October 2016, and since then has only demoed the experience with a few select songs. With the launch this week the core experience features 20 songs, all of which are listed below:
…Baby One More Time
Ain’t It Fun
Beautiful
Before He Cheats
Bye Bye Bye
Can’t Feel My Face
Cheap Thrills
Girls Just Want To Have Fun
Hey Ya!
I Don’t Want To Be
I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing
Material Girl
One Week
Only Wanna Be With You
P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)
Rapper’s Delight
Sugar, We’re Goin Down
Take On Me
Thrift Shop
U Can’t Touch This
Rather than DLC Harmonix is running a subscription service for SingSpace, thus giving players access to a broader range of songs. Currently the service features:
18 And Life
A Whole New World
ABC
All About That Bass
All Of Me
All That Jazz
Barbara Ann
Beauty and the Beast
Because Of You
Bring Me To Life
Can You Feel the Love Tonight
Chain of Fools
Chandelier
Creep
Downtown
Everybody (Backstreet’s Back)
Hakuna Matata
Hey There Delilah
Hit ‘Em Up Style (Oops!)
Holiday
I Hate Everything About You
I Heard It Through The Grapevine
I Want It That Way
If I Could Turn Back Time
If You Could Only See
I’ll Be
I’m Like A Bird
I’m So Excited
Keep Your Hands To Yourself
Kiss From a Rose
Let It Go
Lonely No More
Macho Man
One Headlight
One Way Or Another
Oye Como Va
Papa Don’t Preach
Part of Your World
Push It
Royals
Save a Horse (Ride a Cowboy)
Semi-Charmed Life
Shining Star
Step By Step
Super Freak
Take Me Home, Country Roads
The Middle
Two Princes
Un-Break My Heart
Under the Sea
Y.M.C.A.
You Can’t Hurry Love
These songs are subject to change notes the developer, plus a two-week trial subscription is included with every copy of the video game.
SingSpace is available through the Oculus Store for £3.99/$4.99 USD GBP. Checkout the launch trailer below, and for further updates on Harmonix VR projects keep reading VRFocus.
Karaoke is one of those past times that people either love or loath. It’s one of those great unifiers no matter who you are, young or old, where people gather round a karaoke machine at home, or head out to the local karaoke bar for a sing song. At Oculus Connect 3, Harmonix unveiled its take on the past time with SingSpace, a virtual reality (VR) offering for Samsung’s Gear VR that not only allows players to sing popular tunes, they can also sing with friends whilst adding some inherently social videogame mechanics.
Firstly you have to ask yourself, do you like singing – regardless if you can carry a tune – and do you like singing in public. If that’s a yes to both then read on, as SingSpace is all about letting your vocal chords do the work.
When starting the videogame you’ll be taking into a colourful cartoon world where you can pick an avatar and then dress them in a range garish garments to suit your tastes. Then its onto the mode you wish to sing in. For the demo Harmonix ran at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2017 there were two choices available, either sing on your own or head into multiplayer. The latter was the obvious choice, as previously mentioned karaoke’s all about the social element, singing with friends – or in this case the developer – and the general banter that ensues depending on how well you sang.
For the demo only five songs were available, but this being Harmonix there’s going to be plenty available when SingSpace launches this year. For this particular multiplayer demo you take it interns, singing whatever song you like – it doesn’t need to be the same. To build social interaction into the title the studio gives the person not singing a range of emoji style images to choose from, they can then select these however they like as they listen to the other person sing. These range from stars, and pizza’s, to bags of money and loads more. At the end of the song all of the selected icons are then tallied up as a form of score, allowing the singer to see how well the other person thought they’d done. Or you could simply congratulate them – or heckle if you so wished – using the mic.
It’s a reasonably fun solution for keeping a group of friends entertained whilst awaiting their turn to sing. Whether its novelty value will keep players interested enough for any length of time is another matter.
Unlike Harmonix’s more renowned VR title Rock Band VR, SingSpace doesn’t have the pedigree to rely on to attract users. It’ll be down to the selection of songs that will really gain it some attention so hopefully the studio has some killer tracks planned for release.
On the face of it SingSpace is a quirky videogame that has its own charm and appeal. It’s certainly basic, both in the design and the mechanics, there’s not a great deal you need for a karaoke title. It just begs the question, do you want to sing your heart out in VR?
Oculus has been keen to showcase the latest virtual reality (VR) content coming to Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR over the course of 2017. VRTV’s Nina Salomon has a video rundown featuring some of the biggest titles due to be launched.
Some of these titles you may already know about, while others might have slipped through the net. Rest assured none of them should be over looked.
Brass Tactics – VR Real-time strategy with clockwork/steampunk feel
SingSpace from Harmonix Music – ‘draw’ your music into the air, watch it react and dance in time to the beat. VR twist on classic music visualisations
Gestern sind wir der Einladung von Oculus gefolgt und duften die neusten Spiele für Oculus Touch und auch Gear VR in einer edlen Londoner Altbau-Galerie mit Industrie-Charme in ausführlichen Testsessions ausprobieren. Das Karaoke Multiplayer Social Spiel SingSpace, war neben Augmented Empire, einem rundenbasierten Taktik Shooter, eines von zwei vorgestellten Gear VR Spielen.
SingSpace – Mit Freunden in Virtual Reality in die Karaoke Bar
Das putzige Karaoke VR Spiel von Harmonix ist eine reine Social VR Erfahrung. Trefft euch online mit Freunden, wählt einen Avatar aus und trällert drauf los. Wer erst einmal im stillen Kämmerlein – dem Singleplayer Modus – üben möchte, der kann dies natürlich auch tun, um die Songtexte zu verinnerlichen. Der Avatar kann nach den eignen Wünschen angepasst werden (Hautfarbe, Frisur, Klamotten etc.) und erscheint dann, wenn man die virtuelle Bühne betritt auf Monitoren, die in der Bar verteilt sind.
Wenn man während seiner Gesangs-Performance mit dem Touchpad mittels Wischen (nach oben, unten, vorne und hinten) noch eine paar Tanzmoves zeigt, reagieren die kleinen Roboter-Zuschauer darauf. Auch die Atmosphäre in der virtuellen Bar verändert sich abhänging vom Gesang und der Stimme. An der Decke kann man hier immer wieder neue Animationen entdecken, ähnlich wie man es schon von anderen Audio-Visualisierungsprogrammen kennt.
Die soziale Karaoke Erfahrung greift hier für die Gesangsaufnahme auf das Mikrofon am Samsung Smartphone zu, sofern kein Headset mit Mikrofon angeschlossen ist. Andere „Mitspieler“ kann man in den Einstellungen aber auch auf stumm schalten. Oft ist es aber witziger, wenn man hört wie sich die Freunde beim Singen so anstellen oder ob sie einem nur motivierende Worte zurufen.
Ab Frühling 2017: Karaoke mit Freunden – Egal wo sie sind
Wie viele Lieder Harmonix dem Karaoke Spiel für die Gear VR verpassen wird, verriet man uns nicht. Es soll jedoch ein beachtlicher Katalog an Songs zur Verfügung stehen, wie man ihn auch in einer echten Karaoke Bar vorfinden würde.
Schließlich sollte man noch wissen, dass es keine wirklichen Scores gibt, wie es andere Sing-Spiele machen, die bewerten, ob man den Ton getroffen hat. SingSpace soll durch seine soziale Multiplayer-Komponente punkten und vor allem Spaß machen.
Harmonix Music Systems Inc scheint schon bald mehr verraten zu wollen, denn uns wurde versichert, dass es in den nächsten Wochen weitere Ankündigungen zum Gear VR Karaoke Titel Sing Space gibt. Ein Preis oder Veröffentlichungsdatum wurden uns nicht genannt. Wir konnten aber heraushören, dass der Titel noch in diesem Frühling für die Gear VR veröffentlicht werden soll.
