Gran Turismo isn’t very good, but I want more movies like it
Gran Turismo isn't very good, but I hope to see more films about the video game industry and its impact, not just the games themselves.
How Tom Holland’s love of Uncharted helped shape the film
Uncharted director Ruben Fleischer explains what he took from the games and how Tom Holland's fan feedback changed scenes.
Uncharted director is working on a Jak and Daxter adaptation
According to Uncharted director Ruben Fleischer, Sony is adapting Jak and Daxter for film or TV.
Sony Pictures Teams With The VOID on ‘Jumanji: Reverse the Curse’, Launching November 27th
Hot on the heels of Avengers: Damage Control, the next experience heading to VR attraction The VOID is Jumanji: Reverse the Curse, made in collaboration with the Sony Pictures Virtual Reality group. The title will come to select VOID locations starting on November 27th.
The VOID is a location-based VR attraction where players don headsets & haptics vests, and physically navigate through a stage filled with props and immersive tricks which bring the virtual world to life in a unique way. The attraction is home to a variety of experiences based on recognizable IP like Ghostbusters, Wreck-It Ralph, and Star Wars.
The VOID today announced its newest VR experience, Jumanji: Reverse the Curse.
Jumanji: Reverse the Curse will give fans the ability to truly enter another game, taking on the form of its heroes, Dr. Bravestone, Ruby Roundhouse, Professor Oberon and “Mouse” Finbar, to save Jumanji from a new dark and mysterious villain. Fans will be enlisted on a daring quest to rescue the Scepter of Se’payu containing the Red Jewel of Jumanji and return it to the temple from which it was stolen. Pulled into the perils of Jumanji, players face challenges just like those that the avatars face in the movie – evading man-eating wildlife, navigating across treacherous landscape, battling evil henchmen – to survive and return to real life.
Jumanji: Reverse the Curse is The VOID’s second collaboration with Sony Pictures Virtual Reality; the first was Ghostbusters: Dimension which was the first VR experience based on external IP to be hosted at The VOID. While Ghostbusters has been mostly phased out of The VOID, the company says Jumanji will be one of its best yet.
“Through close collaboration [with Sony Pictures Virtual Reality] on this project, we have been able to develop a dimension that is more interactive and immersive than any VOID experience has ever been before,” says Curtis Hickman, The VOID’s Chief Creative Officer. “Utilizing new technology and more illusion design, Jumanji: Reverse the Curse is a true adventure that travelers will want to experience over and over again.”
Jumanji: Reverse the Curse will launch on November 27th (tickets available starting November 16th) and be available through the holiday season at the following VOID locations, according to the company:
- Cinemark West Plano, Plano, Texas
- Grand Canal Shoppes in The Venetian and The Palazzo Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada
- Third Street Promenade, Santa Monica, California
- Westfield San Francisco Centre, San Francisco, California
- The Battery Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia
- Mall of America, Minneapolis, Minnesota
- The Rec Room at Square One, Mississauga, Ontario
- The Rec Room Toronto Roundhouse, Toronto, Ontario
- The Rec Room West Edmonton Mall, Edmonton, Alberta
- Resorts World Genting, Pahang Darul Makmur, Malaysia
- Tysons Corner, McLean, Virginia
Jumanji: Reverse the Curse launches ahead up the upcoming film Jumanji: The Next Level, which is due for release in December.
The post Sony Pictures Teams With The VOID on ‘Jumanji: Reverse the Curse’, Launching November 27th appeared first on Road to VR.
VRecap #5: Void Meets Avengers, Sony Buys Insomniac, Win The Tower 2!
Get yourself out of Gamescom, find a quiet spot with decent WiFi and dig in; VRecap #5 is here!
Even without throwing in our recent trip to Germany, it’s been heck of a busy week. First up, Sony acquired one of the biggest VR developers out there, Insomniac Games. They did games like The Unspoken and the upcoming Stormland, exclusively for the Oculus Rift. What does that mean for the developer’s existing relationship with Oculus? Could we see Insomniac on PSVR? Oh the possibilities!
Elsewhere, we’ve got an update from The Void that confirms the company is working with both Marvel and Sony Pictures on new location-based VR projects. Perhaps they’ll create a reality where Spider-Man is still in the MCU?
Too soon? Sorry.
Oh and, yes, we’ve been to Gamescom! We’ve got a quick preview of our adventures in Cologne this episode before we round up the week’s releases. We saw a heck of a lot of VR games out there, so keep an eye out for a bunch of previews heading your way over the next week or so. In fact we’ve already got a few ready for you, like Iron Man VR and Espire 1!
As for the competition, this week we’re offering up free copies of The Tower 2. This VR obstacle course makes full use of room scale tracking and gives you quite a workout. If you want to be in with a chance of winning, just follow this link.
Okay, time to get out of here and enjoy the weekend. What are you going to be diving into this weekend?
The post VRecap #5: Void Meets Avengers, Sony Buys Insomniac, Win The Tower 2! appeared first on UploadVR.
Groundhog Day’s VR Sequel Releases Next Month
Groundhog Day’s VR sequel (yes, that’s a real thing), will be with you very, very soon.
Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son is releasing on September 17th on Rift, Vive and PSVR. Index support isn’t mentioned but it’d be safe to assume the game at least works with the headset. Sony Pictures Virtual Reality and MWM Immersive confirmed the news just ahead of Gamescom this week, where the game is on show. It’ll cost $29.99 at launch.
If you’re a PlayStation Plus member, you can pre-order now for $26.99 instead. Oh, and you get a copy of the movie, too.
Like Father Like Son is a full sequel to the classic Bill Murray comedy. As the name suggests, you play as Murray’s character’s son, Phil Connors Jr. He returns to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania for the annual Groundhog Day festival. Wouldn’t you know it; he ends up stuck in the exact same loop as his dad did. Connors is forced to live out the same day over and over again until he finds a way to break the cycle.
As the new trailer above shows, that will involve a lot of puzzle-solving. It looks pretty interesting, like a modern take on the classic story. Importantly, it doesn’t look like the game is shying away from VR character interaction. Fans of the film will definitely spot some familiar locations too. If this overlaps the movie with interaction like we think it might, it’ll be a winner.
The game’s developed by Tequila Works, the team behind The Invisible Hours. It seems like a strange fit, but we’re hoping they’ve got something special on their hands. We’ll be at Gamescom so we’ll try to bring you impressions when we can. And, no, no word on a Quest version yet.
The post Groundhog Day’s VR Sequel Releases Next Month appeared first on UploadVR.
The Angry Birds Movie 2 VR: Under Pressure Lands on PlayStation VR in Two Weeks
Angry Birds fans have been inundated this year with the release of Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs and Angry Birds AR: Isle of Pigs, with The Angry Birds Movie 2 coming out next month. To coincide with the movie The Angry Birds Movie 2 VR: Under Pressure now has a confirmed released date for PlayStation VR.
Being developed by XR Games, The Angry Birds Movie 2 VR: Under Pressure is all about local gameplay using the PlayStation VR social screen. The studio wants the title to be a great introduction to virtual reality (VR) entertainment whilst helping: “existing VR players to evangelize their technology to the people around them,” says Richard Boon, Senior Game Designer, XR Games on PlayStation Blog.
Designed as a couch co-op videogame, one player is in VR while three others use the TV and controllers. This time the action takes place under the sea, in a submarine in fact, with VR player as captain of the submarine. All the TV players are the crew, controlling characters such as Red, Chuck, and new Angry Bird ‘Silver’, tasked with doing repairs, crafting torpedoes and storing treasure.
Explaining more about the gameplay, Boon reveals: “The captain monitors event [sic] and grabs as much treasure as possible from the ocean, which the crew then store in the sub. [The VR player] has a gameplay tool called the Magnashot, which is a classic Angry Birds slingshot with a magnet in it. It can suck stuff up and throw it back out – including the crew players. This gives the captain a lot of power. But there are things that only the crew can do, such as load machines and move explosive crates.”
As a social videogame The Angry Birds Movie 2 VR: Under Pressure is all about communication, which can get hectic when four people are likely to be shouting. But this is a slapstick style videogame, created to be fun rather than stressful.
Rovio Entertainment and XR Games will be releasing The Angry Birds Movie 2 VR: Under Pressure exclusively for PlayStation VR on Tuesday, 6th August 2019. For any further updates ahead of launch, keep reading VRFocus.
Upcoming Final Fantasy 14 TV series is first live-action take on the franchise
Sony Pictures and Hivemind, the studio behind the upcoming adaptation of the Witcher for Netflix, are teaming up for a live-action Final Fantasy 14 television series. It will feature Chocobos, Magitek, beast-men, and airships.
The Angry Birds Movie 2 VR: Under Pressure to be a Summer Release for PlayStation VR
Rovio Entertainment’s massive videogame franchise shows no signs of slowing down, with even more virtual reality (VR) content planned. With The Angry Birds Movie 2 due for release in August, Sony Pictures Virtual Reality, Rovio and XR Games have announced a VR tie-in, The Angry Birds Movie 2 VR: Under Pressure, exclusive to PlayStation VR.
The VR title will be a local social experience leveraging PlayStation VR’s social screen feature. A couch co-op videogame, one player is in VR while three others use the TV. This time, however, there won’t be any buildings to destroy or green pigs to attack.
Following the theme of the movie, in The Angry Birds Movie 2 VR: Under Pressure players find themselves inside a submarine working alongside the pigs for the very first time. The story goes that Red and the birds set aside their differences with Leonard and the pigs because of a new shared new feathered foe that threatens to destroy both of their islands.
Gameplay revolves are the VR player taking on the role of Leonard, the submarine’s captain, with everyone else controlling the sub’s crew, including Red, Chuck, and new movie character Silver.
“We wanted a console VR game that could replicate the humour and action of The Angry Birds Movie 2 and take players inside the narrative of the new movie, where the birds and pigs have to set aside their differences and actually work together. XR Games, with support from Rovio and Sony Pictures, are creating a genre-defining VR game that will keep the entire family laughing and playing together,” said Joe Lawson, Head of Entertainment Content and Movie Program at Rovio Entertainment in a statement.
“VR is an exciting medium, but there are not yet enough games that can be enjoyed with family and friends in the real world,” said Bobby Thandi, Founder and CEO at XR Games. “We saw an opportunity to introduce new players to PS VR by making a game in which VR and TV players have different viewpoints and responsibilities within the same funny, team-spirited game. Rovio’s Angry Birds IP, Sony Pictures ‘The Angry Birds Movie 2’ film, and PlayStation VR’s Social Screen feature all combine to give the perfect shared VR experience in your home. We’re super-excited to launch our game alongside the film’s release this summer!”
The film is scheduled for release on 2nd August 2019 in the UK. When a precise date for the videogame is revealed, VRFocus will let you know.
Groundhog Day sequel is coming–to VR
Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son by Sony Pictures.
Sony Pictures announced that it’s making a sequel to the hit Bill Murray movie Groundhog Day.
But it’s animated. And it’s in virtual reality.
Groundhog Day: Life Father Like Son takes place in the same setting, but this time the hero is Phil Connors, Jr., the son of Phil Connors, the character originally played by Bill Murray.
At the end of the first movie, Phil settled Punxsutawney in with his love interest, Rita, played by Andie MacDowell, and they had a son.
In the game, Phil Jr. is back in town — and gets stuck in the same time loop, according to Raul Rubio, CEO and Creative Director, Tequila Works, the company that developed the game in partnership with Sony Pictures Virtual Reality.
“He’s trapped back home in Punxsutawney, the small town he thought he’d escaped — where he can’t even get a decent cappuccino — and he’s going to have to repeat the day over and over until he learns the true value of friends and family,” said Rubio in a blog post about the game.
“When we got the opportunity to work on Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son, it looked like the perfect scenario to create a unique experience of intertwined stories, with the player fully embedded in timeline choices,” he added. “After all, time loops are like being trapped in a videogame!”
The game will be released later this year for PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift, and the HTC Vive.
Check out the trailer below.