ARVORE, the studio behind the Pixel Ripped VR game franchise, announced it’s currently developing a VR soccer game called PAWBALL, which aims to get you leaping around and scoring goals like only a feline can.
On the studio’s Discord (invite link), Arvore Community Manager Freddy Pavão reveals the idea initially came from wanting dinosaurs to play soccer, although the team eventually settled on cats, which can move around in interesting and dynamic ways.
“With the change to our feline friends, the main idea for the game (and all the prototypes that came after) got a whole new range of possibilities,” Pavão says. “The game is still about soccer, but now using verticality, as the cats can jump super high, climb, hit the ball in aerial attacks, and so on. It is by far our game with the most possibilities for gameplay diversity, as players can do basically whatever they want to hit the ball and score a goal.”
Developer Ana Ribeiro shows off a peek at an early build:
Like many free-to-play games, the studio says it will be providing cosmetic upgrades. Granted, it’s still early days, however hopeful testers could also soon get their chance with early builds, which the studio says it will provide without the need of a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) like many studios tend to do with still-in-development betas. That could arrive as early as June, Arvore says.
There’s no indication yet on what platforms the game is targeting either, however you can bet the free-to-play game will be searching for the widest possible distribution in hopes of replicating the sort of viral success of an obvious analogue, Gorilla Tag.
The primate-focused game of tag reported early last year it had garnered $26 million in revenue since its 2021 launch. That’s a tall order to fill, although if a pretty simple game of immersive tag can do it, maybe cats playing soccer can too?
During Meta’s Quest Gaming Showcase today, we finally caught a glimpse of VR’s first official NFL game, NFL PRO ERA, which promises to let you QB for your favorite team as you make your path to the Super Bowl.
Developers StatusPRO unveiled NFL PRO ERA today for the first time, VR’s first officially-licensed NFL game. In NFL PRO ERA, you take the role of quarterback, and participate in games and drills, but also the ability to play catch virtually with your friends online in your favorite NFL stadium.
StatusPRO says NFL PRO ERA is slated to arrive at some point in Fall 2022 on Meta Quest and PlayStation VR.
NFL Pro Era’s first trailer, which was released today during the showcase, features an up-close view from NFL quarterback Lamar Jackson’s perspective, and pre-alpha gameplay set to a voiceover from acclaimed hip hop artist and former NFL draft prospect Tobe Nwigwe.
“Utilizing player data was a must-have to create a truly authentic NFL player experience,” said Troy Jones, co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of StatusPRO. “We felt today’s Meta Quest Gaming Showcase provided the perfect opportunity for StatusPRO to share a sneak peek of NFL PRO ERA. Through our product, fans will feel the excitement of what it’s like to be an NFL quarterback such as Lamar Jackson and stare in the face of a pass rush while maintaining command of the offense. Fans will get to experience the energy of thousands of fans cheering in their favorite stadium, while gaining a new appreciation for what it takes to compete at the highest level.”
The commentary in NBA 2K22 is entertaining, but it can get repetitive after a while. Here's how you can turn off commentary and listen to the crowd instead.
Playing a sport like football, boxing, mini golf or ping pong is easy on the Quest platform. Here’s our list of the best sports games available on Oculus Quest 2.
The list is presented in no particular order and is not ranked, as we didn’t want to pit a variety of different sports against each other. However, for sports that have multiple VR games available on Quest, we’ve stuck with just including the one best experience available on Quest for each.
We’ve also included a few sports games that aren’t direct one-to-one translations of a real sport, but something altered to work in VR.
Eleven Table Tennis
Eleven Table Tennis is really as simple as it sounds — it’s table tennis in VR. However, to leave it at that would be to do it an injustice — it’s not just table tennis in VR, it’s really good table tennis in VR. It also works so well because it feels like the real thing — there’s relatively little physical resistance when hitting a ball in table tennis in real life, so a VR translation feels scarily accurate. Slight vibrations when you hit the ball are all that’s needed to make Eleven Table Tennis feel properly authentic. Plus, the game supports LAN matches for a lag-free experience, and you can even use a 3D printed paddle with your Touch controller for the full authentic experience. It’s table tennis in VR, recreated in impressive detail.
There’s also something special about being able to take your Quest anywhere and — provided you have an internet connection — play against a friend (or a random) online with a 1:1 recreation of a table tennis table. Upcoming updates will also add in support for the upgraded Meta avatars, with full upper body representation, along with 3-4 player support and an overhauled UI/menu system.
Cross-platform play: Yes, between Quest, Rift and SteamVR users.
Totally Baseball lets you be the pitcher, batter and outfielder all in one. The game has a unique “teleportation system” that will switch you between positions mid-game, giving you the full baseball experience in VR.
The game launched with just singleplayer in July last year, but has since been updated to include two multiplayer modes – 1v1 or free roam.
By the same developers as ForeVR Bowling, ForeVR Darts provides an easy option to get head-to-head with your friends in a round of virtual darts. It’s simple but effective – invite friends and meet up at the ForeVR pub, where you can each compete in a lane with classic darts rules, such as 301 up.
You can use either hands or controllers to throw darts – the hand tracking works quite well and, if anything, shooting a bullseye with an aiming reticule seems a little bit easier in VR than it does in real life…
The most challenging part of Carve Snowboarding is the first few hours — learning the ropes and adjusting a foot-driven sport to be controller by your hands take a bit of getting used to. It’s tough and quite tiring at first, but it’s well worth the effort. The game is less focused on impossible stunts and more concerned with using VR to simulate the rush of racing downhill, ducking under tree branches and daring yourself to hop into the air and try for an Indie or a Japan Air.
It doesn’t have the precision of classic snowboarding games and it’ll tie your mind in knots at times but, once you’ve experienced the rush of Carve’s downhill stunts, you wouldn’t want it any other way.
This game is perhaps the most abstract translation of a real life sport into VR, but it basically takes Ultimate Frisbee and creates a stunningly-deep and engaging VR version of the game with two teams of three fighting over a Frisbee in zero gravity. If you’re familiar with the book Ender’s Game, imagine a cross between that and Ultimate Frisbee and you’ve got Echo VR.
If you haven’t tried Echo VR, it’s probably as close to a native VR-first sport available on the platform. It’s a properly amazing new take on Frisbee that could only work in VR. Even better, it’s completely free to play on Oculus Quest.
Mini golf is one of those sports that lends itself particularly well to VR, and Walkabout Mini Golf is probably the best realization of the sport in VR. The only real difference to playing in real life is the lack of a proper club with the appropriate weight. However, you’ll quickly get the hang of it and can add an accessory to get that proper club feeling. Arguably, the game might even be better than physical mini golf with no pressure to get to the next hole, no hitches in the carpeting and the ability to move your putter right through obstacles instead of needing to move the ball away from it.
Walkabout Mini Golf launched on Oculus Quest but is also available on Steam from July 15 of 2021, with a phone version planned for later in the year. Cross-play is supported across all platforms too, so you’ll soon be able to play mini golf with Quest, PC VR and mobile users as well. There’s seven different courses in the game, set across some fun environments, with unlockable hard modes for the courses as well. There’s plans for one more course for the base game as well as some additional DLC courses as well.
This one’s for the rock climbing and bouldering fans — while Crytek’s The Climb 2 can’t quite capture the full body physicality of the real sport, it comes pretty close. Despite not being available for PC VR, we called it one of most visually impressive Quest games on the platform in our review, featuring some stunning vistas and climbing courses. It’s not just a visual spectacle either — there’s also quite a bit of nuance to the climbing mechanics, allowing you to half-grip, jump, use zip lines, avoid breakable rocks and much more.
It’s a thrilling experience that lets you climb in some situations that you might never want to risk in real life. On the harder levels, it can even be a good accidental workout as well.
When it comes to VR boxing, there’s a surprising number of options. However, when push comes to shove, Thrill of the Fight throws the best punches.
This boxing simulator puts you in a virtual ring to fight off against AI opponents in a manner similar to a real boxing match — you’re encouraged to move around the ring and the game will automatically adjust the difficulty depending on how hard (or soft) you hit. It’s definitely more of a simulator than a game, so don’t come in expecting a big campaign or lots of game-y structure. Developer Ian Fitz’s main focus was to mimic real life as much as possible, with different outcomes depending on where each of your hits land.
Racket NX takes a fundamentally different approach to some of the other games on this list — instead of taking a sport and trying to emulate it as closely as possible in VR, Racket NX gives you a racket and a ball and introduces a new form of gameplay made for VR.
You play inside a giant dome, using your Touch controller-turned racket to hit balls at targets that light up across the curved walls. There’s a single player campaign and endless mode, while multiplayer options offer versus and co-op modes with support for cross-platform play.
When this game released, we called it a simple but fun arcade-style VR adaptation of American football. However, since our initial review there’s been a wealth of new updates that have added more content and overhauled big parts of the game. The recently-launched “Challengers Edition” update is the culmination of this, adding multiple leagues, new play modes, a new soundtrack and some graphical upgrades to the fairly lackluster launch visuals.
It’s still a fairly simple arcade-y version of American football, but if you’re looking for some quarterback action in VR, this is the game for you.
On the surface, ForeVR Bowl does everything right — it’s incredibly polished, has real character and gives plenty of reasons to keep playing. However, unlike other games on the list, the sport it’s simulating presents one big problem — bowling relies heavily on feeling the weight of the ball as you throw it. In VR, this simply isn’t possible. ForeVR Bowl tries to offer some smart solutions — it gives balls stats for weight and speed, offering options for different techniques — but ultimately it still comes off as an iteration of Wii Sports-style bowling as opposed to something more realistic.
The reason it’s on the list over other bowling games, such as Premium Bowling, is because it offers a more realistic experience overall, even if it does have those control issues associated with the lack of weight. It also offers multiplayer and once you accept the game’s limitations, it’s still a lot of casual fun. The developers have also already made improvements to the throwing mechanics since launch and are continuing work on additional changes.
Real VR Fishing is the game for you if you’re looking for something that captures the calming joy of just sitting out on the shore or boat with your line in the water and chatting with friends to your right and left. You can collect catches for your aquarium and visit a range of beautiful settings, plus there’s a pretty large range of difficulty options. When you’re just starting out, the game helps you see where the fish are, but you can turn that off for an even more realistic and challenging experience. The developers are planning a US West DLC pack for new areas to fish in as well as a revamp of the game’s mechanics.
In terms of basketball, Gym Class is probably the best route on Quest 2. We’ve tried other basketball games that take a more skee ball-inspired arcade approach to the sport, but Gym Class opts to translate the proper basketball game experience as best as possible in VR, similar to the approach taken by Eleven for table tennis.
Basketball is a lot harder to pull off properly in VR, but Gym Class is a solid attempt with good core mechanics and ball physics. You can shoot hoops solo on a full court, but the main draw is multiplayer, where you can play with up to 8 people across 2 teams. There’s support for audio chat on the court, as well as full-body IK to make players appear more natural.
The ball has good weight to it, which works alongside a smart auto-release mechanic for throwing and bouncing. We’ve mainly tried the solo mode and haven’t played a full online match – nor are we experts in real life basketball either – but it felt like the game struck a nice balance between providing a realistic, true-to-life experience and necessary adjustments to make everything work well in VR.
Almost every sport imaginable has been reproduced in some videogame form over the years, either going for pure simulation or arcade fun. Bowling really didn’t come into its own until the arrival of the Nintendo Wii and those lovely motion controllers but even then it was fairly basic. So you would’ve thought with virtual reality’s (VR) focus on immersive controls there would be an array of bowling titles available. That’s not the case, so to help fill the void on Oculus Quest is ForeVR Bowl, striking that bowling desire head-on.
Oculus Quest isn’t devoid of bowling titles it just lacks any variety, with only Sports Scramble and Premium Bowling coming to mind. So what does ForeVR Bowl offer that the others don’t? Well, quite a lot actually, from its ultra-realistic physics to its customizable options and its well-coming aesthetic, there’s plenty to like.
First impressions instantly lean towards a very casual bowling experience, with bright, bold design and colour choices giving ForeVR Bowl that family-friendly feel. That feeling doubles down when you realise the title is one of the few to implement Facebook’s new avatar system, allowing for more expressive and detailed looking characters. If you’ve not set one up yet the main foyer provides a link taking you out of the videogame and into the avatar creation software, a handy little feature.
But don’t let that charming demeanour lull you into thinking ForeVR Bowl is soft around the edges because underneath is a very serious simulator that’ll test those bowling skills to the max. Not only do you have to be accurate with your throw but there are the oil patterns to consider, altering the behaviour of the ball. You’re also given plenty of stats after each throw including speed and the ball’s route.
Its four gameplay modes are set up for solo and multiplayer gaming, both local and online so there’s no shortage of choice. As a lone bowler you can practice in free play – where you’re given do-overs – compete in the ranked leader boards or head on over to the Spare Practice mode. Here you can set up those pins exactly how you want them which is especially handy if you want to practice the deadly 7/10 spilt like a nutter. When it comes to playing with mates the online multiplayer supports up to four players, while Pass and Play is entirely local, so you can swap the headset between eight players if you so wish.
The options continue as there are 6 alleys to choose from – 1990’s hall, the Moon, a Stadium, a Disco Club, Palm Springs and Tiki Island – each with their own genre of licensed music would you believe. Over the airwaves, the likes of Eye of the Tiger and Le Freak were piped in to give that classic bowling centre feel. Palm Springs and Tiki Island offer a slightly tweaked experience so they don’t feature in ranked games. Palm Springs is designed as your own fancy, single-lane bowling alley with an enormous 99 do-overs (normally it’s three) whilst Tiki Island has permanent bumpers for newbies to learn the ropes. Plus, if you’re playing solo or with friends, you can pick from 20 oil patterns to mix up the gameplay.
While you might think that the bumpers are for kids, don’t be so sure. As mentioned, ForeVR Bowl has real-world physics at its roots, it quickly becomes noticeable after a few gutter balls that there’s no hand-holding with some arcade leniency. In Premium Bowling, for example, being able to bowl strike after strike wasn’t that difficult. ForeVR Bowl, on the other hand, was a wake-up call. You can fling the ball down the centre or try to add some spin if you’ve got the skills. At first, there’s that thought something must be wrong “I’m not that bad at bowling” yet the gutter says otherwise. In fact, it’s more adjusting to not having a weighty ball in one hand, because the spares and then the strikes did begin to appear, creating a much greater feeling of achievement in the process.
Like any pro-bowler knows the type of ball is just as important as your throwing arm. ForeVR Bowl has a massive selection of bowling balls to unlock (100 in total), locked behind an experience level first followed by having the cash to buy them. Luckily, the coins don’t trickle in so after a few games it was easy to start upgrading from the initial three balls you’re given. And there’s plenty to consider when choosing the right one, each featuring weight, spin, speed & profile (fastball, no spin, no bounce) stats. Thankfully, you’re not restricted to one ball in the alleys, you can take a selection of five into a match which was really useful when one technique wasn’t working another could be employed.
The ball designs keep with ForeVR Bowl’s fun ethos offering aquariums with swimming fish, alien heads with blinking eyes and black holes. At the really far end of the level unlocks you’ll find special balls like the fireball which have no spin whatsoever, it just launches at high speed down the alley, setting the pins on fire in the process.
ForeVR Bowl isn’t faultless though, with some design choices that didn’t quite gel. To ensure a comfortable experience for all developer ForeVR has solely employed teleportation (albeit with some cute bowling shoes) so there’s no smooth locomotion. In the foyer this isn’t too much of a bother but in the alley it does make fine tuning your position harder. Sure you can physically step left or right but that doesn’t help if space is at a premium, or you’re playing seated. Trying to teleport a few inches over is just a bit too finicky.
Bizarrely, the other annoyance was the selection indicator. There are two selection modes, a finger pointer for menus and a palm pointer for the balls. It just seemed unnecessary and a little confusing switching between the two, especially noticeable in the bowling ball selection area.
At its core, a bowling videogame should be fun for all levels whilst providing enough depth for serious players to compete and feel challenged. ForeVR Bowl easily achieves all of this, with some great bowling mechanics combined with gorgeous visuals. As long as you like bowling there’s plenty of content to keep you going for hours on end, with the social implementation further enhancing the experience. As this is ForeVR’s first VR title it’s an impressive debut and one that is certainly welcome amongst all the shooters and rhythm action games out there.
Terje Haakonsen’s Powder VR (THPVR) on Steam Early Access may be a mostly enjoyable VR winter sports outing, but it’s rather lacking right now. Read on for our full Powder VR review in progress!
Powder VR is quite a departure for developers RainSoft. Having previously brought us John Lazarus – Dead Man’s Origin to VR, they’ve now turned their attention to the snowy slopes, bringing us wingsuit flying, skiing, and snowboarding in one package. Revealed as Powder VR back in 2019, it underwent significant delays and rebranding before eventually launching last month, bringing in famous Norwegian snowboarder Terje Håkonsen for guidance to make this a more accurate simulator, a move which seems to have paid off.
Powder VR Early Access Review – The Facts
What is it?: A VR winter sports game featuring snowboarding, skiing, and wingsuit flying Platforms: SteamVR [link] Release Date: December 16th, 2020 (Early Access) Price: $19.99
Currently, THPVR is a solo experience and begins with a comprehensive tutorial for the various sports. Skiers must face forward, bending your knees when turning and using the touch controllers as ski poles, building up speed and letting you change direction. Snowboarders must rotate their body 90° but have your head facing forward. Once you begin heading down the slope, turning is based around your hand movement, which feels unusual at first.
Across both options, you can quick turn via the joysticks and jump by pressing the triggers, giving you more airtime if you hold them down. Skiing is easier to get started with, but snowboarding offers much faster gameplay, though it’s more difficult to handle. That said, RainSoft have confirmed 3dRudder support is coming, which would certainly give snowboarding a more natural feel. For the most part however, both have otherwise been replicated well in VR.
Once you’ve completed this tutorial, Powder VR offers three gameplay options. Players wanting to just dive in should check out Quick Race, letting you participate between five different modes. That includes Downhill Race, a standard race to the finish against 3 AI opponents. Freestyle ranks you based on tricks performed, such as grinding. Time Attack is your time trial mode and there’s also two checkpoint modes, where you must ride through set gates within a specified time limit.
Exploration Mode is available for those looking to free roam these mountain ranges without time constrains, also allowing you to undertake side quests which include Wingsuit gameplay and Boostpack missions within skiing. At this time, Powder VR offers three ranges in total, based around Courmayeur, Brevent-Flegere, and the Cascade Mountains, with a further three to be added later.
World Tour is essentially your campaign, offering set challenges based around these five modes before moving onto the next region. Each challenge comes with a target to earn you Bronze, Silver or Gold medals. They encourage replayability and unlock new areas to explore whilst doing so, requiring a set number. Gold counts as earning 3 medals, 2 for Silver and 1 for Bronze, so that doesn’t take too long.
Additional skiing equipment/snowboards are also unlocked by earning medals and these aren’t just cosmetic, holding varied stats like higher acceleration or top speed. As a purely cosmetic option, your appearance can be customised, letting you change hairstyles, facial hair and moew, though this isn’t hugely in-depth.
For the most part, RainSoft have done well with Powder VR’s core premise and there’s a lot of potential here, as it’s quite satisfying to rack up those gold medals. Expectedly though, there just isn’t much available right now and racing against AI isn’t that exciting, even with four difficulty options to up the challenge. Out of the 60 playable areas planned, only 20 are available between the three mountain ranges.
Powder VR Review – Comfort Settings
THPVR might prove uncomfortable for some due to its fast-paced gameplay, which accurately recreates the basic motions of each sport. At one point I had to stop and come back after taking a motion sickness tablet. Several options can help reduce nausea, such as turning off the camera shake and adjusting how far your quick turn changes your position.
Other options provide increased immersion but come with an increased risk of nausea, including raising your head to jump or an unlocked view of spins and flips. Clear nausea warnings are in place for these however and they aren’t default settings, which is pleasing. THPVR also accommodates for left and right-handed players during snowboarding.
Previously mentioned updates aside, there is significant content due to be added as Powder VR’s development progresses and most promisingly, that includes multiplayer support. An expanded campaign with side missions has also been promised, alongside new gameplay tricks like buttering and jibbing. Like any Early Access game though, just make sure you know what you’re getting in for at this stage of development.
Terje Haakonsen’s Powder VR Early Access Review – Final Impressions
Despite the early launch issues, RainSoft has done well with Terje Haakonsen’s Powder VR and it brings us a fine recreation of snowboarding and skiing. There’s certainly promise within and winter sports fans would do well to take a look but at this development stage, caution is advisable. At the very least, I’d recommend trying out the demo first before making any purchases. With an eye-catching list of upcoming features, this is certainly one to keep an eye out for.
Score: TBD
This review was conducted on an Oculus Quest 2 via Virtual Desktop, using an Early Access Steam version of the game. As an Early Access release, a score is not provided at this time.
Terje Haakonsen’s Powder VR is available on Steam now for $19.99. A free demo is also available on the game’s Steam page.
Not all game genres make immediate sense for VR, but some of the very best VR games out there don’t initially sound like good ideas on paper. Here are 7 VR games in unexpected genres that are, actually, pretty good.
Considering Virtual Reality’s immersive nature, it’s hard to argue that some gaming genres naturally fit VR better than others. This is particularly true within rhythm, fitness, FPS and horror games, which all lend themselves favorably to first-person gameplay. Whether you’ve been working up a sweat in Beat Saber to your favorite songs, shooting up enemies in Onward or subjecting yourself to ghostly terrors within Phasmophobia, there’s been no lack of options for fans of these genres.
Modern VR is more accessible than ever, thanks to efforts like Oculus Quest 2, and having moved past those formative years, developers are continuously getting more creative. Genres we wouldn’t normally expect to work within this space have begun making an impact, bringing us some fine experiences worth looking into. From battle royales to visual novels, these are some of the best examples we’ve seen of this so far in no particular order.
We talk a lot about Tetris Effect on UploadVR but there’s good reason for it: it’s absolutely incredible. Having made its way to PSVR, Oculus Quest, PC and Game Pass, no one could’ve expected news of a VR version back in 2018, but it’s a concept which translated surprisingly well. Created by Tetsuya Mizuguchi, best known for working on Rez and upcoming title Humanity, it retained Tetris’ classic gameplay formula, seeing you clear lines by filling a box with shapes, and incorporated that into a stunning cinematic aesthetic. Backed up by an incredible soundtrack and recently implemented multiplayer support, we’d strongly recommend giving it a try if you haven’t already.
Though we didn’t think Tokyo Chronos’ attempt to bring visual novels into VR justified using the technology, developers MyDearest expanded upon that initial premise nicely last month with its sequel, ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos. Featuring a brand-new story, ALTDEUS took us 300 years into Earth’s future, as humanity is forced to flee underground by strange creatures called Meteoras. Playing a mech pilot named Chloe, its down to you to protect humanity from these monsters and your decisions determine just how this story unfolds. It isn’t as immersive as other VR games, but it still makes for a captivating story worth looking into.
Sony have been one of VR’s biggest backers since PSVR’s original launch back in 2016a nd Astro Bot: Rescue Mission was part of their increasing 1st party push. It saw us teaming up with Captain Astro, searching for his lost crew after they become scattered in a spaceship attack as we travelled across 5 separate worlds. Astro Bot made for an excellent platforming experience and by utilizing VR, it offered players a 360° view to help uncover hidden secrets in each level. Setting the standard for platformers that Ven VR Adventure recently attempted to follow, it’s an excellent entry point for younger audiences too and is highly worth going back to.
Developed by Twisted Pixel Games, Path of the Warrior was utterly shameless about its influences when it launched in 2019 and if you ever played Streets of Rage (or any 90’s style Beat ‘Em Up to be honest), you’d know exactly what to expect here. Set within Rage City across five levels, the premise is simple: get into fights with bad guys, pick up weapons to assist you, take down bosses and that’s it. Though it felt rather shallow in places, you couldn’t deny the fun concept within and with co-op multiplayer also included, Path of the Warrior is worth checking out.
We’ve seen a few racing games come to VR in the last few years, putting us in the driver’s seat with simulators like Project Cars 2 to Sony’s futuristic Wipeout Omega Collection. Arguably though, the most unique take arrived back in 2018 with Sprint Vector on PSVR and PC. Developed by Survios’, this sprinting game has you run through a series of racecourses, swinging your arms to simulate that motion. Coming with cross-platform multiplayer that supports 8 players, it remains a highly enjoyable obstacle-avoidance racer that also provides a great workout in the process.
You can’t escape battle royale games these days but despite their growing presence, they’ve largely remained confined to traditional platforms. We’d seen a few VR attempts like Virtual Battlegrounds but the genre doesn’t feel like it ever really came into its own until POPULATION: ONE arrived back in November of last year. Developed by BigBox VR Inc. for Quest and PC, the aim is to become the last team standing, battling it out within 18-player lobbies. Brining us fast-paced gameplay that felt incredibly smooth, it comes with a word of caution if you’re susceptible to motion sickness (and if you are, we have some tips) but otherwise comes recommended.
Crytek’s The Climb is a much older title than the rest here, having released during the Oculus Rift launch window, but it showcased just what VR could achieve early on. Released in 2016 on Oculus Rift and later for Oculus Quest, it allowed players to explore three settings to climb between: Alps, Bay and Canyon. There’s a fine rock-climbing game within, one which won’t be to everyone’s tastes and is likely to be overshadowed once The Climb 2 arrives, but it executes this simple premise beautifully and still holds up in 2021.
What are some of your picks for VR games in genres that you wouldn’t initially think would be a good for VR? Let us know down in the comments below!
Today Status Pro revealed that they are partnering with NFL MVP and Baltimore Ravens quarterback Lamar Jackson for an upcoming “suite of VR products” and a VR game.
Reportedly, Status Pro is working on a series of first-person virtual reality experiences that will collectively be known as “The Lamar Jackson Experience” and are designed to provide a first-hand perspective of what it’s like to compete in the NFL. This includes an “at-home” VR game, arcade games, and live activations.
Utilizing game tracking data, the experiences will recreate real-life game scenarios as a glimpse of what it’s like to lace up as the NFL MVP. Details are scarce on what that means exactly, but based on the brief teaser video above and promo image, it looks like some sort of QB simulation that will have players simulating throwing motions and play-calling on the field. Notably, it looks like you’ll actually suit up as a Baltimore Raven, meaning this is likely an official NFL product of some kind that’s not tied to the Madden series. In the promo image we can also see Jackson wearing an Oculus Quest using two Touch controllers.
Status Pro is, according to their own press release, “a sports technology company that combines data with augmented and virtual reality to provide a suite of training and gaming products that revolutionize the way coaches, players, and fans experience their favorite sport.” Here’s more information about the company on their official website.
What do you think about this idea? Let us know down in the comments below! While waiting for more details you can check out 2MD VR Football to scratch that VR football itch.
Celebrating a new trailer designed by our community 
