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The Best PlayStation VR Games of 2020
After four years the PlayStation VR is still going which is an accomplishment considering the lifespan of most virtual reality (VR) headsets. Even with PlayStation 5 now available, Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) has ensured continued compatibility whether you’re new to VR or not. For PlayStation VR owners there’s been plenty of content to choose from in 2020, so here’s 10 of the best.
Unlike previous years, PlayStation VR’s dominance has wained and with it, all the exclusives the platform was known for. There are still a couple on the list below, but most of the titles now tend to be multi-platform. That’s no bad thing as there are some great videogames on offer.
The Best PSVR Games of 2020
Marvel’s Iron Man VR
Let’s start with an exclusive though, in fact, PlayStation VR’s biggest exclusive of the year, Marvel’s Iron Man VR. After a series of delays developer Camouflaj released the highly anticipated title during the summer, providing players with the first proper chance to don the famous suit.
With a pair of PlayStation Move controllers you can take to the skies to battle new enemies, learning how to use the Repulsor Jets to dodge enemy attacks as well as shoot them. As the campaign progresses you can customise the suit with various offensive and defensive capabilities to suit the missions. This is the closest to being Iron Man you’ll ever get.
Paper Beast
One of the more unusual VR experience to arrive this year, Pixel Reef’s Paper Beast is a surreal puzzle adventure inside a world created from big data. In this simulated ecosystem, bizarre creatures have come to life, exhibiting similar characteristics to real-world animals.
The main campaign revolves around interacting with the creatures and environment to solve the various challenges, providing some awe-inspiring visuals along the way. In addition to the campaign, there’s a sandbox mode where you can build your own worlds. One of those videogames which showcase how unique VR can be.
Final Assault
Originally released last year for PC VR headsets, after much work Phaser Lock Interactive managed to bring WWII strategy game Final Assault to PlayStation VR.
With a single-player campaign as well as cross-platform multiplayer, Final Assault is fully featured when it comes to content. You command ground and aerial troops like a table-top boardgame, dropping them in to lead an attack or setup defensive positions before pushing forward. The aim being to destroy your opponents base. Lots of fun if you like real-time strategy (RTS) titles.
Pixel Ripped 1995
When it comes to retro nostalgia in VR ARVORE’s Pixel Ripped series has got you covered. The latest is Pixel Ripped 1995, taking you back 25 years to a time where sprites were transitioning into 3D graphics.
Considered a golden era for videogames, Pixel Ripped 1995 features six levels containing nods to titles such as Streets of Rage, Mortal Kombat, Road Rash, Star Fox, Sonic the Hedgehog, Castlevania and many more. You play as Dot who needs to vanquish her arch enemy the evil Cyblin Lord, aided by a 9-year-old videogame fan called David. Gameplay jumps between 2D and 3D, where you have to deal with challenges both onscreen and off. Certain to put a smile on any players face.
Gorn
Not one for younger players unless you go straight into the settings to switch the gore off, Gorn is pure over-the-top violence in a comedic, cartoon style. You’re a gladiator and the aim here is to survive brutal arena fights using whatever weapons come to hand (or just use your hands).
No crimson paint is spared as you break bones and dismember opponents with knives, axes, maces, bows and even environmental obstacles. Everything has a bouncy, ragdoll effect, so enemies can be flung around whilst the weapons wobble around like giant sponges. Addictive in its simplicity, Gorn is also quite the workout due to the physical exertion of beating cartoon gladiators senseless.
Dreams
One for those who love to be creative as well as play videogames, Dreams was a major launch for PlayStation 4 early in the year, with VR support added a few months later.
Developer Media Molecule has created a title where you can play its own single-player experience as well as those from the rest of the Dreams community. If you want to delve deeper then there’s a massive selection of tools to build whatever you want, from a simple art piece to a videogame which can be shared with the world. A videogame with limitless possibilities.
Pistol Whip
Another 2019 title which finally made it to PlayStation VR, Cloudhead Games’ Pistol Whip is a rhythm-action videogame like no other. Evoking films like John Wick you can become an action-movie badass, shooting enemies and dodging to a thumping soundtrack.
With 15 on-rail ‘Scenes’, the gameplay is intense and physical, encouraging you to move out the way of bullets whilst firing off as many of your own. The visuals are just as dramatic, creating an all-encompassing experience which will make you sweat. Plus there are plenty of modifiers to make things harder whilst upping that score for top leaderboard positions. Then early next year PlayStation VR owners will be treated to free DLC Pistol Whip 2089.
Until You Fall
It was on VRFocus’ ‘Best Oculus Quest Games of 2020‘ list and now Schell Games’ Until You Fall has made it here as well. This is a hack-n-slash roguelite where death is cruel and the gameplay even more so.
It’s all about melee combat, fighting through the procedural world of Rokar where each run-through isn’t quite the same but you can become stronger in the process. Attack, block and parry relentless foes. Should you fail then returning to the hub means you can upgrade weapons or select new ones to change your strategy. Energetic like Gorn, however, Until You Fall requires far more precision.
Star Wars: Squadrons
This videogame needs little introduction as it was the major release in October, strapping pilots into either Rebel or Imperial ships to battle in that far off galaxy. While you don’t necessarily need to be a fan of the franchise, it certainly helps when playing Star Wars Squadrons.
With single-player and multiplayer modes, in the story-driven campaign, you swap between the two opposing faction’s narratives, jumping into a selection of craft like the X-Wing or Tie Fighter. Over in multiplayer you have those same options, teaming up in a crew to take down Capital ships or engage in online dogfights. Great if you’re after a more comfortable, sat down VR experience.
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners
As the chaos of 2020 has managed to avoid a zombie apocalypse why not put yourself into one voluntarily with The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners. A survival game set within a partially flooded New Orleans, make new friends, enemies and take down a few walkers along the way.
As a drifter you encounter warring factions vying for the few resources which remain whilst trying to scavenge your own in the derelict buildings and streets. Craft useful items and new weapons, blades are silent but will tire you out where guns have great stopping power as well as attracting attention. Outside of the main campaign, there’s The Trial horde mode if you just want some arcade action, killing waves of walkers. Plenty to keep you entertained and for practising those survival skills.
Road to VR’s 2020 Game of the Year Awards
It’s the time of the season again for reflection, when we look back at this year’s greatest achievements in VR gaming and remind ourselves just how far we’ve come in the four years since consumers first delved head-first into truly immersive worlds.
Due to the ongoing pandemic, this year was plunged into an global economic cooldown which saw many industries grind to a halt. Comparatively unaffected though was the games industry, which could thankfully continue as developers took to finishing their projects at home from a safe distance.
In our fourth annual Game of the Year Awards, we again put ourselves to the task of celebrating this year’s greats in VR gaming. Moreover, we salute all developers for offering up their hard work and steadfast curiosity in the face of the same personal adversity we’ve all no doubt shared. We’re grateful for having safe places where we can connect and explore, and for lighting a world which at times may have seemed grim and unrelenting.
For many, this steady stream of VR games has been a lifeline to sanity, as physically stepping outside of our homes could mean either putting ourselves or our loved ones in danger’s path. We thank you for willing your virtual realties into existence for all of us to enjoy.
Now, our games of the year:
Half-Life: Alyx
Developer: Valve
Available On: Steam
Release Date: March 23rd, 2020
If you would have told anyone back in 2016—the year the first consumer PC VR headsets hit the market—that Valve (of all companies) would one day build a AAA Half-Life game (of all franchises) specifically for VR, we’d say you were crazy. Yet here we are, in 2020, giving Half-Life: Alyx our PC VR Game of the Year Award.
But before the release of Alyx earlier this year, there was still plenty of skepticism to go around. It was Valve’s first full-fledged VR game and the first Half-Life game in more than a decade. Could Valve deliver anything to possibly meet all that hype?
Well, the answer is now resoundingly clear. It turns out that Valve’s old-school, methodical (if sometimes messy) approach to game design works just as well for VR games as it does for non-VR games.
From the very opening scene—where players are, for the first time, truly standing before the monolithic Citadel in the middle of City 17—Alyx is immersive through and through thanks to heaps of detail, an engaging and interactive world, and one of the most memorable sequences seen in any VR game to date… the dreaded ‘Jeff’.
With excellent pacing that weaves together combat, exploration, and puzzles, Alyx takes players on a seamless journey through the well-realized streets, cellars, and rooftops of City 17, all the way to a mysterious conclusion that has serious consequences for the future of the franchise.
Against all odds, one of the most legendary game developers brought one of the most legendary franchises to VR in stunning fashion. Given that the studio stood to make tens of millions (if not hundreds of millions) more in revenue by making a non-VR game, it’s hard to call Alyx anything but a love letter to the VR medium.
Half-Life: Alyx stands as VR’s new benchmark in graphics, immersion, and scope, and I’m sure that Valve itself is as eager as the rest of us to see who will be next to raise the bar.
Iron Man VR
Developer: Camouflaj
Available On: PlayStation VR
Release Date: July 3rd, 2020
While it surely brings ample opportunity, there’s nearly an equal amount of risk in using the likeness of an iconic character like Iron Man. While the character has plenty of backstory to draw from, delivering the experience of actually stepping into the character’s shoes—the experience of actually being Iron Man rather than just watching him—is no trivial task, especially in the still young and often ill-defined medium of VR.
Before Iron Man VR arrived to the rescue, there really were no standout superhero games in VR. There were attempts, certainly, but none that truly planted a flag and said “this is how it’s done.” Developer Camouflaj, however, turned out to be up to the task.
And they did it in a most ambitious way. While choosing to focus their game on a superhero that didn’t fly would have surely avoid plenty of headaches, picking one that did fly forced them to tackle the serious challenge of keeping players comfortable even as they sailed through the sky.
What’s more, the game’s innovative flying system was specially designed around Iron Man’s character—around his palm-mounted repulsor jets specifically—bringing an immersive flair to the way players control themselves in the game by aiming their hands to control thrust. The result was a truly fun and thrilling method of locomotion that balanced high-speed maneuvering with aerial combat.
But more than just coming up with a novel flight system for VR, Iron Man VR contextualized its gameplay with an engaging story that explored the man behind the mask, Tony Stark, nearly as much as his superhero persona. Combined with immersive details sprinkled throughout, Iron Man VR delivered a package that felt whole and delivered the fantasy it promised.
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners
Developer: Skydance Interactive
Available On: Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift, Steam, PSVR
Release Date: January 23rd, 2020
It wasn’t clear what to expect from Skydance Interactive’s take on the storied The Walking Dead zombie franchise. The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners could have easily been a ham-handed attempt at shoehorning a standard first-person shooter into VR. We’ve seen them before, and they weren’t pretty.
As soon as you start the game though, it becomes immediately apparent that Saints & Sinners demands the player to invest themselves completely in the experience—it’s a true VR native. In this scaled-down RPG, moral choices meet zombie-killing carnage in a way we simply haven’t seen in VR up to this point. You’re instantly thrust into a world where supplies are scarce, crafting useful items is key, and coming in contact with any zombie is a fight for survival.
It’s a gruesome and realistic experience in all the right ways: a zombie can be hacked to pieces with any manner of sharp object, but you’ll lose precious stamina than you’ll need as you run away from the evening horde. If you’re a decent shot, you can try to stick to headshots the entire way, but as the mob grabs at you, you’re left with very little choice but to look them straight in the eye sockets and brain them with a knife, cleaver, or pointy stick. Complete your mission and get the hell out of dodge, or face the consequences; with each zombie presenting potential death, the horde isn’t something you’ll ever want to face.
Outside of its impressive physics-based melee and gun combat, one of the most frightening parts is navigating the muddy waters of the New Orleans gang life, where you literally choose to side with one faction by stoking blood fueds by personally executing NPCs, or by walking your own path as a freelancer. Although the adventure isn’t open-world, discrete maps are so large and rich in detail that you’ll probably forget in the first five minutes anyway.
The standalone version of the game on both Quest and Quest 2 is lower res than its PC VR forbear, but that’s saying very little. As is, the game is more than the sum of its parts, and shines even with the obligatory knock in visual fidelity for a game of this scale, polish, and depth.
Design Awards
Half-Life: Alyx
Developer: Valve
Available On: Steam
Release Date: March 23rd, 2020
Each year we try to come up with games that shine in specific departments, so we tend to highlight titles that haven’t already won our platform-based awards. This year though, there’s simply no ignoring the titanic effort that went into making Half-Life: Alyx the most immersive VR game of 2020.
From the liquid shaders inside the many errant bottles laying around, to flippable light switches, to the full baby grand piano, every object has been loving realized with one thing in mind: immersing the player into the world of Half-Life like never before.
While full, unfettered object interaction is great for immersion, this also lets players get creative with how to use seemingly banal stuff to their advantage, like carrying a basket full of grenades when you run out of space in your inventory.
In Half-Life: Alyx, there are only a few misses in terms of immersion, which are more linked to stylistic choices by Valve. You can’t melee enemies, and the gesture-based menu pulls you out a bit from the action, but even with those minor offenses, Valve has effectively created VR’s most detailed game to date that will be difficult to rival in the years to come.
Phantom: Covert Ops
Developer: nDreams
Available On: Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest
Release Date: June 25th, 2020
Building a new car is, for the most part, putting new spin on a concept that’s largely already been figured out by those that came before. While non-VR game development similarly stands on the shoulders of past giants, in VR, almost any step you take is likely to mean breaking fresh ground—right down to rethinking how players will even move around your game world.
Developer nDreams embraced the unknown and built an entire game around a novel locomotion scheme that had players sleuthing through sluices in a tactical kayak.
It might sound a little ridiculous on the surface, but dive a little deeper and you’ll see that it really fits VR well. Not only is paddling a much more immersive and intentional way to get around than using using a joystick, the kayak worked great as a sort of ‘inventory’ system for the player thanks to weapon and ammo holsters along its sides.
While a smooth moving and turning kayak could surely prove challenging from a comfort standpoint, nDreams managed to come up with a snap-turn solution that worked seamlessly with the kayak locomotion, allowing more players to enjoy their time on the waterways.
The locomotion innovation of Phantom: Covert Ops makes us excited to see what the studio comes up with next.
Star Wars: Squadrons
Developer: Motive Studios, EA Games
Available On: Steam, Epic Games, Origin, PSVR
Release Date: October 2nd, 2020
Flying an X-Wing in VR has been the dream ever since EA Games released the free X-Wing VR Mission DLC for Star Wars: Battlefront Rogue One in 2016 on PS4. And in a big way, EA’s Motive Studios delivered on that dream with this massive first-person dogfighter, which lets you play through an well-crafted singe-player campaign, or cross-platform online battles.
Motive Studios took on the mantle of making Star Wars: Squadrons feel like a native VR game which lets you play with a giant pool of players, delivering support for PC VR, traditional PC monitors, PSVR, PS4, and Xbox One players together. And when it comes to dropping in for a casual dogfight, you simply can’t waste time waiting around.
To boot, playing in VR has its clear advantages, as you can naturally track enemies by looking through your cockpit’s canopy windows, all while keeping an eye on your 3D radar. One of the hopes we had for the game was motion controller support for added immersion, however simulator enthusiasts know that the most immersive way to control a vehicle in VR is using a HOTAS setup, which lets you play with physical thrusters and flight sticks so you can truly feel like you’ve stepped into your own Star Wars universe spaceship. You can also play with gamepad, which is fun too since the game offers up arcade controls instead of pure simulator-style flying like you might find in Elite Dangerous (2014).
Both the world inside and outside of your canopy is a visual treat. While cinematic cutscenes are reduced to 2D windows, the game makes up for this by putting you on the deck of each ship to speak face-to-face with some of the most detailed character models we’ve seen in VR. Crafted with motion capture, the game’s NPCs seem to inch very close to the far side of the Uncanny Valley—something you’ll appreciate more from the inside of a VR headset.
In all, Star Wars: Squadrons gives VR gamers everything it has to offer on traditional platforms and more. It also sends a clear message to AAA studios that VR doesn’t have to be a second class citizen when it can slot in so well.
Cubism
Developer: Thomas Van Bouwel
Available On: Steam, Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest
Release Date: September 17th, 2020
Cubism is a spatial puzzle game that shows that an interface can be beautiful through simplicity. The interface strikes a perfect balance between recognizable affordances and VR native flourishes like the use of depth and placement within arms reach. When it’s done the job selecting a level, it gets completely out of the way, allowing the player to directly interact with the puzzle before them.
The interface also hides a little secret which also doubles as a subtle but enjoyable means of ‘progression’ in the game. Each puzzle you complete represents a musical chord which you can hear when you select the level. Played one after another, each of these chords is part of a complete song which is every bit as beautiful in its simplicity as the interface itself. Once you complete all puzzles, the song is yours to enjoy.
There’s not much else to say—and that’s the point. Cubism’s interface does exactly what it needs to do and nothing more.
Pixel Ripped 1995
Developer: ARVORE Immersive Experiences
Available On: Steam, Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest, PSVR
Release Date: April 23rd, 2020
Indie studios take risks that larger, more established names in the industry simply won’t. And supporting those indie devs can mean playing some of the most unique and inventive games out there. Granted, there was a tad less risk involved for Pixel Ripped 1995, a retro-inspired VR game that follows in the footsteps of its popular predecessor, Pixel Ripped 1989 (2018). Still, it’s an amazingly creative slice of mid-90s nostalgia that’s expertly interwoven into the pioneering genres that made so many of us fall in love with games in the first place.
Pitching a unique ‘game within a game’ storytelling style, Pixel Ripped 1995 acts as the setting for its constant flights of fancy, mashing up the fourth console generation’s pioneering genres into a charming 3D world. Without brushing to close to infringe on any copyrights, Pixel Ripped 1995 authors a love letter to the generation’s colorful platformers, side-scrolling beat ’em ups, and RPGs.
At five hours of gameplay, it’s short and sweet, but critically doesn’t overextend itself either. Its linear gameplay offers a virtual smorgasbord of variety as you’re always left guessing at what’s next, leaving little room for boredom.
The Under Presents: The Tempest
Developer: Tender Claws
Available On: Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift
Release Date: Available from July 7th- November 15th, 2020
The Under Presents (2019) wasn’t released this year, but it did host a very special limited time immersive theater show to Oculus Quest and Rift-owning audiences that delved into some seriously interesting experimental territory. In a sea of graphical and technical marvels this year, the game’s immersive reinterpretation of William Shakespeare’s play The Tempest took the cake.
In a time when live actors are mostly out of work, The Under Presents invited expert thespians to lead groups of up to eight VR users through a rejuvenated retelling of the popular 17th-century theater piece. Built with user participation in mind, it felt more like acting in a high school theater play, with roles dolled out on the fly.
Showing up in the lobby, which is conveniently placed at the entrance of the game’s main area, participants were greeted with interesting toys and magical object to play around with as you hang with your fellow amateur actors. Once the show begins, you’re transported to a campfire to meet a live actor, who in the show’s meta-narrative took on the role of Prospero and many others. The guide weaves the story throughout dreamlike set pieces, and gets everyone involved in acting out parts in the story. Since players are mute, your guide acts as a professional voice over artist by filling in your lines.
In a time when interacting in large groups can be dangerous, The Under Presents The Tempest offered up a truly novel and creative experience that, even with its low-poly art style, felt like a tantalizingly real break from reality. We’re hoping to see more from developers Tender Claws in the near future, whether it be encore presentations of the experience or entirely new interactive theater pieces yet to come.
Note: Games eligible for Road to VR‘s Game of the Year Award must be available to the public on or before December 13th, 2020 to allow for ample deliberation. Games must also natively support the target platform as to ensure full operability.
The post Road to VR’s 2020 Game of the Year Awards appeared first on Road to VR.
End Space Quest 2 Update Adds 90Hz, Phase Sync, And Better Visuals
End Space is one of the best single-player focused arcade-style space combat VR games out there. Originally released way back on the Gear VR Orange Bridge Studios have continued to support and expand the game to every single major VR platform and now the Quest 2 is getting some specific love and attention.
You can watch a short gameplay clip of End Space on Quest 2 with the new update installed right here:
End Space has been available on Quest obviously, but now that the Quest 2 is out the opportunity is there to make that version the definitive way of playing the game. After today’s update, I think they’ve accomplished that. I previously called it a great alternative to Star Wars: Squadrons and now that’s even more true for Quest 2 owners.
With Update 1.0.6.1 the Quest 2 is now able to really set this game apart. You’ll now get the newly supported 90Hz mode for a smoother experience, Facebook’s new Phase Sync feature is enabled for reduced latency, and the overall Level of Detail for the Quest 2 version is bumped up to the “same levels” as on Rift. According to Orange Bridge Studios Director, Justin Wasilenko, “This is as close to the graphics from the Rift version as we could manage inside this amazing standalone headset.”
This latest update includes a host of other changes as well. Now, the default controls for your ship use the thumbsticks for ship movement. Bluetooth gamepads now control more similarly to the Touch controller thumbsticks for a more seamless experience.
What I love about End Space is that it controls well, looks great, and delivers an exciting single-player space combat adventure. There is plenty of content here for the price of entry and it really, really looks amazing on Quest 2 now especially. Hopefully we get some news about what this team is working on next very soon.
End Space is available on the Oculus Quest platform, End Space on Oculus Go | Oculus, the Oculus Rift PC Store, Steam, and PSVR. In fact, the PSVR version is still discounted for the Winter Sale until December 22nd and is just $5 instead of $20. That’s a steal.
Let us know what you think down in the comments below!
Star Wars: Squadrons B-Wing And TIE Defender Free DLC Now Live
The free Star Wars: Squadrons DLC update that includes the B-Wing, TIE Defender, and custom matches is now live for all platforms.
Star Wars: Squadrons Free DLC v4.0
Last month Star Wars: Squadrons received its first batch of free holiday DLC with the introduction of a new map used in both dogfighting and fleet battle modes, as well as new component options for ships. Now just yesterday, the second big piece of free DLC is out on all platforms.
We haven’t had a chance to try out the new ships yet, but the B-Wing was always a fan favorite that felt like it was missing from the start. It’s got a unique vertical design and a “gyro” cockpit according to the announcement. The B-Wing is a second bomber class ship for the Republic and the TIE Defender is a second fighter class ship for the empire.
Back when Star Wars: Squadrons released, EA Motive told us that they did not have plans for any DLC at all, but a month later and those plans had already changed. There’s no signs of whether or not more DLC is coming next year or not, but the game seems popular enough that there would certainly be a market if they decided to release more — even if it was paid.
There are still more starships they could add, plenty of new maps, they could even add onto the campaign with new side stories. The sky’s the limit here, so hopefully they keep working on it.
Let us know what you think of the new ships if you’ve had a chance to try them out!
How to get the Baby Yoda dashboard decoration in Star Wars: Squadrons
Star Wars: Squadrons makes many references to characters from the series, including Baby Yoda (aka Grogu). Here's how to get the Baby Yoda dashboard decoration.
Star Wars: Squadrons For PS4 Is Incredibly Cheap On Amazon Right Now
Have you been holding out on getting your A-wing on in Star Wars: Squadrons for PSVR or PC? Well, strap in, because an Amazon sale brings the game down drastically in price.
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The Amazon sale brings the PS4 version of the game down to just $16.99, down a whopping 58% from the normal $39.99 full price. We’ve seen Squadrons for PC go down in price across the last couple of Steam sales, but this Amazon sale is probably the cheapest we’ve seen for the PS4 copy of the game so far.
Star Wars: Squadrons on PS4 supports play in traditional and VR modes, provided you have a PSVR headset. Thanks to backwards compatibility, this copy of the game will also be playable on PS5, including PSVR if you have the free camera adapter. It is a physical copy of the game though, so Digital Edition PS5 owners are out of luck.
Digital codes for the PC version of Squadrons are also on sale through Amazon, but not for quite the same astounding discount. PC players can nab a Steam or Origin code for $23.99, down 40% from $39.99.
Squadrons was one of the biggest VR releases of this year and we fell absolutely in love with the game while playing it for review. And whether you’re playing on PS4 or PC — VR or otherwise — we’ve got a list of the best HOTAS controller setups as well.
It was recently updated with some VR-specific fixes and improvements, along with a new multiplayer map, but we’re also looking forward to even more new content coming soon. EA originally had no plans for post-launch or DLC content. However, the game must have performed beyond it’s expectations as a new map and two new ships, including the B-Wing, were recently announced as part of upcoming free DLC.
Star Wars: Squadrons is available on Amazon for $16.99 for PS4 and $23.99 on PC.
Steam Autumn Sale: Discounts On Alyx, Squadrons And More
The Steam Autumn Sale is here, and includes some decent discounts on big VR titles including Half-Life: Alyx and The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners.
It seems like only yesterday that we were talking about the Halloween Steam Sale, but now Autumn is upon us and we have another Steam sale with similar discounts for VR titles.
The sale began yesterday and lasts until 10am PT on December 1st. If you missed out on some of the great discounts in the Halloween sale, then don’t worry — a lot of the discounts here are identical or even better, especially for games like Squadrons and Saints & Sinners.
Here’s some of the biggest deals in the Autumn sale:
– Half-Life: Alyx: 25% off, $44.99 (from $59.99)
– Star Wars: Squadrons: 40% off, $23.99 (from $39.99)
– The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners: 25% off, $29.99 (from $39.99)
– Phasmophobia: 10% off, $12.59 (from $13.99)
– Arizona Sunshine: 51% off, $19.59 (from $39.99)
– The Room VR: A Dark Matter: 33% off, $20.09 (from $29.99)
– Superhot VR: 40% off, $14.99 (from $24.99)
– Gorn: 50% off, $9.99 (from $19.99)
– Gorn: 50% off, $9.99 (from $19.99)
– Trover Saves The Universe: 40% off, $17.99 (from $29.99)
– Moss: 40% off, $17.99 (from $29.99)
– Onward: 35% off, $16.24 (from $24.99)
– Eleven Table Tennis: 50% off, $9.99 (from $19.99)
– Alien: Isolation*: 75% off, $9.99 (from $39.99)
– Doctor Who: The Edge of Time: 40% off, $14.99 (from $24.99)
– A Fisherman’s Tale: 35% off, $9.74 (from $14.99)
And there’s many more, which you can have a look at over in the VR section of the Autumn Steam Sale page.
These games are all launched via SteamVR, which means you’ll need a PC VR headset (like an Oculus Rift/Rift S or a Valve Index, or even a Quest 2 with Oculus Link or Virtual Desktop) to play. Not all games are optimized to be compatible with every headset though, so make sure to check the compatibility section of each game individually before buying.
The Steam Autumn Sale runs until 10am Pacific on December 1st.
* — Alien Isolation doesn’t natively support VR, but it does have an excellent VR mod.
Star Wars: Squadrons Adds VR Resolution Scaling, Better Skyboxes And More Performance Updates
If you’ve been struggling with Star Wars: Squadrons VR performance since launch last month, this might be the update to fix things for you.
Update 3.0 released today. We already knew this update would include a new map, Fostar Haven but it also brings with it a host of tweaks, some specifically for VR. Most notably, developer EA Motive has increased the resolution of skyboxes, which should hopefully offer a noticeable difference to the game’s visuals, and there’s also an option on PC to adjust VR resolution scaling.
“Players using high-resolution headsets (such as the Valve Index) should be able to enjoy higher frame rates without requiring the most powerful GPUs,” the patch notes explain. We’re sure this will come as good news to new HP Reverb G2 owners, too. PC VR users can also use forward rendering, too, and forward shading has been made less intense on the ‘low’ quality lighting setting.
Elsewhere, Update 3.0 adds support for devices with up to 128 buttons for the super pros, and there’s improved support for next-generation consoles including “improved visual quality and lighting on PS5” which may translate over to the PSVR support too. You can read the full patch notes for today’s changes right here.
Last week we also reported that the upcoming December update will add new content to the game, including the B-Wing and TIE Defender ships. We loved Squadrons when it first came out, though did note some performance issues ourselves, so it’s great to see EA Motive tackling those head-on. Will you be checking out this Star Wars: Squadrons VR performance update? Let us know in the comments below!
Star Wars: Squadrons will get free post-launch updates after EA changes course
Star Wars: Squadrons is getting two free content drops, which includes a new map and two ships, as well as custom matches.