Uber Entertainment – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

November 8, 2017

Second PlayStation VR Demo Disc Arrives, Full List Of Videogames Revealed

Yesterday we brought you news of the second PlayStation VR Demo Disc which would be available for PlayStation VR users as of today. At the time we weren’t sure what exactly we would get by way of videogame titles baring an announcement from developers Polyarc confirming that virtual reality (VR) action platformer Moss would be amongst the titles on offer. (Much to the delight of the VRFocus team.)

The listings for PlayStation VR sampler has now been revealed and includes titles from across the genre spectrum. The full list of titles joining Moss can be found below.

Battlezone by Rebellion

A regular on VRFocus’ lists relating to the best VR videogame experiences out there, the tank-based shooter takes the series classic roots and updates them for the virtual stage. Battlezone gained a 5-star review on VRFocus, where it was described as “intense and addictive”.

Dino Frontier by Uber Entertainment.

Cowboys meet Jurassic Park by way of Sim City, Dino Frontier lets you capture and tame dinosaurs in the Wild West to help build and manage a virtual town.

EVE: Valkyrie by CCP Games

CCP Games might be packing up the big top as far as their involvement in VR is concerned but that doesn’t stop EVE: Valkyire continuing to be one of the best VR experiences out there, and now VR and non-VR players can enjoy dogfighting in spaceships together.

Fantastic Contraption by Radial Games

Another title commonly amongst those VRFocus recommends: “Easy to begin with, Fantastic Contraption lets you get accustomed to the intricacies of what does what before throwing the real challenges at you. And there’s a lot, the title features 50 levels to get your head around.”

Job Simulator by Owlchemy Labs

A multi-award winning videogame, Job Simulator was so good Google brought developers Owlchemy Labs into the company. The title continues to get development and content as well, with the recently revealed ‘Infinite Overtime’ update.

Raw Data by Survios

A highly popular virtual reality (VR) shooter, Raw Data sees players equipped with both firearms and a katana, and have the simple object of taking out the enemies before they themselves are overcome.

Rez Infinite by Enhance Games

Another PlayStation VR title that received a full five stars in its review, Rez Infinite is the spiritual successor to the original Rez, which first appeared on SEGA’s Dreamcast console.

StarBlood Arena by Whitemoon Dreams

The only title on the listing specifically requiring additional downloading, a demo of Starblood Arena was initially made available back in August. Starblood Arena allows the player to take control of one of nine available ships, each with its unique pilot, features and weapon loadout. Allowing would-be players the combination that suits their preferred style of play.

Star Child by GameTrust

One of a crop of PlayStation VR titles to receive a share of the spotlight recently during Sony’s press event at Paris Games Week, which included the reveal of a brand new trailer. Star Child is takes place on an alien world full of fantastical Martian creatures and creations in a homage to platformers of the 90s while also being something entirely new.

The Persistence by Firesprite

Originally revealed back in March this year, The Persistance comes from the developers behind The Playroom VR. Awaking from cryosleep, it’s up the players to kill the undead and take back control of the ship before it plunges into a nearby black hole.

Thumper by Drool

The self-described “rhythm violence” videogame was announced in March last year and by the time it hit the show floor at 2016’s Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) it had already made an impact. Drool said in their announcement that Thumper was “unlike anything you’ve seen, played or heard – a cocktail of kinetic action and aggressive acoustics. It’s the kind of game that inhales you, spits you out and leaves you yearning for more.” And they certainly aren’t exaggerating.

Tiny Trax by FuturLab

Slot car racing get a new twist. Tiny Trax features a drifting/boost-recharge mechanic, alongside lane switching and epic jumps across twelve tracks that’ll take players to tropical islands, volcanoes, ice caves and outer-space. It’s developer, Brighton-based studio FuturLab, recently revealed a new PlayStation VR title in Mini-Mech Mayhem.

The PlayStation VR Demo Disc 2 is now available on the PlayStation Store, it requires 15.2GB of space and several titles within it – Raw Data, Rez Infinite, Job Simulator, Dino Frontier and Fantastic Contraption – do require PS Move Controllers in order to play them.

VRFocus will bring you more details on developments with the PlayStation VR very soon.

August 1, 2017

Dino Frontier Out Now on PlayStation VR

Did you ever think to yourself that what Sim City needed was more dinosaurs and more cowboys? Then you might be interested in Dino Frontier. Dino Frontier has just launched on PlayStation VR and mashes up management sim, dinosaurs and the Wild West.

Uber Entertainment have just launched its unusual management simulation title Dino Frontier on to the PlayStation Store. Following gameplay elements from classic titles like Theme Park and Sim City, Dino Frontier involves building, maintaining and managing a frontier settlement in the Wild West, but in this case, in addition to harvesting resources, constructing buildings and fighting off bandits, the player also has to deal with marauding dinosaurs.

While dinosaurs can be a threat, they can also be an asset, players can capture velociraptors and ankylosaurs to act like horses or bison, able to carry people and goods. Players even have the chance to capture and tame a Tyrannosaurus Rex to help the settlers and grow the town.

PlayStation VR owners will need to make sure they have two PlayStation Move controllers as those are used to control this title, including the dynamic camera, which can zoom in and out, pan and rotate to allow players to get a good look at the town they are building. Players will also be able to pick up and move their settlers and direct them to perform various tasks such as chop wood or train dinosaurs.

Dino Frontier is available on the PlayStation Store now for $29.99 (USD).

VRFocus will bring you further information on Dino Frontier and other new PlayStation VR titles as it becomes available.

July 13, 2017

‘Dino Frontier’ Launch Date and Gameplay Trailer Revealed

Uber Entertainment’s ‘second generation’ made-for-VR game Dino Frontier launches on August 1st for PSVR. Detailed in a new post on the PlayStation Blog, the game will be available digitally for $29.99, with a 20% pre-order discount for PlayStation Plus members.

Announced at last year’s PlayStation Experience event, this promising title, described as a “light simulation” rather than a full RTS, presents a novel mix of ‘Wild West and Jurassic eras’ from a tabletop VR vantage point. Forrest Smith, co-director of Dino Frontier says “We’ve strived to push the boundaries of VR interaction. There’s no other game like Dino Frontier. Reaching down into a vibrant world to pick up tiny people is a magical experience.”

The charming new trailer shows many of the core gameplay features, with the player assuming the role of Big Mayor, towering above the frontier settlement, directing settlers to gather resources, capture and train dinosaurs, as well as the motion controller integration and camera controls. Dino Frontier is Uber Entertainment’s second major VR title, building on the success of PSVR launch game Wayward Sky.

The post ‘Dino Frontier’ Launch Date and Gameplay Trailer Revealed appeared first on Road to VR.

July 11, 2017

Wild West Management Sim Dino Frontier Receives Official PlayStation VR Launch Date

During last year’s PlayStation Experience in December, Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) showcased a few titles for PlayStation VR during the showcase, mainly all sandwiched into one long trailer. One of those was Dino Frontier, a quirky looking management sim from Uber Entertainment that mashed up the Wild West with dinosaurs. Today, the studio has revealed an official launch date for the title, 1st August 2017.

For fans of videogames like The Sims or Theme Park, Dino Frontier is all about building and managing a frontier settlement with a twist, there’s also a few dinosaurs to deal with as well. Assuming the role of Mayor, players overlook their settlement in tabletop-style virtual reality. From this lofty viewpoint they’ll be able to pickup settlers to direct them to harvest food, chop lumber, train dinosaurs, fight off bandits and more, all while carefully balancing resources to grow the town.

Dino Frontier-screen-04-PSVR-us-03dec16

Players will be able intuitively control the camera to their liking, with Uber Entertainment offering zoom in, zoom out, pan, and rotate options for the best view.

In terms of the dino aspect, they replace the more common horses or bison seen in Wild West style titles. So players will be able to capture velociraptors, ankylosauri, even a Tyrannosaurus Rex to aid settlers in their endeavours.

At launch, PlayStation VR owners will be able to purchase the videogame digitally for $29.99 USD, while PlayStation Plus members can pre-order starting today with a 20 percent discount.

Checkout the new trailer below, and for further updates on Dino Frontier, keep reading VRFocus.

January 19, 2017

Get Your Cook on with Cosmic Chef for Daydream

Since its launch a couple of months ago, Google’s Daydream View head-mounted display (HMD) hasn’t exactly been overrun with content, with titles appearing sporadically. Today those that have bought the headset have been treated to another release, this time from Uber Entertainment in the form of Cosmic Chef.

Available to download now on Google Play for £9.99 GBP, Cosmic Chef mixes up gameshows and cooking into a culinary battle royale in which players must chop, slice and smash their way through waves of ingredients, scoring as many points as possible to get a maximum three stars.

Featuring a bizarre set of characters, players need to make some tasty food to score big trying to make their opponents native dishes even better than they can.

Regular readers of VRFocus may know know Uber Entertainment from its first virtual reality (VR) title, third person single-player adventure Wayward Sky for PlayStation VR. Most recently Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) revealed another project the studio has been working on during the PlayStation Showcase in December. This was Dino Frontier, a table top strategy sim set in the wild west, due for release this summer.

For all the latest Daydream releases, keep reading VRFocus.

December 4, 2016

Micro-Manage The Wild West In PS VR Game ‘Dino Frontier’

Ace Combat and Resident Evil are both well established video game franchises currently promoting the 7th main entry in their respective collections of games. Having them utilize PS VR is a boon to the platform, but the foundation of VR must be laid by new and original projects built specifically for it. The VR mech shooter Starblood Arena was announced at the PlayStation Experience and looks like a fun title that keeps the nausea at bay despite its intense pace. Later into the event, Sony and Chandana Ekanayake & Forrest Smith of Uber Entertainment revealed new information on their PS VR game Dino Frontier via a blog post.

Dino Frontier has the potential to bring a new flavor to the settler simulation. In the game, you’ll be managing a wild west settlement with largely self-determining settlers from a table-top perspective. You have to manage resources while building up your community, but there’s an additional wrinkle: Dinosaurs. While operating as Big Mayor, you’ll have figure out how to navigate the dangerous foes or make them into assets for your settlers to take the place of horses and other animals typical of a western setting. Dino Frontier looks like a fun settlement title inspired by real-time strategy games. Using the PlayStation Move controllers you can pull the world around and manage specific sections of the map, like sending a hunting party after a T-Rex in one corner or collecting food in another corner of the map.

The 7-person development team is responsible for the launch PS VR title Wayward Sky,and they’re upping the ante with their 2nd foray into virtual realms. Dino Frontier is slated for release in 2017 and we’ll update with new information as it becomes available. Keep your eye on UploadVR for more PlayStation Experience news throughout the weekend.

Tagged with: dino frontier, dinosaurs, Uber Entertainment, Wayward Sky

December 4, 2016

‘Planetary Annihilation’ Developer Reveals Lite RTS ‘Dino Frontier’ for PlayStation VR

Uber Entertainment, the studio behind Planetary Annihilation and the VR title Wayward Sky, have announced their next virtual reality game, Dino Frontier, for PlayStation VR.

As the name would imply, Dino Frontier is a mashup of classic Western elements and dinosaurs. The game is played as a giant overseer (the “Big Mayor”) of tiny, semi-autonomous denizens who will need your direction to not only excel, but also to not get eaten by wandering raptors. Uber Entertainment calls Dino Frontier a “light simulation”, rather than a full blown RTS.

Dino Frontier lets you build and manage a frontier settlement in a world where the Wild West and Jurassic eras collide. You assume the role of Big Mayor overlooking your settlement in tabletop-scale VR. You must carefully balance resources while growing your town. All the while, wild dinosaurs roam the land acting as both dangerous foe and tantalizing asset.

It’ll be your job as Big Mayor to make sure settlers are assigned to the right places to gather resources most effectively and ensure everyone stays alive. While the game’s dinosaurs will at first be a dangerous threat, with the proper amount of development you’ll be able to tame them and use their skills to further prosper.

Following Uber Entertainment’s first VR game, Wayward Sky, the developers say that “Dino Frontier offers core gameplay to satisfy players eager for deeper VR gameplay.”

Dino Frontier is set to launch in 2017; currently it isn’t clear if it will come to other platforms, and there’s no word on whether or not the game will support any form of multiplayer.

The post ‘Planetary Annihilation’ Developer Reveals Lite RTS ‘Dino Frontier’ for PlayStation VR appeared first on Road to VR.

December 4, 2016

Build an Alternate Wildwest in Dino Frontier for PlayStation VR

If you watched Sony Interactive Entertainment’s PlayStation Showcase last night for its annual PlayStation Experience event you’ll have noticed new PlayStation VR announcements were slightly lacking. There were some new trailers for Ace Combat 7 and Resident Evil 7 biohazard, but only one new title was properly announced Starblood Arena. For eagle eyed viewers there was one other, but its wasn’t specifically mentioned, simply put into a trailer show reel, and that was Dino Frontier.

Dino Frontier-screen-04-PSVR-us-03dec16

Being developed by Uber Entertainment, Dino Frontier is a tabletop virtual reality (VR), strategy simulation, in which players can build and manage a frontier settlement in the wild west. The twist is that the studio has combined this era with that of the Jurassic era, so there’s plenty of dinosaurs wandering around.

Assuming the role of Big Mayor, players need to carefully balance resources to grow the town, all the while contending with wild dinosaurs, which can prove to be a dangerous foe or a useful asset in the right hands.

Uber Entertainment has now released a full trailer for Dino Frontier so you can get a better look at what’s in store. Scheduled for release in Summer 2017, VRFocus will bring you further details on the PlayStation VR title as we get them.

October 10, 2016

The Best of PlayStation VR Launch: Platform Games

Platformers are weird ones when it comes to virtual reality (VR), especially when trying to get the best experience out of them without either not utilising the VR whatsoever, or doing it so much so that it becomes unnatural to watch and ruins the enjoyment. Just the word freerunning in regards to VR gaming can make those with the strongest stomachs cower away. However, VRFocus believes that there are a couple of PlayStation VR launch titles that you will most certainly be playing when the head-mounted display (HMD) finally launches.

Below are two platform games that have a mix of adventure, character, and creative spark that fuel the enjoyment factor that will ensure your VR experience is pretty great. The two chose are Bound from Plastic, and Wayward Sky from Uber Entertainment.

Bound – Plastic

This is something that you wouldn’t have expected, and didn’t know that you wanted – until now. Taking the form of an elegant dancer, you discover the story at your own rhythmic pace. It is something that could remind you of Journey in the way that the art is contemporary, and the story is what you make of it. The developers have admitted that not much has actually been shared about this title, and even though the trailer is intriguing beyond doubt you still don’t quite know what to make of the story. What’s more – there are 120 ways to complete the game. Either way, it is a title full of substance, and if you love platformers then you will find yourself considering this title.

Bound screenshot

Wayward Sky – Uber Entertainment

Warward Sky is a look and click type of title, but don’t let this put you off of it in the slightest. When in VR and playing Wayward Sky, you will be surrounded by the cinematic aesthetics and events, interacting at times that are appropriate and won’t overload you with wondering what the heck is going on in this fast paced game. You will be taking on the role of Bess, a young co-pilot who has to risk her life in order to find her father, and you will not only experience some thrilling gameplay, but also a great amount of puzzle solving to shake up the pace.

Wayward Sky screenshot

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October 5, 2016

‘Wayward Sky’ Review: A Charming Adventure That Doesn’t Quite Soar

You are soaring through the air, a co-pilot to your father in the family biplane. A huge laser beam streaks through the sky, damaging a wing. You are forced to land at the source of the beam, a huge metallic fortress floating in the air. Leaving the damaged craft, a red robot four times your size flies in and kidnaps your father. You are left to explore this prison of machines and robots, helping whomever you can while searching for your lost parent. This is how Wayward Sky, an upcoming PS VR adventure game, begins.

Developed by a small developer out of Washington named Uber Entertainment, the game is labeled as “A Look And Click VR Adventure” in its opening moments. It is an apt description, but what it really amounts to is a third-person platformer with puzzles and occasional first-person interactions.

Wayward Sky has a cartoony appearance, with colorful robots and clean environments. The camera is usually third-person, positioned above you, and somewhat distant from the game’s protagonist, Bess. You move her through a miniature world, exploring sections of this floating fortress, from a perspective similar to Lucky’s Tale for Oculus Rift.

There are moments of gameplay and during the story where it shifts to Bess’s point of view in first-person, where you actually feel the size of the robots menacing you and the enormity of the fortress around you. Those rare moments are where Wayward Sky feels like a game truly capitalizing on the potential of VR.

To control Bess, using the Move motion controller, you point to a spot and pull the trigger to have her go there. If you point to a machine, the machine will be highlighted with a white outline and Bess won’t just walk over there, but also interact with it. Visually in the game, you see your pair of Move controllers as something like steam-punk flashlights, though only one can be used to control Bess. There are puzzles to solve in these environments, moving platforms and activating ziplines, usually amounting to figuring out how to get to one place or another.

When you interact with machines, such as turning something on or dealing with an obstacle, that’s when the game switches to the aforementioned first-person perspective. Your gizmo Moves are now replaced with Bess’s leather gloves. In these situations, you have both of your hands, but it is hardly necessary; the puzzles in these moments are simple.

You can also play the game with PlayStation’s standard Dual Shock 4 as well, with the Camera picking up it’s light and using it as a less-accurate motion controller, which is likely why Uber made the game really only needing one hand.

In a larger sense, the flow of the game is moving Bess from one “room” to another, working with the machines there to either defeat an obstacle or find a way forward. In this way, you explore one section of the fortress at a time, making your way through five such levels. There are some collectibles to find throughout, which adds an extra layer of play as you traverse these environments. While you can look around for immersion, or hunt for the vaguely hidden secrets, the core gameplay is focused on what is right in front of you, amounting to not-quite 180 degrees of play space.

There is more to the story of Wayward Sky than Bess’ search for her father as well. There are flashbacks to life on the farm before the eventful flight that kicks off the game, where you learn details about their relationship and their past. In the fortress, you are facing the villain Thaddeus, the son of the inventor who built this fortress called Icarus. There are a few unique robots with names and personalities that either help or oppose you, different than the mindless robots that are obstacles in the levels. There are short sequences between levels akin to a machine puppet show revealing the history of Icarus and how Thaddeus became a villain. The dialogue is simple and charming, but the storytelling methods with the flashbacks and puppet shows are more developed.

There is a charm to the game, exploring this cartoon world, hearing Bess’s comments when she succeeds, and listening to the robots’ cute voices. The steampunk-esque machine-filled pulp adventure aesthetic is enjoyable, and the puzzles work. It is a title that is approachable, something for kids or for parents to play along with them — seemingly built with PS VR being a lot of people’s first foray into VR in mind.

There are moments that make you smile, whether it is a fun line of dialogue, when you beat certain puzzles, or from the machine-aesthetic, whether it is the inventive puppet show or even a steampunk arcade game present as an added distraction.

But, despite all of that charm, it feels like the game isn’t fully formed. There is no real combat or challenge in the game. The puzzles never get difficult and they feel repetitive. And except for a few first-person interactions, the game doesn’t really use virtual reality well: there aren’t any 360 degree puzzles, the camera blinks from room to room, so you don’t have to look around much, except for hidden collectibles. And with only five levels, you will be done in about three hours — a bit longer perhaps if you really take your time or replay levels to get collectibles you missed.

Final Score: 6/10 – Decent

Wayward Sky feels like a competent, but unfulfilling launch title. Fun at times, charming throughout, but leaving you wanting more. If the game had a more eventful story with deeper dialogue, actual fighting with the robots, more variety in the puzzles, and some real challenges, it would be a more satisfying journey. However, a younger or less experienced gamer that is new to VR may enjoy the adventure never the less.

Wayward Sky releases on or near October 13th exclusively for the PlayStation VR at a price point of $19.99.

Read our Game Review Guidelines for more information on how we arrived at this score.