Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation
What Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality developers are talking about
Campo Santo released an update that adds a new free-roam mode to 'Firewatch' along with visual enhancements for the PS4 Pro console hitting stores on Thursday. The update is free, injecting the free-roam mode into all versions.
The post The new ‘Firewatch’ update adds a free-roam mode and PlayStation 4 Pro support appeared first on Digital Trends.
The latest patch for Firaxis Games' PC strategy game XCOM 2 introduces controller support and full camera control, allowing players to explore the game's expansive environments from a first-person perspective.
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Oculus Touch will release in less than a month. Upon its launch it will be jam-packed with several new and fascinating titles, but it will also be allowing significant new updates to be made to already existing properties. The Climb (Review 8/10) is an example of a game that is already available on the Oculus Rift, but will be getting a significant upgrade once Touch arrives. A new blog post and correspondence with the company shines more light on exactly what those updates are going to be.
The first, and perhaps most significant, change is that the Oculus Touch version of The Climb will “come with a new level.”
The Climb currently features three different levels, or “mountains,” for players to tackle. Adding a new level could also entice more new players to buy the game. Exact details for this new mountain aren’t available yet.
Today’s post also reveals that the Oculus Touch and Gamepad versions of The Climb will have seperate leaderboards. According to Niels Stoelinga, Gameplay Programmer for The Climb, this decision was made because:
While we aimed to give players a very similar experience with both inputs, we had to consider how this affects competition. After all, The Climb is a sports game, so you need a level playing field.
One of the first decisions we made was to split the leaderboards for gamepad and Touch. Both ways of playing are different, and that inevitably leads to a difference in times. This gave us the freedom to make the Touch input as fun as possible, without being bound by making it balanced with the gamepad.
For instance, when you play with Touch, your reach differs depending on the length of your arms. We could have integrated Touch with the same jumping, reach length, and automatic repositions as the gamepad, but ultimately, mapping player movements into the game was just much more fun and engaging.”
The Climb‘s Oculus Touch update will be available when the platform launches on Dec. 6.
Pokémon Go, the viral megahit that signaled the return to form of Nintendo (until investors learned Nintendo didn’t own the rights to the game), has stumbled in a massive way since launch. They took away the crucial tool that helped people find Pokémon within the game, eliminated 3rd party options, and generally soured the experience of fans early on. Since launch, there have been new updates to rectify issues and Business Insider reports on a big one. The update, which is “coming soon”, introduces a handful of features centered around daily play. The upcoming update will include bonuses structured as such:
The clock resets at 12 am local time, so if you catch one at 11:59 pm and one at 12:01 am you’re eligible for the daily bonus. BI notes that the daily bonuses will alleviate the painful grind to level 20 but, ultimately, these new bonuses will elevate Go to a point it should have started on. Free-to-play video games often have a collection of features that inspires players to sign on regularly and keep a consistent user base. The Pokémon Company was able to ride the nostalgia wave early on, as the act of catching Pokémon alone was enough to keep people coming, but when the players encountered the huge gaps in experience need to move on, the absence of usual free-to-play elements become a glaring issue. Hopefully this new update, along with a potential new wave of Pokémon to catch, will be the start of consistent major updates and convince people to give it another go.
Your Kinect just got a bit more connected. This weekend, Microsoft announced two major new updates to its popular sensor, making good on promises the company first made in May. Now, you can use the Kinect as a webcam.
The post Have a Kinect? You can now use it as a webcam appeared first on Digital Trends.
When Oculus Touch launches in December it may already have its killer app releasing right alongside it. Dead and Buried is one of the most exciting titles coming to the already jam packed platform. Developed in-house by Oculus Studios, Dead and Buried is a multiplayer shooter that takes place in a literal ghost town. You assume the role of an other-worldly gunslinger brought back from the grave in order to shoot some bad guys…or some good guys.
We first saw the game demonstrated at an Oculus press event during GDC 2016. At that point, the only gameplay option available was a 2v2 deathmatch that took place in an old-fashioned saloon. Even in its unpolished state, Dead and Buried was still one of the most memorable and enjoyable demos that Oculus showed off at that event. Months later, at Oculus Connect 3, the company pulled back the curtain on the new and improved version of this hotly anticipated title.
The new version of Dead and Buried steps up an already interesting experience with the addition of two new game modes: horde and co-op. The horde mode, which Oculus Studios co-developed with Gunfire Games, lets you take your guns off of your friends and aim them instead at wave after wave of undead enemies.
The main antagonist of horde mode is a banshee-esque witch and her zombie army. You and three friends spawn into one of four cover points set up horizontally from one another. Your job is to gun down monstrosities trying to peel away your cover, and have you for dinner, while keeping yourself and your friends alive.
If you’re killed during the round you remain out-of-service until the next one begins which means there are some true hero-moments where one player can save a session for the rest of the team. There are a variety of enemy types to be aware of including standard zombies, suicide bombers, and even snipers. Each wave gets successively harder and the demo we saw culminated in a boss fight with the witch herself.
The horde mode had our team shouting like maniacs in the middle of a crowded convention hall without hesitation. It’s challenging, entertaining, and a fantastic example of co-operative multiplayer gaming, which is something we have not seen much of on VR platforms just yet. Anyone who’s ever played “what would we do in the zombie apocalypse with their friends will enjoy this immensely.
Every great western needs a great heist and Dead and Buried is no exception. In heist mode you and a friend will compete against two other human opponents as either a duo of lawmen or a posse of outlaws. The robbery, of course, takes place on a train that is divided into several different levels. In each level you need to kill your opponents a certain number of times to either advance up the train as the bandits, or push them back as the sheriffs.
If the ne’er do wells reach the front of the train then they must accomplish one last objective by breaking into a safe using a classic dial-style combination lock. But it won’t be easy as Johnny law is still hot on their tail, guns a-blazing. In this final level one outlaw takes on the safe while another takes on the fuzz with a large shield to aid him or her in that ignoble quest.
Trying to physically spin a dial in real time while bullets are exploding all around you is…stressful to say the least. During our attempt at the great train robbery we dominated all the way until the safe and then lost in spectacular fashion. But maybe we wouldn’t have if DAVID KNEW HOW TO USE A FREAKING SHIELD. Deep breaths Joe, deep breaths.
As fantastic as these two new gameplay modes are, Oculus Studios confirmed on the show floor that there is still more content to be packed into what is shaping up to be a must-have title for day one of the Oculus Touch launch. These other updates include more heists, more guns, and we’re sure, a whole lot more fun.
Dead and and Buried releases on December 6, the same day as Oculus Touch.
Blizzard's team-based first-person shooter Overwatch will begin its third season of competitive play in December, and principal designer Scott Mercer revealed that players will keep their current Skill Ratings during the offseason.
The post ‘Overwatch’ Season 3 allows players to keep their current Skill Ratings appeared first on Digital Trends.
Niantic's latest update for 'Pokémon Go' suggests there are still plenty of people out there playing the game while behind the wheel. Trouble is, anyone else in the car – or even on a train or bus – is also affected by the change.
The post ‘Pokémon Go’ just became even harder to play while driving appeared first on Digital Trends.
During the Fan Festival event in Las Vegas, Square Enix revealed the next expansion for Final Fantasy XIV, called Stormblood, arriving in 2017. It will provide enough content to fill a stand-alone game, and feature new areas to explore.
The post Next ‘Final Fantasy XIV’ expansion, ‘Stormblood,’ set for summer 2017 appeared first on Digital Trends.
The PlayStation 4 will soon support 360-degree videos and photos courtesy of a forthcoming update for the console's built-in Media Player that will allow users to view 3D content while wearing a PlayStation VR headset.
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