Developed by Mixed Realms and published by Vertigo Games, this gory VR combat game is now confirmed for release on Quest 2, along with PC VR, next year. More details here.
Releasing for Quest 2 and PC VR, equip two baseball bats and do absolutely anything besides play a game of baseball later this year. More details here.
Midway through the Showcase, our friend Greg Miller from Kinda Funny delivered us some news relating to updates for Cities VR, Virutoso, The Patcher, Into the Radius and Demeo. You can watch that segment here.
UploadVR Correspondents Alex and Skeeva also ran through a brief look at some upcoming indie VR titles, including Orbital Strike, Wands Alliances, Next Player Please, Tin Hearts, Eolia and Requisition VR. You can watch that segment here.
Yup, you read that right: the Upload VR Showcase returns to your screen on June 9 at 8am PT/11am ET/4pm UK!
It wouldn’t be summer without our bi-annual show stopping by to fill you in on all the latest with VR gaming. We’ll be back with a whole host of new game reveals, trailers and gameplay for titles coming across the wide spectrum of VR headsets. We’ll be live both on our own YouTube channel and as a part of IGN’s Summer of Gaming line-up.
What to expect this year? Well, we won’t spoil much for now, but we will say we have possibly the most new game reveals we’ve ever featured at a showcase, including some from companies yet to release VR games. You can also expect plenty of the industry’s best and brightest returning to show off the latest looks at their games.
This summer features headline sponsorship from Fast Travel Games and additional sponsorship from Owlchemy Labs, World of Mechs, Vertigo Games, Incuvo and Kiwi Designs as well as support from Pixelity. Need more info? Then make sure to head over to our brand new showcase page to learn more about the event and our sponsors!
That’s all for now but make sure to mark your calendars; on June 9 2022, the Upload VR Showcase is back with its biggest and best show yet. We can’t wait to see you.
It’s time! What VR games, experiences and hardware walk away with an UploadVR Best of 2021 award? Find out below.
It’s been another big year for VR, with software taking front and center against fewer major hardware releases. And developers started to flourish, releasing deeper, better games and experiences that more intimately understood what makes this medium tick. Several of this year’s categories proved incredibly hard to choose, but we feel the below list is a fitting representation of how VR shaped up in 2021.
Make sure to check out our video announcing the winners below!
UploadVR’s Best VR Of 2021 Awards – Winners
Best Competitive Multiplayer – Gorilla Tag
It’s been an eventful year for competitive multiplayer VR games with a lot of amazing entries but, really, there was only one game that could walk away with this one. Gorilla Tag has enjoyed phenomenal success this year thanks to an innovative take on a game we all played as kids. The game really highlights a kind of physicality you just can’t get with traditional flatscreen games and keeps players active throughout. Granted older players might want something a little more familiar, but you can’t deny that Gorilla Tag is one of the most innovative and fun multiplayer VR experiences out there today.
Other nominees:
Larcenauts
Hyper Dash
Loco Dojo Unleashed
Ragnarok
Best Co-op Multiplayer – Demeo
Another hotly contested category, we gave long and serious thought to going in another direction for Best Co-op. After The Fall and A Township Tale both offer incredible teamwork experiences but, in the end, we just kept coming back to how collaborative and rewarding Demeo is as a multiplayer experience. It’s not just the game itself but how it captures the sensation of sitting around the table with friends, and the comradery that comes with strategizing and then winning or losing (mostly losing) together.
Other nominees:
After The Fall
A Township Tale
Legendary Tales
Warplanes: WW1 Fighters
Best Experience – Battlescar
If you listen to UploadVR’s weekly Gamescast on Thursdays, you’ll know that we’ve been big fans of Battlescar for a long time. Creators Martín Allais and Nico Casavecchia did an incredible job tackling the conundrum of the VR movie head-on with a 30-ish minute short that rapidly switches up narrative styles and visuals to keep you constantly engaged.
Other nominees:
Madrid Noir
Goliath
Sentenced
Welcome To Respite
Best Updated Game – Waltz of the Wizard
Some of VR’s best games released two or three years ago now, but consistent updates have kept them just as relevant as they were at release. Every nominee in this category is deserving but, ultimately, we went with Waltz of the Wizard for its focus on remaining at the bleeding edge of VR. Every time Quest gets a new feature, be it hand-tracking or voice recognition SDKs, developer Aldin Dynamics is at the forefront of working out how these concepts can work in the context of an actual game. Waltz is a five-year-old experience now, but it’s never felt as fresh as it does today, and that’s a simply remarkable achievement.
Other nominees:
Space Pirate Trainer DX
Pistol Whip
GOLF+
Cubism
Blaston
Best DLC – Beat Saber
Some categories are tough to decide. This was not one of them. Beat Saber has had yet another massive year for DLC, bringing artists like Lady Gaga and Billie Eilish to VR whilst not forgetting its roots with new updates to the OST and more. This is one of the few VR games that’s tough to imagine getting a full-blown sequel simply because the game’s doing such an incredible (and no doubt profitable) job of sustaining its original release. Here’s to another year!
Other nominees:
Star Wars: Tales From The Galaxy’s Edge – Last Call
Jurassic World Aftermath – Part 2
Walkabout VR Minigolf – New Courses
Most Immersive Moment – Arashi: Castles of Sin
Sure, lots of VR games have dogs you can pet, but Arashi: Castles of Sin’s wolf companion Haru is, without a doubt, the absolute best, most thoughtful realization of a virtual animal yet seen. Not only does developer Endeavor One get a fluffy perfection out of her coat but the way she looks lovingly into your eyes and how her ears bend as you ruffle her head leave a genuine impression on you. Endeavor One spent time with real wolves to make sure Haru’s animation and behaviors were just right, and it really paid off.
Other nominees:
Soloing in Unplugged
Chopping trees and crafting backpacks in A Township Tale
Joining Puzzl in Floor Plan 2
Behind the stage with I Expect You To Die 2
Impending crashes in Traffic Jams
Most Innovative Design – Unplugged
Innovative Design is always a fun category to pick as so many VR games try so many radical new things. In the end, Unplugged’s genius design, which lets you essentially play a Guitar Hero game without any plastic peripherals taking up space, took the crown. Not only does the hand-tracking technology work well but it’s actually the best game to use the feature since it arrived on Quests last year. Unplugged is proof you can get deep, immersive experiences out of even the most experimental of VR features.
Other nominees:
Carve Snowboarding
Puzzling Places
Hand Physics Lab
Gorilla Tag
Eye of the Temple
Hidden Gem – Mare
Mare feels like playing an ICO game inside of VR. From the impossible scope of its mist-swept ruins to the silent confidence with which its story is told, Visiontrick Media pulled off a fantastic point-and-click adventure that feels unique to VR and wonderfully nostalgic at the same time. Hopefully, this isn’t the last we’ve seen on this developer in VR.
Other nominees:
Vanishing Grace
Crashland
Arcsmith
Eternal Starlight
Eye of the Temple
Carve Snowboarding
Best VR Developer – Resolution Games
VR Developer is always a hard one to pick as so many studios put so much effort into not just new games but updating older ones and supporting the industry at large too. For its part, we felt this was the year to recognize the extraordinary achievements of Resolution Games, a studio that released one of our favorite titles of 2021, continued to update some of its best past projects, helped bring the excellent Carly & The Reaperman to Quest and even announced its first project for 2022. But it’s not just about the quantity – Resolution’s library of games also offer a welcome range of the most accessible VR titles mixed with fiendishly difficult ones for more dedicated gamers. The developer has real scope and we can’t wait to see what’s next.
Other nominees:
Beat Games
Resolution Games
nDreams
Fast Travel Games
Schell Games
Best PC VR Game – Demeo
Strategy games are something of a favorite at UploadVR, and PC has always been the best place to play those types of games. It’s fitting, then, to award PC VR Game to easily the best VR tactics game we’ve yet seen. Demeo is a great social experience, yes, but it’s also a really satisfying dungeon-crawling RPG that really requires you to think through battles to overcome its devilish difficulty.
Other nominees:
Lone Echo 2
Sweet Surrender
I Expect You To Die 2
Song in the Smoke
Best PSVR Game – Song in the Smoke
If we had an award for the nicest surprise of 2021, Song in the Smoke would definitely win. We really weren’t expecting big things out of this VR survival title, and it caught us completely off-guard with its fantastic, fleshed-out structure that gave us the genre’s best elements reimagined for headsets. The PSVR version was a particular highlight, too, navigating the platform’s wonky control schemes with ease and running just as well as the PC edition. No matter which headset you own, though, you shouldn’t miss out on Song in the Smoke.
Other nominees:
Fracked
Hitman 3
Sniper Elite VR
I Expect You To Die 2
Best Quest Game – Unplugged
If we’re talking about a game that made the best use of Quest hardware in 2021, Unplugged is the clear winner. Its overall presentation really holds up on the standalone headset and doesn’t appear compromised in any way. In fact, if anything, it’s the PC version of the game that’s a step down from Quest, which makes incredible use of hand-tracking in a way you’ve never seen before. When you hit your stride and nail notes in Unplugged you get a genuine sensation of playing along to your favorite tracks, and the game is near-instantly graspable for just about anyone that tries it. It wasn’t an easy pick, but we ultimately thought Unplugged represented the best of Quest in 2021.
Other nominees:
A Township Tale
Resident Evil 4 VR
Song in the Smoke
Demeo
Best Hardware – HTC Vive Flow
We have some heavy caveats about the HTC Vive Flow. It’s not a perfect device by any means, and its price seems quite high for what’s essentially a VR media viewer. But we also immensely respect the design philosophy behind HTC’s latest headset, with its ultra-light, goggles-like form factor laying out a template for where standalone VR is ultimately heading. It’s a truly innovative device that isn’t just brute-forcing high-performance specs but approaches the industry from a new angle. We hope to see a lot more from Flow in 2022.
Other nominees:
VR Power 2
Varjo Aero
Anker Quest 2 Charging Dock
DecaMove
VR Game Of The Year – Demeo
If you’ve been reading or watching our coverage since May, you’re probably not too surprised to see Demeo walk away with the title of UploadVR’s Game of the Year for 2021. We quickly fell for the game’s smart implementation of tabletop mechanics and, more importantly, its fantastic multiplayer support, which genuinely brought the vibe of in-person D&D games into VR. It transformed a fun game into an essential experience — especially in the middle of the ongoing pandemic — and really highlighted how VR differs from any other medium out there. Add to that the fact the game has already seen two generous expansions delivered for free with more to come in 2022, and Demeo was an easy pick for our Game of the Year.
Other nominees:
Resident Evil 4 VR
Song in the Smoke
Unplugged
I Expect You To Die 2
Congratulations to all the developers, companies and games nominated for UploadVR’s Best of 2021 awards! What do you make of our picks? Would you have changed any choices? Let us know in the comments below!
The Upload VR Showcase returns December 2 at 9am PT/12pm ET/5pm GMT. Here’s where to watch.
Yes, we’re back with our twice-yearly showcase, giving you a look at what’s to come for VR in the coming weeks, months and years. Our December showcase is brought to you in partnership with Polyarc, the developer of Moss, and also sponsored by Bean Stalker. We’ll have a focus on things to come in 2022, with some updates on titles that may be here a little sooner than that. Here’s a little overview of what to expect this time around:
20+ VR games featured
5 brand new game announcements
Release date confirmations
Titles for Quest, PSVR and PC VR headsets
As for where to find it? Well, right here is a start!
Watch The Upload VR Showcase Right Here
Head back here on December 2nd to find our video ready and waiting for you. Or you can head over to our YouTube channel right now to subscribe and get notifications about when the event kicks off.
Also make sure to check in with some of our friends and partners on YouTube and beyond, as many of them will be bringing you their reactions to the show or offering another way to watch live! We’ll also be partnering up with IGN once more, so you can find it on their channels too.
So, just to be sure you know, that’s December 2nd at 9am PT/12pm ET/5pm GMT. You can expect around 40+ minutes of VR goodness with brand new game reveals, surprise releases, new trailers and much more. We’ll see you then!
Rejoice! Another hearty dose of VR gaming news, reveals and more is heading your way soon.
That’s right, the Upload VR Showcase is back on December 2nd.
Upload VR Showcase Returns
Hopefully you caught our summer show, in which we announced games like Nerf Ultimate Championship and revealed titles like A Township Tale were coming to Oculus Quest. We’ll have a lot more to share this time around, including some of the titles we spotlighted last summer and, of course, a few surprises for you all too.
This will be our fifth showcase (!) and it couldn’t be happening at a better time. 2022 is going to be a huge year for the VR industry and we’re proud to present some of the titles you can look forward to playing next year.
Make sure to check out our showcase from June below if you want an idea an what to expect.
We’ll have final timing details for you closer to the show but, for now, make a note in your diaries and mark up those calendars – you won’t want to miss this one.
The Upload VR Showcase is back following two years of incredible VR announcements and reveals! Here’s everything you need to know about this year’s VR gaming show.
What is the Upload VR Showcase?
Our VR Showcases are a big celebration of what’s to come for VR content – new trailers, some game reveals and fresh looks at some of your most anticipated titles. Think of it like a Nintendo Direct… for VR!
When is the Upload VR Showcase 2021?
June 12 at 3pm PT / 6pm ET / 11pm BST
Where can I watch Upload VR Showcase 2021?
We are also proud partners with IGN during its Summer of Gaming event, meaning you can watch it on any of their streaming platforms at the same time.
Which games are going to be in it?
Here are just some of the games and studios joining us this year:
A Township Tale
After The Fall
More from Vertigo Games
Resolution Games
nDreams
More from Pistol Whip
We’ll also be reporting on each announcement right here on UploadVR.com so you won’t miss out on anything.
What are some previous announcements from past Upload VR Showcases?
We’ve had some incredible announcements and reveals in our Summer and Winter shows since 2019 when it all started as the E3 VR Showcase!
They include:
Zombie shooter After The Fall revealed
Stealth sequel Budget Cuts 2 announced
Carbon Studio pulled back the curtain on The Wizards: Dark Times
Fast Travel Games debuted Wraith: The Oblivion – Afterlife
Owlchemy Labs announced Vacation Simulator Back to Job DLC
In Death: Unchained shot onto Oculus Quest
Firewall dev First Contact premiered the first gameplay of Solaris: Offworld Combat
In search of that festive feeling? Well we’ve got a little surprise for you – UploadVR’s Winter Wrap-Up kicks off next week!
We’ll be rounding out the year in style with the help of some of our most anticipated projects of 2021. Join us every day next week at 9am PT when we’ll be debuting exclusive content for new VR games and incoming updates for some of 2020’s best titles. Check out the full schedule below!
Get Festive With UploadVR’s Winter Wrap-Up!
Starting out on Monday we’ll have the very first footage of a new Quest 2 game. What is it? We’re keeping that under wraps for now – you’ll just have to tune in to find out! Moving on to Tuesday, the team at Resolution Games has updates on its 1v1 shooter, Blaston, as well as a sneak peek at the just-announced turn-based RPG, Demeo.
Wednesday brings seasons greetings from Fast Travel Games as the team talks five reasons to play its new game, Wraith: The Oblivion – Afterlife, complete with the first-ever Quest 2 development footage! Meanwhile, Vertigo Games takes over Thursday with new looks at two games it’s publishing in the new year – Traffic Jams and Unplugged.
Finally, on Friday, we’ll round out the week with a brand new look at Sam & Max: This Time It’s Virtual. We can’t wait to see what the team at Happy Giant has in store.
But that’s far from all! Across the week we’ll have plenty more content to share, including a chat with Atlas V about its upcoming slate of VR movies, a first look at Arizona Sunshine’s new horde map, and the reveal of an all-new VR kaiju game! Plus team Upload will be in the Download studio to talk over some of the year’s biggest topics and look forward to what’s coming in 2021. Don’t miss out on Friday, when we’ll reveal our full VR awards 2020 nominations!
So that’s next week sorted for you! UploadVR’s Winter Wrap-Up is coming in hot – don’t miss it.
Community Download is a weekly discussion-focused articles series published (usually) every Monday in which we pose a single, core question to you all, our readers, in the spirit of fostering discussion and debate. For today’s Community Download, we want to know what you think is the very best VR shooter available on Oculus Quest natively?
The Oculus Quest 2 is out and it brings with it improved performance and slightly upgraded visuals for many Quest games. Now with the news that Contractors is finally officially releasing on the Quest store, I started wondering: what’s everyone’s favorite shooter on Quest?
Obviously we have a few different genres to pick from here. There are the multiplayer competitive shooters like Onward, Contractors, Pavlov: Shack, Hyper Dash, Rec Room Paintball, Laser Tag, Rec Royale, and so one. Then you’ve got co-op shooters like Arizona Sunshine, Crisis VRigade, Drop Dead, etc. And finally there are the single-player shooter adventures like Phantom: Covert Ops, Espire, and Robo Recall.
That’s a lot of games to pick from and I’ve definitely forgotten to include several I’m sure. So, based on what’s out there, what do you think is the very best VR shooter available natively on the Oculus Quest? This excludes games that are not available natively on Quest, like Zero Caliber or something else on PC that you can only play via Virtual Desktop or Oculus Link. We’re talking native only via the Quest store or Sidequest.
We’ll be in our virtual studio broadcasting the VR Download podcast live to YouTube Thursday at 1 pm Pacific! More than one of us will be wearing Oculus Quest 2 for the conversation in our studio made in Unity by David Heaney and using both hand tracking and Oculus Avatars. If you have any questions about Quest 2 or VR in general, tune in live — we’re able to read all the YouTube comments from within the studio. Even if we don’t answer your question, there’s a good chance our helpful community might have the answer.
We’ll also be diving into the huge game release season that’s underway with hands-on reports, impressions and reviews to share for all the latest major game releases. We plan on talking about each of the following subjects in depth:
Just ask your virtual assistant to play “The VR Download Podcast” and you should be listening to our latest episode. Subscribe to our channel to get notifications for new videos and check back here at 1 pm Pacific time to dig through the latest VR news with us!
Earlier this year we reported that Numinous Games’ Untethered series was being resurrected by Cyan Ventures. Today, we have a fresh look at Area Man Lives.
This new trailer made its debut at the Upload VR Showcase: Summer Edition. Area Man Lives brings the series that started life on the ill-fated Google Daydream platform to PC VR and Oculus Quest next year. You take control of a radio DJ that starts to uncover strange goings-on in their small town. Best of all, you can use your headset’s microphone to actually reply to people calling in.
This trailer gives a hint about the game’s eccentric atmosphere and sense of humor, with just a hint of the wider story. It’s a little hard to talk about what you ‘do’ in Area Man Lives without getting into the story in Untethered so, for the sake of spoilers, we’ll leave this trailer to speak for itself.
We’ve always been drawn to Area Man Lives’ quirkiness, so it’s great to see the experience shaping up well. Numinous was, of course, the developer behind That Dragon, Cancer and publisher Cyan is best known for games like Myst and, more recently, Obduction.
We’re just getting started at the Upload VR Summer Showcase. We’ve already given you a first look at Solaris: Offworld Combat and early development footage of Wraith: The Oblivion – Afterlife. Stay tuned, because we’ll have fresh looks as Lonn, Blaston and Low-Fi.
Will you be checking out Area Man Lives when it releases next year? Let us know in the comments below!
