Meta Says Quest 3 Will Get More Than 50 New Titles by the End of the Year

At Meta Connect 2023 today, among the avalanche of news we learned Quest 3 is shipping October 10th, accessories are raining from the sky, and there will be “another 50+ titles” coming by year’s end.

Meta says over 100 new and upgraded titles are coming to Quest 3 by year’s end, with over half of them brand new.

Many of those 100+ apps and games are getting some form of “MR features” too, Meta says, which ought to help fill out what so far seems to be a fairly shallow pool of mixed reality content currently. Mixed reality games announced today include multiplayer tabletop battle game BAM! from I-Illusions, a mixed reality mode for Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord, Lego Bricktales and Meta’s First Encounters tutorial app for Quest 3 (we’ll be filling out this list as we learn more). Meta also showed MR modes for Stranger Things VR and Less Mills Body Combat.

Demeo Mixed Reality mode | Image courtesy Meta

While full-color passthrough allows for mixed reality games, Quest 3 is thankfully also backwards compatible with Quest 2’s entire library of over 500+ VR games and apps.

Granted, individual developers will need to push Quest 3-specific updates that overhaul things like texture quality and render resolution to get the most out of the Meta’s latest and greatest.

Its higher-resolution, independent displays and second-gen Snapdragon XR2 (see the full specs here) will also boost Quest 2 content out of the gate though, making what’s there a little sharper and clear, and a little less resource intensive too.

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Connect 2023 kicks off today, taking place September 27th and 28th at Meta’s Menlo Park headquarters. There’s been a ton of news already, so make sure to follow along with Connect for all of the latest XR stuff from Meta.

PvP Battler ‘Glassbreakers’ Gets New Champion, Steam Open Beta Coming in October

Glassbreakers: Champions of Moss, the 1v1 battler from Polyarc launched into early access late last month, is releasing a new character today which aims to “hook” players into returning for more tactical rat-bashing action.

Revealed last week, new champion ‘Mojo’ is now available for players on Quest, which for now is the only platform with an open beta.

Polyarc says can wishlist Glassbreakers now on Steam, with a planned open beta release slated to arrive sometime in October.

Mojo (aka ‘MJ22’) brings a few new ranged abilities to the 1v1 real-time battler, such as the ‘Free Hugs’ ability which lets Mojo launch a hook attack to pull the opposing squad’s Champions in towards them.

Leveling up, the hook not only launches farther, but it also applies a slowing effect to enemies. Besides grabbing enemies, Mojo’s hook can also snag high-priority targets that the other squad is trying to protect.

The studio announced it’s also hosting a special ‘Quest for the Chest’ event from now until October 5th, which is boosting the speed at which players level up their weekly chests. What’s more, for the next two weeks the top-tier chests will contain “extra special rewards including a chance at never-before-seen masks and emblems for players and their squads,” Polyarc says.

The game is slated to make the transition from App Lab game to the Quest Store proper  early next year.

To follow along with progress, take a look at the game’s Trello board to see how events are shaping up, and how bug fixes are coming along.

‘Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR’ Gets First Gameplay Trailer, Coming to Quest in November

Ubisoft announced Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR back in June, staying that we’d get the Quest exclusive sometime this holiday. Now the studio has revealed a first look at gameplay, and announced the official release date.

Coming to Quest on November 16th, the new Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR trailer shows off a few clips of each of the game’s three protagonists: Ezio (Assassin’s Creed II), Connor (Assassin’s Creed 3), and Kassandra (Assassin’s Creed Odyssey).

From the gameplay trailer, it seems there’s going to be a good slice of parkour, melee, and ranged combat too—basically what you’d expect from the long-awaited Assassin’s Creed  VR game. Ubisoft says we should expect to “get caught up in a world of espionage, intrigue and betrayal.”

Locations in the game include Venice, Athens, Colonial Boston “and more,” the studio says in the game’s Quest page, noting that players will have the autonomy to “decide the best way to achieve your objectives” across open map environments. “Meet and interact with civilians and historical figures, all of whom react to your VR actions,” Ubisoft says.

As for combat, Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR melee includes blocking, parrying, and counterattacks, with weapons including bow and arrows, the Hidden Blade, swords, tomahawk, throwing knives, crossbow, and smoke bombs.

You can wishlist Assassin’s Creed Nexus VR for Quest 2 and Quest Pro, with launch coming November 16th. The game is also presumably coming to Quest 3 whenever the headset launches, although Meta hasn’t mentioned yet when Quest 3 is due to release. Whatever the case, we’re sure to learn more next week at Connect 2023, which promises a big info dump on Meta’s latest VR headset.

Fast Travel Games Partners with MoonHood on Claymation-based VR Game

Fast Travel Games announced it’s partnering with MoonHood, a new game studio founded by the creators of Lost in Random (2021) and VR game Ghost Giant (2019). MoonHood is creating a VR-supported game that aims to replicate the look and feel of claymation.

Based in Gothenburg, Sweden, MoonHood aims to “immerse players in strange worlds handcrafted in actual clay, cardboard and what have you,” studio says on its new website.

MoonHood says it’s hired a team of sculptors and miniature painters to create physical objects as the basis of their first project, which is currently unnamed. The sculptures are then 3D scanned and presumably animated in Blender and other engines. The game is slated to target consoles, PC, and VR headsets—no word on exact platforms for now.

In the partnership announcement seen below, MoonHood says it’s partnering with Fast Travel’s publishing wing, but also a second unnamed partner. The studio says on its website that the project is being funded by “one of the biggest platforms,” which, considering the VR landscape right now, basically means Meta. The studio hasn’t confirmed this, as the video conveniently teases the name as a part of a redaction.

As a publisher, Fast Travel Games has brought a number of VR games to life, including third-party titles Virtuoso, EVERSLAUGHT Invasion, and Ghost Signal: A Stellaris Game. It’s also developed a number of well-recieved VR games including upcoming single-player RPG Vampire: The Masquerade – Justice and asymmetric multiplayer Mannequin.

This ‘Portal 2’ Mod Brings Full VR Support to Valve’s Award-winning Puzzler

Flat2VR, the modding team known for bringing unofficial VR support to games such as Final Fantasy XIV, Half-Life 2, Jedi Outcast, and Left 4 Dead 2, recently released a mod for Portal 2 which finally brings SteamVR support to the iconic puzzle game.

The mod is free, and posted to Giovanni ‘Gistix’ Correia’s Github, a contributing member of Flat2VR. If you need help installing, there are instructions on the mod’s Github page, howevrr you can also head over to the Flat2VR Discord (invite link) for help.

Another pretty handy coincidence: Valve has again put both Portal and Portal 2 on sale for just $1 a piece, or in the Portal bundle for just $1.50 total, giving you basically no excuse not to play this mod—provided you have a VR-ready PC and a headset such as a Valve Index or Quest 2 (with Link).

Check out this 20-minute playthrough showcasing just how fluid the VR mod is:

Meta is Killing off Virtual Pet ‘Bogo’ & ‘Dead and Buried’ Series This Week

Announced late last year, Meta is shutting down three of its exclusive titles this week, including VR shooters Dead and Buried (2016) and Dead and Buried II (2019), and virtual pet simulator Bogo (2019), making it your last chance to say goodbye.

Update (March 11th, 2024): The date for complete shutdown of Bogo and both Dead and Buried titles is coming fast, arriving on March 15th. If you want to give them one last go, now’s your chance. For Quest owners who haven’t played before, sadly there’s no way to download them from the Quest Store, as all three have been removed at the time of the original announcement in September 2023.

The original article detailing the games’ shutdown follow below:

Original Article (September 18th, 2023): Meta announced via email to current game owners that all three titles will no longer be supported come March 15th, 2024. In the meantime, the company has removed the games from store search results, and removed any way to purchase or download them (if not already in your library).

Created as an Oculus Touch launch title for Rift and released in late 2016 by Oculus Studios, Dead and Buried was one of the pioneering multiplayer VR shooters that explored room-scale gameplay, including co-op, PvP, and single-player modes.

Interestingly, the Oculus Touch launch title never came to Quest, although a version was adapted for Oculus Go, the 3DOF standalone released in 2018.

Meta’s internal game development studio back then, Oculus Studios, instead was working on Dead and Buried II, which would release as a launch title for the original Quest in May 2019, but also arrive on Rift with cross-play.

Dead and Buried II departed from the purely room-scale locomotion of the first, and injected some standard stick-driven locomotion to the mix, making for more dynamic shootouts across multiple maps.

Released as a free Oculus Quest launch title in 2019 (and Rift), Bogo lets you raise and care for your own virtual pet. It’s admittedly a short experience without a ton of depth, but it’s getting the axe just the same come March 15th, as it will be removed not only from both Quest and Rift Stores, but also from user libraries.

While both Dead and Buried games heavily feature online gameplay—more understandable victims of platform decay—the decision to shutter the single-player game Bogo suggests Meta isn’t prioritizing legacy support for original Quest games as it moves towards the next generation of Quest headset, or more specifically Quest 3.

Whatever the case, we’re sure to learn more come September 27th during Connect 2023 where the company will very likely release a flurry of news surrounding Quest 3.

The post Meta is Killing off Virtual Pet ‘Bogo’ & ‘Dead and Buried’ Series This Week appeared first on Road to VR.

Tabletop RPG ‘Demeo’ is Getting Separate PvP ‘Battles’ Game in November

Popular VR-optional tabletop dungeon board game Demeo lets four players dungeon dive together. But, come November 9th, players will be able to duke it out amongst one another when the separate PvP title Demeo Battles arrives.

Update (September 15th, 2023): The long-awaited Demeo Battles is almost here, now slated to arrive November 9th on PC and VR headsets, which includes Quest and, SteamVR. You can pre-order now on Quest, priced at $20, and wishlist on Steam.

Resolution Games also listed a few main features to the game, which is confirmed to be separate from the original Demeo (2021) game:

  • Turn-based Tactics: Battle your opponents in dungeons, forests and more as you square off against your enemies in grid-based action combat across 10 maps tailored for intense PvP competition — but don’t fall victim to “The Burn,” an ever-encroaching flood of lava that works its way towards the center of the board and causes immense damage to any player or monster caught in its path.
  • Monstrous Minions: Assemble an army of chaotic critters to fight alongside you — from rats and goblins to cave trolls to giant slimes — a rotating cast of 37 creatures to pick from at launch, all with a mind of their own!
  • Heroic Teamwork: Bring two champions to the battle in every match and leverage their synergies; control both heroes directly or partner up with another player to defeat competitors cooperatively.
  • Play Your Way: Choose a champion to match your play style from 7 classes —  hunter, sorcerer, assassin, guardian, bard, warlock or barbarian — to unleash magic, melee mayhem and more, with 89 possible cards to pick from when raining fury down on your opponents.

The studio also released a full play-through session, featuring Jerry Holkins (aka Tycho) and Mike Krahulik (aka Gabe) of Penny Arcade. The play session follows below this update.

Original Article (December 15th, 2022): Demeo developer Resolution Games announced today that the game’s PVP is slated for 2023. The studio is calling it ‘Demeo Battles’.

Demeo lets up to four VR or non-VR players dungeon crawl through a tabletop board game where they face off against a range of deadly enemies.

After popular demand, the game will soon allow players to fight amongst each other. It appears that up to four players (on teams of two) will be supported in Demeo PVP, though it isn’t clear if free-for-all will be possible, or odd number teams (ie: 2v1).

Below we have the first look at the new PvP action where we can see that players will not only control their own characters, but also get to harness enemies they’ve fought in the cooperative mode. A ring of encroaching fire heats things up so you don’t dillydally on the board for too long.

The upcoming 2023 release for Demeo PVP is a delay from an initial estimate of 2022; and while we don’t have a hard release date yet, hopefully that means early 2023 rather than later.

In the meantime, take a look at some work-in-press footage of Demeo Battles gameplay in action below:


Disclosure: Resolution Games assisted with travel & lodging expenses to an event where information for this article was gathered.

‘STRIDE: Fates’ Coming to Quest Soon as “full-fledged separate game”

Joy Way, the studio behind parkour action-shooter STRIDE (2022), announced that high-flying follow-up STRIDE: Fates is a “full-fledged sequel” to the original game, and it’s coming first to Quest this holiday season.

In addition to throwing out a new gameplay trailer, the studio also released more info on the game’s narrative:

Step into the shoes of a parkour spec-ops officer. Traverse and shoot your way through the rooftops and basements of dystopian Airon City – from slums to affluent skyscrapers. Deal with power shifts in gangs, dirty family feuds, corporate secrets, forbidden tech and other obstacles to understand your past. Enhancing everything players love about STRIDE, the full-fledged sequel ‘Fates’ pushes the parkour action formula even further with new gameplay and a story-driven campaign.

The studio also included a list of promised features:

  • Blockbuster-level narrative.
  • Climb buildings, vault through windows, and slide down cables with lightning speed.
  • Explore open-world locations under the watch of snipers and drones.
  • Feel the thrill of close-quarters combat with tactical shooter mechanics.
  • Use your gadgets and hacking skills to outwit thugs and corporates.
  • Meet a motley cast of characters to shape your Fate.
  • Puzzles, collectibles and more cool stuff that will be announced later.

Originally set to be a relatively short story mode offered as free DLC to the base game, STRIDE: Fates is now being pitched as a “full-fledged separate game,” Joy Way tells Road to VR.

“Instead of an hour of gameplay, we made a separate game, better in every aspect, with new content, mechanics and 5-8 hours of story campaign (depending on side quests and time spent in open world locations),” the studio says.

Joy Way maintains the decision to make it a separate game and not free DLC was also based on avoiding technical limitations inherent to the base game. STRIDE: Fates is said to use a new engine, which offers improved graphics and interactivity for standalone VR, enhancing aspects like shooting, enemy AI, and more.

“At some point, after fruitless attempts to upgrade the existing engine, we had to restart the project and basically re-do almost all the code from scratch, and now the new engine is incompatible with the original STRIDE.”

STRIDE: Fates is coming first to Quest, slated to arrive on the Meta Quest Store sometime this holiday season, which could be as soon as November, the studio says. The game is also headed to SteamVR headsets sometime in 2024. Joy Way says it’s also considering a release on PSVR 2 and Pico headsets “later in 2024,” however that’s still being decided.

Fast Travel Games Reveals Hide-and-Seek VR Multiplayer ‘Mannequin’

Fast Travel Games teased a mysterious VR multiplayer late last month, and now we have the full reveal: Mannequin, an asymmetric multiplayer for up to five players.

The admittedly very slick cinematic reveal trailer shows off a bit of hide-and-seek style gameplay.

Here’s how the studio describes the action:

The world has stopped. Time is frozen. All attempts to make contact with the aliens have failed. Special Agents have been deployed to neutralize the threat once and for all.

Humans call the aliens: Mannequins. Mannequin is an asymmetric multiplayer game for up to 5 players, filled with suspense, social deduction and fast, sudden action. Play as alien Mannequins and set up deadly ambushes by posing as humans frozen in time, or as human Agents and wield high tech gadgets to neutralize the Mannequins from a distance.

Image courtesy Fast Travel Games

The studio tells us that its extraterrestrial Mannequins focus on close combat and can time-freeze humans just by touching them. You’ll have to physically pose your body in order to blend in among the time-frozen humans though, making you think creatively on how best to blend into your surroundings and keeping a pose as you’re surely inspected for any signs of life.

Human Agents specialize in ranged combat with an EMP Gun to neutralize the aliens. An EMF Reader helps you locate threats and EMP Generators for recharge and advantage in combat. On the human team, voice chat lets you communicate and strategize internally without the opponent team eavesdropping on them.

Mannequin is coming first to Meta Quest 2 & 3, PSVR 2, and SteamVR headsets sometime in 2024. We’ll be following along with the Fast Travel Games’ social channels in the meantime.

Meanwhile, the veteran VR studio is also set to launch its single-player RPG Vampire: The Masquerade – Justice soon, having already released a number of VR games including Wraith: The Oblivion – Afterlife, Apex Construct and The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets.

Meta Releases ‘Citadel’ Co-op VR Adventure, Its Second Marquee Title in ‘Horizon Worlds’

In late July, Meta introduced a hero shooter called Super Rumble’ to Horizon Worlds, aiming to improve user retention on its social VR platform with the promise of higher quality first-party content. Now Meta released its second big anchor minigame on Horizon Worlds, a co-op adventure game called ‘Citadel’.

Citadel is what Meta calls a “rogue-lite action-adventure puzzle platformer FPS,” offering up both solo and co-op play.

Here’s how Meta describes the action:

Combining combat, puzzle-solving, and skillful gameplay, each room in Citadel gives players a new challenge to overcome. With numerous hidden secrets to uncover across 30 rooms, Citadel offers a wealth of content to explore. And after completing the game in Casual mode, those up for an additional challenge can take on Veteran mode for an even greater sense of achievement (and additional bragging rights).

As you infiltrate the citadel, find hidden relics, and eliminate enemy forces, you’ll unlock weapons and rewards and earn credit to buy new armor with unique stats to upgrade your hit points, number of lives, and speed. Mix and match helmets and torso armors at will to fully customize your gameplay experience.

Stocking Horizon Worlds with higher quality content has only been one piece of Meta’s user retention puzzle. Back in April, the company announced it was set to officially open the platform to kids ages 13+. Meta has also recently begun a closed beta for Android users, opening the platform to non-VR devices for the first time.

The company says it’s hoping to open Horizon Worlds to iOS devices and standard web browsers too at some point, which could help the platform gain greater traction amid some already fairly fierce competition. This comes as Meta opened Quest up the online gaming powerhouse Roblox, joining popular social VR platforms Rec Room, VRChat, and Gym Class on the Quest platform.