The teams behind the popular island-themed city builder ISLANDERS (2019) announced they’re releasing a dedicated VR version next month.
ISLANDERS: VR Edition, which is all about building cities on colorful islands, is being created by original developers Coatsink, GrizzlyGames, and Stage Clear Studios.
The minimalist strategy game is also set to be published by Coatsink, the pioneering VR studio known for VR games Shadow Point and the Esper series, and having published Onward and Jurassic World: Aftermath Collection.
Here’s how the studios describe Islanders: VR Edition:
In Islanders: VR Edition, you begin with a blank canvas and a small set of minimalist buildings. Your goal is to populate and enrich each island with your creations, unlocking new buildings as you go by achieving a maximum score. Points are earned by carefully placing each building, being mindful of their surroundings like providing clear access to natural resources and making sure entry isn’t blocked.
Islanders: VR Edition is set to launch September 28th on Quest, where it’s now available for pre-order for 10% off.
The game is also headed to SteamVR headsets, although the studios haven’t released launch date info for platforms besides Quest at this time.
In the meantime, check out a brief bit of gameplay below:
Redemption arcs rarely last this long, but No Man’s Sky (2016) hasn’t given up on going above and beyond with its latest update, which finally fixes the visuals on PSVR 2.
The game’s initial release on PSVR earlier this year 2 wasn’t great, with users noting that visual quality simply wasn’t up to snuff. Players and reviewers alike decried the much beloved game’s blurriness on PSVR 2, which became an unfortunate fixture since the February 2023 update.
Now Hello Games has released its Echoes 4.4 patch which has completely overhauled visuals on PSVR 2 thanks to the inclusion of foveated rendering, an eye-tracking-driven rendering technique that only displays the area in the center of your eye’s gaze at max quality. Your peripheral vision isn’t that great at seeing detail anyway, so why waste precious resources to render where it matters the least? That’s foveated rendering in a nutshell; learn more about how eye-tracking goes way beyond foveated rendering here.
Echoes also brings a new race to the game, the Autophage, a long-hidden civilization of robotic beings. You’ll also encounter Pirate Dreadnoughts, which cruise between the stars and terrorise merchant fleets, and some more detailed ship controls that let you divert power to boost shields, move faster, or increase your firepower. Hell, there’s even a trench run in Dreadnoughts, which—terrible ship design flaw notwithstanding—sounds like a blast.
Checkout the Echoes update trailer below to see it all, or also read the game’s release log for the full rundown of recent updates.
Toast Interactive, the developer behind Richie’s Plank Experience (2017), revealed working on a new VR platformer that seems to be taking more than a few cues from Sony’s beloved Astro Bot Rescue Mission (2018) and Playful’s Lucky’s Tale (2016).
Called Max Mustard, the VR platformer has been under development for three years now, with the team calling it a “modern VR platformer with moments of nostalgia, meaningful upgrades, first person interactions and game play that keeps you wanting more.”
Here’s how Toast Interactive describes the game’s setup: “You and the famous inventor, Max Mustard embark on an adventure to reunite adorable mudpups with their parents. Along the way, you are faced with a surprise dilemma when a friend reveals a secret about who they are.”
Image courtesy Toast Interactive
Max Mustard is set to include 40+ levels, four bosses, eight upgrades, and 4+ hours of gameplay. Beyond that, judging by the trailer it looks like some mechanics were inspired by Astro Bot Rescue Mission. In the video, we see the player wield a suction cup dart gun, letting you solve minor puzzles to move Max forward.
We’d be surprised if the dart gun was the only tool, as those eight promised upgrades may include more elaborate puzzle-solving gear for the player to wield. Fans of pioneering VR platformer Lucky’s Tale will also probably note the resemblance thanks to its family friendly vibe and bright colors, which is admittedly a pretty standard look for games in the genre since probably before Spyro: Year of the Dragon (2000).
It’s still early days too. Max Mustard is “deep in the production phase,” the studio says, noting that it’s slated to release early next year. Toast Interactive hasn’t specified exactly which platforms it’s targeting beyond Quest, saying only that the reveal trailer represents the visual quality of Quest 2, noting further that the Quest 3 version will be “able to be pushed further” in terms of visual fidelity.
Publisher Vertigo Games and Mixed Realms, developer behind Sairento VR (2018), revealed a new trailer for their upcoming combat VR game Hellsweeper VR that shows off more of the game’s co-op action, which thankfully is confirmed to include cross-play on Quest, SteamVR, and PSVR 2.
HellsweeperVR is a follow-up to Sairento VR, this time letting two players join forces to descend into hell and slay twisted souls. The studios say we can expect shared combos and opportunities to execute unique co-op strategies as you take on all the evil the universe has to offer.
The studios say the game’s co-op mode offers a “full roguelike experience with a blend of strategic gameplay and RNG (randomized elements). Each player receives unique blessings, boons, and weapons, ensuring every playthrough offers different challenges and opportunities.”
In rogue-like mode, players fight rounds with various objectives, ending with a final boss fight. You’ll nab loot, upgrade your character, weapons or Hellhound.
Hellsweeper VR is coming to Quest, PSVR 2, and SteamVR headsets on September 21st, 2023. You can pre-order now on Steam, and wishlist on PSVR 2 and Quest. This also includes full cross-play support, so you can play with anyone regardless of their chosen headset.
When the original The 7th Guest launched on CD-ROM in 1993, it was apparently a pretty big deal. The amount of pre-rendered 3D graphics spliced with live action video clips made it a standout title among all PC games at the time, making it and Myst basically the hottest PC games ever. Now, Vertigo Games is rebooting the interactive horror puzzler in VR alongside a fresh injection of volumetric video which was undoubtedly a highlight in our hands-on.
The 7th Guest is coming in October to all major VR headsets, however we got a chance to go hands-on with a demo specifically for Quest 2 via a Steam build. Having never played the original ’90s game, I don’t have a basis of comparison, although what I did see was pretty indicative that Vertigo Games has done a ton to make this a visually appealing and modern game through and through.
Here’s the setup. Six guests have been welcomed to a foreboding mansion. There’s something sinister at play, as a wealthy recluse and toymaker, Henry Stauf, hides in the shadows. The ultimate question: Who is the 7th Guest? You’ll have to battle increasingly difficult puzzles and keep clear of whatever bumps in the night to solve the mystery.
Here’s the announcement trailer in case you missed it.
In the 25-minute demo, I got a sense of the scale and refinement of the game, although I still have some questions about puzzle difficulty. Don’t worry, I won’t talk about specific solutions here, just general impressions.
Starting outside, I find myself paddling on a canoe to a boathouse where I’m immediately confronted with my first tutorial-level puzzle. My newfound ‘Spirit Lantern’ doesn’t just let me shine light, but also acts as a magical tool to fix the broken planks blocking my way up to the main house. Later, I spawn the Spirit Lantern to materialize hidden objects or repair them, which comes part and parcel with a ‘Spirit Board’, which lets me see a map of the mansion, get hints and solutions, and check out my general progression. These two feel like the main tools I’ll be leaning on throughout the game.
Spirit Lantern revealing creepy scrawling on the wall | Image courtesy Vertigo Games
Sparing you some of the minor tutorial puzzles to actually get into the mansion (I made heavy use of the Spirit Lantern), I toss open the gate and walk up into the foyer, play a record on the Gramophone, and receive my first set of ghostly memories.
In general, volumetric video can be hit or miss depending on how it’s woven into a game. Here, it seems like Vertigo Games really hit a homerun, as each little character vignette feels like a visual extension of the haunted mansion, replete with ghostly mist and echo-y voice overs.
The acting is admittedly a little pulpy, but I’d consider the ghostly vignettes the right kind of cheesy considering the ’90s indie lineage the game. It’s supposed to be fun, dare I say, Disney-esque, so it feels right on brand with something you might experience in a haunted mansion theme park ride. I don’t expect any real frights here either—I certainly didn’t have any outside of the atmospheric creepiness of the mansion itself, that is.
Image captured by Road to VR
Again, I’m not going into puzzle solutions, but the early puzzles I did encounter were interesting, although not particularly difficult. A trio of magic hats create portals to one another, allowing you to put your hand into one, and solve a closed puzzle from afar. Unlock a series of boxes, and you’re led to the next vignette of a magician who met an untimely fate.
Whatever the case, I hope the mechanics I’m learning in the early game will be compounded into more difficult stuff later. It’s still too early to tell if the puzzles are one-off things, which would be more like a smorgasbord approach (which is fine) than requiring the player to create specific skills and use them at opportune moments.
Image courtesy Vertigo Games
I came away mostly intrigued by The 7th Guest in my short time going hands-on with the demo, although there’s clearly one thing that I can say I don’t like about it out of the gate. Voiceovers during puzzles that are designed to be constantly ‘helpful’ typically overstay their welcome, and I was hoping whoever the hell was talking while figuring out puzzles would eventually stop. These can be turned off in the settings, although they are on by default. Hopefully in the full game this will be offered as a starting option so players don’t feel like they’re being unnecessarily held by the hand from the get-go.
As for comfort, the gamut of standard options is available: teleportation, free movement, and a mix of both, which is the default movement style. The game can be played standing or sitting, and with support for left or right dominant hands.
Whatever the case, Vertigo Games is one of those VR pioneers that has more experience both in and outside the genre than most, and it seems they’re hitting all of the quality bars you’d expect from a VR remake of such a beloved ’90s game. Maybe I’ll play the original while I wait to play the full game, which is slated to launch October 19th this year.
NVIDIA this week announced Half-Life 2: RTX, a community-made remaster of the legendary game featuring all-new assets, textures, and lighting. Pieces of the remaster are likely to make their way to the already existing Half-Life 2: VR Mod.
And now it seems that fans are in for another treat; the Half-Life 2: VR Mod is likely to get a range of graphical upgrades thanks to the newly announced Half-Life 2: RTX remaster.
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Image courtesy NVIDIA
Image courtesy NVIDIA
Though it already featured improved graphics and lighting over the original Half-Life 2, the Half-Life 2: VR Mod largely focused on touching up the game’s existing assets, and enhancing some key 3D models while building out full support for VR.
Half-Life 2: RTX, on the other hand, is a complete graphical overhaul says Nvidia.
The project is described as being in “early development,” with developers consisting of a range of experienced Half-Life 2 modding teams, including folks from the Half-Life 2: VR Mod team. The teams are working under the banner Orbifold Studios and say they’re seeking more talented people to work on the project.
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Image courtesy NVIDIA
Image courtesy NVIDIA
According to Nvidia, the project will see “every asset reconstructed in high fidelity,” textures built with physically-based rendering techniques, and RTX ray-tracing support.
And while the project will likely mean that high quality 3D assets will make it over to the Half-Life 2: VR Mod, unfortunately RTX ray-tracing probably won’t.
A member of the Half-Life 2: VR Mod team called modding the full Half-Life 2: RTX game to support VR “just a pipe dream at the moment.”
“Currently RTX Remix [the platform used to build Half-Life 2: RTX] is not compatible with Half-Life 2: VR Mod, since they both hook into the rendering pipeline and abuse it in different and incompatible ways,” they said.
But, the member says there are plans to “work with other members of this new super-team [that’s working on Half-Life 2: RTX] on back-porting as much of the shiny new HD content as we can to the old source engine, and putting them into our Half-Life 2: VR Mod graphics update.”
Passing Meta’s content review process for Quest games is an essential step to being listed on the Quest Store, although some studios choose to offer their games in beta via App Lab first, meaning they can take time to get things right before listing on the store proper. That’s what developer Combat Waffle Studios and publisher Beyond Frames Entertainment did with their hit multiplayer shooter Ghosts of Tabor, and it’s seemed to have paid off.
Released on App Lab back in March, Ghosts of Tabor is an extraction-based survival game that tosses in player-versus-environment (PVE) and player-versus-player (PVP) combat, all of which is set in the suitably bombed-out near future. Inspired by games likes Escape from Tarkov and DayZ, there are plenty of guns, customization options, and opportunities for crafting and looting along the way to extraction.
It’s been such a winning mix of familiar gameplay, no doubt fueled by sheer developer grit, that it’s already surpassed $3 million in revenue. And that’s without being searchable on the Quest Store, a main feature of games sold via App Lab.
In a Meta developer blogpost, the team describes how listing through App Lab has forced them to focus on direct marketing and generating a community first—arguably the most important things for online multiplayer games in VR. Here’s how Combat Waffle CEO Scott Albright describes the game’s journey:
Getting the game into the hands of players early in closed tests has been the very foundation of our efforts to gain traction. Even initially, we noticed that there is a stickiness to the game and people were enjoying themselves, and from there we made sure to connect with influencers to get their perspective and spread awareness.
By giving people an early hands-on experience, we hoped that they would see the game for what it was and enjoy it as much as we do, despite it not being completely polished or finished.
Thankfully, most people trying the game in those early days really got into it and started posting videos on social media. It didn’t take long to find out that people have a lot of fun watching game clips, and it’s been super exciting to see people’s reactions in the comments. With attention increasing on social media, peoples’ expectations for the title are also starting to build, even before the launch.
While App Lab has stolen the thunder somewhat from SideQuest, the original unofficial content distribution outlet for Quest content, it’s been an increasingly important outlet for developers looking to generate loyal fanbases. The most successful to date is undoubtedly the free-to-play phenomenon Gorilla Tag, which managed to create so much hype in its time on App Lab that it reported a lifetime revenue of $26 million less than a month after moving to the main store.
In addition to being on App Lab, Ghosts of Tabor is also available on Steam Early Access. It’s also said to launch on the Quest Store sometime next year, where it is planned to include “many more maps, gameplay features, and improvements that are currently not present in the Early Access version,” the team says.
Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond (2020) was set to be the storied franchise’s first big push into virtual reality when it launched in late 2020, offering up some of its characteristic WWII combat missions alongside what hoped to be a robust online multiplayer. Now, less than three years since launch, EA’s Respawn Entertainment say they’re pulling the plug on multiplayer.
Arguably the best part of Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond was its online multiplayer, but that’s going to change before year’s end. The developers quietly posted this message on the game’s Quest page, appended above its original description:
“Multiplayer will be unavailable starting on December 1, 2023.”
The studio hasn’t provided any reasoning beyond the short message, although it’s fairly clear why the developers don’t want to pay for server space anymore. The well-funded and much hyped Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond suffered a pretty rocky launch, and never managed to gain the sort of sustained support either the developer Respawn Entertainment or Meta’s in-house publisher Oculus Studios were aiming for.
Originally released on the Oculus PC platform and SteamVR headsets back in December 2020, EA’s Respawn Entertainment was hoping to make a splash with its first VR-exclusive entry into the franchise, having worked on the WWII shooter for three years before launch. At $60 on PC VR when it first released, requiring a massive 180GB to install, expectations were set for what promised to be a true ‘AAA’ VR shooter. Alas, the game suffered from a host of issues at launch, which ranged from usability to gameplay polish, essentially rendering it a costly flop.
Still, Respawn and Meta (then Facebook) pushed through the game’s middling launch on PC VR by slimming down the game to fit on Quest 2, offering up its eight-hour campaign and online multiplayer to a wider audience a year after it launched on Rift and Steam. In an effort to win back good will, the studio even reduced the price to $40 and slimmed down the file size on Quest to fit on the headset’s 64GB variant.
That said, you probably still won’t see a lot of love for Medal of Honor: Above andBeyond—certainly not on the scale of the now dearly departed Echo VR, Meta’s own VR sports game which was shuttered earlier this month. Medal of Honor VR’s last update was in late 2021, basically showing the studio abandoned the game long before it decided to shut down servers just short of its three-year anniversary since launch.
While this isn’t the first MoH title to see the axe, it is the youngest among the group. EA deprecated online support for a number of MoH titles in February 2023, including Medal of Honor (2010), Medal of Honor: Warfighter (2012) and Medal of Honor: Airborne (2007)—all of which benefitted from wide support across PC, Xbox and PS consoles throughout their tenure.
Vox Machinae, the cult-favorite VR mech sim that just keeps-on kickin’, has released a new update that will give players brand new conditions for battling with their hulking metal mechs.
Vox Machinae began its development journey as far back as 2014, and eventually found its way to an early access launch on PC VR in 2018. Nine years later, the team is still honing the game to be the best it can be.
Following last year’s largest-ever update for the game—which saw the simultaneous launch of a Quest 2 version and full campaign—the new and fittingly-named ‘Hostile Conditions’ update is focused on making the game’s battlefields more dynamic and immersive. The update has three big additions: weather conditions, time of day, and selectable map boundaries.
For weather, the studio has added an impressive seven different conditions to choose from:
Clear – Similar visibility to all levels prior to this update. The player can see quite far into the distance
Haze – This condition will make it trickier to tell friend from foe at a mid/far distance
Overcast – Medium density clouds cover higher altitudes, making navigation and identify high fliers trickier
Clouds – Narrow high density clouds occupy mid altitude. You see clearly when flying above or below.
Mist – A high density fog covers low altitudes, making low areas ideal to hide in and escape battle.
Smog – The whole level is enveloped in an even, medium density coat of smog.
Storm – The whole level is enveloped in a high density storm, only lower terrain is visible
The conditions are designed to do more than just add atmosphere; players will need to work harder to differentiate between friendly and enemy bots, making friendly fire more of a risk. Further, the position and density of the clouds can change the strategic landscape for mechs that use jump-jets for repositioning.
Working in conjunction with the new weather options is a time-of-day system that covers sunrise, day, dusk, and night, each which offer “unique colour palettes and visibility features, as well as background art and animated sunlight that changes as you cross between variable visibility,” the developers say. This also brings with it new headlights on mechs which illuminate the environment around the player. And yes, you can do both ‘Storm’ and ‘Night’, for truly low-visibility conditions.
Image courtesy Space Bullet
The final major addition in the update is selectable map boundaries. Now players can choose where they’d like to throw down among several regions on each map, and decide how large the battlefield should be.
Along with weather and time-of-day, this breathes new life into the game’s existing battlefields by changing the dynamics of the fight while making things more atmospheric.
Firewall Ultra, the next-gen sequel to the popular PSVR-exclusive shooter, launches next week and with it, a co-op PvE mode supporting up to four players.
Called Exfil (short for Exfiltration), the new mode will see up to four players battling bots across the game’s array of maps as they seek to activate objectives and then return to an evac zone for extraction.
When you first load into a mission in Exfil, you’ll hack into one of two available access points to reveal the laptop locations and then make your plan of attack. Will you try to split up to cover more ground as a squad, or will you stick together to cover each other’s backs? Do you plan to sneak through corridors and try to remain undetected for as long as possible, or will you roll up guns blazing to wage war? The choice is yours since every level in Exfil is like a miniature playground with a wide assortment of options and possible scenarios.
First Contact says it has “designed each map to accommodate both PvE and PvP game modes so you’re always uncovering new pathways through levels and finding great flanking spots to take out enemies.”
The studio says it has spent time making sure the AI enemies are more than just cannon fodder.
“At the start of a mission the enemy units won’t know your location, so they’ll simply be preoccupied patrolling around the map. Once you initiate a hack and start firefights, that’s when things get more intense. Reinforcements equipped with various weapons will dynamically converge on your position from around the map in unique ways to keep you on your toes,” the studio says. “AI enemies also have an assortment of gadgets at their disposal, similar to players, with the ability to throw out grenades, lay traps, breach rooms by kicking down doors, and even deploy C4 charges. These aren’t your run of the mill AI bots that just run into the line of fire blindly—they take cover, flank you, and react to your moves intelligently.”
Co-op VR experiences are great, but the odds are low that many of your friends have their own PSVR 2 headset to play with you. Luckily First Contact says the PvE mode can be played privately with friends (or solo) and includes public matchmaking to join you up with other players.
Firewall Ultra’s Live Service Ambitions
While predecessor Firewall Zero Hour on PSVR eventually transformed into a live service game with regular seasons that brought new maps and other content, First Contact says Firewall Ultra is being designed as a live service title from the ground up.
“Firewall Ultra is designed as the kind of game you can keep coming back to again and again over time on your PSVR 2 and consistently find something fresh and new to do and see. As a live service title, that means constant updates with new content such as maps, weapons, and contractors, as well as redesigns for locations like the shooting range and safehouse lobby environment,” the studio shares. “We want this to feel like a living, breathing world that evolves over time. Just like the world of Firewall Ultra is five years into the future from the previous Firewall title (Firewall Zero Hour), as time goes on, Firewall Ultra itself will also see changes.”
To that end players can almost certainly expect seasonal paid battle passes, just like the original game, which could offer new cosmetics and maybe even contractors for a fee.
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Firewall Ultra launches on August 24th, 2023 at 8AM PT, exclusively on PSVR 2. The game is priced at $40 for the standard edition and $60 for the deluxe edition; pre-orders are available now.
