Category: VR gaming

Meta's long-in-development 'Avalanche' VR cloud streaming system is now listed on Quest's Horizon Store.

The Avalanche app can be wishlisted, but not actually redeemed or purchased, and thus can't be downloaded or used. The store lists the app's release date as 24 July 2024, three months ago, which may be the time it was uploaded to the store system.

The store page description reads "Download to test out the latest cloud streamed titles on Avalanche", and its images include screenshots of Lone Echo, a blockbuster Oculus Rift game from 2017 that hasn't been ported to Quest, as well as Beat Saber and the Unreal Engine's City Sample.

To be clear, there's no direct indication of an imminent Avalanche launch, and this may just be yet another test.

Is Meta Working On Cloud Streaming To Bring PC VR Games To Quest?

A firmware finding and an experimental setting apparently made available to a redditor suggest Meta is working on cloud VR streaming. Last month firmware sleuth Samulia found a string ‘AVALANCE_CLOUD_GAMING_INFRA_ENABLED’ in version 24 of the Quest firmware, according to YouTuber Brad Lynch (SadlyItsBradley). Version 24 would

UploadVRDavid Heaney

The existence of Avalanche was first revealed in April 2022, when Quest firmware dataminer Samulia found a flag AVALANCHE_CLOUD_GAMING_INFRA_ENABLED, added in v24. Version 24 shipped in late 2020, suggesting Avalanche has been in development for at least four years now.

One month later, two years ago now, a redditor posted a screenshot showing an "Enable Avalanche (Alpha)" option in the Experimental settings of their Quest 2, claiming they were able to get into the PC version of Oculus Home for around 15 seconds. YouTuber Brad Lynch claimed on X that the redditor directly contacted him about their experience, saying “they were able to get into a totally remote game of Asgards Wrath via a UK Wifi5 session”. The original Asgard's Wrath was another flagship Rift game, shipped in 2019, that also hasn't been ported to Quest - though of course it did get an even bigger scale sequel.

Four months ago, the same "Activate Avalanche (Alpha)" option appeared in the Experimental section of the settings of one of GAMERGEN's Quest 3 headsets during a livestream, though an "Unable to launch the Avalanche session" error appeared when they tried to launch it.

Meta Still Testing ‘Avalanche’ VR Cloud Streaming For Quest

Meta’s long-in-development ‘Avalanche’ VR cloud streaming system appeared on a French outlet’s Quest 3, offering PC VR title Lone Echo, though it failed to connect.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

Between 2016 and 2021 Facebook invested hundreds of millions of dollars to ship a number of PC Oculus Rift blockbusters like Lone Echo and Asgard's Wrath. While these games can be played on Quest today via a gaming PC over Wi-Fi or USB, most Quest users don't own a gaming PC. Avalanche being listed on the store may suggest Meta is getting closer to releasing it as a product, bringing these games to a much wider audience.

Of course, the experience of cloud streaming heavily depends on the quality of the user’s internet connection. There is a potential for high latency if the server is far away, and for judder caused by packet loss if the connection quality is poor. In late 2020 John Carmack had this to say, comparing it to local network streaming: “obviously it’s even worse, obviously more people are going to find that unacceptable and it will be a terrible experience for more people, but still I am quite confident that for some people in some situations it’s still going to be quite valuable”.

In 2020 Facebook Gaming VP Jason Rubin described cloud VR gaming as more than five years out. But some Quest owners have been doing it for years now using third-party tools and services.

PlutoSphere Shuts Down As Meta Keeps Cloud VR Streaming Ban

PlutoSphere is shutting down, as Meta maintains its cloud VR streaming ban on the Quest Store and App Lab.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

Virtual Desktop already supports streaming from a PC outside your local network, which some Quest owners have paired with Shadow's cloud PC service to play SteamVR games without a PC. PlutoSphere even offered a managed service with pay-as-you-go pricing via tokens, though it shut down in March citing Meta's ban on cloud VR streaming in its Quest Store & App Lab policies.

So if Meta does ship its own cloud VR streaming feature any time soon, it could face accusations of anti-competitive practices. It would be a similar situation to Virtual Desktop's PC VR Wi-Fi streaming, which Meta banned from the platform until just before it launched its own Air Link feature. In 2022 Bloomberg reported that the US FTC was investigating Meta's competitive practices, but there haven't been any further reports on the status of this investigation.

There was perhaps no better event to showcase the latest demo for Mecha Force than the Tokyo Game Show.

The game is the brainchild of Chinese developer Ming Studio, who have openly admitted how their love for Japanese mecha anime like Gurren Lagann and Gunbuster inspired this upcoming VR mech action game. So clear were these inspirations that, as I waited for my turn to play the demo, one fan trying the game before me began referencing the former series as he waved his arms around to pilot the hulking in-game titan. He later eagerly talked to one of the staff about the series as another prepared the headset for my turn at the controls.

So we know that Mecha Force, from discussions with the team and player feedback, is at least accurate to the series it wishes to pay tribute to. But is it any fun?

Although the final game promises to blend its mecha action with roguelike mechanics, providing a sense of uncertainty and variety to the moment-to-moment play, this demo is pure action. Getting into the mecha for the first time, I was given some time to learn the controls. You move the suit with the analog stick, aim guns with either hand and fire with triggers, while swinging blades are attached to each arm before throwing you into an early level.

There’s a fine line between a good and a great mecha title. To truly take that next step, the machine we pilot must not merely be a tool for which to defeat enemies. Even without being shackled physically into the machine ourselves, we should feel every step and every movement of the arm. Attacks should have a level of force that almost causes our lucid body to recoil from the non-existent force of the back-and-forth between attacking and being attacked. This is what makes Mecha Force such a fascinating experience.

Everything about the demo requires getting used to the weight and responsibility of the machine we're entrusted with piloting. Before even entering the tutorial, we find ourselves inside a hanger that forces us to prepare the machine for launch, including the final thrust that shoots you out of the hanger and into battle. The arena, somewhat reminiscent of a ruined city, provides a clear path to progress to the next objective, with a new threat around every corner.

From floating eye-like creatures to other mechas, each enemy forces you to switch combat style for an effective takedown. It's not too difficult to merely slice and shoot the target-like floating balls from a distance, but I find myself far more cautious when facing other mecha with similar capabilities. It's a degree of tactics I didn’t expect, though this should perhaps come as no surprise considering the team’s lofty ambitions. Coupled with the heft of each step adding to the feeling you were directly at the wheel of metric tons of complex machinery, it made even one-on-one kills against minor enemies feel challenging and oh-so-satisfying to overcome.

In the final release, Ming Studio hopes to make these mechas far more than machines you pilot, with full customization of the weapons and capabilities that can be tailored for each battle. More powerful and ranged weapons may be best when dealing with a lot of flying enemies, and you can even equip rockets that fire from your arms to inflict stronger bursts of damage. The promise is that far more than weapons will be customizable in the final game, although this vertical slice simply focuses on using the limited time to jump into battle and get us used to the action at the core.

It's unclear just how much Mecha Force's roguelike mechanics will evolve the experience across the game. That being said, even in this short glimpse on the bustling show floor of a gaming event in the home of the anime that inspired this title’s very existence, it feels like more than a simple tribute to nostalgic anime of yesteryear. This is a competent and accomplished VR mecha action title that should stand up among the best upon its release in 2025.

Embark on a quirky adventure across Outer Space that boasts a satisfying gameplay loop promising to keep you up for hours.

The Final Frontier is a place many of us dream of seeing someday. As VR games go, Into Black, a new experience debuting on the Meta Quest store, fulfills this premise by letting you loose as an explorer in an alien world, gathering resources and fighting for your life. A brief but idyllic start to protagonist Mitch's day fixing common issues in his ship and analyzing asteroids is promptly interrupted by a black hole that leaves him stranded in unknown territory.

A robot assistant named Jonathan, akin to Codsworth from Fallout 4, sarcastically guides the player through the frantic situations providing some much-needed comic relief in the process. To repair the ship, Mitch must engage in a scavenger hunt to find resources to fix it. Dual-wielding his pickaxe and flashlight doubling as a whip to harvest items, his exploration begins.

The Binary Mill is certainly flaunting its experience as a VR studio in this endeavor, which is appreciated in Into Black’s structure. It includes cosmetics from their previous games, such as the wingsuit-flying Rush, and there's an intuitive UI using only your wrists. Considering how jam-packed each mission is full of secrets, the design choices reflect their veteran status.

Despite its mysterious name, Into Black is quite a vibrant odyssey. Every incursion into the caves is an opportunity to appreciate the flora and fauna on display. Although the stylized graphics are not astounding, they work to the game's benefit. The shiny minerals, towering mushrooms, and magma on the floor all take a page from a fluorescent color palette that, in these dark tunnels, helps to give a sense of direction.

Depending on its five difficulty settings ranging from Story to Insane, hours with friends doing resource missions and shooting critters as a team quickly go by. The more you use your gear, the higher the level it can reach and the more benefits you can unlock; it's always an enticing proposition to launch just one more expedition.

A neat trick Into Black uses to amp up the pressure in an otherwise relaxing resource-gathering quest is the fact that you need to use an extractor at the end of the mission to evacuate safely. The catch of triggering this is that there is a one-minute timer in a zone you need to stay inside of, and it can be easily overrun by various types of huge bugs that do not take trespassers lightly.

With every cave wall chock full of minerals lying around in between enemy encounters, it is easy to get caught up in that one-more-run mindset to get every possible item and upgrade available. The end of each expedition offers a recount of all the deaths, kills, and items mined, tallied for you and your party to see.

A genuine sci-fi adventure coming out the door with engaging gameplay mechanics and a serviceable story that can be enjoyed alone or in co-op is not often seen for VR-only games. Into Black delivers on those fronts while giving an endlessly replayable mission-based journey with constant rewards to keep you coming back.

Into Black is available now on the Meta Quest platform.

Wanderer: The Fragments of Fate, a time-travel escape room adventure game, has been delayed once again.

Developer Mighty Eyes has not announced a new release date for the game, saying only that "news won't be too far away." Wanderer: The Fragments of Fate was originally scheduled for release in June 2024 before being pushed back to October 31. The studio cites the inherent difficulty in VR development, stating that the delays stem from their determination to "push the boundaries of what's possible" in a VR adventure game.

Here's the full statement:

We have some bad news time travellers and there's no way to sugar coat this - we have to delay the game (large sigh)... one more time.

We hear you! Again?! A time travel game that can't ship on time - how ironic! We know! But trust us, we did not make this decision lightly. We also know it's just another in the spate of VR game delays and you all just want to get stuck into some epic VR experiences. While we could go into the multitude of reasons for the delay, the truth is - VR development is bloody tough, especially when we're determined to push the boundaries of what's possible with a VR adventure game.

We truly are sorry, but we want to make sure we get this right and we don't want to let you, our players, down. We are getting very close though! This extra time will allow us to fine-tune and polish Wanderer: The Fragments of Fate across all platforms, continue to QA and fix bugs as well as offer day one multi-language support. We know Wanderer: TFOF is a unique VR adventure and we want to ensure the experience is one you'll never forget.

We're not going to share our release date just yet... been there, done that (lessons have certainly been learned). But, rest assured that news won't be too far away and this time it is not going to budge!

So - we ask, once again, for your patience, kindness and faith. We are hell bent on bringing you an epic time travelling adventure and we aren't giving up on that vision.

Wanderer: The Fragments of Fate is a remake of 2022's Wanderer, an adventure game focused on escape room-style puzzles with a time-traveling hook. When we reviewed the original version in 2022, we called it "an enormously enjoyable adventure."

Wanderer: The Fragments Of Fate is coming to the Meta Quest platform, PSVR 2, Pico, and Steam.

Walkabout Mini Golf is climbing the sales charts on the Apple App Store.

The Pocket Edition to one of VR's best games is now competing with Minecraft, Stardew Valley, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas as a paid product on the Apple App Store. As of this writing, the $4.99 game from Mighty Coconut sits at #16 on the top paid games charts on iPhone in the United States roughly 12 hours on from its global release, placing it right in front of Terraria. Unconfirmed reports online suggest the game is nearing the top of the list in some countries.

We've seen free apps like Rec Room achieve a large install base outside VR, but Walkabout Mini Golf may be one of the first to make the leap from VR to iPhone as a paid app featuring private rooms for multiplayer connecting to all major VR headsets.

"This is 100% player driven," Mighty Coconut's head of communications David Wyatt told UploadVR. "No ads."

For those unfamiliar, Walkabout features 18 hole courses with a rapidly growing library of paid DLC add-ons, including Jim Henson's Labyrinth, Myst, Meow Wolf, Wallace & Gromit, and, next year, Elvis Presley. Guest passes let you play with friends even if you don't own a course, but the freedom to collect hidden balls and unlock clubs give players strong reasons to purchase the add-on content.

The embed above links to our YouTube tour playlist providing a deep look at the design evolution of the game over the last few years.

You can find Walkabout Mini Golf on the Quest Store, Steam Store, PlayStation Store, and Apple App Store.

After a successful launch as a free PC VR update on Steam, Escape Simulator VR is now available on Meta Quest headsets.

Previously launched as a flatscreen game in 2021, Escape Simulator allows players to enjoy escape rooms without leaving the comfort of their homes. An update in early 2024 allowed players on Steam to enjoy a more immersive experience with virtual reality mode, and now, an official VR version is available for the Meta Quest 3 family and Quest 2.

Much like the flatscreen version and PC VR update, Escape Simulator VR tasks you alone or with your friends to complete a variety of escape rooms by completing puzzles and interacting with the environment. If you finish the standard rooms in the game, community-developed and additional DLC brings more adventures to enjoy.

The Meta Quest version of the game delivers integration with Meta Quest’s Touch Controllers, alongside the ability to play in your preferred style of sitting, standing, or roomscale boundaries.

We went hands-on with the Escape Simulator VR update earlier this year, where we were "considerably impressed" with our brief time with the VR version of the game. The launch of the Escape Simulator VR port for Meta Quest will allow more players than before to enjoy Pine Studios' escape room puzzler.

Escape Simulator is now available on the Meta Quest platform. You can also play the PC VR version on Steam.

Escape Simulator VR Hands-On: A Great New Way To Play

Escape Simulator demonstrates how VR can further enhance existing games. Our impressions.

UploadVRHenry Stockdale

6v6 VR shooter FRENZIES launches today on Quest, and it's free in early access. Here's what we thought in our recent hands-on.

VR multiplayer games find themselves in a tough position. Creating compelling multiplayer games is challenging no matter the platform and while there are a few VR success stories like Walkabout Mini Golf, that sentiment largely remains true. Near Light (Fruity Shooty) is next up to the plate with a PvP shooter, and FRENZIES benefits from its colorful presentation and pricing strategy.

Before today's launch, I jumped into a 90-minute preview session on Quest 3 and played two matches. The neon-lit throne room you begin in makes an immediate first impression visually that reminds me of Fortnite. After choosing your avatar from a nice range of cosmetic options, select your weapons loadout and jump into a lobby from there.

FRENZIES splits into five short rounds across different game modes, and the winner is determined by whoever scored the most points between them. Your guns firing applause instead of bullets during the victory ceremony is a fun touch as the winner's giant avatar towers over everyone. The modes were pre-determined for this preview, and what's here feels like an unusual blend of round types that go from a standard deathmatch to something more unconventional.

Functionally, some modes don't feel terribly different from each other since most involve a considerable amount of killing. Options like your team owning all the control points across the map and a free-for-all deathmatch are all too familiar, but the more unusual choices are particularly fun. 'Pull Party' humorously only awards points if you dance on the enemy dance floor, while another involves frantically charging past the enemy to hit a button.

There's a chaotic charm that's appealing but not tremendously exciting, though I'm enjoying how FRENZIES leans into the gunplay previously seen across other nDreams titles, namely Fracked and Synapse. This creates some nice physicality with pull bars that make it easier to duck for cover or lean around corners without moving your entire body, and killing enemies while ziplining feels great.

You can't manually reload weapons beyond pushing a clip into the gun, whereas empty clips are dropped with a button press. That may disappoint those after a more hands-on manual approach, but the fast-paced gameplay means this is the better approach. Spending time fumbling around with your weapons when at least six other players are out to kill you wouldn't be ideal.

Dying doesn't respawn you directly into the match arena, and I'm not sure this is the right decision. Being sent back to a room in the lobby and running towards the portal is an extra step that keeps you out of the action longer, though the minimal loading times ease this. That said, the room method lets you change your loadout after dying in a way that doesn't rely on flat menus, so there are benefits to this approach.

With increasing multiplayer competition in an already niche market, the barriers are high for FRENZIES to succeed. Appealing visuals on Quest 3 help and there are some entertaining gameplay modes, though whether it'll maintain this interest long-term remains to be seen and the monetization strategy remains unknown. We'll bring you a more in-depth review soon, but for now, it's off to a good start.

FRENZIES arrives on October 10 in early access on the Meta Quest platform, and a PlayStation VR2 version will follow when the game enters full release.

Step inside the mind of a genius in Blue Brain Games’ 16th-century VR puzzler.

Blue Brain Games’ The House of Da Vinci series puts you in the shoes of an ambitious apprentice investigating a series of mysteries surrounding their teacher… Leonardo Da Vinci. The three available flatscreen outings see you explore stunning Renaissance environments and solve quizzical riddles, and the studio’s beloved puzzling framework is making its way to VR headsets later this year. The House of Da Vinci VR is a love letter to the enigmatic inventor that plays to the studio’s established strengths. A hands-on demo at Gamescom saw me inspecting and tampering with intricate objects to unravel clues and track down the legendary maker behind the Vitruvian Man. 

My demo began in an atmospheric graveyard complete with mossy greenery and intimidating stone skeletons. Here, I got to grips with the navigation mechanics, such as the friendly teleportation system, which involves pointing and launching my body around the space using the controllers. Additionally, I enjoy fiddling with a mechanized crown dial that pops out of your left wrist. By twisting it forward and backward, this unique tool allows me to see past events overlaid in the playspace, revealing important clues that progress the narrative. Elsewhere, I pawed and prodded at bricks and statues and was wowed by the detailed hand tracking, which made dealing with the demo’s finicky puzzle pieces a tactile and rewarding process.

While I consider myself a fan of riddles, the complex puzzles in The House of Da Vinci VR don’t pull their punches and require plenty of lateral thinking. I’m keen not to spoil any specifics, but I'm enjoying the process of navigating each space, picking up on the critical details of the past and present with the time-travelling dial, and threading them together to find the next step. It's particularly cool to see that some of the devices you face are based on original Da Vinci designs, too. The developers have clearly done their homework and embedded their research in every environment.

Despite my best efforts, I inevitably encountered a few puzzle hurdles my brain couldn’t quite clear. Thankfully, The House of Da Vinci VR also features a handy hint system, which could point me in the right direction via a bright pencil marking overlaid in each scene. Instead of giving me the exact answer or an obvious clue, I was always carefully nudged towards the correct area or tool. This approach works well, moving me forward without spoiling the solution and robbing me of my pride.

The carefully designed and beautifully lit 16th-century set pieces stood out the most during my time with The House of Da Vinci VR. Warm rooms filled with candlelight plays against the mystical blue of the moon, creating a soft ambience that's constantly caught between comforting and tense. This blend is amplified by the ASMR-esque soundscape, including creaky gates and brain-tickling clicks that unnerved me throughout. The House of Da Vinci VR is by no means a horror game, but the organic sound design and moody rooms maintain a sense of eerie discomfort that feels fitting for this mysterious historical story.

The House of Da Vinci VR is coming to Meta Quest and Steam later this year. Based on our brief time with it, it’s shaping up to be a meaningful addition to a growing list of immersive virtual reality puzzler adventures.

Could Grimes' music come to Beat Saber in the future?

On X today, John Carmack told Grimes he's "still hoping to see" one of her tracks in Meta's Beat Saber, and Grimes replied "Omg any time - just tell me when and what vibe".

Of course, John Carmack isn't at Meta anymore, having left his technical consulting role two years ago, a role he transitioned to in 2019 as he shifted his focus to AI.

As such, Carmack tagged Meta's current CTO Andrew Bosworth, as well as the Beat Saber account, saying "let's make it happen!"

Beat Saber has seen music from a number of major artists arrive as paid DLC in recent years, including Britney Spears just yesterday.

Other musicians with tracks in Beat Saber DLCs include Lady Gaga, Billie Eilish, Eminem, 2Pac, Biggie Smalls, Dr Dre, Snoop Dogg, Nicki Minaj, Linkin Park, Green Day, Kendrick Lamar, Imagine Dragons, and Panic! At The Disco.

Top 10 Best Beat Saber DLC Music Packs (Updated Winter 2022)

Looking for the best Beat Saber DLC? We’ve got you covered. Beat Games released several Beat Saber DLC packs over the last few years, but with so many available, how do you know which ones to choose? List time! If you’ve just got a new VR headset, like

UploadVRHarry Baker

As of this writing, there's no reply yet from Bosworth or Beat Games. But given Grimes seems willing, it seems possible her music could arrive in Beat Saber at some point in the future.

Honey Pot is a new co-op VR game where you fight bears with bees, and it's certainly intriguing.

Overcooked and Plants vs. Zombies are from two completely different genres. One is a co-op cooking game, while the other is tower defense. As odd as it may sound, both titles actually inspired Brazil-based studio VRMonkey when they envisioned their next offering: Honey Pot.

Honey Pot combines tower defense mechanics with action-focused gameplay, where you and your friends control bees to defend the queen from waves of rampaging bears. It's a silly premise but mechanically, it works. I played a 20-minute demo at the Tokyo Game Show where VRMonkey had an exhibition booth. There, I met studio co-founder Pedro Kayatt and other team members. Using a Quest 3 headset, Kayatt walked me through this upcoming tower defense VR game, while also recounting how the studio conceptualized this mish-mash of ideas.

Kayatt informed me that Honey Pot's first inspiration was Overcooked. Specifically, it's the "mayhem and chaos that goes on when you try co-op in Overcooked." The team aims to capture the same frenetic pace while also combining this concept with how they envision a unique VR tower defense game, which is where the second key inspiration, Plants vs. Zombies, comes into play.

The start of the match involves placing towers quickly along the path that hostile units would pass through. Kayatt states they've designed around 14 towers — "fire towers, those that create patches of grass, those that shoot balloons to slow enemies down" — and an assortment of elements that can offer advantages or disadvantages. From there, the focus shifts to action-oriented gameplay where you take on the ursa advance as a bee.

Some of the enemies I faced in Honey Pot were smaller cubs, easily dispatched in a few hits. Others were larger brutes that can withstand more damage before they were eliminated. Thankfully, your bee has more tricks up their sleeve, er, foreleg. These include flying above your foes and sniping them from afar.

Kayatt notes that, while conceptualizing the character's movement, they discovered that it's better to turn flying into a normal means of traversal. VR movement should be immersive and with Honey Pot, you pose with your arms outstretched before doing a flapping motion. I did feel a bit silly and I even chuckled at the thought. However, when my character flew high up into the air, the action and animations were fluid and easy enough to understand.

While flying, I could also bring out my bow with one hand and then draw the bowstring with the other. This allowed me to levitate for prolonged periods, giving me a means of shooting the rampaging bears from above. I let loose one arrow after another, bringing down enemy units until the round ended.

As for why the bow was chosen as your primary weapon, it's because of how "it felt so good to continuously glide while aiming and shooting enemies." There certainly was synergy in terms of motion, animation, and gameplay mechanics, making this part of the game very enjoyable.

Kayatt adds that the team primarily designed Honey Pot with co-op in mind because they feel that it's always more fun to play games with friends. Going in solo, however, doesn't mean that AI bots will join you. Kayatt confirmed that the campaign is balanced depending on the number of players that are in the squad.

As a funny aside, I've been told that players can also pull the stinger from their character's rear end. This can be used as a devastating projectile, but doing so causes their character to die, too. This sometimes led to shenanigans when they were playtesting as everyone attempted to detach the stinger.

Honey Pot is certainly quite different from VRMonkey's previous releases, such as Galaxy Kart and Sky Climb, but the premise certainly has me intrigued. The studio is currently developing the Meta Quest 3 version before finalizing the builds for other VR headsets, and it's expected to launch during Q1 2025.