The Ruinsmagus remix update is now live, adding English voice acting and remixed dungeons on Quest 2 and PC VR.
Following on from December's ‘The Warrior and the Tailor’ DLC, developer CharacterBank's free 'Remix Update' for Ruinsmagus mainly focuses on improved support for Western players. Alongside an updated translation, that adds a free, optional English dub with AmaLee (Iris), Cristina Vee (Euridice and Reese Seption), Todd Haberkon (Mr. Shopkeeper), Roger Rose (Guild Master), and more. Late-game dungeons were also remixed "for a fresh gameplay experience."
"We are so proud to make RUINSMAGUS more accessible to players around the world," states Shuto Mikami, CharacterBank CEO in a prepared statement. "With the ‘Remix Update,’ we have been able to continue our support and improve the experience of RUINSMAGUS.”
Ruinsmagus' Remix Update is available now on Quest 2 and PC VR, though a release date for the Pico version remains unknown.
Peaky Blinders: The King's Ransom will receive at least five major updates this year, outlined in a new post-launch roadmap.
Released last month on Quest 2 and Pico 4, Peaky Blinders: The King's Ransom comes from Doctor Who: The Edge of Time developer Maze Theory. Outlined in a new video, the roadmap brings monthly content updates from April until August 2023. Starting tomorrow, that includes new shooting galleries, replaying any scenes and unknown "quality of life" improvements.
Peaky Blinders: The King's Ransom Content Roadmap
Subsequent updates mainly add new challenges, combat missions and item skins, while August promises new player customisation options alongside "a brand new way to play." We'd speculate this could be the SteamVR release, or a potential PSVR 2 port. Beyond August, game director Tim Jones confirms that it doesn't end there. “This is just the beginning, we’ll have details of what’s to come in phase two later this year.”
Peaky Blinders: The King's Ransom is available now on Meta Quest 2 and Pico 4. You can check out our full review below, and we previously interviewed Maze Theory's Chief Creative Officer, Russell Harding, to learn more about development.
Drums Rock added three tracks in a new update as part of an unexpected crossover with Team17's Blasphemous.
One of many PSVR 2 launch games back in February, the latest Drums Rock update brings a licensed crossover with 2021's Blasphemous, a flatscreen Metroidvania by Spanish studio The Game Kitchen. With Blasphemous 2 arriving in Q3 2023, it's unsurprising to see it crossing over with other games, adding the "Prohibidos y Cubiertos de Polvo" song and themed cosmetics for free. You can see this in action below:
Garage51 confirms this update also contains two bonus songs: Survivor (Cabin Boy Jumped Ship) and The Last Line of Defense (December Screams Embers), alongside an ability to move the drum position and "other improvements." If you want to learn more, here's the game's official description.
Drums Rock is an arcade drum game for VR, follow the rock rhythm with your drums and crush the demons. Each note is represented by an enemy, and they will be defeated by playing the drums. Experience a unique campaign: with different levels, challenges, songs and worlds. Drums Rock is an ideal game to feel like a rock star, while smashing hordes of demons to the rhythm of rock!
Drums Rock is available now on the Meta Quest platform, PC VR via Steam and PSVR 2.
Virtual Desktop now supports resolution upscaling on Snapdragon XR2 headsets like Quest 2 and Pico 4, reducing PC VR streaming requirements.
Detailed in a blog post by Qualcomm's Principal Engineer, Jonathan Wicks, this new update integrates Snapdragon Game Super Resolution (SGSR) into Virtual Desktop. App creator Guy Godin confirms SGSR will assist VR gamers limited to lower resolution settings. The option is available in the streaming tab of Virtual Desktop and can be toggled without need to restart the game or SteamVR.
"You can run things at a slightly lower VR Graphics Quality to reduce the load on your PC and upscale the image with SGSR," explains Godin, saying it works on all XR2-powered headsets including Quest 2, Quest Pro, Pico Neo 3, and Pico 4. "Once the app releases on Focus 3 and XR Elite, the option will be there."
You can watch SGSR in action with the comparison video below:
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Godin explains to UploadVR this "can be applied to any game since it just needs the color buffer". The technique requires a single GPU pass, Qualcomm explains, allowing it to be combined with other operations like Synchronous Space Warp, a framerate extrapolation technique that Qualcomm states reduces performance demands from a VR-ready PC.
The Qualcomm blog hints there's more to come with the feature and teases VR gamers to stay tuned because "we'll have plenty more to share about Snapdragon Game Super Resolution for XR soon."
Yupitergrad 2: The Lost Station brings an action-adventure to VR today, arriving on Pico headsets today as a timed exclusive.
The studio first announced the sequel to its 2021 swinging platformer almost a year ago, confirming a release on Quest 2 and PC VR platforms. Now, Yupitergrad 2: The Lost Station is available first on Pico Neo 3 Link and Pico 4. The Quest 2 release will follow "later this year" before reaching other platforms, including PC VR and HTC Vive XR Elite.
Gamedust previously provided UploadVR with some extra details on development progress, stating that the game is “near completion.” The team is “in the middle of upgrading the experience,” which includes “polishing a shooting system, adding more puzzles, more passages, improving the operation of the map, and adding a few surprises that we want to keep for those who will pick up the game after the release.”
We enjoyed the original Yupitergrad in our review on release, stating that the mechanics offered a “clean and thrilling sensation” but the course could “frustrate as much as they entertain” at times.
Yupitergrad 2: The Lost Station is available now on Pico Neo 3 Link and Pico 4.
Note: This article was updated with a new headline and lede on April 27 and May 25, reflecting the revised release window announcement and subsequent release.
Some games include an extra discount for PlayStation Plus subscribers, which we've noted below. Several titles, such as Synth Riders - Remastered Edition, support cross-buy on both platforms. You can check out the full list of US store and EU store sales but otherwise, here's our highlights across PSVR and PSVR 2.
After The Fall - $20.09 (33% off) / $18.59 (38% off for PS Plus)
It's worth highlighting that some PS4 games, like Tetris Effect Connected and Rez Infinite, are available to PS Plus Extra and Premium members in the subscription's Game Catalog. That also includes Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, one of 19 free PS4 games available for PS5 console owners in the PlayStation Plus Collection. However, Sony plans to remove this collection on May 9, 2023.
PlayStation's Golden Week sale is live now, ending on May 11 at 11.59pm PT.
Today's Gran Turismo 7 update adds four new cars on PSVR 2, primarily focusing on Super Formula.
The latest regular content update for Gran Turismo 7, Update 1.32 follows an earlier tease from series creator Kazunori Yamauchi, who hid the four cars in shadows. That includes the 1992 Jaguar XJ220, 2020's Mercedes-AMG GT3 Evo and two variants of the Super Formula Dallara SF23 with Honda and Toyota engines, each sporting different color schemes.
Gran Turismo 7’s 1.32 update rolls out today, bringing with it:
There isn't much else in Update 1.32. PlayStation Blog confirms Super Formula is being added as a new World Circuits race, alongside two new GT Café menus. Finally, two new Scapes are now available titled ‘North Yorkshire’ and ‘Miyazaki.’ It's a much smaller patch than last month's Update 1.31, which included five new cars, two new track layouts, and significant adjustments to how cars handled. 120fps support on PS5 was also added, which only applies to the standard flatscreen mode.
Gran Turismo 7 is out now on PSVR 2, available at a discount during the PlayStation Golden Week sale. Update 1.32 goes live tonight at 10pm PST.
No More Rainbows promises a VR mix between Super Meat Boy & Super Mario Bros, and it's arriving next month on Quest 2.
Note: This article was first published on April 24. It was updated and republished with a new headline, lede and minor edits to reflect the game's release date.
Developed by Squido, No More Rainbows is an adventure platformer where you play as The Beast, who finds their moody homeworld turned into a blissful paradise. Using arm-based locomotion to run, jump, climb and claw other creatures, this campaign takes place across four different worlds, split between 28 levels "filled with mini-games." A 3v3 multiplayer mode, online leaderboards for speedrunning and cosmetic customization for The Beast are also confirmed.
“We’ve always chatted about how cool it would be to have a game like Super Meat Boy meets Super Mario Bros in VR," says Éric Laurent, Marketing and Community Manager at Squido in a prepared statement. "We looked around and saw nobody was making that kind of game, so we decided to do it."
No More Rainbows reaches Meta Quest 2 on June 1. While the App Lab demo is no longer available, Squido confirms anyone who played it before the full release will receive an exclusive free cosmetic.
Recent Laser Dance and Spatial Ops demos show that developers are figuring out how to make compelling games meshed with your physical environment.
Laser Dance from Cubism's developer Thomas Van Bouwel asks the player to pick two spots on the wall to become starting and ending points for a maze. Then the game draws a room full of lasers to move through.
Finishing a puzzle in Laser Dance from Thomas Van Bouwel.
I completed a handful of puzzles in an early prototype of Laser Dance, ending with me rolling down a quiet hallway under some virtual lasers at the Moscone Convention Center of San Francisco.
"The player places two buttons on opposing walls, and in every level walks back and forth between them," Van Bouwel explains. "Each button press spawns a new procedural laser pattern that's adapted to the room's size and layout."
Resolution Games showed a singe-player wave-based version of its Spatial Ops mixed reality game at GDC too. It overtook a physical wall and replaced it with a portal featuring enemies from another world that could run into my room. It was immediately reminiscent of mixed reality work done by Magic Leap with its AR headset and projects like Dr. Grordbort's Invaders. Here, though, the difference provided by VR's superior field of view gave me much-needed situational awareness of both spaces.
Elsewhere at GDC, I saw Resolution Games' Demeo with four players gathered around a physical table in mixed reality on Quest VR headsets. A short walk away, I found a remarkably similar experience delivered by Tilt Five's AR glasses.
Taking all these examples together starts to paint a picture of just how limited existing VR experiences are by concepts like "room-scale" chaperones or "stationary" guardians.
Mixed Reality's Promise: Pairing Great VR Hardware With Great AR Content
"Room-scale" and "stationary" refer to modes for VR content that will seem wildly constrained in retrospect.
With "room-scale", the virtual content isn't actually informed by the physical layout of the objects in your room. With "stationary", you're often forced to experience simulated movement through vast virtual worlds with varying comfort trade-offs.
In mixed reality gaming, any table, wall, floor, board, screen, or window can become a surface for digital content. You could show the same things across both surfaces in real-time for a laid back work or entertainment experience. Or you could turn the surface into a wormhole connecting multiple physical locations for something more active.
Mixed reality might not be the world-centric vision of the "metaverse" seen in Horizon Worlds, Rec Room or even VRChat. And it's not the all-day AR vision imagined by science fiction either, at least not yet. But long-term multi-hour sessions with synced surfaces or persistent portals to other people and places alongside a new class of mixed reality gaming? Yeah, that might be coming soon in a very big way.
Given how different and compelling experiences like Laser Dance and Spatial Ops felt from most VR content, there are real hints here that mixed reality is still both in its infancy and the next frontier in software design.
Ghost Signal: A Stellaris Game is dropping Quest 2 exclusivity and launching today on Pico headsets.
Released last month on Quest 2 and Quest Pro, Ghost Signal: A Stellaris Game joins a growing library on ByteDance's rival standalone headsets. An action roguelite spin-off to the popular grand strategy game, you command the spaceship Aurora, tasked with investigating the ancient and eponymous Ghost Signal. On Pico Neo 3 Link, Pico 4 and Pico 4 Pro, that goes live at 5pm GMT.
In the Stellaris Universe, you will lead your crew in dynamic space wars, encounter planet sized creates, gather loots to conduct research and more! Will you be able to uncover the origins of the Ghost Signal? #PICO4pic.twitter.com/6vRnwju3na
In our Ghost Signal: A Stellaris Game review, we considered it “one of the best VR roguelites” and Fast Travel Games evidently isn't finished. As confirmed last month alongside Patch 1.0.1, which mainly implemented bug fixes, further post-launch patches will bring “more improvements and new content.” However, specific details remain unknown.
Ghost Signal is available now on the Meta Quest and Pico platforms. When previously asked about PC VR or PSVR 2 editions, Lead Designer Christopher Smith told UploadVR it wasn't a current priority, stating "We’re not closing any doors but right now, we’re focusing on the Quest 2.”
