VR Skater is getting skateboard customization options and a new 'Mega Ramp', and it's coming to PSVR 2 this August.
Developed by Deficit Games, VR Skater was previously confirmed for Sony's new headset in January's PSVR 2 Showcase alongside MADiSON and Ghosts of Tabor. Announced through a new PlayStation Blog, publisher Perp Games revealed the PSVR 2 port utilizes adaptive triggers to "adjust tension" and provide "the sensation of resistance" when steering in-game. A brand-new Mega Ramp was also revealed, which you can see in action below:
0:00
/
Customizable skateboards were also showcased, which feature adjustable decks, trucks, wheels, and grip tapes unlocked by completing challenges and leveling up in-game. These become available after unlocking the Print Tablet, which lets you upload custom textures into VR Skater that can be placed in any arrangement.
VR Skater arrives on PSVR 2 on August 4th, following a two week delay from it's previous July 21 release date. In an email to UploadVR, Perp Games states this was due to the PlayStation approval process taking longer than expected, though the publisher doesn't fault Sony.
Sony has been amazing. However, we have had a few things we need to fix, including some trophy support issues. The good news is that these have been fixed and although we could have looked into a day 1 patch and still kept our release date, we want to make sure all the new changes are thoroughly tested well in advance of release date.
Note: This article, published on April 19, was updated with a new headline and lede on April 28 and July 17, reflecting the release date announcement, subsequent delay and new information.
Amid Evil VR is debuting on Quest & PC VR following a 2019 release for traditional PCs.
From New Blood Interactive, Amid Evil VR is inspired by the classic medieval shooter game Heretic and the earlier PC version carries an "overwhelmingly positive" rating on Steam. For someone who's never heard of Heretic, it's described by New Blood's Dave Oshry as "DOOM without the guns!"
"If you like first person shooters but always wanted to wield magical weaponry like tridents and maces and axes instead of shotguns and rifles, then this is for you," he explained to UploadVR over email. "The levels and worlds are massive and trippy, the enemies are fast, but you’re faster."
As Amid Evil VR's team explains, the VR version is making its debut on Quest and Steam because a developer named Andre Elijah wouldn't stop emailing Oshry about making a VR adaptation.
Oshry replied:
"I played the original and absolutely loved it, and Dave was something of a mythical legend to me," Elijah wrote to UploadVR over email. "I love old school shooters and I thought the market was ready for a VR game in this aggressive style with the guardrails taken off. My biggest data point was the Dr. Beef unofficial ports of older id games getting so much traction despite the friction in getting them running on headsets."
I asked what specific challenges were involved in adapting Amid Evil to VR. Elijah wrote:
"The feel of it. The original was an incredibly tight feeling game. How do you bring it to another medium with its own quirks and maintain that high bar? It was a lot of discussions, and feeling things out for the better part of a year and a half with our own interpretations of mechanics before Noah and myself brought it back to New Blood and Indefatigable and had them systematically break down every mechanic and make sure that the nuances of the weapons and level design shine through! Also, don’t forget that the original flat screen game’s weapons were all sprites. So translating them to 3D and 6dof movement was quite the process. Where do you grip each weapon? How should you be able to two hand them? At what point in the arc of a sword swing do you start to shoot projectiles? How do you communicate to the player where they’re aiming? There were a lot of things to work out besides bringing the sheer scale of content to VR."
Elijah's development partner Noah Rayburn noted Amid Evil's 7 episodes, 21 levels and 7 boss fights are all included, with particular attention paid to weapon mechanics, like "whipping lasers out of swords" or "blasting enemies to bits with a planet launcher". Rayburn acknowledged it was a challenge getting it running on Quest 2 and they "lost a bit of quality compared to the PCVR version."
As for what's next for Amid Evil VR after release? Here's Oshry:
Well, we’re keen to see how the world reacts to the game first, make any hotfixes and tweaks we need to - then it’s onto some new content for the game. We’ll be updating the game with the ‘Hordes of Evil’ endless mode with leaderboards and maybe some new fun features, then we’ll be bringing over the (soon to be released) prequel expansion ‘The Black Labyrinth’ to VR as well. Once all that’s done, we’ll start to look at DUSK in VR and ULTRAKILL in VR. Hopefully players show up for AE VR to make VR versions of those games a WORTHY endeavor. But only time will tell!
Cyan confirmed that Quest 1 support for Myst ends this October, citing Meta's decision to phase out its older headset.
Following news that Cyan will release the long-awaited Firmament next month on PC VR,we admittedly missed this prior announcement about the Myst remake until now. Revealed in a deprecation announcement two weeks ago, Cyan confirmed support for the older headset ceases on October 1, 2023. Citing Meta's decision to cut Quest 1 social features and end updates this year.
Cyan released this prepared statement:
"Please note that due to newer Meta software updates preventing the support of new features for Quest 1 moving forward, and our desire to make sure Myst supports the latest and greatest software & hardware, we must cease Quest 1 support in Myst on October 1st, 2023."
Explaining its rationale behind the decision, Cyan also noted:
"As a studio that has been around for over 35 years, we've seen many operating systems and different hardware platforms go through similar growing pains. With some of our games being on digital stores for longer than 10+ years, we pride ourselves in being able to maintain and continue offering our decades-old award-winning games to folks. However, there almost always come a time in which software or hardware deprecation force us to make tough decisions like this, and we can no longer provide the experience folks expect us to in those cases."
While Pavlov Shack and Population: One dropped support for the original Quest headset before Meta's announcement, there's been a noticeable increase in recent months. Back in January, Downpour Interactive confirmed military sim Onward ends Quest 1 support on July 31, stating this decision is to “focus [the studio’s] development efforts.” Last month, Ramen VR confirmed Zenith: The Last City would also drop support for the original Quest on September 15.
Myst is available now on Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest Pro and PC VR. We've emailed Cyan to confirm whether Myst will still be playable on Quest 1 after October 1, 2023. We'll update this article if we get a response, but in the meantime we'll note that Meta's deprecation announcement linked in Cyan's post suggests "You will still be able to use your Quest 1 headset and available apps."
Kluge Interactive confirms it is sunsetting Synth Riders updates on Quest 1 after November, though it remains playable on the older VR headset.
"Today we’re sorry to announce that we’ll be sunsetting Quest 1 support effective November 1, 2023," Kluge confirms in a blog post, citing Meta's plans to end Quest 1 support this year. "With Meta ending Quest 1 support at firmware version 50, it’s tough to develop without their platform support." While the team confirms original Quest users will no longer receive updates or new features, Synth Riders will remain playable.
Today we’re sorry to announce our sunsetting of Quest 1 support as of Nov 1, 2023 as Meta is freezing their support at v50.
Quest 1 users will still be able to play Synth Riders, but will not receive updates/features after the date.
Kluge confirms they aren't stopping development for Quest 1 just yet. Continuing on, it announced plans to bring the Remastered Edition to all platforms, which includes the older Quest headset. Released in February as a PSVR 2 launch game, this free update promises improved performance and increased visual fidelity. Quest 1 users won't lose access to custom content or previously purchased music and experiences, either.
However, the team advises that networked services like crossplay, leaderboards, platform services and avatars "will be very difficult to keep operational without Meta’s support." Kluge confirms it will try to keep these available "for as long as possible" but "we can’t guarantee that these services will remain operational beyond November."
After announcing a delay last month, Fast Travel Games confirmed that Everslaught Invasion will now release May 25 on Quest 2.
Note: This article was originally published on April 18, 2023. It was updated and republished with a new headline, lede and additional information on May 11. Original story, with updated release details, continues below.
Previously confirmed for an April 2023 release to UploadVR, Fast Travel Games revealed the delay through Twitter last month, citing "unforeseen challenges" as the cause.
"We've taken the tough decision to delay the release until May due to unforeseen challenges that require more time and resources to address," stated the Swedish publisher. "Our aim is to deliver the best fast-paced co-op action experience we possibly can." Fast Travel since confirmed a new release date of May 25, available for $24.99 on Quest 2.
Developed by MobX Games, Everslaught Invasion tasks you with taking down hordes of Corrupted foes, gradually building up your class skills and weapons. Choosing one of three playable classes - Rogue, Warrior and Vanguard, we had positive impressions during our Everslaught Invasion preview at EGX London 2022, praising the "frantic yet comfortable" gameplay. During the Upload VR Winter Showcase 2022, MobX also unveiled the progression system.
Everslaught Invasion is now scheduled to arrive on Meta Quest 2 on May 25, 2023. A HTC Vive XR Elite is also planned, though the release window for this port remains unconfirmed.
Myst developer Cyan Worlds confirmed puzzle adventure Firmament will likely reach PSVR 2 this year.
Initially launched last year for PC, Firmament takes place in an abandoned steampunk world that involves exploring three realms, joined by a clockwork companion and mysterious apparition. In a new Kickstarter update, the studio revealed Firmament's targeting a fall 2024 launch on PSVR 2, advising that switching from Unreal Engine 4 to Unreal Engine 5 "was a required move for us to ship on PlayStation."
For the unfamiliar, Firmament is the latest adventure game from Cyan, whose other VR efforts include 2020's Myst remake, Obduction and the upcoming Riven remake. Following its 2018 reveal and subsequent Kickstarter campaign, Cyan eventually delayed Firmament to expand its scope before launching last May on both flatscreen PC and PC VR. You can read the story description below:
"You wake in a glacial cavern crowded with metal pipes and adorned with curious clockwork gears. In the middle of a dark chamber you discover is an ancient table – a tea cup on one end and a frozen body slumped over the other. The corpse’s hands hold an exquisite clockwork device, held out like an offering. You reach for it and it comes to life; it hovers above you, watching, before a mysterious apparition appears with a message. You find yourself with an immense and unexpected adventure lying ahead..."
We had mixed opinions in our Firmament review. Though we believed long-term Cyan fans will find it enjoyable, we considered the game a "missed opportunity."
Firmament is a missed opportunity in many ways and I hoped for more from Cyan's latest game. While it boasts strong visuals and an intriguing main narrative, that's undermined by uneven PC VR support, flat voice acting and the unappealing wider lore... If you're seeking a new VR puzzle adventure, Firmament can certainly fit the bill and long-term Cyan fans will likely find plenty to enjoy here.
Firmament currently targets a fall 2024 release window on PS4, PS5 and PSVR 2. Elsewhere, it's available now on Steam with optional PC VR support.
Call of the Sea VR is a narrative-driven puzzle adventure available now on the Quest platform. Does this VR port of the BAFTA-nominated flatscreen release survive its transition? Find out in our full Call of the Sea review.
How far would you go for love? Call of the Sea VR is a puzzle adventure that explores the lengths a husband and wife will go to in their devotion for one another. Wealthy aristocrat Harry Everhart ventures into the South Pacific with a small crew to find a cure for his wife’s mysterious affliction but fails to return.
Call of the Sea VR Review - The Facts
Platforms: Quest 2 Release Date: Out now Developer: Out of the Blue Price: $19.99
You play as his spouse Norah, a woman on a mission to find Harry and unravel the mystery surrounding his disappearance. Your adventure takes place during the 1930s on a tropical Polynesian island amidst lush island jungles, underwater biomes, and ancient ruins. Players need to solve puzzles using the clues from Harry’s voyage to uncover the strange, dark secrets bubbling beneath.
Captivating Mystery
This solitary adventure tells its story through the various equipment, writings, photographs, and audio recordings left behind by Harry and his crew. Norah will comment on her dreams, thoughts, and almost every item you discover along the way. The commentary sometimes states the obvious, but also does give helpful context on occasion too.
However, the continual monologuing rarely gets tiresome due to the solid writing and expert performance by Cissy Jones, an American voice actress with a long list of voice credits including AAA titles such as Red Dead Redemption 2 and Half-Life: Alyx.
If you are looking to lose yourself in a cast of well-developed characters, then you may be left wanting. You ultimately learn very little about the crew’s background or personalities along the way, just enough to provide you with basic motivations for the actions they take.
On the other hand, the lack of specifics surrounding these peripheral characters avoids players from getting too bogged down with unnecessary details and keeps the focus firmly on the mysterious love story and its protagonists.
Call to the Sea excels in its ability to drum up intrigue and curiosity, and it wasn’t long before I was hooked. Every puzzle I solved uncovered just enough of the mystery to keep my interest piqued and motivated to explore more. The characters of Norah and Harry are also fleshed out well enough for the player to build a connection with their plight and become concerned about their fate.
Balanced Puzzling
The puzzles are generally well thought out. Clues provide sufficient information to get you started but withhold enough details to retain some challenge. Norah carries a trusty journal to document the main storyline events and any clues you come across during your travels, which is great for refreshing your memory on the evolving narrative and essential to solve some of the puzzles.
Puzzles often involve deciphering symbols and tinkering with some bizarre contraption or ancient mechanism. In many ways, they reminded me of the classic puzzle game Myst VR, except far less cryptic. For example, during one puzzle involving a telescope lens, Norah commented on her lack of knowledge regarding the device, dropping the not-too-subtle hint that I didn’t have the necessary information yet to solve it. It’s touches like these that give just enough guidance to put players on the right path and avoid hours of frustration plugging away at a dead end.
That said, there were some conundrums that took me longer than I would care to admit, but that’s likely just due to my own lack of creative thinking and grey matter limits rather than faulty puzzle logic. However, should you get hopelessly stuck and need a helping hand, there’s also a hints system in the menu.
The game took me about six hours to complete – a time that will vary depending on how long you spend exploring the environment and tackling each puzzle. There is also an alternate ending, which encourages players to return to the final section of the game and experience it a second time.
A (Mostly) Successful VR Port
Compared to its flatscreen counterpart, Call of the Sea VR doesn’t hold up too well in the graphics department. Environments generally look okay but there are some sketchy visuals that are sub-par even when accounting for the limitations of the Quest hardware. Jagged edges, glaring 2D tree sprites, and blurry wildlife are some of the things that limit the visual appeal.
There are also missed opportunities to maximize the game’s sense of realism and immersion. For example, the developers opted to remove footstep sounds which, together with the fluid motion, make it feel like you are floating above the ground. Blink teleportation is also used in place of climbing ladders and swimming is controlled with a push of the thumbstick, which would have been more immersive if propelling yourself using physical controller movements mimicking hand strokes.
Otherwise, Call of the Sea by its very nature works very well as a VR title. Successfully finding clues and solving puzzles relies heavily on having a good awareness of your surroundings and makes excellent use of the immersive player presence that VR offers. Interactions with the environments are smooth, intuitive, and mostly jank-free. It is also hard not to get drawn into the paradisiacal environments and mysterious atmosphere, despite some of the graphical qualms.
Call of the Sea VR Review – Comfort
Call of the Sea VR can be played either seated or standing, although some puzzles may need to be interacted with using the distance grab function whilst seated. Blinders, blink teleportation and snap turning can be enabled to make it a comfortable experience for most. There is also an option to disable flashing lights that sometimes make an appearance in the game.
Call of the Sea VR Review - Final Verdict
Call of the Sea VR not only survives its transition from flatscreen but flourishes in VR. There are some graphical concerns and areas for improvement in terms of full immersion, but those are outweighed by how at home the game feels in the medium. The high suitability for VR, along with well-designed puzzles and a rich story, makes Call of the Sea VR a captivating adventure that will keep you thinking long after the final credits roll.
UploadVR focuses on a label system for reviews, rather than a numeric score. Our reviews fall into one of four categories: Essential, Recommended, Avoid and reviews that we leave unlabeled. You can read more about our review guidelines here.
Killer Frequency, the first VR game from Team 17, now has a release date. It's coming June 1 for Quest 2.
First revealed last year during the Upload VR Showcase, Killer Frequency will see players embody a local radio host in 1980s America, helping the citizens of a small town avoid a masked killer while keeping the radio tunes spinning.
It's the first VR game from Team 17, the studio best known for the Worms franchise. The game isn't VR exclusive – it's also coming to Steam and consoles on the same day as Quest 2. The Steam release is flatscreen-only, however, and won't support PC VR headsets. In a press release, Team 17 confirmed that the game runs at 72 FPS on Quest 2 – a slight disappointment, given that Quest 2 can support up to 90 FPS.
A new trailer dropped alongside the release date announcement, embedded above, but features footage from the console/flatscreen version. That said, you can see the potential for some fun physical interactions in VR, if done properly.
Here's a synopsis from Team 17 below detailing what to expect in Killer Frequency:
Set during the 1980s in a Midwestern US town where a serial killer is on the loose, Killer Frequency follows Forrest Nash, a washed-up DJ and presenter of the ‘The Scream’ late night show, as he tries to help listeners and callers stalked by a mysterious masked murderer.
As the gruesome night unfolds, interact with callers to the show using a variety of conversation options while listening carefully for clues and information, solve puzzles around the studio that could help prevent their grisly demise, and keep the show going with tunes inspired by the decade. In Killer Frequency, death can come easy but is never assured, so it’s up to you to help Forrest prevent the slaughter, discover the killer’s true identity, and keep the grooves going until dawn.
Given the same day release on VR and flatscreen platforms, we're interested to see the level of VR integration and interactions that Team 17 implements for the Quest 2 release. I'm hoping we'll be able to replicate the tactile and precise turntable needle drop moment that record lovers know so well. Fingers crossed – the premise shows great potential.
Near the end of a long week at GDC I met with Balthazar Auxietre, creative director and co-founder at InnerspaceVR, and played a few minutes of Another Fisherman's Tale.
I was immediately moved by some of the game's first lines:
"I had seen a bit of the world - from legendary fisherman to heroic lighthouse-keeper to, now, treasure hunter! So this was not the first time your Papa had to pick himself up and piece himself back together."
A Fisherman's Tale debuted in 2019 and quickly secured a spot on our list as one of the best VR games of all time with "a perfect storm of gameplay, immersion and narrative in a single experience."
"I’d have happily spent another few hours experimenting with its fascinating rule set," Jamie Feltham wrote at the time.
Another Fisherman's Tale
I played a small snippet of Another Fisherman's Tale at GDC in the lobby of a San Francisco hotel and found myself completely transported by its updated combination of gameplay and narrative. Feltham may have stopped reviewing games just like David Jagneaux, but he may still get his wish for a few more hours of interesting mechanics meshed with a Fisherman's Tale.
You can see some of the core ideas in Another Fisherman's Tale play out in the trailer below.
The game's official description lays it out as well:
Immerse yourself in poetic storytelling as you explore new mind-bending VR puzzle mechanics. Solve puzzles using your own body, detach and control your limbs, and find new attachments to progress. Discover the truth as you journey through beautiful and unique locations, brought to life by the makers of A Fisherman’s Tale.
You can launch your hand across the level and navigate it around like Thing from The Addams Family, or tell your body where to find your head stuck in a tree like a decapitated robot trying to reunite with its lower half. That's just the beginning, but what makes InnersSpace's work so special is the way it comes with rich layers of "poetic storytelling" paired hand in hand with the gameplay. I only played it for a few minutes, but it was enough go be brought to both tears and laughter as I, you know, picked myself up and pieced myself back together.
Stay tuned for our review of Another Fisherman's Tale when it releases as we can't wait to dive into the whole game. Another Fisherman's Tale is listed as coming soon to PlayStation VR 2, Steam, and Quest 2.
Fantavision 202x, a reboot of the PS2 puzzle game, will receive a surprise PC VR version later this month.
One of the many PSVR 2 launch games back in February, Fantavision 202x comes from developer Cosmo Machia, who’s licenced the IP and taken over development duties from the now-defunct Japan Studio. A puzzle game about catching fireworks of the same color, the Steam page confirms that much like the PS5 and PSVR 2 release, PC VR support is optional. You can watch the trailer below:
Announced last December alongside five more PSVR 2 games from Japanese developers, here’s the official Fantavision 202x description, courtesy of PlayStation Blog:
The basic goal of the game is to catch at least three fireworks of the same color and shoot them into the night sky. You can also catch fireworks of different colors at the same time by using Wild Fireworks and shoot them with Daisy Chain, which combines multiple colors, and collect items to start the bonus mode Starmine. In PS VR2, you catch fireworks by aiming at them and pulling the trigger, and shoot them with the Circle button.
Fantavision 202x arrives on PC VR via Steam on April 27, and it’s available now on PS5 and PSVR 2 for $29.99.
Henry Stockdale
