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.”
Steam Puzzle Fest is now live, discounting various PC VR games like Tetris Effect Connected until next week.
Focused specifically on puzzle games, Valve's latest sale naturally includes plenty of PC VR games. Featuring over 100 discounted SteamVR games, Steam Puzzle Fest mostly features older PC VR experiences, and the official trailer highlights The Room VR: A Dark Matter.
You can check out the full list through Steam directly, but here's some of our highlights:
Requisition VR leaves Steam early access next month, while a Quest 2 version follows in Q1 2024.
Released on PC VR last October, Requisition VR is a physics-based co-op game inspired by Dead Rising and The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners. Developed by Arcadia VR, it allows you to craft weapons from household items, taking down zombies using increasingly absurd devices, like electrically charged baseball bats or four-pronged chair swords. Here's the new release date trailer:
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In preparation for the full launch, Arcadia VR has already released what it calls "update 1.0," which implements a new 'Survival Mode.' Additional features like a new PDA (hand interface) are also included, alongside various bug fixes and tweaks to the game's balance. You can view the full update 1.0 patch notes via Steam.
Requisition VR is available now in Steam early access with the full release arriving on May 4th, while the Quest 2 port follows in Q1 2024. Elsewhere, General Producer Oliver Smirnoff previously confirmed that a PSVR 2 version is in development, and Arcadia said that it's arriving "this year."
Developer Zach Tsiakalis-Brown says he "would love" to bring Vertigo 2 to PSVR 2, while he remains "pretty committed" to not working with Meta.
Vertigo 2 released last month and was easily one of the best PC VR experiences of the last few years. The game is available on SteamVR only with no confirmed releases on other platforms such as Quest or PSVR 2.
In an interview with UploadVR, we asked Tsiakalis-Brown about the potential of a Vertigo 2 release on PSVR 2. He confirmed he's had conversations with Sony and it's "definitely possible", but there's no definitive plans:
"I'm really interested in [Vertigo 2 on PSVR 2]. I've talked with Sony a little bit about getting a partnership going. So no concrete plans, but I would love for that to happen and I think it's definitely possible it'll happen."
We also asked Tsiakalis-Brown whether Meta tried to get Vertigo 2 on Quest and whether he had any discussions with Meta during development. Tsiakalis-Brown says Meta reached out to inquire about setting up a "conversation," but the developer "gently turned them down":
"I don't think they've ever asked me directly [about bringing Vertigo 2 to Quest]. I've had several Meta people reach out and be like, “Hey, are you interested in a conversation?” And I've just kinda gently turned them down, because I'm pretty committed to not working with Meta.
I like PC VR more. I don't want to be scaling back my vision for mobile VR, and that’s part of why I decided to keep it PC-only."
Tsiakalis-Brown went on to say that he's "not a staunch mobile VR hater" and while experiences like Alyx or Vertigo 2 can't run standalone on a Quest, there's still plenty of "engaging and good VR experiences" on standalone platforms.
He also said that it would be "very nice to have some more processing power" in standalone headsets and "it would also be nice if Meta was not the biggest player" in the standalone market.
Keep an eye out for our full feature interview with Tsiakalis-Brown later this week, exploring how he brought Vertigo 2 to life as a sole developer over six years.
Tennis League VR serves up a colorful arcade game but it's not quite a Grand Slam. Available now on Quest 2, read on for our full review:
Sports are gaining an increased foothold in virtual reality and tennis is no exception. Between First Person Tennis and Eleven Table Tennis to upcoming games like Racket Club, some of the best VR sports games take certain liberties in portraying their respective activities to improve the experience. More arcade-like than a direct simulator, Tennis League VR is no different.
Tennis League VR - The Facts
Platforms:Quest 2, Quest Pro (Review conducted on Quest 2) Release Date: Out now Developer: AnotheReality Price: $19.99
Tennis League accurately reflects the real sport's rules, though you can customize how many games and sets are carried out in each match before determining a winner. Career Mode is the main draw for offline players, where you compete between four different tournaments against AI opponents. Each features different attributes for power, velocity, precision reaction, and technique, so while they play similarly, they don't feel like copy-and-paste characters with a different avatar.
From street venues to full-blown stadiums, your goal involves rising through the ranks and that's reflected by a traditional leveling system. Whether you win or lose, finishing matches awards EXP based on your performance. Leveling up improves different character aspects like backhand and forehand shots, topspin and backspin, volleys and more.
I'm reminded of Wii Sports' own take on tennis, though Tennis League uses more precise controls and forgoes automatic movement for a teleportation system. Using the Touch controller face buttons, you can instantly move between two locations where the ball is projected to bounce. Anyone on the offensive should teleport toward the net with A/X, while B/Y offers more defensive play at the back.
It's an interesting system that requires quick responses, especially if you're going on the offensive as the ball can quickly slip past. Given the space needed in real-life tennis courts, I'd consider this a suitable workaround for VR. Artificial locomotion can be selected but teleportation feels more natural, though this didn't always work as intended. On several occasions, I was placed into a worse position that lost me the round or had less than a second to react.
However, my biggest issue relates to actually hitting the tennis balls. Judging how much power to apply isn't initially obvious in Tennis League, even with the tutorial. When a gentle wrist flick sends your shot halfway across the court, or a full serve can send tennis balls into next week, working out how much I should swing took considerable trial and error. Switching from arcade mode controls to simulation didn't feel like it changed much, either.
Winning matches is certainly fun, but immersion is dampened when shots require considerable restraint. I also wish Tennis League did more with the soundtrack. All you hear during matches is the crowd mumbling, cheers and occasional jeering. That's fine from an immersion perspective, though some energetic songs would go a long way to keep me motivated.
Beyond career mode, Tennis League VR provides several choices and there's plenty of content. Online multiplayer is 1v1 only - there's no doubles matches, which would be tricky to implement given the movement system, However, you can create private matches and setup a spectator mode for 8 additional people. Offline AI quick-play matches are another option, while customization adds limited appearance settings for your avatar and additional rackets.
Tennis League VR - Comfort
Tennis League VR doesn't feature many traditional comfort options, beyond selecting your dominant hand. Movement is restricted to teleportation only in the lobby, though matches can use artificial locomotion. Height calibration aside, that's pretty much it.
My personal highlight is Droid Rush, a tower defense style mode that involves destroying endless waves of robots by hitting them with tennis balls. You aim for turrets, shielded foes and your standard ground troops, and after taking five hits, that's game over. It's a natural fit for these controls that's surprisingly enjoyable, and I only wish there were more to it. AnotheReality confirms post-launch updates will add extra modes, but the specifics remain unknown.
Tennis League VR Review - Final Verdict
Tennis League VR is a decent attempt at bringing the popular sport into virtual reality, with its varied content, colorful presentation and Droid Rush. Unfortunately, that's let down by the racket mechanics, which require flicking your wrists instead of swinging properly to keep tennis balls on the court. Anyone seeking a new VR tennis experience might find something worthwhile here, but the end result is slightly disappointing.
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.
