The Steam Summer Sale is here and runs through July 9th. For the first time the event puts Half-Life: Alyx on sale, bringing the price down to $45 (25% discount), and you’ll get another $5 off Alyx or any other purchase over $30. Heaps more VR games like Boneworks, Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, Vacation Simulator, Until You Fall, and Pavlov VR are on sale too.
Half-Life: Alyx launched just a few months ago and was quickly crowned as one of VR’s best games to date [our review]. If its critical acclaim wasn’t enough to make you pull the trigger, Alyx is now on sale for the first time during the Steam Summer Sale. You’ll save 25% on the game, and an extra $5 on any purchase of $30 or more thanks to the ‘Road Trip Special’ deal that’s part of the Summer Sale.
The Steam Summer Sale has also brought discounts to hundreds of other VR titles. Here’s a handful that caught our eye:
Facebook announced today that it has acquired Ready at Dawn, marking the company’s third VR studio buyout. The 17 year old game studio is most recently known for its acclaimed VR titles, Lone Echo and Echo VR, both published by Facebook’s Oculus Studios. Ready at Dawn’s next VR title, Lone Echo II is due to launch later this year.
Following the acquisitions of VR game Beat Games (makers of Beat Saber) and Sanzaru Games (makers of Asgard’s Wrath and others), Facebook has picked up yet another high profile VR studio, Ready at Dawn. The terms of the acquisition were not announced, but Facebook confirmed in its announcement that “the entire Ready At Dawn team will be joining the Oculus Studios team [Facebook’s VR publishing arm] .”
Ready at Dawn CEO Ru Weerasuriya said today on Twitter that the acquisition marks “a new chapter” for the studio.
“Nearly 17 years ago, we embarked on a journey to build a game studio. Along the way, we innovated on genres, experiences, games and platforms. Today, we’re excited to join the Facebook family as we open a new chapter in our story and continue to pursue our passions,” he wrote.
The company’s first Oculus-exclusive VR title, Lone Echo (2017), is one of the best rated games in the company’s PC VR library. The game’s multiplayer spin-off Echo VR (2017) has remained a mainstay of multiplayer VR gaming on Oculus’ platform, right up to the recent release of Echo VR beta on Oculus Quest.
Facebook’s VP of VR & AR, Andrew “Boz” Bosworth, echoed the sentiment on Twitter, and gave a strong indication that the studio will continue to focus specifically on VR content.
“Ready At Dawn is a veteran game developer, having shipped games to multiple platforms in the past, and a VR pioneer. Excited for the team to join Facebook to help us pursue a future of rich, immersive, and groundbreaking VR content.”
Ready at Dawn has been in development of Lone Echo II since at least 2018. The game was due to launch in 2019, but has seen several delays, most recently due to Coronavirus, which has pushed the release date into the second half of 2020.
“I think VR is an amazing medium purely because we’re learned so much in the last three years of being in VR that we can’t see ourselves kind of detaching from it, because we’d lose part of who we’ve become as a studio,” said Weerasuriya. “We’re currently exploring a lot of ideas that would guide things that we haven’t seen in VR. In the future we hope to actually address certain things that we see today that we take for granted maybe that are not possible in VR, but we’re very much looking into breaking those boundaries and seeing how we can do things that are not being done yet, and kind of move the medium forward.”
Facebook Now Owns Three VR Game Studios
Image courtesy Facebook
The acquisition of Ready at Dawn is the third VR studio to come under Facebook’s control. As with both Beat Games and Sanzaru Games—which had developed some of the most acclaimed VR content in Oculus’ game library—the buyout of Ready at Dawn feels partly defensive; as Facebook’s Oculus Studios had published all of Ready at Dawn’s VR titles to date (and in doing so, helped the studio build years of VR game development experience), it would be risky to let the studio fall into the hands of competitors.
That happened last year when Sony snatched up Insomniac Games, a veteran VR studio which had developed four Oculus Studios titles, along with many non-VR titles (like the PlayStation hit, Marvel’s Spider-Man).
Beyond a defensive move, the purchase of Ready at Dawn is almost certain to result in the studio’s next title being its first to support Oculus Quest, as Facebook has been focusing heavily on ensuring that new Oculus Studios titles prioritize support for Quest.
Iron Man VR is fast-approaching next month and after around a year and a half of time between its original unveiling and now, the anticipation is high. We recently interviewed two key developers on the team and chatted about the game’s length and depth.
During the interview we spoke with Ryan Payton, founder of Iron Man VR development studio Camouflaj, and Brendan Murphy, Lead Writer on the project. One of the main topics we talked about is the game’s structure. In the demo it’s hard to get a feel for what the actual gameplay flow will be like from one major story beat to the next and if it’s entirely linear on-rails, if it branches at all, or if there are any free, open areas to explore outside of the actual missions.
According to Payton, they’re designing it “like campaign driven games” people will be familiar with from outside of VR.
“So like, for example, like Halo, a big set piece, and then you kind of take a break from that set piece, go into the shoes of Tony Stark and then you’re back to another big new environment with another big, cinematic action-based mission,” says Payton. “So that’s kinda like the structure of the campaign, but in between each mission, for the most part, we bring players into Tony Stark’s garage, which kind of acts as a hub and then players can access a globe where they’re able to see a lot of the different threats that Tony’s under.”
On top of that there will be optional missions as well, such as objectives revolving around free flight, free roaming, specific flight challenges, combat challenges, and more. You’ll earn research points to unlock and customize your impulse armor and gradually experiment with new things over time.
“One of the things that we did when we pitched Marvel is that we promised them that Marvel’s Iron Man VR was not going to feel experimental,” says Payton. “It wasn’t going to feel like a short demo. It wasn’t going to feel like an ‘experience,’ it was going to feel like a full-fledged, high-quality, AAA VR game that was built off of the previous lessons that we learned by playing other VR games. We’re kind of standing on the shoulders of giants, of other great VR games.
“We’re learning from them and then we’re growing. We’re using that as a baseline. And then we feel like in some ways we’re pushing the medium forward a little bit as well. Because it’s all part of this process of medium that is relatively young. And it’s such an exciting time to be releasing a game. So we also feel very privileged and lucky to have that amount of time and resources that were provided to us, to, to give this game, to give this IP, the proper amount of content and quality that I think all the fans really, really want.”
The ultimate question though, at the end of the day, is what does that translate into for players. I personally despise judging a game on its length to dollar ratio, but at the same time a AAA platform exclusive based on one of the most ubiquitous IPs on the planet carries a certain weight with it.
“I’m always hesitant to talk about playtime because everybody is different and some players love to speed run through things,” says Payton. “That being said, based on playtest data that we’re seeing, on average the first-time campaign length ranges between about 8-10 hours. But we’ve seen much longer play times than that too.”
Did you miss out on the UploadVR Showcase: Summer Edition last week? Check out every trailer, article, announcement, interview, and more from the UploadVR Showcase right here.
Star Wars: Squadrons is shaping up to be the ultimate space combat fantasy for Star Wars fans and we’ve got all the details you need to know right here in one place. Everything from release date, gameplay details, game modes, supported controllers, and more are included in this guide.
What Is Star Wars: Squadrons?
Star Wars: Squadrons is an intense first-person view space-combat game set in the Star Wars universe that features both a single-player campaign and multiple multiplayer game modes. It is fully playable in VR. The vast majority of the game, other than cutscenes, takes place entirely in the cockpit of various iconic Star Wars ships.
What’s the Star Wars: Squadrons Release Date? Which platforms?
The game will release on October 2nd, 2020, for PC, Xbox One, and PS4. On PC it will support all major headsets such as Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Valve Index plus PSVR support on PS4.
Will Star Wars: Squadrons Work On Oculus Quest?
No, at the time of this publication nothing has been said about Star Wars: Squadrons releasing on the Oculus Quest. However, with an existing PC VR copy of the game and a wired connection to a VR-capable PC it should work that way. Facebook declined to comment when we asked why the game is “Oculus Recommended” but every SteamVR game we’ve tried with a compatible PC and the Oculus Link USB wired connection to Quest has worked.
The Oculus Quest is an Android-powered VR system with a processing chip that’s extremely limited in what it can show by PC VR, and even PSVR, standards. So while we don’t know if Star Wars: Squadrons will ever run natively on the Quest in a completely standalone way, we expect it to work over Oculus LInk with a USB connection and probably over options like Virtual Desktop that are also likely to include some added latency.
How Can I Pre-Order Star Wars: Squadrons?
Star Wars: Squadrons will be $40 across all platforms and at this time there is no digital deluxe or collector’s edition available above that.
There are a handful of pre-order bonuses for Star Wars: Squadrons already depending on your platform. For PC, you can pre-order the game on Origin, through Steam, the Epic Games Store, or Amazon however we only know for sure that VR will be supported on the Steam version. We have not heard confirmation of VR support for the Origin or Epic versions of the game.
If you go the PC route and subscribe to EA Access and/or Origin Access Basic you can try the game for free for the first 10 hours at launch. You also get a 10% discount if you decide to buy it. And if you’re Origin Access Premiere, you can access the entire game for free.
If you decide to get the game early, here are the pre-order bonuses:
New Republic Recruit Flight Suit (Epic)
Imperial Ace Flight Suit (Epic)
New Republic Recruit Starfighter Skins (Rare)
Imperial Ace Starfighter Skins (Rare)
New Republic Recruit Decal (Common)
Imperial Ace Decal (Common)
What Are The System Requirements On PC To Play In VR?
Minimum with VR
Operating System: Windows 10
Processor (AMD): Ryzen 3 3200G
Processor (Intel): Intel I7-7700
Memory: 16GB
Graphics Card (AMD): Radeon RX 480 or Equivalent
Graphics Card (Nvidia): GeForce GTX 1060 or Equivalent
DirectX version: 11
Multiplayer Online Connection Requirements: 512 KBPS or faster Internet connection
Hard Drive Space: 30GB
Recommended with VR
Operating System: Windows 10
Processor (AMD): Ryzen 3 3200G
Processor (Intel): Intel I7-7700
Memory: 16GB
Graphics Card (AMD): Radeon RX 570 or Equivalent
Graphics Card (Nvidia): GeForce GTX 1070 or Equivalent
DirectX version: 11
Multiplayer Online Connection Requirements: 512 KBPS or faster Internet connection
Hard Drive Space: 30GB
Does It Have Full VR Support?
Yes, Star Wars: Squadrons will have complete VR support for the entirety of the game. All of the campaign, all multiplayer, and everything else is fully playable in VR on both PC VR headsets and PSVR for PS4. Even outside of VR, the game is only playable in first-person inside the cockpit.
Will There Be Cross-Play?
Yes, Star Wars: Squadrons has full cross-play across VR, non-VR, and all platforms. You can play multiplayer with friends on any supported platform regardless of whether they’re in VR or not.
What Advantages Do You Get In VR?
We haven’t played the game for ourselves yet, but based on footage, interviews, and past experience with VR cockpit games, there is certainly the possibility that skilled VR players will have an advantage over non-VR players.
For example, looking around in the cockpit, being able to lean, and look in a direction that your ship isn’t facing to track targets and be more aware of your surroundings could be crucial. Some ships will have more open cockpits than others, such as an X-Wing vs. a TIE Fighter, granting more visibility by by design.
Can You Disable The In-Game HUD And Just Use Your Cockpit Only?
Yes, according to Ian Frazier in an interview with GameSpot you can use only the instruments and information in the physical cockpit itself if you want. All of the same information is naturally integrated there and displays accurately in real-time.
What About Motion Controllers?
As far as we have seen there will not be any motion controller support. As of now the options are either gamepad, keyboard/mouse, or HOTAS for PC; for PSVR, it will support DualShock 4 and HOTAS, but HOTAS support requires downloading the Day One patch.
Is The Cockpit Interactive?
No, from what we’ve gathered you will not be able to interact with the cockpit directly.
Will It Have Flight Stick Or HOTAS Support?
Yes, Star Wars: Squadrons will have flight stick and HOTAS support on PC VR and PSVR. More details on specifically supported sticks will become available closer to launch.
Which Trilogy / Era Is It Set During? Which Locations?
Star Wars: Squadrons is set immediately after the end of the original trilogy, just after the second Death Star was destroyed and the Battle for Endor is over. This puts it before the sequel trilogy. Ship designs and cockpit aesthetics are themed after the classic, original designs from the original trilogy of films.
Yavin Prime, the base planet near the rebellion base on Yavin 4, a gas-giant planet that hosts a large Republic presence.
Esseles, Imperial planet with an icy ring that’s home to a listening post the Empire uses to spy on the Republic.
Nadiri Dockyards, a starship manufacturing facility the Republic defends at all costs from Empire attacks.
Sissubo, this planet is surrounded by the destroyed remnants of salvaged Imperial ships, parts of Project Starhawk, and is very risky to fly through from all the debris.
Galitan, a remote moon that was pulled apart into molten fragments floating throughout open space.
Zavian Abyss, hazardous space region filled with electrically-charged asteroids from a surrounding maelstrom.
What’s The Single-Player Campaign About?
Details are very scarce on the campaign in Star Wars: Squadrons, but we do know that it’s fully playable in VR. So far it looks like the story may center on the Republic’s development of Project Starhawk and the Empire trying to disrupt plans. You’ll play as both the Empire and the Republic during the campaign.
What Are The Multiplayer Modes in Star Wars: Squadrons?
So far EA have discussed two multiplayer modes: Dogfight and Fleet Battle. In Dogfight you’ll engage in 5v5 battles with respawns in space in your chosen starship trying to win for either the Empire or Republic. Basically Team Deathmatch. Fleet Battles will be the bigger, longer, and more involved game mode, hopefully similar to Capital Supremacy or Galactic Conquest from Battlefront 2. There will be a dogfight at the start, then the battles shifts to a more objective-oriented approach depending on which map you’re on.
Can Game Modes Be Played Solo Or In Co-Op?
Yes! All modes can be played solo with bots, co-op against bots, and even offline locally. It’s unclear if you can do one person in PSVR and the others outside of PSVR on PS4, but we assume not. Playing offline doesn’t yield the same level of rewards, but you do still get something for your effort.
Can You Play As The Empire And Republic?
Yes! Both sides are available in multiplayer and both sides are represented in the single-player campaign. The campaign switches between perspectives.
Which Republic Ships Are In Star Wars: Squadrons?
There are four Republic ships to choose from: X-Wing, A-Wing, Y-Wing, and U-Wing. Specific details on each are as follows:
X-Wing, the most balanced between firepower and defense and is the go-to “fighter” ship of the Republic. You can think of this as being similar to a base “assault” class in an FPS.
A-Wing, this is an “interceptor” class ships which are faster and more maneuverable than fighters.
U-Wing, this is the support class ship for the Republic, it can provide supplies and repairs to allies and also disrupt enemy systems to make them easier targets.
Y-Wing, these are the “bomber” ships for use against large enemy vessels in Fleet Assault.
Which Empire Ships Are In Star Wars: Squadrons?
There are four Empire ships to choose from: TIE Fighter, TIE Interceptor, TIE Reaper, and TIE Bomber. Specific details on each are as follows:
TIE Fighter, similar to an X-Wing, but a bit faster and no shields.
TIE Interceptor, similar to an A-Wing with even more speed and maneuverability.
TIE Reaper, this is usually used to transport troops but will take on the support role here.
TIE Bomber, similar to the Y-Wing for functionality.
How Does Power Management Work?
Star Wars: Squadrons’ power management system essentially sees players divert resources to one of three main areas: engines, lasers and shields. While it’s possible to have all three balanced out, top tier players will want to get a grip of this customization to secure the advantage in battle. More details on that here.
What About Ship Cosmetic Customization?
As you progress through the game in the campaign and in multiplayer you rank up and earn two different types of currency that can be used to make cosmetic changes like paint and interior decorations. Full details on cosmetic options aren’t available yet.
The way you truly differentiate yourself in Star Wars: Squadrons from other ships in the same class as yours is by customizing the weapons. The currency you earn can also be used to change or upgrade your loadout with over 50 different components including alterations to flight speed, handling, and defensive stats. There are also different types of weapons as well.
What About Microtransactions Or Loot Boxes?
EA has confirmed that there will not be any microtransactions at all in Star Wars: Squadrons. You cannot spend real money on anything — once you buy the game you own it all and have to unlock everything through in-game progression. They’re not looking Squadrons as a “living game” and aren’t planning on a battle pass system.
Yesterday during the EA Play showcase, the publisher debuted the first-ever gameplay for Star Wars: Squadrons, an upcoming space flight combat game coming to both PSVR and PC VR headsets (including cross-play). During an interview with Polygon, the creative director, Ian Frazier, explained this was the plan from the very start.
A lot of people were surprised to find out Star Wars: Squadrons has full VR support, myself included. Given EA’s relative silence on VR as a medium ever since the excellent X-Wing VR Mission released as an update to 2015’s Star Wars: Battlefront, they haven’t shown much interest.
In the interview though, Frazier makes it clear that this game was designed with VR in mind from the very beginning of development. This is not a “VR port” or anything like that — it’s an intrinsic part of the game and was obvious from the beginning.
“We started the game, and we had the initial prototype up and running very quickly,” Frazier said. “Much faster than normal. We were very pleased with that. We got it running in a week. And we had it running in VR by the end of the second week. So this game is like, really, really, really, from the ground up, both 2D and VR.
“And why? I mean, you kind of hit the nail on the head there. From a business standpoint, talking about how do we “optimize the amount of money this game is gonna make,” VR doesn’t make sense. It’s a much smaller audience than the broader market. But why are we doing it? It’s because we think it’s cool.”
Anyone that has followed VR for any period of time knows how important this is to making a good, immersive VR game. As great as games like Skyrim VR and Borderlands 2 VR can be, that’s mostly due to them already being great games we wanted to play in VR, not because they’re actually designed well for VR headsets.
In a lot of ways, cockpit games sidestep many issues by their very nature. Elite: Dangerous launched before VR headsets were consumer-grade but it’s still one of the best VR games out there because it’s just a natural fit.
“Not to give the super obvious answer, but we started this project and we went, ‘You’re seated in a cockpit,'” said Frazier. “‘You have a fixed reference frame. You’re immersed within this role as a pilot on both sides, both factions.’ It’s a game that naturally fits in VR. You don’t need to port it to VR. This is a game that is capable of being — not every design is capable of this — but this design was capable of supporting both kind of intrinsically from the outset. And who doesn’t want that?
I know not everybody has VR, and that’s fine, but if you do or if you’re even considering it, we thought this is an amazing opportunity to let players do something that like… I don’t know about you, but playing the the Rogue One VR mission in the first Star Wars Battlefrontis frigging amazing. And you see that and you’re like, “Can I just have a lot more of this?” And we thought, ‘Well, yes. Yes. You can. We’ll build that.’ And so that’s very much what we’ve been doing with Squadrons.”
Star Wars: Squadrons is slated for release on October 2nd for $39.99 on Xbox One, PS4, and PC with VR support on PSVR and all major PC VR headsets as well as support for HOTAS controllers. The entire game is playable in VR, including the campaign and all multiplayer modes, including cross-play across VR and non-VR and cross-play across platforms.
Bebylon Battle Royale was first announced by studio Kite & Lightning back in 2015. Coming off of several impressive early VR experiences, the pivot toward a full fledged game was an exciting new path for the studio. But with spurious updates on the game’s development over the last four years—and some radical changes in scope—it isn’t entirely clear what the studio will deliver, even if the game does launch this year.
Back in 2015, before the moniker ‘battle royale’ was strongly associated with the modern game genre, Bebylon Battle Royale was conceived as a third-person, beat-em-up VR brawler, well before motion controllers became a de facto part of the VR experience. At the time the studio expected to launch the game in 2016.
In 2016, Kite & Lightning announced that it had raised $2.5 million in venture capital, spurring the studio to expand the scope of the game from a “hybrid of Mario Kart party mode and Super Smash Bros” into a “mini-Sword Art Online… except in comedy… with adorable narcissistic babies….who love trolling each other.”
While the Smash Bros-esque game is the fundamental core of [Bebylon], we always envisioned a world that you could immerse yourself in. We want to create this amazing comedic world where you can craft your own personal character, cheer/boo/support your friends as a live audience member in the gladiatorial stages, or explore the world of Bebylon, from the shows it has to offer to the characters that inhabit it.
At the time, the studio expected to release the game in large chunks, starting with the first part in 2017, with more added “every couple of months.” However, the initial release never came.
In early 2018, the studio received $200,000 as part of Epic Game’s Unreal Dev Grant program. The no-strings-attached grant was given in recognition of Kite & Lightning’s low-cost real-time motion capture pipeline which has allowed the studio to do a lot with a little when it comes to Bebylon’s animations. At the time the studio expected the game would launch later that year.
Image courtesy Kite & Lightning
This week—following spurious development updates over the last four years—Kite & Lightning announced that it has launched a new Bebylon Battle Royale website, which now says the game is due to launch this year.
Not oblivious, the studio poked fun at itself by writing on the site, “[Beylon is] coming 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020!”
Along with the revamped website, the studio also released a cinematic short. The footage is claimed to be rendered in real-time in Unreal Engine 4—with animations captured with an iPhone and Xsens mocap suit—which makes it an impressive demonstration of the studio’s technical abilities. Considering the lack of gameplay footage, however, it does little to build confidence that the game will actually ship sometime in the next six months.
In the intervening years, it doesn’t appear that much has changed to bring Bebylon Battle Royale in line with motion control-based VR design, making us wonder whether the studio is hamstringing itself by sticking with VR.
The game’s zany premise (and resulting aesthetic) is still there in full force. It posits a world where an immortality drug caused babies to stop growing physically beyond a few years old, leading to a futuristic world controlled by babies which gravitated toward a gaudy gangster fashion—an intentional clash of polar opposites.
Despite the unorthodox characters, it should be said that the studio has honed the look of its ‘Bebies’ over the years; the game’s attention to visual detail is perhaps the one thing the studio has clearly demonstrated thus far.
Image courtesy Kite & Lightning
But what about that whole “mini-Sword Art Online” element? It’s entirely unclear if that’s even still on the table. The game’s new website glosses right over that part, and instead speaks to combat, arenas, items, vehicles, and characters.
Image courtesy Kite & Lightning
Instead, the closest glimpse we see to that vision of an expansive Bebylon virtual world that the company had mused about is—and I’m pretty sure they’re serious—a “multi-season animated series with a ruthless story arc between Game of Thrones and Fight Club.” The studio says it plans to “pitch the networks later this year.” They also have plans for a theme park (I’ll leave it to the reader to decide if I’m joking here or not).
Image courtesy Kite & Lightning
Kite & Lightning produced objectively impressive experiences in formative days of VR, but nothing close to the scope of Bebylon. It’s clear that the studio is full of creativity, talent, and ambition. But ambition might outweigh the other two.
We wouldn’t blame you for being excited to see the reveal of Astro’s Playroom and Resident Evil 8: Village for PS5, but so far there’s no indication that these games will support PSVR even though their predecessors did.
Sony must have known that it would make our hearts skip a beat when revealing two new games for PS5 yesterday that previously had very successful VR versions. Unfortunately there’s been no definitive statements on whether or not the games will support PSVR.
While the games haven’t been confirmed for VR, Sony has confirmed that PS5 will support the current PSVR headset (and it’s expected to launch a PSVR 2 in the future).
So it goes without saying that PSVR fans would love to see more of Astro in VR.
Unfortunately, as far as we know so far, the newly revealed Astro’s Playroom won’t support PSVR. From what’s shown in the trailer, the game appears to be a showcase for the PS5 DualSense controller and its newfangled haptics.
The original Astro Bot Rescue Mission was made exclusively for VR and played with a gamepad; so there’s nothing about the game being gamepad-based game that would exclude it from supporting VR. However, the trailer footage that we have so far appears to show a few things that you wouldn’t want to do in a VR game, like quickly rotating the player while Astro goes down a slide.
Granted, the game could conceivably have a special camera mode which would make it suitable for use with PSVR, but there’s reason to believe that PlayStation’s Japan Studio wouldn’t want to make a game that attempts work with both VR and non-VR. The studio said as much in our deep dive article with Astro Bot Rescue Mission’s Creative Director and Producer, Nicolas Doucet, who explained that the studio decided to drop the game’s non-VR co-op component so that it could focus all of its efforts on VR mechanics.
Some levels [in Astro Bot] initially allowed three extra players to join on the TV. It was fun to play together but we soon realized that in order to make the [non-VR] TV gameplay work, we were limiting the amplitude of the levels too much, thus hurting the ‘VR-ness’ we were after. Removing the multiplayer and focusing on a solo game allowed the game designers to be much more daring and efficient with the use of VR in their levels and the final game would have not been possible had we kept this multiplayer mode.
But who knows… with the critical success of Astro Bot Rescue Mission, perhaps Sony gave the green light for a larger production which includes enough developer resources to do both? We’d certainly be thrilled to hear that Astro’s Playroom will support PSVR, but so far there’s simply no evidence for it.
Resident Evil 8: Village
Image courtesy PlayStation
If you ask PSVR enthusiasts what the best games are, you’re almost sure to hear someone recommend Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. Although it wasn’t designed for VR from the ground-up, the game’s creepy, claustrophobic, and atmospheric horror is taken to new levels in its optional VR mode (which allows players to go through the game start to finish with PSVR and gamepad).
So you can understand why fans would be hoping that the newly revealed Resident Evil 8: Village would also include optional PSVR support on PS5. But, alas, there’s no confirmation so far.
At a minimum, there seems to be clear evidence that adding a VR mode to Resident Evil 8 would be a smart decision. Developer Capcom’s own stats tell us that some 1.25 million PSVR players have played Resident Evil 7, which makes it possibly the most popular VR game on any single platform.
While we can’t account for how many players bought the game because of its VR support (as opposed to those who would have bought it anyway and then decided to try it with their headset), Resident Evil 7 potentially earned some $50 million dollars in additional sales revenue thanks to the VR mode.
So it seems like it wouldn’t be a bad idea to add a PSVR mode to Resident Evil 8 as well, but so far there’s no confirmation.
MicroProse was a game developer and publisher behind dozens of classic strategy and simulator titles from the ’80s and ’90s. After being shuttered in the early 2000s, the company (or the brand, anyway) recently made a surprise resurgence. Among four modern games presently in the works is The Mighty Eighth, which the studio describes as a “VR-first” flight combat simulator where multiple players will work together to pilot a WWII bomber.
This week the company announced a fourth title, The Mighty Eighth, which promises to have 10-player crews working together to successfully operate the legendary B-17 “Flying Fortress” and B-24 “Liberator” bombers.
Image courtesy MicroProse
The Mighty Eighth is a reboot of MicroProse’s B-17 Flying Fortress: The Mighty 8th (2000), though the studio is better known for its involvement with titles like Civilization, MechWarrior 3, Rollercoaster Tycoon, Grand Prix, and plenty more.
MicroProse games | Image courtesy MicroProse
The studio says that the reboot is a “VR-first project,” but that it will also be playable without VR.
Drop those bombs on the right spot, guide your crew through long drawn out day, or the dark, moonless nights, keep your airplane in touch with the rest of the squadron and HQ as you monitor radios and communications. Defend your Flying Fortress by keeping those enemy fighters away from you and your squadron mates. Pilot or co-pilot this beast under a massive amount of stress – and enemy fire, but don’t drop out of formation or you’re a sitting duck.
While up to 10 players can operate the planes, MicroProse says that AI bots can fill in if you don’t have a full crew.
The company hasn’t shown any gameplay yet—and there’s no word yet on a release date—but it has revealed models of the planes, which it says are being “recreated with meticulous attention to detail.”
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While MicroProse has dozens of simulation and strategy games to its name, with this studio reboot it isn’t clear how much of the company really remains beyond the brand. At a minimum it’s clear that the reformed company understands that the name brings with it an expectation of quality in the simulation space. Color us intrigued.
The new trailer for Update 8, the massive “Sorcery Update” for Blade & Sorcery just dropped yesterday with the reveal that it will hit both Steam and Oculus Home for Rift platforms on June 4th.
One of the recurring jokes about this game is that ever since it debuted in Early Access the title has been half a lie. It’s called Blade & Sorcery, but it’s really just focused on blades and other melee weapons with almost every single update. Now that’s finally changing.
In the trailer above you can see tons of new spells, like a Gravity spell that lets you levitate enemies and even push the air like a Jedi Force Push power. There are flaming swords, lightning staves, and so much more. It’s a lot to process, not to mention the brand new, massive, Citadel map.
One specific new feature I want to highlight is armor penetration. Now, enemies will wear three different tiers of armor (cloth, leather, and plate) and it’s all modular. A slash across leather armor probably won’t do anything, but a stab with something like a rapier could. And plated enemies require you to target the expose portions of their body like in the cracks of limbs and their neck/face. Here is a quick clip showing that off a bit more:
We mentioned the news earlier this month, but the new trailer really puts the cherry on top of just how massive of an update this truly is. Blade & Sorcery is one of my personal favorite VR games, even if it’s barely a game and is actually just an immensely fun wave combat sandbox experience. There is no story, no structured content like quests, not even a procedural dungeon to explore. You literally go to a map, spawn enemies, spawn weapons, and fight. But because of how intricate the physics engine is and how satisfying it all feels, I can get lost in this kind of blood bath for hours.
I’m honestly at a loss for additional words here after watching that trailer. It’s epic and full of amazing feats of creative violence. I’m extremely eager to dive back into this game and deep down I long for the day this sort of combat system can find its way into a larger, more proper adventure like The Elder Scrolls or Asgard’s Wrath.
With growing usage of social virtual worlds and spaces like VRChat and Mozilla Hubs, you might be looking for a way to make your own avatar to represent yourself in VR. Here are two user-friendly avatar character creator apps for that purpose which won’t require the use of developer-level tools like Unity, Blender, etc.
Updated – March 3rd, 2021
Ready Player Me
Compatible with VRChat, Mozilla Hubs, LIV, MeetinVR and More
Ready Player Me is a free web-based avatar creator which allows you to make avatars which are easily imported into VRChat, Mozilla Hubs, LIV, MeetinVR, and more, as well as being easily portable to other applications which support the .glb or .fbx file formats.
The Ready Player Me avatar creator works on both desktop and mobile devices. Start by picking the Ready Player Me avatar maker for the app you’re targeting:
You’ll first be prompted to take a selfie to form the foundation of your avatar (though you can optionally skip this step and start from scratch). From there you can define features like hair, eyebrows, eye color, glasses, and clothing. The number of options is fairly limited for now, but we hope to see them grow with time.
When you’re done making your own VR avatar, you’ll be shown a button or given instructions to import the avatar into the app you’ve selected, or you can download the avatar itself in .glb or .fbx depending upon which option you started with.
With Tafi, you have control over your avatar’s body properties (like height, body shape, skin color, head shape, eye color, hairstyle, etc) as well as clothing and accessories (like shirts, pants, shoes, hats, tattoos, earrings, etc).
The app uses a ‘freemium’ model which allows you to pick from a range of free options, while many options are premium and paid with in-app currency. When you first make your Tafi account, you’ll be given 1,000 coins (enough to buy a premium hairstyle or article of clothing); if you want to buy more premium options you can purchase more starting at $2 per 1,060 coins.
When you’re done building your avatar in the Tafi creator, you can link the application to your VRChat account and then upload your newly created avatar directly to your account for use.
Tafi says that its avatars are automatically optimized to work on both the PC and Quest versions of VRChat; the avatars are also fully rigged for IK, mouth, and eye animation.
As far as we can see at this time, Tafi Avatar VRChat Edition doesn’t offer any kind of direct download or export of your avatar, which means your avatar is not currently portable or editable in other applications.
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It’s early days for the world of VR avatar creation, and if you aren’t willing to get your hands dirty with 3D modeling and animation tools, the options for easily creating your own for use in VR remain fairly slim.
In the future we hope to see more social VR apps support external avatars so that users have more options for defining what they look like in VR, and the ability to have a persistent virtual persona across VR applications.
Are there any other user-friendly tools out there which make avatars for use in VR? Let us know in the comments!
