Category: VR

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Demeo Gets Pico Crossplay Support, PSVR 2 Edition Out Now

Demeo now supports cross-platform multiplayer on Pico, which joins today’s PS5 and PSVR 2 release, Resolution Games confirmed.

First released in 2021, Resolution’s popular tabletop dungeon crawler continues launching on new platforms and, last year, Demeo joined the list of Pico Neo Link 3 games. However, unlike the PC VR and Quest editions, the Pico version didn’t initially support crossplay, leaving players restricted to that specific ecosystem. That’s no longer the case, and Pico players can now play online co-op with other platforms, including PS5 and PSVR 2.

That’s not the only Demeo update, either. On Steam and Meta Quest headsets, 38 achievements were added to match its PlayStation trophies, and Resolution confirmed to UploadVR that achievements are also planned for Epic Games Store edition. New visual enhancements give an improved look for the basement, while 3D models for several monsters have been refreshed.

It’s a busy time for Demeo and last December saw the launch of its fifth campaign, Reign Of Madness. Available as a free update for all existing owners, this promised an end to the Mad Elven King Saga and introduced a new playable character, Uhrak the Barbarian. At the same time, Resolution also released a first look at the upcoming PvP mode, Demeo Battles, and we went hands-on with a preview build.

Demeo is available now for $39.99 on Meta Quest, PC VR, Pico and PSVR 2, alongside a flatscreen release for PC and PS5.

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Top 5 Best PSVR 2 Games To Play At Launch

PlayStation VR2 launches this week, but what are the best PSVR 2 games to play at launch? Here are our picks based on what we’ve tried already on PS5 or previously on another system.

If you’re picking up a PSVR 2 this week, we’ve put together this list of games to try at launch. The entries are based on experience while testing the headset for our PlayStation VR2 review and presented in no particular order.

Now before getting to the list, we should mention Resident Evil Village‘s VR mode in PSVR 2 will likely be one of the most harrowing and intense experiences you can have in a VR headset, with Capcom making a demo experience available for launch. We’ve started playing the game and while we’re having a great time, we’ll also note that it’s an intense experience – both in terms of content and VR comfort. Keep an eye out for our full review next week.

At the other end of the intensity spectrum, we should also call out standout introductory experiences Job Simulator and What The Bat? as both comfortable and playful introductions ideal for showing off your new VR headset to friends or family.

That in mind, here are our picks for the best PSVR 2 games to try at launch.

Best PSVR 2 Launch Games

Horizon Call of the Mountain

If you want a full breakdown of why this game is one to try, you can read our Horizon Call of the Mountain review. In summary, this is a must-have for anyone with a PSVR 2 headset – it features engaging gameplay and environmental details that feel comparable to Half-Life: Alyx. It’s definitely one to check out.

Demeo

This dungeon-diving turn-based game is both brutally challenging and an endlessly rewarding social experience with some of the most robust cross-platform multiplayer support available. You can play cooperatively with others across both traditional PC or PlayStation 5 platforms, as well as in VR from Quest 2 to SteamVR to PSVR 2. It was our game of the year in 2021 and, in 2022, we picked it as the best updated game of the year too as developer Resolution Games added significant new features to the title. Now you can even make a dungeon run with only two players as each player controls two of the in-game characters.

Pistol Whip

Pistol Whip is now easily a VR classic and also incredibly easy to pick up and learn as a new player, so it’s a great pick to try out on PSVR 2 at launch. We’ve given the PSVR 2 version a shot and had a fantastic time with it. So whether you’re a new player or a veteran, Pistol Whip is a fantastic option – plus, existing owners of the game for PSVR will receive the PSVR 2 upgrade for free.

Gran Turismo 7

This free update brings full VR support to the entire game, allowing you to get around the full Gran Turismo experience using PSVR 2. The only omission from the base PS5 game is splitscreen multiplayer support, for obvious reasons. If you already own it on PS5, you won’t have to pay a dime for the PSVR 2 upgrade – it’s entirely free. If you’re waiting for more details, stay tuned for our full GT7  PSVR 2 review coming soon.

Kayak VR

A fan favorite of PC VR users, this calming and stunning experience is coming to PSVR 2 at launch. It’s one of the most visually impressive titles we’ve played so far, making it a solid choice for launch. Plus, the PSVR 2 version includes a ‘Tour Mode’ where everything is taken care for you – don’t worry about paddles, just sit back and enjoy the view.

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No Man’s Sky Available Now On PlayStation VR2

No Man’s Sky is now available for PlayStation VR2, after initially being about announced as a launch window title.

Today is the day we’ve all been waiting for – PSVR 2 launch day. However, it seems there’s still a few surprises for those getting their hands on a headset today. While we thought it would be a bit longer until No Man’s Sky released its update with PSVR 2 support, Hello Games confirmed that it’s available today as part of the game’s first major update of the year.

The Fractal update, version 4.1 of No Man’s Sky, brings a bunch of new features to all versions of the game and some VR-specific changes as well. Hello Games says that the heads-up display (HUD) and user interface were completely remade for VR in this update to “ensure every interaction available in the game feels natural and built for purpose.” This includes new “VR-only” options for several interactions, such as directly grabbing plants and collectibles with your hands, physically opening cockpits and piloting spaceships directly with a throttle.

For PSVR 2 specifically, there’s support for headset haptics and adaptive trigger integration on the Sense controllers. No Man’s Sky also takes advantage of the increased horsepower of PS5 to offer better reflections, terrain tessellation, ultra quality textures, denser foliage and an increase in draw distance.

You can read the Fractal update patch notes here. No Man’s Sky is available for PS4 and PS5 here, now with PSVR 2 support.

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State of Play Presentation Will Reveal Five New PSVR 2 Games This Week

Sony’s State of Play presentation returns this Thursday, promising reveals for five new PlayStation VR2 games.

With just one day left before PlayStation VR2 arrives, Sony announced a new online broadcast on February 23 at 1pm PT. This latest showcase promises “a first glimpse at five PlayStation VR2 games set to arrive later this year,” giving us our first major look at Sony’s upcoming line-up beyond the PSVR 2 launch games. New footage for the upcoming flatscreen game, Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, is also promised.

This isn’t the only PSVR 2 announcement that dropped today, either. Hours before this State of Play confirmation, Sony announced ten further games are joining the PSVR 2 launch window, including previously announced games like Runner. There’s also Gorn, which appeared in last week’s German PlayStation Blog, though this announcement doesn’t feature Solaris Offworld Combat 2, Wanderer Remastered or Project Wingman. You can find the full list and release dates below:

If you’re eager to jump into Sony’s new PS5 headset, you can check out our PSVR 2 review now, and we’re also bringing you a full PSVR 2 technical analysis soon. As for the games, you can check out our thoughts on Horizon Call of the Mountain, Kayak VR: Mirage, Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge – Enhanced Edition and Cities: VR – Enhanced Edition right now, with more to come.

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Kayak VR: Mirage PSVR 2 Review – Calm Waters Ahead

Following its PC VR release last year, Kayak VR: Mirage now arrives on PlayStation VR2. Developed by Better Than Life, how does this visually stunning physics-based sim fare on the new PS5 headset? Here’s our full review.

Kayak VR is my biggest surprise among the PSVR 2 launch titles. In a line-up dominated by Horizon Call of the Mountain and older ports, Better Than Life’s latest game offers a simple premise with a solid execution as the Sense controllers become your rowing paddles. To test this out, you can mess around in a swimming pool and getting started is relatively easy.

Diving into the free roam mode, I was immediately taken with Kayak VR’s presentation. Watching the ripples while paddling demonstrates some incredible water physics; light reflects impressively on the water’s surface and the resolution remains sharp throughout. Objects react realistically as well, such as when you push away small blocks of ice or prod the rubber ring flamingo in the swimming pool.

Kayak VR: Mirage Review – The Facts

Platforms:  PC VR via Steam, PSVR 2 (Review conducted on PSVR 2)

Release Date: Out Now

Developer: Better Than Life

Price: $22.99

You can explore four beautiful locations, each with day and night variants. Exploring Papagayo lets the gulf’s beauty shine through, realistically bringing the scenery and its fish to life. Antarctica’s chilly waters are a favorite when paddling through the broken ice and whale watching from a distance. Navigating Bjørnøya through stormy waters offered a dramatic change of pace, while Australia’s canyons offer a certain serenity. Each level feels alive through its dynamic wildlife too, ranging from flocks of birds to cute little penguins.

Kayak VR takes its pleasing experience even further on PSVR 2 using haptic feedback. The Sense controllers add gentle resistance when paddling alongside simulated rain, creating an amazing sense of depth across the rough waves of the Bjørnøya storm variant. Headset haptic feedback also kicks in during collisions, creating immersion in unexpected ways. It’s all complemented by realistic sound effects using 3D audio and an atmospheric soundtrack.

Kayak VR: Mirage - Antarctica screenshot

I’ve rarely felt this relaxed in VR and free roam is where I spent most of my time, exploring at a comfortable pace to see what each location has to offer. If you prefer something even more casual, Kayak VR now includes a controller-less ‘Tour Mode’ that takes care of movement for you – a great way to de-stress. With headphones on, I sat back on my sofa and let Kayak VR take me down a predetermined route. I could sit in this mode for hours; it’s very therapeutic.

By comparison, races feel out of place. If you prefer something more competitive, each location lets you race other players’ ghost data through asynchronous multiplayer, using their previous best times as you rank for position on an online leaderboard. This offers a challenge for high-score chasers, though I personally didn’t find the mode very appealing.

Kayak VR: Mirage Review – Comfort

This isn’t an intense experience, so there aren’t many comfort options. Movement vignettes are available for turning, during collisions or as a permanent feature. There are also stability options to keep your kayak at a comfortable angle. For those after realism, you can choose ‘simulation’ controls instead of the standard ‘arcade’ option. Haptic feedback intensity is also adjustable.

You don’t need long to see everything that each level offers, but that’s fine. Kayak VR is a game best experienced in smaller sessions; there’s no end goal or objectives. You’ll gradually earn in-game currency as you explore — no microtransactions here — which unlock new items like kayak designs, headwear and paddles for extra customization.

Kayak VR: Mirage - Swimming Pool

Kayak VR: Mirage Review – Final Verdict

Kayak VR: Mirage is a quiet highlight of the PSVR 2 launch window and thrives in its free roam mode. The competitive multiplayer won’t suit everyone and seeing everything doesn’t take long, but the realistic physics and stunning presentation will keep me coming back for a long time. This is easily one of the most relaxing games I’ve ever experienced.

Upload VR Review Recommended

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.

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WATCH: First Gameplay From The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR On PSVR 2

A new gameplay walkthrough video posted to the PlayStation YouTube channel gives us our first proper look at The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR, an upcoming horror-themed rollercoaster shooter for PlayStation VR2.

The video reveals a bunch of new details, including a first look at some of the game’s key mechanics. As previously revealed, Switchback VR will use eye tracking to introduce an enemy that only moves when you blink, à la Weeping Angels from Doctor Who. However, Supermassive Games swap out angels for creepy mannequins in Switchback instead, which you can glimpse in the video above.

Game Director Alejandro Arque Gallardo also gave a bit more context on the narrative premise of Switchback VR. He revealed that the game starts on a New York-bound train at night that quickly descends into chaos – everything goes dark until you see a far-off light, like the light at the end of a tunnel.

It appears that you’ve been in a train accident, but Gallardo says that while you wait for help to arrive, you’ll endure nightmares featuring various horror scenarios set around a rollercoaster track. You’ll solve environmental puzzles and use weapons to fend off enemies as you trundle through a bunch of terrifying scenes, unsure of what’s real and what’s not. It sounds like an amazing concept for a horror game and the footage shown in the video looks fantastic as well.

Switchback VR is a spin-off of Supermassive’s The Dark Pictures Anthology series of flatscreen horror games, available on consoles and PC. Now one our most anticipated PSVR 2 games, this VR entry was originally set to release on PSVR 2 at launch but was recently delayed by three weeks until March 16.

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Pico Reportedly Laying Off Hundreds Just Months After Pico 4 Launch

Pico is laying off hundreds of staff, South China Morning Post reports.

The report cites “two people familiar with the matter.” One of those people reportedly said the cuts represent a “substantial portion of Pico” with some teams seeing as much as a 30% reduction. The other person reportedly said even some higher-level positions are affected.

No reason for the cuts is given, but a November report from Sina Technology claimed early Pico 4 sales weren’t meeting expectations, leading the company to reduce production orders. However, Pico claimed preorders had seen “unprecedented” demand, and Pico 4 was by far the fastest growing headset on SteamVR in November.

A spokesperson for Pico provided the following statement: “While we continue to hire as a business globally, we are streamlining our team and, as a result, parting ways with a small number of colleagues. We greatly appreciate these colleagues’ contributions and are working closely with those impacted to support them through this time of change.”

Pico is no newcomer to VR – it revealed its first headset in 2016. In 2021 it was acquired by ByteDance, the Chinese tech giant behind TikTok. Pico always sold to Chinese consumers, but elsewhere it had previously focused on businesses. This changed last year with the launch of Pico Neo 3 Link to European consumers. However, that was pitched as a “beta program.” Pico 4 is its first serious consumer play and the first serious competitor to Meta’s Quest 2.

Pico 4 is powered by the same Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2 Gen 1 processor used in Quest 2 but has a range of improvements: a slimmer and lighter design, higher resolution, wider and taller field of view, color passthrough, precise motorized lens separation, and improved controllers. However, content is king – while a significant chunk of Quest’s content library has been ported over, ByteDance has yet to offer standalone exclusive titles to match the likes of Meta’s Beat Saber, Resident Evil 4, Population: ONE, Onward, and Iron Man VR. Pico announced its first major exclusive, Just Dance VR, last year, set for a 2023 release.

Pico 4 isn’t sold in North America. However, last year the company posted a job listing for a position that would be “responsible for the sales and marketing of Pico’s overall product in the US consumer market,” suggesting that approach might change in the future. 

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Vermillion Overlay Mode Lets You Paint Directly In Half-Life: Alyx

VR painting app Vermillion launched a beta for a new overlay mode this week, allowing you to paint with Vermillion’s easel in other SteamVR apps like Half-Life: Alyx or Skyrim VR.

Although it’s still in beta, opting into the overlay mode lets you bring Vermillion’s core tools into another app, which you can use for inspiration or reference when painting. The video embedded above, from Elizabeth Edwards, is a fantastic example of how the feature works – you can watch Edwards paint a portrait of Russell from Half-Life: Alyx in situ, just like you would in real life.

While Vermillion is available on multiple VR platforms, this beta overlay feature is only available on SteamVR for the moment and, as you can imagine, requires a fairly beefy PC setup. The feature isn’t limited to Half-Life: Alyx either; you should be able to use it with any VR-supported title on Steam.

Thomas van den Berge, Vermillion’s sole developer, noted that the overlay feature wouldn’t currently work natively on Quest, as the system can’t handle two games running simultaneously. That being said, Quest users with a PC VR setup will of course be able to try it out over Link.

You can opt into the overlay beta by right clicking on Vermillion in your Steam library and selecting Betas, then ‘overlay’. You’ll have to opt out of the beta to go back to the standard Vermillion studio.

Vermillion launched in 2021 for PC VR and early 2022 for Quest. Last December, it also added support for multiplayer, which allows multiple users to gather in a room and paint together in VR. You can read our interview with van den Berge from 2021 here, where he talks about how Vermillion brings accessible and realistic oil painting into VR.

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Yupitergrad 2 Releasing First On Pico; Quest, Vive & PC VR To Follow

Gamedust released a new trailer for Yupitergrad 2: The Lost Station this week, alongside confirmation that the game will release first on Pico headsets.

The studio first announced the sequel to its 2021 swinging platformer almost a year ago, confirming a release on Quest and PC VR platforms. This week, Gamedust confirmed that the sequel will actually release first on Pico headsets, within the first half of this year. A Quest release will follow and then other platforms, including PC VR and Vive XR Elite, will arrive after that.

The update on release platforms also came alongside a new trailer, embedded above. Gamedust also 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.

Keep an eye out for more news on Yupitergrad 2: The Lost Station in the coming months.