During the week that’s definitely not E3 there have been a number of companies sticking to tradition, hosting events with lots of new videogames to announce. Amongst them was the PC Gaming Show yesterday which just so happened to have a tasty virtual reality (VR) update, a brand new gameplay trailer for Half-Life: Alyx mod Levitation.
The work of modders FMPONE and Corey Laddo – and a few others behind the scenes – Levitation has been gaining plenty of attention ever since it was unveiled earlier this year. While we’d all love an official update from Valve, thanks to the Steam Workshop Half-Life: Alyx is highly moddable with dozens of excellent community additions, and Levitation is gearing up to be one of the best.
Half-Life Alyx: Levitation is going to be a 4-5 hour adventure in City17, set in an area called Sector X which houses a mysterious floating building. G-Man is set to make a return alongside your mate and inventive engineer Russell. Even with the new trailer, little else has been revealed regarding the narrative. At least it’ll serve as a nice (unofficial) side-mission for fans eager for more Half-Life in VR.
From the looks of the gameplay trailer Half-Life Alyx: Levitation is going to be heavily action-oriented, once again pitting Alyx against Combine soldiers and the ever-reliable headcrabs.
Two years after its release Half-Life: Alyxis still regarded as the pinnacle of VR gaming, offering just the right mix of action, immersive interaction and puzzling that the franchise is known for. “A stunningly rich experience from start to finish, Half-Life: Alyx is one of the best VR titles available, a perfect showcase for what VR gaming is capable of,” gmw3 said in its review.
Currently, Half-Life Alyx: Levitation is expected to arrive later this year. While you’re waiting other Half-Life: Alyx mods include Return to Rapture, a two-episode addition set within the Bioshock universe. Or how about VR mods for non-VR titles? Elden Ring, Cyberpunk 2077, Quake 3 Arena, Resident Evil 2 and 3, and more have all been given the unofficial VR mod treatment.
The application of XR into the attraction and amusement landscape is covered by industry specialist Kevin Williams. In his latest Virtual Arena column, the sudden explosion in new entertainment venues internationally is revealed, with a visit to one of the latest promoting the inclusion of immersive entertainment.
Following on from our recent coverage of AREA15, and its deployment of immersive technology in an entertainment venue. And many readers will be familiar with the Gravity Active Entertainment facilities in the UK, some 18 venues dotted across the country offering a mix of trampoline and climbing wall activities. Active entertainment has been a popular offering for younger audiences, but the corporation has decided to pivot towards offering an entertainment mix for an older clientele. With this business decision, the company launched a flagship location in a London suburb to experiment with their new concept.
Called ‘Gravity Wandsworth’ – the concept has ditched the trampolines and gone for a modern mixed-use leisure entertainment aesthetic. The 100,000-sq.ft, facility inhabits what had previously been a Debenhams department store – leading to some calling the new Gravity a “department store of fun!”. While for many the venue is dominated by the indoor multi-level e-karting track, (built by 360 Karting), the venue is underpinned by the largest deployment of immersive entertainment technology in a single site in the UK.
Image credit: KWP
Immersive entertainment is defined by the key applications of digital technology, and “Gamification”. Meaning the application of simple but fun game mechanics into the experience, including progression, scoring and collectables. This is seen with the facility’s deployment of ‘AR Bowling’. The traditional bowling lanes are now enhanced with projection mapping, projected images that are tracked with the ball’s movements and add a new level of engagement for the players. Taking a tired format and supercharging it for the new audience.
Image credit: KWP
An aspect of supporting the new audience and the entertainment mix of the venue has been dubbed “Competitive Socializing” – offering entertainment that can be played by groups of friends, while also enjoying cocktails and food. Pub games accelerated into the 21st Century. The bowling experience at the site, as with other games, is supported by touchscreen kiosks for game selection, scoring and ordering.
Another familiar entertainment given the gamified approach is the ‘AR Darts’. Again, projection mapping is employed to paint the whole of the space with a unique interactive experience. The game of darts transformed into a socially inclusive competition, not focused on score counting, but fun games that can be played with groups of varying skills. Taking away the cumbersome aspects of some games and focusing on the fun elements defines gamification.
Image credit: KWP
Projection mapped AR systems such as this are not new to the social entertainment scene, several venues have deployed AR darts, along with the appearance of AR ping pong, and even AR Axe Throwing experiences. The gamification of these activities, like the bowling, offers a new level of social inclusion, augmenting the number counting and tedious scoring metrics for a much more inclusive experience.
We see at Gravity the deployment of more immersive entertainment approaches, the facility including the installation of an Electric Gamebox setup. These unique pods house players in a fully immersive (MR) environment, with projection on all walls. Their whole body is tracked and able to control their character within the game experience. The developer of the platform has just launched a brand new game based on Angry Birds, offering a compelling and active approach for a wide audience.
Image credit: KWP
For Gravity it is about a constant process of application to attract a new audience, the facility includes its own eSports lounge, and has its own amusement space dedicated to the latest video arcade, redemption, and prize machines. This space also sees the deployment of several of the latest VR amusement platforms. With the motorcycle game Ultra Moto VR, and the two VR motion ride experiences, Virtual Rabbids and King Kong.
Image credit: KWP
The venue will see opened in the summer a brand new VR attraction installation of a HOLOGATE VR experience – with the four-player tethered VR ‘Arena’, and their ‘Hyper GP’ VR motion simulator system, which will be run on the ground floor in their own dedicated attraction. HOLOGATE recently announced that it will be releasing a Ghostbusters-based VR experience on these systems.
Image credit: KWP
Of the more conventional entertainment the space also includes urban street golf and is supported on the ground and third floor with food and beverage service. The top floor also includes ‘Newtons Cocktail Bar’ offering a relaxing hospitality scene. All this is supported by futuristic robot servers. The space reflects the move to a new level of entertainment for an audience hungry for the latest immersion, but also wanting that social media buzz with “Instagram-able” moments.
The success of Gravity Wandsworth experiment has seen the owners make the announcement of the plans to open a second facility based on the model. This will see a £10m investment to once again repopulate a 180,000-sq.ft, Debenhams department store, in Liverpool. To be named ‘Gravity Liverpool ONE’, it will represent the flagship location of the brand, opening in 2023 – with plans to roll out 30 sites in the next two years.
This will prove very crowded waters as immersive entertainment technology establishes itself as a leading force in the scene, and already other facility developers wait in the wings to launch their interpretation of the new immersive frontier. More developments using the latest technology will be covered soon.
Each week we will be taking a look at some of the upcoming videogames, demos and unique experiences available through Oculus App Lab for the Meta Quest headsets. Many of these videogames come in varying states of completion, so each title is subject to change.
This week we’re fixing priceless artefacts, playing 3D Tetris and smashing out our anger!
VRPuzzle
There’s a wonderful simplicity to VRPuzzle; as the game starts I find myself in a museum room surrounded by valuable sculptures and earthenware. Tapping the grip button while aiming at a sculpture breaks it down into shattered pieces, across three difficulty levels. Choosing the easiest, I tapped the grip button again and found myself in the centre of the room, pieces of statue around me.
From here, it should seem quite obvious that I needed to put the bust together again. There’s a lovely, very satisfying click as the correct pieces slot together. Manipulating the pieces is smooth and intuitive, they can be passed from hand to hand in order to find the sweet spot.
At the easiest level, VRPuzzle is a ridiculously calming experience. It’s still relaxing at the hard difficulty, but the sheer number of broken pieces can feel a bit overwhelming, as I picked through the tiniest shards to form the sculpted face or waves of hair. I found myself playing for much longer than I intended, picking bowls and urns to puzzle over, feeling satisfied once the sculpt clicks together and fully completes.
Flickblocks
I don’t know why this game is called Flickblocks, there are blocks, but there’s no flicking. Definitely lots of blocks though. They fall from the sky at timed intervals and the idea is to grab them and place them on a grid which floats in front of the player.
At first, I was unsure I’d have enough space to play because the game requires free movement around the grid, particularly to pick up any pieces which land on the floor, and you’ll need to grab those because if too many pieces fall to the floor, it’ll be game over.
Much like Tetris, once the bottom layer is filled the layer disappears. Because I was using 3D shapes, though there are some familiar shapes from the classic title, it forced me to think in more dimensions, leaving gaps open on higher layers for more blocks. For example, sending a four-block piece on its end means thinking about the three layers above the base.
At first, Flickblocks feels simple, but it quickly becomes a devious puzzler. Thankfully the gameplay loop just screams out ‘one more turn’, particularly if you, like me, enjoy trying to beat your own high scores.
Smashy Smashy VR
Your mileage may vary with Smashy Smashy VR. For some, it’ll be a few minutes of distraction, for others it might be a much-needed way to unload some stress; because this is literally a destruction simulator. I first chose a corporate office to smash up. I was throwing telephones through windows, picking up potted plants and launching them across the office to shatter TV screens. I found a fire axe and crumpled every desk into splinters. Obviously, I was having a bad day.
I then chose an overly large chess set. Kind of like those toy versions you sometimes see in parks. Except these pieces are made of concrete and I had a huge hammer. Using that hammer I decimated every single chess piece before jumping out of that world and into a supermarket.
I hate supermarkets so I grabbed a trolley (cart for those across the Atlantic) and brandished it above my head, bringing it down on each display. I pulled boxes out from the bottom of stands, watching everything tumble. I picked up six packs of beer and smashed every window I could see.
It was a satisfying fifteen minutes. It got a bit of rage out, it cracked a few smiles, but then I was done. I don’t really feel a need to pick it back up again, because there’s no tactility and the smashing can only go so far. Totally worth a little time being Smashy Smashy, though.
You’d expect social experiences to be at the forefront of Meta’s virtual reality (VR) drive but one thing that’s always been missing is the ability to directly hang out in the home environment. During Connect in 2021 Meta announced Horizon Home – rather than Oculus Home – which would eventually add that social aspect. That’s going to arrive in the Quest’s v41 update which CEO Mark Zuckerberg demonstrated today.
With Horizon Home, the whole premise is that rather than having to use a separate app to convene with friends in VR or just use voice through the party feature Quest users will be able to gather in one environment and see each other’s avatar. From there they’ll be able to jump into a game or app, making the whole experience far more seamless.
To showcase the update today Zuckerberg invited climber Alex Honnold where they watched his 360-degree film The Soloist. This is a heart-pounding, death-defying ascent up the Dolomite mountains, free climbing up sheer rock faces.
“Met up with legendary climber Alex Honnold in the new Horizon Home — launching with Quest v41 update to bring social presence into your virtual home as soon as you put on your headset,” Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post. “Invite friends to hang out, watch videos together, or jump into apps right from your virtual home. More options to customize your home space currently in development. Also, check out Alex’s 360 film The Soloist VR where he takes you 1000 ft up free climbing the Dolomites!”
The announcement hasn’t specified when v41 will arrive but considering Meta rolls these out monthly and v40 landed almost a month ago, Quest users will likely see the feature arrive in the next week or so. As always it’ll be gradual, so you might need to wait until the end of June to test the new social feature out.
Another step towards Meta’s metaverse vision, as further updates are announced gmw3 will let you know.
Of all the new virtual reality (VR) titles announced this week probably the most surprising was Killer Frequency. Coming from the same studio behind the Worms franchise, this is the first VR project from Team17 and it’s a comedy-horror of all things.
Killer Frequency centres around a local radio station set in a 1980s mid-American town where a serial killer is on the loose. You work the night shift night and have to help listeners as they’re stalked by the mysterious masked killer who’s looking to up their kill count.
As the evening DJ, you’ll be playing tunes and answering calls from listeners, engaging in conversations to carefully uncover clues and useful information. Killer Frequency will feature branching dialogue so you’ll have a variety of conversation options to interact with callers. You’ll be able to decide whether to help them or not, with multiple unlockable endings available depending on those choices.
When not making life or death decisions you’ll still have puzzles to solve, potential suspects to investigate and a charismatic producer to chat to, all while enjoying a jukebox of 1980s-inspired tunes.
But you’re not stuck in a DJ booth 24/7, you can get up and explore over 1 km² of an authentically detailed 1980s radio station featuring plenty of physics-based objects. That includes era-specific tech like a working turntable and a cassette player.
While Killer Frequency is Team17’s own in-house VR game, the studio has dipped its toes in the technology before. It helped publish Lethal VRby Three Fields Entertainment, and then there was the promising horror Allison Roadthat was cancelled.
Killer Frequencywill be coming to Meta Quest 2 as well as Steam – non-VR, only flat screen – later this year. As Team17 release further details on its first original VR IP, gmw3 will keep you updated.
Even with the absence of E3 this year, virtual reality (VR) developers haven’t shied away from announcing plenty of exciting new projects and updates that are on the horizon. For now, though, let’s look at some of the videogames coming to VR headsets over the course of next week.
Groove Fit Island!! – Ima Create Co.
Having previously released Groove Fit Kingdom! a couple of years ago for SteamVR headsets, Ima Create returns next week with a follow-up, Groove Fit Island!! Just like before, Groove Fit Island!! is all about mashing together fitness with rhythm action gameplay. It’ll feature sports such as tennis, boxing, and baseball as well as more unusual options like pizza delivery, fishing, and kendama.
If you’re looking for some all-out action with big guns and an even bigger array of customisation options then Mothergunship: Forge is the place to be. Originally a PC and consol roguelite, Mothergunship: Forge gets the VR treatment, offering an endlessly replayable experience firmly geared around mixing and matching an assortment of components to make all manner of weaponry. And you don’t need to go it alone, there’s a co-op mode so a friend can join in the carnage.
This initial release of Monster Showdown aims to give players a taste of this action-packed VR shooter. The prologue provides the first three maps – the final version will have 10 – where you can slaughter monstrous enemies with over 60 weapons for a randomised dispenser. You’ll then be able to upgrade them with Perk donuts or cash collected from fallen enemies.
For something a little more chilled there’s Bocce Time! Here, you and up to three friends can play the ancient game of Bocce in tranquil surroundings. With half a dozen different bocce courts, each will provide its own unique challenge for players, or when no one is around practice against a bot or go 1v1 a random opponent online.
Shadowgate VR: The Mines of Mythrok – Azure Drop Studios
Originally released for Meta Quest last year, now it’s the turn of PC VR players to step into Shadowgate VR: The Mines of Mythrok. A dungeon explorer able about fighting giant monsters, players will have to wield elemental magic, solve devious puzzles and unlock ancient secrets as they delve ever deeper into the mountain and its cavernous locations filled with trap-laden corridors.
MyDearest Inc is known for its virtual reality (VR) visual novels but its next title Dyschronia: Chronos Alternate slightly steps away from this genre. Due for release soon and like a lot of developers like to do this time of year the team has dropped a new trailer.
A mixture of gameplay and cinematics, this is the best look yet at Dyschronia: Chronos Alternate’s upcoming sci-fi adventure, providing a closer look at the game’s mechanics, controls and its characters.
Set within the same Chronos universe as MyDearest’s other VR projects Tokyo Chronos and ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos, Dyschronia: Chronos Alternate won’t, however, be a direct sequel. Revealing the first narrative snippets, a synopsis explains: “Players take on the role of Hal, a Special Supervisor in Astrum Close City. A futuristic marine location, Astrum Close City is a place where crime has been eradicated. When the founder of the city is suddenly murdered, Hal must step in and bring the suspect to justice.”
To do this Hal has an ability called Memory Dive which can access the memories of those around him and alter the past. Players then need to back the information up from those memories with evidence and theories to convince others.
Players will have full control over Hal to freely explore the environments and search for clues. They’ll also have to deal with Astrum Close City’s Integrated AI, winning over the AI as well as the city’s citizen’s to help uncover the mystery.
After initial expectations from the studio put Dyschronia: Chronos Alternate’s launch this past spring, MyDearest Inc. moved the release to this summer for Meta Quest 2. A Nintendo Switch version is still slated for the end of 2022. It’ll be episodic, split into three with all of them currently expected to arrive before the year-end.
Having revealed NERF Ultimate Championship, a multiplayer shooter using the iconic toys, almost exactly a year ago developer Secret Location has now released a new gameplay trailer and a release date. And there isn’t long to wait, coming to Meta Quest 2 in a couple of months.
While the first gameplay trailer back in December offered just a teasing taster of NERF Ultimate Championship’s action the new trailer gives fans an even better look at what’s to come this summer. Players will start in a social lobby before honing their skills on the parkour course, getting a feel for the freedom the arenas will offer, thanks to double jumps and wall running mechanics.
After that, why not step into the shooting range a test all the guns out, from the single-shot weapons to the motorised blasters that need to be revved up first. The trailer then showcases some of the arenas like the Colusseum with a central point that needs to be captured.
Even though NERF Ultimate Championship is action-packed, to keep players coming back for more Secret Location will be releasing multiple seasons of free content. There will be unlockable skins, avatars, blasters, new maps, new game modes, and much more.
“We want NERF Ultimate Championship to be a game that players keep coming back to over time,” said Josh Manricks, Studio Director at Secret Location. “There is a lot of exciting content planned for after release. We’ve captured the social and physical essence of NERF, with intense battles powered by dynamic, fluid movement, as well as some epic NERF blasters made exclusively for the game. All these elements, combined with maps that encourage fast-paced gameplay and constant updates of free content, will offer fans plenty of reasons to keep jumping back in with friends.”
NERF Ultimate Championship is scheduled to launch on 25th August 2022 for Quest 2. From today, eager fans can join the community Discord or head on over to Secret Location’s Dev Blog to learn more about its development. For continued VR updates, keep reading gmw3.
E3 might not be taking place this year but that isn’t stopping virtual reality (VR) developers from making a few summer announcements. The latest comes from Synth Riders developer Kluge Interactive, unveiling an arcade-style fighting title called Final Fury.
Unlike consoles where you have the likes of Street Fighter and Tekken, VR doesn’t really have many fighting videogames, with the odd exceptions being titles such as Ironlights. This is mainly due to input methods as those console fighters are renowned for combos and split-second button pressing, something that doesn’t work in VR. Final Fury looks to break ground in this field with a range of mechanics to create some epic fights.
You won’t directly punch your opponent by the look of it, instead, activating special moves and combos by quickly hitting in-game prompts – sort of like hitting buttons on a fitness reaction wall. Interestingly, Kluge states that players can view each round from first-person and third-person perspectives. How immersive this will feel switching between the two remains to be seen.
Like any fighting videogame Final Fury will have a selection of characters to choose from, with Tempest and Glitch named so far. They’ll have their own backstory, home stage environment, and music track to suit their personality.
“We grew up playing games like Street Fighter and Killer Instinct and wanted to be the first to bring this genre to VR in order to fully immerse ourselves in the fights,” says Abraham Aguero, Creative Director at Kluge.
Kluge Interactive hasn’t specified which VR headsets Final Fury will be coming to, just that it’ll be “all major VR platforms” in 2023, so that’s likely to include PlayStation VR2 and Meta Quest 2. As further updates are released, gmw3 will keep you updated.
A couple of months back nDreams and Sony Pictures Virtual Reality (SPVR) dropped a surprise announcement that work had begun on Ghostbusters VR for Meta Quest 2. Today, SPVR has revealed that the franchise is expanding even further into VR, with Ghostbusters VR also coming to PlayStation VR2 whilst a new title, Ghostbusters VR Academyis being made specifically for Hologate location-based entertainment (LBE) venues.
Ghostbuster VR (working title) is going to be a 4-player cooperative experience set in San Francisco rather than New York. It’ll be up to you and your mates to grab those proton packs and rid the city of manacing ghosts. Only a short teaser trailer has been shown so far. Considering nDreams is developing the title, its no surprise that Ghostbusters VR is coming to PlayStation VR2 as the studio has previously released the likes of Fracked for PlayStation VR.
As for Ghostbusters VR Academy, this will utilise Hologate’s unique LBE setup to offer fans a unique experience where players take on the role of ghostbusters in training. There will be two versions, one for Hologate Arena and one for Hologate Blitz. In Arena players work as a team to complete high-risk ghost encounter scenarios whilst Blitz puts them in a flying prototype ECTO vehicle.
“Ghostbusters VR Academy, the new location-based VR training experience, will continue to expand the world of Ghostbusters in a way that honours the legacy of the franchise and offers something entirely new,” says Jake Zim, Senior Vice President, Virtual Reality, Sony Pictures Entertainment. “For the first time ever, players will be able to train to be a real Ghostbuster in an amazing academy setting and race a new flying version of the ECTO using HOLOGATE’s vehicle motion simulator.”
“Sony Pictures VR is doing incredible things for virtual reality, and we’re thrilled to collaborate for this new experience,” adds Leif Petersen, CEO and HOLOGATE founder. “Ghostbusters VR Academy is a natural fit for HOLOGATE’s ARENA and BLITZ platforms. It transcends reality so players can create memorable moments while fulfilling longtime wishes to operate iconic Ghostbusters equipment. We can’t wait for players to step inside this world.”
Ghostbusters VR Academy will be coming to 400 Hologate locations by the end of 2022. The PlayStation VR2 version of Ghostbusters VR will, of course, depend on when the headset launches, currently unknown at this point. It’ll join a growing selection of titles Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) revealed during its recent State of Play event.
For continual updates on Ghostbusters VR, keep reading gmw3.
