Category: VRTV

Posted on

Nina Takes On An Alien Invasion In Crowe: The Drowned Armory

Rogue Initiative’s Crowe: The Drowned Armory has impressed since its debut last year, so VRFocus‘ Nina decided to dive in and see what she’d been missing. Available now for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, Crowe: The Drowned Armory is an action-adventure videogame designed specifically for VR, and Nina lets us know what she thinks in the video below.

Crowe: The Drowned Armory takes place as aliens invade a once-peaceful society, and the protagonist, Crowe, a young village boy, must solve puzzles and uncover the mysteries of an ancient temple in order to save his race and his culture.

Pete Blumel, Crowe: The Drowned Armory’s Creative Director and studio co-founder, wants players to know this is something different; “This is not a game, ‘Crowe‘ is a cinematic interactive experience that combines puzzle solving, character interaction and combat with an epic ending built in a virtual reality world.”

Originally launched in May 2017, Crowe: The Drowned Armory has since benefitted from numerous updates. The lastest, in October 2017, saw the addition of a brand new gameplay mode: Survival Arena.

“We listened to the community feedback. Now continue the fight against a slew of updated enemy types in Crowe: Survival Arena features new environments and new enemy types! Fighting high above the valley floor, you must defend your lofty platform or teleport to another before it’s destroyed beneath your feet. In “Survival Arena”, switch between weapon types and teleport between platforms strategically while battling various enemy types,” reads the description of the update on the official Steam Store page for Crowe: The Drowned Armory.

Crowe: The Drowned Armory is available now on Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, with PlayStation VR support planned for the future. To see what Nina thinks watch the video below, and for all of the latest VR news, stay on VRFocus.

Posted on

It’s all About Outsmarting Your Enemy in Brass Tactics

VRFocus has already covered Brass Tactics in this previous preview, but it’s always good to get a refreshing look at the same game. From the makers of Age of Empires II comes a real-time strategy (RTS) videogame where you have to destroy the enemies’ castle and defend your own. Hidden Path Entertainment has several other virtual reality (VR) titles on different platforms, but Oculus has funded and supported the making of Brass Tactics, so it makes sense that the videogame is coming exclusively to Oculus Rift with Touch later this Fall.

Brass Tactics has a five mission campaign and a skirmish mode as well, with head-to-head versus and an interesting two player co-op against an AI opponent with two different personality types. You’ve got twenty minutes to defeat the enemy and this game will feel very familiar to anybody who has played RTS games. It’s tabletop, and you’ll be able to see what your enemy is doing on the map. Expect to be kept on your toes as you try and outsmart, outflank and outmaneuver your enemy.

To find out more about the videogame watch the video below.

Posted on

Is The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR worth getting on PlayStation VR?

Bethesda Softworks showcased three virtual reality (VR) videogames at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles this year. VRFocus has already covered Doom VFR, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR and Fallout 4 VR with previews during E3, but now it’s Nina’s turn to go over her impressions. 

So in this edition of VRTV Nina gets into how The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR plays and answers the questions everybody is asking: Is it worth getting for PlayStation VR? Does it add to the expereince? And most importantly is it worth purchasing a videogame you might well have yet again? Nina goes into the weapons, movement and how realistic The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR is – including how even the easiest enemies can give you a fright when you’re actually in Skyrim.

You can find the video below, and if you missed the last VRTV in which Nina got to grips with Fallout 4 VR, you can catch up here.

Posted on

Get a Taste of Slice & Dice In Our New Gameplay Video

Earlier this month we saw the launch of Slice & Dice, the sweet virtual reality (VR) puzzler that sees players slice and dice through blocks in order to solve a variety of puzzles. We’ve had a look at Slice & Dice ourselves, and in our new gameplay video Pete shows you how the game is played.

The aim of developer VRotein’s Slice & Dice is to get the die or dice onto a coloured square on the floor by cutting through blocks and other obstacles that get in its way. To get the biggest possible score you want to focus on solving each puzzle in as few slices as possible, offering plenty of replay value.

Slice & Dice screenshot 2

We’ve reviewed Slice & Dice, and although we had our qualms, we enjoyed the experience, saying; “VRotein claim Slice & Dice has over 20 hours of gameplay but that’s not necessarily the case as this is completely dependent on how good you are at this type of videogame. What can be said is that the latter levels will test your patience so you may want to put those controllers down once in a while. If you want a novel VR challenge, you can’t go wrong with Slice & Dice.”

You can watch Pete have his fair share of fun and mild frustrations in our gameplay video below – for all of the latest on VR videogames and the industry, keep reading VRFocus.

Posted on

VRTV Weekly Recap: Apple Gets into VR, MergeVR Launches Dev Fund and Oculus Brings VR to US Libraries

Sit back, relax and catch up on the latest virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) news from around the world. Every Thursday Nina from VRFocus brings you bite size juicy news, giving you a little round-up video that encapsulates the last seven days, so you don’t have to.

This week Apple showcased their support for VR at their Worldwide Developer Conference, MergeVR announced a $1million fund for any VR or AR devs to build for their platform, Oculus is bringing VR education to libraries around California, Valve have revealed a new update for the HTC Vive, EVE: Valkyrie gets permanent price drop at 33% and things might get explosive with the announcement that Breaking Bad might have a VR experience.

Check back next Thursday for another VRTV recap of the news.

Posted on

VRTV Weekly Recap: HTC Vive, Xbox Scorpio, Pokemon GO and more

With virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) continually snowballing with each passing week it can be difficult keeping up with what’s happening. So every Thursday VRFocus brings you a nice little round-up of the biggest news stories from the past seven days all in video format for you to watch whilst having your lunch.

This week has seen HTC Vive and Intel combine efforts on a WiGig wireless solution for the headset, Xbox stating this months Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) will ‘blow your mind’, Niantic rolling out an anti cheat update for Pokemon GO, Samsung reveal a price and release date for Gear 360, the release of Star Trek: Bridge Crew and loads more.

Check back the same time next Thursday for another VRTV recap of the news.

This week’s stories, click here for more information on each:

Posted on

VRTV Weekly Roundup: Microsoft AR, Google Daydream and Oculus Rift

Celebrate Thursday and the approaching weekend with the latest edition of the VRTV roundup covering all the hottest news from the past seven days. This week sees some news from Microsoft, Google and Oculus.

The last week has seen details of the upcoming updates and enhancements to Google’s Daydream platform which is incorporating social features like YouTube co-watching, plus Microsoft researchers producing a prototype of AR glasses that don’t look silly. Oculus is also working on an update for Gear VR that will bring in a new dashboard and also an upgrade for Oculus room-scale support.

Check out the full video recap below.

Posted on

Switch side are you on? VRTV Becomes the Boss on Nemesis Perspective

Videogames are littered with epic boss battles that challenge players skills to the max, but they’re always AI controlled. What would happen if that boss was controlled by a friend instead? Well that’s the idea behind Evocat Games’ HTC Vive title Nemesis Perspective, and VRTV’s reporter Nina has given her verdict in today’s video.

The premise is simple, the player who dons the headset becomes the all powerful boss, a gigantic purple creature with massive hands to slay would be attackers. While a second player controls the small agile attacker using a gamepad and screen. There’s also a single-player mode where the hero is controlled by via AI.

Checkout the video below to see what Nina thinks of the experience, and come back next week for another VRFocus video.

Posted on

VRTV’s Weekly Roundup: Google’s Standalone Headset, Microsoft’s New Controllers, HTC Vive Financing and Loads More

Well what a week its been since VRFocus’ last VRTV roundup. With conferences galore from Microsoft and Google its been wall to wall hardware news. So this week’s video from Nina is stuffed full of the best bits in case you missed any of it.

Last saw Microsoft release further details on its new ‘Mixed Reality’ head-mounted display (HMD), whilst launching pre-orders for the dev kits, the second installment of horror title Syren has arrived from Hammerhead VR, and Google just happened to confirm a standalone Daydream headset that would be manufactured by HTC.

This week’s stories, click here for more information on each:

Posted on

VRTV’s Weekly Round-up: VR Training for Trauma, Marvel Games, Nvidia, Bloody Zombies & More

It never rains but it pours in the world of virtual reality (VR). There can be times when the news seems a little barren and at other points there’s so much going on it can be hard to keep up. As VRFocus’ Nina does every Thursday, she’s rounds-up some of the biggest and best stories, with a few quirky ones for your viewing pleasure.

This week’s VRTV features Nvidia and how the company is working towards reducing VR latency, Facebook and its plans for shows that include VR dating, Oculus and its VR for Good Creators Lab, Marvel examining the prospect of VR, and Paw Print Games’ videogame Bloody Zombies.

This week’s stories, click here for more information on each: