Category: warpaint

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Something for the Weekend: RPGs and Futuristic Racers on Sale on Steam

Let us guess, you need a brand new virtual reality (VR) experience to get you in the mood for the weekend, right? Of course you do! Below we’ve listed some of the very best VR videogame you’ll find on Steam, and they’re all discounted too! HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and Windows Mixed Reality users will find plenty to get excited about in the list below…

Vanishing Realms: Rite of Steel

Vanishing Realms - Rite of Steel screenshot

Compatability: HTC Vive, Oculus Rift

Got an urge to go cave spelunking in virtual reality? Well good news, Vanishing Realms: Rite of Steel might be exactly what you’re looking for. It’s still in early access, but with a nice discount and overwhelmingly positive reviews, there’s not much to lose out on here. Even we think it’s a fascinating experience.

At £8.99 down from £14.99 it’s a good time to jump into Vanishing Realms.

The Sniper VR

Sniper Rust VR screenshot 1

Compatability: HTC Vive, Oculus Rift

Go on a variety of missions and snipe your opponents from afar in The Sniper VR. Here you’ll have to keep a steady hand to aim your rifle and shoot down opponents from miles away. You’ll get 16 unique sniper missions, 6 rifles, 7 scopes and much more with The Sniper VR, and at this price it’s hard to argue with what it offers.

The Sniper VR is now £4.94, down from £10.99.

Redout

Redout image 2

Compatability: HTC Vive, Oculus Rift

Redout is a love letter to the futuristic racers of the past, and also a statement of intent for the future. Boasting some of the nicest, most impressive graphics of any racing game, combining that with blitzing speeds, great visuals and arcade-like controls and you have yourself a modern VR masterpiece.

With 50% off Redout is only £14.99, so get it now.

AirMech Command

AirMech: Command screenshot

Compatability: HTC Vive, Oculus Rift

Take control from above the ground in AirMech Command, where you’ll be looming over a holographic battlefield, moving around your infantry units and turning the tides of war. Play solo, with friends or against them in this action RTS.

AirMech Command has 60% off, making it only £6.00 right now.

Mervils: A VR Adventure

Mervils A VR Adventure screenshot

Compatability: HTC Vive, Oculus Rift

Take your crew on a VR adventure in Mervils, the RPG platformer built so you can experience all of the action in VR. Defeat Balazar the Evil and save the four Mervil worlds. This experience will last you between 6-8 hours and you’ll have loads of fun along the way.

Mervils: A VR Adventure is now only £7.49 on Steam.

MineSweeper VR

minesweeper vr

Compatability: HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Windows Mixed Reality

Okay, so yes, it’s Minesweeper but in VR. We’re not trying to trick you here, the use of 3D game board and flag you can place yourself make MineSweeper VR the most interesting and interactive version of the classic game yet.

On top of that, it’s only £1.95. Not bad!

The Town of Light

The Town of Light screenshot

Compatability: Oculus Rift

The Town of Light isn’t exactly a light hearted experience to get you through the January blues, instead it’s a much more somber experience that asks you to patiently understand the woes of living with mental health issues, and takes a different approach to the horror genre.

The Town of Light is now only £4.33 on Steam.

Starway Fleet

Starway Fleet

Compatability: HTC Vive

Take your ship to the outer reaches of our galaxy and shoot down your foes in Starway Fleet. Take part in missions either by yourself or with a few friends, and soon you’ll dominate the universe.

Starway Fleet is now only £5.03.

Warpaint

warpaint

Compatability: HTC Vive, Oculus Rift

Warpaint is a physics based board game where you use dwarves to strike fear into the hearts of your enemies. Fling catapults and siege enemy fortresses and you climb the online rankings.

Warpaint is now only £3.49.

TO THE TOP

to the top

Compatability: HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Windows Mixed Reality

TO THE TOP is essentially a VR obstacle course where you’ll have to fling yourself through 35 levels in order to get yoursefl TO THE TOP. The challenge doesn’t stop there though, as you compete online for the best times – there was a multiplayer update back in November, too!

TO THE TOP is 20% off on Steam, making it £15.19.

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‘Warpaint’ Brings Tabletop Gaming-inspired Turn-based Strategy & Customization to VR

Recently launched on Steam, Warpaint is a turn-based strategy game that lets you customize your troops by painting them to your taste. The game supports both Mac and PC, and features VR support via SteamVR (Vive, Rift, and OSVR). Taking inspiration from board and tabletop games like hexagonal chess and Warhammer, Warpaint’s gameplay is easy to pick up but hard to master.

Real-time strategy gaming seems to suit VR pretty well, but few developers have chosen the turn-based approach; Warpaint shows that the more sedate pace of turn-based strategy is a natural fit for VR too. Commanding an army of dwarves with different movement abilities, the gameplay is mostly tactical, and played with a surprisingly high degree of tension, thanks to the ever-present threat of catapults.

With red projectiles reminiscent of the balls from board game Weapons and Warriors, the catapults introduce a dextrous aspect to Warpaint’s gameplay that, like many action board games, benefits from a skilled aim and a bit of luck. Catapults have the potential to change the momentum of a game—pulling off a double kill with a lucky bounce for example—but there is always a danger of taking out your own pieces too.

Friendly fire triggers some amusing ‘sorry!’ and ‘whyyy?’ dialogue from the dwarves; the voice acting is a stand-out feature, adding a healthy slice of charm to what is otherwise a rather plain presentation. I’d like to hear a wider selection of dialogue, perhaps even a battle announcer. Certainly a narrator for the tutorial would be welcome.

Warpaint doesn’t have the graphical chops to produce the most enticing screenshots or footage, but the straightforward style at least works effectively in VR with clean edges and high performance. No doubt the game would make a better first impression with a few additional effects, combined with a more integrated visual design for the UI and in-game motion controller models.

Otherwise, the game presents itself as a solid production, with well-balanced gameplay and a great set of features, including ranked matchmaking. You can play online or locally, against friends or AI, with VR users and monitor users playing together. The VR implementation isn’t attempting to reinvent the wheel here, it’s simply an effective and compelling option. While the game allows instant teleporting around the play area from multiple scales; the most useful tactical view is from above and at a distance, meaning that monitor users shouldn’t feel at a disadvantage, although I did find it easier to gauge my catapult shots using a headset.

It would be useful to have a way of adjusting the distances between different camera scale toggles, as the lower option sometimes feels too close, and the next height up sometimes feels too far away, and perhaps an option to rotate the view during or after a teleport could help those using ‘standing’ VR mode.

Aside from the joy of firing catapults in first person, the Army Painter system is the most interesting use of VR in the game, which allows dwarf customisation in the same way one might paint Games Workshop miniatures. Rotating the piece in one hand while airbrushing the fiddly bits with the other captures the feel of the hobby in a satisfying, impressively robust way. A system allowing for full customization, including limb-posing and accessorizing with different pieces of armor and weapons would take things to a whole new level and we hope it will be considered for future versions of the game.

Warpaint’s modest asking price is perhaps representative of the fairly small amount of content available, but it is a game made with care that deserves your attention. Developer Adam Thompson has been actively responding to initial feedback, having already rolled out fixes and improvements: the full details are available on the game’s Steam page.

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