In a surprise announcement yesterday, Orbus Online, the development team behind OrbusVR: Reborn, revealed that the game is getting a free trial demo version. This move isn’t unusual in the MMO scene as the price and time commitment is often daunting, so being able to dip your toe into the world and see if you like it first makes a lot of sense. However, it’s a bit shocking how generous the free trial actually is.
Instead of just letting you test out the mechanics or level up a tiny bit before asking you to pay, the free trial lets you get all the way to level 10 on all eight classes. That’s halfway to the level cap and covers several hours of content. Demo users also cannot trade or use the Auction House, but those seem to be the only real limitations.
OrbusVR: Reborn is a ground-up overhaul of the original OrbusVR that adds a ton of new content and improves everything about the base game. It’s now the only version out there and is cross-play between all platforms for a true, seamless VR MMO experience.
The demo is only available on Steam right now (sorry Quest users) but if you buy it on Oculus Home after trying the Steam demo, your account and all progress will still carry over:
After playing the demo, the full game can be purchased, and you can pick right back up where you left off to continue your journey toward max level. Note that the demo is on the Steam store but works with SteamVR (including Vive and Index) and Oculus Rift headsets. If you choose to purchase on the Oculus store after trying the demo, you can still continue from where you left off.
You can download the demo and give it a whirl already right now over on the OrbusVR: Reborn Steam page. Let us know what you think down in the comments below!
Remember Waltz of the Wizard? It was a free VR experience that launches around the same time as the HTC Vive. Developer Aldin built a magical showcase of room scale and hand-tracked VR. Now, with the Vive semi-succeeded by the Valve Index, developer Aldin Dynamics is doing a remaster.
Waltz of the Wizard: Extended Edition is due out on July 10 and adds full support for the Index controllers. Not only that, but this edition adds brand new spells and interactive objects. It’s also had a visual tune-up and some performances improvements to bring it in line with 2019 standards. You can see them in the below footage, which focuses on the finger tracking afforded by the Index Controllers. Pure magic, we say!
Like a lot of Aldin’s work, this is very much a showcase rather than a full ‘game’, but its digital playgrounds have always been a treat to explore. Here you can try out different spells, resizing objects and firing fireworks from your hands. It’s a great way to test the limits of current VR technology.
With all the new additions, the Extended Edition won’t be free. It will cost $9.99, though Aldin is planning a heavy launch window discount of 40% (so about $6). This version of the app will still support other headsets like Rift, Vive and Windows VR, but obviously won’t include the finger tracking there.
Elsewhere Aldin has its VR tracking tool, Ghostline, to maintain. We’re not sure we’ll see any truly ‘new’ experiences from the developer in the future but we sure hope we will.
We took a month off in May (forgive us! E3!) but June’s Steam Hardware Survey results are in. Put simply, they don’t show much change in the overall landscape.
The Oculus Rift still leads the charge with 44.12% of the overall VR headset usage on Steam. Pairing the 40.76% share that HTC Vive has with the 1.66% share of the Vive Pro, HTC is at 42.42%. That’s a difference of just 1.7% between the two headsets. That’s about half of last month’s difference of 3.82%. However it’s not as simple as it all seems.
We still don’t know if this month’s results include the Oculus Rift S in its findings. We’ve reached out to Valve to ask, but given the results group the Vive and Vive Pro differently it doesn’t seem likely. It even has separate listings for Rift’s DK1 and Dk2 headsets. Similarly, we don’t know if these results include the newly-launched Vive Pro Eye. And, of course, they clearly don’t include Valve’s new headset, the Index, which started arriving on people’s doors right at the end of June.
If Rift S isn’t included, then it’s not surprising to see Vive gain ground. Oculus stopped selling the original Rift months ago now in preparation for Rift S launch.
Rounding out this month’s results is Windows VR’s 11.13% share. That’s a modest jump over last month’s 10.99%.
Either way, we’re still looking forward to when these headsets are properly indexed (pun intended) on Steam. The survey is optional and not a definitive means of reporting on the VR market share, but it’s the best we’ve got as it stands.
Despite rising popularity, VR has always struggled to standout at major gaming events. That’s why we put on the first ever E3 VR Showcase last month. Next month, though, a number of independent VR developers will band together to showcase their latest projects at one of the industry’s biggest events – Gamescom.
The 2019 iteration of the show, hosted in Cologne, Germany, will be the first to feature The VR Games Showcase, presented by Perp Games. The showcase will feature the likes of Fast Travel Games (Apex Construct), Neat Corporation (Budget Cuts), Carbon Studio (The Wizards), Survios (Creed: Rise to Glory), Resolution Games (Bait!) and Cortopia Studios (Wands). Each will be showing off new titles on their way to headsets in the near future.
Focused on media and content creators at its first event, the showcase will offer hands-on time with games and access to their developers. For VR, this is an unprecedented unification of studios. It’s something that Andreas Juliusson, Marketing & Communications Manager at Fast Travel Games, says needs to happen.
“During my years as marketer in the flat screen gaming industry, I got to see the value in being present at the biggest gaming conventions where media and content creators gathered,” Juliusson said. “The reality for most VR games developers today however, with the industry still relatively young, is that we often do not have the financial resources or the expertise to make an impact on these events by ourselves.
“This got me thinking: What if I would reach out to other studios in the same situation as us and ask them to join forces in a combined initiative, where we could share costs and efforts? I was immediately met with massive interest and soon after, we found a sponsor in global games publisher Perp Games who helped bring the initiative to life. Come August, six awesome developers are premiering with ‘The VR Games Showcase’ together at Gamescom and we could not be more excited!”
In its first event, the showcase is only open to members of the media and content creators. Juliusson says, however, that if the show is successful it will come to other shows and maybe to the public.
So what can you expect at the show? We’ve rounded up the announced titles below.
Budget Cuts 2: Mission Insolvency
Neat Corp and Fast Travel Games’ unexpected sequel was one of the big reveals at our E3 VR Showcase. This event will offer the first hands-on with the project.
The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets
This is another offering from Fast Travel. It’s an adorable-looking puzzler that plays with small-scale VR. Again, first hands-on is on offer at the show.
Acron
The latest from Resolution Games, Acron is a fast-paced multiplayer title between VR and mobile users. Its crazy brand of action will be playable at the show.
The Wizards: Dark Times
This is a standalone expansion to Carbon Studios’ successful magical VR game, The Wizards. We had a CG trailer at the E3 VR Showcase, but first hands-on is at Gamescom.
An Adventure In Wonderland (Name Not Final)
This is the first we’ve heard about the new game from Cortopia Studios. Full details are expected to be revealed during Gamescom itself.
The Walking Dead Onslaught
More VR zombie-slaying awaits in the latest VR title from Survios. Onslaught promises to bring together the team’s past learnings for a truly gory shooter experience.
You don’t see a lot of sequels in the VR space yet. Not only is it rare to have a game successful enough to fund and/or warrant a follow-up, but consumer VR headsets just haven’t been around very long yet so developers haven’t had the time. Well, Vertigo 2 from Zulubo Productions is bucking those trends.
The original Vertigo came out in late 2016 and we called it “a decent stab at an indie Half-Life” in VR. Notably, it lacked the polish to be as transcendent as it could have been. If this trailer is any indication, the sequel could be righting most of the wrongs we had with its predecessor:
Not only does Vertigo 2 look like a wild ride, it sounds like one too. This is what the Steam page says:
Deep underground in the reaches of Quantum Reactor VII, you awake to finish your journey home. No closer to your goal than when you first arrived, you must count on the help of the mysteriously familiar stranger who saved your life. On your way towards the center of the reactor, you will have to face bizarre alien flora and fauna leaking from other universes – and deadly android security forces whose job is to purge the Reactor of all life. As you try to determine who to trust, sinister forces lurk just out of sight.
With a branching story hinging on key decisions, there’s no telling what you’ll encounter in this absurd world. The only certainty is that there’s danger around every corner.
We’ll be eagerly awaiting more details on this one. The Steam page says it’s coming in 2020 and it has support for Vive, Windows VR, and Index listed (notably no Rift) but we don’t know more beyond that. Let us know what you think of it down in the comments below!
Hot Dogs, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades – often referred to colloquially as H3VR – stands out in the saturated sea of VR shooters for a few reasons. For one, it features anthropomorphized sausages as its enemies, making this a relatively child-friendly shooter. Rather than be about respawn rates and fragging enemies, it’s billed more as a gun shooting simulator with hyper-realistic and intricate interactions. It’s also never on sale, owing to RUST LTD’s faith in their product and it’s value – for good reason, too. H3VR has over 70 updates, notably including this week’s Meat Fortress event, all of which have been released free of charge since the game entered Early Access in 2016. It’s this that really makes H3VR stand out from the pack, the exhaustive dedication to iterative improvement.
Anton Hand, CTO of RUST LTD, was kind enough to lend me his time to help explain this phenomenon. H3VR’s Early Access state came about essentially due to Hand’s virality and the HTC Vive’s initial launch. Upon uploading some test footage in early 2016 of him goofing around with gun models in VR, viewers started asking for him to release something to coincide with the Vive’s launch that they, too, could play with. His plan was initially to rush out the “beginning structure of an early access game,” Hand explained, adding that they’d be incredibly open about their intention to update it frequently.
“Something that’s very philosophically ‘us’ is the opposite of the ‘hard sell'”, Hand added, alluding to the fact that they never wanted to pressure people into buying their game only to end up feeling disappointed. They’d much rather their community adopts the approach of “Follow along, we’re doing weekly videos and putting out weekly updates, buy in when/if it looks interesting enough for you to pay for.”
Though they initially planned to leave Early Access some time in 2018, H3VR still hasn’t seen a 1.0 release, because, “The experiments are ongoing and this is a project that [is] reactive to its community, ” as Hand put it. A key example of this is the Take and Hold mode, which “stemmed from [me] wanting to do a lighting test with a modular hallway kit”, and after fans flocked to the mode and expressed their approval, ended up getting “several iterations of improvement,” from the team.
Update #52 was so large that it took them around 3 months to complete and “was the most extensive refactor of the game’s systems that it ever got… especially given the complexity of it, [it was a] more extensive rebuild than a game tends to get,” Hand remarked, adding that “I think a lot of people probably would have just released a brand new game at that point,” but they were determined to see out their vision of H3VR.
I commented that some of these updates were easily expansive enough to qualify as DLC, but questioned why they’d kept everything free. His response was cheerful but he clearly has a strict code of conduct: “I’ve joked for a while that we’re a live service game that you only pay for once… I’m very much not [a fan of the] monetization strategies of our industry, I find them sort of predatory.”
“There are two reasons why these various updates aren’t structured like DLCs that you pay for,” Hand said. The first of which is technical, mentioning that they were strictly aiming for regular updates, so anything that would slow that infrastructure down is an immediate red flag. “The second one is just a general, philosophical/emotional [reason, that] there are people who’ve been following this game for several years who save up their pennies and buy into VR – especially young kids,” and the last thing Hand wants is “little Timmy to buy the game because he got a VR system for Christmas as his one gift,” only to discover that “he doesn’t have 80% of the guns because he doesn’t have the money to buy them for $2.99 each.”
“If you’re a creator and you’re trying to make something that’s a positive part of someone’s day and existence, that just isn’t something you do to other people who you care about,” Hand explained. “If I had to do that to survive making media products, I wouldn’t make media products, I would go be a carpenter or something – I just don’t believe in doing that to people.”
He embellished this with the story of a holiday event that he ran over one December. “I got through my head to do [this] advent calendar where I did an update a day from December 1st to December 25th.” These updates included a hidden advent box that would unlock new guns, grenades, and more for players to enjoy, and despite describing it as a gruelling experience that he’d grossly underestimated the workload for, the response was overwhelming. “I was originally like ‘no, there’s no way I’m ever going to do that [again]’,” but he received some heartwarming messages from the community: “[They told me] how important it was to them, one guy [wrote] ‘you’re the only one that got me anything for Christmas this year.'”
Another recently separated fan felt that the event gave him a reason to keep living “and so I always try to do something special [for] the holidays, and I think even after we hit [version 1.0] for H3VR… I will absolutely keep doing the holiday stuff… because that kind of stuff is so special to some people,” Hand remarked.
If Hand’s passion for his craft was ever in question, you’d need look no further than his YouTube channel. He uploads fairly regular devlog videos and his most recent upload is an excellent example. While discussing the Team Fortress 2 weapons that they’ve implemented into H3VR for the Meat Fortress update, we get a good insight into his perspective. Not only is he incredibly respectful of the source material he’s working with, going to great lengths to maintain as much authenticity as he can while also adapting the guns to realistic physics, but you can hear genuine glee in his voice when he’s testing out the weapons.
He left me with an eye-opening take on the current state of the gaming industry and why live service models are effective: “You’re not actually fighting for anyone’s money, anymore. Actually, you’re fighting for minutes of their time; that’s the commodity now. You are trying to deliver something that’s worth their time, not trying to pick money out of their wallet, because we’ve reached saturation in this industry.”
Another game that surprised me with the depth of free updates is the chaotic Sairento VR, which received a new Oculus Quest spinoff this week. Despite launching in Early Access in 2016 and later releasing in 2018, they still weren’t done iterating on Sairento VR. I posed my questions to Aldric Chang, CEO of Mixed Realms, about their title. “Sairento VR was born of a desire [to] mesh the iconic ‘bullet-time’ scenes from The Matrix, the slow-motion mayhem of Max Payne… while looking and feeling as badass as the Bride from Kill Bill,” Chang explained. “Our mistake was coming out of EA a tad early, but that [didn’t stop] us from continuing to roll out updates.”
They were striving for perfection with their updates, Chang told me, clarifying that “Of course there is no true perfection as a game can always be improved, but we think that we owe it to our fans to at least bring the game to a state where they can play it the way we intended for them to.” This desire to serve their fans was important to them, stating that, “As a game developer, we are clear that we answer chiefly to our fans. We owe any sales and success to them…they deserve the best that we can give them. And if something can be improved, we want to do it.”
Unlike H3VR, however, this approach was never really part of the plan for SairentoVR. Chang and the team “simply felt that we owed it to our fans to make the game as good as we could make it. It was clear at least to us that Sairento still needed improvement in some areas, so we decided to work on them.” He also elaborated on how the fans can – and often should – be a part of this process: “The ‘jump’ mechanic that defines Sairento now… The player feedback was tremendously in favor of making this the default option.”
As with Hand, I asked why these updates remained free of charge, and Chang reiterated a similar sense of morality. “Of course we could have waited to compile all the updates and sold them as a DLC but that would mean delaying the updates. That wouldn’t be right…we had many bugs in the earlier iterations of our game…we wanted to give away the later updates to reward our fans for being patient with us.”
It was humbling to hear this sentiment of loyalty to the fans echoed throughout our interview. “Players don’t want to be told what they can’t experience – only to be shown what they can,” Chang concluded.
Both H3VR and Sairento VR are notable titles that wouldn’t be what they are today without the tireless work of their developers. These are shining examples of how continual iteration can be the ethical future of gaming, and we can only hope other developers follow suit.
The grand prix-themed Steam Summer Sale kicked off today, June 25, and will run until July 9 featuring discounts on over 1,200 different VR-supports games and apps. If you’re looking for the next big rhythm game to dominate your headset or an immersive world to get lost in, check out what the Steam Summer Sale has to offer. With prices slashed so low, you really don’t have much to lose beyond a few dollars.
With Psychonauts 2 progressing even further in its development now is the perfect time to try out the VR-only predecessor Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin. Superhot VR builds on what made the first game successful, and I Expect You to Die is a game that could only exist in virtual reality. The majority of games participating in the sale are available on both Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, with several also supporting Valve Index and Windows Mixed Reality.
Below are some of our selected picks for the Steam Summer Sale that are great values. Prices listed are what the games cost after discount. Now, get to buying a few of them and see why so many others have fallen in love with them already!
Following months of steep discounts, most of the Windows VR headsets have vanished from Microsoft’s online store and are showing limited or no stock at other retailers. Microsoft has yet to offer an explanation, but signs are pointing toward discontinuation of some headsets.
Update (July 8th, 2019): Since the original article was published, the Lenovo Explorer headset has also vanished from the Microsoft Store, leaving just the Samsung Odyssey+ and the Asus VR headset (though the latter remains out of stock).
Responding to Road to VR’s inquiry about the disappearance of most of the Windows VR headsets from the company’s store, a Microsoft spokesperson said, “While select Windows Mixed Reality headsets are currently out of stock at the Microsoft Store, Samsung HMD Odyssey+ Windows Mixed Reality headsets remain available,” but offered no further information.
Original Article (June 24th, 2019): Six different companies have offered one or more Windows VR headsets—Samsung, Lenovo, HP, Dell, Asus, and Acer—since the introduction of the Windows Mixed Reality platform back in 2017. Previously, many of these headsets could be found at Microsoft’s online store and elsewhere.
For at least a week, the Windows Mixed Reality headsets store page has show just three headsets, two of which are out of stock. Elsewhere, signs point to the possibility of discontinuation.
Image captured by Road to VR
Samsung’s official site is no longer list the original Odyssey headset for sale, though continues to show it as a “Support Only Product.” The newer Odyssey+ is still for sale.
At Best Buy, the Dell VR headset is seeing a “clearance” discount, while the Acer VR headset is sold out. (The only other headset available from Best Buy, HP Reverb, is also listed as sold out, but it was just launched and we know that more stock is due in July)
On Amazon US, the Dell, HP (original), Lenovo, and Acer VR headsets are all listed as having “Only X left in stock,” with most showing in the single digits. The Asus headset is “currently unavailable,” while the original Odyssey headset appears to be in good stock.
Image captured by Road to VR
At Dell’s online store, searching ‘mixed reality’ returns results for the Odyssey+, HTC Vive, Vive Pro, and DAQRI smart glasses, but not the company’s own VR headset. At the online stores of Lenovo, Acer, and Asus, I’ve also been unable to find product pages where the headsets could be purchased. HP’s original VR headset appears in stock at the company’s online store.
Considering the underlying similarities between the headsets, it’s possible that a common component is short on stock and has caused manufacturing delays for a slew of Windows VR headsets. It also seems plausible that many of the headsets have been discontinued as Microsoft and its hardware partners have shown minimal enthusiasm for the VR side of the Windows Mixed Reality Platform in the years following its launch.
Road to VR contacted Microsoft about the disappearance of many of the Windows VR headsets from its store; the company has been in contact but has not offered an official comment on the situation after more than a week.
With the recent releases of Team Sonic Racing and Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled, you’re likely in the mood to try even more kart racing. Ivanovich Games has an eccentric new option for you, Touring Karts, which lets you fire powerful weapons at your enemies and even drink tasty beverages as you race around the track.
Coming in late 2019 to PlayStation VR, Windows Mixed Reality, Oculus, and Vive platforms, Touring Karts features 22 separate tracks, 45 power-ups, and 30 different karts. The karts themselves are modeled after real F1 designs, and you can choose to play with national teams from all over the world.
It will include both online and story modes, and there are several different view options, depending on your preference. These include a dizzy-free option sitting in an arcade cabinet, first-person, room-scale, or third-person views. Several control options are available, as well, including steering wheels, handheld controllers, gamepads, and the 3dRudder accessory.
Touring Karts will support cross-platform play, but that’s not the only thing you can mix up. You can combine the various power-ups to create all-new tools during races. Merging a banana peel with a bazooka will create a banana launcher, which is perfect for disrupting distant opponents.
We’re now over three years past the launch of the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, but developers are still making wave-based combat games. Although I initially wrote off Ninja Legends as just another wave-based VR game recycling assets and gameplay mechanics, it’s actually really fun and well-made with an addictive slow-motion system and satisfying ways to slice enemies in half and lop off body parts.
But don’t worry: this isn’t ultra-realistic gore and dismemberment like you’d find in games such as Blade & Sorcery, The Walking Dead: Onslaught, or Asgard’s Wrath. It’s got a very cartoon-style aesthetic which helps alleviate the subject matter and lets you focus on the fun of a good slash. What makes the system so fun is that it isn’t canned animations at all. If you slice through an enemy with enough force you can actually cleave the character model itself into bits.
Slice horizontally through the stomach? You just cut that ninja in half. Slice just the top of the head? Then you’ve lopped off the skull cap instantly. The same applies to body parts too — slice down diagonally and you could catch the arm, torso, and leg in one fell swoop. Frankly, it’s the kind of dismemberment I was hoping to see in a game such as Asgard’s Wrath.
I spent a little bit of time playing the Oculus Quest version and I had fun with it. There is some good environment variety, enemies actually keep you on your toes once you get deeper into the waves, and there are some good ideas at play.
My biggest gripe with Ninja Legends is the lack of physics on collisions. In Swords of Gargantua, Blade & Sorcery, and lots of other recent VR games weapons collide with the environment and other weapons so that you can’t phase them through objects. Or when you parry and block attacks, enemy weapons bounce off. Instead, Ninja Legends just has some haptic feedback and then shows a spark animation to let you know you blocked it. Otherwise, the enemy completes their attack as if they hit you.
For example, you can build up a special gauge to then unleash weapons other than your dual katanas, such as ultra-powerful arrows fired from a bow that makes the whole world go slow-motion. Everything slows down when you block as well, giving you time to retaliate with quick powerful slashes.
At its heart Ninja Legends is still just another wave-based combat game, which is a shame, but at least it isn’t a sci-fi wave shooter…right? It’s got 18 levels, 4 difficult modes, 6 different weapons, 4 different super skills, leaderboards, and daily challenges. Price is unknown still, but I can’t imagine it’ll be very pricey.
Coinflip Studios, the developer, was founded last year and this appears to be their first and only project so it’s not a bad showing for a new group of developers.
Ninja Legends is slated to hit Steam Early Access on July 11 with support for Rift, Vive, Index, and Windows VR and then is slated to come to Quest and Rift on Oculus Home in August. Let us know what you think down in the comments below!
This is the first we’ve heard about the new game from Cortopia Studios. Full details are expected to be revealed during Gamescom itself.
