The VR thread

[James]

Played a bit of Arizona Sunshine tonight. It's an also-ran in comparison to SuperHot, but still goofy fun. I'm learning that I need to stretch my arms to full length to get the blue cage to appear, letting me reorient myself. It's hard not to get wrapped in the Rift cord otherwise.

[Tain]

Just noticed last night that I got a free copy of The Unspoken, so I think I have all the bundled consumer software now. Grabbed SUPERHOT too, and I tried and enjoyed a few matches of Ripcoil. All in all this is a pretty great launch lineup, but I think it's kinda weird that all the bundled software is either an application (extremely good ones) or a multiplayer game. SUPERHOT seems like the showcase single-player game.

What's everyone's Oculus name? Tain here.

[Frogacuda]

Frogacuda, of course.

Robo Recall is also bundled, it's just not out yet. That, Wilson's Heart, and Lone Echo seem like Oculus' marquee single player games, but clearly it takes longer to make a campaign than some multiplayer maps.

SuperHot is not first party and only timed exclusive so that's probably why they didn't go that route. It is awesome though. Probably the game where I have the most sustained presence.

[Tain]

I thought SUPERHOT was Oculus Studios published but yeah you're right, it isn't. That makes sense. Really looking forward to the rest.

I've been eyeballing that Fly to Kuma Maker game. The original headset-only Fly to Kuma game sounded like it might be alright (polished and cute VR Lemmings), but adding motion controls is making it hard to resist. Apparently it's on Steam, too, which helps.

In other news: HTC founded Vive Studios to fund more SteamVR games, promising none of them will be hardware restricted, and Valve has donated OpenVR to Khronos (Vulkan, OpenGL), who announced their VR standard initiative. Oculus is part of that group as well.

[James]

I was pretty happy to see that last one the other day. Palmer Luckey being a major-league douche kind of soured me on my headset, especially seeing as at the time I wasn't using it much at all, but since then Oculus has made a lot of good moves. Their funded games are only timed exclusive, which I've always found fair to the company putting up the cash, and being part of an open system further pushes the platform as VR rather than a specific headset. It's way too early for console wars, and this is exactly the kind of thing that shows the companies are taking it seriously.

[Frogacuda]

In other news: HTC founded Vive Studios to fund more SteamVR games, promising none of them will be hardware restricted, and Valve has donated OpenVR to Khronos (Vulkan, OpenGL), who announced their VR standard initiative. Oculus is part of that group as well.

Good news on both accounts. Standardization will happen, but I'm glad to see OpenVR actually becoming, well... open, rather than something maintained by one of the key players. And more funding for games is always good. Still necessary, since the market is too small and too crowded to make real money, at least if your team is bigger than a couple people.

So I've gone through the stacks of freebies with Touch now. I have to say, it's one of the best bundles of free content yet, even if it is multiplayer-centric.

Dead and Buried: This is pretty much filling the multiplayer FPS void. It's nothing wildly original, and since it's teleport-based, it doesn't really have the depth of a traditional FPS, but it feels great in VR. Drawing from the hip, flip-reloading, all of it really feels nice.

VR Sports: This was pretty disappointing. While it looks cool enough and places you in the action, it gets old pretty fast. The mini-games are very small, and it feels more like a collection of tech demos. I liked this least of all the Touch games.

Ripcoil Not technically bundled, but awarded free with any purchase on the Touch store, so I got this for buying SuperHot. It's more or less Pong VR, throwing a disc back and forth and trying to catch it and throw it back. The leaning to move mechanic is pretty wild. It's challenging to master and I almost felt like I was going to fall at times, but it gives a great sense of motion. It's really thin on content and features though. Fun to play but I wouldn't have spent $10 on it.

The Unspoken: This is the stand-out killer app of the bundled software. It's multiplayer only, but the presentation is top-notch and the game has some depth to it. This feels like one that might have enough staying power to build a dedicated following and competitive scene. Insomiac is 2 for 3 with the Rift games so far. I hope they keep going.

First Contact: A Retro-computing themed demo that serves as the Touch's intro when you complete the set up. Not a game, but actually pretty slick. I've been using it to introduce people to Touch, which is what it's made for.

ToyBox: So this is a cleaned up version of the demo used to showcase Touch at tradeshows. For as much as people raved about it then, it's really a snore. Just pick stuff up and toss it around, shoot some crap, etc.

Bullet Train: Another tradeshow demo, but this one is going to be the basis of an actual game at least (Robo Recall). The demo is short and sweet, but it is pretty wild. Grabbing bullets and throwing them back at opponents is nonsense but totally fun.

Medium: Sculpt in 3D with your real hands. What surprised me about this is the extent to which it felt like a real tool, rather than a novelty like Tilt Brush. You could get work done with Medium, and it's really immersive to sit there working on a model. I will be spending more time with this.

Quill: This is more or less Oculus' answer to Tilt Brush. The interface is a little basic/ugly, but it's a lovely program that fills the Tilt Brush niche. I don't think it's useful per se but you can make some pretty neat stuff with it.

[sedition]

If you guys haven't tried Vive at all yet, you'll be pretty blown away by accurate motion controls in general.

New SPT trailer, probably for the Oculus launch. This game's pretty awesome and a great starting point for motion controlled VR:



Trailer is probably the best one I've seen for a VR game, too.

Have any of you tried SPT yet? It's really fun.

[Frogacuda]

So for a free game, Rec Room is actually pretty good stupid fun. Social/casual minigame-fest with a loose "sports" theme that is stretched enough to include things like paintball and 3D Pictionary

[James]

Damn, Christmas season! In the last month VR has gone from something I wish I played more of to dominating all my gaming time. I'm going to have to completely re-play Thumper in VR thanks to it showing me exactly how much lag I was compensating for with my monitor, a friend gifted me Smashbox Arena which is way better than it looks, Serious Sam came out today and looks ridiculously fun, etc. After months of hibernation VR is really coming into its own all of a sudden.

[Frogacuda]

Damn, Christmas season! In the last month VR has gone from something I wish I played more of to dominating all my gaming time. I'm going to have to completely re-play Thumper in VR thanks to it showing me exactly how much lag I was compensating for with my monitor, a friend gifted me Smashbox Arena which is way better than it looks, Serious Sam came out today and looks ridiculously fun, etc. After months of hibernation VR is really coming into its own all of a sudden.

You're not kidding. I've played a little bit of Dishonored 2 and Shantae: Half-Genie Hero, but almost all my gaming time goes to VR now. Part of this is Touch really making the experience better, and part of it is the tidal wave of content that arrived with it.

I'm also finding myself playing a lot more multiplayer than I normally do. The Unspoken and Rec Room are especially good.