The VR Conundrum

Review: Downward Spiral: Horus Station



This budget space-station odyssey manages to punch above its weight throughout.

The graphics are on the scrubbier end in the larger locales, but the scale itself is still very rewarding, with great layered verticality. A decent playground to zero-G about in, especially when it's some perilous robot production line you're scudding around.

Playing hide and seek amongst struts versus the various bots and drones is a lot of fun. (Even if they can be a bit daft and mass in weird places). Their sheer numbers encourage finding a protected route through the general expanses, and this only escalates as they and their armaments get bigger.

Having these explosive encounters lurking beyond the eerier stretches of decommissioned gear and echoing corridors elevated both of those core elements.

Puzzles were simple enough 'tab A for slot B' fare in the main, but I still managed to dumbass a few of them. This was purely because I was so happily flicking tactile switches, or pondering what that outgassing vent was about, and just generally getting lost in the Nostromo-esque vibe

Weapons & locomotion tools scale up as you progress nicely. (It's cool to see things like a reload shake for the space-shotgun and such like, and novel little takes on a sniper view). By the time it had turned into simple zero-G death ballets with giant floating mechs I was very much sold



Whoever made this game definitely loves VR. Just the little touches like being able to knock debris out of your way with your gun (physics interactions really add to the world) are a testament to that.

The 80s style mood and action music is very welcome (although occasionally it stays in high octane mode even after you've killed off all the threats in an area).

It does re-use a lot of assets and core 'puzzles' all told. But that helps them create this giant coherent station ultimately, and many of the huge future-industrial zones were still unique.

It's a slight shame that they re-furbished the free demo stage to become their end stage, so a certain surprise element was removed there if you've played it. But I still found their game mechanics and motifs of death and rebirth satisfying as they tied the whole telling-by-showing arc in a bow.

The biggest shame though is surely the name! It carries a Finnish dowdiness that isn't really represented by the the big Finnish, indie-cinematic, space adventure they actually take you on

-



Here's some muggy footage of early drone combat and basic bobbing about. The later sections featuring sneaking past a droid [10m] and traversing a giant space expanse [14m] probably speak more to the highlights that stack up over time.

__________________
Virtual Reality chatter on a movie site? Got endless amounts of it here. Reviews over here

Awww yeah, 'virtual joysticks' added, and some kind of wave mode with big ships coming in November...



This 'educational mod' is totally gonna get spanked one day for copyright, but until then, I'm gonna enjoy the goosebumps

(And honestly, even flying in a shonky formation, amongst the crumpled graphics, when the 'Red Leader standing by' dialogue plays, and you beep-boop your ailerons into place, it's just vibe central )

First Look: Stride



Took a punt on this Early Access parkour number.

It's currently purely a set of movement mechanics in a semi-generated time-trial map (of increasing fiendishness), with some basic gun action, AI enemies, and slow-time thrown in. That's it. But the move-set is actually pretty sweet

I think my favourite aspects is the 'double jump' where you vault off a second item to keep your momentum going. Can be very cool when you're plummeting towards an isolated island and need to keep that speed to reach the next ledge. Or when deployed as a bonus little bunny-hop to set yourself up for the next big leap.

Add in chaining aspects like wall runs, the odd Tarzan swing with a grappling hook, and grabbing a desperate corner to swing yourself up free-form style, and keeping ahead of the deadly time-trial line has been surprisingly diverting

Here's some YTer playing through the tutorial:



Supposedly they're going to add some more mini-game variants, before finally adding a story mode more along these lines...



I hope they do. The core of what they've got is promising

First Look: War Dust




This is the best kind of awful. Vehicles that steer like greased boars with their balls in a steel trap. Graphics like nasally-injected sandpaper. Absolutely no ability to jump over small walls.

But dammit. It's 32 vs 32 Battlefield in VR. And it kinda just about works

Review: Yupitergrad



This is possibly the best 'spiderman' game I've played yet. Even though giant puzzle rooms aren't exactly where you'd expect this style to excel. (And at times, dragging yourself through the smaller interconnecting spaces, it is a bit daft ).

The system is basic at heart, with only blue panels accepting your elastic suction cups. As you scramble through the industrial heart of a crumbling space station those handy zones become increasingly rare. But what really sells this version are the moments where you're snagging bits of moving machinery, and inheriting momentum from their motion. The extra boost that often imparts can set you whizzing through the innards of some giant device, chaining swings to maintain that exhilarating speed

This is almost matched by the robust underwater system, whereby your weak hand-jets suddenly become capable of steering you with force. The environmental puzzles were on the simpler end here (think giant sets of whizzing blades), but successfully salmon-ing between them was pretty cool when it worked.



The clunkiest moments were the rote 'nip past the giant piston before getting squished' sections, but they were rare enough. Thankfully the respawn points were fair and frequent, if sometimes poorly positioned, making it hard to get your momentum up quickly. This could get a bit wearing in sections where you die a lot.

It loses points somewhat just for being so short (2hrs+), but they've done a lot with their indie trappings here. The cell-shaded art style really works overall, the space-Soviet storyline stays suitably silly, and they manage to shift you through a decent, simple, space-station disaster arc by the end.

(+)[nausea possible]

Dammmmmnnnn. Big hit to the PCVR / AAA VR world right here...

Facebook to Discontinue Rift Product Line in 2021, Will No Longer Build PC-only VR Headsets

Of course their higher end stand-alones can be tethered to PCs, but the implications for the software / market focus is a bit grim on that front I’d think.

Review: War Dust



I spent soooo damn long lost in Battlefield 2, and this is basically it in VR . (Hell it essentially looks the same too )

You can forgive every bit of sensory sandpaper here, every emergent bug, because it's got all of those classic gameplay loops writ through it...

Hover a support helicopter delicately so your squad mate can dive in under sniper fire. Charge a zippy vehicle behind enemy lines, bellowing the Ride of the Valkyries. Parachute precisely through a window, just because you feel like it. Get surprised by the jet you shot down suddenly landing on your head. It's got it all.

Once I realised the air vehicles were actually steered by my hand using a 'virtual joystick' (and not by someone else's mind, as I was beginning to think...), I became a bit more useful on the field. And realising I could clamber over most obstacles using my sticky virtual hands opened the world up further.

It's just grand expansive chaos. But the big vehicular fields and tight vertical locations still beg for strategy at the heart of it. It has that wonderful transition of you being a dominating war machine one second, a figure darting for cover the next. One minute tied up in a supremacy tussle in parallel to the battle, the next being the lever that tips your team over to victory. I just love the format, and can forgive so much because of that.

So I don't mind that everyone swoops around perpetually on parachutes to reach higher ground, somehow. Or that the population is so low that sometimes you're mainly facing deranged bots (who act like Michael Jackson moonwalking forwards, and mainly drive tanks in circles if they meet a rock). I don't mind any of the jank.

But because of all that, I can't really give it the 4 stars that I'd really like to

(+++/---) [nausea possible]

EDIT: Have a montage

Trip Report: War Dust

Such glitchy, miraculously-functioning, fun

• Nursed a smoking stolen helicopter around the skies for 10 minutes, capping points and blasting bots, until a friendly tank cart-wheeled slowwwwly into the air, and took me out, 40 metres above the ground...
  
• Found myself in a support helicopter face-off, with none of us having gunners. Engaged in a wrestling match instead, with my squad mate's heli and mine blocking the enemy's path to our flag with our helicopter faces. Sparks flew.
  
• Watched a man spin perpetually like a sky-diving spider after death...

It's just nuts. I don't love the occasional hackers, and some of the rough aspects are absurd (I managed to store my gun permanently inside myself at one point). And it could do with more maps. (I haven't tried the custom ones because I just assumed there's not population there). But damn it's a perfect evening's gaming

First Look: Star Wars: Squadrons



Check out that evil R2D2:

I spent far too long just oggling the hangars and cockpits in the various customisation screens and early campaign tutorials. If nothing else works in this, it's working very well as a 'sit in a Star Wars scene' simulator


Forget the flight stick:

I thought I was totally winning when I figured out what 'button 11' was on my stick. That meant I could finally run my ship checks and get out of the hanger.

Where I found out that roll was mapped to yaw on the stick, and yaw was mapped to roll. That was interesting in VR...

No in-game rebinding from what I can tell. So I just can't be bothered with the faff. It's not like the flight model has full '6 degrees of freedom' inputs with lateral jets and all that deliciousness, or novelty synched animations in the cockpit.

It does have lots of welcome sub-sim touches though, like lowering your speed to turn better, and shuttling energy between speed, shields & weapons etc (and 'drifting' at speed apparently). An Xbox controller should be just right


Stay on Target:


Have only just nosed into the campaign, but it's a fun form of naff so far on the story front. The missions themselves leaning towards the 'scan this' / 'escort that' / 'fly down that tunnel so far, but fine for all that.

The starter ship seemed comically slow when flying around the initial location, and the 'kill X fighters' in veteran difficulty was just... kinda ok. But it's early days.

The T-fighter cockpit view didn't really help with that, making it more of a mindless case of swivelling constantly and being surprised by geography. The visibility really is terrible, total tunnel vision. Enjoyed it a lot more once I was in an X-Wing with more situational awareness.

Not entirely convinced by the scale at points (some of the smaller big ships look... like models). The bigger ones seem decent from a distance though. Will see how fly-by attacks pan out.

Second Look: Stars Wars: Squadrons

Ok so I stopped trying to play this like a 'serious space mission simulator', after smearing a fragile A-Wing over one too many cruiser carapaces, and getting grumpy about the re-starts. The earnest challenge of it all wasn't feeling quite right.

Knocked the difficulty down to the 'normal' level and I'm having a lot more fun now. Just ignoring the fact that it's all super easy, and enjoying playing through the hero fantasy scenarios



Here's a ponderously slow 'bombing run' in a Y-Wing, which shows off some of the fun 'fly amongst stuff' opportunities.



(Don't think too much about the bombs in zero gravity )

One good thing about playing in 'wish fulfilment' mode is that you can mess about with all the different loadout options, without fear of having to hard-restart the round, and then just enjoy the cinematic flow of what unfolds.

---

As a side note, despite the flip-flopping Rebel/Empire narrative being kinda bubblegum fun, I'm torn on the character chit-chat filler in the hangars & briefing rooms. On the one hand it's all welcome context filler & characterisation in some ways, but it's also all delivered in wooden lumps of exposition.

But dammit, the locations and character models all look pretty great in VR...



So I keep stopping by for chats anyway. And then wondering why I bothered

Just occured to me @Austruck

I got a load of keys from this Humble Bundle deal for games I've already got. Most aren't your thing at all, but I Expect You To Die is a great seated puzzle game which I reckon you'd enjoy. Tongue-in-cheek 60s Bond era trappings and good use of VR 'job simulator' style toying with items, plus bonus telekinesis for those hard-to-reach puzzle items.

Gets a bit hectic / repetitive with the deaths, but well worth a look. The Saul Bass style intro is also absolutely badass in VR

Hit me up in PM if you want the steam code.

Stride: Arena Mode

Had a quick go with this update. If they manage to build the story mode around these mechanics (prior to getting sued), this could be pretty epic.




For now this race-to-the-guards-and-tag-them mode will have to do

I could see there being fun in both a 'sneak around the back' thoughtful stealthy mode, and the full gun's blazing escape / attack variant that this mimics. Damn good when it works.

(Caveat: Doesn't always work. I had some glitches like getting stuck in walls.)

(Other caveat: I don't always work. Wall running generally = death for me )

Review: War Thunder





Ok, with 24hrs under my belt in WT already somehow, I'm gonna go ahead and review it

I'm really not feeling the bite of the P2W structure at the moment. Yes you do get one-shotted by guys periodically, and can get absolutely dominated by fighters with absurd speed, agility & DPS. The starter tiering gives you a decent soft entry to find your feet though, and I do feel like my freebie-earned vehicles can do their bit in the arcade matches. (And more importantly, are mainly fun to fly while doing it . Once you've unlocked an upgrade or two.)

The main selling points for me currently are that:

The arcade modes:

These are all almost exclusively fun. I love the main war front objectives, where you normally find yourself doing a bit of everything throughout the match. Bombing runs, fighter interceptions, land strafing, defending objectives. Maybe even taking out a torpedo ship once you've unlocked more specialised stuff.

The 'capture the airfield' variants also invite some decent tactical decisions (including which ships from your roster you might sacrifice to seize an early airstrip), and a ton of low-flying dog-fighting. (With a bit of bonus, desperate airstrip bombing once you start running out of rides )

The only round I'm not super fond of is the 'hold the aerial location' one, purely because it plays out in a narrower, dog-fighting-alone, fashion.

The damage model throws some extra variety your way in every round as a rule, with a damaged wing to nurse or a faltering engine. And the ability to low fly through obstacles like trees means you'll see some spectacular plane disintegrations too .

Overall, despite the odd fist waved at an uber-fighter slicing me in half with one pass, I'm generally having a blast


The locations & environmental touches:

The new cloud tech, sea reflections, glancing sunlight, and varied locales, all really evoke a sense of place beautifully at times. And the maps themselves invite all kinds of ill-advised stunts and escape shenanigans. Great for all of the above online play, but also very chill to just cruise around in using the test flight mode

---

At some point I should totally try the single player campaigns. And the tanks and stuff. But I'm still happy as a pig in mud unlocking bizarre British planes of yester-year rigth now

(+)


EDIT: That P2W Bite:

Ok, nowwww I'm feeling it. So it seems that unlocking planes of a higher tier matches you with guys who have at least one plane unlocked to that level. When I accessed the top end Spitfire IIb (with lovely 20mm cannons), I suddenly found myself in a pool of guys who mainly had tricked out planes of that type in their roster...

That was a bit of a shock to the system. TTK is suddenly a lot quicker as all the big guns come to bear, enemies can close on you and gain position with greater ease, bombers can reach heights that you struggle with and lay down much stronger covering fire. It was a much bigger step up than when I moved into the '2.7' plane tier with my mid-range Spitfire etc. I've recalibrated, and settled back into small victories and improving my little fleet. And adopting strategies to fit. (My more lowly bombers are absolute floating ducks, so I at least make sure I tag along with a willing fighter, or vainly try and keep up with the shinier models ahead of me. And pairing up with my squad partner for fighter runs has suddenly become much more appealing!)

So there is a certain fairness to aspects of it, in that strategies are available (and if you do get a pimped out ship in your sights, you can still do similar damage). But the road to parity feels a lot longer now, and I can certainly see why someone might pay to speed some of it up...

EDIT 2: That P2W Gouge:

Ok yeah, I just have to lower the score. From tier 3.7 onwards the unlock rate slows pretty dramatically, and the 'lion' credits required to access and update the vehicles get mopped up by ever-increasing costs. The grind quite deliberately ramps up.

Add in the uber-craft for each tier that can only be unlocked via money (you will no them by their many guns and dancey-mobility), and the bonus ways to splash the case (make your pilot more bullet resistant, more aware of threats, more able to maintain performance over time etc)... and as fun as the game is, it finds too many ways to make you pay if you don't... pay

First Look: Vengeful Rites





Enjoyed the early tutorialising here. Kind of like a Vanishing Realms with more content. Nothing excels exactly, but it covers a lot of beats. The melee is above sword-spammy, but shy of complex, the magic gesture casting is all robust (if amusing/eccentric on the telekenesis). The bow doesn't seem the greatest, but gets the job done. Throw in basic climbing and physical puzzles, and it seems a decent cartoony adventure land. Will level up some more...

So I finally bought Beat Saber, which was originally one of the games that got me into VR when I played it briefly at a friend's house in Houston in April 2019. And I broke down and bought myself a third sensor for my Rift and have that set up, but I haven't gotten back into the system since getting the sensor to make sure I have all three placed in appropriate spots. I'm looking forward to trying out the game AND the better sensor-setup soon.

And my son (Yoda's brother) bought the new Myst VR for the Quest this past week, so I have to check in with him about how that looks/feels. He and I (and Yoda) were original Myst game fans back when they were wee laddies, so it's been a family favorite game series since then. They're apparently also going to venture into VR for PC setups with this but haven't yet. I'm not sure how "walking" around Myst island will feel after playing the iconic game in so many other formats over the years/decades. Maybe I can try it out on my son's Quest at some point...

__________________
Linda's Author Website
Linda's Amazon Author page

I love that someone made this in 2018. But damn is it niche...



Apparently the hand sculpting isn’t super naturalistic, but hey there’s a story-challenge mode, and you can 3D print your designs

—

I have been mainly just mainlining the battlefield carnage of War Dust and dodging the P2W of War Thunder through semi-cunning tactics (ahhh, leave aircraft to repair for free, okayyy).

Also tried this though, and it is good semi-sweaty fun. ‘Bullet Dodge’ is actually a very cool VR genre



Having the little human interactions is cool too. Seeing opponents’ ranged responses from tiny child rage quit (gesticulating then tearing off the helmet ), to sedate bows and respect fist bumps across the arena was also kinda fun

This is good news for VR, but not the best news for PCVR...

The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners Made $29 Million In Its First Year

Stand-alones are clearly going to get the big investment. Can only hope that:

A) They build out higher res variants for a lot of those titles
B) The stand-alones act as a stepping-stone for a lot of players. (IE getting them into VR, but leaving them wanting better graphics etc).

Review: Gloomy Eyes



There's a wonderful 'living clay diorama' feeling to this one. As if Tim Burton, at his peak, had found a way to make real objects scurry and dance to his tune.

The thing that really struck me though, amongst the slick set-pieces, and the quieter loveliness of driven snow effects scudding over the scene, was how well they'd handled the 'directing' in VR:

• The set-up is that the sun is in hiding. This pitch-black back-drop places the tableaux scenes in a centre stage focus, and then allows them to draw your attention around further with the use of light sources.

• They treat it like theatre in the round, but you are in the centre. You swing around in your chair to follow the chains of story action as they unfold around you, (rather than be forced into viewing angles by camera direction). It adds a feeling of narrative progress, has an illusion of free investigation, and also doubles down on the feeling of these being physical objects and locations arrayed in front of you.

• The locations themselves rotate and pitch to reveal new aspects of themselves as the protagonists scurry and slide about them. (Again avoiding camera pans and zooms etc.)

The story proves a strong enough strand to pull you along with it, and the art style was never less than charming.

As lovely as a tale about zombie love during the apocalypse could be, really.

+

My son (Yoda's younger brother) has a Quest but I haven't had the chance to take a peek at it myself. So you're saying their graphics aren't as good (and is that *because* they are standalone devices)?

I finally bought myself a third sensor for my Rift but haven't had time to try it out yet to see the improvements. Being tethered has definitely seemed like a drawback, and I assume we'll all be using standalone devices at some point, but if they're substandard in terms of graphics right now, then I'll be happy with the Rift I have for a while longer yet. I don't use it often enough to feel bad about the tethering.

Yeah they're just running off a little Snapdragon GPU in the headset.

The advertising will tell you it looks like this. But the reality looks more like this



So all serviceable, and in VR, but just lacking the snap and glamour of a PC-powered game

They do have a better screen than our older gen ones though, and if you plug them into a PC they run pretty well like that, with just a few throttling issues. (So you're tethered again, but in theory it should be superior to an older gen experience overall).

But yeah, I'm fine to ride out my current CV1 until it completely disintegrates. (Which ironically may be when the cable goes - replacements are a pain. The actual core kit feels like it could last a decade).