Rube Goldberg Workshop is now available on Quest, letting you make tons of different crazy—dare we say—Rube Goldbergian machines.
Built on Quest’s Presence platform, users can choose to play either in virtual reality or mixed reality, the latter allowing you to use your own room and surfaces to build your creations.
The game includes over 80 different components, including toy cars, gears, books, rubber balls, bowling pins, and cannons. There’s no time limit or scores, only your own imagination to build whatever your please.
The game was developed by Free Range Games in association with the Rube Goldberg Institute, which helped the team pattern their components off Rube Goldberg’s actual drawings—illustrating contraptions intentionally designed to perform a simple task in an indirect and overly complicated way.
“Certain objects [Goldberg] loved to draw, like the extending boxing glove, are iconic. We have a fun update coming very shortly after launch with a bunch of new objects inspired directly from his cartoons,” Free Range Games Producer Stephen Scholz says in a Meta blog post.
You can find it on Quest 2 and Quest Pro today on the Meta Store, priced at $10. As you’d imagine, only the Quest Pro packs colored passthrough, which is featured in the trailer above.
Firmament was created in the spirit of Myst, the studio’s genre-defining puzzle adventure which maroons you in a strange realm with some very imposing architecture, all of which houses a smorgasbord of some patently challenging puzzles. In this respect, Firmament is kind of an old dog with a few new tricks, as it brings modern beauty and narrative finesse, although the game’s VR implementation sadly feels like a bit of an afterthought.
Firmament Details:
Available On: SteamVR, PSVR 2 (coming later) Release Date: May 11th, 2023 Price: $35 Developer: Cyan Worlds Reviewed On: Quest 2 via Link
Gameplay
Firmament: from Latin firmamentum—that which strengthens or supports. In an ancient cosmological sense, the word was also used to refer to the sky, or the vault of the heavens fixed above Earth. You’ll have plenty of time to ponder meaning that as you teleport between the four realms via the game’s conveniently located conveyance pods, which automagically shuttle you Dr. Who-style atop wind-swept mountains and steampunk botanical gardens just waiting to be explored (and fixed).
Image captured by Road to VR
Firmament dishes out real moments of awe between serving up maddeningly complex puzzles—basically a Cyan Worlds game through and through. The game’s gigantic machines will leave you scratching your head as you run back and forth just to make sure the figurative pilot light is on. While you have some narrative-based voice recordings and found notes to go by, you’re basically on your own when it comes to puzzling, meaning you won’t be babied by a ‘helpful robot’ who feeds answers into your ear. You’ll need to pay close attention to everything, and really get a grip of all the pieces in play before you can make sense of things. Beating your head against puzzles rarely works, so you’ll be greeted by some very familiar frustration if you’ve played any of Cyan’s most recent games, like Obduction or Myst VR.
Anyway, here are some useful hints: Watch out for every ladder. Watch out for every socket. Keep your head on a swivel and mess with everything a little just to see if it moves, but not so much that you scramble puzzles beyond their intended solvability.
Interacting with the world is done by way of activating a swath of standardized sockets, which pair to your hand-held ‘adjunct’ tool—kind of like a remote-controlled sonic screwdriver that lets you tether and interact with machines. Some sockets only have a single function, like opening and closing a door, while others have multiple functions that you’ll need to flip through. More on that in the Immersion section below.
Image courtesy Cyan Worlds
There is a lot of running back and forth, which feels more like a chore in VR than on traditional monitors. That frustration is compounded by moments when I wasn’t sure whether the game was borked, making me wonder whether it was me who screwed up or the game. It seems Firmament came well prepared for this eventuality at least, as you can safely reset back to a central location, which typically also resets puzzles too. While complex and mostly logical, a minority of puzzle solutions can be downright obtuse. I was provided with a solutions guide, which included hints as well as solutions, and I’m not ashamed to say I needed a few of those hints to complete the game, which I did in about nine hours.
In the end the juice is generally worth the squeeze with Firmament, as you’re whisked off to new, even more impressive areas of the game. While the ending left me feeling a little perplexed, the overall level of world-building is extremely high. I only wish I could be more present in the game and given more agency than casting my tether to manipulate glorified on-off buttons.
Immersion
Firmament is a sumptuous and potentially beautiful game that I wish I could be more present in. My aging GTX 1080 was able to play along decently on medium graphics settings in most areas, which is more than I can say for Obduction. Still, some of the inherent beauty of the game is marred by jagged edges and a muddiness in some areas that feel like it’s really pushing the boundaries of what’s possible. My GPU, which is probably the minimum spec for VR at this point, was much happier sipping along on all low settings, so make sure to curb your expectations if you’re running an older or less powerful setups like mine.
I touched on some of the frustration of puzzle solving above, or rather, when solving puzzles goes wrong, but there’s another frustration that has more to do with level design, and not whether things are actually working properly. While slick and in line with ‘AAA’ games in terms of graphics, level design is still very much rooted in the studio’s point-and-click past, which means you’ll have less physical agency than you’d probably think is rational given the expectation of working hands and feet.
Image captured by Road to VR
In VR, I’m used to being able to not only do what I can in physical reality, like climbing and jumping, but even more. Some of the game’s level design feels like a step backwards in terms of what should be logically possible, like scrambling over a simple banister railing, or sidestepping a box to get to another area. I know that’s part and parcel of the studio’s puzzle style, but if I’m not offered some explanation beyond “no, you just can’t because of reasons,” it negatively impacts my perception of the inherent solidity of the world around me.
And while the world is so rich with possibility, the only meaningful way to interact with it is by using your adjunct tool to manipulate sockets, save a single other tool you’re given that disperses ice and other crusty bits in your way. This raises the question whether Firmament is making good use of VR beyond giving you a more immersive view of the game. Sadly, it doesn’t. It feels more like a flatscreen game with an optional VR mode that hasn’t really informed many of the game’s puzzles or much of its level design. While the amount of backtracking from place to place isn’t such an issue on traditional monitors, it feels way more like a chore in VR.
Image captured by Road to VR
And yet, all of the frustrations of Firmament never seemed to completely overwhelm me. The game’s score is excellent, complementing both its strong voice acting and mostly well-reasoned narrative. I only wish it were just a little more sympathetic to the modern VR gamer, and a little less of an optional mode that basically works, but not as well as you’d hope.
Comfort
The game’s a bit at odds with standard VR movement schemes. While teleport and smooth movement are options, the game default movement scheme puts turning on one stick, and forward movement on another—something I’m not generally used to. Besides a few cart ride-style vehicles, the game is ultimately comfortable enough for most players.
Ever-agile VR developer Joy Way announced this week that its upcoming roguelike Dead Hook will be delayed into June, a little more than a month after the previously announced released date. To satiate your appetite in the meantime, a new gameplay trailer shows more about how the game will play.
Joy Way, the studio behind Stride and a slew of other interesting VR games, has released a new gameplay trailer for its latest title, Dead Hook:
The trailer outlines some of the game’s fundamental mechanics, including the ability to quickly navigate the environment by swinging around on chains like a steam-punk Spider-Man. The trailer also shows how weapon upgrades will work, and teases an interesting dual-wielding reloading mechanic that we’re curious to learn more about.
Alongside the release of the gameplay overview, Joy Way announced Dead Hook will now release on June 29th, a little more than a month after it’s previously announced May 18th release date.
The studio actually claims it’s still on track for the original release date, but delayed the game due to “important business reasons, including unforeseen changes in the Meta release calendar.”
In any case, Joy Way says it will use the additional time for “extra polish and finishing touches, as well as incorporating content that was planned for after the release.”
tinyBuild Games and Steel Wool Studios announced their upcoming VR take on viral indie hit Hello Neighbor is landing on PSVR 2, Quest 2, and SteamVR headsets later this month.
Update (May 12th, 2023): tinyBuild and Steel Wool revealed Hello Neighbor VR is coming on May 25th to all major VR headsets. Pre-orders are already available on Quest. You can also wishlist on Steam and PSVR.
In the meantime, the studios have released a new gameplay trailer. The original article announcing Hello Neighbor VR follows below:
Original Article (November 7th, 2022): If you haven’t played before, Hello Neighbor is a stealth horror game all about sneaking into your neighbor’s house to figure out what horrible secrets he’s hiding in the basement. The neighbor’s AI learns from your every move, so when you find a nice window to habitually climb through, you’ll probably find a bear trap there next go-around.
In franchise’s first VR game, you take on the role of six neighborhood heroes as they “confront their fears to free their friend, who is held captive in a bizarre basement prison,” the studios say.
“You’ll need to learn and master each of their unique abilities to solve puzzles, uncover mysteries, and make it out of the neighbor’s house in one piece, all while trying to avoid capture by the creepy Neighbor himself! Just the thought of it sends our heartbeats racing!”
Here’s how tinyBuild and Steel Wool describe the action:
Multiple playable characters: Switch between characters to outsmart the AI. Each unique character has their own key items and skills. Switch between the perspectives of the Rescue Squad team members at will, solving puzzles and avoiding the Neighbor as you attempt to reach the creepy basement!
Environmental puzzles require creative solutions: You will have to increasingly use your wits to find alternate solutions to a dynamic range of puzzles and challenging environmental obstacles. Many puzzles that may seem unsolvable at first glance require you to use the perspectives of multiple characters in conjunction to overcome them.
Non-linear exploration: Use your own approach to infiltrate Mr. Peterson’s house by alternating perspectives, combining character’s skills to dynamically solve puzzles, uncover hidden mysteries, and reveal new pathways through your environment.
Confront your fears: Experience nightmarish dream sequences and learn more about the secrets of the Hello Neighbor universe!
To create the game, Hello Neighbor developers tinyBuild is working with VR developers Steel Wool Studios, which is best known for the breakout-hit Five Nights at Freddy’s and the VR adaptation Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted.
We’re back for another dose of mind-bending puzzles à la Bob the Fisherman. The sequel offers up a longer, more emotionally complex story while packing in a ton of new puzzle mechanics that makes Another Fisherman’s Tale feel leagues ahead of the original in almost every sense.
Another Fisherman’s Tale Details:
Available On: SteamVR, Quest 2, PSVR 2 Release Date: May 11th, 2023 Price: $30 Developer: Innerspace VR Publisher: Vertigo Games Reviewed On: Quest 2
Gameplay
Bob’s tall tales are taller than ever this time around, as the adventure swells to scale up to new emotional depths which reveal more about the real Bob and his family. I won’t spoil the story behind Another Fisherman’s Tale, because it’s really something you should unfold yourself. It talks about love, loss, responsibility, freedom—it’s way heavier than the first, and often strays outside of original’s safe storybook narration. Where you might have ignored some of the angsty Dad drama of the original Fisherman’s Tale, and just got on with the game’s smorgasbord of mind-bending puzzles, this time around the narrative takes more of a center stage, all while presenting new and innovative mechanics to keep you guessing.
The most prominent mechanic on display is the new ability to detach, replace and control your hands—like physically pop off your hands, trade them for more useful ones, and shoot them out to solve a variety of puzzles that only a little crawling (or swimming) remote controlled hand-beast might. Although you really only have two other hand styles regularly at your disposal besides your wooden digits, a hook for climbing and a claw for snipping, the puzzle variations are impressively wide.
Image courtesy Innerspace VR, Vertigo Games
While there are a ton of one-off puzzles to compliment, a constant throughout the game is the need remotely control your hands, which is done by twisting your motion controller in the correct relative direction and pressing the trigger to move them forward. You’ll be pulling levers, crawling your digits through circuitous routes, and grabbing key items before snapping them back to your arms where they belong. This took some getting used to, as oftentimes you’ll need to control your hands from afar while actually moving your body to different locations to get a better viewpoint, which can be confusing at times since your body’s relative position changes and your hands sort of wig out.
And with separable hands, you might as well be able to pop your head off too. Simply press two buttons (‘B’ and ‘Y’ on Quest) and you’ll launch your head forward to reach far flung areas for a better point of view. It’s basically plays out like a dash teleportation that follows a predictable arch as opposed to physically picking up your head and tossing it around, which wouldn’t be terribly comfortable. More on comfort below though.
Image courtesy Innerspace VR, Vertigo Games
While I wouldn’t call any of the puzzles particularly hard, they’re always creative and rewarding. I had hints enabled, although you can turn them off in the settings, which mutes a few of Bob’s timely and helpful lines. Still, Bob isn’t overbearing in how or when he delivers hints, making him feel much more like a dad who wants you to figure something out on your own than a ‘helpful robot’ that just wants you to get on with the puzzle already.
My personal playtime was just under four hours, which puts it nearly four times longer than the original game. I didn’t feel like any of it was filler either, which is a testament to the game’s deeper story and puzzle variations that require the player to develop skills that are useful throughout—essentially everything I wanted from the original but didn’t get when it initially released in early 2019.
Immersion
The star of the show is undoubtedly Bob, who is brought to life by the whisky-soaked tones of the probably never-not-smoking French comedian Augustin Jacob. In my review of the first game, I called Jacob’s interpretation more akin to a kitschy short that you typically see before a proper Pixar movie—charming, but not enough.
Image courtesy Innerspace VR, Vertigo Games
Here we get a full-fat dose of Bob as well as a new cast of characters that are equally engaging, making it feel more like that Pixar adventure I wished it could have been in the first place. One thing that hasn’t changed though is the inclusion of a sweeping score, which perfectly frames the game’s linear, sometimes storybook style adventure.
While the story goes off the rails at points, snapping you back to reality, it isn’t a large, open world with a ton of freedom of movement, or even puzzle creativity. Another Fisherman’s Tale is compartmentalized into chapters, each of which have a number of linear areas to unlock. The physical variety of the spaces though makes it feel less like a long series of closed escape rooms, which might otherwise feel a little too repetitive. That’s simply not the case here, as you’re always left guessing at what your next adventure will be, and where you’ll go next.
Image courtesy Innerspace VR, Vertigo Games
Set pieces are thoughtfully designed, and the cartoony nature of the game looks generally very good, even on the game’s most humble target platform, Quest 2. Object interaction is very basic, although that doesn’t detract too much since it’s mostly levers and a smaller momentary puzzle bits we’re dealing with here. As a result, there’s no inventory to speak of since all tools will be presented to you as needed, and thoughtfully poofed back into existence in case you lose them.
Comfort
Another Fisherman’s Tale has what we’d now consider the standard swath of comfort settings, which will let most anyone play with relative ease. There are moments though that personally make me feel a little iffy—not ‘hang my head in the toilet bad, but I’ve played VR long enough to know my triggers.
In lieu of cutscenes, the game loves to do sweep your POV around slowly, which is mostly fine, although much of the time you’re being shrunk down so scenes can appear bigger. I generally dislike this lack of control, even if it only happens maybe once per chapter. There are also moments when your POV will be upside-down, however this too is a pretty rare occurrence. All things considered, it’s a pretty comfortable game that basically anyone can play without feeling anything but few momentary bits of weirdness.
‘Another Fisherman’s Tale’ Comfort Settings – May 11th, 2023
Turning
Artificial turning
Snap-turn
✔
Quick-turn
✔
Smooth-turn
✔
Movement
Artificial movement
Teleport-move
✔
Dash-move
✖
Smooth-move
✔
Blinders
✔
Head-based
✔
Controller-based
✔
Swappable movement hand
✔
Posture
Standing mode
✔
Seated mode
✔
Artificial crouch
✖
Real crouch
✔
Accessibility
Subtitles
Languages
English, Italian, German, French, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese
Codemasters, the EA-owned developer behind the F1 racing franchise, announced F1 23 is coming to consoles and PC next month, again bringing its high-profile racing game to VR.
F1 23 is coming to PlayStation 4|5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and PC on June 16th, which is confirmed to include VR support on PC.
Codemasters hasn’t said whether it’s also coming to PSVR 2 on PS5, so we’ll just have to wait and see. As it is now, F1 22 only supports PC VR headsets, and not PSVR.
Here’s how the studio describes the upcoming installment:
A new chapter in the thrilling “Braking Point” story mode delivers high-speed drama and heated rivalries. Race wheel-to-wheel at new Las Vegas and Qatar circuits, and earn rewards and upgrades in F1 World. New Red Flags add an authentic strategic element, and the 35% Race Distance feature delivers more action and excitement. Drive updated 2023 cars with the official F1 lineup of your favorite 20 drivers and 10 teams. Create your dream team and race to win in My Team Career Mode, compete in split-screen or in the expanded cross-platform multiplayer, and be more social with new Racenet Leagues.
Into the Radius is a cult favorite for a reason, as it offers up some of the most hardcore gameplay in a very Stalker-inspired post-apocalyptic world, making for an absolutely unforgiving experience in the anomaly-ridden wasteland. Now developers CM Games say a sequel is in the works.
In a community update, CM Games says a second chapter to Into the Radius is currently being developed.
“We are in the pre-production phase, and will follow an Early Access development model like before when the time is right,” the studio says. “The original [Into the Radius] is a testament to how much our community has helped us in developing the game, and we want to continue this trend in the sequel.”
The studio says many user suggestions and ideas are currently being considered for the newest installment, although they’re not revealing anything beyond that right now. Into the Radius is currently available on SteamVR and Quest 2. The developers have said in the past that it’s also in development for other headsets, although there’s still no word on whether it’s coming to PSVR 2.
We’ll be following Into the Radius and its upcoming seqeuel via the game’s Discord (invite link), as CM Games is due to publish an FAQ soon that may answer more questions about the next chapter.
Propagation: Paradise Hotel offers some patently terrifying moments of horror, but between the ever-lingering danger of zombified attacks and a few giant bosses—making for a very Resident Evil-inspired experience—there’s a bit of clunk that tarnishes what could have been a more memorable and cohesive experience. Still, it’s functionally a pretty solid zombie adventure that makes a clear departure from the franchise’s roots as a static wave shooter.
Propagation: Paradise Hotel Details:
Available On: SteamVR, Quest Release Date: May 4th, 2023 Price: $20 Developer: WanadevStudio Reviewed On: Quest 2 via PC Link
Gameplay
It’s the zombie apocalypse, and you’re bumming around the bowels of a non-descript hotel in some non-descript part of the world. You won’t have a lot of time to hang with your fatherly security guard pal though because you have to go and find your sister, who is gone for some reason. Okay, so the setup isn’t spectacular, but at least the zombie kill’n is pretty good, right? I’ll lead with an emphatic “yeah, mostly!”
Rule number one of zombies: shoot them in the head. That’s the ironclad directive you’re probably most familiar with, but there are some caveats in Propagation: Paradise Hotel. Shooting zombies in the head multiple times with a pistol makes them very sleepy. No, really. Shoot a zombie three times in the head and they’ll quietly lay down on the ground for a while. Sometime later, usually when you’ve tripped another lurch forward in the narrative, he’ll pop back up at a patently inopportune time to bother you once again.
As clear of a departure from zombie orthodoxy this is, the effect it had on me was something I can’t say I’ve felt in a zombie shooter before. Instead of worrying about walkers popping out from the ceiling (there are a few) or shambolically oozing out from closed doors or windows, you become much more fixated on every single corpse laying in the hallway, of which there are many. You aren’t roaming through an infinite hellscape either, as you’ll be backtracking, learning the layout of the hotel, and tip-toeing around zombies whilst pointing a gun in their face, lest they reawaken and start harassing you again.
Image courtesy WanadevStudio
In effect, any one of them could be waiting for you to lower your guard, open their eyes and grab onto your ankle. Sadly, a preemptive shot in the head is completely ineffectual, which is a letdown in the Immersion department, but more on that below. Just the same, you’ll be cautious because you can’t discount a single corpse, which is a new type of creepy that really kept me on edge. Knowing this, I would have loved the option to cut off some heads to put an end to the contant revisitations, but that’s just not in the cards.
That’s basically the case until you get a shotgun in the latter half of the game, and then those walkers lay down for good because you’ve effectively stumpified their infected brains (finally). What was previously one-on-one battles ramp up to three-on-one battles, putting the game’s only other gun (and most powerful) to the test. You’ll also start to rush through a few new classes of zombie in addition to some more difficult baddies, which offers some interesting variety in difficulty. Will you run into three walkers? One scorpion-style zombie? A ripped dude that can take a ton of shots to the face?
Image courtesy WanadevStudio
While there are a few difficult and unique zombies, there’s really only one true boss in the game. Full disclosure: I disliked it, and while I won’t spoil anything here, rest assured you’ll probably be frustrated too with how to take him down. He is ultra lame, and you’ll want to mute the game just so you don’t have to hear your character constantly shout ad nauseum “I need to knock him out!”
Ok. No. I will spoil the boss. Skip this paragraph if you want to avoid the spoiler: What does “I need to knock him out” even mean?? Don’t I need to kill this bastard? Do I need to knock him out before I kill him? Is that a hint? Do I need something to do that? Maybe I need to call the elevator and rig up something to knock him out? Maybe I need to escape the lobby and head up the stairs to get something I missed? Maybe I need to explode a fire extinguisher in his face to knock him out? Nope. My hand phases right through those, so it can’t be that. Maybe I need to die a dozen times before I learn he has a specific attack pattern with a singular weak point, hit it three times and meander my way to sequel-bait then the end credits? Yup, that’s it.
Anyway, many of the mechanical bits of Propagation: Paradise Hotel are very functional, and work well. The body-based inventory system isn’t overloaded, so you always have what you need, like a medical spray on your left flank, a flashlight that you can clip to your chest or hold in your hand, your 9mm pistol on your right, or the shogun over your shoulder. It’s all there and easy to grab. This compliments a 2D menu that you can pull up, which as mission-essential items, the map, settings, etc.
It’s not easy changing up a user’s expectation of level design when we all know what to expect more or less in a space as familiar as a hotel. Still, the game throws a few curveballs your way to keep you from mechanically looking through every room in the hotel, which spans seven levels. Still, the story itself didn’t feel like a compelling enough driver to keep you moving forward. The found notes add a little flavor, but don’t do enough to flesh out the background of what’s actually going on, leaving you to mostly just bump your head against each task until its complete so you can move onto the next.
Finally, the game, which took me around 3.5 hours to complete, also includes a few puzzles, although all solutions are published in found notes, so you just have to be thorough in your shelf-opening game.
Immersion
Everything about Propagation looks the part, but very little is actually interactable, making it feel more like a flatscreen game than it probably should. There are a few key items you can pick up and use, but everything else is pure set dressing. I don’t want to underplay just how good the game looks, as it offers a visual acuity and variety that makes each room unique, and not at all the sort of copy-paste experience you’d logically expect from a motif that is basically supposed to look extremely uniform. Still, you can’t grab that fire extinguisher, or even pick up a bottle of detergent. You can only open doors and drawers, and interact with keys, key cards, and important notes.
That already feels pretty gamey enough, but just as things start getting good, you grab for an item and a big achievement pops up to ruin the atmosphere—because apparently you need to be constantly reminded that you just collected nine out of 30 secret items. I’d like my full field of view please, since I’m under constant threat of death and everything.
Image captured by Road to VR
One of the big narrative drivers is the game’s found notes, and I generally like the mechanic for its ability to either drive the narrative or unobtrusively flavor its back story. In VR, they can be especially immersive since you’re handling something that’s more of a physical artifact than just a bunch of text on a screen. This is where Propagation fails somewhat, as all notes feature a physical ‘next’ button at the bottom that you have to click, making it more like interacting with an eReader than something that was actually written by someone who lived, survived, and maybe even died in the hotel.
Maybe the notes could be shorter? Maybe they could have used the back of the paper? Maybe a different font? Whatever the case, interacting with a piece of paper shouldn’t feel this unnatural in a VR game.
Image captured by Road to VR
And the wacky unorthodoxy doesn’t stop there. While reloading weapons is a pretty standard experience, the gun’s ammo counter system is definitely not standard. The number indicated isn’t how many bullets you have in the gun, it’s how many are in the magazine. So, if you have 15 bullets in a fresh mag, as soon as you chamber one, the counter says 14.
That’s all well and good for the pistol, but if you forget it when using the shotgun, you may find yourself in deep dog doo-doo as you unintentionally cycle a live round out of the weapon by mistake. Provided you’ve loaded up the shotgun and chambered a round, you may have 3/4 rounds displayed. Once you’re in a tense battle though, and you’re displaying 0/4, you simply can’t be sure whether that 0/4 means you still have one in the chamber, or you don’t. You’ll load back up, shell by shell, until you’re at 4/4 again, but you don’t have any discernible visual indication whether you still have an empty chamber or not, so you cycle the pump just in case. An unspent shell flies out, lands on the floor, and disappears.
While it’s visually interesting and a mostly serviceable shooter despite those inherent flaws, the cherry on the cake is undoubtedly the game’s voice acting, which was clearly farmed out to native French speakers putting on their best American accents. This ranges from “I went to high school in Ohio for a year and picked up the accent pretty well,” to “How do you do, fellow American?” It’s more of an eccentricity than a knock per se, but it leaves me questioning where the hell I am on planet Earth.
Comfort
As a 100 percent walking-based experience that doesn’t include forced locomotion, like on a rollercoaster or similar vehicle, the game proves to be very comfortable, save a single moment when there is some camera shaking. With a wide range of standard comfort options, most everyone will be able to play Propagation: Paradise Hotel without too much issue.
Propagation: Paradise Hotel’ Comfort Settings – May 8th, 2023
Meta is putting on its Quest Gaming Showcase in June, and while we’re not certain what standalone goodies the company has in store, a promo video seems to suggest we’ll be getting something from the universe of hit Rift exclusive Asgard’s Wrath (2019).
We say ‘universe’ and not ‘direct port’ because we simply can’t tell for now based on the few seconds of footage, which seems to show Loki’s helmet with what appears to be a shadowy god-like figure in the background.
What suggests the promo may not be a flat-out Rift to Quest port is the desert environment. If you’ve played Asgard’s Wrath on Rift, you may remember some post-credits sequel bait, where you find an Egyptian ankh that suggests a follow-up will take place in an Egyptian-inspired environment.
Meta largely abandoned PC VR gaming almost immediately after releasing Rift S and Asgard’s Wrath in 2019 however, afterwards devoting its clutch of VR gaming studios to produce content for Quest and putting the kibosh on a direct-to-Rift sequel in the process. Maybe the next in the series will live on as a Quest native from the get-go?
It would certainly make more sense than Meta’s Sanzaru Games going back and completely overhauling the original Asgard’s Wrath for Quest, although we haven’t heard anything from the studio since it was acquired by Meta in early 2020. It’s not inconceivable that the original and a sequel could be in the works for Quest.
Meanwhile, we’ll be waiting to hear about the other rash of long-promised Quest content yet to come, including Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Assassin’s Creed Nexus, and Vertigo Games’ upcoming work with Deep Silver’s IP, which could be anything from Metro to Dead Island.
Follow along with us on June at at 10 AM PT to find out, as Meta is slated to share over 40 minutes of content, including new game announcements, gameplay first-looks, updates to existing games, and more.
Cyborn is bringing Hubris (2022), the sci-fi adventure for PC VR headsets, to PSVR 2 this month, promising a host of improvements we hope will buff out more than a few dull spots in the otherwise visually impressive game.
There’s no precise release date yet; Cyborn says in a PS blog post that Hubris will land on PSVR 2 at some point in May, notably bringing along with it “enhanced graphics and gameplay.”
This includes foveated rendering for sharper resolution, haptics & adaptive triggers for swimming and shooting, revamped reloading and aiming, new enemy variations, refined difficulty levels, and 3D audio.
Many of the things above were sorely lacking from the game when we reviewed the game at launch in late 2022, cementing it as a visually stunning, but ultimately pretty flawed shooter from the get-go.
Some of those improvements will eventually be added to the PC VR version, but “probably not on the same day as the PS VR 2 release as it requires a lot more testing on different headsets when it is stable enough,” the studio says in the game’s official Discord. Cyborn has also confirmed Hubris will also launch on Quest 2 at some point, although the studio hasn’t mentioned specifics.
Room-scale puzzle Eye of the Temple (2021) is available on Quest 2 starting today, bringing one of VR’s most clever room-scale experiences to a platform where it probably makes the most sense.
Update (April 27th, 2023): Eye of the Temple is now live on the Quest Store for Quest 2, bringing its innovative room-scale puzzling to the standalone headset.
Ported to Quest with the help of Salmi Games, Eye of the Temple lets you explore a vast and treacherous temple and uncover the ancient legend of the Eye. Just make sure to have plenty of space in your room for plenty of walking, whipping, and hopefully no tripping.
Check out the new launch trailer, linked below:
Original Article (April 13th, 2023): Released on SteamVR headsets in 2021 by indie developer Rune Skovbo Johansen, Eye of the Temple is a unique puzzle that we haven’t seen before or since.
The game’s innovative locomotion style lets you explore a massive temple complex with your own two feet, ushering you to jump onto moving platforms of all shapes and sizes, which importantly takes place within a 2×2m physical space.
What results is a mechanically pleasing and immersive experience that teleportation or even joystick-controller smooth locomotion simply can’t provide. We liked it so much at the time, we even gave it Road to VR’s 2021 Excellence in Locomotion award.
Skovbo Johansen says the secret to the unique locomotion style is keeping the player in the center of the play area, which he says are “all about how the platforms are positioned relative to each other.”
Take a look at how it works in the explainer video below:
While most PC VR tethers provide enough slack to get around the required 2×2m play area, the amount of turning and jumping you’ll do in the physical space really pushes the user’s ability to ‘tune out’ the cable to the limit, as you have to unwind yourself and hop over the tether constantly—something you might not notice as much in less physical games.
There’s no word on when we can expect Eye of the Temple to release on Quest 2, which critically removes any cable faffing woes you may have.
In the meanwhile, catch the trailer below, and follow along with Skovbo Johansen on Twitter where he regularly posts updates on the game’s development.
Propagation VR (2020), the VR survival horror game for PC VR headsets, is getting a sequel called Propagation: Paradise Hotel, and it’s coming next week.
Update (April 27th, 2023): WanadevStudio announced Propagation: Paradise Hotel is coming on May 4th to Quest 2 and SteamVR headsets. You can now wishlist it on the Quest Store and Steam.
In Propagation: Paradise Hotel you are a solo adventurer taking on the role of Emily Diaz, who must explore the Paradise Hotel’s dark surroundings to find her lost twin sister Ashley. Use items, weapons, and tools as you progress through the story, which is filled with savage creatures thanks to a strange illness.
Check out the final gameplay trailer below:
Original Article (December 3rd, 2021): During Upload VR’s showcase, developer WanadevStudio unveiled the upcoming sequel, which promises to be an “intense VR survival horror adventure with thrilling storytelling, in which you will explore dark environments, make terrifying encounters and get your adrenaline pumping.”
WanadevStudio says the sequel will be a single-player adventure taking place in the Propagation universe, which will serve up a story that focuses on exploration, stealth, and action. And plenty of zombies and mutants.
Propagation VR launched for free on Steam back in September 2020, garnering it an ‘Overwhelmingly Positive’ user rating on the platform for its visceral zombie-shooting experience.
Wanadev estimates a late 2022 release on SteamVR headsets for Paradise Hotel (see update). The studio hasn’t mentioned whether the game is coming to other platforms besides SteamVR, however it has done so with its previous title Ragnarock(2021), a Viking-themed rhythm game launched for both SteamVR and Oculus Quest.
