XREAL Games, the Budapest-based studio behind Zero Caliber VR (2018), announced that its upcoming co-op shooter Gambit! is finally set to release on Quest 2 and PC VR headsets next week.
Update (March 31st, 2023): After a long wait, XREAL Games today announced that Gambit! is now set to launch on April 6th, releasing simultaneously on SteamVR headsets and Quest 2.
The cross-platform game is said to offer “hours to plunder, 4-player co-op, dozens of guns, a myriad of attachments, skins, masks, deathmatch, tournament ladders, minigames, leaderboards, climbing, graffiti, hidden rewards, the GNOP, bossfights, free updates, dedicated customer support, and so on.”
Check out the latest gameplay trailer below:
Original Article (February 9th, 2022): Gambit! was first revealed around a year and half ago, promising a campaign-driven adventure full of guns, gangs, mayhem, and rock and roll. Although originally hoping to launch in 2021, now the team says it’s coming in Q2 2022.
Back then we only had a brief teaser to go on (seen below), however the game’s more recent Steam page shows off a bit more of what to expect, including a few new images.
XREAL says Gambit! will feature “20+ hours” of gameplay, that span nine levels across three chapters.
The four-player co-op missions are also said to include “dozens of guns, a myriad of attachments, skins, masks, deathmatch, tournament ladders, minigames, leaderboards, climbing, graffiti, hidden rewards, the GNOP, bossfights, free updates, dedicated customer support, and so on.”
We’re still waiting for the big gameplay reveal, although with the start of Q2 coming on April 1st, we may be getting a peek sometime soon. In the meantime we’ll be keeping our eyes peeled on the game’s Twitter for more info as it arrives.
InnerspaceVR is bringing its sequel to the VR puzzle adventure A Fisherman’s Tale soon, aptly named Another Fisherman’s Tale. And now both InnerspaceVR and publisher Vertigo Games have released a new gameplay video showing off just what awaits. Detachable body parts, galore.
Revealed today at the Future Games Show (FGS) Spring Showcase, the new trailer shows off some of the upcoming VR puzzle game’s mind-bending universe, which this time is said to use the player’s own body as core puzzle mechanic, tasking you with detaching and replacing key body parts to solve puzzles.
Check out the trailer below:
InnerspaceVR says the sequel brings a new chapter to the story of Bob the Fisherman, “weaving a magical and moving narrative about the meaning we create through building and rebuilding our authentic selves.”
In it, the studio says players will do things like throw Bob’s hand across a ravine and then make it crawl to retrieve an object, or send your head elsewhere for a different point of view.
Limbs are also modular, as you replace them with a variety of objects to unlock new skills, such as a pirate hook hand to let you scale walls, a crab’s claw to cut through a rope, and a fish’s tail to improve your swimming ability. Puppeteering hands will also let you pick up distant objects, items and tools.
InnerspaceVR says Another Fisherman’s Tale will be a five to six hour adventure, putting you in the shoes of Nina, the daughter of the series protagonist. Here’s how InnerspaceVR describes it:
“Recollecting Bob’s grandiose stories of pirates, sunken ships, treasures and mystical locations, Nina begins re-enacting his adventures and dives head-first into an imaginative world of memory and fantasy. Will she be able to separate fact from fiction and uncover the hidden truth behind the fisherman’s tale?”
And yes, it appears French comedian Augustin Jacob is reprising his role as the game’s smokey, baritone narrator.
Another Fisherman’s Tale is slated to launch in Q2 of this year, coming to PSVR 2, Meta Quest 2, and PC VR.
ARVORE, the studio behind the Pixel Ripped game series, announced it’s releasing a sequel this summer called Pixel Ripped 1978, which aims to take us back for another immersive trip down memory lane.
To bring the latest entry in the Pixel Ripped franchise to life, the Sao Paolo, Brazil-based Arvore has struck a major branding partnership with iconic gaming house ATARI.
In the trailer, you’ll see an Atari 2600 and a number of games, such as Crystal Castles (1983), Fast Freddie (1982), and Yars Revenge (1982).
While not the most influential titles to grace the console over its 15-year lifespan (1977-1992), the partnership is essentially allowing the studio to dispense with the ‘Pretendo’ and ‘GearKid’ soundalike consoles and near-beer versions of classic games, offering up a more direct homage to late ’70s and early ’80s gaming.
Here’s how Arvore and ATARI describe Pixel Ripped 1978:
Dot must join forces with “Bug,” the quirky visionary who developed the original Pixel Ripped series. Help Dot maneuver through multidimensional challenges to protect Bug’s childhood memories from the evil Cyblin Lord, a villain able to break through the screen and invade the real world. In the game. The setting? The intense burst of creativity that vibrated through the San Jose suburbs in the late 70s and early 80s. Feel the mighty effects of how the Pixel Stone alters reality itself!
The franchise’s titles are standalone experiences, which also includes Pixel Ripped 1989 (2018) and Pixel Ripped 1995 (2020).
Atari CEO Wade Rosen says Pixel Ripped 1978 is also aimed at “fans of Pixel Ripped and […] the broader Atari community.”
Pixel Ripped 1978 is slated to launch on PC, PSVR 2, Meta Quest 2, and PlayStation 5 at some point this summer.
Polyarc, the studio behind the Moss franchise, announced a new competitive multiplayer VR game currently in development.
Polyarc isn’t saying much beyond that—we still don’t even know it’s name—however a look at the game’s concept art shows a definite influence from Moss‘ style and characters, including the Reader and a number of plucky mice heroes.
Although we can’t read too much into it, retrofitting Moss’ third-person platforming view into a multiplayer battle game may mean the studio is pursuing something very similar in feel to Moss, albeit with multiple classes and weapons. In the concept art we see a gilded Reader and a number of different mousey classes: a tank, archer, knight, wizard, and even some evil leafy dudes.
“It’s apparent observing the community of players out there and receiving some of our own feedback that there are a lot of gamers in VR who are looking for and want to play more competitive multiplayer games,” said Tam Armstrong, co-founder and CEO, Polyarc. “We are excited about this opportunity, as VR offers interesting considerations for multiplayer games. The ability to read the other player’s focus and intention as they move their head and hands are some of the elements that make playing games in person so compelling. We are looking forward to sharing what we’ve been working on and the fun we’ve been having playing it.”
Coming off the success of Moss and Moss: Book II, Polyarc says a competitive multiplayer is “something the team has been excited to develop since the studio’s inception in 2015, but first the player base needed to grow large enough to support multiplayer games of this nature.”
The game, which is still unnamed at the time of this writing, is set to run closed playtesting on the weekend of April 14th-16th. Here’s how Polyarc describes the first round of closed beta testing:
We’re working on lots of cool, new stuff and want to see what happens when we get it in the hands of real players. Each playtest will focus on a different aspect of an in-development game and your feedback will be important to help us make the best final product(s) possible. And we’re here to test the game; we’re not testing you as the playtesters. So please don’t feel like you have to do anything besides play the game. If you are having fun, we want to know! If you aren’t having fun, then we also want to know. And we will ask you all about every juicy detail in a survey at the end.
The studio hasn’t announced target platforms yet, however playtesters will require a Quest 2 to participate. If you’re interested in joining, signups are available starting today.
Not For Broadcast VR isn’t just about live-mixing camera feeds and making sure the National Nightly News airs without a hitch—that’s the gamey bit you’ll have to contend with if you want to keep ratings up and make sure the audience isn’t switching channels. It’s also a dark and brilliantly satirical take on modern politics and how broadcast media has become intertwined with entertainment. And it’s no surprise the propaganda simulator’s big buttons and full motion video (FMV) action translate pretty well to VR too.
Not For Broadcast VR Details:
Available On: SteamVR, Quest 2 Release Date: March 23rd, 2023 Price: $TBD Developer: NotGames, Babaroga Publisher: tinyBuild Reviewed On: Quest 2 via PC Link
Gameplay
Not For Broadcast VR is exactly what is says on the tin: it’s basically the VR-ified (re: separate) version of Not For Broadcast, which indie studio NotGames released in 1.0 early last year on PC.
Here’s the basic setup: you’ve stepped up from your janitorial duties to run the production control room of a national TV station in an alternate timeline in 1980s Britain. The far-left Advance party has won the big election by a landslide and is bent on making sweeping changes with an authoritarian flair.
In your live-mixing booth you expertly sync in commercial breaks, cut between four camera feeds, and keep the ratings high by combatting frequency disturbances. Although outwardly you’re nothing but a cog in the propaganda machine, you can intentionally affect outcomes in the game which lead to multiple endings. With your ability to sway public perception, you can either shame or exalt celebrities and politicians, and even decide who lives and dies in some of the more gripping chapters by focusing or omitting certain shots. Please or anger your Advance party overlords, and find out how life changes.
Image courtesy NotGames
And as you’d imagine, the game is intentionally overwhelming, offering up a series of contemporaneous stuff that will drive you to mechanically execute tasks as you struggle to actively listen to some of the most asinine things to come on screen.
Things to keep the ratings up include interesting editing, getting reaction shots and people talking right, censoring foul language properly, and making sure the signal is clear of interference. Alternatively, you lose ratings by messing all of those things up.
You’ll probably want to pay attention and watch the bizzarro world in disbelief, but really you can’t. The show must go on and the eternal plate-spinning is the only way to make it continue, lest you lose watchers and eventually draw the ire of your employer and the channel’s large and influential sponsors. The conflict of interest is writ large at the end of each broadcast session too. You are directly funded by the ruling party.
Image courtesy NotGames
Mess up too much and you’ll make less money, which makes replacing key bits of kit and buying luxury gadgets, like automatic censor buttons, much more difficult.
It’s not all about ratings though. Non-broadcast days are interspersed with text-based interludes that test your decision-making skills—essentially morality vibe checks. Do you help a family member flee the country, which may put your job at risk? How do you deal with mounting bills and family tragedy when your day job is to act as a party mouthpiece? You are a team player, aren’t you?
Confession: I’ve already played the flatscreen version, and my love for the underlying game is undeniable. Thankfully there is very little material change between the two, and despite a frequency toggle that doesn’t work terribly well in VR, most everything is well translated thanks to the game’s user-friendly interface which make for good physical interaction models, including stuff like VHS tapes, switches, nobs and big red buttons. More about that in Immersion.
Having the ability to keep an eye on everything more naturally is also a big help, as the flatscreen version forces you to switch views manually to keep an eye on all three main terminal areas.
Image courtesy NotGames
That said, the game is best taken in bitesize pieces since the main story can take anywhere from 8 to 10 hours, with broadcasts typically lasting 20-30 minutes a piece. Considering the game packs in nearly 43 hours of FMV though, you may find yourself replaying broadcasts just to see where you went wrong, and how outcomes might change as difficult situations come your way.
Variable difficulty is available, but only on the start of a new game. Thankfully the difficulty levels are spelled out plainly before you start, letting you pick between five levels. The lowest level is for more narrative enjoyment, while the highest level is super unforgiving when it comes to editing efficiency and signal clarity.
Immersion
Whenever I play a flatscreen-to-VR port, I always ask myself this question: does it need to be in VR? And to be honest, Not For Broadcast feels only marginally more at home in VR than on flatscreen, kind of like how Friday Night at Freddy’s is amped up in-headset versus on a flatscreen thanks to impending doom.
Still, like FNaF, all game UI is a direct translation from the original flatscreen game, which isn’t bad, but not nearly as ‘VR-native’ as it could be were it designed specifically for VR headsets and motion controllers first. Hitting a button or manipulating toggle are plain binary actions which don’t really engage you to the fullest potential like you might see in games built for VR headsets from the ground-up, like I Expect You to Die. Still, there’s no denying the underlying game is provocative, fun, and more disturbing in VR than flatscreen.
Not For Broadcast’s full motion video (the star of the show) works particularly well in drawing you deeper into the game’s lore too.
Image courtesy NotGames
Acting is surprisingly good for such a bootstrapped project; it’s suitably hammy, but tight and witty enough to peel your attention away from your mounting list of tasks.
Granted, if you do miss something, you can review your finished product after each broadcast, including the raw signals for candid dialogue and full adverts so you don’t have to worry about missing any narrative flavor after the fact.
Comfort
The game can be played standing or seated, although either way you should make sure you have at least a meter of space in your periphery, so you don’t smash your coffee table, monitor, small child, whatever. Otherwise, there is no artificial locomotion to speak of, making it perfect for first-timers or sensitive users. You should note the game features strong language and violent themes, so plan accordingly.
Not For Broadcast VR’ Comfort Settings – March 20th, 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, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Chinese (Simplified), Russian
Triangle Factory, the studio behind Hyper Dash (2021), announced its squad-based shooter Breachers is set to launch next month on Quest 2 and SteamVR headsets.
The Rainbow Six Siege-inspired shooter has seen over 60,000 players play since the studio launched the open alpha late last year. Now the studio says Breachers will officially launch on April 13th.
Like Rainbow Six Siege, one team (Enforcers) is tasked with wiping out the enemy squad and disarm their bombs with an EMP. You’ll be able to rappel and breach through walls, swing through windows and catch your opponents by surprise with gadgetry like drones, cloaking devices, flashbangs and breaching foam.
As the opposing team (Revolter), your squad has to protect your bombs with force and gadgets such as door-blockers, trip mines, static field emitters and proximity sensors.
If you’re curious to try your hand at the Breachers, the studio is actually still running the open alpha until March 24th. You can join the open alpha over at SideQuest for Quest 2 and Quest Pro, and over at Github for PC VR headsets. If you need any help through the install process, make sure to jump over to the game’s Discord (invite link).
While a VR-only game, Triangle Factory is also packaging in a spectator mode that can be viewed without VR hardware, promising some ready access for streamers looking to commentate on the game’s 5v5 competitive matches.
Priced at $30, players who pre-order on Quest can also get an Elite gun skin for ‘The Jesper’, the standard sidearm players spawn with at the start of each round. You can also wishlist on Steam. The studio hasn’t mentioned PSVR 2 support yet.
PlayStation VR 2 launched late last month alongside more than 40 titles, which included games entirely new to the platform as well existing games from other platforms and upgraded PSVR titles. The headset’s first monthly top download chart has revealed a big shift in which games are taking an early lead in the headset’s growing library.
Taking the top spot across the US & Canada, the EU and Japan is Kayak VR: Mirage, a kayak racing sim initially released on SteamVR headsets in 2022 by Amsterdam-based indie studio Better Than Life.
In it, players race across lush, photorealistic environments including ice caves in Antarctica, tropical locales in Costa Rica, storm waters in Norway, and the stark canyons of Australia. The paddling movement mechanic is also something that works really well in VR too, which we hope more games will make use of thanks to just how immersive it can be.
Horizon Call of the Mountain, undoubtedly a product of sizable investment by Sony, only managed to eke out third place in the US/Canada and the EU, taking second place in Japan, which is probably more than a tad disappointing to the Sony-owned developers Guerilla Games and Firesprite.
Horizon Call of the Mountain is a single-player adventure that showcases some of the best graphics you’ll find anywhere in VR. Combat could be a bit more fluid and climbing could have more interesting challenges, although it certainly stacks up to Half-Life: Alyx in terms of immersion. Check out why we game it a respectable [8.5/10] in our review.
Granted, Horizon Call of the Mountain comes with a premium price tag of $60, which may explain why it underperforms in unit sales in comparison to the cheap and cheerful $25 team shooter Pavlov and $23 Kayak VR: Mirage. There’s also to consider that it was the subject of a hardware bundle, however that included a voucher code and not a physical disk. As the PlayStation blogpost states, the chart is counting downloads and not unit sales.
What’s more, it seems the era of Job Simulator (2016) ruling the PSVR top download charts has come to a definite end—despite it and sequel Vacation Simulator both offering PSVR 2 versions. Job Simulator has ruled the download charts nearly every month without fail since it launched on the original PSVR.
Take note: the February download chart only accounts for the headset’s first week in existence (Feb 22-28). March’s chart should be another fairly interesting read, as we see whether these top spots remain, or falter as more users pick up PSVR 2 headsets. Check out the chart below:
PSVR 2 Games
US & Canada
EU
Japan
1
Kayak VR: Mirage
Kayak VR: Mirage
Kayak VR: Mirage
2
Pavlov
Pavlov
Horizon Call of the Mountain
3
Horizon Call of the Mountain
Horizon Call of the Mountain
The Tale of Onogoro
4
Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge
Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge
Dyschronia:Chronos Alternate Episode I
5
PISTOL WHIP
Moss: Book II
After the Fall – Complete Edition
6
Moss: Book II
PISTOL WHIP
Moss and Moss: Book II Bundle
7
Swordsman VR
Job Simulator
Puzzling Places
8
Drums Rock
Swordsman VR
Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge
9
NFL PRO ERA
Drums Rock
Drums Rock
10
The Light Brigade
After the Fall
Job Simulator
Update (12: 00PM ET): Horizon Call of the Mountain was also included in a hardware bundle, however that included a voucher code and not a physical disk. As the PlayStation blogpost states, the chart is counting downloads and not unit sales. We’ve included this information in the article above.
Besides making one of the most influential VR games to date, Valve also made sure Half-Life: Alyx was just as moddable as its other iconic titles. And thankfully there’s no shortage of talented modders out there who have built extended campaigns and new levels for the PC VR shooter.
One such HLA modder is Nate ‘Polygrove’ Grove, an Environment Artist and Designer at game publisher Annapurna Interactive, which is known for titles such as Outer Wilds, Stray, and What Remains of Edith Finch.
Last Friday Grove released their first solo HLA mod project, called ‘Re-Education’, something the environment artist calls a “medium-length campaign (30 minutes to an hour) featuring standard Half-Life Alyx style gameplay with a focus on slower pacing and environmental storytelling.”
You can check out the trailer below:
In Re-Education, the idea is to scavenge, explore, and make the dangerous journey while en route to a safehouse on the outskirts of City 17. There, Alyx finds her commandeered train has been halted by a Combine barricade.
“She must make her way through a long-abandoned school to access the switch that unblocks the tracks, but the task may prove more difficult than expected,” the DLC’s description reads.
The free DLC can be downloaded though Steam Workshops, which of course means you’ll need the base game to play.
This isn’t Grove’s first HLA mod either. You may also recognize the developer’s ‘Polygrove’ handle from the credits in the Half-Life: Incursion mod as well, which included the talents of Maarten Frooninckx (Hammer scripting), Ross Joseph Gardner (script writing), and Joey Bracken (voice over).
There’s a host of great content to explore outside of Re-Education and Incursion too, with one of our top picks being the Half-Life: Alyx ‘Levitation’ mod, which brings around 3-4 hours of Combine-ganking fun in an unofficial chapter that you’d swear is direct from Valve.
Fast Travel Games unveiled late last year a VR game set in the universe of critically acclaimed PC title Stellaris (2016): Ghost Signal: A Stellaris Game. The single player action roguelite is now slated to arrive on Meta Quest 2 this month.
Update (March 10th, 2023): Fast Travel Games announced via Twitter that Ghost Signal: A Stellaris Game is coming exclusively to Quest 2 on March 23rd. You can pre-order the game now on the Meta Quest Store, giving you a 10% discount off the game’s usual $20 price.
The original article announcing Ghost Signal follows below. We’ve also included the most up-to-date trailer, which explains how the developer are integrating hand-tracking into the game.
Original Article (September 22nd, 2022): Like the PC game from Paradox Interactive, Ghost Signal lets you captain your own spaceship and explore the universe, this time in search of the enigmatic Ghost Signal.
It’s fundamentally a single player game, although while you scan exotic creatures for your logbook and conduct research in multiple tech trees, you can also scavenge other players’ deserted ships for valuables, giving it a sort of eerie asynchronous multiplayer element.
Fast Travel Games—also known for VR titles Apex Construct, The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets, and Wraith: The Oblivion – Afterlife—says the game will also let you meet mysterious aliens, encounter planet-sized creatures and engage in dynamic space battles.
“For years Stellaris has captivated players with its vast and wondrous universe,” said Christopher Smith, Lead Game Designer at Fast Travel Games. “Ghost Signal: A Stellaris Game takes that universe and brings it closer like never before while giving players a completely new way of experiencing it. Both fans and newcomers are sure to discover something special among the stars in this virtual reality roguelite take.”
The game is said to include:
Roguelite gameplay where no journey is in vain
Alien species to battle or befriend
Heavy artillery to fend off monstrous creatures or defeat enemy armadas
Powerful upgrades such as freeze rays, atomic missiles, and dragon companions
Randomized maps, daily challenges, and leaderboards
Like Guardians Frontline, an upcoming strategic VR shooter announced Fast Travel and VirtualAge Games, there’s no definite launch date yet beyond the stated ‘early 2023’ window. That however matches the expected release of PSVR 2, so it’s possible the veteran VR studio is looking also support Sony’s next-gen VR headset too.
IRIS VR, the studio behind TECHNOLUST (2016), announced that its long-awaited open world cyberpunk adventure LOW-FI is slated to launch sometime this year on PlayStation 5, PSVR 2, and PC VR headsets via Steam and the Meta PC platform.
Update (March 10th, 2023): It’s been nearly two years since IRIS VR announced a PS5 version was coming, which initially was set to arrive sometime in 2021. Now studio head Blair Renaud says in a tweet that LOW-FI is officially coming to PS5 and PSVR 2 this year. You can wishlist it on the PlayStation Store here.
The still in-development game has been available for purchase on PC and PC VR headsets for some time via the game’s itch.io, however Renaud also says we should expect to see it on Steam and the Meta PC platform in 2023 as well. You can wishlist it on Steam here.
If you haven’t followed along with the project, here’s a description courtesy of IRIS VR:
As the player, you are “low-fi”, the street name given to those who cannot merge with the platform, a ubiquitous virtual reality simulation where most of the population now live their lives. You are a police officer and have been transferred to a particularly crime ridden section of city-block 303. The only inhabitants of note in your jurisdiction are other low-fi, and the human intelligence (or lower) artificial life forms who have remained among the citizens after the AI singularity.
The original article announcing LOW-FI’s PS5 availability follows below. We’ve also included the latest trailer below this update:
Original Article (June 12th, 2020): A successful Kickstarter campaign late last year helped get LOW-FI off the ground, having garnered IRIS VR over $80,000 USD. At the time, it was pitched as a VR-native game intentionally built from the ground-up for PC VR headsets and “next-gen PSVR.”
The game’s developer, Blair Renaud, says that anyone can pre-order the PC version now, which gives you early access on SteamVR headsets. At the time of this writing the pre-release PC VR version costs $35 USD.
And it’s certainly an ambitious undertaking, boasting a massive, non-linear open world, “hundreds” of crimes and stories to solve and explore, branching narratives, and dialogue from what the studio says will be “photo-realistic NPCs.”
While the game’s creator seems fairly certain of LOW-FI’s 2021 launch window (see update), Sony hasn’t actually released word on when a next-gen follow-up to the PSVR is set to arrive.
We do however know that the current PSVR will be compatible with PS5 when the console launches holiday 2020, so upcoming VR releases for PS5 don’t necessarily indicate any implied time frame for a prospective PSVR 2.
Cyan, the studio behind iconic puzzle adventure games Myst (1993) and Riven (1997), garnered their fair share of success with their April 2019 Kickstarter campaign, which sought to bring to life their next VR-compatible title, Firmament. Now Cyan says the long-delayed game finally has a release date: March 18th.
According to a Kickstarter backer update, Firmament is now set to launch on March 18th, coming to PC VR headsets including Meta Rift and Rift S, HTC Vive, Valve Index, and Meta Quest headsets through Quest Link. A flatscreen mode is also available for play on MacOS and Windows.
The studio says it’s also set to target PSVR 2, PS4 and PS5 at some point “down the line.”
Two months ago the studio released an extended look at some of the game’s preproduction footage, which we’ve included below:
Once targeting a July 2020 launch, Firmament has slipped again and is now targeting a Q1 2023 launch date. Here’s that statement is full; we’ve also included a 9-minute look at the work-in-progress game, embedded below this update:
“As a result of discussions with key team member and staff, Cyan is making the important decision to move the launch of Firmament to Q1 2023. The game is very closed to complete, and the development is rapidly approaching its final phase.
To our Backers, Fans, and Friends, thank you for your continuing patience and support. Your enthusiasm and excitement lifts our spirits daily. We cannot wait to share launch day news with you in (early!) 2023.”
Original Article (July 13th, 2020): Firmament’s launch window seemed a bit tight from the onset, however from an experienced studio that had previously created its latest VR-compatible puzzle adventure game Obduction to both PC VR and PSVR, it seemed not all together impossible.
The reality of creating a game however is admittedly “often quite a bit messier,” the studio says in a recent Kickstarter update.
Here’s a bit of Cyan’s reasoning behind the delay, which is said to push the game’s release date possibly to 2022.
With that in mind, Firmament’s Estimated Delivery date of July 2020 was- as it turns out- a wildly optimistic one. We know some of you had your heart’s set on playing Firmament this summer, and we’re genuinely sorry that you’re not going to be able to play it yet! We’re really bummed about that too!
Although there is no Release Date to announce today, we can tell you a couple things with some level of certainty: Firmament is not coming in 2020. And unless the stars align (which we all know happens rarely in game development), it is unlikely that Firmament will be coming in 2021.
In the studio’s own defense, Cyan says it has “always been about shipping things when they’re ready to be shipped, not picking a date and then trying to shoehorn the game into the box in an artificially limited amount of time.”
Firmament is said to be “something bigger than a studio [of Cyan’s] size would ordinarily be able to produce,” and that it will include a “richer and more substantial story” than was previously planned.
Whatever you thought of Obduction (and its initially uneasy technical performance on both PC VR headsets and PSVR) Cyan has a good track record of delivering, leaving the only real concern to when Firmament will arrive, and not if.
Food for thought: a prospective 2022 release of Firmament is slated to happen well within the lifecycle of next-gen consoles and PC hardware—and possibly VR hardware as well—so there’s no telling what technical advances the studio will need to adopt along the way if it’s looking to significantly lengthen the development roadmap. I guess we’ll see in a few years. As it is, Firmament is targeting PC, SteamVR headsets, macOS, and PS4 & PSVR.
Gaijin Entertainment, the studio behind combat simulator War Thunder, announced a new flight sim coming to PSVR 2 called Aces of Thunder.
The online game is said to focus on World War II planes, such as the American fighter P-51 Mustang and British Spitfire, however future add-ons are planned to bring combat aircraft from other eras, Gaijin says.
It’s said to feature competitive online battles including modes like team versus team, single duels, and modes with custom settings.
The game is also set to include “[p]hysically accurate flight and damage models, derived from the leading War Thunder military action simulation game, [to] further enhance the believability of Aces of Thunder,” the studio says in a press statement.
Quite unlike the free-to-play War Thunder, the studio’s upcoming VR aerial dogfighter is set be distributed on a paid model.
“All aircraft that would be a part of this game or its future add-ons will be available immediately upon purchase, and the players will be able to apply cosmetic items to customize their planes,” the studio says in a press statement.
The VR game is said to be made “specifically with capabilities of PlayStation VR2 in mind.” While Gaijin hasn’t mentioned other platforms, it’s only advertising PSVR 2 support on the game’s website.
Gaijin is developing Aces of Thunder with a new in-house team whose members have experience working on War Thunder, the studio says.
There’s no release date yet, so we’ll be keeping our eyes peeled on the game’s website and social in the meantime.
