Developer Flat Head Studio and publisher Fast Travel Games today launched the new Level Creator Update for We Are One (2023), the time-looping puzzle shooter that landed on VR headsets this summer.
The update is available as a free download for existing owners on Quest and SteamVR headsets, bringing with it a Level Creator which is said to bring all of the tools you’ll need to make new challenges.
Fast Travel reveals the update in video, showing off the ability to create your own challenges, share them, and even tailor your levels qith customizable settings, letting you decide the puzzles you want to create, the enemies you want to fight, and the duration of your level. Of course, there’s also a new Level Editor tutorial launching alongside it, which should help you get started.
Notably one of the most successful free demos available on Quest, We Are One tasks you with teaming up with yourself for some VR puzzle-shooter challenges where you have to plan ahead and clone versions of yourself to flawlessly execute previous moves in multiple time loops.
You can catch it on the Quest Store and Steam for PC VR headsets, priced at $20.
MyDearest, the Japan-based VR studio behind the Chronos adventure game franchise, announced it’s secured $7.8 million (1.2 billion yen), something the studio says it will use to expand its existing IP for VR headsets, such as Meta Quest and PSVR 2.
The investment was led by SBI Investment Co., Ltd. and is joined by DG Daiwa Ventures Inc., NetEase Games, Wing Capital Partners, Ltd., OLM Ventures Inc., Samurai Incubate Inc., Dentsu Group and Mitsubishi UFJ Capital.
MyDearest initially specialized in patently Japanese-style adventure games that is heavily influenced by manga, including Tokyo Chronos (2019), Altdeus: Beyond Chronos (2020), and Dyschronia: Chronos Alternate (2022).
With the funding, the studio hopes to further expand both its original IP and publishing business. Coming in 2024 is the studio’s first multiplayer shooter, Brazen Blaze, representing the studio’s first big step clearly outside of the adventure game genre.
According to MyDearest CEO Kento Kishigami, the studio hopes to use the funding to better appeal to users worldwide, and not just in Japan.
“Until now, MyDearest has been a frontrunner in VR games representing Japan, but with this round of funding, it will become a frontrunner in VR games “representing the world.” The technology of VR holds the potential to create entertainment experiences that will become the common language in a new world.”
Founded in 2016, the latest round brings the company’s total funding to $16.1 million (2.4 billion yen) to date.
After 14 years of being sanctioned from operating in mainland China, Meta is set to return to the country with the help of a new, lower-priced version of its VR headset, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Meta’s planned return is thanks to a deal—allegedly still in preliminary stages—with China’s Tencent, the world’s largest videogame company and soon-to-be exclusive seller of Meta headsets in China, WSJ reports, citing people familiar with the matter.
The report maintains Tencent will start selling the headset beginning in late 2024, with the two companies reaching a deal after about a year of negotiations.
Quest 3 | Photo by Road to VR
While the report didn’t mention a potential price of the “lower-priced” VR headset, it’s said the China version could use cheaper lenses than the more costly pancake optics in Quest 3. It’s also said the China-approved version could be sold in other markets besides mainland China.
The proposed deal is set to grant Meta a larger share of device sales, while Tencent will have a larger share of content and service revenue, as the headset will feature games and apps published by the Shenzhen, China-based entertainment conglomerate.
As it is today, Meta’s VR hardware is subsidized by content sales, which would make the deal less attractive for Meta on paper. Still, using its VR headset tech to re-enter China, where it might further leverage growth opportunities for other products, may be worth the price.
Meanwhile, it seems Meta is striking in China just as the homegrown competition falters. While ByteDance’s VR division Pico Interactive has gained territory in Europe over the past year with the launch of its Pico 4 standalone, earlier this week it was reported that Pico is set to lay off “hundreds” of employees as it refocuses on hardware development, something that has all but dashed hopes of taking on Meta in its home turf.
STRIDE (2021) offers up the sort of parkour action you’d expect from a VR-native version of Mirror’s Edge (2008), replete with jumping across dangerous urban chasms, wall-running, and shooting your way past a bunch of roof-walking goons. While previously slated to arrive as DLC to the original game, developer Joy Way has now released the campaign as a standalone title, bringing the same high-flying flair as the original along with a pretty serviceable story to go along with it. Read more to find out whether it was worth the wait.
STRIDE: Fates Details:
Available On: Quest, SteamVR (coming in 2024) Release Date: November 9th, 2023 Price: $30 Developer: Joy Way Reviewed on: Quest 3
Gameplay
You’re a Chaser—a sort of futuristic spec-ops soldier who was plucked out of the slums of Airon City to serve in the SkyChasers police force. Using your augmented superhuman abilities to fight a number of gangs, you traverse the world killing literally everyone in your way for whatever reason the game can put in front of you next.
You’ll use a pistol, SMG, shotgun, knife, and even a futuristic katana at times to put the baddies down in the most stylish way you can think of. Here I am blasting into the air from an air-vault, activating slow-mo, hooking a drone suspended in the air, and swinging around like Spider-Man—fairly par for the course for Stride.
Because it offers up physics-based interactions in the vein of Blade & Sorcery (2018), both games put the onus on the player to consciously elect to make cool kills, replete with slow-mo bullet time so you can gank multiple dudes John Wick-style.
Here’s where Fates differs, as you’ll be thrust into fights in one-off environments that can be as straight-forward or as cinematic as you can handle. When it all comes together, it’s basically one of the most satisfying combat experiences you can have in VR.
If you liked the high-flying, free-running action of the original, Fates handily serves up more than six hours of well-thought-out, objective-based levels that offer plenty of opportunity to flex your shooting, jumping, and running skills—the latter of which is done by physically pumping your arms to move you faster than the snail’s pace that a full throttle left joystick provides. You can also turn on the same mode from Stride Arcade, which allows you to jump by thrusting your arms instead of hitting ‘A’.
To be frank, the game’s AI is very basic, with bad guys acting more like the sort of ragdoll beat-em-up dummies—another reason why I mentioned Blade & Sorcery. Enemies are more like slightly dangerous moving targets than adversaries as such, and they’re all basically the same. Even on the highest difficulty, it’s more about how you finesse your way from point A to point B than fighting against truly challenging enemies. There are a few boss-level enemies with special abilities, but I would have liked a little more variety throughout.
While you’ll definitely need to shoot your way out of situations, there is some light puzzling too. Puzzles feel like they were partially informed by Half-Life: Alyx (2020), offering up a few basic styles which unlock doors, including a sort of carnival-style game that tasks you with leading a ball across an obstacle-laden pipe. They’re all fairly simple, but it’s nice to see they’re not only in use to service your path forwards in the game, but also to unlock secret areas that may have the game’s only real collectibles: multi-colored packs that you can later spend at the end of the mission to unlock weapon upgrades.
Gathering these packs is really what drives you to loot a whole level, presenting you with three types of packs ranging from common to rare. Weapon upgrades are fairly sparse, although mostly functional and straight forward, such as an extended mag, a red dot sight, or higher caliber. I was hoping for more here since it’s such a big part of the game, although it’s basically serviceable.
Image captured by Road to VR
While many puzzles are almost like AR mini-games splayed out in front of the locked door or loot box, one of my favorite puzzles is when you’re prompted to connect to Cyber Space, which is a sort of obstacle course that feels like it would be at home in old films like Hackers (1995), TRON (1982) or Lawnmower Man (1992). It’s a great “safe” place to polish your skills, almost as if it’s reminding you that you shouldn’t always go the safest route when you’re back in the overworld.
It took me a few hours to really gel with Stride: Fates, as the first hour is where you’ll not only learn all of the new skills you’ll need, but also buck up against the sort of jank that seems baked in.
Climbing feels like a mental exercise every single time, leaving me to wish it were more like The Climb 2 (2021) in solidity. Grabbiing onto a ledge is hit or miss, as you need to hit it just right. Overshoot a storm drain and you’ll grasp fruitlessly at the air as you fall to your death, annoyingly putting you back to your last checkpoint.
Another medium-sized gripe is gunplay, which always feels a little fussier than it ought to. Reloading is abstracted to force grabbing ammo you find on the ground and then putting your gun by your hip to automatically reload. The developers say they’re currently working on manual reloading, which will come as a post-launch update. The guns also feel like they’re tilted a bit higher than they should be, which makes aiming and getting a good sight picture a little more annoying than it ought to be.
Immersion
As a campaign-focused game, it would seem like Fates needs to have a really solid story to complement its fun and engaging action. That said, the game’s story isn’t going to win any awards for originality or execution, but it does provide solid scaffolding to support a mostly enjoyable parkouring experience. At times, it’s painfully blind to its own kitschiness, which might have otherwise been dispelled with a fourthwall-breaking nod to the player. Voice acting also doesn’t feel well-directed, which is a shame because it further cheapens the already trope-laden narrative. It all basically fits in the “so bad it’s good” category.
Level design is overall very good, offering plenty of different platforming challenges. What few stealth levels there are feel less impressive, as they’re basically useless since there’s no real penalty to alerting a guard to your presence. Some levels even disable your guns, but whatever the case, you can always punch a guy to death, knife someone straight through the skull, or even slice dudes in half with a sword, which is fun but basically so overpowered that you can abandon all illusion that you’re going to ninja your way around a level when you can just chop everyone to pieces.
Image captured by Road to VR
There’s also a great variety of set pieces of both indoor and outdoor environments to tackle which keeps things interesting across the game’s 12 levels.
Sound design is also fairly good, giving you a heads up when enemies are engaging you, when they individually die, and when all enemies are dead in a given area. This keeps the UI less cluttered, as you engage enemies mostly in a natural way instead of looking for floating HP bars, etc.
Comfort
Like its older sibling, Stride: Fates is surprisingly comfortable for a game that has you basically bouncing off the walls and blasting through large, multi-plane environments. Still, if you’re at all sensitive to artificial movement, you may need to take breaks periodically. I found only a few instances when comfort was an issue, and it was either due to having to repel up a rope (blarg) or encountering a bug where you wall-slide inadvertently.
‘STRIDE: Fates’ Comfort Settings – November 9th, 2023
Asgard’s Wrath 2 is headed to Quest next month, bringing along with it a whole new ancient Egyptian-inspired world to traverse as you track down Loki, the ol’ Norse trickster god himself. In a new behind-the-scenes developer diary, Meta reveals more about what makes the upcoming RPG tick, introducing helpful NPCs, crafting, mini-games and more.
Now, in the game’s fourth dev diary—which is only available on YouTube—Oculus Studios Senior Producer Mari Kyle reveals ‘The Hideout’, an abandoned outpost of the Egyptian Sun God Ra which provides you refuge to do things like cook food and craft important items.
Image courtesy Meta, Sanzaru Games
It’s not just an empty base though. The video shows off the game’s cast of ally gods that inhabit the Hideout, including a merchant named Bes, an item craftsman named Ptah, Polydeuces the cook, and Castor the huntsman. They not only provide some pretty important basic functions, but also serve up quests and helpful advice too.
While crafting was a big part of the original Asgard’s Wrath, letting you create new weapons and consumables, the upcoming sequel introduces cooking to the game for the first time.
Image courtesy Meta, Sanzaru Games
“Cooking is such a fun element in the game, and a lot of folks will probably recognize it as very new to Asgard’s Wrath 2 compared to Asgard’s Wrath 1,” Kyle says. “As you explore the Great Sand Sea, you’ll collect anything from game meat to eggs to pomegranates, and you’ll be able to bring them back to the Hideout where you can cook those things into different recipes.”
Like any good action-adventure game, different recipes yield different effects, such as health and regenerative boosts, Kyle says, noting that hunting is a “very important part of the Asgard’s Wrath 2 universe.”
“The Great Sand Sea and all the worlds in Asgard’s Wrath 2 feel like living worlds with wildlife and creatures that you can hunt for varying purposes. With the hunting and crafting system, you can craft bait to hunt down apex predators, which will drop specific loot that you can use to upgrade your armor or your weapons or maybe even in different potions. They’re kind of like their own mini-bosses within the wildlife creature class.”
As for mini-gameds the Hideout has a few, including a shuffleboard-type game and a slingshot shooting gallery. Throughout the game is also the opportunity to fish, as well as engage in optional battle arenas which, when beaten, give you additional perks.
Asgard’s Wrath 2 is headed to Quest 2/3/Pro on December 15th. If you bought a brand new Quest 3, either the 128GB variant for $500 or the 512GB for $650, you’ll get Asgard’s Wrath 2 for free. If not, you can pre-order the game here where it’s otherwise priced at $60.
According to a recent job offer posted by Amsterdam-based developer Vertigo Games, pre-production has begun on a “high-profile, multiplatform AAA VR game,” which is said to be based on a globally recognized franchise.
Posted earlier this month, the studio is looking for a Lead Level Designer with a proven track record in level design for console/PC action-adventure games as well as expertise in Unreal Engine.
Acquired by Embracer Group in 2020, Vertigo Games is behind titles such as Arizona Sunshine (2016) and After the Fall (2021).
The company has grown significantly over the years, having acquired AR/VR studio Force Field Entertainment in 2021 in its bid to develop what it called at the time an “unannounced AAA game based on a well-known IP.”
Since the acquisition of Force Field, Vertigo Games released The 7th Guest VR (2023), the VR remake of the classic ’90s CD-ROM game. It’s also currently developing Arizona Sunshine 2, which is set to release on all major VR headsets in December.
UNDERDOGS is an upcoming VR mech brawler that takes the veteran indie VR studio behind Racket: Nx in an ambitious new direction.
It was clear all the way back in 2018 with the release of Racket: Nx that developer One Hamsa has a certain sense of game-feel and attention-to-detail that’s rare to find in most VR games. The studio managed to take a broad idea like ‘racquetball in VR’ and turn it into something really unique and totally fitting for the medium.
Now, five years later, the studio’s next project is a total pivot away from the slick VR sport it had created, but you can still feel the developer’s talent for taking a broad idea and turning it into something uniquely fit for VR.
Underdogs isn’t due out until early next year, but I got my hands on an early build of the game and found a very firm foundation with unique mechanics and gameplay that I can only describe as a ‘mech brawler’.
Underdogs has a strong identity—it is not the ‘sit in the cockpit and press a bunch of buttons’ kind of mech game—’let’s smash shit’ is the vibe, and the studio does a great job of leaning into it with the game’s aesthetic.
In Underdogs you pilot a short and agile mech that’s driven with intuitive arm-based locomotion. You essentially pull yourself around the arena with your mech’s arms and use the arms to swing and punch enemies in front of you. You can also use your arms to fling yourself into enemies like a sumo wrestler bouncing an opponent out of the ring. It’s a ton of fun to slam into enemies thanks to physics rag-dolling and some good visual and sound effects to accompany it.
Image courtesy One Hamsa
With a range of different arm attachments—some that are smashy, some that are stabby, and some with utility (like a grappling hook)—it looks like Underdogs could create a fun playground for different ‘builds’ as players experiment with which attachments work best against different enemies.
Oh and did I mention you can not only swing at enemies but you can also pick them up and smash them together or simply throw them to the other side of the arena? This isn’t precision work… it’s demolition—and it feels really fun.
Image courtesy One Hamsa
Speaking of demolition; the arena I was fighting in had a huge piston in the middle that would slam down every few seconds. And you can bet it was a joy every time I threw an enemy under it just in time to get crushed. The developers really know how to make things like this feel satisfying with a combination of effects and sound.
Even in the short slice of the game I played, it was apparent that the studio understands the need for enemy variety. I saw at least three enemy types, one of which had variants that meaningfully changed how I approached them (like a temporary shield that needs to be dodged until it becomes vulnerable). There was also a mini-boss fight with a charging robot rhino that was fun to dodge to and then swing back in to hack and smash its vulnerable points. I’m hoping this is only a taste of the enemy and boss variety in the full game.
Image courtesy One Hamsa
The action is a little chaotic at times, but it feels like with practice there will be an opportunity for players to perfect their movement and attacks. And with any luck, swapping out parts on your mech will lead to different playstyles entirely.
Behind the action, Underdogs is doing some solid world-building by casting the player as an… underdog… that’s battling in underground arenas as an avenue to move up in the world. As a cyber-steam punk world, the setting is something of a known quantity, but so far the game’s presentation has given it a unique feel.
It was an impressive spectacle to look up from the action in the arena to see a horde of people cheering you on, silhouetted against a massive cityscape that makes apparent just how far you’ll have to climb (literally and figuratively) if you want to make it anywhere in this world.
– – — – –
What I played of Underdogs thus far left me really intrigued and excited for the full game. It isn’t clear to me, however, exactly what form the full game will take. Will it simply be a mindless wave-brawler that takes place in the same handful of arenas? Or will the world and story be a vehicle for a more interesting linear narrative and gameplay progression? We’ll have to wait until early next year when Underdogs launches on Quest and PC VR to find out if it sticks the landing.
Rebellion, the studio behind the Sniper Elite franchise, announced a new VR game coming to Quest this month: Sniper Elite VR: Winter Warrior.
The studio threw out a reveal trailer in addition to announcing a pretty close release date; it’s coming to Quest 2/3/Pro on November 30th.
While we can’t tell how deep the game will be just by looking at the trailer, Sniper Elite VR: Winter Warrior is only priced at $15, which suggests we’ll be getting a shorter game that the original Sniper Elite VR (2021), which launched with a six-hour campaign for $30. It’s also only been announced for Quest, whereas Sniper Elite VR came to all major VR headsets at the time.
Image courtesy Rebellion, Just Add Water
Developed in partnership with Just Add Water, Sniper Elite VR: Winter Warrior puts you in the boots of “the Partisan,” a former Italian resistance soldier reliving his memories of banishing Nazi forces from his homeland. The studio says it will feature a “full story-driven campaign in which you uncover Nazi “wonder-weapons” that must be destroyed along with those behind the plans.”
Two additional game modes were also announced: ‘Sniper Hunt’ and ‘Last Stand’. The studio says Sniper Hunt is an “intense game of cat and mouse that pits you against expert Nazi snipers,” whereas Last Stand pits you against waves of enemies where you’ll need to gather weapons and ammunition and set traps before fighting to survive against the oncoming forces.
Schell Games, the studio behind the I Expect You to Die VR puzzle series, showed off more of its upcoming VR game which is all about slaying vampires—and of course the ever-looming threat of a jumpscare if you fail.
Coming in 2024 to Quest, the new trailer finally shows off some gameplay of Silent Slayer: Vault of the Vampire, which the studio initially announced back in June during Meta’s Quest Gaming Showcase.
Releasing on Quest 2/3/Pro, in Silent Slayer players become vampire slayers and are tasked with quietly eliminating an ancient vampire clan before they wake. Players must carefully dismantle their coffins’ defenses using various tools, creating the perfect opportunity to plunge a stake through the heart of undead foes.
The studio says both silence and precision are key, as one wrong move and the fanged monsters will rise, immediately draining the player’s life force.
The latest VR entry into to the World of Darkness universe lets you loose on the streets of Venice as a bloodsucking ghoul in search of your master’s killer and a stolen relic. Although it takes cues from stealth games like Hitman and Assassin’s Creed, Vampire: The Masquerade – Justice—let’s just call it Justice for short—takes a decidedly more linear approach to missions than I thought it might from our initial preview. This isn’t a terrible thing, although it manages to also feel pared down in a few other ways that’s just unfortunate. Read on to hear my full impressions.
Vampire: The Masquerade – Justice Details:
Available On: Quest, PSVR 2 Release Date: November 2nd, 2023 Price: $30 Developer: Fast Travel Games Reviewed on: Quest 3
Gameplay
It’s your job to uncover the mystery behind your sire’s murder and reclaim a stolen relic, all of which is set in the claustrophobic alleys and sprawling sewers of Venice—yes, the world-famous sewer systemof Venice. You know, the Italian island-city built on wooden stilts. With canals. And no basements. Because of the water. Ok, you’ll need to suspend disbelief only a tad more than you might normally for a fantasy world filled with vampiric factions, but not by much. After all, you can suck blood from people (and rats!), teleport around, and shoot mini-bolts formed from your own life force out of a Fisher-Price crossbow. What’s a sewer level or three? It’s all gravy.
Like pretty much all World of Darkness stuff, Justice is pretty pulpy when it comes to the narrative. If you’re not already an acolyte of the universe, the game does a pretty good job of introducing you to a few of the main vampire factions that come to a head. Still, you won’t need to absorb much of it, as it leads you by the hand through some pretty well-trodden territory which will probably feel like home for anyone who’s a fan of the gothic-punk vibe in general. That said, the suitably schlocky narrative spends a little too much time in the foreground for my tastes, especially considering it’s such a cookie-cutter tale with some pretty interchangeable villains and objectives.
For a game that mostly nails the ethereal feel of apparating onto the ledge of a building and blasting through an unsuspecting bad guy, I was really hoping it would provide me with a sort of Hitman-esque challenge of solving missions with my own creativity. Instead, it all feels a little hemmed in. Levels are typically large, although missions are entirely linear, meaning you’ll have to complete specific objectives that are force-fed to you by Pietro, your vampire pal and chief quest-giver. Don’t let that dialogue box fool you. You’re doing whatever Pietro says, even if you decide to be a little snotty about it. Anyway, that’s how it is with everyone you talk to in the game though, so it’s fine I guess?
Image captured by Road to VR
The game is pretty intent on taking you by the hand to do most everything. By default, objectives are highlighted automatically, providing you with a far-off direction to point towards as you navigate through whoever and whatever is your way. You can see the little yellow geometric icon through the walls, which is more convenient than having to constantly refer to a map, but significantly less satisfying since it comes at the cost of exploration. I know that’s a thing in traditional gaming, but it feels just a little too abstracted in VR without giving me some sort of reason. Some cool AR glasses maybe? Nope. Vampires can just see objective markers.
Additionally, you can also activate a vampiric sense that gives you a whispy trail towards intermediary objectives, which most often times are keys to open doors. You can abuse it as much as you want, which is a clear temptation when you’re just looking to get to the ‘Mission Complete’ screen.
Image captured by Road to VR
That said, the game’s combat is a high point, offering you several ways to dispatch baddies. Kills feel iconic and fun, although the skill difficulty is almost comically low since bad guys just never look up—not even if you call attention to yourself by dropping a brick or beer bottle. You can saunter around ledges and scurry up drainpipes to your heart’s content, never being in any danger, save the two or three times in the game when there’s a sniper.
And yes, the game’s singular way of getting from ledge to ledge is teleporting, which may disappoint anyone who was looking for a parkour experience. Still, it feels right here since it’s actually a vampire superpower, although I can see why some people may miss hitting ‘A’ for jump.
Image courtesy Fast Travel Games
It’s not all rooftop-trawling at midnight though. When you need to move among them at street level, you really have one of two real options: go ham and kill before you catch two or three bullets, putting you back to your last automatic save point, or use some of your life force by turning invisible and walking right on by. Enemies seem to have radios, but it doesn’t appear they know how to use them very well, as you’ll kill a dude, his friend will come over and be like “oh no!” and then he’ll wander away eventually because you’re sitting on a ledge just above his head.
You can also always see where baddies are in level, since your vampire abilities not only provide a yellow highlighted heart icon, but also a cone that indicates which way they’re looking at any given time. Basically, the only way to be caught off guard is to close your eyes.
These aren’t the only ways to skin a cat, although you’ll probably land on your favorite method pretty quickly, as all enemies are basically the same, save three bosses you have to contend with. Different powers can be purchased in-game via XP, which includes things like that invisibility cloak ability, but also powerful and noisy attacks that boil the blood of victims until they explode. You can also set a something called a Shadow Trap that opens a pit to hell, but I found my own method pretty much the only real tactic for quick and easy kills. Using the crossbow, you can fire sleep-inducing bolts into everyone but bosses, and either knock them out to sneak by, or keep them still so you can suck their blood. It’s a pretty handy little device that feels well designed in terms of VR interactions, as it requires you to craft bolts, load individually, and cock back manually. You really don’t need anything else to beat the game, which took me about eight hours.
In the end, Justice has some really solid footing in terms of combat and level design, but it doesn’t really know how to leverage both of these things to make enemy encounters continuously feel fresh and engaging since baddies are fairly dumb and easy to kill. Besides some environmental puzzles, there aren’t a lot of objectives out there that I really used my brain to complete, as most of it’s a breadcrumb trail to the next thing and some dudes in the way.
Immersion
Justice feels like it wants to be an open-world game, but as we all know, that’s an order of magnitude more costly to build, which just isn’t in the cards for this decidedly more cheap and cheerful $30 adventure. While there is an ‘over world’ that you can freely prowl around, simply called ‘The Streets’, it really only serves as an intermediate area between you and the actual mission at hand. You can kill a dude to get some health before heading in, but there’s really not much going on.
Image courtesy Fast Travel Games
That honestly doesn’t bother me, since the game never promised that. What does bother me though is unreliable object interaction. Like we noted in our preview earlier this year, object interaction feels flighty and not nearly as solid as it should be. Manipulating levers and other puzzle elements is a crapshoot, and picking up a rat-sized snack is basically like doing surgery with mittens. This does a great deal to hamper immersion, as it feels like the game really isn’t at home with up close interactions, preferring instead to relegate most of its interactions to superpower moves, crossbow shooting, and force-grabbing.
While a little rough around the edges, its set pieces and level design are both very good, providing a constantly changing environment that feels like it’s modeled after the real-world Venice (save the sewers). Justice is mostly awesome-looking, and I only wish there were more of it to explore and interact with, as it does an excellent job of creating a believable underworld in a fantasy version of Venice.
Comfort
You’ll be zipping around a lot in Justice, although since it entirely relies on teleportation to move from plane to plane, it does a lot to mitigate confort issues. Playing for hours on end wasn’t an issue for me, and that’s coming from someone who never uses smooth turning as an option for the fear of the dreaded flop sweats. Both lateral and forward motion can be mitigated by variable vignettes, which is a neat little extra that will make sure most anyone can play Justice from start to finish without issue.
‘Vampire: The Masquerade – Justice’ Comfort Settings – October 31st, 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, German, Spanish, Korean, Japanese
Beat Saber continues to reel in top tracks for its now classic VR rhythm gameplay. The latest drop is the Rolling Stones Music Pack, bringing 11 of the game’s most classic rock tracks to date.
EDM not your style? Well Beat Saber has come a long way with its DLC music packs, which by now offer quite a bit of variety across 18 different albums. And today that selection gets a little bit wider with the release of the 19th music pack featuring the iconic classic rock group, The Rolling Stones.
Priced at $14 for the complete pack, or $2 per track, the Beat Saber Rolling Stones Music Pack includes the following tracks, including new songs from the group’s latest album:
Angry — New Single
Bite My Head Off (feat. Paul McCartney)
Can’t You Hear Me Knocking
Gimme Shelter
(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction
Live By the Sword (feat. Elton John)
Mess It Up — New Single
Paint It Black
Start Me Up
Sympathy For The Devil
Whole Wide World
The Rolling Stones Music Pack is now available on all platforms where Beat Saber is sold: Meta Quest, PSVR 2, and PC VR. And if you’re looking for more rock, check out the Queen and Rock Mixtape Music Packs.
The NBA announced it’s expanding the number of games it’s recording for Quest headsets by a wide margin, bringing a ton of 180-degree immersive games to NBA League Pass holders.
Games will be available in both through the Xtadiumapp on Quest and Meta Horizon Worlds—both of which require the NBA League Pass subscription viewing service to access. Games on Xtadium have already begun, while games on Horizon Worlds kick off November 17th.
Note: Xtadium and NBA League Pass VR games are only available in the US.
Each app has it own perks. Xtadium lets you do a ‘Watch Party’, where you can invite friends to join you in your own private party room and catch the game together in VR as avatars. It also lets you watch games on-demand, watch up to eight games in 2D simultaneously, and watch games in mixed reality mode.
The NBA Arena in Horizon Worlds is set to include interactive games like the Slam Dunk Jam and Basket Blitz. There’s also set to be plenty of opportunities to mess around in a stadium environment, unlock stickers, emotes, exclusive avatar wearables, and access to the VIP Lounge by attending immersive games or playing mini-games in NBA Arena. You’ll even be able to buy your avatar NBA or WNBA team apparel, which you can wear in VR as well as on Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram.
As always, the standard set of NBA League Pass geo-restrictions apply, which means some games may not be available in all regions, and viewers located near the physical event may be unable to view it based on localized restrictions.
Here’s the full schedule:
October 25 // Atlanta Hawks vs. Charlotte Hornets // 4: 00 pm PT
October 28 // Memphis Grizzlies vs. Washington Wizards // 4: 00 pm PT
October 30 // Miami Heat vs. Milwaukee Bucks // 5: 00 pm PT
November 3 // Golden State Warriors vs. Oklahoma City Thunder // 5: 00 pm PT
November 6 // San Antonio Spurs vs. Indiana Pacers // 4: 00 pm PT
November 10 // Minnesota Timberwolves vs. San Antonio Spurs // 5: 00 pm PT
November 14 // Dallas Mavericks vs. New Orleans Pelicans // 5: 00 pm PT
November 17 // Philadelphia 76ers vs. Atlanta Hawks // 4: 30 pm PT
November 18 // New York Knicks vs. Charlotte Hornets // 3: 00 pm PT
November 21 // Toronto Raptors vs. Orlando Magic // 4: 00 pm PT
November 24 // Detroit Pistons vs. Indiana Pacers // 5: 00 pm PT
November 25 // Los Angeles Lakers vs. Cleveland Cavaliers // 4: 30 pm PT
November 28 // Chicago Bulls vs. Boston Celtics // 4: 30 pm PT
December 2 // Indiana Pacers vs. Miami Heat // 5: 00 pm PT
December 11 // Denver Nuggets vs. Atlanta Hawks // 4: 30 pm PT
December 14 // Chicago Bulls vs. Miami Heat // 4: 30 pm PT
December 16 // Philadelphia 76ers vs. Charlotte Hornets // 4: 00 pm PT
December 18 // LA Clippers vs. Indiana Pacers // 4: 00 pm PT
December 20 // Los Angeles Lakers vs. Chicago Bulls // 5: 00 pm PT
December 21 // San Antonio Spurs vs. Chicago Bulls // 5: 00 pm PT
December 23 // San Antonio Spurs vs. Dallas Mavericks // 5: 30 pm PT
December 27 // New York Knicks vs. Oklahoma City Thunder // 5: 00 pm PT
December 30 // Los Angeles Lakers vs. Minnesota Timberwolves // 5: 00 pm PT
January 2 // Boston Celtics vs. Oklahoma City Thunder vs. 5: 00 pm PT
January 6 // Utah Jazz vs. Philadelphia 76ers // 4: 30 pm PT
January 8 // Boston Celtics vs. Indiana Pacers // 4: 00 pm PT
January 9 // Portland Trail Blazers vs. New York Knicks // 4: 30 pm PT
January 13 // New York Knicks vs. Memphis Grizzlies // 5: 00 pm PT
January 15 // Indiana Pacers vs. Utah Jazz // 6: 00 pm PT
January 20 // San Antonio Spurs vs. Washington Wizards // 4: 00 pm PT
January 21 // Denver Nuggets vs. Washington Wizards // 3: 00 pm PT
January 26 // Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Milwaukee Bucks // 5: 00 pm PT
January 28 // Oklahoma City Thunder vs. Detroit Pistons // 3: 00 pm PT
January 29 // New Orleans Pelicans vs. Boston Celtics // 4: 30 pm PT
February 2 // Miami Heat vs. Washington Wizards // 4: 00 pm PT
February 3 // Brooklyn Nets vs. Philadelphia 76ers // 3: 00 pm PT
February 5 // Dallas Mavericks vs. Philadelphia 76ers // 4: 00 pm PT
February 9 // Charlotte Hornets vs. Milwaukee Bucks // 5: 00 pm PT
February 12 // Denver Nuggets vs. Milwaukee Bucks // 5: 00 pm PT
February 26 // Brooklyn Nets vs. Memphis Grizzlies // 5: 00 pm PT
March 1 // Indiana Pacers vs. New Orleans Pelicans // 5: 00 pm PT
March 4 // Portland Trail Blazers vs. Minnesota Timberwolves // 5: 00 pm PT
March 11 // Phoenix Suns vs. Cleveland Cavaliers // 4: 30 pm PT
March 15 // Denver Nuggets vs. San Antonio Spurs // 5: 30 pm PT
March 16 // Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Houston Rockets // 2: 00 pm PT
March 21 // Utah Jazz vs. Dallas Mavericks // 5: 30 pm PT
March 24 // Golden State Warriors vs. Minnesota Timberwolves // 4: 00 pm PT
March 29 // Phoenix Suns vs. Oklahoma City Thunder // 5: 00 pm PT
March 31 // Los Angeles Lakers vs. Brooklyn Nets // 3: 00 pm PT
April 5 // New York Knicks vs. Chicago Bulls // 5: 00 pm PT
April 7 // Sacramento Kings vs. Brooklyn Nets // 4: 30 pm PT
April 12 // Orlando Magic vs. Philadelphia 76ers // 4: 00 pm PT
