Review

‘pixel-ripped-1978’-–-amping-up-nostalgia-with-official-atari-backing

‘Pixel Ripped 1978’ – Amping Up Nostalgia with Official Atari Backing

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Virtual reality’s favorite nostalgia-fueled game-within-a-game is back, this time throwing you into a handful of reimagined Atari 2600 titles from the early ’80s. It’s another solid entry into the series, and as its casual approach to serving up a rash of classic gaming tropes are fairly tried and true at this point. While its first-person RPG focus this time around doesn’t really feel like the sort of substantial evolution that it could be, 1978’s smorgasbord of novelty and undoubtably heartfelt love of classic games does a lot to smooth over many of its rougher spots.

Pixel Ripped 1978 Details:

Available On:  SteamVR, Quest, PSVR 2

Release Date:  June 15th, 2023

Price: $25

Developer: ARVORE

Publisher: Atari

Reviewed On:  Quest 2

Gameplay

Pixel Ripped returns with our digital hero Dot, this time taking us to the dawn of home video game consoles of the late ’70s and early ’80s. You do visit 1978, although you’ll spend a good amount of time in the pre-NES days of the early ’80s too. If you haven’t brushed up on your gaming history, that means stuff like Frogger, Donkey Kong, Pac-Man, Space Invaders, etc. Okay, not those games specifically, but more on that in a bit.

If you’ve played the previous two standalone games, Pixel Ripped 1989 (2018) and Pixel Ripped 1995 (2020), you probably know the score: the series mixes in classic gameplay on CRT monitors with more immersive 3D action when you jump into the game. The new entry into the series follows this pattern, so if you’re looking for more of the same Cyblin Lord-beating action, you’re in the right place. Now your overworld character is Barbara ‘Bug’ Rivers, a fictionalized Atari developer who must help Dot stop Cyblin Lord from going back in time and completely changing the fundamental nature of the Pixel Ripped console game Bug is working on.

Image captured by Road to VR

Having Atari as an actual publisher comes with a few new perks for the series. For the first time Pixel Ripped 1978 has done away with its ‘near-beer’ approach to game references, which relied on its own litigation-free versions of popular console games to complete the nostalgic feel. Granted, the name brands you jump into, both as Dot and the overworld character Bug, aren’t the most iconic Atari has on offer: Crystal Castles, Fast Freddie, and Yars’ Revenge. In the game, they’re called Bentely’s Quest, Groovin’ Freddie, and Grave Yar, although the characters are all there.

Still, you’ll find some easter eggs as well as mini-games related to the system’s best-known titles, such as Frogger, Breakout, and Space Invaders to name a few, making it a true love letter to the second generation of console gaming.

Image captured by Road to VR

While late ’70s and early ’80s nostalgia is on full display—there’s an actual Atari 2600 console, game cartridges galore, and Atari 400 home computer—thankfully you won’t just be limited to the system’s eight-drectional joystick and single button when playing on your office CRT. As the game progresses, you’re handed more buttons which give those games significantly more depth and modern playability when played in 2D.

When playing inside the game, which is more consistently focused on first-person RPG gameplay, you’re again treated to a bright and blocky world that puts you head-first in reimagined 3D versions of each title, albeit infected by Cyblin Lord’s disruptive rips in space. The objective of each cartridge is to collect a crystal that will close each rip, leading you to an end-stage boss encounter.

Image courtesy ARVORE, ATARI

The RPG part of the game equips you with a few things: on the left hand is a wrist-worn device that can shoot out bug repairs, making up the bulk of the game’s casual puzzle-solving. On the right is a blaster which… blasts. And over your right shoulder is a random melee weapon, which is more comical than effective, offering stuff like an oversized tennis racket, a fish, or large ‘chancla’ slipper.

On first blush some things seem to be clear detractors in these first-person bits of the game, including repetitive shooting and melee combat, and some fairly lackluster upgrades. Enemy variation is also fairly low, offering up a pretty middling handful of flying and ground types, all of which feel like bullet sponges with their own unseen health bars.

Still, the game’s rhythmic drips of novelty do a lot to smooth over some of these momentary rough patches. Since there’s always something new around the corner and unique boss battle ahead of you, you might even think of those parts less as flaws and more like the sort of gameplay bottlenecks that were part and parcel of an era of gaming that was simplistic by necessity. Granted, Pixel Ripped 1978 is significantly more complex, but maybe it should be forgiven somewhat given the neurons it’s attempting to spark.

Immersion

Pixel Ripped 1978’s focus on first-person RPGs stuff gives a new latitude to move around and explore the world than previous titles, which were nearly entirely seated. Here, level design feels mostly logical and consistent, although at times I was left scratching my head as what to do next, which led to some unintentional backtracking through levels. Upon death, all enemies reset, which is basically on-brand for any classic game out there. Thankfully the game autosaves, which is a merciful break in immersion from the titles of the early ’80s.

While Pixel Ripped 1978’s first-person RPG focus isn’t the homerun I was hoping for, its higher fidelity connection to the nostalgia certain ups the overall immersion factor. There’s something about seeing a real Atari 2600, handling the cartridges, and hitting play on a small CRT that just clicks a few neurons in my brain way more than a ‘Game Girl’ or ‘Turbo Drive’ playing ‘Rad Racoon’ ever could.

Image captured by Road to VR

Characters inside the 3D-ified Atari games are suitably blocky and colorful, while the art style in the overworld feels decidedly more Pixar-ish than previous titles. Character design and voice acting is effective here, although some of the mouth movements seem to be a little less refined than they ought to. Object interaction is also something that feels like could need more refinement, as found items only have a single attach point which can make selecting through multiple items a more difficult task than it should be.

Image courtesy ARVORE, ATARI

Overall, Pixel Ripped 1978 is a little rough around the edges when it comes to physical immersion, although it’s difficult to be too wrapped up in its sore spots when it’s so charming and heartfelt. It doesn’t feel like the result of a developer who’s just going through the motions and trying to pump video game references in your face for the sake of hitting some sort of nostalgia quota; Arvore’s love for classic gaming definitely shines through.

Comfort

Dot’s helmet HUD does a lot to help mitigate some of the woes of free locomotion, so you can glide in all directions with minimal discomfort. There’s also teleportation and variable snap-turn available, which should keep basically everyone comfortable. The entire game is played on a single plane, so there isn’t any first-person platforming to speak of or vehicles that might cause user discomfort. Notably, like its other titles the studio designed Pixel Ripped 1978 to be played seated. Check out the full comfort checklist below:

‘Pixel Ripped 1978’ Comfort Settings – June 14th, 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
Dialogue audio ✔
Languages English
Adjustable difficulty ✖
Two hands required ✔
Real crouch required ✖
Hearing required ✖
Adjustable player height ✖

Full disclosure: The game features a number of voice-over cameos from people in the XR industry, most of which are found in a ringing telephone back at Bug’s office. I was offered a small, unpaid cameo here as well.

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A Guided Demo of Nanome Came With a Free Chemistry Lesson From Founders

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Before my life as a technology journalist, I worked in a university’s biomedical engineering research lab. Every now and then, in my current career, I encounter something that I wish had been around 10 years ago. Nanome, an app for spatially visualizing molecules in MR and VR, is exactly such an experience.

Meet Nanome

Nanome is a visualization and collaboration platform available on all major VR headsets. It’s partially funded by Meta, but founders got in with Oculus co-founder Michael Antonov long before Facebook bought the company (and subsequently changed the name of both companies to “Meta”).

“Because we were part of Oculus for Business as an ISV [Independent Software Vendor], our relationship has deepened and we have co-authored multiple case studies together, including for Nimbus and Novartis,” Nanome co-founder and CEO Steve McCloskey told ARPost.

Nanome VR app Set of plugins

Nanome was a launch title on the Quest Pro, but it is also available on Viveport and Steam. The platform runs in VR on most headsets, but also makes full use of the full-color passthrough on the Quest Pro. The company is looking at the emerging AR glasses hardware market, but still needs controllers for the time being.

“Current hand tracking technology does not meet the needs that 6DoF controllers can provide, which consumer AR glasses don’t,” said McCloskey. “Additionally, the limited FOV makes it challenging to get a closer view of molecules in the context of a protein binding pocket which is essential for many of our users.”

If you don’t know what a “protein binding pocket” is, don’t feel like Nanome is too advanced for you. Just like chemistry in general, you can start wherever you are and go from there. You can also watch educational videos on chemistry’s big ideas directly within Nanome.

“Every user has unique needs and workflows, and we aim to provide a tool that can adapt to those needs, rather than forcing users to adapt their workflows to our tool,” said McCloskey. “This is why we continually work to improve and expand our features, to provide an ever-more intuitive, collaborative, and integrative experience for our users.”

Subscription Options

Nanome comes in a free version for personal use, as well as academic, research, and enterprise subscription tiers. Virtually all of the platform’s major functionalities work in the free version, though the academic subscription allows meeting in private rooms and saving workspaces. The benefits of the remaining tiers come largely from hosting and server options.

Insights From the In-App Demo

I met with McCloskey and fellow co-founder Sam Hessenauer within a free trial of the platform’s academic version. Creating an account is fast and easy, and automatically uses your Meta avatar, though you can join with a number of default avatars if you’re using a borrowed or communal headset.

Start Building Molecules – Even Impossible Ones

The virtual space is initially empty, inviting users to start building their own molecules from scratch, using common building blocks already in the app, or bringing in completed structures. The app supports a number of commonly used visualization tools, so work started on conventional software can be brought directly into VR.

Nanome VR app - periodic table

Molecules have specific shapes – something about the constituent atoms attracting and repelling each other – I’m pretty sure that my university chemistry textbook has a whole section on figuring out bond angles based on valence electrons. The point is, the app does that for you. And, when you create a molecule that couldn’t possibly exist, the app lets you know.

So, if you want to play comic book super genius and create fantastic chemical structures, you can! And the app will let you know which parts of the molecule break the laws of physics, and which laws they break. You can also view the models in several color-coded visualization methods.

“Because we’re on the VR app store and the basic version of the software can replace Intro-to-Chem ball and stick models, we’re very popular among universities and libraries as the go-to chemistry app in XR,” said McCloskey. “You never run out of chemistry kit parts in XR!”

Building new chemical structures in the app is huge. While you certainly can use Nanome to practice and learn chemistry within its established boundaries, there are people using the platform to design new chemicals, like groundbreaking prescription medications. In fact, early feedback from Novartis went into the first widely available iteration of the platform.

“For other major biopharma companies, we meet scientists and IT folks at various industry conferences,” said McCloskey. “We have landed some deals from scientists who bought a Quest for the holidays and wanted to use Nanome at their workplace.”

Everyone Gather Around the Giant Protein

Visualizing chemicals isn’t only important when designing new ones. One giant model that McCloskey, Hessenauer, and I viewed within the space was a large protein. At that massive scale, something that was just an idea before suddenly seemed tangible and understandable –  a solid thing with its own charitable topography waiting to be explored.

Jon Nanome VR app demo

Prion proteins in the brain can fold incorrectly, leading to neurological disorders like dementia. I remember my middle school science teacher trying to communicate that by scribbling on the chalkboard, but how exactly a protein could be foldable never really made sense to me. Seeing that giant protein in VR, that fifteen-year-old lesson came back and clicked instantly.

McCloskey and Hessenauer were able to point out caves in the giant protein where part of another chemical – like a medication designed by one of the companies using the app – could fit into the protein and bind to it. I usually do demos like this to learn about XR, but this time I felt like I got a lesson in chemistry with XR in the margins – which is how it’s supposed to feel.

“As a design tool, we aim for Nanome to be as intuitive as possible. This is where XR and the user interface come into play,” said McCloskey. “We want our users to focus more on their scientific explorations and less on learning how to use the tool.”

Nanome VR app

Suppose I want to go back and watch our demo again. I can. But, not just a flat recording. Nanome allows spatial recordings that viewers can walk through later. If someone pointed at a point on the model and I missed it live, I can go back and watch it in VR standing right in their shoes as I relive the moment from their viewing angle.

At Least Take a Look

If you ever even think about chemistry, there’s literally no reason not to check out the free version of the app. If you’re a student, learning institution, or researcher, the platform can grow with you. The sheer number of things that Nanome can do are honestly overwhelming at first, but helpful explainer videos and easy-to-pick-up controls make it second nature in minutes.

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A Week of VR Meditation With Mindway

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Mindfulness can exist in the virtual world. Mindway is a VR app that promotes mindfulness – both in virtual worlds of unearthly peace and through lessons that you can carry with you when you put the headset down. I gave the app a test run by incorporating it into my own stressful work week.

A Modular Subscription-Based App

A good first place to start an app review is talking about the specs, like the size of the app and how much it costs. That’s not really how Mindway works.

First, the app is free to download from the Quest App Lab, though a number of elements of the app require a monthly or annual subscription – or you can buy the whole package once and for all for $50.

Further, the initial app download is small but individual modules within the app come as independent downloads. That might make things complicated if you’re trying to decide whether you have space for the experience, but it also means that you can really effectively pick and choose which modules you want to keep on your device.

The app doesn’t currently have a comfort rating. That might be because the individual experiences are so different. Each module explains the position in which it works best. Some encourage you to be seated, while others that deal more with mindful movement require you to be standing. Still, none of the modules that I tried made me too uncomfortable.

The app is compatible with the whole Quest product line from the original Quest to the Quest Pro, but I used my Quest 2. Controllers are required to navigate menus and carry out simple interactions in some of the practices, but there aren’t any complex controls. The thumbsticks can be used for snap turns, but there’s no movement and head-tracking is sufficient.

Mindway’s Major Components

When you first enter Mindway, you find yourself in a calm virtual environment reminiscent of a Quest Home. In front of you are three main menu items: ASMR, Mindfulness, and Sleep.

Sleep, Mindfulness, ASMR - Mindway VR app

If you turn to your right, there’s also a room where you can join public or private sessions. This is used for scheduled group events, but you can also go in alone to sit by a calming VR campfire or use an invite code to share the space with friends.

If you aren’t familiar with mindfulness, it’s an approach to mind-body wellness that promotes active awareness of your physical state and thought-life in the present moment instead of dwelling on the past or being anxious about the future. A text explanation will never really do justice, so consider checking out the introductory journey in the app.

ASMR

I’ve become something of an ASMR aficionado over the years, and let me just say that I’m hoping for more from this selection in the future. The selection currently consists of soft-spoken stories and a marble-maze mini-game that plays with some audio effects. (Take out your Conquest VR if you’ve got one.)

ASMR - Mindway

While Sleep and Mindfulness sessions usually last between eight and 15 minutes, some of the ASMR sections go on until you exit the session, making them ideal if you want to use them as the base of longer meditations.

The marble game is fun and the soft-spoken stories are great, but I didn’t get big ASMR vibes. There’s a whole category of ASMR that uses visual cues but I haven’t really experimented with it because I usually listen to ASMR when I’m trying to sleep, so seeing more visually-based ASMR in this mindfulness VR app has a lot of potential.

Sleep

Speaking of sleep, you might have gotten curious at the idea of sleep modules in a VR app. I know I did. If you’re imagining drifting off with your headset on, that’s not what’s happening here.

These experiences might help make you a little drowsy, but what they’re really doing is stocking a mental toolbox with mindfulness tools that you can take with you to bed. This is actually one of my favorite recurring elements of Mindway as an app overall, so we’ll return to a larger discussion of this later.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is the heart and soul of Mindway. As such, this is the most populated section with (in my opinion) the best content. This content is split into “Journeys”, “Practice”, and “Build Your Own”.

Mindfulness - Mindway

Practices are shorter sessions that you can do independently of one another, while each journey is a series of sessions on a related topic that build on one another. The Build Your Own section allows you to create a practice session by selecting a topic, a world, and a soundtrack. Whether part of a journey or an individual practice, sessions are between eight and 15 minutes.

Build Your Own - Mindway

On the other hand, if you are familiar with mindfulness as a practice, I hope that you won’t be too skeptical of a VR-based mindfulness application. Mindway uses VR very cleverly to facilitate common mindfulness exercises. You can even select the “Science” button in the home environment to learn about how Mindway develops their sessions.

During body scans, a sparkling mist gradually rises up around you. When focusing your attention on a fire, the fire begins to die down if you get distracted by the environment for too long. During breathing exercises, particles seem to flow into you when it’s time to inhale and flow out when it’s time to exhale. Reach high up to grab an apple from a tree during a stretch.

A Week of Mindfulness

I used Mindway for about a week during the course of writing this article. There were stretches where I used it every day, there were days that I didn’t use it at all, and there were days that I kept going back in for multiple sessions.

I discovered mindfulness in college and it was a big part of my life for a good couple of years but at some point, I really got away from it. The first thing that I noticed in Mindway was how deeply I’m still able to breathe. I can breathe pretty heavily in my headset when I’m boxing in VR, but that’s different from long, slow, deliberate breath – something I didn’t realize I missed.

I liked some sessions more than others, but there was nothing that I encountered in Mindway that I didn’t enjoy. My favorite content is the “Boost Your Energy” Journey. The three-part journey has practices for starting the day with focus without being overwhelmed, for regaining your energy as you go through your day, and for winding down when it’s time to relax.

Boost Your Energy Journey - Mindway

While I like knowing that I can pop on the headset for a reasonably short session whenever I want throughout my day, the narrations do often remind you that you can take things like breathing exercises and meditation models with you wherever you go. While the visualizations are nice and might be helpful for people newer to mindfulness, Mindway is very educational.

An Unanticipated Promotion

The child in my life doesn’t really understand what I do for a living, but she knows that sometimes we get to play with neat tech, like an AR narrative puzzle. Sometimes, I set up my headset for her to enjoy some supervised offline play. (I lock apps, so I know that she’s playing Bait!, not Peaky Blinders.)

The other day, she saw the new Mindway thumbnail in my apps library and asked about it. I told her that she could check it out if she wanted to, but I warned her that it wasn’t exactly a “game.”

It turns out that she loved it. She was able to navigate the simple menus by herself and tried out a number of experiences. Hearing the audio of the guided meditations through the Quest 2’s native off-ear speakers, I was able to watch – admittedly a little stunned – as the energetic eight-year-old sat through around a half-hour of various mindfulness exercises.

I’m not a doctor, and I’m never going to advocate that any VR headset become “an electronic babysitter”, but it seems to me a curious kid could do a lot worse things in VR than mindful breathing.

Peaceful Periods in VR

Hitting the mat in the third round, assassinating communist informants in the back of a bar, betraying your crewmates in space – VR experiences can be pretty intense. While those experiences can be a lot of fun, it’s nice to know that Mindway provides a corner of the immersive world where you can have a little peace and quiet before getting back to your day.

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‘Firmament’ Review – Complex Puzzles & Visual Richness Lacking a Native VR Touch

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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.

‘Firmament’ Comfort Settings – May 18th, 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, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish (Latin America)
Dialogue audio
Languages English
Adjustable difficulty ✖
Two hands required ✔
Real crouch required ✖
Hearing required ✖
Adjustable player height ✔

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‘another-fisherman’s-tale’-review-–-a-captivating-sequel-with-more-of-everything

‘Another Fisherman’s Tale’ Review – A Captivating Sequel with More of Everything

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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
Dialogue audio
Languages English, French
Adjustable difficulty ✖
Two hands required ✔
Real crouch required ✖
Hearing required ✖
Adjustable player height ✔

‘Another Fisherman’s Tale’ Review – A Captivating Sequel with More of Everything Read More »

‘propagation:-paradise-hotel’-review-–-a-pretty-ok-impression-of-‘resident-evil’

‘Propagation: Paradise Hotel’ Review – A Pretty Ok Impression of ‘Resident Evil’

News, propagation paradise hotel, propagation vr, resident evil, Review, VR Game, wanadev, wanadev studio, wanadevstudio / /

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
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 Yes
Languages

English, Italian, German, French, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Polish
Dialogue audio Yes
Languages English
Adjustable difficulty ✔
Two hands required ✔
Real crouch required ✖
Hearing required ✖
Adjustable player height ✔

‘Propagation: Paradise Hotel’ Review – A Pretty Ok Impression of ‘Resident Evil’ Read More »

“metaversed”:-a-book-review-and-author-interview

“Metaversed”: A Book Review and Author Interview

books, featured, interview, metaverse, Review, Reviews / /

Metaversed: See Beyond the Hype is the new book by Samantha G. Wolfe and Luis Bravo Martins introducing the metaverse stripped of its over-inflated, pie-in-the-sky expectation cloud built up by marketers. The book presents a practical and balanced approach to using the metaverse as it exists today and preparing for how it might exist tomorrow.

ARPost received a copy of Metaversed and had the opportunity to interview the authors on how it came together and what they hope it will achieve.

Preparing for the Metaverse

Metaversed begins with an important and common question in the industry: how do we prepare for the metaverse when we can’t agree on what it is?

“Taking the internet and bringing another dimension to it and setting it free in the phygital world […] it’s almost impossible to fully understand the extent of this shift.”

– Chapter One: Predictions

Early on, the authors present a working definition of the metaverse. This isn’t for the authors to throw their definition into the war of words already taking place around the metaverse, but rather so that everyone reading Metaversed has a common starting point.

“To the authors, the metaverse is the next stage of the internet and results from the evolution of a wide variety of emerging exponential technologies maturing simultaneously, converging and enabling a new interconnected relationship between physical and digital.”

– Chapter One: Predictions

Metaversed isn’t just about technology, but how technology impacts us as a society and as individuals – and about the societal trends that are helping to usher in the metaverse. These include movements towards remote work and education, decentralization, social media, and the creator economy.

“The challenges we’re about to face will need a multidisciplinary effort. Business professionals from all areas, teachers, lawyers, scientists, historians, and sociologists, everyone can contribute with their experience and knowledge so we can start preparing for this tremendous shift.”

– Chapter One: Predictions

A Book Written for Anybody

Metaversed is written for a reader in any profession to encompass the entire metaverse. Chapter two presents all of the technologies playing into the development of the metaverse. That includes immersive technologies like the spatial web, XR hardware, and digital twins. It also includes Web3 and blockchain, cloud computing, and AI and ML.

“I feel like we went through a hype cycle of ‘the metaverse’ as a term and now we’re kind of past that. People are looking beyond that and asking, ‘What is this, really?’” said Wolfe. “I’m hoping that as people get past all of that hype they can ask ‘What does this mean to me, and what does this mean to my business?’”

Metaversed See Beyond the Hype bookReaders of ARPost might be principally interested in immersive technologies. Understanding the role that these technologies will play in larger shifts in the coming years requires an understanding of other technologies even though they may feel removed.

“The main topic is to bring in people that are not in on all of the metaverse discussion,” said Martins. “We need to have those people. We need to have a version of the metaverse that isn’t just created by technologists like us.”

The book also discusses governments and standards organizations furthering the metaverse through protecting users and ensuring interoperability respectively. A lot of the value of the metaverse will be created by users – much as with the current web, but more equitable.

“A true creator economy has been set in motion where communities are not only spawning creators but overall helping them to remain independent and relevant.[…] With several new platforms available in the gaming industry and in the so-called Web3 businesses, new avenues for distributing digital products and content are being envisioned and built.”

– Chapter Four: New Rules

Life and Work in the Metaverse

The largest single chapter in the book, “Metaversed Markets” is an exhaustive exploration of how different industries are using the extant iteration of the metaverse and how they may adapt to its development. While the bulk of Metaversed discussed opportunities in the metaverse and how to realize them, four chapters are dedicated exclusively to challenges in the metaverse.

“When living in a hybrid reality of digital and physical objects, spaces, and people that we seemingly use and own, will it all be real? The memories of our time immersed in those worlds won’t tell us otherwise. […] We can pick up our lessons learned of the risks involved and plan ahead for a better, positive metaverse. But, to do that, we need to first identify key challenges.”

– Chapter Nine: Understanding Reality

These challenges have some to do with technologies that haven’t yet been realized or optimized, but mainly pertain to the human experience of adapting to and living in the metaverse.

“The whole purpose is exactly that – to try to shed light on not just the potential of the metaverse […] but more than that to try to pass on the challenges of the metaverse,” said Martins. “Presenting the challenges is not negative – it’s facing those challenges […] At the end of the day, what we want is to contribute to a more ethical metaverse.”

Metaversed expresses hope that governments and organizations like the XR Safety Initiative will help to mitigate some risks. It also recognizes that a lot of responsibility will be put on users themselves.

“Even if it’s uncomfortable, we need to discuss how emerging tech can be monitored and regulated. We don’t have to cross our fingers and hope that big tech companies figure it out themselves (again).”

– Chapter Ten: Privacy and Safety in the Metaverse

“Unanswered Questions”

“Because we’re faced with so many unanswered questions and unsolved technical challenges, there should be no shame in saying ‘I don’t know,’ or ‘We don’t know’ when asked about the future […] for better or worse, we’re in this together.”

– Chapter Twelve: The New Humanity

The thing that struck me the most about Metaversed was its honesty. The authors are confident in their predictions but never present those predictions as already being facts. Overall, it feels like a conversation rather than a keynote or a sales pitch.

“At the end of the day, tech runs so quickly and changes so completely unexpectedly […] it’s sort of an exercise,” said Martins. “Hopefully what we can offer is more of the logic of thought.”

How “Metaversed” Came to Be

Wolfe and Martins have a long history, despite having yet to meet in person. The two began talking after Martins read “Marketing New Realities,” which Wolfe co-wrote with Cathy Hackl in 2017. Then, Martins was a guest speaker at Wolfe’s courses at New York University’s Steinhardt School. Martins was invited to write a book and knew who to talk to for a coauthor.

“It started with this opportunity that came about from the publisher. Around that time there was this huge push regarding the metaverse and I was thinking about doing something on the flipside, focusing entirely on the challenges,” said Martins. “I decided that that approach wouldn’t be the best possible way to explain to people who don’t know much or aren’t as involved.”

Wolfe’s coming on board provided the balance that Martins was looking for. It also expanded the vast network of experts that contributed their insights to Metaversed.

“He wanted to write this book about what can go wrong but I tend to be quite positive,” said Wolfe. “I also tend to look at how all of this applies to businesses.”

Despite being based in different countries and working on the book largely asynchronously, the two decided to write Metaversed with one voice, rather than passing chapters back and forth. While the book doesn’t feel divided (at least, not to people who don’t know the authors very closely) both of them have chapters that they feel they put more into.

“In the end, I think we were all very involved in doing the writing and – of course – the research,” said Martins. “There were chapters which were being run by one of us or by the other one, and some – particularly the chapters in the beginning – were very consensual.”

A Digestible Book, if Not in One Sitting

Metaversed: See Beyond the Hype is currently available on Amazon. The book, weighing in at over 300 pages, may or may not be a lot to read from cover to cover depending on where you are on your metaverse journey. However, the book was also designed to be incredibly navigable, making it easy to read or reread as you see fit.

“Metaversed”: A Book Review and Author Interview Read More »

is-“peaky-blinders:-the-king’s-ransom”-too-much?

Is “Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom” Too Much?

featured, Review, Reviews, VR games / /

Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom is a new VR game from Maze Theory inspired by the popular period crime drama. I’m reporting from a virtually reconstructed Garrison pub, so confess – Jon and ARPost are listening.

This review covers major game elements (avoiding juicy spoilers), how VR is implemented, and some ethical considerations. After all, if you’re familiar with Peaky Blinders, you know that some of the content can be pretty challenging – particularly in VR. I almost didn’t want to play it, and ARPost almost didn’t want to cover it.

Welcome to The Peaky Blinders

Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom takes place during season five. If you aren’t to that point there’s at least one spoiler. Fortunately, the events of the game don’t have a lot to do with the events of the show, so if you aren’t a fan of the show you can still enjoy the game – just not as much.

A lot of the game felt like fan service. I happen to be a fan of the Peaky Blinders TV show, so I appreciated it. From “Red Right Hand” playing as I walked down Garrison Lane to the bottomless pack of cigarettes in your inventory, some more stylized elements of the game might only feel right if you’re familiar with the show.

In the game, you play a war vet working with the Peaky Blinders in hopes that they will clear your criminal record. Your aunt, an NPC in the game, is a family friend of the Shelbys and a good word from Arthur got you in. Tommy tests your loyalty by asking you to shoot a hooded man in the Garrison about 10 minutes into the game, so things move pretty fast.

Peaky Blinders VR

You’re tasked with finding one of the Peaky Blinders who went missing on the trail of Winston Churchhill’s stolen dispatch box. This sends you to Limehouse, a majority Chinese neighborhood in East London.

There, you find yourself in a serial killer’s crime scene. I was hoping that this would turn into an investigation like the “Blood on the Ice” quest in Skyrim, but you find out pretty quickly that the serial killer happens to be the rival gang leader with the dispatch box.

Gameplay

Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom is rated “comfortable” with options to play sitting or roomscale. Analog sticks enable snap turns, though you can also do this by turning your head or your whole body in roomscale.

They also control movement, including crouching, walking, or teleporting. I played most of the game walking, but sometimes you need to teleport to jump. Using teleport to move from cover to cover during a firefight can also be handy. Some items in the environment appear lighter when you can interact with them, for example, crates that you can move out of your way.

Jon was here - Peaky Blinders VR game

I did get a little sick playing the game but if you read my reviews you know that I’m particularly susceptible to VR motion sickness, so I blame my physiology and play style before I blame the developers in most cases.

One of the cooler elements of the game was that your character doesn’t speak. NPCs just accept this as a quirk. You don’t have to hear someone else’s voice coming out of your head, but it also avoids dialogue options – you respond with your actions.

Items and Interactions

A guide to the controls looked intimidating but the controls are very intuitive. Your inventory is arranged around your field of view. Reach over your shoulder and grab to get your journal, reach down and grab to get your gun, reach left and grab to get a cigarette, and reach right and grab to get your lighter.

Your lighter is handy for lighting endless cigarettes, but you also use it to do things like light lamps that help you navigate some of the darker scenes in the game. You also defuse bombs, rebuild radios, open a safe, and uncork bottles of gin.

Drinking and smoking don’t impact gameplay. I think it might’ve been cool if smoking slowed down time or drinking made you less susceptible to injury, but they’re just props. You can also find vials of “Tokyo” (that’s “cocaine” in Peaky Blinders lingo) but they’re just collectible easter eggs.

One of the most common item interactions is reloading your 1911 semi-automatic pistol (sorry Peaky Blinders, no Webleys). This involves loading a clip into the bottom of the gun.

There’s no believable way to hold the gun with two hands because of the controllers and because Peaky Blinders are too cool for stable shooting stances, but you can pass the gun from hand to hand to shoot around cover. You can’t carry extra clips, so you have to look for ammunition boxes in the levels. Count rounds if you want, but I just reloaded whenever I could.

One forced story interaction involves your gun being empty no matter how many rounds you should logically have left in the clip when you enter the interaction, so keeping count just kind of frustrated me. Or, maybe the gun jammed because you have a 1911 instead of a Webley.

Navigating Environments

The environments were the biggest draw for me buying this game. I’m a fan of Peaky Blinders largely because of the settings. Being able to explore faithful reconstructions of some of the iconic locations of the show really scratched an itch for me and the game’s original locations feel authentic and well-developed too. Major playable locations include:

  • Garrison Lane including The Garrison and a garage;
  • Watery Lane including The Shelby Betting Shop and Polly Shelby’s apartment;
  • Charlie Strong’s Boatyard;
  • Limehouse, including a boatyard, a neighborhood, and a rival gang’s operation.

The game never tells you about lighter items being movable, so my first major navigation snag was wandering around an alleyway until I realized I could move a crate blocking my way. One level in Limehouse is also needlessly tricky. I think it was trying to incorporate some puzzle elements, but it didn’t really land for me.

Later in the game, you fight your way out of a burning building while carrying the dispatch box. This level brought all of the game’s control mechanics into play beautifully. You have to teleport to jump over holes in the floor, balance as you walk over beams, and put down the dispatch box to reload.

Finding collectible easter eggs in the game often involves finding tools in the environment to smash open crates. Some of the levels have dysfunctioning radios. Finding the parts, plugging them in, and tuning the radio unlocks radio programs that give you additional context about the level.

After beating the game, the levels remain explorable. I found at least one area that either wasn’t available during story play or I didn’t find the first time around. Either way, there’s a lot to explore.

I Killed a Man in VR Because Tommy Shelby Told Me To

I had reservations about this game. Until now, the most violent thing I’d ever done in VR was knock someone out in Thrill of the Fight. There were situations in this game that made me uncomfortable but it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting.

For one thing, the character animation didn’t blow me away (I was playing on Quest 2, not PC). Sets and items look great but people in the game leave a little to be desired. Further, the violence isn’t terribly graphic. A cartoony blood burst lets you know you hit someone but it isn’t gory. And, all of the violence that you perpetrate is done at a distance, which I think helps.

Most of the times that I did feel uncomfortable, it wasn’t because of graphical believability or a feeling of embodiment. It was because the writing of the game successfully made me ask myself questions about what I was doing and why.

Shelby Peaky Blinders VR game

In one sequence, your character is tied to a chair so you can look around and see your bound hands, which is a little unnerving (you can’t see your body, which is unnerving for a different reason). I don’t know if it was a predictable point in the game or my deep trust in the Peaky Blinders, but I wasn’t afraid at this point – I knew someone would come just in time.

I still think that we should be careful about how and why violence is used in virtual reality entertainment. As far as this game goes, I think that restraint on the part of the developers helped to balance violence as a plot device without going over the top.

Final Thoughts

I was pleased to see that Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom only costs $30, but that also meant that I wasn’t too let down that it’s only about three-and-a-half hours of gameplay. The game has already been updated since it was released, so fans can hope for more to come.

Is “Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom” Too Much? Read More »

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CrimeTrip Introduces AR True Crime Cases for Your Perusal

AR games, featured, Review, Reviews / /

True crime has become a national pastime. From documentaries and dramatized biopics to endless podcasts and YouTube channels, folks can’t get enough of diving into real-life murders and missing person cases – some solved, some apparently never to be solved. And now, you can explore a new file of cases in augmented reality with CrimeTrip.

Taking a CrimeTrip

CrimeTrip is a true crime AR game for iOS and Android from developer studio Prologue. The experience, viewed and navigated entirely through a mobile phone, puts you in the middle of painstakingly reproduced crime scenes from six unsolved crimes from the seventies and eighties including heists, mob hits, and more. Three are available now, with three coming soon.

The app download is free, but, after playing through a free “prologue” and tutorial, you have the option to buy an individual story for $3.99, or bundles of stories going up to the complete game for $12.99. According to the app, this allows the platform to be supported entirely ad-free.

CrimeTrip AR game - pricing

Hands-On the Game

If you have enough open space, you can navigate within the game by walking to some degree. However, the game worlds are big enough that no matter how big and clean your living room is you’ll have to use the on-screen controls eventually. (My biggest issue with the game was accidentally holding my phone in a way that covered the camera and lost my tracking.)

CrimeTrip is split between crime scenes and a pretty expansive police department office. The office includes resources that you will need to dive into the case, including the cork board where you put it all together.

“[CrimeTrip] revisits the podcast genre, following non-linear routes, constantly shifting between the present and the past,”  Prologue founder and creative director Jonathan Rouxel said in a Medium post. “Designers elevate the status of the audience who is no longer perceived as a community of passive listeners but as active participants.”

On-screen controls don’t do all the work. Sometimes the best way to view a scene or the only way to find an item is by physically getting on your hands and knees. A good portion of the game might be “played” on the various online communities as you compare notes with other true crime enthusiasts.

While scenes and clues are accurately created with great detail, the characters and events in the stories appear as luminous point clouds – so there’s no unsettling blood and gore to deal with. The cheeky, fourth-wall-breaking game narration should be amusing to true crime enthusiasts and not too stressful for people new to the genre.

A Careful Handling of a Touchy Subject

True crime is a sensitive subject – and people can be very sensitive to it. Stories can be emotionally challenging to hear and research, and living people are sometimes affected by true crime commentators jumping on a story still in development. CrimeTrip avoids both of these problems in two important ways.

First, the graphical style and the narration style of the game keep things from being too heavy. We saw a similar approach with USA Today’s Accused experience last year. Second, the cases in this experience are old enough that all of the suspects have passed away so players can enjoy the puzzling stories without stressing the impact on survivors too much.

Paolo Violi's Murder - CrimeTrip AR game

The fact that the cases are so old and so cold helps add allure to the game as well. There are no bad guys left to catch so it’s okay that even AR-enabled sleuths aren’t able to conclusively agree on whodunit. In ongoing cases, it would be great if the culprit could be caught and taken off the streets. But these forty and fifty-year-old tales can remain unfinished puzzles forever.

Check it Out if You Dare

So, is CrimeTrip worth your money? Check it out. The free app includes free previews to all available episodes – and that’s not just gameplay videos, you get to play the game. Still not sure? You can buy the cases one at a time. So, if you’re even remotely interested in true crime, it can’t hurt to check out.

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‘vertigo-2’-review-–-one-of-pc’s-greatest-vr-games-since-‘half-life:-alyx’

‘Vertigo 2’ Review – One of PC’s Greatest VR Games Since ‘Half-Life: Alyx’

half life vr, half-life, News, Review, vertigo 2, vertigo 2 review, vr adventure, VR Game, vr shooter, Zach Tsiakalis-Brown, zulubo productions / /

The long-awaited sequel to Vertigo is here, bringing with it another dose of its distinctly Half-Life-esque flair and patently strange yet captivating universe. Does Vertigo 2 outdo the original? No need to leave you in suspense since you already read the headline. Quick answer: Yes. For the long answer, read on.

Vertigo 2 Details:

Available On:  SteamVR

Release Date:  March 31st, 2023

Price: $30

Developer:  Zach Tsiakalis-Brown

Publisher: Zulubo Productions

Reviewed On:  Quest 2 via PC Link

Gameplay

Like the first in the series, you’re again tasked with linearly fighting your way home through a robot and alien-infested science facility, however the sequel puts a host of new worlds and lifeforms between you and your version of Earth. You really don’t need to play the original Vertigo though to get lost in the weird and expansive narrative of Vertigo 2, although I would suggest it—if only for natural access to the narrative and about four more hours of blasting.

Even if you played Vertigo Remastered in 2020 like me though, you may still have absolutely no idea what the hell is going on in the sequel. The franchise’s brand of absurdist sci-fi kitch gets a new layer of narrative density this time around, one that may be too thick and convoluted for most. Whether you choose to engage with it or not really doesn’t change the fact that the underlying game is undoubtedly a triumph over the original, and many other such VR shooters to boot.

I wouldn’t hesitate to call it PC VR’s best game of 2023 so far, which is doubly impressive since it was basically made by a single person, Zach Tsiakalis-Brown. Seriously, for the magnitude of the experience, Vertigo 2’s credit screen is the shortest I’ve ever seen.

Courtesy Zulubo Productions

Granted, we don’t factor in a team’s size or budget—only the end product—but it bears mentioning just the same that this game, which is so solid and clever, was built by a very (very) small team without the sort of AAA budget we’ve seen squandered on experiences half this good.

While paying tribute to some of gaming’s greats, Vertigo 2 is a VR native through and through. Its 14 collectible weapons feature unique reload mechanics, all of which were designed with VR users in mind. The user-friendly emphasis on weapons means you won’t be faffing with doing real world actions like racking gun slides or manipulating charge handles, which are better suited for realistic combat sims with a much slower pace of gameplay. It’s not long until you find out a room of weirdos will magically zap into existence, hell-bent on setting you back to the last save point; realism simply isn’t a concern here.

Reloading typically requires you to eject a spent magazine (or pod of some sort) with a controller button press, grab a fresh magazine from your left hip holster, and insert the magazine into the mag well. Usually, you’ll only have three such magazines immediately at your disposal, as automatically regenerating ammo takes time. There’s a little counter where a magazine should be.

This means that although you’ll find yourself sticking to a number of more effective weapons along your adventure, both large-scale fights and boss battles will have you relying on weaker guns like your starter pistol as you wait for your favorites to become operational. Additionally, auto-recharging ammo means you won’t need to constantly hoover up loot around the level, save the odd health syringe or bomb you’ll find stashed around periodically.

Developing the muscle memory to rapidly reload, shoot, and change to a new weapon takes time, which can definitely add in a measure of unforeseen difficulty in a fire fight. Still, the wheel-style gun inventory system is accessible enough to eventually let you build that skill and put it to good use as the mixture and number of baddies increases.

Thankfully, you can upgrade a number of guns in your arsenal, which somewhat like Half-Life: Alyx is only accessible in one-off synthesizer points that you encounter on your one-way trip through the game’s 18 chapters.

It’s a tried-and-true method of forcing you to explore levels completely, because modding stations might be underwater, in a cave passageway that leads to nowhere, or hidden behind a bunch of filing cabinets. It’s not a terribly deep upgrade system, but it’s enough to keep those starter guns relevant as you progress through the arsenal of bigger and badder weapons.

Like the first in the series, Vertigo 2 is all about big and wild boss fights, of which there are 10 new encounters. I won’t spoil any of them for you, although they’re mostly what you’d expect, i.e. bespoke battles in medium-size arenas that require you to use the environment and your most powerful weapons to your advantage. Although pretty standard fare, bosses were both distinct and varied enough to keep your interest, and have attack patterns that you’ll have to decrypt, likely after a death or two.

Courtesy Zulubo Productions

Vertigo however goes a step further by tossing in a very wide assortment of baddies that mix and match as you traverse the multiverse. What’s more, you’ll need to intimately acquant yourself with all of their weak points as you head for the game’s end, as you’ll encounter a miasma of all of the multiverse’s baddies all at once.

One thing Vertigo 2 lacks is a wide set of puzzles. The quality of the ones there is good, although I really wish there were more. Still, it’s more about shooting, bosses, enemy vairety, and a weird story, and that’s fine by me.

The game’s lengthy and frankly astoundingly varied campaign took me around 10 hours to complete on the normal difficulty, although you could spend longer exploring every nook and cranny for weapon upgrades and easter eggs, or with a higher difficulty so enemies are more difficult to defeat.

Immersion

The game’s infectious cartoon style is back on display, this time offering up much more fine-tuned environments that are massive in size and variability. While humanoid character models are a little stiff (and maybe overly avatar-y), enemy models and animations are all really well done, which accounts for 99 percent of your encounters anyway.

Courtesy Zulubo Productions

Outside of its excellent, sweeping musical score, one of my favorite bits about Vertigo 2 is the constant change in player expectations.

Once you think you know what the deal is with Vertigo 2, you’ll find an alien trying to rent you a boat, or a war between robots where you have to choose sides, and an interdimensional space opera that gets thicc. Level design slowly becomes equally unpredictable, as you’ll be whisked away at any moment to a new world, a new mission, and ultimately a new revelation about why you’re stuck in such an odd universe. It’s all stupid wacky, and I love it.

You may find yourself challenged with having to ostensibly sweep out a five-floor facility looking for a single puzzle piece, but have the mission completely changed halfway through. In another instance, you scurry up to what must be another boss battle, only to find the thing eaten by something much larger and terrifying. And it does it all without ever breaking the fourth wall. Your mission might be straight forward, or it might be completely derailed at any moment.

Meanwhile, Vertigo 2 unabashedly pays tribute to the Half-Life series, and many others in the process. You’ll find VR-ified health regen stations throughout most of the science-y levels mixed in with mobile versions of the wall-mounted syringes—definitely Half-Life inspired. Stick it in your arm, juice up, and keep going. You’ll immediately attune yourself to its audible beep too.

That said, character voiceovers range from professional to mediocre, which means you’ll probably need the subtitles on at all times so you don’t miss a word. Unfortunately, I found this out after the first cutscene which definitely required subtitles to be anywhere near understandable, since it’s between an alien with a thick Spanish accent and another one with its own Yoda-esque idiolect.

As a side note, the game also includes a number of recording options for when you want to capture in-game video, including a third-person view and smoothed first-person view for a more polished and stabile capture. Basically, all VR games should have those options considering how useful they are to recording in-game footage and screenshots. There’s even a smartphone that is basically just hotkeyed to Steam’s F12 screengrab function, making in-game shots in VR so much easier. Here’s my Insta-friendly selfie, starter pistol in hand.

Image captured by Road to VR

Comfort

Vertigo 2 is a big and varied place, and it includes a number of things you should look out for if you’re sensitive to VR-induced motion sickness. Seasoned VR users and people not adversely affected by artificial locomotion shouldn’t have a problem playing through some of the most challenging bits from a comfort standpoint, as there are periodic bits of forced movement that may or may not jibe with your comfort level.

You’ll be forced to spring through the air on jumping pads, go on fast-moving vehicles that aren’t controlled by the player character, and strafe around at a near constant whilst shooting, which introduces lateral movement that some might feel uncomfortable with.

The game does however make full use of a hybrid locomotion system, which includes smooth locomotion and teleportation presented as viable movement options during gameplay. Provided you don’t want to use teleportation, users can also toggle a jump button in the menu settings, although this is not advisable if you’re at all sensitive.

Vertigo 2′ Comfort Settings – April 5th, 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 Yes
Languages English
Dialogue audio Yes
Languages English
Adjustable difficulty ✔
Two hands required ✔
Real crouch required ✖
Hearing required ✖
Adjustable player height ✔

‘Vertigo 2’ Review – One of PC’s Greatest VR Games Since ‘Half-Life: Alyx’ Read More »

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VR Takes Center Stage at Dubai’s DEAL 2023 Expo: Highlights and Takeaways

AR/VR events, Events, featured, Guest Post, Location Based VR, Review, Reviews, trending, virtual reality, VR experiences / /

So, in the past few weeks we have seen big tech, including Meta and Microsoft, announce massive layoffs, mostly to their XR division and at the same time, pivoting towards artificial intelligence and generative content.

Despite the news, this year’s DEAL expo was as busy as ever. Teeming with an array of VR devices, games, contraptions, and a myriad of other VR-related gizmos that filled the halls, it, quite frankly, surpassed expectations.

It’s clear that there’s an appetite for virtual reality and that the VR industry as a whole has no intention of slowing down. Here’s a short rundown of the most interesting things that caught my eye.

Meta4 Interactive

Meta4 Interactive were on the floor showcasing their arena player vs. player battler based on the well-known Transformers IP. I had the chance to battle it out with the CBDO of Meta4, Sylvain Croteau, as well as other members of the team.

They were all great at the game, which might seem obvious since it’s their product after all, but you would be surprised how often management is actually disconnected from their games or brands. It was nice to see that in this case the team is not only up to speed with their products, but also plays Transformers: VR Battle Arena for fun.

The hardware consisted of blue HTC Vive Pros connected to the gaming PCs above. This kept the headsets tethered without me actually feeling the tether as the cables were suspended from above. Also, the game is stationary, as you teleport from platform to platform (not unlike Tower Tag). I dodged bullets and turned in all directions without any issues.

Meta4 Interactive booth
Meta4 Interactive booth

Transformers VR: Battle Arena was originally developed in 2019 but I only had a chance to try it out recently. On their website, Meta4 claims their games run at a 90hz refresh rate, but it felt like less. Perhaps more like 60fps or 45fps with reprojection to 90hz?

The HTC Vive Pros were tethered, so there was no latency but the game did have a peculiar dense, dreamlike aspect to it, which often stems from lower refresh rates. I would gladly play a slightly stripped-down version of the game if it meant running it at 120hz native.

PvP arenas are very engaging thanks to their competitive aspect but it also means they work best for groups of friends, gamers, and people who want to compete and see who’s the best. All in all, I had fun and can’t wait to see what Meta4 has in store next.

VEX Solutions

VEX Solutions showcased two turnkey solutions side by side. The first one, “VEX Adventure,” offered a more comprehensive LBE-type experience with a motorized floor, wind and heat, onboarding, and full cooperative plot-driven gameplay. The other one, “VEX Arena,” is a lighter, less premium version, aimed at higher throughput.

VEX Arena and VEX Adventure
VEX Arena (front) and VEX Adventure (back)

Both setups used haptic vests but otherwise, the hardware differed significantly. VR Arena used a Vive Focus 3, while the more premium VR Adventure opted for some kind of hybrid setup. It looked like Pico Neo 3, combined with SteamVR tracking, hand tracking, and Pico 3 controllers that were mounted into the guns. A true patchwork of all the different technologies.

VEX Adventure
Pico Neo 3 together with Vive trackers, hand tracking, and Pico 3 controllers 

The VEX representative declined to discuss hardware aspects, which I can understand. When it works, it works. However, having a multitude of varying components increases the number of potential failure points, which is not desirable. To that end, their other less premium offering, VR Arena, seemed a bit more manageable, but again I didn’t have the chance to ask about any specifics.

WARPOINT

For those looking to get into VR arenas on the cheap, WARPOINT had their own super basic solution. All it requires is 10 Meta Quest 2 headsets and a tablet. This must be the most affordable turnkey solution I saw at DEAL 2023. You could even forgo buying brand-new headsets and instead opt for second-hand ones to lower the costs even further.

WARPOINT
WARPOINT: Meta Quest 2s equipped with power banks are waiting their turn 

All the Meta Quests operate in standalone mode using software developed by WARPOINT themselves. All the modes and maps are designed for PvP combat and marketed as a form of e-sport.

WARPOINT VR
WARPOINT booth in action

Moviemex3D

Moving on, I encountered Moviemex3D. It’s a company that specializes in VR movies and VR simulators, but they also offer an arena experience called VR Labyrinth. It’s a popup box that features redirected walking, gaming elements, and even some motorized rumble effects.

Moviemex3d
Yours truly, stepping onto a VR elevator (with rumble effects) 

If you ever tried TraVRsal or Tea For God, you will know what the deal is. Even if the pop-up box looks small, the VR game area is much larger thanks to redirected walking, elevators, and so on. Expect traps, action, and shooting. Overall it’s a fun single-player experience.

From a hardware perspective, Moviemex3D used a Pico Neo 3 headset streaming from a PCVR computer. It’s not a bad solution but again, just like with the Transformers VR, I felt like the game wasn’t running at high enough refresh rates, making the entire experience feel heavy and dreamlike.

FuninVR

FuninVR had this pretty, eye-catching centerpiece.

FuninVR
UFO-shaped VR simulator (FuninVR)

It’s a massive UFO-shaped VR simulator. Not exactly a VR arena, but I had to try it out. The team was running a variety of experiences. People before me tried some kind of moon landing. In my case, it was a fantasy-themed rollercoaster.

Unfortunately, the VR simulator was out of sync with the roller coaster animation. Sometimes the track would turn left but the UFO didn’t – forcing me to either turn my head 90 degrees or face the walls. This left many participants nauseous.

There were also other questionable elements, like sudden impacts that made the roller coaster stop in place — basically, it’s like the developers deliberately broke every established rule on what not to do. I have strong VR legs, but still felt queasy.

Each participant had buttons on each side of the seat, which we used to shoot enemies, dragons, and other baddies. Aiming was done with head-tracking and it was a fun interactive element that I enjoyed, even if the shooting was only done for theatrical purposes — we were all running separate instances of the roller-coaster animation and there was no way to stop the simulator from progressing further.

Perhaps it would be better if I had tried the moon landing demo because, unfortunately, the roller-coaster had too many sync and motion issues to be enjoyable.

Hero Zone VR

One last turnkey VR solution worth mentioning is Hero Zone VR. It’s another fully standalone arena experience, this time running on a Vive Focus 3. This allowed the developers to take advantage of the headset’s larger resolution and higher-clocked XR2+ chipset.

Hero Zone VR
Participants getting ready to try out Hero Zone VR

There was a queue of people waiting to try out Hero Zone VR, so I didn’t get the chance to try it myself, but it looked like there was a selection of both cooperative and PvP games. I spoke briefly to one of the team members and he seemed to be quite proud of what they managed to achieve by going full standalone.

No Beat Saber?

There were also a lot of usual suspects: VR cabinets, VR kiosks, and VR arcades. Notably, Beat Saber was nowhere to be found. I wonder if it became too expensive to license or perhaps it has lost a bit of its novelty value. Instead, Synth Riders came in to fill the void, along with other fast-paced games like Zombieland VR.

Synth Riders Kiosk
Synth Riders. By all accounts a great rhythm game. 

One arcade cabinet I really enjoyed was VR Shotgun by VR 360 Action. You step into a minigun cart and it’s basically laser shooting reinvented. Spooks and baddies come from left and right and you just have to blast away.

VR Shotgun
VR Shotgun by VR 360 Action

The minigun prop felt heavy and it had some nice haptic feedback to it. I was also happy with the decision to use the HP Reverb G2  headset, which still presents a very high bar when it comes to clarity and resolution. The game was running buttery smooth. Of course, the gameplay was pretty unsophisticated and there was no locomotion (it would be nice to have some kind of on-rails movement to break the mold), but VR Shotgun did make me wish all the arena and LBE software would have this level of visual comfort and fluidity.

Summary and Takeaways

So, what are my main takeaways from this year’s DEAL?

» Even if the early days are behind us, we’re still in the days of rapid innovation and prototyping. This makes it hard for VR arcades and arenas to keep up. I saw almost every kind of headset this year, from the oldest Oculus Rift CV1s, through Vive Pro, Windows Mixed Reality, Quest 2, Pico 4, and Vive Focus 3, running standalone, streaming, and wired.

» Meta presence in the amusement and entertainment sector could be stronger. Despite spending egregious amounts, most of the money went towards metaverse and mixed reality — both of which do not gel very well with the arcade environment. The Quest Pro was nowhere to be seen but maybe because it’s such a fresh headset.

» Virtual reality is becoming more and more normalized. At least 30-40% of the booths were virtual reality oriented. With everyone around wearing and trying headsets, people have stopped feeling insecure about how they look with a headset on and instead enjoy their experiences, treating VR like any other tech.

Have fun and keep on rocking in the virtual world!

About the Guest Author(s)

Mat Pawluczuk

Mat Pawluczuk

Mat Pawluczuk is an XR / VR writer and content creator.

VR Takes Center Stage at Dubai’s DEAL 2023 Expo: Highlights and Takeaways Read More »

‘not-for-broadcast-vr’-review-–-the-dystopian-‘job-simulator’-for-aspiring-propagandists

‘Not For Broadcast VR’ Review – The Dystopian ‘Job Simulator’ for Aspiring Propagandists

News, not for broadcast, not for broadcast vr, notgames, Review, tinybuild, VR Game / /

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
Dialogue audio ✔
Languages English
Adjustable difficulty ✔
Two hands required ✖
Real crouch required ✖
Hearing required ✔
Adjustable player height ✖

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