The VR Conundrum

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Ok I'm sure this'll prove to be a painfully indie spin on Mirror's Edge, but still... looking promising

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



there's a frog in my snake oil
Review: Nefertari: Journey to Eternity



Another high quality scan of a historical location, with decent interaction options, and further V/O info.

The 'found untouched' presentation is a nice approach, with the floating dust mites, a blocked entranceway rasped by howling winds, and torchlit hands for exploring the small tomb. (Although the local oil lamps are lit, and the actual treasures have still been raided )

Although it was cool to see the art up close, with its plaster imperfections, and to be able to click on many of them to get some info about why they were depicted there, there was a certain 'flatness' to this compared to reconstructions like the Dawn of Arts cave painting. It's not just because the art is ‘2D’ and not pleasingly curved around surfaces, or because the audio guide was particularly dead pan. It's because it just really begged for that little bit of extra budget to create a narrative world out of these historical facts, and cross the floor from academic interest to broader appeal.

It was cool to learn of the 'starry sky' on the ceiling, to hear a bit about the linen clad gods of the dead, to discover that even the depicted cows were named. But an animated recreation of one of the related myths, cast against that starry backdrop, or a historical recreation 'flashback' to knit the two together, was the missing magic ingredient for this for me.

Very interesting to have 'been there'. Very cool that this exists. But not sure how much it will stay with me as history 'brought alive'.



(+)



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First Look: VR Furballs




This is... actually quite good...

It's a total rip off of Angry Birds, but the use of VR hand controls at its core does make it novel and good

The physics basis of the destructo-carnage does mean the levels, although set up to be strategic as things progress, can still become something of a 'SPAM EVERYTHING' affair by your 5th go, and a prayer to the physics gods. More because some of the set-ups are just a bit eccentric than anything. (Wait, you want me to teleport a blue fuzzy to the... oh sod it: Throws big stone heavy at a bomb...)

The basic under-pinnings seem good though. The coloured fluffy projectiles having different properties and preferred materials to smash. The environmental perils and switches.

The bonus tools are fun, but so far I'm staying with the vanilla sling-shot. The tennis racket... is not my favourite. (Although it was great for a simplistic mini game of 'bat the exploding balls back').

Some bits are indie-shonky (I have to point the teleporter arrow backwards to face forwards etc...). But on the whole its solid.

Honestly, as a 'cleanse my mind completely of the working day with day-glo mini-challenges' affair, it was perfect

Bit weird that they've replaced the enemies with sniffing coronaviruses though...



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I believe this mod will be my jam when it releases...



Never played the old X-Wing games, but heard good things about their ‘puzzle combat’ scenarios and flight model



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I do like stuff like this, I do



VR interpretation of Vincent Van Gogh painting Wheat Field with Cypresses made in Oculus Medium
It's something about the tactile / organic-y effect you can get with hand drawn volumes etc.



there's a frog in my snake oil
In other news, yet another Star Wars freebie is knocking about...



Although beware, it's a student project designed to test nausea



That elusive hide-and-seek cow is at it again
My first thought was omg this idea will make me sick! Then i read your next line. lol.


Also, Red-6 sounds like Chevy Chase!



there's a frog in my snake oil
My first thought was omg this idea will make me sick! Then i read your next line. lol.


Also, Red-6 sounds like Chevy Chase!
Just played it! It's ace

Actually didn't get any nausea from it at all! I'm not even sure which areas they would have been testing, but it was early VR days when they made it I think. (It does have some smooth acceleration I guess, and rapid changes of direction / minor 'strafing' drift). Cockpit models generally provide a really good framework for your mind to explain away weird motions though. They tend to be less problematic as a rule.

---


Review: Project Stardust



This is a great little freebie! Having all the full Star Wars dialogue and music build as you head towards the Death Star or barrel down the later stretches of the trench run is pretty hair-tingling.

Loving the extra touches like the virtual cockpit buttons for radar & firing mode and such. The motion controller inputs work well (I like the 'roll on one hand yaw on the other, with both doing pitch' set up - very intuitive). There's a certain inertia to the craft which means the trench run is tough but not completely unfair, once you learn to boost out of collisions (rather than using the daft-but-necessary 'air brake' ).

I still haven't aced the run - I'm assuming you have to beat the timer rather than dodge Darth's wrath, so I'm just going as fast as possible...

Ultimately, it's mainly a minor endurance mini-game all about making that trench run, with a bit of pew-pew pre-amble. But I honestly can't fault it for that

+++



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First Look: NeverBound



Really intriguing bit of abandonware this. Worth picking up in a sale for sure, despite there only being two real levels after the tutorial.

The key mechanic is that you can transition onto walls and ceilings via key teleport nodes or by walking up some specific curved inclines. This allows for some fun environmental puzzles and 'vertical' gunplay. The grenades with alterable gravity direction are also a nice touch.

There's a solid set of classic VR game mechanics powering the rest. I played with controller-relative movement, and enjoyed stuffing my pockets with weapons and the simple hand-reloading mechanic while suddenly getting mobbed by mobs from all directions



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Review: The Key



A strange interactive indie short this, with a slightly early-VR-days feel. The fairly lovely, if occasionally basic, art style is transporting enough, although shortcuts like 2D background elements do detract at points. The interactions are minimal, but add rather than detract. The limbo world that you're led through has a twist in the tail, deploying some alternative visual tech which if anything gains something from its shonky appearance and rough edges.

The core message is a bit agitprop-y and simplified ultimately, but somewhat impactful for all that along the way.

++ [Free]


Review: Oika



A bizarre educational vanity product, attempting to chart the birth of the cosmos until now, via a weird surfer-dude voiceover. Unsurprisingly it falls way short of those crazy ambitions

The first half, aside from a fun little dalliance inside the singularity at the birth of the universe, and some peculiar moments accepting stone tools from an ancestor, is full of missed beats and mainly lacking in either facts or wonder.

It pulled some points out of the fire with the second instalment though, allowing you to visit the same forest scene in different segments of the light spectrum. And dialling down the 'cosmic heatmap is a blueprint for creativity' sketchiness. A little bit...

-- [Free]



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Nice!



The dev is a Star Citizen fan, but other than that I like what I'm seeing



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Trip Report: Fallout 4



Tedious issues with late-game load-times aside, I'm still loving this.

Really enjoying just pushing through the story now, with occasional derails into helping out various allies, or just bumbling into firefights. (Alright and I kitted out a neglected camp with mis-matched military gear too. They live near a vault stuffed with Gunners, it makes sense alright )

Certain things just don't get old. I stumbled onto an offshore sub-plot, and godammit, hip-firing your way through a submarine with a de-goo-if-y-ing sniper rifle, while zombs provide shocks with their sudden onrushes, is all grand

I chased down a synth as part of the storyline and ended up on the flat roof of a high-rise, which even despite the scrubby graphics, was great to survey, noting all the places I'd been snarled up in a fight, or had used as waypoints. And the curious locations I'd not yet dropped in on. Still loving that rumpled, storified landscape...

I find myself continually taking screenshots of things and scenes from multiple angles to try and communicate the 'being there' thing, but it just doesn't work. But hunkering over crazy Tom's shoulder while he decodes a Courser chip, or turning a railgun over to see the wiring running through its rusted innards, just adds so freaking much to the vibe. You'll have to take my word for it







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Aaaand, the Alyx workshop is up and running. Here comes trouble




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Oh damn, a micro machines clone, with first person hand-steering, and a Rocket League rip off too?



I think I want this

EDIT: Dammit, no air boosting for the ‘Rocket League’, just a ground melee and some wall riding. My dreams of soaring like a car are thwarted!



Still tempted by a sale buy though



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Short Films: Bonfire



Probably the closest thing to a 'VR cartoon' I've seen to date. Lovely toy rocket style and cute characterisation at points.

By 'cartoon' you should totally expect something short and sweet, with the interactions just adding a bonus bit of protaganist glitz, rather than gameplay as such.

The second ending option didn't add a huge amount, but playing it through again revealed bits I'd missed each time, and revealed just how much work they'd put into the alien character.

+(+)



there's a frog in my snake oil
Oh god, I’m so glad this is some arcane mod of Gmod, and not some easily accessible Alyx workshop, because I would totally mess around with this. And then feel very queasy




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"Why are there heads?" LOL
Gmod is complete carnage as it is. Having your body actually attached to all that deranged physics would be absurd

But yeah, floating around on a giant alien insect thanks to balloon heads is about par for the course. Also strangely serene apparently



The Adventure Starts Here!
I actually do have the regular Garry Mod "thing" (I hesitate to call it a proper "game")... It's just... weird. And filled with weirdos. Glad to hear the VR version is more of the same.



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First Look: SILICON RISING



Peculiar high gloss wave shooter that's recently converted to free locomotion. It's definitely indie, and bordering on shovelware, but the key selling points here are the 'dodge the fat bullets' workout aspect, and the genuinely AA cyberpunk aesthetic.

The little dialogue scenes, characters and V/O work are a strange mix of clunky & slick. But I like that they're there to bookend & storify the waves a touch.

I'm currently stuck in the back of a laundromat being murdered by waves of robots on medium difficulty. But I think I'm liking it overall


First Look: The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets



So this is both clearly aimed at kids, but also slightly fiddly & opaque in some of its puzzle solutions. With a fairly cloying 'grandpa voice-over' narrative about badly behaved grandchildren. But at it's core it's a 'tinker with the diorama' puzzler that's fun to poke and spin around. Using hairdryers to melt snow and such is all very cute.


First Look: Westworld Awakening



This a really odd one. All of the assets from the show are in there, and so it's a slick wash of locations, audio work, and narrative setting. But some budget aspects peek through (some of the ye olde photos clearly have modern crew member's faces photoshopped onto them )

And despite all the slick trappings & options, there are some weird oversights. (It won't recognise my 360 camera set up, so flashes annoying blue UI arrows at me when I turn around in real life. Very meh.)

But then there's the fundamental structural issue that I feared. The story has you essentially trapped in a narrative as one of the synths. That's not a spoiler.

What might be a spoiler though, but shouldn't be surprising is:

WARNING: spoilers below
That narrative naturally involves you being killed in horrible ways over the early scenes. And it's just... meh. To have no real way to avoid the deaths via skill, just being railroaded into these cut scenes of nasty first-person demise again and again.


I'm hoping it improves, but for now it's giving me a slightly sub-Alien:Isolation vibe. A solid recreation of a fictional world, but not one that I want to inhabit...