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Best VR Games Of All-Time: 25 Titles To Play Now (Summer 2021)

From uploadvr.com

Looking for a list of the all-time best VR games? We’ve got you covered with our full list. For the past few years at Upload, we’ve kept separate, regularly updated lists of the best VR games on individual platforms, including Quest, Rift, SteamVR and PSVR. But, as the industry continues to grow, the content library feels strong enough to now compile each of those lists into a master list of the best VR games of all-time. If you are looking for the best VR games on individual platforms, though, see our lists below.

For each game on this list we’ve noted which platforms you can play on and linked to more coverage if you want to find out more. But enough talk, let’s run down our list of the best VR games! You’ll find these titles available to buy on the Oculus Store for Quest and Rift, Steam and the PlayStation Store.

The Best VR Games – Ranked

25. Walkabout Mini Golf (Quest, PC VR)

Unlike many sports, mini golf is actually something that could and should work quite well in VR. Walkabout Minigolf is all the proof you need; it’s an accurate representation of the game that goes beyond what’s possible in real life whilst also remaining authentic throughout. This ticks all the boxes – plenty of courses, extensive multiplayer support, different themes for each level and, above all, pinpoint physics that are almost indistinguishable from the real thing. Hard to fault!

24. Gorn (PC VR, PSVR, Quest coming soon) – Read Our Review

There’s definitely an argument to be made for keeping VR games from getting too violent but Gorn basically rips any such debate’s jaw off and then beats it to death with its own arms. Before we step into the murky ground of ‘realism’, Free Lives has jumped all the way over to the other side of the canyon and spilled a frankly hilarious amount of blood in the process. Gorn is all about being the last man standing in a gladiator arena, and the game has little in the way of rules to stop you from achieving that.

Want to pull a guy’s head off? Bash him in with a rock? Swing a mace into a face and knock some eyeballs out? Gorn lets you do all that and it feels wonderful. Not because we have psychotic tendencies but because it’s all so stupidly over the top that you can’t help but laugh. Plus the rubbery effect of the weapons gives them a rare sense of weight and realism in VR. Beyond the stupidity, though, there is actually a great structure in place here that will keep you coming back to unlock new content and make battles surprisingly tense affairs, too. It’s as stupid as it gets but Gorn’s a game you should take seriously.

23. The Room VR: A Dark Matter (PC VR, PSVR, Quest) – Read Our Review

Puzzle masters Fireproof Games knock it out of the park again with a typically excellent rendition of The Room series, this time for VR headsets. This short, sweet adventure is set in The British Institute of Archaeology, where you’ll solve challenging puzzles in search of a missing archaeologist.

What makes The Room VR work is its commitment to the platform it’s appearing on. This isn’t just a bunch of puzzles that would work on a traditional screen; each and every one has been thoughtfully designed with VR at their core.  Not a single mechanic feels over-used and there’s constant invention happening right before your eyes. That makes it easily one of the best VR games, especially if you’re into puzzles.

22. Onward – Read Our Review

Multiplayer VR shooters are a dime a dozen these days. And there’s definitely something for everyone from the Counter-Strike-inspired madness of Pavlov to the Fornite-aping antics of Population: One. But, for our money, Onward’s focus on realism still holds it above all others. On Quest especially, the wire-free gameplay really comes into its own, opening up new tactics like easily going prone. Yes, the game’s suffered visually to get onto the headset, but when you’re aiming down your sights, scanning for targets, you won’t notice. Onward pays close attention to realism, making it a game that can be hard to get to grips with, but absolutely rewarding to master. For that reason, it’s one of the best VR games.

21. Until You Fall (PC VR, PSVR, Quest) – Read Our Review

A stylish and effortlessly cool VR rougelike that has you tackling runs of a randomized dungeon and starting fresh every time you die. A fast-moving progression system keeps the game rewarding and addictive, while the lively arcade action is easy to pick up and difficult to master. Combat might not be as realistic as other VR melee titles, but it’s rock-solid and incredibly fun. If you’re looking for a VR game you’ll revisit time and time again, look no further than Until You Fall. It’s one of the best VR games.

20. A Fisherman’s Tale (PC VR, PSVR, Quest) – Read Our Review

As great as VR is, its initial novelty is bound to wear off after your first few weeks or so. If you want to recapture the magic of putting on the headset for the first time, there’s one destination that’s bound to deliver: A Fisherman’s Tale. This is a mind-bending puzzle game unlike anything you’ll see elsewhere. That alone makes it one of the best VR games.

In A Fisherman’s Tale, you solve intricate, scale-based puzzles in which you work… with yourself. Its best puzzles utilize a miniature model of the lighthouse the game’s set in. Lift the roof of the model and you’ll see a mini-you, imitating your every move. Just try and keep your brain from breaking as you hand yourself giant objects, or reach down to poke your own head. It’s a trip to say the least. Throw in a poignant story about self-acceptance and you have a short, sharp VR game that will stay with you much longer than most multi-hour epics.

19. Blood & Truth (PSVR) – Read Our Review

The London Heist minigame in PlayStation VR Worlds remains one of the most polished and engaging pieces of story-driven VR content out there. Lucky for us, developer Sony London decided to take its short tale of crime capers and turn it into a full game. The result is Blood & Truth, one of the most polished and immersive shooters yet seen on any VR headset, let alone PSVR.

What makes Blood & Truth great is that it isn’t ‘just’ a shooter. Every level has new types of interactions and mechanics to explore, fleshing the virtual world out and bringing it closer to the real one. Its story might be on the cheesy side, but its character models are unmatched and the stunning setpiece moments are often Uncharted-worthy. Don’t let the Guy Ritchie accents fool you; Blood & Truth is one to take seriously and one of the best VR games.

18. Moss (PC VR, PSVR, Quest) – Read Our Review

Moss is one of a handful of 2018 games that proved that third-person VR experiences don’t just work but can make for some of the absolute best content out on the platform right now. You guide an adorable little mouse named Quill through diorama-sized levels, solving puzzles and taking on fearsome critters in sword-based combat.

While it’s mechanically refined, the game’s real claim to fame is the bond you build with Quill over the course of the adventure. Playing as a larger companion to the tiny protagonist, you really start to connect with her as you work together to overcome obstacles. It feels very much like a team effort, which is quite a remarkable feeling in itself that results in one of the best VR games today. Bring on Book 2.

17. Ghost Giant (PSVR, Quest) – Read Our Review

Upon first glance, Ghost Giant appears to be a charming little puzzler that makes the most of its diorama-sized worlds. And that’s very much the case; in this adorable papercraft world you help your young companion out with different chores and tasks. That includes tickling clams and making intentive art in wonderfully tranquil locations. It’s whimsy, delightful and amazing in VR. But that’s only half the story.

Ghost Giant also hides a thoughtful take on tough subjects, smartly communicated through this new medium. The game uses intimacy, scale and connection in engaging ways that bring you closer to the world and characters around you. It’s surprising and responsible, delivering some incredibly powerful moments. All told, it’s one of the most striking and unforgettable examples of VR storytelling yet seen and one of the best VR games.

16. Eleven: Table Tennis (PC VR, Quest)

If you want the most accurate, authentic representation of a sport in VR today, Eleven: Table Tennis is easily your best bet. This simulation-level game offers the most convincing take on a sport that makes perfect sense in VR. Whether you’re serving up hotshots or getting in desperate returns, Eleven’s physics behave exactly the way you’d expect in real life, and tapping the ball with your controller starts to feel as natural as if it were a paddle. More than just a great game, Eleven is one of the rare VR experiences that feels like a genuine replacement for our reality. Yes, it’s that good and one of the best VR games.

15. Beat Saber (PC VR, PSVR, Quest) – Read Our Review

Who would have guessed that, with everything developers could do, the closest VR has yet gotten to a ‘killer app’ is a rhythm action game with knock-off lightsabers? It seems ridiculous but just one go on Beat Saber and you’ll understand why it’s such a hit; it’s an utterly entrancing experience that makes you feel like a master. That’s all you need VR to be. You slash notes that arrive on time with a beat. It sounds simple but, in practice, there are few things more satisfying to do in VR. It won’t be long until you’re throwing your motion controllers around like a ninja. Plus you’ll be working up a sweat and instinctively dancing to the given track. Many people will tell you Beat Saber is one of the best VR games, and they’re absolutely right. Want more? Check out our custom mods guide.

14. No Man’s Sky VR (PC VR, PSVR) – Read Our Review

No Man’s Sky promised to bring its entire universe of billions of procedurally generated planets connected by unending oceans of space that can be explored with friends all into VR. It’s had a few technical hiccups, but you can’t deny it delivered on that hugely ambitious premise. You can lose endless hours here journeying to the top of mountains, scouting below the oceans and duking it out in spaceship battles.

Better yet, Hello Games put incredible effort into this VR update, making it feel native to the game instead of tacked on. Still, remember this is No Man’s Sky; there are plenty of beautiful sights and sounds, but also a fairly punishing survival loop and resource-gathering grind to fight back against. If that sounds up your street, No Man’s Sky will probably be one of your most beloved VR games. The console version is slightly toned down from the PC release, but it’s still one of the best VR games.

13. Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (PSVR) – Read Our Review

Capcom’s 2017 soft-reboot of its beloved horror franchise hit hard in the scare department. Switching to first-person put the horror right in front of you, daring players to fight their way through the Baker mansion. But on PS4 it went a step further with full PSVR support. To this day it remains probably the scariest thing you can see in VR.

This is very likely still the most high-profile VR game out there. It’s a huge AAA production with some of the best visuals you’ll find inside a headset and a full campaign with heaps of variety. It’s well-paced and incredibly tense, harking back to the series’ roots with a focus on limited resources and genuine scares. Plus it proves that, even with gamepad controls, first-person VR can be truly compelling. If you’re looking for a top tier PS4 game with full PSVR support, Resident Evil 7 is as close as it gets, making it one of the best VR games.

12. Star Wars: Squadrons (PC VR, PSVR) – Read Our Review

Who says VR can’t make your dreams come true? Well, whoever they are, they haven’t sampled Star Wars: Squadrons’ stunning VR support, which puts players in the cockpit of X-Wings, TIE Fighters and other iconic ships and lets them duke it out in either multiplayer battles or a full single-player campaign.

Squadrons is fun to play on a flat-screen but, in VR, it quickly morphs into one of the most exciting and immersive experiences you can have today. Detailed cockpits and authentic Star Wars polish bring out the child in you as you zoom around arenas, blowing enemies out of the sky. There are a lot of Star Wars VR experiences out there but, for our money, Squadrons is easily one of the best VR games.

11. Wipeout: The Omega Collection (PSVR) – Read Our Review

Since the day PSVR was announced, Wipeout seemed like an obvious fit for the platform. This would be the chance to realize the dreams we’ve all been had since the sci-fi racing series began on the original PlayStation. But even then we didn’t quite expect Wipeout: The Omega Collection to be quite the tour de force for PSVR it ended up being. It’s easily one of the best VR games.

Sony expertly tweaked several of its older games to fit inside the headset here. The result is a package with heaps of content, all of which you’ll want to see because the game is a flat-out thrill to experience. Shooting around circuits, air-braking across corners and letting machine gun fire rattle out in front of you is unbelievably exhilarating. Pair the extensive career modes with online play and you have one of PSVR’s meatiest and most polished games.

10. Skyrim VR (PC VR, PSVR) – Read Our Review

It turns out that the Skyrim of VR is, well, Skyrim in VR. There are definitely some awkward quirks to Bethesda’s port of its ever-popular fantasy RPG, but we were more than willing to put them to the back of our minds as we explored Tamriel like never before. With hundreds of hours worth of content, full autonomy to make the kind of character you want and an enormous world to explore, Skyrim VR is the closest we’ve come to fulfilling every adventurer’s dreams (outside of taking an arrow to the knee). Plus, on top of the original game, mod support makes this an unending fountain of brilliant fan-made content that can turn you into entirely new characters or even let you experience whole other games that are every bit as good as the original. Skyrim VR is going to be hard to top for some time, and retains its crown as one of the best VR games.

9. Lone Echo/Echo VR (Rift, Quest (Echo VR Only)) – Read Our Review

As standalone packages, Lone Echo and Echo VR represent two of the most immersive, engaging experiences you can have in VR today. As a combined package (which they essentially are on Rift considering the latter is free), they make for one of the best VR games to date. This is a fully immersive, atmospheric thrill ride with the best production values you’ll find on the platform. Lone Echo uses amazing zero-gravity traversal and builds a relationship between the player, a robot named Jack, and his captain, Olivia, to deliver a tight campaign with thoughtful interactions and a compelling narrative. Echo VR takes the same control scheme and applies it to one of VR’s most immediately fun multiplayer experiences that’s unlike anything you’ll find it traditional gaming. Throw in the $10 Echo Combat expansion and there’s hours of entertainment to be had with this package. Quest only has Echo VR, but that’s still enough for a high-ranking spot.

8. Asgard’s Wrath (Rift) – Read Our Review

While Skyrim in VR is a wonderful experience, we can pretty much all agree that it would be better to have an RPG of similar ambition built from the ground up for VR. Asgard’s Wrath might not match the Bethesda classic in terms of size and scale, but it more than makes up for it thanks to its VR-first design. This polished adventure delivers on the dreams that many people hoped VR would offer when they first picked up a headset. Asgard’s Wrath is as AAA as native VR gaming gets. It’s got a meaty, 30+ hour campaign littered with secrets of uncover and eye candy to gawk at. It’s got a refined menu and combat system that really put you in this gorgeous world of Norse mythology. More importantly, though, it’s got incredible moments of heart-pounding action, intense connection and profound growth that could only be achieved in a VR game. That makes it one of the best VR games.

7. Boneworks (PC VR) – Read Our Review

If you want to see how far VR design has come since 2016, look no further than Boneworks. Stress Level Zero’s third VR game might not have the most masterfully designed of shooter campaigns, but its physics-based combat sandbox is a true marvel to behold. In this virtual reality shooter, every object, from broomsticks to bin lids, can be picked up and wielded as a weapon. Every item has a physical presence in the world, meaning you can hook crowbars to edges and then climb up them, or nudge doors open with the end of a gun. The result is a stunning showcase of things to come. Boneworks truly changes the game not just for VR combat but also world design, with fantastic puzzles that require player invention to be solved. Take a good hard look at Boneworks, because it’s laid the foundations for the future of VR gaming and is one of the best VR games around. Knuckles support, in particular, makes it one of the best Index games.

6. Pistol Whip (PC VR, PSVR, Quest) – Read Our Review

Pistol Whip may be the new kid on the block but, for our money, its sharpshooting, sharp sounding, beat-based gameplay proves to be even more hypnotic than Beat Saber. In this neon-lit shooter, you stream down corridors, blasting bad guys to grizzly tunes, avoiding incoming fire and trying to rack up the best scores to the beat.

Pistol Whip’s key is to take influence not just from the VR sales king but also Superhot and, most prominently, John Wick. Whereas Beat Saber wants to make you a dancing Jedi master, Pistol Whip aims to teach you gun-fu with style, elegantly fusing the rhythmic and cinematic together into a pulsating, vibrant monster of its own. Pistol Whip is definitely one of the best VR games.

5. Demeo (Quest, PC VR) – Read Our Review

Demeo isn’t a perfect tabletop game by any means. But it is a really good one and, more importantly, its first-rate four-player multiplayer VR experience makes it feel like a genuine social event in a way that no flatscreen game — and even few VR games — have ever really matched. You pick a class and tackle randomly generated dungeons, but the game’s punishing difficulty means sessions can last anywhere from a few minutes to multiple hours. Demeo is already cemented as one of the best VR games but, with more content on the way, including new dungeons and features, it’s only going to get better.

4. Superhot VR (PC VR, PSVR, Quest) – Read Our Review

Superhot is, without a doubt, the most instantly rewarding game to play in VR. The flatscreen original was great but, by bringing your whole body into this groundbreaking shooter, the developer completely flips the game on its head. In Superhot (stop me if you’ve heard this before), time moves only when you do. That means that when you’re still, the world around you is too. Every time you raise your arm or duck your head, the world crawls into life. You’re essentially a human video playback device.

Superhot gives you a stark realization of the physicality of VR and what that means for gaming. It’s an experience in which you are aware of every inch of your body. It also makes it effortlessly easy to feel cool in VR; every catch of a handgun or toss of a ninja star comes with an incredible strand of slick satisfaction you won’t find anywhere else. Superhot VR is currently the gold standard for VR shooters and, in our opinion, one of the very best VR games.

3. The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners (PC VR, PSVR, Quest) – Read Our Review

We would have never pegged a game based upon The Walking Dead to carry some of the best design and user-interaction you’ll find in VR, but Saints & Sinners delivers all that and then some. This sets the bar for VR zombie games with Boneworks-style, physics-based combat that has you wrestling with hordes of undead, throwing every ounce of effort you can muster into every swing and stab.

But this isn’t just a silly sandbox or wave-based survival game (though it now has that too). Saints & Sinners packs its action into a full, meaty VR campaign that sees you trekking through the remains of New Orleans. Add in human enemies, side-missions and the ability to kill zombies with a spoon, and you have one of the deepest native VR games on the market. Saints & Sinners will be one of the best VR games for some time to come.

2. Astro Bot Rescue Mission (PSVR) – Read Our Review

Sony Japan’s Playroom VR compilation held a lot of delights when it launched on PSVR in 2016, but everyone agreed that the third-person platforming minigame, in which a small robot saved his friends with help from the player, deserved its own title. Astro Bot is the result of those requests, and it’s even better than many had imagined it would be. 26 levels of Mario-quality platforming await you here.

It sounds like hyperbole but it’s true; each one of Astro Bot’s levels packs new ideas that range from endearingly novel to properly groundbreaking. It’s an absolute joy to play from start to finish that never ceases to amaze you. Plus there’s power to the bond you’ll form with Astro on this adventure, breaking down the barrier between players and characters in ways not yet seen in gaming. For that reason, we’re crowning it as one of the all-time best VR games.

1. Half-Life: Alyx (PC VR) – Read Our Review

Well over a decade on, Valve’s legendary shooter series returns in fine form for VR headsets. Set between the events of Half-Life 1 and 2, Alyx casts you as its titular character. Alyx Vance sets out on an adventure that takes her across the iconic setting of City 17. What might seem an experimental spin-off quickly establishes itself as an essential chapter in the series’ canon. Half-Life: Alyx might not feature the sandbox physics of Boneworks or a crowbar to mash headcrabs with, but what it lacks in innovation it more than makes up for in unprecedented production value and design, the likes of which we’ve not seen in VR. Every shootout, every puzzle and every setpiece has been meticulously refined with immersion, comfort and interaction at the core. If you’re not ducking out of the way of zombies, you’re huddled behind car doors returning fire or disarming mines in tense games of Operation. These various elements combine together for a 10+ hour game that feels both true to its roots and VR. It makes for a worthy addition to the Half-Life series and, without a doubt, the best VR game available today.

What do you make of our list of best VR games? Let us know in the comments below!

This post was originally published January 15, 2021, and updated July 23, 2021.

Yuki Hands-On: A Beautiful VR Bullet Hell, Roguelike Mashup

From uploadvr.com

ARVORE’s latest VR game Yuki is available today for Quest and PC VR, but how does it hold up against other bullet hell arcade shooters? We’ve spent some time with the game and have our hands-on impressions.

From the team behind Emmy-winning immersive experience The Line and the popular retro VR Pixel Ripped series, Yuki sees you enter the imagination of a child and slowly fly through a series of stunning environments. It’s a bullet hell of creepy enemies and increasingly difficult environmental obstacles.

You would be forgiven for thinking this sounds vaguely familiar — at first glance, the gameplay is very similar to Shooty Skies Overdrive, another VR bullet hell game that released just over a year ago. In both games, your hand (or more accurately, your Touch Controller) turns into a controllable ship and gun combo that you can physically move around the environment to avoid bullets and aim at your enemies.

However, if Shooty Skies Overdrive laid the groundwork for this concept, Yuki takes it and develops it even further, bulking up the replayability and adding in some fun roguelike twists to the gameplay loops. In many ways, Yuki takes all the parts I loved from Shooty Skies and adds some new layers that give depth that was missing from the latter.

Yuki consists of six levels, or ‘chapters’. However, in true roguelike form, dying in Yuki sends you back to the beginning. You’ll have to make it through all six chapters in one run if you want to succeed, carrying over health and temporary power-ups through each chapter.

Luckily, in between runs, you can use resources you’ve collected throughout your previous run to permanently upgrade Yuki and her abilities, granting you more health, better firepower or better options for the in-run power-ups, distributed throughout each chapter.

When replaying chapters, the enemies are randomized and environmental obstacles seem to change as well. The difficulty, frequency and amount of enemies and environmental obstacles also increase with each progressive run, no doubt to keep pace with the upgrades you’re making as you go. In my time with the game, I’ve only managed to make it up to the third chapter, so I can’t weigh in on whether a full 6-chapter run will feel satisfying or grueling just yet, but so far the repetition has felt minimal and still engaging, thanks to new enemies and increased difficulty.

There’s also different types of “bladewings” for Yuki, which change your gun’s stats and bullet types, each with their own individual high score tracker. You’ll unlock new bladewings after reaching certain milestones, which should also help to break up the repetitiveness.

yuki arvore hands on 2

Another fun twist on the Shooty Skies framework is that each chapter in Yuki takes place on a slow moving, on-rails path that floats its way through the environment. Think something similar to Pistol Whip, but significantly slower. In terms of story, Yuki offers a simple, solid premise to fit around the proceeding gameplay. That’s not a negative and it’s certainly not badly done, but you’re not playing this game for the story, that’s for sure. A powerful sun and/or power source in the sky has been drained and aliens are invading to steal its power. You have to shoot the aliens and collect the Creative Drive (aka the power source that will also let you make upgrades between runs) that they drop behind.

The visuals and art styles are stunning, with great colors, enemy design and interesting environments. The game does a good job of giving each type of enemy distinct visual upgrades as you progress, indicating harder or beefier versions of the same enemy type. It’s not revolutionary design, but it is well-implemented and lets you strategize against predictable bullet patterns from different enemies.

Overall, Yuki is an engaging and interesting VR mix combining the bullet hell and roguelike genres. It’s a mélange of simple, well-designed elements that come together to form a solid package that, after a few hours at least, feels like an improved version of similar VR games from the past few years. To top it all off,  performance on Quest 2 was absolutely flawless and load times minimal.

Yuki is available on Oculus Quest and SteamVR for PC.

Have you picked up Yuki? Let us know what you think in the comments below.

I Expect You To Die 2 Arrives Aug. 24 For PSVR, Quest, PC VR

From uploadvr.com

I Expect You To Die 2: The Spy and the Liar is launching on August 24th for all major headsets and is shaping up to be a must-buy sequel.

Earlier this summer Jamie Feltham tried out a tiny slice of the title from Pittsburgh-based Schell Games and now we’ve played through half of its six mission story arc. We’re going to avoid spoilers, but we’ve tried enough of this seated experience to say that if you enjoyed the first I Expect You To Die, this is looking like exactly what you’d want out of a sequel to its inventive escape room-like puzzles.

The game is priced $24.99 on SteamVR, Oculus Quest and PlayStation VR with a 10% discount on PSVR and Quest if you pre-order. Schell released a new mixed reality trailer with the launch date announcement today that you can check out below:

The title includes the voice talent of Wil Wheaton and the studio released a video last month showing the opening credits with a song performed by Puddles Pity Party.

The developers of I Expect You To Die 2 have a remarkable knack for puzzles that can be both frustrating and rewarding, requiring you to think creatively about your surroundings and alternating between periods of long contemplation and suddenly rushed panic. For about 15 minutes I found myself going through a pile of items on the floor in one of the missions and afraid to open a drawer that led to my death previously — only to realize the solution was right where I expected it to be all along. It is incredible how VR can test patience in unexpected ways — if you die in this game you go back to the beginning of the puzzle. If it took you 20 minutes and 10 tries to get through a section, once you know the path the correct steps will get you back in mere seconds. But your brain still has a stinging memory of those failed attempts and it might feel impossible to fight off the anger of needing to go through it all again, even if it just takes a few seconds.

That’s what to expect from I Expect You To Die 2: The Spy And The Liar. We can’t wait to finish off the rest of the story and will have a full review for you when the game launches on August 24th!

Lone Echo II Launches August 24 On Oculus Rift Platform

From uploadvr.com

The last announced Oculus Rift exclusive title, Lone Echo II, will launch on August 24 for $39.99 and it will be playable on Quest from a VR-ready PC via Oculus Link or Air Link.

Lone Echo’s impressive single-player campaign in 2017 was one of consumer VR’s early standouts for hand-controlled interaction and the original game will be priced $9.99 until the release of Lone Echo II. So if you haven’t already experienced the compelling story of Liv and her artificially intelligent companion Jack, now is a great time to get caught up on the mechanics of zero-g gameplay before the launch of the sequel. We’ll have to test it when Lone Echo II launches, but many Rift platform games are playable on other PC VR headsets via hacks like Revive.

Lone Echo likely represents a swan song for Facebook’s Rift platform and effectively marks a finale to one of its first efforts in consumer VR. Facebook acquired Oculus in 2014 and funded a series of PC VR games as it learned through trial and error that players enjoyed VR games with tracked hand controls over those played with traditional gamepad. Facebook’s efforts in PC VR ran parallel to those in mobile VR, which won favor with consumers as Facebook progressed from Samsung’s Gear VR phone-powered headset to the underpowered Oculus Go and finally to Oculus Quest, which combined the room-scale and tracked hand controls that made Rift compelling with a standalone wireless form factor.

People who buy Lone Echo II will get a new Jack-themed chassis for their avatars in Echo VR. Last year Facebook acquired Ready At Dawn, the developer of all the Echo games, after the studio adapted the zero-g mechanics it pioneered in Lone Echo into a competitive sport that also ran on Oculus Quest. The free-to-play game is one of VR’s best competitive sports titles. Facebook provided the render below showing the VEGA X-3 chassis players will get for purchasing the game.

Facebook teases that players will get “a new assortment of tools to overcome complex challenges and startling discoveries of deep space in the far future” in Lone Echo II.

Will you be playing Lone Echo II when it launches in August? Let us know in the comments below.

Dyschronia Is The New VR Visual Novel From Altdeus, Tokyo Chronos Dev

From uploadvr.com

Altdeus and Tokyo Chronos developer MyDearest today revealed its next VR visual novel in Dyschronia: Chronos Alternate.

A teaser trailer for the game just dropped on the developer’s YouTube channel, which you can see below. The clip doesn’t tell us a whole lot but it does confirm that the game is set in the ‘Chronos Universe’ in which both Altdeus and Tokyo Chronos take place. The trailer doesn’t confirm platforms other than that it will be coming to VR headsets.

Though we know very little about Dyschronia at this point in time, you can count on it being another narrative-driven adventure. MyDearest’s last two VR titles were both VR ‘visual novels’, in which players interact with characters and are lead through a story. Building on Tokyo Chronos, Altdeus introduced a few more elements of interactivity to the formula.

Both of those titles saw release on Oculus Quest, PSVR and PC VR, so we’d expect Dyscheonia to do the same. It’s releasing in early 2022, though, so it’s possible we also see the game release on Sony’s PS5 VR headset too.

Back at the beginning of July we reported that MyDearest had just raised $8.2 million to keep making VR titles.

Gorn Sells 1 Million Units, Possibly Getting More Content

From uploadvr.com

Glorious VR bloodbath, Gorn, has sold over one million copies as of today, and it might be getting more content too.

The game’s official Twitter account revealed the news, confirming this number is spread across all versions of the game. That means the initial PC VR version, the PSVR port and the most recent Oculus Quest edition too. Developer Free Lives didn’t specify where the game had sold the most copies.

That said, Gorn has consistently featured in Steam’s best-selling VR titles over the past few years, and often ranks highly in the PlayStation Store charts’ VR category too. But it’s likely performed well on the Quest platform too, where developers tend to see more success.

Gorn is a brilliantly silly combat simulator in which players are pit against other warriors in an arena. A comprehensive physics system and wonderfully OTT violence have long made it a popular game, and it’s featured on basically all of our top 25 lists across every platform over the past few years.

“It’s a toybox filled with razor-sharp playthings and endless action figures to use them on, upheld by a combat system that bends reality to eschew awkwardness,” we said in our review. “Ultimately it might just be a glorified tech demo for VR combat, but it’s one that will produce enough laughs and gasps that you’ll be willing to risk bodily harm playing it.”

The tweet also mentions that the developer is “considering a small content update” but won’t make any promises on that just yet. Such an update could potentially include new weapon types or modes. Free Lives has moved onto the development of its next title, but it’s not a VR experience.

What would you like to see out of a new Gorn content update? Let us know in the comments below!

Firewall Zero Hour Kicks Off 7th Season With Operation: Rubicon

From uploadvr.com

PSVR’s exclusive team-based multiplayer shooter Firewall Zero Hour is launching its 7th season this week.

The game from First Contact Entertainment is kicking off its 7th season with Operation: Rubicon on July 13th. The update comes nearly three years after launch and doesn’t include new maps or contractors, but it does add more than two dozen new cosmetic rewards to unlock. That includes new trinkets, face paints and skins, and the legendary weapon skin Gilded Sten will be available to passholders who complete all 24 missions in Operation: Rubicon and spend 250,000 in-game Crypto.

There are some free mission rewards as well but the Rubicon Op Pass sells starting at $3.99 with 1 Hack Key included to immediately compete a mission and get its reward. Prices increase from there for more keys to jump past more missions and get the rewards. Keys leftover from last season are usable for Operation: Rubicon as well.

Firewall Zero Hour launched in August 2018, but we waited to review it until last year and gave it a 9/10 for its satisfying gun mechanics and excellent team-based gameplay. The game is also a showpiece for the PlayStation VR Aim Controller and features faster loading times and improved visual fidelity on PS5. We’re very excited to see it realized one day on the next-generation PlayStation VR headset, though there’s been nothing officially announced on that front yet.

Will you be playing Firewall Zero Hero’s latest missions? Let us know in the comments below.

Half-Life: Alyx BioShock Mod Chapter II Will Add Big Daddies, Custom Weapons And More

From uploadvr.com

Back in March, we wrote about the launch of Return to Rapture, a full Half-Life: Alyx VR mod from Wim Buytaert.

If you played the experience then you might know that a second part is on the way, and it’s sounding even more ambitious than the first.

Wim Buytaert — now backed by a team of eight people working on the project — shared a first look at Return to Rapture: Chapter II with us today, and you can see the trailer below. The second installment will add around 20 more levels to the experience and is arriving later in 2021.

Whereas the first chapter featured a decent amount of assets from the original BioShock, Chapter II bumps it up to 3,000. More importantly, though, iconic enemies like Splicers and, yes, Big Daddies will be fully animated enemies in this installment. You’ll no longer just be fighting Alyx’s usual enemies; this mod will give AI to Splicers that can either shoot at you or use melee attacks, whereas Big Daddies will have certain weak spots to exploit. Little Sisters will feature too.

Interactive elements like usable slot machines are also being added, as are new voice actors and even a crafting system for ammo. Resin is gone, instead swapped out with the coin system to bring the game closer to an authentic experience. Finally there are upscaled textures, cloth physics added to assets from both BioShock and Alyx and, perhaps most interesting of all, new custom weapons. Details on how this will work are yet to be revealed but the developer did tease that Bioshock: Infinite’s Broadsider Pistol would be included.

Half-Life Alyx Bioshock Mod Chapter II Splicers

No date for when the full mod will launch just yet but, given the quality of the first part of Return to Rapture, there’s reason to be hopeful. We’ll let you know more as soon as we have it.

Red Dead Redemption 2 DLSS Support Could Help VR Mod Performance

From uploadvr.com

Red Dead Redemption 2 is getting DLSS support, which could come in handy for that recently-released VR mod.

Deep Learning Super Sampling (or DLSS for short) is Nvidia’s solution for helping games hit higher framerates and resolutions without placing the expected demands on the given machine. It’s achieved with the help of AI rendering. It’s been used in a lot of games throughout the past few years but it’s particularly handy for games that require incredibly high-spec machines to begin with. With its giant open world and complex systems, Red Dead Redemption 2 fits into that category quite nicely.

The patch will arrive on July 13 for those placing the game with a GeForce RTX graphics card. In late May, developer Luke Ross released an unofficial mod for Red Dead 2, adding in VR support to the game. We tried it out back then and were impressed with the conversion, but the game still struggled run well on our 2060 Super.

We reached back out to Ross, who cautioned that DLSS might not work with the mod instantly and that it might need an update to get it working. “If I can make DLSS work with R.E.A.L. VR, it will certainly help people with lower-end systems,” Ross said. “Although even guys with RTX 3090 cards are always looking for ways to get higher resolution and frame rate, so it might be good for everybody in the end.”

We’ll certainly be diving back in next week to see if the DLSS has any possible effect on the mod. Meanwhile, DLSS support has come to official VR games too like Into The Radius and No Man’s Sky.

Moss: Book II – Polyarc On Building A Longer, Stronger Sequel

From uploadvr.com

We speak to Polyarc about what to expect from the newly-announced Moss: Book II.

Let’s be honest, we knew this was happening. It was just a question of when.

The answer is, well, today; Polyarc just revealed Moss: Book II as part of Sony’s State of Play show, confirming that Quill is returning to PSVR soon. The trailer hits pretty much all the notes you’d expect from the reveal: a warm, fuzzy feeling from seeing our hero return and teases of new environments, weapons and abilities. If you played the first game, it’ll also feel distinctly familiar, and that’s very much on purpose.

“Anybody who is a fan of the first game is going to be really at home with the follow-up sequel,” Josh Stiksma, principal software engineer and design director at Polyarc, tells me. “We’ve been paying a lot of attention to the feedback that we’ve gotten from players and sort of breaking it down to “Okay, where was this foundation we created for the first game successful and what can we improve in?””

That will mean some expected improvements. Stiksma confirms that, “on average”, Moss: Book II will definitely be longer than the first game, and that it will continue to improve the formula for combat, platforming and puzzles. But you’ll still be playing with a DualShock 4 and the experience will still be single-player; there aren’t any plans for co-op or multiplayer modes.

Of course, what made the original Moss really memorable was the bond Polyarc managed to build between the player — who has a physical presence in the world — and Quill. Further exploring that relationship is a big focus for the sequel.

Moss Book II_Hammer

“What we try to do is think about relationships that people have in real life,” Stiksma says. “What is it like to have somebody who is a really good friend and what are the things that you’re going to go through that challenge that relationship? What is going to help that relationship flourish?”

So the developer is exploring news animations and body language to help strengthen the connection between you and Quill. “It’s something that doesn’t just come with its first pass,” the developer adds. “I think we’re learning that it’s something that takes time and takes a lot of iteration to really hit the right beats and hit the right feeling, because it can very easily turn on a dime if you don’t have the correct response or the correct audio in the correct moment.”

He later adds: “I think some of the more emotional beats are gonna be really strong and I feel strongly are going to resonate with a lot of different people depending on which beat it is.”

Stiksma wouldn’t confirm if Book II would be arriving in 2021 or 2022, but did note the game’s been mostly in production for the past two years with “a mix of pre-production in there”, so it’s definitely been in the works for a while. As for other platforms? Nothing’s being officially announced beyond PSVR but Stiksma says Polyarc is “absolutely excited to get Moss in the hands of as many players as we can” so, let’s be honest, Quest and PC are safe bets. If it does release in 2022 then maybe there’s a chance of seeing it on the cryptic new PS5 VR headset, too.

Are you looking forward to Moss: Book II? Let us know in the comments below!