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Flight Sim’s Nordics World Update Tackles Iceland And The Lego House

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It’s time for another stunning update to Asobo’s brilliant Microsoft Flight Simulator, this time tackling Nordic regions.

Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden are all getting a makeover in this update to the VR compatible game. Check out the trailer below for several iconic locations brought beautifully into the game’s photorealistic depiction of the planet. As with the rest of the game, you’ll be able to see all of this in VR (if you have a computer up to the task, that is).

Flight Sim Nordics World Update Trailer

Highlights include Denmark’s Men at Sea, authentic creations of Copenhagen and Helsinki as well as, of course, The Lego House. Normally the World Update trailers for the game are pretty impressive but capturing the Nordic landscape in these clips brings it to another level entirely. The update will be free for anyone that owns the game.

This week we learned that Flight Sim is on its way to Xbox soon, and will also be getting a brand new controller from Turtle Beach. More relevant to PC VR players, though, is that an official Top Gun tie-in update is due to launch later in the year, though there’s still a lot to learn about it.

Will you be checking out Flight Simulator’s new update? Let us know in the comments below!

Republique Is Getting A PSVR Release Soon

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Mobile-turned-VR stealth game Republique is soon to drop on PSVR.

Developer Camouflaj recently announced Republique: Anniversary Edition, which will be dropping soon on Switch and PS4, with VR support for the latter platform. No other details have been confirmed just yet, save for the fact Limited Run Games will be doing a physical edition of the title too.

Republique was Camouflaj’s first game, and first released as an episodic series of stealth titles on mobile platforms. In 2018, Camouflaj brought the game to Oculus Go and Gear VR and then, a year later, it landed on Oculus Quest and PC VR too. This version of the game featured all the same content, retooled for VR.

Expect the PSVR edition to be a similar story, though it’s not confirmed if there will be any new content just yet. Camouflaj of course went to to develop Iron Man VR as a PSVR exclusive, and we’re hopeful to see more new games from the studio in the future, too.

Back when it launched in 2018, we said Republique VR offered fun, if simple VR sneaking. “Though VR doesn’t do too much to augment the experience, République remains the same engaging stealth adventure with the same highs and lows it’s always had,” we said. “This is simple, brain-teasing sneaking that encourages the player to experiment and take risks, though rarely takes its own advice on board to create something truly memorable.”

Will you be picking up Republique: Anniversary Edition? Let us know in the comments below.

Livestream Interview And Q&A: Cubism Developer Thomas Van Bouwel

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Cubism is one of the best puzzle games available on Quest, with excellent native VR design and an excellent showcase of hand tracking capabilities on Oculus Quest. We’re sitting down with Cubism’s developer, Thomas Van Bouwel, to talk about developing the game, plans for DLC and more.

The interview is set to take place later today, Wednesday the 16th of June at 2:00pm PST, on our YouTube channel. It will be broadcast live from our virtual studio in VR, where we also host our podcast, The VR Download.

If you manage to join us for the interview livestream, please leave your questions in the chat and we’ll try to get to as many as possible. If you miss it live, you can still check out the recorded broadcast at the same link below.

Cubism launched just under a year ago, but has consistently rolled out a series of impressive updates and new features for Quest since then. Its implementation of hand tracking is absolutely sublime and one of the best showcases of the technology on the system. You can also pair hand tracking with the recently added 120Hz support as well, which rounds Cubism out as one of the best titles to showcase most of the Quest’s cutting edge features all at once.

Last month, Van Bouwel announced that a series of DLC levels were in the works for Cubism and signs-ups were open for those who wanted to help playtest new levels. I was able to join the playtesting group and gave some of the new puzzles a try over the past six weeks. I’ll be discussing the approach taken in designing these DLC levels and the original campaign with Van Bouwel in our interview today, going over the process from start to finish and how the upcoming levels might differ to the existing campaign.

Let us know if you’re looking forward to Cubism DLC and be sure to leave your questions in the chat during the live broadcast.

Hands-On: Against Is A Brutal And Bloody Good Take On Beat Saber

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As a sideline appreciator if not regular player of Beat Saber and Pistol Whip, Against gave me a glimpse of what I was missing out on.

Turns out all I needed was a pair of brass knuckles, buckets of blood, and the ability to chop enemies in two. Who knew?

Against is another instantly arresting idea from Stride developer Joy Way, a studio that seems to have a penchant for building fast-fire, wholly engaging prototypes. It’s Beat Saber by way of Sin City – a gritty neo-noir art style sees you relieving enemies of their limbs and painting the town the wrong sort of red.

While the ultra-violence might be what catches your eye, it’s Against’s curious mix of gameplay styles — mixed with a pretty killer demo track — that gives it legs. When stationary, bad guys either charge towards their inevitable slaughter or attack from afar with dodgeable throwing axes and bullets that need to be sliced. But, just when you think you’ve got it figured out, the game sets its sights on Pistol Whip, launching the player forward and alternating between melee attacks with knuckles and timed shots with pistols. Again, an obvious imitation, but Joy Way then borrows from itself with Stride’s wall-running and jumping thrown into the mix.

Not especially innovative, no, but the Steam Next Fest demo is still a lethally good time when you get into the flow and the riffs kick in. Against feels frenetic and effortless at the same time, oozing style and knowing exactly when to push you a little further than you’ve already been.

Perhaps its best moment, though, is the end level boss with a giant spider – the animation for which is incredibly impressive. It suggests that Joy Way is working towards something more targetted and personalized than just a set of new tracks; a rhythm-based action game in which each level introduces its own unique set of challenges.

Not a bad set of first impressions, then, but I wonder just how much capacity Joy Way has to sustain it. The developer is still working on the Early Access and Quest versions of Stride and is also working on another prototype for Steam Next Fest called Outlier. While it’s impressive to see the team rapidly iterate like this, I’d prefer that Stride was seen through to completion and then Against given the team’s full attention.

For now, Against is due to release later this year on Steam. You can try out the demo for yourself right here.

Hands-On: Into The Darkness Roughly Scratches The Boneworks Itch On PC VR

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Truth be told, I’d hoped we’d see more VR apps try to swipe Boneworks’ crown by now. After the dizzying three-hit combo it delivered alongside Alyx and Saints & Sinners a year ago, VR seemed ready to embrace a new wave of physics-driven action games.

That hasn’t quite happened. At least not yet. Fortunately for Vietnam-based Cosmos Games, that makes Into The Darkness a welcome refresher no matter how familiar — and scrappy — it may feel.

And, make no mistake about it, this is very familiar. Into The Darkness is, pure and simple, a Boneworks clone, right down to the simplistic enemy AI that mindlessly marches towards you. The Steam Next Fest demo also isn’t quite as polished in this early stage, but it’s still a pretty good replication of what Stress Level Zero originally achieved; guns must be realistically reloaded, blades have to be thrust with force, and the expected appearance of a crowbar is as much a tool as it as a weapon, letting you snag the edge of higher platforms and climb up it.

All of this we’ve seen before, and the bits of Into The Darkness that aren’t borrowed from Boneworks are lifted from elsewhere, including Gravity Gloves and even a tutorial that mirrors The Walking Dead. But, crucially, all of this is still a lot of fun. Handguns and assault rifles are fine and all, but the real joy of Into The Darkness comes from fighting its robotic forces with melee weapons – hooking one around the neck with a crowbar to keep it out of reach and then poking a katana between its eyes, or holding its head in place while you line up your knife. All of that’s here and it’s just as fun as it’s ever been.

But it also needs plenty of work. The SteamVR demo features a lot of narration and there are a lot of mistakes in the game’s English that need to be cleaned up before release. Some interactions also need a touch more work; climbing a ladder feels spongey and strange, like your arms are elasticated, for example.

Even if those issues are addressed, though, what I’m not expecting Into The Darkness to really do, though, is push any of this further forward than we’ve already seen. All of its ideas, from physical platforming to puzzles that play by the real world’s rules, are taken directly from other sources without anything new to add to them. Granted this is just a small slice of the game, but nothing I’ve seen some other trailers and videos suggests it has aspirations any higher than imitation.

Into The Darkness VR Screenshot

Right now, though? That might be enough. I’ve really missed VR experiences that strive to bring your whole body into their world, and Into The Darkness certainly does that. I’ll gladly hack and clamber my way through its PC VR campaign when it launches later this year, even if I doubt I’ll shake that distinct feeling of deja vu.

Into The Darkness releases on SteamVR later in 2021. What do you think about the game? Let us know in the comments below!

Cloudhead CEO Talks Funding VR’s Next Big Games

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Denny Unger, CEO of Pistol Whip developer Cloudhead Games, touched on the difficulties of funding large-scale VR games in a recent series of tweets.

On Monday Unger, who helped found Cloudhead nearly a decade ago, noted that he’d seen a lot of people asking where the next ‘big’ VR game was. More specifically, people have been asking where is the next Half-Life: Alyx-caliber game.

“It’s important to recognize that many studios like ours have “those games” sitting in limbo,” he wrote. “BIG ideas require BIG budgets & we’re maxing out what works to financially power up BIG ideas later.”

By “what works”, Unger is almost certainly referring to the success of Pistol Whip, Cloudhead’s third main VR game that launched in late 2019. The game’s one of a number of titles that’s performed well on the Oculus Quest platform among other headsets and is still supported with new DLC and updates to this day – we just showcased the new Style System at the Upload VR Showcase last week.

“Cloudhead Games is 29 people at industry standard rates (and growing), the bulk of those are producing Pistol Whip content, which some might consider a “small game” comparatively, Unger continued. “Now think about something like Alyx and the people power/budget required there.”

Last year, a member of Cloudhead wrote on Reddit that the studio would love to return to its original VR series, The Gallery, but it would need the market to be bigger before it could really justify the third entry.

Bigger game publishers, meanwhile, remain reluctant to fund large-scale VR titles while the install base remains comparatively small to traditional consoles. That’s why Facebook is making deals directly with companies like Ubisoft to get new versions of Assassin’s Creed and Splinter Cell into VR, rather than Ubisoft funding these titles on its own steam.

There are larger titles on the way to look forward to, though. Stress Level Zero’s next game is likely to be revealed this summer and may fit the tone Unger is touching upon after the success of Boneworks. Capcom is developing a VR port of Resident Evil 4 for Oculus Quest 2, too, and we’re yet to see what Sony is lining up for its next VR headset for the PS5.

What do you hope to see out of VR’s next big game? Let us know in the comments below!

BricksVR Brings Multiplayer Building To Oculus Quest, PC VR In Early Access

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BricksVR brings multiplayer VR building to Oculus Quest and Rift in Early Access, allowing you and your friends to build models and worlds together out of a variety of different shaped bricks.

The game will launch into Early Access on Steam and App Lab at the of the month, priced at $14.99. The team expects to leave Early Access and go into full release around September of this year. While support is limited to just Oculus Rift and Oculus Quest headsets for now, the development team says they anticipate adding support for additional headsets in the future.

While it may not make the direct connection for obvious reasons, most people will recognize that BricksVR is lovingly inspired by popular construction toy LEGO.  BricksVR will hopefully bring the flexibility of LEGO bricks into a limitless VR environment. Not only does this make manipulating the environment much easier — videos show that you can resize yourself to whatever scale works best for your current focus — but it also allows you to build without worry of mess and with friends from anywhere around the world, without being physically together.

bricksvr

The game’s multiplayer supports up to 5 people playing at once, with “synchronized physics, spatial voice chat, and the ability to save your work.” There are also 50 different bricks to choose from (with the aim of expanding to over 200 after Early Access) with over 16 million color choices as well.

When you’re done building, you also have the option to send your model or world public, allowing others to check out your work. There’s a lock feature as well, ensuring that public visitors won’t be able to make any changes.

BricksVR goes into Early Access on June 30. It is available already on Quest via App Lab and will be available on PC VR from June 30 via Steam. You can wishlist the game here.

4 Things We Love About Sam & Max: This Time It’s Virtual

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Save for a pair of plumbers, gaming duos don’t get much older than Sam & Max.

Though they may have started life in the pages of comics, multiple virtual adventures across nearly three decades have cemented the pair’s position as lovable, if often overlooked gaming mascots. After playing the first hour or so of the game, Sam & Max: This Time It’s Virtual looks like it might do right by the series’ legacy with a refreshing sense of humor and enjoyable, varied puzzles. Here are four things we love about the game so far, and a look at what could be improved. Oh, and check out the opening gameplay in the video below, too.

What We Love

The Humor

At their best, Sam & Max adventures are genuinely funny affairs, with Max’s sharp, near-psychotic one-liners bouncing perfectly off of Sam’s innocent, overly-elaborate word jumbles. When they’re not at their best, the fast-fire attempts at humor can stretch thin fast. Fortunately, what I’ve played of This Time It’s Virtual so far sits firmly in the former camp – the script is on-point and unpredictable, and Max’s erratic short man syndrome works to great effect when he’s jumping on top of you and zipping around the environment.

Happy Giant is working in some great physical comedy, too – at one point Max wants you to throw him at a dartboard, and there’s a pretty fantastic puzzle involving the decapitated head of a robotic Thomas Edison ordering you to ‘Boop Me’ and ‘Twist Me’ among other, less repeatable phrases.

The Variety

About an hour into the game and I’ve already done a lot of different things in Sam & Max: This Time It’s Virtual. I’ve defused bombs, scaled climbing walls and made Max a corn dog, and that’s just in the first few areas. The game feels like a VR variety hour, in constant search of something engaging and/or amusing to interact with. None of those interactions are especially evolved — reloading a gun requires just holding a clip near it and throwing darts is heavily automated — but these tasks are often over before you start to tire. I’m really looking forward to seeing what other strange ideas Happy Giant cooks up in the rest of the game.

The Pacing

My biggest fear for Sam & Max: This Time It’s Virtual is that it would be too hard, and that I’d quickly grow frustrated with obscure puzzle solutions that had me randomly trying the most illogical things in desperate hopes of progressing. So far, that hasn’t been the case – its first puzzles are a gentle introduction that often focus more on fun interactions than they do trying brain-teasers. As we saw at the Upload VR Showcase last weekend, more puzzling challenges await but, hopefully, it’ll continue to maintain this delicate balance.

The Presence

Sam & Max VR

One thing that never really tires for me when it comes to VR is meeting new characters. There’s that weird moment of genuine confusion as your brain tries to establish if you’re actually talking to another living being or not. Sam & Max might be cartoonized critters but that feeling is still very much alive and well here. The first time you meet the titular duo is quite striking – especially if you’ve been a fan of the series in the past.

What To Improve

The Polish

You might have assumed this from some of the trailers for the game over the past year, but This Time It’s Virtual is just a little rough around the edges in a way that’s tough to put your finger on. Visually its cartoonish art style looks great in VR, even if textures are on the blurry side on Quest. But, from what we’ve played, it’s more about the little things – the times you notice Max is levitating off of the floor by a few centimeters, the general weightlessness of any object you pick up, or when you realize the pair popping out at an angle behind a wall is really just their character models inexplicably hovering in mid-air. None of this is deal-breaking stuff, but it is a little on the shabby side. Crucially, though, these are all the sorts of things we expect and hope Happy Giant to be tackling in the final weeks leading up to the game’s launch this summer.

If Sam & Max can keep this light-hearted, fleet-footed approach to VR puzzling fresh throughout the entire game, then Happy Giant will have done right by the series for sure. We’ll find out when the game launches first on Oculus Quest later this summer, though PC VR and PSVR ports are due, too.

Survival Horror Shooter Dead Effect 2 Gets Surprise App Lab Release On Quest

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Well this is unexpected. BadFly Interactive’s Dead Effect 2 VR has launched on Oculus Quest via App Lab.

The game launched on the service last week for $19.99. As the name suggests, Dead Effect 2 VR itself is a full port of the original game. The VR edition launched in 2017 on PC VR headsets after a stint on early access and was pretty popular at the time, offering a rare full, single-player campaign-driven experience.

Here’s a trailer from the game’s original launch on PC. Obviously don’t expect the same level of visual fidelity out of the Quest version.

In the game, you fend for yourself on a spaceship overrun with all types of monsters. It’s a fairly simple shooter, but it’s enriched with RPG mechanics and a range of different weapons. There’s enough meat to it that we’re surprised to see it launch on App Lab rather than the official Oculus Store.

App Lab does allow developers to release their content on Quest without having to pass Facebook’s own rigorous curation standards. But this means the game isn’t actually visible from the main Quest store itself – you have to find them via direct links elsewhere.

Will you be picking up Dead Effect 2 on App Lab? Let us know in the comments below!

Retro Shooter Amid Evil Is Getting A VR Version

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Publisher New Blood Interactive is working on a VR version of its popular retro-style shooter, Amid Evil.

A teaser clip from the game was shown during New Blood’s section at yesterday’s PC Gaming Showcase, and developer Andre Elijah has since shared a better look below. The clip shows a player flipping an axe in-game before using it to split an enemy in two. Check it out below.

Amid Evil VR Confirmed

The original version of Amid Evil, developed by Indefatigable, was released in 2019. In the game, players travel across seven worlds, each with its own unique weapon, to battle demonic forces. The game is heavily influenced by classic 3D shooters like Quake, and has a visual style to match.

The VR version of the game has reportedly been in development for a while, but New Blood isn’t ready to reveal much more information just yet. It’s not clear if this will be an update to the original game or a separate release, for example. The original game is also getting a full prequel called Amid Evil: The Black Labyrinth, and it’s not clear if this could be getting VR support too.

Platforms haven’t been specifically confirmed, though Elijah did hint at the possibility of a Quest 2 version. It’s too early to definitively say where it will end up, but PC VR headsets are likely a safe bet.

We’ll let you know more about the game as soon as we have it. Are you looking forward to Amid Evil VR? Let us know in the comments below!