No plans to go out tonight? Consider ringing in the New Year from the comfort of your cozy home by joining the virtual celebrations in High Fidelity, VRChat, or AltspaceVR where they’re celebrating New Year’s Eve in VR around the world.
High Fidelity, VRChat, and AltspaceVR are among the most active social VR spaces, and all three platforms are holding open New Year’s Eve celebrations across timezones to celebrate the start of 2019.
High Fidelity
High Fidelity is celebrating New Year’s Eve with a ball drop in every timezone. The fun goes down in ‘TheSpot’ a virtual venue that’s been dressed for the occasion. Best to refresh your memory on the lyrics of Auld Lang Syne as “spirited singing” is promised.
How to join: Find your way to TheSpot in High Fidelity, which you can navigate to directly with this link, provided you have High Fidelity installed.
VRChat
The VRChat community has given the VR Times Square venue a complete makeover for the celebrations. The ball will drop at midnight in every timezone and you can expect plenty of dancing and probably some anime inspired avatars. Additionally the DDVR community is hosting dance party celebrations in various virtual clubs with live DJs to set the mood of the New Year. The full schedule of DDVR New Year’s Eve club parties can be found here.
How to join: Open the Quick Menu and navigate to ‘Worlds’. Search by ‘Active Worlds’ to find VR Times Square. To join the DDVR club parties, send a friend request to the host listed for the event in the full schedule and then join the host.
AltspaceVR
AltspaceVR is planning to ring in the New Year by livestreaming various real world New Year’s Eve countdowns into the virtual venue, with a final livestream celebration from New York’s Times Square at 12AM ET / 9PM PT.
Musician and comedian Reggie Watts is no stranger to AltspaceVR, Microsoft’s social VR platform. This weekend you can enter to win a chance to get on the stage and improv with the man himself.
Watts (The Late Late Show) will be climbing the virtual stage on January 18th, 2019 to present another live concert, showcasing his comedy, live music, and improv skills.
If you’re keen on meeting Watts and getting a chance to improv with the comedy/music virtuoso himself, AltspaceVR will be holding a preliminary ‘Improv Night Battle’ with organizers We Are ImproVR.
Improv Night Battle will be taking place Saturday, January 5th, 2019 from 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM PST (local starting time here). You can RSVP here; make sure to read the description below:
Now is your chance to win the opportunity to improv live with Reggie Watts!
In order to compete, you MUST arrive at the start of the event and check-in. All competitors will be put through a series of improvisational challenges to ultimately determine who is the wittiest of them all!
No comedic experience or skill is required, so come up on stage and be the biggest, funniest doofus you possibly can be.
Can’t improv but want to spectate on the action? Come join us for laughs, weird stories, madness and most importantly, have fun!
Watts will be on stage January 18th at 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM PST (local start time here). If it’s going to be anything like his previous shows, event-goers will be treated to an awesome showcase of Watts’ famous steam-of-thought comedy/music translated through a full-body tracking setup.
Multiple rooms will also likely be hosted, so a hypothetically infinite number of users can watch Watts in action. Check out the event page here.
Jason Rubin joined Oculus in 2014 and has been a key figure in guiding the company’s content investments and strategy. Following the recent Oculus shakeup and deeper absorption into Facebook, Rubin is now overseeing AR and VR content & partnerships at Facebook.
While Oculus had been running largely independently from Facebook after the 2014 acquisition, the years following would see the VR startup slowly pulled deeper into the mothership as several key Oculus figures departed and made way for greater Facebook oversight.
The most recent—the departure of Oculus co-founder and former CEO Brendan Iribe—came amidst reports of a major restructuring of the Oculus unit, purportedly more deeply integrating it into Facebook in an attempt to create a more cohesive immersive technology strategy currently divided among mobile VR, PC VR, and augmented reality.
In that restructuring, Jason Rubin has been officially pulled under the Facebook banner and his purview has expanded from VP of VR content to VP of AR/VR Content & Partnerships.
Rubin’s new role began at least as early as November. A Facebook spokesperson confirmed the role change to Road to VR.
“Jason continues to lead our teams that deliver amazing content to VR. There were some internal changes but nothing that impacts how we work with our various developer and creator communities.”
SEE ALSO
On the Hunt for VR’s Killer App with Oculus' Head of Content, Jason Rubin
Rubin brought significant games industry experience to Oculus when he joined in 2014. A co-founder of game studio Naughty Dog and director of noted titles like Crash Bandicoot (1996) and Jak and Daxter (2001), Rubin joined Oculus as the President of Oculus Studios following a brief stint as President of THQ. He was eventually promoted to Head of Content and then to VP of Content before his most recent role change. Rubin has been a key spokesperson and a tempered voice for Oculus throughout his time at the company; he is also seen as one of the last visible pillars of the ‘old’ Oculus.
Rubin’s LinkedIn profile indicates that the role adjustment comes via the “newly combined AR/VR Partnerships and Content teams,” and that his responsibilities in addition to VR are expanding to “Augmented Reality, Portal, and other future technologies developed across Facebook.”
Portal is Facebook’s recently launched videophone; Rubin’s hand in that part of Facebook’s business supports reports of significant restructuring of Oculus within Facebook. Increasingly, Oculus feels more like a brand and less like its own company, though this is quite by design considering the ‘Oculus by Facebook’ branding that began appearing in 2016.
Multistreaming with https://restream.io/ Please hit that subscribe button it honestly makes my day! Want to buy me a beer? https://streamlabs.com/theukrifter Want to chat VR? - Join my VR community discord server: https://discord.gg/dXh5XuA or on Twitter @UKRift, or Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ukrifter. Also, check out my Virtual Reality articles and opinions on http://www.ukrifter.com **Voice Acting** - I currently offer FREE voice acting for VR projects. Hugely grateful if you could share this video with your friends & family via : twitter, facebook, reddit, etc. == Who the devil are you Sir? == Typically I play with VR on my weekends and schedule video posts through the week. I invest my own money in order to review, compare and contrast. I run this for the love of the technology, I am NEVER paid for my opinion, and as a result my opinions will remain unbiased, however, as I tend to praise in public and feedback negative experiences privately to developers, I rarely review a bad title. Not seen something reviewed here, maybe you have your answer. == Special Thanks == UKRifter Logo by Jo Baker Freelance Design - http://jobaker.co.uk/ == Techno Babble for the Geeks == HMD: HTC Vive, Oculus Rift DK1 / DK2 / CV1 CPU: i7 4790K GPU: Nvidia EVGA 1080 SC edition RAM: 16GB Storage: SSD / Hybid SSD Screen recorder: OBS Wheel: Logitech G27 Joystick: Thrustmaster T-Flight HOTAS X Mouse: RAT 7 == Legal == The thoughts and opinions expressed by UKRifter and other contributors are those of the individual contributors alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of their employers, sponsors, family members, pets or voices in their heads. == Audio Credits == UKRifter Jingle by Christopher Gray Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Lets have a Live Talk Show! Tonight I would like to talk with you about the future of SweViver and plans for my channel in general. What video content would you like to see in 2019, what I should change, add or remove? Give me your personal suggestions and ideas, and please also give me feedback for the current content I have been doing lately. Also, ask me anything during this live stream, regaring Virtual Reality, VR gaming, Pimax or anything else! Big thanks for joining, and please consider supporting me on Patreon if you appreciate my efforts: https://patreon.com/sweviver A huge thanks to all my lovely Patreon Supporters and a special thanks to my official Patreon Sponsors: CMDR Dark Light, ArtArmin and VR Ambassador!
We have been lucky enough to play a lot of VR games over the past 2 years. Here’s our personal list of 20 TOP VR GAMES released in 2018. The best VR games that has impacted us this year. Subscribe to join our VR adventures! → https://goo.gl/bSJ6L8 Be sure to watch the entire video for our explanation of why these games are in this list. These are just like quick reviews. Our personal list of 20 best VR games of 2018 for Oculus Rift, PSVR and HTC Vive: Subnautica - 00:16 Vox Machinae - 01:16 Windlands 2 VR - 02:38 In Death - 03:43 Moss - 04:30 Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice VR Edition - 05:30 Contractors - 06:36 Skyrim VR - 07:25 ASTRO BOT Rescue Mission - 08:28 Budget Cuts - 09:23 Creed: Rise to Glory - 10:27 Pixel Ripped 1989 - 11:32 Sprint Vector - 12:35 Borderlands 2 VR - 13:25 Red Matter - 14:33 Vreal - 15:26 Brass Tactics - 16:26 The Forest VR - 17:41 Beat Saber - 18:52 Virtual Virtual Reality - 19:16 + 2 honorable mentions Watch our top upcoming games in 2018 list (2019 version is coming soon!) → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KKvs_tnKkts SUPPORT US ► VRcovers for your headset → https://goo.gl/U3ZSRD ► HTC Vive (Free Shipping and $50 VIVEPORT Credit) → https://goo.gl/KXdqtG ► HTC Vive Pro → http://bit.ly/2IVLgwS ► Oculus Rift + Touch → https://amzn.to/2qvE3Mo ► Oculus Go → https://amzn.to/2ryrOQx 💬 Or become our Patron (includes exclusive giveaways) → https://www.patreon.com/casandchary 💬 Join our Discord → https://discord.gg/YH52W2k 💬 Twitter, Facebook and Instagram → @CasandChary A special thanks to these Patreon Champs for their amazing support: - Wintceas - Baxorn - Andy - Albert - Ben P. - James DISCLAIMER Some links in this description are affiliate links. You don't have to use them but if you do, a small referral fee will go to this channel supporting the content. If you use it, thanks a lot! VR on! - Cas and Chary VR #bestvrgames #bestvrgames2018 #topvrgames
Steam is chocked full of free games that support HTC Vive, but it may be difficult with all that choice to know exactly which games to start out with, especially if all that holiday shopping blew you wallet to smithereens.
Also, don’t forget that as an HTC Vive owner, you can pop into Oculus exclusives, designed for the Oculus Rift, using the Revive software hack. Check out the bit near the bottom for the skinny on games worth a nod or two.
5 – Waltz of The Wizard
Synopsis: What’s Waltz of the Wizard doing on the list if it’s not a game? Well, it is and it isn’t. Not only an awesome showcase for VR object interaction, Waltz of the Wizard also has its own story to tell, albeit a short and sweet one. You mix potions, levitate objects and discover a world that is just begging for a more expansive game. It’s certainly worth a look, as the level of polish is pretty much through the roof.
Studio description: Waltz of the Wizard is a virtual reality experience that lets you feel what it’s like to have magical powers. Combine arcane ingredients into a boiling cauldron with the help of an ancient spirit trapped in a human skull. Unleash creative or destructive wizardry upon a fully interactive virtual world.
Synopsis: You don’t really play Accounting so much as Accounting plays you. Created by Justin Roiland (of Rick and Morty) and Crows Crows Crows, Accounting is a fever dream of comedy, imagination, and a healthy dose of WTF. It’s also a great appetizer to the much more expansive paid app Accounting+ (2018).
Studio description: The modern field of Accountancy is a serious and honorable profession. Many human beings have spent their lives toiling over the hard science of numbers. Thousands have died so that we may get to the level of understanding that we have today. Thousands have died.
Synopsis: Steam doesn’t allow real cash gambling, but that hasn’t stopped the world-wide online poker site PokerStars from developing their own free-play VR poker casinos spanning locations such as Macau, a Monte-Carlo yacht, and a wild west saloon. So while you can’t play Texas Hold’em with this month’s rent, you’ll be able to polish your live poker game, replete with the ability to stack your chips and handle cards just like in Vegas. Just make sure to hide those tells.
Store description: Step into the future with this game-changing release from the biggest name in the business. Visually stunning environments; realistic chip and card movements; an endless supply of interactive toys, props and accessories; and the world’s best poker software powering multiplayer Texas Hold’em action.
Synopsis: When Valve published The Lab on Steam back in 2016, it was basically the highest quality VR game/experience there was by default. Now two years running, it still holds up as a shinning achievement of what Valve is capable of when they release a game. Yes, we’re still waiting on their promised ‘three full VR games‘, but until then, we’ll just play Longbow.
Studio description: Welcome to The Lab, a compilation of Valve’s room-scale VR experiments set in a pocket universe within Aperture Science. Fix a robot, defend a castle, adopt a mechanical dog, and more. Still not sold? It’s free!
Synopsis: Rec Room isn’t really a bespoke game, but rather a social VR app that contains a number of engaging and fun games within it. You’ll get swept up in the multiplayer adventures, casual sports, and the newest addition Rec Royale, a battle royale-style team shooter. Against Gravity are always updating too, so there’s typically always a fresh co-op Quest to conquer.
Store description: Rec Room is the best place to hang out with friends from all around the world! Play intense multiplayer games like Paintball, Laser Tag, Quest, and Rec Royale, or just chill with friends in the park. There are thousands of player-created game and event rooms for you to discover, with new ones added daily. You can even build your own rooms with your friends. Rec Room is cross platform and free, so come and join the fun!
If you’re looking for a portal to more free, awesome quality games, look no further than Revive, the tool that lets you play Oculus Store exclusives. Check out our top games to play with Revive below:
Echo VR
Store description: In Echo Combat, you will play as a futuristic battle-ready robot armed with an array of weapons and abilities as your team of three competes against the opposition in high-speed objective-based zero-gravity mayhem! Echo Arena now supports parties of 15 players and 5v5 private matches, with 5 more slots available for spectators! In the Arena, your team will face off against the competition in a zero-gravity clash of robotic glory as you glide, boost, and punch your way to scoring goals in a breathtaking virtual arena.
Store description: Lucky’s Tale is a delightful platforming adventure game designed exclusively for the Oculus Rift. Join Lucky as he runs, jumps, climbs and spins his way through a bright, colorful world filled with thrilling challenges, wacky creatures, and all the shiny things a little fox could ever want!
Synopsis: Play head-to-head online or in Conquest story mode from your Oculus Rift, Gear VR, or Facebook Gameroom account on desktop. This immersive collectible card-battler mixes high fantasy with World War II on a 4×4 grid battlefield that is alive with rampaging giants, intimidating war-machines, and soaring projectiles.
Multistreaming with https://restream.io/ Please hit that subscribe button it honestly makes my day! Want to buy me a beer? https://streamlabs.com/theukrifter Want to chat VR? - Join my VR community discord server: https://discord.gg/dXh5XuA or on Twitter @UKRift, or Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ukrifter. Also, check out my Virtual Reality articles and opinions on http://www.ukrifter.com **Voice Acting** - I currently offer FREE voice acting for VR projects. Hugely grateful if you could share this video with your friends & family via : twitter, facebook, reddit, etc. == Who the devil are you Sir? == Typically I play with VR on my weekends and schedule video posts through the week. I invest my own money in order to review, compare and contrast. I run this for the love of the technology, I am NEVER paid for my opinion, and as a result my opinions will remain unbiased, however, as I tend to praise in public and feedback negative experiences privately to developers, I rarely review a bad title. Not seen something reviewed here, maybe you have your answer. == Special Thanks == UKRifter Logo by Jo Baker Freelance Design - http://jobaker.co.uk/ == Techno Babble for the Geeks == HMD: HTC Vive, Oculus Rift DK1 / DK2 / CV1 CPU: i7 4790K GPU: Nvidia EVGA 1080 SC edition RAM: 16GB Storage: SSD / Hybid SSD Screen recorder: OBS Wheel: Logitech G27 Joystick: Thrustmaster T-Flight HOTAS X Mouse: RAT 7 == Legal == The thoughts and opinions expressed by UKRifter and other contributors are those of the individual contributors alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of their employers, sponsors, family members, pets or voices in their heads. == Audio Credits == UKRifter Jingle by Christopher Gray Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
There are plenty of great games out there for Oculus Rift, with the Oculus Store and Steam featuring a number of top titles certainly worth your hard-earned money. But before you crack that wallet too wide open, you may want to take a look at some seriously cool free content out there right this second.
High production value, engaging VR mechanics, native Touch support: the games below have it all. Without further ado, here are our best five free VR games for Rift.
Note: We didn’t include tools or experiences below, only games!
5 – PokerStars VR
Synopsis: Platforms like the Oculus Store and Steam don’t allow real cash gambling, but that hasn’t stopped the world-wide online poker site PokerStars from developing their own free-play VR poker casinos spanning locations such as Macau, a Monte-Carlo yacht, and a wild west saloon. So while you can’t play Texas Hold’em with this month’s rent, you’ll be able to polish your live poker game, replete with the ability to stack your chips and handle cards just like in Vegas. Just make sure to hide those tells.
Store description: Step into the future with this game-changing release from the biggest name in the business. Visually stunning environments; realistic chip and card movements; an endless supply of interactive toys, props and accessories; and the world’s best poker software powering multiplayer Texas Hold’em action.
Synopsis: The Lab is an oldie, but it’s very much a goodie. If you’re looking to jump into free VR games, you definitely shouldn’t miss out on Valve’s first VR title. It’s really supposed to be more of a glorified tech demo than a proper game as such, but there’s something about the simple, but insanely polished mini-games Valve whipped up that has us coming back even two years after it was released.
Store description: Welcome to The Lab, a compilation of Valve’s room-scale VR experiments set in a pocket universe within Aperture Science. Fix a robot, defend a castle, adopt a mechanical dog, and more. Still not sold? It’s free!
Synopsis: Rec Room isn’t really a bespoke game, but rather a social VR app that contains a number of engaging and fun games within it. You’ll get swept up in the multiplayer adventures, casual sports, and the newest addition Rec Royale, a battle royale-style shooter. The team at Against Gravity are always updating too, so there’s typically always a fresh co-op Quest to conquer.
Store description: Rec Room is the best place to hang out with friends from all around the world! Play intense multiplayer games like Paintball, Laser Tag, Quest, and Rec Royale, or just chill with friends in the park. There are thousands of player-created game and event rooms for you to discover, with new ones added daily. You can even build your own rooms with your friends. Rec Room is cross platform and free, so come and join the fun!
Synopsis: Epic Games knows Unreal Engine—after all, they created it. Undoubtedly costing a few million, Robo Recall definitely boasts some of the highest production value on the store right now. As a single player game, Robo Recall uses Oculus Touch to its fullest; you’ll be grabbing battle bots and twirling your six shooters just as if you had your hands in the game.
Store description: You used to push lead with a pencil, but now you’re pushing it with a gun. A recent barrage of defective, homicidal robots has created openings in RoboReady’s perpetually underfunded and suddenly swamped Recall Department. Thrown into the fray as a Recaller, you must rely on your wits, reflexes and a vast arsenal of weaponry to eliminate the robot uprising.
Synopsis: The newly rechristened Echo VR first started out on the Oculus Store as Echo Arena, a futuristic team sport that features a unique zero-G locomotion style and 5v5 multiplayer matches. The impetus for the rebranding: Echo Combat, the $10 VR shooter expansion recently released that puts you in the battle-ready chassis of a combat bot armed with an array of weapons and abilities. Featuring two teams of four, you compete in payload mode or point capture. Echo Arena is still free though, and definitely worth your time.
Store description: In Echo Combat, you will play as a futuristic battle-ready robot armed with an array of weapons and abilities as your team of three competes against the opposition in high-speed objective-based zero-gravity mayhem! Echo Arena now supports parties of 15 players and 5v5 private matches, with 5 more slots available for spectators! In the Arena, your team will face off against the competition in a zero-gravity clash of robotic glory as you glide, boost, and punch your way to scoring goals in a breathtaking virtual arena.
Store description: Lucky’s Tale is a delightful platforming adventure game designed exclusively for the Oculus Rift. Join Lucky as he runs, jumps, climbs and spins his way through a bright, colorful world filled with thrilling challenges, wacky creatures, and all the shiny things a little fox could ever want!
Store description: Step into a world full of gunslingers and ghosts in Dead and Buried. Grab your Touch controllers and become the best gunslinger in the wild west in this multiplayer action shooter. Battle it out in the old saloon. Rob a runaway train. Team up with other bandits and defend against hordes of ghastly creatures. Finally, you can live out your wild west fantasies thanks to virtual reality.
Store description: Play head-to-head online or in Conquest story mode from your Oculus Rift, Gear VR, or Facebook Gameroom account on desktop. This immersive collectible card-battler mixes high fantasy with World War II on a 4×4 grid battlefield that is alive with rampaging giants, intimidating war-machines, and soaring projectiles.
Store description: Pilot massive weapons of destruction and fight over post-apocalyptic lands in this free-roaming shooter: It is an explosive clash of god-like mech weaponry and team deathmatch gameplay.
The chart is broken into tiers ranging from Bronze to Platinum. Refreshing the page shuffles the titles in each tier, meaning we can’t tell directly how individual games in each tier stack up in terms of revenue, we only know that games in a higher tier had higher revenue than games in a lower tier.
Here’s a look at the Gold and Platinum tiers; since Valve is sorting each tier in a random order, we charted each title’s overall user reviews and sorted by that figure to bring a bit of order to the groups.
Platinum
Game
Release
Positive User Reviews
Beat Saber
2018 [EA]
97%
GORN
2017 [EA]
97%
Hot Dogs, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades
2016 [EA]
97%
Onward
2016 [EA]
91%
Pavlov VR
2017 [EA]
89%
SUPERHOT VR
2017
89%
Arizona Sunshine
2016
86%
Job Simulator
2016
84%
Skyrim VR
2018
82%
OrbusVR
2017 [EA]
81%
VR Kanojo
2018
75%
Fallout 4 VR
2017
71%
Games in the platinum tier are mostly expected; though it’s interesting to see that 50% of this year’s platinum titles are in Early Access, slightly up from 42% last year. Interestingly, none of the platinum games are Early Access graduates (compared to 25% in the gold tier).
While the titles in platinum are mostly expected, the one that surprised us is VR Kanojo (2018), a relatively pricey ($50) adult VR game which was released in 2017 but hit Steam this year.
Despite relatively low reviews, Fallout 4 VR (2017) continues to sell well thanks to its highly recognized IP. It’s Bethesda brethren, Skyrim VR, also joins the platinum list having launched on PC earlier this year.
Hot Dogs, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades takes platinum its second year running, and stands out for not only being launched initially back in 2016, but also for its exceptional user reviews.
In the platinum tier, 33% of titles were released in 2016, 42% in 2017, and 25% in 2018. It might seem surprising that only 25% of the titles were released in 2018, though the bulk of the non-VR platinum list is shared between 2018 (25%) and 2015 (25%).
Gold
Game
Release
Positive User Reviews
Space Pirate Trainer
2017 [prev. EA]
95%
Tilt Brush
2016
95%
I Expect You To Die
2017
92%
Sairento VR
2018 [prev. EA]
90%
Sprint Vector
2018
90%
Raw Data
2017 [prev. EA]
87%
STAND OUT: VR Battle Royale
2017 [EA]
77%
Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality
2017
74%
Budget Cuts
2018
73%
Zero Caliber VR
2018 [EA]
73%
Virtual Desktop
2016
69%
DOOM VFR
2017
59%
In the gold tier only 17% of titles are in Early Access (compared to 50% in the platinum tier). That’s down considerably compared to last year’s gold tier in which 33% of games were in Early Access. Additionally, 25% of this year’s gold tier are Early Access graduates.
Following a similar pattern from Fallout 4 VR and Skyrim VR, DOOM VFR continues to see steady sales thanks to its recognizable IP, apparently despite decidedly mixed reviews. This is the game’s second year in the gold tier.
In the gold tier, 17% of titles were released in 2016, 50% in 2017, and 33% in 2018. That compares similarly to the non-VR gold tier in which 42% of titles were released in 2017.
Multistreaming with https://restream.io/ Please hit that subscribe button it honestly makes my day! Want to buy me a beer? https://streamlabs.com/theukrifter Want to chat VR? - Join my VR community discord server: https://discord.gg/dXh5XuA or on Twitter @UKRift, or Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ukrifter. Also, check out my Virtual Reality articles and opinions on http://www.ukrifter.com **Voice Acting** - I currently offer FREE voice acting for VR projects. Hugely grateful if you could share this video with your friends & family via : twitter, facebook, reddit, etc. == Who the devil are you Sir? == Typically I play with VR on my weekends and schedule video posts through the week. I invest my own money in order to review, compare and contrast. I run this for the love of the technology, I am NEVER paid for my opinion, and as a result my opinions will remain unbiased, however, as I tend to praise in public and feedback negative experiences privately to developers, I rarely review a bad title. Not seen something reviewed here, maybe you have your answer. == Special Thanks == UKRifter Logo by Jo Baker Freelance Design - http://jobaker.co.uk/ == Techno Babble for the Geeks == HMD: HTC Vive, Oculus Rift DK1 / DK2 / CV1 CPU: i7 4790K GPU: Nvidia EVGA 1080 SC edition RAM: 16GB Storage: SSD / Hybid SSD Screen recorder: OBS Wheel: Logitech G27 Joystick: Thrustmaster T-Flight HOTAS X Mouse: RAT 7 == Legal == The thoughts and opinions expressed by UKRifter and other contributors are those of the individual contributors alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of their employers, sponsors, family members, pets or voices in their heads. == Audio Credits == UKRifter Jingle by Christopher Gray Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Single-player missions can be engrossing experiences on their own in VR, but when the campaign’s done and all the AI foes have been slain, you need to know that when you finally hit that ‘multiplayer’ button that the developers have targeted the largest number of players possible to help ensure a healthy online playerbase. Here we discuss games that will let you play together—be it on Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and (sometimes) PlayStation VR too.
VR’s overall playerbase—even across all three major headsets—is still a pretty small community in contrast to the online spaces of established console/PC gaming. So while the multiplayer lobbies won’t be busting at the seams like you’re used to in flatscreen media, you’re still bound to find a group of casuals, die-hards, and try-hards populating the servers. We’ll be going through the best cross-compatible games for Rift and Vive, and PSVR. You’ll find a longer explanation below our top 5 list detailing more about PSVR cross-play (spoiler: there’s only a few).
Best Cross-Play Multiplayer
5 – Arizona Sunshine (Rift, Vive – PSVR separate)
Arizona Sunshine is a first-person zombie shooter that lets you play through a heart-pumping campaign in two-player co-op, or up to 4 players in ‘horde mode’. For an insanely fun game though, cross-play is awfully fickle to sort at first. Multiplayer is easiest when you’re dealing with the Steam version of the game, as VOIP isn’t available between different versions including the Rift-only version obtained from the Oculus Store. You can however link up with your buddy by using a third-party VOIP app like Mumble or Team Speak failing that. Unfortunately the PSVR version is a lonely island, and doesn’t offer cross-play with Rift or Vive.
In Survios‘ Mario Kart-style foot racing game Sprint Vector you’ll run faster, jump higher, and race until you grow to despise everyone in front of you and behind you on the way to the finish line.
Before you whip out your credit card though, consider this first: cross-platform multiplayer is only currently available between the Oculus Home and Steam versions, however private matches are sourced from either platform’s friends list, making it a hassle to connect up if half of your party purchased through a different store. There’s bad news for PSVR players too—there’s zero cross-play support, putting it squarely at the bottom of our list. If cross-platform multiplayer worked flawlessly, friends lists and all, it would be a golden example of the game everyone should buy and play together regardless of the headset you own.
'Sprint Vector' Review – Innovative Locomotion Makes Adrenaline-soaked Foot Racing a Reality
3 – Sparc
CCP’s 1v1 sports game Sparc was their last virtual reality title before shuttering their VR studios late last year. While CCP has basically called it quits for the medium for now, there’s still plenty of reasons to pick up Sparc if you’re looking to connect up with a buddy.
Sparc is by all measures a great game, but it’s even greater that you can play mano-a-mano against any one of your VR headset owning goons you call friends. Sparc suffers from the same issue as many cross-platform VR games though, i.e. no support for friends lists outside of the platform you’re on, but you can always host a game and hope for matchmaking serendipity—the silver lining to a slumping user base means you’ll probably be able to match up with your friend easily.
Watch: This is 'Sparc', CCP's Striking New Futuristic VR Sports Title
2 – Star Trek: Bridge Crew
You don’t have to be a Trekkie (or Trekker) to see why sitting at the bridge of a star ship, cooperatively taking down hostile aliens is a really engrossing way to lose an entire afternoon/evening. With its 4-player multiplayer, you can go through the game’s half-dozen campaign missions, or alternatively experience an infinite number of procedurally-generated missions in the company of other Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and PSVR-owners.
Created by Ubisoft’s Red Storm Entertainment, Star Trek: Bridge Crew is worth it if only to say you’ve been where no man’s gone before. Get in while the community is still buzzing from the latest DLC update, which brought Star Trek’s TNG-era Enterprise to the game.
Social apps are a fun way to talk and interact with people in VR, but if you don’t have something fun to do while you’re actually there, the novelty ultimately wears off. Anti Gravity’s Rec Room is a great way to experience fun activities like paintball or dodge ball, but the real meat of the game likes in their co-op ‘Quests’ and PvP battle royale game Rec Royale. Of course all of this is served up in a lovable cartoony environment while you have a chat with people from all over the world, or just your best buddies if you so choose. Did we mention it was free. Yeah, we can’t believe it either.
Rec Room isn’t only a great game, but it allows all players regardless of platforms to meet up, create friends and sally forth to take on all activities without the issues we mentioned above.
'Rec Room' Studio Raises $5M "to continue to build the future of Social VR"
Healthy Playerbases, Cross-compatibility Issues
Let’s face it: there aren’t many other cross-play multiplayer titles that currently work on all three major headsets. It’s a fact we’ve been living with since the headsets launched in 2016, and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better due to two very real roadblocks outside of the friends list issue a large portion of cross-platform games suffer from. While platform exclusives wall out a large percentage of would-be users, the ugly truth is studios simply aren’t going head-first into VR multiplayer games like they once were. Time after time VR games that primarily feature multiplayer support have fallen to the wayside because of low hourly active user numbers, and perfectly fun games like Werewolves Within and Eagle Flight stand as testament to this.
If you buy a game and the servers aren’t populated with players, you probably won’t wait around too long for a match; it creates a vicious cycle that tends to spell the death of a game if a hardcore playerbase isn’t built-in due to things like active Discord servers or subreddits to keep people engaged outside of the matchmaking screen.
Thankfully for Vive and Rift owners, the PC platform are somewhat conjoined twins in all of this VR business. Steam offers Rift and Vive support pretty much on a de facto basis, and with ReVive at your disposal, hypothetically speaking all Oculus Rift multiplayer titles are cross-play capable if you own a Vive. It’s a pretty strange way of vaulting over the friends list roadblock, but entirely feasible if you’re motivated.
Update (December 27th, 2018): We’ve done a long-due overhaul of the list reflecting the latest developments in the games, and their cross-play abilities. We’ll be periodically updating this list as new games come out.
For a category-defining first-gen device introduced in early 2015, HoloLens has had a remarkably long lifespan. But it increasingly seems like 2019 could be the year that HoloLens 2 is revealed as official channels have now been weeks without stock of the original headset.
Microsoft initially launched HoloLens as a dev kit in early 2016 and later that year made it available in a ‘Commercial Suite’ edition that was positioned toward enterprises. Through 2017 and 2018 the company steadily grew the headset’s distribution channels and options: opening official third-party resales and rentals, expanding regional availability, offering a certified hard hat option for the headset, and launching first-party software tools for enterprise visualization and remote help. And to top it all off, Microsoft recently landed a $480 million defense contract to provide the US Army with AR headsets.
With so much momentum, it’s surprising to see that both the HoloLens Commercial Suite and Development Edition have been out of stock from Microsoft for what appears to be several weeks now. We reached out to the company to ask when stock is expected to return, but the company didn’t offer any timeline.
“Microsoft HoloLens Development Edition and Commercial Suite are out of stock and unavailable from Microsoft Stores. For customers looking to purchase HoloLens, please visit HoloLens.com for a listing of HoloLens resellers as well as rental options,” a Microsoft spokesperson told Road to VR.
We looked into the official HoloLens reseller for the US and Canada, Insight, but found that HoloLens is out of stock there too.
SEE ALSO
HoloLens 2.0 to Put a Custom A.I. Chip at the Heart of Its On-board Processor
Three potential explanations seem most likely: 1) A major production disruption has stalled HoloLens supply, 2) Microsoft has had to divert all production to fulfill its new contract to supply AR headsets to the US Army, or 3) HoloLens 2 is near at hand.
#1 & #2 seem less likely, however, as one would think that Microsoft would readily offer up an explanation to assure enterprise customers that HoloLens will eventually be back in stock and they can resume AR operations.
With HoloLens now more than 2.5 years old, and the launch of its first real competitor—Magic Leap—earlier this year, #3 is starting to look increasingly plausible, especially considering how long HoloLens 2 seems to have been in development.
It was back in July of 2017 that Microsoft quietly said it was working on a new version of the HoloLens ‘HPU’ (holographic processing unit, the nerve center for the headset’s many external sensors), and that the newer chip was being “designed to work in the next version of HoloLens.” Earlier this year the company affirmed ongoing development of the headset (despite some rumors of discontinuation), and as recently as May confirmed that the new ‘Project Kinect for Azure’ module would be the sensor package in the next HoloLens.
It also seems unlikely that Microsoft would have pitched its first-gen HoloLens technology for the US Army contract—which aims to deliver 100,000 Microsoft-built AR headsets—especially considering that Magic Leap was also vying for the contract with its newer tech.
While 2019 seems increasingly likely for a HoloLens 2 introduction, there’s still some big questions up in the air about what exactly is next for the headset.
Knowing that Kinect for Azure will be on board clues us in to some of the headset’s sensing capabilities. Rumors are swirling that the next HoloLens could ditch its current Intel CPU in favor of a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip, which would dovetail nicely with Microsoft’s increasing emphasis on ARM support for Windows 10. With an ARM chip and 4G connectivity rumored to be on board the next version, the use-cases for HoloLens could vastly expand.
Microsoft was remarkably quiet about the original HoloLens before its reveal, and the headset turned out to be well ahead of its time. Though a few concrete details have emerged for HoloLens 2, Microsoft has been similarly quiet this time around; we still know next to nothing about key factors like field of view, form-factor, size & weight, or even cost. Can the company make another leap forward with the next version of HoloLens? 2019 seems like the year we’ll find out.
Buy the game on steam here - https://store.steampowered.com/app/940240/Jake_and_the_Giant/ Please hit that subscribe button it honestly makes my day! Want to buy me a beer? https://streamlabs.com/theukrifter Want to chat VR? - Join my VR community discord server: https://discord.gg/dXh5XuA or on Twitter @UKRift, or Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ukrifter. Also, check out my Virtual Reality articles and opinions on http://www.ukrifter.com **Voice Acting** - I currently offer FREE voice acting for VR projects. Hugely grateful if you could share this video with your friends & family via : twitter, facebook, reddit, etc. == Who the devil are you Sir? == Typically I play with VR on my weekends and schedule video posts through the week. I invest my own money in order to review, compare and contrast. I run this for the love of the technology, I am NEVER paid for my opinion, and as a result my opinions will remain unbiased, however, as I tend to praise in public and feedback negative experiences privately to developers, I rarely review a bad title. Not seen something reviewed here, maybe you have your answer. == Special Thanks == UKRifter Logo by Jo Baker Freelance Design - http://jobaker.co.uk/ == Techno Babble for the Geeks == HMD: HTC Vive, Oculus Rift DK1 / DK2 / CV1 CPU: i7 4790K GPU: Nvidia EVGA 1080 SC edition RAM: 16GB Storage: SSD / Hybid SSD Screen recorder: OBS Wheel: Logitech G27 Joystick: Thrustmaster T-Flight HOTAS X Mouse: RAT 7 == Legal == The thoughts and opinions expressed by UKRifter and other contributors are those of the individual contributors alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of their employers, sponsors, family members, pets or voices in their heads. == Audio Credits == UKRifter Jingle by Christopher Gray Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
In this pet simulator you can strap a VIVE controller to a plush doll to add real presence. This is something that we haven't seen in other VR games before and it's so darn cute! Be sure to stay tuned for our review at the end of the video. Subscribe to join our VR adventures! → https://goo.gl/bSJ6L8 In Konrad the Kitten VR you take care of a cute kitten, Tamagotchi style. The gameplay itself is simple. You have a kitten in front of you with desires and needs, so you gotta satisfy them to not make him unhappy! Also, happy holidays everyone! LINKS Watch another VR pet simulator game (Waba) → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COazmpzRAag More HTC Vive (Pro) Gameplays & Reviews → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYl0nceTmYU&list=PL86GNGPnZ0siwDr9AoFLro8NF4CnAqSYx Find Konrad the Kitten on Oculus → https://www.oculus.com/experiences/rift/1132882333473147/ Find Konrad the Kitten on Steam → https://store.steampowered.com/app/510740/Konrad_the_Kitten/ SUPPORT US ► VRcovers for your headset → https://goo.gl/U3ZSRD ► HTC Vive (Free Shipping and $50 VIVEPORT Credit) → https://goo.gl/KXdqtG ► HTC Vive Pro → http://bit.ly/2IVLgwS ► Oculus Rift + Touch → https://amzn.to/2qvE3Mo ► Oculus Go → https://amzn.to/2ryrOQx 💬 Or become our Patron (includes exclusive giveaways) → https://www.patreon.com/casandchary 💬 Join our Discord → https://discord.gg/YH52W2k 💬 Twitter, Facebook and Instagram → @CasandChary A special thanks to these Patreon Champs for their amazing support: - Wintceas - Baxorn - Andy - Albert - Ben P. - James DISCLAIMER A key was provided by the developers. However, we are not paid for this review and no review direction was received from them. Our opinions are our own. Also, some links in this description are affiliate links. You don't have to use them but if you do, a small referral fee will go to this channel supporting the content. If you use it, thanks a lot! VR on! - Cas and Chary VR #konradthekitten #petsimulator #tamagotchivr
Come talk with Cas & Chary while we play Borderlands 2 in VR! Today, we continue where we left off last livestream with our Siren build and hopefully we'll be able to get our car! ► Subscribe to join our VR adventures! → https://goo.gl/bSJ6L8 Borderlands. An action RPG series that Cas and I have played addictively a couple of years ago and it is now in Virtual Reality! We are going to explore Pandora as a Siren in these coming livestreams, let's see how far we can get in the game. LINKS Watch part 1 here → https://youtu.be/sBV8Dlswe-Y Watch our review of the game here → https://youtu.be/OYO1XFf4OuY More PSVR Gameplays & Reviews → https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfdCMOp3Hng&list=PL86GNGPnZ0sjhhSDVRRU6lpkC1vogRRIx Find Borderlands 2 VR in the Playstation Store → https://store.playstation.com/nl-nl/product/EP1001-CUSA13946_00-BORDERLANDS2VRPO Join us again every week! Livestream schedule: every Saturday at 8.30 PM CET (GMT+1). Subscribing and watching our videos is by far the BIGGEST support you can give us. However, if you want to do a little bit more - you can also become a booster or our champion! All donations will go to improving the channel. BUY US A CHEESEBURGER ► One-time donation → https://goo.gl/BM3zV7 BECOME OUR CHAMPION ► Become a Patron on Patreon (includes exclusive giveaways and written reviews) → https://goo.gl/5Bp3FW ► Become a Sponsor on YouTube (and get a Champion's badge on YouTube chat) → https://goo.gl/8Ji5dp 💬 Follow us on Twitch! → https://www.twitch.tv/casandchary 💬 Discord → https://discord.gg/YH52W2k 💬 Twitter, Facebook and Instagram → @CasandChary A special thanks to these Patreon Champs for their amazing support: - Wintceas - Baxorn - Andy - Albert - Ben P. - James VR on! - Cas and Chary VR
Please hit that subscribe button it honestly makes my day! Want to buy me a beer? https://streamlabs.com/theukrifter Want to chat VR? - Join my VR community discord server: https://discord.gg/dXh5XuA or on Twitter @UKRift, or Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/ukrifter. Also, check out my Virtual Reality articles and opinions on http://www.ukrifter.com **Voice Acting** - I currently offer FREE voice acting for VR projects. Hugely grateful if you could share this video with your friends & family via : twitter, facebook, reddit, etc. == Who the devil are you Sir? == Typically I play with VR on my weekends and schedule video posts through the week. I invest my own money in order to review, compare and contrast. I run this for the love of the technology, I am NEVER paid for my opinion, and as a result my opinions will remain unbiased, however, as I tend to praise in public and feedback negative experiences privately to developers, I rarely review a bad title. Not seen something reviewed here, maybe you have your answer. == Special Thanks == UKRifter Logo by Jo Baker Freelance Design - http://jobaker.co.uk/ == Techno Babble for the Geeks == HMD: HTC Vive, Oculus Rift DK1 / DK2 / CV1 CPU: i7 4790K GPU: Nvidia EVGA 1080 SC edition RAM: 16GB Storage: SSD / Hybid SSD Screen recorder: OBS Wheel: Logitech G27 Joystick: Thrustmaster T-Flight HOTAS X Mouse: RAT 7 == Legal == The thoughts and opinions expressed by UKRifter and other contributors are those of the individual contributors alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of their employers, sponsors, family members, pets or voices in their heads. == Audio Credits == UKRifter Jingle by Christopher Gray Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
As we head into 2019, there’s a growing sense of bated breath within the VR industry as the Oculus Quest launch draws near. Today the headset popped up in FCC listings, seemingly indicating that things are on track for the Spring 2019 release.
The FCC is tasked with certifying products with electromagnetic emissions to be safe and compatible with regulations. Products utilizing radio, WiFi, infrared, etc. need certification before they can be distributed for sale. Certification by the FCC marks one step closer to the launch of consumer electronics product.
SEE ALSO
Oculus Quest Hands-on and Tech Details
While the documents don’t specifically name Quest, a diagram shows what appears to be the signature silhouette of the headset, and model number (MH-B) aligns nicely with the company’s prior headset, Oculus Go (MH-A). So unless we just discovered a previously unknown headset, this filing is for Quest.
The filings, mostly comprised of test reports, indicate that the headset has 2.4GHz & 5GHz WiFi, as well as Bluetooth. Mostly expected, though the confirmation of 5GHz WiFi means the headset will have access to much greater bandwidth for streaming content than if it were stuck with just 2.4GHz. Bluetooth will likely be used as the primary communication method for the headset’s controllers.
Filings also indicate that some Quest units were received by the testing firm as early as July 25th, 2018, which suggests that Quests final hardware components were locked down at least that early.
Aside from the publicly available documentation, Facebook, like many companies, has submitted a Confidentiality Request to keep the following FCC documents out of the public eye:
Schematic Diagram
Block Diagram
Part List
Operational Description
Tune-up Procedure
While the company hasn’t divulged a more specific release date than ‘Spring’, Facebook seems like it could be readying the headset for launch at F8, the company’s annual developer conference, which will be held April 30th & May 1st, 2019. That would mirror the way it launched its last headset, Oculus Go, at F8 earlier this year.
If you’re expecting a stocking full of Steam Gift Cards this year, Valve has a nifty solution of relieving you of most, if not all of your Steam funbucks. Starting today and going until January 3rd, Steam’s annual Winter Sale is here with big savings on hundreds of VR titles including the full suite of Bethesda’s VR games.
You can check out all SteamVR games on sale here, although we’ve rounded up a few top games to browse before you go deep into the massive list of titles on sale this holiday season.
Most games below support HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, with some also supporting Windows VR headsets too. Always check the badge in the right hand corner of the store listing to ensure the game works with your VR headset.
