Oculus & apos; The annual developer event, Oculus Connect, began on September 26 with a big announcement: The Santa Cruz project is ready for the world.
The handset, now called Oculus Quest, is in the middle of the Oculus portfolio. It is not as powerful as a PC headset, but with 6DoF tracking it is much more immersive than the Oculus 3DoF Go headset released earlier this year.
To show the three platforms, Oculus took over the main hall of the San Jose Convention Center, which offers attendees to the convention, developers and members of the press a preview of the next wave of successful virtual reality titles.
Did not you attend in person? Here are the 10 best games we saw on OC5.
SUPERHOT VR
Developer: SUPERHOT
Publication date: Spring 2019
Platform: Oculus Quest
After the keynote We made a beeline for the new Oculus Quest stations to be implemented with the new 6DoF headphones. First on the agenda was Superhot VR, a port of the award-winning VR game, now with complete freedom of movement.
Super shot, if you've never experienced it, throws you into a deadly shootout … repeatedly. Your objective is to kill all the red and polygonal enemies that surround you with their fists, various weapons and household objects placed randomly without being killed. The trick is that enemies only move when you move, which allows you to stop the time to think about your next action.
Playing Superhot in Oculus Quest was an organized chaos. With the freedom to move every time, without the restrictions of a cable that holds you back, the entire battlefield becomes an open playground. You could crouch, attack and jump without fear of your entire system falling to the ground, making this next version the best headphone in 2019.
Oculus Tennis Scramble
Developer: Oculus
Release date: Spring 2019
Platform: Oculus Quest
From what we saw during our OC5 demonstration, Oculus Tennis Scramble will be Oculus Quest Wii Sports: a fun experience multiplayer that everyone will use as a point of reference for games on the platform in the future.
That said, while Tennis Scramble was not the most unique premise we've seen for a game, the execution is pretty fun. In the event, Oculus faces two players against each other on small tennis courts. You were free to run around the court and the Guardian system did a good job of letting you know when you were too close to leaving the safe space.
The most impressive part of the game was how perfect it was to play against someone else in the same room while in virtual reality. This herculean feat requires that both headphones be aware of their environment while still sending data without problems to the other headphones. Say what you want about the Wii Sports impersonator, but Oculus Tennis Scramble shows that local multiplayer VR, without a PC, is not only possible, but can also be reasonably fun.
Echo Combat
Developer: Ready at Dawn
Publication date: November 15, 2018
Platform : Oculus Rift
One of the many new multiplayer games that will hit Oculus in the coming months, Echo Combat will seem immediately familiar to anyone who played the Echo Arena last year, and uses the same mechanics.
As the name suggests, instead of Echo Arena's frisbee / soccer game, Echo Combat is based on the rather familiar premise of shooting enemies in the face.
We got down to work with Echo Combat in a press preview before OC5, playing a style mission to capture the flag. Zero-gravity navigation takes some time to get used to; Although you can use propellers mounted on the wrist to propel yourself, you often move by grabbing objects and pushing yourself. In a useful way, you can also grab other players (in our case, one of the developers, who knew the level as the back of your controller) and hook a ride.
The experience left us a bit dizzy after half an hour, but it was very fun and we were very tempted to come back for more.
Final Assault
Editor: Phaser Lock
Publication date: End of 2018
Platform: Oculus Rift [19659002] A real-time strategy title created specifically for VR, Final Assault assigns you the usual RTS objectives for administration and deployment of resources and troops. However, it does not look anything like the heavy point-and-click games: Final Assault launches you directly into action, inviting you to take your troops and start attacking immediately.
Developer Phaser Lock specializes in VR performances of classic game genres, and his two previous releases were a novel version of aerial combat (Final Approach) and a Pilotwings-style flight simulator (Twisted Arrow), by It will be interesting to see how his vision on this genre falls with RTS fans when it was released later this year.
Lone Echo II
Developer: Ready at Dawn
Publication date: 2019 [19659002] Platform: Oculus Rift
The sequel to the impressive Lone Echo (set in the same universe as Echo Combat and Echo Arena), this game follows the same characters, human Liv and robot Jack, aboard a space station. Lone Echo II was only available as a 360 degree cinematic advance in the pre-conference event. so we can not say much more, other than that things seem to have gotten worse, and Jack is being patched up by an anxious Liv with limited success.
We will be interested in seeing how Ready at Dawn has developed the game's zero-gravity physics since the last game, and especially how it compares to Echo Combat, which left us a little dizzy.
Space Junkies
Developer: Ubisoft Montpellier
Publication date: End of 2018
Platform: Oculus Rift [19659002] Energy weapons and jetpacks are a winning combination. Space Junkies offered the most unadulterated fun of the titles we tested in the previous Oculus event, and had all the polish you expected from a renowned developer. The game is announced as an arcade shooter VR, and we participate in a multiplayer tournament opening the way in one of the orbital scenarios of the game (an & apos; orena & apos;).
You operate each of your limbs individually (an experience that Ubisoft calls "complete incarnation"), which feels much more natural than you would expect. The weapons are very fun to handle too; We especially liked the slingshot, which requires pulling back and aiming your explosive projectile before launching it (ideally not too close to your own face).
The game is currently in closed beta, and will be released at the end of this year It is definitely one to consider.
Stormland
Developer: Insomniac Games
Publication date: 2019
Platform: Oculus Rift [19659002] Taking a new twist on the idea of traveling to find yourself, Stormland (from Insomiac Games, the developer behind Spider-Man for PS4) puts you in the chassis of an Android nature lover whose parts have been scattered to the wind by a band of malicious invaders: the Tempest. Left to rust in the desert, you should not only track down your missing friends, but also increase your survival in a world that is much less peaceful than you remember.
Flight is a key part of Stormland, and it's & apos; It's stimulating flying and gliding through the landscape using a kind of parkour powered by a jet.
You can play alone against Stormland or join as a team to explore your ruined world with other robots once you arrive at the Oculus store next year.
VOX Machinae
Developer: Space Bullets Dynamic Corporation
Publication date: Exit now
Platform: Oculus Rift
If you can not wait for the next generation of Oculus titles, you and apos; We are pleased to know that one of our favorites from the program, VOX Machinae, is now available, priced at $ 24.99. This game, from the independent developer Space Bullets Dynamic Corporation, is a new version of that sled classic: piloting giant mechs.
Plow through steep mountains, deserts and jungles, use the jets of your mech to take great jumps (apos, it's more like jumping than flying, which makes sense if you consider that you are driving several tons of virtual steel) , and release a vast arsenal on your enemies, supposedly in the name of collecting raw materials from a desolate planet.
the controls feel natural (although you'll have to watch out for overheated weapons and depletion of jet fuel) and the support of up to 16 players, leading to the best kind of chaos.
Defender
Release date: 2019
Developer: Twisted Pixel Games
Platform: Oculus Rift
Defector Slips you into the tactical shoes of an international secret agent, equipped with adva guns, an inquisitive mind and, when all other options fail, a solid left hook.
It is not all action, however, there is also a conversation system that uses the choice of words to direct the plot. Even more James Bond than George Smiley, but it's refreshing to have a bit of real espionage in an espionage game.
We have not yet gotten to work with Defector (originally it was scheduled to be released this year, but it seems that they have regressed), but we really want to do it.
Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire
Developer: The Void, Lucasfilm and ILMxLAB
Publication date: Out now
Platform: VR Arcades
One of the last stops on our Oculus odyssey was the planet Mustafar for Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire. Designed for virtual reality rooms, Secrets of the Empire uses location-based tracking, environmental sensations and VR headsets to send you to Darth Vader's secret base to recover an important life package for the rebel cause.
The game works like this: before heading to the preparation space, you show a short video that explains why, exactly, you need to go to the dark lord of the Sith residence for a visit. The video (which includes a cameo of Captain Cassian Andor from Star Wars: Rogue One) sets the stage for the experience and offers a brief description of what to expect. Then, they take him to an adaptation area where he is equipped with a haptic vest, headphones and, most importantly, a VR hearing aid. Then they lead you to the labyrinth of rooms that, thanks to the magic of virtual reality, disappear into the volcanic landscape of the planet Mustafar.
While this was not a traditional Oculus Rift demonstration in the sense that it was tied to a PC or used a pair of touch controllers, it was a good example of what virtual reality could do in a large-scale experience. scale. .
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