henke on 5/9/2018 at 06:48
Definitely!
I also picked up Budget Cuts the other day, tho I'm gonna finish Dishonored 2 before getting into it.
Here's some new Stormland gameplay from PAX:
[video=youtube;wCAla4KZiuI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCAla4KZiuI[/video]
Looks great! (despite infuriating mouse cursor on the screen for most of the vid)
henke on 11/9/2018 at 19:52
Budget Cuts Review
Well, this is kind of a mess. But at least it's an interesting mess.
First off, the stealth gameplay is pretty crap. Early on the game arms you with knives and encourages you to throw them at baddies. If you've ever throw anything in VR you'll know it's difficult to do so with any kind of precision. Worse still, if you somehow do manage to hit an alerted robot before they blast a hole in your skull, you're likely to find that they don't go down unless you get a freakin' headshot. In other words it's next to impossible to kill enemies by throwing stuff at them. This, combined with the rough checkpointing which means you might have to replay a hefty chunk of the level when you inevitably fail means you'll likely give up on throwing things in a hurry.
The other option for taking down enemies is getting close enough to simply stab them in the head with a knife, but unfortunately a quirk of the game's teleportation system means that often any knives you have drawn when teleporting will go involutarily flying out of your hands when you teleport. So to pull off a sucessfull stab you'll have to teleport next to an enemy, open you inventory, equip a knife, and then stab him in the head before he puts a hole in YOUR head. It's wonky and unreliable. A much more viable tactic is to simply pop your head around the corner, let a robot spot you, duck back, then wait till they come running around the corner so you can put a knife in their head. Yeah, it's cheesing, but the prospect of having reload the game yet again meant I often resorted to it. There's also a lot of hunkering down to squeeze into vents, which gets old (and hard on your knees) fast.
So, besides the terrible steath, how's the game? Pretty good! It's very charming, the robots are very funny, and the narrative kept me hooked. There's also some nice puzzles sprinkled throughout, and they fit naturally into the leveldesign. The game's strongest part is probably the final level, which is terrifying and great. I'm a huge coward when it comes to horror in VR. To it's credit, this level doesn't resort to any jumpscares, it's entirely systems-driven. Despite that I wussed out TWICE before I finally worked up the nerves to go back and finish it on my third attempt, tho I did have to pause and look up a walkthrough to figure out how to beat that part. After that, the game ends very abruptly on a "To be continued...". The end credits are awesome tho. Total playtime: just under 5 hours.
So, yeah, kind of a mess. Not recommending it at full price, but maybe when it's half-off.
Notes on how to make a good VR stealth game:
Having played this and Unknightly I'm starting to get a feel for what works and what doesn't. I have no plans on making a VR stealth game, but if I did, here are 3 things I'd build it around:
- Ideal weapons: silenced pistol & stun prod. Knives and heavy-impact melee weapons don't work great in VR, but a Deus Ex-style stun prod would be ideal. The challenge after all should be getting close enough to use it without being seen, and not necessarily hitting the right body part with enough force. And guns of course work great in VR. If there's throwables, it should be things that don't require too precise aim, like flashbang grenades.
- Locomotion: In a genre where moving from cover to cover undetect is a large part of the challenge, BC's teleport did feel like cheating at times. Locomotion should be non-teleport, but also non-nausea-inducing. Unknightly's arm-swinging movement works quite well, so I'd go with that. Climbing also works great, so if levels offer a lot of verticality, great!
- No kneeling should be required. Sure, crouch-walking everywhere is a stealth-staple, but you don't wanna do that in VR. Build the levels so that there's full-length cover aplenty and not just waist-high barrels to hide behind.
Malf on 21/9/2018 at 09:58
Divided on whether this should go in the hype thread or here, I finally decided this would be the more appropriate place to post this:
(
https://kotaku.com/from-softwares-vr-game-builds-an-entrancing-world-1829217308) I had no idea that From Software were making a VR game!
Sure, it's not anywhere near along the same lines as a Souls game, but could be good all the same. I'm just worried that it might be PSVR exclusive from the sound of that article.
henke on 21/9/2018 at 10:54
I heard of it a while back, but I have no idea what to make of it. I'm guessing that like other devs they're just dipping their toes in VR with a small experience-type-thing rather than a big budget title. Maybe it'll be good, who knows?
Malf on 26/9/2018 at 15:42
Vive Wireless Adapter review over on Ars Technica features this gem:
Quote:
That transmitter sends video and audio signals to a stylish dual-antenna receiver that velcros easily to the back side of the Vive head strap.
...
Inline Image:
https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/vivewireless-7-1440x2160.jpgStylish my arse. I don't think anyone in their right mind would ever refer to any VR headset or accessory as being "stylish".
But this? This takes the proverbial biscuit.
It looks like a Hammerhead shark is humping the back of your head.On the plus side mind you, yay, proper wireless VR is here!
Pyrian on 26/9/2018 at 17:05
$300. Quite a bit more than the Oculus Go - and you still need the Vive and a beefy machine. Still, should be a big bump in quality for untethered VR.
henke on 27/9/2018 at 06:10
Speaking of big bumps for untethered VR,
Oculus Quest (formerly Santa Cruz) just got announced!
[video=youtube;RedWf1sID0Q]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RedWf1sID0Q[/video]
(
https://www.oculus.com/quest/)
"Coming in 2019. Starting at $399 USD"
I was expecting the processing power of this thing to be closer to Oculus Go than a gaming PC, but apparently Robo Recall will be one of the planned 50 launch titles, and that's a pretty graphically impressive game, so maybe it'll pack a punch anyway. And of course by now there's no shortage of great VR games that shouldn't require a beast to play(Superhot, Rec Room, Beat Saber), so this definitely has the potential to be a hit.
While I'm looking forward to high-quality wireless VR, I don't think I'll be getting this as, aside from being wireless, seems like it might be a step down from Rift+a powerful gaming PC. Plus it'll probably be more of a closed ecosystem than VR on the PC.
Oculus Connect 5 is happening right now, so I'm sure we'll see a lot of cool stuff over the coming days. :)
Thirith on 27/9/2018 at 06:21
I'm hoping we'll hear something about Oculus Rift V2 - especially a rough time frame when they want to release it. (I don't need a release date, just a "We're planning to have it out by 20xx.") Chances are I'll update my PC for then.
I'm not sure I'd get the wireless add-on for the regular headset, as it's pretty pricey and I'm not sure I'd have the necessary PCI-e slot. Still, I am very curious how different it feels to play without being attached to the computer by a cable or two, as that's one of the slight but constant reminders of the world around you. I expect I'd bump into the walls even more than I already do (cf. last Saturday's Rec Room session with henke).
henke on 27/9/2018 at 06:59
Yeah I don't have much faith in bolted-on accessories either. Will wait until it's part of the core product.
I'm also looking forward to news of a proper Rift v2, but I doubt they'll talk much about it during this Connect, for fear of undercutting sales of the Quest by announcing the next, even better, thing right away.
Malf on 27/9/2018 at 08:01
Whatever happens, even with the Vive Wireless Adapter being a bolt-on, Oculus are going to have to raise their game. But saying that, I'm still quite surprised there's been no Oculus answer to the (
https://www.vive.com/us/vive-tracker/) Vive Tracker.
Sure maybe a little gimmicky, but I was hoping to have Jesh fix something similar to his cat so we'd get an idea of its presence in VR :D