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Here's a handful of the best Alienware deals on laptops, desktops, and accessories for your battle station.

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Every deal-savvy gamer should shop around for a discounted gaming headset. We've already done the work for you,

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A look back at one of the rockiest console launches in generations -- and what Microsoft learned from it.

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There's a lot to consider before buying a gaming computer, but a good place to start is with a great deal.

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Baobab Studios, the team behind titles including Asteroids!, Invasion! and  Crow: The Legend announced its fairytale animation Baba Yaga earlier this year, initially with a multiplatform release slated for 2020. With the launch of a debut teaser trailer, Baba Yaga has now been confirmed for next year on Oculus Quest.

Baba Yaga is a contemporary portrayal of the Eastern European legend, offering up a mixture of 2D pop-up animation, as well as hand-drawn and stop-motion styles for a visually unique short.

Viewers become the main character in this reimagined tale, who alongside their sister, decide to venture into the enchanted rainforest to help save their mother who becomes deathly ill. However, the forest is the domain of Baba Yaga, a witch who is sometimes a force for evil, sometimes a force for good, using her powers to halt the villager’s encroachment into her domain.

Offering up interactive elements, Baba Yaga allows you to make decisions in this short film which explores themes including empowerment and environmentalism.

It’s also got a star-studded cast with Oscar winner Kate Winslet (The Reader, Titanic) starring as Baba Yaga, Daisy Ridley (Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Ophelia) as Magda, Oscar and three-time Grammy winner Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls, Respect) as the enchanted forest, and three-time Golden Globe winner and Oscar nominee Glenn Close (The Wife, Albert Nobbs) as the mother. Whilst Baobab Studios co-founder Eric Darnell (Madagascar, Antz) writes and directs.

Baba Yaga is part of the Raindance Immersive 2020 festival which began this week and runs until 15th November 2020. The title will now be available exclusively on Oculus Quest early 2021. For further updates on Baobab Studios’ projects keep reading VRFocus.

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We talk to the people behind Superhot and Pistol Whip on how Oculus’s latest headset, the Quest 2, allowed them to up their game and improve performance.

[UploadVR regularly commissions freelance writers to review products, write stories, and contribute op-ed pieces to the site. This article is a feature piece from an established journalist.]

When details of the Oculus Quest 2 were leaked, VR enthusiasts were ecstatic about one item in particular: the new headset would be more powerful. As the Qualcomm GPU behind the standalone went from the Snapdragon 835 to the Snapdragon XR2.

We now know from benchmarks that the Quest 2 GPU is more than twice as powerful than its predecessor. But what does that really mean for users? Developers have gone that extra mile to tap into that GPU power to improve the graphics of their games.

One of the first breakout titles for the original Quest was Superhot VR, a reimagining of the PC shooter for virtual reality. Many who played this version of the game found it to be more engrossing than the flat-screen version, with the motion controls in three-dimensional space enhancing the time-bending and bullet-dodging gameplay.

But the port from Oculus Rift to Quest was made with some tradeoffs. With the additional power of the Quest 2, developers Superhot Team were able to restore much of what was lost.

“We were able to add a lot of little things back in,” said Mark Schramm, Lead VR Developer at Superhot Team. “One example is the incredibly detailed concrete texture that was missing from all objects. This may not be something players would notice right away, and we joke a lot about it internally, but thanks to the higher resolution display of Quest 2 it was a super important addition for us. Other items include transparency effects, such as the ground fog that makes distant geometry blend much nicer into the scenery.”

Players on Quest 2 will now find a Superhot game that has more polish and more shininess than before. There is a texture to the objects of the world and improved lighting. The red crystalline enemies gleam in ways they did not before. And the backgrounds are closer to the original, with art fading in the fog to make everything feel suitably disembodied.

Superhot for Quest 2 seems to be proof that despite the drop in power from a PC to a standalone headset, a game could look just as good, giving users the full experience the developer intended.

“Quest 2’s chip is quite a beast and we were pleasantly surprised at how far we can push it. As we become more familiar with the hardware, I am certain we will be able to do even more cool things with it, and we’re continuing to work on it,” said Schramm.

The fore-mentioned increase in screen resolution, from Quest 1’s 1440 by 1600 per eye to Quest 2’s 1832 by 1920 per eye, was one way Superhot Team was able to utilize the hardware. Luckily, their game had support baked in.

Schramm said, “Many of our in-game materials are procedurally generated, which meant we were able to make great use of Quest 2’s higher resolution display. Our complex materials such as the crystal and concrete have used texture slots in the past. As an example, this would include textures for any grout lines in the floor tiles, reflections inside the crystal or the scan line stripes.”

“For Quest, we changed to a procedural system where many of these features are calculated via code, rather than loaded in from a texture. This meant two things: The materials use less texture memory, which can be a limited resource on mobile GPUs in general. And we can easily scale these features when eye buffer resolution increases. In practical terms, this means we do not need to author two different texture sets (one for Quest 1 and another one for Quest 2 resolutions), but also that our materials are as sharp as they possibly can be. This was super important for us, since we want to always maintain that clean, crisp Superhot look.”

On the opposite side of the gun barrel is Pistol Whip, the quick-paced counterpart to the slow gunplay of Superhot. This rhythm-based shooter that feels like an amalgam of Beat Saber’s music and the bullet action of the arcade games of yesteryear was an already colorful game, but Cloudhead made it prettier. Bringing back lighting and other graphical effects that are found on the PC version, Pistol Whip feels more surreal, more glossy, thus more like itself than before.

“The thing we were most excited about was having the chance to push the boundaries of visual elements in the game. One of our goals is to make sure the game always looks amazing on all platforms, from Quest to PCVR, so the team is always working on solutions to see the visuals getting close to the high end platform. The Quest 2 gave us the opportunity to push this further,” said Ed Lago, Senior producer at Cloudhead Games.

Once the Quest 2 was in their hands, Cloudhead knew they had to restore much of what was previously missing from the Quest version. Fortunately, Pistol Whip was always evolving, receiving a steady stream of new songs and accompanying levels, wrapped in a metaphor of films playing at a movie theater.

Lago said, “We were in the middle of the ‘Heartbreaker Trilogy’ production when we decided to update the game for Quest 2. This new content was really different from the previous updates, way more colorful, more heavy on sfx’s and new shaders we wanted to implement in the game, it was the perfect time to take advantage of Quest 2’s higher specs so the visuals would look amazing in the new headset. “

The lighting and effect improvements demonstrate how much this level of polish can bring a game to life. Some Quest games had a tendency, while still having wonderful characters, objects, and worlds, to feel flat. Lighting was not dynamic. Scenes were simple. This was what the Quest 1 GPU could, and that was with aid of Fixed Foveated Rendering (FFR), where software lowers the resolution of the picture on the edges of the screen, reducing the load on the GPU.

The Quest 2 does not suffer from a limited GPU and the resulting flat graphics. With lights, shadows, and other flashy effects now possible, games like Pistol Whip feel more present and less like simple throwbacks.

“We always wanted to have PC and Quest versions as close as possible in terms of visuals, but due to original Quest’s limitations we had to sacrifice some features such as realtime shadows and bloom. Fixed Foveated Rendering is also used on Quest to save some GPU time. So, the first thing we thought when we got a Quest 2 was ‘what if we turn everything on?’ Then we tried and the results were super impressive.

We were able to keep acceptable framerates with real-time shadows enabled and FFR disabled, which is great. With FFR disabled, we were also able to match the dithering effect (during scene transitions or when damage is received) quality in PC and Quest 2 platforms. We’re now working towards bloom and evaluating other visuals,” said Teo Dutra, Graphics Engineer at Cloudhead.

And these are not the only improvements for these titles. There are more to come. Cloudhead will continue to tweak and improve things, as they continue to add new songs to the game.

Detra said, “With each new update, we are constantly improving visuals and the performance of the game. Platform parity is a conversation we have frequently and the Quest 2 brings us incredibly close to the PC version of Pistol Whip. We are now able to use the same shaders, shadows, VFX, and resolutions as PC, and in the future we hope to work towards hitting 90fps.”

Superhot Team will also provide that significant jump in presentation to match the PC version, just as soon as Oculus brings the promised support for it: the increase in framerate from 72 frames per second to 90.

Schramm said, “Since the game has many very bright scenes, running at 90HZ reduces the perceived flicker in the peripheral vision, which is one of the main complaints, and the reason we added a screen-dimming option to the Quest version. 90fps also makes the game buttery smooth to play, not only in fast, action heavy moments, but especially in scenes where players move slowly and deliberately. It heightens the experience and makes it so much more visceral.”

And these two games are not the only ones to get new life on this new headset. We have seen the improvements in VR mainstays like Arizona Sunshine and newer titles like Onward. And we will likely see even more as developers take the time to upgrade their games, or just make new ones that can utilize the power of Quest 2.

“Oculus has put tremendous effort into making developers’ lives easier, both with technical support and tools support,” said Dutra. “It feels like we’ve crossed a threshold into the future, where mobile VR is finally encroaching on console and PCVR. The future of VR has never been brighter.”

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If you are trying to ease the boredom of being stuck at home, we have found an Xbox Live Gold deal for you.

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We've smoked out the best deals, featuring Mario, Super Smash Bros., and more

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Video games? Who needs them when you and your friends can gather around a table and play some board games?

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The weekly vendor in Destiny 2: Shadowkeep offers some of the toughest loot to find, including exotic weapons and armor. Here's what you need to track down Xur.

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If you're preparing for Shadowlands, here are the best ways to grind to level 50 fast in World of Warcraft

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Insomniac showed off Spider-Man: Miles Morales' Into the Spider-Verse suit, which looks like it's straight from the animated film.

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If you buy the PS5 versions of Hitman 3 or No Man’s Sky in the coming months, you won’t have access to either game’s PSVR support found in their PS4 versions, as the company has not announced PSVR games on PS5.

On the subject of Hitman 3, a Sony spokesperson told UploadVR via email that you’ll need the PS4 version of Hitman 3 to play it in VR since the PSVR operates as a backward compatible device. The representative then went on to clarify, “We have not announced PS5 titles for PS VR.”

 

No New PSVR Games On PS5

This follows months of speculation around how PS5 might embrace PSVR when it launches in mid-November. We’ve always known that the new console would support the headset for backwards compatible PS4 titles. But many had hoped new PS5 games could integrate VR, taking advantage of the console’s improved horsepower while continuing to use the same HMD. You should be able to play PS5 games in your PSVR headset using Cinematic Mode still, but there won’t be any actual VR games that support PSVR on PS5 it seems.

But those hopes have quickly eroded. For starters, Sony confirmed PS4-era controllers like the DualShock 4 and the Aim controller couldn’t support PS5 games, which called into question how potential VR games on PS5 would track controllers. Then, when Hitman 3 announced full support for PSVR earlier this year, developer IO Interactive said it was “working to finalize the specifics for how PS VR owners can enjoy Hitman in VR.” At the time neither the studio nor Sony would confirm if this meant the PS5 version wouldn’t support PSVR.

Finally, earlier this week, Hello Games announced No Man’s Sky’s next-generation PS5 native version, adding that, on PlayStation, PSVR support was available “by virtue of backwards compatibility”. Until today, that was the most direct confirmation we’d have on the matter.

 

What This Means For Now

So, if you’re getting a PS5 in the next few weeks and are excited to try PSVR on the console, you’ll want to make sure you buy the PS4 versions of PSVR-supported games if you want to try them on the headset. If you buy the PS5 versions you won’t find the PSVR support listed.

Fortunately, both Hitman 3 and No Man’s Sky do have free upgrade plans; anyone that owns No Man’s Sky will get to upgrade to next-gen consoles for free and gets to take their save data over, too. You have to buy Hitman 3 on PS4 digitally to qualify for a free PS5 upgrade, meanwhile – you can’t upgrade from the physical edition. That doesn’t guarantee the reverse, however. In other words,

Cross-generation save features should mean you could install both versions of the game on PS5, access the PS4 version when you want VR and the PS5 version when you want to play flat-screen, and then share your progress between the two, but we haven’t tried this for ourselves. What’s not clear, however, is if IO Interactive and Hello Games might offer free downgrades to PS4 for anyone that wants to play on PSVR. According to PlayStation, that’s a developer-by-developer decision.

Don’t forget you’ll also need the official camera adaptor for PSVR to use the headset on PS5, too. You can’t use Sony’s new PS5 Camera, you have to use the PS4-era camera. Sony is sending the adaptor out for free to PSVR owners, though.

 

What This Means For The Future

This news comes shortly after Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan’s comments about the future of VR to The Washington Post. “PlayStation believes in VR. Sony believes in VR, and we definitely believe at some point in the future, VR will represent a meaningful component of interactive entertainment,” Ryan said. “Will it be this year? No. Will it be next year? No. But will it come at some stage? We believe that.”

These comments make it seem like we won’t be seeing a true PSVR 2 that supports PS5 games directly until 2022 at the very earliest. But there’s plenty to suggest another headset will happen; from R&D talks to research videos and job listings and more. Until then, however, it seems like PSVR owners will have to make do with old PS4 games, though there should still be new VR releases on that console in 2021, at least.

What do you make of the PSVR games on PS5 news? Let us know in the comments below!

Senior Editor David Jagneaux also contributed to this story.

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What a month its has been! Lots of exciting virtual reality (VR) content has launched as well as hardware surpassing expectations. So it’s time to look ahead and into the month of November. There’s a big title arriving at the end but there are still some worthwhile videogames to feast your eyes on in the next week.

The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners – Skydance Interactive

One of the biggest videogames to arrive this year, Skydance Interactive’s The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners needs little introduction. Already available digitally on PC VR, PlayStation VR and even Oculus Quest, for those PlayStation owners who love a physical copy to collect, this survival experience will soon be able to grace their shelves.

• Supported platforms: PlayStation VR (Physical Edition)
• Launch date: 3rd November

Stride – Joy Way

This parkour inspired VR experience only arrived as a Steam Early Access title in September and now its ready for the big time. Hitting Oculus Store today, it’ll leave Steam EA next week adding two new modes for a total or three, Endless, Arena and Time Run. Get ready for a physical experience.

• Supported platforms: Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Valve Index & Windows Mixed Reality
• Launch date: 4th November

Grapple Tournament – Tomorrow Games

For those who love multiplayer shooters with a unique hook, Grapple Tournament might just be what you’re looking for, hitting Steam Early Access next week. Use a grappling hook to fully utilise each level and gain advantages over opponents to win.

• Supported platforms: Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Valve Index & Windows Mixed Reality
• Launch date: 5th November

vTime XR – vTime

It’s time to get social on Oculus Quest with vTime XR. The app has been available for various headsets over the years and now makes its way to the standalone headset. Meet and chat with friends across platforms, share 360 photos and more.

• Supported platforms: Oculus Quest
• Launch date: 5th November

House Flipper VR – Frozen District

After arriving for Oculus Quest in August, House Flipper VR is now ready for its PC VR launch on Steam. Take rundown houses and spruce them up to make a profit. Unleash that inner interior designer by putting your own creative stamp on these virtual properties.

• Supported platforms: Oculus Rift, HTC Vive & Valve Index
• Launch date: 5th November

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Black Friday arrived early for Best Buy this year. Shop these 11 best gadget deals available right now.

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ILMxLAB revealed a new trailer for its upcoming Quest game Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge, which shows one of the titular tales called ‘Temple of Darkness’, set to release next month.

Temple of Darkness is described as an ‘interactive VR short’ that features Yoda and takes place during the High Republic era, which is hundreds of years before Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. A week ago, ILMxLAB also confirmed that Frank Oz, the original puppeteer and voice of Yoda, will be reprising his role in the game.

The game’s title may have suggested it already, but this new Temple of Darkness trailer seems to confirm that Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge won’t be one long continuous story, but several smaller interactive stories that might link into each other somehow.

Given that Temple of Darkness is set long before The Phantom Menace and we know that C-3PO and R2DR are also in the game, each tale will probably be set in a different era of the Star Wars universe. We know that it will be an episodic release, with the first part releasing next month on Quest.

Here’s a full description of Temple of Darkness, taken from the Oculus blog:

In Temple of Darkness, players will step into the shoes of Ady Sun’Zee (voiced by Ellie Araiza), a Jedi Padawan studying at a remote Jedi research facility on Batuu. The sole survivor after a mysterious relic unleashes a torrent of evil, she must work alongside Jedi Master Yoda to confront the darkness that now lurks within the temple walls—and within herself.

The game’s Oculus Store page also features some amazing new key art, which you can see below:

Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge releases November 19 for the Oculus Quest platform.

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It’s been just over two weeks since Facebook launched the Oculus Quest 2 and by all accounts its been a big success (mostly). The latest confirmation of this comes from CEO Mark Zuckerberg himself, revealing that pre-orders of the new headset had easily outstripped the original Oculus Quest.

He was speaking to investors during Facebook’s Q3 earnings call, saying: “We launched Quest 2, our most advanced virtual reality headset, right in time for the holidays. It delivers a real sense of presence — like you’re right there with another person or in another place — and we’ve worked to make it accessible to more people. It’s lighter, faster, has a sharper screen, and a new price point of just $300. Pre-orders have outpaced the original Quest pre-orders by more than 5x and have surpassed our expectations.”

As usual, there’s been no mention of units sold but Zuckerberg did go onto discuss the team’s plans for the future: “The big milestone that I’m focused on here is we want to get to 10 million active units,” adding: “the ecosystem will really be able to be self-sustaining…it will really economically make sense for independent developers to prioritize the Oculus platform above alternative gaming platforms.”

While there has been plenty of online discussion about Facebook’s latest VR policies such as account integration, the feedback from reviewer’s including VRFocus has been generally very positive, finding that the new design exceeds expectations thanks to a better display and lighter construction.

When it comes to developers many have released updates to pre-existing titles, utilising the extra horsepower to make their videogames look even better. They’ve also been vocal about the uptick in sales. Fast Travel Games for example tweeted that unit sales for Apex Construct and The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets: “were up 800% vs. the day before.”

Those ‘active units’ Zuckerberg mentions will mostly fall upon Oculus Quest 2 as Facebook has previously announced that Oculus Quest, Oculus Go and Oculus Rift S are or will be discontinued.

As Facebook continues its VR and AR expansion plans, VRFocus will keep you updated.

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A bunch of VR titles are discounted on the Steam store this weekend as part of the Steam Halloween Sale, including Half-Life: Alyx, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, Star Wars: Squadrons,  Phasmophobia and more.

The sale runs from October 29 until November 2nd at 10am Pacific across all of Steam, not just VR content. That being said, the VR discounts on offer suggest that this is maybe one of the most comprehensive and impressive VR sales we’ve seen in recent history. Almost every big VR release from this year is discounted, even including recent releases like Squadrons and Phasmophobia.

Here’s a list of some of the most prominent and best discounts:

– Half-Life: Alyx: 25% off, $44.99 (from $59.99)

– Star Wars: Squadrons: 25% off, $29.99 (from $39.99)

– The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners: 20% off, $31.99 (from $39.99)

– Phasmophobia: 10% off, $12.59 (from $13.99)

– Resident Evil 7 Biohazard: 67% off, $9.89 (from $29.99)

– Arizona Sunshine: 63% off, $14.79 (from $39.99)

– The Room VR: A Dark Matter: 33% off, $20.09 (from $29.99)

– Until You Fall: 20% off, $19.99 (from $24.99)

– Superhot VR: 40% off, $14.99 (from $24.99)

– Gorn: 50% off, $9.99 (from $19.99)

– Trover Saves The Universe: 35% off, $19.49 (from $29.99)

– Moss: 40% off, $17.99 (from $29.99)

– Onward: 35% off, $16.24 (from $24.99)

– Eleven Table Tennis: 50% off, $9.99 (from $19.99)

– Alien: Isolation*: 75% off, $9.99 (from $39.99)

And that’s not even all of them! There’s a bunch of other VR titles not listed above that are also discounted, which you can find in the VR section of the Steam Store.

These games are all compatible only with SteamVR, which means you’ll need a PC VR headset (like an Oculus Rift S or a Valve Index) to play. Not all games are compatible with every headset though, so make sure to check the compatibility section of each game individually before buying.

Alternatively, if you don’t have a PC VR headset but you do have an Oculus Quest and a VR-ready PC, you can use Oculus Link or Virtual Desktop to play these games on your Quest. For more details, check out our guide.

The Steam Halloween Sale runs until 10am Pacific on November 2nd. 

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* — Alien Isolation doesn’t natively support VR, but it does have an excellent VR mod.

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As happens every year, Halloween is the best time to release either themed updates or improvements to current horror titles. Some like Snapchat’s are fun additions designed to get celebrate the season whilst others are much more frightening. To that end, Illumix has announced an update for Five Nights at Freddy’s AR: Special Delivery which sees a new sharp-toothed character join the roster as well as expanding the videogame to more players.

Added to the character feature set is Plushtrap, well known to fans of the franchise. But Plushtrap isn’t any old AR encounter like the rest of the group, this mean-looking rabbit is part of a new mixed reality (MR) gameplay mode Illumix has introduced. This is thanks to the development of a proprietary AR engine, meaning Plushtrap’s encounter only takes place within this MR environment.

Detailing a little more about the new addition over on Reddit, Illumix notes: “Plushtrap’s CPU is currently only compatible with the Plushtrap plush suit given the unique environment in which his encounter takes place–you’ll note that his CPU looks distinct from that of the other animatronics. That said, you will still be able to use Plushtrap’s plush suit in conjunction with other CPUs in regular animatronic AR encounters.”

The Illumix AR engine has also allowed the studio to expand Android device compatibility for more of you can play Five Nights at Freddy’s AR: Special Delivery. Thus you no longer need an ARCore or ARKit compatible device.

Since the launch of Five Nights at Freddy’s AR: Special Delivery last year Illumix has introduced new mechanics such as allowing users to locate and ‘pick up’ digital objects as well as have real objects trigger digital content. The studio says the videogame has generated over 7 million downloads and that: “More than 1 year of total time spent in the AR experience on average by users per day.”

There’s been plenty of Halloween activity this year, with Steam launching its annual sale, Blair Witch: Oculus Quest Edition arriving and Angry Birds VR And Acron: Attack Of The Squirrels getting updates. Plus don’t forget to enter VRFocus‘ Affected: The Manor and The Walking Dead Onslaught competitions.

For further updates from Illumix on Five Nights at Freddy’s AR: Special Delivery, keep reading VRFocus.

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On occasion, certain videogame genres come in waves, not first-person shooters (FPS) as they’re always appearing but more niche examples like tower defence. Recently, this has been the case with hybrid FPS/tower defence examples like Automata Break and Captain Toonhead vs the Punks from Outer Space. The latest to enter this field is Cyberspace VR, with developer FUSE launching a Kickstarter to help fund the project.

Combining the two genres together, Cyberspace VR in its current form puts players in various arenas for each level, each one walled off in a particular shape for waves of enemies to progress through. A the start of each round you can then select from a variety of towers to defend a central core, from rapid fire emplacements to heavy ordinance. After placement atop the walls you can then go on the hunt with machine guns, shotguns and other futuristic weaponry.

This single-player arcade mode is just the start for Cyberspace VR, with FUSE also planning a multiplayer and a full story-driven campaign further down the line. To help achieve this the team is looking to raise MX$150,000 (approx $7000 USD/£5,000 GBP), a rather small sum which its says is: “to help us push through the last part of our development process and bring a minimum viable product to launch.”

That means the base funding tiers are relatively low, with the first giving backers early access as well as access to future expansions during 2021 retailing for MX$340 (£13). The Early Access build of Cyberspace VR – which supports HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and Valve Index – will be available from November 2020. The story campaign is already under development expecting to release a teaser in January 2021.

FUSE has already outlined its Kickstarter stretch goals should the campaign do well, adding in Oculus Quest 2 support at $15,000, PlayStation VR support at $20,000 and at the top end a full open-world MMORPG expansion for $90,000.

So the team from Monterrey, Mexico has some big goals beyond just a simple tower defence videogame. Whilst this is the first original videogame from FUSE which usually specialises in branded VR content for enterprise clients, having previously created over 30 immersive projects.

The Cyberspace VR Kickstarter has now begun, for further updates on its progress over the next month, keep reading VRFocus.

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In its Q3 Earnings Call yesterday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed pre-orders for the Oculus Quest 2 were more than five times bigger than those of the original Quest.

As usual, VR was not the main focus of the earnings call, as it represents a relatively small portion of Facebook’s total earnings and business strategy. We also didn’t hear about the Quest 2’s launch performance, as the headset didn’t officially launch until Q4. However, Q3 did cover much of the pre-order period for the headset, which Facebook says performed five times better than pre-orders for the original Quest.

Here’s the full quote from Zuckerberg on Quest 2, taken from the Q3 earnings call:

This quarter we also took major steps forward in building the next computing platform. We launched Quest 2, our most advanced virtual reality headset, right in time for the holidays. It delivers a real sense of presence — like you’re right there with another person or in another place — and we’ve worked to make it accessible to more people.

It’s lighter, faster, has a sharper screen, and a new price point of just $300. Pre-orders have outpaced the original Quest pre-orders by more than 5x and have surpassed our expectations.

Later in the document, Facebook noted that the headset should have an impact on Q4 earnings. “Oculus Quest 2 orders have been strong which should benefit Other Revenue [in Q4].”

These new quotes are corroborated by previous comments by Facebook than indicated Quest 2 is selling “faster than expected” and beyond expectations.  If you missed it, you can read our full Quest 2 review here.

The full Q3 Earnings Call documents and recordings are available here. You can read a transcript of Mark Zuckerberg’s full remarks on his Facebook page.

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Riding 20,000 meters in Fortnite will take some time. But if you want to complete season 4 week 10's challenge quickly, our guide will certainly come in handy.

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Fortnite season 4 week 10 is underway along with a new set of challenges. In this guide, we'll tackle how to catch fish at a mysterious spot called Heart Lake.

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Here's how to drive a boat from The Fortilla to The Authority in less than four minutes in Fortnite, as part of its season 4 week 10 set of weekly challenges.

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Having trouble finding Upstate New York in Fortnite? In this season 4 week 10 challenge guide, we'll show you how to find chests at Fortnite's Upstate New York.

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These are the best cheap gaming laptop deals you can score, including picks that ring in at less than $500.

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Apple’s recently announced subscription bundle, Apple One, will launch on Friday, October 30, enabling monthly savings of up to $25.

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In an interview with The Washington Post’s gaming vertical, Launcher, Sony Interactive Entertainment / PlayStation President and CEO Jim Ryan said in an interview published today that he does not believe VR will be a “meaningful component of interactive entertainment” for some time still. According to him,”the future of VR” won’t arrive until after next year. This potentially means no new PSVR 2 headset until at least 2022.

The Future of PlayStation VR

The interview is all about immersion and how the PS5 hits your senses more directly by using 3D audio and the DualSense controller’s impressive haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. As explained in my editorial this week, the controller is extremely impressive and bodes well for the future of VR haptics and interaction — that is, assuming it’s ever used for VR gaming in the first place.

In the aforementioned interview, Jim Ryan seems rather unconvinced on the promise of VR despite PSVR selling over 5 million headsets:

“I think we’re more than a few minutes from the future of VR,” Ryan said. “PlayStation believes in VR. Sony believes in VR, and we definitely believe at some point in the future, VR will represent a meaningful component of interactive entertainment. Will it be this year? No. Will it be next year? No. But will it come at some stage? We believe that. And we’re very pleased with all the experience that we’ve gained with PlayStation VR, and we look forwarding to seeing where that takes us in the future.”

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Far Cry 6 and Rainbow Six Quarantine will now launch after March 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Gamers may want to buy the Asus TUF FX506 as their weapon of choice, as Best Buy is offering a $200 discount for the gaming laptop to lower its price to $600.

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In Update #3 today Phasmophobia received a slew of bug fixes and optimizations including changes to correct issues around voice chat, voice recognition, and VR support, as well as the new inclusion of LIV mixed reality support.

One of the coolest features in Phasmophobia is the voice recognition. While playing, you can talk out loud to the ghost to try and elicit a response in the Spirit Box or anger it to spark activity like moving objects or flickering lights. Using in-game voice chat instead of Discord adds to the immersion because it increases the chance of the ghost responding any time you speak to your teammates. The proximity chat works well and the radio on your shoulder is used for long-range communication.

That is, it works well when it works. Previously there were lots of issues with voice recognition such as the mic resetting in the options inexplicably, claiming it can hear you when it actually can’t, and the mute toggle not working.

Phasmophobia debuted on Steam on September 18th and despite only being on Steam for about 12 days it still ranked in the top 20 new releases for sales. That’s pretty impressive!

Native Oculus Quest support is also listed as a far off future development goal, so fingers crossed there.

 

Phasmophobia Early Access Update #3

Here is a list of all changes made to the way voice is handled, which should improve and fix most issues:

• Fixed a bug where the microphone would reset in the audio options each game.
• Upgraded the server code to PUN2. This should fix most timeout disconnects and all voice chat issues.
• Fixed a bug where changing the voice language wouldn’t change the voice recognition language.
• Fixed a bug where dead players couldn’t use voice chat.
• Fixed a bug where dead players were able to use the walkie talkie.
• Fixed a bug where VR Toggle mute was set to hold and not toggle.
• Added a voice sensitivity slider in the audio options.
• If your voice recognition is working you can no longer get a response on the Spirit Box just by talking, it will now only answer if you asked a question.
• If your voice recognition stops working the Spirit Box will default to giving a random response by talking.

There is also mention of new “additions for Halloween” but it’s unclear what that means exactly. The Twitter account is teasing a ghost that “knocks” perhaps in reference to trick-or-treating.

We haven’t tested these fixes yet, but based on issues we’ve had with voice recognition during Early Access so far this sounds like a big improvement. Let us know what you think down in the comments below!

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In the last few months, we’ve seen loads of companies jump on the remote work bandwagon and produce VR apps that let you collaborate with others in VR. However, this latest one might be the strangest and most intriguing — Cloudhead Games, the studio behind VR rhythm game Pistol Whip, is producing a remote office application with VR support.

Cloudhoud detailed some parts of the application on its blog, saying that it sprung out of necessity with its own team — working remotely, Cloudhead found that traditional remote work tools, like video calls, didn’t work as an all-day solution.

As a result, Cloudhead Labs (a subdivision of Cloudhead Games focused on “experimental VR mechanics and concepts, in order to identify ideas worth pursuing”) developed CloudHEAD, an “all-day digital work environment which enables deep social cues, company culture, collaboration and play between you and your co-workers.”

CloudHEAD uses webcams to display your real face, live from the webcam, on top of an avatar body, as pictured above. That being said, the app also has VR support for “when it makes sense.” Cloudhead feels that VR still has major challenges as an ‘all-day’ work tool, both in terms of comfort and expressing the subtleties of human communication needed when collaborating with others.

Because of that, the tool will work in both flatscreen and VR modes at any time, which gives people the freedom to use VR without being restricted to it all day. When you do go into VR, however, colleagues will be able to see your live webcam, with your face partially covered by your VR headset, as shown on the far right of the main promotional image embedded at the top of the page.

The tool has been in development for 8 months, and is now ‘roughly in Alpha’. The team has plans to share its work with “trusted peers,” but more details will come in a later blog post. You can read more about CloudHEAD here.

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If you love a good scare whether for Halloween or at any other time of year then virtual reality (VR) horror is where it’s at. As any VR gamer knows once that headset is on and the doors start to creak and the wind begins to howl, no other horror medium really compares. So to celebrate the spooky season VRFocus has got a bunch of codes to giveaway for Fallen Planet Studios’ Affected: The Manor on Oculus Quest.

Becoming a horror favourite with VR fans since its initial release back in 2016 for Gear VR, the studio has kept the title up to date by expanding platform support as well as adding new elements to the experience. The title is set around the classic haunted manor, offering a sort of ‘walkthrough horror’ in the first instance.

But as VR has progressed so has Affected: The Manor. When the Oculus Quest version was first revealed last year the studio said: “To take advantage of Quest’s abilities, we brought hand avatars and interactivity to the experience for the first time, making you feel more ingrained in the environment.” This meant interacting with doors for example.

Then during the summer, the team released The Gauntlet, free DLC which allows players to speed run with randomised events for a new challenge. This month saw the launch of The Darkness update to coincide with the launch of Oculus Quest 2. A new gameplay mode, this provides players with only a candle as their source of light. Quest 2 also got some enhancements like dynamic lighting and improve visuals.

And so onto the competition. VRFocus has 10 codes available for the Oculus Quest platform. All you need to do is follow us on Twitter and retweet this tweet ensuring that VRFocus and Affected VR are tagged. The competition will be open for 24 hours, closing at 6 pm GMT on Friday 30th October. Best of luck.

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It’s only two days until Halloween so now it’s time to enjoy some frighteningly good deals care or Steam. The platform has just launched its seasonal sale with discounts on horror and Halloween-themed videogames as well as themed activities and updates from other titles. 

For instance, Hello Games is launching a Halloween update for No Man’s Sky – which only just saw the massive Origins update arrive. This time there are new rewards and unlockables for players to find, with the corroded hulls of derelict freighters able to be mined for a new material called Tainted Metal. This can be exchanged with the Scrap Dealer “ominous base decorations and creepy customisation options.” Increasing the danger, the aliens on board these ships have mutated, becoming faster and stronger in the process.

Even titles like Star Wars: Squadrons, SUPERHOT VR, DiRT Rally 2.0 and more are getting in on the Halloween spirit with discounted offers. Plus Steam’s points shop has lots of themed goodies when you’ve gained enough from buying videogames.

As for all the deals on VR horror titles there are plenty to choose from. One’s the caught VRFocus’ eye include:

• Phasmophobia – 10% off
• The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners – 20%off
• Hellsplit: Arena – 15% off
• Into the Radius VR – 30% off
• Paranormal Activity: The Lost Soul – 80% off
• The Exorcist: Legion VR (Deluxe Edition) – 25% off
• The Walking Dead Onslaught – 20% off
• Intruders: Hide and Seek – 90% off
• Affected: The Manor – 20% off
• Five Nights at Freddy’s: Help Wanted – 35% off

Steam’s Halloween Sale runs until Monday, 2nd November 2020 at 10 am PST (5 pm GMT), so there’s plenty of time to get a ghoulish bargain. And don’t forget to check out VRFocus’ new horror list for 2020 covering a variety of VR platforms.

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Oculus Quest virtual workspace app Immersed now lets you bring in your real keyboard!

Immersed is an app that lets you and your team bring your monitors into a shared virtual workspace. Uniquely, it even gives you extra virtual monitors- something once considered impossible to do performantly with the Windows OS. It’s priced at $15/month/person for a team of up to 4, or $30/month/person for larger teams.

Quest headsets have built-in controller-free hand tracking. Immersed has you hold down specific keys with your right index finger so it can place the virtual keyboard at the same relative position. Doing so entails awkwardly peeking through the headset’s nose gap- developers can’t show passthrough mode yet.

It’s a manual calibration, and you’ll need to recalibrate if you change your Guardian safety boundaries or move the keyboard’s position. It also uses a preset keyboard model, so the non-alphanumeric keys won’t precisely line up unless your keyboard matches the model.

Those minor disclaimers aside, the result feels like the best typing experience in a publicly available VR app. Since you see both the keyboard and your hands you no longer need to touch type. Trying it out in a Quest 2 with the Elite Strap, I could see myself working in Immersed for hours. The virtual monitors feature finally delivers the infinite workspace promised by science fiction.

In a demonstration posted to reddit, Immersed founder Renji Bijoy demonstrated typing at 164 words per minute using this new feature – roughly 4x the average typing speed. Bijoy says that’s about on par with his typing speed outside VR, to be clear.

Companies like Facebook and HTC pitch virtual reality in the long term as a replacement for physical offices. Enabling full-speed text entry is necessary to meet this goal. Finding a VR-native way to type is an area of active exploration, but for the near future bringing the keyboards people already know how to use is likely going to be more practical.

Facebook plans to ship experimental system-level support for a specific Logitech keyboard later this year, using computer vision. That means it shouldn’t need manual calibration and can match the precise key layout- but that keyboard is priced at $60. Right now, today, you can use Immersed with the keyboard you already own.

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More and more franchises are making their way in the virtual reality (VR) space like Star Wars, The Walking Dead and Game Workshop’s Warhammer. The latter entered the field with Warhammer: Vermintide VR and The Horus Heresy: Betrayal at Calth, and now Carbon Studio has announced Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Tempestfall for next year.

The Warhammer universe has a rich lore for Carbon Studio to take from with the synopsis detailing: “Set in the Age of Sigmar universe, Tempestfall begins following the Necroquake. From the domain of Nagash and across all the Realms, Nighthaunt forces are rising. A specially assembled retinue of Stormcast Eternals embarks on a quest to investigate a new threat to the Mortal Realms. Side by side with these elite soldiers, you must explore the dread-filled realm of Shyish and battle your way through the Nighthaunt in a quest to protect the Forces of Order from a sinister plot.”

With a brief teaser trailer showcasing a couple of locales and one enemy, the studio has said Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Tempestfall will mix melee combat with powerful, motion-based spellcasting, utilising the team’s experience developing The Wizards, which had gesture-based speels.

The world of Tempestfall will take players through cities, prisons, swamps and catacombs, an adventure full of Warhammer lore and secrets, reportedly over seven hours in length. Players will be faced with wraiths, revenants and other dangers in what could be Carbon Studio’s biggest project to date.

You can wishlist Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Tempestfall over on Steam where there’s also a chance to win a T-shirt and poster, with 10 winners being selected.

This isn’t the only Warhammer videogame on the way as Pixel Toys previously unveiled Warhammer 40,000: Battle Sister for Oculus Quest, due before the end of the year.

Warhammer Age of Sigmar: Tempestfall is currently slated for a 2021 launch across PC VR headsets and the Oculus Quest platform. As further details including gameplay, visuals and launch date are released, VRFocus will let you know.

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Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge is gearing up to be an exciting part of the series for fans of the franchise, dropping in new canonical adventures. As part of the experience, ILMxLAB has announced Temple of Darkness, a short sub-story featuring Master Yoda.

Temple of Darkness will take place during Star Wars’ The High Republic era, hundreds of years before the events of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. One of the stories Azumel bartender Seezelslak tells, you’re placed in the shoes of Jedi Padawan Ady Sun’Zee, who is studying at a remote Jedi research facility on Batuu.

A sudden surge of evil is released from a mysterious relic, poisoning the temple with Ady the sole survivor. Urgently contacting the Jedi Council the Padawan teams up with Jedi Master Yoda (voiced by Frank Oz) to confront the darkness lurking within.

“Temple of Darkness in Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge will give Star Wars fans an opportunity to step into a story set during The High Republic era on an incredibly transportive platform,” said James Waugh, Vice President, Franchise Content & Strategy at Lucasfilm in a statement. “It will be one of the first tales released taking place in this bold, adventurous new era for Star Wars storytelling which we intend to see traverse multiple mediums over many years. We’re so proud of what so many incredibly talented authors, developers, licensing partners, and Lucasfilm colleagues, have crafted together — it has been a labour of love.”

“This powerful short story will transport fans back in time, hundreds of years before the Clone Wars. Through the power of virtual reality, they’ll get their first glimpse of Jedi life during The High Republic,” adds director Jose Perez III. “Everyone at ILMxLAB is thrilled to help usher in this new era of Star Wars storytelling, and I can’t wait for fans to encounter Jedi Master Yoda and Padawan Ady Sun’Zee on November 19th.”

Coming to the Oculus Quest platform on 19th November 2020 retailing for $24.99 USD, Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge will be a two-parter with the second scheduled for release in 2021. For further updates on the titles ahead of launch, keep reading VRFocus.

via Mint VR