August 2022

August 12, 2022 ,

A Breaking Bad VR experience was once in development for PSVR, confirmed Vince Gilligan in a recent interview.

Back in 2017, Variety reported that a Breaking Bad experience was in development for PSVR. However, the game was never officially announced and we heard nothing more about it, until now.

Speaking on the Inside The Gilliverse podcast, Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul writer and creator Vince Gilligan confirmed that there was indeed once an attempt to create a Breaking Bad VR experience for the PlayStation VR headset.

The comment was prompted by a question from a viewer asking if there would ever be a video game adaptation of Breaking Bad, perhaps akin to Grand Theft Auto.

Gilligan says the PSVR experience was one of “three or four” attempts at various video game tie-ins, the only of which that made it to market was mobile game Breaking Bad: Criminal Elements.

Here are Gilligan’s full comments, taken from the 51-minute mark here, with emphasis added for the PSVR-specific comments:

“I’m not much of a video game player but how can you not know Grand Theft Auto? I remember saying to the two gentleman who said yes originally to Breaking Bad, I said ‘Who owns Grand Theft Auto? Can’t you have like a module? Can there be like a Breaking Bad [version]? It still makes sense to me. That never came to fruition.

“There have been quite a few attempts at video games. Some of them kinda sort of made it to market. We tried to do a VR experience with the Sony PlayStation VR headset. We did a mobile game that lasted for a little while.

“[Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul Producer and Assistant] Jenn Carroll put a lot of energy, a lot of effort and a lot of talent into writing three of four different stories for three or four different video games, including the VR thing.

There was a lot of people hours poured into that. And you know, making a video game is damn hard. What little I heard about it through this process, it literally takes years. Years and millions of dollars. Especially when you’re trying to break new ground with VR and whatnot.[It] never quite came to fruition. It’s a shame.”

The Breaking Bad VR experience may never have made it to market, but a version of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is currently in development for Quest 2.

Do you wish we’d got this Breaking Bad VR experience for PSVR? Let us know in the comments below.



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August 09, 2022 ,

A new co-op survival shooter, Drop Dead: The Cabin, is coming to Quest 2 later this year.

Indie development studio Soul Assembly announced Drop Dead: The Cabin last week. It’s a new installment in the Drop Dead series, following on from the original and the Dual Strike release that overhauled the game and added support for co-op play.

The Cabin will be an all new release that sees you play as backpackers who get lost in the woods, finding solitude in an abandoned cabin. However, not everything is as it seems — you’ll soon be defending the cabin from a plethora of undead zombies.

Here’s what to expect, according to Soul Assembly:

In order to survive the night and make your escape, you’ll have to not only fight off the legion of the dead but also strive to maintain power, lighting and communications systems in and around the cabin. Fail to keep the power generator repaired and topped up with fuel, the lights will turn off, making the zombies deadlier and harder to see. Teamwork is essential, and an effective fireteam will know when to stay together, when to split up, and when to have one person perch on the cabin roof offering support fire for their partner.

Soul Assembly describes the combat as “fast, frenetic and dynamic” with “a physics-based interaction model and advanced haptics.” In terms of weapons, you’ll be able to use a range of guns with some melee options, such as a baseball bat. You can view some gameplay in the trailer above, which gives a sense of the direction for this new Drop Dead entry.

Soul Assembly are planning on running a beta soon, and players are able to register interest by joining the Discord server here.



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August 08, 2022 ,

VR content sideloading platform, SideQuest, will no longer be accepting games that imitate multiplayer hit, Gorilla Tag.

The platform announced as much on Twitter today. “We appreciate the time and effort you have put into making a game similar to gorilla tag, it’s very popular,” the message reads. “At a certain point it becomes too much and there is no point in adding any more games that want to be like gorilla tag.”

SideQuest Turns Away Gorilla Tag Clones

Gorilla Tag has indeed proved incredibly popular since launching in early access over a year ago, with John Carmack last year noting that more people play it than some full-blown AAA multiplayer VR games. Just search the game’s name on SideQuest and you’ll be treated to an amble supply of clones, from ‘Lemur Swingers’ to ‘OwlChase’. In fact, a Gorilla Tag fan game actually appears in the search before the genuine article.

Still, it’s a notable move for a platform that prides itself on providing developers with a path to Quest headsets without passing Meta’s strict store curation.

VR is no stranger to copycat games of course – there have been countless Beat Saber imitators over the years too. In fact, you could even argue that Beat Saber itself was at least partially inspired by older games like Audioshield.

What do you make of SideQuest turning away Gorilla Tag clones? Let us know in the comments below!



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August 08, 2022 ,

Schell Games is preparing for a series of Among Us VR beta tests throughout this month, with sign-ups available now.

The game’s Twitter account put out a tweet announcing the beta and encouraging those with a VR headset and an internet connection to sign-up.

The beta tests are set to run throughout the month. The current sign-up link asks for key details, like your email, and asks you to join the Among Us VR Discord server. It also states that Among Us VR will “appear on multiple VR platforms” and asks which headsets you have access to. The full list of immersive technologies to choose from in the beta test form includes some silly entries, like Sensorama and Virtuality alongside more expected entries, like the original PlayStation VR headset.

Among Us VR is only confirmed for release on Quest 2 and PC VR this holiday season, with PSVR 2 support planned for when that headset is released.

After signing up, a select amount of users will be invited to participate in the beta sessions. The beta won’t grant players unlimited early access to the game — specific sessions will take place at allocated times, giving players limited access over a set duration.

Back in June, we got a new look at some gameplay in the Upload VR Showcase, revealing how staples from the flatscreen version will translate over to VR. We saw footage of a match playing out with voice actors and players completing tasks around the ship, such as scanning into areas and aligning parts.

Among Us VR launches this holiday season for Quest 2 and PC VR. You can sign up for the beta tests here.



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August 07, 2022 ,

Cyan Development Director Hannah Gamiel detailed the studio’s hand tracking update for Myst on Quest.

The new update makes the entirety of Myst playable with just open air hand tracking on Quest headsets. Cyan decided on a few gestures for supporting movement around the island with both teleport and smooth locomotion via hand tracking. You just point where you want to go.

The update also adds in-game screenshots to take notes, and while there’s no gesture to take those screenshots with hand tracking “we do hope to bring that to Myst soon,” Gamiel said.

“We dialed in most, if not all of the gestures to be very comfortable to use for extended periods of time,” Gamiel told UploadVR. “And I’m talking about like at least an hour or two of playtime, because people like get lost in Myst.”

Gamiel joined our virtual studio to talk about the update and you can check it out in the 10-minute video embedded below. We discussed the challenges of hand tracking on current VR hardware, the forthcoming Myst DLC course coming to Walkabout Mini Golf, Myst’s legacy across generations and what’s next for Cyan.

“We are hoping to do a director’s commentary update where we bring in some of the original developers on Myst,” Gamiel said. “You can experience that as you play Myst as well. And additionally, something that’s been highly requested for a long time from people with this new version of Myst has been ‘where’s node mode. I want to play Myst as if it was like the classic edition where I point and click to exactly the node I want to go to.’ We’re hoping to include that as well in a future update, so this is by no means the end of updates for Myst.”



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August 06, 2022 ,

The VR Awards announced the finalists for the upcoming 2022 ceremony, which includes titles like Resident Evil 4, Moss: Book II and Zenith: The Lost City nominated for VR Game of the Year.

The nominations opened in April, with release eligibility set between July 2021 and August 2022 for all categories. This year will mark the first in-person show since the start of the pandemic, with a return to London for the ceremony on November 3.

Last year, Demeo took home the coveted VR Game of the Year award, alongside the HP Reverb G2 Omnicept Edition taking home VR Hardware of the Year.

The nominations for this year’s VR Game of the Year are:

  • Vail VR
  • The Tale of Onogoro
  • Cities: VR
  • Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge – Last Call
  • Resident Evil 4
  • Wanderer
  • Finger Gun
  • Garden of the Sea
  • Moss: Book II
  • Zenith: The Last City
  • Lone Echo II
  • I Expect You To Die 2: The Spy And The Liar
  • After The Fall

Likewise, the nominations for VR Hardware of the Year:

  • Maestro DK3
  • Emerge Wave-1
  • Pico Neo 3 Link
  • Varjo Aero
  • Vive Flow
  • XTAL 3 Mixed Reality

Those are just two categories out of twelve total. It’s nice to see Lost Recipes nominated in the VR Experience of the Year category, an acknowledgement of how it occupies a space between game and educational experience. It’s also great to see Anotherway, the studio behind Unplugged, nominated in the Rising VR Company of the Year category.

You can view the full list of nominations here — be sure to keep an eye out for the results in November.



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August 05, 2022 ,

Another surprise launch is here just before for the weekend — Car Mechanic Simulator VR is now available for Quest 2.

Car Mechanic Simulator VR released last year for PC VR on Steam with mixed reviews as of this writing. Now the title has made its way over to Quest 2 with early reviews there faring poorly as well due in part to complaints about the game’s low resolution. We installed the title on a Quest 2 and, indeed, the resolution is very low.

In a reply to a review on the Quest store the developer wrote “We realize that resolution is too low after relase ;( We will fix it!”

Here’s a snippet taken from the store description outlining the developer’s intention:

Become a true master of the craft in this virtual reality simulation game. As a professional mechanic your skills will be tested as you strive to meet your clients’ expectations. Immerse yourself in realistic gameplay as you prove your skills with the many available tools and car parts. Diagnose, repair, paint, and renovate highly detailed cars in your very own auto shop.

There’s 10 cars to play to modify and repair with over 10 tools, alongside “hundreds” of parts and options. Car Mechanic Simulator is available now for Quest 2 for $19.99.



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August 05, 2022 ,

Another DLC release is coming to Real VR Fishing — this time, it’s set in Japan.

Announced this week, the first installment of the Japan DLC will release for the Quest platform on August 18. The developers told UploadVR the paid content will include 10 new fishing spots for players to explore along with 58 new fish species to reel in.

Japan DLC Real VR Fishing

The Japan DLC follows on from the US West DLC, which released late last year. That was the first piece of paid content added to game, following on from a series of free content updates rolled out since 2019. The US West DLC featured some iconic American locales — the Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Lake Tahoe — with 76 new species spread across the locations. This week, developers also released some new locations in the US West DLC as well. Players who own that paid content can check out Snake River and Smith River fishing spots now.

The studio behind the impressive simulation title is Devs United Games (formerly known as MIRAGESOFT) and though the game is available on the Oculus Rift store, there’s no DLC listed there yet. Last year, we asked the developer whether PC VR players could expect the DLC releases to come to other platforms in the future. The response was that they “hope to release” the DLC content on PC VR one day, but had no concrete plans set in place. There’s also a Steam listing for Real VR Fishing from Devs United Games where PC players can wishlist it.

Real VR Fishing’s Japan DLC: Part 1 release is set for August 18 — keep an eye out for more details in the weeks to come.



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August 04, 2022 ,

The Steam Hardware Survey shows a near quadrupling of VR users in July – but this data is almost certainly erroneous.

Companies like Meta, Valve, & HTC don’t reveal hardware sales figures. The Steam Hardware Survey is the most reliable indicator of PC VR’s adoption – or at least was until recently. The survey is offered to a random sample of Steam’s userbase each month. If you choose to accept, it uploads your PC specifications and peripherals. Before March 2020 the survey relied on headsets being connected via USB at the time of sampling, but Valve changed it to scan your SteamVR logs from the past month.

Since the survey method was changed, the percentage of Steam users with VR has stayed roughly stable around 2%. May 2022’s data showed a large unexplained jump to 3.24%, but June’s data returned back to the normal expected range – 1.87% – which seemed to indicate May was just a one-off anomaly. But the data for July shows an even more dramatic increase – to 6.67%.

We can confidently say there wasn’t actually a near quadrupling of VR users on Steam in July. There hasn’t been a new mainstream headset release, nor a price cut for Quest 2 – quite the opposite in fact. A real increase would also be accompanied with a dramatic change in per-headset share, since older headsets no longer sold wouldn’t increase at the same rate.

 

 

We reached out to Valve for an explanation, but as with May’s data we didn’t receive a reply. We’ll keep an eye out for August’s data next month to see what happens next.



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August 04, 2022 ,

We sat down with the developers of Requisition VR to find out more about the upcoming VR zombie game.

Set to release in early access this September, Requisition isn’t your average zombie game. Developer Arcadia is putting a heavy emphasis on the game’s DIY crafting system, allowing you to make weapons out of household items. Chairs can become four-pronged swords, for example, and baseball bats can be charged with electricity.

In the interview below, General Producer Oliver Smirnoff gives us an update on how the game’s progressing, its inspirations and what other platforms we might see the game on in the future.

UploadVR: What were some of the other VR games that helped inspire Requisition?

Oliver Smirnoff: We were definitely inspired by games like Walking Dead: Saint & Sinners and Resident Evil 4 which was exclusively released for Oculus Quest. But we obviously took inspiration not from VR zombies games only. Phasmophobia, The Forest and Into The Radius had such a great impact on our game as well. 

At one point we even took some of the ideas from the Home Alone movie which led to creating a mode for the game. 

UVR: Why was it important to add PvP to the game now instead of focusing on co-op at launch?

OS: I wouldn’t say that we shifted focus from co-op, we are still putting a lot of work to it. We had in mind the Home Alone mode which implies players to craft weapons and traps, and fight with each other. We did a bunch of internal tests and realized that this is the funniest mode we’ve ever seen in multiplayer games. That’s why we decided to add PvP mode. We’ve already had all the mechanics done and could continue work on a Horde Mode and a Story Mode. 

UVR: You recently had a demo on Steam Next Fest. How, as a VR developer, is this helpful to you and what sort of data does it give you ahead of launch?

OS: During Steam Next Fest we got a lot of data that we’re processing right now. 

First of all more than 4,000 people played our demo and it’s more than during our beta tests. 

Secondly we got a lot of feedback on how we can improve the game and on how to simplify some mechanics. We consider the Steam Next Fest a successful experience as we have significantly increased wishlists. 

Requisition VR

UVR: How is development looking at this stage? Are you still hoping to release in September?

OS: We are still running beta tests at this stage of the development and working on the game’s polishing, melee and zombie behavior improvements, and optimization. We are running the 5th wave of the beta right now, and I would say that we are moving according to the plan to release Requisition VR in September. 

UVR: You’re handling the release of Requisition quite differently to Hinge. What did you learn from that experience and take to your new game?

OS: We learned not to rush the release and collect feedback from the players long before the actual release. We want to release the game in September in the most polished and optimized state and we are also ready for any revisions needed after Early Access based on the feedback. And we keep in mind that Requisition could change a lot after the EA release. 

UVR: Do you have plans for future releases on Quest and PSVR 1/2?

OS: Our biggest goal is to release the game on Quest. Probably you will hear an announcement about it in the next couple of months. 

We are also planning to release Requisition on PSVR 2 in 2023. We are among others really excited about PSVR 2 and think it’s gonna be a great device that will beat the PSVR 1 and become a hit. 



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