Available today on Quest through App Lab, AmazeVR and Megan Thee Stallion’s VR concert ‘Enter Thee Hottieverse’ is the blueprint for a properly immersive, made-for-VR concert experience.
VR concerts come in many forms and so, for the most part, are a pretty mixed bag. The most common form is those found in Horizon Venues, which can sometimes be 2D video streams of live concerts projected onto a large screen in VR for you to watch by yourself or with others.
While there’s some value to be found in those experiences, they’re far from perfect and often closer to a livestream than something designed specifically for VR. A new VR concert experience featuring Megan Thee Stallion (most well known for ‘WAP’, her 2020 mega hit collaboration with Cardi B) trades the social benefits of places like Horizon Venues for something that is utterly more immersive, well-designed and unique to VR.
The result is the VR concert experience ‘Enter The Hottieverse’, which first launched as a location-based experience available in AMC theatres around the US, but is available more widely on Quest headsets from today via App Lab. This isn’t your regular, pre-filmed concert stream projected in VR, but instead a custom-built world you journey through, watching Megan perform a selection of hits right in front of you. The best part of Enter the Hottieverse is that Megan herself is displayed in 3D and integrated into the virtual ‘Hottieverse’ world. At first, it’s almost confronting seeing such a high resolution and realistic version of Megan dancing and rapping in front you – it’s incredibly convincing and looks fantastic.
Whereas other concerts simply use a 2D video stream projected on a giant screen, this is the real deal and fully immersive. The production level is like no other VR concert I’ve seen. AmazeVR filmed brand new content for the experience with Megan performing against a greenscreen for a 3D camera, as pictured above. The end result allowed Amaze VR to merge the real world 3D capture of Megan’s performance seamlessly into the digital world – it’s like having front row seats to a new-age virtual performance.
It does have some limitations, as it’s not a true volumetric capture of Megan. This means that you’re viewing the 3D footage from the same angle as the camera at all times, so you can’t drastically move your head or walk around to get a view from a different angle. If you try, Megan’s position and the world will move with you to keep the angle consistent. It’s not a dealbreaker though, as the experience still works wonderfully while seated and the camera will pan your view around to different angles throughout the performance.
The app is free to download with an in-app purchase to access the full performance, which includes four songs – Body, Kitty Kat, Thot Shit and Savage. It is rated “Mature 17+” for “Suggestive Themes, Strong Language”.
You start your Hottieverse experience in a retrowave-inspired hub, where you can pick a cartridge for an individual song or choose to experience all four tracks together as a back-to-back performance. There’s a small amounts of interactivity available as well – as you wave your virtual Touch controller hands in front of you, they’ll emanate different effects for each song, for example. It’s ultimately nothing game-changing, but the small amount of interactivity on offer is just enough to elevate the experience above a solely spectator experience to something a tad more immersive.
The only catch with the concert is that’s it’s a solo experience, with no options to watch it alongside other people or your friends. It’s the only element of the traditional concert experience that’s missing, but it’s also mostly forgivable. The bottom line is that the production level and uniqueness available here is miles above what you get elsewhere. Coming from flat projections of 2D filmed performances, this immersive 3D world created by AmazeVR for Megan Thee Stallion is on a whole other level.
If you’re a fan of Megan Thee Stallion or you’re just interested in checking out the latest and most innovative VR concert experience, then Enter the Hottieverse is definitely worth checking out. You can find it on App Lab for Quest headsets now.
Sony announced mocopi, a Bluetooth body tracking kit launching soon in Japan.
The kit includes 6 trackers: 2 for your wrists, 2 for your ankles, 1 for your hip, and 1 for your head – though presumably the head tracker isn’t needed in VR mode.
Each tracker features an inertial measurement unit (IMU) containing an accelerometer and gyroscope. The data is fed into a skeletal model to produce a plausible (but imperfect) full-body pose estimate based on the relative rotations & forces of each tracker. IMU-based systems require per-user calibration, are subject to drifting, and don’t give the same quality as true positional tracking systems like SteamVR “Lighthouse”. The advantage, however, is that they don’t require expensive base stations.
VRChat CTO Jesse Joudry said mocopi will enable full body tracking on standalone headsets without needing a PC, but the exact details of this integration have yet to be announced. An SDK for other developers to integrate mocopi will be released on December 15th.
IMU-based body tracking systems have existed for years, though current systems are expensive. Mocopi is the first of a new wave of systems targeted at consumers & mainstream creators. Pico plans to release its own ‘Fitness Band’ next year, Panasonic’s subsidiary Shiftall plans to ship HaritoraX in the next few months, and open source community project SlimeVR expects to ship in December.
Mocopi looks to be much sleeker and more practical to use than those other solutions though. Each tracker weighs just 8 grams, and they all slot into an included charging case instead of needing to be charged separately. Sony claims the trackers last around 10 hours and take around 1.5 hours to recharge. And while HaritoraX and SlimeVR require a PC, mocopi trackers communicate with a smartphone app via Bluetooth. Only iPhone 12 and above and recent Sony Xperia phones are officially supported, but other modern phones may work.
Preorders for mocopi open in mid-December for 49500 yen (around $350) for shipping in late January. There’s no indication of a release outside Japan.
DPVR E4 is a new wired SteamVR headset with the same resolution as Quest 2 but wider field of view.
DPVR is a Shanghai-based company that has been selling VR headsets in China since 2015. Its current E3 PC VR headset lacks positional tracking or input out of the box, but supports the Nolo aftermarket tracking system and controllers. It also sells a P1 standalone headset mostly intended for viewing traditional media on a huge virtual screen.
The new E4 has four cameras for inside-out tracking of the headset and its Quest-like controllers. The headset has a flip-up halo strap design, so you can quickly view the real world without taking it off. It is said to weigh just 400 grams, making it the lightest PC VR headset on the market. For comparison, Oculus Rift S (which also has a halo strap) weighs 590 grams.
DPVR claims E4 has a horizontal field of view of 116 degrees. This hasn’t been independently verified, but if true is wider than almost every other headset on the market. The lenses are fixed in place however, so can’t be adjusted to match your interpupillary distance (IPD).
| Quest 2 | DPVR E4 | HP Reverb G2 | |
| Standalone | ✓ | 𐄂 | 𐄂 |
| Wired PC VR | Compressed | Native | Native |
| Wireless PC VR | Compressed | 𐄂 | 𐄂 |
| Lens Separation | 58mm / 63mm / 68mm | 𐄂 | 60mm – 68mm |
| Visible Pixels Per Eye | ~1720×1890 | ~1720×1890 | ~2160×2160 |
| Field of View | Up to 96° | 116° claimed | 98° |
| Max Refresh Rate | 120 Hz | 120 Hz | 90 Hz |
| Total Weight | 503 grams | 400 grams | 498 grams |
| Strap | Elastic | Flip-Up Halo | Rigid |
| Price | $400 | $550 | $600 |
A unique feature of E4 is it has customizable RGB lighting on the front face, a common trait of other gamer-focused PC accessories.
DPVR E4 preorders open tomorrow for $550. We’re in contact with the company about a review unit and will be particularly interested in the quality of the inside-out tracking, as this factor makes or breaks a headset’s value proposition yet can only be determined through hands-on testing.
Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom is set to release next year on March 9 for Quest 2 and Pico. Earlier this week, we went hands-on with a short preview of the game.
After releasing Doctor Who: The Edge of Time in 2020, The King’s Ransom is one of two VR projects currently in development at Maze Theory (the other being a multiplayer VR experience called Engram). Announced as far back as 2019, this original VR experience set in the Peaky Blinders universe is set to arrive on headsets early next year. The experience sees you team up with the two Shelby brothers (voiced by the stars of the source material, Cillian Murphy and Paul Anderson) and explore 1920s Birmingham, featuring iconic locations from the show. You’ll work through an original story, developed in collaboration with the TV series’ creator and writer Steven Knight.
It’s clear that Maze Theory have gone to considerable effort to capture the spirit of the show and give fans ways to feel immersed in its world. You can take a cigarette offered to you by Tommy, for example, and smoke it over conversation, resting it in your mouth as you please. Whenever you remove it from your mouth, your character will breathe out a plume of smoke. It’s a nice touch that helps you feel more immersed in the world.
Likewise, it would have been understandable had the game not been able to secure the rights to the show’s high-profile theme song, Red Right Hand by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, but it’s present and plays during the opening sequence, as you would expect. Again, it’s a nice touch and emblematic of the obvious care Maze Theory are taking to recreating details and locations from the show. While not show-stopping, the environments I moved through in the demo were atmospheric and aesthetically decent for standalone hardware.
In terms of gameplay, the demo only lasted about 20 or so minutes, running through the intro, some story beats, an interrogation and then a short combat sequence. The characters models aren’t terrible – you’ll recognise characters from the show, such as Tommy, even if they don’t look quite as dashing as their real life counterparts – but their accompanying animations were stiff at best and janky at worst.
The aforementioned interrogation sequence gives you a few basic options to gain information – shooting a gun in the air or punching the target’s head – and after he’s told you want you need to know, you can choose to kill or spare him. It’s perhaps a hint towards your actions having consequences across the course of the campaign’s narrative, but that remains to be seen.
The proceeding combat sequence was the most disappointing aspect of the demo, only offering incredibly basic gun mechanics and measly AI that stood around waiting to be shot, offering little to no challenge. Hopefully it’s just an early taste of what’s to come, with more complex and engaging sequences further through the campaign.
There’s still a lot we don’t know about The King’s Ransom and what I saw what just a small slice – we’ll reserve full judgement for the final release. The demo wasn’t nearly long enough to give any sort of judgment on the story yet, but the fact that it’s being written in collaboration with the show’s creator gives some hope. If there’s an engaging (and perhaps branching) narrative that offers a satisfying tie-in to the show’s universe, then there might be something strong for fans to latch onto. We’ll have to wait and see.
Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom releases March 9, 2023 for Quest 2 and Pico. It’s also available to wishlist on Steam for PC VR, with no confirmed release date. Maze Theory previously expressed interest in a release on PSVR 2 as well, but there’s been no recent updates on that front.
Keep an eye out for more news on Peaky Blinders: The King’s Ransom as we head into the new year.
Tilt Five launched ‘The Lab’ this week, a new area on its site that collects community-made content for its consumer AR glasses.
Tilt Five owners are able to browse the projects collected in The Lab and download them to use with their headsets. The current selection is small, but includes various small demos that I tried earlier this year at Gamescom, such as the Fantasy Forest Tech Demo and the Tilt Five Demo Pack, alongside projects from other teams and developers.
Developers are able to submit projects for consideration to The Lab via this form. Once accepted, the project will be added to The Lab’s collection, which you can browse here.
Say "Hello" to the T5 Lab!
The Lab is a place to explore experiences & projects made BY and FOR the community.
We've just launched, but there are MORE experiences coming. Have you created something to share? Submit it to The Lab today. https://t.co/awCrs2DNPy #indiedev pic.twitter.com/1MzrriXe0z
— Tilt Five (@tiltfive) November 23, 2022
Tilt Five is one of the most promising consumer AR headset available right now, delivering market-leading field of view when viewing content reflected from its game board. The catch is that you still need an external computing device to power the glasses and can only see the AR content when it’s backed by the retroreflective material found in the game board. However, Tilt Five leans into this constraint by focusing on tabletop gamers who want to gather around the board to play AR experiences.
Earlier this year, we left our Tilt Five demo at Gamescom quite impressed, but noted that it remains to be seen how comprehensive the current content line-up is for owners. The new addition of The Lab should hopefully encourage more people to get involved with development, while also offering a place for people to share and try out new content build for Tilt Five.
Tilt Five is technically available to order right now, but you’ll likely be waiting a while for the headset to arrive. Tilt Five is taking deposits of $5 to reserve a spot in the order queue, with shipping timeframes potentially taking up to five months and current orders taking priority before new ones.
You can check out The Lab here and read more about the headset in our recent hands-on.
Half-Life: Alyx – Levitation, a new campaign mod from FMPone and CoreyLaddo, arrives today on Steam Workshop.
First announced in April, Levitation sees Alyx Vance following the trail of Maya and Barry, two rebels who discovered a sinister project in the Combine’s Sector X. Investigating a mysterious floating structure, this campaign mod has a self-contained narrative that builds upon the Half Life: Alyx ending, featuring appearances from Russell and G-Man.
Half-Life Alyx: LEVITATION will be releasing this Friday — November 25, 2022.
The mod is 3-4 hours long, and FREE for all owners of Half-Life: Alyx. You can join us in celebrating the release in our Discord channel https://t.co/27IyTzhnbn pic.twitter.com/IboqIYDUDT
— FMPONE (@FMPONE) November 23, 2022
According to FMPone, Levitation’s campaign is 3-4 hours long, and it’s free for everyone who owns Half-Life: Alyx. While it won’t feature any big gameplay changes like we’ve seen in other Alyx mods, gameplay footage from this year’s PC Gaming Show revealed newly-designed environments.
We previously interviewed CoreyLaddo about Levitation back in April. Discussing Half-Life: Alyx’s wider community, the challenges surrounding Source 2 modding, and individual projects, he explained how this mod entered development with FMPOne. He told us to expect “new level design twists” and “a lot of exciting moments.”
Levitation isn’t the only major Half-Life: Alyx mod we’ve seen these last two years, either. Between Monomyth, Return To Rapture, Half-Life: Incursion, Gunman Contracts, and more, Alyx’s modding community has given significant longevity to Valve’s first-person shooter. Make sure to check out our list of the best Alyx mods if you’re looking for something else to dive into after Levitation.
If you’ve not bought it yet, there’s good news. Steam’s Autumn sale has given us Half-Life Alyx’s best discount yet, available for $23.99 until November 29.
By valuing strategic finesse over brute force, Broken Edge offers a refined take on VR fantasy sword fighting. Developed by Trebuchet, this multiplayer dueling game is available now on Steam and the Meta Quest platform. Read on for our full Broken Edge review for Quest 2 and SteamVR.
Broken Edge sees you take up arms against other players in sword fighting duels, but it doesn’t explain these fights with a conventional narrative. This is an experience focused purely on 1v1 matches. There are six classes available – Knight, Barbarian, Samurai, Duelist, Persian, or Tyrant. Thankfully, these aren’t just for cosmetic variance. Each one wields a unique primary weapon, ranging from scimitars to the more intimidating Zweihänder. In some cases, you’ve even got a secondary weapon that allows for dual wielding, such as the Duelist’s dagger.
Broken Edge is primarily an online multiplayer game, but does offer minimal options for offline solo play. In terms of format, facing online opponents requires beating your foe across three rounds. You can create rooms and invite a friend, or you can jump into one ranked online mode with random players. For offline solo play, each class is given a five stage mini-campaign to complete. After facing every other class, each mini-campaign culminates in a long fight with Tyrant. Unlike online matches, victory requires winning an increasing number of rounds as you progress. Your third and fourth challengers must be defeated three times before advancing, while Tyrant needs four. Yet, the AI only needs to win once, and defeat forces a restart. It isn’t a significant problem, but it doesn’t feel fair.
Once a round in Broken Edge begins, your enemy automatically moves closer. I’d describe what follows as a unique interpretation of “live by the sword, die by the sword.” That’s because primary weapons grant both fighters a protective barrier; you can’t land a hit until it’s broken. Landing carefully placed strikes on an opponent’s weapon is the key. Blades regenerate after each strike until your meter’s depleted, and if that happens, you become vulnerable.
However, both weapons take damage in a strike, determined by where they collide. Landing hits closer to the hilt deals more damage, and the reverse is true for the weapon’s tip. Swinging blindly is a quick ticket to defeat, as fights require finesse and well-timed hits. Secondary weapons can inflict damage without depleting your meter, the trade-off being that it gets destroyed on impact.
Each class can use a blade awakening technique for increased power, though the activation method varies. Samurai awakens their blade by striking different poses, while Duelist must point directly at their enemy. Once awakened, a blade can kill an opponent that still has energy left in their meter. By taking this approach, Trebuchet’s replicates traditional stances for each fighter well, but it doesn’t stop there.
Where Broken Edge gets interesting is in the differences between each of the classes. While I’d be here forever detailing these finer intricacies, they reveal surprising depth. For example, Knight can deflect attacks with a shield, which gradually whittles away after several hits, while Barbarian’s longsword is great for closing distance. Each class has its advantages, so it’s worth spending time with them all before settling into one character. Their differences force you to think strategically, it gets tough, but securing wins after a challenging fight felt incredibly satisfying.
The game’s initial tutorial covers the basics, which is fine against AI, but against online foes? Perhaps not. I recommend hitting up the training dojo, where you can learn advanced techniques shared between classes. Between Edge Breaker for increased damage, Ward to shield yourself, and Second Wind to replenish your sword, these abilities can provide a significant advantage. They’re only available once per round though, so use them wisely. You’ll also have to commit them to memory, as Broken Edge won’t provide reminders during combat.
I’m still in awe at the game’s presentation. I’ve never seen a game mix cel-shaded visuals with a pastel color palette. Many games would opt for a more realistic approach to medieval warfare, but Broken Edge feels like a storybook come to life. It looks stunning in motion, and every character’s design feels memorable. All six classes have their own arenas, which don’t affect battles beyond scenery changes but do provide some welcome variety.
Between its unique visuals and strategic gameplay, Broken Edge is an enjoyable 1v1 fighter that mostly strikes true. What seems like a simple multiplayer experience hides surprising depth, and earning those wins feels highly satisfying. If all you’re after is a colorful action game, I’d suggest looking elsewhere, but Trebuchet’s latest game rewards those with patience. Victory feels sweet, and I’m excited to continue playing.
UploadVR recently changed its review guidelines, and this is one of our Recommend review labels. You can read more about our review guidelines here. This review was conducted with the Meta Quest 2 version of the game.
Very few games have ever made me smile the way What The Bat? did.
The second game in the What the _? series of sports-inspired games from Danish developer Triband, What The Bat? presents an experience dripping in charm and creativity that’s only held back by a slightly shaky transition into VR. Minor technical gripes aside, What The Bat?’s cheeky writing, imaginative level design and relentless sense of wonder make it a grand slam.
What The Bat? bears the unenviable burden of following up What The Golf?, a game I presumed to be lightning in a bottle. Its ever-evolving take on what golf was had me questioning the sport’s existence on an existential level, laughing all the way. However, What The Golf?’s towering highs serve less as something to aim above, but rather as a spiritual framework for What The Bat? to play around in. I don’t think this tops its predecessor, but it doesn’t really have to. In fact, they’re largely different games, save a few endearing nods to What The Bat?’s mobile progenitor.
In What The Bat?, your normal VR appendages — usually guns, hands, swords or some combination therein — are nowhere to be found. Instead, you’re outfitted with a pair of baseball bats à la Edward Scissorhands. Even in levels where you use the bats for their intended purposes, like smacking a line drive, you’re presented with a wild twist that makes you rethink America’s pastime.
Sometimes the challenge is simple, like hitting a baseball through an American football goalpost. Others? Not so much. You might need to electrocute yourself to complete an electrical circuit using an electric eel and some well-placed wires, or plug holes in a leaky pipe in the right order to dislodge a trophy from a toilet. To prattle on about each individually creative exploit in What The Bat? would be to ruin the game’s one-two punch of slapstick charm and confoundingly-creative level design.
This relentless sense of creativity is highlighted by What The Bat?’s reluctance to revel in itself. The moment you think you’ve found your footing, a trap door opens up underneath you. From stopping an art heist to bonking the side of a hot dog vending machine that’s taking a bit too long, this game moves from mechanic to mechanic at breakneck pace. This leaves little time for any idea to grow stale and no mechanic shows up more than a handful of times, at least not in the same way. There are a few exceptions to that rule, but even mechanically similar levels across the game that require using an in-game joystick (a comically difficult task to execute when your hands are baseball bats) see you controlling drastically varying vehicles and items.
The only time I found What The Bat? overstaying its welcome was in a level where it committed (what I consider to be) the cardinal sin of puzzle design. Like many in the game, the level plays off mechanics introduced earlier on. However, the mechanics here were modified in a way that relied on obscuring the solution in a strange way. I spent at least half an hour trying to progress through this one level, until I was brought to my wits’ end. Ready to give up and put my headset down for a while, I only then noticed the solution while leaving my play area, obscured from the player’s normal point of view.
This small gripe represents a larger issue with What The Bat?; the series’ transition into VR isn’t always the smoothest. While VR as a medium allows for new levels of interactivity and immersion, its limitations and unique means of interaction can clash with traditional puzzle game design. As a result, some of What The Bat?’s puzzles don’t feel ideal in VR.
Those puzzles are still inherently fun – it’ll always be enjoyable to smash the stitches of a baseball with a hearty swing, without the burden of having to retrieve it. The worlds and mechanics presented in What The Bat? are always delightful, but the puzzles that I found dissonant with the limitations and mechanics of VR usually presented a frustratingly unclear goal. Sometimes it meant floundering in front of a vending machine for half an hour, or putting my arms in awkward positions to clog leaky pipes. Nothing was ever unobtainable, just confusing enough to get frustrating.
Minor warts and all, What The Bat? is a deceptively complex game that begs to be shown to friends and family members who might be interested — or even skeptical — about the medium. It’s a great game to cast to a smart TV and pass the headset around to a room full of people. My problems with What The Bat?’s rare, frustratingly obscured puzzles are so microscopic compared to the joy this game brought me that I’d be kicking myself if I didn’t recommend it. Having played baseball for a solid third of my life, I can confidently say that I had far more fun with What The Bat? than I ever did with the real deal. If Triband keeps releasing games with this cadence, its next might be a contender for best of all time.
UploadVR recently changed its review guidelines, and this is one of our Recommend review labels. You can read more about our review guidelines here. This review was conducted with the Meta Quest 2 version of the game.
Quest 2 will finally be sold in Germany by the end of the year, Meta announced.
A Meta spokesperson told German news outlet Heise online Quest Pro will also be sold in Germany “as soon as possible”.
While Meta was never officially banned from selling hardware in Germany, it voluntarily suspended VR headset sales just before the release of Quest 2 after announcing a Facebook account would be required to use them. Heise Online reports this move had caused the German Federal Cartel Office (FCO) to initiate abuse proceedings, the likely trigger for Meta’s decision.
In August, almost two years later, Meta removed the Facebook account requirement for its VR headsets worldwide by introducing the new Meta account system. “Meta has responded to our concerns and offered a solution by creating a separate Meta account for using the Quest glasses.”, the President of the German FCO said.
However, the FCO isn’t finished with its investigation. It says it’s also looking into “the question of the connection of the data processed within the framework of the various meta-services” in relation to wider concerns about Meta’s data handling. “Until this has been clarified, Meta will, in principle, keep the data generated when using the Meta Quest glasses separately from data from other Meta services for users who use a separate Meta account.”, the FCO said.
Returning to the German market means Quest 2 will be taking on ByteDane’s Pico 4 which offers superior hardware at a lower price – though with a much less fleshed-out content library.
Over 50% of Meta’s AR/VR spending is going to the development of AR glasses.
Reuters reports Mark Zuckerberg gave Meta staffers a rundown of the company’s spending in an all-hands meeting last week. He said 20% of Meta’s total budget is going to Reality Labs, the company’s AR/VR division.
Within Reality Labs, over 50% of the spending is going to the research & development of AR glasses, around 40% to virtual reality, and around 10% to first-party content such as Horizon, he said. That’s a stark contrast to the popular perception Meta is spending most of its AR/VR budget on Horizon.
Zuckerberg reportedly said smart glasses products will emerge “over the next few years” and that true AR glasses will arrive later in the decade. “This in some ways is the most challenging work … but I also think it’s the most valuable potential part of the work over time,” he apparently said.
Meta and Luxottica collaborated on glasses that shipped last year, Ray-Ban Stories. Stories are camera glasses for taking hands-free first person photos and videos. They lack any kind of display, but in October both companies announced work on new smart glasses. Earlier this year The Information reported Meta plans to launch second generation Stories in 2023 and The Verge reported it plans to launch smart glasses with a heads-up display, codenamed Hypernova, in 2024. It’s unclear if these reports refer to the same product.
At last year’s Connect conference Meta announced Project Nazare, “our first full augmented reality glasses”. Both The Information and The Verge reported that while Meta originally planned to ship Nazare in 2024 as a consumer product, this plan was recently canceled. Instead, Nazare will apparently be given out as a developer kit while a second generation codenamed Artemis will be the first to commercially launch in 2026.
Meta’s glasses will reportedly be bundled with Meta’s neural wristband as the input device. Meta has discussed its development openly. The device reads the neural signals passing through your arm from your brain using EMG (electromyography). Such a device can track finger movement before it even happens, and can even sense incredibly subtle finger gestures not clearly perceptible to others nearby. Mark Zuckerberg recently told UploadVR he sees this wristband being as capable as keyboards for input.
Meta has been working on AR technology for almost 8 years now, and The Verge wrote that Zuckerberg is still investing more than any other company. “Zuck’s ego is intertwined with [the glasses]” a source of The Verge apparently said – “He wants it to be an iPhone moment.”
HP Reverb G2 is just $300 in a “Pre-Black Friday Sale” on HP’s USA Store.
Reverb G2 is a tethered PC VR headset. It uses Microsoft’s Windows MR (WMR) software platform but is compatible with most SteamVR games.
Its dual 2160×2160 panels provide higher resolution than Quest 2, and it has stepless lens separation adjustment. It features the same kind of near-off-ear speakers as Valve Index, via a collaboration with Valve.
We reviewed Reverb G2 when it first launched. We loved the comfort, audio, and clarity of the headset – but found the controller tracking and ergonomics lacking. It’s an ideal headset for simulators, but for room-scale gaming it doesn’t quite match up to Quest 2 or Valve Index.
A year after launch HP released a revision with the angle of the tracking cameras adjusted to increase tracking volume “by 30% compared to our original headset and resolving blind spots above and below the waist.” The original revision was discontinued.
Reverb G2 is normally priced at $600. It was on sale for $350 last month, but this $300 price is the most significant discount we’ve seen yet.
HTC announced Black Friday offers beginning today in Europe, which see heavy discounts on the Vive Flow and Vive Pro 2 range.
Vive Flow is discounted €120/£120, bringing it down to €379/£379 from €499/£499. Flow is HTC’s lightweight headset designed for immersive media viewing, which released almost exactly a year ago. You can read our full review from last year here.
The Flow Black Friday offer also includes the optional controller (usually sold separately as an accessory for £64) and access to Viveport Vista Infinity “at no extra cost.” Vista Infinity is the budget version of Vive’s main Viveport service, offering access to select mobile content and apps on Flow and Focus headsets. HTC did not indicate the length of the Vista Infinity subscription provided with the Black Friday offer – we’ve reached out for clarification.
The offer is available in Europe through Vive directly, or via Amazon and other “select retailers.” It begins today and runs until December 4.
That’s not the only offer available though, with HTC’s Pro 2 range also receiving some Black Friday discounts. The Vive Pro 2 Full Kit (including the headset itself, two Vive wand controllers and two of Valve’s 2.0 SteamVR Base Stations) is discounted by €100/£100, bringing it down to €1199/£1199. The offer also includes a 12-month subscription to Viveport Infinity, bundled in at no extra cost.
If you’re just looking for the headset and don’t need the base stations or controllers, then the Vive Pro 2 headset is also available by itself, discounted by €100/£100. This brings it down to €619/£619, with 12 months of Viveport included as well. There’s also discounts for the previous range of Pro headsets, with the original Vive Pro Full Kit model and the Vive Pro Eye Full Kit discounted by €200/£200 on Amazon.
Keep an eye out for more VR sales and discounts as we approach Black Friday later this week.
Missing Pictures brings a new five-part immersive documentary collection to virtual reality, coming to Quest and PC VR on December 1.
A collaborative effort between multiple production companies, Missing Pictures promises “a parallel history of cinema through virtual reality.” Running for ten minutes per episode, the Missing Pictures collection is directed by Clément Deneux, with individual episodes featuring directors Abel Ferrara, Naomi Kawase, Catherine Hardwicke, Lee Myung-se and Tsai Ming-Liang. Tsai Ming-Liang and Kuan-Yuan Lai join Denuex as co-directors on episodes two and four.
Each episode details the story of a film that the directors were unable to make and the circumstances that prevented them from getting them off the ground, between financing problems, “overly political subjects,” and more. Shot in volumetric capture, Missing Pictures claims that it’s using VR to go beyond standard interviews, taking viewers to a behind-the-scenes imagining of these dreamed worlds.
“We wanted to use the specificities of VR and volumetric capture to embody these ghost films. Virtual reality allows us to create a reinterpretation of the cinematic project, something that is not about cinema but more about an encounter between the audience and the filmmakers,” explained Deneux, in a prepared statement. “The main challenge was that each episode should have its own personality, reflecting the creative process and the artistic universe of each of these filmmakers.”
Missing Pictures releases on December 1, available on the Meta Quest platform via App Lab, alongside PC VR via Steam and Viveport.
Fitness app Supernatural released its latest monthly update, introducing two new musical-themed workouts featuring music from Coldplay.
Available now for Supernatural subscribers, these new workouts contain five Coldplay songs each. For Medium Intensity Boxing, led by coach Dwana Olsen, the playlist includes A Sky Full of Stars, Adventure of a Lifetime, Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall, Higher Power and Life in Technicolor II. Medium Intensity Flow, handled by coach Leanne Pedante, focuses on a selection of Coldplay’s older hits; Clocks, Fix You, Paradise, Speed of Sound and Viva La Vida.
Coldplay marks the latest addition to the Supernatural Artist Series, a monthly set of workouts themed around a particular musician or band. This began in June with Katy Perry, which was followed up by Imagine Dragons, The Weeknd, Swedish House Mafia, and Kid Cudi. That concludes next month with Lady Gaga in December.
It’s unknown whether the Artist Series will continue but Supernatural still receives regular updates. Alongside a single controller mode and menu overhaul, we’ve seen other crossover events, including a limited-time Star Wars workout for May the 4th.
Supernatural is available now for the Meta Quest platform in the US and Canada for $20 a month. Despite Meta acquiring Supernatural last year, it may eventually come to PSVR and PSVR 2, as evidenced by a job listing in March.
The Legends Untold update for Zenith: The Last City is available now, adding a bunch of new content including pets, dungeons, raids and a revamping onboarding experience for new players.
This update is patch 1.2 for the VR MMO and follows on from the Celestial Throne update back in June. Developer Ramen VR say this new patch adds “hours of early and end game content, interactive systems, storylines, quality of life improvements, bug fixes” and more.
Perhaps the biggest addition is an overhauled introduction for new players, replacing the previous new player onboarding experience. This includes a “completely revamped intro storyline with a memorable cast of new characters and new early game dungeon.” There’s new cutscenes, voiced characters and a new safe zone where players can learn the basics of Zenith. Alongside new tutorials and rewritten sections of the early story and quests, the overall onboarding experience for new players should be more comprehensive than ever before.
However, that’s far from the only new content in the Legends Untold update. Pets are another big addition in this patch, as seen in the video above. They can be acquired in-game via the new creature catching system and then summoned as a companion to offer you some company as you complete quests. While all catchable creatures in-game can be turned into a pet, there’s also a few pets available through systems outside the game world.
Zenith also now supports full body tracking in SteamVR, which Ramen VR says is just one of “many steps [they’re] taking towards making Zenith more immersive.” PC players will also have access to a handheld streamer camera to use in-game as well.
Other new content includes new areas, dungeons, raids, amor sets and weapons, character titles and cosmetic sets, alongside a huge list of feature and system updates. You can find full details over in the patch notes. The 1.2 Legend Untold update is available now for Zenith: The Last City on PC VR, Quest and PSVR.
Multiplayer VR duelling game Broken Edge launched yesterday on Quest 2 and PC VR.
Developed by Trebuchet and published by Fast Travel Games, the multiplayer title is available for $9.99 on the Quest store and Steam. The game features 1v1 fantasy dueling, with a variety of classes to choose from, each with their own strengths, weaknesses and weapons. You can check out the new (and appropriately dramatic) launch trailer, embedded above.
We were able to try the game out earlier this year at Gamescom. In our impressions piece, we discussed the game’s unique system to handle virtual swordfights:
A clash of swords in Broken Edge has a clear outcome – if player one slashes through player two’s weapon, it gets broken off at the point of impact. Player two is left with a maimed, but still usable, weapon – the titular ‘Broken Edge’, if you will. Your weapon becomes similar to a health bar and once it’s depleted down to just the hilt, you only have one last chance to counter against a fatal blow.
You can read our full hands-on from Gamescom here.
Trebuchect and Fast Travel Games say that the first major content update for Broken Edge will arrive just a few days after launch, on November 21. That update will “introduce an improved Training mode, voice chat, in-game leaderboards for online ranked mode, a new arena for the Persian fighter, and more.”
Broken Edge is available now for $9.99 on Quest 2, Quest Pro and PC VR via Steam, with support for cross-platform play online. Keep an eye out for our full review, which will be available sometime next week.
Qualcomm announced Snapdragon AR2 Gen 1, a triple-chip solution for wireless AR glasses.
AR2 isn’t designed to power standalone devices. It handles computer vision tasks like position tracking and hand tracking but an external device with a more powerful Qualcomm chip, such as a smartphone or compute puck, runs the actual AR apps and streams the output wirelessly to the glasses.
The link is handled by Qualcomm’s latest FastConnect 7800 wireless chip, which supports the new Wi-Fi 7 standard. Qualcomm claims the stream latency is less than 2 milliseconds. Current AR glasses such as Nreal Light connect to the host phone via a USB-C cable.
Snapdragon AR2 is built on a 4nm process node. Qualcomm claims it consumes just half the power of the Snapdragon XR2 used in standalone headsets, and the multi-chip solution distributes the heat generated throughout the device instead of concentrating it in one location.
This low power consumption & heat distribution means AR2 can be paired with smaller batteries and much lighter cooling systems than traditional chipsets, enabling devices with a form factor approaching regular glasses.
Quaclomm says multiple companies are working on products leveraging AR2 including LG, Lenovo, Xiaomi, TCL, Sharp, OPPO, Pico, and Nreal.
Golf+ is getting two new courses in November and December alongside some additional updates.
The pair of paid add-on courses are Pebble Beach Golf Links in California, arriving on December 9th for $11.99, as well as Pinehurst No. 2 in North Carolina on November 18th for $7.99. The game sells for $29.99 on Quest 2 and comes with three fictional courses and the Valhalla Golf Club, which is the host for the PGA Championship. Other paid add-on courses for the game already available for $7.99 each include The Ocean Course in South Carolina’s Kiawah Island and Wolf Creek in Nevada.
Pebble Beach is a particularly famous golf course in California set against the Pacific Ocean — so it’s addition to the game should be a big draw to golfers. Golf+ also released images of the Pinehurst No. 2 course, which is the view embedded below.
New features coming in December include visualizations meant to help players analyze their swings. The update will also include team modes to compete with friends in Stableford, Skins or Match Play formats, with new equipment added to the game from real manufacturers including Callaway Golf and TaylorMade. In a prepared statement, developers say they’ve had “hundreds of thousands of golfers” play the game and recently took investment from some recognizable names including Breyer Capital, Rory McIlroy, Jordan Spieth, Tom Brady, Stephen Curry, Mike Trout, and Ben Crenshaw.
Following Cosmic Trip and Fujii, Funktronic Labs is back again with The Light Brigade, a roguelike shooter launching next year on major VR platforms.
Described as a single-player tactical roguelike experience, The Light Brigade takes place in a world plunged into eternal darkness. “As the last line of defense against the darkness, you will enlist in the ranks of the Light Brigade and journey into the Sunken World as many times as it takes,” Funktronic Labs confirms on PlayStation Blog. It’s based on The Charge of the Light Brigade poem by Baron Tennyson, which you can hear narrated in the trailer below.
Promising “realistic physics-based gunplay and magic,” the developers said in YouTube comments that The Last Brigade takes inspiration from flatscreen roguelikes like Risk of Rain 2 (which received a VR mod last year) and Hades. Fighting through procedurally-generated battlegrounds, your goal is to free the souls of the fallen trapped within them. According to Funktronic, you’ll earn new weapons, spells, and classes, though we’ve not had an in-depth look at those yet.
The Light Brigade arrives Q1 2023 for PSVR, PSVR 2, Quest 2 and PC VR via Steam.
Meta will bundle Resident Evil 4 and Beat Saber with Quest 2 starting at $350 for a limited time.
The discount kicks off officially starting Black Friday, November 18, at “participating locations while supplies last.” The $350 price is for the 128GB base model Quest 2 headset while the 256GB model starts at $430.
Meta usually pushes major discounts around Black Friday to put as many of its VR headsets under Christmas trees as possible. 2022 is a little unusual because the headset’s base price jumped from $299 to $399 earlier this year as Meta started bundling Beat Saber with the device. So while this price for Quest 2 isn’t the lowest it’s ever been, the bundle does mean buyers can get two of the system’s biggest games bundled with their purchase for a limited time.
Meta says the bundle should be available in certain regions at meta.com or from Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop Target, and Walmart, as well as other retailers in some countries where the headset is sold. The offer is said to be valid “on purchases of new specially marked Meta Quest 2 devices” with a code for Resident Evil 4 VR expiring on on 12/31/2023.
”Device must be activated by 01/31/23,” Meta’s terms say. “Offer must be redeemed within 14 days upon device activation. Additional content sold separately.”
via Mint VR
In this week’s episode of the Between Realities VR Podcast, Alex and Skeeva host Dan and Samson, hosts of the Let’s Talk Oculus VR Podcast.
Dan and Samson explain how they met and started a podcast on YouTube. Other topics include a recap of the New Reality VR Convention, the Arcaxer launch party in Los Angeles, and a location-based VR wingsuit experience.
— Between Realities Links —
Merch Store: https://teespring.com/stores/between-…
Patreon – https://www.patreon.com/BetweenRealities
YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/BetweenRealities
Twitter – https://twitter.com/BtweenRealities
Discord – https://discord.gg/EvNnj2w
Facebook – https://fb.me/BetweenRealities
Alex VR – https://www.youtube.com/Alex_VR
Alex VR’s Twitter – https://www.twitter.com/Alex__VR
Skeeva – https://www.youtube.com/Skeeva007
Skeeva’s Twitter – https://www.twitter.com/Skeeva
