With less than two weeks to go until the launch of Oculus Quest 2 one of the main videogames due to arrive alongside it is The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners. If you’re excited about the launch, Skydance Interactive has published a quick FAQ about the upcoming release with a few more interesting details.
Whether you’ve got an Oculus Quest or pre-ordered the Oculus Quest 2, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners is going to be one of those premium titles all zombie hunting fans will want. The original launch saw the videogame available in a range of editions, with the studio now confirming the Quest version will be the Tourist Edition featuring three unique weapon recipes, collectable voodoo dolls and the game’s soundtrack.
If you bought the Oculus Rift version there’s further good news as The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners will support cross-buy, making it instantly available to download on launch day. Skydance Interactive does note that the Oculus Quest and Rift versions are essentially two different builds so those Tourist Edition items only apply to the Quest version. Additionally, there’s no transferring your Oculus Rift save over to the Quest version.
As previously confirmed during the Facebook Connect announcement, The Trial mode adding horde waves will be made available for Oculus Quest, just not at launch on 13th Oct. An announcement date on that is still to come.
The PC VR version of The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners became one of VRFocus’ favourites in the zombie genre: “From the very beginning, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners offers a satisfying zombie experience that’s hard to match. Titles like Arizona Sunshine easily fill that need for straight-up arcade action, for when you want a living dead apocalypse with a bit more depth then The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners is your new go-to videogame.”
Set in New Orleans with its own original storyline, The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners will retail for $39.99 USD for the Oculus Quest platform. For further news on the latest updates, keep reading VRFocus.
What new titles will you be able to play on October 13th? Here’s our full list of Oculus Quest 2 launch titles (that we know of) to fill you in.
Facebook’s new standalone headset is now just under two weeks away. We loved Quest 2 for its improved design and added horsepower, but what games will actually be launching alongside the headset? Let’s find out.
Below is everything we know of (so far) that is coming to Quest 2 on day one. There may be a few additions to the list in the coming days, and don’t forget that Quest 2 supports every single game that released for the original Quest. In fact, these games will also be playable on the old headset. We’ve also got a list of launch window titles a little further below, so you know what’s coming in the next few weeks and months. You can see more trailers and gameplay for this content on our Youtube channel.
Also if you’re wondering why so many of these Oculus Quest 2 launch titles are from Japanese developers, Quest 2 is pushing for that market pretty hard at launch!
Oculus Quest 2 Launch Titles
Kizuna AI: Touch the Beat
Wave glowsticks to the beat in this idol-adoring simulator. Think Beat Saber, but with more J-Pop.
Little Witch Academia VR
The hit anime gets the VR game fans (and probably Harry Potter fans too) have always wanted. Shoot through the sky on your broom and interact with the series’ colorful cast of characters.
Rez Infinite
A beloved classic gets its long-awaited Quest treatment. Rez is a relaxing on-rails shooter with pulsating visuals that utterly astound you. It’s already on practically every other headset, so this was long overdue.
Space Channel 5
Another Japanese hit comes to VR. Space Channel 5 is a dancing game in which you move to the beat to take down evil forces. It’s incredibly zany, though we didn’t think the PSVR version had anywhere near enough content.
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners
The big one. One of the year’s best VR games crams onto Quest, with physics-driven zombie mayhem and a sprawling set of missions to take on. This one of the biggest Oculus Quest 2 launch titles.
Beat Saber Multiplayer
Obviously, Beat Saber isn’t ‘new’, but its multiplayer support is. This free update will let five friends tackle any of the game’s tracks together. This will be coming to PSVR and PC VR headsets too, as will the upcoming BTS DLC.
Oculus Quest 2 Launch Window Titles And Beyond
The Climb 2 – Holiday Season
Crytek’s popular rock climbing game returns with new, more expansive locations and more. Plus: volcanoes. Need I say more?
Pistol Whip: 2089 Update – Holiday Season
The latest update for Cloudhead Games’ big hit gives a much more cinematic edge and campaign elements. This will be coming to PSVR and PC VR headsets too.
Myst – This Year
The adventure classic is getting a full-on remake for VR headsets. It’s a full-circle moment for developer Cyan, who also made Obduction and defined the genre so many years ago.
Warhammer 40,000: Battle Sister – This Year
The first full VR first-person shooter set in the iconic Warhammer 40K universe. Battle Sister offers a full campaign we can’t wait to get our hands on. In fact, we already got to try it out a few weeks back.
Population: One – This Year
VR gets the Fortnite treatment with an online battle royale across a giant map. Teams of three compete to be the last ones standing. This one could be a big hit.
What do you make of the list of Oculus Quest 2 launch titles? Let us know in the comments below!
At the beginning of 2020 Brazilian virtual reality (VR) developer ARVORE announced that its retro homage to 80s gaming, Pixel Ripped 1989 wouldn’t be making the leap to Oculus Quest as it didn’t get approved by Oculus. The studio has found a workaround, however, releasing the title as DLC for its sequel, Pixel Ripped 1995.
Having previously optimised Pixel Ripped 1989 for Oculus Quest, ARVORE says it coordinated with Oculus to bring the title to the popular standalone platform. “We’re really happy to have found a way together with Oculus to bring the game to so many more fans!,” said Ana Ribeiro, Creative Director at ARVORE in a statement.
As to why Pixel Ripped 1989 isn’t a standalone release the studio explained: “1995 was a title made for the quest from the ground up, while 1989 is a classic VR title at this point. We are just happy that we were able to work out a way to bring the title to the platform!” So that means you’ll need a copy of Pixel Ripped 1995 before you can play the original.
The DLC is available today, priced at $14.99 USD – the same as it is on other platforms. Additionally, Pixel Ripped 1995 is discounted by 25% for the next week. As for those wondering about cross-buy, because Pixel Ripped 1989 is DLC it won’t support the feature.
Supporting Oculus Quest and Rift, HTC Vive, Valve Index and PlayStation VR, Pixel Ripped 1995 continues the story of Dot in her fight against evil Cyblin Lord. The title has been inspired by some of the most beloved 90s videogames including Streets of Rage, Mortal Kombat, Road Rash, Star Fox, Sonic the Hedgehog and Castlevania
VRFocus reviewed both Pixel Ripped 1989 and Pixel Ripped 1995 highly, saying about the latter: “ARVORE has certainly learnt from Pixel Ripped 1989, both in terms of scope and gameplay, Pixel Ripped 1995 is a premium retro experience from start to finish.” For further updates from ARVORE on the series which is slated to have three more instalments, keep reading VRFocus.
In something of a surprise launch, the original Pixel Ripped 1989 has finally arrived on Quest, though not in the expected fashion.
The full 1989 is available inside the game’s sequel, Pixel Ripped 1995 as paid DLC. The game costs $14.99, which is the same price as the full game on other platforms, though it’s currently got a 25% launch week discount.
The Pixel Ripped series pays tribute to different eras of gaming’s past. Players time travel back to the titular years to play fictional games on virtually-recreated retro consoles. 1989, for example saw players use a Game Boy-like system, whereas 1995 pays tribute to rental stores and 16-Bit systems like the SNES.
It’s an interesting move, especially when considering that Facebook initially rejected the game for release on Quest, despite approving its sequel for release last April. In a prepared statement, ARVORE Creative Direct Ana Ribeiro said the team was “really happy to have found a way together with Oculus to bring the game to so many more fans!”
Facebook never provided specific reasoning for why 1989 had been rejected from the store.
Still, it’s great to see Pixel Ripped 1989 arrive on Quest in whatever form it can. We reviewed the game back in 2018, saying: “Pixel Ripped is a love letter to all things classic gaming. From the inventive melding of retro graphics with a modern VR game setting to the way it subverts medium stereotypes by putting you in the dress and shoes of a grade school girl with a trusty Gameboy, it’s hard not to smile while playing this nostalgia-fueled adventure.”
Will you be picking up Pixel Ripped 1989 on Quest? Let us know in the comments below!
Star Wars: Squadrons is finally here and it absolutely delivers. From the incredible set piece moments, excellent new characters, and fantastic VR space combat, this is an adrenaline-fueled blast in the galaxy far, far away that you won’t want to miss. Here’s our Star Wars: Squadrons VR review in progress with all the details!
Note: We did not get access to Star Wars: Squadrons until midday Tuesday, September 29th, so we have not had enough time with it to render a full review. We also have not tried online multiplayer at all yet — we couldn’t find any matches during the play session timeframe on September 30th. Read on for our review-in-progress to see what we think of the single player story mode so far, the core gameplay mechanics, VR implementation, and how the marquee multiplayer mode, Fleet Battles, stacks up to the competition. A full verdict with a finalized score and complete impressions is coming soon.
I don’t typically play space combat games, space sims, flight sims, or any of that sort of stuff. Furthermore, I’ve never played a game with a flight stick for more than just an hour or two to test things out. All of that changed with Star Wars: Squadrons.
From the very first moment I booted it up I played the entire game with a VR headset and flight stick, specifically the Thrustmaster T.16000M joystick, and it was so good — so authentic even — I don’t really want to play it any other way. I’ve tried keyboard and mouse and gamepad too, both get the job done and it really feels great with a gamepad for my tastes, but I surprisingly prefer the flight stick. For a game that’s designed for VR and non-VR across PC and consoles with cross-play on everything, this is perhaps the best compliment I can give: it feels madefor VR. And from what we’ve heard, it basically was from the very start.
Star Wars: Squadrons Story Mode
In Star Wars: Squadrons the story shows both perspectives and bounces back and forth between the Galactic Empire and New Republic. The Prologue is split into two parts, introducing both sides, immediately after Alderaan is destroyed during the events of A New Hope. Then it fast-forwards five years and the rest of the game takes place after Return of the Jedi in the aftermath of the Battle of Endor.
Right at the start of the game you get to customize each of your pilots down to their face, voice, and name. I wasn’t expecting this considering you don’t really see them much, but these are the same avatars you’ll use in multiplayer so getting ownership of your identity across the game for both the Republic and Empire is a great touch.
The entirety of Squadrons takes place from a first-person perspective whether you’re talking to crewmates in the hangar or flying your starfighter during a mission; it’s a big reason why the VR support feels so natural. The only times the camera is not inside of your face are during the cutscenes that take place before and after missions.
For these moments, when the camera is sweeping across your squadron or zooming in on characters while they fly, you see a rectangular letterbox floating in front of you, sort of like the Cinematic Mode on PSVR. It’s absolutely immersion breaking, no doubts about that, and a bit of a bummer, but cutscenes like this are expected in non-VR games so this is a price to pay in order to get VR support out of a AAA project like this. Sacrifices needed to be made and I’d rather have a VR hanger and briefing room than 30 second cutscenes in VR.
The other sticking point about Squadrons’ VR support is that there is zero motion controller functionality here. You have no hand presence in the cockpit at all — it’s just a head tracking only game. Some die hard VR purists will likely be upset about this, but honestly, give me a great flight stick over inaccurate motion controllers that lack realistic resistance and tension any day. You’re sitting still when you play a game like this so all you need is head tracking. It works great, looks great, and most importantly, feels great.
Even if Squadrons was just its Story Mode and practice/training map and that’s it, this would feel like a complete game. Based on how much I’ve played so far (the Prologue and five campaign missions) it looks like this will easily clock in at or above the 12 hour mark for a single playthrough, but there are several difficulty modes and medals to earn for each mission that offer lots of replayability.
Surprisingly, the cast of new characters is memorable and full of personality for both the Republic and Empire. Between missions there are opportunities to chat with all of them to learn more about their backstories and motivations that helps add a lot of context to how they act. One of the Republic pilots used to race previously and your squad mates poke fun at her for being a show off. Eventually, she teaches you how to drift in an X-Wing and it’s an exhilarating moment reminiscent of scenes with Poe from the new trilogy.
Most of the missions can be boiled down to taking out squadrons of enemy fighters, defending larger ships, eliminating big ships, and escaping or escorting. I’d be lying if I didn’t say this gets repetitive, but the way EA Motive mixes things up, shuffles these pieces around, and introduces one-off set pieces here and there keeps you on your toes. Chase sequences were some of the best moments and it made me wish for more time trials or flight trials to put my skills to the test.
I have not finished the Story Mode yet, so I will update this review-in-progress with more thoughts, if needed, after doing so.
Star Wars: Squadrons Gameplay And Ships
In a lot of ways this feels like a dream game for Star Wars fans. We’ve gotten dozens of games focused on the Jedi vs Sith with lightsabers and force powers and there have even been a heavy share of ground combat games that require you to know your way around a blaster. But not since the 90s and early 2000s have we gotten a game that was really focused on space combat in the Star Wars universe. Until now.
The industry has made huge strides with technology in recent years and visually it’s hard to find any faults at all with Star Wars: Squadrons. The overall presentation quality is on par with DICE’s Star Wars Battlefront II. Each map has a similar layout — they’re all in space after all — but the planet backdrops are gorgeous to behold and various bits of debris add enough variety here and there.
The hangar is the unexpected highlight of the package due to how immersive it is to chat with crew members and just watch people working in the background. You really get a sense for what the inside of a hangar might truly feel like, almost like waiting in line at a big Disneyland Star Wars ride. And Squadrons features an excellent score that swells in combat appropriately and punctuates every moment with just the right emphasis. And yes, it’s all functional in VR — including the hangar and briefing room, complete with NPC conversations.
Squadrons is a special kind of wish fulfillment in that regard. Every cockpit is painstakingly recreated here with insane attention to detail so that instruments and indicators are all in different places depending on which ship you’re flying. From the wide, open canopy of the X-Wing and A-Wing to the closed tunnel vision of the TIE Fighter, each ship feels and plays dramatically different.
As far as I can tell equipment loadout options are the same or on par across factions, for balance, but the choices you make will change based on the ship. Since the X-Wing has shields maybe you sacrifice a bit of its hull capacity for better acceleration or speed? Perhaps you want to beef up the TIE’s maneuverability even more to go all-in on a zippy ship that’s hard to hit? You can get really creative there.
Star Wars: Squadrons VR Review –Comfort
Since Star Wars: Squadrons is an always first-person VR space combat game, it’s impossible to eliminate all artificial motion. By nature you’re flying a ship in space, banking, turning, and rotating during combat. For some people it’s going to be uncomfortable no matter what, but some ships may be better than others. For example, the TIE Fighter has a very enclosed cockpit so the field of view outside of the cockpit is more limited than the more open X-Wing and A-Wing. Playing with a flight stick also helps to ground you and aid immersion which can combat sickness.
When you’re out of the cockpit you can turn on snap turning instead of smooth turning if you’d like for hangar exploration, or you can just turn your head around instead. Compared to other space combat games I’ve played, it seems quite smooth and comfortable but I don’t typically get sick so it’s hard to say. We’ll update this once more people on staff have had a chance to try it.
The first three missions of the story after the prologue have you flying X-Wings and A-Wings, so switching back to a TIE Fighter in the next mission after that is a huge shock to the system. Not only do these fast and nimble fighters not have any shields, but they’re far more agile as well. Drifting in a TIE Fighter feels like you’re doing a donut in a street racer and watching the stars swim by as you flip around is extremely exciting.
Even though Squadrons isn’t a space combat simulator game, it’s more of an arcade-style experience, there is still a lot of depth here. For starters, you’ve got to manage your system’s power flow. For Republic, that means engine, lasers, and shields. By flicking the switch on the top of my joystick I can reroute power on the fly to whatever I’m doing at that moment. On top of that, you can designate shields for the front, back, or balanced during combat, boost, drift, and more.
At first it’s a lot to take in; there is a steep learning curve when using a flight stick essentially for the first time and being in VR, you can’t exactly see the buttons easily, but you eventually get the hang of things. I tried playing with a gamepad a little bit and the learning curve is far less steep. It feels really, really good with a controller in your hands and you don’t lose out on any functionality playing that way. I also tried out keyboard and mouse, but for me, that felt like a huge step backwards in terms of immersion.
After I got a feel for where each button was it all started to feel like second nature. Keyboard and mouse, as well as gamepad, have the same sort of muscle memory that kicks in after a while to a lesser extent, but after trying all three formats the flight stick is absolutely my favorite way to play, followed by gamepad.
It’s also worth mentioning that in terms of performance I did have some minor issues. For some reason VR mode only works if the game is windowed, not full screen or borderless, but that’s not a big deal since you’re not looking at the window anyway. Also, I’ve had two crashes so far back to desktop. Luckily, there are generous checkpoints during missions so I barely lost any progress at all each time.
Star Wars: Squadrons Multiplayer
I have unfortunately not had the chance to try out multiplayer yet. During the scheduled play session I was not available for the first part of the time slot and then when I tried to queue for a match I never found one. I’ll be sure to spend a lot of time in multiplayer after launch before finalizing this review.
However, you can play entire Fleet Battle matches against the AI and I did get to do that without issues. This is the big multiplayer game mode on display here, akin to Galactic Assault from Battlefront or Conquest in Battlefield.
In Fleet Battle there are two armies with massive flagships anchoring their spot in space. First, the fighters battle it out in a game of tug of war to try and earn enough “morale” to wage an assault on the enemy’s two medium-sized capital ships. From there, whoever wins the tug of war, takes the fight to the capital ships. Once those are down you can attack the opponent’s massive flagship to win the match — but it’s not that simple.
At any time during a Fleet Battle the enemy can win back the morale tug of war and flip to the offensive, forcing you to go on the defensive. Once you’re attacking a flagship, like a Star Destroyer, you can take out its subsystems such as the shields, its power supplies, its turrets, and so on to slowly chip away until it’s destroyed in an epic ball of fire.
There is an in-game tutorial that takes you through all of this against AI, as well as the aforementioned AI enemies only mode you can play solo or with friends.
I have not had a chance to see it all in action yet, but Squadrons will also contain a fully-featured seasonal ranking structure, similar to most AAA online games, complete with ranks, rewards, daily missions, and so on. There are plenty of carrots to keep you moving along and coming back to earn juicy cosmetics since EA has stated there will be no microtransactions at all this time.
Star Wars: Squadrons Review In Progress Final Impressions
From what I’ve played so far, Star Wars: Squadrons has exceeded my already lofty expectations. It out-performs every other VR space combat game I’ve tried across the board for my tastes and offers a ton of nuance in its gameplay and immense entertainment with its full, robust campaign mode. If you got a chance to try the brief, but magical, X-Wing VR Mission in the first DICE Battlefront game on PS4 with PSVR and wished it could have been made into a full game, then this is exactly that and so much more. Some tiny performance issues and a lack of VR support for your hands and in cutscenes is unfortunate, but more than forgivable.
Minor gripes aside, for fans of Star Wars, fans of arcade-style space combat, and fans of just flat-out immersive VR, it doesn’t get a whole lot better than Star Wars: Squadrons.
Final Score: TBD
This review will eventually be scored according to our 5-star scale. For more on how we arrive at our scores, check out our review guidelines.
Star Wars: Squadrons releases on October 2nd for PC, PS4, and Xbox One for $39.99. VR support is included with PSVR on PS4 and any PC VR headset on PC. This review was conducted primarily using an Oculus Quest via Link cable on PC, as well as a Quest 2 with Link cable and Rift S.
Natural history legend Sir David Attenborough has been involved in a number of virtual reality (VR) projects over the years and soon Oculus owners will be treated to another. Due to arrive next week on Oculus TV is Micro Monsters, a five-part series delving into the tiny world of arthropods.
Created by Oculus and UK-based studio Alchemy Immersive, each episode of Micro Monsters with David Attenborough will examine some of the incredible activities these creatures get up to. Viewers will get to see a scorpion and a centipede fight to the death, a Portia spider’s deadly musical lullaby, an army of green ants build structures and much more.
The five episodes are:
The Duel at Dawn – Dive into the deadly world of scorpions.
The Mighty Makers – Discover the natural worlds of ants and aphids.
The Trap Door – Uncover the secrets of the Trap Door spider and the Bombardier beetle.
The Feast and Flight – Discover the life cycle of a butterfly.
The Deadly Lullaby – Discover how hypnotic Portia spider can attack a spider twice her size.
“Micro Monsters pioneers the next generation of immersive storytelling,” said Eric Cheng – Head of Immersive Media, Oculus From Facebook in a statement. The series’ combination of incredible narratives, best-in-class 3D quality and spatial sound, sets a new quality bar for immersive-video experiences in VR. It’s hard to describe the feeling one gets when they are shrunk down to the size of a beetle, confronting the prospect of becoming a meal for a giant praying mantis!”
To create the series the team used specially developed 3D stereoscopic camera rigs, 180° live-action capture, and newly developed VFX compositing techniques so you can see every stunning detail.
“We’re so excited to share this breathtaking and education-enriching experience that demonstrates the true potential of live-action VR. The genuine sense of presence you’ll feel inside these micro-worlds couldn’t be achieved through any other story-telling medium,” adds Elliot Graves – Director, Alchemy Immersive.
Available via Oculus TV from 6th October, Micro Monsters with David Attenborough will be viewable in 8K on Oculus Quest 2, and in 5K on Quest. For all the latest updates on Oculus Quest content, keep reading VRFocus.
We’ll be in our virtual studio broadcasting the VR Download podcast live to YouTube Thursday at 1 pm Pacific! More than one of us will be wearing Oculus Quest 2 for the conversation in our studio made in Unity by David Heaney and using both hand tracking and Oculus Avatars. If you have any questions about Quest 2 or VR in general, tune in live — we’re able to read all the YouTube comments from within the studio. Even if we don’t answer your question, there’s a good chance our helpful community might have the answer.
We’ll also be diving into the huge game release season that’s underway with hands-on reports, impressions and reviews to share for all the latest major game releases. We plan on talking about each of the following subjects in depth:
Just ask your virtual assistant to play “The VR Download Podcast” and you should be listening to our latest episode. Subscribe to our channel to get notifications for new videos and check back here at 1 pm Pacific time to dig through the latest VR news with us!
