Looking for the new VR games May 2021 list? We’ve got you covered.
We’re moving into Summer and releases are certainly heating up for VR headsets. Well, they are for the Oculus Quest at least – most of the big titles launching this month are on the standalone headset, though there are some offerings for PSVR and PC VR too. Let’s dig in!
Boardgame night moves to VR in Demeo, a four-player tabletop dungeon-crawling RPG that has you rolling die, casting spells and slaying monsters. Look out for a flat-screen version later this year too.
Carbon Studio’s fantasy adventure finally touches down on Quest. The Wizards has you summoning spells by making gestures with your motion controllers. Cast fire balls, shoot ice arrows and take on the linear single-player campaign, which is a first for the franchise.
The Quest version of the popular PC VR shooter is nearly ready to go. Zero Caliber packs a full single-player campaign and co-op support for up to four players, with weapon customizations promising a realistic combat experience.
The classic arcade puzzle game comes to VR for the first time. Puzzle Bobble is the ultimate color-matching experience. Arm yourself with a bobble cannon and blast your way through over 100 puzzles. Plus those dinosaurs have never looked so cute.
Following last month’s launch on Rift and Quest, Wraith: The Oblivion – Afterlife haunts SteamVR later in May. Travel to the Barclay Mansion as an undead Wraith and uncover the mystery behind your death, all while trying to keep your pants dry.
There isn’t an exact date yet but the PSVR version of Solaris should be touching down in May. Fast arena-style combat awaits in the new game from the makers of Firewall: Zero Hour and support for Sony’s Aim controller is in too.
That’s the list of new VR games for May 2021. What are you going to be picking up? Let us know in the comments below!
Last month’s Oculus Gaming Showcase had an assortment of updates for current titles including Pixel Toys’ action-packed Warhammer 40,000: Battle Sister. If you’ve not stepped into this sci-fi world of total war then now’s your chance as VRFocus has several codes for this Oculus Quest exclusive to giveaway.
Rather than a Space Marine, Warhammer 40,000: Battle Sister puts you in the shoes of Sister Ophelia, one of the deadly Sisters of Battle. Hoping to find her long-lost twin sister whilst fighting the hordes of chaos you battle corrupt Chaos Space Marines, Daemons, Heretics, and other abominations. As you’d expect from a Warhammer 40k title you’re well equipped for the task with Bolters, Plasma Pistols, Flamers, Las Rifles, Power Swords, and Chainswords to hand. Plus, you’ll have magical Acts of Faith abilities allowing you to push back enemies and objects, create a force field, or slow time.
In addition to the core single-player campaign Pixel Toys has introduced a Horde Mode so players can battle wave after wave of monsters. The recent update added a multiplayer component so that you and a friend can team up and try to survive. To aid your chances every kill earns you resources that can be used to purchase weapons and ammunition.
Reviewing Warhammer 40,000 Battle Sister at launch VRFocus said: “Warhammer 40,000: Battle Sister has some great set piece moments, and the general gameplay is enjoyable throughout. It’s action all the way, so there’s not much depth to the experience and no secrets to uncover. Just grab a gun and start blasting, which is no bad thing.”
So onto the competition. VRFocus is giving away Warhammer 40,000: Battle Sister codes for Oculus Quest. There are multiple ways to enter the giveaway with the standard prize draw entry rules applying: Follow us (or already be following us) on Twitter (@VRFocus) or alternatively, visit our Facebook page or YouTube channel to get an entry for each. Winners will receive a single randomly drawn code. The competition will be open until 11.59 pm BST on Monday 3rd May 2021. The draw will be made shortly thereafter. Best of luck.
Competition: Win Warhammer 40,000: Battle Sister for Oculus QuestA new Vacation Simulator update adds support for the Quest 2’s new High Frequency Hand Tracking mode, increasing performance and decreasing latency.
The update is available now and improves the reliability and performance when using hand tracking, thanks to an increase in the rate of tracking. The feature is only available to Oculus Quest 2 players – the original Quest still supports hand tracking, but without the high frequency tracking mode.
Human! Today we released the High Frequency Hand Tracking update for Vacation Simulator on Oculus Quest 2.
This update brings improved tracking and lower latency to deliver a more immersive experience. Explore Vacation Island with just your human hands from start to finish! pic.twitter.com/J5jyknRPCV
— Owlchemy Labs (@OwlchemyLabs) April 29, 2021
Previously, the Quest 2 camera’s hand tracking was limited to a rate of 30Hz. Earlier this week, Oculus gave developers the option to enable a ‘High Frequency Hand Tracking’ mode that ups the rate to 60Hz and reduces end-to-end latency by 10%.
Overall, the new mode is meant to be more effective for tracking fast hand movements. It does possess a slight increase in jitter in low-light situations, but Facebook says this will be fixed in a future update.
You can read more about the High Frequency Hand Tracking mode and how developers can enable it here.
Vacation Simulator is one of very few games that has added support for the new 60Hz hand tracking mode. Hand Physics Simulator is another, which rolled out support fairly quickly after Facebook announced the feature. In our anecdotal tests, we found that the high frequency tracking really improved the hand tracking experience in Hand Physics Lab.
It’s uncertain whether all or most games that support hand tracking support will be able to include support for the new high frequency tracking mode. It does come with an increased performance cost, which means that some games with less performance overhead might have to stick with the standard 30Hz rate.
What do you think of the new High Frequency Hand Tracking mode? Let us know what you think in the comments.
