Usage friction—the time and effort it takes before actually starting to do anything in VR—remains a major hurdle for more mainstream adoption of VR. While hardware advancements have and will continue to reduce friction, there’s still a completely untapped opportunity that’s purely on the software side of the equation: pre-headset selection and loading.
You’re still burning through Half-Life: Alyx—or maybe you’ve finished it already—but if you’re wondering where to go after playing one of the highest-rated VR games to date, you may do well to jump into these ten ‘guaranteed fresh’ VR titles next.
Looking for a solid VR headset on the cheap? Or maybe a legacy headset for your growing collection? Oculus is now selling its 2016-era Rift for $300 for a limited time.
Lies Beneath is a single-player survivor horror from Drifter Entertainment, the studio behind Gunheart (2018), Rise of the Gunters (2018), and the Quest version of Robo Recall (2016). Departing somewhat from its previous VR titles, Drifter has delivered a gritty, stylish standalone tale that serves up equal doses of violence and fear, making for a unique offering in Quest’s still fairly demure library of games. A few issues keep me from truly loving it, but Lies Beneath still proves to be a super stylish and serviceable shooter.
The latest Half-Life: Alyx patch, Update 1.2, brings a handful of adjustments and fixes, as well as improved support for left-handed players.
Valve’s long running Steam Survey has been one of the most transparent data sources for gauging which VR headsets are the most used. Now the company says it’s revamping the way it collects data to more accurately count VR headsets in use on Steam.
Half-Life: Alyx has only been out for a week now, but many who have finished the game are already itching for more. While we don’t expect to see any major post-release changes to the game from Valve itself, the company has committed to releasing tools so that the community can tweak the game with mods for Half-Life: Alyx. Though the modding tools aren’t available yet, here’s list of Alyx mods that we’d love to see.
As more people have had the opportunity to play Half-Life: Alyx over the first weekend since its release at the beginning of last week, the game’s user ratings have surged yet higher. Surpassing all other Half-Life games along its way, Half-Life: Alyx is now among the top 10 best rated games on Steam, ever.
With the help of Oculus, YouTube sensation The Slo Mo Guys has launched an eight-part mini-series on Oculus Quest via Oculus TV. The mini-series brings the channel’s signature high-speed footage into the 3D realm.
E McNeill, the developer behind VR strategy games Darknet (2015), Tactera (2016), and Astraeus (2018), is launching a new VR title next month called Ironlights which aims to bring a strategic bend to the melee combat genre.
Google has taken its sweet time bringing its VR creation app Tilt Brush (2016) to PSVR, although having recently slimmed down the app to fit on the modest mobile chipset of Oculus Quest may have given the company needed incentive to finally launch on PSVR. It’s available starting today.
Resolution Games, the studio behind Acron: Attack of the Squirrels (2019) and Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs (2019), today launched their latest game on Magic Leap 1. Called Glimt: The Vanishing at the Grand Starlight Hotel, the detective game arrives today on Magic Leap World for free.
