For better or worse, so far Konami has shown zero interest in bringing its long and storied Metal Gear series to VR. But if you’re looking to scratch that stealth combat itch with more than a flair for superhuman acrobatics, you may find Espire 1: VR Operative a serviceable Generic Snake, albeit a bit rougher around the edges than you may like.
This week Valve announced that the Index headset and other hardware can now be bought and shipped to Canada and Japan, in addition to 28 other regions.
Valve today announced Half-Life: Alyx a “full-length VR entry in the award winning series.” A new trailer gives the first glimpse of the game, and Valve has also revealed the Half-Life: Alyx release date, price, and headset compatibility.
Half-Life: Alyx has finally been revealed with Valve promising a “full-length” Half-Life game “designed from the ground up for virtual reality.” On the reveal, Valve founder Gabe Newell says that VR has energized the studio.
Today the world gets its first look at Half-Life: Alyx. In addition to the trailer, the company has released the first Half-Life: Alyx screenshots. If you’re familiar with Valve and the Half-Life series, you know what kinds of art style, environments, and enemies to expect, but you’ve never seen a Half-Life game this detailed.
In a Valve-esque ‘put your money where you mouth is’ move, the company has affirmed that Half-Life: Alyx will support any SteamVR capable headset, which includes Valve’s own Index as well as headsets from Oculus, HTC, WMR, and Pimax. The move underscores the company’s yearslong commitment to making Steam an open platform for VR content and hardware. Owners of Index (or even just the Index controllers) do get a nice perk for their expensive purchase though: a free copy of Half-Life: Alyx.
Half-Life: Alyx is due to launch in March 2020; alongside it, Valve plans to release tools for its Source 2 engine which will let community creators build more VR content for the game and beyond.
Nreal made quite the splash at CES earlier this year, showing off its Nreal Light AR headset which made some clear strides to look less like a futuristic helmet and more like a regular pair of sunglasses you might actually wear in public. Starting today, both the $1,200 Developer Kit and the $2,000 Enterprise Edition are officially available for pre-order.
Varjo, maker of ‘bionic eye’ headsets, is gaining increasing notoriety as the high-end option in the enterprise VR space. This week Varjo announced a partnership with Lenovo which will see the PC maker specially certifying some of its enterprise workstation computers to designate compatibility with the headset.
Steam recently released a ‘Remote Play Together’ feature which is designed to allow users to local-only multiplayer games over the internet. The feature can also work with asymmetric VR games, allowing you to play in your headset while a friend remote-controls your computer as a second player. We tested the feature with the excellent asymmetric VR game Panoptic and found it to be a revelatory addition to the game which makes it easy to share the fun of VR even with friends who don’t have a headset.
LIV, the Prague-based team behind the eponymous mixed reality game-streaming platform, has secured $2.6 million in a Series A financing round, something the company says will be used to expand its development team, accelerate its streaming technology, and to integrate more third-party games studios.
When it comes to public spaces like shops and museums, self-service virtual reality isn’t really a thing yet; first-timers generally need to be told how to put on the headset, how to hold the controllers, and where to stand. And let’s face it, most everyone on the planet is a VR newcomer at this point, meaning you’ll need an attendant to handhold users the entire way through. That’s where South Africa-based EDEN Labs wants to change things up with its enterprise-focused VR headset platform, the Eden Snacker.
Stardust Odyssey, a co-op spaceship shooter from Agharta Studio, was announced during PlayStation’s ‘State of Play’ broadcast back in September. Although we’re no closer to really grasping what the mysterious title as to offer in terms of gameplay, we should know pretty soon, as Stardust Odyssey is coming to PSVR next month.
Espire 1: VR Operative, Digital Lode and Tripwire Interactive’s hotly-awaited VR stealth combat game, may have been delayed a day before it was originally set for release back in September, but now the studios say the time is nigh for the game’s launch; it’s now slated to arrive on November 22nd.
Oculus Quest isn’t going to be on sale this Black Friday, although you can save some cash on a premium bit of content you might otherwise pick up anyway; the illustrious and most bad-ass of VR Star Wars experiences to come to Rift and Quest, the Star Wars Vader Immortal series. It’s all for free during this limited time offer.
