E3 2014: nDreams Announce ‘The Assembly’ – An Adventure Game Built for Virtual Reality and Project Morpheus

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Jun 11, 2014

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At E3 2014, Oculus VR debuts one of their biggest and most impressive booths yet. Stationed right near the big three (Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo), Oculus’ booth is surrounded by fans hungry to get their heads into the latest VR demos. Within the booth, a mini-museum reveals never before seen Rift prototypes.

Chez Oculus, E3 2014

If you wanted to form a very quick graphic indication of how Oculus VR has grown as a company, simply take a look at their progressively extravagant (albeit always extremely practical) show stands over the last couple of years. At this year’s E3, the company behind the renaissance of virtual reality has once again upped its own ante and taken over a huge portion of the E3 show floor with a boutique show area.

The floor is split up into mini-lounges, complete with dedicated monitors with faux objet d’art dotted about the place. Its very retro-modern, chic, and yet suitably cosy. Anyway, as Road to VR tradition now dictates, we like to be able to give those unable to be at E3 2014 a feel of what it’s like to be there. Therefore, we’ve compiled a batch of snaps which we think captures the place well.

Below you can see the extent of the line that the Rift booth attracts:

The Oculus Rift Mini-museum

Oculus are unusual in the consumer technology or gaming hardware industry, they’re incredibly open to showing their significant leaps. In the last 2 years, press and public have been treated to numerous iterations on technology and design.

Well, as a testament to how far the Oculus Rift has some since its GDC 2012 public debut, and perhaps to emphasise to the impatient fans just how much work goes on behind the scenes, this year’s booth holds an integrated mini-museum of Oculus Rift prototypes. The small, curated collection gives a good overview of the transition from past to present although it’s by no means exhaustive. Talking to Road to VR’s Ben Lang, Palmer Luckey told him “It isn’t a comprehensive display… we had to be careful what prototypes we showed…”—giving a teasing insight into perhaps design and technologies not followed but potentially still valuable in the future or to others.

For those of you who’ve been following the Oculus story from the beginning, you’ll likely recognise some of them. So here’s a challenge for you: Can you name when and where we saw each of the below devices first? Throw your answers in the comments below and we’ll see who gets the most.

(Left to right): DK2, DK2 red variant, DK2 white variant, Crystal Cove

DK2 prototypes with red and white translucent covers. Perhaps Oculus was testing IR performance between different colored plastic, or maybe looking at customization options for the eventual CV1 release?

DK2 prototypes with covers translucent to visible light haven’t been seen until E3 2014

Three different versions of the ‘HD Prototype’

E3 2014: Rev VR Podcast E3 Day One Round-up Special

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Jun 11, 2014

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The message is clear from Oculus VR for this year’s E3, content is king. With no hardware announcements forthcoming, Oculus are pushing new games and experiences.

Reverend Kyle is on the show floor this week checking out all the latest VR content. Today he’s joined by Road to VR Founder and Executive Editor Ben Lang and they talk about what they saw and experienced on day one of the biggest game event of the year.

Impressions on Alien: Isolation, Lucky’s Friend and EVE Valkyrie and they also talk about new demos on Sony’s Project Morpheus stand including the brand new Stret Luge experience.

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Update: Some people are reporting issues with the embedded audio. Here is a direct link for you to download if you’re affected.

We hope to have more daily round ups from the Reverend and Ben as the week progresses.

Hands-on: Killing Zombies with the Survios Prime 3 Prototype is a Blast [video]

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Ben Lang

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Jun 11, 2014

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Survios, formerly Project Holodeck, continues to work to create a fully immersive virtual reality environment. I got my hands on their latest prototype hardware, dubbed the Prime 3, to slay Zombies on the Holodeck once again.

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E3 2014: Lucky’s Tale Gameplay on the Oculus Rift DK2, High Quality Off Screen Footage

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Jun 11, 2014

We’re back with another snippet of Oculus Rift gameplay taken at Oculus’ private demo booth at E3. This time, the game Oculus VR have been pushing hard at E3 this year, the 3D platformer Lucky’s Friend.

I have to say, the more I see of this title the more I like the looks of it. I said before it resembled a mash up of Mario 64 and Conker’s Bad Fur Day, both on the Nintendo 64 console from years ago, albeit obviously visually much improved. Again, the subtleties of positional tracking are by all accounts solving the blight of 3D platformers, camera issues.

It’s some of the best quality footage I’ve yet seen of the game – despite it being off screen video. We’ll have more detailed impressions of Oculus’ demo set soon.

E3 2014: Alien: Isolation Gameplay on the Oculus Rift DK2

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Jun 11, 2014

One of the most exciting announcements for VR fans at E3 this was that, not only was the new Sega title Alien: Isolation going to officially support the Oculus Rift but that it was playable as part of Oculus’ demo set too! We of course made a bee line to the booth to try it out.

Above is some off screen gameplay footage showing some really interesting mechanics that utilise the positional tracking capabilities of the Oculus Rift DK2 (which is due to ship next month). In particular, after pulling out the franchises signature motion tracker, the player can lean in to take a better look at the device.

Enjoy the video, we’ll have detailed impressions on all the demos at Oculus VR’s booth later on.

E3 2014: Rev. Kyle Plays SUPERHOT at Oculus’ Public Booth

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Jun 11, 2014

More gameplay from our resident Reverend as he whisks himself around the show floor with Ben Lang at E3 2014. This time, he gets his head in an Oculus Rift DK2 to play the off-the-wall action shooter that plays with causality, SUPERHOT. You can see how well the positional tracking is integrated with this title – slowing down time and dodging around bullets with your head sounds to me an incredibly cool gameplay mechanic.

More from the show floor for Day and Day 2 later today.

E3 2014: Rev. Kyle Plays Lucky’s Tale on the DK2

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Jun 11, 2014

We’re busy compiling, editing and putting our footage and images together for some more formal articles, but to give you a glimpse inside Oculus’ private booth and a flavour of new Oculus co-published title Lucky’s Tale here’s Rev. Kyle rocking the DK2 doing just that. Brief summary of his feelings? He loved it! ;)

We’ll have more impressions and reports from the E3 show floor as we enter day 2.

E3 2014: Alien: Isolation on the Oculus Rift is Terrifying, Early Reactions from the Twittersphere

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Jun 10, 2014

Our team at E3 have now played Alien: Isolation at Oculus VR’s booth, amongst other things and we’ll have reactions and videos soon. But what is everyone else making of what could potentially be a recipe for heart failure if done well – Aliens in virtual reality?

User ‘goodgreenganja’ (my new favourite reddit user name) on subreddit /r/oculus has collated recent reaction tweets from those that have played the game in the Rift. They are presented below. Thanks to ‘goodgreenganja’ for the fast work! General summary? It’s f*!*ing terrifying! ;)

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Just experienced @AlienIsolation on @oculus rift at #E32014. Most frightening video game experience ever. I’m still shaking.

— PHNK (@brandonfoy) June 10, 2014

No gaming experience on a 2D screen could match the two games I just played in the DK2 @oculus Rift. Not even close.

— Ian Hamilton (@hmltn) June 10, 2014

Just played Alien: Isolation on Oculus Rift. I … need new pants. #E3Joy

— Jess Conditt (@JessConditt) June 10, 2014

You may look dumb using it, but your mind is fully convinced it’s real #oculus #JackatE3 pic.twitter.com/Ru8p956Rmu

— 140mafia (@TheLuvingFather) June 10, 2014

E3 2014: Early Reactions to Oculus VR’s Demos from Outside the VR Community

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Jun 10, 2014

Being immersed in the world and community of VR, as we are here at Road to VR – trying to gauge reaction from those outside the community is incredibly important. As the launch of Oculus Rift CV1 and Project Morpheus approaches, virtual reality developers are going to have to focus on the gamers rather than the enthusiasts or risk launching to a disinterested public.

With that in mind, it’s always gratifying and reassuring when those who aren’t VR geeks, come away from a virtual reality presentation not only ‘getting it’ but becoming evangelistic about the experience. That’s the category the above video from ‘Strength Gamer‘ fits into. He’s been one of the first to articulate his experiences at Oculus’ Booth and they range from universally positive to downright aghast.

We’ll have our own impressions from the E3 ground team for both Oculus’s and Sony’s show floor demonstrations very soon indeed. Stay Tuned!

Control VR Post Reddit User’s Hands-On Experiences

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Jun 10, 2014

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As reported earlier, Control VR have been going out of their way to demonstrate to the VR community that their upper body motion capture system which incorporates some pretty awesome finger tracking data gloves, is completely awesome and well worth the $600 entry fee (for the dual hand pledge tier at least).

This video includes ggodin, who we quoted in our last report as one of the first users to zip over to the Control VR office to have a go with the system. He seemed impressed in that report and the video seems to back that up nicely.

Control VR are $6.5k away from their $250k goal as of writing, so it seems this round of proactive is aimed at pushing their tital as far beyond the goal as possible. As yet, no stretch goals have been announced.

As stated, we’ll be going hands-on with Control VR at E3 this week. Stay tuned.

E3 2014: Naughty Dog Co-Founder Joins Oculus VR, New Titles At Oculus Booth Confirmed

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Jun 10, 2014

Despite what must be a hectic time for the Oculus crew with E3 about to hit the ‘go’ button on the show floor, they found time to release some news snippets via their blog.

Jason Rubin, Co-Founder of Naughty Dog, Joins Oculus

First up is yet another high profile hire for Oculus, Jason Rubin one of the founders of the enormously successful Naughty Dog development studios has joined the company as Worldwide Head of Studios. Naughty Dog are behind such huge franchises as Jak and Daxtor and the Uncharted series of games for Playstation platforms. As we’ve continually emphasised, Oculus are dead serious about content – they know that not only will good, compelling content sell the dream of VR and help adoption rates, but that once the hardware puzzles are ‘solved’, the revenue stream will be software. It’s another huge win for the company that has hit it’s stride since Facebook acquired them for $2bn back in March.

There have only been a handful of times in my life where I saw something that I knew would change everything. The awe-inspiring tech Oculus is building is a portal into an incredible world that my daughter will one day consider to be normal. The moment I put it on, I wanted to help define that future.

New Titles on Show at E3 Confirmed – Alien: Isolation is One of Them

And as it’s becoming very clear that Oculus VR’s focus at E3 is, quite logically, content – it’s fitting the remainder of the update is games, games, games. The confirmed list of titles ready to play on the Oculus VR booth at E3 this year are as follows:

SuperHot:

SUPERHOT is a unique first-person shooter game where time moves only when you move, making each level a deadlypuzzle fueled by fluid time mechanics and relentless foes. It’s one of the most fun experiences we’ve seen on the Rift.

The project started out during last year’s 7 Day First Person Shooter game jam, where we decided to make something that really stood out in the genre – a title that felt satisfying, while not requiring superhuman reflexes. Something like a game of real-time chess, except that all the pawns are out there to murder you. – SUPERHOT Team

Lucky’s Tale:

Lucky’s Tale is a new made-for-VR adventure by the team atPlayful. Introduced in last week’s blog, Lucky’s Tale is a “delightful platforming adventure game” designed exclusively for the Rift that reimagines the genre from the ground up. Lucky’s Tale is premiering for the first time here at E3 2014, so be sure to swing by the booth and check it out on the Rift!

Alien: Isolation:

Creative Assembly’s Alien: Isolation™ is a new survival horror game set in the Alien™ universe. A terrifying experience, particularly in virtual reality, Isolation is all about survival.

In the E3 Rift demo, you’ll use every tool at your disposal to escape from a ruthless Alien in the wreckage of your spaceship. Underpowered and underprepared, you’ll scavenge resources and improvise solutions; not just to succeed, but to survive.

EVE Valkyrie:

EVE: Valkyrie is the highly anticipated multiplayer, space-dogfighting shooter being developed by CCP and co-published by Oculus. Valkyrie, running on the Rift HD Prototype, was a contender for Game of Show at last year’s E3. It returns, but with an all new style, running on the graphical horsepower of Unreal Engine 4.

We’ll bring you our thoughts on the new titles once our team of crack reported have had a chance to try them out on the show floor.

E3 2014: No Man’s Sky Dazzles With Beautiful, Procedurally Generated Worlds – PC Version May Get Oculus Rift Support

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Jun 10, 2014

One of the highlights of a very positive Sony press conference last night was a stunning trailer by a small, UK based development team called Hello Games. It’s called No Man’s Sky and it’s a stunning, procedurally generated space / world exploration title coming to the PS4 and PC.

Last nights’s trailer was preceded by an introduction by founder of Hello Games, Sean Murray. He described the team’s desire to create a boundless universe where players can join each other in procedurally generated universes and where every player will receive their own, completely unique home planet. The trailer is majestic, beginning as a wander through a planet’s surface admiring vegetation and wildlife before whisking the viewer into the heavens to explore the galaxy. Impressive stuff.

Although last night was all about the PS4, No Man’s Sky started life as a PC game and a few months ago, the team tweeted themselves receiving and playing with an Oculus Rift HD Development Kit. The team had previously stated they’re interest at the possibility of support for the VR Headset but as of yet have yet to officially confirm that it’s in development.

Problem! There are less steps in the stairs in this VR demo, than there are in our office. Will probably be fine pic.twitter.com/30DOSstVEz

— Sean Murray (@NoMansSky) April 3, 2014

We’ll try to find out more on the game and likelihood of Oculus Rift support at E3 this week. In the mean time, cop a look at these screenshots and the 2014 E3 trailer above.

News Bits: Control VR Kickstarter 95% Complete, Community Impressions Emerge

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Jun 10, 2014

We reported recently that an extremely promising new motion control system based on the IGS Glove, known as Control VR, hit Kickstarter. Well, the upper body motion capture system which includes the impressive finger tracking data gloves has rocketed to 95% of it’s $250k goal in just 5 days. Now, the company is openly welcoming members of the VR community to one of their offices for an open demonstration of the new system.

In a reddit post on subreddit /r/oculus, BrandonJa one of Control VR’s developers, invited anyone in the downtown LA area over to their offices for beer, pizza and come hands-on time with Control VR. Shortly afterwards, impressions from those who took Brandon up on his offer began to appear and the feedback is resoundingly positive.

Reddit user ggodin was one of the first to post some of his thoughts:

The first demo with the gloves that I got to try was a moon exploration demo that they created. Your avatar is wearing a full astronaut suit with some weird interface at the bottom of your helmet that I didn’t really get (I think they should remove those). Once Spencer told me that I could look at my hands I was amazed! I could rotate them, squeeze them, do weird finger movements and they were all tracked fluidly. The latency was barely noticeable honestly. I would guesstimate it to around 50-75 ms between moving a finger and seeing it move in the HMD. They also had a TV behind showing what I was seeing. Later on I could notice the TV had a much higher latency than what you actually see in the HMD.

It’s interesting to note that, with proper calibration, the gloves in particular seem to be extremely accurate and the latency low:

I tried several things to push the gloves limits. I tried holding my hands together; the palms were touching in the game but the fingers were bending backwards a little bit. This was due to calibration they said and in fact later on, after re-calibrating, my fingers were closer when doing the same pose. The arm models moved very closely to my actual arms, this was quite impressive. The shoulders of the skeletal model were probably a little wider than mine so some arm/elbow movements were a little off. Also when putting a hand on top of my head, the hand appeared a n inch in front of my forehead in game. Again I think the little glitches come from the initial calibration. It’s important to note that none of the demos had any noticeable drift. In fact, the rift yaw (DK1) seemed to drift while my arms and fingers stayed in place.

All very promising indeed then. And we have to say that the way Control VR has chosen to ‘do business’ on their Kickstarter campaign shows an impressive understanding of the growing VR community. It also shows an inordinate amount of confidence when they’re willing to invite anyone into their offices to try their prototype hardware.

We’re hoping to get some hands-on time with Control VR during the E3 show this week. We’ll of course update soon with our impressions once we have them. And Control VR’s Kickstarter page can be found here.

E3 2014: New Oculus VR Published Lucky’s Tale Gameplay Video Online

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Jun 10, 2014