The Book of Distance
What can I say that hasn’t been said already?
About 30 minutes, not much to “do” but so much to read & feel.
You’ll need a solid 1.5m x 1.5m space to get the full effect.
Ok, enough with the technical stuff…
Such a wonderful VR experience!!! Just wow.
It resonated with me so much, (lens got foggy, something in my eye…both eyes, weird) as I am first generation after my father immigrated to the United States.
He worked very hard & for almost nothing for decades to provide for our family. We were very poor, no Nike’s or name brand stuff but always had food.
– Real player with 1.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best 6DOF Narrative Games.
This game is a great way to introduce VR to beginners.
Truth be told I did not believe the other review when they said it will make u cry.
The first 3 minutes when i played this the atmosphere just captured my attention and It made me teared up because of the ambient. From the tone of the narrator to his father’s point of view. It got me on edge. Granted there are a few flaws in the game. But from the way The game was made and told You know that the developers wanted to capture the story telling. Making an immersive experience. Keep in mind that this story is a sad one.
– Real player with 1.1 hrs in game
Interregnum Chronicles: Signal
First advice: Read the game description closely :)
This plays like a “walking” simulator inside a satellite called “Harmony” that accommodates one person, so you’re floating in microgravity with ways to grab onto things and push yourself around. The core of the game is to tweak signal processing using human interfacing terminals, and that mysterious signal of unknown origin and requires decoding to find out what it is/says/does. At first the system doesn’t have the capacity to process the entire signal so an Operator (you) needs to approve lots of AI upgrades. See where this is going?
– Real player with 26.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best 6DOF Walking Simulator Games.
So I have played this game a fair bit and tried to “get into it” but honestly, it’s pretty awful. I’m writing this review with steam saying that I have had 11 hours playtime, but really it’s more like 5 or 6 because I would leave the game on to “idle” in order to farm the necessary resources to progress the story.
And that is pretty much the game in a nutshell. Leaving it running to obtain an ever increasing targeted number of resources that are basically just numbers on one of several terminal screen’s. There are Networking, Data Processing and Memory “resources” that you need to increase in order to upgrade the stations AI and each resource is tied to the others with glass ceilings that you need to break by obtaining more of one of the other resources. There are ways to expedite the process such as using up to 4 batteries on a terminal but honestly, that just gets annoying. The batteries will explode if you overcharge them (or at least damage the stations electrics) and when you do use them they don’t last long at all. I haven’t timed them but I would be shocked if they actually last more than a minute or two at most. When you do have to recharge them as well, you can only carry one at a time and so you have to take each one from where you need it back to the garden where the charging ports are. Obviously you can’t plug one in and leave it charging whilst you fetch another as it will likely overcharge and short out the electrics so you end up floating along carrying one for a 2nd, dropping it to pick up another, dropping it to pick up a 3rd and so on until you get them where you need to go. Obviously you are in space with no gravity and so they drift…. a lot. Yeah, lets just say that gets old. Fast.
– Real player with 11.6 hrs in game
FamilyWorldRoam
Just purchased this game to see how chill it was. It’s pretty chill. I tried all the different things: space station (one room, as far as I could tell), painting (bob rossish), air balloon – I was testing this in seated position and i was excited above all else to try air balloon…it doesn’t work seated. I also haven’t seen an in-game options menu to change any controls, raise or lower, etc. Ferris Wheel was fairly generic but an interesting and simple introduction as it was the first button I tried. Fireworks was pretty cool, again standard with not many to play with but it has potential and is fun to mingle with. Underwater had fun movement controls which made it interesting trying to time the movements with the sea creatures…and interestingly the controls are similar on the space station, nice floaty underwater effect right there. Aurora…now this one I really enjoyed. I free-roamed over to the lightning bugs and just looked around, it was beautiful, kept going and fell off the map. I was then under the map, walking on water jesus mode while seeing above some of how it had been built, there’s so much you could do with that map if you wanted to, I’d play that as a shooter map even….that experience was enough to give this a positive review. As far as first impressions go, it was relaxing and I enjoyed it. As far as critique, please add more control and camera options in time. I would prefer walking with the left thumbstick and turning/looking with the right thumbstick, I’m sure many others would too. Not bad though, not bad at all.
– Real player with 0.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best 6DOF Relaxing Games.
‘FamilyWorldRoam’ is a collection of 6 experiences from a slow hotair balloon flight, to a giant Ferris wheel and even some drawing. If this was free it might have been worth a look, but it most definitely isn’t worth the £4.79 asking price. It looks OK at times I suppose, but that is the only praise I can give it. The first main problem is that the developer describes this as an app that “doesn’t need complex operation”, but it is an utter shit-show to move about. There are far better things to show people new to VR that doesn’t need any movement so when this app fails to do even that it makes it kind of pointless.
– Real player with 0.2 hrs in game
Laid-Back Camp - Virtual - Lake Motosu
As the biggest fan of Yuru Camp, it’s super comfy!! The price might not be worth it for those who aren’t into the anime or into CGDCT, but it’s a great game for fans of Yuru Camp and those who want to experience something calm and comfy once in a while. The graphics are pretty nice; it might need a little more detail to the environment and further exploration of the whole Koan Campground area instead of being stuck in two places, but I guess that’s how most VR story-telling games work. The story is pretty much what you’d expect from a Yuru Camp episode, pure comfy and heartwarming cuteness that makes me love the two girls even more. I even like the small bit of NadeRin moment at the end of it~ Though I wish there was more to the gameplay and interactivity to make us feel more immersed in the campsite.
– Real player with 13.8 hrs in game
First of all, at the time of this writing the listing says “VR Only” but you can totally play it without.
I have played it with and without. VR Headset is an HP Reverb G2 and working without problems. Also take note that this is more an “experience” than is a “game”.
For the price, as much as I’d like to, is hard to justify if you don’t have VR headset.
The interactions are limited and the game could use some chilling music during downtime if you just want to stay in a scene.
The graphics are okay but it’s nothing groundbreaking. The atmosphere in the scenario greatly improves during the noon/evening and night, but it feels a bit cheap during the morning. I’m wondering if it has taken some damage on the PC release being a cross-platform title that includes android phones.
– Real player with 2.5 hrs in game
ШХД: ЛЕТО / IT’S SUMMER
You just woke up after a midday nap in your country house surrounded by the swishing sound of turntable. You are 8 years old. It’s Summer is an indie video game which genres are “sandbox”, “babushka”, and “midday nap”. The game has neither goal nor sense. There are only you, cheap tea bags with russian tears and the endless yellow field.
The game itself is integral part of the Digital-opera “ШХД: ЛЕТО”. This project also contains a book, LP record, series of digital-art collaborations and something more. ШХД: ЛЕТО is the second and final part of the project ШХД: ЗИМА (It’s Winter).
Queerskins: ark
NOTE:
Unfortunately, Steamworks has decided to inexplicably censor this 6DoF interactive VR. If you want to support queer content and voices, please let Steam know of your displeasure. And, head to Viveport to download this woman produced and directed interactive experience, part of a Peabody award winning series! https://www.viveport.com/bcbd1d54-ac06-4b2e-a393-3851e6173440
Queerskins: ARK is a 6DoF interactive virtual reality experience. Reading a diary left by the estranged son, a Catholic mother (Hadley Boyd) finds a way to transcend herself and her grief by imagining him alive and in love. With heart-wrenching performances by Michael DeBartolo and Christopher Vo in volumetric video and the storytelling potential of spatial sound, Ark allows you to enter her imagination and co-create the lovers’ intimate dance through your body position and movements. An Intel Studios Original co-produced with Cloudred.
The Attic
The viewer finds herself in a dimly lit attic bedroom, a place that seems to be stuck in time, heavy with memory. Here, you assume the passive role of an observer in a 360˚ environment. Unable to move, you can examine the memorabilia-laden surroundings and begin to get an idea of time, place and what the story might be about. Mary-Helen begins reading her son’s diary.
El Matador
As Mary-Helen begins to imagine her son’s world, you are transported to a beautiful beach at dawn. Sebastian and his lover Alex appear, like a daydream nearby in the landscape. We allow Sebastian to break the 4th wall and directly implicate you in the scene. We position you quite close to the two men, just outside their personal space as you listen to their conversation. As Mary-Helen finds freedom in her imagination, you too now have the freedom to move around the beach as the experience transforms into 6DoF.
The Memory
The scene crossfades to an abstraction of the beach. Sebastian and Alex begin an intimate dance. Depending on how you move in the space, the dancers appear to respond to your presence. The performance has been choreographed as a series of segments, each visitor sees only 5 out of possible 24 combinations within each play session. Replay it to see other potential variations, follow the blue glowing lights to hear Mary-Helen reading Sebastian’s diary entries. Raise both arms to gain a new perspective, point your arms forward to fly!
Back in the Attic
As the lovers fade away, you are now back in the attic. It is the magic hour. The room is lit with a flat, golden light, reminiscent of the light on the beach. With a return of detail and color, it feels like the room has come back to life. Mary-Helen contemplates her new found sense of self.
Note
Queerskins: ARK is a room scale experience. It can be adjusted for available space:
— Small (10’x10’ / 3x3 m)
— Medium (20’x20’ / 6x6 m) — Default
— Large (30’x30’ / 9x9 m)
Subtitles are available in English, Spanish, Italian and Polish. Subtitles can only be set at the beginning of the experience by using your controller or by pressing corresponding keys on your keyboard. Please see the experience splash screen for details.
The Great C
This short adventure cinematic is well-made, though it has some of that “indie” charm to remind that it has been made by a small team of enthusiasts, rather than a heavy-hitter like ILMxLab. Most of the characters' animations are motion-captured performances, though there are plenty of character movements that are stilted and robotic, which were obviously manually-animated. The characters are cartoony, but expressive. And don’t let the character designs fool you… this story is not for young children.
– Real player with 0.8 hrs in game
Not quite long enough to be called a movie and not quite short enough as the Google spotlight shorts. At 38 minutes long it’s almost as long as an episode of most series.
The story is good and the actors are quite believable. Graphically it looks a lot like Telltale (rip) games. Which kinda makes me sad that I’ll never see that studio dive into VR.
VR cinematic experiences are quite new and there is a lot of experimentation involved. Some of it really works, like the building case scene, where trying to follow both characters creates tension, or the final confrontation, where the scale of C really can be appreciated. Some of it doesn’t, like suddenly you feel like an ant watching giants and the next moment a giant watching ants. But that cam be expected in such a new medium.
– Real player with 0.8 hrs in game
BRINK Traveler
Beautiful & breathtaking views look great in this VR experience. Looking forward to more locations to be added. One problem I faced during launch of the program (using my Oculus Quest-2) is the audio remaining on the PC speakers and not on the headset. Every time I have to manually change the audio device to the headphone of headset. Other thing I did not like is to separately downloading each scenery which takes a lot of time as they are pretty large and waiting during this time spoils the experience somehow. If during installation all the destinations are downloaded at the same time with the option to delete the ones I do not like later would be great. Otherwise a great experience.
– Real player with 3.6 hrs in game
This is a great little piece of virtual tourism and provides a little inobtrusive education along the way. The night view appears to be just a filter over the day view with a different skybox but that’s a minor niggle when the rest of the experience works so well.
An undocumented feature I discovered accidentally is the ability to reframe an ingame screenshot; Take a picture (with Valve Index just point one palm away and one towards you in the “photo framing” gesture), and if you don’t have the shot aligned perfectly you can grab the image card and move it around the scene to correct it before saving - very handy.
– Real player with 2.1 hrs in game
Tarzan VR™ Issue #1 - THE GREAT APE
I grew up reading graphic novels and Sunday newspaper comics. Tarzan happened to be one of those syndicated comics and that’s how I discovered the legendary character and a whole cast of supporting characters.
Stonepunk Studios has taken that hand-drawn comic aesthetic and drops VR players into the jungle as Tarzan himself. Well, technically, his hands.
The first issue, “The Great Ape” sets up a big adventure where you have to swing, swim, fight and explore in an effort to save the jungle from “bad men”.
– Real player with 8.6 hrs in game
I’m using i7 7700K (4.5 Ghz), GTX 1080 8GB and 16GB 3200 MHz - and both Valve Index and Rift CV1. Although many textures are very low-res, there are also many nice/great textures, but none even remotely close to Alyx. Still the game looks great - and I like being able to just explore.
The world feels alive and breathing. Did go into the water and it suddenly got deep - and in my mind I started hearing music from Jaws, and I was very quick to get out of the water, lol.
Performance and image quality are great with the Index - 4xMSAA, render scale 1.0 and all other settings maxed make the game look close to the best it can. Motion smoothing is my friend, not my enemy, and I’ll probably need a 3080 to use render scale 1.5 - but MSAA seems most important to reduce jaggies.
– Real player with 3.9 hrs in game
The Living Remain
Built from the ground up by a two person team, The Living Remain is a virtual reality first person adventure shooter where players immerse themselves in a new world where the undead have taken over. You must survive the horde of undead using an arsenal of weapons in a story driven campaign loaded with a variety of interactive environments. Explore, scavenge, and collect filament to craft ammo and upgrade a variety of weapons.
You are playing as Grant Montgomery, a former military soldier who has been separated from his family. Now he is searching for them in a post apocalyptic world where pockets of remaining humans are surviving within protected compounds, while the undead roam freely. He comes across a group of survivors, one of them is Alex, and she quickly becomes his ally. Over a radio she helps Grant navigate through this dark post apocalypse world.
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Full campaign with story driven gameplay - Embark on a journey that has purpose as you progress through a compelling story
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Combat - Take hold of a variety of weapons such as pistols, and two handed weapons (assault rifles, shot guns, etc.) or wield a knife for up close and personal combat
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Realistic Pistol and Assault Rifle Aiming/Firing- Look down your sights while you take down hordes of the undead
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Crafting- Scavenge for filament to craft ammo and upgrade weapons
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Physics Based Environments- Break through glass with your hands or push objects away, and hands will not go through them
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Interactive and Immersive Gameplay - Combat, scaling/climbing, and engaging puzzles
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Full locomotion- Traverse through various environments using full locomotion with smooth touchpad/stick walking to freely roam, scavenge, and explore
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Optimized to run fluidly on GTX 970 or equivalent