Azlan: Rise of the Burlpups
It’s a simple tower defense game, but a good looking one.
Would rate neutral if Steam allowed that, but they are still in computing middle-age so it’s either yay or nay… let’s call it a yay for a rather casual, cute game.
PS: got the game via Curator Connect.
– Real player with 5.1 hrs in game
Read More: Best Grand Strategy Tower Defense Games.
Experienced on the Oculus Quest 2
You can view my review & gameplay here: https://youtu.be/JpKk9sO02c4
I’ll agree with Masamune27858 that this isn’t a “good” TD game. The core gameplay is just too simple. However, I don’t think it’s a bad game, it’s just not what someone who is experienced in TD games would be looking for. I do think this game would be nice for someone new to Tower Defense games.
It’s a very beautiful game. In fact, it it’s probably the best looking TD game in VR. The art-style looks really good and they would be pleasant just as VR dioramas to enjoy. The gameplay is basically just playing down one of three towers, plus upgrading or selling them. You also have a hero that you can place to help put down the enemy siege.
– Real player with 3.5 hrs in game
The Fall of Balance
The Fall of Balance is a VR, fantasy game focused on Colossal boss fights, each with various mechanics, like climbing, character Skills, and others. Although it can be easily compared to Shadow of the Colossus in VR, many gameplay elements make it unique. You will have to trick the giant Guardians in order to climb them and search for their vital spots.
The game is mainly centered around boss fights, but Easter Eggs will be a huge part of the game too, hopefully creating a great and strong community for The Fall of Balance.
Read More: Best Grand Strategy Exploration Games.
Combat Helicopter- Surgical Strike
I really enjoyed this game, It has amazing game-play experience, I really feel like I’m in a helicopter when I’m playing this game.
Missions are good, the most I’ve enjoyed out of this game is the night mode flying experience. Combat is tough, I have crashed my Heli many times during my first mission.
The controls take time to get used to, but one you master it. The game is all yours, Its so fun.
– Real player with 14.7 hrs in game
Read More: Best Grand Strategy Casual Games.
Ever wanted to drive your own helicopter and shoot rockets and just all out destroy?
With this game,Your dreams come true,I truly enjoyed playing this as i thought i originally would,My expectations was that i was getting myself into a game where you hop into a heli and just destroy,My expectations were met shortly after! I truly enjoy the aspect of a small Dev team base because it truly shows the hard work and development that this game has to go thru to become great. The first time you load up your on a helipad and you get yourself into a heli and then on its Destroy all things haha,I highly recommend this game just to see where it goes from here as its an enjoyable experience and definately a game to showcase with friends/family when having get togethers,Will upload video review soon to speak more about my thoughts.Want to thank the Dev team for creating this and will absolutely say it sure has been fun!
– Real player with 1.5 hrs in game
VR Basketball Hoops
‘VR Basketball Hoops’ is pretty much what you are probably expecting it to be. It’s a hoop scoring game in which you get to pick one of 5 locations (Classic basketball court, space, Beach, Pyramid and a Night Club) and you can play 3 kinds of modes on each of them: Arcade (classic score hoops until you are board, but the basket keeps teleporting about the arena after each shot), Timeline (a set amount of time to score as many as you can) and moving which of course sees the basket hoop constantly moving back and forth. . There is nothing much wrong with this game and nothing right with it as well. Yes, it looks OK and has some fun environment, but it’s too hard, it’s full of bugs and there are far better basketball games out there most of which are for free. It’s worth a look for something silly to play for 5 minutes I suppose, but you just about get what you pay for here which is not a lot. Once again I do wish I could give this a natural rating, but it just about works and is too cheap to give it the thumbs down on.
– Real player with 0.0 hrs in game
Chessality
Chessality is bringing “over-the-board” (OTB) chess to you!… and much, much more!
One of the most classic strategic board games can finally be properly played, enjoyed, and studied in VR!
Enjoy realistic/cartoonish environments on fun, exciting, and heart-pumping single and team battles!
Feel the intensity of OTB competitive play by joining official Chessality tournaments placing you in a competitive VR environment dedicated to tournaments.
Have fun with your friends on team battles for fun and for serious climbing of the ranks!
This game is aimed at both casual players, enthusiasts, dedicated chess players, and modders who enjoy customizing their game’s visuals.
Features Complete
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Immerse in over-the-board chess games using ‘focus’ environments with nice simple playlists or just silent, or enjoy casual games on calm/stressful aesthetically realistic/cartoonish environments! There is a total of 5 maps available, and more to come!
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Basic playlist offering option to load songs from Youtube or your local mp3s.
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Lichess integration: Don’t feel like walking away from your already amazing ranking in lichess? No worries. We have almost full integration. Yes. Join all lichess tournaments, different chess variations (not all as of yet), view/add/challenge your friends, play casual and competitive. Yes, you can play with non-Chessality users across all platforms. Show your trophies and lichess' donator flags. It also supports multiple lichess accounts for households with multiple lichess players (disabled multi-user on release*).
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Multiple chessmen skins and chessboard skins: in addition to the ability to load your own custom skins/3D models for your chessmen/chessboard.
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Play both Chessality’s and lichess' puzzles to improve your skills based on your puzzle ratings on a variety of tactical themes!
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Classic tutorial of the basics of how to play the game
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Learn openings: learn intuitively with a selective level of deepness. Don’t just learn the best moves, but Chessality shows you how to play any of the openings we have available both for black and for white, displaying both the best moves for each side as well as classic mistakes from your opponent and how to punish the mistakes. This is aimed at all skill levels, from beginners to at least International Masters. [partial DLC]
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Blindfold chess: Ever wanted to learn blindfold chess but never tried, or was it too overwhelming the first time? Chessality has different levels of blindfold (all levels include a voice announcing the move):
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Level 1: All chessmen are made of transparent glass of the same color tone
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Level 2: All chessmen and chessboard are made of glass
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Level 3: No pieces, just chessboard and a 2D table showing all the historical moves of the game in notation form (i.e., e2e4)
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Level 4: No pieces, just chessboard and a 2D table showing the last 3 moves of the game
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Level 5: No pieces, just chessboard and a table showing the last move of the game
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Level 6: No pieces, just chessboard.
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WIP Features planned for release
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Simple and intuitive menu with the ability to display advanced settings
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Game modes: in addition to most of lichess' game modes, we also including Poisoned Pawn and Dice Chess game modes
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Ability to interact in VR with other VR user(s) when playing with Chessality users
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Music integration from Spotify
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Voice command to move the pieces and toggling some in-game options. This is perfect for full blindness training. [DLC]
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Learn end games
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Learning openings: selective test for testing your skills on one or several openings and variations with selective deepness. [partial DLC]
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Study chess by connecting to a local instance of Chessbase 16 and Fritz, with features that may assist chess schools or private tutors. [DLC]
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Study using lichess' study mode
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Bringing modern games' ranking system to chess: you have your own Chessality MMR, in addition to lichess'. Chessality’s ranking system includes tiers (Silver/Gold/Platinum/Diamond/Grandmaster), and divisions reset every season.
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Team matches: create teams and have 3v3 and 5v5 team matches.
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Create your own single/team tourney with casual settings or hardcore selective settings like: “to end a turn, you must hit your clock,” “use the same hand used to move a piece to hit the clock,” “knocking your king down accidentally is the same as resigning,” etc. Great for casual tournaments, club tournaments, or others. You may also fill gaps with AIs using Stockfish 13 at different levels. Tournament settings also include limiting the tournament for Chessality users only, in case you want a VR-only tournament.
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Language support (in addition to the original US English): Norwegian, Spanish (Mexico), Portuguese (Brazil), and Polish. Chessality requires community support for further language support.
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Streaming features and shortcuts to make the lives of streamers easier.
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Integration with another 2D chess group for further expanding chess cross-play.
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Steamworks integration for custom environments and other community content.
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More chessmen skins, chessboard skins, and environments
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Voice descriptions of events and tutorials
DLC information
Yes, there are some DLCs planned. However, all chessmen/chessboard skins will also be complete freely available to be downloaded from our website and can be “side-loaded” using the available feature of loading custom models to Chessality. These won’t be shown to your opponent (if they are using VR) but are fully available to you.
Feature requests
Any cool ideas or integration requests? Tell us! We are very open to ideas!
Will a non-VR version be available?
As of right now, there is no plan. Although there is code implemented for debugging without using a VR headset, one of this project’s goals is to bring emphasis to OTB chess and add a meaningful and replayable VR game to your library. We don’t want to downplay the VR in this game by offering a non-VR option. Furthermore, there are already several very well accomplished 2D options of the game.
Release date information
Originally planned for December 2020, but now the plan is around may-august 2021. We feel very safe about these range dates to release the game as actually, the gameplay is quite very well polished, and most original features for release are ready. However, further advertisement, artwork, and environmental polishment seem in order before release. The actual feature list is much longer than described, and the planned feature list is even much longer. Due to the almost pure focus of the client, server, integration of third-party services, game mechanics, and aesthetics development, almost nothing has been done on artwork and advertisement until now.
Want to help?
We would gladly accept any free help you can offer! Especially artwork and advertisement ;)
Author personal notes
Yes, 2D digital chess is incredible and offers very convenient playability/portability. However, 2D digital chess doesn’t 100% translate your skills to OTB chess, nor OTB is efficient as training on 2D digital chess.
Chessality is probably not a true replacement for over-the-board chess nor a true upgrade from 2D digital chess, but just another way to play the game. I will try to offer as much functionality and realism for true hard-core OTB players and offer the convenience of the digital world to more casual players while trying to keep the core values of chess to the best of my abilities as a human.
“Without the element of enjoyment, it is not worth trying to excel at anything.” – Magnus Carlsen
“Every chess master was once a beginner.” – Irving Chernev
“No one will regret the time dedicated to chess, as it will help in any profession.” – Tigran Petrosyan
“You must lead your opponent into a dark forest where 2+2=5 and the path out is only wide enough for one.” – Mikhail Tal
“If you wish to succeed, you must brave the risk of failure.” – Garry Kasparov
“The winner of the game is the player who makes the next-to-last mistake.” – Tartakower
“****, I didn’t see that!” – Most players (probably)
Carrier Command 2 VR
I have only played a brief little bit, but so far I have been able to control my units, drive the carrier, and do the first island mission without any problems in VR, but I am using Valve Index Controllers so I do not know how it will work on other types.
My only concern is that the carrier’s main camera looks a little funky as it is like a big circular 2D screen inside a glass sphere that you are standing in and for a few moments I didn’t know what I was looking at or why the screen was in my way. Once I started moving the camera and zooming in it all made sense and I was able to use it no problem. It does look weird though and makes you wonder where you are and what happened the first time you use it.
– Real player with 30.9 hrs in game
Yes, now I can recommend this game since the latest update allows all functions to work with my Odyssey+, even though the devs don’t officially support WMR. (I’m hoping they will later, however.) I did have to use a community-made set of bindings, but everything works with the only exception being the air/sea radar, where I can’t seem to increase or decrease the scan range. Fortunately, the default value of 1250m still works just fine, so it’s not a game-breaking issue. I haven’t tried modifying the bindings, so it’s possible that I could still find out the fix for it. I spent about 2 hours capturing 3 islands and I had no trouble using all the same tactics that I would in pancake mode, although it took me the first 30 minutes just figuring out what all the controller buttons did. But once I did, I was bounding between screens and stations, giving orders to units, operating gimbal cameras, manipulating maps, and driving the carrier with ease. The only really hard part was doing it all standing up… I need to get a chair next time, as my feet were starting to hurt by the 3rd island captured.
– Real player with 8.5 hrs in game
Battle Fleet 2
Now six years later I thought I would take a look one last time at a now classic turn based game. If you remember the old Panzer General series games or if you loved Naval tactical games. Then Battle Fleet 2 may be for you. Let’s take one last look at what Battlefleet 2 did well and what they can do to improve if they continue the series.
PROS
Game play: Let’s face it. You don’t need much for great naval fun. It has a lot to offer for the price. Great Carriers, subs, destroyers, planes, all on an overhead risk type map. Solid sounds, effects, colors, layouts, all you need to get started.
– Real player with 97.5 hrs in game
There are two parts of the game, the overall map of the pacific and naval battles. Both are turn-based.
The naval battles are fun if you enjoy turn-based fights based largely upon positioning your ships and estimating distances. Though unfortunately, you don’t choose the starting formation of your fleet. It is definitely satisfying to see the shell hit from over a mile away, you can really feel the distance between the ships, and then see it crash into the ship and possibly disable some critical component such as one of their guns, or engine. The armament of your ships will also play a role in how things go. For example, the submarine can be shielded from most damage by being submerged, but can only hit the enemy from 1500 yards while the largest guns have a range of 4000 yards. It pays to have a versatile fleet. The enemy may have a tightly formed fleet with many AA guns, making your carriers less effective, or battleships with big guns but few/no torpedos, making your subs more effective. The battleship can otherwise outshoot anything, but can fall prey to repeated airstrikes from an aircraft carrier that is too far away to shoot. Ramming is possible and could be fun, but I’ve only accidently rammed my own ships. Try not to do that. When your ships can destroy the enemy from miles away, you tend not to end up getting so close. The AI on hard provides enough of a challenge to be interesting.
– Real player with 94.1 hrs in game
Bottle Flip VR
Master the ancient art of bottle flipping to escape the room!
Land flips on targets to unlock new challenges and locations. Every successful flip will earn you coins that can be used to unlock new throwables.
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Unique Locations
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Multiple game modes (adventure, speed-run, time trial, score-chaser, etc)
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Unlockable bottles/throwables
Bocce VR Simulator
a completely new sport for me, which I just learned about, thanks to this game, the realism and immersion suited me to my liking, the detailing of small details, the perfect music accompaniment, excellent presentation!
– Real player with 4.1 hrs in game
Experienced on Windows Mixed Reality
You can view my review & gameplay here: https://youtu.be/mxqGUDZ-mTY
There are now 3 bocce games for VR. Bocce VR Simulator is the newest edition. While I haven’t played the others, I can recommend this one. It’s solid all around. You can play single player against AI on easy, normal, or hard difficulty or you can play local multiplayer (pass the VR headset around for 2 players).
You have full locomotion available with snap turning. The physics seemed fine to me. The throwing physics and the ball collision physics all seemed realistic. I did not experience any issues playing this game. The game ran fine on my 1060 GTX at a steady 90 frames per second. It’s running on the Unity Engine.
– Real player with 1.1 hrs in game