Super Adventures in the Oculus Store (updating...)
Here are some ongoing reports from adventures in the Oculus store....
Are there any you’d recommend? Comment!
'Androids Dream VR' (cardboard app - but possible to view in GEAR VR) – a graphical experience riding in a flying car or ‘spinner’ from Blade Runner/Philip K Dick’s book. Wow. First steps. It’s just a short ride but by the end I felt the potential of VR for touring ‘through’ a space – or future spaces – and having time to look around and take in the detail of ‘being’ somewhere or inside a car or cockpit. Message to VR developers: slow it down!
'Blade Runner 2049 Memory Lab' – the next step up from above, transporting me to a cyberpunk future city for awhile (kind of a long-term dream made virtual!). The game (when it arrives) is a bit like a virtual version of point-and-click detective aspect. If only all the VR film tie-ins will be so well conceived, connecting nicely with the prospect of a movie experience, with an enticing ending. On the whole though, it’s pretty disposable stuff, but gets the mind racing as to what a truly engrossing sci-fi experience and story might achieve. Having played some of the old PC point-and-click Blade Runner experience long ago, it felt strange to experience this.
'MondlyVR' (app) – learn language via some nice environments and for beginners or travellers learning basic language, it’s ok. We can see the future for learning by scenario here, it just needs to be quicker and hooked up to a bigger, more cohesive training program. The speech will be great. [Read more https://usingvr.wordpress.com/2018/02/01/mondlyvr-review/]
'Meeting Rembrandt: Master of Reality' – so far this is my best, most ‘wholesome’ experience of VR in terms of intention and execution. It is relatively short (a good idea) and yet it provides a real sense of presence and ‘spending time’ with an enigmatic figure of history. [Read more https://usingvr.wordpress.com/2018/01/16/meeting-rembrandt-master-of-reality/]. I will hope to find many more experiences as promising as this and report back on them.
'Disney Movies VR' – essential for any Star Wars fan, but simply a chance to experience a sequence of stunning, transcendent 3D spatial VR movie scenes fashioned by the ‘big boys’ (Disney/Lucasfilm+sound), to tie-in with The Force Awakens, which it does memorably. Basically, you are dropped onto the planet Jakku. They’ve kept the sequences short and sweet but your jaw is dropped throughout. It’s a good thing the GEAR VR helmet is so bulky, or I’d have signed up to the Virtual Rebel Alliance instead of writing this. A similar exp. sees you riding Rey’s scavenger bike.
When you take off the mask though, what are one’s thoughts? My mind just asks the question: what next? How to use these amazing spaces for social games, stories, events and physical immersive interaction? They already make for great ‘movie tasters’ for those waiting such mega-cinematic blockbusters.
'Wands' – you pay a modest fee for this game, but it’s true to its name. It’s a fun, wand-wielding game of magical spell selection and blasting. The multiplayer works surprisingly fine, pairing you up in a big room with platforms where you must be first to seize a line of fire and wield the right spell at the right time. There are options to soup up your wand and gain more spells. Great potential to lead on to a full-blown Harry Potter-style game, with complex casting duels, rankings etc. that centre around the expert execution of controller movements and timing.
'Overflight' – another simple but intense VR hit: inside WW2 fighter planes (Spitfire etc). Landscape interaction and detail is a little lacking, and the controls are limited but it feels pretty good/intense and multiplayer quickmatch worked fine for me (pm).
'Blade Runner 2049: Replicant Pursuit' – yes, another Blade Runner 2049 VR experience! And it’s pretty fantastic. It has the most presence I’ve yet felt on the GEAR VR, with a stand-out detail being that of the crack on the spinner windscreen that you can almost touch. I had to cling to something as the transparent-bottomed vehicle lurches about but by the end of the trip the graphics also show their weaker side. Also, there is no actual flying and any interaction is minimal but it’s great stuff even so, with the dystopian future enveloping your snug seating position. Can we have a full game please? And can we have another retro flying experience from the 1982 film please with the original Vangelis score? Surely Ridley Scott must want one too… ?! Also: Knight Rider, Airwolf, The A-Team van, Millennium Falcon, Battlestar Galactica etc. etc… Sorry, but there’s just no beating the 1980s.
'The Body VR: Journey Inside a Cell' – a slow – and short-lived – but fantastic voyage inside a blood vessel, nucleus etc. where it ultimately succeeds in showing off huge potential. There is too much information for the layman once the trip gets going which must be great for students but not so great for casual VR users. Thus, there really needs to be two kinds of ‘innerspace’ trips on offer: an exciting one and a learned one, to teach and inspire. We do get a glimpse of the first kind towards the end, when a virus starts attacking a cell. It’s exciting and eye-opening. Can we get a full ‘Fantastic Voyage’-style gaming experience that comes with the whole tour guide thing? I will watch this one further and hopefully get to report more.
'Face Your Fears' – snakes, spiders, heights, giant robots, clowns, final approach… Can the GEAR VR + Turtle Rock Studios get anywhere close to pitching such a challenge? Great value for money as some of these ‘exercises’ in fear have been well-planned to unsettle you in surprising or unexpected ways. [Read more : ‘Facing ‘Real’ Fear Inside VR’ https://usingvr.wordpress.com/2018/02/01/facing-real-fear-in-vr/]
'Mission: ISS' – from the blurb: ‘Take a trip into orbit and experience life on board the International Space Station! In this Emmy-nominated simulation, learn how to move and work in zero-gravity using the Gear VR controller. Dock a space capsule, take a spacewalk, and let real NASA astronauts guide you on the ISS through informative videos and images.’ I’m still playing around with this, especially the gravity which I can see could put a lot of people off fairly quickly. However, it’s one to come back to, as there’s loads to like, not least the fact that the whole station is yours to rummage around in. Yes, it does feel like you’re up in space. And space enthusiasts will find the whole experience just fascinating. I’m hoping the control aspect will get easier, because in all other ways this is brilliant VR. [Read more : ‘Being an Astronaut in Mission:ISS’ https://usingvr.wordpress.com/2018/02/01/being-an-astronaut-in-mission-iss/]
'Notes on Blindness' – a completely essential, masterful dose of award-winning VR, here at the dawn of this new medium which will open your eyes (and ears) to the nature of seeing, and its absence. This is what Prof. John Hull did back in the 1980s, and made recordings to help him deal with and document the process. He passed away in 2015, and this manages to be much more even than the enormous tribute it pays to him and to non-sighted people. For it also shows the power of VR as a medium for art that all the viewers and developers of VR should ideally witness and take away with them (for one thing: the beauty of sound and ‘cognition’.) Be aware that it’s not a fast-paced experience, so you’ll need to make to get through each chapter (I’d say about 30 mins, it seemed). The second or third time, I’d say, that I’ve been emotionally moved inside VR so far.
'Conflict0: Shattered' – sitting in cockpits complement VR experiences nicely so step into this one and give it a blast. It’s a robotic shooter with a small dose of intrigue that is fun and free (at the time of writing). Great potential. Quite impressed by the visuals too (or am I already getting accustomed to VR!) that I’ll be moving on to the Tron-style tank shooter when I can afford it.
Continuing.... stay tuned!
[Also... follow along via my VR blogsite: https://usingvr.wordpress.com/]