As always, I’m late to the party here. But, I just saw that Fantasian, a Final Fantasy type game on Apple Arcade, is out with Part II. It’s a solid, fun story, tho it’s been so long since I played Part I a refresher is due!
It is impossible to describe just how cute this game is. Most VR games take place at "human scale" - you play as a human inside a building, or other human-sized space. But Moss lets you play as a mouse named Quill with you (the player) towering over her. You are a human literally peering […]
It is impossible to describe just how cute this game is. Most VR games take place at "human scale" - you play as a human inside a building, or other human-sized space. But Moss lets you play as a mouse named Quill with you (the player) towering over her. You are a human literally peering down into a mouse-sized kingdom. It is one of the most stunning uses of VR in a game that I've seen.
Vast castles, haunted forests, arid deserts - it is a wonderland for a platformer/puzzler.
The puzzles are mostly very good. Move the thing, jump on the whatsit, move another thing, back to the start etc. Most of them take advantage of the 3D environment which leads to some lovely designs. And, if you get stuck, the little mouse will mime a clue to you. Get it right, and she'll demand a high-five. It is lovely.
Except for the combat.
Bugs come out to fight you. You hit them with your sword. Repeat. When the enemy can be manipulated to be part of the puzzle, they become interesting. Otherwise, it is just a slog. A couple of the bosses kept me in a death-loop until I'd hit them enough. It wasn't even an interesting "wait until they rear then hit the underbelly" fight. Just button mashing.
I fully agree with Jennifer Hepler and Dara Ó Briain that games need a "Skip Combat" button. I'm here for the story, the puzzles, and the graphics. Hitting monsters is boring.
The story is fun - and set up nicely for a sequel. There's a bit of replayability with a couple of collectables you can find.
Like all VR games, it is expensive for the length of gameplay. £15 for a few hours. You can get 25% off using my referral link
🆕 blog! “VR Game Review: Labyrinth deLux – A Crusoe Quest”
I love single player VR puzzle games. Especially ones with no timers, baddies, or jump-scares. I just want to play against myself. Labyrinth deLux is brilliant. The puzzle is simple enough - point lasers at mirrors, then align mirrors until they point at the target. You've almost certainly played…
I love single player VR puzzle games. Especially ones with no timers, baddies, or jump-scares. I just want to play against myself.
Labyrinth deLux is brilliant. The puzzle is simple enough - point lasers at mirrors, then align mirrors until they point at the target. You've almost certainly played a 2D version of this.
But it has a mind-bending 3D layout which requires you to continually walk on the ceiling to adjust your perspective. The UI is, thankfully, not chunder-inducing. You point and click at a surface and then smoothly float and reorient to it.
The plot is a bit silly - your spaceship crashes and you have a mysterious destiny or some nonsense. But the voice acting is good and you can ignore the story without consequence.
Graphics are lo-fi charming, which helps prevent the usual VR weirdness. Excessive graphics quality just shines a light on how bad the Meta Quest 2 is. But the Minecraft style helps keep the FPS up.
There are 16 levels of increasing difficulty - which took me about 3½ hours to complete:
Dead Man´s Diary Review (PlayStation 5)
Dead Man´s Diary Review, You're on your own in a world full of danger! You can drink only if you discover water, survive the night only if you have a safe place to sleep - eat only what you have found or hunted. Explore a destroyed world and experience a dark story.
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Review (PlayStation 5)
Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Review, Two larger-than-life heroes, Ichiban Kasuga and Kazuma Kiryu are brought together by the hand of fate, or perhaps something more sinister… Live it up in Japan and explore all that Hawaii has to offer in an RPG adventure so big it spans the Pacific.
You don't need to pay £££ and download GB of files in order to have a good VR game. It turns out that the Web is perfectly capable of serving a decent VR experience. You can open up your VR rig's browser (I use Wolvic) and start playing instantly. I've just completed "Get The Heck […]
You don't need to pay £££ and download GB of files in order to have a good VR game. It turns out that the Web is perfectly capable of serving a decent VR experience. You can open up your VR rig's browser (I use Wolvic) and start playing instantly.
I've just completed "Get The Heck Out". It's a fun and free shooter. The twist is, you are expected to die. A lot. You start with a puny pea-shooter:
After every level you can upgrade your weapons - which last until you die. But every few levels, you get the chance for a permanent upgrade. So you restart with more powerful guns, shields, and armour.
Here's how it looks at the start:
And by the time you're fully kitted out, you'll have an experience like this:
It only takes a few hours to complete - and you get a bit of a workout from ducking and diving away from all the enemies.
The graphics, music, and sound effects get a little repetitive - but isn't a blockbuster experience at a premium price. On some levels, the game stutters as it tries to keep up with drawing hundreds of fast-moving projectiles. You do have to exit the VR view in order to see what permanent upgrades you have.
But it is the sort of game which is immediately accessible. There's no learning curve - just point and shoot. You can play stood up or sat down - there's no ability to wander around the level, so you don't need much space to play.
It is brilliant to see just how good WebVR and WebGL are.
TL;DR I liked it. Its graphics may not be as beautiful as the hand-painted #Teslagrad backgrounds, and the gameplay is a bit simplistic at times, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. Would have liked it better if the #Italian#translation wasn't so poorly done though (possibly machine-translated?)
Raccoo Venture Review (PlayStation 5)
for this Raccoo Venture Review, we play a fun 3D platformer that brings the nostalgia from the 1990s to a playful and puzzle-filled world. Defeat multiple enemies and challenges, find new outfits to customize the hero, and discover new friends who will help you on this journey to recover the holy relics.
The Gravity Trickster Review (PlayStation 5)
For this The Gravity Trickster Review, Defy gravity and traverse tricky 3D platforms and mind-bending challenges as we navigate our robot to the end of each level, collecting keys, coins, cosmic cubes, and more as we go! Can you find and beat the elusive bonus levels? Anyway, let us roll out.
I'm a sucker for anything Star Wars. So when my Oculus Quest told me I could fight Darth Vader in VR, I leapt at the chance. I kinda wish I hadn't bothered. There is very little "game" here. It's barely an interactive movie. Walk forward until you step on a trigger, watch a very slow […]
I'm a sucker for anything Star Wars. So when my Oculus Quest told me I could fight Darth Vader in VR, I leapt at the chance. I kinda wish I hadn't bothered.
There is very little "game" here. It's barely an interactive movie. Walk forward until you step on a trigger, watch a very slow cut scene, wave your arms until something happens, repeat a few times, roll credits. That's it. There's nothing to explore, there are no choices to make, and no puzzles to solve.
Parts of the game are gorgeous. Up close, the characters have amazing textures and animations. The caves are beautifully rendered. Even the Rancor monster is a treat.
On the Quest 2, it's about PS4 levels of graphics - occasionally jerky animation and dropped frames not withstanding - it is quite spectacular.
And then it all falls apart. It might be hard to tell from this shot, but the background is frequently just a static 2D image. It looks like a cheap green-screen effect from a 90's movie.
The plot is pretty good - Vader wants to use a magic crystal to bring Padmé back to life - but your inclusion in it makes no sense. You have magic blood? And Vader trains you? But then fails to kill you? Fine, whatever. I get to use The Force® and a Light Sabre™ right?
Well, ish. The Force is pretty hard to control - vaguely point at something and squeeze the trigger, then shake your hand. There's no real control, you can't easily move things or throw rocks at enemies. It all feels a bit hollow. The Light Sabre is slightly more fun - but it's pretty much Beat Sabre. Move it where you're told to, wiggle it near an enemy and slice them. That's it. There's zero skill involved. Which is fine, because it's impossible to die in the game.
Which, as a tech demo wouldn't be so bad. But Disney have the audacity to split this into three games at £8 each. You'll be able to complete them in under a couple of hours. Which, coincidentally, is about as long as your battery will last.
Considering the price, I was expecting something more. Games like Red Matter show how you can do interesting puzzles and stories, even within a linear framework. But Vader Immortal is an on-rails experience which fails to satisfy.