Oculus promises there will be over 30 Touch-supported games arriving in 2016

[midian182]

In the battle of the big virtual reality headsets, the Vive is still slightly ahead of Oculus, thanks partly to the former’s excellent controllers. Right now, the Rift still relies on a Xbox One gamepad, its own Oculus Touch controllers having been delayed until the second half of this year.

Despite the devices not being available yet, Oculus has announced that when they do ship, there will be over 30 VR games that have full Touch support, 20 of which will be designed specifically for the new controllers.

The launch titles include Rock Band VR, which Oculus co-founder Palmer Luckey announced at the Game Awards last year, Giant Cop, VR Sports Challenge, and Serious Sam VR: The Last Hope. There will also be some current Rift games receiving Touch support, such as Crytek’s The Climb.

One of the best-looking Touch-enabled games - set for release in 2017 - is the psychological noir thriller Wilson’s Heart from Oculus Studios and Twisted Pixel. The game features an all-star cast - Peter Weller, Rosario Dawson, and Alfred Molina – and lets players use the Touch controllers to interact with the environment.

Other Touch titles include Killing Floor: Incursion, a spin-off from the popular first-person shooter that looks like it will be brilliantly terrifying in virtual reality, and two games that take inspiration from Tron’s famous disc battles: Project Arena and Ripcoil.

We still don’t know the exact date that the Touch controllers will launch or how much they’ll cost, but expect to hear more over the coming months.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/65202-oculus-promises-there-over-30-touch-supported-games.html

 

[Lurker101]

The significant lack of games has been a major point in my not buying into VR. When you announce a gaming platform, you need to announce some must have games to go with it otherwise it will just stagnate. Yes, I'm looking directly at you, Wii U.

 

[Panda218]

Ouculus be using that FB money to buy exclusives :3

The Serious Sam Devs said they denied the exclusivity offer, so I'm surprised to see it listed within the article.

 

[TomSEA]

So far, the vast majority of VR "games" are nothing more than show pieces/demos that have extremely brief play-ability. Literally less than 5 hours, many only 2-3 hours.

No one is going to take VR seriously as a gaming peripheral until they actually come out with quality GAMES that have a solid 40+ hours of play built into them.

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

[QUOTE="TomSEA, post: 1547051, member: 208423"No one is going to take VR seriously as a gaming peripheral until they actually come out with quality GAMES that have a solid 40+ hours of play built into them.[/QUOTE]

No one? Well that has already been proven wrong. One of the great things about PC games though is a majority are moddable in some way or another. I'm sure hundreds or more of games not made for VR have some form of VR support thanks to the community. Yes I certainly agree we need some serious games (as in common games we all enjoy like FPSs, RPGs, racing and flight sims) with a typical amount of gameplay time and full VR support; but I don't think that is what is holding most people back. Cost is number one I believe.

Second reason I believe is that it comes down to the types of games people want to play and how beneficial VR would be for them. With FPSs the lacking element of being able to walk around freely is a big detraction. Yes there are these "omni treadmills" which are getting developed but those have their own problems. With RPG's there is a serious challenge with regards to interactivity with all of the elements an RPG game offers. Really only racing and flight sims have a good go with VR as we already have controllers for these types of games and you are in a seated position. You only interact with the controller you already have and it feels perfectly natural. That can't be said for RPG and FPS games.

I suspect the fact that there are only a few games truly developed for VR right now probably only affects a smaller group of people. You are obviously one of them. I could be wrong though... it has been known to happen. ;-)

 

[Lurker101]

No, Tom's right. No one is taking VR seriously as a gaming platform and that's because it has no real games. Right now, it's a novelty with a few dozen novelty apps available. There are a few companies trying to make use of VR software and turn it into a serious gaming platform but until something materialises from that, it's just a gimmick.

And before you cite that Sony and Microsoft are jumping on the VR bandwagon, remember they also jumped on the motion control bandwagon with the PS Move and the Creepy Connect that can't be removed due to hardcoding reasons and then it can because nobody wants or trusts it. That was a big gimmick for Nintendo that never took off because there were no good games for them.

 

[Bubbajim]

I don't take my Vive very seriously, and that's because it's too fun to be taken seriously. /grin

Honestly, when bigger and more polished games come out it'll be great. But what's there already is incredible, for two months after the release of an entirely new platform. Demos a lot of the games may be, but ohmygod they're amazing. Holopoint, for example, is literally shooting boxes with arrows, all in one room, and I literally can't get enough of it.

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

No, Tom's right. No one is taking VR seriously as a gaming platform and that's because it has no real games. Right now, it's a novelty with a few dozen novelty apps available. There are a few companies trying to make use of VR software and turn it into a serious gaming platform but until something materialises from that, it's just a gimmick.

And before you cite that Sony and Microsoft are jumping on the VR bandwagon, remember they also jumped on the motion control bandwagon with the PS Move and the Creepy Connect that can't be removed due to hardcoding reasons and then it can because nobody wants or trusts it. That was a big gimmick for Nintendo that never took off because there were no good games for them.

I'm glad you agree with Tom more... but we shall see, it is still in its infancy. The fact that a lot of the big game devolopers aren't advertising or even making their games as VR could indicate they don't think it will take off. It really isn't up to them though, it is up to the consumer. There is a VR version of Fallout 4 coming apparently, so that is something for the big game community.

However I don't think VR is a "platform". It is just another way to interface with our games. Primarily an interactive display, but with tracking and controllers it can become more. I don't think platform is the right word. Consoles, PC's, mobile devices... these are platforms. VR has the ability to interface with all of these, but some will be more effective than others. Consoles don't really have to power to provide great graphics and a good VR experience yet, PC's do but the cost is high and configuration can be challenging, and mobile devices are easy to setup but the graphics in games will be even less than consoles.

But if VR wasn't at least starting to take off there wouldn't be tons of YT videos out there of people playing games on VR, many of which are old games that weren't designed for VR. So I do think plenty of people are taking it seriously, but there is still a lot of improvements that are needed to see if it really becomes a thing.

I think it will take time but I do think it will happen. There are enough people who want it to happen and are working to make it happen. There are also plenty of nay-sayers such as yourself and Tom who don't care for it. By the way have either of you actually tried VR yet? Just curious...

 

[Lurker101]

First of all, I just want to say that Fallout 4 is a boring pile of crap. It's an experience so bland it's like drowning in wallpaper paste. I could honestly write paragraphs about how and why Fallout 4 is bad, but this isn't the thread to do it in.

Moving on though, it really is up to the software developers to make VR take off. It's also up to the consumer too. Think of it as a symbiotic relationship. Consumers will vote with their wallets, but only if there is something worth voting on, which gets us back to the creepy Kinect and the Wii. Motion controls, just like VR are gimmicks. Nintendo had software to sell its gimmicky motion control system which is why it took off. The Wii was a massive success as a direct result of 'must have' software to use with it. The Kinect and the PS Move didn't have any 'must have' titles attached and as a direct result were complete failures. We could argue about demographics and so on, but that is completely irrelevant. Without the software to make it big, VR isn't going to be big. If VR isn't going to be big, nobody is going to develop the must have software for it. Just one of those wonderful paradoxes, so you just have to hope that the companies gambling on VR right now make something highly desirable and that the VR doesn't become more obstructive or more of a hassle than a regular monitor/tv.

As for the Youtube personalities, it's a gimmicky piece of fodder for them to over-react to. I thought you'd know this sort of thing right now.They could also be the ones helping to sell VR, if it gets some worthwhile titles instead of Baby Catcher 2016 or Bumming Around Pretending To Do A Menial Job 2. Okay, so I just made those titles up, those games actually exist. Infact most "games" for VR right now are little more than glorified tech demos.

And yes, I have tried VR for myself. I didn't get pink eye from it (google if you don't know what I mean) but I wasn't bowled over either. I'm a cynic by nature so there was no sense of wonder from my experience, just 20 minutes of wishing I was doing something else and a 2 day migraine. It does have potential, but without interest generated by quality titles, it won't be able to reach that potential.

I suppose the tl;dr for people skimming is, VR needs quality titles if it's going to take off as a gaming peripheral and Fallout 4 is crap.