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Epic Games' new shooter is virtual reality's killer gaming app
"Everybody wants to be Neo." That's how Nick Whiting, lead programmer at Epic Games, describes the main thrust behind Bullet Train, the developer's recently announced virtual reality shooter for the Oculus Rift. What Whiting's referring to, of course, is "bullet time" -- that slow-motion technique made famous by the Matrix films. It's a core part of the gameplay in Bullet Train, which has the player madly teleporting (in slo-mo) around a train station and assassinating wave after wave of masked enemies with an assortment of available weapons. That I greatly enjoyed the demo, playable at Oculus' Connect 2 conference in Los Angeles, is a testament not only to how transformative Oculus' Touch controllers will be to VR, but also to how well Whiting and his partner Nick Donaldson understand VR design. It's also a major coup when it comes to winning over a certain segment of the gaming population: I simply don't like shooters; I like this shooter very much.
Oculus VP: 'Our number one goal is to make developers successful'
2015 is the year of virtual reality. That's been the consistent messaging coming out of Oculus VR's executive leadership since early this year. And with this week's announcement of a $99 Gear VR headset -- a mobile VR solution co-produced with Samsung -- and the promise of a retail Rift headset coming in early 2016, Oculus finally appears ready to make good on that promise. But although all the pieces of the VR puzzle seem to be coming together -- and the recent press has been (mostly) glowing -- there are still a lot of unknowns. Namely, will the average consumer, once properly introduced, buy into VR? I sat down with Nate Mitchell, Oculus VR's VP of Product, at the company's Connect 2 developer conference in Los Angeles to find out more about Gear VR's potential as a gateway to the Rift, what consumers can expect to come bundled with that first retail headset and whether we'll get to use it with Sony's PlayStation 4.
The new Gear VR is Samsung's public bet that VR is consumer-ready
When Samsung announced the newest edition of its mobile virtual reality headset Gear VR, created in partnership with Oculus, it was less about hardware innovation and more of a statement: VR is consumer-ready. Yes, the headset's overall weight has been significantly reduced and its touchpad's been redesigned for easier access. But it's the combination of its $99 price point, range of compatible (and current) Samsung smartphones and multimedia content like Netflix that could finally usher this new medium into households everywhere. "Virtual reality that's accessible to consumers is still very young and so it was all about developing the ecosystem," said Jim Willson, director of immersive products and VR at Samsung, of GearVR's watershed moment. "We had to make sure there was enough content, both in terms of video content ... and on the gaming side."
Epic Games reveals 'Bullet Train,' a sci-fi shooter for Oculus Touch
Epic Games, the studio behind Gears of War, unveiled its brand new virtual reality game, Bullet Train, during the Oculus Connect 2 conference today. Bullet Train is an Oculus Touch experience, meaning players use two motion-sensing controllers to pick up weapons, shoot and interact with the environment. Plus, Bullet Train features bullet time and teleportation, and it's developed in Unreal Engine 4. Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney presented Bullet Train to the world today, and he's been a longtime champion of virtual reality. In February, he told Engadget that VR was "going to change the world."
Fox is bringing more than 100 movies to the Oculus VR Cinema
While gaming and other fully immersive experiences have already flourished on VR, at least one studios is jumping in with a way to watch movies on the big (small) screen. Fox confirmed today at the Oculus Connect 2 event that the company is bringing more than 100 of its movies to the Oculus Store at launch. You'll watch the movies in the Oculus VR Cinema app, where you can watch movies in 2D or 3D on a huge virtual screen (you can see what it looks like after the break). Movies that are coming include Alien, Birdman, Taken, Die Hard, Office Space and more.
'Oculus Ready' PC program offers VR-ready rigs for less than $1,000
Oculus Ready is a new program that offers officially licensed, Oculus-branded PCs from Alienware, Dell and Asus. These rigs will be ready to run the consumer Oculus Rift when it launches in Q1 2016, with at least the minimum specs of 8GB RAM, an Intel i5 processor and NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD 290. All of the manufacturers will offer Oculus Ready PCs for less than $1,000, Oculus announced during its second annual Connect conference.
Minecraft Windows 10 Edition headed to Oculus Rift VR headset
Palmer Luckey, the boy wonder co-founder of Oculus VR, surprised attendees at the company's Connect 2 developer conference today with news that Minecraft is headed to the Rift. Though Oculus has yet to announce a release date for its virtual reality headset, it is expected to hit retail sometime next spring, at which point Minecraft will be made available on both the Windows Store and Oculus Store. It's no surprise that Microsoft would extend the massively popular crafting game to the Rift platform as it's recently demoed several augmented reality versions for its HoloLens headset, and pledged to support both Oculus and Vive's brand of VR.
'Oculus Arcade' brings 'Pac-Man' and other classics to Gear VR
Oculus Arcade offers classic games from Sega, Midway and Bandai Namco, all playable in the Samsung Gear VR. Oculus announced the nostalgia fix during its Oculus Connect 2 conference, where it also announced the new, $99 Gear VR. The new Gear VR will be available in time for Black Friday in November. Oculus also showed off a slew of new games coming to Gear VR, including Land's End (from the Monument Valley team), Gunjack and the new VR Adventure Time game. The company also briefly showed off Netflix and Twitch running in Gear VR.
Watch the Oculus Connect 2 keynote right here
Can't make it to Hollywood for Oculus' second virtual reality conference, Oculus Connect 2? Fret not -- the Facebook-owned VR company will be livestreaming the event's opening keynote on Twitch. But better yet, because this is Oculus after all, there's also going to be a stream in virtual reality, which you can check out if you have one of Samsung's Gear VR headsets. The keynote, led by Oculus VR CEO Brendan Iribe, starts at 1PM ET today. To enjoy the 360-degree immersive experience, you'll need to download the NextVR app on your headset, otherwise we have a 2D way for you to watch the keynote right here.
I'm sick of getting sick from VR, but there's a remedy
It's inevitable at this point: After having experienced a variety of virtual reality -- from gaming to cinematic -- whenever I'm about to enter into a new demo, my anxiety spikes. "Is this going to make me massively ill?" I wonder, fearing the subsequent rapid heartbeat, flop sweat and nausea that mark the unwelcome arrival of motion sickness. I mention this not to discredit the coming revolution of VR -- because I do think it's here to stay and I'm glad for it -- but to sound an alarm bell for the industry. If VR is to go mainstream -- and given Facebook's billion-dollar bet on Oculus VR, it very well should -- consumers like me need to stop getting sick. It's a pitfall the brilliant developer Jesse Schell mocked in his talk on making great VR at Oculus Connect 2 in Los Angeles: "Our game is so good it makes you vomit." Schell's comment was obviously made tongue-in-cheek, but it underscored a common symptom of faulty VR development. Thankfully, there's an antidote to this: education.
ILM's tools could let you direct your own 'Star Wars'
Whether you're familiar with the studio's name or not, you've definitely been touched (and likely gobsmacked) by the computer-generated imagery in one of the blockbuster films to get the Industrial Light and Magic treatment. From Jurassic Park (and its sequels) to the upcoming Disney-backed Star Wars films, the Lucasfilm-run powerhouse is one of the more visible and transformative visual effects forces in entertainment. Now, with a suite of virtual production tools, it's poised to change the way we experience not just film, but also storytelling with an iPad and a virtual reality headset.
