Oculus Rift Catch-All

ThingumBob wrote:

I've had pretty good luck with the curated songs on https://bsaber.com. Anything over a 4.5 or so seems to be pretty solid.

Great! When I first checked out that site they hadn't implemented the ratings. It looks much more useful, now. Thanks for the tip!

ThingumBob wrote:

Do follow up if you ever finish your own levels. I'd love to see what you come up with.

Making levels/maps for Beat Saber is an interesting experience and I have a whole new appreciation for the people producing good ones. I did a couple "throw aways" while learning how to use the editor, but those were too basic and flawed to be much fun to play.

Here's one that I uploaded and am calling it done enough. I suspect I could tweak it for a long, long time before being completely satisfied, but free time is finite and so is my patience.

It's not perfect, but it's not garbage, either. A couple friends played it and encouraged me to share it online. If you give it a try let me know what you think.

Joan Jett & the Blackhearts - I Love Rock N Roll

Easy, Normal, Hard, Expert

Somehow I missed that Rez Infinite came out for PC. Damn, this game is a showstopper for VR. Incredible.

Picked up a Rift during the Amazon Prime sale. We're really liking it so far, so much so that there's talk of taking it out of my office and building a full room scale setup in the entertainment area of the basement. Possibilities...

For now I'm spending most of my time in Arizona Sunshine (stuck on the inside the mines horde atm), a bit of Robo Recall, and Elite Dangerous. I've also spent a silly amount of time customizing the virtual home once we signed up for the Core 2.0 beta.

The Climb and Lone Echo are both on the wish list, as is the Mage's Tale and Vanishing Realms from Steam. Any other games that I really need to be looking out for?

Beat Saber.

Really depends what you are looking for but here are some of the things I have enjoyed with a description.

Super Hot VR - Different levels from PC format but same games. Time stops until you move. If you stop moving time does. Difficult be fun.
Quivr - Defend Castle as archer vs various monsters. Have not played in a few months but use to be able to find people for multiplayer co-op. Has some small RPG light (basically new items with abilities). Mostly just shooting arrows at monsters that increase in difficulty
AudioShield - Nothing high athletic but move around while listening to music. You can import your own library or even lookup on youtube.
Windlands - CAUTION: If you have any motion sickness issues I would not recommend. However, if you can deal with movement in this game is amazing. You are swinign around on tree's using grappling hooks like spider man. Highly recommend if your stomach can handle it. Much better in room scale but still decent sitting/standing.

jonnypolite wrote:

Somehow I missed that Rez Infinite came out for PC. Damn, this game is a showstopper for VR. Incredible.

I'm wishing for a Child of Light VR re-do as well.

If you like strategy games both Brass Tactics and Skyworld are pretty great.

polypusher wrote:

If you like strategy games both Brass Tactics and Skyworld are pretty great.

I played the demo of Skyworld, and I really liked it, but I'd much rather play it sat at a desk looking at a monitor. The VR implementation was really well done, but is solving a problem that doesn't exist.

Thanks for the recommendations guys, looks like some great games in there. Quivr in particular looks really interesting.

That raises a side question too. Given the choice, is it preferable to buy games on Steam, or via the Oculus store directly? Is there any reason (other than the satisfaction of having all games in Steam) that one is better than the other?

Usually Steam is better or if its multiplayer and you have someone you want to play with it's safer to get it on the same platform as them. Some games have cross platform multiplay but not all so its a case by case basis there.

Teneman wrote:

That raises a side question too. Given the choice, is it preferable to buy games on Steam, or via the Oculus store directly? Is there any reason (other than the satisfaction of having all games in Steam) that one is better than the other?

Steam versions potentially support other hardware than just the Rift, without any hackery.

Also, they make sanitary masks for VR headsets. You know, if you're setting them up for a group.

Teneman wrote:

The Climb and Lone Echo are both on the wish list, as is the Mage's Tale and Vanishing Realms from Steam. Any other games that I really need to be looking out for?

Beat Saber is my "go to" game when introducing friends to VR. It used to be The Lab, but Beat Saber requires less instruction. Most people get how to swing a light saber at a cube right away. Aside from menu navigation, there are no buttons to push or triggers to pull.

Lone Echo is my favorite VR game, so far.

Moss is a close second, but it probably helps to enjoy platform/puzzlers.

If you have 1 or 2 friends with VR rigs for co-op play I'd recommend From Other Suns. If you get it and need a teammate just say the word.

I tend to buy most of my VR games on Steam, primarily to keep it all in one place. Just a personal preference, though.

gorilla wrote:

Here's one that I uploaded and am calling it done enough. I suspect I could tweak it for a long, long time before being completely satisfied, but free time is finite and so is my patience.

It's not perfect, but it's not garbage, either. A couple friends played it and encouraged me to share it online. If you give it a try let me know what you think.

Joan Jett & the Blackhearts - I Love Rock N Roll

Easy, Normal, Hard, Expert

Dude, that was pretty nice! Beat Saber is so oversaturated with electronic stuff, this was a refreshing change of pace. Thanks!

I hadn't fired up the game in a few weeks and was pleasantly surprised by the new "official track". I'm glad to see updates finally rolling out on a semi-regular basis.

Ahh yes. Lone Echo.
It looks like it could be an amazing game, but given my phobia of being out in the emptiness of space, not one I'm going to play any time soon, I think.
Elite Dangerous is fine because you're constantly in a spaceship with a firm sense of (artificial) gravity within that ship.

FORM is an amazing puzzle game. Almost like "The Room". It took me around an hour to beat, the perfect length for the game. However, $14.99 is a bit steep. I'd wait for a sale. I think I got it for $4.99 on the Oculus store during their daily sale. The puzzles are varied and make you think, but not TOO difficult.

MOSS is definitely a great game. I haven't had the chance to put too much time into it but if you like platformers, definitely 2 thumbs up from me.

Beat Saber is a blast, that's been mentioned.

For free experiences

Face your Fears - a lot of fun, a couple jump-scares on the door on the right, the left is awesome unless you are afraid of heights. But that's the point then, right?

Rec Room - lots of fun mini games. Can hang out, talk to people, it's cool to try out

Google Earth VR - Holy cow this is amazing! We moved back in 2014 from CT to GA. I did a street view of my old house and it felt like I was really standing in front of the house.

Jurassic World Blue - 10 mins or so, non-interactive but a great story about Blue. 2 episodes out so far

EPIC Roller Coasters - You get 2 of the coasters for free, it's a great intro to get people into VR. The tracks are pretty long and the quality is good.

Mission: ISS - I have not been through the entire game yet but you are on the ISS. Lots of videos from NASA on how things work. You also get to interact with the ISS and do some neat stuff

Allumette - Cute story, around 12 mins I think

EDIT: Gorilla, great work on the song! I got a B on Expert. I agree that it's nice not to play EDM songs over and over. You have almost inspired me to try creating a song but I don't know the first thing about it. It may be something I'll look up tonight.

Anyone else jumping on the Marvel wagon and getting Marvel Powers United? It looks like it should be fun.

Atras wrote:

Anyone else jumping on the Marvel wagon and getting Marvel Powers United? It looks like it should be fun.

I'm intrigued and watching closely, but did not pre-order the game.

I picked up Marvel Powers United, and I'm pretty glad I did. It's not very deep. Like, at all. You pick one of the 18 heroes available, and join a match. It puts you in a group, then you select a mission and away you go. I picked Star Lord as my first hero, and probably was a terrible team-mate, because I didn't actually look at any of my powers before the match started, so all I knew how to do was draw my two guns and shoot things. Thankfully, that's all that you really need to do. It's a basic horde-mode game, so we had a seemingly unlimited number of AIM soldiers to fight, followed by a giant mech, then Kree warriors, then Magneto. I think there was one more wave, but it was mostly just shooting at anything that attacked the relays we had out, and moving around the map. I got paired up with a Thor, Deadpool, and a Wolverine, I think the Thor player had an alternate suit already unlocked. At one point, I got to use some kind of ultimate ability, which made all of the enemies in my near vicinity start dancing, so that was funny.

Some things that I want to try out before I pass full judgement on it are the turning. You move with the left thumb stick, walking forwards/backwards/strafing, but when you turn the right thumbstick, it rotates you roughly 90 degrees. It's a bit jarring, and I think I'd rather just use my head. I suspect that's an option that I didn't see. I also want to see if there is a solo mode. I feel bad trying out a new hero with other people's game on the line. I hope there are more modes than the basic waves of enemies, but that could just be a matter of new content being added later; I'd love to see a Capture the Flag with super heroes.

I picked Marvel Powers United and I am enjoying it so far. It feels like a repetitive "Overwatch" with Marvel super heroes. Its a lot more fun with people. I would love to play with some GWJers if any one is interested. My Occulus Gamertag/name is Magik133677. Feel free to add me!

ThingumBob wrote:

Dude, that was pretty nice! Beat Saber is so oversaturated with electronic stuff, this was a refreshing change of pace. Thanks!

Hey, thank YOU for giving it a try and providing positive feedback! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

It's been fun watching the numbers climb, albeit slowly, for Downloads-Finished-Liked over the past week. The level made it into the Top 1,000 Downloads this week (out of ~3,000 custom songs) so that was a nice milestone.

That's enough of an inspiration that I've started another one. It'll be mid-August before it's done, though.

It's too bad the Game King isn't into VR, otherwise I'd craft a 38 Special level in His honor.

So it's been three weeks since we got the Rift. Really enjoying it so far. I've finished Arizona Sunshine as well as Killing Floor Incursion, and am halfway through Mages Tale. Quivr, the Lab, Robo Recall and Dead and Buried are also getting a lot of play. I just installed and modded up Skyrim, but as beautiful as it is I'm not sure I like the feel of playing it in VR. I've got a ton of games on the wishlist including many of the recommendations above, but don't want to replicate the Steam pile of shame so I'm only buying one game at a time - unless something on the wishlist goes on the daily sale of course...

Speaking of Steam, I can't decide which I like better, the Oculus's Rift 2.0 beta home, or Steam's home. The Oculus version is more fun to build in and seems a little more flexible, but Steam's setup just... feels right. Which, if either, do you guys use?

Finally, I've been checking out Altspace VR, Bigscreen beta, Rec Room and just downloaded VR Chat. I'm looking for a place that's got people readily on hand, the social/chat dynamic, and low-key pickup style games to play - preferably with a minimum of toxicity as I do have kids that may like to participate from time to time. Is there one that generally seems better than the others?

Bigscreen was cool but watching games streaming was pretty awful. I started my own room and tried playing WoW but it didn't look that good. It was cool playing on essentially a movie screen though

You may want to check out RacketNX. It's like ping pong in a really large dome. Hard to explain but check out a couple videos. It's a lot of fun and definitely works up a sweat.

I haven't played too much Rec Room but I know it's had some updates recently so I may need to give it another shot. I went back to the original Oculus instead of 2.0 as I heard it improved performance some. I know you can use Medium and Quill to create objects to put into your home but I'm not even close to that talented.

You may want to check out the Oculus Reddit forum. A lot of games announced on there, some beta key giveaways, and generally a great place to get info. You can get there by clicking here

Put some time into Beat Saber user made songs and really it just gave me a greater appreciation for the included songs. Users either have no clue how to properly balance their difficulty or they just don't care to try. I've never been great at the game. With the included songs I can handle the normal difficulty and with practice I can complete the hard ones. Expert is beyond me and honestly I just don't enjoy them at this level.

User created songs rarely seem to include anything beyond expert and when they do I seriously question what they consider normal/hard difficulty. All in all it just made me sad that as well as this game has done it really hasn't been supported with a ton of content from the developers. Just a couple songs added in the last five months from what I can tell.

I've found that the tracks made by Freeek are well charted, but I'm only playing on hard and expert -- gunning for Stupidhaiku...

LiquidMantis wrote:

I've found that the tracks made by Freeek are well charted, but I'm only playing on hard and expert -- gunning for Stupidhaiku...

I was thinking more of a lightsaber duel.

So, I bit and got an Oculus Rift, the extra sensor and an RX 580 8GB.

Now it is the waiting game.
It looks like people are running it decently with under the minimum specs or with worse specs than my current machine but I got the RX 580 for $239 (with a $20 rebate). It will be so much better than my current 7870.
And even though my CPU is tests as not ready for VR, their minimum spec is a FX 4360 and I have an FX 8320 so I am good - until I spring for a ryzen system, heh.

Did you get the touch controllers?

Yeah. I got the $400 Marvel Bundle that includes Avengers Baby Overwatch and two controllers. Plus the additional sensor which may not have been needed but I want as much accuracy as possible when sculpting.

I may also go and get a PCI-E USB 3 card. (Shouldn't be more than $20 at Fry's)