Time for a guest blog! This time we invited Evelyn van der Burg, founder of Reality Blenders, to write a cool blog post for us about the newest trends in the VR landscape. She focused on E3, the biggest gaming event in Los Angeles and showed us some of the many VR games which were announced there. Evelyn, take it away!
There’s one annual event the game industry looks forward to every year: E3. The world’s main event for computer and video games. Where big names like Sony, Microsoft, Ubisoft and Nintendo take the stage to announce their upcoming creations. Let’s take a closer look at the top five VR games and must-see trailers that were shown at the conference. Keep in mind this list is not for one particular platform.
Stormland – Oculus Rift
Stormland is a sci-fi adventure game that fully exploits the essence of free roaming in an open-world. A game aspect that’s not very common in VR environments. In Stormland, you portray an android gardener that lives on a different and peaceful planet. This soon changes after the enemy – named The Tempests – head out to claim this world as their own and take down everything that stands in their way. This also includes our unaware android gardener, who’s put into a deep sleep for centuries.
After waking up, it’s time to reclaim your own world by defeating the enemy and reviving your android friends. You can fly above the water, climb cliffs, craft your own weapons and explore everything this beautiful world has to offer. Don’t feel like playing this game by yourself? No worries. Next to the single player mode, your friends can join your session. Stormland is on top of this list for a reason… The game will be released in 2019. Watch the trailer below and get excited.
Transference – PlayStation and Xbox
Video game publisher Ubisoft and film production company SpectreVision (lead by Elijah Wood aka Frodo) joined forces to create an unforgettable psychological horror thriller in VR. Described as “a thriller that feels like a movie, but plays like a game” that infiltrates your mind for hours after you’ve taken off the VR headset. And boy, the latest trailer looks promising. It’s sinister. Unbelievably detailed. Scary and thank-you-I’ll-skip-this-one. Certainly a game you shouldn’t play in the dark.
The word ‘transference’ is best explained as “the process of moving something or someone from one place, position, etc. to another”. Put in the game’s perspective, the storyline is centered around the entangled and distorted mind of a family. This all happens after the father, a troubled scientist, basically scrambles up the family’s collective brain data and corrupts it. In order to unravel all the mysteries and escape from his bizarre experiment, you have to constantly change between family perspectives and solve puzzles. That’s all there is in terms of plot details, but that’s probably for the best. Transference will have a global release fall 2018.
Ghost Giant – PlayStation
Ghost Giant is an adventure puzzle game about friendship and support. In the game you befriend a lonely fox named Louis, who freaks out the first time he sees you. The reason? You, the player, portray a mysterious creature Louis has never seen before. You become friends and head for a journey that will capture anyone’s heart.
The game implemented a unique way of storytelling that’s perfect for VR. And the relationship between the protagonist give some serious BFG vibes. From the trailer, it looks like the game gives a sense of childhood and playfulness. Almost like you are drawn into a fairytale story your father and mother used to read before bedtime. The launch date however, is still unknown. So be patient with this one.
Tetris Effect – PlayStation
A game concept so simple, yet so powerful. The internet’s responses to the renewed version of the game classic were insane. There’s people who can’t wait to play this game, while others can’t believe a game like this will have a VR release. Come on guys, it’s the game we all grew up with. VR is a follow-up that makes sense.
Remember those moments of ultimate focus and flow while playing Tetris? If the VR edition is able to accomplish that momentum, it would actually be insane. Watch that trailer to get an impression of the Tetris experience and pay close attention to the music. It seems to be a preview of the game soundtrack. Tetris Effect will be released in fall 2018.
Trover Saves The Universe – PlayStation
Justin Roiland, the co-creator of Rick and Morty and Squanch Games team up to bring the world another virtual reality comedy experience. Individual players team up with a purple alien named Trover to defeat ‘John’, the villain who is using dogs to generate tons of strength. In a universe where dogs are banned, it’s your mission to track down the dogs and bring them back to their owner. Although the storyline doesn’t give much depth, we’re pretty sure the layer of humor will add a lot to the game experience.
We should also mention you can play Trover Saves The Universe without a VR headset on the PlayStation console. It goes without saying that the layer of virtual reality really sucks you into this absurd and colorful world. The game will be released in 2019.
That’s our top 5 VR announcements from E3 2018. What E3 announcements are you most excited about?
Reality Blenders was founded by Evelyn van der Burg. With an analytic sight and passion for games, Evelyn focuses on gaining more attention to VR, AR and MR. She believes, just like we at Dutch Rose Media do, that these technologies are here to stay. Evelyn writes blog posts, creates videos and compiles professional AR/VR/MR reports for businesses as well.
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