Bill Loguidice's Blog, page 20

Can you survive this ultimate 12 game Resident Evil bundle for Steam?

The ultimate survival horror saga – get 3 to 12 items in this bundle depending upon what you want to pay!

From the emergence of the gruesome T-Virus to the grisly encounter with the Baker family… we’ve joined forces with Capcom for a Resident Evil anthology for the ages! This expansive collection of iconic games from the legendary survival-horror series features:

The HD remastered version of the classic original Resident EvilThe acclaimed remakes of Resident Evil 2 & 3, recently updated with next-gen features including ray-tracing and 3D audioEvery main entry from Resident Evil 4 through Resident Evil 7: BiohazardPlus more tales of terror, including prequel Resident Evil 0 and Revelations chapters

Your purchase of this bundle helps support Direct Relief and their humanitarian crisis relief efforts to help the people of Ukraine.

Bonus deal! Pick up a coupon for 50% off Resident Evil Village and prepare for the upcoming Winter’s Expansion DLC.

Get 3 – 12 Resident Evil games. Pay what you want!

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PR: AtGames and Dr. Seuss Enterprises to Create Original Virtual Pinball Tables Based on Dr. Seuss Properties

Adding to their exclusive lineup of original digital pinball creations, such as their TAITO arcade-themed digital pinball tables (Bubble Bobble, Space Invaders, etc.), AtGames is partnering with Dr. Seuss Enterprises for themed releases based on the classic IP. The company says that the first tables will start to appear late this year exclusively for all Legends Arcade Family home arcade devices and that more partnerships, digital pinball tables, and games are also on the way for the ever-expanding platform. You can read the full press release at this link.

The beloved Dr. Seuss properties create tremendous possibilities for fun digital pinball tables.

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HTC Vive/VIVEPORT VR Review: Together VR Deluxe Edition

This review was originally created in November 2018 for HTC, targeted to their Vive/Vive Pro (VIVEPORT). It is reproduced here without alteration.

Since virtual reality is such fertile ground for taking traditional interactive experiences to the next level, it was only a matter of time before we started to see releases of major dating or relationship simulators that take advantage of the platform. While it’s easy to judge such creations as deviant or perverted, they’re really just the newest addition to a well-known, if niche, trend.

Popular examples like adult “dolls,” love pillows (aka, dakimakura), and movies like Her (2013) prove there is definitely an interest in, or demand for, simulations of what it’s like to be in a typical human-to-human relationship. In these examples, one human, usually a man, is in some type of romantic relationship with an inanimate object or some type of simulacrum of, typically, a woman. Video games, of course, have long been fertile ground for these types of simulations, taking the form of anime- or manga-themed dating simulators and related titles that often lean towards more adult situations. While the Japanese culture is most often associated with both the consumption and development of such products and simulations, it really is a phenomenon that spans cultures.

Together VR Deluxe Edition bills itself as a way to experience everyday life with Hoshihara Mei in a private apartment. Mei is a lovely young virtual woman whose seemingly sole purpose to exist is to play games with you, interact with you in a playful manner, and generally be good natured, no matter how you treat her. That means you can prod or ogle her in any way you wish with no negative repercussions.

Again, it’s very easy to judge the intent of a game like this. While I have my own very strong opinions about the one-sided nature of this simulation and its cultural and intellectual failings in respect to current societal standards, it’s my job as a reviewer to judge the product’s execution, not its potential offenses. Hopefully, if you’ve read this far, you understand what this product is in that regard.

This is not one of the mini-games.

Rather than being a straight-up relationship simulator, Together VR Deluxe Edition is instead a collection of mini-games with bookends or in-game elements where you briefly interact with Mei. After dressing Mei in the outfit and accessories of your choice, you soon begin the first mini-game, which is darts. As with all of the other mini-games, you need to win a certain number of times in order to unlock the next mini-game.

The second mini-game is the most complex, a shooting gallery where you can engage in a hi-tech laser tag match. The third is a simple game of rock-paper-scissors, where the intent is first to feed Mei and then receive kisses from her. The final mini-game is searching for Mei’s red letter hidden somewhere in a bookcase. Of course, this is a good excuse for Mei to climb a ladder in a skirt.

Designed for Vive, Vive Pro, or Oculus Rift owners, Together VR Deluxe Edition is a room-scale experience that needs to be played standing or seated depending upon the mini-game. Both Vive controllers are used to control the action, each representing one of your hands in-game. Control is generally intuitive, if not always as precise as needed to perform some of the actions you’d like the first time, particularly with darts. When movement is allowed, you can either move within your own room or warp to where you need to go.

Audio-visuals are undeniably impressive. The apartment is well-modeled and detailed. Mei herself is beautifully designed, with generally solid animation, although with perhaps a bit too much emphasis on “jiggling” over more nuanced movements. Of course, that type of emphasis on titillation is to be expected for a product of this type. Only the occasional graphical clipping, including accidentally seeing inside the empty Mei model, mars an otherwise solid presentation.

For what it is, Together VR Deluxe Edition proves a polished product and only mildly risqué’. If this is the type of experience you’re after, you could do far worse. For everyone else, especially those not interested in the somewhat juvenile in-between “relationship” bits, the mini-games likely won’t have enough depth or precision to hold your interest for very long. And while the shooting gallery mini-game has a good amount of variety and proves the biggest stand-out here, there are countless other ways to have fun blasting things in virtual reality than slogging through all the other elements that make up this particular experience.

Score: 3 out of 5 stars.

Together VR Deluxe Edition is available on Viveport or with a Viveport Subscription.

The post HTC Vive/VIVEPORT VR Review: Together VR Deluxe Edition appeared first on Armchair Arcade.

HTC Vive/VIVEPORT VR Review – The Exorcist: Legion VR

This review was originally created in November 2018 for HTC, targeted to their Vive/Vive Pro (VIVEPORT). It is reproduced here without alteration.

As anyone who owns a good virtual reality headset knows, there’s no better way to immerse yourself in a great video game experience. The sense of “being there” and directly performing actions is unmatched by any other form of digital play. And when it comes to horror, virtual reality can both delight and terrify in ways that even the scariest and most well-crafted movie experiences can’t even think about matching.

Of course, as with anything, there are clumsy virtual reality implementations that stumble in important areas like visuals or in maintaining terror, relying, for instance, on too many jump scares that eventually lose their impact. Fortunately, having previously developed the well-received A Chair in a Room: Greenwater and The Harbinger Trials, the team behind The Exorcist: Legion VR are certainly no strangers to what goes into a good, sophisticated virtual reality fright.

Set in the world of William Peter Blatty’s famous The Exorcist series of novels and movies, which dates all the way back to 1971, The Exorcist: Legion VR, casts you as a Boston homicide detective tasked with investigating a series of ritualistic murders. Each of the game’s five chapters can be played individually, or as part of a larger story.

While The Exorcist: Legion VR is one of the pricier virtual reality titles, at least if purchased outside of Viveport, you do get all five chapters, rather than just one, for the complete experience. Since each chapter lasts less than 30 minutes, you’ll have around 2 hours or so of total gameplay, or the equivalent of a particularly long horror film. Each chapter, which includes First Rites, Idle Hands, Skin Deep, Samaritan, and The Tomb, offers its own unique setting, secrets, and demonic boss enemy to confront, preferably when armed with the right artifact.

In First Rites, you investigate a blood-covered place of worship where you find a notebook filled with writings of demonic possession and the ritualistic murder of a priest. In Idle Hands, you visit Lucie Moss, a mentally ill school teacher whose dabblings in the occult have made her a victim of a malicious entity. In Skin Deep, you investigate a wave of infant deaths that appear to have a supernatural connection. In Samaritan, you investigate an unknown plague in a failed quarantine zone in Haiti. Finally, in The Tomb, you’re transported deep into the mountains of Upper Mesopotamia to face Pazuzu, a demon who will put all of the skills you learned from the previous chapters to the test.

The imagery is evocative.

Designed for Vive, Vive Pro, or Oculus Rift owners, The Exorcist: Legion VR is a room-scale experience that can be played seated or standing. While you have lots of options, the most immersive way to play is standing, armed with both Vive controllers and the default control scheme. With this setup, you can more easily investigate your surroundings and find and use the right equipment against the various demons. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that this setup gives you the illusion of more control and freedom of movement, which is a big plus in a game that can wear down even the heartiest of constitutions with its truly terrifying theatrics.

The Exorcist: Legion VR‘s audio-visual quality is top-notch. Detailed, realistic environments and ambient lighting come together to create one of the better-looking virtual reality experiences, topped off with demonic character models that give even the most iconic movie monsters a run for their money. The sound design is arguably even better, with genuinely creepy ambient sounds and positional audio that will send chills up your spine and have you constantly looking over your shoulder, if not completely turned around in terror.

While The Exorcist: Legion VR suffers a bit from shallow gameplay, where your biggest challenge is managing and using your inventory at the right time, if you’re looking for a good fright, the journey is still well worth it. While it would have been nice to have more than a few hours of total gameplay, even accounting for its optional puzzles and alternate objectives to achieve a 100% rating in each chapter, this relatively short length does help keep the virtual reality experience more comfortable for those of us who literally have trouble stomaching lengthier play sessions. And it’s especially hard to fault each chapter’s concise nature when the terror is so expertly crafted, never giving you a sense that any part of the experience is filler.

Score: 5 out of 5 stars.

The Exorcist: Legion VR is available on Viveport or with a Viveport Subscription.

The post HTC Vive/VIVEPORT VR Review – The Exorcist: Legion VR appeared first on Armchair Arcade.

HTC Vive/VIVEPORT VR Review: Taphouse VR

This review was originally created in December 2018 for HTC, targeted to their Vive/Vive Pro (VIVEPORT). It is reproduced here without alteration.

Bartending video games got off to a great start with the 1983 arcade classic, Tapper. In that game, you had to run up and down four bars to serve demanding, thirsty patrons, collecting empty mugs and money along the way. It was hectic, comic fun, with timeless gameplay that’s still a blast to play today. Interestingly, in the decades since the release of that iconic title, there have been few attempts at taking its core conceit of tending bar in an action-packed video game setting and turning it into something new. Now, Taphouse VR does just that, and in virtual reality to boot.

Taphouse VR casts you as a bartender pouring and mixing beverages of all kinds into glasses, mugs, shot glasses, and tankards for thirsty, demanding dwarves. The goal is to serve the drink desired in the drinkware desired as quickly as possible for gold coins. If you’re too slow, serve the wrong drink, mix the ratio of ingredients incorrectly, or use the wrong drinkware, the dwarves will walk away in a huff without paying.

You start out in a master tavern that you can explore and use to get a general sense of the controls, including for the working slot machine. This master tavern is also where you can select from the various playable taverns, from the smallest bars where you serve one customer at a time and all of your ingredients and drinkware are within easy reach, to the largest and hardest where you need to serve multiple customers at once and the ingredients and drinkware are spread out.

Designed for Vive, Vive Pro, and Oculus Rift owners, Taphouse VR can be played seated or standing. Since there’s a lot of movement, it’s generally easier to play the game standing, and, as a room-scale experience, having a larger play-space to work in helps. Of course, even the largest play-spaces may have trouble accommodating the in-game areas of the larger bars, so even those players will welcome the option for warp-based movement with the Trackpad.

The bartending controls are simple and intuitive. Using both motion controllers, you use the Trigger to make your hands grab, operate, or drop bottles, cans, taps, drinkware, and coins, among other items. You can also send away dwarves who are too drunk to stand and break up any of the fights they might get into.

The characters in Taphouse VR have real personality.

The audio-visuals are excellent. The environments are charming, the characters have real personality, and everything has a unique, consistent look. Sound design is equally polished, with pleasing sound effects and background music.

Unfortunately, as pleasing as Taphouse VR is to the senses, the gameplay itself gets a bit repetitive. While there’s definitely something interesting about mixing and serving drinks as accurately and quickly as possible on a basic level, there’s no variation here to keep things fresh other than some changes of scenery and an increase in difficulty. Of course, the same could also be said for its distant ancestor, Tapper, so at least it’s in good company in that regard.

That’s also not to say that there’s no nuance to Taphouse VR. Drinks can be one type of beverage, or require a proportional mix of multiple beverages, say, 70% of one and 30% of another. There are no measuring marks on any of the drinkware either, so you’ll have to get good at guesstimating the percentages to make your more discerning dwarve patrons happy.

For a game that’s considered early access, and thus subject to significant changes going forward, Taphouse VR is a surprisingly complete and polished experience. If the developers can add just a little more variation to the gameplay, they’ll have a true standout and a worthy bookend to what Tapper kicked off so long ago.

Score: 4 out of 5 stars.

Taphouse VR is available on Viveport or with a Viveport Subscription.

The post HTC Vive/VIVEPORT VR Review: Taphouse VR appeared first on Armchair Arcade.

HTC Vive/VIVEPORT VR Review: Streetball VR

This review was originally created in May 2018 for HTC, targeted to their Vive/Vive Pro (VIVEPORT). It is reproduced here without alteration.

While there are always calls for deep, high profile, and big budget virtual reality experiences, a game like Streetball Vr reminds us that there can still be a lot of fun when setting your sights a bit lower.

Streetball VR‘s window dressing of three detailed outdoor location backdrops and four different colored basketballs to choose from aside, the core of the game is simply to shoot hoops. In many ways, this plays like a souped up version of those timed mini basketball games you find at an arcade or amusement center. In fact, to further highlight how closely the developers hew to this concept, the only other mode available outside of Practice is Time Mode, which can be set to 30, 60, or 90 second intervals.

Save for the low-resolution floor and wall textures, the visuals are pleasing enough, with reasonably detailed outdoor backdrops that simulate either one of two typical neighborhood basketball courts or a driveway backboard placed just above a suburban home’s garage. While the environmental simulation is fairly nice, it can feel a bit sparse and isolated. It’s thus a welcome touch that on the two neighborhood courts there are some virtual people hanging out, although their actions are rather simple and repetitive.

To further add to the ambiance, there are a generous 32 hip-hop music tracks. While these are pretty generic sounding, the driving, intense beats do set a nice mood and help keep energy levels high. The soundtrack is included with purchase should you want to listen outside of the game. Of course, for those who find this type of music unpleasant or unneeded, you can turn off the music completely in Settings.

It’s visually simple, but there are different environments to play in.

Whether you’re seated or standing, Streetball VR controls the same, although for the latter you’ll want to play in a room with a high ceiling so you don’t crash your motion controller into it while shooting baskets. Although both motion controllers work in the game, one is all you need, which is reflected in how your non-ball holding hand, while present from your in-game perspective, is not shown helping to cradle the ball like you would typically do with a real basketball. This lack of authenticity carries over to the throwing motion, which is more like a fling or slingshot than a traditional basketball toss. Nevertheless, despite this somewhat jarring break from the norm, the use of the motion controller and being inside the VR environment itself is still arguably more immersive than using a regular controller and simply staring at a TV or monitor.

The physics work about as well as you would hope, with a realistic bouncing ball and the expected reactions to hitting the rim and backboard. As a result of this realism, once you get the flinging motion and timing down, you can start to drain baskets fairly consistently in the oversized hoop (there’s no net, which is something of a disappointment). Of course, physics quirks can also work against you, resulting in the same types of near-misses or loose balls you can’t avoid in real life either. Fortunately, grabbing a new ball is as simple as pressing a button.

While Streetball VR is ostensibly a simulation of playing a hyped up, street-level solo game of basketball, the core experience is really stripped down to its high scoring essentials. As such, if you like the type of rapid-fire mini basketball games you might find at an arcade or amusement center, or simply think a virtual game of HORSE might be a fun way to spend some time, then this is definitely an experience worth checking out. Just make sure you avoid smashing into your ceiling.

Score: 3 out of 5

Streetball VR is available on Viveport or with a Viveport Subscription.

The post HTC Vive/VIVEPORT VR Review: Streetball VR appeared first on Armchair Arcade.

Jurassic World Evolution plus all DLC with the complete park sim bundle!

Build the dino park of your dreams (or nightmares). Check out the three bundle options at this link.

Create the ultimate vacation destination for dino lovers in the acclaimed park management sim Jurassic World Evolution—complete with every DLC available! This Mamenchisaurus-sized bundle includes the original game, all three major narrative expansions, and a herd of add-on content that adds more carnivores, herbivores, and other dino species to your menagerie.

You can also save an unprecedented 50% off the recent hit sequel Jurassic World Evolution 2—available at its lowest price yet through an exclusive bonus coupon with this bundle.

Bring natural history back to life & help support the charity of your choice!

The complete Jurassic World Evolution and a big discount on the sequel too!

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Master Microsoft development with these Apress books

Practical guides for working with .NET, Azure, and more. Here’s the link to check out the bundle options.

Looking for knowledge resources to help you with an IT or software development project using Microsoft’s tools, languages, and platforms? We’ve teamed up with Apress to bring you an in-depth library that will help you navigate the worlds of .NET, Azure, and more. Learn the ins and outs of programming, security, and cloud computing, and lots more topics, all while supporting World Central Kitchen and Save the Children.

Just one of the many great books available in this bundle.

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HTC Vive/VIVEPORT VR Review – Starbear: Taxi

This review was originally created in June 2018 for HTC, targeted to their Vive/Vive Pro (VIVEPORT). It is reproduced here without alteration.

Following in the tradition of classics like Muse’s Space Taxi (1984) and Sega’s Crazy Taxi (1999), Starbear: Taxi takes the mundane task of conveying passengers from one destination to another for a fee and makes it fun. Like its predecessors, Starbear: Taxi accomplishes this feat by setting its action in an outrageous world with quirky passengers and crazy obstacles to overcome.

The time is 3064 A.D., and Starbear is fresh out of “hibearnation,” which is a nice way of saying unemployment. Starbear needs to deliver as many busy bears to their desired destinations as possible, all while avoiding whatever the pesky raccoon bandits – and rush hour traffic – throw at him. As you might expect from its title and this description, Starbear: Taxi doesn’t take itself too seriously. The bright visuals, funky animations, silly sound effects, bouncy music, and miniature environment all exude cuteness. Fortunately, there’s nothing cloying about this aesthetic. It’s just good, clean cartoon fun, reminiscent of a more juvenile take on the world of the Jetsons.

Interestingly, you don’t control Starbear directly. Instead, when seated or standing, you use one Vive controller like a remote control. Think of Starbear’s taxi like a little RC flying saucer. The main challenge here is using this control scheme to carefully move Starbear between each pickup and drop off point. Each passenger, who is tethered below the taxi and further affects its balance in the physics-based flight model, has their own requirement, be it something simple like going from point A to B, or picking up a series of honeypots.

Starbear: Taxi is a lot of fun and has an interesting visual effect in VR.

As with a real world flying RC vehicle or low end drone, staying in control is easier said than done. The first several play sessions you’ll likely have difficulty just moving Starbear’s taxi to the Start portal to begin the game, let alone consistently pick up and move passengers. Fortunately, while practice can probably never make perfect here, you can definitely improve your score between each play session. And, as an extra scoring incentive, as you reach higher and higher point thresholds, you’ll be able to unlock more content.

Of course, the wily raccoon bandits who want to knock you out of the sky and take your earnings, as well as the natural environmental obstacles, also add significantly to the challenge even if you do get a good handle on the controls. Perhaps the most insidious challenge of them all, however, is the aggressive time limit. As you try and rise up the ranks of the leaderboards, running out of time will likely remain your most consistent adversary.

Starbear: Taxi is the kind of gaming experience that really shows off how fun a VR-first design can be, helping transform what could be a pedestrian concept into something magical. It really does feel like you’re remote controlling a little bear’s taxi in a miniature world that you’re overlooking. With its just one-more-try gameplay combined with the added incentive of seeing more of the crazy characters, quirky animations, and new ways to find your progress impeded, Starbear: Taxi makes for a must-try experience.

Score: 5 out of 5 stars.

Starbear: Taxi is available on Viveport or with a Viveport Subscription.

The post HTC Vive/VIVEPORT VR Review – Starbear: Taxi appeared first on Armchair Arcade.

Top Music-Themed Online Slots

Music is a joy that many people share, and it’s not hard to see why. It’s also massively subjective within this, with different people loving kinds of music that others despise, it’s all about taste, and it’s personal about what resonates with you. It can even go as far as to become an entire hobby in itself, or a passion if you care about making your own music, or perhaps as a social event in the form of a concert or festival? Your choices are hugely varied in how to incorporate music into your life.

You can also listen to it while you engage with other hobbies that you enjoy, and sometimes these can merge with no input of your own. Slot games might be another hobby that you enjoy, and so finding the ones that care about music as much as you do can enhance the experience.

Elvis Lives

Depending on what kind of music you find yourself into in your life, you might find that this is a concept that resonates with you personally, as the kind of music produced by the artist in question was nothing short of iconic and still continues to be popular today. With this kind of driving force behind the game and the relevant music to throw you into the situation, you might find that this is exactly the kind of experience that you were looking for.

While you might have previously thought that your opportunities to engage with such slot games were limited to when you encountered a machine at a pub or similar venue, you might find that downloading a real money slots app can have you quickly and conveniently accessing any game you want.

Michael Jackson, King of Pop

When it comes to famous music artists from the 20th century, you aren’t exactly struggling when it comes to relevant slot games. The King of Pop himself might be who you’re more interested in, however, and with his own game that can remind you of classics like Billie Jean and Smooth Criminal, why wouldn’t you be? The more upbeat and engaging tone that can come from this kind of music might suit the activity better than something slower-paced, with some studies suggesting that pop music can have a positive impact on your overall mood, which might help you to better enjoy your pastime of choice.

DJ Wild

It might be that you want to follow this line of thought to its logical extreme, playing along to the most upbeat and high-tempo music that you can find. This might be removed from the identity of 20th-century music legends, but you might find that this kind of music is not only more to your tastes but more in line with the activity that you find yourself enjoying. This is ultimately the choice that it comes down to, and it all circles back to preference. Your own tastes and opinions will likely guide which game is best for you, but having multiple options can at least inform of you of the kind of variety at your disposal.

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