Bill Loguidice's Blog, page 21
April 20, 2022
Get ready to tour the universe in Egosoft’s epic sci-fi game series, X!
Journey to the stars with Egosoft, creators of the wildly deep and impressively expansive space combat and trading sim series of games collectively known as the X Universe!
Whether you want to command a fleet of capital ships or think diplomacy can win the day, you can experience everything the galaxy has to offer in this comprehensive collection. Featuring the latest title in the main series, X4: Foundations, its expansion X4: Split Vendetta, and the critically acclaimed X3: Terran Conflict, this bundle is your gateway to nearly the entire X saga.
Rule your way and build the intergalactic society you think the universe deserves. Plus, support the charity of your choice with your purchase!
X4: Foundations is just one of the great X series games in this bundle.The post Get ready to tour the universe in Egosoft’s epic sci-fi game series, X! appeared first on Armchair Arcade.
Test your skills in bullet-hell adventure Archvale and explore a world of magic in strategy RPG Fae Tactics!
Discover 10 great Humble Games titles in the ever-expanding Humble Games Collection—an exclusive perk of Humble Choice.
Humble Choice Membership
It’s a growing PC games library!Humble Choice members can access the Humble Games Collection and download DRM-free favorites from the Vault through the Humble app for Windows PC.
The post Test your skills in bullet-hell adventure Archvale and explore a world of magic in strategy RPG Fae Tactics! appeared first on Armchair Arcade.
April 19, 2022
Learn to create games in the all-new Unreal Engine 5 in this value-packed bundle!
Unreal Engine 5 is officially here—and you can learn to make games using this powerful real-time 3D creation tool with the world’s most popular online courses! This online learning bundle takes you from making a first-person shooter (FPS) in Blueprints (no coding required!) to learning C++ and coding your first games—all the way through to creating a multiplayer game you can play with friends, VR experiences, and more. Plus, your purchase will support Oceana!
Learn Unreal Engine 5 with the world’s most popular online courses!The post Learn to create games in the all-new Unreal Engine 5 in this value-packed bundle! appeared first on Armchair Arcade.
These must-play VR games for a low price belong in every library!
Explore the wild, imaginative, and awesome expanse of VR gaming with these critical hits and community favorites! Experience the mindblowing sights and sounds of the hyper-acclaimed rhythm FPS Pistol Whip. Take a meta break from our own reality with Vacation Simulator, the hilarious VR essential from Owlchemy Labs. Lead your ship to victory with the power of epic viking music in Ragnaröck, and lots more—all while supporting the charity of your choice!
PowerBeatsVR is just one of many great titles in this virtual reality bundle!The post These must-play VR games for a low price belong in every library! appeared first on Armchair Arcade.
April 6, 2022
HTC Vive/VIVEPORT VR Review: Space Panic VR (Room Escape)
This review was originally created in October 2018 for HTC, targeted to their Vive/Vive Pro (VIVEPORT). It is reproduced here without alteration.
For the uninitiated, escape rooms are live action adventure games where a group of players solve a series of puzzles through a combination of strategy and simple trial-and-error. According to a recent article in USA TODAY, which referenced the Room Escape Artist blog database, there were only 22 escape rooms in the US in 2014. By the summer of 2017, the database estimates there were almost 2,000 escape room facilities. As you might expect, such a popular live action competitive game soon made its way over to videogames, with virtual reality the most natural fit for the concept. Space Panic VR (Room Escape) attempts to stand out in an increasingly crowded competitive landscape by making its puzzles literally out of this world, set aboard a space station in the not-too-distant future.
Space Panic VR (Room Escape) can be played either standing or seated in a room-scale environment. It makes use of both Vive controllers and three key actions: Teleport, Grab, and Use. Teleport is a way to quickly move about the space station. Grab allows you to take hold of an object and move it. And Use lets you utilize one object with another. There’s also simple inventory management via an item belt if you need access to more than two objects.
Visually, the game is bright and clean, with well-modeled graphics when set to the game’s higher quality settings. Unfortunately, if you don’t or can’t set the game to one of its highest graphical quality settings, it can be difficult to have enough visual clarity to solve some of the puzzles. This is an important limitation to keep in mind if your particular computer is on the lower end of the recommended specifications.
Environmental and object audio sounds suitably realistic. While there’s no background music, there is a constant hum from the normal functions of the space station, which some may find a bit annoying.
There are better virtual reality escape room implementations out there.In general, the puzzles are fair, although not every challenge fits well with the futuristic space-based setting or is particularly inspired. For example, there’s a sliding tile puzzle that’s about as generic as it gets and really makes little sense as to why it would even appear on a space station. Unfortunately, this lack of cohesion and somewhat haphazard puzzle placement is the norm for the game.
If you don’t mind that the setting seems like an afterthought at times and there’s little rhyme or reason to the puzzles being what they are, you can still have fun trying to escape the space station. And if you’re particularly good at solving puzzles, there’s a nice Panic Mode that adds a time-based element that many competing escape room games lack. Unfortunately, this example of thoughtfulness is missing in many other places in the game. As such, it’s a shame that the developers weren’t able to elevate the overall experience to as high of a level as some of their growing number of competitors in virtual reality escape room games. As it is, Space Panic VR (Room Escape) is strictly middle-of-the-road.
Score: 3 out of 5 stars.
Space Panic VR (Room Escape) is available on Viveport or with a Viveport Subscription.
The post HTC Vive/VIVEPORT VR Review: Space Panic VR (Room Escape) appeared first on Armchair Arcade.
March 30, 2022
HTC Vive/VIVEPORT VR Review: Riff VR
This review was originally created in December 2018 for HTC, targeted to their Vive/Vive Pro (VIVEPORT). It is reproduced here without alteration.
Although it seems like eons ago in technology years, playing music video games with semi-realistic plastic instruments was a really big deal as recently as the mid-2000s. Despite their popularity having waned dramatically from their fad-driven peaks, the core concept of playing a musical instrument, or singing, to a popular song still holds a lot of appeal. Thankfully, with Riff VR and the power of virtual reality, we can do away with the plastic peripherals and enjoy a self-contained, less hassle-prone guitar, drums, or vocal experience.
After selecting one of its three difficultly levels, Riff VR starts you in the rehearsal area, where you’re joined by your virtual bandmates. As you improve and hit certain score targets, you can advance to a garage, TV studio, and, eventually, a stadium.
Riff VR is designed for Vive, Vive Pro, or Oculus Rift owners. It’s playable as a seated or standing room-scale experience. Naturally, playing guitar and singing are best-suited to standing, while drumming is best-suited to sitting, but you’re obviously free to perform any way you’re most comfortable. In fact, the drum kit’s height is fully adjustable.
An idealized version of drumming.Using both motion controllers is intuitive and natural, with color-coded areas to hit on the right beat. For guitar, your right arm strums, while your left arm moves on the virtual fingerboard (support for left-handed players is promised in a future update). For drums, you move both controllers in a drum banging motion. For vocals, I was under the impression you were supposed to hold one controller near your mouth like a microphone as you read the words on the screen karaoke style, but that option, or the on-screen words, ever appeared for me. Other bugs, like a missing left controller or incorrect guitar height occasionally cropped up as well.
As of this writing there are 20 licensed songs built-in, as well as one unlockable bonus song, broken into three main categories: Modern Classics, Classic Metal, and Classic Rock. For Modern Classics, there are songs like “Kryptonite” from 3 Doors Down and “Breakfast at Tiffanys” from Deep Blue Something. For Classic Metal, there are songs like “I was made for loving you” by Kiss and “The Final Countdown” by Europe. For classic rock, there are songs like “Rocky Mountain Way” from Joe Walsh and “Hold on Loosely” from 38 Special. In short, while Riff VR doesn’t have the most expansive library, it does pack some well-known, fun-to-play songs.
A nice touch is that you can use the integrated streaming option to record your performance to YouTube, Twitch, or Facebook, as well in OBS or LIV formats. There’s also a free companion app for iPhone users, Riff AR, with an Android version due at a later date. With this augmented reality app, you can place the virtual band in your own real-world environments, among other features.
Beyond just playing music, you can also use the Creative Hub to design your own environments to play in. This is a fairly robust drag and drop creation set, letting you place, move, and scale objects, change the lighting, and more.
Visually, the game goes for the type of hyped up, semi-realistic look common to this genre of video game. The graphics are nothing special, with uneven motion captured animations that often fail to impart any connection to the current song. It goes without saying that the audio quality is top-notch thanks to the use of real hit songs.
Riff VR goes a long way to showing that there’s still life left in the music video game genre. By doing away with the need for extraneous peripherals, it’s easy to enjoy the core mechanics of the experience. Although I ran into my fair share of bugs with this version of the game, it still proved to me there’s a reason why these types of games used to be so popular.
Score: 3 out of 5 stars.
Riff VR is available on Viveport or with a Viveport Subscription.
The post HTC Vive/VIVEPORT VR Review: Riff VR appeared first on Armchair Arcade.
March 28, 2022
Bring your video and musical vision to life with these low price bundles
Here are the bundle options for the Your Ticket to a New Creative Universe Software Bundle.
Get creative and produce your own videos and music with this bundle of legendary MAGIX software!
Video ProX 12 offers intuitive tools for creation, while FXhome Ignite Keying & Flares delivers further possibilities for fine tuning your visuals. Add your own soundtrack with Music Maker Hip Hop Edition (2022), which lets you create loop-based songs without any prior experience in music production. Dig deeper into music production with ACID Music Studio 11, then finish your projects with SOUND FORGE Audio Studio 14, the perfect tool for mixing and mastering.
Round out your musical journey with a voucher for Acidized Loops and 2 vouchers for Music Maker Soundpools from Hip Hop, Soul/R&B, and Funk. Plus, your purchase of this bundle supports Partners in Health and BCRF (Breast Cancer Research Foundation)!
2022), Video ProX 12, and ACID Music Studio 11. Plus, your purchase will support Partners in Health and BCRF (Breast Cancer Research Foundation)!
Your Ticket to a New Creative Universe Software BundleThe post Bring your video and musical vision to life with these low price bundles appeared first on Armchair Arcade.
March 23, 2022
HTC Vive/VIVEPORT VR Review: Puppet Fever
This review was originally created in August 2018 for HTC, targeted to their Vive/Vive Pro (VIVEPORT). It is reproduced here without alteration.
Charades, the classic multiplayer guessing game where a single person acts out, mimes, or otherwise tries to silently interpret each syllable of a word or entire phrase while the rest of the group guesses, has origins dating back to the 18th century. Although this still popular party parlor game and its many variations, which depend so much on live interaction, seem like a poor concept to base a virtual reality experience on, Puppet Fever comes at the problem with a clever solution.
Instead of directly acting out the charade, the player uses puppets and props as proxies, creating an ad hoc puppet show in the process. One simple example with the assigned phrase of “fight fire with fire” is to select an angry ball, light it on fire, then select an angry guy with a torch and light the torch on fire. Then, move the angry guy around like he’s fighting with the ball. In the time the puppeteer is doing all of this, the other players try to guess the correct phrase.
Puppet Fever can be played seated in any size room and makes use of both Vive controllers to select and control the puppets and props. If you’re playing local hot seat multiplayer, you’ll also need your computer’s primary display available to the other players. While local multiplayer supports up to three other players in addition to the puppeteer, there’s also built-in support for Mixer live streaming for those who want to play and interact with larger, remote groups. Of course, there are bots to play with if you ever find yourself alone, which is definitely serviceable, but is not really where this type of party game experience shines.
It’s a VR implementation of charades.There are hundreds of English word cards to play, including tips on how you might act out the words or phrases. And if you happen to understand Swedish, the developers have included hundreds more phrases in their native language. There are also hundreds of puppets and props, ranging from humanoid characters and animals to set pieces like tables and mountains, so there is no shortage of content to play puppet master with. Of course, with such an excellent foundation in place, it would be great if the developers could release even more content in the future.
With all of the content and possibilities for puppeteering fun, the developers have also thoughtfully included additional options beyond the game proper. You can not only take photos and videos of your own dramatic puppet productions, but can also share them on social media. For creative types, this feature can justify the price of entry all by itself.
For all that Puppet Fever offers, perhaps its most impressive accomplishment is taking a classic real-world party game that relies so much on a visual connection between the actor and guessers, and making it seem like it was designed with virtual reality in mind in the first place. This is a unique, high-quality experience that truly showcases the amazing potential of virtual reality to successfully interpret even the most challenging concepts.
Score: 5 out of 5 stars.
Puppet Fever is available on Viveport or with a Viveport Subscription.
The post HTC Vive/VIVEPORT VR Review: Puppet Fever appeared first on Armchair Arcade.
March 16, 2022
HTC Vive/VIVEPORT VR Review: Project 59
This review was originally created in November 2018 for HTC, targeted to their Vive/Vive Pro (VIVEPORT). It is reproduced here without alteration.
Project 59 is yet another addition to the seemingly endless collection of virtual reality wave shooters. As is typical for the genre, the game surrounds you with fast-moving enemies that you need to fend off with a variety of weapons from a central location.
The backstory is a simple one. You joined a secret agency and are being ordered to carry out covert operations. Using advanced weapons and other equipment at your disposal, you’re supposed to eliminate all of the attacking mutant creatures as you fulfill your mission objectives. As you advance through these operations, you start to uncover a mystery that reveals that things are not quite as they seem.
It’s important to keep in mind that this is not considered what is eventually supposed to be the complete game. All that’s here is the initial training level and then a single mission. While more is promised, including your actions influencing more of the story direction, you’re looking at a total playtime for now of around 1 hour or less.
Designed as a seated or standing experience for the Vive or Vive Pro, Project 59 makes use of both Vive Controllers for the usual dual-wielding gunplay mayhem. You can collect ever more powerful weapons along the way and upgrade them from collectible tech pieces. You then have the option to replay a mission in the future and make use of the more powerful weapons.
Movement is handled via a “warping” mechanic, where you’re able to point and zip to your next destination. This movement system is actually Project 59‘s most innovative feature, as it’s a great way to move around a game like this. Between being able to move within your own room to engage enemies in a natural 1:1 manner, and then simply warping to your next destination, the chances of getting motion sickness from this game are seriously minimized.
This same warping mechanic is used to picked up items, except instead of warping you, the item gets zipped into your possession when you point at it. It’s both intuitive and satisfying.
The visuals err on the dark side.Visually, the game’s graphics are average, tied to a thematic decision to set the game in solely dark environments. As such, a premium is placed on lighting effects, like a flashlight, fire, and other incidentals to help you see what’s going. Naturally, this lack of light also ups the scare factor quite a bit.
The sound design is similarly competent, with good weapon and monster effects. The disembodied-narrator-companion-with-an-attitude hook takes inspiration from the Serious Sam games, but it feels a bit more forced here and definitely less professional than the voice work in that classic series of first-person shooters. The narrator companion’s affected slow drawl/growl definitely starts to grate a bit with repeated plays.
Project 59 is a game with a lot of promise. Unfortunately, what’s actually available only hints at the game’s ultimate potential, rather than helping to realize it. The game’s movement and item acquisition system is clever and the gameplay can be fun, but without more content, there’s just not enough here to recommend against its competition. And while I appreciate the attempt at further differentiation from its peers with the inclusion of the snarky companion narrator, the put-downs and acting fell a bit flat, lessening its impact for me. Hopefully the developers can eventually see through what they started and offer a more compelling, and complete, overall experience.
Score: 3 out of 5 stars.
Project 59 is available on Viveport or with a Viveport Subscription.
The post HTC Vive/VIVEPORT VR Review: Project 59 appeared first on Armchair Arcade.
March 9, 2022
Space Ace x RepliCade Preorder on now – Two different full-function mini arcade recreations!
In commemoration of the upcoming 40th anniversary of Don Bluth’s Dragon’s Lair and Space Ace classic arcade cabinets, New Wave announced the first arcade machine of RepliCade Wave II, Space Ace: https://newwavetoys.com/products/space-ace-x-replicade
If you’d prefer the machine in its Dragon’s Lair conversion form, it’s here: https://newwavetoys.com/products/space-ace-x-replicade-overhaul
Full-featured as always.As usual, these are some of the best recreations on the market. Even at the smaller size, they’re highly playable.
The post Space Ace x RepliCade Preorder on now – Two different full-function mini arcade recreations! appeared first on Armchair Arcade.
