Bill Loguidice's Blog, page 27

HTC Vive/VIVEPORT VR Review – Cargo Cult: Shoot’n’Loot

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

Set to a backdrop of over-the-top sky pirate antics, Cargo Cult: Shoot’n’Loot joins a growing number of “bullet hell” and first person shooter hybrid games that seem particularly well suited to virtual reality. And similar to those other games in its chosen genre, it uses the familiar construct of firing a weapon with one hand and using a shield in the other, although you can eventually also dual-wield two weapons should you be so inclined.

Played standing in a room-scale environment, Cargo Cult: Shoot’n’Loot gets right down to business after loading, providing options to either play the game or upgrade your weapons or defenses. The latter option is only possible as you work your way through the game, shooting enemies and objects, and eventually earning enough money to spend on upgrades. These upgrades include enhancements like greater shot damage, a quicker cool-down time for an overheating gun, a laser sight for improved accuracy, and a rocket launcher for wide-scale damage. You can also purchase health and armor improvements if you need more defensive assistance.

Cargo Cult: Shoot’n’Loot‘s unusual theme is perhaps its strongest selling point. You fight from aboard your flying pirate ship through cloudy vistas and floating cliffs. There’s a strong steampunk vibe, with a healthy mix of Victorian style and fantastic technologies. Visually, the graphics are attractive, with a pleasing mix of semi-realistic and somewhat comic elements that help sell the overall theme. Audio-wise, the music and sound effects are sufficiently upbeat and loud, matching the frantic action.

Many of the great SHMUP tropes are present.

There are three levels, each with a big boss battle at the end. If you beat the boss, you get a chance to spend your hard-earned booty on upgrades. Again, this is all fairly standard stuff for the genre, although this particular game’s length is on the shorter side. Since the entire game is carefully scripted with no variations after each playthrough, the whole experience becomes increasingly familiar. While after the first level the difficulty level quickly ramps up, once you start to get a feel for where the enemies are and what’s coming next – and of course make proper use of the upgrades – you’ll eventually be able to make it through the entire game in 20 minutes or less.

While the short game length might be a deal-breaker for a regular game, the fact that Cargo Cult: Shoot’n’Loot is a virtual reality title makes the eventual 20 minute max play time per complete session more acceptable. After all, not many people can stay comfortably immersed inside their headsets for much longer, particularly with a game as relatively active as this one is.

The game’s simple controls can also be seen as either a negative or positive, depending upon your preference. Outside of moving your hands to position your oversized gun or shield, you can either jump or fire. That’s it. That means this game is truly pick up and play, but there’s never any depth to its controls beyond that.

Although not the most innovative or deepest of experiences, Cargo Cult: Shoot’n’Loot is still worth a playthrough or two. The setting is interesting and it’s fun to acquire weapon upgrades that you can put to use against the game’s partially destructible environment and assortment of metal enemies. While there are definitely better games in this genre, you can do a lot worse than what’s on offer here.

Score: 3 out of 5 stars.

Cargo Cult: Shoot’n’Loot is available on Viveport or with a Viveport Subscription.

The post HTC Vive/VIVEPORT VR Review – Cargo Cult: Shoot’n’Loot appeared first on Armchair Arcade.

HTC Vive/Oculus/VIVEPORT VR Review – Caliban Below

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

Released as part of a larger, ongoing dark gothic virtual reality project referred to as The Abbot’s Book, the Caliban Below has a solid pedigree. Besides being from Blackthorn Media, which was founded in 2013 by award-winning Hollywood visual effects designer, Michael Conelly, it’s the next chapter after the critically acclaimed and similarly free-to-play The Abbot’s Book Demo.

The Abbot’s Book Demo took place in Vicenza, Italy, in 1680. In that game, you had to explore the ruins of an ancient religion that were scattered throughout the catacombs beneath a noble estate, where the shadow of a forgotten god awakened to haunt human dreams. It only had around 5 – 10 minutes of gameplay, but the experience offered was still worthy to be featured at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival’s New Frontier Program and helped put Blackthorn Media on the map.

While designed as a stand-alone game, and one said by its developer to be significantly polished over its predecessor, it still follows the same basic setup and takes place in the same world. In fact, the concept behind The Abbot’s Book project is that it will come to feature eight full episodes of virtual reality narrative content, with the original demo showing a slice of the seventh episode and Caliban Below showcasing a slightly larger portion of the epic. In fact, Caliban Below‘s play time clocks in only about double of what The Abbot’s Book Demo offered.

The scene is once again set in Nothern Italy in 1680, although before the events of The Abbot’s Book Demo. As Caliban, you must try to learn why you’re trapped in a dream. As the last heir of a noble lineage, he struggles to understand his dark inheritance. It’s up to you to explore the ruins of the family estate, as well as the realm below, seeking clues to his past and to the events that severed him from his family so long ago.

Caliban Below is designed for Vive, Vive Pro, or Oculus Rift owners as a seated or standing room-scale experience. The game is controlled with both motion controllers, which appear as themselves in the game. Movement outside of your room space is handled via blinking, which is just a fancy way of saying teleportation.

Thanks to its movement system, the game is fully playable seated, but I think you’ll really want to play standing. This gives you the best view through some of the architecture and also allows you freer movement within the room-scale environments. It’s also arguably a lot creepier when you engage your whole body.

Lighting is used to dramatic effect.

As you’d expect from its developers, Caliban Below is a visual treat. Most in-game objects have a strikingly clean, realistic look, with the only let down being the occasional graphical clipping, like when blades of grass embed themselves halfway through something they’re not supposed to. The use of lighting effects are particularly impressive, with the use of darkness and shadow testing the mettle of even hardened horror fans, and perfectly suited to the game’s gothic trappings.

Audio is similarly impressive, although I felt like the narrator was not as professional sounding as Caliban himself. Otherwise, the sound design sets a suitably creepy and atmospheric tone.

Whether or not you’ll like or love Caliban Below comes down to how much gameplay you’re actually looking for. While it can be interesting, and frightening, to explore the game world, there’s not much more to actually do beyond a few simple puzzles. You’re really just here to become immersed in a gothic short story, albeit one with a particularly satisfying conclusion.

Perhaps the best praise that can be given to Caliban Below is that even if it wasn’t a free experience, it would still be an easy recommendation. Hopefully the developers can continue to test their talents and further develop this promising series.

Score: 4 out of 5 stars.

The post HTC Vive/Oculus/VIVEPORT VR Review – Caliban Below appeared first on Armchair Arcade.

HTC Vive/VIVEPORT VR Review – Brain Voyagers: Ricochet

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

Ball and paddle games have been a video gaming mainstay since before Atari’s Pong took arcade gaming to the next level in 1972 with its minimalist interpretation of table tennis. After that historic milestone, countless clones and variations on the ball and paddle concept appeared. Arguably the most popular of these games was Atari’s Breakout, which first appeared in arcades in 1976, and its sequel, Super Breakout, which appeared in 1978. In these games, you move a paddle at the bottom of the screen to bat a ball at and break the bricks at the top of the screen.

Taito’s popular Arkanoid, which appeared in arcades in 1986, further evolved the core Breakout concept with more colorful visuals and sound effects, power-ups, and more than 30 different levels to battle through. It’s perhaps not surprising then that many ball and paddle virtual reality games, like Brain Voyagers: Ricochet, take their inspiration from Arkanoid, placing value on variety and audio-visual flash, while also changing the perspective to first-person.

Brain Voyagers: Ricochet is actually a major update to what was originally simply called Brain Voyagers. The developers added new levels, paddles, sounds, and gameplay elements over the original version of the game. The core concept is still the same, however, and that’s to defeat waves of enemies in a variety of play-spaces using a mix of different tools and powers to create, control, and deflect deadly balls of energy.

As you might expect for a kinetic game of this type, this is a standing, room-scale experience. While you don’t need a particularly large play environment, you will need plenty of space to freely move your arms left, right, up, and down. Depending upon the level, each Vive controller represents a small shield or some other type of paddle implement.

Pure energy.

When first starting the game, you’re introduced to the basic mechanic of creating an energy orb, aiming it at an enemy or enemies, and then releasing it. The energy orb reacts to impacting enemies and the walls, bouncing in whatever direction physics would dictate. When the energy orbs find their way back to you, you can then try to deflect them back to an enemy until no more remain.

As the game progresses, more play elements are introduced. These include deflecting enemy shots, using a magnet to attract energy orbs, changing colors to match different energy orb colors, and changing paddle types. Your main challenge outside of defeating the enemies who can fire back is to not run out of energy. You’ll have your hands full keeping track of all of the energy orbs you unleash, the enemy shots, and your remaining energy levels, which you’ll definitely need to replenish as the game progresses and the challenge increases.

Visually, the game is set to a science fiction theme in a sparse, space station-like environment. While everything is a bit drab and dreary, with lots of grey, some of the spot visuals, including the vistas outside of the space station, are quite nice. Audio is strictly middle of the road, with no stand-out elements.

While there are four different skill levels from Casual to Hardcore, there doesn’t seem to be a big difference between each increase in difficulty. Despite the attempt to evoke past games like Arkanoid, this is definitely slower-paced, more deliberate gameplay. It’s more about strategy, multi-tasking, and energy management than it is about how quickly you can deflect an energy orb. If you’re looking for fast-paced action, Brain Voyagers: Ricochet is not the game for you.

Perhaps the biggest flaw with Brain Voyagers: Ricochet is that it’s not much fun. While on one level I appreciate the strategic elements and the more deliberate pacing over what you’d find in a typical ball and paddle game, I can’t help but feel that more frenetic action would have helped elevate the overall experience. As it is, this game’s appeal is probably narrower than it really had to be.

Score: 3 out of 5 stars.

Brain Voyagers: Ricochet is available on Viveport or with a Viveport Subscription.

The post HTC Vive/VIVEPORT VR Review – Brain Voyagers: Ricochet appeared first on Armchair Arcade.

HTC Vive/VIVEPORT VR Review: Boxing Apocalypse

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

There are many different types of virtual reality boxing games out there these days. Some skew more realistically towards the sport, some skew more towards being fitness workout oriented, and some skew towards the fantastic. Boxing Apocalypse falls into the latter category.

The game casts you as a futuristic deadly assassin, captured and locked away on a floating prison somewhere in outer space. Aliens are in control of the prison, and, as they’re wont to do, have begun testing on the inmates, turning their bodies into weaponry to prepare for a war on humanity. As part of this testing, the inmates are forced to battle to the death in a fight club. It’s now up to you to use your boxing skills to punch your way to the top of the ranks to win your freedom, defeat the alien leader, overtake the prison, and ultimately stop the war.

Designed for Vive and Vive Pro owners, Boxing Apocalypse is a room-scale experience that can be played seated or standing. Naturally, standing is preferred, as it gives you a bit more freedom and a better workout.

Although “boxing” is in the title, the actual game plays more like an arcade brawler that focuses on the use of your fists. There are power punches, finishing moves, attachable weapons, an energy shield for blocking and counter combos, and a customizable armor system. You’ll need to master all aspects of the game to move up the challenge board and increase your rank among the prisoners.

Both Vive controllers represent your fists, with natural movements to throw punches. Of course, you’ll need to do a bit more than just punch as fast you can by setting up combos and dodging attacks, but speed definitely helps, especially when fighting more than one opponent.

Outside of the single player campaign mode, there’s also an online Player versus Player (PvP) mode. As with most online games, and particularly those in virtual reality, it may be tough to find other players to battle, although in a nice twist, the developers do help to mitigate that problem a bit by generally make themselves available as opponents for one hour a day via the schedule posted on their website. Fair warning, though, the developers are really good!

Outside of the developers, tracking down other players may be worth it anyway as your PvP wins and losses count towards your ranking inside the prison fight club. In fact, playing PvP matches can also help you level up and unlock more weapons and specialty armor that’s otherwise not available through just playing the single player campaign mode.

Visually, it’s all a bit drab.

Audio-visuals are below average. Everything is cleanly rendered, but the character models and metallic, glowing environments are on the simpler side. The sound effects consist mostly of impacts.

The developers promise future developments for the game, including a ranking system, in-game championship belts and prizes, live studio broadcasts, cash prizes, online voice chat, PvP lobbies, and more. Of course, only what’s in-game now can be evaluated, and what’s there still has plenty of rough spots, especially in terms of how well the fight mechanics work. However, if you can look past some of its weaker points and don’t mind repetitive fights, you can still have fun with this title while getting in a pretty good workout along the way.

Score: 3 out of 5 stars.

Boxing Apocalypse is available on Viveport or with a Viveport Subscription.

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

HTC Vive/VIVEPORT VR Review: Blobby Tennis

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

Blobby Tennis is like a simplified mash-up of one-one-one beachside volleyball, badminton, and tennis. Because you’re playing on sand, there’s no ball bouncing other than on the racket. You either keep volleying the ball back and forth in the air or it falls. Like any casual beach sport, keeping track of the score is up to you.

The game gets its name from your opponent, a red blob named Blobby. You’ll occasionally hear simple outbursts like “Ha!” from Blobby when he (or she) either misses the ball or messes up a shot, but he’s otherwise barely visible on the other side of the net and rather lacking in personality. And like Blobby’s personality, the graphics are functional, but also of a rather basic and uninspired construction.

Once the game starts, it immediately gets down to business. There’s no real options or setup to worry about, although you can stop the music and change your racket versus ball hand. You then can either try and bounce the ball on your racket or lob the ball over to Blobby to try and start a rally. Physics-wise, the ball reacts well to the racket, with the sparse, but effective sound effects adding to the illusion of playing something resembling a real-life sport. And since you’re on a beach, you hear the sound of waves crashing throughout.

Whether or not the game’s simplicity is a positive or negative depends on what type of experience you’re after. For many players, long-haul VR sessions can be exhausting, so something simpler that can be played and enjoyed in short bursts is a positive. This positive extends to the game’s accessibility. Swing the racket and hit the ball. It’s like a VR callback to arcade Pong’s legendarily simple play instructions of “AVOID MISSING BALL FOR HIGH SCORE.”

This is pretty much it the whole time.

On the other hand, once you’re actually playing, the game’s high difficulty definitely falls more clearly into the negative category. While it’s easy to bounce the ball on your racket or serve, it’s actually really difficult to return a ball from Blobby, let alone have any type of sustained volley. It’s also difficult to judge power when using your racket, requiring a certain discipline in the heat of action to not send the ball flying way out of bounds. If you want a relatively high challenge, this is it, which belies the game’s otherwise simple nature.

Another consideration is available room space. As you would expect for a racket-based game, this is meant to be played while standing within a larger room-scale setup. That means you’ll have to be especially careful how much you move in a smaller room with potentially breakable objects or motion controller-damaging walls or ceilings. Fortunately, in regards to the latter, you can mostly keep to side, rather than overhead, shots, to best play this game.

On the plus side, Blobby Tennis is one of the few games that presently supports the Vive Tracker and the Racket Sports Set. Although I was not able to test this particular option, I imagine holding a well-balanced faux racket instead of the standard motion controller would increase the fun factor here considerably, and likely add at least one more star to my rating. Of course, adding such a racket – which is longer than a standard motion controller – would also increase the amount of room space required.

Despite the relatively low review score, Blobby Tennis is definitely fun in short bursts. Just don’t expect too much more.

Score: 2 out of 5 stars.

Blobby Tennis is free for HTC Vive owners, and is available on Viveport.

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

HTC Vive/VIVEPORT VR Review: Blasters of the Universe

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

“Bullet hell” describes a shoot ’em up game where practically the entire screen fills with enemy bullets. This barrage, bullet curtain, curtain fire, or whatever else you want to call it requires often split-second timing and nerves of steel to avoid getting hit. Now imagine bringing that bullet hell experience to virtual reality and you just might have an idea of what you’re in for with Blasters of the Universe.

The move to virtual reality changes up the typical bullet hell shoot ’em up concept just a bit. Instead of finding the sweet spot for your ship to stay safer from each onslaught of bullets, you instead must make sure your head stays free of bullets. This sometimes means staying still and letting the bullets fly right by you. A lot of times, however, this means using your whole body to dodge, duck, and jump to keep your head free and clear. As you might expect, this game calls for a standing, room-scale experience, with the more available space the better. While you do have a shield, it can’t block everything, so staying mobile is key.

Of course, playing Blasters of the Universe is not just about defense, but also offense. With a fully configurable gun you assemble yourself, you get to fire back, and then some. There are tens of thousands of combinations of parts you can unlock and equip that fits however you might like to play. Do you prefer rapid fire? Done. Do you like scatter-shots? Done. What about poison damage? It’s an option. The more you play and the further you progress through each game level, the more weapon and shield options you’ll unlock. Finding just the right combination of core and special abilities is like a game in itself and is yet another incentive to keep progressing. After all, you won’t know what option or options might suddenly become available to help you overcome each level’s formidable challenges if you don’t keep trying. In fact, sometimes just getting to a certain part of a level, unlocking equipment, and then dying is the only way you’ll be able to configure the fire power you’ll need to progress further in that same level. Like most shoot ’em ups, this game is designed for the persistent.

Visually, Blasters of the Universe has a clean look. If the developer’s goal was to evoke imagery from 90s arcade shoot ’em ups, then they succeeded. Audio-wise, every blast, explosion, and other effects sound like you’d expect, including the fun, over-the-top taunts from your main adversary, who you learn about in the whacky opening cinematic. The background music is similarly reminiscent of classic 90s shooting games, with appropriately bouncy and energetic synth-based tracks.

Mechs? Check.

There are four total levels, each with a boss battle at the end. As with any bullet hell shooter worth its salt, you’ll have great difficulty advancing more than a level or two even on the easiest difficulty and even after a great deal of practice. In fact, just getting the timing down to reload your weapon is a challenge at first. That shouldn’t dissuade you from giving Blasters of the Universe a try, however. It’s the kind of well-designed game experience that no matter how frustrating it gets, you’ll want to come back to again and again to try and do just a little bit better than the last time.

Blasters of the Universe really does a great job of translating some of the most popular shoot ’em up game mechanics to virtual reality. It really is like being inside a classic bullet hell shooter, mixed with a helping of first person shooter, that fortunately doesn’t take itself too seriously. It’s a little campy, it’s a little outrageous, and it’s all fun. If you love these type of shooting games and you have a Vive or Vive Pro, you owe it to yourself to check out Blasters of the Universe. It’s a great example of how virtual reality can help transform beloved – and well-worn – gameplay mechanics into something special again.

Score: 5 out of 5 stars.

Blasters of the Universe is available on Viveport or with a Viveport Subscription.

The post HTC Vive/VIVEPORT VR Review: Blasters of the Universe appeared first on Armchair Arcade.

HTC Vive/VIVEPORT VR Review: Bike Rush

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

Although the name Bike Rush may bring to mind bicycle courier movie, Premium Rush (2012), the titular bike in this virtual reality game is actually a motorcycle. The movie analogy still applies, though, as Bike Rush plays a lot like the penultimate scene in a typical B action movie, where the bad guys throw all they have at the good guy in one epic battle.

With that said, in this game, you’re not exactly a good guy. In fact, you’re part of a crime syndicate who’s in control of the theft-, robbery-, and murder-ridden fictional desert city of Danbai. The police have already taken out most of the rest of the syndicate and have finally caught up to you and your partner in your stolen truck. As your partner stalls the police, you plot your escape out the back of the truck in your motorcycle to take your revenge.

Designed for Vive or Vive Pro owners, Bike Rush can be played seated or standing. This is one game where seated is definitely the preferred method, though, since you’re on a motorcycle 100% of the time.

Unfortunately, from the start, you’ll find this game is not optimized for the Vive. The opening tutorial, which inexplicably is a projected gameplay movie that’s played before the actual game loads, demonstrates Oculus Rift controls, which in no way map to how the game functions with Vive controllers.

A potentially compelling premise is ruined in the execution.

As stated, you start the game in the back of a truck trailer, where, even though there are other objects, you’re really only there to pick up the grenade with your left hand and one of the two guns with your right. You’re better off choosing the automatic pistol, though, as the other Magnum-like revolver is the one-shot-at-a-time variety, which, despite its greater shooting power, is rather out-of-place for this type of game. In any case, it’s in trying to pick up some of the other objects that you first get a sense of how badly this game is optimized. It shouldn’t be hard to pick up objects in a game like this, but sure enough, in Bike Rush, it is.

Once in-game, you finally get control descriptions that are targeted to the Vive controllers, although, like you’ll find with the camera placement at times, the pop-up tips can appear in awkward locations, making them hard to read, particularly once the action gets underway. You use the Grip buttons to pick up objects and the triggers to shoot the gun or release a grenade. Even though this is an endless runner, where your motorcyle moves forward at all times, you still have to steer quite a bit to avoid obstacles. Unfortunately, this function is mapped to the left trackpad, which is awkward at best as you’re trying to multi-task with all the other in-game functions in the heat of battle. You can also lay ramps down to jump over obstacles or use a nitro boost to gain extra speed. Needless to say, Bike Rush’s control scheme not only lacks precision, but is overly complicated.

This complication is not overly surprising considering the game’s baseline setup, where it can also be controlled via keyboard, mouse, or gamepad. Complicated controls are OK when you’re not in virtual reality or in a slower-paced adventure, but can become overwhelming in a fast moving game like this one.

Perhaps the biggest problem with this game, however, is If you’re at all susceptible to motion sickness in virtual reality. Since you have independent steering control, can turn your head at any time, and are constantly moving forward while you’re either seated or standing in place in your room, your brain will have to work overtime to process all the sensory conflicts.

Visually, everything looks OK, with solid models and environments, but little in the way of design inspiration. Audio-wise, the sound effects are similarly competent, with appropriate shooting, explosions, and vehicle sounds. There’s a take-it-or-leave-it “angry music” soundtrack in the background, which I suppose is appropriate to the action, but something I found a bit grating with everything else going on.

Considering all of the control options and variety of platforms this game is on, it’s clear that the developers made a generic base game without enough effort put into optimizing for the Vive, or virtual reality in general. In fact, it’s not surprising that this game is playable as a regular, non-virtual reality game. Combined with the generic theme, motion sickness, and overly complicated and imprecise controls, this is definitely one game you should let pass you by.

Score: 1 out of 5 stars.

Bike Rush is available on Viveport or with a Viveport Subscription.

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

HTC Vive/VIVEPORT VR Review: Bacon Roll

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

Bacon Roll brings the endless running, or infinite running, genre to virtual reality. Popularized by mobile games such as Temple Run (2011, Imangi Studios), but going at least as far back as Scramble (1981, Konami), Moon Patrol (1982, Irem), and B.C.’s Quest for Tires (1983, Sierra On-Line), the genre is defined by the player’s character continuously moving forward through the game world, with a need to quickly react or interact with the environment or environmental elements to remain safe.

The premise of Bacon Roll is simple. With the aid of his father, Helio, and brother, Snort, help Dot the pig roll away from the evil wolf chef and rescue his beloved Princess Rune. Each level, or environment, is laid out on a little round world, a bit like in the famous The Little Prince novella (1943, Antoine de Saint-Exupéry).

Playable seated or standing, Bacon Roll makes use of both Vive controllers. Each controller represents a pig hoof or trotter (aka, a pettitoe), which you see from a first person perspective as the “big pig in the sky” as you roll Dot from a third person perspective. While you don’t really need virtual reality for this type of experience, your hands are otherwise occupied, so you are at least able to more easily look around at the various environmental elements than you normally would if this were a traditional game.

Bacon Roll tries to enhance the action through an in-game story, told through text boxes, both before and after levels. Unfortunately, while perhaps the many typos can be overlooked, what’s harder to overlook is that telling a story in this manner is somewhat tedious, particularly in a virtual reality setting. Reading a lot of slow moving text is not a great way to psych a player up or motivate them to try and reach the next level.

It’s a simple-looking, but colorful game.

Visually, Bacon Roll features mostly simple models, with bright colors, and few textures. While not the most stunning visuals, they suit the cartoon vibe and variety of worlds well, including a farm, forest, and some truly fantastic settings like a space colony and oversized picnic blanket.

Audio is fairly bare bones, with simple sound effects and repetitive background music, which fortunately can be turned off. Of course, some well-placed pig snorts and squeals are hard to resist.

Gameplay involves rolling, dodging, and the shooting of tomatoes. Each new environment has an increase in difficulty as well as different objectives to achieve. If you save enough tomatoes, you can upgrade some special abilities (perks) and give Dot new outfits to wear that can increase his bonuses, which help to keep the somewhat repetitive gameplay fresher.

With a bit more polish and a bit more variety to its gameplay, Bacon Roll would have been an enthusiastic recommendation. As it is, your enjoyment of this game will depend a great deal on how well you can tolerate some of its more repetitive elements.

Score: 3 out of 5 stars.

Bacon Roll is available on Viveport or with a Viveport Subscription.

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

A Pig Quest – Another neo-classic C-64 game is getting closer to release!

One of the best 8-bit computer gaming platforms, the Commodore 64 (C-64), is getting set to shine yet again with A Pig Quest (by Antonio Savona, Mauricet, Aldo Chiummo, and Gaetano Chiummo). Antonio Savona just posted his third WIP update for this upcoming action platform game that once again proves the C-64’s prowess with another A-level homebrew effort. Killer soundtrack, killer visuals, and of course killer action come together to make for yet another upcoming release to look forward to for the unstoppable 1982 computer. Check it out below:

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Unboxing the Looking Glass Portrait personal holographic display

In this quick unboxing video, I open up the Looking Glass Portrait personal holographic display. It’s based on proven light-field technology, powered over USB-C, and works stand-alone, as well as with a PC or Mac computer. Despite some generation one-style problems like a slight screen-door effect and some images and motion looking better than others, it’s an impressive implementation of some long-coveted technology.

It’s difficult to capture the effect on camera, but it is quite convincing at times.

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