Umpires have been part of baseball since the creation of the modern game in the 1840s. Whether you like the job a particular umpire does or not, it’s undeniable that the role is indispensable for the sport of baseball.

While all within the umpiring crew play an important role in policing the sport’s rules, none are as critical as the head, or plate, umpire. Of course, among the head umpire’s range of duties, the highest profile is calling balls and strikes from behind the plate. Umpire Simulator makes you a head umpire and challenges you to correctly identify whether fastballs and breaking balls, including curve balls and sliders, are balls or strikes.

The setup is simple. After a series of tutorials where you’re shown what a range of balls and strikes looks like, you’re then challenged to correctly determine what’s thrown on your own, with pitches ranging from 75 mph to 105 mph. Every correct guess is tallied under Correct and every incorrect guess is tallied under Wrong. Get enough Wrong and the simulation ends.

Umpire Simulator can be played seated or standing in a room-scale environment of any size. Either Vive controller can be used to indicate a ball (Grip button) or strike (Trigger button).

Originally developed several years back as a standard software simulation, the more recent jump to virtual reality allows for you to position yourself from just about any angle or location behind the plate to more easily see a ball’s flight path. The greater immersion that virtual reality allows for also gives a nice sense of the ball’s speed and an appreciation for how fast some pitches can be thrown in real life.

From an audio-visual standpoint, Umpire Simulator‘s presentation is crude. Instead of modeling a baseball stadium or park, the developer has chosen static background panels that don’t blend together in any discernible way. There’s also no field or turf, just a metered grid that the two virtual players, a pitcher and batter, stand on. The pitcher and batter themselves are also poorly rendered. In fact, the batter model just stands there, arms at his side. There’s no attempt to show the batter with an actual bat in his hands or with any signs of life whatsoever. Finally, audio is limited to the ball hitting the unseen virtual catcher’s mitt.

The sub-par presentation could perhaps be excused if there was a lot of depth to the simulation, but it really is just about you calling balls and strikes correctly. There’s literally nothing else to it. If you really want to know what it’s like to be a head umpire, and to specifically see what it’s like to call balls and strikes, Umpire Simulator offers that. For me, however, by the time I finished the tutorial and was in the middle of calling a few dozen balls and strikes on my own, I was already hoping the simulation would be over.

As a practice tool for active or would-be umpires, I can see Umpire Simulator having some value, particularly since there’s nothing else quite like it out there. For everyone else, however, particularly given the lack of care to the presentation, there’s really nothing here to hold our attention.

Score: 2 out of 5 stars.

Umpire Simulator is available on Viveport or with a Viveport Subscription.

The post VR Review: Umpire Simulator appeared first on Armchair Arcade.

With the recent 2018 FIFA World Cup – the 21st such event since 1930, and one that’s taken place very four years since 1950 – soccer, or, as it’s more popularly known, football, has once again been thrust into the spotlight in a big way. While the sport has struggled to endear itself to many North American sports fans, the passion most of the rest of the world has for this sport is undeniable. The question is, can a virtual reality experience translate both this passion and the sport’s most exciting moments into a quality video game? Turbo Soccer VR aims to answer that question with a resounding “Yes!”.

Placing you in the shoes – and viewpoint – of a professional soccer player, Turbo Soccer VR features three major modes: GOALKEEPER MODE, STRIKER MODE, and REPLAY MODE.

In GOALKEEPER MODE, you play as a goalkeeper trying to stop other teams from all over the world from scoring. Naturally, as play progresses, the difficulty increases.

In STRIKER MODE, you’re now on offense, attempting to score against teams from all over the world. As play progresses, new obstacles, harder defenders, and more skillful goalkeepers are introduced.

Finally, there’s REPLAY MODE, which is perhaps the game’s greatest innovation. Instead of fictional scenarios, REPLAY MODE lets you relive scoring chances from real matches. Not only is there a package of some of the best goals by the game’s cover athlete, Kamil Grosicki, who is considered one of the top players of the Polish national soccer team and English Championship Club, Hull City A.F.C., and who previously played for teams like the Turkish Sivasspor and French Stade Rennais, but there are also opportunities to experience key moments from the aforementioned 2018 FIFA World Cup. This adds an immediacy and intimacy to the virtual reality experience that games with only generic settings simply can’t match.

As you might expect, Turbo Soccer VR is a standing, room-scale experience. Fortunately, room size requirements are relatively modest for a game of this type, with only a 2 – 3 meter (about 6.5 – 9.8 feet) wide space needed for proper play. Of course, if you want to play a bit more aggressively, you’ll want a room on the wider end of that range for those times when you’re really into the action.

While all game modes are playable with the standard Vive Controllers, the GOALKEEPER MODE is the most intuitive, since you just use your hands to block shots. For STRIKER MODE and REPLAY MODE, you need to use your legs, so you’ll need to find a way to strap the Vive Controllers to your feet, or, preferably, have invested in the optional Vive Trackers.

Visually, while the simpler, less realistic player models are a bit of a letdown, the overall environment is suitably bright, colorful, and immersive. Audio-wise, although there’s no chatter from your teammates, the game does do a great job of recreating the sport’s environmental sounds, right down to the chanting crowds.

So does Turbo Soccer VR succeed in bringing a quality soccer experience – one that captures the sport’s best moments – into virtual reality? Absolutely. It also happens to be a great excuse to invest in a couple of Vive Trackers, providing the perfect use-case for whole body tracking. Of course, even without the Vive Trackers, the game can still be lots of fun, although you may not be comfortable strapping the Vive Controllers to your feet when playing offense.

Through both how Turbo Soccer VR plays and its growing library of real-life scenarios, even those skeptical of the sport’s appeal might finally appreciate what all the recent World Cup fuss was about.

Score: 4 out of 5 stars.

Turbo Soccer VR is available on Viveport or with a Viveport Subscription.

The post VR Review: Turbo Soccer VR appeared first on Armchair Arcade.

As a first-person mash-up of the 1980 arcade games, Pac-Man and Berzerk, and the aesthetics of the 1982 movie, Tron, the developers of Trakker are clearly not shy about taking inspiration from some of the best creations of the early 1980s. And like those video games from simpler times, where you could figure out the mechanics shortly after dropping in your quarter and beginning play, Trakker puts a premium on accessibility.

In the game, you’re cast as one of the guardians of the digital realms, called TRAKKERS, where you patrol maze-like node structures to defend against virus-like intruders out to consume all life. Much like Berzerk, where you could choose to stay and fight or simply exit to another robot-filled room, Trakker gives you the option to collect files to slow down the attacks, go for the ultimate victory and try and save the complete system, or simply escape the maze.

Trakker is a standing, room-scale experience for the Vive or Vive Pro. With the Vive controllers, you press the trigger to fire the blaster, which requires time to recharge, and, in an interesting twist, move by pressing the Grip button and swinging your arms in a running motion. You turn by physically turning your body. Gameplay consists of Pac-Man-like running through each maze and collecting blue blocks, shooting the virus-like enemies, and finding the exit.

There are eight levels to explore and three different difficulty levels. Each node has the trio of objectives to strive for, which includes finding the exit, destroying all of the intruders, and securing the files. You can accomplish some or all of those goals each time you play a maze and are free to go back and try again at any time.

Visually, the game resembles Tron, with simple shapes and bright, glowing colors set against dark backgrounds. This minimalist aesthetic works well with the sound design, which features synthwave music by Milwaukee artist, DASHCAM, aka Donny Jankowski. Although I’m not sure if I’m supposed to know who DASHCAM is, his music does provide a professional sounding, pulse-pounding backdrop for the cyberpunk motif and a great excuse for a cool synchronized visualization effect that lines the maze walls. Sound effects serve their purpose, but take something of a back seat to the music, with only very simple sounds reminiscent of older arcade games present.

While not the deepest of experiences, Trakker does provide short doses of satisfying action-oriented play that recalls early 1980s arcade games without slavishly copying them. And frankly, these shorter gameplay sessions are even more welcome because of Trakker‘s unique movement controls. After all, there’s only so long you want to be pumping your arms like that, even with the incentive of hearing more of the stellar soundtrack.

Score: 3 out of 5 stars.

Trakker is available on Viveport or with a Viveport Subscription.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.