Everything that went down at, and around, PSX
In LA this past weekend Sony held its PlayStation Experience show, and PS VR was once again a big focus.
In fact, after Hideo Kojima’s head-scratcher of a trailer for Death Stranding, watching a bunch of 2D trailers for some virtual reality games felt pretty palpable by comparison.
Read this: The best PS VR games
But it wasn’t all teaser videos. We got a smattering of news too, and some long-awaited release dates firmed up. Not all of it happened on stage at the show though, so here’s everything you might have missed over the last three or four days.
Sony just passed the 2 million mark
Just ahead of the show, Sony announced it had passed 2 million PS VR system sales, which is nothing to be sniffed at. By Canalys estimates, it’s the frontrunner in the VR wars right now, no doubt helped by a reasonable entry price – and the fact as of 3 December, Sony had sold 70.6 million PS4 consoles worldwide. Phew.
Golem has a release date (and an interesting new movement idea)
You might recall Golem was revealed back at the PlayStation Experience show in 2015, so yeah, it’s been a long time coming. But Sony has finally confirmed we’ll have it in our hands on 13 March 2018. The game, in which you play a girl with the ability to control stone Golems, requires you to use a single PlayStation Move controller to fight and explore ancient ruins.
But more interesting is the locomotion system – something developer Highwire Games calls “Incline Control” – which lets you walk by leaning your body ever-so-slightly in your desired direction of travel. That’s something we’ve not seen before, certainly not on PS VR.
Wipeout VR looks like it’s guaranteed to make us puke
Oh God. We love the look of this so much. And yet… dare we? Wipeout Omega Collection is getting the full VR treatment in early 2018 (no specific date set) including all the parts of the non-VR game, along with a few extra VR goodies. We already feel a bit uneasy… and we want it.
The Last Guardian is back… in VR
Something for the comedown after a session of superfast space vroom vroom cars, Team Ico’s The Last Guardian will get a virtual reality experience of its own from this week, 12 December. But unlike Wipeout this isn’t the full game; the VR experience will immerse you in the same world, but you won’t need the PS4 game to run it. Any excuse to get more acquainted with Trico is fine by us.
Killing Floor: Incursion is coming next year
Horror and VR are perfect bedfellows, so we were thrilled when Sony announced at PSX that Killing Floor: Incursion, Tripwire’s zombie co-op splatterfest is coming to PS VR at some unspecified point next year. Right now you can’t cross-play between the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, and we suspect that will remain the same here (shame). Still, we’re locked and loaded for this one next year.
Sony’s doing some cheap bundles for the holidays
2 million headsets sold is impressive, but that leaves *sound of maths happening* 68.6 million PS4s around the world that remain headset-less, so Sony’s announced a bunch of PS VR bundles for the holidays. It’s shaving $100 off the price of the Gran Turismo Sport bundle, which bags you the system and game for $199.99, while the Doom VFR bundle is $299.99 and Skyrim bundle, which also nets you two PS Move controllers, is $349.99. The deals are running until 24 December.
Shooty Fruity looks juicy AF
You’ve played Fruit Ninja. You’ve played Job Simulator. But have you played a game that brings these ideas loosely together and adds grenades? If you have you should really let developer nDreams know, because that’s what it’s dropping on 19 December when Shooty Fruity launches on PS VR – just in time for Christmas day. Your gran is gonna love it.
Rick and Morty are coming to PS VR
Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality is coming to PS VR in 2018, having previously launched on HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. The game was created by both Adult Swim Games and Owlchemy Labs (which made Job Simulator) and puts you in the role of Morty’s clone, helping Rick with experiments, exploring locations from the show, and tinkering with just about anything and everything.