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[Zalusithix]

I have to say that I'm enjoying Sairento again. The movement issues have been fixed and are better than they ever were, the revamped skill tree is nice in tandem with the relics, and the new weapons are fun, if not a bit frustrating at times being thrown objects. In honor of the update, I'll spam some gifs. =P

One of the new thrown weapons - the glaive. One part melee weapon, one part thrown weapon, with a side of bullet shield thrown in for good measure. Not a combat gif because nothing really gif worthy happened while I was using it today.


Pistol headshot fun like when back in the original alpha.


Blade Wave + a number of modifying legendary relics makes for some rather insane mowing down of enemies. All the more fun with auto bullet time on enemy death.


Sliding fun with infinite ammo relic'd SMGs.

 

[Deleted member 22576]

Dang that game looks cool as heck!

 

[Auto-Reply]

I already spent too much on VR (recently including Deluxe Audio Strap and Doom VFR preorder at GMG) so I only bought the cheapest VR games during summer sale:

Welcome Home Love - 3,99 EUR
Please, Don't Touch Anything 3D - 4,39 GBP
Elven Assassin - 3,49 GBP
Dexed - 3,49 GBP
Counter fight - 3,91 GBP
Downward Spiral - 0,99 EUR (mixed reviews, 90% discount - I guess we won't see subsequent episodes)
POLLEN - 2,19 GBP (mixed reviews, 80% discount - art style looks nice so I'll give it a chance for 2 quid)

I am considering Introversion's Scanner Sombre, but the reviews are a bit middling (7/10):
http://store.steampowered.com/app/475190/Scanner_Sombre/
Anyone played it?



I did not play it, but saw it recommended somewhere:
http://store.steampowered.com/app/538340/

I was thinking that Scanner Sombre was meant to be played in VR rather than on a monitor when I first saw it, glad to see they added support. I will give it a try but don't expect much more than a walking through caves experience and tripping out on the colors lol

Thanks for some of the suggestions, I was also thinking about giving Counter Fight a chance but there seems to be an enhanced Samurai Edition for 10 bucks that is supposed to be better than the old version... kinda want but I'm waiting on a sale for that (it's also supposed to be extremely difficult so I don't really know if I would regret buying it for 10)

 

[Steel]

I have been going back and forth between getting sairento. On the one hand, alpha, on the other... It looks pretty cool.

 

[SimplexPL]

Thanks for some of the suggestions, I was also thinking about giving Counter Fight a chance but there seems to be an enhanced Samurai Edition for 10 bucks that is supposed to be better than the old version... kinda want but I'm waiting on a sale for that (it's also supposed to be extremely difficult so I don't really know if I would regret buying it for 10)

Damn, I did not know about that Samurai Edition, I'd probably wait.

 

[Durante]

The only VR game I bought in the sale so far was Dexed -- but that's primarily because I already have most of what I want, and I'm waiting for the coop patch for Sairento.

 

[Padinn]

I grabbed battlezone vr and ik2 sturmovik battle of Stalingrad. Didn't try battlezone yet. Flying in il2 was amazing...my setup sucks, but it was a really cool experience.

 

[Auto-Reply]

Bought quite a few yesterday/today and thinking about stocking up with some more...

The most expensive so far being The Serious Sam VR Bundle

further mostly small stuff that I don't expect to blow my mind but I was alway curious about:

Malazard: The Master of Magic
Chamber 19
DEXED
Knockout League
Pinball FX 2 VR and all available DLC
Elven Assassin
Blasters of the Universe
Scanner Sombre
A Legend of Luca
POLLEN
Tethered
Thirst
Roller Force
Omega Agent
Mind OVR Matter
Mervils: A VR Adventure
Glider Island
DWVR
Downward Spirale: Prologue
Blade Shield

By no means a "best of the best list" I assume and the more expensive games I havent bought yet. But I probably will find enjoyment with a few of those. I might get some more this sale depending on the price but I have already enough VR backlog games to play despite these here so there really is no rush.

 

[SimplexPL]

Downward Spiral is 0,99$ so I think it's a safe bet - game was mostly criticized for its length vs price.
POLLEN also has mixed reviews, but it's also very cheap and looks visually pleasing.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ofCah4oIWE

 

[cakefoo]

The only game I've picked up so far is Dead Secret.

I haven't played it yet but it's been on my wishlist for a while.

 

[GuitarAtomik]

The guy that made Vertigo has been working with Valve for a while apparently and made a tech demo using the Knuckles controllers:

Video of the tech demo

Link to way more info

 

[TharpDaddy]

Gave Soundboxing a go today and holy crap it's fun when the song's challenge is well made. I worked up a good sweat too.

Anyone have song recommendations for it? It seems like a ton of the top songs are Japanese, both of the Perfume songs I tried, Flash and Tokyo Girl, were really good, I managed to get #6 in the world on Flash on my first go which i'm proud of. A lot of the Western music I looked up seemed to have nothing unless it was super popular bands like Queen. Having almost no Chvrches to soundbox to is a shame.

 

[Moondrop]

Freedom Locomotion VR: This is a free demo that allows you to try multiple styles like walking/running in place (CAOTS), dash/blink stepping, and sliding. It starts you off with walking; in tweaking the settings I went to the wrong end and got a jolt of motion sickness from going too fast. I settled back down and found dash/blink stepping to feel fine. Sliding seemed to immediately induce sickness so I quit that.

The most impressive part of the demo (besides the locomotion systems) was actually the different series of test areas. But before that there's this long pathway with a series of dev notes strongly encouraging CAOTS. I get their reasoning (vestibular/proprioceptive sensation), but the implementation feels a bit wonky. Like the notes are all to the side of a long path, but I can't sidestep with CAOTS; I have to walk forward and then turn 90 degrees. And walking/jogging in place is hardly a natural movement.

It's been over an hour and I still feel a little off. But I hope it's either a placebo or just from that one initial jolt. I stuck with CAOTS as the devs encouraged and it felt alright once I dialed in the settings.

Omega Agent
Glider Island

Ooh, Pilotwings 64-inspired games. Sweet, thanks. Hope I can handle 'em.

 

[Zalusithix]

The only VR game I bought in the sale so far was Dexed -- but that's primarily because I already have most of what I want, and I'm waiting for the coop patch for Sairento.

I don't see coop adding anything to the (current) Sairento experience. The game lacks the objective based nature of Raw Data, so an additional person would require more enemies, and there's already a ton of those. Doubling that count could result in performance issues. Meanwhile bullet sponges would prevent the player from quickly dispatching dozens of enemies on the run - a critical part of what makes you feel like such a badass in the game. Beyond that, I'm not sure how they'd even implement it in a way that doesn't break the game. The use of bullet time is extremely liberal in Sairento. For enemy positions to not desync between players, bullet time would have to apply to both, and that would result in what amounts to practically permanent bullet time between the two players.

So yeah, while coop is a stated goal in the EA blurb, I don't think it's a good idea myself. The added dev time (and cost) for implementing it isn't worth it given the trade-offs that'd have to be made. Raw Data already exists for a somewhat similar coop experience, and there's no point in Sairento trying to break into that niche when it already has its own strengths. Tuning the game around a better single player experience is a better use of the resources, and one that will allow the game to be the best that it can be regardless of where the small VR userbase eventually moves to.

 

[Putosaure]

Downloaded Windlands. Great little game, but man the controls are hard to get. I still don't understand how to get to some places yet. Hard to believe it's the control scheme the developer tried to protect from other to reproduce...

EDIT : OK, played another hour, checked Advanced Rope and it's way better

 

[Zalusithix]

Some guy posted some of his impressions of the rEvolve strap on Reddit with a photo gallery. Suffice to say, I'm not impressed. Low quality 3D printing, misalignment and manufacturing errors, wobbles on the head, can't retract the lenses fully, etc. Glad I passed on it.

 

[dsk1210]

Some guy posted some of his impressions of the rEvolve strap on Reddit with a photo gallery. Suffice to say, I'm not impressed. Low quality 3D printing, misalignment and manufacturing errors, wobbles on the head, can't retract the lenses fully, etc. Glad I passed on it.

I was really interested on how that panned out, very disappointing.

 

[KatamariOnTheRocks]

Picked up 63 VR games for the summer sale, I'll post some impressions later along with some gameplay from the other 2 seated games I mentioned earlier.

 

[Durante]

I don't see coop adding anything to the (current) Sairento experience. The game lacks the objective based nature of Raw Data, so an additional person would require more enemies, and there's already a ton of those. Doubling that count could result in performance issues. Meanwhile bullet sponges would prevent the player from quickly dispatching dozens of enemies on the run - a critical part of what makes you feel like such a badass in the game. Beyond that, I'm not sure how they'd even implement it in a way that doesn't break the game. The use of bullet time is extremely liberal in Sairento. For enemy positions to not desync between players, bullet time would have to apply to both, and that would result in what amounts to practically permanent bullet time between the two players.

So yeah, while coop is a stated goal in the EA blurb, I don't think it's a good idea myself. The added dev time (and cost) for implementing it isn't worth it given the trade-offs that'd have to be made. Raw Data already exists for a somewhat similar coop experience, and there's no point in Sairento trying to break into that niche when it already has its own strengths. Tuning the game around a better single player experience is a better use of the resources, and one that will allow the game to be the best that it can be regardless of where the small VR userbase eventually moves to.

Well, I'm happy the developers apparently disagree with you

 

[TharpDaddy]

Tried out Scanner Sombre. That's a hell no. I had no idea it's a horror game, I nope'd the hell out of it. Very cool method of seeing the world with the light gun though.

Also picked up Modbox. Didn't play around with it too much yet, but it seems neat, like Gary's Mod VR.

 

[Zalusithix]

Well, I'm happy the developers apparently disagree with you

Eh, I'll believe it when I see it in a patch note. Until then I treat it as a tentative thing that may or may not come to fruition. It's been 3+ months since the last time coop was mentioned, and we've neither seen nor heard anything more about it. For a game that's supposedly targeting exiting EA this year, that doesn't give me confidence that they'll be able to accomplish it. They'll need a good chunk of time to test the game changes / netcode / etc. on a player base around the world.

Mechanically I just can't see it working without massive changes to the bullet time, and that's one of the game's defining traits. Seriously, there's like a dozen different ways to enable and modify bullet time in the game between base mechanics, the skill tree, and weapon/armor relics. Jump/dash targeting? Bullet time. Kill a guy? Bullet time. Crit hit? Bullet time. Accelerated dash? Bullet time. Near death? Bullet time. Press a button on the controller? Bullet time. Similarly, some actions can pull you out of bullet time permanently or temporarily. It's ninja Max Payne in VR. Rip that out for the sake of coop or limit it to Raw Data levels, and you'll piss off virtually all the existing owners that like the current game mechanics. Yet if you make coop significantly different than single player, then you're stuck making two games. I don't see either of those options particularly appealing.

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Sorry to ask about Serious Sam again, but:

As someone who got sick for a few hours after trying to play Windlands for awhile and had to refund it, is Serious Sam likely to leave me with the same feeling? Is the locomotion implementation different or somehow better than what we saw in Windlands?

 

[XShagrath]

Sorry to ask about Serious Sam again, but:

As someone who got sick for a few hours after trying to play Windlands for awhile and had to refund it, is Serious Sam likely to leave me with the same feeling? Is the locomotion implementation different or somehow better than what we saw in Windlands?

There's this thing called Steam Refunds. You can buy a game and play it for up to two hours and you can ask for a refund for any reason (it doesn't run on your machine, it's buggy, even if you just don't like it). There's literally zero risk for you to just buy it and see if you enjoy it or not.

 

[Haint]

The guy that made Vertigo has been working with Valve for a while apparently and made a tech demo using the Knuckles controllers:

Video of the tech demo

Link to way more info

Honestly the thumb, index, and quasi-fist gestures with Touch add absolutely nothing of value over Vive wands for me, so I'm not quite sure the utility of these knuckles. That demo looks an awful lot like a Touch video, and I'm doubtful the addition of 3 digits is going to be the game changer people are trying to make this thing out to be.

 

[Nezacant]

Honestly the thumb, index, and quasi-fist gestures with Touch add absolutely nothing of value over Vive wands for me, so I'm not quite sure the utility of these knuckles. That demo looks an awful lot like a Touch video, and I'm doubtful the addition of 3 digits is going to be the game changer people are trying to make this thing out to be.

When everyone starts giving you the finger and you have no way to respond... you'll understand their utility.

 

[scitek]

When everyone starts giving you the finger and you have no way to respond... you'll understand their utility.

You can give a thumbs up.

 

[Nezacant]

You can give a thumbs up.

Or...

 

[Sleeping Lesson]

Honestly the thumb, index, and quasi-fist gestures with Touch add absolutely nothing of value over Vive wands for me, so I'm not quite sure the utility of these knuckles. That demo looks an awful lot like a Touch video, and I'm doubtful the addition of 3 digits is going to be the game changer people are trying to make this thing out to be.

For me the knuckle controllers are less about the number of digits tracked as much as giving me the ability to physically let go of objects instead of abstracting that action as a button (as is currently the case with the Vive controllers).

The analog(ish) finger tracking is a rad bonus that will be occasionally useful for rude gestures.

 

[Tain]

both of the Perfume songs I tried, Flash and Tokyo Girl, were really good, I managed to get #6 in the world on Flash on my first go which i'm proud of.

my dude

 

[Business]

For me the knuckle controllers are less about the number of digits tracked as much as giving me the ability to physically let go of objects instead of abstracting that action as a button (as is currently the case with the Vive controllers).

The analog(ish) finger tracking is a rad bonus that will be occasionally useful for rude gestures.

Agreed. The big thing here is being able to completely let go and so grab objects in a more natural way.

 

[electroflame]

Interesting, I'll need to check that out.

It's pretty short (I think I finished it in about 2 hours or so, and I took my time) but the overall experience is very unique and pretty polished. I definitely recommend it, as it plays out like an actual escape room (i.e. focused on puzzles) and not like the "escape this room quickly before something bad happens/you die" which seems to be the go-to VR escape room setting.

It has the dubious honor of being the only game I ever refunded on Steam.

I got it in one of the IndieGala bundles I think. If I paid the going rate for it on Steam I'd have definitely joined you in the "refunded The Cabin" club. It's just...really bad.

Some guy posted some of his impressions of the rEvolve strap on Reddit with a photo gallery. Suffice to say, I'm not impressed. Low quality 3D printing, misalignment and manufacturing errors, wobbles on the head, can't retract the lenses fully, etc. Glad I passed on it.

Oh, yikes. I had a passing interest in this (before the DAS was an official thing). Sad to see that it didn't pan out; the flip-up design was a pretty cool idea.
The product they shipped actually looks pretty sloppy. Sounds like a lot of it was out of their hands, but I imagine the backers are pretty disgruntled (at the very least).

 

[Paganmoon]

Some guy posted some of his impressions of the rEvolve strap on Reddit with a photo gallery. Suffice to say, I'm not impressed. Low quality 3D printing, misalignment and manufacturing errors, wobbles on the head, can't retract the lenses fully, etc. Glad I passed on it.

Damn, was hoping for better, I thought the 3D-printing was only for the prototype and demo units.

 

[Durante]

Sorry to ask about Serious Sam again, but:

As someone who got sick for a few hours after trying to play Windlands for awhile and had to refund it, is Serious Sam likely to leave me with the same feeling? Is the locomotion implementation different or somehow better than what we saw in Windlands?

It has a pure teleport locomotion option, that's very unlikely to make anyone sick.

Honestly the thumb, index, and quasi-fist gestures with Touch add absolutely nothing of value over Vive wands for me, so I'm not quite sure the utility of these knuckles. That demo looks an awful lot like a Touch video, and I'm doubtful the addition of 3 digits is going to be the game changer people are trying to make this thing out to be.

I think you missed the forest for the trees: you can completely let go of the controller. That's the game-changer in terms of overall utility. The individual finger tracking is a great bonus for online interaction and soe specific cases, but the ability to let go of stuff by simply letting go of it is the major point IMHO.

 

[deadfolk]

Holy crap! I never realised that Scanner Sombre has VR support! Has anyone tried it?

Edit: Also Sairento or Serious Sam(s)?

 

[TharpDaddy]

Holy crap! I never realised that Scanner Sombre has VR support! Has anyone tried it?

I tried it. I ain't about that horror. There was some frame rate chug now and then (it's a beta), but it seemed like a good VR port beyond that. It mostly happened if I got my face close to the thing I was spraying with the particles, so just avoid doing that. The only method of locomotion is teleport which doesn't bother me, but people who prefer options might not enjoy that.

 

[Auto-Reply]

Holy crap! I never realised that Scanner Sombre has VR support! Has anyone tried it?
...

Just finished it, took me about 3 hours. To make it clear, the game is not a horror game! There are 2-3 instances where you are led to believe that and there is one situation you could nearly describe as a jumpscare at the start of the game but for the majority of the game you are simply scanning your environment and walking through caves, without having the feeling something is gonna jump at you (which never happens in the game!).

It's a walking sim and it's selling point is the graphics/the scanning system. It's like painting walls and once you are satisfied by how much you've panted the room then you progress to the next room.
I really liked that but if you expect more than that from the game then be warned, it's nothing more than that.
For six bucks it was a great experience that I can only recommend, the performance is questionable though especially towards the end. Playinf with 1.2 multiplier on a 980ti the game had some serious framedrops at the end. Maybe it would habe been fine without any supersampling, I can't say.
Also the sound was buggy for me, could have been my set-up... I had to bring up the Steam Menu once in a while to reset the sound to it's normal state. For some reason the effects always startet to go insane, at first I thought that was the regular sound (in which case, another point for the horror game description) but it was not.

-

I also finished Vertigo, which belongs to my VR favorites now. Creative and charming little game ( 5 hours for me). I hope to see more from that Studio!

 

[DizzyCaffeine]

Oh, yikes. I had a passing interest in this (before the DAS was an official thing). Sad to see that it didn't pan out; the flip-up design was a pretty cool idea.
The product they shipped actually looks pretty sloppy. Sounds like a lot of it was out of their hands, but I imagine the backers are pretty disgruntled (at the very least).

I have one. Admittedly, it does not look great, but it also doesn't look much worse than the original straps. I had a bit of an issue installing it because it does not line up with the side hooks perfectly, but I got it installed with a little force...hopefully they'll send out some replacement hooks.

I've yet to try it in a game, but I actually really like it so far....it feels nice having the weight centered around my head as opposed to on my face, and the flip up action works really well. I'll try to post more impressions after I play with it in SPT and Superhot, but I'm not disgruntled at all right now.

 

[Durante]

In SteamVR home you can put a clock on your head in avatar customization.
And it will continue to work.

... but then you hear it ticking all the time.

 

[Auto-Reply]

Random observation:

After having de/reinstalled Steam, I noticed some different behaviour with the Vive and Steam VR.

The first time firing it up will usually fail, compositor error or application is already running. I need several reboots of the headset to make it work, very annoying.
Another thing is that the sound doesn't switch automatically back/forth in Windows anymore. Before it did, now I need to manually set it everytime.

When I want to remove all traces of Vive software from my system and have a new clean install... what do I need to actually remove? I thought it was only Steam VR but now I'm not so sure anymore, if I remember correctly there was a driver install from HTC... probably should try de/reinstalling that?

I'm curious, if you guys activate your Vive controllers and Steam VR starts, home gets loaded etc. Is that a clean process without any errors for you? I actually always had to at least do one Vive HMD reboot because the HMD was black/went into standby without coming back etc. After that it was usually fine but I can't imagine this to be the case for everybody?

 

[Zalusithix]

My VR starting ritual:

1. Click the VR icon in Steam to start up SteamVR.
2. Walk over to unplug my controllers on the shelf.
3. Turn the controllers on while waiting for the lighthouse statuses to go green.
4. Wave the controllers for a second to get a lock and then place them on the floor.
5. Pick up headset and place on head.
6. Pick up controllers off the ground and go about my business in VR.

No errors. No reboots. At most I might need to reset the audio device if I've done an Nvidia driver install, but that can be done in VR with OpenVR Advanced Settings. FWIW, I don't disconnect my Vive from the breakout box or anything between sessions.

As for the drivers, everything comes from Valve/Steam by default. There's an option within the settings dialog to reinstall them. I've had to do that a few times to get my lighthouse auto-on/off functioning again after a power outage caused them to start back up while my computer coasted on the UPS. (Since resolved by having them on the UPS as well.) After running that option, I found that you had to disconnect and reconnect the Vive for everything to completely take hold.

 

[Durante]

Generally, I press the "VR" button in Steam and everything immediately (or, well, after 30 seconds for the lighthouses to wake up) works.

Around 1 in 5 times the desktop view in VR won't work, and also around 1 in 5 the sound won't switch back correctly after exiting VR (but I think this is related to how my sound hardware handles speakers/headphones).

I used to have more issues when I was connecting via Displayport.

Edit:
I also don't disconnect anything, and I only reboot my computer once a month or so.

 

[Zalusithix]

By desktop view not working do you mean no video, or the mouse doesn't follow the pointer / function correctly? I've never had the former happen, but have experienced the later. Not that it matters much as I hardly ever use desktop mode. If I don't drop my resolution to 1080p before hand, it drops frames like crazy.

 

[Steel]

Wait, there's a way to set the audio device inside the vr headset? I've been forgetting half the time to change my audio device before going into steamvr, which then leads me to having to quit steamvr and change my audio device to then go back in.

That being said, I was having some trouble with steamvr after the home update(couldn't start games in the home) but that sorted itself out a day later.

 

[Durante]

I meant the mouse not working.

I only notice in case I want to check a messenger or something like that.

Wait, there's a way to set the audio device inside the vr headset? I've been forgetting half the time to change my audio device before going into steamvr, which then leads me to having to quit steamvr and change my audio device to then go back in.

Well, you can do it on the desktop view... if your mouse emulation works

(That said, why aren't you using the automatic switching?)

 

[Zalusithix]

Wait, there's a way to set the audio device inside the vr headset? I've been forgetting half the time to change my audio device before going into steamvr, which then leads me to having to quit steamvr and change my audio device to then go back in.

You need to get OpenVR Advanced Settings. Honestly I don't know why Valve hasn't added most of these things to the default settings that they provide, but until they do OVRAS is a mandatory installation for anybody heavy into VR IMO.

 

[Steel]

I meant the mouse not working.

I only notice in case I want to check a messenger or something like that.

Well, you can do it on the desktop view... if your mouse emulation works

(That said, why aren't you using the automatic switching?)

And now I just realized there was a settings menu for steamvr outside the actual vr steam menu inside vr. And that it has automatic switching. Excuse me while I put my head in the sand out of embarrassment.

Spoiler

On the desktop view emulation, I'd still have to restart steamvr for the settings to take. Nonetheless I'm an idiot for not seeing that there was another settings menu hidden away.

You need to get OpenVR Advanced Settings. Honestly I don't know why Valve hasn't added most of these things to the default settings that they provide, but until they do OVRAS is a mandatory installation for anybody heavy into VR IMO.

Thanks for this.

 

[Padinn]

I highly recommend Battlezone VR, it was a blast playing today. Not a ton of players online, but I managed to get a group of two (third player joined us near the end) and it really is great. It's a seated experience, but totally worth $25.

 

[low-G]

I highly recommend Battlezone VR, it was a blast playing today. Not a ton of players online, but I managed to get a group of two (third player joined us near the end) and it really is great. It's a seated experience, but totally worth $25.

Ditto. Even if you want to play single player. If the idea of a arcadey tank combat game appeals to you at all, you'd best buy it NOW!

 

[ShadowSoldier89]

You need to get OpenVR Advanced Settings. Honestly I don't know why Valve hasn't added most of these things to the default settings that they provide, but until they do OVRAS is a mandatory installation for anybody heavy into VR IMO.

I wish I knew this existed. Being able to modify audio mirrors in VR alone is a huge benefit for me.

 

[Haint]

For me the knuckle controllers are less about the number of digits tracked as much as giving me the ability to physically let go of objects instead of abstracting that action as a button (as is currently the case with the Vive controllers).

The analog(ish) finger tracking is a rad bonus that will be occasionally useful for rude gestures.

I think you missed the forest for the trees: you can completely let go of the controller. That's the game-changer in terms of overall utility. The individual finger tracking is a great bonus for online interaction and soe specific cases, but the ability to let go of stuff by simply letting go of it is the major point IMHO.

Maybe, but I'm dubious on how convincing is it will be with the bulbous controller and tracking band still strapped to your hand. Another concern is I really hate the form, angle, weight, and balance of Touch for gunplay, the larger top heavy Vive wands are objectively superior in approximating most firearms. The knuckles look much closer to Touch than wands.