If I were to tell you to picture a VR game published by Devolver Digital, known for some cartoony violent stuff, where you were a gladiator in an arena fighting other gladiators, I am pretty sure you will have a pretty good idea of what that would look like.

Having played it for many hours now, I can confirm that what you are picturing is exactly what GORN is bringing you.

I laugh in the face of danger!

GORN is a simple game.  You go into an arena, pick up a weapon, and face waves of enemies coming through the doors to fight.  The main campaign has you making your way through stages where you are introduced to a new weapon, fight some gladiators, get handed a new weapon, and fight some more gladiators.

Oh and eventually you fight a boss before taking on a new arena with new weapons.

It’s a simple premise, for a simple game.  Well simple if you stretch first.

Lie down before you hurt yourself.

The hardest part of the game is swinging your arms around so much.  GORN uses the PS Move controllers and you will be using both of your arms, a lot.   From rocking a mace and a shield, to dual wielding a hammer and a sword or using a two handed flail to smash your enemies to bits, your arms will definitely get a workout.

This has you working up a real sweat at times, as enemies come at you slowly, but you will be swinging your axe at one and not notice the three that have slowly caught up to you from behind.  This brings one of the games weaknesses with the port which is it doesnt tell you if you are facing the TV.  

Everything the light touches, is our kingdom.

It is well known that the move controllers are a limiting factor for PSVR.  This game especially is hard to keep your feet planted on the ground.  You turn in the game using a button and move by swinging your arms back and forth holding a button which actually works well for the format, yet somehow I kept winding up facing backwards.

Seriously I didn’t think I was moving my feet at all and yet my hands in the game would start bugging out because I was facing the opposite way and the camera couldn’t see the move controller behind my body.  Every time I played the game, without fail.

Some arrows like the Iron Man demo uses to give you an idea of which way you face would have been a godsend.

Slimy yet satisfying

Of course if this game was realistic, it would be terrifying. Fortunately GORN is as cartoonish as it gets.  Characters have the aspect ratio of a person in a pixar film, and you slice off chunks of them with cartoonish blood and gore going everywhere.

This cartoonish nature is helped massively by the silly physics at play in the game.  Gladiators tumble towards you slowly. By removing their legs you will have them trying to move towards you and attack as they lay face down on the ground.  One of the early bosses even flings himself into the air to try and slam into you.  It’s slow and frazy chaos, and oh so much fun.

I’m only brave when I have to be

If you are looking for a game that is silly, fun and will get your heart rate up, GORN could well be for you.  Some limitations like getting the floor right so you can pick up weapons is easily overlooked as you hack your way through cartoonish enemies for the silly heads that represent your masters in the stands.  It’s what I expected, and I’m happy about that.

The post GORN Review appeared first on 8-Bit Island.

To celebrate the release of Blood and Truth on PlayStation VR, CultureJam has an amazing prize for all you budding crime lords, courtesy of our friends at PlayStation NZ.

This prize pack includes a copy of Blood and Truth (which is pretty bloody good), a PSVR Starter Pack, and a couple of Move controllers to help you navigate the underbelly of London with grace and gusto.

To enter, let us know where you’d like PSVR to take you after you get back from Blood and Truth’s gritty London. Lisbon? Los Angeles? The literal Moon? Nothing’s impossible.

Competition closes at 12 noon NZT on Friday, June 21. Find images of this amazing prize pack below.

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Amata K.K. has released the first teaser trailer for their VR Escape-the-Room title, Last Labyrinth, as well as have announced the key staff for the project.

Check out the trailer and blurb below:

About Last Labyrinth
An escape-the-room adventure game that can only be experienced in VR, Last Labyrinth was created specifically for the VR age. Players must work together with a mysterious girl named Katia in order to escape a mansion filled with danger.

After the positive reception to the special demo version at TOKYO GAME SHOW 2018, the Last Labyrinth team is busy working towards the Spring 2019 worldwide multi-platform release of the full game (download only title). To give users a sneak peak of what they can expect, Amata has released a teaser trailer for the game, as well as some comments from the staff regarding the title.

Last Labyrinth Key Staff
Hiromichi Takahashi – Director/Producer
Past Titles:
Doko Demo Issho(“Together Anywhere”) series – Director/Producer

“In the past, I made games that focused on verbal communication with virtual characters. This time, I want to use VR technology to try to focus on communicating with virtual characters nonverbally. I hope players will enjoy unraveling the mysteries surrounding Katia and lying within the mansion itself. There is more than meets the eye.”

Tetsuya Watanabe – Director/Game Designer
Past Titles:
Puppeteer – Game Designer
The Last Guardian – Game Designer (Physics)

“In order to implement the core gameplay mechanic of nonverbal communication with Katia, we are challenging ourselves to make Katia behave as humanly as possible. We are giving it our all to make it so that players will be able to feel her presence and feel like their fates are intertwined with hers.”

Atsuko Fukuyama – Lead Character Animator
Past Titles:
ICO – Character Animator
Shadow of the Colossus – Character Animator
“I hope that players will not only enjoy the puzzle solving aspect of the game but will be able to feel a connection with Katia. Although there are a lot of challenges to working in VR, I think we will be able to make Katia a character that players will be able to fall in love with.”

Michiko Kusaba – Lead Environment Artist
Past Titles:
Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec – Landscape Designer
Gran Turismo 4 – Landscape Designer

“When making the environments of Last Labyrinth, I first focus on how I want the players to feel when they are sitting in the strange mansion the game is set in. Then, I imagine how Katia would feel. Would she be puzzled? Scared? I always want to focus on the feeling that the environments evoke. I hope players will enjoy them.”

Takuya Hanaoka – Sound Designer
Past Titles:
Monster Rancher – Sound/SE
Super Robot Wars – Sound/SE

“Trying out new techniques and working in new development environments always excites me. When I learned about the strange VR world of Last Labyrinth, Katia was already a living, breathing character. She was very loveable, and the gimmicks in the game were very dark. I wanted to stir up the feelings of the player with the sounds in the game, to make the experience more intense.”

Story
What the…?!

Your eyes begin to adjust to the darkness, and you find yourself in a room you’ve never seen before. You go to stand but are barely able to move. You look down to find that your arms and legs are strapped to a wheelchair.

As the panic begins to set in, you catch a glimpse of a figure out of the corner of your eye.

!?

A young girl, standing in the darkness, stares at you with cold eyes…

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Thanks to the Tribeca Film Festival, Star Child has been given a new trailer which shows off what we can expect from it’s gameplay, and it looks intriguing.

Star Child is expected to be released for VR in 2018.

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Blind has an announcement trailer, and it looks terrifying.

Between the voice in your ear, the white objects appearing in the darkness, and a scared sounding protagonist, this may be a VR game for the more courageous among us.

Check out why this is already making me nervous in the trailer below:

The game will be released on PSVR, Oculus, OSVR, and Vive on an unknown date.

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With 2016 already shaping up as a year to be dominated by VR, another studio, Ubisoft has announced its first VR title. Eagle Flight will send players to the skies of Paris to experience the freedom of flying. The game, which will be available on major VR platforms including PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive for PC, is scheduled for release in 2016.

Developed by a team from the FunHouse, a division of Ubisoft Montreal, the game lets players become an eagle and fly over Paris and its iconic landmarks, 50 years after humans have left the city. Nature and wildlife has taken back the city, creating a rich playground and offering an incredible experience of free flight and adventure. The game offers both a single player experience and a multiplayer experience that allows players to work in a team with up to six players in two modes.

Eagle Flight has been developed specifically for VR with a strong focus on accessibility and comfort. As a result, the game features an Ubisoft-developed VR control technology breakthrough that provides players with intuitive and precise controls. The new technology greatly reduces chances of motion sickness while enabling players to quickly master their skills in order to perform impressive stunts and experience the true sensation of flight.

“We’re excited to make the dream of flying come true with Eagle Flight,” said Olivier Palmieri, Game Director, Ubisoft Montreal. “Virtual reality has created new and amazing opportunities for game developers and we wanted to offer a full VR game that took full advantage of the technological advances. With the breakthrough we’ve been working on, we’re confident Ubisoft’s first game developed solely for VR will be a truly enjoyable experience for everyone who plays it.”

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This week at Valve’s VR booth at the GDC 2015, Dutch game studio Vertigo Games presents Skyworld, a turn-based strategy game that is bringing back the beloved gameplay from TBS classics in a groundbreaking VR experience on HTC Vive in 2015.

Developed from the ground up to take full advantage of HTC and Valve’s revolutionary Full Room Scale 360 Degree Solution with Tracked Controllers on HTC Vive, Skyworld is a TBS unlike any other that will have you get up, walk around your battle map and rule your empire from every angle as if you were standing in the midst of it.

Chet Faliszek of Valve commented, “Steam has always been a platform for empowering developers and we plan to continue that direction with Steam VR. Vertigo Games is making an amazing VR game with Skyworld and has been a tremendous partner in helping us understand how we can best support the Dev community.”

“Developing Skyworld in such close cooperation with Valve’s Steam VR team has simply been amazing. We are thankful for the support and trust they have shown our studio over the past couple of months, and believe this has given us a crucial edge to develop the best experience possible for this amazing VR technology,” said Richard Stitselaar of Vertigo Games.

In Skyworld, players manage their economy, build and lead royal armies, and have to master powerful dragons to restore their father’s empire to its former glory. Armed with the king’s scepter, powered by the most powerful magic in the world, and with the knowledge of the magic book of spells at their fingertips, it is up to them to tame the mighty dragons and bring back all Skyworlds from the hands of evil.

Skyworld is currently in development by Vertigo Games and Wolfdog Interactive, and will launch on Steam in 2015 as both a Full Room Scale VR experience and a seated VR experience.

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