Transformers: VR Battle Arena

News broke earlier today of a new Transformers VR game. I'm pretty excited for this, even though I haven't had a chance to play the SEGA TF arcade games yet. A new Dave and Buster's has opened closer giving me a better opportunity to play those as well as this when it's released. So now it wouldn't be an all day thing to make it somewhere that has them, instead maybe an hour drive. Much more doable.

According to what information is available, it will be a 4 player battle arena type game. It's still early, so details are scarce other than news site click bait fluff. Hoping it's more than bots vs bots, I'd love more mission based gameplay. Which is what the SEGA arcade games offer, though they're light gun games (which I love) in cabinets that are pretty close to a simulator type experience (some units more than others depending on the facility you play them at). A full VR experience in mission based combat would be great, but I'll take what I can get.

I do like that the game seems to be using the evergreen designs, which is basically a modern G1. You can't realistically expect 80's vehicle modes in a modern day setting, so the updates work well. Not to mention, I just think they look good. Hopefully the game makes it to my local Dave and Busters so I can give it a try. Also hope they don't clear out those SEGA arcade games before I can make it there. Adulting can be hard, yo.

Innsmouth no Yakata in 3D

One game perfect for the Halloween season is Innsmouth no Yakata, a first person horror game inspired by HP Lovecraft's The Shadow over Innsmouth (and possibly tied to a TV movie based on the book). The game was for the Virtual Boy and only released in Japan. Unfortunately so as I'd have been all over it at the time. 

For the record, if you don't like Virtual Boy games or non- shooter first person games, you're probably not going to like it. These old first person games were my cup of tea at the time however. Not to mention, I love the Virtual Boy. Whenever a horror game was released before Resident Evil, you could expect it to be a bit janky. That just kinda came with the territory. So, I probably wouldn't have minded any of it's issues that game reviewers have.

If Innsmouth no Yakata was a bigger hit on a more popular console, I could easily see the monsters popping up as keshi and sofubi. Official or indie. I could really see them gracing the cover of some weird fanzine or fanblog. Other than this one that is. It's hard for me not to love the look of 'horror' games in the 8 and 16-bit era. Sure, the VB was technically a 32 bit system... but just look at it. 

Strap those VR Headsets on!

VR Water Slide

Get out your VR masks! Feeling we could all use a water park on a hot summer day like today!

Programing Note: Zone Base VR

So, I've become a fan of VR videos. While I've always held a curiosity in virtual reality in general (including my time spent with the Virtual Boy in high school), I've recently let my fandom of POV theme park ride through videos guide me into getting one of those cell phone VR set ups. I have no clue what took me so long as I've been eyeing them for quite a while now (the mask was literally 5$ at Five Below, and I bought a controller for 5$ also), but I recently bought the needed stuff at my wife's insistence ('just buy it already, you want it and it's not expensive') and I owe her flowers for that. I love it.

After some basic experimenting and switching around phones in the headset (got a few older phones not in use that make for good fodder for a good set up), I've got myself going with my wife's old S4, which is doing a good job. It took a minute to get used to the controls and figuring out that on screen mouse that the controller I bought serves as (might be getting a better one in the future, you never miss a spring in a joystick until a 5$ one doesn't have one) to really get the swing.

360 VR video is really neat, though you really need to sit in a swivel chair to fully enjoy it without tripping over your own feet (that and you're not actually in the surroundings you see). Though I enjoy the 3D POV style videos the best. There's a basic narrative device in treating your point of view as a camera that really makes the experience a lot of fun (and downright frightening in those scary videos).

It's inspired me to start sharing some of these videos here. Seeing as I've already posted about Universal Studios a few times here, I figure regular readers might enjoy these experiences. All you need to enjoy these is a smart phone (one with a gyroscope for 360 videos) and a VR mask (they run in price ranges, but I got one for 5$ as I said above). They make controllers that are optional, but you don't really need one if you don't want to use one (it's just handy for clicking stuff and maybe volume). Perhaps headphones would be handy depending on where you're enjoying the VR.

So, from now on, whenever I use VR in a post title, well... it's a VR post. There'll be VR tags to for easy searches. This is going to be a lot of fun come Halloween.