What's the next big thing for VR?Īs for games coming out in 2021, nothing on the horizon is quite as massive or exciting as Alyx or Medal of Honor, but there are still quite a few cool games to look forward to.Ī sequel to 2017's acclaimed VR adventure Lone Echo is due out in 2021, a Sam & Max VR game was announced, there's Crytek's The Climb 2, Sniper Elite VR, and plenty of others on the way, with more sure to be announced later in the year. The Rift and Quest 2 also experienced occasional delays for those ordering it around the holidays. The original Quest was still in demand this year, too, and at times it could be difficult to find in stock. Typically, that's about as long as I care to use it myself before I need a break, and many users still experience issues with motion sickness or headaches after even short VR sessions.įacebook isn't quite as candid with it's stats as Valve is, but the Quest 2 sold more than five times as much as the original Quest headset. It's worth pointing out that those VR sessions, according to Valve, only average about 32 minutes, which may be due to the issues of comfort and convenience that still remain while using VR. Valve also reports it saw 1.7 million new VR users on Steam last year, and a total of 104 million VR sessions, which is an increase of 30% in total playtime over the year before. Even without factoring in Half-Life: Alyx, Valve says VR games sales grew 32% in 2020 (and you can add another 39% when you do include Alyx). That puts a big damper on what is otherwise a great and relatively inexpensive piece of VR hardware, and despite the uproar from the community we haven't seen any indication that Facebook is going to backtrack from that requirement. Needing a Facebook account just to use an Oculus headset for gaming hasn't been received well by the VR community especially since, even if you do have a Facebook account, there still might be problems getting it to work. There's a damn long Wikipedia page about how much Facebook sucks in this regard.) This was extremely unwelcome news at a time when Facebook is facing heavy criticism for the spread of misinformation and hate speech, continued privacy concerns, and is under scrutiny by the FTC for anticompetitive conduct. Just pop it on and you can be playing a game within seconds.īut Facebook dropped a bomb on that party back in August by requiring Oculus users to have a Facebook account to use the headset. The resolution, power, and fidelity isn't as advanced as Valve's Index or the Vive Pro, but The Quest makes up for it by being so dang easy to use, an absolute breeze when compared to the fiddly setups from other headsets. The Oculus Quest 2 was released, and we've found it to be an excellent headset-lighter, faster, and less expensive than the original Quest (which itself is still great). In terms of hardware, Oculus had a big year as well, though not all of it was good. Somewhat disappointing, however, was Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond, another highly anticipated full-length VR game that, unfortunately, didn't quite deliver for critics or fans. But those who got to play Alyx (even on a tethered Quest headset or a Vive) were immersed in a thrilling return to the Half-Life universe: many fans bought VR gear for the first time just to play it.Īlyx wasn't the only great VR game of last year: Phasmophobia's co-op ghost hunting game was a perfect fit for VR, The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners is a challenging survival game with lots of brains, Population: One is a solid VR battle royale, Star Wars Squadrons has VR support, and Microsoft Flight Simulator added support in December. And the Index is still pretty hard to get ahold of even today due to supply problems related to the pandemic. There was a heavy demand for Valve's expensive ( and excellent) Index VR gear, which quickly sold out both online and in stores. The run-up to the release of Half-Life: Alyx wasn't without its problems, either. And most gamers still don't own a headset. Half-Life: Alyx was a fantastic game and a triumphant return to the series, with the only downside (a rather big one) that the majority of Half-Life fans couldn't play it because it was VR-only. Probably the biggest VR event last year was the release of Half-Life: Alyx, the full-length VR game from Valve and the first Half-Life game since 2007.
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