{"id":32349,"date":"2020-08-16T22:08:26","date_gmt":"2020-08-16T14:08:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/?p=32349"},"modified":"2020-08-16T22:08:51","modified_gmt":"2020-08-16T14:08:51","slug":"oculus-quest-part-3-apps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.chekyang.com\/musings\/2020\/08\/16\/oculus-quest-part-3-apps\/","title":{"rendered":"Oculus Quest – Part 3 – Apps"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the best features of the Oculus Quest is its ability to access both tethered<\/strong> and also full-on mobile content i.e. the best of both ecosystems. At the point of purchase, I assumed that I would be full-on just acquiring tethered content, especially off Steam VR. The titles tend to be higher quality – since they have been developed for arguably higher-spec systems like the Oculus Rift, Valve Index and HTC Vive. Steam VR also has a much larger library, and prices of items are routinely significantly cheaper than on the Oculus store. And buying titles off Steam VR will also ensure likely compatibility of those titles if I buy another headset from another manufacturer, as opposed to the app being locked down to just Oculus-brand gear.<\/p>\n

Interestingly, that supposedly assured decision has been anything but a couple of weeks into use. All the aforementioned benefits of cheaper pricing and access to a huge catalog are still there, yes – but acquiring the dedicated Quest-equivalents provide for a truly mobile and wireless experience, and I found the untethered experience simply more liberating than hooking up to a driver computer (the Aero 15-X9). Oculus store also supports cross-device compatibility within its eco-system, which makes deciding where to buy each app a difficult decision. There are a handful of Oculus-exclusives, e.g. Vader Immortal, which means the only way to get them is through Oculus store.<\/p>\n

Thankfully too, the USB-C to USB-C charge cable<\/strong> that comes in the box supports the Link feature, so there\u2019s no additional accessory purchase required to start enjoying tethered content. That said, the length of this included cable – 3 meters – is sufficient if you\u2019re in seated or stationary position, and just only enough if you\u2019re playing in room scale, and only if can orient your driver computer to maximise slack cable.<\/p>\n

All that out of the way, here are my comments on a selection of apps and titles I\u2019ve picked up. These are comments based on full-retail versions, but I\u2019ve also noted my tryouts on demo versions where appropriate. I\u2019m also particularly susceptible to motion sickness, so some of my comments are in that context.<\/p>\n

Star Trek: Bridge Crew<\/strong>. There\u2019s an old Star Trek title I played from 18 years ago – Bridge Commander<\/a> – that put players in the hot seat of a Starfleet ship captain. Bridge Crew takes that, adds VR and additional crew positions, and updates it to reflect the visual and aural aesthetics of J. J. Abrams\u2019 recent rebooted Star Trek films. The game is primarily intended as a multiplayer game, and there are loads of YouTube videos showing four players in a room having a hoot manning their various stations on the starship bridge. I haven\u2019t tried that mode yet, but the single player campaign is at least pretty good. As an added bonus, the title also supports non-VR play – which I actually prefer to be in to get through a scenario, as it\u2019s easier for me to navigate the various game UI interface elements using the mouse than using the Oculus controllers. The game is fairly easy towards my nausea, though I find that I can just handle around an hour at most in the game – especially if I\u2019m switching between crew stations a lot – before I feel sick.<\/p>\n

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Star Trek: Bridge Crew – image from startrek.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs<\/strong>. This one was particularly loads of fun. The core gameplay hasn\u2019t changed: you propel bird characters using a slingshot to bring down towers of those pesky pigs. What\u2019s different in this VR version is that you now play in first-person perspective. The levels are also somewhat smaller in scale as the play area is fairly small, compared to e.g. Angry Birds 2, which typically feature multiple towers to destroy in a single level. I reckon this is because of scale, and the play canvas is simply larger in the platform-styled perspective of the mobile phone equivalents. Still, this VR game is very comfortable for me to play without feeling nausea. It\u2019s also very kid-friendly, as with are of the Angry Birds titles.<\/p>\n

Eleven Table Tennis<\/strong>. Like many kids of my age, playing table tennis was one of the most accessible sports we could get into, casually at least, when I was in my teens. The space required for a game is modest – there were many table tennis tables located in community centers – and the physicality demands not nearly as strenuous as Badminton or Tennis. I was pretty bad at it, so never continued to play the sport when I left my teen years. This title is a fun return to the sport, and the VR version is a pretty effective facsimile of the real game. It\u2019s fully playable in stationary position – though you\u2019d certainly still need to really stretch to respond to volleys at the edges of the table. And since you don\u2019t have to move your feet that much, it\u2019s also a title I can play hours on end without feeling sick. The game has a difficulty slider, and when set to the easy, you can get engaged in a very fun game without feeling like a total loser at the sport. My quibbles? The game is great as a sport simulation, but it offers little else: alternate table or room environments are not in the game (I read that they used to be but was removed some months back), and there\u2019s no career mode to speak of. Also, the game complies with pretty strict standards of a serve: it takes some practice to become proficient in serves.<\/p>\n

Creed: Rise to Glory<\/strong>. Now this is one title that you will easily work out a sweat in minutes. There are two boxing oriented titles for the Quest, both of which are acclaimed: this one, and Thrill of the Fight. Most enthusiasts seem to prefer the latter, but Thrill of the Fight is best played in room scale – space that I don\u2019t normally have at home. And there\u2019s also the price difference: it\u2019s USD9.99 vs Creed\u2019s USD29.99. Creed on the other hand is based on the Rocky film series; and right from the melancholy piano music at the opening credits to the famous brass fanfare theme when the game title appears, Creed oozes atmosphere for fans of the film series. I tried the demo of this title, and Hannah enjoyed it so much I bit my lip and paid the full price for the title after a few days. Playing the game for any more than a few minutes gets picked up by my Amazfit GTS as aerobic exercises, which is a fantastic bonus for my sedentary lifestyle since the pandemic. Nausea-wise, the game title\u2019s fairly comfortable, though if you move around a lot, it will also gradually seep in after a while (around 30 minutes in my case.<\/p>\n

Explore Fushimi Inari \/ Wakamarina Valley (NZ) \/ M\u00fdrdalssandur (Iceland)<\/strong>. This is an amazingly photo-realistic VR representation of these three locations. I\u2019ve only been to the Fushimi Inari during our Japan 2010 trip 10 years ago – years before the tourist hordes made it impossible to really enjoy the serenity of this religious site these days – and the app for this Japanese shrine is as close as you can get to it without being there. I picked up the three titles as a bundle at more than 50% discount during a massive Steam sale at the start of July. Unfortunately, this is also one title that gives me nausea in less than a minute, especially if I enable normal motion. There\u2019s a teleport movement feature, like several other games, but it didn\u2019t help the inducing of nausea by much. The app can run in non-VR mode too, so it\u2019s not a total loss for those of us don’t mind the non-VR version. Nonetheless, I dropped the game after giving it a few minutes whirl and got a refund.<\/p>\n

Continued in the next post!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the best features of the Oculus Quest is its ability to access both tethered and also full-on mobile content i.e. the best of both ecosystems. At the point of purchase, I assumed that I would be full-on just<\/p>\n

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