nDreams, the developer behind one of my all-time favourite VR titles, Synapse, has announced a new shooter game called Vendetta Forever during this week's VR Games Showcase.

If that wasn't cause for celebration enough, nDreams also released a short, Quest-exclusive demo for the game that I played through for this week's episode of VR Corner. In the video, you can see me play the Quest 3 version, but it will also be available on the Quest Pro, Quest 2 and the PS VR2 at some point in October.

So what is Vendetta Forever? Well the easiest way to describe it is a mash-up of Superhot and Pistol Whip, with some of the best aspects of both games cherry-picked and given a little twist to make them feel fresh and unique. The monochromatic-but-not-quite visuals are definitely more Pistol Whip-y, but the title screen is just full of those iconic Superhot reds, whites and blacks. Then there's the main menu, which is almost a carbon copy of Pistol Whip's, with mutator and level select options, alongside online leaderboards and a nice little shooting gallery area which is something Pistol Whip does lack.

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The thing I loved the most about the original Splitgate was the fact that, to me at least, it felt like playing the original Halo with my pals at LAN parties back in the early 2000s. Not only that but it came with all the mod cons of the current gaming era, including a wealth of customisable lobbies and crossplay multiplayer so it was incredibly easy to set up our ideal matches.

Despite a large selection of game modes to choose from, the ones my friends and I gravitated towards were the simple Deathmatch lobbies, with the occasional bout of Gun Game thrown in for a bit of variety. We loved running around in these free-for-all game types, switching between weapons as and when we found them on the floor or indeed working our way through the game's catalogue of guns one kill at a time in Gun Game.

Splitgate's blend of Halo-esque nostalgia mixed with the strategic elements of portal-based flanking was an absolute hit in my gaming social circle. In our opinion it played better and had way more maps and options than Halo Infinite's multiplayer, and so Splitgate easily replaced that game as our FPS of choice when it came to meeting up online for a few casual gaming sessions.

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I'm a big old dreamer, me. I see a thing that I love, like VR, and I like to imagine the best outcomes for it. You know, like Sony actually bringing a new Astrobot to the PS VR2, or say, smaller, lighter, cheaper headsets for all. Obviously I'm disappointed every time - newer headsets seem to be getting impossibly expensive and, well, of course Sony's gone done a Sony with the PS VR2.

One of my biggest dreams though, is that one day, in the future, every game released would come with a hybrid VR mode. A simple toggle at the start, like Capcom put in Resident Evil 7, that gives players the choice to either experience the game in VR, or enjoy it in flat screen on whatever TV or monitor they choose.

While this dream seems like a distant improbability, we do at least get to enjoy a taster of this fantasy thanks to Praydog's magical UEVR mod, which lets you convert any UE4 or UE5 game into VR at the click of a button. Sure, not every game runs perfectly and there's plenty of fiddling that can be done in the mod's menus to iron out the creases but still, for this week's VR Corner I was able to play a demo of a game that's not even fully released yet in both third person and first person VR.

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Aside from a blue paint job and some migraine inducing Na'vi Senses, last year's movie tie-in, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora was a Far Cry game in all but name. It's a typical Ubisoft move to repurpose portions of an existing product that has already proven popular with their audience, but in the case of Avatar, the final result failed to set the metaphorical Home Tree on fire (sorry, too soon?).

I think part of why Avatar's players burnt out so quickly (sorry again), was that it was basically just Far Cry but made worse with the addition of a bunch of Avatar gubbins. In the case of Star Wars Outlaws however, Ubisoft hasn't just picked one singular game to rework. Here, its plucked all the best bits from across its biggest franchises and created this melting pot of familiar gameplay elements. These elements are instantly recognisable when you see them one-by-one, sure, but they all come together as a whole to create a proper Star Wars-y feeling adventure.

When our dashing Deputy Editor, Chris Tapsell went hands-on with Star Wars Outlaws in June, he came away underwhelmed by the dated gameplay he'd experienced during the trio of linear missions he'd been given to play. As if countering that preview with a big, 'well check this out then', Ubisoft invited me along to a four-hour preview session that featured a big chunk of open-world action instead, where player were let off the leash to explore as they saw fit.

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Remember the Kinect? Back when it was known as 'Project Natal' I had some pretty lofty hopes for the tech. To be fair, those hopes were probably made a little more lofty by some tech demos that were, well, let's just say... slightly economical with the truth.

When Kinect came out it was a big bag of broken, but, there were some games on there that came close to greatness. I had a whale of a time with Fruit Ninja Kinect and would often whip it out (ooer) at house parties, while Ubisoft's Child of Eden was a certified banger.

And that leads me on to Thrasher, the spiritual successor to Thumper, which has just released on Meta Quest and Apple Vision Pro. As you'll see in this week's episode of VR Corner, Thrasher eschews Thumper's industrially soundtracked uphill toboggan ride of doom and instead opts for a gameplay loop that is one part Fruit Ninja and one part Child of Eden. With a bit of Jeff Minter-y psychedelia thrown in for good measure too.

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Aside from a blue paint job and some migraine inducing Na'vi Senses, last year's movie tie-in, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora was a Far Cry game in all but name. It's a typical Ubisoft move to repurpose portions of an existing product that has already proven popular with their audience, but in the case of Avatar, the final result failed to set the metaphorical Home Tree on fire (sorry, too soon?).

I think part of why Avatar's players burnt out so quickly (sorry again), was that it was basically just Far Cry but made worse with the addition of a bunch of Avatar gubbins. In the case of Star Wars Outlaws however, Ubisoft hasn't just picked one singular game to rework. Here, its plucked all the best bits from across its biggest franchises and created this melting pot of familiar gameplay elements. These elements are instantly recognisable when you see them one-by-one, sure, but they all come together as a whole to create a proper Star Wars-y feeling adventure.

When our dashing Deputy Editor, Chris Tapsell went hands-on with Star Wars Outlaws in June, he came away underwhelmed by the dated gameplay he'd experienced during the trio of linear missions he'd been given to play. As if countering that preview with a big, 'well check this out then', Ubisoft invited me along to a four-hour preview session that featured a big chunk of open-world action instead, where player were let off the leash to explore as they saw fit.

Read more

Remember the Kinect? Back when it was known as 'Project Natal' I had some pretty lofty hopes for the tech. To be fair, those hopes were probably made a little more lofty by some tech demos that were, well, let's just say... slightly economical with the truth.

When Kinect came out it was a big bag of broken, but, there were some games on there that came close to greatness. I had a whale of a time with Fruit Ninja Kinect and would often whip it out (ooer) at house parties, while Ubisoft's Child of Eden was a certified banger.

And that leads me on to Thrasher, the spiritual successor to Thumper, which has just released on Meta Quest and Apple Vision Pro. As you'll see in this week's episode of VR Corner, Thrasher eschews Thumper's industrially soundtracked uphill toboggan ride of doom and instead opts for a gameplay loop that is one part Fruit Ninja and one part Child of Eden. With a bit of Jeff Minter-y psychedelia thrown in for good measure too.

Read more

The pre and post launch hype behind Elden Ring's Shadow of the Erdtree DLC has been impossible to ignore, but has it managed to convince any of you 'never-Souls' players to finally give the game a try?

The oft-mention difficulty curve of the Souls series can be an instant turn off for some. I mean, what possible fun could there be in getting your Tarnished butt handed to you every 10 minutes or so? That sounds rubbish! But also, deep down, maybe you just can't shake that feeling that you might be missing out on something incredibly special?

That's how Maddie Cullen felt as she saw our internal chats about Shadow of the Erdtree, so she decided to test out whether or not following tips and guides could help her to embrace the pain and help her get into the game. Join Maddie as she documents her first few hours of the game to see if tips and guides are essential tools for a newcomer on the video player above or, if you'd prefer to watch it on YouTube, you'll find that embedded just below these words.

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I always get lost in games like Elden Ring and Dark Souls. The impossible architecture, the improbable geography and the way that the levels twist and turn and fold back in on themselves really muddles my head and stops me from being able to visualise the locations properly. Put me in those same places in VR though and suddenly, because it feels like I'm actually there, their spaces make so much more sense. The depth, the distance, the perspective, every visual trick that VR provides makes From's abstract scenery much easier for my brain to understand.

Not only that though, VR also allows me to appreciate the finer details of the game's assets. Little bits of stitching on a robe, the thin whisps of incense rising from a burner, these are things I'd just blunder right past without noticing in flat. Which leads me nicely to today's VR Corner, in which I take a leisurely trot around Elden Rings' Shadow of the Erdtree DLC in VR!

Thanks to the most recent update for Luke Ross' REAL VR mod, I was able to toggle on a 'tourism' mode and become invisible to all the enemies in the Lands of Shadow. That way I could really drink in the visuals and enjoy the scenery of Shadow of the Erdtree without worrying about getting a foot to the face from a Furnace Golem (until I turned tourism mode off specifically for that purpose!).

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Still Wakes the Deep is the Dark Souls of Walking Simulators. Or is it?

Jim Trinca, who recently reviewed Still Wakes the Deep for VG247, has opinions about the new game from The Chinese Room (Matt also has opinions in Eurogamer's review). Specifically about how he thinks it could be a much better game without the monsters. He doesn't want to get rid of the naked bum that appears in it though. Just in case you were wondering...

In today's video, Jim explores the wonders of Still Wakes the Deep's dangerous North Sea oil rig, the conversations between the characters who work within its walls and the game's uncomfortable parallels with the real world that are honestly scarier than any imaginary monster ever could be.

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Perfect Dark has been in the news quite a lot recently. First there was the impressive gameplay reveal for the upcoming reboot at this month's Xbox Showcase and, literally yesterday, Nintendo announced that the original Perfect Dark is now available to play on Switch.

All of this Perfect Dark news got me perfectly nostalgic, so I jumped back into the original three games and put together a little list video based on some of the most bizarre (and naughty) Easter Eggs and features that Rare's series has to offer.

Give it a watch on the player above or there's the YouTube version embedded below if you'd prefer to push that one into your peepers. Enjoy!

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Considering E3 is dead, an awful lot of it happened over the weekend and quite honestly, it feels like this weekend contained some of the best video game 'showcases' in quite a long time.

Summer Game(s) Fest kicked everything off with a bang, but that was followed up by a surprisingly brilliant Xbox Showcase, a heartwarming Wholesome Direct and a bloodsoaked Blumhouse Games Showcase. But who's got time to comb through all of those on a Monday morning when they should be working? Not I, that's for sure. Which is why I very much enjoyed checking out Jim Trinca's, definitive list video of all the best reveals and featured games from this year's 'I Can't Believe It's Not E3' (other opinions are available).

You can watch Jim's video on the player at the top of the page but if you can't see that or would rather watch it on YouTube, you can find it just below these words!

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Master modder Luke Ross has released yet another update to his REAL VR mod and for the first time in ages it's not for a Ubisoft game!

On this week's VR Corner, I take a look a Luke's flat screen to VR mod for Sucker Punch's epicly beautiful Ghost of Tsushima Directors Cut on PC. The video itself shows off sections from the first 90 minutes of the game, which features some graphically immense moments like charging a horse through a barrage of burning arrows and a one-on-one dual fought in an arena full of bright red leaves.

As with all of Luke's REAL VR mods, this one is controlled with a gamepad but, just like the flat game, it's played from a third-person viewpoint only. This is something that wound a lot of people up when I featured his flat to VR mod for Watch Dogs but I honestly have no issues with either of those things. I just enjoy having the option to experience these games with added 6DoF visuals, but I must say that this one did appear to have a lot more of the weird artifacting and asset jittering that seems to be an unfortunate side effect of the Alternate Eye Rendering 2.0 technique that his mods use.

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You've got to love Steam Next Fest. The video team has already put together a list of its must-play Steam Next Fest demos, but there's just so many new and exciting demos to try that we couldn't fit them all into one listicle! Well, OK, I guess we could have done, but that would have been one very long list video indeed...

On the video player above (or over on our YouTube channel if you'd prefer), you'll be able to watch today's livestream, where I took a look at the upcoming Steam Next Fest demo for Conscript. Published by Team17, Conscript is a survival horror experience set in the trenches of the Battle of Verdun. While this isn't the first time we've seen a horror game set during the First World War, Conscript still feels rather unique, even though its developer Jordan Mochi admits that he has drawn a lot of inspiration from classic horror games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill.

While I love a good retro-inspired horror game as much as the next person, one of the first things I noticed when I played the demo was how slow and clunky the combat was. This is certainly in keeping with games like the first Resident Evil but modern gamers may be put off by what appears to be a very sluggish and unforgiving control scheme. In Conscript you can only shoot, reload and melee attack whilst standing still and I found this very frustrating during the opening 30 minutes of the demo when I had to single handedly hold off a German trench invasion with only a rifle and a shovel. This mainly involved kiting enemies around the trenches until I could get in the right position to shoot at them or bonk them on the head, something that ended up feeling a bit like being chased around a Pac-Man maze by a bunch of Stahlhelm-wearing ghosts.

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I should have learned to not get my hopes up by now but, as a huge fan of Sony's PSVR2, it's hard not to get excited when a State of Play featuring new PSVR2 games is announced. Now, I'm not naive enough to believe that Half Life: Alyx is ever going to come to the headset (even though I desperately want it to) but, when one of my favourite VR games ever is the PSVR1 exclusive, Astro Bot Rescue Mission, I think it's fair to hold out hope for an Astro Bot Rescue Mission 2 for the PSVR2. (I mean, I'd even take backwards compatibility for the original Astro Bot Rescue Mission at this point!)

That's why yesterday's announcement of Astro Bot was so bittersweet for me. Like everyone, I'm pumped for a new Astro Bot game, they're such joyful, heart-warming and uplifting games - and on top of that this new one looks a bit like a StarFox x Mario Mash-up. "How can that not be a Game of the Year contender?!" I thought, as I watched the reveal. But then, as the trailer passed the one minute mark without showing footage of anything that looked like VR gameplay, my heart started to sink. That sunken heart then broke completely in two when, at the very end of the trailer, big bold words saying "COMING TO PS5" appeared. So no PSVR2 support at all?! For a character that technically only became big thanks to Astro Bot Rescue Mission on PSVR1? What gives?

To add extra salt to the wound, as I was scouring the trailer for potential PSVR2 clues (just in case, you never know, etc...), I noticed that there is a bit in the trailer during the casino world section, where Astro Bot is wearing a VR headset. The only trouble is... IT'S A PSVR1! Sorry for shouting there - but, come on. How can Sony and PlayStation expect its fan base to stay excited about the future of the PSVR2 if its main mascot won't even wear one?

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Greetings all! Sorry for the fairly short VR Corner this week but I'm actually on holiday right now and this, combined with the recent Eurogamer news, meant that I didn't have much time to do a fully fleshed-out VR Corner for you.

I couldn't bear to leave you without the usual Sunday shenanigans though, so I did manage to squeeze in a quick look at Senua's Saga: Hellblade II running in VR, thanks to Praydog's amazing UEVR mod. It's a shorter Corner than usual and there's a bit at the end that wouldn't be there if I'd had the time to go back and work out a fix for the error, so please accept my apologies for the scruffiness of this one!

The game itself is a bit of a graphical powerhouse on PC anyway, so running it in VR is going to be a test of even the beefiest of rigs. But, after a bit of fiddling, I got the game running pretty well on my rig that has an i9 CPU and 4080 GPU and I show off the graphical settings that I used to make it all smooth and stuff in the video above. Oooh I almost felt like I knew what I was talking about when I wrote that bit about the CPU and GPU! Digital Foundry, watch out!

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It's been a long time since I played the original Prey from Human Head Studios, but I still vividly remember so much of it thanks to how groundbreaking the gravity-defying, portal-hopping gameplay was at the time. There were so many mind-blowing moments as you followed protagonist Tommy Tawodi on the search for his girlfriend Jen through the gigantic and often very goopy interior of an alien space craft. The way the game played with the very concept of 3D space and even your sense of scale was epic to say the least, but how does this all transfer to VR? How does it feel to jump through portals and walk up walls when you're fully immersed in the experience?

Well, that's what I'm investigating in this week's episode of VR Corner, as I finally take Prey's flat screen to VR mod for a spin on the Quest 3. This standalone mod, which was created by a modder named Luboš who utilised some of Team Beef's VR code for Doom3Quest has been available to download on Sidequest for over a year now. Handily, it includes a free demo of the first 90 minutes of the game with the download. This means you can try it out to see if your stomach can handle all the gravity flipping action, even if you don't own the full game.

Featuring full VR controller aiming and roomscale, Prey VR runs fairly well as a standalone app on the Quest 3. As you'll see in the video however, there are a few perfomance issues here and there. Whilst rare, lower framerates are sometimes noticable when looking through large portals that appear in big rooms and, for some reason, especially when Tommy is in spirit form during the spirit-walking tutorial. Other than that there's a few minor graphical hiccups surrounding the portals themselves but it's all forgiveable when you're confronted by the majesty of the rest of the experience.

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After burning incredibly brightly for a short while, it feels like Content Warning's star might be dimming rather quickly now. One minute there were a million TikToks and streams about it, and the next... well, people seem to be moving on pretty fast. Faster than they did with the game's inspiration, Lethal Company at least.

Talking about Lethal Company, this week's featured flatscreen to VR mod for Content Warning has been created by the same talented modder who made the VR mod for Lethal Company, which we streamed a while back. DaXcess, as they're known in the modding community, has once again created a stunning (and best of all, free!) flat to VR mod for Content Warning that not only adds full 6DoF to the game but also proper motion controls too.

This means you can lean in and inspect absolutely every little detail of the games' chunky graphics, whilst also being able to hold and point the video camera (or any other tools) in any direction you want. It all feels very freeing in a way that flat gaming doesn't and being able to treat the game and its props in a way that you would if you were using them in real life is super immersive; as you'll see in this week's episode of VR Corner (above!).

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Stone the crows! London-based indie studio, SFB Games is probably best know for its Nintendo Switch launch title Snipperclips, but its newest release, Crow Country couldn't be any more different. Heavily inspired by PS1 survival horror games in both graphics and gameplay, Crow Country sees you exploring an abandoned theme park in search of its missing owner Edward Crow, and you can watch me play through the opening 90 minutes of the game on the player above!

The games' nostalgia-inducing aesthetics definitely have the potential to feel a bit gimmicky, but they actually work really well and only serve to accentuate the creepiness of the story. The visuals have the same vibe as the pre-rendered backgrounds of PS1 games of old, such as Resident Evil, but Crow Country gives you the freedom to fully rotate the camera. This means you can easily explore all corners of the game's spooky theme park setting for the many items and lore drops that litter the environment. That's not the only quality of life improvement that Crow Country makes over the games that inspired it though, there's even the option to choose a modern control scheme, which is great news for those of us who find old-school tank controls more frustrating than fun to use.

Other standouts I noticed during my first 90 minutes of play time include the excellent audio design that contains sound effects and audio stings that made my skin crawl and a lot of imaginative but fairly simple to solve (so far!) puzzles. This is all wrapped up in a narrative that at first seems rather clear-cut but, by the end of the 90 minute stream at least, begins to hint at some much wierder goings-on with both the theme park and the game's protagonist Mara Forest.

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Recently, because I hate myself, I was browsing Twitter (I’m not calling it X) and I stumbled across an incredible conceptual video from an artist named DEVINK that shows what they imagine a potential Fortnite X Fallout crossover could look like.

This crossover seems like a bit of a no-brainer to me and I wouldn't be surprised if something like this happened in the future, but what about Fallout crossovers from the past? Well that's what I'm exploring in today's video (above) so please do give it a click and see if you remember any of the seven forgotten Fallout crossovers that feature within.

These crossovers range from an excellent and highly detailed Minecraft mash-up and some fairly fancy, but almost definitely forgotten cosmetics for Brink, through to what can only be described as one of the most haunting pieces of headwear for the Xbox 360 Avatars that I ever did see.

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I love a spot of virtual tourism, me. During the pandemic, I would scratch my travelling itches with some nice big sessions on Google Earth VR, where I would retrace my steps from holidays of old or explore new places I've always wanted to go.

But those little imaginary expeditions pale in comparison to being able to actually wander around fully realised virtual worlds as a tourist, which is basically exactly what I did in this week's VR Corner thanks to a brand new update for Luke Ross' REAL VR mod. By the way, REAL stands for 'Reality Enhancement Augmentation Layer' if you've ever wondered!

I've featured plenty of Luke's mods on VR Corner before, but my favourite ones of his are always the ones with open-worlds that feel almost like real places. Thanks to the level of detail in the Chicago map that Ubisoft built for it's open-world hack-em-up, Watch Dogs, it's easy to imagine that you're really there. There's so much variety to the environments and buildings and so many lovely little details for you to lean towards and inspect. These range from the first person interiors of the game's cars, through to some of the most delicious looking muffins I've ever seen and even Aidan Pearce's teeth!

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Stone the crows! London-based indie studio, SFB Games is probably best know for its Nintendo Switch launch title Snipperclips, but its newest release, Crow Country couldn't be any more different. Heavily inspired by PS1 survival horror games in both graphics and gameplay, Crow Country sees you exploring an abandoned theme park in search of its missing owner Edward Crow, and you can watch me play through the opening 90 minutes of the game on the player above!

The games' nostalgia-inducing aesthetics definitely have the potential to feel a bit gimmicky, but they actually work really well and only serve to accentuate the creepiness of the story. The visuals have the same vibe as the pre-rendered backgrounds of PS1 games of old, such as Resident Evil, but Crow Country gives you the freedom to fully rotate the camera. This means you can easily explore all corners of the game's spooky theme park setting for the many items and lore drops that litter the environment. That's not the only quality of life improvement that Crow Country makes over the games that inspired it though, there's even the option to choose a modern control scheme, which is great news for those of us who find old-school tank controls more frustrating than fun to use.

Other standouts I noticed during my first 90 minutes of play time include the excellent audio design that contains sound effects and audio stings that made my skin crawl and a lot of imaginative but fairly simple to solve (so far!) puzzles. This is all wrapped up in a narrative that at first seems rather clear-cut but, by the end of the 90 minute stream at least, begins to hint at some much wierder goings-on with both the theme park and the game's protagonist Mara Forest.

Read more

Recently, because I hate myself, I was browsing Twitter (I’m not calling it X) and I stumbled across an incredible conceptual video from an artist named DEVINK that shows what they imagine a potential Fortnite X Fallout crossover could look like.

This crossover seems like a bit of a no-brainer to me and I wouldn't be surprised if something like this happened in the future, but what about Fallout crossovers from the past? Well that's what I'm exploring in today's video (above) so please do give it a click and see if you remember any of the seven forgotten Fallout crossovers that feature within.

These crossovers range from an excellent and highly detailed Minecraft mash-up and some fairly fancy, but almost definitely forgotten cosmetics for Brink, through to what can only be described as one of the most haunting pieces of headwear for the Xbox 360 Avatars that I ever did see.

Read more

I love a spot of virtual tourism, me. During the pandemic, I would scratch my travelling itches with some nice big sessions on Google Earth VR, where I would retrace my steps from holidays of old or explore new places I've always wanted to go.

But those little imaginary expeditions pale in comparison to being able to actually wander around fully realised virtual worlds as a tourist, which is basically exactly what I did in this week's VR Corner thanks to a brand new update for Luke Ross' REAL VR mod. By the way, REAL stands for 'Reality Enhancement Augmentation Layer' if you've ever wondered!

I've featured plenty of Luke's mods on VR Corner before, but my favourite ones of his are always the ones with open-worlds that feel almost like real places. Thanks to the level of detail in the Chicago map that Ubisoft built for it's open-world hack-em-up, Watch Dogs, it's easy to imagine that you're really there. There's so much variety to the environments and buildings and so many lovely little details for you to lean towards and inspect. These range from the first person interiors of the game's cars, through to some of the most delicious looking muffins I've ever seen and even Aidan Pearce's teeth!

Read more

Stone the crows! London-based indie studio, SFB Games is probably best know for its Nintendo Switch launch title Snipperclips, but its newest release, Crow Country couldn't be any more different. Heavily inspired by PS1 survival horror games in both graphics and gameplay, Crow Country sees you exploring an abandoned theme park in search of its missing owner Edward Crow, and you can watch me play through the opening 90 minutes of the game on the player above!

The games' nostalgia-inducing aesthetics definitely have the potential to feel a bit gimmicky, but they actually work really well and only serve to accentuate the creepiness of the story. The visuals have the same vibe as the pre-rendered backgrounds of PS1 games of old, such as Resident Evil, but Crow Country gives you the freedom to fully rotate the camera. This means you can easily explore all corners of the game's spooky theme park setting for the many items and lore drops that litter the environment. That's not the only quality of life improvement that Crow Country makes over the games that inspired it though, there's even the option to choose a modern control scheme, which is great news for those of us who find old-school tank controls more frustrating than fun to use.

Other standouts I noticed during my first 90 minutes of play time include the excellent audio design that contains sound effects and audio stings that made my skin crawl and a lot of imaginative but fairly simple to solve (so far!) puzzles. This is all wrapped up in a narrative that at first seems rather clear-cut but, by the end of the 90 minute stream at least, begins to hint at some much wierder goings-on with both the theme park and the game's protagonist Mara Forest.

Read more

Recently, because I hate myself, I was browsing Twitter (I’m not calling it X) and I stumbled across an incredible conceptual video from an artist named DEVINK that shows what they imagine a potential Fortnite X Fallout crossover could look like.

This crossover seems like a bit of a no-brainer to me and I wouldn't be surprised if something like this happened in the future, but what about Fallout crossovers from the past? Well that's what I'm exploring in today's video (above) so please do give it a click and see if you remember any of the seven forgotten Fallout crossovers that feature within.

These crossovers range from an excellent and highly detailed Minecraft mash-up and some fairly fancy, but almost definitely forgotten cosmetics for Brink, through to what can only be described as one of the most haunting pieces of headwear for the Xbox 360 Avatars that I ever did see.

Read more

I love a spot of virtual tourism, me. During the pandemic, I would scratch my travelling itches with some nice big sessions on Google Earth VR, where I would retrace my steps from holidays of old or explore new places I've always wanted to go.

But those little imaginary expeditions pale in comparison to being able to actually wander around fully realised virtual worlds as a tourist, which is basically exactly what I did in this week's VR Corner thanks to a brand new update for Luke Ross' REAL VR mod. By the way, REAL stands for 'Reality Enhancement Augmentation Layer' if you've ever wondered!

I've featured plenty of Luke's mods on VR Corner before, but my favourite ones of his are always the ones with open-worlds that feel almost like real places. Thanks to the level of detail in the Chicago map that Ubisoft built for it's open-world hack-em-up, Watch Dogs, it's easy to imagine that you're really there. There's so much variety to the environments and buildings and so many lovely little details for you to lean towards and inspect. These range from the first person interiors of the game's cars, through to some of the most delicious looking muffins I've ever seen and even Aidan Pearce's teeth!

Read more

One of Xbox's greatest treasures, Sea of Thieves has finally launching on PS5 and I, Iyaaaaarrrn Higton, have swabbed my poop deck and spliced my mainbrace in anticipation for this momentous occasion.

Sea of Thieves has actually been in open beta on PS5 for the past week and, according to Digital Foundry's Oliver Mackenzie, "Sea of Thieves retains its signature charm - and should go down well with PlayStation players." Although he also noted that there were some networking issues that he hopes will get (eye) patched out for launch.

Thankfully, I experience exactly 'zero' network issues with the PS5 launch version of Sea of Thieves in today's stream (above) and, in answer to the question I posed in the headline, it handles really well! The game looks absolutely stunning on PS5, with special shoutouts going to Rare's magnificent water tech that constantly blew me away with how beautiful it was. Sunlight bouncing across slowly undulating water never looked this good!

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With the success of the Fallout TV show, the recent release of the next-gen update for Fallout 4 and the fact that (in my humble opinion) Fallout 76 is well worth a go nowadays, there's a high chance that you are one of the millions of people who are currently jumping back into Bethesda's post-apocalyptic adventures, or indeed trying them out for the very first time.

Recently, I've noticed a massive uptick in views on Base Building video guides that I produced way back when both Fallout 4 and Fallout 76 released, so in this little post I've pulled all three of my Fallout base building guides together so you can make the most of out what can be a fairly complex and confusing portion of the game.

The headline video above (or the YouTube link at the bottom of this article if you can't see the top one) is a great place to start if you are a newcomer to Fallout 4. This beginner's guide covers everything you need to know in order to make the process of creating a settlement as easy as possible. These include tips and explainers on things like clearing space for your buildings and gathering components through to simple construction methods and adding power sources to your creations. These tips should mean that you won't waste(land) a bunch of hours clipping together a bunch of clumsy structures that need to be torn down once you finally get to grips with the mechanics.

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I didn't realise this while I was recording the video, but this week's VR Corner subject, ConVRgence was made by the same developer as another game that I previously featured in my Corner, Paradox of Hope.

'Monkey-With-a-Bomb', as the solo studio is called, released Paradox of Hope in Early Access exactly two years ago this week and, while it was only a slice of the full experience, its Metro-inspired gameplay was obvious to see. So obvious in fact that Metro rights-owner PLAION (aka Embracer) slapped the developer with a take down order, presumably due to the upcoming release of the VR exclusive spin-off, Metro Awakening.

ConVRgence then is a clean slate for Monkey-With-a-Bomb and it is a game that, despite being set in a similar post-apocalyptic world to Metro, is now unique enough to not warrant a slap on the wrist from some angry men in suits. In this week's VR Corner, you can watch me try out the first hour of the game, which focuses on proceedural, single-player extraction shooter gameplay, mixed with a heavy dose of realistic gunplay too.

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Like a lot of people right now, I've been bitten by the radiocative bug that is the Fallout TV show. Because of this, I've been diving into Bethesda's back catalogue of games in order to get my Fallout fix now that I've binged my way through the series.

On yesterday's VR Corner for instance, I installed a hefty mod list for Fallout 4 VR in order to try and create the most immersive experience possible. Unfortunately however, I'm basically computer illiterate and things didn't exactly go according to plan...

For today's live stream though, I've decided to revisit Fallout 76, a game that I bounced off of quite hard back when it first released. The answer to the question that I've posed in the headline to this video post really does depend on personal opinion but (spoilers for the stream) I've actually been really enjoying my return to Appalachia and have probably put about 20 hours into Bethesda's MMO over the past week. Playing it solo as a kind of 'Fallout 4.5' experience has really been scratching that itch for me so it might be that now is the perfect time for you to go back to it too!

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The first time I played Fallout 4 VR was in a tiny little booth after Bethesda's 2016 E3 conference. I called my short time with the game 'underwhelming' back then because the whole experience was little more than a stationary shooting gallery with bottles for targets. Even then though, it was still a thrill to feel like I was actually standing next to a real-life Red Rocket gas station.

Fallout 4 VR finally released in December 2017 to fairly positive reviews, even though there was a lot of criticism about the VR implementation and its lacklustre graphics. Despite these faults however, most helmet-heads on PC were thrilled to have the opportunity to play through the entirety of Fallout 4 in virtual reality. Sure there were some corners cut here and there but still, props to Bethesda for even attempting this port in the first place, I wish more developers and publishers would do the same.

In the roughly 6.5 years since Fallout 4 VR's release, enterprising modders have been attempting to improve the vanilla experience one tiny mod at a time. But there are some, like content creator, GingasVR, who have put together huge mod lists that aim to alter the original version of Fallout 4 VR and bring it up to the standards of something like Half Life: Alyx.

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The first time I played Fallout 4 VR was in a tiny little booth after Bethesda's 2016 E3 conference. I called my short time with the game 'underwhelming' back then because the whole experience was little more than a stationary shooting gallery with bottles for targets. Even then though, it was still a thrill to feel like I was actually standing next to a real-life Red Rocket gas station.

Fallout 4 VR finally released in December 2017 to fairly positive reviews, even though there was a lot of criticism about the VR implementation and its lacklustre graphics. Despite these faults however, most helmet-heads on PC were thrilled to have the opportunity to play through the entirety of Fallout 4 in virtual reality. Sure there were some corners cut here and there but still, props to Bethesda for even attempting this port in the first place, I wish more developers and publishers would do the same.

In the roughly 6.5 years since Fallout 4 VR's release, enterprising modders have been attempting to improve the vanilla experience one tiny mod at a time. But there are some, like content creator, GingasVR, who have put together huge mod lists that aim to alter the original version of Fallout 4 VR and bring it up to the standards of something like Half Life: Alyx.

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Yep, you're herring me right. Hot on the heels of yesterday's o-fish-al Eurogamer review, I dove into the first 90 minnows of Harold Halibut on the Xbox Series X for you in today's (recorded live) Let's Play!

If, like me, you've been reeled in by the game's stunning, handcrafted visuals but want to know whether the gameplay is any good before you pike it up, you have come to the right plaice.

I streamed the Xbox Series X version of Harold Halibut earlier and you can check out my adventures on the video player above. So, pick a perch and tuna in for this look at the beginning portion of this "handmade narrative game about friendship and life on a city-sized spaceship submerged in an alien ocean."

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Ori and the Blind Forest is well known for its tear-jerker of an intro cutscene so for developer Moon Studios, the dark and damp, gore-soaked world of its next game No Rest for the Wicked, seems like a radical change in direction.

But how well has the studio managed the switch from magical Metroidvania to a swords and sorcery Soulsborne-like? Well, I went in blind and you can join me in my journey of discovery as I learn the ropes in the gameplay video below, where I play through the first 90 minutes of the game.

In No Rest for the Wicked, you play as a Cerim, a holy warrior imbued with remarkable powers (that you have to earn back before you can use them it seems) and, after a tragic accident at sea, you wash up on the backwaters of a land called Isola Sacra which is awash with something called 'the Pestilence'.

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Arcade Paradise was a charming management/simulation game set in an old laundrette. In it, the player had to complete menial tasks in order to earn enough cash to build an awesome 90s video game arcade at the back of the building in an attempt to prove themselves to their cranky dad.

The wonderful Chris Donlan, who reviewed the game for us in 2022 called Arcade Paradise a "quirky slice-of-life that will transport you back into the past", which is totally spot on, but, thanks to the magic of VR, that feeling of transportation will get even stronger this Spring when Arcade Paradise VR releases for the Quest 2 & 3!

While there's no set release date for it yet, eager arcade owners can watch me take a preview build of Arcade Paradise VR for a spin (geddit?) on the Quest 3 in this week's episode of VR Corner. And it all kicks off with a close up of a massive poo smear in the bowl of a toilet. You're welcome!

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