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http://www.gizmag.com/oculus-rift-launch-games-review-hands-on/42303/
Hands on impression on some Oculus Rift launch titles
Lucky's Tale
Dead & Buried
Edge of Nowhere
Eve: Valkyrie
The Climb
I Expect You To Die
VR Sports Challenge
Defense Grid 2
Dragon Front
Eagle Flight
Smashing The Battle
Hands on impression on some Oculus Rift launch titles
Lucky's Tale
Adding VR to the mix drops you into Lucky's lush and colorful cartoon worlds: imagine being inside a Mario game, looking down on a 10-inch version of him from above. It also solves the camera issues that often plague platformers, as here the camera is your head. You can gaze at Lucky as he walks along, lean your head in for a closer look to help time a jump over a spiky log, or pause the game to look behind you and soak up the beautiful environments.
Dead & Buried
n Dead & Buried, the Oculus Touch controllers become a pair of six-shooters, as you blast away at enemies in wild west ghost towns (literally, as your tutorial guide is a ghost). We played our match in a dimly-lit saloon, with two players hiding behind the railing of the upper balcony, and two hiding behind tables on the floor below. Similar to HTC Vive launch title Hover Junkers, I had loads of fun ducking behind cover, crouching down to steer clear of the hot lead zipping past my ears and, when the timing was right, emerging from the shadows to let my revolver have its say.
Edge of Nowhere
Edge of Nowhere showed us all the things that define a high-quality action/adventure game: fun and varied gameplay, stunning visuals, believable voice acting and an intriguing storyline. Are you really seeing these monsters as you descend further and further into the snowy and icy mountains, or are you perhaps just descending further and further into the depths of your own madness? Here's to hoping the game leaves that answer open for interpretation.
Eve: Valkyrie
Controls took a little getting used to, but we'd expect this to be the Rift launch game that tallies up the most hours of gameplay. Online matches mean there's no limit to the time you can sink into it, and it's loads of fun zipping around space, locking your targeting onto an enemy ship using head movement, and blasting a missile in its direction as you spin off to find another bad guy.
The Climb
A first-person mountain-climbing sim in virtual reality is just as thrilling as you'd expect it to be. The Climb is ultimately a strategy game, as you choose your route along the mountainside (there's always more than one way to go) and, even more importantly, figure out exactly how to position each hand as you search for the next climbable ledge.
The views are stunning, but be sure you have two hands firmly holding onto rock or your sightseeing may be the end of you.
I Expect You To Die
Schell Games' I Expect You to Die is a first-person simulation/sandbox/puzzler, using the Oculus Touch controllers. Each environment you find yourself in, whether it's the driver's seat of a Sean Connery Bond-era car or an office inside the lair of an evil mastermind, tasks you with figuring out how to do use the objects in your environment to escape without setting off an alarm, or steal an important item without triggering the release of poisonous gas.
Oh, and because this isn't room-scale, you use telekinesis to grab far-away objects. After using room-scale VR on the Vive, levitating objects from a static position feels like a trick to mask the Rift's more stationary marketing focus (at least at launch), but it doesn't detract much from the gameplay.
Similar to Job Simulator, there's great fun in trying to solve the puzzles straightforwardly, and maybe even more fun in screwing around inside the VR sandbox. If you haven't tried the Rift or Vive, manipulating ordinary objects with your hands in VR (via Touch or Vive controllers) is more fun than you'd expect.
VR Sports Challenge
This former gamepad title now uses Oculus Touch, as you use your virtual hands to throw and catch football passes, drain threes like Steph Curry (though half of my shots sailed pathetically into the stands) or try to throw down a vicious 360-degree, through the legs two times, around the back three times, reverse two-handed jam (I got a little carried away with this very dunk and knocked the Rift completely off my head).
There's a touch of NBA Jam-like arcade goofiness to the whole thing like icicles appearing on the rim if you miss a few three-pointers or exploding in fire when you finally make one. VR Sports Challenge looks like a fun party game; we can see friends trading turns with the headset, trying to beat one another's scores. Consider it the burgeoning Wii Sports of VR.
Defense Grid 2
Though Defense Grid 2 is a seated, gamepad-based experience, positional tracking is a big part of its appeal. Sit up straight or lean back to get a long view of the entire table-sized tower, or lean closer to get a better look at a particularly troublesome group of invaders. You can also take it a step further and toggle a battlefield-level view.
There's a lot of depth here, with a variety of towers, enemies and upgrades, and the expected steady rise in difficulty as you progress.
Dragon Front
During my half-hour tutorial of the turn-based fantasy strategy game, I sat atop a tower, placing armies, casting spells and trying to outwit my opponent. Based on the level of detail on offer, we'd be surprised if fans weren't pleased with this animated virtual version of the genre, but in this case we'll have to let those who know CCGs try it and speak for themselves.
Eagle Flight
Ubisoft's Eagle Flight is a multiplayer flying game that didn't make me feel sick at all. That's surprising, considering how quickly I was swooshing through the air and dive-bombing through narrow passageways in buildings. Part of that may be because, while it's almost a first person perspective, you get a slight glimpse of the eagle you're controlling, right around where your eyes would normally see your own nose this serves as a stabilizer.
The multiplayer match we played in was an avian version of capture the flag ("capture the prey"). A dead rabbit (or another critter that bit the dust) will pop up at a random point throughout the human-less Paris you're inhabiting; two teams (3 vs. 3, at least in our case) then race to bring the prey back to their own nest. A battle screech is your defense, as you emit a sonic wave that can take out the opposing team's birds from distance. It was pretty realistic up to that point, but it's understandable Ubisoft needed to include a long-range attack.
Smashing The Battle
Gameplay is fast, with a variety of special abilities to spend skill points on (including landmines, a magnet that sucks all your enemies into one area and an explosive lightning strike). And as you ascend to the next level, you can look down over your shoulder and see all the levels you've beaten hanging down below you. Easier appreciated first-hand than described, but it's a nice use of VR.