VIRTUAL-REALITY APPS, GAMES & VIDEOS
[ OCULUS DK2 ] Desert Bus VR YOU’LL BE SINGING ‘HAIL TO THE BUS DRIVER’ IN NO TIME. Free | www.desertbusvr.com
In what has to be one of the most nihilistic pieces of code to have ever been dubbed a game, Desert Bus is a realistic driving simulator that was originally destined for the Sega CD console in 1995, but never made it to release due to lack of interest from potential publishers. Finding a cult following as ‘the worst game ever made’ in 2006 following an emulator release on PC, the game where you drive from Arizona to Nevada on the most desolate desert road in the US has now been made into a fully fledged VR title — since, presumably, the original game’s boringness wasn’t quite saturating or visceral enough.
[ VIVE, GEAR VR ] Star Wars Droid Repair Bay FIX DROIDS YOU WILL. TBC | www.starwars.com
Jar Jar Binks may be beyond salvation, but as you may have guessed by the title, this year’s Lucasfilm movie tie-in Star Wars Droid Repair Bay has you under the bonnet of some of the franchise’s most-loved robot sidekicks to get them back in tip-top shape. This new Vive and Gear VR game comes from ILMxLab, the same team that created the exceptionally fun first Star Wars VR title, Trials on Tatooine, where you had to fend off a droid laser-pistol attack on the Millennium Falcon with only a lightsaber.
[ VIVE, RIFT ] Home: A VR Spacewalk WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A NASA TRAINING SIM GOES WRONG? Free | rewind.co
The totally foreign sensory experience and extreme remoteness of space make it the perfect VR setting, but the BBC have managed to make it feel even more realistic in its new Home: A VR Spacewalk project. Built by the development studio behind Silicon Valley VR, The Ghost in the Shell VR and Red Bull Air Race VR, Home is a polished and realistic spaceship repair sim that can be plugged into a haptic chair and heart rate monitor for additional tactile information and amplified audio feedback to make the game’s dark twist completely space black.
[ CARDBOARD, PSVR ] Justice League VR SETTING DC ONTO CONSOLE PRICE INJUSTICES. $14.95, PSVR | www.justiceleaguethemovie.com/vr
While most movie VR tie-ins simply create free experiences that’ll encourage people to see the film at the cinema, Justice League VR for PSVR is a $15 standalone game. Interestingly, there is a Google Cardboard version available for free from the App Store and Google Play stores that looks identical, barring a ‘Gillette Edition’ suffix. The VR experience that lets you play as Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and The Flash actually looks pretty good, at least when the shaver company is footing the bill.