With nine exciting games offering support for Oculus Touch, 2016 is looking like an amazing year to be a VR gamer.
Last week’s Oculus Touch conference was once again a huge event, with the main focus being the revolutionary Oculus Touch controller, due for release shortly after the Oculus Rift CV1 headset. For the first time, a set of games with touch support were confirmed, with most releasing alongside the controller in the second quarter of 2016. There’s plenty of variety on offer, with most games offering a level of interactivity never before seen in games. Here’s a quick round-up of those nine games:
1. Job Simulator (Owlchemy Labs)
Job Simulator is a game set in 2050; a world in which robots are widely available and serve the people with their daily household duties, such as cleaning or cooking. So far the development team has revealed three out of the five jobs, including a chef and a seller. With the announcement of Oculus Touch support for the controller, the teaser trailer above was revealed showing the activity of an office worker.
2. Nimbus Nights (Otherworld Interactive)
Nimbus Knights sees the player take on the role of a giant then interact with knights using their hands. It’s possible to manipulate the environment, pick up and move objects or get up-close with the knights to help them achieve glory and conquest. In short, it’s looking like a brilliantly funny RTS.
3. Moon Strike (Big Dorks)
Designed from the ground-up with Oculus Touch controls in mind, Moon Strike is a RTS game set deep in space. Unlike traditional space strategy titles, however, Moon Strike lets you control and interact with ships and squadrons by highlighting and “scooping” them with the Touch controller. It looks a little bizarre in practice (as you’ll see in the video below) but offers a unique and immersive take on the RTS space genre.
4. Surgeon Simulator (Bossa Studios)
Most of you probably know of this title. Originally released in 2013, it went on to sell more than 2 million copies; and now, with Oculus Touch support incoming, a whole new level of interaction will be possible. Wether that’s a good thing for the virtual patient is up to you to decide.
5. Dead & Buried (Oculus Studios Team)
Designed in-house by Oculus studio, this charming shooter game takes place in the Wild West, and it looks brilliant.
6. Final Approach (Phaser Lock Interactive)
Control planes, birds and even UFOs as you manage the skies around an airfield using the Touch Controller. There are two modes to the game: God Mode lets you manipulate every object and even the world itself from above, while Toy Mode lets you shrink down to toy-size while interacting with the world around you.
7. I Expect You to Die (Shell Games)
We love this game. We covered in recently in a hands-on piece, and came away impressed by its sheer inventiveness and interactivity. In short, you’re a spy, and you need to interact with objects and the world to survive various traps that a foe has set for you. A demo of this game is available for download on the site Oculus Share.
8. Pulsar Arena (ZeroTransform)
Created this year for the Mobile Oculus VR Jam, Pulsar Arena is presented as a “rhythm shooter” for two players. Primarily controlled via head-tracking, it will be interesting to see how Oculus Touch support is added.
9. Bullet Train (Epic Games)
A few days ago you could read about this game everywhere, and it’s easy to see why, because it lets you become a secret agent in an action-packed game with amazing visuals. The game has many interesting solutions such as the possibility of slowing time and catching incoming bullets and throwing them toward enemies, as well as teleportation system. Interestingly the game is played from a fixed position (think Time Crisis and you’ll get the idea) to avoid motion sickness. We’d rather see Epic be confident in virtual reality (not all of us get motion sick playing VR) and let the player explore the environment at will, but nevertheless Bullet Train is looking like an amazing shoot-em-up with touch controls.