The UploadVR Showcase returned in 2020 and it offered us a look at a variety of VR titles coming to a variety of VR devices.
Here are all the trailers and announcements from this year’s showcase.
Solaris: Offworld Combat
From the developer of Firewall: Zero Hour (a personal favourite) comes an arena shooter. It kind looks like playing laser-tag, but given the calibre of Firewall, I have a lot of faith in this being highly engaging and fun. It’s coming to Oculus Rift/Quest in August and PSVR later in 2020.
This has a very obvious influence from the Metal Gear Solid series and even features a box you can hide in. It’s VR stealth-action and if you like what you see you can try out the game for yourself now as it’s currently in SteamVR early access.
Onward has been early access since 2016 and has come a long way since those early days. Today’s announcement was that the game — which is currently available on PC — is coming to Oculus Quest soon with more details coming later this month.
A new trailer for Wraith, which was announced earlier in June. The game is set in The World of Darkness, which in case you’re unaware is the same universe as the upcoming Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2. The game is being developer by Fast Travel Games and this is certainly a new and interesting direction for the developer. This new trailer didn’t offer much new today, but they did give quick glimpses of early alpha gameplay. A full gameplay reveal is coming in August.
I feel like I’ve been waiting to play Phantom: Covert Ops for a very long time but it’ finally releasing on June 25th for Oculus Rift/Quest and this latest trailer showed off the voice of David Hayter as the game’s villain.
This one looked like you really need to play it to experience the true magic. It’s a game about exploring space, but also casting spells. You can see in the trailer the casting happening and it seems like you’ll have to do exact twirling hand motions and such to cast them.
The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners – The Meatgrinder Update
Saints and Sinners is getting a free update next month in the form of ‘The Meatgrinder.’ The update will bring an arcade mode where you face off against hordes of zombies and try and rack up high scores. It’s being added to all platforms TWD: Saints & Sinners is currently available for including Oculus and PSVR.
This is coming around the corner on June 26th, but we actually don’t know too much about it. The game is set in a space-station and seems to be a murder-mystery of some sort.
Free update is coming to Spaceteam VR later this year. The update will add mixed reality support, additional languages, new words and phases, control layouts and panel games.
The standout party game from the showcase was Traffic James, a game in which you play a traffic controller and your ‘friends’ can use their mobile devices to send in an assortment of challenges for you deal with. These include speeding buses to meteors. The game is coming to Oculus Quest, PSVR and PC VR this September. There’s a demo currently available on Steam you can try out as well.
In this game, you play a radio DJ who seems to get stuck in an award call with someone claiming you’re helping lead them to their destiny in life… or something? It looks really quirky and I’m super intrigued.
This experience was released in 2018 but today’s trailer for the game was to re-push Where Angels Meet in a time where it’s message could be used. The experience is about exploring what it’s like to grow up as an African American in the U.S. It’s currently available on Oculus Rift.
This was described as being neither a film nor a game but more an experience, although there’s definitely a good amount of interactivity it appears. In Agence, you interact with these little creatures and they’ll respond and build their narrative in response using new AI reinforcement techniques.
An odd announcement-mid a pandemic but Ghost Patrol VR is coming to VR arcades sometime in the future when people would consider than an option. It looks like a lot of fun though and reminded me of Lugii’s Mansion.
An expansion/port of In Death, but this time it’s “unchained” because the game is coming to Oculus Quest. This is a rogue-like when you play through levels set in Heave, Purgatory and Hell with a bow for a weapon.
This looks like Blade Runner. It’s impossible to ignore the very obvious inspiration, but I’m all about it. The trailer showed off exploring a neon-soaked city, fling your car, shooting and stealth. It seems like a lot, but in a good way. It’s coming to SteamVR later this year but it’s already in early access via itch.io.
Also, it mentioned it’s coming to PS5 but not PS4.
This has been out for a couple of years but much like Where Angels Meet, was given a deserved push again. The game lets you experience the US civil rights movement in first-person and it’s available to play for free on Oculus Rift.
Vertigo originally released in 2016. The game is getting an update and fix-up in the form of Vertigo Remastered and will be releasing next month on SteamVR. Owners of the original game won’t have to pay for this upgrade.
Trover is on nearly ALL VR platforms, but it wasn’t on Oculus Quest – until now. You’ll be able to experience Trover Saves the Universe in just a couple of days, on June 18th on your Quest headset.
Developer Cloudhead Games gave a massive roadmap overview for what’s coming up for Pistol Whip. The first big piece of news was that the game is finally coming to PSVR on July 28th. Then in August, the Heartbreaker Trilogy will be added for free on PC and Oculus Quest. These are apparently more relaxing songs to play with more visual flair. Then towards the end of 2020, The Concierge update will add a campaign as well as much more new content including weapons and even mechanics.
Nothing new to see from The Walking Dead Onslaught here but Norman Reedus did send in a charming little video talking about how he’s recording his lines for the game in a booth that’s been built in his garage.
This is 1v1 duelling where you have an assortment of weapons around you and you must keep moving, ducking and dodging your opponent’s onslaught of attacks. First to 0 HP loses. It’s coming later this year.
That’s everything for the UploadVR Showcase for 2020. Another fantastic show put together from UploadVR with a bunch of interesting VR games across all the VR devices.
If you’d like to just watch the full show yourself it’s below, otherwise, let me know what your favourite trailer or piece of news from the event was in the comments section.
[He/Him] Dylan Blight is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of Explosion Network, an independent Australian publication covering video games, film, television and pop culture.
Since founding Explosion Network in 2017, Dylan has written and produced reviews, news, interviews, features and podcasts across the entertainment industry, while overseeing the publication's editorial direction and content.
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