This forklift simulator is basically ‘Shenmue’ VR

Shenmue’s forklift truck sequence was effectively my first job. I was 15 when Sega’s open-world adventure came out, and truly captivated by the game. After two discs of mystery, adventure and capsule toys, I can still remember dropping disc three into my Dreamcast, full of anticipation. Infamously, the third and final disc of Shenmue involves the protagonist, Ryo, getting a job at the docks as a forklift truck driver. After the first day of moving crates around, I expected we’d soon be uncovering information about the gang Ryo was tracking down. Instead… I went back to work the next day. And the next. And the next. Moving crates was just part of life now. The story does unfold along the way, and you’re eventually treated to perhaps the game’s best fight sequence.

Jumping forward some 16 years, and at Gamescom I spotted a strange machine in the corner of one of the business centers. It was Sanlab’s SimPro 3, a hydraulic platform with controls of several real-world construction vehicles including… a forklift. I had to try it. With only my Shenmue experience, and some brief explanations on how the controls work from a Sanlab representative, I donned an HTC Vive and got started.

In my VR view, the wheel, levers and buttons were all mapped perfectly to their real-world counterparts. After a little driving around, I set about performing the requested task. There were three crates on pallets that needed moving from the floor in front of me to the shelves on the other side of the virtual construction yard. I carefully approached the first crate and promptly knocked it over. My forks were too high and had toppled it over.

Take two, and once again I meticulously lined up the forklift with the crate in front of me. Then I accidentally lifted the forks too early and knocked it over again. On the third time of asking, everything went perfectly. It’s not an exaggeration to say that I was truly excited as I gently placed the crate on the shelf. You can laugh, but this was absolutely the most exciting thing I did all week, even if it proved that Shenmue didn’t quite prepare me for the “real” thing.

My excitement was palpable.

Although I treated Sanlab’s machine like a modernized, motorized Dreamcast, it’s really not a toy. It’s used in the real world by training companies to teach people how to control dangerous equipment in a safe environment. From the perspective of a gamer, though, what I’m always looking for is “presence:” Those moments when you lose track of the fact that you’re in a VR headset and feel like you’re actually there. This achieved that perfectly.

Many of its models come with screens rather than VR headsets, but I feel like VR makes a huge difference to the overall experience. Many have effectively argued that driver’s ed should take place in a simulator, and I wholeheartedly agree. Combine a rock-solid simulator with VR, though, and you might save even more lives.

We’re live all week from Cologne, Germany, for Gamescom 2016. Click here to catch up on all the news from the show.

‘#SkiJump’ is an exhausting, but fun VR game

As embarrassing as it is to play, #SkiJump is a lot of fun. It’s a VR game in which you move your body in order to ski down a mountain, and playing it feels like you’re embodying the unnamed protagonist of SkiFree (that one skiing game that everyone had on Windows 95). It was created by VRUnicorns, the loose team of game jammers that released the HTC Vive launch title #SelfieTennis, and seemingly have around 17 projects they’re working on at any given moment.

Like #SelfieTennis before it, #SkiJump is hard work. To succeed, you’ll need to vigorously pump your arms, crouch down, lean from side to side and jump. The controls aren’t perfect, and I lost track of my skis a few times, but polish isn’t really the selling point of VRUnicorns’ games. They inhabit an important space within VR, offering funny, light experiences that you can play in short bursts with friends.

For early VR users, they have the potential to offer experiences akin to Wii Sports and Wii Play: two games that did such a good job selling motion controls. I was exhausted after ten minutes, and as the video above illuminates, I looked like a complete idiot, but I can see myself coming back to this one again and again.

#SkiJump will be out this year. Although it’s being demoed on the HTC Vive, Julie Heyde, one of the developers that’s working not he game, says they’re working on Oculus Rift support also.

We’re live all week from Cologne, Germany, for Gamescom 2016. Click here to catch up on all the news from the show.

‘Outreach’ is a space adventure game set in the Cold War

A renewed interest in spaceflight has sparked a wave of video games looking at the harsh realities of living in space. We’ve had Adrift, a near-future survival epic similar to the film Gravity, and soon Tacoma, a story-driven exploration game set inside a space station in 2088. Now, you can add another title to that list: Outreach, the first game from independent developer Pixel Spill. Whereas Adrift and Tacoma are set in the distant future, Outreach looks to the past, exploring the tail-end of the pivotal “space race” that took place between the US and the Soviet Union.

Presented from a first-person perspective, you play as a lone cosmonaut that’s been sent into space to investigate a military station. Russian officials have lost contact with the people on board, so it’s unclear if the crew is alive or how much of the craft is still intact. If you think that sounds like the opening of Dead Space, a horror-centric game from 2008, you’re absolutely right. But the two games are vastly different, both in their scope and subject matter. In Outreach, you have to quietly float inside and outside the space station, looking for objects and conducting repairs set out by ground control.

Look closer and you’ll see evidence of a mission that doesn’t jive with what the Russian government has been telling you. Audio logs, written documents and personal items will shed light on the different crew members and their experiences on board the ship. Pixel Spill says it’s a political game about propaganda and how technological innovation was presented near the end of the Cold War. You’ll begin to question the orders given by your superiors, and have to decide which account — the official line, or the fragmented one being told by the environment — is correct.

“In that way, we’re hoping to emulate the kind of political and broadcast environment that was present in the 1980s on Earth, during the Cold War,” Pixel Spill’s Christopher Bingham told me at Gamescom. “We’re creating a microcosm of that media frenzy when you weren’t really sure what was true and what wasn’t, and what either side were working on.”

The small, British developer says the game is a little like Gone Home, the critically acclaimed walking simulator by Fullbright. Bingham said there’s also “a bit of L.A. Noire” in its DNA, because you’ll be acting as a detective and asking questions as you spend more time in space. I would also compare it to Bioshock, because the story encourages the player to doubt their mission and the person they’re constantly communicating with.

“At the end of the game you’ll be asked to make a decision that has consequences,” Bingham hinted. “If we’ve done our jobs correctly, that decision is going to be different for different players. It will be emotional and entirely removed from gameplay — it won’t be a decision about winning or losing or unlocking some new mode. It will be a decision that you’ve reached as an individual based on what and how much you’ve discovered while you’ve been on the station, as well as which characters you believe.”

The team has spent countless hours striving for historical authenticity. The story is mostly fictional — it builds on a few conspiracy theories about “lost” missions that were never disclosed by the USSR — but it’s rooted in the technology and politics of the time. Pixel Spill’s artists have looked at the suits and spacecraft designs of the 1980s, and replicated them with just a dash of creative license. Unlike most space games, which feature fantastical technology, Pixel Spill wants everything to feel real and rudimentary. Storage panels creak and transmitters frequently fall offline. You’re always one small break or technical fault away from death.

The time period and its technological shortcomings are exposed during space walks too. If you lose your grip or jump in a peculiar direction, you’ll die instantly — there are no chords or thrusters to save you. Handles will glow when they’re close enough to grab and you’ll need to judge when to push off and drift to another part of the space station. The astronaut will float in a straight line with zero opportunity for course correction. To survive, you’ll need to execute each jump with expert precision.

There’s no oxygen supply to worry about, however, and no hands to show what you’re holding onto. Both omissions, while disappointing, are realities of the game’s budget and the size of Pixel Spill’s team. With only 10 employees — a bunch of which are part-timers — it’s decided to focus on the atmosphere and story instead. Bingham said: “A technique like that, it looks great but it doesn’t necessarily add anything to the gameplay, and we have to weigh up as a small team whether it’s going to be feasible.”

If Outreach was set in modern times, it would feel pretty uninspired. Pixel Spill has been smart to choose an era largely unexplored in video games, and focus on a nation that is often ignored or conveyed as the villain in pop culture. The Soviet Union played an integral part in the space race — it put the first human in space and conducted the first space walk, after all. These achievements were conducted above a fragile and ever-changing political landscape, one filled with dangerous and distrusting nations. Presenting that tension through the eyes of an astronaut could, if done correctly, provide a fascinating story and perspective for the player. I can’t wait.

We’re live all week from Cologne, Germany for Gamescom 2016. Click here to catch up on all the news from the show.

Source: Outreach

‘Resident Evil 7’ took just 15 minutes to creep me out

Resident Evil 6 was a bad video game, and Capcom knows it. To save its zombie franchise, the publisher has taken a radically different approach for Resident Evil 7, throwing out the loud explosions and over the top combat for smaller, more atmospheric scares. First shown at E3, the game is unusual because it takes place from a first-person perspective — most of the core Resident Evil games are third-person — and is compatible with PlayStation VR. The tone is radically different too, with a new set of characters to discover and a rundown plantation as its setting.

At Gamescom, I was able to play a short demo taken from the game. (To clarify, this wasn’t the “Beginning Hour” demo available at E3.) It took place in an old, dilapidated house with smashed windows and broken floorboards. A frightening woman chased me inside the building, and there was little to do but desperately search for an escape route. I would throw myself through doors and frantically look in each room, hunting for something — anything — that could serve as a weapon. Before long my pursuer would draw near however, spewing threats in a ghoulish voice.

Just when I thought I had found a hiding place — a makeshift tunnel underneath the house — the woman caught me, ending the chase on a fittingly gruesome note. Capcom told me that this new “Lantern” demo will be an optional sequence inside the main campaign, which you’ll trigger by watching an old VHS tape. It’s one of many playable flashbacks that will be relevant to what’s happening with the main characters in the “present day” timeline. Was it scary? Heck yes. It’s still too early to make a judgement call on Resident Evil 7, but I like the direction Capcom is heading in.

We’re live all week from Cologne, Germany for Gamescom 2016. Click here to catch up on all the news from the show.