Will 2018 will be a big year for virtual reality gaming? Well, there’s no way to really know. There are signs that are promising – after last year’s price cuts, VR headset manufacturers reported decent sales, with PlayStation VR clearly dominating the market, and Oculus, HTC, and newcomer Microsoft also seeing some movement on the VR front. For this year, analysts expect VR headset sales to exceed 4 million, pushing the technology one step closer to the mainstream and perhaps leading to the emergence of more casual VR games, virtual reality slot machines, and even virtual worlds like LindenLab’s Project Sansar. But right now, let’s set this discussion aside for another time and take a look at some of the upcoming VR games set to be released this year – games with the potential to really be excited about.
Echo Combat (Oculus, 2018)
Ready At Dawn has already put something great on the table with last year’s Lone Echo and Echo Arena – and with Echo Combat, they are taking things one step further. Echo Combat will focus on virtual reality zero-G combat, placing its players into orbit… and that’s about as much as we know about the game. It will be released in 2018, Oculus promises, and this is enough to keep returning to their blog, waiting for the announcement.
Golem (PSVR, 2018)
Highwire Games has been around since 2015, backed by ex-Bungie talents like Martin O’Donnell and Jaime Griesemer. Their first title, Golem, was initially announced to be released on PS4 but since it transitioned to PSVR – and it looks amazing. In it, players will take on the role of an adventurous kid confined to his bed thanks to his injuries but exploring the outside world through the eyes of a golem.
The game already looks amazing – and it will be even better once it’s released.
Sprint Vector (PSVR, Oculus, Steam – available)
We are cheating a bit here because Sprint Vector, Survios’ futuristic racing game, has already been released. The game looks like a unique mix of Mario Kart and Mirror’s Edge. Instead of exploring new ways of storytelling, the game focuses exclusively on the fun of racing through futuristic landscapes from a first-person perspective, filled with weapons, power-ups, and other goodies.
Virtual reality offers exciting new possibilities for game developers to tell their story paired with amazing, immersive visuals – and for gamers to experience brand new modes of play and a higher level of excitement than ever before. Hopefully, the technology will spread further, bringing us more enjoyable experiences – and perhaps friendlier prices in the future.
