Vertigo Games released a behind the scenes video that discusses the destructive environments and weather effects in Arizona Sunshine. In the video, the developer revealed that some features demand more processing power than a basic VR-ready PC can provide.
Arizona Sunshine is an upcoming VR zombie apocalypse game that is coming out later this year for HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. You’ll encounter hordes of countless zombies from all directions that you must fend off with an arsenal of weapons such as pistols, shotguns, and automatic weapons. The game features a variety of desert environments, including an abandoned highway, an underground mine, and an oil refinery.
Vertigo Games could have slapped those three things together--zombies, weapons, and abandoned locales--and called it a day. There is no doubt that a game like that in VR would be entertaining, but Vertigo Games didn’t stop there. The development team went the extra mile to bring the environments to life with destructible elements and advanced weather effects.
The advanced effects in the game are available only if you have an Intel Core i7 CPU. Vertigo Games didn't list specific i7 processors or generations that would work with the game. We suspect the developer is mostly concerned about having extra threads to work with. Vertigo Games said that i7 processors allow the developers to “put more stuff in the game” that lower-end processors can’t handle. When you play Arizona Sunshine on an i7-equipped PC, you can sever the limbs from, and split the skulls of, the zombies that are coming at you.
Explosions are also more effective and impressive on a PC equipped with an i7. For example, when you throw a grenade, it won’t just kill a group of zombies; it will send their dismembered bodies flying, along with nearby objects. The grenade explosions can even break walls apart and leave holes in the ground, which adds to the realism.
If you have an i7 processor, you’ll also enjoy realistic wind simulation, which can manipulate the grass on the ground and the water in the creek. The wind will even affect how far you’re able to throw your grenades; if you throw a grenade against the wind, it won’t go as far as when you throw it with the wind. Likewise, if you throw a grenade across the wind, you’ll have to compensate accordingly.
Vertigo Games hasn’t announced a release date yet for Arizona Sunshine, but the developer said the game is coming this year. Vertigo Games is running a closed beta test for Arizona Sunshine this month. The developer is inviting random members of the game’s newsletter mailing list to join the test.
