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The HTC Vive VR Launch Titles

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Hot Dogs, Horseshoes And Hand Grenades

What a title. As it suggests, you'll be able to play with all three items, as well as grow an arsenal of weapons. At the moment, most of the content seems to center around you testing various weapons on the firing range. However, you'll soon be able to virtually grill hot dogs and play other mini-games such as lawn darts and horseshoes.

During its Early Access period, the developers will continue to add more content to experience, so you'll have more than enough toys to play with at the range. The final version of Hot Dogs, Horseshoes And Hand Grenades is expected to arrive this summer.

Orientation support: Room-scaleRoom-scale requirements: 2 x 1.5mController support: Vive motion controllersGameplay viewpoint: First-personGame modes: Single-player

Hover Junkers

Living in a dystopian future is tough, and as a scavenger, your job is to collect scraps all over the planet while defending yourself against potential enemies. Your flying ship serves as your getaway vehicle as well as suitable cover against gunfire. You can crouch behind its scrap-made shell while you reload your gun or wait out a heavy barrage of gunfire before coming out to kill your enemies.

Hover Junkers will also be one of the few games that allows for cooperative gameplay with another Vive HMD, so you and a friend can play online together.

Orientation support: Standing and room-scaleRoom-scale requirements: Not specifiedController support: Vive motion controllersGameplay viewpoint: First-personGame modes: Single-player, co-op multiplayer

Irrational Exuberance: Prologue

If you want a calmer VR experience, then you might want to try Irrational Exuberance: Prologue. You will fly (so to speak) in outer space, explore familiar planets and even see some interesting phenomena. Developer Buffalo Vision's goal is to completely detach you from the real world so that you can get lost in its virtual galaxy.

Orientation support: Room-scaleRoom-scale requirements: 2 x 2mController support: Vive motion controllersGameplay viewpoint: First-personGame modes: Single-player

Job Simulator

Job Simulator stands out as a unique game for virtual reality due to its humor and interactive environment. Your "jobs" range from a cook at a restaurant to a cashier at a convenience store, and you have to follow the orders of various robots. I, for one, am glad and willing to work with our new robot overlords.

Earlier this year at CES, we also had the chance to talk to Owlchemy Labs, the development team behind the popular game. Job Simulator is one of the few titles that is coming to all three major VR HMDs (Vive, Rift and PSVR).

Orientation support: Room-scaleRoom-scale requirements: 2 x 1.5mController support: Vive motion controllersGameplay viewpoint: First-personGame modes: Single-player

La Peri

All the world's a stage, and in VR, you can actually go on the theater stage and take part in a story-based ballet. In La Peri you play the role of Iskender, a prince looking for the so-called "Flower of Immortality." However, it's guarded by a spirit called La Peri, which can transform into different beings. Its final form is a female dancer.

The game will be in Early Access for two months. During that time, the developers will add more interactions, animations and an improved tutorial system. They will also continue to improve the overall visual quality to complement the game's narrative elements.

Orientation support: Standing and room-scaleRoom-scale requirements: Not specifiedController support: Vive motion controllersGameplay viewpoint: First-personGame modes: Single-player

Light Repair Team #4

Similar to Carpe Lucem: Seize the Light, Light Repair Team #4 also features the use of light beams to solve various puzzles. As a "light-pipe repair" team member, your job is to restore power to the city of New Corona by reflecting differently-colored beams of light to their correct nodes. You'll have an assortment of mirrors, prisms and lenses to manipulate each beam's path.

Orientation support: Room-scaleRoom-scale requirements: 2 x 2mController support: Vive motion controllersGameplay viewpoint: First-personGame modes: Single-player

Marble Mountain

Instead of moving around in first-person view, you'll be controlling a small marble that's taking the dangerous journey to Marble Mountain in search of valuable treasure. Along the way, your marble will roll through forests, wastelands, graveyards and pits of lava. You'll also need to solve various environmental puzzles and avoid deadly traps on your way to the mountain.

Orientation support: SeatedRoom-scale requirements: Not applicableController support: Gamepad, keyboard and mouseGameplay viewpoint: Third-personGame modes: Single-player

Modbox

With the many tools available to you in Modbox, you can create almost anything that you want in your virtual playroom. The game's trailer had a small basketball hoop, a mini-golf course, a shooting range, a boxing training area and a small Rube Goldberg machine, just to name a few.

For now, you can enter the world by yourself, but the final version (which launches sometime in late 2016) will include multiplayer support so you can collaborate on designs and play games with your friends in VR.

Orientation support: Standing and room-scaleRoom-scale requirements: Not specifiedController support: Vive motion controllersGameplay viewpoint: First-personGame modes: Single-player, multiplayer

Pierhead Arcade

Mechabit Ltd.'s Pierhead Arcade puts a variety of arcade games in your virtual space. These range from the ever-popular skee ball to the more mundane claw game (good luck trying to get a virtual stuffed animal).

The team plans to have the full game out of Early Access by the end of April. Half of the planned arcade games are playable, and the developers will also add LAN-based multiplayer so you can compete with your friends.

Orientation support: Standing and room-scaleRoom-scale requirements: Not specifiedController support: Vive motion controllersGameplay viewpoint: First-personGame modes: Single-player, multiplayer

Proton Pulse

Proton Pulse is intense in that each level is full of flashing lights in addition to a wide range of colors on the walls. It's a VR twist on the old brick-breaking game. You use your hands to deflect the ball into the area in front of you in order to destroy the bricks. The game features over 50 levels and even a few boss battles.

Orientation support: Seated, standing and room-scaleRoom-scale requirements: Not specifiedController support: Vive motion controllersGameplay viewpoint: First-personGame modes: Single-player

11 Comments Comment from the forums
  • jimmysmitty 04 April 2016 21:09
    I will say what everyone is thinking. The Lab is just the start of Aperture Science Perpetual Testing Initiative. VALVe is just their way into gamers who would excel better at problem solving. J.K Simmons is really Cave Johnson and he has been acting so we get used to his melodic voice so that when we wake up to it after being kidnapped while playing The Lab we are more at ease and trusting. I mean who wouldn't trust Cave Johnson with that voice?

    Next thing we know ships will disappear, robots will go crazy and kill everyone and the Combine will take over our planet in a mere 7 days. Half Life and Portal are not games, they are history being told to try and help us prevent the end of the world.....
    Reply
  • clonazepam 04 April 2016 23:07
    I would absolutely love to see years worth of data from the entire gaming community broken down while at the same time advocating privacy. It's a strange world.

    77% of the observed population solves it this way. 20% do this. There's a few crazy ******** that do THIS on their first encounter. It's a treasure trove of interesting facts.

    Revolutionizing driver's education, peace officer training... hell just educating the general public about the million different things that can happen during a traffic stop, how quickly it all happens, and how previous experiences can effect you, could go a long way. I see a lot of potential for sensitivity training in a lot of areas.

    So you want to be a beat cop in L.A.? Maybe monitor a section of Highway 101 near a quiet town in wine country? Maybe you want to delve into inter-office politics in the accounts receivable department of the most recognized manufacturer of long haulers in America? What's it like to be on the maintenance crew at the busiest airport in the free world?

    Sorry, getting a little excited about VR and the potential of less talked about possibilities. ;)
    Reply
  • Histoire 05 April 2016 00:05
    HTC vive hardware seems superior to the oculus, but all of their games are mini-games. There's nothing close to triple A game here. It might be fun for the first week, but better games are required for long term use.

    Chronos, EVE Valkyrie are closer to the kind of game i am looking for...

    A better tracking system and the possibility to move the lenses forward/backward seems to be major hardware feature compared to the oculus.

    I want to buy either oculus or HTC vive. The decision is hard. i don't want to be stuck with crappy game or the VR with the lesser hardware.
    Reply
  • beetlejuicegr 05 April 2016 01:16
    But shouldnt it be the other way? Making games to support both or more of the vr hardware emerging? I think this is going the wrong way.

    Reply
  • hixbot 05 April 2016 01:48
    Why can't their be cohesive VR standards so devs can create for both platforms? I like competition in the hardware but their shoudn't be fragmentation in the software.
    Reply
  • ninjustin 05 April 2016 12:26
    I'm not going to be happy until there is a good way to play older fps with these headsets. I know Oculus has VorpX but I'd like to see an official implementation.
    Reply
  • Sakkura 05 April 2016 14:25
    17767670 said:
    But shouldnt it be the other way? Making games to support both or more of the vr hardware emerging? I think this is going the wrong way.
    There are plenty of games on the way with support for both games. There are also some games that are launching for the Vive first, and then porting to the Rift once its motion tracked controllers arrive.

    17767799 said:
    Why can't their be cohesive VR standards so devs can create for both platforms? I like competition in the hardware but their shoudn't be fragmentation in the software.
    There are standards, just different takes on what the standards should include. It's like monitors having both HDMI, Displayport and DVI. Oculus' SDK includes asynchronous timewarp, for example, because they think that's a good way to deal with performance dips. Valve's more interested in scaling the visual quality of the game up and down.

    17769380 said:
    I'm not going to be happy until there is a good way to play older fps with these headsets. I know Oculus has VorpX but I'd like to see an official implementation.
    Older FPS games are a poor fit for VR. Motion sickness is an issue, and these kinds of games just don't take full advantage of VR.
    Reply
  • clonazepam 05 April 2016 16:07
    Why can't their be cohesive VR standards so devs can create for both platforms? I like competition in the hardware but their shoudn't be fragmentation in the software.

    One issue with standards is too much compromising. Nobody exactly knows yet what the best way is for interacting within VR. They are worried about aiming too low (like controllers) and someone else comes up with something vastly better. There's a good video of someone interviewing Palmer Luckey where he talks about that. "Standards" basically gives you a xbox one controller to use for VR (initially). That's the general idea.
    Reply
  • hardarse7 05 April 2016 17:53
    Im still trying to understand the concept of a 3rd-person VR game. #platformfail
    Reply
  • Zapin 08 April 2016 16:59
    Im still trying to understand the concept of a 3rd-person VR game. #platformfail

    Understanding the concept is easy... understanding the point of doing a 3rd person VR game... not so easy.
    Reply