This month will see the inaugural launch of an exciting new Oculus event, a special gaming showcase to take place on Wednesday, April 21st. The event will be live-streamed on Youtube, Twitch, and of course, Facebook starting at 3 pm Pacific Time.
Full details of the event are being kept under wraps, but from the snippets of information, Oculus is revealing it’s definitely going to be an event to tune into.
They promise exciting new updates to popular existing titles, news, and hopefully some footage of games currently in development, and a few surprises along the way.
Confirmed developers taking part in the event include Cloudhead Games, ILMxLAB, and Ready at Dawn.
In case those names aren’t familiar to you, their games certainly will be, Pistol Whip, Star Wars: Tales From The Galaxy’s Edge, and Lone Echo.
Pistol Whip developers Cloudhead Games recently gave us an excellent Terminator-style story-driven mini-campaign 2089, which I had a blast with when reviewing upon release just before Christmas so I’m excited about anything new that they bring. Back then they teased us regarding their planned free ‘Concierge’ mega customization update, so it’s likely we’ll have a reveal at the event, hopefully, paired with an imminent release date.
Star Wars Galaxy Tales was released as the first in an episodic adventure series and their presence at the show indicates we’ll shortly be finding out about Episode 2. I enjoyed the first game, but it was a little short. Here’s hoping Episode 2 will be a bit longer and feature more lightsaber, and maybe Jedi Force action.
Lone Echo II, Quest or PC?
Finally, Ready at Dawn will speak on the progress of Lone Echo II, surely the most eagerly awaited VR game today. With Oculus discontinuing the Rift line to focus on the standalone Quest platform there’s concern that the PCVR only Lone Echo might follow Crytek’s The Climb in seeing its sequel become a mobile Quest exclusive.
The initial announcement trailer for Lone Echo II was released way back in September 2018, several months before the launch of the original Oculus Quest, and the landscape for VR has changed a lot in that time. Does the delay indicate a rewrite of the game’s code to work on the standalone Quest, or will this title still be made to take advantage of the capabilities of high-end PCVR?
It seems like we are shortly about to find out…
It’s clear the Quest platform is going from strength to strength, it’s already outsold all other Oculus headsets combined, and its hands down the best headset for fitness, with its absence of wires and tethers, and the ability to wirelessly connect it up to a range of cardio machines.
However, many Quest 2 owners are clearly also using the headset to access high-end PCVR content, it’s now the number one most used headset on Steam, and a Lone Echo 2 PCVR launch would be the perfect showcase for the Quest 2’s PCVR capabilities.
Fellow PCVR gamers, let’s cross all our fingers and toes and hope we do still get a PCVR version. After more than three years of development, and with the stellar reputation of the original, still one of the very best VR games ever made, I think all Rift owners are hoping for one last PCVR hurrah from Oculus, whose attention in the past couple of years have been solely on the standalone market.
There’s no doubt this game has the potential to be the VR high watermark for 2021 so I will be watching with bated breath.
Here’s the original PCVR trailer from back in the day. I hope it continues to look this good in 2021…
Plus more game announcements and updates to be revealed
The above information is what we have so far, but Oculus has promised us there’s a lot more to be revealed during the event itself.
Whilst Oculus is keeping tight-lipped about other games at the show they are promising more expansions for other popular existing titles, some new game announcements, and some surprises.
This event should give us all lots to look forward to as we leave the winter months behind. It’s looking like spring/summer 2021 will be great for VR gaming.
Event Details
What is it? Oculus Gaming Showcase
When is it? Wednesday, April 21st at 3 pm PT.
What time is that in my country? 15:00 Pacific Time (PT) 18:00 Eastern Time (ET) 23:00 UK time (GMT+1) 00:00 Central European Time (CET)
How can I watch it? The event will be live-streamed on Youtube, Twitch, and Facebook.
