Polybius - awesome PCVR game (and it's EDGE Magazine's VR GOTY 2017)

[RuneSR2]

Strange to see a Rift-only game unavailable in the Oculus Store, but available on Steam. (EDIT: The game now also works on other SteamVR supported hmds!) The game launched a few days ago and looks like a mix of Thumper, Rez Infinite and similar games.

https://youtu.be/viWjIBDSF_k

Polybius has gotten several great reviews - on the PS4:

“A mind-blowing, psychedelic experience like none other.”
100 – https://www.vrfocus.com/2017/05/review-polybius/
Conclusion: "Polybius is an excellent shooter that takes inspiration from the 80s arcade scene in the best of ways. It is a finely crafted experience that only benefits from being on the PlayStation VR. It can be an intense experience, however, and one best left to relatively short gameplay sessions lest the visual overload become too much. Owners of PlayStation VR should definitely look to add this to their library, as it is one of the best VR titles on the PlayStation at present. Jeff Minter and Llamasoft have got another winner."

“‘Polybius’ turns one of gaming’s biggest urban legends into a VR classic.”
90 – https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/comic-riffs/wp/2017/07/12/polybius-turns-one-of-gamings-biggest-urban-legends-into-a-vr-classic/?utm_term=.242cbb436347
Conclusion: "The lavish masquerade of escapism often confuses one’s sense of how a game operates. For this reason, “Polybius” makes even more sense in virtual reality, when the compression of the flat screen can stretch into the distance, giving speedgates, enemies and obstacles a dimensional presence that one feels more than sees, something that becomes easier to respond to by instinct. If too many games today entangle the mind with ceaseless complications, proliferating differences with only superficial distinctions in outcome, “Polybius” provides the feeling of having one’s mind washed clean for a few moments, shaken free of clutter. Its biggest reward occurs in the moment when the headset is removed and the screen goes dark, a moment when it feels possible to see everything with what feels like new eyes."

“Polybius is an excellent trance shooter which deftly delivers just enough sensory overload to thrill but not frustrate.”
90 – http://www.pushsquare.com/reviews/ps4/polybius
Conclusion: "Polybius is an excellent trance shooter which deftly delivers just enough sensory overload to thrill but not frustrate. While the lack of clarity about just what’s happening on screen makes for a small but intended bump in the road, it’s the strong core gameplay – which steadily introduces interesting twists to its formula the longer you play – stellar soundtrack, and excellent PlayStation VR support that’ll blow your mind in all the right ways."

Get it here for €15/$18: https://store.steampowered.com/app/906120/POLYBIUS/

EDIT: New price is €5.69 = $7? It's a steal! 😉

[RuneSR2]

I know I should be doing time in Skyrim, but I just couldn't help it - had to test this game :blush:
 
Having tried some crazy shi* when it comes to gaming the last 30 years, nothing comes close to this game - especially due to the VR.

But let's take it slow - what is Polybius? According to the devs:

"POLYBIUS is a fast, trippy tunnel shooter playable on a normal screen or in VR. 50 levels of blissful trance shooting action are set to a blistering soundtrack. The PS4 version was EDGE Magazine's VR GOTY in 2017, and the PC version of the game was even used as the basis for a NIN music video."

Key words here are "fast" and "trippy". Shown in images Polybius simply is like taking a trip in this vehicle:


 
- after you've had a large (over-)dose of this:



Of course I can't be sure - I've never tried anything like that in the real world - and have no plans to ever do so. But I do believe that Polybius is providing users with visions that may be similar to enhancing consciousness by illegal substances... I'd love to see a brain scan from persons playing Polybius  😄

BTW, I'm pretty sure I saw some flying cows in the game - don't be worried - experiences like these images are (or may be considered) normal in Polybius:





So that was "fast" and "trippy" - next is "The PS4 version was EDGE Magazine's VR GOTY in 2017". 

Note that the PS4 version of Polybius is running 120 fps - that means you can easily crank up super sampling to for example 2.0 using Oculus Tray Tools, because Polybius still performs at 90 fps on the Rift. High levels of super sampling provide increased sharpness and depth, and advantages of increased depth are not to be underestimated in Polybius due to the game's blazing speed. Also Polybius only works on the Rift - when starting the game in SteamVR you get a warning that this game runs outside of SteamVR and that you're now leaving SteamVR - that was awesome  ❤️ Thus Polybius on SteamVR may be very similar to playing a game you've bought in the Oculus Store - strange that the devs didn't use Oculus Store to sell their game, but they probably have their reasons. 
There're no visual settings in-game, it's not needed, Polybius is perfect in every way. EDGE Magazine doesn't give away the VR GOTY award 2017 to Polybius if the game had no substance, and Polybius impresses in spades. Again, I bet most - if not all - users have never seen a game like Polybios - or maybe it's just Trailblazer or Cosmic Causeway on Speed? 

https://youtu.be/lpIcHbKsQKM

Nah, Polybius is much more like this...

https://youtu.be/ebmwYqoUp44

Maybe I should contact the devs and suggest Polybius renamed to "Epileptic Seizure Generator"  😄 Maybe Polybius could be used to screen persons for being prone to seizures... 😉 

Personally I probably wouldn't object if someone argued that Polybius is the Rift Game of the Year 2018. - Polybius is pure VR art, it's not at all like Moss, but Polybius is highly original. I like this review from Steam:

"There is really nothing like it. Nothing so fast and yet relaxing. Arguably the best game ever in terms of pure gameplay. And for this low price, you owe it to yourself to buy this. The quality is absolutely 60 dollar."

Fun thing, when starting the game I was mostly thinking about Steam's refund procedure, because the 2D trailer didn't look that good. Again, you simply can't evaluate a game like Polybius using a 2D trailer. Polybius is a VR experience that in no way can be communicated using a 2D video. In other words, at first I was worried about paying something like $18 for some VR garbage, now I think about those $18 like:



The music in Polybius is beyond awesome, easily worth $30 on it's own: let's just pretend you get the game for free while paying for the music 😉

Llamasoft, Jeff and Giles, who made Polybius, can be followed here:

https://twitter.com/llamasoft_ox

It's a fun read, there're many videos of sheep and llamas - and of course I'd never write publicly that Jeff and Giles look like experienced hippies from 1968, but somehow I can't help thinking that these dudes know their stuff on many levels B)






My plan for tomorrow's evening: after dinner with red wine and/or beers, when the blood alcohol content is elevated among our guests, I'll introduce them to a fun VR game called Polybius made by Grand Ninja Masters from the UK >:) I can't think of any better way to spend New Year's Eve 😄

[Shadowmask72]

It's funny (well not funny but rather sad imo) that a number of these nominated GOTY VR games are simple looking indie style VR titles.  Go check out some lists from various publications and report back your findings.

You'll see Beat Sabre topping many lists, alongside Astrobot for PSVR and many others. And I wonder why only Bethesda is pulling its weight converting AAA games to VR. It seems the gaming media and users alike don't want them. Well HELLO developers/publishers those people don't speak for me. I want full blown VR experiences like Hellblade, Resident Evil 7, PCARS 2, ELITE D, Fallout VR and Skyrim.  Bethesda should convert Prey (campaign) and Dishonored 2 to VR but I fear they won't now because VR is all about quick fix titles like Beat Sabre. 

 😞 

[Digikid1]

THAT is GOTY?  This is a joke right?

[Shadowmask72]

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-12-31-eurogamers-game-of-the-year-2018-is-tetris-effect


I'd certainly put games such as Red Dead Redemption 2, Spider-Man, GOD OF WAR, HITMAN 2, FH 4, Fallout 4 VR, Skyrim VR, Hellblade VR, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, SC VI and many more above this game but that is my opinion and they have theirs. Problem is everyone has an opinion and some are worth listening to more than others. However I do feel imo sometimes people can be so full of s*** because they want to prove some kind of point.

Not a quote from the article:

"So let's just discredit  the hard work that goes into big budget games now because they are crap compared to cool indies. I'm edgy you see. No really. I am. My GOTY is Tetris Effect cos it's awesome. All other games are just repeated experiences in different skins of which I am bored of those now. Come up with something different in 2019 developers or else Tetris Effect Redux 2 will get GOTY 2019".

[saami81]

I like Thumper a lot in VR and this Polybius is propably great too or even better, but i want this for my Oculus GO also. Seems like 3dof is enough. Would be nice to play this in hotel room in work trip. 15 euros is maybe bit too much also.

[RuneSR2]

But have you tried Polybius? I'd easily rate it 7/5 😉 - it's pure reference within the genre - and yes, it may be a quick fix, but it's a quick from the White VR Lady  😮

Taking a look at Metacritic, indie games are in - the only current PC game above 90% is RimWorld (indie), and next on the list Dead Cells is indie too:



Rimworld - crowdfunded & kickstarted:
https://youtu.be/3tDrxOASUog

Dead cells - another indie:
https://youtu.be/L2yvraTJowY

I think Polybius is so much better 😉

Then we have the AAA titles like Monster Hunter: World, which doesn't interested me much (but yeah, it would if it was in VR). Monster Slayer 2017 is also indie. Yakuza 0 is from Sega, maybe AAA. Same goes for Call of Duty 4 and Battlefield V - but both of these games have Metascores beneath 85.  

Of course I'd love more AAA (based on the budget) VR titles, currently we do have Skyrim VR, FallOut 4, Elite Dangerous - and I'll consider Doom VFR 50% AAA, because there's no way they could have made Doom VFR so fast and so awesome if they weren't able to reuse models and textures from Doom 4 (Doom 2016 - and that was an AAA game). I've not even begun to scratch the surfaces of Skyrim VR, FallOut 4 and Elite Dangerous - and I still think that Polybius is simply awesome (although it's not a game you play for hours, and you don't have hands - Touch just replicates gamepad controls - but I don't have much time to play VR games, and Polybius is perfect in that perspective). 

My VR game of the year would be Moss. But I'm open for arguments about giving that throne to modded Skyrim VR or Doom VFR 😉 (Doom VFR first got the full locomotion patch January 30 2018.)

[RuneSR2]

Enjoy  B)

https://youtu.be/gDV-dOvqKzQ

[Shadowmask72]

Well sadly in the early days of this current run of VR when the Rift and Vive released many folks dismissed VR software as short, indie tech demos rather than full-on proper games.  It's certainly much better now when looking over the library of games on offer but the amount of casual experiences still outweigh more in-depth offerings by quite a large margin. I am just going over old ground here. It's disappointing that this year especially, there isn't a definitive big-budget VR game that has wowed audiences enough to make it a unanimous favourite. We need more games like this to entice the majority of naysayers into the fold imo and to encourage other developers/publisher to invest in VR projects. I don't see games like Tetris doing that. I do see something like this doing that though - https://uploadvr.com/over-500000-people-have-now-tried-resident-evil-7-in-psvr/

Interestingly, PSVR Reddit people are still talking about RE7 VR after all this time. You see, new game, new VR experience = win. The ported VR games of older 2D experiences not so much but still fun to play.

https://www.reddit.com/r/PSVR/

https://www.reddit.com/r/PSVR/comments/ab2awj/resident_evil_7_is_truly_the_scariest_vr_game/

[RuneSR2]

I'm thinking about getting this one too - another new VR release - looks like nice calm entertainment when taking a break from Polybius 😉

https://youtu.be/4OHX7gCtzoc

https://store.steampowered.com/app/906110/Minotaur_Arcade_Volume_1/

More info:

"Jeff Minter is back on PC with a trio of VR-optional games today, one of which is so cool that Nine Inch Nails made a music video about it. Originally for PlayStation VR, Polybius is – as you’d expect – a trippy thousand-mile-an-hour arcade shooter with hypnotic visuals, although today’s PC release can be played on a regular monitor too. Also out today is Minotaur Arcade Volume 1 – remakes of Llamasoft’s arcade shooter Gridrunner and iOS platformer Goatup, extruded into the third dimension and also playable in VR. You really should watch the NIN video below.

Update: Unfortunately the VR support on PC is for Oculus Rift only – no Vive support at present."

Source: https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/12/21/polybius-and-minotaur-arcade-released/

I don't understand why the author writes "Unfortunately the VR support on PC is for Oculus Rift only" - I consider the Rift support very fortunate indeed! 😄 

Also a review:

"Minotaur Arcade Volume 1 is a great little bundle of two games that deserved better than to be lost to an obsolete mobile phone OS.  While Gridrunner is clearly the star of the show, Goat Up is a fun little oddball that also has the distinction of being Llamasoft’s first platformer.  Both games are arcade-hard, which means they look difficult from the outside but reveal their secrets to players who pay attention, changing from brutal to accessible (but not easy by any means) once their individual quirks are understood.  Learning to rely on the rear-gun in Gridrunner to clear enemies on the lower part of the screen or figuring out how to use the kid-trail to bop oxen on the way up Goat Up‘s tower goes a long way towards earning scores worth posting.  High-end play in Gridrunner in particular feels utterly fantastic, as moves that look like crazy risks turn into just another tool for survival when you’re in the flow of the moment and know that yeah, you got this.  The Minotaur Arcade games may not look like the same high-end product as Polybius or Tempest 4000, but they’re still top-notch games that will embed their voxels deep into your brain."

Source: https://www.hardcoregamer.com/2018/12/21/review-minotaur-arcade-volume-1/320906/