VR Fitness InsiderVR Fitness Insider is focused on the ways that VR and AR can be used to improve overall health, fitness, body composition, strength, endurance, motor skills, mental health, aesthetics, sport-specific skills, agility, injuries, fitness motivation, and general health knowledge.
FitXR receives a major update this week, with a host of tracks from both established and emerging artists being launched onto the platform. The introduction of commercially popular, recognizable songs to work out to was a major selling point touted by FitXR, with the resulting licensing costs used as a justification to turn FitXR into a subscription-only service rather than a one-time purchased base game with optional paid DLC.
The company signed a deal with Warner Music but up to now, that hadn’t really translated into all that much. CEO and co-founder Sam Cole’s promises that, just like a real-world group fitness club, FitXR would introduce its members to great workouts featuring both emerging and established artists were still to fully materialize.
Well, this licensing deal, as well as new ones with some other record labels are bearing fruit in July as we have a host of new tracks on the way. From today FitXR members will enjoy new Box, HIIT, and Dance workouts featuring tunes from labels such as Warner Music, Sony Music, Musical Freedom, Spinnin’ Records and Defected. Around 40 tracks have already been identified by FitXR, which I shall list below in a moment, and FitXR will hope its existing members feel that this gives them value for their $9.99 monthly subscription.
Their previous DLC model saw optional packs with four workouts and maybe an hour of music for a $9.99 or £7.99 fee. These were generally well-received and regarded by the community, so on the surface, this update, featuring recognizable artists and enough tracks to fill several albums should make members excited.
When the subscription model launched in mid-April, all current owners of FitXR were gifted a free 90-day subscription, so this large update, coming almost exactly three months later, is certainly timely, and FitXR will be hoping that those whose trial is about to expire will see enough value here to stay and become paying members.
The FitXR developers gave a press release statement which I’ve presented in full below;
FitXR Brings Heart-Pounding Tracks to Power its Classes
Leading VR Fitness Company Teams with Major & Indie International Music Labels
LONDON & NEW YORK – July 12, 2021 — FitXR, the leading VR/AR fitness company, is delivering on its promise of bringing new and exciting music for its members to enjoy while working out in its virtual fitness club. To bring this musical experience to life, FitXR is working with major and indie labels to provide a constant stream of new tracks for its members to discover. To start, these labels and artists include:
Sony Music:
Calvin Harris – Feel So Close
Musical Freedom:
Tiësto – Wow
Tiësto – My Whistle
Tiësto & 7 Skies featuring Rebmoe – My Frequency
Tiësto & Swacq – Party Time
Warner Music:
Anti-Up – Sensational
Krystal Clear – Neutron Dance
Sonny Fodera & Ella Eyre – Wired
Cloonee – Sun Goes Down
Magician featuring Years&Years – Sunlight
Obskur – Bayside
For A FoolO – Storm Queen (Clapstone Remix)
Franky Rozardo & Joe Goddard – No Judgment
Ba:sen – In Deep We Trust
Eyes in Fire – Blue Foundation (Michael Bibi Remix)
Duo – Sam Gellaitry
Spinnin’ Records:
Tujamo & Sidney Samson – Riverside (Reloaded)
Bingo Players – Rattle
Will Sparks & Danny Avila – Fat Beat
Defected:
Ashbah – Devotion
Saison featuring Leon Lincoln – The Last Time (Qubiko Remix)
Qubiko – U R, Set Me Free
John Summit – Deep End
ATFC – Dazzle
Audiojack – Stay Glued (FCL Weemix Edit)
Gerd – Work Da Tool
Logan – How We Did (Friend Within Vocal Remix)
Human Movement – Help A Brother Out
Martin Badder – See It Through My Eyes
Eli Brown – Better When
Royal-T – Clouds
Sonny Fodera featuring Amber Jolene – Hold It Down
Gershon Jackson – Hands Together
Kings Of Tomorrow featuring April – Let Me Tell You Something (Sandy Rivera & C. Castell’s Remix)
Angelo Ferreri – I’m Talking To You
DJ Dove – Illusions (NY Stomp Tribute Mix)
Emanuel Satie – Your Body
Human Life – In It Together
Kiddy Smile – Teardrops In The Box
Circus Records
Flux Pavilion – I Got Something
Armada Records
Hospital Records
FitXR also recognizes that not all good music comes from those already signed to major and indie labels and intends to develop FitXR as a platform to give emerging artists the opportunity to showcase their music to a larger audience. The company plans to source new music for its workout classes from unsigned artists via an online submission process on the FitXR website.
“We’re so pleased to join forces with these music labels as we embark on our journey to curate new and exciting class tracks for workouts in our Box, HIIT, and Dance Studios,” said Sam Cole, Co-Founder, and CEO of FitXR. “Like so many other facets of our virtual fitness club, we’ve taken a cue from the group fitness class environment where you’re often introduced to new music you find interesting. As we know how important music is to keep us energized when exercising, we hope our members are inspired by the new songs featured from both these new and established artists.”
Opinion
I have to say I’m pretty excited about this announcement, and it feels that after a rather shaky launch, FitXR is starting to find its feet. Since April this is the third significant update from the FitXR team, following their introduction of a full 7 player group simultaneous multiplayer mode, and the launch of the genuinely excellent, and heart-pounding HIIT studio.
Quality music is essential for any group fitness club, both in the real world and virtual as it’s a primary motivational driver, inspiring us to push harder, for longer when good, and maybe causing us to give up if poor. I’m particularly excited for the deal with Musical Freedom that brings some Tiesto hits to the platform. Arguably the world’s greatest DJ, and a master of the electronic dance and deep house genres, his tunes are a perfect match for FitXR. Make sure you’ve got some nice bass-heavy headphones for these.
Unlike with the launch of multiplayer and HIIT I didn’t get any early access to these workouts yet so I’ll definitely be logging in today to check them out and will add some footage up on our Youtube account, and of course to this article too.
FitXR membership with a free 7-day trial is available on the Oculus Quest for $9.99 a month.
VR fitness gaming is one of the most attractive ways to quickly burn some fat and gain a little muscle. But what if I told you that it’s possible to get a complete workout that covers each major muscle group—including your legs and forearms—by mixing different games and fitness tools (such as wearable weights) into your rotation?
I have some good news and some bad news. Let’s get the bad news out of the way first: a VR headset you take home, like an Oculus Quest or a Valve Index, will never give you the same range of options or equipment that you’d get when training in a gym.
We don’t expect you to quit your gym membership or quit other forms of exercise in lieu of a home VR workout, as there will always be massive fitness benefits to (for example) mixing contact sports or deadlifting heavy weights into your rotation in addition to fitness boxing and squatting with a VR headset on your face.
This means that you can give yourself a decent bit of fitness conditioning and see gains inside of VR, just as long as you select the right combination of intense games that attack each muscle group, switch things up and add weights as needed, and stick to a good routine of working out at the same times each week. Don’t believe me? Take a look at our collection of case studies. Bonus points for staying on a good meal plan and supplementing your nutrition as needed!
Choose the Best VR Workout by Muscle Group
Before coming up with an effective VR workout, it’s a good idea to step back and look at what other fitness lifestylers and bodybuilders are trying to accomplish in the gym. In order to build the perfect workout, you need to optimize your rotation around each of the six major muscle groups (Chest, Back, Shoulders, Arms, Legs, and Calves) plus the Core, which can get indirect exercise when you target the other muscle groups—or it can be targeted on its own—and tends to help you maintain a higher level of stability and endurance overall.
With the addition of a weighted vest, arm weights, and ankle weights, you can feasibly tag several muscle groups inside of just one VR game, especially when that aforementioned game forces each of your muscles to work together in unison over a long period of time. For example, intense shadowboxing sessions in The Thrill of the Fight can target your Chest, Back, Shoulders, Arms, Legs, and Core if you really exert yourself.
When you wear weights, you get the added benefit of resistance on top of the aerobic workout. If you don’t want to do that, and you’re not already engaged in other fitness activities, it’s a good idea to throw in some supplementary workouts outside of VR that cover the muscles you ignore in your VR workout. Here’s a great source of muscle group information from Legion Athletics that can help you do exactly that.
Disclaimer: Weighted gear can cause (or exacerbate) health problems—in any form of exercise—if you don’t know what you’re doing. If you have health issues that involve your joints, heart, or respiration, then you should talk to a doctor before attempting to add weighted gear to your workouts. Pay attention to and respect the correct precautions, as explained in this article, to exercise safe and play safe. All advice given in this article is that of an individual’s opinion, and not that of a licensed medical practitioner.
That said, you can at least see gains in the Chest, Arms, Core, and Legs departments when relying on nothing but your VR workout and no additional gear. Here are my suggestions.
Chest
Working out your Chest, Shoulders, and Back in VR is as simple as choosing the right shadowboxing and fitness boxing games. These types of VR workouts will give you fitness benefits in other muscle groups as well, but especially in your Chest and other upper-body muscle groups.
The Thrill of the Fight
The Thrill of the Fight is still the single most intense and hardcore shadowboxing simulation game in virtual reality. Opponents are incredibly tough to defeat, potentially taking thousands of punches from you while you duck and dodge incoming blows.
Each of several opponents has vastly different fighting styles, each of which forces you to become acquainted with entirely different sparring tactics to keep you on your feet. If that’s not enough intensity, there are several different difficulty modes to choose from. Alternatively, you can get surgical with a suite of customization options that let you create a truly impossible-to-defeat opponent if you wish.
The Thrill of the Fight is the only VR workout game to make me spit up blood (true story!) after a particularly intense session. For comparison, I used to take fitness conditioning courses in college that had me running several miles uphill each day.
FitXR
Second to The Thrill of the Fight in terms of potential fitness boxing intensity, FitXR allows you to get a much more structured upper body workout that also includes squatting and lunging which help your Legs and Core muscles as well.
FitXR is a rhythm boxing game, but it doesn’t really play around with the “rhythm” part, focusing much more on just the boxing. It is far more deadpan than its counterparts (Audioshield and Soundboxing come to mind), with a stronger focus on delivering the workout first and the fun second.
Don’t get me wrong, however: each workout is balanced around different themes and intensity levels, and the soundtrack is absolutely killer, including performances from artists like The Seige and Valley of Wolves.
Arms
When working out your Arms in VR, it’s important to play games that require you to use surgical, repetitive motions that target the muscles in your Deltoids, Biceps, and Forearms. For Arm workouts in VR, you’ll also get a benefit out of wrist weights and a weighted vest that provides resistance to those aforementioned repetitive motions.
While the Chest exercises listed above can also work out your Arms, there are some games on my list that potentially do this even better.
Holopoint
Holopoint is the kind of intense archery game that surprises you at first. You’re just shooting targets with arrows, how difficult can it be? The answer is: very difficult, actually.
Not only do you need to reach behind your back and physically drag an arrow out of your quiver between shots, but enemies and targets also spawn all around you in all 360 degrees—often faster than you can shoot at them. Making matters worse, hitting an opponent or a target often reflects your shot back at you, forcing you to duck or roll away from the incoming projectile while readying your next shot.
From personal experience, my Arms were the most tired part of my body after a 30+ minute session in Holopoint, though it’s worth noting that VR Fitness Insider reviewer Kevin Brook believes that his Legs and Core got a better workout, but that his Arms definitely got a significant amount of use as well. Either way, Holopoint will target at least your Arms and then some.
Beat Saber
Everybody and their mother knows Beat Saber, but do they know that Beat Saber is a great Arm workout? It’s actually one of the best ways to work out your entire body in VR, but it especially does wonders for your Arms as you approach tougher songs and challenges.
While many casual players rely on their Shoulders to control the movement of their laser swords (I.E. the titular ‘Beat Sabers’) at lower difficulties, as you approach Expert and Expert+ modes, the trick is to actually rely on your wrists and Forearms to make rapid, precise slices.
Once again, each of the above games can provide a Core workout if you exert yourself hard enough. But if you’re looking to really stretch out and rely on that Core muscle group to do most of the heavy lifting, the following VR workout games do a splendid job of putting this muscle group to the test, forcing you to focus in on your center of gravity and keep your balance while you play.
Superhot VR
Superhot VR is another tried-and-true classic VR workout game. We love to play it for fun first and foremost; it’s still one of the best “first” games to show off in a wireless headset such as the Oculus Quest or HP Reverb, and it’s secretly just slow-motion yoga with weapons.
As you move in Superhot, time moves with you. However, as you slow down, time also slows down, allowing you to stop and hold positions while you choose your next move. In doing so, you accidentally stretch out your Core and exert your balance while dodging bullets, striking orange baddies, and tip-toeing your way through Superhot’s virtual world.
OhShape
Much like in Superhot VR, OhShape forces you to hold specific positions in order to circumnavigate a virtual environment. However, this is a much different approach, as OhShape is a rhythm game and instead of pretending to be Neo from The Matrix, you’re trying to pantomime certain shapes before time runs out.
If you really enjoy dance games like Dance Central or Synth Riders (both listed below), you’re certain to enjoy OhShape, which also taps into the same type of gameplay.
Dance Central
If you’re already a longtime fan of Dance Central for the Kinect, then Dance Central VR is absolutely as much fun as it sounds like. Plopping you directly into a packed dance club, you’ll find yourself dancing with different instructors as you explore the venue.
Each song from Dance Central’s great soundtrack teaches you entirely different dance routines that you have to mimic in order to get the top score. Of course, dancing is great for your Core and the routines you’re taught in Dance Central VR are no different. This can be a fantastic albeit less intense way to balance out your Core progress in a broader workout routine.
Dance Central VR even comes with its own built-in fitness app.
Audio Trip + Synth Riders
Both Audio Trip and Synth Riders bank on the same idea: move your body freely to the beat of the rhythm, just as long as you keep your hands and head in the right place at all times.
Both games take a slightly different approach, but both ultimately force you to use your entire body, resulting in a complete aerobic workout. While the intensity varies from song to song, both games force you to keep your balance at all times, thereby giving your Core muscles at least a decent workout.
Legs
Last but not least, you’ll need to keep your Legs and Calves in good order. Otherwise, you lose your balance, both literally—in the sense that being so top-heavy makes you easy to push over—and figuratively, in the sense that you’re not as able to work out the rest of your body without strong Legs and Calves to back up your Core and upper body.
Luckily, yes, you can even give your Legs and Calves a decent workout from home inside of a VR headset. And, of course, ankle weights can help you add resistance here—especially where your Glutes, Hamstrings, and Calves are concerned.
VirZoom – VZFit
If you own a fitness bike at home, you may as well check out VirZoom’s VZFit app. As long as you own just about any Bluetooth sensor that attaches to your bike and connects to your headset, you can play entire games and explore virtual worlds from the official VZFit app while you cycle. Of course, cycling is a great workout for your Legs, so it gets a recommendation from us!
Natural Locomotion
If you love to play open-world PC VR games such as Skyrim VR, or even just online multiplayer games like Pavlov and Rec Room, then you may want to check out Natural Locomotion. NaLo allows you to move around in many different VR games by pumping your arms, but it also detects motion when you run or walk in place.
Running and walking in place can be a great workout for your Legs, and it can also make playing a large-scale VR game much more manageable if you deal with motion sickness caused by artificial movement. Besides, there’s nothing quite like going for a jog in Tamriel.
Hot Squat 2
Hot Squat 2 is exactly what it sounds like: Squats. Lots and lots of squats. Squats on squats, in fact.
Luckily, Hot Squat 2 is a ton of fun to play! Each successive squat brings you closer to a high score as fireworks explode above you and fill up the horizon with lights and color. It may be just a little hard on your Legs, but who’s paying attention to that when there’s fun to be had?
Pistol Whip
But seriously though, you won’t find a more fun Leg day game than Pistol Whip. As a matter of fact, if you’ve ever wanted to be John Wick in the Tron universe, that’s precisely the type of wish-fulfillment that’s delivered here.
Pistol Whip is a rhythm game that’s very unlike other rhythm games. As you run through levels and shoot baddies to the beat of the music, you also need to dodge incoming bullets and even the geometry of the level itself. Much like in Superhot VR, you need to be careful and precise about which targets you shoot first, but you also need to position your body so as to stay out of harm’s way as things come at you in real-time—a bit like in OhShape, actually!
Fortunately (and unfortunately) for you, that means doing squats, lunges, and even the occasional barrel roll, action-hero style. It should come as no surprise that Pistol Whip is a staple of many a VR workout routine in 2020.
That was our guide on how to make sure your VR workout covers each important muscle group!
If there’s something you think we should have added in, please let us know in the comments section below. Stay tuned with VR Fitness Insider for more of the latest VR fitness content!
Novice Echo Arena players are invited to participate in the Rookie Cup 2021, a competitive VR esports event organized and managed by Echo community leaders who encourage positive engagement between players of all levels. Registration is open now for the July 24-25 event.
Organized through the Echo Games Discord server, community cups have become a sort of tradition when players can get to know others and experience a fun tournament without a long-term commitment. Rookie events such as this one are also nice because newer players don’t have to go through the process of seeking teammates, trying out for teams, etc.
“The Rookie Cup will be an amazing opportunity for both new players, and semi-experienced players who have never played competitively to experience the thrill and enjoyment of competitive play,” states Lazerpent, who is leading this summer’s rookie event.
Competitors
In past rookie cups, requirements have been based largely on how long someone has been playing the game. Qualified rookies for the November 2020 Quest 2 Rookie Cup, for example, were defined as players who had begun playing Echo Arena after September 1.
For the upcoming Rookie Cup 2021, players can qualify if they’ve never participated in a competitive event (defined as tournament or league participation lasting 3 or more days) and have less than 500 total games played. The goal was to be a bit more inclusive with this event regarding the definition of “rookie” so someone who has been playing the game since last summer, for example, but who has only accumulated 400 or so games can still participate in this event as long as they haven’t also participated in a league.
The stipulation related to league participation is important because the true number of games played isn’t reflected in the tablet stats, which show public matches. This means a league player could potentially have over 1,000 games and have quite a bit of competitive experience even though it’s not reflected in “total games played.” Those players don’t qualify as rookies.
Coaches
After they register, rookie players will be placed on mostly randomized teams of four and they’ll be assigned a coach to work with them the week of July 17. How they perform during the July 24-25 event will largely be determined by how much they practice and how well they learn to coordinate during the previous week.
Coaching newbies is fun and it provides an opportunity for the newer generation of Echo units to meet some of the most skilled players in the game since it’s unlikely that they’d run into them in a pub match. Many coaches also simply enjoy helping less-experienced players and there can be a fun sort of rivalry between higher ranked coaches to see who can lead their rookie team to victory or how far they can go in the bracket.
“The NEPA Pro teams are setting an excellent example of giving back to the community that supports them,” says Lazerpent. “Each Pro team has committed to coach a rookie team throughout the Rookie Cup event!”
Since the goal is to provide opportunities not only for experienced coaches, but those with leadership skills interested in testing the waters, anyone who doesn’t qualify as a rookie is allowed to sign up as a coach.
“The opportunity for any player to coach is one of the major focuses of the Rookie Cup,” says Lazerpent. “By having minimal coach requirements, it provides that experience for players who normally would not have the opportunity to coach!”
Format
Once registration closes on July 14, cup admins will organize and then announce teams on July 17. Although teams are mostly randomized, a few factors such as MVP (most valuable player) rate will be taken into consideration so there aren’t four players on one team who are exceptionally skilled while four players on another team are really bad.
Rosters will consist of four rookie players, but each team will also be assigned a coach who will be with them during the event. Coaches will stay in the team area or tunnels during the event and are allowed to provide instruction from that area. Although it’s traditional to use closed comms during competitive events, community cups frequently implement open comms as it encourages engagement between community members.
The Rookie Cup 2021 is open to players in North America and Europe.
4v4
Open comms
2-day event for EU/NA (semi-finals and finals on 2nd day)
No mixed regions for this cup. EU/NA regions will be enforced.
Double-elimination with a bracket reset for finals
Best of 3 ten-minute rounds
Registration
Rookies can register for on the Smash tournament website and coaches can sign up on the Google form.
The Echo Arena Rookie Cup 2021 will be cast live on the VR Sports Network (VRSN) Twitch channel with experienced broadcasters who are familiar with the coaches as well as the incoming players.
Coverage will begin on July 24 at 11 am EDT for the EU division and 2 pm EDT for the NA division.
While the rookie event is geared toward lower level players, the Echo community regularly hosts events. You’ll find opportunities for players in different regions, including Oceania and Japan, as well as groups for female Echo enthusiasts, players over age 18, older adults, etc. Everyone is welcome and encouraged to find their place within the community.
In August the Echo community will host the Sunshine Cup, an event that will be open to players of all levels. Watch for news of this event on Discord and other Echo VR social media.
The High School VR League continues to introduce immersive esports to high school students across North America and announces the Echo Arena Zone War tournament with a 6-week mini-season starting July 12 that culminates in a Lightning Final on August 29.
Ready At Dawn’s Echo Arena has been blazing a trail for competitive VR since it was released in July 2017 and featured in the Oculus-sponsored ESL-run VR League at Oculus Connect 4. The game continues to grow as a popular option for VR enthusiasts and esports fans, but it’s of particular importance for those who want to see immersive esports at high schools.
Set in a zero-gravity virtual arena where players must duck, dodge, and jump in physical reality, Echo Arena involves a tremendous amount of physicality that make it more reminiscent of traditional sports than a computer game. The fact that Echo Arena incorporates a disc rather than a weapon makes it appropriate for educational institutions or parents that might prohibit any esports involving guns.
Students and admins of the High School VR League have wanted to incorporate Echo Arena since the league was established in the summer of 2020, but ultimately the decision was made to build the community and focus on other games such until there was a firm leadership team in place to help design the best possible experience.
With the uncertainty of the pandemic and millions of students away from the classroom, it also meant that schools couldn’t coordinate team members so Beat Saber, a single-player rhythm game, made more sense. Although multiplayer was introduced to Beat Saber in October 2020, for the purposes of competition, students recorded best runs and submitted scores individually. This was a perfect game to feature during lockdown for the inaugural season of HSVRL.
As they say, though, where there is a will there’s a way! HSVRL students and leaders were determined to see Echo Arena in the league so they began running Lightning tournaments in early May. These were short-term events that enabled players and admins to experiment with registration requirements, sign ups, format, etc.
Since Echo Arena involves quite a bit more structure for tournaments to run smoothly, it was important for the league to test the waters and see what would work best with the still segmented groups of high school students across the continent. There are plans to expand to Europe in the future, but it takes time to introduce new opportunities to educators and students.
Desire to Connect
“As HSVRL looked at our past and future with VR esports and Echo Arena specifically, we wanted to keep our focus on our end goal,” stated Tyeron Hammontree, Founder of the High School VR League. “Since the beginning of HSVRL, the intent has been to mainstream VR at high school campuses. This means teams made up of players pulled from the finite student body at school campuses. This is the case for all school-based teams but not yet the case for most VR esports which are mostly virtual.”
Despite the negative effects of the pandemic, it has helped educators around the globe recognize advantages of virtual learning. Now that people are more aware of options such as immersive tech for education, they also are more open to the possibilities of immersive training, social activities and options for physical fitness and gaming. This further opens the door for VR esports.
According to a report from UNICEF in March 2021, “schools for more than 168 million children globally have been completely closed for almost a full year” due to COVID-19. With schools closed, families and children have largely been dealing on their own with stress, trauma, disability, loss, educational responsibilities, etc. This has resulted in higher rates of depression, addiction, mental illness, and suicide. Without getting too much deeper into that topic, most of us can agree that the experience has made many people recognize how important it is to interact with others as well as to have access to education, entertainment, and fitness options when you can’t leave home. It’s understandable how a light, portable headset such as the Oculus Quest 2 that enables people to be immersed in a reality that can provide all those things might be particularly attractive in the middle of a pandemic.
It was during this time that the High School VR League began to see more students stepping forward to volunteer in the community and help build the league. They simply had to find a way to build the league that would allow players of various skill levels to compete in such a way that would make it fun and enjoyable for everyone.
“Our solution is to create all new virtual teams for HSVRL that are geographically separate in a similar way to campus teams,” explains Hammontree. “To do this we will use the school district for each player to discern their time zone and randomly assign them to a team. Using the school district allows us to gather this information without gathering personally identifiable data. Creating new teams in this fashion also allow us to have various ranks of players on the same team and play each other in a competitive yet fair space with the campus teams.”
“We’re pretty excited about how this will allow us to bridge between virtual and campus-based teams and we look forward to a high school league that is beginning its push into high school campuses across North America.”
Thus Echo Arena Zone War was born.
Format
Students sign up for Echo Arena Zone War alone, they’ll be assigned to a team in their zone, and once the season begins, players will participate in one to three matches per week with their team.
Echo Arena
4v4
Solo sign up
Best of three 10-minute rounds
1 to 3 matches per week
Students can register for the Zone War tournament through the HSVRL Discord server.
When registering for teams, HSVRL asks for Oculus and Discord usernames, the player’s school district, and the state or province in which the district resides. According to Hammontree, since “the link between a person’s self-created identity on Oculus or Discord is unique and disparate to any private information held by the district or school, [thus it] does not generate a HIPAA issue of privacy based on the privacy practices of US and Canadian public schools.”
https://youtu.be/tcvnkeZnpf8
Dates
Registration for the six-week season of Echo Arena War Zone closes on July 4 at midnight PDT. Matches begin on July 12, giving teams a week to practice together before the first matches begin on July 12.
July 4: last day to sign up
July 12: matches begin
August 22: season ends
August 29: Lightning Final
Community
As always, we encourage you to become involved with the communities that interest you. If you’re a student, educator, or administrator interested in competitive VR gaming opportunities for students ages 13-18, please reach out to Tyeron Hammontree via the High School VR League website. We also recommend the High School VR League Discord server. Introduce yourself, ask questions, and enjoy meeting others in the high school VR community!
If you’re interested in Echo Arena and VR esports outside the high school realm, join the overall Echo VR community on Discord or Facebook.
Perhaps the most difficult thing about converting new people to join the VR fitness scene comes with convincing them to just make that initial plunge. More so than other forms of exercise, or even other types of gaming, for that matter, virtual reality is a little bit more complicated, especially from the outside looking in. However, more so than ever before in the past few years, VR is more approachable than ever before in 2021. And as such, now is perhaps the best time ever to finally take that dive into the subgenre.
So if you’re someone who has been standing on the sidelines for the past few years wondering if you should finally look to invest in VR fitness, here are six reasons why now is the time to jump head-first into this world.
Software Library Is Extensive
More so than when VR first started to come about around five years ago, there are now plenty of software experiences for you to spend your time with. When virtual reality tech first started to become prominent, many didn’t doubt that the headsets themselves had quite a bit of promise. What was lacking a few years ago, however, were the games. In 2021 though, there isn’t a shortage of new games to play in the slightest.
This is especially true for fitness-focused VR titles as well. While VR as a medium has always been one that encourages players to stand up, move about, and stay active in a number of different experiences, there are now a vast number of games that are specifically created with fitness in mind. Some of the most popular ones of this type include Supernatural, Beat Saber, Fit XR, and OhShape.
The cherry on top of all of this is that while there are already a ton of games you can look to buy and play on a number of VR headsets right now, there are even more titles in the works that will launch in the future. Even though a lack of software used to be a slight issue when it came to VR headsets, now there is essentially an embarrassment of riches.
The Cost of Entry Has Lowered
One of the other key problems that came about when virtual reality was just getting off of the ground dealt with the expensive nature of the hobby. Many of the first VR headsets that hit the market years ago cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $500. And that was just for the headset alone. For products like the Oculus Rift, you would need to ensure that you owned a computer that would be compatible with the technology. And even if you didn’t get into PC VR headsets, other options such as PlayStation VR still required you to also purchase a PlayStation 4 console, which tacked on hundreds of dollars more to the buy-in value.
Within the past year or so specifically, though, VR headset prices have started to fall to their lowest values ever. This is most easily seen with the Oculus Quest 2, which is likely the most popular headset on the market right now. Rather than costing a vast about of money, the Quest 2 retails for only $299 now. And while that’s still quite a bit of money in the grand scheme of things, it’s a lot lower than many alternatives–especially since the headset itself isn’t reliant on a computer or console to be used.
Even if you are looking to spend a large amount of money to get a VR headset, there are plenty of other “premium” devices you could look to get instead. The HTC Vive Pro, for instance, retails for roughly $1000 in total. The same goes for Valve’s own headset, which is called the Index. So while the price of merely getting into VR nowadays has fallen substantially, there are also plenty of options available depending on what you might be looking for.
Ease of Accessibility
Image credit: Facebook
I briefly mentioned this before when talking about the Oculus Quest 2, but it’s worth talking more about this in its own section. As a whole, VR has become far more accessible in recent history compared to what it once was. The Oculus Quest and Quest 2 are likely the best examples of this as they don’t require practically anything other than the headset itself to use. Outside of the controllers that are used to play games, the Quest is completely wireless and utilizes internal tracking systems to follow your body movements. This means that all you need to do to play a game is simply pick it up, strap it to your head, and you’ll be right into the action.
While this might not seem like a major selling point if you’re new to VR, compared to how things used to be, it’s honestly staggering how simple virtual reality has become over the years. The setup process for some headsets used to be way more difficult than it currently is and there used to be so many more wires involved. With new hardware revisions constantly in the works, it stands to reason that virtual reality headsets are going to only get more approachable as time goes on. But if you’re tired of waiting for a good time to jump in, now is as good of a time as any since most VR headsets are relatively simple to use at the moment.
Speaking of future hardware revisions though…
Companies Are Doubling Down On VR
When VR first became prominent a couple of years back, some wondered whether it might just be a fad. After all, as I mentioned before, the tech was incredibly expensive to purchase and came with a number of caveats. And since it was such a niche product, VR devices have never sold in droves for any manufacturers. And with that ringing true, it stood to reason that some companies would eventually stop making virtual reality headsets if the profits weren’t there for them. Fortunately, that doesn’t seem to be happening at all.
Essentially every major company that first began releasing VR headsets a couple of years ago–Oculus, PlayStation, HTC, etc.– is still going strong to this day in the space. In fact, many continue to create new iterations of the products that they’ve already released. HTC just announced the Vive Pro 2 not long ago and Sony is in the process of creating a second iteration of PlayStation VR.
However, what’s even more impressive about this as time goes on is that many of these same companies are also doubling down on VR fitness, in particular. Perhaps the best example of this comes from Oculus and its parent company, Facebook. Over the past couple of months, Facebook has been seen creating an entirely new marketing campaign for the Quest 2, pitching it directly to consumers as an item that can be used to stay in shape. With that in mind, it’s clear that VR fitness continues to have endless upside and potential to only grow even more in the years to come.
So if you find yourself worried that you’ll buy a VR headset only to find that the technology won’t be supported by a given manufacturer a few years from now, that’s a concern you can now safely toss to the side. Every company involved with virtual reality continues to show that it’s not going anywhere well into the future, meaning that you shouldn’t fear about the floor falling out from under you.
More Health-Focused Experiences Keep Coming
One of the most positive things associated with VR fitness that has become more prominent over the years comes with how many games continue to bake in features that encourage a high level of activity. Whether it be generalized calorie counters, or dedicated game modes that are meant to get your heart rate pumping more than normal, many game developers have started to see the promise of VR fitness and are starting to add new features that those in the community can take advantage of.
All of this also goes without even mentioning the burgeoning number of games that have started to come about that are being built with fitness in mind from the ground up. In the past, some games, like the aforementioned Beat Saber, might have had fitness benefits by proxy of what the experience itself required from players to play. Instead, as time goes on, many studios are looking to craft titles from the inception stage that are meant to solely get you sweating.
Even outside of the realm of games that you can play on a VR headset from the comfort of your own home, third-party companies have even started to pop up over the years that take advantage of this technology in unique ways. One of the best examples of this is likely that of Black Box VR. By combining weight training methods with the technology at the center of virtual reality, Black Box has been able to create its own unique gyms that patrons can attend at certain locations around the United States. The resulting product is one that has many of the benefits of going to a “normal” gym, but is able to give you an exercise experience unlike anything else.
Last but not least, there is also a wave of other applications and pieces of software that have started to come about which are meant to assist with your mental health. While staying physically fit is obviously important if you want to live a long and healthy life, taking care of your mental state is often just as important. As such, to see that these types of VR projects keep popping up more frequently is encouraging.
So no matter where you look, VR-focused health experiences are popping up everywhere. As we move forward, there’s an excellent chance that we’re only going to continue to see even more of these types of activities continue to multiply.
Working Out Is Just More Fun With VR
Yeah, this is a simple reason, but perhaps more than anything else on this list, it’s the biggest example of why VR fitness is something you should be looking to invest in. Enjoyment is everything, especially when it comes to working out.
I mean, let’s be honest: getting in exercise can often be grueling, boring, and tiresome when done by the “normal” methods. Going to the gym and running on a treadmill is something that surely 99% of people don’t find to be all that exciting. But if you’re looking to stay in shape, it’s seen as a necessary evil.
So why not get rid of that boredom and add some spice to your fitness life? Whether you’re young or old, playing games is simply fun, at the end of the day. And if you can have fun first and foremost while also burning calories or accruing muscle, what is there to dislike about what VR fitness offers?
If you’re still someone who is on the fence about working out through the use of virtual reality, the best thing to do is just try it out for yourself. Once you see how enjoyable this world really is, you’ll probably never want to go back to working out through other means in the future.
VR Hockey League Season 4 kicked off tonight for the first of almost nightly matchups for the next eight weeks between eight teams divided into A league and B league. VR Hockey League (VRHL) began its inaugural season in April 2020 and features the premier multiplayer VR hockey simulator Pick-Up League Hockey.
Tonight’s game featured Demons versus Dynamo Yaks. Demons have made it to the finals in the previous three seasons of VRHL and Dynamo Yaks is a new team so a huge challenge was anticipated on the ice for the Yaks.
Unfortunately for the Demons, the Dynamo Yaks came to rink to win and went away with the victory in both the upper and developing leagues. Final scores were 7-2 in A league and 7-6 in B league.
I asked Itsabrassbonanza, VRHL caster, why he thought the runner-up team of the previous two seasons failed to bring home a win tonight.
“They had a tough time breaking the puck out in their own zone at times,” he said, adding that “the Yaks simply capitalized on opportunities they were given.”
Itsabrassbonanza also pointed out that “Bolty had a huge game for them [the Dynamo Yaks] with four goals. The Yaks were able to dominate on both sides of the puck all night and that gave them the win.”
Pick-Up League Hockey (PULH) became one of the first games available on Oculus App Lab earlier this year as a full-featured multiplayer hockey game that uses realistic physics and motion controls. Customizable features for players include player-selectable jerseys and stick skins.
The VRHL draft took place on June 12 when captains selected their teams of six. Those teams were then divided into A league and B league teams. The A and B teams will compete in separate brackets and players from the B league will be allowed to participate in A league games, but A league players aren’t allowed to compete in B league. This gives the B league players an opportunity to develop skills with the potential of being put on an A team next season.
Subs
Players who weren’t selected in the draft are able to sign up as substitutes for league matches. They’re ranked as VRHL Free Agents and subbing for teams can create opportunities for them to be drafted onto a team in future seasons.
VRHL Season 4 Teams
When and Where to Watch
VR Hockey League games happen almost nightly for the next 8 weeks and then teams will progress to finals. A full schedule and individual team schedules can be found on the VRHL website.
You can watch league games on the official VR Hockey League Twitch channel or catch Pick-Up League Hockey any time on the Twitch channel of the game’s creator, Wraith of Electric Falcon LLC.
As always, we encourage you to engage with other VR community members. You’ll definitely find many dedicated fans who enjoy hockey in physical and immersive reality on the Pick-Up League Hockey Discord server.
If you’ve got a Quest 2 and use it regularly you’ll likely already have taken steps to improve its comfort through the purchase of third-party head straps, facial interfaces, and face pads. Having a comfortable headset that fits well on your face can make a big difference to your long-term enjoyment of virtual reality. You’ll be able to stay immersed for longer, losing yourself in the experience.
One factor you might not have considered, however, is just how each facial interface and face pad might impact your field of view. Can certain face pads allow you to see more of the screen than others, and are they still comfortable to use? That’s what this article is all about.
VRCover has sent me out all of their foam face pad sets to review and I’m going to put them all head to head, rating them across multiple criteria so that you can determine the best foam facial pads for you. I’m going to be taking a look at the following products;
Silicone Cover – The most basic, affordable no-frills option. A silicone cover is a simple face pad that wraps around the stock Oculus foam pad to prevent it from filling with sweat.
Standard replacement facial interface and foam pads – This is VRCover’s bread and butter, the sets that have made them famous. A replacement interface and two faux leather foam pads, one slim fit to let you get closer to the lenses, and a larger comfort pad.
Cool XG Gel foam replacement set – Two foam pads, one slim, one comfort, made with a cooling gel designed to give some cooling relief during short exercise sessions.
Minimal Foam pad – VRCover’s newest release. These two pads have been reduced to their thinnest size ever to allow your eyeballs to get as close as possible to the lenses, for an enhanced field of view (FOV).
Scoring Criteria
All four of these products meet their primary intended goal of providing the user with better sweat protection and an easily wipeable surface to clean, therefore I won’t score them on this criteria.
Instead, I’ll focus on price, comfort, ease of use, FOV, and overall value. I’ll then use these scores to pick my winner and hopefully provide you, the reader, with some clear pointers as to what is the best purchase for you.
I will attempt to be as rigorous and scientific as possible but bear in mind that absolute objectivity is impossible when reviewing facial interfaces and foam pads for comfort and FOV, given that our heads, facial shapes, and interpupillary distances (IPD) are all unique. That said, I do think it’s possible to make comparisons in a reasonable way, and that my own findings and results will be relatable to most users.
ROV Tool
When it comes to assessing FOV differences, there is a very handy tool available at the Steam Community Workshop. The ROV Test FOV & Resolution app is well worth subscribing to. It offers a veritable laboratory of headset-related tests, of which the FOV test is of interest to us for this article. Put simply, it allows you to measure both the viewable vertical and horizontal FOV distances so that we can accurately compare potential FOV improvements across the various VRCover foam pad options.
HMD Geometry Database
Another important tool to know about is Risa2000’s hmdq tool. This is essentially a set of command-line tools for VR headsets with support for both OpenVR and Oculus runtimes that can extract useful data information for the HMD Geometry database. Specifically, it can calculate a headset’s rendered FOV, ie. the maximum vertical and horizontal field of view each headset is rendering. If you’ve ever argued with another person as to whether a Reverb G2 has a larger or smaller FOV than a Quest 2, this tool settles the argument once and for all. The database is fascinating if you’re curious about FOV’s so check it out here.
According to the hmdq tool the Quest 2’s rendered FOV is 104 horizontal and 98 vertical. This is what the headset is rendering, and therefore the maximum FOV available to us. In the tests that follow we’ll see which foam pads get us the closest to these maximums, determine if the extra view helps increase immersion and whether comfort suffers.
Made from medical-grade silicone, you simply place this cover over the existing foam pad that comes with the Oculus Quest 2 headset. With no replacement facial interface required to buy this is the most affordable way to sweatproof your Oculus device. VRCover uses an unoiled silicone that is hypoallergenic and therefore should not irritate your skin. If your only concern is providing sweatproof protection to your Quest, then this will do the job. It’s ideal if you only occasionally engage in active VR games, or if you want a cheap cover that you can put on for when friends and family members use your headset, and you don’t want their sweaty scalps on your own more deluxe foam pad replacement.
Silicone covers do certainly have some downsides, however. Silicone is hardly the most luxurious material to put against your face. It has a noticeable odor, a bit like latex balloons, doesn’t feel particularly soft and pleasant on the skin, and attracts dust like no other material I know. As the cover fits over the existing foam pad and interface that comes with the Quest, you obviously won’t get any gain of FOV. Finally, it’s a real chore to take on and off. Silicone covers to me feel like they belong in a VR arcade, a no-frills product that does its intended job and no more, kind of like 3D glasses at the cinema. It’s handy to have one as a spare for when guests visit, but if you’re going to spend a lot of time in your VR headset, I’d treat yourself to something a little nicer.
Scores
Price – 9/10 – The cheapest way to sweatproof your headset.
Comfort – 6/10 I’m not a fan of how silicone feels against my skin or its slight chemical odor.
Ease of use – 6/10 These are easy to use but having to wrap them around the stock foam pad is not as attractive as having an easily removable interface replacement that you get with the more luxurious VRCover set.
FOV – 5/10 This setup, using the existing Quest interface and foam pad offers the lowest FOV in my testing at 90 Vertical 92 Horizontal
Value -6/10 A silicone cover will effectively sweatproof your device for an affordable price, but it’s a bit like putting an unbranded, plain bar of hand soap in your newly renovated bathroom, it cheapens the overall aesthetic. Those FOV numbers are low too, we can do much better.
These sets are what VRCover has built its reputation upon. Replacing not just the Oculus stock foam pad, but the entire plastic facial interface as well, these sets offer a significant comfort upgrade for just $29. The set comes with two foam pads, a slim fit, and a thicker comfort fit. The slim fit is my pick. The thinner size lets you get closer to the action, yet it retains all of the plushy pillow comforts of the thicker model. If a silicone cover is a plain, unbranded soap, this is a luxurious, divinely scented, moisturizing hand lather.
Scores
Price – 9/10 You are paying double the price of a silicone cover, but with two luxurious covers and a replacement facial interface you get a lot more for your money.
Comfort 10/10 These foam pads are pillows for the face, offering a significant upgrade over the stock Oculus foam.
Ease of use 9/10 Being able to whip the interface out after use for cleaning, and then put it back with a simple click into place saves time and makes sanitizing your headset less of a chore.
FOV 7/10 The slim pad gives me a FOV of 92 Vertical 94 Horizontal, a modest increase over the stock interface and silicone cover, but still nice to have.
Value 9/10 In my opinion, this set is simply the most important upgrade you can get for your Oculus Quest 2. It simplifies sweat protection and headset cleaning, whilst also making your headset more comfortable, and slightly increasing the FOV.
NOTE – If you are a glasses wearer and wish to wear them inside the headset you will need to purchase the VR Cover Facial Interface Spacer for an additional $9. In that case, deduct a point from all of the above scores.
Specialty FOV Boosting Covers
In the past month, VRCover has released two new foam pad sets, to be used in conjunction with the facial interface set. You will need to already own a facial interface replacement set as these products sell as foam pads only, marking these out as enthusiast-level products.
Let’s take a look at them.
From top to bottom, VRCover’s standard foam pad comfort fit, standard foam pad slim fit, XG Gel Cooling pad slim fit, minimal foam pad slimmest fit.
EDIT – At the time of publishing these are selling for a reduced price of $19. If you can get them for that price they represent much better value, so add a couple of points to the price and value scores)
These foam pads contain a cooling gel layer inside that provides a temporary cooling sensation, which VRCover claims is ideal for shorter VR sessions. You get two foam pads, one slim fit, one comfort fit. When using these I did indeed feel a slight difference in temperature when putting my headset on, but the effect was mild and quickly forgotten. I also noticed the gel pads are not nearly as plushy as the foam pads. The slim pad in particular feels quite hard against my face and is not nearly as comfortable, as I can feel the plastic of the interface. The larger pad is perfectly comfortable, but you lose FOV, and if that matters to you it makes its use redundant. For me, these gel foam pads are a swing and a miss by VRCover. They will set you back an additional $29 on top of the initial replacement facial interface set that you need to own to use these, and for me at least, are less comfortable to use than their standard foam pads. The slim cover does allow your eyes to get closer to the lenses than VRCover’s standard foam pads, however, so you do get a larger FOV. However, VRCover’s minimal foam pads, which we’ll look at next has it beat for FOV, and comfort too, leading to the XG Cool gel pads getting a no from me.
Scores
Price 5/10 The foam pads themselves cost $29, but you also need the replacement interface, which is $29 itself. For a near $60 outlay I’d want something spectacular in terms of comfort or FOV upgrade, which we don’t get here.
Comfort 6/10 The cooling gel does not have the same pillow effect as the standard VRCover foam pads. It’s harder against the skin and the slim one feels rather uncomfortable to me, I can feel the plastic interface through it. The larger size is more comfortable, but if you were buying for a larger FOV that eliminates the point of buying in the first place.
Ease of Use 5/10 The fact that you have to buy the facial interface replacement set first before you can use these is an unwelcome complication and expense.
FOV 8/10 The slim foam pad here does at least offer a nice FOV boost 98 vertical 98 horizontal.
Value 5/10 If there was an option to buy these with a facial interface to avoid the redundancy of having to pay for two stock foam pads as well these might have some value. At the current price though I don’t see any value in these. It’s not that the product is bad, it’s just double the price of the standard foam pads, which I actually prefer to these anyway, although you do gain some FOV with the slim XG gel foam pad.
If VRCover sold these covers with the facial interface for $29 or $39 they would be a much more attractive proposition.
VRCover’s minimal foam pads are their slimmest pads yet. So thin you can practically rub your eyeballs on the lenses, yet without sacrificing too much comfort. These are now my favorite VRCover offering.
VRCover’s most recent product launch is the minimal foam pad replacement. Like the Cool XG gel pad, you’ll need to purchase these separately from and in addition to the replacement interface set but they do use the same material as the standard foam pads, albeit slimmed down to allow your eyes to get as close to the lenses as possible. At $19 you are saving $10 over the gel foam pads and these are much, much better in my opinion.
Whilst the slim minimal foam pad looks at first glance as if it would be hopelessly inadequate to provide any forehead cushioning, somehow VRCover has managed to lose fully half the material without compromising comfort. It feels a lot more comfortable to me than the gel pads, whilst also providing the largest FOV of all the products tested. Even the larger, comfort-size foam pad is slimmer than VRCover’s standard slim foam pad, and every bit as comfortable to me. I really like this set, and whilst I wish you could purchase it with the standard facial interface, and not have to buy it separately, now I’ve been using the minimal foam pad for the past month, I cannot go back to the standard pads, as the FOV gain is immediately noticeable.
Score
Price 7/10 It’s unfortunate that there is no option to buy these with a facial interface as it increases the expense, but $19 isn’t a bad price for these pads that noticeably improve FOV and immersion.
Comfort 7/10 Obviously you’re trading some comfort here to get as close to the lenses as possible, but the tradeoff is absolutely worth it in my opinion. I’ve flown multiple two-hour flights in Microsoft Flight Simulator wearing the thinnest pad and it wasn’t uncomfortable for me.
Ease of Use 7/10 You’ll also need to also buy the replacement interface kit, but unlike with the gel foam, there is a clear FOV gain with these over the standard foam pads, whilst still maintaining comfort, which makes the extra purchase more justifiable.
FOV 9/10 – The minimal foam pad gets the maximum FOV score in my testing at 99 vertical 99 horizontal. With this pad, I can see right to the edges of the screens, and the usual tunnel-shaped appearance actually transforms to more of a squared view. It’s much less oppressive and it really does increase my feeling of immersion.
Value – 8/10 If you’re an enthusiast user who wants to maximize the FOV of your Quest 2, and can put up with a slight reduction in comfort, this is a very worthwhile purchase. If you aren’t bothered about the FOV or already struggle with headset comfort then this foam pad set likely won’t be worth it for you.
This side-on image clearly shows the difference in foam pad widths from the thickest comfort pad on the bottom, to the slimmest minimal pad on the top. Imagine how much FOV you are giving up when you cram as much padding as that comfort foam pad into your Quest. No wonder people complain of a tunnel effect! The minimal pad makes a radical difference, and hopefully, this side image demonstrates why!
Summary – Is the FOV gain noticeable and worth it?
Caveats for spectacle wearers and wide IPD users.
Obviously wearing glasses inside the headset will prevent your eyes from getting up close and personal to the lenses, thus you will not be able to achieve these full FOV gains, but you probably expected this. For users with large IPDs using IPD setting 3 on the Quest 2, the edges of the lenses are already visible and cut off some of the FOV, so unfortunately your experience will be compromised too. The results below therefore relate to settings 1 and 2 only. The Quest 2 is a small headset and not great for users with larger IDPs sadly.
Ok, let’s evaluate the results. As the ROV app demonstrated, the FOV did indeed increase as we went through the various options, but mere numbers don’t reveal a lot so I thought I’d also provide a more narrative summary, detailing my experiences and what kind of impact a slight FOV increase has on practical usage.
FOV Rankings
99 vertical 99 horizontal – Minimal Foam Pad
98 vertical 98 horizontal – Cool XG Gel Foam Pad
92 vertical 94 horizontal – VR Cover’s Standard Slim Foam Pad
90 vertical 92 horizontal – Stock Interface With Silicone Cover
The minimal foam pad clearly gets the win, boasting a 9 point vertical FOV gain and an 8 point horizontal FOV gain over the stock interface with silicone cover and the replacement facial interface foam pads. But what does this look like through the headset?
Halfway to a Valve Index Resolution!
Now it goes without saying that it’s impossible to turn a small FOV headset like the Quest 2 into a large FOV headset like the Valve Index, there is simply less FOV being rendered by the headset, to begin with. Nonetheless, these results are impressive. Wearing a silicone cover on the stock Quest 2 facial interface, I get almost 10 degrees less viewable FOV both horizontal and vertical than with the VRCover facial interface and their minimal foam pad. According to the geometry database, the Valve Index renders 109 V and 109H, so those 9 degrees are halfway to a Valve Index field of view!
So what does this improvement actually look like?
Typically using a Quest 2 normally gives a rounded, tunnel-like view, with a large, black circular frame bordering the entire image. With the minimal foam pad this shape becomes less circular, and more square. Whilst it doesn’t dramatically allow me to see more, it does make the view inside the headset considerably less oppressive. Having those black circular borders thinned out is definitely a much more pleasant look for me and increases my feeling of immersion, even if I’m not seeing a whole lot more. With the standard pads, the Quest 2 reminds me of watching an ultra-widescreen movie on my TV so that I have black borders on top and bottom. The minimal pad halves the widths of those borders.
For that reason, I have switched over permanently to wearing the minimal foam pad. It isn’t quite as comfortable as the standard foam pads, but VRCover has managed to strike a perfect balance in my opinion, and the comfort to FOV tradeoff is absolutely worth it for me.
The minimal foam pad offers both extra FOV, without sacrificing comfort, and as such is now my favorite VRCover foam pad. Is it worth an additional $19 to reduce the circular border around your view? If you’re somebody who prioritizes visuals and takes VR seriously, I’d say absolutely. The tunnel effect is one of the major distractions to immersion, and whilst a simple foam pad mod can’t magically increase the capabilities of the Quest 2 headset and turn it into a Pimax, it will ensure you can press your eyeballs close enough to the screens to see every single degree of the rendered image displayed from your headset, and that for me is definitely worthwhile.
Ok, let’s wrap up with some recommendations;
The two winners have dramatically different widths, the larger appealing to those who want plushy pillow comfort, the slimmer for those who want to expand their FOV. Ultimately it comes down to what you prefer, for me I’m all about the FOV!
For most people this facial interface replacement and its two included foam pads will be the perfect complement to their Quest, luxuriously comfortable and easy to wipe clean, it’s my most essential Quest 2 accessory.
You’ll also need to buy the Facial Interface & Foam Replacement Set separately, so it’s an additional purchase cost, but these foam pads ensure you get the maximum FOV for your headset, without sacrificing comfort too much. If you’re an enthusiast who wants the best view possible this set comes absolutely recommended.
VR gamers from two Echo Arena community servers have partnered up for the Tyro Charity Cup to present a fun, friendly event designed to benefit charity. Open to Tyro players of all levels, 100% of proceeds will be donated to non-profits selected by the top three teams following the June 26-27 event.
The Tyro Mature Community was formed in the early months of 2021 as a place where adult fans of Ready At Dawn’s Echo Arena could come together to chat, party up for scrimmages, and create teams for those interested in competitive events. Mature players over the age of 18 can join the server and participate in activities.
“The Tyro charity cup, in collaboration with TT’s Bootcamps, seeks to provide the Tyro community with a fun, friendly weekend cup while doing some good for the world outside of the Echo Arena,” says Luc Gaylie, co-founder of the Tyro Mature VR Community.
TT’s Bootcamps was formed by Tommy Tai, a certified personal trainer who joined the Echo community with the October 13, 2020 launch of the Oculus Quest 2. Tai became involved with the community right away, participated in the Quest 2 Rookie Cup, and then became interested in providing training and mentoring for other incoming players. Tai and others in TT’s Bootcamp server are helping with marketing and promotion of this charity event.
Format
Teams for the Tyro Charity Cup will randomly selected so players sign up individually through the Tyro server and team assignments will be announced this weekend. The event will take place June 26-27 so teams will have one week to practice together before the competition.
Event date: June 26-27
Coverage begins at 9 am PDT / noon EDT / 1700 BST
4v4
3 rounds of 7 minutes
Double elimination
Open to EU and NA players
Registration to be placed on a team closes Thursday, June 17, but players can still register as substitutes until the event begins.
Prize Pool
Participants and other supporters can donate to the Tyro Charity Cup and all money donated for this event will go to support non-profits chosen by the three winning teams with the following distribution:
“I encourage everybody involved and those supporting to give what they can, be that $1 or $100,” says Kieran Barber, co-founder of Tyro Mature VR Community. “Every little helps so let’s do our best to club together, and do some good!
Where to Watch
You can watch the Tyro Charity Cup on Twitch starting at noon EDT on June 26. The event will be cast by Gaylie, better known as 1uc among the VR esports community when he’s on casting duty. He’ll be joined throughout the day by some community leaders who will co-cast.
Join the Tyro Mature VR Community or sign up for the Tyro Charity Cup via the Tyro Discord server. Register for the charity cup by going to the #register channel and click the appropriate emote.
For teenage players under the age of 18, you can connect with other Echo fans on the main Echo Games Discord server listed above or join one of the community servers. If you’re interested in providing training or helping mentor other lower level players, TT’s Bootcamp server might be a great fit for you!
Released in July 2017, Ready At Dawn’s Echo Arena is a staple in the VR esports ecosystem with a large and active playerbase, a variety of leagues and community events, and an invested team of developers. Players experience one of the truest sensations of immersion available in virtual reality as they move through a zero-gravity arena with teammates in an attempt to score on the other team’s goal.
I’ve been a musician for about 18 years now and despite dabbling in a few different areas there, one thing remains constant. I suck at drums. While I consider myself a pretty solid guitarist, the limited amount of times I’ve tried to be a drummer have ended in uncoordinated disaster, whether it be with actual drums, electronic ones the drums on the game Rock Band, I could never figure it out. VR is built to give drumming experiences right off the bat and I’ve never played any of the available drumming-styled games until BoomBox. While many rhythm games exist in VR and several outstanding ones really stand up above the rest, I’ve never really seen any that make you feel like a drummer until now. BoomBox Is perfect for people like me who want the sensation of keeping the beat without having to navigate all the complex parts that make drumming happen and the result is a great workout that keeps you engaged with some razor-sharp beat mapping and community interaction. Let’s find out what makes it tick.
The Basics
This is about as straightforward as it gets for rhythm games. There is the main room where you can select from all the different songs and difficulty modes, and another room that lets you create your own custom beat maps for songs of your choice. When you enter the game, it is pretty obvious how to play from the get-go since at this point, you likely know how rhythm games work in VR. You have a pink drum stick and a blue one and you use these to smash the icons coming at you. Depending on how accurately you hit the note, you will see ratings that show you how on time you were. The action goes down in a variety of maps which is nice to see considering the title’s Early Access moniker. The sky is the limit for BoomBox and while it may seem like just another rhythm game on the surface, the actual playing of it feels very different and gives a much more technical feel than other games in this genre.
What it Feels like to Play
BoomBox makes you feel like you are a drummer in battle. That’s a weird phrase to say, but honestly, there is no other way to put what it feels like while playing. The music accompanying you is high energy and really gets the adrenaline pumping. I’m not really familiar with any of the artists involved, which is a nice surprise and the music was pretty energetic. There is no real campaign happening at this point, so you’re basically just going from level to level and this is fine for me when it comes to this kind of game. You can jump in and jump out very easily and the gameplay is smooth and fun to play. Aside from the main gameplay, you can also create your own beat maps for any song you desire and then put any music of your choice into the game. BoomBox has a very easy way to access community-made maps too in-game which to my knowledge, isn’t something that is available in other rhythm games right now. That’s right, not even Beat Saber has this capability right now. Woah.
What will keep you playing?
I imagine a lot of drummers might look down on this one like real guitarists used to look down on Guitar Hero. I was never one of those people, but here, the drumming comparison is direct and it makes so much sense that everyone who sucks at drumming out there like myself, will have a blast getting to play along to different songs as well as being able to create their own beat maps with the tools provided here. There are leaderboards to compare scores, multiple difficulty modes, and more to keep you busy for a decent amount of time and the developers have promised additional features coming soon, so even more goodness is on the way.
Preparation-
BoomBox is a surprisingly versatile game that will have you moving all over the place as well as slamming your hands down in a drumming motion many times, so having a pretty clear area to play in is a necessity. You should also have some room to move from side to side as the obstacles require you to not be stationary when they appear.
Intensity- 9/10
I recorded my 30-minute workout with Fitbit and played on an Oculus Quest 2 Headset via Virtual Desktop.
Calories burned: 309 Calories burned per minute: 10 Average Heart Rate: 122 Max Heart Rate: 145 Active Minutes: 28
The experience with BoomBox pretty much blew me away as it was one of the most intense and exhilarating ones I’ve had in all of VR. Yes, the gameplay isn’t anything new and if you have played other rhythm games, you likely know what you’ll be getting yourself into. Depending on the difficulty I was playing on, I either got a pretty easy but drumming experience or one that was completely nuts with very little room for failure and keeping the beat and moving around the obstacles was incredibly tough and rewarding both in-game as well as in real life, as the sweat was pouring pretty fast after trying the harder modes. Overall, the intensity is based on the difficulty mode and when it comes to the community beat maps, all bets are off as it’s impossible to tell what the members of the community have in store for you until you experience it for yourself.
Arms- 9/10
Definitely stretch before getting into this one. Even though you might think you know what you are into because of experience with other games in the genre, think again because this is a slightly different movement needed here. The reason is that most of the icons will require a specific downward slam to destroy them whereas other games let you hit them in any direction you’d like at times. The directions change here too, but they never get too over the top and generally stick to a consistent pace, maintaining the illusion that you are actually drumming and keeping that part of the game very engaging.
Legs- 8/10
BoomBox is mainly an arm-centric experience and there isn’t any arguing with that, but in between the drumming segments, you will be assaulted by obstacles that you need to actively duck and dodge around. When I say dodge, I don’t mean just bob your head, I mean you actually have to hop out of the way as during my play sessions, doing the typical VR head dodge was not cutting it, so make sure you have a bit of room available to properly execute in these situations or else your score will suffer because of it. These obstacles come in a variety of directions as well, so often you might find yourself having to duck pretty low, and repetitive motions like this will effectively give you a nice squat-like workout.
Core- 7/10
Although it may not feel like it, the motions involved in slamming down onto these icons are using not only your arms but your core as well. The force you are generating to hit these icons from a combination of your arms and core muscles. Since the core is involved in just about all exercises, you can expect to feel it getting a burn here and you can expect that to increase with obstacles that show up here as you’ll be having to crouch and rise in quick motions. This won’t be giving you a six-pack any time soon, but it is a complete body workout that would be a great addition to your VR workouts.
Time Perception- 9/10
The best thing about games like BoomBox is that you can just jump in and jump out while still having a hell of a time. The songs don’t last all that long which is a good thing because most of the time it’s a very intense experience. As far as the VR world it brings you into, it is a cool little environment that you get thrown into at the start as it resembles a child’s room and it was a nice little nostalgia trip for me from the jump. The levels are varied visually and each one has its own flavor to it to check out while you are busy drumming along. This is not the kind of game that will swallow you for hours though as physically, that isn’t really advisable to do. 30 minutes at a time felt like the perfect amount of time to enjoy this one.
Replayability- 10/10
The best thing about these games is that they really never run out of fun to be had. BoomBox has that in spades as it is only in Early Access and already has a sizable song list to keep you busy. If that isn’t enough, you’re going to be challenged by the community maps and as the game gains in popularity, it is going to grow in content that comes from the players which might make this one of the most extensive rhythm games in all of VR. It’s the type of game that you can show to your friends who have never tried VR before, so it works as an excellent party game as well.
Fitness Scalability- 8/10
The best way to scale your workouts in BoomBox is by toying with the difficulty as well as the game modifiers. The game modifiers let you change a variety of things, but the one that will impact your workout the most is by getting rid of the fail state. By getting rid of this, you can take part in the hardest difficulties for the full duration of the song without worrying about the level ending because you are missing too many notes. Completing these songs on the hardest difficulty is a very tough physical experience and takes an insane amount of coordination and stamina to complete, so if you think you are ready for the big leagues, turn off that fail state in the options and get ready for a fight.
Dizziness/ Lack of Nausea- 9/10
I never felt too much nausea while playing BoomBox, but everyone is different when it comes to VR and you have to be prepared for these icons to come flying at you from multiple angles. This can overwhelm some people I would imagine, but you won’t be moving or teleporting anywhere in this game outside of the home area, so regardless of what the game is going to send at you, I don’t think you will have much of a problem with this one.
Social Competition- 8/10
While there isn’t really a multiplayer available yet, with the route this game is taking in its similarities to other top games in the genre, this likely will be added by the time of the full release. As of now though, the social competition comes in the form of other players creating custom beat maps for whatever songs they choose. Seeing what players can come up with is tons of fun and often a much harder challenge than what is presented in the main game. You will see your scores in comparison to others around the world while playing too, and this creates a fun bit of interaction in the player community.
https://youtu.be/mo6up12keWs
VR Fit Score- 8.5/10
Game Score- 8/10
The Good
BoomBox is an extremely fun VR rhythm game that gives you a different vibe than most games by making you feel like a drummer keeping the beat. The environments are varied to keep things fresh and the energetic soundtrack will keep you on your toes no matter what difficulty you are playing on. Despite the lack of modes, the excitement is maintained heavily by the ever-growing community of custom beat maps that are uploaded, and considering the game is still in Early Access, this is most impressive and bodes very well for the future of the game.
The Bad
If you aren’t into games like this, then I don’t think that BoomBox is going to change your mind. This game doesn’t really break the mold in any way and neither the graphics nor immersion is going to blow you away. If you have other games in the genre, this might feel redundant and lesser than those, but if you are a first-timer in VR trying out some games that will get you into shape, I can recommend BoomBox right up there with Beat Saber and that’s usually a tough task to achieve.
BoomBox is available on Steam for $19.99 and playable on Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest with the link, Valve Index, HTC Vive, and Windows Mixed Reality Headsets.
VR Central, a community built by gamers for gamers, is taking registrations for The Onward Brawler Tournament that will take place on Saturday, June 19 starting at 3 pm EDT. Prizes include gun stock packages from Mamut, VR gaming mats from Proximat, and cash.
One of the most popular VR first-person mil-sims on the market, Onward is a tactical multiplayer shooter that boasts real combat mechanics, a variety of maps, and has been developed from the ground up for virtual reality. In July 2020, Onward arrived on the Oculus Quest and last April Facebook acquired Downpour Interactive, the studio behind the hit game. The community continues to thrive and grow rapidly as increasing numbers of gamers discover VR esports.
About the Tournament
The Onward Brawler Tournament will feature two brackets: The Gladiator Division (higher skill level) and The Pugilist Division (lower skill level). Team captains can determine which bracket would be the best fit for their team and register for the one they want to compete in. (The higher skilled bracket offers a greater prize incentive.)
Onward teams are made up of five team members so the $50 per team entry fee equates to $10 per person. (There’s an additional $10 if teams want a stand-by teammate). A full 5-person team is required to participate in the event and the event isn’t affiliated with any particular league, but league teams are allowed to participate or new teams can be formed.
This event will feature a double elimination layout so each team has the opportunity to fight their way back to the top even if they lose against the first team they’re matched with.
The standard game mode will be uplink and the lobby must be “competitive.” The following maps will be featured during the tournament: Sand, Quarantine, Arctic, Bazaar, Paradise, and Suburbia (only if required during finals).
A complete list of rules and layout of the tournament can be found here.
Quick Reference
Onward Brawler Tournament
Saturday, June 19
Begins at noon PDT / 3 pm EDT
5v5
Double elimination brackets in 2 divisions
Standard game mode: Uplink
Registration closes Thursday, June 17
Prizes
Cash prizes will be determined by the number of participants and outside sponsorships. Two-thirds of the cash prize pool will go to the winners of the Gladiators Division and one-third will go to winners of the Pugilist Division.
Mamut
Each member of the winning team (5 players) of each division will also receive a Mamut gunstock package valued at $225. Mamut has been providing high quality VR products since 2016 and they’ve actively supported leagues, players, and VR game devs.
Proximat
Proximat, another company that regularly supports VR esports, is sponsoring the tournament with Proximats going to players who can capture the objective. Three Proximats will go to the first three players to get an objective cap in the Gladiator Division and one Proximat will be awarded to the first person to achieve an objective capture in the Pugilist Division.
How to Register
VR Central is a community that consists mostly of VR gamers who play games, do reviews, create videos, and hang out. You can learn more about this VR gaming community and The Onward Brawler Tournament on the VR Central Discord server. If you want to participate in the event, message WiseDirector#5880 when you join the Discord server and he’ll assist you.
For more information or to watch the event streamed live, visit the VR Central Twitch or YouTube channels or subscribe to their social media channels.
BoomBox, the VR rhythm game that features Pupa the cat, has launched in full release and will celebrate with a party for musicians, mappers, partners, and community members.
BoomBox comes to us from Cyberspline Games, an indie game development company based in Vancouver and many of the team members are actually alumni of the Vancouver Film School, a post-secondary entertainment arts school that trains students in immersive, production-oriented programs. Whether you’re looking for a fitness experience, an engaged community, or want to try designing your own maps, BoomBoxmakes it possible for community members to enjoy as well as create in the game, emphasizing a strong sense of teamwork and collaboration as well as individual achievements along one’s personal journey.
The Game
Varying difficulty levels make it possible to tailor fitness workouts to meet your needs. I played on the Oculus Quest 2, both seated and standing. It was playable both ways, but I was much more comfortable seated since that’s how I normally play VR games and it’s always great to find games that are accessible to seated players.
There are local and global leaderboards in the main room where you select songs and environments. It’s fun to compare your stats to others and such leaderboards can be great motivational tools as well!
BoomBox also features unlockable achievements and an editor that enables you to create maps.
Check out this video for a neat little view into the development journey of BoomBox by the Cyberspline dev team.
One thing BoomBox has that other VR rhythm games don’t is Pupa the cat, who accompanies you on the journey as you put drum skills to use and travel along pathways or roads in various maps. The cat is kind of adorable and while it might seem insignificant, having Pupa run along in front of you does provide an interesting sensation that you’re not quite alone in the immersive environment.
Songs
There’s a large selection of high-energy songs that are mapped at various difficulties. The are also 300+ DMCA-free songs, including Camellia, for community mapping. Many of the current songs are techno music, but as the community grows and the developers continue to make connections with musicians, the musical selection will expand.
“We are aiming to become the game that actively promotes music and helps talented musicians to be heard and connected with the community in an organic and friendly way,” says Ekaterina Nosova, BoomBox CEO & Partnerships Coordinator. “This is why we welcome all types of music, as long as the music can be used for drumming [and not just a background melody].”
If there are musicians interested in featuring their music in BoomBox, Nosova encourages them to reach out to her.
Recent additions to the BoomBox musicians team include DeBisco and DJKiske. Personally I like a lot of the music available, but these are especially enjoyable for an active, high energy drum workout. Click on the images below to hear some of these musicians’ BoomBox music.
If you want to chill out a bit, I’d recommend the songs from Alan Fullmer, which almost have a sort of ASMR effect. For those who aren’t familiar with autonomous sensory meridian response, it means the songs can give you give you literal chills as they creates a sort of sedative sensation. I’m very responsive to ASMR so I save music that provides this effect for my warm-up and cool-down since it’s seems a bit more relaxing to me.
Full Release Party
To celebrate the full release launch of BoomBox on both Steam and Oculus, Cyberspline is hosting a party Monday, June 14 and all community members are invited. If you’re interested in VR rhythm games or you’re already a BoomBox fan, this is a great opportunity to meet developers, tournament champions, mappers, musicians, and the community at large.
The party will begin at 5:00 pm PDT / 8 pm EDT on the BoomBox Twitch channel and then at 7:00 pm PDT, the party moves to the official BoomBox Discord server later in the evening.
5:00 pm PDT: Intro and Core Developers Q & A
5:30 pm PDT: Multiplayer with Developers and Tournament Champions
Engagement with other VR community members will help you make friends, stick with a fitness routine, and try new things like mapping. We encourage you to attend the Full Release Party, but even if you miss tonight’s party, download the game and reach out to the BoomBox community on social media.
The game is currently available in full release on Steam and will soon be available in full release on the Oculus App Lab store. (Note: BoomBox is available on the App Lab store, but this is an older version without all the full release features. The full version of BoomBox through Oculus should be on the App Lab store within two weeks.)
Millions of people make resolutions each year and within a few weeks they’ve returned to old habits and less healthy lifestyle choices. The trick to success for a long-term wellness journey is finding an enjoyable activity and developing a routine with attainable goals. Many people are discovering that this is possible with a VR headset.
In January Eric Vargas-Weisser made a decision to improve his wellness and after five months, he’s still going strong with some incredible results. We applaud his commitment to wellness and his willingness to share some of his journey with us.
VRFI: Hi, Eric! Could you please tell me a little bit about yourself?
Eric: My name is Eric Vargas-Weisser. I’m 50 years old and live in Encino, California with my husband and two cats.
VRFI: Please tell me a bit about your fitness journey.
Eric: I’ve always been one of those “new year, new me” people. I would start off every year going to the gym with all the enthusiasm I could muster. It would take me between 20-30 minutes to drive, park and change at the gym and then do an hour workout and come home again, totaling 2 hours of my day for a one-hour workout.
After a few months of this, it was always the same story. Frankly, I would get sick of so much of my time being wasted traveling to and from the gym, often waiting for machines to free up.
VRFI: That definitely sounds frustrating and many of us can relate. Since it didn’t work for you to use a traditional gym environment, what did you try next?
Eric: I decided to buy some home equipment. I purchase a Boxflex Max Trainer, which did not hold my interest and the workouts got very tedious.
Soon after I purchased the Bowflex, I had surgery on my lower back for a lump in my bone. They removed the lump (yay – no cancer) but afterward, my mobility was limited, and I needed physical therapy. After my therapy, I couldn’t bend down to tie shoes, walking and exercise was very limited and I began to gain weight. My blood pressure skyrocketed and I was taking 3 blood pressure pills a day with a cholesterol pill.
In 2020 I was diagnosed with melanoma and had surgery on my shoulder (they removed it before it spread into the lymph nodes – yay!) but my range of motion in my arms was decreased.
VRFI: Wow. I’m sorry you went through that and health challenges can be so frustrating, but you look great now in the photos. How did you discover VR fitness?
Eric: In January 2021, I was 5’10 and weighed in at 227 pounds. Between my weight, shoulders and back, I knew something had to be done. I began a “Keto” diet and saw an ad for Supernatural and it looked like a lot of fun, but I was not sure I would be able to do it since everything else I tried previously had failed.
I signed up for the free month subscription and tried it out. The first 2 week, I worked out one workout a day 3 days a week and found it was something I could do. The trainers advice and encouragement, along with the many different locations and music genres really kept my interest!
I increased to a workout everyday and soon multiple workouts a day. My back began to feel better and my range of motion in my shoulder returned 100%.
VRFI: It’s great that you found something that allowed you to workout in your own home, hold your interest, and fit within your own physical needs!
Eric: Yes and after 2 months using Supernatural, I “graduated” to Medium Intensity and went through the entire Medium catalogue! I tried the High Intensity workouts and found out that I could do those as well, although they were obviously more challenging.
VRFI: So you began in January and it’s now June. What positive effects have you seen since you’ve been working out in VR?
Eric: I’ve lost 61 pounds, I’ve been able to cut out 2 of the 3 blood pressure pills, with doctor supervision, and I hope to stop the blood pressure medication and perhaps cholesterol medication all together in the very near future.
VRFI: That’s fantastic. Have you seen other positive changes besides the weight loss?
Eric: I feel so much better and walk around the neighborhood without back pain. I now choose the stairs instead of the elevator and I feel like I have gotten so much of my life back that I previously had taken for granted.
VRFI: Congratulations! Do you have any last comments to share?
Eric: I have no doubt that without Supernatural, I would still be on high doses of my medication with limited mobility and those 61 pounds still on me.
VRFI: Well congratulations on an amazing transformation and thank you for sharing the story of your wellness journey with us. We wish you the best!
If you’d like to learn more about Supernatural VR, join the community on social media or download Supernatural today on the Oculus Quest.
VR is the only gaming platform I can think of that has games that seem weak on the surface but are forgiven because of the immersion that VR can bring. Some titles in VR are helped by this immersion and others suffer greatly for constantly finding ways to break it, but every so often, a VR title becomes more than the sum of its parts. While it’s hard to identify what kind of game Into the Radius is truly trying to be, it is admirable in its attempt to create a game in the vein of S.T.A.L.K.ER and the Metro series. While it doesn’t succeed with flying colors on all fronts, it does enough to warrant a playthrough of it if you can handle the tense and terrifying moments that the game brings.
The Basics
I’m not sure why game developers still do this, but yet again in Into the Radius, we are subjected to a painfully long tutorial that lasted almost 30 minutes for me, and during this time I could barely find the will to continue playing it was so bad. Once you get past one of the worst tutorials I’ve ever experienced though, that is where Into the Radius’s magic takes place. This game does something very novel and instead of holding your hand, it chops its own arm off and says “go find it for me.” Instead of having the typical map that shows you where everything is, you actually get a map that you can hold in your hands and actually have to look around at your surroundings to see where you currently are. This is for all intents and purposes a survival game taking place in a post-cataclysmic event in Russia and the result is one of the most harrowing and intriguing experiences I’ve had in VR, even if the shortcomings do pop up to keep this title from truly being great.
What it feels like to play
The best way to describe the experience is what if Metro: Exodus and Death Stranding had a baby in VR? As bizarre of a combo as that may seem, there doesn’t appear to be anything more apt for comparison. As a VR title, Into the Radius stands alone in terms of atmosphere and visual storytelling. It’s very minimalistic in its approach though, so you have to be able to appreciate that type of nuance to get the most out of this experience. You’re armed with pretty much whatever you can find in this game and if you die, those items will now be gone, starting you from scratch. Your enemies, while not the most varied, are a particularly terrifying blend of ghostly specters and creatures pulled right out of PREY. The result is a disturbing and highly unsettling journey through a post-apocalyptic Russia that offers you little to no idea about what is going on while constantly throwing one creepy scenario at you after another. The physics system at play is undoubtedly the highlight here and it takes what seems to be a pretty janky experience at the start and adds some serious quality to the proceedings. You’ll be manually loading ammo, grabbing your backpack off your back with your own hands as well as vaulting over and climbing obstacles in front of you. Although it is not the most sophisticated, you will also have melee combat available here for when you run out of bullets, though this isn’t exactly a game built to excel in that area, so the resulting gameplay there is kind of dull. The best way to explain how I felt while playing Into the Radius was on a constant state of wonder in fear. Wondering what the hell is going on in this game and fear over the approaching sounds of otherworldly death the get louder around every corner that I turn.
What will keep you playing?
For me, it was the intrigue of the story and figuring out just what is happening in this cruel and terrifying world you’re in and what the meaning of it all was. Gameplay-wise, it is not the most thrilling thing out there by any stretch of the imagination. But the sounds and the mystery that plagues every scenario had me coming back to see what else is out there. Yes, the enemies are repetitive and the graphics are nowhere near something like a Half-Life: Alyx, but the mood of Into the Radius is something that it completely nails 100 percent and it is one of those titles that will have you thinking about it long after you put the controller down. The challenge is also pretty palpable and planning your routes and escapes requires a lot of careful tracking of your position and remembering the locations you have to get to as well and it all comes together to create an experience that might not be perfect, but it sure is memorable.
Preparation-
I found the play area needed for Into the Radius varied a decent amount and there while the exercise you’ll be doing during your playtime is generally not strenuous, you will still need to be vaulting over things, climbing, and ducking a good amount of the time as well, so have a decent space to play in if possible.
Intensity- 7/10
I recorded my 30-minute workout using a Fitbit and an Oculus Quest 2 Headset.
Calories burned: 126 Calories burned per minute: 3 Average Heart Rate: 98 Max Heart Rate: 120 Active Minutes: 30
Into the Radius is a terrifying experience most of the time and it does so in a way that isn’t filled with your typical jump scares or with cheap gore. Into the Radius creates its horror through the use of sound effects and dread and while the actual enemies you encounter are surely not the most horrible things you can encounter in VR, their movements and audio cues make them some of the most chilling encounters I’ve had in VR and although you won’t be sweating from fighting them, you definitely will be from trying to escape them.
Arms- 7/10
You won’t be getting any great workout here in general, but your arms will most certainly be active during your time with Into the Radius and whether you’re reaching for items in a pinch over your shoulder, slashing at enemies like crazy with a melee weapon, or vaulting over and climbing obstacles, your arms have a surprisingly active role to play in this chilling wasteland and depending on your playstyle, you could find yourself in a constantly active role where you will eventually get a burn going in your arms or not much exercise at all if you play it cautiously instead.
Legs- 8/10
It’s usually pretty tough to find a good leg workout in your VR games, but Into the Radius at least gives you the option to get them involved with a solid realistic crouching technique. Due to the nature of limited resources like health, ammo, and weapons in the game, it’s not surprising that stealth is a huge part of what makes Into the Radius tick and if you have the realistic crouching option on, then you basically control what height you are at all times. This is important because these enemies are extremely perceptive and ducking down in the middle of a huddle of enemies is necessary and creates some of the most memorable moments in a VR horror game since The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners.
Core/ Balance- 7/10
I found myself crouched and leaning around corners for an insane amount of time during my playthrough of Into the Radius and after a while, I felt my core muscles start to tighten up from being in the same position for too long. I don’t recommend getting as immersive as I ended up getting with this game, but if you are gripped into the moment and just will not accept being caught by the enemies no matter what, then get those abs prepared because there are tons of enemies that will make you crouch and crawl and duck out of their sight. The climbing aspect involved the core a bit too, though the mental part of climbing VR definitely had an impact on how much I thought I was getting out of the actual physical act needed.
Time Perception- 7/10
If this were a higher-tier quality game, the perception of time would be completely unnoticeable because, with the atmosphere created here, you’re not going to be worried about what time dinner is. You’re going to be focused on what items you have left in your backpack. Whether the bullets remaining in your gun will be enough to take out those shadowy beings nearby and whether your sprint will get you past them without one of the anomalies taking you out of the act first. The relatively easy nature of the game physically speaking also does a ton to keep the immersion full at all times and although it doesn’t have the most varied gameplay, it is certainly gripping.
Replayability- 8/10
With games like this, there is a ton of freedom available for you to approach combat scenarios in any way you want. Do you want to go in loud? Then you’ll be spending most of your time accumulating all the weapons you can find. If you are more of a stealthy player, then you won’t mind sneaking around most of the encounters and instead most of your time will be plotting out where to run and how to get to the objective as fast as you can. When you die in-game, you lose all of your items that were stored in your backpack. Because of this, there is a feeling of randomization each time you start a new because your path is most likely going to be different most times, so you could choose a different route if the first one ended in failure.
Fitness Scalability- 7/10
In terms of how you can scale this workout to fit you better, there are not a ton of options. Where the options come in though, are largely based on your playstyle. If you play the game straight up like a horror title and stick to the most conventional paths there are, then the fitness aspect won’t be too taxing. However, if you get more creative, you can find yourself climbing towers, vaulting over obstacles as you run away from enemies or engaging with hand-to-hand combat and all of those will significantly increase your physical output here.
Dizziness/ Lack of Nausea- 7/10
The visuals in Into The Radius are not exactly pleasing to the eye, though they are smooth enough to never really cause any glitching or lag thankfully. My experience was a mixed bag in terms of dizziness as I felt the on-ground gameplay played pretty well. It was only when I started attempting to climb things and vault over obstacles where my stomach turned a bit. The issue here is that things get very glitchy when pulling off these maneuvers and you sometimes will see your arms morph to other sides of your body and other unsettling phenomena. I tried changing graphics settings, but it seems this is a built-in problem and while it may not affect most people, I found the experience to be particularly jarring.
Social Competition- 0/10
There is no multiplayer in Into the Radius and therefore we will not be adding it into our VR Fit Score.
VR Fit Score- 7.2/10
Game Score- 7.5/10
The Good
Into the Radius tries something completely different than anything I’ve seen in VR before. It brings a post-cataclysmic Russia as a backdrop for what can often be a terrifying experience and if you have been looking for an action title with some scares to boot since playing through Half-Life: Alyx for the 10th time, Into the Radius might just provide what you’ve been looking for. The difficulty of the game makes sure that you take its threats seriously and figuring out how to outmaneuver each of the enemies is a fun and challenging experience that leaves plenty of options open for how you want to approach a fight. The graphics, while not pretty, create an unsettling atmosphere that supports the ongoing eeriness surrounding every event in the game.
The Bad
The tutorial for the game is simply maddening and some people might turn off the game before this bloated mess of boring how-to-do’s is over with. In terms of physics, Into the Radius tries to put itself up there with the titans of VR, but sadly just doesn’t seem to have the technology needed to pull off smooth transitions and everything feels like it takes a bit longer to make certain things happen than they should. While the enemies are creepy and fun to fight, the variety is lacking and after a while, it feels like you’ve seen all Into the Radius has to offer.
Into the Radius is available on Steam for $29.99 and playable on Oculus Quest 1/2 via link, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Valve Index and Windows Mixed Reality Headsets.
Are you someone who wants to maintain a healthier lifestyle, but you can’t ever stick with a normal workout routine? Let’s be honest, heading to the gym to lift weights, run on a treadmill, or wait in line to use a machine can be a chore. Not only can it become derivative, which can lead to burnout, but it’s also just not fun.
Fortunately, within the ever-growing VR fitness scene, there are a number of different ways in which you can look to utilize virtual reality technology in the pursuit of staying healthy. While some of the simplest ways to use VR devices might just be to purchase a headset and use it from the comfort of your own home, other companies are looking to create experiences that can take your fitness habits to a whole other level. Black Box Fitness is just one of the most prominent programs of this type that is available and it looks to give you a workout routine unlike any other.
So just what is Black Box VR? And what makes it so unique compared to other VR fitness offerings that are available? Here’s everything you need to know about the program.
In simplest terms, Black Box VR combines Virtual Reality with a dynamic cable resistance machine. However, these two elements don’t just simply mesh to create a basic workout routine. Instead, Black Box VR offers a workout unlike anything else you have ever experienced, or likely ever will.
“The Black Box VR exercise program is a full-body workout where you’ll work every muscle group, intensely, 3 to 4 times per week, to get a well-rounded fitness program that will give you fast results,” explained Ryan DeLuca, CEO and Co-Founder of Black Box VR. “It’s a place where you go to get a really great workout, get in shape super-fast, all while having fun playing a game and being immersed in a virtual environment.”
Origins
Black Box VR was founded by fitness fanatics Ryan DeLuca & Preston Lewis. The team spent years building Bodybuilding.com into the largest online supplement retailer in the world (with nearly $500m in annual sales). With the collaboration of many talented individuals, they created some of the world’s most recognized supplement brands, chart-topping fitness mobile applications, were honored with award-winning health & fitness campaigns, and created the world’s largest online fitness social network (with over 3m members), while always holding true to the mission of changing people’s lives.
In 2016 Preston and Ryan decided to start their new venture, Black Box VR, with a mission to disrupt the fitness industry once again by creating innovative products and experiences that create lasting change in people’s lives. After trying virtual reality for the first time, Ryan and Preston knew they were experiencing a magically immersive technology that, if paired with resistance training, gaming principles and high intensity cardio, will be the winning combination for people trying to reach their health & fitness goals. Black Box VR is redefining fitness as we know it.
How Does the Black Box VR Work?
“You go to a Black Box VR Virtual Training Center and you’re immersed inside your own virtual reality system. You’ll walk into a private booth, put on the headset and you’re inside this big sports arena. That’s where you’re going to play a game, a video game, where you’ll actually use your actual body’s strength and power to do different resistance exercises,” DeLuca explained of the core experience that lies at the heart of Black Box VR. “As soon as you walk into the Black Box VR world, the machine starts to configure based on you. It’s completely personalized based on your height. It tracks everything you’re doing in minute detail to give you the exact amount of resistance that you need to progress in your fitness results.”
Speaking more to how virtual reality and this resistance machine, Preston Lewis, Co-Founder & Chief Design Officer of Black Box VR, described the process a bit more. “In the game, when you’re in the virtual reality environment with the headset on, you reach back, you grab a handle, you can feel the real handle. The handle is under real tension and can go up to 110 Lbs. per handle so this is real weight, perfectly calibrated to you,” Lewis said. “As you’re doing reps: chest press, shoulder press, squat, deadlift, all these different compound movements in a full-body workout, the game is actually responding to what the machine is doing. The stronger I am in real life, corresponds to stronger attacks in the game. The machine and the artificial intelligence behind everything is automatically progressing you to keep you in that sweet sport for maximum fat burning and maximum muscle building.”
And while that all might sound interesting and fun on its own, Black Box VR also makes sure to create a compelling situation for players so that they’re even more motivated to work hard than they might already be. “Users, when they play these games, they want to get straight into the action, but the narrative piece of that really plays a really big role in that,” said Colby Morgan, the director of VR development at Black Box VR. “For us it’s finding that good balance of having an immersive story where users feel like they can connect with these characters, it makes sense, but they’re also getting put right into the action, which makes a 30-minute workout feel like 10 minutes.”
As you can see, Black Box VR is meant to give you the same high-intensity workout that you get by lifting weights and cardio activities. Thanks to the power of Virtual Reality, though, the experience becomes one that is more engaging, compelling, and altogether just a whole lot more fun.
How Can it Help You? What are the Benefits?
Credit to: Black Box VR
Naturally, the thought of playing a video game for fitness purposes often leads people to think that the workout they’ll be getting isn’t on the same level as the one they could get if they were to do their own routine at the gym. With Black Box VR, however, that couldn’t be further from the truth. Not only does Black Box VR match up with a number of other workout programs, but it might also just be outright better than many others that you’ve done before.
“In a lot of traditional fitness experiences, people go to the gym, they’re not really sure which dumbbell to pick up, what weight to do, how many reps they should do and there’s all this cognitive overload. In Black Box VR, we’ve really simplified that, you just go in there, you play the game and the weights will automatically progress as you get stronger, based on the artificial intelligence that is baked into the system,” Lewis said of how simple it is to use the system.
“We know at Black Box VR that you need resistance training,” DeLuca said of how the program truly looks to give your body the best workout possible. “Doing true strength training is actually going to transform your body, it’s going to shape your body, it’s going to give you strength, it’s going to give you functional fitness that you can take out into the world and they’re showing that it actually burns more calories.”
Watch a Black Box VR Fitness Workout and Gameplay
One of the most basic benefits of Black Box VR compared to numerous other programs comes with just how engaging it is. “When you go in for traditional workouts, it’s hard to be motivated every day,” DeLuca said. “But we all know, that working out really hard consistently over time is the secret to fitness success. The great thing about a video game and a sport is that even if you’re not in the mood to really push that hard, the sport environment challenges you to push as hard as you can to get those points. Nobody likes to lose and as soon as you see that you might be on the way to losing you’re going to push extra hard, get those points, and win your next battle.”
And perhaps the best part of all with Black Box VR is that it’s a routine that isn’t static whatsoever. The team behind Black Box VR is looking to continually improve the program by taking user feedback into account. “We’ve been doing it for a few years, it’s a product that nobody has ever seen before and because nobody has ever seen it before and because we’re developing it for the first time, it’s really really important for us to listen to our users,” said Jim Bradbury, General Manager at Black Box VR. “Their feedback is critical for us to be able to see how well we’re designing the experience, things that we need to improve, ideation for new features that want to put into the experience.”
While it might be easy to think that Black Box VR’s application as a video game could make the experience have fewer benefits than other programs, you can clearly tell that the benefits of this system are far more substantial than you might realize.
What is the Black Box VR Dynamic Resistance Machine?
Credit to: Black Box VR
While the VR headset might be the flashiest device involved with the Black Box VR setup, it’s the system’s dynamic resistance machine that is truly putting your body through its paces. However, this isn’t just any run-of-the-mill weight training machine. Instead, the dynamic resistance machine has been designed specifically to work in tandem with what’s happening within your VR headset.
Speaking more to the dynamic resistance machine and what makes it so special, Black Box VR’s director of engineering, Rich Reavis, has explained more about the equipment is constructed. “The dynamic resistance machine has a couple of really cool features about it that are automated which are the stabilization pad and the handles themselves,” Reavis said. “We’ve identified at least 20 or 25 exercises that you can do on this single piece of equipment. The stabilization pad is another automated feature of the dynamic resistance machine so it actually can move to a position that you need it to, say you’re doing standing row or chest press, it’s based off that information from the calibration sequence so we know how tall you are and roughly where that pad needs to be to give you the ultimate stability to be able to perform that certain exercise.”
Reavis also talked a bit more about how the machine also works in unison with the VR headset that users have to wear when using Black Box VR. “Oftentimes people ask us, how do you know where you are in VR when you’re using our system so when a user signs up and comes in for their first session, they get a pair of arm garments, that they actually put on their wrist, that’s what they put the arm shields on to do the workout and basically it allows us to know exactly where you are in VR,” Reavis stated.
Credit to: Black Box VR
As for the workouts that can be done with the machine, users can harness six compound movements. “We have chest press, shoulder press, back row, lat pulldown, squat, and deadlift which give you the majority of your exercise training movements,” Lewis said. “We have the HIIT training which is the shadowboxing piece where you’re punching and slicing to keep your heart rate elevated and increase your cardiovascular health and then we also have supplemental workouts that we’ve been adding on and continuing to refine with bicep curls, tricep pushdowns. A lot of those are single-joint movements so we have the game and the AI gives you an incentive to do more of the compound movements so you can get the bigger bang for the buck with the actual fitness routine. But, the machine allows us to have all sorts of exercise movements that we can unlock in future updates.”
Tracking Your Fitness Results in the Black Box VR App
One of the biggest needs for anyone that’s looking to lose weight or stay in shape often comes in the form of an app or other device that allows you to track your progress. With Black Box VR being such a unique fitness program, though, it’s hard to know what to track on your own in order to see if you are meeting your goals. As luck would have it, though, Black Box VR comes with its own application so that you can see all of your results easily and directly.
Credit to: Black Box VR
The Black Box VR app is one that you can download onto your own mobile device so that you can see your progress no matter where you might be. While getting a look at your own goals might be nice, where the app gets even better is how it shows your own progress compared to others.
Since Black Box VR is a game, after all, the app includes an element of competition. You can not only see how you’re doing when compared to others who might be using Black Box, but you can look to beat the scores that your friends may have set. “Exercise is way more fun when it’s competitive and social, and so in the mobile app, you can see all of your friends, you can add friends, you can invite friends, you can share progress. It creates this community and allows you to see where you rank with leaderboards, we have quests, we have challenges, all of these things bring together a tight-knit community in the Black Box VR experience,” Lewis said of the app.
In addition to keeping up with friends, the app offers numerous other tasks for you to get lost in. This includes leaderboards, quests, and a ton of other cosmetic features that will make you feel like the star of your own video game. There is also a card system within the app that works in quite a unique once you set foot back into the world of Black Box VR. “The other cool thing about the app is we have all these different game mechanics that people resonate with so every workout that you do, you unlock a workout chest, in the workout chest, you have different cards. The more cards you get, the more you can upgrade your Champions, the stronger they get in-game,” Lewis said of this system. “You can unlock powerups, you can unlock different coins and purchase different items in the mobile app and as you’re unlocking all of these digital chests, you are leveling up your characters which give you a better chance of winning in the game. One of the cool things about Black Box VR is that we can bridge the physical and the digital worlds and so with that as you beat certain bosses you unlock certain pins or as you collect different gems you can redeem them for different event entries or physical goods.”
So at this point, you’re surely wondering how you can try out Black Box VR for yourself. As mentioned the program isn’t something that you’re going to be able to just set up in your own living room or run down the street and replicate at your own local gym.
At the moment, there are six Black Box VR gym locations within the United States. Most of these locales are in the western part of the country for the time being. The Black Box VR website lists all of their locations.
If you do happen to live near one of these virtual sports training centers and are looking to give the experience a shot soon, Black Box VR is absolutely free to try at first. “Come in for a 30-minute, world-class workout and honestly, it’s free,” implored Bradbury. “You get to try it for free, there’s nothing holding you back from changing your life and beginning a brand new fitness journey that you’re going to be on for years. “
Conclusion
Credit to: Black Box VR
As a whole, Black Box VR happens to be one of the most unique VR gaming experiences that you can find right now. Not only is it special purely because of how it combines VR tech and weight training, but it also pound-for-pound could be one of the most enjoyable fitness-focused video games around.
“Our core mission with Black Box VR is to help people transform their lives using addictive fitness experiences that leverage the power of immersive technologies and so everything that we do is with the customer in mind,” Lewis said of the program’s primary aim. “We want the customer to have the best time ever, we want them to have the most immersive workout experience. We want them also to be getting the real fitness results that are going to allow them to be a healthier human. It not about aesthetics and becoming a massive bodybuilder or any of that stuff. This is about functional fitness that’s gonna help people build lean muscle mass, burn calories, and finally stick to their fitness routine.”
Black Box VR Fitness is expanding across the US. To keep up with their growth and new locations, join the Black Box VR Fitness newsletter or follow them on social.
I believe more than any other gaming platform out there that VR players come to the platform for a particular experience. Some people love interactive puzzle games and for that, VR has options in spades. Others want to be able to bring all those first-person shooters they have played for years and there are now tons of options for VR shooters as well. The least plentiful game type in the VR world though is the fantasy RPG. While there is Skyrim VR and Asgard’s wrath, those are pretty much the only two games in VR that qualify for that position. Luckily, we have another contender for a fantasy RPG of your choice in the form of The Wizards: Dark Times. The first game was a nice little RPG in itself, but it was a rather short experience and felt at times that it was more of a demo of what a larger, more fully realized VR fantasy RPG would look like. The Wizards: Dark Times is a step up from the original in every single way and is a pretty fun way to get a magical workout going in your headset.
The Basics
You start out the Wizards: Dark Times in a somewhat lengthy tutorial that teaches you how everything works. While this is normally a bit of a pain to slog through, here it is definitely necessary as there is a bit more involved in the systems of the game than you might initially assume. See, in this game, magic isn’t simply activated by pressing a button, nope, that’s not what VR is all about. Here, you will be doing actual gestures with your hands in order to summon your powers. To create a fireball, you hold the trigger in one hand and twist your hand over to summon the flame. It’s a fun, but powerful feeling mechanic that lends real weight to what you are doing. To get your shield out, you hold the trigger and then draw your hand from your shoulder to the front of you in order to get it to activate. This can be a bit unwieldy at first, but the more that you play, the more these gestures becomes second nature. It really feels like you are becoming a Wizard as you master these different spells, so serious kudos for creating this sort of immersion. There are 11 spells in total to master, so there is a lot to keep in mind when it comes to your muscle memory here. The spells aren’t all just ranged attacks either as you can summon melee weapons to do battle with as well. Throughout the game, you will fight all different kinds of magical creatures and the enemy designs are pretty fantastic and help set the tone for this decidedly darker adventure than the first game.
What it Feels Like to Play
This is not a fully open-world experience, but rather a linear adventure that is broken up into levels. The levels all flow nicely into each other, letting you know you’re going deeper and deeper towards the source of the deadly plague moving throughout the land. The gameplay is broken up into fighting segments, climbing segments, and puzzle segments. The climbing is particularly noteworthy as there are some great mechanics here and you will have to work pretty hard to get to your destination. Graphically, the experience is just gorgeous and lets you see a glimpse into the future of what this genre could produce. It isn’t the longest experience, but it’s a fun one that asks something different of you than most games in the genre. As far as magic systems go in VR games, The Wizards: Dark Times has created what should be the golden standard going forward.
What will keep you Playing?
The adventure isn’t all that long, coming in at about 5 hours, but there is plenty of fun to be had here and experimenting with how the spells all interact with each other is incredible fun. You can choose from different difficulties as well, so this will definitely keep you busy for a bit. Combining your ice spells with your pulse spell will create an incredible shattering effect and there are several other combinations that fun to figure out on your own, so much of the allure of returning to the game relies on your enthusiasm in becoming a creative wizard. There is an arena as well now which has been added on and with this, you get a Blade and Sorcery type of situation where you can spawn endless enemies to use your magic abilities on and with multiple arenas available to play in and special abilities to unlock like exploding enemies, we could see this game becoming awfully popular going forward.
Preparation-
You will need a decent amount of space available to you as this game supports full room-scale, so projectiles and the like can be dodged physically as well as with the controller. For all the spell gestures, you need some space to spread your wingspan out, so a 5×5 space overall is the best thing to have available to you.
Intensity- 6/10
I recorded my 30-minute workout on a Fitbit and played on an Oculus Quest 2 Headset.
Calories burned: 104 Calories burned per minute: 3 Average Heart Rate: 83 Max Heart Rate: 115 Active Minutes: 30
The Wizards: Dark Times is a surprisingly intense experience. You are very much going to be active during this experience, and although a magic-based VR experience might not speak to that, here the twists are thrown into the magic system and all the climbing involved gets a sweat going as quickly as any title in VR. The visual experience is quite intense as well as you explore a gorgeously detailed VR world that is as breathtaking as it is creepy and the enemies will keep you on your toes at all times as the chaos unfolds around you.
Arms- 8/10
Arms are everything for you in The Wizards: Dark Times. Whether you are going through your 11 different spells via hand gestures or firing your bow at your enemies, you will feel your arms get a great workout while playing through this magical tale. The best workout comes via the dual magic blades though and you can use these throughout your adventure whenever your enemies come close enough to hit. The bow is also a fantastic way to get a workout as well as you’ll be drawing and launching the arrows yourself and any veteran of VR archery knows how tiring that can get after a while and here it is the same deal. Another power that can be used to get some physical exercise is the shards attack, which has you spawn 3 shards on each hand and you can whip them at your enemies with a swipe of your hand.
Legs- 6/10
Your legs aren’t too involved with The Wizards: Dark Times, but there are a few moves you can do to get them involved. Many of the enemies in the game love to launch projectiles at you as their primary form of attack and while you can dodge in-game moving side to side, I found the best method was actually dodging and ducking in real life and this works surprisingly well and turns you from a rather stationary Wizard into a mobile force of nature that is not easily beaten. Of course, you can also forgo this method and play sitting down instead, but then you won’t be getting anything out of it leg workout-wise.
Core/Balance- 7/10
You are going to need your balance in this one and it’s a bit of a surprise that The Wizards: Dark Times decided to throw in countless climbing segments, adding some serious verticality to the proceedings that you might not expect out of a fantasy game of this kind. Because of that, you need to keep your center of gravity as reaching for the next grabbable notch in a wall can easily leave you off balance so you should make sure you don’t lose your place in the room while in the climbing segments. Core-wise, you will get some work from the climbing segments for sure, but the majority of it will come from activating your spells that have you stretching your arms from the middle of your body then outward. These spells usually require quick gestures too and after a while, that can be quite tiring.
Time Perception- 9/10
The Wizards: Dark Times is an amazing visual experience that will suck you into its whimsical game world and quickly dig its claws into you with an addictive magic system and a fun enough gameplay to keep you enthralled for a good amount of time. Because of the relatively low intensity of the game fitness-wise, you will be able to play for hours on end with little difficulty. While you are in the game, everything from the music to the intrigue of what enemies might be around the corner will keep you playing for a while.
Replayability- 8/10
There are a bunch of different difficulty modes to choose from that can inspire multiple playthroughs, but the real replayability here comes from the Arena as well as the upcoming multiplayer add-on. With the arena, you have an infinite sandbox to play around in and with all the spells unlocked from the start, you can go wild against tons of enemies which will actually work up far more of a sweat than the actual game might produce.
Fitness Scalability- 8/10
You can scale your workout in-game in one major way and that is through different styles of gameplay. In The Wizards: Dark Times, you can either be a ranged attacker, lobbing fireballs at your enemies, or you can be up close and personal, smashing your enemies with ice blades or jabbing them with magical claws. I found the most tiring of the powers came from the ice bow, which you have to notch and fire manually each time, but the fireball throwing also got my arms involved quite a bit and you can easily tire yourself out throwing fireballs like a magical baseball pitcher.
Dizziness/ Lack of Nausea- 9/10
The Wizards: Dark Times is an amazing visual experience that comfortably puts you in the shoes of an all-powerful wizard and despite the occasional bombardment of visual effects in combat, I never felt too overwhelmed or dizzy during the game’s most intense moments. Where things might get a bit dizzying is with the vertical segments and whether you are climbing a wall or scaling the ropes in your home base, the feeling of being high above the ground with just your grip to hang onto can be a tough experience to get used to, so those who are afraid of heights might find themselves struggling a bit at times during the game.
Social Competition- 7/10
This is a tough category because for one, well, multiplayer does not exist at the moment, BUT there is a big update planned for the end of 2021, and considering the lack of options in the VR gaming landscape when it comes to multiplayer games with magic involved, this could be an incredible addition to what already is a very fun experience. Even if it’s as simple as a co-op mode, going through the story with a friend sounds like a ton of fun, and combining your magic arsenals should be an amazing thing to witness.
VR Fit Score- 7.5/10
Game Score- 8/10
The Good
The Wizards: Dark Times is an amazingly original experience that combines your physical efforts with some visual splendor to create a VR experience you won’t soon forget. The enemies are wonderfully weird and creative and the world you get to explore is one of the most detailed and whimsically realized places I’ve seen in VR. All other games using magic as a base idea for their gameplay will be stealing from The Wizards: Dark Times for the foreseeable future, it is an absolute game-changer.
The Bad
It’s a relatively short experience, so if you are looking for something that will fill your desire for a true Fantasy RPG that will engulf you for hours and hours, that isn’t the kind of experience you’ll be getting here. The story is also pretty light, so if you were hoping for an engaging tale that will grip you from moment to moment, that won’t be the case here either. The spells are pretty limited as well and it would have been nice to see a larger arsenal for a full VR experience. Oddly enough, the sound quality of many of the spells is extremely quiet and in no way matches the crazy amount of power you are displaying on the screen.
The Wizards: Dark Times is available on Steam,The Oculus Store, and The Oculus Quest Store for $24.99 and playable on the Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest, HTV Vive, Valve Index, and Windows Mixed Reality Headsets.
VREvolution officially launches their VR esports league platform today at noon PDT/3 pm EDT with a 3-division Population: One tournament featuring solo competition.
BigBox VR’s Population: One quickly rose to the ranks of the premier battle royale game in immersive reality following its October 2020 launch. The developers have remained engaged with the community and consistently introduce updates and new features.
VREsports.com, the parent organization that created VREvolution, has been planning to host a Population: One competition since last year, but like many others, they were waiting for the release of private rooms. Today’s tournament is their first event on the new platform.
“We want to further grow VREvolution.gg and aim to organize bigger tournaments with more participants and higher prizes,” states Yigit Kirca, Digital Content Manager for VREvolution.gg. “We also plan to offer tournaments for a variety of different games. Our goal is to become one of the biggest platforms for competitive VR, and we are confident that this first tournament will allow us to make a strong debut,”
The team at VREvolution also recognizes the importance of community so they’re active on social media and play games like Population: One regularly themselves. This gives them an opportunity to interact with the community and they also answer questions, discuss competitive VR gaming, and listen to feedback about the games and their esports platform.
Population: One is available on all major VR platforms, including Oculus Quest and Rift, HTC Vive, Windows MR and Valve Index. We encourage you to connect with the community, ask questions, and if you’re interested in competitive VR gaming, sign up for one of the many opportunities to test your skills against other players in official BigBox VR or community events, or just queue up for a match and enjoy climbing, building, and flying in a way that would be impossible outside the realm of virtual reality.
Beat Saber continues to be one of the most prominent games that many in the VR fitness community are familiar with and that’s primarily because of the game’s accessibility and continued support. Now, the beloved rhythm game has received an even new slate of content that brings more diversity to the soundtrack than ever before.
As of now, Beat Saber has received an all-new slate of songs that in total make up what is called the Interscope Mixtape. This name derives from the Interscope music label, which houses a number of different world-renowned artists. In total, seven new songs are contained in this pack and include the following:
OneRepublic – Counting Stars
Kendrick Lamar – DNA
The Pussycat Dolls – Don’t Cha
LMFAO ft. Lauren Bennett and GoonRock – Party Rock Anthem
Limp Bizkit – Rollin’
Maroon 5 – Sugar
Gwen Stefani – The Great Escape
You can also check out a new trailer for the Interscope Mixtape right here:
As mentioned, the best part of this music pack just comes with the sheer diversity that it offers. Interscope is a label the houses a number of different artists of various genres. So while much of Beat Saber’s soundtrack might be centered around rock, electronic, and dance music, this music pack adds a fair amount of pop and rap to the larger setlist. If you’re someone who uses Beat Saber quite a bit to this day with your own VR workouts, having some more options to choose from when it comes to musical genres is never a bad thing and might allow you to get more amped up where previous songs within the game have gotten stale.
If you’re looking to pick up the Interscope Mixtape, the full slate of new songs retails for a limited time at the cost of $9.99 to celebrate the pack’s release. Conversely, you can also buy songs individually at $1.99 per track if you would prefer not to purchase the whole piece of DLC. Beat Saber as a whole (and all of its accompanying add-on music packs) can currently be purchased and played on PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift, Oculus Quest, Valve Index, and HTC Vive devices.
With the way the world has been over the past year, there’s a good chance that you may have not been to the bowling alley in quite some time. Fortunately, the bowling experience is one that is now able to be had on a VR headset near you thanks to a new game that is available to pick up at this moment.
Coming from ForeVR Games, which is a new studio dedicated to creating virtual reality titles, ForeVR Bowl is the company’s first venture which looks to offer an enjoyable bowling experience. The game features six unique bowling alleys across a number of different locations (the moon, a mansion, a disco club, and more) to go along with over 100 different balls to utilize. Not to mention, ForeVR Bowl is also said to include “the latest innovations in gaming technology” to ensure that the bowling experience is somewhat authentic. “ForeVR Bowl uses a cutting-edge bowling simulator and Real Feel throw technology to create an authentic bowling experience that brings real-life games to VR,” explained an accompanying press release of the tech that the game uses.
By far the best aspect for many with ForeVR Bowl is that it is multiplayer-focused. While you can head to the virtual bowling alley by yourself to try and get your own high score, the game is one that is very much able to be played with others and is likely one of its biggest selling points. So if you haven’t gone to your own local bowling alley with your friends in quite some time, this is a solid alternative.
You can get a look at ForeVR Bowl’s gameplay in the trailer down below:
When it comes to the reason why ForeVR Games wanted to create ForeVR Bowl, the answer all came down to providing a simple, enjoyable experience. “Who doesn’t love bowling? It was a lot of fun to imagine and create this alternative bowling universe,” explained Mike Pagano Doom, the CCO of ForeVR. “We took one of America’s favorite and most popular pastimes and adapted it for a VR experience that people of all ages, geographies and abilities can enjoy together,” added ForeVR CEO Marcus Segal.
Obviously, bowling as a whole has never been the most fitness-focused game/sport around. That being said, it is one that prompts you to get up off of your feet and move about. While not every game in the VR fitness space can give you a high-intensity workout, sometimes, it’s purely enough to just get up off of your couch and move about, especially on days where you aren’t up for it. Not to mention, the fact that this is again a multiplayer title means that your friends can help encourage you to play and stay active even at times when you would prefer not to.
When it comes to how you can pick up ForeVR Bowl for yourself, the game is available now on the Oculus Store and is compatible with Oculus Quest and Oculus Quest 2. The game also retails for only $19.99.
Carve Snowboarding for the Oculus Quest represents virtual reality’s first depiction of this intense freeriding winter sport. However, whilst Chuhai Labs might be bringing something novel to the VR medium, they have a proven track record and pedigree when it comes to translating the sport of snowboarding to video games thanks to the involvement of lead programmer Giles Goddard. Goddard was the creator of the Nintendo 64 classic 1080° Snowboarding, and being a keen snowboarder himself, understands both the intricacies and subtleties of the sport. Judging from the game’s style and lingo, Chuhai Labs has been keen to capture the cultural feel of the snowboarding community as well.
It’s an alien world to me, I have no experience of ridin’ the powder or shredding the gnar, and I certainly don’t have much steez. But as a committed writer and reviewer, this novice gaper will endeavor to represent and do his best.
In a recent interview with Oculus, Goddard states that Carve has been carefully designed, much like its 1080° predecessor, to cater to all users having ‘a pick up and play arcade attitude with simulation level snow physics and handling’.
Oculus allowed me the opportunity to speak with Giles, and game producer Mark Lentz last month in the run-up to the game’s reveal at the Oculus Gaming Showcase, and they really sold me on the concept, leaving me feeling excited to try it out.
I was curious, as well as a little skeptical as to how a VR headset with no leg tracking could simulate you riding a snowboard, which I presumed would be mostly about legs. But it turns out, much of snowboarding is done with accurate positioning of the hands.
As Goddard describes ‘ In Carve Snowboarding you stand (or sit) sideways with your front foot and arm facing down the slope and your arms by your sides. Regular-stance players will have their left side towards the nose of the board, and goofy-stance players their right side. While holding the Touch controllers by your sides you can then rotate your body to change the direction of the board, just like in real snowboarding. You can grab any point on the board with either hand by using the grip button and perform spins to do over 100 different tricks, or even make up your own!’.
In practice, I felt this worked really well and it feels surprisingly authentic. The tutorial at the beginning is very basic, just a few pages of text, each with a simple instruction to repeat before progressing to the next. This is probably by design, as it puts you on the slopes within 60 seconds, with just enough instruction to figure out the rest as you play.
The video clip below shows me working through the tutorial at the start of the game and briefly exploring the cabin home location.
My first ride down the slope took 3 minutes 51 seconds to reach the finish line, as I crashed into almost every obstacle. Ten minutes and a couple of tries later I’d manage to get that down just over the qualifying target of 2 minutes 40 seconds, a rate of improvement that gave me encouragement that with a bit of practice I’ll get the hang of this. Subsequent attempts revealed this to be naive optimism on my part!
Compared to other sports-based titles I’ve played, like The Climb or Sports Scramble, I’d say the learning curve here is a lot steeper, although it might well come more naturally to others.
Either way, even with my stumbling, faltering efforts today, I can see that this game offers a lot of potential, and there’s some depth and subtleties to master. I’ve reached out to Chuhai labs today for the opportunity to discuss tips and tricks with them, as I’d love to put together a guide for this game, as much for my own benefit as our readers.
I was given access to the game only a day before release, and whilst that is often enough time to complete some Quest games, with this I’ve barely scratched the surface of what’s on offer. For $19.99 I think if you enjoy the concept there’s a lot of fun to be had, and enough complexity that sick skills can really be honed.
With the time caveat out the way let’s put this game through its fitness paces, but note that I may come back and update this later on, as I definitely intend to play some more.
This video shows one of my better rides down the slope, still not fast enough to unlock the next course! My time of around 2 mins 48 is almost a minute off the best target of 1:50 and even slower than the 2:40 minimum to qualify! This game is hard!
Preparation
First thing first, this is a true 360-degree game. There were multiple occasions when I lifted my headset and found I was facing in a completely different direction to where I thought I was. A couple of times I made contact with a wall, or my bookcase, although not in a hazardous way thankfully, no punches are being thrown after all. But you will definitely need a reasonably sized play area to get the most out of this game.
I used my Fitbit Charge 2 to record the workout and recorded a 30-minute play session. As a typical course run lasts two or three minutes, I essentially just kept repeating the race, so I probably completed around 10 runs in that time. A headband was worn, and I used a VRCover replacement interface and foam pad, to better sweat-protect the headset, and allow for easier cleaning afterward.
Calories burned: 125
Calories per minute: 4
Average heart rate: 121
Max heart rate: 141
Steps:987
Active Minutes: 30, 18 Mins Cardio, 12 Mins Fat Burn
Intensity 7/10, 8/10 If You Leap
Overall, I’d say this game is moderately active, although more so if you have enough space and will to physically jump in time to your in-game jumps. You’ll land a lot more quickly in real life of course, and jumping with a headset on can feel a little disorientating at first, but I enjoyed doing it. The game is more about achieving an accurate body positioning than flailing limbs about, so it won’t reach the intensity of something like FitXR or Beat Saber, but if you really immerse yourself into the experience, crouching over a virtual skateboard, leaning in and throwing yourself in the air to perform tricks and jumps will definitely get you heart rate up and work your entire body.
Arms 7/10
Carve Snowboarding utilizes your arms in a different way to most VR fitness-based games. There’s no slicing blocks or punching here so it’s a lower intensity workout in that sense. But deft maneuvering of your arms and accurate hand positioning is key to achieving mastery of the slopes, and therefore they are constantly being engaged. I felt it in my shoulders after thirty minutes or so. Switching stances as you ride the slopes also feels like an inherently satisfying movement to perform. Much like slicing blocks in Beat Saber, it made me feel considerably cooler playing it inside the headset than I surely looked in reality, and therefore encouraged me to switch often, thus working both my arms and legs more.
Legs 8/10
If you elect to play this standing and assume a crouched stance you’ll soon feel the burn in your thighs. I was constantly switching from regular to goofy stances too and would mirror my in-game jumps by physically jumping in my playspace. This was actually a lot of fun although obviously, I took a lot longer to land in the game than in real life. If you are going to jump physically, make sure your headset is on securely! I definitely got a burn in my quad muscles from the sustained tension of the crouch. Switching from this isometric style of muscle exercise to isotonic, explosive jumps and hops served to work the leg muscles both ways and provided an effective full leg workout.
Core and Balance 9/10
This game is all about balance and coordination! Leaning into turns and away to avoid obstacles will engage all of your core muscles. I’m quite susceptible to lower back pain, and I certainly felt a bit here about fifteen minutes in, which I think was a result of me leaning a bit too far forward. Strangely, it was less of a problem on my second play session later in the day, maybe as I’ve naturally adjusted my positioning to compensate. My abdominals and obliques felt fully engaged throughout the experience. To be successful the game demands fine movements and body adjustments to successfully traverse the mountain slopes, meaning your muscles have a major role to play.
Correct hand placement and positioning are the keys to a successful ride.
Time Perception 9/10
I found this experience really enjoyable, if a bit stop-start, as my inexperience lead to frequent wipeouts which can become a little frustrating. The occasional moments where I rode a rail successfully or stomped a landing were exhilarating, however, urging me to press on and try again. I actually had to repeat my 30 minutes playtest because the first time I got so absorbed in what I was doing I stopped to examine my newly acquired snowboards and their characteristics, as different boards perform better on different snow and surface types. I actually forgot I was doing a playtest and then saw 40 minutes had passed, meaning I had to repeat the test again.
Replayability 9/10
On the surface, it seems there isn’t much content. Just 6 courses, and two modes, time trials and freestyle, where you can perform tricks. However, replayability comes with learning the experience itself. It takes time to master the board’s handling. There is an option in the menu to turn on ‘full edge control’, enabling finer control over the board’s tilt. The game’s physics are realistically modeled and it will take practice, and time to get good, although I expect, much like Beat Saber, naturally coordinated users will pick it up much more quickly than I have. Whilst I think many users will buy this and enjoy it for a few hours, I think there will be a subsection of players who really enjoy perfecting their skills and improving their times and they will find hours’ worth of content here.
In addition to the inherent satisfaction that comes from the feeling of self-improvement at learning a skill, the game also features unlockable snowboards, along with discoverable music, in the form of cassette tapes scattered across the mountain slopes.
The snow cabin serves as a base of operations, and a place where you can relax, listen to the music you have discovered, and pet your dog.
Fitness Scalability 8/10
Credit to Chuhai labs they have worked hard to make the game accessible to all, even making it playable in seated mode. You certainly don’t have to physically jump and crouch the way I did and you can definitely make it an easier experience, but for those wanting to make it more of a workout by jumping and playing as actively that is possible too.
Lack of Nausea 7/10
Now obviously a VR game that simulates you hurtling at speed down a mountainside is likely to be on the intense side, and therefore for newcomers to VR, you might want to acquaint yourself with gentler VR experiences first and get your VR legs before jumping into this. That said, I never felt any nausea and I had all comfort options turned off. If you are susceptible Chuhai labs have some comfort options to reduce the feeling of motion sickness, including a snow tunnel effect, where the faster you go the more your peripheral vision becomes snow-filled, focusing your view on the center. For the hardcore who hate comfort options and think they are for wimps and noobs, relax you can turn those features off!
Social Competition 7/10
The game has a global leaderboard and an asynchronous multiplayer mode, much like The Climb, where you can race against previous times, and a ghost version of either your own best time or that of friends and other users. It does provide some element of competition of course, but if this game has any future updates, a real-time multiplayer option would be top of my list of wanted features. Live racing friends down the mountain slopes would be a huge amount of fun and it’s a shame it’s not present yet.
Riding the rails is particularly exhilarating to do when pulled off correctly.
VRFI Fit Score 8/10
Carve Snowboarding fills an important gap so far in the Quest’s library. A winter extreme sports title offers something not previously seen in virtual reality. It’s similar in structure to that other popular extreme sports title The Climb, sharing features such as having unlockable accessories, hidden Easter eggs, asynchronous multiplayer mode, and the courses themselves, just like The Climb has multiple pathways through them.
But whereas the Climb and Climb 2 have more levels, Carve feels to have more depth of playability. With The Climb games, it doesn’t take that long to master the core gameplay, whereas here, there’s lots of nuance and skill required to achieve board mastery, and I think for those, who really enjoy snowboarding this will be a title to sink some hours into and return to again and again. At $19.99 I think this is a good buy for those who value gameplay depth over the number of levels offered. If you’re the kind of player who just wants to race through and complete levels and then on to the next game, this will likely be a short experience of a few hours. But if you’re somebody who enjoys the subtleties of learning and perfecting something you’ll have fun replaying the levels over and over.
As a fitness title, it offers an enjoyable way to get active and improve your balance and coordination, whilst providing an excellent leg workout should be willing to jump about a bit.
The Good
The gameplay is smooth and glitch-free.
The snowboarding experience feels authentic and realistic considering the limitations of the medium.
There is depth and subtlety to the gameplay which will reward players willing to put the time in to learn its intricacies.
Riding rails and pulling off successful tricks is exhilarating.
Excellent game for building core stability and improving your balance.
The Bad
The lack of a real-time multiplayer mode is a bit disappointing.
The game’s resolution is a bit low for Quest 2, with some noticeable aliasing. It looks like a Quest 1 game in that regard. Hopefully, the developers will enable a higher resolution mode for Quest 2 shortly, as has happened with many games on the Quest store.
A large playspace is required for full enjoyment and immersion.
Carve Snowboarding is available now for the Oculus Quest, priced at $19.99
Virtual reality appeals to people of various ages, backgrounds, and lifestyles, and when it comes to VR for wellness, we continue to see middle-aged or older women taking advantage of this technology for its many benefits.
Likewise, some apps seem to have particular appeal and definitely people are picking up headsets specifically to use Supernatural, a full-body cardio workout synced to music and set in beautiful locations. Fans of the VR fitness app regularly share success stories of weight loss, better health, and improved emotional states.
We recently had the pleasure of meeting another enthusiast who has benefitted from Supernatural and wanted to share her wellness journey with you.
VRFI: Hi! Thank you for agreeing to chat with me. Could you please tell our readers a little about yourself?
My name is Karen Krueger. I’m a married 62 year old mom of 20 year old college twins. Prior to Covid 19, I was a Senior Tax Analyst and Associate Team Leader for H&R Block.
In 2020 when the pandemic hit, the offices closed and I was no longer working. Subsequently in March 2020 my horse passed away, my mom passed in May, and both my dogs passed away in June. I had not taken very good care of myself prior to that with all my responsibilities, but 2020 became my year to overcome the grief and become stronger mentally and physically and regain my vitality.
VRFI: That’s a lot of loss and I commend you for focusing on ways to become stronger as you worked through the grief. Could you please share how you were able to take the first steps towards regaining your vitality?
Karen: My fitness journey started in July of 2020 with a used rowing machine. I was 207 pounds and my knees are bone on bone arthritic, so any type of walking similar to or even an elliptical would be very painful. In fact, I would have to use the electric cart at Costco in order to go shopping. Standing for any length of time was nearly impossible. So my only hope was the rowing machine and to develop a diet that would help in reducing calories.
In August of 2020, I started meeting with a neighbor with an in-home gym, and who is a lady boxing champion. She developed a workout that I could do while sitting using resistance bands, hand weights, and other techniques. I began riding my bike and continuing with the exercises at home. My routine increased as I saw the changes happening. I took pictures to help myself see the changes, and remind myself of the “before” and the positive changes taking place right before my eyes.
VRFI: How did these changes lead to your VR fitness journey?
Karen: In March of 2021, I saw an ad for Supernatural VR workout. By this time, my weight had dropped to 169lbs, and my physical abilities had improved immensely. This program looked so interesting. I loved the full body workout with the music, and the scenery along with the motivation by the coaches. I decided this was the next step in my fitness journey so I took the leap and bought the Oculus Quest 2 and signed up for Supernatural. I have been hooked ever since!
VRFI: What do you like about working out in virtual reality?
Karen: Once I put the headset on and saw the beauty, and the music, I have been working out 7 days a week. I tried Beat Saber, but it didn’t have the same type of music or environment that Supernatural has. The immersive environment in Supernatural is like nothing I had experienced before. It’s like an escape visiting so many beautiful places around the world. It is so amazing!
VRFI: What benefits have you seen since you began using Supernatural for fitness?
The physical benefits of Supernatural have been astounding! I can squat, and shift my weight side to side, where I couldn’t do that before. With the music and movement, it has shaved years off my body, and has toned my legs, arms and abs to the point that in 8 weeks I dropped a pant size and a shirt size. In total I have dropped 42 pounds, 3 pant sizes and 3 shirt sizes. Increased mobility and muscle tone are the two biggest improvements I have experienced in the past 2 months of using VR.
Supernatural has been the best calorie burner for me along with strength training. VR replaces the rowing machine and biking, but I still workout 3 days a week with my boxing coach.
VRFI: Do you have suggestions for others who might be considering a VR fitness routine?
Karen: My suggestion would be to anyone who is on the fence about trying it is to give yourself the gift of whole health improvement through music, movement, and cardio strength training while having a blast. There are so many other games or apps that can appeal to so many different interests as well, so the variety keeps the interest going. I am thankful everyday for finding VR and the changes it has made in my life.
VRFI: Thanks so much for sharing your wellness journey with us, Kathy. We wish you continued health and wellness!
We encourage community members to connect with others throughout all stages of your wellness journey. If you’d like to learn more about the fitness program Karen uses, you can find Supernatural on social media or join their Discord server.
How Does the Black Box VR Work?
In addition to keeping up with friends, the app offers numerous other tasks for you to get lost in. This includes leaderboards, quests, and a ton of other cosmetic features that will make you feel like the star of your own video game. There is also a card system within the app that works in quite a unique once you set foot back into the world of Black Box VR. “
