It’s hard to believe that Echo Arena, arguably the best multiplayer game on the Oculus Rift, has gone this long without a spectator mode, but it will be getting one soon.
Developer Ready At Dawn this week confirmed that the feature will highlight the upcoming Kronos Update. Depending on the number of players in a match, up to 13 people will be able to watch the zero gravity eSport either from within their Rifts or on their 2D monitors. You’ll be able to watch from a point-of-view first-person camera, or follow players in third-person and even keep the camera fixed to the disc that teams scramble to grab.
Matches now have an increased 15 person limit so, if you’re watching a five vs five match, five other people will be able to watch and so on.
Elsewhere, Arena is adding custom rules to its private games so that you can set factors like time and point limit. There’s also an instant rematch option as well as a restart option.
Many of the other updates are slight, though still appreciated. There are new lobby screens with information on reporting players etc, while the Arena barrier display has been rejigged to provide other information. There’s some minor mechanical tweets too; timing between regrabs has been increased, while the speed of piggy-backing on another player whilst holding the disc has been reduced.
There’s no word on when the patch will go live, though Ready At Dawn is “checking in the finishing touches” so don’t expect it to be too much longer.
It’s a good update, though 2018 promises even bigger things with the arrival of Echo Combat.
