Facebook announced that it will host demos of its upcoming high budget Oculus Rift exclusives Stormland and Defector at PAX South 2019.
PAX is a collection of gaming festivals held each year since 2004. PAX South is held in San Antonio, Texas. This year it will take place on January 18th-20th. Oculus has had a presence at at least one PAX event per year since 2013.
Both titles are funded by Oculus Studios- Facebook’s VR content division.
Stormland
Stormland is an open world co-op adventure from Insomniac Games.
The game features a vast open world that is part procedural and part hand crafted. It also features mechanics like crafting and climbing. The graphics look incredible- this may be the best looking made for VR open world title yet.
When we tried it at PAX West last year we were blown away, concluding that it could be something truly special.
Insomniac’s previous VR titles were 3rd person Lovecraftian adventure Edge of Nowhere [9/10] and 1vs1 wizard dueling game The Unspoken [9/10]. Outside VR they developed hit titles like Spyro the Dragon, Ratchet & Clank, and the Resistance series. More recently they developed Marvel’s Spider-Man.
Defector
Defector is an action packed spy game from Twisted Pixel Games that turns you into Jason Bourne (or James Bond, if you prefer). Originally slated for 2018, the game was delayed to some time this year.
We’ve tried this game a few times now- most recently at Oculus Connect 5. Each time we tried it we had a blast. This game probably won’t make you think, but its endless over the top action sequences are downright fun.
Twisted Pixel previously developed Wilson’s Heart [9/10], an incredible VR black & white mystery thriller reminiscent of The Twilight Zone.
What Of Oculus Quest?
Neither game is slated to release on the upcoming Oculus Quest standalone headset. At Oculus Connect 5, Twisted Pixel were listed as working on a Quest title or port however, so it’s possible Defector will see a port. Insomniac was not listed.
It seems unlikely that either game will come to the Quest however as we got the impression that each pushes the boundaries of even PC VR. Standalone systems are significantly less powerful than a PC.
