Gamescom Day 3: Digging this VR chair
Hallo und willkommen.
It’s our last day at Gamescom, and today was our busiest so far, with the most back-to-back meetings. While Gamescom still continues over the weekend, the business area, where all the press appointments usually take place, closed tonight. So, we are all heading home tomorrow, Chris to the UK and me (Kevin) back to Luxembourg.
Like I just mentioned, today was our busiest day, so let’s get straight to it.
Chris Brandrick: Our day started with a look at an upcoming game by legendary designer Takaya Imamura, known for designing the characters and story of F-Zero, the Star Fox series and having played a role in designing titles in the Legend of Zelda series. We bumped into him just before heading in to play the demo which was a nice surprise…
His new game, Omega 6: The Triangle Stars — his first since leaving Nintendo — is based on his manga of the same name. It’s a sci-fi adventure in a 16-bit pixel art-style that follows two main characters, Thunder and Kyra. Imamura told IGN earlier this week that his pixel art work found in this new game is probably the first time he has created original pixel art since his time working on Star Fox. From our short time with the demo, it’s clear that he hasn’t lost his touch for creating a range of characters that have an appealing retro future vibe.
The demo we played today was roughly one hour into the story and tasked you with exploring an alien planet for treasure — this was done via a point and click style interface in which you talk with various alien lifeforms to discover what move to make next. It’s a slow-paced affair, with an amusing script, and a cast of quirky characters. It rewards curiosity and exploration — if you like classic point and click adventures, then this is a neat sci-fi take on the genre.
Omega 6 has already been released in Japan (back in July), but it is currently being localised for a release next year in the west — it’s taking some time due to the sheer amount of text in the game. It will launch for both PC and the Nintendo Switch.
Kevin Wammer: Like yesterday, we’ve checked out some hardware today too — we got our hands on the latest products of accessory maker CRKD.
During Gamescom, they announced a new tiny controller called the Atom, which is basically smaller than a credit card. It comes in eight different colours (including the ever rad Atomic Purple!), but still packs everything you know from a controller (except for analogue sticks).
Controllers like these are mostly meant for gaming on the go, which is why the Atom comes with a wrist strap and can easily be attached to your keys.
Chris Brandrick: I’ve got 8bitdo’s similarly small controller, and I’ve found a good use-case for these types of dinky controllers is to have it chucked in your bag as a spare for whenever the moment may need — whether as a second controller for some portable Switch gaming, as a an option for hooking up to a smartphone for some on-the-go play, or (as I do) as a child-friendly controller for my 5-year old son to use.
Considering I own the 8bitdo Zero 2, I have to say I prefer the button feel on this new option from CRKD. It offered up a more tactile, satisfying press.
Anyway, this upcoming Atom range connects via Bluetooth to pretty much anything that supports it, and comes in at $19.99 / €24.99 / £19.99. It’s expected to ship later this month. I think they’re a neat, versatile option that are so lightweight you’ll forget it's in your bag — but you’ll be glad it is when you need it.
Kevin Wammer: Our highlight today was probably a game called Dig VR, a digger simulator which made use of a curious new motorized VR chair called roto.
All happening in VR on the Meta Quest 3, you control a digger working on a construction site. But what made the experience interesting was the interplay between the Quest 3 headset and the roto VR chair. Every time you rotate the cabin of the digger in-game, the chair we were sitting on actually rotated in the same direction. It also vibrated in a way that at first fooled me into thinking I was actually moving forward in physical space, whilst in reality I was just still sitting at the same spot.
It is this link between both hardware and software that made this experience so interesting. While it is obvious that Dig VR is a game — the graphics don’t try to be true to life, but rather have a more simplified look (as most of the team’s focus went into realistic physics, be that digging dirt, driving over rough terrain, etc) — it was still a believable enough experience that I now would likely dare to take an actual digger for a spin.
One more note on the roto VR. Dig VR is the first game to be fully integrated with the chair using roto’s SDK. But other Meta Quest are also supported thanks to a little adapter that goes on the top strap of the Quest VR goggles. Thanks to this adapter, if you turn your head in real life, the chair will turn in the same direction, which according to roto will especially help people with VR-induced motion sickness.
The roto VR Explorer is available for pre-order now for £799 (roughly $1000), and will ship in a little over a month.
Chris Brandrick: Announced just a few short days ago, today Kevin and I both had the opportunity to play an early version of Two Point Museum — the latest in the Two Point simulation series, following on from the popular Hospital-themed original and subsequent Campus follow up.
As you may have guessed this new Museum sim tasks you with building and curating the ultimate museum space — managing not only what the various exhibition spaces look like, but also going out on expeditions in the wild to find new things to feature in your evolving space.
Despite being an early build of the game, I came away highly impressed — it’s already a polished sim experience that looks to continue the pedigree set by the two prior games in the series. I adored titles like Theme Hospital when I was younger, so to see Two Point Studios have such continued success with these modern interpretations of the classic sim genre is lovely.
Kevin Wammer: Depending on where you live in the world, you may feel the repercussions of Napoleon Bonaparte directly or indirectly (the Napoleonic Code is still in action in some form to this day in Luxembourg).
Well, the first game by Studio Imugi, called Bonaparte: A Mechanized Revolution is only semi-related to the French Emperor. While it shares its name and its setting (the French revolution) with Napoleon, in the timeline of the game Napoleon Bonaparte doesn’t exist. Rather, you play as either Cécile or César Bonaparte, a pair of young military officers, during the early beginnings of the French revolution.
In this strategy game you can influence the outcome of the French revolution, by siding with one of the three major factions from back then (the Moderates, the radical Jacobins, and the monarchy), and fighting in turn-based games with your army including mechs (I’ve told you, this was an alternative timeline — it’s packed with historical accuracy, but is also having fun with the storytelling).
From what we’ve seen, the game appears to be very interesting, especially since it covers one of the most intriguing periods of continental Europe. I can’t wait to try this game when it comes to Steam Early Access in early 2025. You can wishlist it now.
Kevin Wammer: My biggest game highlight of Gamescom overall however is a game I can’t unfortunately say too much about just yet. It’s called Worship (you can find its original Kickstarter campaign here and its Steam page here), and in my eyes it might just be the next Binding of Isaac.
I’ll warn you, I will not shut up about the game as soon as I can talk about it. Go check it out.
Chris Brandrick: That’s a wrap on our Gamescom pop-up — I hope you’ve enjoyed our more personal take on the week. I’d love to read any feedback you may have, so please do hit reply on this email and let us know.
Kevin Wammer: Thank you very much for reading our Gamescom coverage, and we can’t wait to share more of what we have in store for you.
See you back next Sunday for our regular overkill digest newsletter coverage (this Sunday’s newsletter will just be a short recap).
Byyyyyyeee!!!!