Earlier this month, No More Rainbows and DigiGods developer Squido Studio announced that it was partnering up with gaming streamer jmancurly's video game publishing company CurlyBlue to create VR experiences - the first being a colorful dungeon crawler named Wizherd.

The lore of Wizherd goes that in ancient times, the world was protected by a magical group called "the herd." Life was once peaceful, but now zombies and other evil forces threaten the world. As a result, players now take on the role of wizards as they embark on missions to hold off the forces of darkness.

As a fan of magic and fantasy games, I was curious to see Wizherd in action, especially after seeing the game's blocky art style that calls back to the old Final Fantasy games from the original PlayStation era. Unfortunately, new players are greeted to a steep and confusing learning curve that could sour the experience for most.

When you first boot up Wizherd, you are instantly thrust into a magical hub with little in the way of an introduction to the world you and your fellow would-be sorcerers must explore. There are tutorial missions posted to a bulletin board, but they amount to little more than grinding the player's experience level by venturing off into the wilderness to battle undead monsters. The bulletin board also features daily and weekly quests that any player can perform. Once you complete a mission, you can claim your reward by opening a treasure chest beside the board.

Players can move their character in one of two ways in Wizherd, by either moving the right joystick or physically swinging their arms at the ground to propel forward. The former doesn't always work, and the latter takes some getting used to. Once the player gets a handle on moving around, the world outside the hub consists of sunny hillsides, castle-like structures, and underground caverns flooded with lava.

Wizherd's magic system is simple enough: the player chooses between three different elemental spells at the start of the game and equips their selection to their hands. By holding down the trigger and releasing it in the middle of a tossing motion, the player can throw a ball of fire or ice at an enemy, though this action can be somewhat clunky and frustrating in the middle of a frantic battle. Melee-based spells like fire swords, on the other hand, are quite fun to swing around once you have them unlocked.

Spells can be upgraded at certain parts of the hub by spending coins and crystals. You can also customize your wizard avatar's look by purchasing cosmetic items like robes, hats, and even animal faces you can equip at a vanity. There is even a color slider you can use to adjust your character's skin tone.

Wizherd is free-to-play, though there are two different types of in-game currency. Coins are earned by defeating enemies, while crystals can be obtained by completing tasks or spending real-world money. The rewards for completing quests can be quite small at first, so you might have to either grind for a while or bust out your wallet.

The overall presentation can be hit or miss. As mentioned before, there is a sort of retro charm to Wizherd's blocky graphics, but the music and sound isn't anything you haven't heard before in Minecraft. Most of the time you'll be hearing the chatter of other players who are just as confused as you.

So far, Wizherd has some potential, but getting started can be tedious if you don't want to spend due to the grind needed to get a decent loadout. There is some potential here, but only time will tell if the game has enough staying power to keep players coming back.

Nintendo's strangest Switch 2 accessory has arrived: a remarkably faithful recreation of the Virtual Boy.

Toward the end of last year, Nintendo dropped the surprise announcement that Virtual Boy games would soon be playable on Switch and Switch 2 via the company's subscription-based membership service, Nintendo Online + Expansion Pack. For the first time in 30 years, Nintendo fans would be able to play Virtual Boy games like Red Alarm, Wario Land, and Mario's Tennis on a current-gen Nintendo console.

Perhaps even more surprising was the announcement that the catalog of Virtual Boy games would be accompanied by two new accessories: an inexpensive cardboard "headset" priced at $24.99, and a full-on replica Virtual Boy for $99.99. In both cases, the Switch and Switch 2 slot into these accessories (like a dock) in order to play the old games.

I've been a Virtual Boy fan since I was 11 years old and found one sitting under the Christmas tree in 1995. I've written about why I think the retro system is worth experiencing (and owning) in 2026, and I've written about alternative ways to play the system's tiny library of games on modern VR headsets like Meta's Quest. So it's quite natural that I'd have bought the new headset the moment it was announced. Which I did.

Well, it's arrived. And it's beautiful.

A couple of items of note: To start, due to the way that Virtual Boy games are displayed, you will need to buy one of Nintendo's official accessory "headsets" to play the Virtual Boy's catalog on Switch and Switch 2.

A Nintendo rep had previously stated that the old Labo cardboard headset would work just fine, but a subsequent statement issued by the company walked back that claim, saying that to play VB games, you'll need to buy the new gear.

Second, I'm using the term "headset" loosely. Virtual Boy was never, in fact, a headset, as Nintendo opted to sell it on a stand, rather than in a configuration that allowed mounting the unit to your head. This was the right call, since the original Virtual Boy was ridiculously heavy, and though the new replica "headset" is lighter, it's indeed a replica. The new model is not a headset, either.

Hardware First

What most surprised me when the headset arrived was just how faithful its design is to the original system. Owning my launch edition Virtual Boy from 1995 gave me a great opportunity to put the two pieces of hardware side by side, to compare the units and take some photos.

It's so identical that my ten-year-old daughter (who I taught to solder on my original Virtual Boy when its ribbon cables detached) saw the new unit and asked, "You bought another Virtual Boy?"

It's true that the new Virtual Boy is slightly larger than the original, but then again, we need to slot a Switch or Switch 2 inside it. That naturally requires some extra space. That said, the small details are incredibly accurate. The rubber bumpers on the side of the unit, the rubber nubs at the end of the stand's legs, the focus and IPD controls, the (fake) volume control and headphone jack and EXT. port, they're all here and replicated perfectly. Even the stand's adjustment mechanism utilizes a virtually identical acorn nut as the original.

The next thing you'll notice is that it's remarkably well made. The stand feels good, deploys tightly, and holds the unit well. The adjustment point on the stand also cinches tightly. The plastic feels dense and solid, the spring-loaded docking cradles work beautifully and hold the Switch in place nicely, and the satin foam of the eye-shroud feels more comfortable than the original.

In short, Nintendo did a great job making an almost perfect replica of their least successful gaming system.

It should also be noted that the new Virtual Boy arrives configured to work with Switch 2. To use the original Switch, we are required to install an adapter plate, which involves unscrewing four screws, swapping the plate, and reattaching the screws. The adapter plate comes packaged with the unit.

Open-Source Emulator Plays Virtual Boy Games On Quest, No Switch Needed

Virtual Boy Go is a nearly perfect Virtual Boy emulator for Quest headsets, no Switch console required.

UploadVRJames Tocchio

Do You Need One?

Do you need to spend $99.99 on a replica Virtual Boy headset? Probably not. Despite it being well made and effective at its one and only job, unless you're a big fan of weird tech and oddball experimental products, you'll almost certainly regret buying this thing.

Additional strikes against it would come down to the fact that these games are only accessible on Switch or Switch 2 via Nintendo's subscription service. You won't really own these games on Switch unless Nintendo releases some sort of purchasable collection. As of now, you're buying a headset to play games that you're essentially renting.

And if you've never played Virtual Boy and simply want to try out some old, weird games, there are cheaper and easier ways to experience Virtual Boy's compact library.

But if you're like me and love the Virtual Boy, well, you've probably already spent the money.

If you'd like your own Virtual Boy for Switch and Switch 2, you'll have to be a member of Nintendo Online, and then grab one via the company's website. We'll have an overview of all the Virtual Boy games playable on Switch and Switch 2 soon.

Now available in its 1.0 version, The Pirate: Republic of Nassau is greater than the sum of its parts, offering a myriad of options to fulfill the pirate fantasy.

In July 2025, I wrote an impressions piece of The Pirate: Republic of Nassau for UploadVR. While I was initially impressed with what was on offer, the potential for more content, including melee combat and multiplayer, led me to believe it had a promising future. Having just debuted its 1.0 version, I returned to this pirate fantasy in hopes of seeing if my prediction was correct. I can confidently say it was better than the sum of its parts.

To not repeat myself, I will briefly touch upon what I expounded on in my initial thoughts and focus on what is brand new. The Pirate: Republic of Nassau is light on narrative, instead opting to give players a slew of activities to fund your newly founded pirate republic on Nassau during the Golden Age of Piracy. Equipped with nothing more than a sloop and a skeleton crew, the sole objective is to grow your empire by recruiting historical pirates such as Blackbeard and Anne Bonny by defeating them in naval battle first.

Your initial vessel being rather unfit against these legends, the only sensible choice is to improve your ship with hard-earned gold. Nassau itself will generate money as you build the town, but in the modest beginning, doing lowly work is the way to go. Looting crates from fallen ships, treasure diving, and clashing at sea against rival ships, among the novel options, are the only path forward. With your work cut out for you, it is effortless for time to slip by once you get a hold of the game's mechanics.

Not many changes in this 1.0 version positively impact the moment-to-moment gameplay, but improvements do exist. In the Early Access version, you could only fast travel from one port to another from the map in your cabin. This removed any wonder because the only way to discover new ports was by paying either the Merchant's Guild or the tavern to hear rumors from far-off places. Now, there is an option to visually move your small ship through the map and discover uncharted territories in the process. New ports in the Caribbean mean new vendors, merchants, and quests, and finding out about them in no particular order instills a sense of free will when playing.

The clearest improvement over the initial release is the crisper visuals, especially inside the cabin. Whereas it formerly looked blurry and unfocused, now the cabin looks pristine in comparison. As the place where players strategize and choose where to embark upon next, it’s a logical rework. Other areas, such as the ship’s deck, nearby islands when sailing, and the new explorable areas on foot, still show muddy textures.

A handy spyglass lying on your right-hand side when aboard the ship goes further into feeling like a captain. Having to close one eye when looking at an enemy ship at a distance evokes the Jack Sparrow films. Amidst all the quality-of-life changes, the highlight is the time boost, bar none. The ability to sail faster is a game changer. When the wind was against the sails before this helpful mechanic, the vessel would grind to a halt. Now, turning on fast forward with the click of a button speeds things up when needing to sail to a lighthouse catch crates of sugar, or engage in naval battle, significantly improving the experience.

A game like The Pirate: Republic of Nassau should be judged by its full package, not each element individually. That is why sea shanties seem like an inconspicuous addition that would fade into the background if the tunes were not as catchy as they are. Developer Home Net Games is no stranger to pirate-themed games, with The Pirate: Caribbean Hunt dating back ten years. This experience is evidenced in the musical choices. Wildly fun rhymes of tall tales sung by gravelly voices sound right at home when ringing a bell on your ship's deck or when visiting taverns.

One of my most eagerly anticipated features, cave exploration, added damp, pitch-black areas hidden deep within some islands. Accessible through hearing rumors in taverns, this is a refreshing change-up to standing in your ship all the time, as no ports can be explored on foot. I would appreciate seeing that in a future update, as the developer pledged to continue supporting this pirate simulator. But I digress.

The caverns themselves—apparently full of treasure—leave much to be desired, only truly displaying corridor after corridor of skeleton bones, rats, and sparse gold pouches. Random small spiders hanging from stalactites creep up in surprising ways, so that at least excites in an otherwise uneventful incursion. For those with arachnophobia, these can also be entirely removed in the settings. Making the cave double the size in hopes of finding more loot is also an option.

Feeling isolated is a strong emotion recreated in these tunnels. Always holding a torch to guide you in the dark severely increases the eerie atmosphere. Bats, the hollow echoes, and water dropping do their best to convince the mind that you are in fact spelunking. Because the only true danger faced exploring these desolate caves is falling to your death, it ends up being a rather introspective activity.

A second land-based foray is exploring jungles to exact revenge on another pirate captain who stole from you. Set in the middle of the day, the suspiciously hallway-shaped islands focus more on melee combat as there is not much in the way of exploration. The ability to crouch and try to be stealthy in the process of approaching enemy camps is an option, with twigs littered around that can reveal your location to enemies and ruin the surprise.

Once you get rid of said foes, it does not feel particularly rewarding to explore every nook and cranny, because there is not much to see. Occasional gold pouches will be left by corpses or near campsites, but other types of items like cannonballs, planks, or oil are nowhere to be seen. This makes the exploration limiting, resulting in a very straightforward experience that is only salvageable by the combat, which in and of itself is a mixed bag.

The combat feels undercooked, with collisions being a notable hit or miss. Armed to the teeth with a sword, a hatchet, bombs that explode on contact with campfires, and three daggers on your chest, no foe stands a chance. That said, while fighting the pirate captain, who naturally donned the flashier clothes, his attacks did not register from my perspective when gesturing my sword swings, so a baffling “You lost. Try Again?” message was deflating. A video game that tries to do too much might end up not doing everything well, and that seems to be the case here.

Ultimately, as a diversion taking away from the commerce and naval combat, it serves as a nice complement, but not the main course. On my second try with the boss, I threw a hatchet at his head before he could get close, and he collapsed right then and there. I earned a good bit of gold coins from a chest nearby in that incursion that would have taken me longer otherwise. At least that was satisfying.

The final new mode is multiplayer. PvE, PvP, and Port Attack are the possible sessions prospective players can choose. Deciding how many players—or bots—can enter, the tier of both your and your enemy's ship, and if Auto-Aim should be allowed or not are some variables to fiddle with. Playing the entire campaign with friends sounded like a more enticing idea, but it certainly would be a lot more complex than the currently available skirmishes at sea.

There is no one defining aspect of The Pirate: Republic of Nassau that stands out above the rest. It is every element working in tandem that makes it a worthwhile golden age of piracy fantasy. A veritable time sink, the pleasant hands-on activities to expand your criminal empire, from wreck diving to engaging in spontaneous naval combat, hark back to the best moments of Assassin's Creed: Black Flag. The newly added tasks, such as exploring gloomy caves and fighting buccaneers, while not spectacular, add a sense of variety to easily spend several hours in. The result is a worthwhile endeavor that those intrigued by the pirate's life should set sail for.

UploadVR uses a 5-Star rating system for our game reviews – you can read a breakdown of each star rating in our review guidelines.

Looking to stretch your mind in VR? Here are some of our favorite puzzle games available on Quest today.

There’s something unique about puzzle games in VR. When you can reach out and touch the world around you, the genre transforms into something magical. Games like Lumines Arise and Tetris Effect: Connected wrap you in a warm sensory blanket while narrative puzzlers like Red Matter and Ghost Town immerse you in their story in ways wholly unique to VR.

Meta Quest users have no shortage of puzzle games. From meditative and musical experiences to emotionally powerful narrative puzzlers that challenge your mind and stir your emotions, here are some of the best the genre has to offer.

Tetris Effect: Connected

With Tetris Effect, Tetsuya Mizuguchi and his colleagues at Enhance tapped into something remarkable. The 2018 release took the classic puzzle game from the 1980s and transformed it into a musical trance masterpiece. In 2020, the updated Tetris Effect: Connected added co-op and competitive multiplayer, and it remains one of the best puzzle games to this day.

Tetris Effect: Connected wraps you in reactive visuals and music that evolve with your moves. Every rotation, every slammed block, every cleared row adds a new dimension to the soundtrack so that playing Tetris Effect: Connected becomes less about traditional gaming and more about entering a flow state. It’s the ultimate VR vibe game, and beautifully demonstrates VR’s power to elevate traditional gameplay into something greater.

Buy it here.

From Pong To VR: Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s Quest To Make Games That Move You

With Lumines Arise launching this November on PS VR2 and Steam, we interviewed Tetsuya Mizuguchi about his career and how Enhance are approaching this new entry.

UploadVRJames Tocchio

The Room VR: A Dark Matter

If you love mechanical puzzles, secret compartments, and mysterious artifacts, Fireproof Games’ The Room VR: A Dark Matter is an essential game for your Quest collection. Not only is it one of the most immersive puzzle games on Quest, it’s also one of the most visually impressive.

In this narrative puzzle game built exclusively for VR and set in 1908 London, you’re tasked with investigating the mysterious disappearance of a renowned Egyptologist after a police investigation yields no result. The 5-6 hour-long adventure will have you exploring cryptic locations with fantastic gadgets as you work your way through an opaque mystery.

In addition to its standalone release, Fireproof Games has also bundled The Room VR: A Dark Matter into a two-pack alongside the team’s extraordinary Ghost Town (mentioned later in this list).

Get it here.

I Expect You To Die (Series)

Part slapstick comedy, part absurd escape room, part mid-century spy parody, the I Expect You To Die series drops you into increasingly ridiculous and deadly scenarios, and tasks you with saving yourself (and the world) from the nefarious super-villain Dr. Zor. You’ll explode, get swarmed by bees, zapped by lasers, and try to survive, all from the comfort of your Quest headset. Clever design rewards experimentation, and the tongue-in-cheek humor makes failure feel fun.

There are three mainline I Expect You To Die games on Quest, which can be purchased separately, or bundled together as part of the Phoenix Rising Trilogy.

Get it here.

The House of Da Vinci

As Leonardo Da Vinci’s most promising apprentice, you are summoned to Florence only to find that Leonardo has mysteriously disappeared. Thus begins The House of Da Vinci, a challenging puzzle mystery that our reviewer described as “one of the best VR puzzle games I've ever played, delivering an experience that's been lovingly created with reverence to its historical inspiration.”

Gameplay takes the shape of escape room-style challenges in which we manipulate complex machines, peer into the past, and solve puzzles based on Da Vinci’s real-life inventions. Gorgeous visuals and advanced riddles make this a perfect game for puzzle fans and art history buffs alike.

Get it here.

Ghost Town

The latest phenomenal mystery from Fireproof Games, Ghost Town is a narrative puzzle game set in the 1980s that puts players in the shoes of Edith, an Irish witch turned exorcist and ghost hunter. “What follows,” says Henry Stockdale in our review last year, “is a thoroughly gripping narrative that sees us searching for Edith's missing brother. Fireproof's not afraid to have some fun with this story[...]”

One of Ghost Town’s great strengths is that it strikes a great balance. It tells a story, but does so with both humor and suspense, and its puzzles, while challenging, never feel overly difficult. The end result is, as our review put it, “one of the best VR games so far this year.”

Get it here.

Ghost Town Review: An Utterly Engrossing Supernatural VR Adventure

Ghost Town is a brilliant supernatural puzzle adventure from The Room VR studio that you won’t want to miss.

UploadVRHenry Stockdale

Humanity

Humanity is a third-person puzzle-action game in which your goal is to guide a massive mob of humanity to the end point of each level. You lead the pack as a cute Shiba Inu, leading the seemingly mindless humans as they jump, turn, push, float, shoot, and climb their way toward salvation across 90 story-mode stages.

Another game from Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s Enhance, Humanity is a flatscreen critical darling that has really stuck the landing on Quest. It was voted VR Game of the Year at the 2023 EDGE Awards, ranked Best Puzzle Game of 2023 by Game Informer magazine, and was nominated for Best VR / AR Game at The Game Awards in 2023.

As with most of Mizuguchi and Enhance’s games, there’s more than meets the eye here. And while the game’s online servers and user-generated level support are ending in March, 2026, there’s enough meat on the base game’s bones to warrant a thorough chewing.

Get it here.

Red Matter & Red Matter 2

These narrative-heavy adventures blend environmental puzzles with atmospheric world-building and deliver some of the most impressive visuals yet seen on Quest headsets.

The first game drops you into a retro-futuristic Cold War space race where you play as Agent Epsilon, sent to a deserted Volgravian base on Rhea, Saturn’s mysterious moon to investigate a secret project with the potential to change humanity’s destiny forever. And once you’re done with that, fire up Red Matter 2 for yet another stunning story.

Start with Red Matter here, or buy the two-game bundle.

Myst

Few games define the puzzle genre like Myst. For most gamers of a certain age, it was the first puzzle game we’d ever played (and the first we’d ever owned on CD-ROM). In VR, its enigmatic puzzles and lonesome island feel more tangible than ever.

Built from the ground up by Cyan Worlds, the indie studio that created the beloved classic way back in 1993, Myst for Quest is a definitive reimagining of one of the greatest puzzle games ever made. It brings new art, new sound, new interactions, and optional puzzle randomization.

When you’ve finished unraveling the mysterious island of Myst, you may be tempted to jump into its sequel, Riven. While Riven is a must-play for fans of the original flatscreen version, or for those who simply can’t get enough of the Myst universe, in truth, Riven on Quest is not a very strong adaptation. It’s good, just not as great as Myst.

Myst Added The Age Of Rime In Major Update

Myst’s VR remake introduced the Age of Rime in a recent update.

UploadVRSarah Thwaites

The Last Clockwinder

Called “One of the most unique and creative VR games ever” by Polygon, and “the best puzzle game since Portal” by Beardo Benjo, The Last Clockwinder is a creative and clever game that our own review described as “a true delight and gem of a puzzle game that’s well worth your time.”

The main mechanic of the game centers on mapping your real-life physical actions to several robotic “clones” which will repeat your actions indefinitely. This allows you to create a sort of production line that moves fruit from one place to another, feeding the health of a mystical tree. It’s a gameplay hook that defies explanation, but it’s one that’s totally engaging and superbly executed. Add to this a mysterious story that’s “an absolute delight to unravel” and we have all the makings of a VR classic.

Get it here.

A Fisherman’s Tale

In A Fisherman’s Tale, you play as a reclusive fisherman puppet who awakens locked inside a lighthouse. In the center of the room sits a model of the very same lighthouse, with a tiny version of yourself inside, and a larger one outside, mimicking your every move. The perspective-bending puzzles begin from there.

When we reviewed the game some years ago, we gave it 5 out of 5 stars and said it "might be the first [Quest game] to achieve a perfect storm of gameplay, immersion and narrative in a single experience. [A Fisherman's Tale] fuses experience and interactivity to really show what this medium is capable of."

The game's sequel, Another Fisherman’s Tale, doubles down on the original's creativity with whole new gameplay mechanics. It’s imaginative, slightly absurd, and filled with tactile puzzle design.

You can get both games here.

Puzzling Places

Another special experience that could only exist in VR, Puzzling Places lets you build gorgeous photorealistic dioramas of beautiful places from all over the world, either in full VR or in the familiar comfort of your own space in mixed reality. There are no timers, no pressure; just pure, mindful building at a peaceful puzzling pace, alone or with others in online multiplayer and local MR co-op modes.

The base game includes 25 puzzles, and a massive collection of DLC puzzles continues to grow. The most recent, a gorgeous Van Gogh-inspired impressionist diorama, joins previous themed puzzles such as cities of the world, a haunted house, underwater seascapes, and dozens more.

Get it here.

Cubism

Clean shapes and floating blocks, Cubism strips puzzle design down to its essentials. You rotate and place geometric shapes into transparent containers, building increasingly complex forms in full VR or MR modes. Hand tracking makes the game play seamlessly and intuitively, and the balance of relaxation and challenge is perfectly struck.

While the concept of Cubism is great, what really sets it above is the game's minimalist aesthetic. As in old Japan Studio games like Echochrome, or Keita Takahashi's Katamari Damacy, there's a simplicity of concept that we also find in Cubism. As we shift pastel-colored shapes into place, the resonant strings of a rich piano strum a beautiful backing soundtrack. The overall vibe is elegant, calming, and clever.

Get it here.

Gadgeteer

Gadgeteer lets you build elaborate chain-reaction machines in both VR and MR using ramps, marbles, dominoes, and motors, creating chain reactions that may even end up tearing apart the fabric of space-time.

There are over 60 physics puzzles, plus sandbox environments that let you build whatever wild machines you like. Hundreds of community-made puzzles round out the experience. For older gamers who might remember launching the MS-DOS build of The Incredible Machine on some ancient PC, watching your Gadgeteer contraption unfold in 3D space feels like a dream come true.

Get it here.

Shadow Point

Shadow Point is a story-driven puzzle game in which you'll explore a vibrant kingdom and solve mind-bending puzzles as you uncover the mystery of missing schoolgirl, Lorna McCabe who vanished from Shadow Point Observatory twelve years ago. As your adventure unfolds, you will manipulate gravity, play with shadows, work with your own reflection, walk on walls, peer through a magical lens to reveal an alternate reality and much more.

Narrated by Sir Patrick Stewart, Shadow Point combines over 80 puzzles with a reflective story about memory and mentorship. Its paper doll-esque art style is gorgeous and evocative and its light-and-shadow mechanics are clever. We recommended the game in our review some years ago, though we felt Stewart to be underutilized. More than anything else, however, the game's emotional framing elevates it to a must-play.

Get it here.

Quest Launch Title Shadow Point Is Coming To PSVR

Coatsink is bringing its Quest launch title, Shadow Point, over to PSVR this month. The game, which also came to Rift, will launch on Sony’s headset on March 22nd for $19.99. Check out the PSVR announcement trailer for the game below. Coatsink PSVR Released Shadow Point sees players

UploadVRJamie Feltham

Whether you want a musical flow state (Tetris Effect, Lumines Arise), a story-rich adventure (Red Matter, Shadow Point), or relaxing brain training (Cubism, Puzzling Places), Quest offers some of the most inventive puzzle design in gaming today.

For more of the best of VR, check these out:

• Best Meta Quest 3 Games
• Best PC VR Games
• Best PlayStation VR Games
• Best PlayStation VR2 Games

Walmart is offering Quest 3S for $250 again, $50 off, and it comes with the $50 VR blockbuster Batman: Arkham Shadow.

That's the price for the 128GB base model, and the 256GB storage model is also on sale for $50 off, bringing it down to $350.

As well as including Batman: Arkham Shadow, the offering comes with 3 months of the Horizon+ games subscription, as with all new Quest headset purchases.

Arkham Shadow was officially included with all Quest 3S purchases for the headset's first seven months on the market, though this was effectively extended during multiple sales and honored for any SKUs with the game's logo on the box. The game, which Meta recently canceled the sequel for, earned a 4.5-star rating in our review, and it's a rare example of a truly made-for-VR AAA title.

Batman: Arkham Shadow Review - A Triumphant Return

Batman: Arkham Shadow is a brilliant return for the Dark Knight, and it expertly adapts the series for VR on Quest 3 and Quest 3S.

UploadVRHenry Stockdale

This is far from the only time we've seen Quest 3S on sale for $250, and over the holidays it even dropped to as low as $200 for Costco members. But it still remains immense value – a fully standalone and wireless VR headset with tracked controllers, hand tracking, and mixed reality for less than the price of a traditional games console.

One consideration you may want to make if you're considering jumping into VR with this deal, however, is whether the higher-end Quest 3 or Valve's upcoming Steam Frame might better suit your needs.

While Quest 3S can run all the same content as Quest 3, and has the same fundamental capabilities (including the same XR2 Gen 2 chipset and 8GB RAM), Quest 3 features Meta's advanced pancake lenses which are clearer and sharper over a wider area, have a wider field of view, and have precise separation adjustment, making them suitable for essentially everyone's eyes. Meanwhile, Steam Frame has a significantly more comfortable design and promises to make wireless PC VR seamless.

But Quest 3 costs twice as much as Quest 3S on sale, and Steam Frame is likely to cost around three times as much. If you're looking to jump into VR on a budget, or gift a friend or loved one, it's impossible to beat the raw value of Quest 3S.

You can find the deal at Walmart.com.

Two years after debuting in Early Access on Steam, VR survival game Bootstrap Island moves to its 1.0 release in March.

Since debuting in Early Access in February 2024, developer Maru VR has steadily added features such as elemental dangers, new boss fights and areas to explore, and hallucinations. Its next update, scheduled for March 12th, 2026, will officially end the Early Access period and add new content to expand on the game's narrative and gameplay mechanics.

As seen in the full release trailer, the 1.0 update introduces a local island tribe and with it, a new trading and communication system. Players will be able to forge relationships, friendly or hostile, that will impact their chances of survival.

Maru VR has promised to conclude the story of the survivor as well with added cutscenes and voice acting. New weapons, combat mechanics, and a new boss encounter are also on the list of planned updates.

The full release will coincide with a price increase from the current Early Access price of $24.99. At the time of this article, the final price is not known.

Bootstrap Island is currently available on SteamVR for $24.99. A PSVR2 port has also been announced for sometime in 2026.

Reality Syndrome Symphony's upcoming escape room puzzler has promise, but issues with controls and puzzle readability make this a release we'll need to see more before recommending.

I love puzzle games, as I'd imagine most VR players do; it comes with the territory. I also love narrative puzzlers like Myst, and have played more than a handful of escape rooms. So, when Reality Syndrome Symphony offered us a chance to take an early look at the upcoming Amelia's Escape, I was pretty stoked to see what the game had in store - yet what I've played leaves me concerned and excited for the final release in equal measure.

Let's start with some of the obvious; starting up the demo, players find themselves - Amelia - locked in a warehouse filled with puzzles, and after some brief exposition discover they must complete a number of puzzles and gain keycards to unlock a door to allow their escape. You accomplish this by searching the warehouse for items to interact with, some obvious and others less so. Two major issues immediately reveal themselves, one hopefully exclusive to this demo build, and another which isn't inherently exclusive, but with any luck will be patched before launch.

I must confess that I found myself stuck on the second of the demo's puzzles for an unreasonably long amount of time, to the point where I eventually ended up emailing the developers to figure out if I had run into a progression blocker, or some other known issue. I hadn't, but I did learn that the build I played came with a few quirks; while the warehouse is dotted with all manner of objects, all but a few of them actually do anything in this version of the game. The rest are "red herrings" that will be used in the full release.

On its own, I can't say I'm a fan of this tactic. Some of these objects, like air canisters that Amelia will comment on when interacted with can be filled with air, leading the player down a dead-end. Others, then, don't even offer this luxury - even if Amelia will comment on them all the same, suggesting that they do offer a use. Ultimately the solution I was missing all along I'd glanced over due to a weird interaction; you're meant to bridge a connection with a metal spanner, but placing it when the fuse starts the power flowing will do nothing, even if you place the spanner in the right spot.

I'd hope in the final release the game can prevent you from placing the spanner when the power is on - ideally making it clear that, yes, you're on the right track in the process. This ties into my second issue with the game, not tied to the demo; sometimes the game's controls, and which objects the player can interact with, are inconsistent. For the most part, objects that the player can interact with are a brighter shade than objects surrounding them. Yet, at the same time, this logic is inconsistent. Sometimes darker objects can be picked up and interacted with just fine. Other times, brighter objects are stuck in place and in the end players are left scratching their heads and scrambling their hands across entire shelves of the warehouse in search of objects they can pick up.

Even worse, while players have to actively use the grip button to interact with most objects, switches do not - and the sensitivity with which they're activated is ridiculous. Returning to that electricity puzzle; the same box you place the spanner in has two levers the player can interact with. They will react to your hands even from what feels like a foot away, and it's almost impossible to finely control which of the two is activated at any given time.

On a more positive note, and perhaps unsurprisingly the game looks and runs great on a Quest 3 headset. Even if this demo left me with far more questions than answers, with any luck the final release will manage to fix the issues I've had with this early build. I hope the next time I check out the game, things will be in a better - and more easily recommendable - state.

Orcs Must Die! By The Blade, the VR reimagining of the long-running tower-defense series, is available now on Quest 3 and 3S.

Developed by Teravision Games, makers of the tower-defense shooter Captain Toonhead vs. The Punks from Outer Space, Orcs Must Die! By The Blade is the first VR release in the Orcs Must Die series. By the Blade builds on the long-running franchise's core gameplay loop for VR. Beyond setting up traps and auto-battling as you try to survive waves of orcs, as in traditional tower-defense, the VR version of Orcs Must Die! will have you physically wielding weapons to defend your base in first person.

In addition to the game's standard solo mode, a two-player co-op mode is also included.

The game's main campaign features 12 missions across three chapters. These task the player with placing traps on a map before physically battling oncoming orcs with weapons like axes and swords. By The Blade uses free locomotion for movement and combat, and you'll need to balance blocking and countering along with offensive attacks. As you progress through the campaign, you'll upgrade your weapons and traps to become a more formidable anti-orc force.

In a recent interview, Teravision Games' Co-Founder and Creative Director Luis Daniel Zambrano spoke about bringing Orcs Must Die! to VR for the first time. "We dialed up the importance of combat vs. the traps, and we made the enemies focus more on the players than the Rifts. Bold ideas that aimed at making the player feel more present, and the game more immersive overall. [...] Once we did that, it started to feel more excitingly VR than ever."

Originally announced to release on January 22nd, Orcs Must Die! By the Blade was delayed due to an unexpected performance issue found in the Quest 2 build. That version is still under construction and will release at a later date.

Orcs Must Die! By The Blade is available now on Quest 3 and Quest 3S.

Though no release date has been announced, the multi-player FPS will be storming onto PS VR2 later this year.

Triangle Factory has announced that its Battlefield-like FPS, Forefront, is coming to PS VR2 in 2026. The visceral and tactile FPS dumps players onto large-scale battlefields where up to 32 players fight for control of territory using handheld weapons, Humvees, tanks, helicopters, and other war machines of the air, land, and sea.

I previewed Forefront when it launched in Early Access on Meta Quest and found it to be a solid take on the Battlefield formula. Combat is exciting and tense, its VR gunplay is tactile and satisfying, and its environments are dynamic and engaging. While some small problems did exist in that EA build, mostly due to weapon balance issues, on the whole, Forefront stands as the strongest large-scale shooter I’ve played in VR.

Forefront Hands-On: The Battlefield Multiplayer Experience In VR

Forefront in early access brings excitingly tense, large-scale multiplayer warfare reminiscent of Battlefield to VR.

UploadVRJames Tocchio

Forefront is available now on Quest, Steam, and Pico, and you can now wishlist it on PS VR2 from the PlayStation Store.

Google's YouTube has launched an official visionOS app.

While it was already possible to access YouTube on Apple Vision Pro headsets through the Safari web browser, the new official app offers a streamlined native-feeling interface, support for watching 180° and 360° immersive video (including 3D), and, for YouTube Premium subscribers, the ability to download videos for offline viewing.

The player also adapts to the varying aspect ratios of videos on YouTube, avoiding the black-bars problem and revealing more of your real or virtual environment.

On the M5 Apple Vision Pro, the app supports up to 8K, while the original M2 Vision Pro is limited to 4K.

YouTube first announced that it planned to build a visionOS app just days after the original headset's launch.

In the two years since, multiple third-party apps have emerged to fill the gap, including firstly and most prominently the $5 app Juno, built by the same developer as the Apollo phone app for Reddit. But in late 2024 YouTube forced Juno off the visionOS App Store.

Other third-party offerings include Tubular Pro, which has advanced features including SponsorBlock integration and its own theater environments.

The official YouTube app for Apple Vision Pro is available for free on the visionOS App Store, with offline downloads enabled by a YouTube Premium subscription.

While its arrival on visionOS could be considered surprising by some because of Google's competing Android XR, YouTube operates somewhat independently from Google, and Google has offered iOS versions of its most popular services for almost two decades now.

YouTube is also available on Meta's Horizon OS, including with co-watching support, but the app on Quest is visually less polished compared to visionOS and Android XR.

Official YouTube Co-Watching On Quest Finally Arrives In Beta

Official YouTube co-watching in the Horizon OS home space has finally arrived as a beta.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

Meta and EssilorLuxottica sold more than 7 million smart glasses in 2025, and they were the "dominant driver" of the Ray-Ban owner's wholesale growth in H2.

Exactly one year ago, EssilorLuxottica told its investors that the Ray-Ban Meta glasses had sold 2 million units so far, a period spanning from the launch in October 2023 until February 2025.

Now, during its Q4 2025 earnings report, the company announced that it sold 7 million units of Ray-Ban and Oakley smart glasses in 2025 alone – meaning more than triple that of 2024. This suggests that around 9 million have been sold to date since the launch of Ray-Ban Meta two and a half years ago.

For comparison, Quest 2 sold an estimated 20 million units in two and a half years, while Steam Deck sold around 4 million units over the same timespan.

EssilorLuxottica says smart glasses drove significant growth for both its wholesale and retail business, describing the former in North America as "exponential".

The sales figure comes one month after Bloomberg reported that Meta and EssilorLuxottica were discussing doubling or even tripling smart glasses production capacity.

When announcing the 2 million sales mark a year ago, EssilorLuxottica told investors that it planned to increase annual production capacity to 10 million units by the end of 2026, citing the "great success" of the product. Bloomberg's report suggests that target is being increased to 20 or 30 million.

It's undeniable at this point that smart glasses are an appealing consumer product. The question now is whether Meta will maintain its lead once serious competition from Apple and Google arrives.

Google has repeatedly teased smart glasses with a HUD at events like TED and I/O, and announced last year that it's working with the eyewear companies Gentle Monster and Warby Parker on Gemini smart glasses, and will work with Kering Eyewear in the future. Multiple South Korean news outlets have reported that Samsung plans to launch a Meta Ray-Ban Display competitor this year, powered by Google software, a similar strategy to the Galaxy XR headset.

Meanwhile, in October Bloomberg reported that Apple moved staff off the cheaper and lighter Vision headset project to prioritize shipping smart glasses sooner. Apple's first glasses could be revealed as soon as this year ahead of a release in 2027, the report claimed.

Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth says that, as with all new headsets, the company will "learn from" Steam Frame if it's successful.

During an "ask my anything" session on his Instagram page, when asked whether Meta will be in competition with Steam Frame or "support" it, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth replied by saying that it's "a little bit of both".

"It is a little bit of both. I have said this before—and I will say it again, because it is really true—every time there is a new headset, we learn from it. We learn how consumers respond to the decisions made regarding architecture, resolution, and cameras. For example, with the Steam Frame, it looks like they included a wireless dongle. We experimented with a dongle many times to make a wireless link work, but we decided it was just too much hassle. They chose to go that route. If consumers love it, maybe there is a bigger market there than we realized.

Every time someone launches something new, it is an experiment that costs me nothing, which is great. Obviously, we do compete with them. Quite a few people use Quest specifically because it is not just standalone, but also capable of PC gaming. I think that is a strong value proposition: being able to use the device both with a PC and without one. However, Steam is trying to build an entire ecosystem, including portable PCs. So, ultimately, it is a little bit of both."

Bosworth has given a relatively similar answer for past VR headsets and accessories, suggesting that Meta will assess it based on how consumers respond, i.e. how well it sells. For example, he once claimed that if the Pico Trackers sold exceptionally well, Meta would "have to" make an equivalent.

"Every time someone launches something new, it is an experiment that costs me nothing, which is great", Bosworth quips in the Steam Frame response.

D-Link VR Air Bridge No Longer Works In Windows 11 24H2

D-Link’s VR Air Bridge wireless PC VR dongle, made in partnership with Meta, no longer works after Windows 11’s 24H2 update, the same update that made Windows MR headsets no longer function.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

The Meta CTO specifically points out Steam Frame's included wireless dongle as something his company tried in the past but "decided it was just too much hassle".

In late 2022, Meta partnered with D-Link to ship VR Air Bridge, a $100 official accessory for gaming PCs to directly connect to Quest 2 for Air Link, a somewhat similar concept. But whereas Steam Frame itself creates the hotspot that its dongle seamlessly connects to, and the headset has a dedicated 6 GHz radio for this, VR Air Bridge was a decidedly lower-effort approach, a traditional 5 GHz hotspot with a somewhat clunky setup process.

Is Bosworth right that a dongle is "too much hassle", or as with Quest Pro, is this another example of Meta deciding that a general idea is bad because its specific implementation was poor?

Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth claims that even after the cuts, the company is still investing more in VR content than anyone else, and more than it was 4 years ago.

If you somehow missed it: last month Meta shut down three of its acquired VR game studios, conducted significant layoffs at a fourth, canceled the Batman: Arkham Shadow sequel, and announced the shutdown of Horizon Workrooms and its Quest headsets for business offering. These actions came a month after the company officially confirmed "shifting some of our investment from Metaverse toward AI glasses and Wearables".

Despite this, when asked to provide "the truth" about "doom and gloom" for Quest during an "ask me anything" session on his Instagram page, Bosworth responded by claiming that Meta is still investing more in VR content than any other company – and more than it was in 2022, at the height of the Quest 2 era.

"There is a lot of doom and gloom about it—mostly overwrought, but I understand why it exists. Emotionally, we have to navigate two realities. First, there is a real cause for sadness. We had people doing work we were excited about, whether at the OS layer or great studios delivering great titles. Ultimately, we realized that the integrated vision we were pursuing with Horizon and VR was overwrought, and the investment we put in was larger than the growth of the ecosystem allowed. That is a real loss, and we are allowed to feel sad about those things.

On the other side, Meta remains extremely bullish on VR. Adjusting our investment profile was done specifically so that we could continue to invest. We are still investing more in content than anyone else, and more than we were four years ago. While we have receded from the "high water mark," we are still very much a net positive investor in the ecosystem. Furthermore, these internal changes unblock roadmaps for us on hardware; the next two devices we are looking at are very exciting.

I don't want to take away from the sadness regarding cancelled projects like another Arkham, though I wish there was more appreciation for the fact that we got the first one. Regarding community accountability and my December AMA comments about wearables versus VR: I noted then that these areas are separate and we can do both. That remains true. If VR were growing at the rate we wished, we likely wouldn't have made these changes, but we cannot invest infinitely. Our investment must match the size of the growth. The ecosystem is growing—just more slowly than we hoped—and we are still investing. That is the story."

Meta CTO Explains Layoffs & Strategy Shift: “VR Is Growing Less Quickly Than We Hoped”

In a series of interviews at Davos, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth explained why the company is reducing its investment in VR.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

Oculus and Anduril founder Palmer Luckey made a similar claim last month, but Bosworth saying it serves as an official proclamation from Meta itself.

Still, with most of its acquired VR gaming studios now closed, that "content" investment will not be arriving in the form of first-party blockbusters. Instead, Bosworth is likely referring to investment in third-party VR content.

In an interview with Axios last month, Bosworth said that Meta will now
"focus a lot more on the third-party content library, the ecosystem that's developed there".

Whether or not Meta will follow through on this suggestion of continuing to fund third-party VR content remains to be seen.

In an interview with Alex Heath, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth seemed to confirm the leak that a Quest 4 is still on the roadmap.

Back in June, UploadVR reported that the 2026 candidates for a Quest 4 series, codenamed Pismo Low and Pismo High, had been canceled. Then, in December, internal Meta memos leaked that revealed the company is working on a gaming-focused headset set to be a "large upgrade" over Quest 3, but without subsidization, suggesting a notably higher price.

This, to be clear, is in addition to the widely reported ultralight mixed reality headset with a tethered puck that the memo suggested should launch in the first half of 2027.

Meta CFO: We’re “Building Future Headsets” & Still “Have Optimism” In VR

Meta CFO Susan Li says the company still has “optimism in the future of VR”, and confirmed that it’s still “building future headsets”.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

Given Meta's recent announcement of "shifting some of our investment from Metaverse toward AI glasses and Wearables", which was followed by the shutdown of three of its acquired VR game studios, significant layoffs at a fourth, the cancelation of the Batman: Arkham Shadow sequel, and the deprecation of Horizon Workrooms and its Quest headsets for business offering, many in the industry have speculated that the new Quest 4 candidate may have already been canceled.

Last month, Meta's CFO Susan Li told investors that the company still has "optimism in the future of VR", and that it's still "building future headsets". While this did spark hope of a Quest 4 still in the works, nothing in the statement confirmed what kind of headsets these were. But a recent statement from Meta's CTO Andrew Bosworth seems to.

When asked during his Davos interview with veteran tech journalist Alex Heath, which you should go watch in full, whether "the metaverse is over", Bosworth's reply included "I think it's officially leaked we've got two devices on the roadmap that we're super excited about coming out over the course of a period of time".

The "leak" Bosworth mentions is clearly the December memos – and by bringing this up now and speaking in the present tense, it strongly suggests that the gaming-focused Quest 4 candidate has not been canceled.

As to when we might expect these future Meta headsets, Bosworth stays tight-lipped. When pressed by Heath on what "a period of time" meant, he simply replied "a period of time - it could be anything, could be tomorrow".

Based on the leaked memos and conversations with sources back in December, UploadVR's understanding is that the ultralight headset should arrive in the first half of 2027, and the more traditional Quest 4 no earlier than the second half of 2027.

Additionally, Horizon OS firmware sleuth Luna reports that one codename floating around for the new Quest 4 is "Griffin".

Meanwhile, names for candidates for the ultralight headset with tethered puck have included "Puffin", "Loma", and "Phoenix".

The ultralight headset will be primarily focused on spawning virtual screens for productivity and entertainment, while the Quest 4 would continue the traditional Quest focus on immersive gaming.

Keep in mind that Meta's hardware roadmap is constantly shifting, and the company frequently spins up and cancels headsets before they ship. When a specific product gets close to shipping, we'll bring you any reliable rumors of its imminent arrival. Until then, be ready for anything planned to get canceled or delayed.

The PlayStation VR2 port of Titan Isles is coming on February 24th.

When Psytec Games announced last September that their high-mobility action-adventure shooter Titan Isles was coming to PS VR2, they didn't specify a release date. Today, the game's makers have announced that Titan Isles will be swinging onto PS VR2 on February 24th.

Designed to make the most of PS5's hardware, the PS VR2 port runs at a native 90fps on base PS5, boosted to 120fps on PS5 Pro. The game's devs also confirmed that both versions utilize native resolution and eye-tracked foveated rendering for maximum visual clarity.

Psytec Games has also made the most of the PS5 controller's adaptive triggers, giving each weapon its own resistance, plus headset haptics and full bHaptics support.

We reviewed Titan Isles when it debuted on Meta Quest, where we found it to be "a compelling action adventure that's equally enjoyable in co-op and single-player." Furthermore, our reviewer called it "the most fun I've personally had with a VR co-op experience since Dungeons of Eternity."

Titan Isles will be available on the PS VR2 store from February 24, and will cost $24.99. The game is available now on Steam and Quest.

Unhinged chaos sim Wreckin' Raccoon, nDreams' answer to games like I Am Cat and Gorilla Tag, has left Early Access for full release on Quest.

Developed by nDreams' newest studio, Compass, Wreckin' Raccoon is a sandbox game in which you play as the titular trash panda, spreading chaos and destruction everywhere your paws touch. Taking place at a roadside diner, you'll dig through food, smash bottles, make a mess, and generally torment the diner's staff and customers in ways that only a horrible little critter can.

You can drink from a toilet, deep fry your own excrement, and squirt ketchup into the face of the grumpy exterminator. If you couldn't tell from that description, or the trailer embedded above, nDreams' latest release is clearly targeting a younger audience.

Wreckin' Raccoon is banking on replicating the success of games like I Am Cat and the ever-popular Gorilla Tag, which throw users into heavily physical experiences in which the primary goal is to move around and cause chaos.

Wreckin’ Raccoon is available on Quest via the Meta Horizon Store now.

Charming clockwork puzzler Tin Hearts: Act 1 arrives on Quest today, bringing its heartfelt story and inventive Lemmings-like gameplay to standalone headsets.

Celebrated for its emotional story and richly detailed Dickensian environments, Tin Hearts combines a lovely narrative with classic Lemmings-inspired puzzle mechanics. In Tin Hearts, players manipulate time and interact with objects in the environment to direct and redirect an ever-marching column of tiny toy soldiers. Along the way you'll solve puzzles and uncover a deeply personal tale about family, love, and compromise.

Tin Hearts originally released in VR on PS VR2 and Steam last year. The game's publisher, Wired Productions, has said that today's Act 1 port to Meta Quest will be followed by Acts 2, 3, and 4 "in the coming weeks," though no specific release dates have been confirmed.

We previewed Tin Hearts VR years ago, where we felt it offered "well-considered mechanics," plus "enjoyable puzzles and an intriguing whimsical setting."

The complete Tin Hearts series is out now on flatscreen platforms, PS VR2, and PC VR, while Tin Hearts: Act 1 arrives today on the Meta Quest platform.

Dolby Vision and 3D have been removed from Disney+ in several European countries, disabling stereoscopic movie playback on Apple Vision Pro.

Premium subscribers to Disney+ typically receive access to content in up to 4K UHD, HDR10, and Dolby Vision, provided the content supports those formats. In addition, the Premium tier includes a selection of 3D movies for Apple Vision Pro users, including blockbusters such as the Avatar series, Marvel Avengers films, and multiple Star Wars titles.

But Dolby Vision and 3D support now appear to have been removed in various European countries, according to user reports on Reddit and other platforms. The change reportedly began in Germany late last year and has since expanded to neighboring markets.

UploadVR reviewed the Disney+ support pages for Germany, France, Italy, and the UK and found no mention of Dolby Vision support, only HDR10, suggesting that references to Dolby Vision were removed recently. In Germany and France, a notice states that 3D is currently unavailable. No such notice appears on the Italian support page. In the UK, meanwhile, 3D content remains listed as supported.

Notably, references to Dolby Vision have also been removed from the U.S. support page, even though 3D content remains listed as supported there. In other markets, such as Australia, all major video formats, including 4K UHD, HDR10, Dolby Vision, and 3D, continue to be listed as available.

According to an official statement given to FlatPanelsHD, “technical challenges” are the reason for the downgrade of the Premium tier. “Dolby Vision support for content on Disney+ is currently unavailable in several European countries due to technical challenges. We are actively working to restore access to Dolby Vision and will provide an update as soon as possible,” Disney said.

At the same time, there have been reports that an ongoing patent dispute between InterDigital and Disney+ is playing a role in the removal. InterDigital is a U.S.-based company that develops wireless and video technologies and is known for actively enforcing its portfolio of standard-essential patents through licensing negotiations and, when necessary, litigation.

In November, InterDigital announced that Germany’s Munich Regional Court granted an injunction against Disney for infringing one of InterDigital’s patents related to streaming video content using HDR technology. Dolby Vision is an advanced form of HDR that uses dynamic metadata to adjust brightness, contrast, and color accuracy scene by scene, or even frame by frame.

The injunction could explain why the removal began in Germany and has since expanded to neighboring markets. As companies typically operate unified EU-wide services and infrastructure, changes implemented to comply in Germany may be rolled out across multiple EU markets, as has happened before with other patent rulings by the German court.

Still, it remains unclear why 3D content is also affected. One possible explanation is that 3D films on Disney+ also use Dolby Vision, according to Disney’s initial Apple Vision Pro announcement.

An injunction in the German market should have no impact on the U.S. market, but it is worth noting that InterDigital is currently also pursuing a patent case against Disney in the United States.

Even in Europe, it remains unclear how the dispute will ultimately be resolved. Disney could appeal the decision by the German court or reach a settlement with InterDigital.

For Vision Pro users in these markets, the removal of 3D is a significant loss, as while there are also 3D movies available to rent on Apple TV, Disney+ offered a plethora of 3D movies with the subscription, and films of this kind remain one of the headset’s standout features.

As the space-faring simulator orbits into its tenth year, its latest update adds new tools, gear, and gameplay.

Hello Games has launched an update for No Man's Sky, called Remnant, which adds a new tool to the game's ever-expanding arsenal - the Gravitino Coil. This anti-gravity "gun" is described by the game-makers as "a powerful [...] module for your multi-tool. Allowing you to grab large objects and fling, toss or carefully carry them around the world."

More than just a toy or industrial tool, the Gravitino Coil doubles as an improvised ballistic weapon, with heavy objects becoming deadly projectiles (should the need arise).

In addition to the gravity gun, the Remnant update also adds a new game loop centered on scavenging and recycling. Working alone or in groups with others, players and crews can scavenge debris from planets and wrecks, loading the collected salvage materials onto cargo trucks to be driven to industrial yards where the materials may be recycled to gain new loot and rewards including dozens of new vehicle parts and an all-new armor set.

A limited-time community expedition has been added, too, in which travelers will work in convoys to clean up and reclaim a planet covered in wrecks and garbage. Full patch notes for the latest No Man's Sky update can be seen here.

Remnant builds on the previous No Man's Sky update, Breach, which added explorable derelict space wrecks. It is the latest in a long string of No Man's Sky updates, a game which launched nearly ten years ago on flatscreen platforms and which has received continuous updates and improvement ever since.

No Man’s Sky Breach Update Lets You Salvage Parts From Space Wrecks

No Man’s Sky adds explorable space wrecks you can salvage, new ship parts, and more in today’s Breach Update on PS VR2 and PC VR.

UploadVRSarah Thwaites

In the VR space, too, No Man's Sky has been a trailblazer. It was the first PlayStation VR2 game to use PS5 Pro's PSSR AI upscaling, technology which uses a neural network trained on game footage to upscale games with much higher quality results than traditional image upscaling techniques.

No Man's Sky's Remnant update is available today on Steam, PS VR2, and flatscreen platforms.

The developers of the 4v1 multiplayer horror game Inverse announced that servers will shut down at the end of March.

MassVR, who originally started developing location-based (LBE) VR experiences in 2017, posted an update on Inverse's Steam page announcing the shutdown. Per the post, the game servers will shut down on March 31, 2026. MassVR clarified "Until that time, all online features/servers will remain active, and you can continue to play and enjoy the game as usual."

Inverse: Stave Off Demons In 4v1 Multiplayer Horror Action

Inverse brings more 4v1 multiplayer horror action to Quest headsets – here are our hands-on impressions.

UploadVRCharlie Wacholz

Inverse is a 4v1 asymmetric survival horror game drawing inspiration from the popular flatscreen title, Dead by Daylight. Four players play as HAZMAT suit-clad agents against one opponent playing as a monster. The agents have to repair three control panels within a short time limit to unlock gun cases and kill the monster. The monster can either kill all of the agents or simply outlast the time limit to win.

Inverse first launched on Quest App Lab in June 2023 as a limited-feature free-to-play title. A PCVR version followed in November of the same year. Its full release was priced $29.99 and was later dropped to $14.99. The game has already been delisted on Steam. At the time of this article, it remains available on Meta Quest 2/Pro/3/3S for $9.99.

The update brings 25 new cards, a new card type, new legendary cards for each faction, fully revitalized card artwork, and more.

Cards & Tankards, a free-to-play VR social game where players hang out and battle each other in collectible card games and other traditional board games, will receive a massive update in March. The coming update ushers in Season 3, and brings several significant additions to the game as well as new mechanics and features including:

• 25-card expansion at launch, with an additional 25 cards released gradually throughout Season 3
• New card type: Relics are available to all factions, summoned into play like "creatures" but do not participate in combat and do not exhaust when played. Each Relic contains a limited number of Sparks of Aether, which are spent to activate its effects. Once those sparks are depleted, the Relic is destroyed. Relics are designed to add long term planning and resource management to gameplay without overwhelming the board state.
• New Legendary Cards (one per faction)
• Major mechanical balancing derived through collaboration between the development team and the community-driven Card Design and Balance Team

The forthcoming update follows on from last year's major update, which added a new social area, chess and checkers boards, new physical shops to peruse, taverns in which to chill, and hidden corners tucked amongst a bustling town center.

The developer team has spent the period between updates rolling out several major quality of life and progression adjustments, including:

• Achievements System in the Town, rewarding milestones with gold and titles
• Global Deck Sharing via the Town Schoolhouse
• Deck Sharing and Copying directly from the deck editor
• Daily Quests and Streak Rewards
• Focus Card System to guarantee specific cards over time
• Expanded Deck Building, allowing over 40 cards for theory crafting
• Deck Privacy Settings to hide deck information while editing

The team has also recently rebuilt the card visuals, giving all the cards a fresh and modern look.

Cards & Tankards is available on Quest and Steam, and the update is coming in March.

One of Meta Quest's top-selling VR brawlers will make the leap to PC VR headsets in spring.

Haymaker is a physics-first VR combat brawler focused on authentic body mechanics and replayability. You'll grab, grapple, block, kick, and strike adaptive AI enemies across a variety of environments specifically built for mayhem such as a skyscraper rooftop, a seedy billiard parlor, and more.

Console Studios has just announced both a content update for its physics-based VR brawler Haymaker, and that it intends to bring the title to PC VR via Steam in just a few months' time. The updated Steam release will also benefit from enhanced graphics and dynamic lighting.

In addition to the Steam port, Haymaker will receive noteworthy updates on Quest, where the game has been available in Early Access since November. Coming updates include an expanded sandbox mode with deeper character customization and fresh designs to diversify the game's brutal street fights, a new MMA-style Octagon arena, and a tournament mode.

When the Steam port launches, it will do so with content parity with the Quest version.

Haymaker is available in Early Access on Quest headsets, priced at $14.99. It's currently on Meta's top-seller list, and has a strong 4.7/5 user rating.

Soul Retreat is a new Quest 3 & 3S app that uses real-world location captures to take users on a relaxing virtual getaway.

The new VR meditation app from Soul Retreat Labs takes users to photorealistic landscapes inspired by real locations like Scotland's Glen Coe and Spain's La Besurta.

These soothing locales have been recreated through a system the developer calls GroundedPresence, an advanced photogrammetry stack. The result is a realistic experience that replicates the feeling of relaxing on a sunny beach or hiking through breezy hills.

A voiceover guides you through their meditation, talking you through breathing exercises or telling short stories to distract you from whatever stress you have in the day, and you can shift the time from day to night with a simple gesture or voice command. This narrator adapts with each session, with the studio promising a personalized experience.

Soul Retreat is currently available to download for free on Meta Quest 3 and 3S, with an optional Soul Retreat Plus subscription service costing either $6.99 a month, $34.99 a year, or a $69.99 lifetime payment.

The free option gives you access to two environments with a third being rotated weekly, while the paid option lets you explore all 10 current retreats. More will be added as Soul Retreat continues its development, the studio promises.

Crossings offers up incredibly visceral and engaging combat by keeping things simple while still offering a variety of choices for players. However, it has a lot of rough edges that show the more you play it.

Coincidentally or not, Crossings is one of two Norse mythology-based roguelites that released for Meta Quest in December. However, the similarities between it and Soul Assembly's Street Gods end with the setting. Neat Corp, whose previous titles include the stealth thriller Budget Cuts series and cozy island farming sim Garden of the Sea, set a dark tone from the instant you load in. With the previously delayed co-op mode and Steam version now available, read on for our full review.

In Crossings, you awaken in the Norse afterlife, starting in a forest blanketed in fog with a choice of weapons to start your run with. Each weapon has a tier, damage stats, and special gesture-based combo attacks that offer a buff such as a damage multiplier or status ailment, if performed correctly. If you pick another weapon, it simply replaces the original. There is no full body avatar here, just hands and wrists, which are replaced with your weapon (primary hand) or item (secondary hand) when in use. The floating hands are nothing new to VR, but seeing them disappear in favor of an item was jarring and a bit immersion breaking.

You continuously come across weapons in treasure chests, so you're not married to the same weapon until the run ends. Some of the perks you come across are tied to specific weapon types, like increasing the block damage when using a club, incentivizing you to backtrack for a weapon you passed on earlier because there's an upgrade available.

The same goes for magic. Each run starts with the same three wind magic attacks, triggered by a simple, unarmed, dual-arm gesture: crush, lift, and push. As the run progresses, you come across podiums with three statues offering your choice of replacement spells for one of the gestures, bringing different more powerful elemental attacks. Every perk and spell replacement costs units of either health or mana. You will randomly get offered a choice of an extra unit of health or mana from translucent statues that pop up after defeating enemies, so you're never forced to skip an upgrade because you can't 'afford' it.

The combat is almost brilliant in its simplicity. It feels, for lack of a better term, chunky. Enemies visibly take damage and react accordingly when hit. Every hit registers thanks to terrific sound design and the standard fighters can quickly close the distance on you with far-ranging leaping attacks or throwing spears. A lone enemy is a threat to hurt you in Crossings which is a nice change of pace from the horde-like feeling in other roguelites.

This is still a roguelite though, so expect to see the same enemies quite often. Getting to the third boss fight only to find out it's the same (or very similar) model as the first with a couple of new attacks was a bit of a letdown. Also, this is a slower-paced, more measured rogue, closer to something like In Death or Ancient Dungeon VR than the recent Roboquest. This isn't necessarily a bad thing. I quite enjoyed it. Just a point of comparison.

You will spend just as much time exploring and looting as in combat. Successful runs can get quite lengthy, so if you are doing well and fully exploring an area, expect to be in headset for over an hour before you go down. A run save feature would be welcome in future updates.

Unfortunately, Crossings still shows signs of an early release. The options lack, well, options like turn speed/angles and vignettes. You can only run in a straight line. Trying to strafe or draw your weapon slows you back down. The magic gestures, specifically the crush spell, can be hit-or-miss at times. I used push more than anything else simply because it registered more consistently than crush or lift. At times, I triggered them accidentally and lost mana.

Then there's the co-op gameplay. Crossings originally released in Early Access on Quest without the promised co-op mode. That was added later, shortly before the Steam release, and it still feels unfinished. There is no voice chat, which to my understanding was a deliberate move by the developers to force communication via body language and hand motions. A curious choice when Discord exists (and will soon have native Quest integration) and players on Quest can use the Horizon OS voice chat to communicate. I'm curious how many players will opt for the silent communication approach as intended.

Your friend joins with a full body, a curious choice given you yourself just have hands. Mercifully, you do not see your buddy's arm transform into a club/sword/axe/mace when they pull their weapon, but the weapon floats awkwardly at their wrist instead of appearing to be actually held. Same with the bow and arrow and the lamp that keeps you on the right path forward. This doesn't affect the gameplay, but it's tough to unsee.

The aforementioned translucent statues randomly appear for each player while being unseen by the other. When you both arrive at the upgrade statues, if one player selects an upgrade, that statue shuts down, even if the other player wanted the upgrade in the other hand. Passing inventory items, like potions, to each other was quite cumbersome. It's surprisingly clunky, especially coming from a seasoned developer like Neat Corp. Crossings in general feels better as a singleplayer experience than a co-op one.

From a technical standpoint, Crossings nails the atmosphere. Fog is used quite liberally, even in some interior areas, but that's to be expected since you're in the afterlife. This is paired with excellent music and sound design to create a dark, unnerving world. However, the world-building here is light. Ethereal voices make references to whatever quest you're on and runs play out in a mostly linear fashion, despite the open maps to explore.

In terms of fidelity, there's not a great deal of difference between the standalone and PC versions. Visually, it does feel like the Quest version was the priority. Both versions were performant with no major bugs or issues to speak of, other than occasional hitching in co-op.

Crossings - The Final Verdict

Crossings manages to mask its flaws with strong, well-designed combat and a moody atmospheric world to explore. The co-op experience comes up short and the game lacks several comfort features, but these are all fixable issues and with an attractive $10 price point, it's a welcome addition to one of the most crowded genres in VR.

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