It’s official. Facebook is now the full owner of Oculus and their marvelous virtual reality hardware, the Rift. It was announced several months ago that they were buying the company for billions of dollars, but you know how those things go. Lawyers have to sign things. Money has to slowly travel to Swiss bank accounts. Now the deal is done as Zuck officially passed the buck. As we patiently wait for a retail Rift model to hit stores, we can at least know that when that happens there will be plenty of neat software available. Here are two recent software developments that will soon be lighting up eyeballs and, uh, necks.
First up, X-Men. You remember them, right? They are superheroes born with mutant powers who sometimes star in movies, most of which feature Wolverine heavily. The recent Days of Future Past was a critical and commercial hit, so it only makes sense that this would be the property that swims in to the Rift. 20th Century Fox is bringing this software to San Diego’s Comic Con, where visitors will be able to don the Rift and experience firsthand what it’s like being an X-Man who isn’t named Wolverine. The game puts you in Cerebro, as you attempt to locate the missing mutant Mystique(this plot is lifted right from the movie.) The software isn’t a game, per say. It’s more an experience, which is just the kind of thing Rift is most suited for.
If you aren’t attending Comic Con, there’s still Shoebox Diorama to look forward to. This pseudo-game, created by Daniel Ernst, places players atop a great stack of chairs, which they must balance atop of and try not to fall to their doom. That’s only the beginning, however. In real life, you are actually atop some chairs as well(albeit a smaller stack) and a fan is set up to blow wind at you. The end result is, well, feeling like you are atop a huge stack of chairs, trying to survive. You can tilt your head around to look around and even play a Tetris-like puzzle game in another section of the simulation. The entire game isn’t finished yet, but this is the kind of thing that should, before too long, end up on store shelves.
