Games are fun, but virtual reality is better, and we have a bunch of news on your favorite games and upcoming devices. So let’s get started!
Bringing Virtual Reality to the Next Level: Aireal
You know, it’s kind of funny: for all the lagging that virtual reality has been doing over the last decade, the leaps and bounds it’s making in the last two years, and the expected gains in the next five, are a bit overwhelming. And today we’re bringing you news of the latest potential advance towards a totally immersive virtual world experience: being able to feel the objects that you’re interacting with!
Aireal is a device made up of nodules that generate puffs of air, allowing users to feel the objects, or the texture of the objects, that they’re handing in the games. You can place the device anywhere you want, and it tracks your body movements as you play, mimicking the feel of water, air and actual objects or animals; in the demo, they showcased a user virtually touching a butterfly, and actually feeling the wind from its wings.
Developed by Disney Research, the product is still in the working-out-the-kinks stages (most notably the slight noise and the time delay), but we’re excited for a release date!
An Update on the Omni
We recently talked about Omni, the virtual reality treadmill that let you actually walk through your virtual worlds (the idea of coupling this with the Rift has us drooling a bit). And the good news is they’ve most definitely reached their goals on Kickstarter. In fact, they met that goal in two days!
Between June 4th and July 22nd, Omni earned over 3,000 backers and over $1.1 million in funds.
Their goal was $150,000.
They’re currently working on getting the devices out to their backers, and then moving on to retail sales. You can preorder the device through their website (http://www.virtuix.com/).
SimCity: Going Strong!
Back in March, SimCity had, quite possibly, one of the worst launches in the history of ever. Like, we’re talking really, really bad. To start, users had to manually refriend everybody while simultaneously using one of the buggiest friends list ever created. Add to this other game bugs and some serious server issues, many of which made it impossible for users to log-on.
Today? SimCity seems to have worked out the kinks in its first online game, and to date over 2 million units have been sold. So if you gave up back in March, you might want to check it out again!
So does EA, the people behind the legend of the Sims, have any plans to take this to another level, putting Sims 4 online in 2014? Not a chance. According to EA, the newest installment of this classic will be an offline, single player game per the norm. Sometimes, it’s more fun to just play on your own!
Updates for Doodle!
Your favorite puzzle game is about to get a bunch of fancy new additions. After going over 100 million unique downloads since the launch of the series, it’s become one of the most popular mobile games ever. Doodle God and Doodle Devil will be getting updates in the next few weeks, both the Apple and Android versions, including support for iPads, new quests and puzzles, a whole bunch of new artifacts to collect, and even better graphics. Oh, and Doodle Devil will also have a new “demon mode.” We’re guessing that’s a blast!
Keep your eye out for this!
War of Roses is Free!
Are you craving a foray into 15th century England? Do you love third-person, team style games? Well, now you can enjoy one of the best for free! Not for the younger crowd, this game features a bunch of different levels and a lot of epic fights. There can be up to 64 players in one match, and you can also fight while riding a horse. Check it out!
And to Close – Updates to Chit Chat World!
Chit Chat World has seen a few recent upgrades in the last couple of weeks. To start, there’re two new hair styles!
But that’s not exactly the biggest news (although the pigtails are wicked cute). In order to make more houses available to the people who actually spend a lot of time in Chit Chat world, they’ve turned all of the houses and establishments into rentals, which means non-players can’t hog all the good real estate. You have to pay with credits monthly, and you’ll get reminder emails every month.
Have a good week!
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