Getting the immediate question out of the way, yes, the Titanfall 2 VR mod is as great as advertised. Rather than a barely-performant, deeply flawed, subpar "early version" mod that wouldn't qualify for early access status if it were an actual game, like many of the vibe coded VR mods that popped up over the summer (yes, I played several of them), the TF2 mod feels like a finished product out of the gate.

We will have another article soon from a writer who had never played Titanfall 2 prior to the mod that gets into what makes it great. Having previously played the game myself, I cannot offer that perspective.

In spite of my enthusiasm for VR as a medium, I despise extensive tinkering and troubleshooting in any form. After a long workday and any needed household/family duties, when I put on a headset and press play for a game, I want it to just work. VR mods have always actively worked against that innate desire for a turnkey implementation. Even the Universal Unreal Engine VR Injector (UEVR), another excellent technical achievement, still requires profiles to be built for individual games if you want any of the VR comforts like full motion controller support and a more reliable camera, the latter being particularly important to comfortably play a third-person game in first person. These have to be sourced by the player, usually with multiple options to review and choose from. UEVR will get an Unreal Engine 5 game rendering in VR fairly quickly, but you will need to go profile hunting.

So when I volunteered to test the Titanfall 2 VR mod, having already completed the game on Steam a couple of years ago, I took a deep breath and steeled myself to have to relocate and rename files or install a profile or anything other than 'press play and go.' CircuitLord's installer took all of that away and that was easily my biggest takeaway. Installers for mods are nothing new, but rarely are they this painless.

After downloading, the installer does a three-step check to get you going:

• Ensures the game is installed and automatically marks the install folder
• Directs you to log into the EA app necessary to play the game
• A one-click mod install button

After that, it's simply press the play button with SteamVR open and you are in. This level of care and attention to the finer details extends to the available options within the game. There is a toggle for cinematic cutscenes to either render them in full VR (with the associated camera jerkiness that comes with that choice) or on a 2D panel for anyone prone to motion sickness. The in-game prompts have been adapted to account for the VR controllers, unlike other mods that would suggest you press LB, RB, L3, or R3 (traditional game controller buttons). When people say it "feels like a native VR game," this is part of that assertion. CircuitLord has put the time in to ensure all of this is seamless out of the gate.

Setting up mods manually, frankly, can be a pain and has proven to be off-putting for many VR users, whether they are enthusiasts, more casual, or somewhere in-between. So much so that entire Discord servers and subreddits have been dedicated to helping people troubleshoot their issues. There's a great support community around VR modding, but that community is necessary because mods by and large don't just work for everyone.

For as long as VR has been in the public eye, there has been an ongoing discussion about its pain points and what the technology "needs" for wider adoption. Headsets need to be lighter and more comfortable. We need higher PPD. Better FOV. More affordable for the casual consumer. Brighter panels. Better lenses. Better software. Higher refresh rates. None of these are necessarily wrong, but they all represent the same basic issue: friction.

CircuitLord's installer addresses friction and accessibility in a way I wish VR modding would make it a point to address more often. Modder MrSurvivor's VR hub is another great example of this, an application that guides you through installs, uninstalls, and updates for a bevy of games to get them running in VR in just a few clicks.

These tools are a step forward in accessibility, one of the more criminally overlooked aspects of XR technology. The easier and more comfortable something is to use, the more people will be willing to take a chance on it. Video game modding has largely been the realm of tinkerers for decades now, mostly because sideloading, file renaming, and any other additional steps to get into a game are a deterrent. That needs to change. Convenience matters. Accessibility matters.

Titanfall 2 is already a terrific game. A competent mod is all it needed to be a great VR experience and CircuitLord's work far exceeds that. The installer though, is the best selling point for getting people who are wary of mods to give it a go.

You can get CircuitLord's installer, which also works for their mod of Big Walk, here. Look for a full mod review from a Titanfall 2 newcomer here on UploadVR soon.

Fresh Tracks takes place in the mystical land of Norwyn, where magical beings called Mythics bless the people with music and storytelling. When the songs grow duller and sorrow befalls Norwyn, a hero named Skaii embarks on a downhill journey to gain the favor of the Mythics and restore peace to the world by jumping, sledding, and sliding to the tune of their music.

The VR version of Fresh Tracks trades the original's button presses for motion controls such as leaning left or right and swinging your magic Rhythmic sword at trees or enemies. Jumping, ducking, and steering between lanes are still controlled by the joystick, though you can also choose to hold down the triggers and move your hand to switch lanes. Overall, I'd say that the motion controls are responsive, with any issues I had probably having more to do with streaming issues than anything.

Stages are divided into courses, with obstacles and items to collect appearing in tune to the background music. By picking up floating spheres called Whyspers and Ekkos and slashing enemies, you will fill a special gauge and build up your score.

Many of the objects you will need to slash with your sword require you to swing in a certain direction, as noted by the arrow in front of the obstacle or enemy in question. There are different kinds of Rhythmic swords to be unlocked, each with its own special ability you can perform by clicking the right joystick once your gauge is filled.

At the end of a course, your overall performance is ranked. Before you start a new course, you can choose one of a few branching paths based on difficulty. Each one has a different reward, be it a temporary stat upgrade or an additional heart fragment.

Skaii’s health is gauged by a meter of hearts in the upper left-hand corner of the screen. Each time you hit an obstacle, half a heart is taken, and if you run out completely, you have to start a new run from the beginning.

At certain points, Skaii will chance across a traveling merchant that will let them spend Whyspers on Charms that will give them special bonuses for the remainder of their current run. They can also purchase new skis with Ekkos that can give them more permanent perks before their next run. The main menu also has a mode called The Lark, which lets you replay stages you’ve run through before in hopes of getting a better score.

If you wish to just take in Fresh Tracks VR’s atmosphere without worrying about obstacles or combat, there’s the Scenic Route mode. This allows you to simply glide downhill to whichever of the game’s tracks or stories you’ve unlocked so far. Likewise, Practice Run lets you try out the game’s controls in a similar hazard-free setting.

Like many rhythm games, music is at the heart of Fresh Tracks’ gameplay, with a variety of rock, dance, and pop tracks. For the most part, the songs are catchy and well done, even if a few of them get repetitive to play through after multiple runs. A voiceover narration also narrates Skaii’s actions and shares lore about the history of Norwyn and the Mythics between songs, making this really feel like you're listening to a children’s bedtime story. This narrator can be switched out with any Mythics you've befriended on your journey, and the voice acting is solid across the board.

Fresh Tracks VR’s graphical style is simple and colorful, and features a mix of environments like snowy peaks, stone castles packed with enemies, and even strange cliffs with glowing, Tron-like cubes that block your path. Unfortunately, you can’t really look around the environment while you're playing. If you look away long enough, the screen goes black and a prompt tells you to recenter the camera. I understand that this game requires you to focus on what’s ahead of you, but it feels strange that an immersive VR experience won’t let you look around.

I also encountered some framerate stuttering during my time playing, though that could just be due to bandwidth issues on my end. Finally, I found the game’s default pause input (pressing both X and Y simultaneously) unresponsive, and had to change it through the SteamVR settings because there isn't any way to change the controls in-game.

Despite these possible technical issues, Fresh Tracks VR is an interesting take on last year's indie hit that works as both a relaxing skiing simulator and an epic fantasy workout, depending on which mode you're playing. Fans of Beat Saber might enjoy the use of a sword to slash away obstacles, while those who enjoy medieval settings in games like One More Delve can dive into the lore of Norwyn. With enough post-launch polish, Buffalo Buffalo could have another charming virtual reality gem to go with BirdseedVR.

Our next showcase is expected to premiere December 11th.

We want to thank everyone who made June’s event possible. The UploadVR Showcase wouldn't be the success that it is year after year without our incredible sponsors, developers, content creators, and of course, our amazing audience.

Last season, we shared an exclusive VR, XR, MR lineup with a little bit for everybody. Looking for mixed reality experiences? We had you covered with Disembodied, Theremin, and Color-A-Cube. Want to play something spooky? Rustmourne was there to scare us silly. Have a need for speed? Hyperlane Highway and Pedal Rebel VR delivered quite the ride. 

For those who don't know, participating in our showcase is free, and there are no application fees, either. To qualify all you need is a cool VR project, secret news, and a video made exclusively for our show! Videos are chosen by a panel of judges.

This December, we want to see your projects! We’re always on the hunt for exclusive content, game reveals, and important announcements. Think you have a one-of-a-kind game to release to the world? Does your current game have a new update to announce? Fill out the application and let’s get some eyes on your innovation. Submissions are now open!

Go to showcase.uploadvr.com/apply to submit your project!

Final videos must be submitted by December 2nd.

The main goal of The UploadVR Showcase is to give developers a place to share their hard work with the VR community, without the added costs most events have attached. That means if you’ve already signed up to another showcase or event, you can still be a part of our showcase, too. You'll just need a custom video and a newsworthy announcement that no one else knows about. If you think your project will wow our audience, we want to see it. 

If you are interested in sponsoring, please reach out to Beck!

Meta's latest update for the Public Test Channel introduces an overhauled 2D window management system, brings back a selection of legacy Virtual Environments, and more.

2D Window Overhaul & Redesigned Control Bars

Horizon OS 2.9 introduces an overhaul of its 2D window management system, internally codenamed Display Evo, which Meta describes as "A new way to organize your app windows."

While the Navigator replaced the operating system's tablet-style app dock with a more modern overlay-style launcher, the underlying 2D window system remained largely unchanged, still centering the experience around three apps in a relatively restrictive triple-monitor-style layout and forcing users to juggle additional windows between a simplified dock and the space around them.

Display Evo removes the dock entirely.

With Horizon OS 2.9 PTC, 2D windows now open spatially around you, and can be grouped by simply moving their edges together, or arranged into a "Stack" that you can flip through like a deck of cards.

This system also introduces a new component called the Window Manager, which Meta says can be accessed via Quick Settings in 2.9 PTC. This allows you to view all open 2D windows, bring them forward, or close them individually or all at once. This is broadly similar to Android XR's app management interface, presenting open spatial windows in one place for quick selection or dismissal.

In the Horizon OS 2.7 pre-release version of the feature, the Window Manager also includes "Stack" and "3-Up" presets for automatically organizing windows into stacked or triple-monitor-style layouts.

Alongside these larger changes, Meta is also rolling out redesigned window Control Bars, with a dedicated grab handle and separate function buttons. This appears to be designed around the gaze input system shipping with Meta VR Glasses.

Meta also notes that the standalone "Anchor" option for 2D windows has been removed from the Control Bar in favor of relying on Magnetism, a default window behavior introduced in Horizon OS 2.1 that automatically anchors and attaches windows to vertical surfaces such as walls when they are pushed against them, which Meta says now works more reliably in 2.9 PTC.

Classic Home Environments

Beginning with the rollout of v81 PTC in August 2025, Meta overhauled the Horizon OS Home Environment system, replacing the many Virtual Environments from over the years with a single high-quality space called Loft that features unrestricted locomotion and customizable Scenery styles.

Quest v81 Rolling Out With New Immersive Home, Window Anchoring & QuickPlay

Quest’s Horizon OS v81 is rolling out now, bringing the Horizon Engine Immersive Home, persistent window anchoring, QuickPlay, and more.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

While reception of Loft’s higher quality and unrestricted locomotion was mostly positive, many existing users were frustrated that Meta chose to remove all of the older Virtual Environments with little warning.

Meta now appears to be directly addressing that feedback with a new feature called Classic Environments.

Horizon OS 2.9 PTC introduces a new Classic Environments submenu within the Home Editor, accessed by pressing the menu button on the left Touch controller or performing a palm-facing pinch with your left hand. It contains pre-v81 Virtual Environments seemingly ported to the Horizon Engine, with optimized performance and the same free locomotion as Loft.

The two environments available at the time of writing are Desert Terrace, Quest 2's default environment, and Space Station, the fourth environment released for the original Quest in April 2020.

New Space Station Home Environment Now Available For Oculus Quest

Facebook introduced a new virtual home environment for the Oculus Quest this week called ‘Space Station’.

UploadVRHarry Baker

Dataminer and programmer Nori was also able to display many other Virtual Environments with active development channels in the Classic Environments submenu, suggesting that more may be released on a rolling basis.

QR Code Scanner

Horizon OS 2.9 PTC adds a system-level QR code scanner to Quest 3 and 3S. The scanner can be accessed by opening the Camera app and scrolling to the bottom of the Camera Bar widget. It can also be added to Quick Controls as a tile through Settings > General > Quick Controls.

Meta also says it can be accessed through Navigator's Global Search, or by asking Meta AI, "Hey Meta, open QR code scanner," though I haven't been able to get it to surface through those entry points.

In my testing, it works well enough in terms of speed. However, a major caveat is that it is currently an immersive app, meaning you can't use it to scan QR codes alongside 2D windows in Passthrough. You also can't use it to scan QR codes that may appear within 2D windows or inside immersive apps, including QR codes that world creators sometimes use in social apps such as VRChat.

Improved Surface Keyboard And Touchpad

Introduced with v85 PTC in January 2026 as an Experimental feature on Quest 3 and later added to Quest 3S, Surface Keyboard and Touchpad allows you to place a virtual keyboard and touchpad on top of any surface, such as a table or desk. It is set to be a core feature of Meta's upcoming VR Glasses, and Horizon OS 2.9 PTC sees the company continuing to improve it.

Quest 3 v85 PTC Can Turn Any Surface Into A Virtual Keyboard

With Horizon OS v85 PTC, Quest 3 can turn any surface into a virtual keyboard and touchpad, and Meta says you can remap the Quest 3S action button.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

Horizon OS 2.9 PTC simplifies the layout of Surface Keyboard and Touchpad's UI to more closely match what was shown in the Meta VR Glasses reveal video, while making it easier to access shortcuts and adjust its position.

Meta also says that "Surface Keyboard and Touchpad now works in fully virtual environments as well as passthrough." However, this was not functional in my testing, suggesting it may be a separate rollout.

Additional Changes

Boundary Setup Recovery

Meta notes that Horizon OS 2.9 PTC changes the scene capture system so that if Boundary setup or space scanning is interrupted, Quest will now revert to the previous Boundary or default to a Stationary Boundary.

In my testing, this also seems to mean that you can start a space scan for a Roomscale Boundary, cancel it, and then restart the process in the same space while retaining the partially scanned area. It is unclear how long the system can preserve interrupted boundaries.

Touch Controller Troubleshooting

Meta says that Horizon OS 2.9 PTC introduces a troubleshooting flow for Touch controllers:

"If a touch controller stops responding, you can now troubleshoot it from your Quest. Go to Settings > Devices > Controllers and select Troubleshoot controllers."

Search Improvements

Meta notes that Navigator's Global Search has been improved with the ability to access device settings directly, including while offline:

"You can now find and change settings directly via search. Type Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Do not disturb, Travel mode, Passthrough, and more to see the settings for each in the results - even when you’re offline."

Lying Down Mode Moves To Stable

An undocumented change, Horizon OS 2.9 PTC moves "Use apps while lying down" from the Experimental menu in Settings to general availability in Accessibility > Mobility. This feature allows you to rotate the virtual coordinate space upwards using the recenter action, letting you comfortably use immersive apps and games in bed.

Quest v63 Adds Lying Down Mode On Quest 2 & Quest Pro

The Quest v63 update adds a lying down mode - but only on Quest 2 and Quest Pro, not Quest 3.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

For reference, this feature was first added with v53 PTC in April 2023, was removed from the stable version as Meta explored how to make the tracking mode more robust and simple, re-added to Quest 2 and Pro with v63 in March 2024, then added to Quest 3 with v64 the following month.

Pause Hand Tracking In Gamepad Mode

Another undocumented change, Horizon OS 2.9 PTC adds an optional toggle that prevents the system from automatically switching to Hand Tracking when using the new Gamepad Mode introduced in Horizon OS 2.7, helping prevent accidental hand inputs.

Quest 3 Gets Up To 240 Hz Refresh Rate & Gamepad Emulation

Meta’s Horizon OS 2.7 is rolling out, bringing Gamepad Emulation to Quest Touch Plus controllers and extended refresh rates up to 240Hz on Quest 3.

UploadVRLuna

In addition to the usual release of two monthly games, new games added to the catalog, and discounts on games in the Meta Horizon store, Horizon+ now offers subscribers free add-ons for games. The first free Horizon+ add-ons will unlock cosmetics and in-game currency to spend in Orion Drift, the massively multiplayer game from the makers of Gorilla Tag.

Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked and Deadly Delivery also join the Horizon+ games catalog this month, and there are a few great discounts on some excellent experiences (including one of the best looking games on Quest).

Let's take a closer look at the two Monthly Games for October 2026.

Swarm 2 is a fast-paced roguelike shooter which features nearly as much grappling as it does shooting. With deadly guns and acrobatic grappling hooks, you zip through battlefields at breakneck speeds, blasting enemies in all directions. When we wrote about Swarm 2 back in 2024, we called it "Spiderman with guns!"

Waltz of the Wizard is described by its creators as "a Reality Experience" where you can do anything you like, and in which you can speak to the game's NPCs, and they'll speak back to you realistically with thousands of reactions. Inside this "highly reactive" world, your wizard powers allow you to bend time, create and reshape objects, and conjure magical fireballs and storms.

Horizon+ subscribers also get exclusive discounts on select games every month. The deals for October are:

• The Curious Tale of the Stolen Pets: 50% off the normal price.
• Red Matter 2: 50% off the normal price.
• Synth Riders gets two song discounts: Wonderland by Caravan Palace and Humble by Kendrick Lamar are 67% off for subscribers.

Horizon+ Games Catalog Games

Horizon+ continues offering both a Games Catalog and Indie Games Catalog of Quest titles that any subscriber can access. Meta can add new games to and remove games from these catalogs at any time.

Here are all of the 100+ games included in the current combined Horizon+ Games Catalog and Indie Games Catalog in the US:

• Action Hero
• After the Fall
• Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs
• Arcade Paradise VR
• Asgard's Wrath 2
• Audio Trip
• Banners & Bastions
• Barbaria
• Barbershop Simulator VR
• BattleGlide
• Beauty Salon Simulator VR
• Blacktop Hoops
• Breachers
• Cactus Cowboy - Desert Warfare
• Cave Crave
• Cave Digger 2 Dig Harder
• Chess Club - Daily Puzzles
• Coffee Quest VR
• Cooking Clash
• Crime Shop Simulator: A Prison Boss Game
• Crisis Brigade 2 reloaded
• Darksword: Battle Eternity
• Deadly Delivery
• Demeo
• Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked
• DIG VR
• Dragon Fist: VR Kung Fu
• Drums Rock
• Dungeons Of Eternity
• Elements Divided
• Escaping Wonderland
• Espire 1: VR Operative
• First Person Tennis - The Real Tennis Simulator
• Fruit Ninja
• Galaxy Kart
• Genotype
• Ghost Signal: A Stellaris Game
• GOLF+
• Green Hell VR
• Grill on Wheels
• Hide The Corpse
• Home Invasion
• I Am Cat
• I Am Hamster - Simulator
• iB Cricket
• I Expect You To Die 2
• In Death: Unchained
• Innkeeper VR
• Into the Radius
• IRON GUARD
• IRON GUARD: Salvation
• Ironlights
• Job Simulator
• Killer Frequency
• Laser Thief
• Last Stand
• LES MILLS BODYCOMBAT: Fitness workouts
• Little Cities
• Little Thief
• Loop One: Done
• Maestro
• Medieval Dynasty New Settlement
• Moss
• Motion Soccer PRO
• Onward
• Outta Hand
• Pets & Stuff
• Pistol Whip
• Premium Bowling
• Project Demigod
• Puzzling Places
• Racket Club
• Real VR Fishing
• Retropolis 2: Never Say Goodbye
• RUINSMAGUS
• RUNNER
• Shave & Stuff
• Shooty Fruity
• Slot Car VR
• STARWAVE
• Stilt
• Survival Nation
• Surviving Mars: Pioneer
• SWARM 2
• Synth Riders
• Table Troopers
• The 7th Guest VR
• The Climb 2
• The Obsessive Shadow
• The Secret of Retropolis
• The Thrill of the Fight
• The Wizards
• Thief Simulator VR: Greenview Street
• Tiny Archers
• Titans Clinic
• Toy Monsters
• Ultimate Swing Golf by Clap Hanz
• Vacation Simulator
• Vibe Punch
• Viral Descent: Together
• Walkabout Mini Golf
• Waltz of the Wizard
• War of Wizards
• We Are One
• Zero Caliber

Meta Horizon+ is a subscription service that gives players access to a monthly selection of games for $7.99 USD per month, or $59.99 USD a year. New Horizon+ users can enjoy a one-month free trial.

Infinity Games has shared that their traffic management game Traffix XR: Cities of Tomorrow is coming to Quest 3, 3S, and Quest Pro on October 15. The developers describe Traffix XR as "a relaxed mixed-reality traffic puzzle where you [...] connect road tiles to landmarks, make the traffic flow, and watch the city grow procedurally around your network." The game can be played in mixed reality or in full VR.

In Traffix XR, you'll plan, place, erase, and redirect roads to link landmarks across a variety of environments, while homes, towers, bridges, and subways emerge in the city around you. Traffic flows from place to place, and it's your job to keep things flowing smoothly. You'll also sweep snow, clear roads, and blow away sand with natural hand motions.

While I've not yet played Traffix XR, its trailer reminds me of a flat screen game that I've spent many hours playing: Mini Motorways. That's a good game!

UploadVR has been granted access to a pre-release build, and a full review will be coming when Traffix XR: Cities of Tomorrow releases on Quest 3 on October 15.

This article is one of several features James Tocchio and I will be publishing this month for players much braver than the two of us. We have both said multiple times on the UploadVR Gamescast that horror is not our favorite genre of games, but that does not stop us from playing them. Keep an eye out for more horror-themed lists and reviews throughout October.

Games are listed in no particular order.

Out of Sight VR

This one is a bit of a cheat because it is already in Early Access on Steam, but Out of Sight VR has been confirmed to expand to PlayStation VR2 later this year and Quest in early 2027. The Little Nightmares-akin stealth-horror game casts you as a stuffed teddy bear. No, that is not a typo. You are the cuddly companion and literal eyes of a little girl who has been blinded by her captors in a huge mansion invoking the oversized furniture scale of the Bandai Namco-published Little Nightmares franchise. Yes, we got an actual Little Nightmares VR game earlier this year that I quite enjoyed. Out of Sight is still a well-made slice of horror with a rare second-person perspective and great atmosphere that Flat2VR Studios will thankfully bring to new audiences in the near future.

Confined: Leaving OKB-134

I played the demo for Confined: Leaving OKB-134 during a Steam Next Fest and while it had the rough edges expected with most early drafts, there was a lot of claustrophobia-inducing suspense to be had. You play as a tourist so gullible you might as well have come from a 1980s slasher-horror film who gets locked in an abandoned bunker and has to repair the defunct structure to escape. The demo is still available to play on Steam.

Total Chaos VR

Good news for anyone who already owns the 2025 flatscreen version of this game on Steam: you will get Total Chaos VR for free. Developer Trigger Happy Interactive and publisher Apogee Entertainment confirmed plans for SteamVR support and a standalone version for Quest.

You play as a Coast Guard officer responding to a distress call from an ominous island. When a storm wrecks your boat upon the shore, you discover the island's dark past isn't totally forgotten. Compelled to explore the island by cryptic radio transmissions, you must delve ever deeper into this twisted and uncertain reality.

The original game has a 'Very Positive' rating on Steam from 1.5k reviews.

Affected: The Asylum

We don't have store listings yet, but we have been hearing about Affected: The Asylum, the successor to the brief-but-excellent Affected: The Manor for years now. After a long period of radio silence, it resurfaced earlier this year.

Developer Dead Boss Games has taken over production from original studio Fallen Planet Studios. The Asylum has shifted from its originally planned multiplayer focus to an unnerving single-player thriller where you investigate a secretive cult in a desolate mental health institution. Despite the removal of multiplayer, you are not alone. Subject 357, an inhuman result of the cult's experimentation with a parasitic entity stalks you throughout the asylum. Joy.

This one was originally slated for release this summer on Quest and PC VR and we're past that point now, so we will continue to monitor this one for future updates.

Poppy Playtime VR

That thumbnail alone is spine-chilling. Poppy Playtime was a hit with gamers when it launched in 2021, currently sitting at a 'Very Positive' rating on Steam from over sixty thousand reviews. Flat2VR Studios confirmed a VR port as one of its numerous projects in a 2025 VR Games Showcase. You must survive Huggy Wuggy and other hazards in an abandoned toy factory. The Five Nights At Freddy's series has proven many times over how terrifying animatronic toys can be in and out of VR.

We have not heard any additional details about planned platforms yet, but Flat2VR has published on PlayStation VR2, Quest, and PC VR in the past, so there is no reason not to expect the same with this title.

C.A.B.A.

C.A.B.A. (Center of Anomalies of Buenos Aires), is a short first-person survival horror experience similar to Exit 8, launching with full VR support on PS VR2, Quest, and PC VR, plus flat versions for PS5 and Steam.

Set in a Buenos Aires subway station that shouldn't exist, the game is a terrifying trek through a subterranean liminal space. You can't fight what walks the tunnels down here; you can only try to escape.

The Obsessive Shadow - Chapter 2

The next entry in developer Pablo Heckman's mysterious stalker jumps forward in time from the 1980s to 2006. Old Diamond Drive, the location of the home from the first chapter, is now abandoned with your character, sixteen-year-old Justin, spending a night there after losing a bet. The Obsessive Shadow - Chapter 2 taps into Blair Witch-like found footage territory with Justin's camcorder capturing his experience as shown in the trailer above.

Chapter 2 is expected on PS VR2, Quest, and PC VR sometime this year.

Spirit Ritual

Spirit Ritual is a supernatural horror game, played in either VR or MR, in which you play as a psychic medium attempting to break a demonic curse. You'll use hand-tracking controls to conjure a spirit board to enter the spirit realm and equip your old-timey spirit camera to capture ghosts.

The Fatal Frame-like title is coming to Pico, PC VR, and Quest.

Project Louisiana - The Bounds VR

Uncover the truth behind a cursed Louisiana mansion while searching for your missing daughter in story-based Project Louisiana - The Bounds VR. This is another one I played during a recent Steam Next Fest. The Bounds blends puzzle-solving with authentic voodoo mythology and the creepy Baron Samedi (the rightmost character in the title banner for this article) serves as your guide. The demo I played oozed atmosphere, but needed some work with onboarding and a general sense of direction.

Developer Build the Light has vowed to take all of the player feedback from that demo period and polish the game before it releases for PC VR and PS VR2.

Fyr: The Lost Island

FYR: The Lost Island is a psychological horror game set on the shores of a remote Norwegian island. As you explore the island seeking clues and relics to unlock its secrets, you are hunted by a 'relentless' monster. A demo has been available on Steam since last year, showing strong visuals and leaning into the suspense thriller atmosphere its foggy setting naturally lends itself to. Your flashlight reveals ethereal projections of the island's past inhabitants to aid in piecing together the island's history. I played this demo and thought it was a strong start, enough to merit a wishlist for future follow-up.

Birdseed VR, a comical birdwatching and photography game, is coming to SteamVR on October 8. The SteamVR release will include cross play with Quest users, too.

For those who may not know about Birdseed VR, what you're getting is a cozy birdwatching and photography game in which you hang out in a charming little forest and photograph silly birds. The game has been out on Quest for some time. We reviewed it when it landed on that platform, describing it as a game that "invites you to relax, slow down, and simply enjoy a peaceful slice of nature filled with charming, delightfully curious birds."

Hands-On: Birdseed Invites You To Relax & Photograph Cute Dumb Birds

Birdseed is a cozy VR game about photographing silly birds, and so far we simply love it.

UploadVRJames Tocchio

Birdseed VR left Early Access on Quest in April, adding new updates such as a Scout's Store in-game shop to buy camera skins, lenses, and charms, improvements to the game's multiplayer, and several new birds. We'll find out soon if the SteamVR release includes everything in the Quest build.

Birdseed VR is out now on Quest 3 and 3S. It's coming to SteamVR next week.

The series follows four-time NBA Champion Draymond Green through six therapy sessions with sports psychologist Dr. Carrie Hastings. In addition to maintaining her private practice, Dr. Hastings is also the team psychologist for the Los Angeles Rams NFL team.

Open Season allows the viewer to get up close with Green and Hastings as they embark on an exploration of Green’s background and thought processes. They make it explicit in the first session that Green has consented to having the sessions recorded, acknowledging the normally private nature of therapy sessions.

Going Deep With Draymond Green

Using the 2025-2026 NBA season as the backdrop for the series, Green and Hastings work through Green’s struggles with his fiery personality that sometimes gets him into trouble on the court, injuries that plague his team, personal relationships, parenting responsibilities, and the looming end of his playing career.

As someone who follows basketball casually, I knew of Draymond Green, mostly for his infamous game ejections. But a series like this really delivers the feeling of getting to know Green as a complete person.

There’s an intimacy to the format that delivers a deeper impact than 2D TV can. The feeling of being present with Green and Hastings during their sessions is powerful, truly like a fly on the wall.

As the viewer, you’re seated off to the side, angled so you can see both Green and Hastings. You have an expansive 180° view of Hastings’ office, the couch, the water glasses, and the customary box of tissues. There is nothing abnormal or unusual to anyone who has experienced a therapy session for themselves. And that’s the magic of it: this is a real session and you’re getting to sit in as an elite professional athlete works through his stuff, like anyone else.

Cut scenes feature Green and Hastings individually, along with several other important figures from Green’s life, such as his mother, a Warriors teammate, and his Michigan State basketball coach. Those cut scenes make an impact because of the sense of presence and proximity you feel, as though they are seated just across from you, speaking directly to you.

Cutting Edge Video

Open Season was shot in stereoscopic 3D 180º with Blackmagic URSA Cameras, and the results are impressive. The 3D effect is natural and did not produce any notable eye strain as I binge-watched all six episodes over the course of two evenings. The level of clarity is remarkable. I used my Meta Quest 3 to watch, and this was the clearest, most detailed video I have ever seen on Quest. 

It’s amazing that nearly three years after it launched, the Quest 3 is finally getting some content that can really showcase what its displays and lenses are capable of. I’ve also watched some Apple Immersive Video on Vision Pro, and while the quality of the Vision Pro is next-level, the quality of this content on Quest was good enough to fuel the comparison in my mind. 

You're There

The video quality was notable at first and I spent most of the first episode paying close attention to the picture clarity and how the director chose to shoot in this format. But soon I was drawn in as the immersion took over, and I became fully engaged with Green, his conversations with Hastings, and his larger story. 

I was invested, following along to see if Green actually put into practice a coping mechanism that he and Hastings discussed in a session before a game. I came away feeling like I really had seen a glimpse of Green at his most human and vulnerable. 

Of course I’ve been engrossed in 2D TV programs in the past, but the high-quality 3D and VR immersion heightened the connection I felt, as if I had actually been somewhere with these people, not merely watched them on TV.

I came away with the feeling that this viewing experience is so good that it will be ubiquitous in the future.

More Immersive Content Coming Soon

Open Season is the first in a slate of immersive media experiences from Meta Presents. At Connect 2026, the company also announced other plans for 3D movies, sports, documentaries, and concerts in advance of their new Meta VR Glasses, which are expected to ship in Spring 2027.

Immersive sports content is often lauded for delivering the big plays and the thrill of being close to the action. And that’s true. But this series shows that the immersive format is capable of delivering an emotional punch from quieter content as well.

Despite the video being only 180°, this experience is so well done that it feels completely immersive.

Many Perspectives, Carefully Choreographed

The eight-minute experience feels like a complete journey. Big Wave Surfing moves visitors through a significant range of perspectives without feeling jarring. The perspectives help you grasp just how extreme and beautiful surfing can be in Teahupo’o. The contrast between the calm moments and the surfers riding the massive waves shows just how brave these athletes are.

You get in the water with some of the best surfers in the world as they train, including with Olympic Gold Medalist Italo Ferreira, World Champion Molly Picklum, local hero Michel Bourez, and more. You visit fish in the reef, get near the surface of massive waves and calm waters, join spectators and photographers on boats, and also soar above it. The transitions feel smooth, almost keeping pace with the waves as they form and break. Each moment holds just long enough to take in what is happening before transitioning to the next spot, but you’ll want to visit it again to catch details you may have missed. Look out for the rainbow that forms over a massive wave.

Just Enough Narration To Support The Experience

At moments throughout the experience, the voiceover narration gives the context needed to understand what it is like to surf in Teahupoʻo. Visitors get enough information to better understand what they are seeing, and then enough space to take it in for themselves. The extreme consequences and payoffs of the sport are better understood by virtually being there.

There is no break in the narrative to hear individual surfer stories. Instead, you get glimpses of the wider surfer community from different positions within it.

And, while this is a Red Bull experience, as with their other content, the brand is not forced into the story. It is just naturally integrated into shots as it appears on some apparel. The athletes and the premium experience are supported by Red Bull. It is not a veiled ad.

Details That Create Intense Immersion

The beautiful direction paired with the rich visuals, sounds captured during the epic shoot and subtle soundtrack creates the kind of immersive experience that shows off some of the best features of the Apple Vision Pro. The details are perfectly aligned to temporarily convince you that you are there.

You can see the details in the coral below the surface, through to the different ways that sunlight passes through the calm and massive waves that feel real enough to reach out to touch. I caught myself ducking as sparkling water splashed in my direction.

With spatial audio alone, the moments feel real as you can hear the changing environment around you. The underwater moments where noise is muted are so calming.

For me, Big Wave Surfing sets a new gold standard for Apple Immersive sports storytelling.

Sega Amusements has unveiled a new immersive VR game in the The House of the Dead series. "The House of the Dead: Reawakened" is described as a two-player VR experience that brings players physically inside a Gothic manor, complete with doors and windows.

The House of the Dead: Reawakened features a themed facade around the game cabinet which has been designed as a Gothic manor with creepy doors and shuttered windows. The front door is an 85-inch display, while the two windows are 43-inch displays. These are said to offer jump scares and to reveal the VR play area.

Once inside, players will use commercial VR headsets and weapon controllers capable of haptic recoil (remember Time Crisis?) to blast their way through three missions. The game can be played by up to two players, with each player having their own 2.1 channel audio system.

The House of the Dead: Reawakened follows in the footsteps of the original The House of the Dead, which was first released in arcades in 1997 and then ported to Sega's then-current home console, Sega Saturn, in 1998.

Numerous mainline releases have followed in arcades, with standalone games and ports appearing on a wide range of home game consoles since. The series has also enjoyed several spin-offs, and at least one (fairly terrible) movie. A new film is currently being developed.

The most recent all-new release in the series was 2018's arcade shooter The House of the Dead: Scarlet Dawn, which was a more traditional arcade shooter that did not feature VR tech.

The House of the Dead: Reawakened will be shown at IAAPA Expo, one of the world's largest arcade, attractions, and amusement park trade shows. IAAPA Expo is being held in Orlando, Florida from November 17-20.

We'll have more coverage as The House of the Dead: Reawakened rises from its grave. (Let us know if you caught that extremely old Sega reference in the comments.)

We're into the fall now, typically the busiest time of the year for gaming. September was busy with the release of Valve's Steam Frame, Meta Connect unveiling the new Meta VR Glasses & announcing several new games coming to the new hardware and Quest.

In gaming, we got the anticipated releases of Knights of Fiona and Gunman Contracts - Stand Alone. Other highlights include Tiny Flock, The Lightkeepers, I Am Your Beast VR and Sol Protocol.

We also saw fresh updates for Demeo X Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked, Puzzling Places, No Man's Sky, Dungeons of Eternity, Just Hoops, Forefront, Real VR Fishing and Golf+ among others.

As always, we will update this article all month long with any new dates or delays. If we missed any new titles with confirmed dates, let us know down in the comments. Also, keep an eye on our ongoing 2026 upcoming VR releases article for coverage beyond this month.

VMX - October 2 (Quest)

VMX utilizes gesture-based movements to pull off tricks on BMX bikes, scooters, and mountain bikes in a multiplayer skatepark. Players will also be able to customize their vehicle and purchase clothing for their avatars from an in-game shop. It already launched in Early Access on PC VR on March 26.

Store link(s): Quest

Pedal Rebel VR - October 5 (Quest, PC VR)

Pedal Rebel transforms any exercise bike into a cyberpunk-themed motorbike racing game. Players can keep track of their fitness, gaming performance, stats and high scores while engaging in an immersive story.

Store link(s): Steam, Quest

Walkabout Mini Golf Escape From Planet Xylodon DLC - October 8

Walkabout Mini Golf's latest DLC course charts a path for an alien world with beautiful and strange plant life. The new course will have the standard normal and hard courses with 18 collectible golf balls and a scavenger hunt for a themed putter.

Store Link(s): PC VR, PS VR2, Quest, Pico, Samsung Galaxy XR

Into The Radius 2 - October 8 (PS VR2)

Dystopian survival shooter Into the Radius 2 will run at a native 90fps on PlayStation VR2 with eye-tracked dynamic foveated rendering to boost performance. It also has headset haptics and utilizes the Sense controllers' adaptive triggers. That said, the game will not support co-op gameplay at launch. That is planned for a free update in Q4 2026. The game is already out for PC VR and Quest.

Store Link(s): PS VR2

The Magician VR: The Cursed Wand - October 8 (Quest)

The Magician VR: The Cursed Wand adds a wrinkle to the standard arcade shooting formula. Instead of guns, the early 20th century fantasy shooter uses gesture-based spells to defeat waves of enemies. You take on the role of a down-on-his-luck magician attempting to reclaim his former glory. In doing so, he accidentally sparks an interdimensional invasion.

Store Link(s): Quest

Shil - October 8 (Quest)

In psychological horror puzzle game Shil, you will navigate a fractured, ever-changing world with unseen enemies built by an AI that serves as your guide. You are armed with a slingshot to fend off the invisible enemies and unlock more parts of the world as well as a magnet to assist with the puzzles. The game will launch on Steam at a later date.

Store Link(s): Quest

Birdseed VR - October 8 (PC VR)

Birdseed VR is a cozy birdwatching and photography game in which you hang out in a forest and photograph silly and cute birds. It started on Quest in Early Access before going to a full release this spring.

Store Link(s): PC VR

Disembodied - October 15 (Quest)

Disembodied is a mixed reality platformer that turns your real hand movements into precise, physics-driven gameplay. You'll guide a pair of disembodied (!) hands through a range of different challenges, including platforming sections, stealth areas, and puzzle-solving levels, while interacting with the environment in a natural way.

Store Link(s): Quest

Spymaster 1.0 - October 15 (Quest, PC VR)

Spymaster is a time-bending espionage action game from Innerspace (A Fisherman's Tale). Players control multiple agents in parkour and action-laden espionage missions. The most unique mechanic is the C.A.S.S.E.T.T.E., a wrist-mounted device that allows players to rewind time and fine-tune the agents' actions for speed, accuracy, and synchronization where needed. The full release will come with three new missions to round out the campaign.

Store Link(s): Quest, PC VR

Traffix XR: Cities of Tomorrow - October 15 (Quest)

Traffix XR: Cities of Tomorrow is a relaxed mixed-reality traffic puzzle game built for hand tracking. The objective is to connect road tiles to landmarks, make the traffic flow and watch the city grow procedurally as you work. Hazards can be cleared using gestures like sweeping snow away with an open hand, pressing down on flooded tiles, and physically blowing at quicksand. The game also supports user-generated content with a creative mode for players to design and publish levels for others to play.

Store Link(s): Quest

Bad Inmate - October 15 (Quest, PS VR2)

Bad Inmate locks you behind bars and throws away the key, leaving you with one simple goal: to escape! You'll use ordinary (and not-so-ordinary) objects as escape tools, steal keys, outwit the guards, crawl through passages, and use your resources and creativity to wriggle your way between the greasy fingers of the law. A PC VR release is planned for a later date.

• Store Link(s): Quest, PS VR2

Terry's Terraforming - October 22 (Quest 3)

Originally titled Janet's Planets when it was revealed at the Creature Feature & Friends Showcase earlier this year, Terry's Terraforming is a new VR terraforming space adventure in which your job is to transform dying planets and make them fit for new life. You'll meet all sorts of strange aliens, learn what makes them tick, and tailor worlds to fit their needs, all while a charming sci-fi story unfolds over a six-hour play time.

• Store Link(s): Quest 3

Operation Together VR - October 27 (PC VR)

Operation Together is a one-to-four-player co-op military simulation with a focus on tactical gameplay and coordinated teamwork. You play as a special operations unit deployed on missions to neutralize hostile threats, and safely rescue civilians while securing the operation zone. The game has a Quest store listing as well with a 'Fall 2026' release window, so we are not sure if both versions will launch together.

Note: there is no trailer available for this game on its storefront listings.

Store Link(s): PC VR

Dark Trip - October 29 (Steam)

In Dark Trip, you play as an investigator hired by a retired businessman to locate his missing daughter. This brings you to an abandoned laboratory whose mysteries have to be solved. You progress by solving escape room style puzzles, and occasionally by taking pills to force a hallucinatory state that transforms the environment. It is launching as a hybrid title with VR support on Steam after its Early Access release on Quest in 2025.

• Store Link(s): Steam

No Release Date Currently Available

• Arizona Truck Driver (Quest)
• Sol Protocol (Steam)
• Zero Caliber 2 (PS VR2)

Following the game's latest preview event in San Francisco, California, its developers have released new footage of Evangelion: Δ Cross Reflections. The new trailer shows off pre-release footage, including some extremely strange elements.

We've embedded the trailer below:

Evangelion: Δ Cross Reflections is the first installment in a planned trilogy that aims to cover all 26 episodes of the TV series. The immersive action-adventure will tell a new story from the perspective of an original protagonist who dreams of becoming a pilot, making connections between the anime's “key episodes” and the game's new characters.

“Players will enjoy the story set in the locations from the anime from their own perspective. Battles between Evangelions and Angels, various interactive elements, and engaging captivating storylines with original characters are also planned,” Pixelity noted in a press release.

The new footage looks undeniably cool, though the "Pre-release footage. Final Product may differ" disclaimer gives pause. This, combined with some unusual footage, makes me question what this game/experience is all about. (Had you given me 100 chances to guess what we'd see in this trailer prior to viewing, interactive hedge-trimming in front of an onlooking Rei Ayanami would not have made the list.)

I like weird stuff, though, so I'm very interested to see more.

If you're interested, too, and you happen to live in or are visiting Frankfurt, Germany in the near future, you'll have a chance to attend the game's next preview event. The exact date and location of the next event have not yet been released. Previous hands-on events have been held in Japan and, most recently, in San Francisco, California.

Pixelity has not yet revealed specifics on platform or release date, listing only "2027" and "various VR devices" in press documents. For more details on upcoming hands-on preview events, follow Pixelity on social media, and stay tuned to UploadVR.

The song was co-written by both artists and served as the lead single from 'Rosie,' the debut album for ROSÉ. It currently has over two billion streams on Spotify.

The Shock Drop series is an ongoing collection of popular hits mapped by Beat Saber developer Beat Games. "APT." is the fourth shock drop in 2026 after Yungblud's "Zombie" in June, Bad Bunny's "Me Porto Bonito" in February and "Stressed Out" from Twenty One Pilots in March.

The game also added three new free original songs in May for its eight-year anniversary and Meta announced the game's biggest update ever adding a new gameplay mode called Flux, full hand tracking support and a new progression system. This update will launch in spring 2027 to coincide with the recently revealed Meta VR Glasses.

"APT." is available now for Beat Saber on Quest and PC VR for $1.99.

Dungeons of Eternity turns three years old in a few days (October 5) and across all the various updates adding new weapons, enemies, limited-time events and expansions to the outposts, the three dungeon types have always been the constant. Collect souls to craft potions in green Soul Harvest dungeons. Build exo-points to unlock perks in blue Crystal Hunt dungeons. Pick up new weapons, armor, cosmetics, and other loot in the red Dungeon Raids.

Developer Othergate has offset this with new room designs, but the core objectives have really never changed. In that respect, the new Tomb Extraction mode is a breath of fresh air. Most of this article will focus on the new mode, but the update also added a lot of quality-of-life features you can read about here.

A new area of the main outpost introduces the rune system that generates your extraction dungeon. You enter a sequence of runes to determine the layout, loot, and difficulty for the run. The biggest change in extraction runs is your loadout, or rather, the lack of one. Tomb extractions are naked runs, with all of your inventory and weapon slots emptied out. Upon loading in, you enter a room with the five weapons available to you:

• The Crypt Keeper's Staff shoots out an orb of light that illuminates crystals to light the dark dungeons. Orbs can also be exploded by pressing the trigger for an effective AOE attack.
• The Tomb Breaker Hammer is needed to smash sealed tombs open for loot and is very useful against armored enemies.
• The Gravelight Bow also illuminates crystal lights and explodes on impact.
• The Necromancer Staff will charm an enemy, giving you an extra ally to fight with.
• Skull Daggers can be found throughout the tomb and are all-around weapons for combat.

This is a welcome change of pace and challenge compared to the other three dungeons, but it comes with two side effects. First, solo runs force you to pick up the bow or staff unless you want the extra challenge of feeling your way through an eerily pitch black map. I did this once and did not care for it. Also, unless you have unlocked a second shoulder slot or care to brave the darkness, you cannot also take the hammer to bust open sealed tombs and thus miss out on the loot contained within. For this reason alone, Tomb Extraction is significantly more enjoyable with a friend or three, more so than any other dungeon type except maybe Soul Harvest. Having most or all of the new weapons in the party makes for a more satisfying run.

Second, being limited to five weapons also restricts the combat. Exploding enemies with the orb staff was a lot of fun, but by my fifth run (two in co-op, three solo), it already started to wear thin with the daggers and hammer being the primary melee weapons. The enemy variety is pretty basic, mostly sticking to skeletons and the lone new enemy, the Crypt Guard. The guard is easily dispatched with daggers or the hammer, but DoE's signature breezy combat, excellent music, and sound design remain satisfying and fun.

The other new element of Tomb Extraction is the loot. You have two new slots, a ring for each hand. There are over thirty rings to be found in Tomb Extraction, each with their own perks to further expand DoE's already extensive player customization system. Rings can only be acquired in Tomb Extraction, offering a reason to grind this dungeon type, especially for tenured players who have most or all of everything else in the game unlocked. Also, it felt like extraction-run chests were more lucrative, with higher gold amounts than others. This might have just been my perception though.

You start with a handful of runes unlocked for dungeon generation. To get more and open up more extraction options, you have to complete Dungeon Raids (the red dungeons) and locate four runic blocks to insert into a special chest. Unlocking this chest gives a new rune type and a gem that must be inserted to activate the extraction run. These gems can be purchased in the outpost shop, but new runes can only be acquired from red dungeons. It's a smart, well-designed loop that gives new and old players a reason to run two dungeon types more often.

Dungeons of Eternity Tomb Extraction - The Final Verdict

A new dungeon type has felt long overdue for Dungeons of Eternity and the added wrinkles of player-driven tomb generation, naked runs, and lighting requirements make Tomb Extraction a fun change-up to the rest of the game. Tying Tomb Extraction to Dungeon Raid was a savvy decision to extend the longevity of the new content in the three-year-old roguelite overall. If you have not been back in Dungeons of Eternity for some time, Tomb Extraction is worth diving back in for.

Made by the developers of Human Fall Flat, Tiny Flock's cuteness is balanced by a fair challenge, and its clever, open-ended physics-based puzzles make the solution to each stage a joy to discover. It's the sort of game that's easy to jump into, difficult to stop playing, and almost impossible not to enjoy. By the time I reached the end, I was disappointed by just one thing: I wanted more.

Tiny Flock is a cute and cozy physics-based puzzle game that puts you in charge of a wayward flock of sheep. Across 21 gorgeous, themed diorama stages, your job is to guide your flock from its starting position to a small, lush pasture at the endpoint of the stage.

Between your flock and the delicious, grass-rich pasture that they so desperately crave is a veritable wilderness of obstacles to overcome. In the silly world of Tiny Flock, these obstacles might be as simple as a collapsed bridge or as outlandish as a broken-down sci-fi cargo train stationed to make deliveries to a lunar hydroponic garden.

These sheep get around.

Across the game's 21 stages, your sheep clomp their floppy hooves in the watery canals of Venice, the campgrounds of the California wilderness, across farmlands and shipping ports, in the sands of the Egyptian pyramids and the rocky shores of a lightkeeper's island, and many more themed locales. This variety is a big part of the fun, with each diorama unlocking after you've solved the previous puzzle, and each acting as its own little toy set packed with things to poke, prod, and explore.

Each stage is lovingly crafted, rich in detail, and alive with subtle touches. Most of them also contain optional collectables or hidden Easter eggs which completionists will enjoy discovering. For example, the back side of one stage revealed a hidden door, locked behind an unusual mechanism. A hidden coin discovered elsewhere in the stage could be dropped into a hidden slot, unlocking the door and revealing a cute, little good fortune cat.

There's no reason for these types of inclusions, except that the game designer(s) wanted to reward players' curiosity with delightful interactions. I appreciate it.

What's most remarkable about Tiny Flock, from a higher perspective, is that there's no right way to play it. The game's many mobility puzzles can be solved in several different ways, though some solutions will be easier or more obvious than others. But on the whole, you're simply given a goal and a collection of manipulatable objects and environments, and then left to sort out how to get your woolly friends from one place to another.

As a result of this open-endedness, and on account of the game's simply exceptional design, the total difficulty level is well-balanced. Some stages are breezy, while others make you stop and think. Importantly, no individual stage hassled me unfairly, and each was solvable by both me, a seasoned veteran of other mobility puzzlers like Echochrome and Crush (nobody remembers this one, right?), and my young daughters (who adore this game).

And this is a really important point. Tiny Flock is the sort of puzzle game that works for experienced players without making less experienced players feel like they're constantly being punished for not understanding how video games work, or how a game designer intended their game to be played. Sometimes the obvious answer comes immediately. Other times, you'll discover a solution that feels as though it shouldn't work, but somehow does. And because you're working with a tiny flock of unbearably cute fluffballs, watching the would-be solutions play out in real time is as fun and rewarding as completing a stage.

Presentation is wonderful, with each stage being a colorful little 3D diorama that you can reach out and touch. The scale works particularly well in headset, where leaning close to examine a stage (or simply pet your cute sheep), looking around or inside a building, and spotting details tucked away in its environment make each level feel like a physical toy come to life.

The sheep are a huge part of the appeal. They're expressive, floppy, and just a little bit stupid. Watching them stumble and bumble as they mindlessly chase your carrot-on-a-stick, as they bunch up around an impassable obstacle, or bleat in sprawling freefall off a cliff (how could you!) is endlessly fun. They're also, happily, invincible. Lead them into peril and they simply evaporate into a puffball, reappearing at their nearest last-occupied location, ready to try again.

Between the charming characters and the wonderful worlds they walk through, there's a constant signal broadcasting from Tiny Flock that the developers made these worlds and characters because they loved to make them. Everything feels handcrafted and made with care. The soundtrack, too, is special. A heartfelt cello weaves a blanket of sound, richly accompanying the game's cozy feel.

A couple hours into my playthrough, I had the revelation that Tiny Flock is simply a nice place to be.

The ability to switch between mixed reality and virtual reality modes simply by flicking a toggle switch in the pause menu is not unique in today’s VR landscape, but it’s as welcome here as anywhere.

When playing the game with my daughters (with one of the three of us playing and the rest watching via Meta’s phone app), we played in mixed reality mode. It’s a great way to make this single-player game a more communal experience. When playing by myself, I switched to the virtual environments, which are essentially skyboxes in which you and the diorama worlds float. Good stuff.

Tiny Flock Review - Final Verdict

There's a simplicity to Tiny Flock that's deceptive on multiple levels. To start, I am sure this game was not simple to make. Designing the diorama stages so that they're fundamentally functional, designing the sheep intelligence so that they do what they're supposed to, and imbuing the characters and environments with so much charm and whimsy as the developers have done must have been incredibly difficult.

But they did it.

Tiny Flock is a wonderful game, a fun and funny game full of perfectly balanced puzzles that make you want to keep playing just one more stage until you've finished the whole lot. Once that's done, you'll want to run through your favorites again and again.

It's an easy game to recommend to households with more than one generation of game enjoyers, too. And I challenge anyone not to fall in love with these cute, little sheep. Tiny Flock, we love ewe.

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

This article was previously posted on our site and was not produced in partnership with the companies responsible for publishing or developing the game. It is now being pinned as part of an ongoing sponsorship, but the content has not been altered in any way.

On the same day that Walkabout Mini Golf's next DLC course was announced, Lucas Martell released a statement on LinkedIn about Mighty Coconut's latest downsizing.

Here is the statement in full:

This is an incredibly hard message to write, but I want to continue to be transparent with the Walkabout community. Due to the current state of the games industry and especially VR, Mighty Coconut will need to downsize, and over the next several months we will be saying goodbye to 10 talented people who have helped make Walkabout what it is.

For anyone who has been following the games industry, VR in particular is going through a very rough time. I am confident that VR will continue to be an amazing medium, but it is going through a massive and rapid shift as funding, hardware and press attention have largely been diverted elsewhere. While we already downsized last January, I failed to anticipate just how rapidly and deeply this trajectory would continue. The amazing courses and worlds created by our talented team have allowed us to fare better than many studios who have had to close completely, but without a steady stream of new players coming into VR and Walkabout, the scale at which we've been operating is no longer sustainable.

For our fans, I just want to continue to reassure you that Walkabout isn’t going anywhere. We will continue to release courses, although these might be a little less often due to the reduced team size that returns us to the small and scrappy way we started. We also plan to continue work on Walkabout Dungeon Golfer and Grass as new games are the best way to diversify our revenue stream and stabilize things. While incredibly painful, this is the only course of action that allows us to keep the game alive, the servers active, and hold on to as much of our team as possible.

For anyone in the game industry looking to hire some of the best people around, we are putting together a reverse-recruiting list with several talented individuals who are looking for an opportunity. You won’t be disappointed.

https://lnkd.in/gsiyX228

The company cut twenty-five percent of its staff at the beginning of this year and raised the price of its paid DLC courses one dollar from $3.99 to $4.99. The standout tidbit in Martell's statement for me is "without a steady stream of new players coming into VR and Walkabout, the scale at which we've been operating is no longer sustainable." Mighty Coconut already reduced its number of DLC course releases to six this year, though we did get the Homestar Runner Pack this summer as a bonus add-on out of said course schedule.

Walkabout Mini Golf Studio Course Corrects With Layoffs, $1 More For Future DLC

Walkabout Mini Golf laid off some workers and announced a price increase for future DLC.

UploadVRIan Hamilton

That said, every game studio can see metrics like new user counts, concurrent players, purchasing trends, and so on. If these are on the decline, even for games like Walkabout that have recurring revenue in the form of regular DLC, decisions like this are sadly inevitable. Walkabout has already seen an expansion of its paid content with avatar packs, hole celebrations, and ball trails in conjunction with the new courses to increase the potential revenue per player. This is a savvy, shrewd business move in the face of declining numbers, but based on today's news, it is not enough to offset the decline we are seeing in VR and gaming as a whole. A decline that has seen other layoffs and studio closures dating back several years now.

Martell also says that the staff reduction may lead to a slower cadence of DLC course releases. Martell and other Mighty Coconut staff have told us that the course schedule was already set through 2027 prior to today's layoffs. Work will also continue on the spinoff Walkabout Dungeon Golfer and the team's work to help ship flatscreen lawn mowing simulator Grass.

If you're unfamiliar with the idea of an AI agent, it differs from a simple chatbot in that it can take actions, not just provide a response.

Meta launched Muse, its AI agent, earlier this month on smartphones and the web in the US, and it quickly rose up to the top of iPhone App Store downloads, with strong reviews from both journalists and regular users.

Powered by its Muse Spark AI model, Meta says the agent runs on a private persistent Linux virtual machine in the cloud, with its own web browser, filesystem, and terminal that continue to run regardless of whether your app is open. To achieve your goals, Muse can decide to write and run code, delegate work to multiple subagents, and create scheduled jobs. Muse can also produce documents, PDFs, websites and interactive tools such as spending trackers or dashboards.

Compared to other AI agents that primarily target developers and professionals, Muse is highly consumer-oriented, with a simplified instant messaging style interface and a friendly avatar character, alongside marketing focused on solving tasks related to daily life.

Meta says Muse can book travel, send emails, fill out forms and purchase products through websites. Meta also describes more involved tasks, such as negotiating a bill or helping sell a car, and it can even make phone calls.

To make payments, Muse uses Stripe’s Link, which provides virtual single-use per-payment cards so that the AI never sees your personal card or bank details. Meta says Shop Pay and 1Password support are coming.

For smart glasses specifically, Meta gives examples including booking appointments, checking flight prices, finding replacement parts, logging meals, providing workout guidance and helping buy products the wearer sees. You'll activate Muse by saying "Hey Muse", or the name of your Muse, and then making a request. It will then work in the background and check back when the task is finished.

Meta says it doesn't use Muse data for advertising, though will use it to train future models unless you opt out. Muse's current cloud Linux VM is isolated, but Meta can still access it if it wants. The company says it will launch a Confidential VM option later this year, which even it won't be able to access.

As for when Muse will arrive on smart glasses, Meta officially states "in the coming months", though on-stage at Connect 2026, Mark Zuckerberg said "in the coming weeks", while CTO Andrew Bosworth separately said "soon".

Mighty Coconut announced the new course on its social media channels with the following description:

Respond to a distress beacon on Planet Xylodon, a world lush with some of the most beautiful (and strange) plant life ever seen by humankind.

Given the time of year, the alien world setting may lend itself to some darker elements like in October 2025's Forgotten Fairyland and 2023's Widow's Walkabout.

The developer has not released a trailer for the course yet. We will update this article when that happens. We are currently getting a course walkthrough and interview scheduled with some of the Mighty Coconut team, as we do for all of Walkabout's new DLC. Look for that next week when the course releases. You can check out our interview covering August's Gloop Lair DLC course here.

Behind The Scenes Of Gloop Lair, Walkabout Mini Golf’s Love Letter to the 90s

Mighty Coconut took us behind the scenes of Gloop Lair, its newest Walkabout Mini Golf course that is an homage to the 90s.

UploadVRMike Johnson

Walkabout Mini Golf is available on Steam, PSVR2, Quest, Pico, and Samsung Galaxy XR. The game is also available as part of Meta's Horizon+ subscription service. Escape from Planet Xylodon releases on October 8 for all VR platforms.

What's most impressive is that the entire experience was developed by a lone developer, Aaron Cryderman, who spent most of his career at BlackBerry working with data. After a career shift that left him with more free time, he decided to follow his interests in digital music creation, photography, meditation, and space art, and combine them into a singular project. Additionally, Cryderman wanted to satisfy his desire to experience space travel after realizing the possibility of experiencing it for real was unlikely.

He taught himself Unity over several months and started working on Solara One as a passion project, finally releasing the app on Meta Quest in May 2024.

Since launch, he's updated the experience several times, both with new content and with performance and visual enhancements.

Solara One combines relaxing meditation, awe-inspiring space views, and sci-fi environments, while employing clever physics and haptics to enhance immersion. The beautiful visuals are accompanied by music that heightens the sense of awe you feel in space, providing a deeper ambient undertone.

Cue The Holodeck

Cryderman released the Arboretum update to Solara One in early September, adding a Holodeck-like experience to the app. You enter an empty, grid-defined space at first, and are presented with two choices: a lightly gamified "Quest" mode and a free-play "Explore" mode. Make your selection, and the Arboretum loads in. You find yourself in a forest environment, with a large Buddha statue, glowing crystals, and the same mood-setting ambient music.

I won't give away too many details of the Quest mode, but there are orbs and butterflies. The experience pays off with a special celebration that is memorable and surprisingly emotional.

The Arboretum was not originally in Cryderman's road map for Solara One. However, he was thinking often about the day-to-day reality of living in outer space, and how humans would eventually yearn for a more earthly environment, if even for a little while. And of course, Star Trek's Holodeck provided inspiration to the idea.

Once Cryderman had his environmental assets optimized to run smoothly on Quest, he had another challenge to solve: what would a user actually do in a forest? How would users achieve an awe-filled meditative experience in a forest environment, as opposed to floating in outer space above a rotating planet?

A Butterfly Flaps Its Wings In Space

The butterflies that inhabit the forest environment serve more than just a visual purpose.

Cryderman explained to me that he wanted the butterflies to help induce a meditative state similar to sitting around a campfire, staring at the flames.

He explains, “If you're sitting around a campfire, you're just sitting there and you're mesmerized by the fire movement...you go into a naturally meditative state, but it's effortless.”

He continued, “The butterflies were kind of like...the campfire part where that's the thing that moves and kind of draws you in and focuses your attention a bit."

In the forest the butterflies provide flashes of color against the dark night and become almost hypnotic as you follow them with your eyes.

Adding A Game To Solara One

"My target for my game, my experience, is gamers who are looking to kind of relax and chill out in outer space.", Cryderman told me. Adding a gamified mode was something he realized would be popular with his core audience and would add something new to the Solara One experience. He also chose to leave a clear way for a user to simply relax in the Arboretum if that's their preference.

In my time playing both the Quest and Explore modes, I found the overall experience to be tranquil and a welcome respite from the dark beyond of outer space that surrounds you in the other areas of the app. Quest mode keeps you busy, and the pay-off at the end is worth the effort. The forest has enough nooks and hidden areas to keep it interesting as a chill-out experience. I would love the ability to explore the upper levels and go farther afield.

The Arboretum update provides another compelling reason for users to return to Solara One frequently. Few VR experiences deliver across so many fronts: crisp visuals, sound design, haptics and mechanics, UI design, and more. In my opinion, Solara One delivers across them all, and remains one of my most-recommended VR apps.

Solara One is available on Meta Quest.

For realistic truck sims, PC VR players have had the well-regarded American Truck Simulator and Euro Truck Simulator 2 available with VR support for years while standalone VR users have been more limited in their choices. Carbon Studio (The Wizards) is aiming to change that.

Here's the trailer:

Carbon says the game offers a detailed trucking experience with over twenty-five hours of gameplay. Instead of simply driving between two points, you'll be responsible for cleaning, servicing, and refueling your truck while accepting jobs from different companies to build up your business. There are six different American and European trucks to choose from, each with different handling and physics, and over 350 items to customize the look and make it your own. Each truck also has an interactive cockpit, including a radio with multiple stations.

The map is inspired by the state of Arizona and is broken up into twelve regions and three biomes with dynamic weather and seasons changing road conditions as you drive. New regions can be unlocked by completing jobs, earning new licenses, and continuing to build your business. As you progress, you can hire NPC drivers to take on additional work, buy new trucks, and expand your headquarters. From appearances, it aims to be the type of slice-of-life simulator that has been successful on PC for years.

Arizona Truck Driver is expected to launch in Early Access on Quest in October and can be wishlisted here. A Steam release is planned for a later date.

The experience is from Tender Claws, the award-winning studio behind projects like Stranger Things VR, Face Jumping, The Under Presents: Tempest, Virtual Virtual Reality and more. They are often celebrated for how they leverage the unique features of XR hardware to immerse audiences into story worlds, like with eye tracking to swap character perspectives, and interactive live theatre. This is their first time developing an experience that uses AI glasses.

Winner of the SXSW 2026 XR Experience Jury Award and official selection of TIFF: The Market 2026, Body Proxy is worth highlighting because of its incredibly unique and engaging approach to using Ray-Ban Meta glasses for an entertainment experience. Danny Cannizzaro, who co-founded the studio and co-directed Body Proxy with Samantha Gorman, shares that there are “versions of Body Proxy” being developed for “free-roaming across a variety of spaces” with plans to tour it at more events this and next year.

How AI Glasses Turn Your Reality Into Part Of The Immersive Experience

The AI agents in the game monitor how tasks are being completed through the Ray-Ban Meta glasses being worn by the players. Through the glasses, the system watches, speaks and listens to players throughout the experience. They can make sense of and judge what is happening in the real world. Because of this, the real world space, with physical objects that can be used to try to complete some of the tasks, becomes a part of the story. The features of the Ray-Ban Meta glasses create the bridge between the story and the physical space, transitioning players into the reality of the Body Proxy world but without any sort of digital visual immersion. It is like a form of mixed reality where just the physical space and objects are real, but the experience is driven by the story and immersion through its understanding of what players are doing and the mutual ability to see, speak and listen.

Onlookers can watch players attempt tasks and try to guess which they are attempting based on the list of challenges on a physical screen in the space. The screen includes elements like their digital avatar, and how well they are performing as well.

Tender Claws is used to leaning into available hardware features to create new experiences. Not being VR, Cannizzaro explains that they looked to immersive theatre as inspiration when designing the Ray-Ban Meta experience. “Something like Sleep No More is highly immersive with minimal technology. We’ve framed Body Proxy as a kind of narrative recruiting and onboarding process for this fictional company ... Everything the user does happens within the context of this narrative experience, in which they take on a role and become part of the story…You are still completely interacting with a digital system, but for a large part of the experience there is no screen at all.”

Challenges That Reward Natural Human Creativity

What I love most about Body Proxy is how the experience requires your character to reject any preconceived notions of how one should act and be as playful as possible in order to succeed. Human creativity under pressure is rewarded. There are no options for typical day-to-day actions that have a high probability of being correct. This feels like a nice nod to the value we bring to collaborating with AI agents. The random, unserious challenges also make the experience feel fun instead of too close to where we may be headed.

In the current version of Body Proxy, there are around 100 unusual randomized tasks and variations of them, and a large selection of peculiar physical objects for players to choose and interact with to try to get the AI to accept as many tasks as possible. Often, the objects are switched up between locations where Body Proxy is available.

“One of the joys of watching lots of people play Body Proxy is seeing the creative and innovative ways they approach the same task” shares Producer J Noland. “You may see the same task completed dozens of times over the course of a festival, and then someone approaches it in a completely new and surprising way.”

Proving Your Value To AI Is A Fun, Replayable Spectator Sport (For Now)

Proving your value to AI may seem like a reality in our not-so-distant future, but the playfulness of Body Proxy, its simple onboarding, clear challenge, unique format and wide range of tasks made this something that I caught many people trying to replay. Plus, the players and their choices become the entertainment for others. Cannizzaro shares that the “installation itself has a vaguely Taskmaster, game-show-esque vibe to it that always attracts a crowd.” There is intrigue in what each player will attempt and how. Both the player and audience get to view an entertaining generated video report at the end of each playthrough that analyzes performance and what the performance says about each proxy.

Unlocking New Immersive Experiences With Smart Glasses

There are different versions of Body Proxy in development, including “versions of the project running off phones and webcams as well.” shares Cannizzaro. Tasks in the current version are human-generated in advance, but a “roaming version of this project that takes place in a less controlled environment could incorporate a step where we have AI generate tasks based on the objects it sees around you.” 

I hope that this experience inspires more game content for smart glasses. Story IP across genres could benefit from Tender Claws’ location-based entertainment concept.

Liminal: Walking Meditation is a new experience for Meta AI glasses which uses the camera to capture images as you walk and provides a spoken meditation experience based on what you see, in close to real time. The required smartphone app is slated for release in October on both iOS and Android.

The app is an example of what developers can build using Meta's Device Access Toolkit, which was just demonstrated during the Developer State of the Union at Meta Connect 2026.

I have been trying a prerelease version with my Ray-Ban Meta glasses ahead of Connect. After taking it for a walk around my neighborhood, I found that it feels quite different from simply listening to a meditation recording.

Your Surroundings Become Part Of The Meditation

To begin a Walking Meditation you launch the smartphone app which needs to be paired to your Meta AI glasses during the setup process, and select the theme, voice, and pacing that you would like. Once the walk begins you can pocket your phone and continue hands-free, listening through your glasses while the app uses images to describe what is around you and contextualize it for the meditation session.

On my first walk, I deliberately went outside at night to see how well it could make sense of a darker environment. At one point, it referred to my car sitting nearby and described it in the context of the scenery around me. Even though its vision was limited, it managed to call out details like the "amber streetlights" shining against the darkness.

Liminal co-founder and CEO Damian Moratti told me the company approached smartglasses by asking what they could actually add to the experience.

Moratti said Liminal has always used VR to create strong emotional responses through immersion. Smartglasses gave the team a chance to apply some of that thinking while keeping people engaged with the real world as well.

At launch the app will include twelve meditation themes. In my testing I utilized Presence, Wonder, and Gratitude. Each is guided differently to focus your thoughts in different ways. There are also eight voice and three pacing options.

Pacing does more than change the amount of silence between spoken sections. Liminal CTO Tin Nguyen told me the team is using the setting to shape how much narration you hear and the overall length of the experience. The shortest walks are expected to last around 10 to 13 minutes.

Deciding What Is Worth Talking About

It sounds simple enough, until you start thinking about everything a pair of glasses can see, even during a short walk.

A tree or a statue might be interesting. The garbage cans you have passed every Tuesday for the last ten years probably are not.

Moratti says figuring out that logic has become a major part of Liminal's testing.

During testing, an early version mentioned the garbage cans around eight times. Another noticed a glowing sign inside the window of an adult store and built an unintentionally enthusiastic narrative around it.

As funny as those examples are, they also show how difficult the problem is.

Nguyen says the app isn't constantly shooting and analyzing images. Instead, it periodically takes a look at the current scene as the walk progresses. In his description, it is more like single moments in time rather than a continuous photo stream.

In my testing the narration was very close to real time, with the app focusing on an object such as a particular tree as I would come up to it and pass by. It also would comment on the way the grass met the pavement or the bright sun against the blue sky. Somewhat general in certain ways, but also correctly observed.

The narration was separated by generous moments of silence, so I wasn't overwhelmed by a constant string of prompts. That also made the impact hit harder when a narration did arrive.

What Happens To The Images?

The obvious question with an app that repeatedly looks at your surroundings is where those images go.

Liminal says images captured for Walking Meditation use zero data retention. According to Nguyen, when the app needs context from the environment, an image from the glasses is sent through the phone for AI processing. Liminal is currently using Google Gemini for that processing with zero data retention enabled. Once the response is generated, the image is discarded.

The app also does not request access to the microphone, something Moratti said was a deliberate privacy decision. Users don't have to worry about their conversations being recorded or used a prompts for the meditation.

What About Safety?

Liminal says that the Walking Meditation app will not provide any navigation or route guidance, and that they purposely designed the experience to focus the user on what they see in their surroundings.

Moratti said that they considered whether to develop the ability alert the user to potential hazards, but the difficulty in building that reliably convinced them that the correct choice is to avoid navigation altogether, at least for now.

Liminal Is Moving Beyond The Headset

Walking Meditation is separate from the existing Liminal VR app on Meta Quest, but Moratti sees the two products as complementary, with the VR app providing escape from the real world, while Walking Meditation is built to focus attention on the real world as you walk through it.

I have listened to plenty of guided meditation through headphones, and this does feel different. The environment around you becomes part of the experience.

Adding wellness and meditation capability goes a long way toward improving the practical usefulness of Meta AI glasses. In my brief time testing the experience, I've found it pleasant and effective enough that I plan on continuing with it once it is fully released.

Launching in October

Liminal: Walking Meditation is planned to launch on iOS and Android in October for compatible Meta AI glasses. It will cost $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year, which includes 30 contextual walks per month, and unlimited access to offline scripted versions of each theme.

Announced at Meta Connect 2026, Ray-Ban Meta Audio are Meta's first smart glasses without a camera. Otherwise, they have the same functionality, offering Meta AI queries, listening to music, audiobooks, and podcasts, and taking calls.

Ray-Ban Meta Audio is available in two styles, Burbank and Clubmaster. Burbank looks a lot like the typical Wayfarer Ray-Ban Meta glasses but without the camera and LED, while Clubmaster is unlike any of Meta's other smart glasses.

The Clubmaster Ray-Ban Meta Audio is Meta's lightest smart glasses offering yet, at 43 grams for the standard size, while the Burbank takes second place at 47 grams.

The device comes after a widespread public backlash to the idea of smart glasses with a camera, driven by the nefarious use of the products by sleazy influencers and perverts recording people without their permission.

Of course, the vast majority of smart glasses owners do not use the devices for this, and a tool is not defined by its worst use. A knife can be used to prepare a delicious meal or kill someone. A fire can be used to warm a cave or burn down a forest. Further, Meta has been releasing firmware updates to make tampering with the recording LED more difficult, and running a PR campaign to inform the public that the LED exists in the first place.

Meta Is Improving Its Smart Glasses Privacy LED Tampering Detection

Meta says it’s improving the ability of its smart glasses to detect if the privacy LED has been tampered with and disable the camera, via a mandatory firmware update.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

But the growing association with wrongdoing will put some potential buyers off the idea of smart glasses with a camera entirely, and Ray-Ban Meta Audio can target this market.

Despite this, Meta told UploadVR that Ray-Ban Meta Audio has been in development for years, and that its development wasn't driven by the public backlash.

Ray-Ban Meta Audio is available to preorder for $349, and ships from October 13.

Online Ordering & International Expansion

When launching Meta-Ray-Ban Display at Connect 2025 last year, Meta originally said that the HUD glasses would come to the UK, France, Italy, and Canada in early 2026. But following "unprecedented demand and limited inventory", back in January, the company announced it was pausing that plan.

To buy the product, you also needed to secure a demo spot at select physical retail stores, at which an attendant would measure your wrist size to get the optimal Meta Neural Band size, as well as tailor your order to your prescription.

Meta Ray-Ban Display Sells Out As Early Adopters Struggle To Buy

Meta Ray-Ban Display is now sold out in almost every store it was available in. Restocks are “coming”, Meta says, and the company is doubling the number of stores offering the glasses.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

Now, Meta-Ray-Ban Display can be purchased online without a store demo, and it's also available both online and in select stores in the UK and Canada.

It will also be available to buy in France, Italy & Germany on October 13.

In the UK it starts at £749, in Canada at CA$1149, and in Europe €899.

Select stores in London, Vancouver, Toronto, Paris, Milan, Rome, Frankfurt, Hamburg, and Munich will offer in-store demos for prospective buyers.

Major Navigation Improvements

Meta is making the voice of the navigation feature on Meta-Ray-Ban Display far more natural. It will reference the world in front of you instead of robotic street names, for example “turn left at the yellow house ahead”, instead of “turn left at Third Street.”

It's also adding two new navigation types, cycling and public transport, in addition to the current on-foot navigation.

However, Meta's navigation feature remains only available in select cities, a major limitation compared to Snap Specs and the upcoming Samsung HUD glasses powered by Google's software.

Selective Phone Notifications

At launch, Meta Ray-Ban Display could not mirror your phone notifications at all, something we harshly criticized in our review. It would show notifications for built-in applets and features like your text messages, WhatsApp, and Messenger, but not for your other phone apps.

A few months ago, Meta added an optional phone notification mirroring feature. But this was arguably even worse, as it shows all notifications, with no customization.

Now, Meta says you'll be able to "control your notifications and choose the ones you want to turn off".

Third-Party App Explorer

Earlier this year, Meta rolled out the ability to develop visual web apps for Meta Ray-Ban Display, controlled by Meta Neural Band, and developers have already built amazing things.

But discovering these web apps requires following the right developers on social media or knowing about the best third-party aggregators.

Developers Are Building Impressive Apps For Meta Ray-Ban Display’s HUD & Neural Band

Meta rolled out the ability to develop visual apps for Meta Ray-Ban Display, controlled by Meta Neural Band, and developers are already building interesting things.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

To make web apps for Meta Ray-Ban Display discoverable, "later this year" Meta is adding an Explore app on the glasses, which will surface and recommend what the company considers to be the best experiences to try out.

Eventually, it's possible that this could expand to become a full-fledged app store, but Meta hasn't said anything about that.

'Hologram' Avatars

Currently, when taking video calls on Meta Ray-Ban Display, the other person sees either nothing or your first-person view, if you choose to share it.

Later this year, Meta says it will roll out its new Hologram realistic avatar to US Meta Ray-Ban Display owners enrolled in the Early Access program, for use in WhatsApp video calls.

Hologram: Meta Is Finally Set To Ship Realistic Avatars, And We Tried Them

Meta finally set a concrete timeline to ship realistic avatars, shoulders-up on Meta Ray-Ban Display and then full-body on Meta VR Glasses. We briefly tried both at Connect.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

You set up your Hologram by scanning your face and providing a minute or so of sample speech to the Meta AI app. Then, once your Hologram is set up, when you make or receive a WhatsApp video call on Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, the other person will see this synthetic version of you, with its facial expressions entirely derived from the device's microphones.

You can find more details about Hologram, including our hands-on impressions, in our full Hologram coverage here.

Calendar App On Display

Meta is adding a dedicated Calendar app to Meta Ray-Ban Display, which will let you "see who’s attending a meeting, accept or decline invites, and join meetings, all from your glasses".

It expands on the calendar integration Meta first launched for its displayless glasses last year.

Meta AI On The Ray-Ban Glasses Can Now Access Your Calendar

Meta AI on Ray-Ban and Oakley smart glasses can now access and add events to your Google Calendar and Outlook Calendar.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

For now, the Calendar app on Meta Ray-Ban Display will only be available in the US.

Meta VR Start, previously called Meta Horizon Start and originally Oculus Start, is a program run by Meta that gives VR/MR developers direct access to Meta developer relations staff as well as a community Discord and "exclusive Meta events, advanced technical education, community mentorship, software credits, go-to-market guidance, and more."

The most recent competition was in late 2025 and focused on entertainment, lifestyle, and gaming apps.

Meta Launches $1.5 Million Competition For New Quest Apps & Significant Updates

Meta just launched a developer competition that will award new Quest apps and “significant” updates a total of $1.5 million in 32 prizes of up to $100,000.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

Now, as announced during the Meta Connect 2026 Developer State of the Union, the company is running a new competition for developers to build, adapt, or significantly update Quest and VR Glasses apps across entertainment, gaming, and productivity, with a focus on "hands-first apps that make interaction more natural and gameplay more intuitive than ever before."

The "Hard Requirements" are as follows:

• Hands-first: Your experience must be fully usable with hands, end-to-end. Controller support is welcome, but not required. The test is simple: can someone complete the entire experience without ever pairing a controller?
• Policy Compliance: Your experience must adhere to all relevant Meta VR/Start policies and terms (i.e., Meta VR Start Program Terms, Community Standards, Code of Conduct in VR Policy, Developer App Policies, Developer Content Guidelines, and all other Developer Policies).

Here is the list of awards and prizes:

• Best New Gaming Experience
  • $100,000 Winner
  • $50,000 Runner-up
• Best New Entertainment Experience
  • $100,000 Winner
  • $50,000 Runner-up
• Best New Productivity Experience
  • $70,000 Winner
  • $35,000 Runner-up
• Best Adapted / Significantly Updated Gaming Experience
  • $100,000 Winner
  • $50,000 Runner-up
• Best Adapted / Significantly Updated Entertainment Experience
  • $100,000 Winner
  • $50,000 Runner-up
• Best Adapted / Significantly Updated Productivity Experience
  • $70,000 Winner
  • $35,000 Runner-up
• Best Social & Multiplayer Experience
  • $25,000 Winner
• Best Reason to Come Back
  • $25,000 Winner
• Best Accessibility Forward Experience
  • $25,000 Winner
• Best Agentic Interaction
  • $25,000 Winner
• Best First Five Minutes
  • $25,000 Winner
• Boldest Original Concept
  • $25,000 Winner
• Judge's Choice
  • $20,000 each for 2 winners

Entries can be brand new or "adapted/significantly updated" apps. Meta says qualifying updates can include, but are not limited to:

"Implementing hand interactions as a new feature; adding multiplayer support; introducing a mixed reality (MR) interaction mode as a new feature; releasing a new user generated content creation tool."

The deadline for submitting a project is November 18, 2026, and interested developers can enter the competition on Devpost. If you're not already a Meta VR Start member, you'll need to apply first.

The competition comes shortly after Meta VR Glasses were announced at Connect 2026. Notably, the device does not come with controllers by default, instead focusing on Eye and Hand Tracking, with optional support for the Touch Plus controllers introduced with Quest 3 and 3S.

The device will ship in spring 2027, with a catalogue of apps and games optimized for its inputs and form factor.

Meta VR Glasses Officially Announced, Shipping Spring 2027 For $1300

Meta VR Glasses have 2.4K micro-OLED displays, weigh 100 grams, and are powered by a tethered puck with Qualcomm’s Snapdragon Reality Elite chipset.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

Per developer Realcast, this update was developed over the last year using player feedback and with added support from Meta, who now has a vested interest in seeing more games embrace hand tracking with the reveal of the controller-free Meta VR Glasses this week.

At the time of this article, we do not know if any of the features will be coming to the Steam version of the game.

Here's the trailer:

More Ways To Shoot

The main driver of this update is hand tracking, with the game offering improved hand tracking alongside different shooting methods to accommodate a wider swath of players.

Natural Shot is just what it sounds like. You reach out with your real hands, grab the ball, and physically shoot at the hoop. It sounds easy enough, but shooting, throwing, or otherwise ejecting an object from your hands in VR can prove tricky at times. Just Hoops accounts for this with optional assists. The scoring system rewards up to eight points per basket depending on the assists, incentivizing putting in the time to learn how to shoot well unassisted.

The assists available are as follows:

• Hand Tracking Grab Assist — pinch to grab the ball more easily.
• Controller Grab Assist — use a button to grab the ball.
• Aim Assist — helps guide shots toward the hoop.

Pointer Shot is a simpler, more relaxed method where you aim with your hand and shoot with a simple gesture (see the trailer above). This mode is more suited for casual, noncompetitive players and seated play. It awards two points per basket.

Multiplayer and Mixed Reality

You can compete against other players with online matchmaking or set up a private room for up to four players if you want to hoop with your friends.

The Trickshots mode turns your real environment into a basketball playground in mixed reality with the ability to place hoops and various obstacles around your room to create custom shots. I am dating myself here, but it gives vibes of the 90s Michael Jordan/Larry Bird "Nothing But Net" commercial.

Quality of Life & Customization Additions

The Zen Mode removes the timer to let you play at your pace, practicing shots and discovering levels in a relaxed environment without the scoring and time-limited pressure.

The 2.0 update also introduces a clearer path to unlocking new levels, series, and challenges, giving newer players more guidance and returning players new objectives.

The 2.0 update also adds a new 1970s-inspired retro environment in line with Just Hoops' arcade identity, more dynamic levels, updated tutorials, and a redesigned menu user interface.

The 2.0 update is available now for Just Hoops on Quest.

Medinah Country Club No. 3 is the latest real-world course added to GOLF+. Set twenty-five miles west of Chicago, Medinah and its gorgeous clubhouse have hosted three U.S. Opens, two PGA Championships, and a Ryder Cup. This week, it adds the Presidents Cup to its storied history.

Now VR golfers can shoot for the greens, as well.

Medinah Country Club No. 3 is available now in GOLF+ for $11.99. Players can also subscribe to the GOLF+ Pass service for $9.99 a month (or $99.99 per year) to get access to all courses.

GOLF+ is out now on Quest for $29.99 and comes with three original courses. It is also available as part of Meta's Horizon+ subscription service. It can be wishlisted on Steam now ahead of its upcoming release on that platform.

The environmental-puzzle psychological horror game drops on Quest on October 8 with a Steam launch also planned.

Here's the trailer from developer OSM Games:

In Shil, you will navigate a fractured, ever-changing world with unseen enemies built by an AI that serves as your guide. You are armed with a slingshot to fend off the invisible enemies and unlock more parts of the world as well as a magnet to assist with the puzzles.

Personally speaking, 'trippy' is the best word I would use to describe this game on paper. I love a good environmental puzzle game though, so this one I will follow up on next month with my thoughts after playing it.

Shil can be wishlisted now for Quest and Steam. It releases on Quest on October 8 for $14.99. The Steam release is unknown at the time of this article.

Developer Othergate also overhauled the game's lighting and rendering for better performance.

Here's the official trailer from Othergate:

Tomb Extraction Mode

The new Tomb Extraction mode brings the high-risk/high-reward gameplay of extraction shooters like Ghosts of Tabor to a fantasy combat setting. During Dungeon Raids, the 'red' dungeons in the run selection map, you will collect crypt runes. Those runes are used in a new crypt dialing device in the outpost to create a tomb run, determining the crypt layout and loot contained.

Tomb Extraction also introduces five new weapons:

• The Crypt Keeper's Staff shoots out an orb of light that can be exploded to help light the extremely dark dungeons.
• The Tomb Breaker Hammer can smash sealed tombs open to claim loot and is very useful against armored enemies.
• The Gravelight Bow illuminates crystal lights and explodes on impact.
• The Necromancer Staff will charm an enemy, giving you an extra ally to fight with.
• Skull Daggers can be found throughout the tomb and are all-around weapons for combat.

Finally, the Crypt Guard is a new enemy type that can hear your voice and magic. It will investigate any sounds and alert other enemies to your position.

Quality of Life & Performance Improvements

• Dungeons of Eternity is now Steam Frame verified for standalone play on Valve's new headset. This comes with finger tracking, the ability to rebind SteamVR input, and a separate graphics setting.
• The game has been overhauled to utilize directional lightmaps (a technique used in Half-Life: Alyx), faster dungeon loads, real-time lighting on standalone Quest, and graphics options for all platforms.
• Experimental OpenXR support for PC VR is available.
• Every player can now carry a torch in dark rooms with the lighting system overhaul.
• Damage numbers and multipliers now pop up for enemies. This can be toggled off for those who don't care for that feature.

New Equipment Slot, Loot & Weapon Classes

• You now have an equippable ring slot with over thirty rings available to find in your dungeon runs, each with its own special perk.
• There are two new weapon classes: Auric weapons shake coins from undead enemies and Spectral weapons 'echo' your damage a moment after you hit an enemy.

Last and arguably most important, there is a playable lute in the outpost with sixteen chords, fully networked so you can play songs (or just horrifically bad sounds in my case) for your friends.

Dungeons of Eternity is available now on Steam and Quest.

This playtest will be for both Quest and Steam players. James Tocchio and I participated in the limited-time August preview build and came away very impressed with Aces High overall.

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That preview just included the base tutorial and first heist of the game. The October playtests will have two heists available for you to test. For clarity, the full game will launch with six heists and more to be added before the end of 2026.

How to Sign Up

• For Quest players, you need to sign up for the playtest build here.
• For Steam players, a public demo will be made available on the game's Steam page, so simply wishlist the game and you will get a notification when that demo goes live.

Anyone, like James and me, who participated in the August closed playtest will need to sign up again for October.

If you would like more information on Payday: Aces High, check out our interview with Fast Travel's Erik Odeldahl shortly after we played the game in August on the UploadVR Gamescast.

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Meta announced at Connect that the new independent Supernatural VR fitness app will launch this fall, and it will be supported on Meta Quest headsets and the newly announced Meta VR Glasses. Supernatural Health says that the app will be "a day one title on Meta VR Glasses".

The lightweight new Meta VR Glasses will enable the app to increase visual quality. According to Supernatural Health, this will include "real destinations rendered at a fidelity that wasn't possible until now, coaches who feel like they're exercising right in front of you, and hardware so light the only thing you feel is the workout."

According to Meta VP of Product Management Angela Chang during a video interview with Norman Chan on YouTube, the VR Glasses will offer optional light blockers for more immersion and a rear strap, similar to "croakies", that will secure the headset during more vigorous activities like exercise.

In a press release to UploadVR, Meta said that the new app will have "every point, streak, and badge intact". However, Supernatural Health later clarified that porting over existing user progress is something they are working on, but didn't directly confirm or deny whether it will be available at launch.

The new app will feel similar to the old version, but with "new higher-definition environments, workouts, and music, and a slate of improvements shipping this year and beyond", said Supernatural Health.

There appear to be several enhancements already in place, with updated visual design as seen above in the Flow exercise mode, adding color and design elements to what was a largely black and white target and bat color palette.

There also appears to be a new "hands-free" exercise mode that might signal hand tracking in Supernatural for the first time, enabling workouts without controllers required.

The new Supernatural app is available to wishlist now in the Meta Quest store. Subscriptions will run $19.99 monthly or $199.99 annually. Users can secure a discounted "founding member" rate of $180 for the first year by registering at the Supernatural Health website prior to launch.

EDITOR'S NOTE: The official launch window for the reborn Supernatural on Quest is this fall, not October, and the company's name is Supernatural Health, not Supernatural Fitness. This article has been corrected and UploadVR regrets our freelancer's errors.

Open Season is the first production released under the new Meta Presents banner.

The series follows the four-time NBA champion through six real therapy sessions with sports psychologist Dr. Carrie Hastings, captured at different points during Green's 2025-26 season with the Golden State Warriors, as Green deals with personal and professional struggles.

According to Meta, Open Season was shot specifically for VR in stereoscopic 3D 180° video using Blackmagic URSA cameras. The camera perspective places the viewer in the room alongside Green and Hastings during their conversations.

The series is produced by Skydance Sports, Green's production company The New Media, and Meta. Meta says the sessions are unscripted, with Green discussing pressures surrounding his basketball career in real time rather than recounting them later for the documentary.

Meta has been expanding its immersive entertainment lineup. At Connect, the company announced 3D movies from Disney+, new immersive sports broadcasts with "8K streaming and 180-degree views", the upcoming National Geographic: Beyond app with 180-degree 3D footage, and a 3D version of Billie Eilish’s Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour concert film coming exclusively to Quest in November.

Meta VR Glasses are also set to arrive next spring, with the company positioning the lightweight headset around media consumption as a main use case.

Open Season will be available beginning September 29 through the TV app on Meta Quest.

UPDATE September 29: Open Season is now available.

It's now been more than seven years since Meta (then Facebook) first showed off a research prototype of realistic VR avatars, called Codec Avatars, and the company has repeatedly shown off improvements to this research in the years since. Yet throughout that time, its actual VR products you can buy have featured often-ridiculed cartoonish avatars instead.

With the release of Meta VR Glasses in spring 2027, that's finally set to change. However, to be clear, the launch version of Hologram will not be a truly volumetric implementation of Codec Avatars. It's something quite different.

Further, VR won't even be the first platform to get Holograms. A shoulders-up version of Hologram is coming to Meta Ray-Ban Display first. Then, a full-body version will launch with Meta VR Glasses.

I briefly tried both at Meta Connect 2026.

Hologram on Meta Ray-Ban Display

Meta will first bring Hologram to the Meta Ray-Ban Display HUD glasses, for WhatsApp video calls, in Early Access in the US this fall.

To set up your Hologram, you hold up your smartphone with the Meta AI app open. After getting you to turn your head up, down, and to each side, and then to smile, the app provides you with open-ended questions, and you provide long-form expressive answers. As you're speaking, the system captures the appearance of your facial expressions to condition the model. This includes incorporating your clothing and background, so you'll need to carefully pick what you want to be wearing in every Hologram call, and what you want your background to always be. After just a few minutes of server-side processing, your Hologram will be ready.

Once your Hologram is set up, when you make or receive a WhatsApp video call on Meta Ray-Ban Display glasses, the other person will see this synthetic version of you, with its facial expressions entirely derived from the device's microphones.

On a technical level, this is a real-time generative AI diffusion model running on Meta's servers, taking in your microphone audio stream and producing a generated 2D video stream that gets sent to the person you're calling.

I tried this at Meta Connect 2026, and was shocked by just how plausibly realistic what I saw was.

A Meta staffer, who had introduced himself a few minutes earlier, put on Meta Ray-Ban Display, walked to another room out of sight, and WhatsApp video called a phone in front of me. Upon picking up, for the first few seconds I assumed he simply hadn't put the glasses on yet. I thought I was seeing the view from his phone's selfie cam. But I wasn't. I was seeing his Hologram, driven entirely by his voice.

It's hard to shock me these days. I've seen a lot of impressive demos. But I let out a slight gasp at what I was seeing. It was entirely plausible.

Shortly after, I was able to try the other side. I wore the glasses, and Meta handed me the phone I was video calling. Being more familiar with my own appearance than that of the Meta staffer I had met only minutes ago, I could recognize the minor flaws here. The ways in which it didn't perfectly match me. But plausible is the key word. Hologram on Meta Ray-Ban Display does what it claims.

Still, I'm somewhat skeptical at the usefulness of this. Will your friends and loved ones really want to see a synthetic version of you on their phone screen, a surface where the advantages of spatial avatars don't apply?

Meta says that at some point in the future the model will be upgraded to incorporate the glasses' IMU chip as input, meaning the rotation of your Hologram's head will be driven by the gyroscope.

The company's engineers are also exploring the idea of sampling the camera on the glasses to generate a dynamic background for each call, instead of the current situation where the background is just where you set your Hologram up, and sampling the accelerometer so you look as if you're walking through this environment. They're even thinking about allowing you to change your clothes through a text prompt, rather than needing to set up Hologram again.

But still, even if it had these improvements, Hologram feels shoehorned into the HUD glasses, when the mediums that realistic avatars are truly useful for are VR and AR.

Hologram on Meta VR Glasses

On Meta VR Glasses, and eventually Quest 3 too, Hologram can be full-body at true scale, not just shoulders-up. And this version of Hologram is driven by the headset's tracking too, including face tracking via the downwards-facing cameras on the arms, not just audio.

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When one Meta VR Glasses user calls another on WhatsApp, they'll first see each other's Holograms in a 3D window. But by tapping a button at the side of this window, the call will switch to full-body mode, with the other person's Hologram appearing at true scale in front of you.

(Meta's demo clip below skips this step, likely for marketing reasons, though it's possible there'll be an option to launch into the full-body Hologram mode by default.)

I was able to try the full-body VR version of Hologram, though I wasn't able to create my own. Instead, I put on Meta VR Glasses and accepted an incoming call from a different Meta staffer that I had also met a few minutes before.

To be clear, this full-body Hologram is not a volumetric object. It is not a Gaussian splat or volume of any kind. And it's not a Codec Avatar either.

It's instead a stereoscopic 3D video pixel stream, masked out to exclude any kind of background. It's the same server-side AI diffusion approach as Hologram on Meta Ray-Ban Display, but stereoscopic 3D instead of 2D, full-body instead of shoulders-up, and masked-out instead of with a background.

Also, while I said "true scale" above, in the demo I tried the Hologram of the Meta staffer seemed to be slightly smaller than they were in person. This was almost certainly just a bug, though, as there's no technical reason the Hologram couldn't be scaled up, say, 10%.

A bigger problem was that fine details, such as the Hologram's eyes, looked quite blocky, as if on a low-bandwidth video call. The engineers told me this may be partially caused by Wi-Fi issues related to having thousands of guests on campus for Connect.

Beyond the minor scale and clarity issue, the 3D video full-body avatar approach worked pretty well if I stood still, or stayed seated. It's compelling to see the person you're talking to at (almost) true scale in 3D, especially given the fact that they could in theory be on the other side of the planet. Seeing them nod as I spoke or look off to the side when thinking made me almost feel as if I was in the room with them.

But the illusion completely broke when I leaned too far to the side or walked towards the Hologram, because it rotated to always face me, exactly like a billboard sprite in an old video game.

This is of course deeply ironic for a standing-up full-body avatar system. It works, sure, but not if you actually walk around. Huh?

There is seemingly light at the end of the tunnel, though. Meta told me that while this is how Hologram will work at launch, it won't always be the case. Some time later, but with no specific timeline, the company plans to upgrade Hologram on Meta VR Glasses to be truly volumetric, delivering the real dream of Codec Avatars and enabling true co-presence, including group conversations. At this point, Meta says, it will also be available to developers to integrate into their VR apps, and supersede the cartoon Meta Avatars SDK, which is no longer being developed.

In the shorter term, I'm surprised Meta didn't demo the VR version of Hologram as a seated, but still full-body, experience. Meta VR Glasses are primarily designed and marketed as a seated experience anyways. I didn't get to see whether a seated VR version of Hologram exists yet, or if the Hologram dynamically sits down if you do. To me, this would seem like the obvious short-term workaround.

I'll be bringing you my impressions of Meta VR Glasses, beyond just the Holograms feature, soon. Stay tuned.

The big announcement at Meta Connect 2026 is the spring 2027 release of Meta VR Glasses, a new VR device in a comfortable glasses form factor that Meta describes as "a cinema, workspace, and console in one." From a gaming perspective, Meta's new device seems a mix of promising possibility and obvious compromise.

Meta VR Glasses runs the same OS as Quest, and every Quest game will be playable on Meta VR Glasses. That instantly gives it a very large library of games. The primary SKU doesn't come with controllers, which is a bummer, but bundles with controllers will be available through some retail channels, and it works with Meta's Touch Plus controllers (which can be also purchased separately). Okay, fair enough.

Compromises noted, I’ve always held that the one thing limiting widespread adoption of VR gaming is the simple fact that headsets are too big and heavy, too apt to mess up your hair, and too goofy looking for the average consumer. This device solves almost all of those issues. Sure, this thing won’t be as powerful as a gaming rig. But that’s not needed, strictly speaking, from a market growth perspective.

A slew of new games and updates for existing ones was announced alongside the hardware reveal. Here are all of the newly announced games coming to Meta's next VR device:

Beat Saber: Flux is the biggest update ever released for one of the most popular VR games ever made. It brings a new hand-tracking game mode to Beat Saber, allowing the entire game to be playable without controllers. Beat Saber: Flux launches with 35 songs, and optional controller support. The update also revises the game's campaign and progression and rewards systems, adding earnable sabers, notes, and profile badges.

Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies VR is a VR adaptation of Capcom's long-running series. Dual Destinies VR puts players in the shoes of the titular Ace Attorneys Phoenix Wright, Apollo Justice, and Athena Cykes, through whom you'll investigate immersive 3D crime scenes, build your case, and then take it to court. Hand-tracking gestures will allow you to present evidence, point at witnesses to catch them in lies, and voice-activation will hear when you shout "Objection!!" Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies VR is coming in 2027 to Meta VR Glasses and to Meta Quest.

Tetris Effect: Mixed Realities is a hand-controlled, room-aware mixed reality version of Tetris Effect. Coming in 2027, Tetris Effect: Mixed Realities makes ample use of Meta VR Glasses' more interesting features, using the geometry of your room, lighting, visual effects, and passthrough camera to transform the world around you as you engage with no-controllers-required Tetris. It's coming in 2027.

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Two Point Hospital VR is a VR re-imagining of the award-winning hospital sim game. You'll build your hospital, treat patients, make money, and cure strange diseases. The game features an intuitive advanced hand-tracking interface on Meta VR Glasses, and it's coming to Quest 3 and 3S, too.

Dragon Grove is a charming and cozy hand-tracking VR puzzle game in which you partner with dragons to solve 3D matching puzzles. Designed for Meta VR Glasses and launching alongside the new device, Dragon Grove prioritizes hand-tracked interactions with the game's puzzles, dragons, and world. It's launching on Meta Quest 3 and 3S as well, where it will be fully playable without controllers.

Story of Seasons - Your Wonderful Life is a cozy farm management game coming to Meta VR Glasses, Quest 3, and 3S.

Cardmada is a pirate-themed card battle game coming to Meta VR Glasses, Quest 3, and 3S.

Dice Throne Digital is a free-to-play digital tabletop card game coming to Meta VR Glasses, Quest 3, and 3S. It will be cross-play compatible with the mobile and PC versions, too.

In addition to the newly announced games, Meta Connect 2026 brings news of upcoming game updates, release dates, and more. Here are those details:

PAYDAY: Aces High is getting an open playtest on Quest 3 and 3S on October 19. Joining the playtest will reward players with an exclusive in-game mask.

Supernatural, the popular fitness app which Meta previously owned, developed, and from which it recently divested, is re-launching under independent ownership this fall, and it will be a day-one title on Meta VR Glasses.

The announcement comes during a busy period for VR enthusiasts. Valve has finally released their Steam Frame, a gaming and streaming-first VR headset that works with your Steam library and is capable of running standalone games, and which has just begun arriving in the hands of early buyers. Steam Frame costs $1059 for the 256GB model and $1299 for the 1TB model.

Meta VR Glasses are set to launch in spring 2027 with an MSRP of $1299.

Our comprehensive breakdown of Meta's new headset, as well as how it compares with the latest competing products, is live now.

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Announced during Meta Connect, developer Beat Games will deliver the biggest update it's ever produced for one of VR's most popular games. Here's the trailer:

There's a lot of new content coming, so let's break it down one by one.

Flux, A New Game Mode

Flux is a new game mode that dispenses with the titular sabers and turns your hands into weapons. You will use new techniques like the Flux Tether, which channels power between your hands to slice through notes in time with the beat of the track. The tether also powers each hand separately to punch through other note targets and build up Jolt energy. When enough energy is built up, you can squeeze your fists while slicing notes to trigger Jolt and a score boost.

Flux will launch for the newly announced Meta VR Glasses and Quest with thirty-five songs curated from Beat Saber's existing catalog of original soundtracks (OSTs) and Anniversary packs, including tracks from Lindsey Stirling, Teminite, Camellia, and Boom Kitty alongside in-house tracks from Jaroslav Beck and Zakka G.

Flux is primarily intended for hand tracking, but will have Touch controller support as well for those who prefer it. More Flux songs are planned for post-launch updates.

A Refreshed Single-Player Campaign & User Interface

Beat Games has revamped Beat Saber's original single-player campaign, introducing a 'light narrative element' to follow as your note-slicing skills are progressively tested. You will be faced with new barriers and missions to complete and unlock exclusive in-game rewards.

Beat Saber's user interface also gets a refresh to get players into game modes or browsing the new content faster. An improved first-time player experience will teach newbies the ropes of Beat Saber to help them start chasing the leaderboards.

For The First Time Ever, A Rewards System & Enhanced Progression

A new rewards system will grant players brand new cosmetics like different sabers and notes. You can also display your achievements and customize your profile with new profile badges and banners.

All of this is contained in a new inventory system allowing you to quickly swap things in and out to further make your Beat Saber experience your own.

No Controllers Required

The Flux update emphasizes a new change for Beat Saber. The entire game will be playable with hand tracking.

This move would have been unthinkable a few short years ago when hand tracking accuracy was not yet good enough to keep up with rapid hand movements. The new Meta VR Glasses will not ship with controllers, so a flagship title like Beat Saber being unplayable on it would not have been a good look. This does not change or replace Beat Saber's traditional controller support.

This update will drop in Spring 2027 for Meta VR Glasses and Quest.

Tetris Effect: Mixed Realities is a new hand-controlled and room-aware mixed reality version of Tetris Effect that was announced today. The game will launch on Meta's newest VR device, Meta VR Glasses.

The new Tetris seeks to take advantage of Meta VR Glasses' key features, allowing you to control the entire game with your hands, while the device's passthrough cameras use the geometry of your room, lighting and visual effects to transform the world around you.

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Tetris Effect is a modern reimagining of Tetris designed by Tetsuya Mizuguchi and his team at Enhance, Resonair, and Monstars, which combines traditional Tetris gameplay with reactive music, particle effects, and environments that respond to the player's actions.

Originally released on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR in 2018, it came to Quest in 2020. An updated version with multiplayer called Tetris Effect: Connected was released on Steam in 2021, while a free update was made available for the existing PlayStation VR, Epic Games Store, and Quest releases. A PlayStation 5 / PSVR2 release followed in 2023.

Tetris Effect: Mixed Realities is coming to Meta VR Glasses, Quest 3 and 3S in 2027.

Announced today alongside the new Meta VR Glasses, Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies VR is a new made-for-VR release in Capcom's popular Ace Attorney series.

In Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies VR, you'll use the unique capabilities of VR to examine crime scenes, build your case, and take it to court. The game uses hand-tracking to present evidence and point at or call out witnesses. Voice-activation control allows players to shout the series' infamous "Objection!!"

A trailer was released during Meta's keynote, and that's embedded below:

Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies VR is the first VR game in the long-running series, which began life in 2001 on Nintendo's Game Boy Advance before finding worldwide sales success with subsequent releases on the Nintendo DS. Since then, 11 games have been released in the Ace Attorney series.

Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies was originally released for the Nintendo 3DS in 2013, and was the fifth main entry in the series. It was also released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows in 2024 as part of the Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney Trilogy compilation.

Phoenix Wright Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies VR is coming to Meta VR Glasses and Quest in 2027.

Announced today alongside Meta VR Glasses, Two Point Hospital Mixed Reality Edition is a VR reimagining of the comedic hospital management game Two Point Hospital.

In Two Point Hospital, you will build and manage a hospital full of silly, suffering patients, maximize the hospital's efficiency (and profit margins), and cure strange diseases. The new game, which was announced alongside Meta's newest VR device, is making use of that device's tech. It uses eye-tracking and hand-tracking to offer an intuitive and seamless gameplay experience.

Originally released in 2018, Two Point Hospital is a hospital management sim in which you take control of a run-down medical facility and try to turn it into a thriving hospital. As the hospital grows, so does the complexity of running it, with nurses, doctors, and staff requiring training, facilities needing expansion, and a wide range of ridiculous patients arriving with increasingly bizarre ailments.

Much of the game's charm comes from its delightful sense of humor. But even though Two Point Hospital's creators are obviously invested in making you laugh, they've also built a surprisingly detailed management game. No doubt this same sensibility will carry over to the series' first VR release.

Two Point Hospital Mixed Reality Edition is coming to Meta VR Glasses and Quest 3 and 3S in spring 2027.

The new game from veteran developer Schell Games (Among Us 3D, I Expect You To Die) will launch free-to-play with in-app purchases. Dragon Grove was announced at Meta Connect today.

Here's the trailer:

In Dragon Grove, you will match and grow magical dragon plants and unlock dragon abilities from a puzzle-box-like structure in mixed reality with full hand tracking support. You can also interact with your adorable pet dragon.

The 3D puzzles will ramp up in difficulty as you progress, introducing new mechanics and plant types the deeper you go into the game.

The game will launch for free with all of the expected elements that come with a free-to-play title including daily streak rewards and in-app purchases including hats, accessories, and power-ups for your dragon.

Dragon Grove can be wishlisted now on the Meta Horizon Store. It launches in Spring 2027 for Meta VR Glasses and Quest 3.

Here's the trailer:

Cozy life-simulation gamers have been vastly underserved in VR, with only a handful of games like Garden of the Sea and Medieval Dynasty: New Settlement available to scratch that itch and the latter title features a healthy dose of combat. Meanwhile, games like Stardew Valley, The Sims, and recently Nintendo's Pokopia have collectively sold tens of millions of units across their respective platforms.

In other words, it is a largely untapped market that can serve to make VR/MR more appealing to a wider audience that remains uninterested in combat or chasing leaderboards. Story of Seasons aims to help fill in that gap. The game is single-player only and is said to be launching with fifty hours of content.

In Story of Seasons, you will tend to your fields, care for your animals including cow-milking and sheep-shearing minigames, harvest crops, and head into town to fill requests and get to know your local residents. As shown in the trailer, you can also meet a partner and start a family.

Story of Seasons - Your Wonderful Life can be wishlisted now for Meta VR Glasses and Quest 3 on the Horizon Store.

Said to be 'designed from the ground up for natural hand and eye interaction,' Cardmada has you take command of a pirate ship, recruiting a crew of misfits to combat rival captains in head-to-head battles. You will build poker-inspired combinations of cards to trigger cannon attacks and outmaneuver your opponents to victory.

There was not a lot of additional information provided, but looking through the provided screenshots (see below), the game clearly has mixed reality support and the unlockable rewards you would expect to see in a free-to-play title.

Concept art provided by Meta depicts different ship types and three character archetypes: Skullywags, Queen's Armada, and Whisperwakes.

Cardmada can be wishlisted now on the Meta Horizon store for Meta VR Glasses and Quest 3.

Announced at Meta Connect today, Dice Throne Digital spatializes the popular dice-and-card game, which has sold over 1.5M physical copies worldwide and raised over $18M across multiple crowdfunding campaigns.

You will compete with other players in a fantasy-based battle, embodying your chosen heroes and rolling dice to trigger their special abilities and playing cards to manipulate dice rolls in your favor. Attacks will play out in front of you on a mixed reality tabletop board.

The original tabletop game has forty-five different heroes as of July 2026, spread across multiple seasons and crossovers with Marvel including the X-Men, Black Panther, Black Widow, Deadpool, Captain Marvel, and Doctor Strange. We do not know if these will carry over to Dice Throne Digital. The images provided to us show several original characters pictured below.

With the game being free-to-play, we expect new cards, dice, and characters to be unlockable through a combination of playtime rewards and in-app purchases.

You can wishlist Dice Throne Digital on the Meta Horizon store now.

The puck runs the same operating system as Quest 3, and supports all the same content, rendered at notably higher resolution thanks to a combination of the more powerful chipset (essentially an XR2 Gen 3 by a different name) and eye-tracked foveated rendering. It features 12GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, and there's a microSD slot in the puck to expand it.

The caveat to the content compatibility is that Meta VR Glasses will not come with controllers by default, but you'll be able to buy Touch Plus controllers separately (available in a new all-black color), or pair the controllers from your existing Quest 3 or Quest 3S, and there'll be a bundle with controllers "in some retail channels".

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The stark difference between Meta VR Glasses and any Quest, however, is the split architecture, and the dramatic reduction in weight and bulk this enables.

Meta VR Glasses have no onboard computing, not even a tracking coprocessor, and thus entirely rely on the 300-gram puck, which is roughly the size of two phones stuck together and provides both power and data over a thin and flexible hybrid fiber optic cable.

Meta VR Glasses have an open-periphery design, so you naturally see the real world to your sides and below you. The frame is built with a magnesium alloy that minimizes weight while also enabling a fanless, passively cooled design that weighs "around" 100 grams.

Another key difference is the display and field of view. With dual 120Hz 2412×2288 HDR micro-OLED displays, Meta VR Glasses have the highest resolution of any Meta headset to date, and are the company's first non-LCD headset since the original Oculus Quest in 2019.

The device supports the Dolby Vision HDR format, and Meta says it's the first VR product to be IMAX Enhanced certified.

The form factor brings a major optical compromise, though: the field of view. Meta advertises 70° horizontal × 66° vertical compared to the roughly 110° horizontal × 96° vertical of Quest 3.

The narrower field of view makes Meta VR Glasses feel far less immersive than a Quest headset when the optional light blockers are attached for fully immersive experiences. But, somewhat ironically given the name of the product, Meta VR Glasses should shine without the light blockers in passthrough mixed reality, where a natural view of your periphery is often preferable to darkness.

Meta plans to market the product as "a private cinema, multiple monitor workspace, and game console in one device that fits in your bag".

Essentially, Meta VR Glasses at its core is the same market proposition as the Xreal Aura Android XR device but with a VR-style passthrough display system that offers a larger field of view (Xreal Aura is around 60°× 40°), higher resolution, and full opacity, alongside the inclusion of eye tracking, face tracking, and optional tracked controllers. We do not yet know the price of Xreal Aura.

To expand the library of content available to Meta VR Glasses owners who don't buy Touch Plus controllers, Meta announced a swathe of new hand tracking VR and mixed reality games, including a new hand-tracked Beat Saber mode called Flux. You can read about the gaming announcements here.

For the first time for a Meta standalone device, you can also plug in any USB-C DisplayPort device to the puck, including a phone, laptop, or gaming handheld, and have it shown as a virtual screen, without the need for a capture card.

Every New Game & Game Update Announced For Meta VR Glasses

Several new games are coming to Meta VR Glasses as early as Spring 2027, alongside major updates to existing games.

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Meta VR Glasses will also feature the first implementation of Hologram, the company's realistic avatar tech. Similar to Apple Vision Pro's Personas, it will both let you join flatscreen WhatsApp video calls as a photorealistic face-tracked avatar, and appear as a full-scale realistic avatar in calls with other Meta VR Glasses (and eventually Quest 3) owners.

However, at launch in spring, your spatial Hologram will be a stereoscopic video stream, not volumetric. It displays at true scale, but is only seen as a front-angle view. Even if you change your perspective, the Hologram will stay as a head-on perspective, like billboarded assets in a video game. Meta says it plans to evolve Hologram over time post-launch to become a truly 6DoF 3D system, at which point it will become the default platform-level avatar experience for its VR platform, effectively superseding the cartoon Meta Avatars.

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Developer Anton Hand made the announcement in a new video on his YouTube channel with an updated trailer:

We first heard about Hot Dogs, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades 2 (H3VR2), the sequel to the award-winning VR sandbox FPS, during the Creature Feature & Friends Showcase in May, with plans for a PC VR and Quest 3 launch. Per Hand's video, the Quest version drops this November and the Steam version will follow in the second half of 2027 with enhanced graphics, 'comprehensive' hardware and a dedicated framework for modding. Rust Ltd. will be assembling a testing team from its community to ensure all PC VR-compatible devices are properly verified.

H3VR2 expands on its predecessor with multiple gameplay modes to be more accessible to a wider variety of players. Its primary mode, 'Facility', is an extraction-style campaign where you battle enemies and loot resources in a procedurally generated megastructure. Hand said the game will run as a "pseudo-live service" with biomes planned to be added at a rate of two new ones per year. New game modes, sandbox packs, and licensed content will be sold as paid DLC.

Hot Dogs, Horseshoes & Hand Grenades 2 can be pre-ordered now for Quest 3 at a 10% discount. The Steam version can be wishlisted now ahead of its 2027 launch.

Android XR Bridge (AXRB) is an experimental software runtime for Windows which allows you to run Android-based VR applications made for Meta Quest on your PC. It's notable in that it allows you to play Quest exclusives in 4K (per eye) and high frames per second using the full power of your gaming PC.

While early versions of the program yielded pretty terrible results, recent updates have enabled 4K per eye rendering at 120 FPS, as demonstrated in a recent social media post from AXRB's developer, which shows Pinball FX VR running at said specs.

Android XR Bridge is designed to work with legal copies of Quest games. It operates like a traditional emulator to remove hardware restrictions, after which the game runs on OpenXR. You must own legal game files to play them.

AXRB's Early Access launch, which was originally planned for Monday, September 21, has been delayed. AXRB's developer announced today via the app's Discord that the delay stems from issues with the installer failing, the emulator failing to launch games, and a lack of overall game support leading to "a lot of the untested games fail[ing] most of the time."

Nevertheless, AXRB represents an interesting possibility: that PC VR users may soon be able to access Meta's Quest library of exclusives and run them on a PC with very little (or no) modification to the original Android-based builds.

If you're unfamiliar: Snap Specs are standalone true AR glasses, meaning they have physically transparent see-through optics and can position virtual objects and interfaces in real space, while having no tether or external computing hardware. Revealed back in June, when the company opened preorders, the $2195 Specs are set to be the first fully standalone true AR glasses outside China, and the most advanced on the planet that you can actually buy, beating companies like Meta and Apple to market.

For disclosure, Snap paid for my flights and accommodation for its "launch" event, which I put in scare quotes because it didn't actually launch the glasses. It did announce that Specs will have a built-in cross-platform agentic AI assistant, and an optional cellular case for on-the-go connectivity. CEO Evan Spiegel also demoed the glasses live on stage, a welcome respite compared to the usual prerecorded tech launches.

But while Spiegel's demo was inarguably impressive, the problem with Specs is that, through the lenses, it simply doesn't actually look like the casted and recorded views.

Watch Snap’s CEO Demo Specs True AR Glasses Live On Stage

Snap’s CEO demoed the soon-to-launch Specs standalone true AR glasses live on stage, including an official Harry Potter experience from HBO.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

As soon as you put on Specs, you'll notice a number of optical artifacts. There is a rainbow pattern over the display area, which has poor color uniformity in general. You'll also see blue streaks from reflections of real-world light around the edges of the lens. This is not the crisp image you'll be used to in a VR headset, nor is it even anywhere near as clear and uniform as the Meta Ray-Ban Display HUD.

The bigger problem though, as with every optically transparent AR device to ever ship, is the field of view. At 51 degrees diagonal, it's roughly the same as HoloLens 2. What's strange (and misleading) is that Specs renders and records a larger field of view than what it can actually display, so what you see in Snap's promotional videos, and any recorded Specs content shared on social media, is very different to what you see in the device.

(For comparison, passthrough VR-style headsets like Quest 3 and Apple Vision Pro have a diagonal field of view over 100°.)

In practice, what you see as you look around is a rectangular slice of the virtual content that should be surrounding you. As I've written about many times before, this breaks object permanence, and leaves you constantly searching for where each virtual object went.

This is not a dealbreaker for all use cases. And it's not Snap's fault – it's essentially impossible today to build a glasses-size transparent AR device with a field of view much larger than this. Meta's Orion prototype famously used an exotic expensive material with no existing non-military supply chain to achieve 70 degrees, for example. But it's something I sorely wish that companies building transparent AR devices had been more honest about for the past decade of this industry. Because the inevitable result is that people are disappointed when they put the thing on their face and see only a sliver of the content.

Some experiences cleverly design around the field of view, and for others it doesn't matter at all. This is where Specs shines. But many experiences seem to ignore it, to the detriment of usability, as if building for a future device that doesn't yet exist.

And while it's impressive that Specs is able to be a fully standalone device in glasses form factor, no pucks or tethers required, this feat does not come without tradeoffs. While I do describe Specs as glasses form factor, at 134 grams it sits right at the very boundary of earning that description. It is comfortable, thanks to its outwards-flexing arms (an ergonomic feature of all good recent smart glasses), but the bulk looks somewhat comical to regular bystanders. Even Spiegel admitted as much by acknowledging the memes around the form factor.

Specs also seems to render at a far lower frame rate compared to other VR devices. While Snap wouldn't say the exact rate, rendering in many experiences felt to be nowhere near the 72FPS minimum of other XR systems. Fitting a higher-performance spatial computer into a glasses arm is simply beyond the technology of 2026.

The lack of eye tracking on Specs is also a major miss, as it quickly became tiring to raise my hand to point-and-pinch. Apple Vision Pro has established eye tracking as absolutely essential for any serious XR device interaction other than active gaming. I am convinced that Specs will be one of the last major devices in this space without eye tracking.

My description of Specs so far has been rather negative, but what I've really been trying to do is just establish a realistic picture of what to expect, beyond the hype and expectations that have built up around true AR glasses and Snap's marketing. But that's not to say that Specs isn't a viable first-generation product for early adopters.

What's most impressive about Specs is its computer vision tech. Even in low light when the sun went down, with dozens of people walking nearby, Specs' positional tracking and hand tracking remained rock solid. It even features real-time continuous scene meshing with occlusion, so real-world geometry will block virtual content. To do this at such a low power envelope, in the arm of glasses, is groundbreaking. Not even Quest 3 does this!

I was also struck by how much better having 6DoF augmented reality makes key use cases I already use on Meta Ray-Ban Display feel, such as translation and navigation. It's significantly more comfortable to have translated captions anchored to the person speaking to you rather than awkwardly on a fixed display in the lower-right of your view, and to have a huge map at chest height in front of you rather than a tiny one to the right.

Specs' core software is also well-made, with relatively fast loading times for both interfaces and apps. While it's not high frame rate, it never feels sluggish. This is thanks to Snap's years of work on a highly optimized software stack that runs from the OS to the "Lenses" (apps) built in the highly managed Lens Studio development software on PC. This is a mature well-crafted software stack, not some lazy Android fork.

Snap is also pushing Specs as a computer for virtual monitors and browser interfaces. While I can definitely see a device like Specs being a highly portable way to privately watch YouTube on a bus, train, or plane without holding up your phone, the display artifacts and limited field of view make me highly skeptical of its use for serious productivity. The coming wave of ultralight passthrough VR headsets will likely be strongly preferable for this, and even prism optic devices like Xreal Aura will offer a wider field of view and clearer image.

Snap Specs is exactly what I expected from first-generation standalone true AR glasses in 2026. It's as if a company tried to make an iPhone in the late 90s. The idea is there, and for what tech it has to work with, Snap's implementation of the idea is actually excellent. But the fundamental display tech is the problem. Even with well-designed software, an iPhone in 1999 just wouldn't be the iPhone of 2007. If you're a tech enthusiast who understands that, and can temper your expectations, Specs is like nothing else out there, and delivers an experience absolutely no other device can match. But if you're a general consumer hoping for a highly refined consumer true AR experience, you'll need to wait for the 2030s like everyone else.

In our initial review of Battlemarked, we said that it "packs more expansive campaigns, better difficulty balancing with enemy spawns, lovely visuals, and a greater story focus that better complements these gameplay systems." Twilight's End carries that forward and improves on the first two campaigns with more interesting combat and a final act storyline that properly ramps up from the first two campaigns.

Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked Review

Demeo x Dungeons & Dragons: Battlemarked is a mostly natural crossover and a fitting evolution for the VR tabletop RPG.

UploadVRHenry Stockdale

The first two campaigns of Battlemarked, though self-contained stories in their own right, have an overarching plotline running through both of them. As you are adventuring through Neverwinter Woods in Embers of Chaos and Icewind Dale in Crown of Frost, you occasionally encounter a slaad, a toad-like monster with a connection to both stories. Twilight's End puts the slaad species front and center while also tying in the other various communities and tribes you have encountered to this point.

There is no formal recap of the first two campaigns to kick off Twilight's End, but as long as you remember how to actually play the game, the NPCs will mostly fill in the blanks. Also, if you are like me and spent time between campaigns leveling up your characters, you may want to consider a higher difficulty to keep combat interesting. I have nearly all eight playable characters up to the max level of 19, so enemy mobs on standard difficulty are quickly wiped out in one or two rounds when I do any one-shot dungeons. For Twilight's End, I kicked the difficulty up to hard and found it challenging enough for a fully leveled party without being too overbearing.

The two new multi-floor dungeons are excellent with unique boss fights that address one of my small complaints about the first two campaigns. The original Demeo, which we loved and voted as our VR Game of the Year in 2021, had five very distinctly unique boss fights. The Elven Queen had minions that cast spells to make her impervious to damage. The Rat King scurried away after attacking, forcing you to corner him while dealing with dozens of vermin surrounding you. High Priest Umbal started hidden and had to be revealed while navigating three giant serpents.

By contrast, only two boss fights in the first two campaigns of Battlemarked had similar ancillary mechanics involved beyond repositioning to avoid AOE (area of effect) attacks and neither were required to defeat the boss if you just attacked often enough. In other words, you can brute force your way to victory.

Twilight's End's bosses all force you to think strategically to win, throwing twists that make you think strategically. Party members switched roles in multiple rounds with some of their attacks being completely nullified depending on the conditions. What good is a powerful sorcerer against an enemy totally immune to spell attacks for several rounds? How can my fighter contend with an enemy who counterattacks every melee attack? Strategy is at the heart of a good turn-based combat system and Twilight's End emphasizes that.

The standard enemies also level up in Twilight's End. The slaad and other newcomers prove to be very formidable, a notable step up from the goblins, kobolds, myconids and such in the first two campaigns, some of whom return in this final chapter. They come with new status ailments and other wrinkles that keep you on your toes. All of it makes for a satisfying journey in the nine hours it took me to complete the campaign. After completing two full dungeons, you unlock each as a separate one-shot dungeon and new dice that match the theme of each. There are also several shorter missions that hopefully get added as additional one-shots in future updates.

Visually, Twilight's End is less interesting than the first two campaigns, mostly due to the recycling of locations instead of a consistent theme like the forestry of Neverwinter Woods and the snow-covered Icewind Dale. The Silver Marches, the primary setting for Twilight's End, is visually less interesting by comparison. The music is a standout though as it always has been in Demeo. Even with some tracks of the rousing orchestral fantasy score carrying over from earlier campaigns, the new additions might be the best of the entire series and that is a high mark to clear.

As far as downsides, I am at a loss to name any. The game is clean with no noticeable performance issues or bugs, though I will mention one personal disappointment. Battlemarked now has more playable characters (eight) than the original game (seven), but the final two, warlock Azruss Drevontir and orc druid Gruda Razortusk, were added in updates between the game's launch and Twilight's End. Comparatively, the original game introduced its final three characters with each successive new dungeon. There are no new playable characters in Twilight's End, though you can gain AI-controlled allies depending on choices made during your journey.

Demeo X DnD: Battlemarked Twilight's End - The Final Verdict

Twilight's End is a fitting and highly entertaining conclusion to Battlemarked's story, more than justifying its $9.99 cost with the best boss battles in the entire game, a slew of new foes to contend with, and a high fantasy endgame plot that RPG fans rarely get in a VR game. Even with the recycling of previous locations, anyone hesitant about whether Twilight's End offers enough value for its price can rest assured. It is worth every penny and is easily one of the best experiences I have had in a headset this year.

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

The Kickstarter campaign launched last month, and concluded over the weekend after reaching $1,288,712. By "VR-style" I mean that it uses pancake lenses placed between your eyes and the displays, and you see the physical world via the passthrough cameras on the front.

URXR One achieves its 93-gram weight mainly by not having much compute onboard and lacking a battery. It features the GravityXR G-X100 coprocessor chipset announced back in December, and is essentially an implementation of GravityXR's reference design. The chip handles positional head tracking, optical hand tracking, and camera passthrough using very little power and generating very little heat, leaving the rendering to an external device.

It features dual 2448×2064 micro-OLED displays magnified by pancake lenses to a field of view of 80° horizontal × 56° vertical (around 90° diagonal) at up to 90Hz refresh rate.

GravityXR: Chinese Startup Builds Chip To Enable Ultralight Headsets

A Chinese startup with former Apple and Meta engineers built a coprocessor that enables ultralight headsets, and its reference design is the lightest ever shown.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

You plug it into a laptop, phone, or other device that supports USB-C DisplayPort out (including handhelds like Steam Deck, ROG Ally, Legion Go) and it displays the input as a 6DoF virtual monitor floating in front of you positionally. The device accepts a 2560×1440 signal at 90Hz.

Essentially, URXR One as a product is the same proposition as Xreal and Viture glasses, a virtual monitor for your existing devices, but with a VR-style display system with passthrough instead of transparent prism optics, offering a much wider field of view. Even Xreal's upcoming Aura device reaches only 70° diagonal, and other Xreal and Viture devices have a diagonal field of view of less than 70°, compared to the roughly 90° of URXR One.

On Windows and Mac, URXR's software enables multiple virtual monitors alongside hand tracking controls for positioning them in space.

XRXR One does not feature eye tracking or face tracking.

Unseen Reality claims URXR One will start shipping to backers in October, and to new buyers in November, priced at $999. To display a connected smartphone, you'll need the $69 Power Hub accessory, set to ship in December.

Some time after launch, Unseen Reality plans to add support for PC VR, letting it act as a SteamVR headset, but that functionality won't be ready for when the device ships.

Of course, URXR One's campaign is somewhat overshadowed by the repeated leaks of Meta's next headset, codenamed Phoenix, which appears to have a similar form factor and may even be shown at Connect tomorrow. How exactly Meta's headset will compare on price, and when it might launch, remains to be seen. But what seems clear is that URXR One won't be alone in having this ultralight form factor.

One very important note: developer Selkies Interactive released two different versions of the game, a cheaper version that is flatscreen only for $14.99 and the VR version for $17.99 that supports both VR and flatscreen. If you want to play in VR, be sure to get the correct version.

Selkies, a team of three German master's students, describes Echoes of Mora as a 2-3-hour exploration of a flooded Italian village to help the titular Mora find out what happened to her missing brother. Portals offer glimpses into the past before the village was underwater. It's a gentle experience with no fail states (i.e. game over scenarios), combat, or peril, so you are free to play the game at your pace. The game has two endings, depending on a choice you make at the game's conclusion, and other choices in dialogue during the game can make some scenes play out in a different order.

Echoes was delayed from its spring release as Selkies was in negotiations with a potential publisher. That deal 'came and went' according to a developer's post on Steam.

Echoes of Mora VR is available now on Steam. I am currently playing the game and will have a full review soon. There is a VR-supported demo available as well.

Apple TV, Amplium, Fovii, Primary: News in Depth and Theatre apps are just a selection of apps available depending on your content objectives and fit. Acute Immersive is empowering businesses to have their own immersive video destination through their publishing platform.

Since launching last year, Acute Immersive has helped bring the 2026 Apple Design Award winner for Social Impact, Primary: News in Depth, and Blue Frog Immersive to market for Apple Vision Pro. Their Acute Pro app was also developed for private content reviews. The team plans to expand the reach that the immersive video content can have through apps that they power, with upcoming Android XR support including XREAL Aura glasses.

Your Own Branded Destination For Immersive Video

Acute Immersive builds semi-custom white-label immersive video apps, while its backend provides publishing, monetization and analytics tools. The platform is focusing primarily on content shot with Blackmagic’s URSA Cine Immersive camera, but it also supports standard 16:9 video, 3D movies, mono or stereo 180 and 360 video, and Spatial Video shot on iPhone.

Studios who may prefer focusing on creating immersive stories more than managing an app therefore have the choice of relying on other platforms to house their content, which sometimes helps with discoverability, or directly publishing it themselves. Elements like the user experience through to pricing can also be fully controlled, and analytics accessed directly. 

As immersive video becomes easier to produce, this could be a solution to get more entertainment and lifestyle brands and content into the still low library of accessible immersive videos available.

Useful Platform Features, No Built-In Audience

The Acute Immersive platform lets its users simply upload and organize files into playlists, review the immersive video in-headset, add elements like titles and thumbnails, and publish new content without submitting a new version of the app.

What excites me most as a marketer is the platform’s direct access to communicating with and learning about its audiences. App user notifications for things like new content uploads can be triggered. The audience behavior data available can help to support decisions about new content, through to how to improve app engagement. Everything from video consumption metrics to marketing metrics such as traffic attribution through deep links and thumbnail conversion is available. Conversion from deep link click through to video playback is possible, which can help strengthen marketing creative, targeting and even specific online marketing tactic choices to generate further audience growth.

Being in charge of an app requires ongoing audience-centric insights-based marketing. Content creators choosing to distribute immersive video on other apps do still need to support marketing, but efforts should also be supported by the platform it's being distributed to - on and off the platform to targeted existing and new users.

How Acute Immersive And Its Clients Make Money

How immersive video content is monetized, or not, is up to each client using the Acute Immersive platform. Individual videos, bundles or subscriptions are all possible. In addition, companies who are curating content that they do not own can strike their own deals with the content owners.

Acute Immersive supports app clients for a licensing fee, while bandwidth is charged separately. The team also takes on app customizations for a service fee.

I've been using VR for fitness almost daily for the last few years, and I've tried a lot of different ways to deal with those problems. Over time, I've figured out what works best for me. Some solutions cost money, and others are things you might already have around the house.

Your Hands Get Tired And Sweaty: Knuckle Grips

Knuckle grips are probably the most critical piece of equipment for me, aside from the headset itself.

The standard wrist tethers included with Quest controllers will keep a controller from flying across the room, but I've never liked using them for fitness. Knuckle grips give me the same security without requiring me to constantly hold onto the controllers. I can relax my grip or open my hands completely and the controllers stay put, reducing strain during longer workouts.

That feels much more natural when a workout moves between punching and more open-handed dance, flow, stretching or Tai Chi-like movements.

There's also the simple matter of sweat. The added grippiness of the material feels better in my hands once they get sweaty, and when I'm throwing punches or making fast movements, the combination of the textured grip and knuckle strap means I'm not thinking about whether a controller is about to go flying.

I've had very good luck with the KIWI Design G4 Pro grips. BOBOVR, Best Buy's Insignia and others make their own versions, but the KIWI grips are the ones I've personally put through a lot of workouts.

Glasses Get In The Way: Prescription Lens Inserts

If you need corrective lenses, prescription inserts are a must-have for VR fitness.

I don't want glasses on my face when I'm ducking, weaving, squatting and moving around inside a headset. They can shift, press against my face and potentially come into contact with the headset's lenses.

Prescription inserts get rid of all of that. I put on the headset and I can see. There's nothing else to adjust before or during the workout.

I've had very good luck with Zenni's prescription lens inserts, which are made in partnership with Meta. They snap into place over the Quest's lenses and pop back out just as easily when someone else wants to use the headset.

Zenni is far from the only option. Other companies make prescription inserts with different attachment systems, including magnetic designs. I've found Zenni's snap-in design easy to install and remove, and they stay securely in place while I'm moving.

There's also a nice side benefit I didn't really buy them for. The inserts sit over the Quest's actual lenses, giving those expensive optics another physical layer of protection. I still clean the inserts with a microfiber cloth suitable for eyeglasses, but having them there means I don't worry quite as much about accidentally brushing the actual lenses while I'm wiping sweat from the rest of the headset.

The Headset Is Front-Heavy: A Battery Head Strap

Quest headsets carry most of their hardware at the front of your face. I notice that weight a lot more when I'm ducking, weaving and moving my head quickly than I do when I'm sitting down playing a game.

I previously used a KIWI Design elite-style battery strap. For about the past year, I've been using the BOBOVR S3 Pro, which uses a halo-style design. Both have been substantial upgrades over the stock cloth Quest head strap.

The two designs feel different. An elite-style strap holds the headset more directly against my face, while the halo design shifts more of the load onto my forehead and around my head. I've worked out extensively with both and haven't found either approach to be a clear winner. A lot of this comes down to what feels better on your own head.

What I do highly recommend is getting a strap with a battery mounted at the rear.

Yes, it provides more battery life, but that's only part of the reason. The battery adds weight behind my head, which helps counterbalance the Quest hanging off the front. My complete setup actually weighs more because of it, yet it feels better balanced and more comfortable.

The BOBOVR's hot-swappable batteries are another feature I've come to appreciate. I can pull off a depleted battery, snap on a charged one and keep going. As long as I have another battery ready, play time effectively stops being an issue.

VR Fitness Gets Hot: Use A Fan

Working out gets hot. Put a computer on your face while you're doing it and things get uncomfortable pretty quickly.

My solution isn't sophisticated. I use a fan.

I point a regular room fan toward my workout area and let it move air across my body while I'm exercising. It makes a noticeable difference during harder sessions, especially when the room is already warm.

The BOBOVR S3 Pro also has a small fan built into the front of the strap that blows air across my forehead. I like it, and it was one of the reasons I switched to the S3 Pro, but it doesn't replace the room fan. I use both.

The room fan has an unexpected secondary benefit. Because the air is always coming from the same direction, I can sometimes sense which way I'm facing in the physical room without seeing it. I don't rely on that for safety or use it instead of a boundary. It's simply another physical cue that remains available while I'm immersed.

You don't need a special "VR fan." You just need moving air. Any household fan will suffice.

Sweat Gets Everywhere: Wear A Sweatband

If you're getting a good workout in VR, you're going to sweat.

A basic sweatband has become part of my normal routine. It keeps sweat from running down my forehead and into my eyes, and less of it ends up on the headset.

That's really all there is to it.

I own several and rotate them between workouts. They cost next to nothing, require no setup and do exactly what I need them to do. I'd notice immediately if I forgot to put one on.

I also keep baby wipes nearby and give the headset and controllers a quick wipe after I'm finished. I clean the lenses separately with a microfiber cloth suitable for eyeglasses.

Your Facial Interface Absorbs Sweat: Replace It

A sweatband helps, but during a hard workout some sweat is inevitably going to reach the headset. That's where an aftermarket facial interface has made a big difference for me.

The stock Meta Quest 3 and 3S facial interface uses a fabric face pad that can absorb sweat. For VR fitness, I prefer synthetic leather, which doesn't soak up moisture the same way and can simply be wiped clean when I'm finished.

I currently use two different options across my Quest 3 headset fleet. The KIWI Design V3 has a fixed facial interface with a synthetic leather pad, while I also use the BOBOVR F3, which also uses synthetic leather but adds adjustability. Both are very comfortable, have held up well through plenty of sweaty workouts, and are easy to clean afterward.

The F3's adjustability gives it another advantage because I can change the position of the interface to get the fit I want with my headset and head strap.

For me, an aftermarket facial interface and a sweatband work together. The sweatband keeps much of the moisture from reaching the headset in the first place, while the synthetic leather interface makes whatever gets through much easier to deal with.

Staying Centered: A Workout Mat

It's surprisingly easy to move around a room without realizing you're doing it in VR.

I can start a workout exactly where I want to be, then spend the next half hour punching, ducking and moving laterally. Inside the headset, nothing has changed. In the real room, I may have gradually wandered away from where I started.

A mat gives my feet something the virtual world can't: a physical reference point. I can tell when I'm moving away from center without switching to passthrough or waiting for a virtual boundary to appear.

You don't need a specialized VR mat to get that benefit, but I use the ProxiMat 42" Classic. Mine carries Supernatural branding because I bought it through Supernatural's former online store, but it's made by ProxiMat. The mat has tactile center and directional markers that I can identify with my feet, allowing me to find both the center of my workout space and which direction I'm facing while remaining immersed.

Like any mat, it doesn't replace Quest's boundary system or the need for adequate clearance around your workout space. For fitness, I recommend using a stationary boundary. I'm generally trying to stay centered in one workout area rather than move around the room, and the combination of the stationary boundary and the tactile feedback from the mat helps keep me there.

You Don't Need To Spend A Fortune

I've accumulated this gear over years of working out in VR. I wouldn't tell someone buying their first headset to immediately go out and buy all of it.

Some fixes are ridiculously simple. A sweatband costs a few dollars. There's a good chance you already own a fan. Other problems may justify spending more, especially if you're exercising often enough that you're encountering them every day.

That's how most of these accessories ended up in my setup in the first place. I had something that annoyed me, found a way to fix it and kept using the solution.

That's become my standard for VR fitness accessories. If something solves a problem well enough that I eventually stop thinking about the problem, it has earned a place in my setup.

Revealed back in June, when the company opened preorders, the $2195 Specs are set to be the first fully standalone true AR glasses outside China, and the most advanced on the planet that you can actually buy, beating companies like Meta and Apple to market.

Snap Opens Preorders For Specs, True AR Glasses Shipping This Fall For $2195

Snap just officially revealed and opened preorders for Specs, fully standalone true AR glasses shipping this fall in the US, UK, and France for $2195.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

This week, Snap announced that Specs will have a cross-platform AI agent and an optional cellular charging case for on-the-go connectivity.

But arguably more importantly, CEO Evan Spiegel showed off the glasses on-stage in a live demo of their capabilities, something more useful to potential buyers than any pre-rendered marketing videos ever could be.

During the presentation, Spiegel demonstrates:

• The main Snap OS interface. Shortcuts to Specs Intelligence, the home screen, and quick controls are available on your palms, poked by a finger from your other hand. Opening home brings up a floating window launched in front of you, which you interact with by pointing and pinching.
• The Snapchat app on Specs, including taking and sending pictures by snapping your fingers, and making video calls where the other person sees your first-person view.
• YouTube in the web browser, including launching into it via asking Specs Intelligence.
• A Shopify-backed AR shopping experience, wherein you can place the product into your physical environment at true scale and buy it with a tap.
• A port of the Quest app Pencil, teaching you to draw by showing a path outline.
• HBO's official Harry Potter experience, including receiving a Hogwarts acceptance letter from an owl and casting the Wingardium Leviosa spell.

Snap Opens Preorders For Specs, True AR Glasses Shipping This Fall For $2195

Snap just officially revealed and opened preorders for Specs, fully standalone true AR glasses shipping this fall in the US, UK, and France for $2195.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

You can watch our supercut of the on-stage live demos here, or the full hour-long launch event here.

Snap Opens Preorders For Specs, True AR Glasses Shipping This Fall For $2195

Snap just officially revealed and opened preorders for Specs, fully standalone true AR glasses shipping this fall in the US, UK, and France for $2195.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

At a launch event in LA this week, the company revealed Specs Intelligence as a core feature of the $2195 device, which it formally announced and opened preorders for back in June. Specs is still set to be the first fully standalone true AR glasses outside China, and the most advanced on the planet that you can actually buy, beating companies like Meta and Apple to market.

If you're unfamiliar with the term AI agent, it's distinct from the idea of an AI chatbot in that agents can take actions, rather than just providing a response. AI coding agents such as OpenAI's Codex and Anthropic's Claude Code have become a core tool for software engineers, while Meta's consumer AI agent Muse recently shot up to the top of the iPhone App Store with a focus on managing your email, calendar, bookings, and other online tasks. Specs Intelligence seems to be taking on the same market.

"SPECS Intelligence is designed to anticipate when help would be useful and surface relevant information and actions without waiting for a prompt. Before a meeting, it could highlight decisions to make, questions to ask, and things to remember. For an upcoming trip, it could bring together flight, hotel, and dinner plans while flagging a work deadline that falls during the visit."

Specs Intelligence will support iPhone, Mac and Specs. While it will eventually allow for a wide range of agentic actions, with Snap giving examples such as booking hotels and buying cinema tickets, the initial preview release will be far more limited. On iPhone, the US-only public preview simply provides "insights" from your Gmail and Google Calendar, while the fuller experience on macOS is "invite-only".

Snap won't say what model provider it's using to power Specs Intelligence, nor is it revealing what its business model will be after the free preview period.

The other major announcement of Snap's launch event was that it will offer a cellular charging case option, as an upgrade to the included regular charging case, in all three launch countries via partnerships with local carriers. A bundle with the cellular charging case will be priced at $2395, meaning a $200 premium over the regular SKU.

The lack of cellular connectivity was something we harshly criticized in our review of Meta Ray-Ban Display, as depending on a connected smartphone simply isn't reliable. We suspect cellular will be as essential for mainstream HUD and AR glasses as it is today for smartphones.

In the US, Specs cellular connectivity will be offered via Verizon, starting at $10/month if you use Verizon for your phone or $20/month otherwise, while in the UK it will be via EE and in France via Orange.

These carriers will also offer finance plans for those unwilling to drop the two thousand dollars outright, and let prospective buyers try on the AR glasses to experience them in select stores.

Snap will also be publicly demoing Specs from October 1 at the Westfield Century City mall in Los Angeles, confirming that it will offer this experience through at least the holiday season.

There's still no concrete date for the Specs AR glasses to ship, despite the event being positioned as a launch. We'll let you know as soon as Snap announces one.

All of Meta's smart glasses feature a white LED at the end of one temple that flashes when the wearer captures an image and pulses while they're recording. For every model except the failed Ray-Ban Stories from 2021, the glasses will not capture imagery if you try to cover the light, as detected by an ambient light sensor in the LED.

But many regular people still aren't aware that glasses with a camera are even a thing, and because of this, the light can be hard to notice outdoors in daylight. This has led to nefarious wearers recording people with neither their consent nor knowledge that they're on camera.

Worse, a market has cropped up for physically taking the glasses apart to remove the LED. Meta has rolled out firmware updates to disable the camera on glasses where it detects the LED has been tampered with, but as with all such measures, it's a game of cat-and-mouse between Meta and the hackers.

Meta claims that less than 0.1% of its sold smart glasses have been tampered with, but that would still equate to around 10 thousand units, given that the company and its partner EssilorLuxottica have sold over 10 million units now.

The nefarious use of the camera on Meta's smart glasses, whether to make social media video content, for reasons of personal perversion, or, in rare cases, to covertly record police and other authorities, has led to relatively widespread backlash against the entire form factor. Some people now brand them "pervert glasses" or "creep glasses", and even call for them to be banned in law:

• Some gyms, including Planet Fitness, ban smart glasses on their premises, regardless of whether they’re recording.
• Bars, pubs and clubs in the US, UK and Canada have banned wearing them. New York’s BASEMENT even bans carrying them in a bag. Wetherspoons (the UK's largest pub chain) prohibits recording customers or staff without permission, but not merely wearing the glasses.
• Cruise ship companies Royal Caribbean and Carnival allow them aboard but prohibit their use in casinos, toilets, changing rooms and other sensitive areas. MSC bans them throughout its ships’ public areas.
• Courts in England and Wales, and US court systems including New York’s, require the glasses to be surrendered on entry. New York explicitly includes prescription pairs.
• Bans also cover conventions and festivals including DEF CON and Body Movements, and schools in Oslo. SAT exams prohibit them during testing and breaks, subject to approved accommodations, while the US Air Force bans wearing them in uniform.

Lost in this outcry, of course, is the fact that the vast majority of smart glasses owners do not use the devices for nefarious purposes. A knife can be used to prepare a delicious meal or kill someone. A fire can be used to warm a cave or burn down a forest. Should a tool be defined by its worst use?

Some of the smart glasses backlash appears to be driven by the misconception that Meta's smart glasses are always recording (a technical impossibility, given battery and thermal limitations) and by a lack of awareness of the recording LED's existence. In response to this, Meta has now launched a widespread PR campaign of videos and posters highlighting the recording LED and its function.

Meta Could Demo Next-Gen Headset At Connect With Full-Body Codec Avatars

Meta could demo its upcoming ultralight headset next week at Connect with photorealistic full-body Codec Avatars, The Information reports.

UploadVRLuna

If The Information's report is to be believed, though, Meta plans to launch a new range of smart glasses at Connect 2026 next week that lack cameras entirely. The glasses will still have microphones and speakers, and the button that starts recording on its current range will, on these new glasses, start a conversation with the Meta AI chatbot or Muse, the company's recently launched AI agent. However, without cameras, the AI will be unable to see what you see, limiting its usefulness.

The report also suggests that dropping the cameras will allow for a sleeker design with slimmer temples, making the glasses look more like ordinary glasses. That could make them preferable for buyers looking for a more comfortable experience, while others may just want to avoid the social backlash of wearing a camera. It should also enable a lower price point.

The same report also claims Meta could demo its next-generation headset at Connect with full-body Codec Avatars.

UploadVR will be on-site at Meta Connect 2026 to bring you full coverage of whatever the company ends up announcing.

Multiple reputable sources have reported that Meta is working on a premium, ultralight, open-periphery headset with a tethered compute puck, intended to occupy a similar high-end position to Meta Quest Pro, but in a much sleeker form factor. The project and its underlying layers have appeared under the codenames Phoenix, Stanley, and Loma.

UploadVR published an extensive report on the device last month, and I highly recommend that you read it if you wish to know more. Official visuals of the device were also found in Horizon OS firmware earlier this month.

Everything We Know (So Far) About Meta’s Next Headset

Here’s everything we know (so far) about Project Phoenix, Meta’s next headset.

UploadVRLuna

First Clear Visuals Of Meta’s Next Headset Found In Quest Firmware

The first visuals of Meta’s Project Phoenix headset have been found in Horizon OS firmware, revealing a slim design with a tether for the compute puck.

UploadVRLuna

Now, The Information's Jyoti Mann reports that Meta could showcase Phoenix during the Connect 2026 keynote alongside a full-body hologram call experience using Codec Avatars.

The report describes Phoenix as a "productivity and entertainment tool" consisting of glasses and a puck, and says Meta wants to market it for virtual screens and watching films.

It also appears to incorrectly describe Phoenix as "augmented reality glasses", as UploadVR's own reporting, previous reporting from The Information, and other reputable sources indicate that, on a technical level, Phoenix is a glasses-like Passthrough VR (Mixed Reality) headset, operating on the same basic principle as Meta Quest 3 and 3S. The company may choose to market it differently, though. Some firmware strings even refer to the device as "VR Glasses", although that terminology is non-final.

The report also claims that earlier this month Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and CTO Andrew Bosworth reviewed the company's work on hologram-like video calls. It says Meta has since decided to showcase "a full-body, photorealistic hologram call experience during a live Phoenix demo in the keynote speech at Connect next week, with Bosworth appearing as the hologram", assuming Meta's plans do not change. The experience would be powered by Codec Avatars.

Codec Avatars are Meta's long-running research project aimed at achieving photorealistic spatial telepresence via Face Tracking sensors on VR/MR headsets and eventually glasses, broadly similar to Personas on visionOS and Likeness on Android XR.

Meta has showcased various versions of this work over the years, with the most well-known example being Mark Zuckerberg's VR interview with Lex Fridman, where both used Meta's prototype photorealistic Codec Avatars.

Watch Zuckerberg Interviewed In VR With Photoreal Avatars

Watch Mark Zuckerberg being interviewed in VR with prototype photorealistic Codec Avatars:

UploadVRDavid Heaney

The versions used in the interview were captured via a specialized rig and rendered on high-end computers, but Meta has since demonstrated approaches to generating Codec Avatars from relatively sparse photos as well as running them on mobile-class hardware like Quest 3.

Earlier this year, the company expanded on this, publishing a research paper titled "Large-scale Codec Avatars: The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Large-scale Avatar Pretraining", which showcased a model that can generate full-body Codec Avatars from limited input and drive them via inward-facing and SLAM sensors on a headset.

As of August 2026, Meta's plans for Codec Avatars seem increasingly centered on video calls and telepresence for more versatile social experiences across the company's family of apps, and the name Hologram appears to be heavily associated with this direction.

Multiple packages within Horizon OS contain what appear to be sub-frameworks for a broader "Hologram Calling" system, with those frameworks also containing extensive references to Codec Avatars.

Alongside this, strings within the Meta AI mobile app for the company's Smart Glasses and other wearables describe the usage and setup process for a "Hologram" avatar, perhaps revealing the consumer-facing name for the long-in-development project.

Meta Connect 2026 takes place next week, September 23-24, and is set to showcase the company's "latest breakthroughs in AI technologies, AI glasses and VR".

Developed around Apple's new on-device music intelligence, Flow Chaser analyzes the structure of music and uses that information to automatically generate levels.

visionOS 27 Launched For Apple Vision Pro Headsets, Bringing Siri AI & More

Apple launched visionOS 27 for Vision Pro headsets this week. Read our extensive rundown of all the biggest features & improvements.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

The game comes with 140 original tracks totaling over 7.5 hours of music from a variety of genres, but the real trick is that players can also import their own DRM-free songs. The game will then analyze those tracks and generate levels based on the song's characteristics.

Gameplay takes place in either the player's physical surroundings or in fully immersive environments, and follows a formula that players of Beat Saber and other VR and mixed reality rhythm games will find familiar. Slice the blocks or bonk the orbs as they shoot toward you along with the music.

A trailer has been released, embedded below:

The idea of a game that can instantly create a level based on the structure of any piece of music was first dreamed up by Masaya Matsuura, creator of PaRappa the Rapper, way back in the late 1990s.

Matsuura and his colleagues at his studio, NanaOn-sha, developed Vib Ribbon, a game that pioneered this tech by allowing players to swap the game disc for virtually any music CD. Through some incredibly inventive code, the game and PlayStation hardware would then create a totally unique level based on whatever song was playing.

So innovative was Vib Ribbon and its underlying technology that Sony patented the technique.

Flow Chaser is available now on Apple Vision Pro for $14.99.

Spymaster is the latest project from Innerspace, best known for the A Fisherman's Tale games. You take control of two different operatives in extraction-like action scenarios. The goal is to run, jump, zipline, and shoot both agents to the end of the scenario with optional objectives along the way. If you mess up and one agent is out of position or killed in action, you can rewind time via a wristwatch device to correct your mistakes or fine-tune an already successful run.

The full release will come with three new missions, including a finale featuring all three of Spymaster's agents (instead of the two agents in prior missions). I played Spymaster at the Game Developers Conference in March and again when the game released in Early Access this spring. In both cases, Innerspace's signature charm and quirky gameplay found in their previous VR titles were ever present with the missions triggering my inner perfectionist's need to get everything just right. I play a lot of puzzle games and rarely replay them because the magic is often lost when I know the solution, but Spymaster managed to circumvent that.

Spymaster Early Access Review: Equal Parts Charming & Thrilling

Spymaster is a character hot-swapping time manipulating spy thriller with developer Innerspace’s signature charm.

UploadVRMike Johnson

Spymaster is available now in Early Access on Quest and Steam.

visionOS 27 is the fourth major operating system version for Apple Vision Pro headsets.

Despite the relative lack of fanfare, visionOS 27 is actually one of the biggest upgrades yet, with (preconfigured) held object tracking, an IR LED tracked accessories framework, high-quality unfoveated screen recording, and a range of other major improvements.

visionOS 27 is available for both the M2 and M5 models of Apple Vision Pro.

visionOS 27

Siri AI & Visual Intelligence

Siri AI, Apple's LLM-powered overhaul of its digital assistant, is now rolling out in beta on visionOS 27 for both M2 and M5 Apple Vision Pro headsets.

Access requires joining a waitlist in the visionOS Settings. Apple says wait times vary, and the feature will start downloading automatically once access is granted.

Siri AI is currently available only in English, with the device and Siri languages set to the same supported English option.

Siri AI is powered by the next-generation Apple Foundation Models, which were co-developed with Google and based on its Gemini models (reportedly via a $1 billion/year deal). As has always been the case with Apple Intelligence, some tasks run on a small on-device model, while more complex tasks are handed off to Apple's Private Cloud Compute system.

Apple says Siri AI is a "profoundly more capable and conversational assistant" than traditional Siri, with "personal context understanding, broad world knowledge, and more".

In visionOS, Siri AI takes the form of a persistent orb that you can pin to a physical spot in your room. You can start speaking to Siri AI by simply looking at the orb and speaking, bypassing the need to say "Siri", though you can still do that if you want.

Siri AI on visionOS also supports Apple's Visual Intelligence feature, letting you "search, ask questions, and take action" relating to your physical and virtual surroundings. In terms of capabilities, it seems to sit somewhere between Meta AI on Quest 3's Horizon OS and Gemini on Samsung Galaxy XR's Android XR.

visionOS 27 also includes a dedicated Siri app, letting you access previous conversations, and offering a preinstalled alternative to third-party AI chatbot apps like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, Grok, and Meta AI.

Apple also announced the following features powered by the next-generation Apple Foundation Models:

• Significantly more realistic image generation in Image Playground.
• Automatic bookmarks and Reading List organization in Safari.
• The ability to upgrade the strength of your saved passwords with a single tap (coming in a future visionOS 27 version).
• Personalized Smart Replies in Messages.

On the M5 Vision Pro, Siri also has a more realistic and expressive voice, which you can customize.

Spatial Panorama Environments

visionOS 2 brought the ability to add synthetic stereoscopy to 2D images, and then visionOS 26 brought the ability to turn 2D images into limited-perspective volumetric spatial scenes, enabled by Gaussian splatting.

visionOS 27 extends this spatial scene concept to your iPhone-captured panoramas.

You can also set these spatial panoramas as your visionOS home environment, meaning they can be the background for your windows and volumes in the Shared Space.

Higher Frequency Object Tracking

Back in visionOS 2, Apple added the ability for Vision Pro to track specific real-world 3D objects that app developers prespecify.

Developers provide a 3D model of the object they want to be tracked to the Create ML tool on their Mac before app compilation, and over the course of several hours it trains a neural network for the object and bakes it into the app.

While genuinely useful for enterprise applications, the visionOS 2 object tracking system was only designed to be used for static objects, mainly in order to anchor virtual content to them, and responded very slowly if the object moved.

visionOS 27 adds a high-frame-rate object tracking mode that is suitable for moving and held objects. While Apple doesn't say exactly what the update rate is, initial reports from developers suggest it may be around 30Hz.

To track held objects, Apple strongly recommends using the new Extended Training mode, which greatly improves tracking performance though also "significantly" increases the machine learning model training time. XR enthusiast Brad Lynch found that it took around 18 hours to train a fish toy, for example.

While high frame rate object tracking is leagues better than what came before, it's important to note that it still has a significantly lower update rate, and thus higher latency, than hand tracking or tracked accessories. And speaking of tracked accessories, this update opens the door to more of them.

IR LED Tracked Accessories

For visionOS 26 last year, Apple worked closely with Sony and Logitech to add hardcoded support for the PlayStation VR2 Sense controllers and Muse digital stylus, which both have a constellation of infrared LEDs under the plastic of their bodies.

With visionOS 27, Apple has opened this process up to any interested company by adding the necessary APIs to enable them to make their own IR LED tracked accessories for Vision Pro, similar to how any company can make SteamVR "Lighthouse" Tracking accessories on PC.

Optical tracking runs at 90Hz, and this is fused with the IMU accelerometer and gyroscope data from the object, enabling the same quality of tracking you'd expect from PlayStation VR2 Sense controllers.

There are two possible software support paths available:

• Companion App: The hardware maker can release a visionOS companion app for the hardware, essentially an installer for it, that registers the shape of the object and configuration of its IR LEDs with visionOS so that other apps can use them. This path would be highly suitable for a consumer device.
• Built Into App: Alternatively, a developer can build the object details into an app that utilizes the accessory, negating the need for a separate device companion app. This path would be ideal for enterprise.

DFRobot and MikroE announced reference hardware and developer kits for this, with the DFRobot hardware available to purchase now. Companies can use these directly, or as the basis of their own accessories, lowering the barrier to entry compared to building from scratch.

Thórsmörk Environment

visionOS 27 brings a new environment option for the Shared Space: Iceland's Thórsmörk valley. It translates as Thor's Valley, and it's widely considered one of the most scenic places on the planet.

Apple's environments all have day and night modes, and Thórsmörk's nighttime variant features a dramatic aurora borealis.

Thórsmörk is the 10th virtual environment for visionOS, following the addition of Jupiter from Amalthea in visionOS 26.

Unfoveated Screen Recording

At all times in the Shared Space, and in many Full Space apps too, Apple Vision Pro uses always-on eye-tracked foveated rendering, only rendering the region of the image you're currently looking at in full resolution.

This maximizes visual quality and performance, and is essential to how Apple Vision Pro headsets make good use of their 4K micro-OLED panels, but it has the tradeoff of meaning that in screen recordings, everywhere you're not looking is a low-resolution blur.

It was already possible in previous versions of visionOS to record unfoveated footage via a connected Mac, but not standalone on the headset.

visionOS 27 adds a High Quality Recording option, which records up to 3 minutes of unfoveated 4K footage, completely on the headset, no Mac required.

It can make it much easier for developers, journalists, influencers, and content creators of all kinds to show off visionOS, and was one of the most highly requested features for Vision Pro.

Mac 3D Object Preview API

When connected to your Mac via Mac Virtual Display, macOS 27 adds an API to spawn a 3D object on visionOS 27, letting you preview objects in 3D space.

Apple's built-in Preview macOS app supports it, meaning you can open a 3D object from Finder and preview it in seconds. And developers can add it to their own Mac apps too.

This API essentially lets developers add Vision Pro support to their 3D creation Mac apps with just a few lines of code, and without the need to build a visionOS app.

It even supports editing the model on the visionOS side using gaze-and-pinch controls, and these edits are then reflected on the macOS side. It's a two-way API. SharePlay is supported too, for collaborative spatial editing with Personas.

Apple said Cinema 4D and SketchUp were working on integrating the API. With macOS 27 and visionOS 27 now available, other Mac apps can add support too.

Microsoft Announces Windows Volumetric Apps For Quest

Microsoft announced Windows Volumetric Apps, a new API for extending elements of PC applications, streamed to Meta Quest headsets, into 3D space.

UploadVRDavid Heaney

Microsoft and Meta announced something similar for Windows 11 and Horizon OS back in 2024, but as far as we're aware, it has yet to ship.

New Control Center Look

visionOS 27 updates the look of Control Center, moving it into three panels for a larger and less crowded total space for the interface.

• The left panel shows the date, time, battery level, Wi-Fi status, and playing notifications.
• The center panel shows shortcuts to Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, AirPlay and Airplane Mode, as well as a volume slider and quick controls like Mac Virtual Display, Mirroring, Guest Mode, and Travel Mode.
• The right panel controls the environment, including its day/night mode and the spectrum between full passthrough and full enclosure in the virtual environment, as you would with the Digital Crown physical control.

Mac Device Hub

Xcode 27 for macOS brings a Device Hub app for developers.

For developers, Device Hub can make running Apple Vision Pro demos much smoother, as instead of needing to guide the guest through the visionOS gaze-and-pinch interface, they can instead just remotely launch an experience.

It's a significant addition because the iPhone and iPad companion apps for Vision Pro cannot launch apps, for some reason.

3x Faster Wi-Fi Initialization

The M5 Apple Vision Pro is a very fast-feeling device, and in my several months with it I've experienced no slowdowns.

Before visionOS 27, there was one strange exception, though. After booting up the device, for the first 20 seconds or so there was no internet connection. It took an unusually long time, compared to all of the other devices I own, to fully connect to Wi-Fi.

It seems that Apple is not unaware of this, as in visionOS 27, the company claims Vision Pro headsets connect to Wi-Fi up to three times faster.

Curved Windows In Safari, Freeform & Multiview

Before visionOS 27, all windows were flat, with the exception of Mac Virtual Display's wide and ultrawide modes which are curved.

visionOS 27 adds curved windows support to Safari, Freeform, and Multiview on Apple TV. Safari also makes use of this for a curved tab browsing experience that somewhat wraps around you, as does the Multiview mode of Apple TV.

Unfortunately, this is a private API for first-party Apple apps. Third party developers cannot make their windows curved – at least not in the Shared Space. In a Full Space, developers can implement a custom rendering solution for this, but this comes with significant tradeoffs in terms of API support and OS consistency.

Extra-Small 'Accessory Widgets'

One of the biggest additions in visionOS 26 was Widgets, bringing persistent mini-windows you can pin to your physical space, including Clock, Weather, Music, and Photos, alongside an API for developers to build their own.

visionOS 27 adds a new kind of extra small widget called accessory widgets. They're smaller than visionOS 26's widgets and can be used for things like a battery level, countdown or timer, a stock price, smart home control button, or shortcut into an app.

The smart home button possibility seems particularly promising. You could, in theory given an app that supports this, add accessory widgets around your home on your physical devices, letting you just look at them and pinch to activate or deactivate them.

Apple has added a first-party accessory widget for Mac Virtual Display, which launches a Mac Virtual Display session for a given Mac, even when it's locked. While visionOS already creates a button above your MacBook, this could be particularly useful for Mac mini and Mac Studio, letting you just sit down at your desk and tap a virtual button to connect.

Web Environments In Safari

Safari in visionOS 27 adds support for Web Environments, letting developers specify a 3D environment for their webpage that users can optionally enable to surround them.

This is separate from WebXR, leveraging a requestImmersive() JavaScript API on a HTML <model> element.

Gaze-Expanding Notifications

In visionOS 27, notifications can expand when you simply look at them, exposing more information and available actions without the need to pinch.

It's another example of using eye tracking to reduce user interface friction.

Auto Subtitles For Videos

visionOS 27 adds an Accessibility feature to automatically generate subtitles for any video, using an on-device speech recognition model.

Vehicle Motion Cues

visionOS 27 brings the Vehicle Motion Cues feature that Apple added to its other major operating systems in 2024.

Motion cues appear as animated dots around the edge of your view that move in response to the acceleration, braking, and turning of the vehicle you're in, with the intention of reducing travel sickness.

Eye-Controlled Power Wheelchairs

visionOS 27 adds the ability to natively control select power wheelchairs using eye tracking.

Apple announced the feature with support for Tolt and LUCI alternative drive systems in the US, including both Bluetooth and wired connections.

The company says it "will continue to work with developers to expand support for more wheelchair drive systems".

Major RealityKit Upgrades

visionOS 27 also brings major upgrades to RealityKit, Apple's built-in "engine" that powers all experiences in the Shared Space and many Full Space apps too.

RealityKit allows developers to build high-quality VR and mixed reality experiences on Vision Pro without a heavy engine like Unity or Unreal, with consistent rendering, physics, audio, and interactions.

Here are the key upgrades to RealityKit in visionOS 27:

Physical Space Lighting

Apps can now cast virtual light on your physical environment.

RealityKit already automatically has virtual objects and interfaces cast shadows into your physical space, based on where it estimates your real lighting is coming from, and this has been a key feature since visionOS. What's new in visionOS 27 is the ability to cast light too.

Under the hood, the feature leverages Vision Pro's LiDAR-scanned 3D mesh of your room, alongside the reading from the ambient light sensor. The rest is clever software.

Developers can add both point and spot lights to the scene, with support for projective textures to add a pattern (optionally animated) to spot lights for effects such as stained glass, underwater caustics, projected stars, or patterned stage lighting.

Native Gaussian Splat Rendering

Over the past few years, to use an analogy, Gaussian splatting – fitting millions of semitransparent colored blobs (Gaussians) in 3D space so that arbitrary viewpoints can be rendered realistically in real-time – has done for 3D reconstruction what transformers did for AI.

We've seen developers do amazing things with it, such as Gracia's streamable moving volumetric captures. Apple itself uses the technology for the spatial scenes feature of visionOS, and it's behind the massive upgrade in visual realism we saw from Personas in visionOS 26.

RealityKit in visionOS 27 adds native support for rendering Gaussian splats, removing the requirement for developers to implement the code for this themselves.

Realtime Cloth Simulation

RealityKit in visionOS 27 adds integrated real-time deformable-fabric simulation.

Developers can create fabric that drapes under gravity, folds and wrinkles, collides with objects, responds to movement, and can be pulled or otherwise interacted with. The stiffness, friction, and material parameters can be set to change how the cloth behaves.

Immersive Audio Upgrades

RealityKit on visionOS 27 adds a Reverb Mesh API, letting apps describe the geometry and acoustic properties of virtual environments.

Developers assign materials to surfaces to specify how each affects sound, including frequency-dependent absorption, frequency-dependent scattering, and reflection and reverberation behavior.

RealityKit then simulates how sound travels and reverberates through that modeled space, making audio correspond more believably to the VR environment you see.

Many of these features were present in Meta's XR Audio SDK for Quest headsets, which the company put "on freeze" earlier this year. Valve's Steam Audio SDK also has many of these features, and Valve continues to update it.

Count yours truly among those who got the dreaded waitlist email for the Steam Frame, as shown in this image:

Despite Valve's best efforts to mitigate scalpers via the same registration system used for the Steam Machine, listings have been popping up on secondary markets like eBay since Frame registration first opened on September 14. Those listings are, of course, ridiculous as anyone not in possession of a Steam Frame dev kit could not possibly have the device confirmed and available to sell. This is the type of highly anticipated release that scammers and scalpers live for, hoping to take advantage of disappointed buyers who received the same email I did earlier today.

However, as waitlist emails go out today, a new wave of listings is popping up with potential scalpers posting images of reservation queue confirmations, hoping to flip their purchases for profit. The same happened, and continues to happen, with the Steam Controller. eBay listings for the $100 accessory are priced as high as $300 from a quick search as some potential buyers have been told by Valve they are waitlisted until 2027.

As always, we strongly advise extreme caution if you are considering going this route to acquire Valve's new headset. Screenshots of reservation queue confirmations can easily be copied from the internet and altered to give the appearance of a legitimate seller for anyone desperate or gullible enough to pay twice the retail price or more.

But getting there can be surprisingly confusing. Some viewers browse cloud libraries, while others need files transferred onto the headset. Some let you share, but others restrict viewing to one account. For each viewer, the experience varies considerably.

I tested several options on my Meta Quest 3 to describe what works best. Hyperscape gave me the best overall viewing experience, but AirVis is my strongest recommendation for combining quality, convenient controls, and sharing. I also explored generated worlds in Marble and moving subjects in Gracia, which show that splats can offer more than still captures.

AirVis: Best, Most Flexible Option

AirVis created an excellent native Quest app. I can browse public cloud scenes or open my own AirVis uploads. Currently, 5GB of cloud storage is free, with a subscription required for more.

The controls feel responsive, almost like flying a drone through the splat. I can also physically walk through the scene. AirVis consistently delivered crisp details, good frame rates, and intuitive controls. Medium quality worked well, and many scenes ran comfortably at the highest setting.

I also like that AirVis provides multiple ways to capture splats: phones, drones, and 360 video, along with a sizable community-driven library of scenes to explore.

PC Streaming

I won’t delve into all PC streaming options, but I did try AirVis’s solution. Setup was quick. In the PC app, I selected CloudXR Server under Profile Settings, chose a locally stored splat, and entered the server’s IP address in the Quest app.

The result looked comparable to viewing the cloud content, with a nice speed boost from my desktop graphics card. The PC reported 30 to 40 frames per second for a 5M splat scene, running on my Nvidia RTX 4070 Super.

That’s a useful extra if you already have a fast GPU, but AirVis’s standalone app is a good starting point.

SuperSplat: Largest Library

SuperSplat runs through the Quest browser. I could teleport, physically walk, or fly through scenes, although flying felt less smooth than in AirVis. The community library is large, making it a good resource when I’m looking for more than AirVis offers.

While the variety and quality are impressive, my headset struggled with many scenes. I had to switch to SuperSplat’s performance mode to get tolerable frame rates. Even then, lag was sometimes bad enough to cause motion sickness.

The quality was good, but its weakness was maintaining smooth movement with demanding content. Meta’s best headset is now three years old, and the aging Quest 3 hardware struggles with larger, unoptimized scenes.

GSVision: Displays Local Splats

The GSVision viewer was my best option for files stored directly on the Quest, which I transferred from my PC over USB. Larger scenes required reducing the splat count. The app recommends 700,000, and lag became noticeable around 1.2 million. There are several quality and performance adjustments. Setting Sort Every Nth Frame to 20 improved smoothness by updating the drawing order less frequently.

The controls made sense once I imagined positioning and rotating the splat rather than moving through it. I could even tilt it upside down. Unfortunately, a fixed gray platform obscured parts of the scene, and I couldn’t disable it. Reducing the culling distance to 0.2 meters stopped nearby details from disappearing so soon.

The bigger issue is the splat count limitation that leaves visible holes while viewing. I also tried Splatviewer VR, but it didn't improve those issues and I had to sideload it.

Into The Scaniverse: See Mobile Splats

Into the Scaniverse connects a phone capture app with Quest viewing and community sharing like AirVis but isn't as full-featured. It ran without noticeable lag in my tests, but scenes tended to lack detail. Still, I captured some good splats with my phone to view and share on Quest.

Scaniverse launched in 2021, before Gaussian splats were common. The Quest app is relatively new but feels like it needs a refresh. Its hot air balloon interface and globe metaphor feel awkward beside the clean thumbnail browsers of other viewers.

Niantic Spatial developed a newer processing system, which offers better quality and accepts video from nearly any source, but the company told me it wasn’t actively developing Quest support for this improved system. Into the Scaniverse can only view scenes captured with phones, using the older technology.

Hyperscape: Looks Best, But Has Limits

Horizon Hyperscape produced the best combination of quality and smoothness for me. Navigation was straightforward, although I could only teleport or physically walk. There was no way to fly higher.

The bigger limitations are capture and sharing. I have to wear a Quest 3 or 3S to capture a scene, and I can’t share my personal captures with other people.

Meta previously let users invite friends into captures, but removed sharing and shared visits in May 2026. Capturing and revisiting spaces in your own account remain possible. That’s frustrating since sharing a scene or location is such a compelling reason to make a splat.

Generated Worlds And Moving Splats

Marble’s generated worlds offer a different kind of splat viewing. These AI-generated environments aren’t necessarily faithful captures of real places, but there’s plenty of community content to explore.

In my Quest browser, most scenes performed well and the controls felt good. I’ll revisit Marble in my splat creation article.

Gracia’s moving splats are also worth trying. Its optimized, subject-focused captures delivered impressive streaming quality in my Quest browser.

The content selection is limited, but being able to look around an animated subject adds something different from exploring a static scene. It’s worth checking back as the library grows.

Where To Start

After weeks of research, AirVis is my choice for flexible viewing and sharing, while Hyperscape offers excellent results within its restrictions. GSVision is useful to get a look at local files in VR. SuperSplat offers browser convenience, and Into the Scaniverse remains useful as an alternative to AirVis.

For something different, I’d explore Marble’s generated worlds or try Gracia’s moving subjects. Both worked well in my Quest browser and show how much more splats can offer beyond still captures.

Here is the exact wording from developer CM Immersive's email:

During the final certification stage, we identified a few things that still need attention. We want to use this time to make sure the PS VR2 version is in the best possible shape before players enter the Radius.

From speaking to developers, Sony's certification and approval process has been said to be considerably more rigorous than that of Meta or Steam. Into the Radius 2 left Early Access on Steam and Quest earlier this year, paving the way for a PS VR2 version to come to market, as Sony's platform has traditionally not favored the Early Access process.

Into The Radius 2 Coming To PlayStation VR2 In September

Into the Radius 2 lands on PlayStation VR2 on September 24. It takes full advantage of the headset’s features, but co-op support will come later this year.

UploadVRMike Johnson

We previously reported that the game will run at a native 90fps and utilize PS VR2's features like eye-tracked dynamic foveated rendering, headset haptics, and the controllers' adaptive triggers. However, co-op gameplay mode was announced to come sometime in Q4 2026.

Into the Radius 2 can be wishlisted on PS VR2 here.

Developer Triangle Factory referred to the jets as an 'experimental vehicle' after initially ruling out adding them to the game. You can spawn it from the spawn menu and get into dogfights including lock-on missiles. The jets also support VTOL (vertical take-off and landing) and a choice of physical or arcade controls.

The jets are only available on the two maps: Karst, the newest map that comes with this update and a Paradise map variant.

The Karst map is centered on a Vietnamese fishing village surrounded by limestone cliffs. Within the lore of the game's world, the O.R.E. (Orpiment Renewable Energy) corporation discovered that the inhabitants of the formerly peaceful village have been trading large amounts of Red Orpiment, the clean energy source O.R.E. maintains worldwide control over. As such, an invasion was ordered and met with resistance from the Coalition Force.

Forefront has continually received content updates since its 1.0 release earlier this year, including multiple new maps, weapons, and graphical improvements on PC VR. The Fighter Jets update is available now on all supported platforms for free.

Forefront is available now on Quest, Steam, and Pico.

I've played my fair share of roguelikes in VR, both solo and in co-op. Sol Protocol is the first one I've played that emphasizes co-op play to such an extent that if you have no interest in multiplayer, Sol Protocol will offer virtually nothing for you.

This isn't a fault or a demerit to the game. If anything, it's a strength. The majority of your playtime will be centered around your ship. The cockpit features three seats: one for the captain, one for the pilot, and one for the gunner. The captain allocates the ship's available energy for the various sub-systems: shields, the engine, the warp drive, and the weapons.

As of right now, the gameplay loop is incredibly simple. Check the star map for sectors with promising points of interest, then allocate enough energy to your warp drive and align your ship before activating the warp. Once in a new galaxy, search for resources and structures while watching out for enemies. Resources include repair materials for the ship, additional weapons or supplementary ship systems - such as extra shields - or even energy cells that can be installed in the ship's hold to increase the maximum available energy.

Your goal is simply to slowly strengthen your ship and proceed to more perilous regions. Ship combat requires your entire team working in tandem, with the pilot avoiding attacks while the gunner tracks and fires at enemies with a head-tracking visor.

Once it comes time to gather resources, this is where the game's primary movement mechanics come into play. In zero gravity, you strafe without changing elevations with the left analog stick, and use boosters to adjust your elevations with the right stick. The left Quest controller's face buttons allow you to adjust your rotation forward and back, while clicking in either the left or right analog stick allows you to rotate clockwise or counterclockwise.

Entering a structure, you may find some randomly generated movement puzzles that incorporate zero gravity movement quite heavily. This naturally makes sense, since you're out in the expanse of space. Here you'll enter structures and salvage valuables from wrecked crafts or satellites. During this extravehicular ambulation, you'll have to watch your oxygen and health levels, verified with a peek at your left wrist.

All in all, I enjoyed my time with the Early Access build of the game, even if what the game currently offers is a bit sparse in terms of scope. Performance also left a lot to be desired on Quest 3, as I noticed some gnarly frame drops and some obvious reprojection artifacts. The game looks good, but not exactly impressive enough to overlook those dips, so hopefully things will get ironed out over the coming months.

For now, Sol Protocol is a promising co-op title we'll be sure to keep our eyes on. Sol Protocol releases September 19 on Quest with a Steam version planned for October.