ICYMI this week: Grokit, Gazzlers, Beat The Beats, Noun Town and more

After this week’s biggest VR news? Here’s our latest roundup of some stories you may have missed.

Hardware news was dominated by AWE 2024 this week. We went hands-on with Sony’s standalone enterprise headset, Ultraleap demoed the Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses with an all-day hand-tracking sensor, and checked out WowMouse, a WearOS app that tries to turn any Android watch into a mouse. That’s before you get into the announcements of the currently unnamed military-focused Xreal Beam Pro, Varjo Teleport and Palmer Luckey headphones.

Elsewhere, Meta began selling refurbished Quest 3 headsets, the Somnium VR1 goes on sale next month, the Pico 4S was registered by a South Korean regulator, and the ALVR app is now officially available on Apple Vision Pro. The Quest Pro 2 is said to have entered development in November, while Apple reportedly shelved its Vision Pro successor in favor of a cheaper model. Further news came with the additions Gracia, Logitech MX, Unity 6 and Quest 3.

With VR games, the “UploadVR Summer Showcase” will be released next week on June 26. Gorilla Tag reached 1 million users per day and three million per month. Death Game Hotel arrives on Quest next month, coinciding with the PowerWash Simulator VR – Alice’s Adventures Special Pack and Mannequin launch on Steam. We also covered Slap Fighter VR, Infinite Inside, MiRacle Pool and Hellsweeper VR.

UploadVR Summer Showcase Spotlights Mixed Reality Games on June 26th

The UploadVR Showcase returns on June 26th at 10am Pacific!

As for this week’s reviews, we checked out the early access launch for Downtown Club, a new racing game made for standalone VR. It joins our Neon Squad Tactics review and Taskmaster VR, and we’re currently working on our full impressions of the full release of Blade & Sorcery. Elsewhere, we also offered brief thoughts on Escape Simulator VR – PowerWash DLC.

You can find our full coverage here. For everything else, here are our top five VR news stories we initially missed:

Grokit: Twilight Echoes adds two new micro-games and left-hand controls

Grokit, the multiplayer mixed reality chase game from 3lb Games, just released its fourth major update to the Quest App Lab. Titled Twilight Echoes, it introduces two new micro-games – Void Feeder and Golem Smash. There’s also support for left-handed controls, a new environment, expanded customizations, and more.

Gazzlers gets permanent price reduction on all platforms

Developed by Bolt Blaster Games, Gazzlers is an arcade VR shooter on rails that was originally launched last year. After various post-launch patches, the studio confirmed that it is now permanently dropping the price from $14.99 on Quest, Pico and Steam ($19.99 on PSVR 2) to $9.99.

Beat The Beats Gets PSVR 2 Demo With Four Levels

Beat the Beats, a game we previously said “could become one of the best VR beat games” in our review, now has a PSVR 2 demo. Featuring the tutorial and four levels, the full game is available on PSVR 2 since February. The demo is also on SteamVR and Quest, though a full release date remains unconfirmed for those platforms.

Noun City: VR Language Learning now lets you track your new vocabulary

Noun Town: VR Language Learning, an educational program for Quest and Steam that supports learning 13 foreign languages, received a major update this week. The update lets you track your new vocabulary, access a full list of words and phrases, and review nouns, verbs, adjectives, and phrases.

Garped Kart Racers & Cityscapes: Sim Builder brings new space games to Apple Vision Pro

Apple Arcade is introducing two new space games for the Apple Vision Pro. Warped Kart Racers is still primarily a flat-screen experience, but with UI elements that pop into your living space, and this update is available now, while Cityscapes: Sim Builder gives you a new look at the city on 3 July.

Other updates

Looking for more stories? Here’s everything else we saw this week.

• Meta launched a new June sale with up to 75% off select Quest games.
• Soul Covenant, Thirdverse’s latest VR action RPG, just received a new update with multiplayer changes.
• StellarPlans confirmed that it currently plans to release the next VR game on the following platform order – PC VR, Quest, PSVR 2.
• DumbLab is a new VR puzzle game with physics-based mechanics in Quest.
• PICO Connect 10.1.5 added new features like Ultra HD, higher bitrate and more.
• The Light Brigade received the 3.2 update with various improvements and fixes.
• VRChat release 2024.2.3 is now live.
• Private lobbies are now in Sky Climb.
• SPGP Super Polygon Grand Prix enters early access on July 18, and VR support will follow later.
• Killer Frequency, Zosu Zoo, Fit Immersion, City Bus Simulator, KargaVR, anatomy cadaVR and mosaic3D all launched on Pico.
• Hamster Inc, a Truck Simulator VR demo, Hold The World and RunFitFantasy arrived at Quest App Lab.

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