Immersive Experiences To Enjoy This Holiday Season
If you are looking forward to diving into VR or AR this holiday season, here are our top picks for experiences that bridge the physical and digital worlds or transport you to a whole new reality.
AR for tabletop gamers
The Machines is a competitive multiplayer strategy game that uses AR to turn your tabletop into a virtual battlefield. If you’re a fan of games like League of Legends or Dota 2, this is the game for you! Take command of a force of machines to defeat your enemy, with your phone’s screen serving as a viewfinder that you have to physically move around to position your forces and aim superweapons. You can battle it out in online multiplayer or in local multiplayer with friends gathered around the same table — all for £1.50/$1.99.
VR for puzzle phenoms
If you love escape rooms or have ever wanted to try one, I Expect You To Die 2 is the incredible sequel to the original hit puzzle game. Containing six new missions, players use their ever-present power of telekinesis to solve puzzles, escape dangerous situations, and manipulate objects. Reviewers are heralding this game as the “pinnacle of VR” and “one of the best VR games out there”. With its ~30-hour gameplay, it is worth every penny of its £18.99/$25.00 price tag!
VR for fitness
The holidays can be an indulgent time of year, so if you’re looking for a fun way to burn off those extra calories, give REAKT Performance Trainer a try. It’s the first virtual mental skills training system that claims to ‘make you a better competitor’. Based on technology originally developed for athletes, REAKT will make your brain perform faster with intense training and competition modes. In the virtual gym, you push your mind and body to the limit to improve your reaction time, decision making, and hand-eye coordination. At £15.99/$21.00 it’s a fraction of the price of a physical gym membership.
AR for the kids
Quiver is an augmented reality colouring book and app that brings your child’s colouring pages to life. Download a variety of free and paid image packs from the Quiver website including animals, planets, landmarks and more. Then, colour in the pages, fire up the Quiver app and watch the coloured picture come to life in a fun, educational and interactive way.
VR to calm the mind
After what’s been a challenging year for all, you might be looking for a bit of ‘me time’. An immersive VR experience can be great for calming the mind. Guided Tai Chi on Oculus offers over 200 Tai Chi inspired workouts in 20 nature settings, in sessions running from 3 to 60 minutes. Serene music and beautiful environments help relax your mind as you follow your teacher to master the craft of Tai Chi.
Or, if Tai Chi isn’t your thing, Puzzling Places on Meta Quest is a modern take on an age-old pastime, allowing you to put together hyper-realistic miniatures of beautiful places from around the globe. Enter the meditative flow of puzzling and enjoy each place coming alive with their unique and immersive soundscapes as you complete them. The game features 16 unique puzzles created from detailed photogrammetry 3D scans of real locations. Each puzzle is available in 25, 50, 100, 200 and 400 pieces, so it’s perfect for all ages.
AR and real-time connectivity across the physical and digital for those with Wanderlust
The World Expo is hosted by Dubai in the United Arab Emirates until 31 March 2022. With over 192 countries represented across the 4.38km² site, it’s a great chance to get a taste of many different cultures. But if you’re not able to visit Dubai, check out Expo Dubai Xplorer. It offers a rich digital experience for the World Expo that allows anyone, anywhere to experience the magic of the event with friends (disclaimer: we made it!).
Users can customize their own AI-powered avatar and connect with others in real-time across the physical and digital divide. Standing on the Expo site, a visitor may see a friend from the other side of the world (viewed through the lens of their phone) as an avatar they can share experiences with, and communicate via group creation and messaging.
One of the largest deployments in the world of persistent Cloud Anchors allows on-site visitors to enjoy augmented reality spectacles aligned accurately to real-world locations. Remote visitors can access the same AR content and experiences, over a connected digital twin of the site, via an interface similar to popular mobile games like Fortnite or Roblox.
AR for mind-bending puzzle fans
Euclidean Skies is a puzzle game combining marvellous architecture and turn-based movements to create a beautiful world with mind-bending puzzles. The game’s focus is on shifting and rotating, challenging you to think about the breathtaking structures from multiple viewpoints at once. Twist and turn the architecture to outmanoeuvre enemies and guide the heroine to the exits of 40 elegant levels. For £3.75/$4.99 you get access to 40 puzzles — incredible value for the quality of experience you are getting.
Pure fun VR!
No round-up would be complete without mentioning Beat Saber, a VR rhythm game where you slash the beats of a song as they fly towards you in a neon futuristic world. It’s one of the most popular games available on Meta Quest. And there is a reason why this game is mentioned in every ‘Top VR Games’ list — the gameplay is wonderfully intuitive, epic fun, and a surprisingly good workout!
There is a free demo so you can try before you buy, but the full game is only £23.00/$30.00 and it’s worth every penny. You can also expand your song library with your favourite artists including Lady Gaga, Billie Eilish, BTS, Imagine Dragons, Panic! At The Disco, Greenday and more, there is something to suit all musical tastes. Enjoy!
