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[[] EMERGING TECH ON TEST[ GLIMPSE OF THE FUTURE ]Get hands
on with
emerging
tech
TECHLIFE’S PRACTICAL
MONTHLY ROUNDUP OF ALL
THE LATEST VIRTUAL AND
AUGMENTED-REALITY APPS
AND EXPERIENCES, ALONGSIDE
AI-DRIVEN BOTS AND TOOLS.
[ JOEL BURGESS ][ OCULUS RIFT ]
Robot Recall
THESE ROBOTS WERE BUILT TO BE MANHANDLED.
$46.99 | http://www.epicgames.com[ TBC ]
Titanic VR
$TBC
http://www.immersivevreducation.com[ OCULUS RIFT, PSVR, HTC VIVE ]
Job Simulator
US$ 29 .99, Oculus Store $ 46 .99
jobsimulatorgame.com[ OCULUS RIFT ]
From Other Suns
$TBC
gunfiregames.comWe can all agree that at some point in the future smart humanoid robot butlers will be purchased
in the whitegoods section of electronics stores. But according to the new Oculus Rift exclusive
game Robot Recall, if these semi-sentient consumer goods ever malfunction, coercing them back
to the shop for repairs is a little more complicated than unplugging and shipping a faulty
refrigerator. RoboReady (a leading robot manufacturer of the future) has hired you to assume
its robot collection responsibilities, a challenge that will require all your skills of persuasion
(aka dual-wielded Oculus Touch-controlled Colt 45 semi-automatic pistols) to recall as many
malfunctioning units as you possibly can. Since it’s far easier for the company to process
disassembled robots, extra points are awarded for decapitation, creative limb removal and
generally crushed components. If unchecked authorisation for efficient robot dismemberment
isn’t enough, it’s worth pointing out that the studio behind Robot Recall is the same one that
built Unreal Engine 4, the foundation for many of the largest triple-A titles, so if any game is
going to provide a convincing argument for VR, it’s this one.Today it’s impossible to separate the physical
prowess of the unsinkable ship from the tragic
narrative of its demise, but the extreme
conditions that the Titanic came to rest in
has kept much of this fascinating story hidden
away. Titanic VR is a Kickstarter backed by
883 supporters who pledged a total of €57,095
to help float this sandbox-style discovery
game. The developers intend to recreate the
current wreckage in a freely explorable
environment and build a narrative-based
experience of the moments before the
unsinkable industrial masterpiece met its
watery grave.Whether you want to be a dodgy car mechanic
who unnecessarily replaces working
components for temperamental makeshift
ones to trap customers into a never-ending
extortion spin cycle, or an office clerk whose
thousand-plus-email inbox is too
uncomfortable to do anything with but hit
the ‘delete all’ button without reading any of
them, Job Simulator has what you are looking
for. As one of the highest-selling VR titles on
any platform, it seems that one of the best ways
to forget your troubles at work is to do more of
the same through a second job... well, at least
a virtual one.Anyone who has played Faster than Light will
know just how addictive a procedurally
generated time management game can be.
Currently in development by Gunfire Games,
the studio behind a number of Oculus titles
like HeroBound: Spirit Champion, From Other
Suns is a game that wants to see how well a
stressful time-sensitive problem solving game
can be adapted to the first person realm of VR.
Considering the success of the studio’s other
titles — Chronos, Darksiders 2 and Dead and
Buried — we’re hoping that this one turns out
as good as it sounds.This month in Emerging Tech, we’ve got to see
what happens when the studio behind the Unreal
Engine, Epic Games, puts its hive mind towards
developing a first-person VR shooter. ( Just
between us, the graphics quality and gameplay
mechanics look unparalleled in the VR space.)
Not to be outdone, the US startup Lifeprint has
built a portable printer that uses AR to make
videos play in printed Polaroid photos. As always
the hot bot arena sees Google tackling online
trolling with an AI moderator, a big US law firm is
automating an entire division’s annual workload
with a new machine-learning program and there’s
another message-based secretary that is aiming
to make organisation simpler for everyone.VIRTUAL-REALITY