Virtual reality (VR) aficionados who own the HTC Vive have some exciting news headed their way - the post-apocalyptic game Fallout 4 will soon be making its debut on the VR headset. That's right - gamers will soon be able to explore the wastelands in post-nuke Boston on the HTC Vive.
That's not all. The HTC Vive will also be benefiting from another popular title, Doom, which gets a VR transformation as well.
On Sunday, June 12, at the E3 press event, publisher Bethesda Softworks disclosed that the two popular titles would be making their VR debut. Pete Hines, the vice president of Bethesda Softworks, made the unexpected announcement and revealed that Fallout 4 would be making its way to the HTC Vive in 2017, with Doom content to follow.
Hines' announcement, however, did not make it clear if Doom would release for VR in 2017 as well. It is also unclear whether the VR version of Doom would be a full game or simply what Bethesda said: "a virtual tour of Hell."
Developer Bethesda Game Studios also confirmed the exciting news on Twitter.
The promise of VR will take our worlds to amazing new places. We can’t wait to share it with you #BE3 #Fallout4VR pic.twitter.com/BO1m7eqE6d
— BethesdaGameStudios (@BethesdaStudios) June 13, 2016
Excitingly enough, the developer has also announced a trio of new DLCs for Fallout 4. Whether these three - "Contraptions Workshop," "Vault-Tec Workshop" and "Nuka World" - will also make their way in a VR format to the HTC Vive will be interesting to see.
Adapting Fallout 4 to a VR format for the HTC Vive will be quite a challenging task for the developer, but it seems Bethesda is up for the task.
The conversation interface for Fallout 4 (currently overlaid text) will have to be tweaked and how the HTC Vive's motion controllers can be used in the game will also need to be worked out. Moreover, how Bethesda will counter motion sickness issues on VR, which can occur when one is traversing a long distance quickly, remains circumspect.
Fallout 4 and Doom for virtual reality sound ambitious and whether they will remain exclusive to the HTC Vive or eventually make their way to rival VR headsets such as the Oculus Rift and the Samsung Gear VR remains to be seen.
Nevertheless, the notion of experiencing the two games in virtual reality is pretty exciting. Are you looking forward to Fallout 4 and Doom making their way to the HTC Vive next year?
