VR

The Vive Cosmos Elite is HTC's latest and greatest VR headset, but it's only available in a bundle with two Vive Base Stations and two Vive Controllers. At $900, that bundle costs a significant amount of money, and it more or less becomes cost-prohibitive for current Vive owners who might only want to upgrade their headsets. Good news: the Vive Cosmos Elite headset will soon be offered on its own, making it less expensive for existing Vive users to upgrade.

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If you're growing tired of being stuck at home and looking for a new experience, a YouTube channel called 'Virtual Disney World' (which isn't affiliated with Disney despite its name) has aggregated a huge playlist of 360-degree videos taken on popular theme park rides around the world. Anyone who owns a VR headset -- even something as simple as a cardboard holder for a smartphone -- can enjoy the videos.

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Today we're looking at what's likely an internal testing device made by Apple for the near-future release of AR/VR experiences aplenty. This isn't the first we've seen of this sort of hardware - it's not particularly unlike hardware used by HTC and Oculus/Facebook for their own VR headsets. This new leaked look at Apple hardware is almost certainly meant for internal testing only, as it has a certain... unrefined sort of look.

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Google started the idea of using a smartphone as the heart and soul of a VR headset and others immediately jumped on the prospect of an affordable VR system for the masses. That included Samsung who worked with the makers of the Oculus Rift to launch the Gear VR for is high-end flagships. That phase of the VR market, however, was rather short-lived and Samsung slowly "forgot" to update its headsets to be compatible with its latest phones. Now Oculus itself is putting some nails in the Gear VR coffin by pulling out active support for the apps that make it barely usable.

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After a few months of waiting, Half-Life: Alyx launched on Monday. As the first Half-Life game in more than a decade, there was a lot of anticipation following this release, and it looks like the title is off to strong start. Half-Life: Alyx has received its first post-launch update, but don't expect a massive changelog detailing a litany of additions and fixes.

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There's a new VR headset in town - and it might arrive right on time. Here in the late Winter of 2020, we're all stuck inside on quarantine, avoiding COVID-19, and it might just be the perfect time for VR to catch hold of the masses. Not that VR device makers have been trying to make that happen for half a decade or anything... but still. Per the sneaky release today, this is the new standard for VR.

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Half-Life: Alyx is not Half-Life 3, but it is a new Half-Life game. It is a new game from Valve, and it is out and available to play today. Users will find the game released as of the posting of this article. In other words - if you're reading this, there's a brand new Half-Life game available to play via Steam right this minute.

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Despite our very global world, it's sometimes too easy to take for granted that time isn't the same across the world. When companies announce dates, they often neglect to add additional information like timezones and presume everyone is on the same page as them. Worse, they don't even mention what time something may take place, which is especially true for product launches. Fortunately, Valve is giving everyone detailed information so they can prepare their alarms and the VR headsets, presuming they already have one.

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In an announcement today, Facebook's VR company Oculus revealed plans to release an updated user interface for its Oculus Quest headset. Oculus calls this a 'major update' to its system, one that will bring a more 'flexible and social' experience for users. Headset owners can expect multi-window support for 2D applications, a redesigned universal menu, and more.

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Although Valve has actually been involved in the virtual reality market for a long time, it has mostly been via its collaboration with HTC's VIVE system. Last year it finally got its hands dirty with the Index, which may be one of the more expensive PC VR systems aimed at regular consumers. Despite the initially slow sales, the Index quickly sold off last January thanks to the Half-Life: Alyx announcement. The good news is that it's coming back next week. The bad news is that it probably won't last long.

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Despite the fact that Half-Life: Alyx is launching later this month, we haven't seen very much of the game yet. We've seen glimpses of gameplay here and there, but today, Valve gave us a substantial look at how the game will play when it arrives on March 23rd. Valve published a trio of videos today, with each one of them giving us a look at Half-Life: Alyx's gameplay.

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Sanzaru Games, a California-based video game development company, has been acquired by Facebook, the company announced on Wednesday. The studio has produced a number of games over the past decade, the most recent examples including Spyro 3 Reignited and Asgard's Wrath. The studio will be tasked with developing new games for Facebook's Oculus VR gaming platform.

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