Here are 20 games and apps that are free for Oculus Touch, the motion controllers for the Oculus Rift (reviewed here). Before you read on, I must warn you that reading this list could make you go insane with impatience for Oculus Touch. 🙂
1. First Contact. After finishing the Oculus tutorial one of the first apps you’ll get to use is First Contact, a sci-fi VR experience set in the 1980s, where you interact with a shy but friendly robot. First Contact has already been rolled out as part of Oculus runtime v 1.10 (in your Library, if you scroll down to Tutorials, you’ll see it along with Dreamdeck and the Touch tutorial. However, if you launch it, you won’t be able to interact with anything until you have the Touch controllers.
2. Oculus Avatar. After you play with First Contact, you may want to create your new Oculus Avatar. Oculus avatars look so detailed that you will be able to recognize your friends in VR. You can actually already use the avatar editor as part of runtime v. 1.10. In Windows Explorer, go to your Oculus folder (e.g. C:Program FilesOculus), go to Support, oculus-avatar-editor, and then click on OVRAvatarEditor.exe. Unlike the Touch tutorial or First Contact, you can use the Xbox controllers to customize your avatar.
3. Toybox. Toybox was one of the first tech demos for the Oculus Touch, and Oculus confirmed to Road to VR that it will be released as a free app. It’s a sandbox app that lets you use the Touch to manipulate objects. However, Oculus didn’t say that the release version of Toybox will be multiplayer. Check out a video of Toybox here.
4. Medium. Medium is a Touch app that lets you sculpt with digital clay in VR. You can use Medium to create three-dimensional artwork that can be as simple or as detailed as you want. Here’s a video of Medium.
5. Quill. Quill is an art app for the Touch, but instead of sculpting in 3D as with Medium, Quill lets you paint in 3D space like an unlimited three-dimensional canvas, similar to Google’s Tiltbrush. It was used to create the upcoming VR movie “Dear Angelica.” Here’s a video of Quill.
6. VR Sports Challenge. This game for the Touch has been compared to Wii Sports. You’ll get to play sports minigames for football, basketball, baseball and hockey in VR, throwing, passing, catching, shooting, and more. Here’s a video of VR Sports Challenge.
7. Dead and Buried. This is a Western-themed duck-and-cover shooter where you play either as an outlaw or lawman. There are several modes for single or multiplayer including a train robbery where lawmen defend a train from robbers. Here’s sample gameplay by VR Scout:
8. The Unspoken. This is a fantasy PvP where you battle against other players with magic in an urban setting. I tried this at an Oculus Touch demo and it was really fun! Here’s a video of The Unspoken.
9. Robo Recall. This is a shooter where you use super robot powers to take on other robots run amok. The graphics are amazing, and it’s one of the best games for the Oculus Touch. Here’s the trailer for Robo Recall.
These Oculus Touch-exclusive games are all free when you preorder the Oculus Touch. But in addition to those games, you can also get these games and apps from the Steam store, for free:
10. The Lab. This is a very polished collection of VR experiences and minigames by Valve. The VR experiences range include exploring scenic real-world locations in VR, repairing a robot, exploring Dota’s Secret Shop, and more. Minigames include an archery-based tower defense game and a space shooter where your controller becomes a spaceship. Still one of my favorite VR games / apps.
11. Google Earth VR. Fly anywhere around the world and explore places in VR. Note: to use Google Earth VR with the Rift, you’ll need a patch.
12. Irrational Exuberance: Prologue (roomscale required). This is an interactive VR experience that begins in an asteroid in deep space. You will need to setup your sensors for 360 play
13. Gnomes & Goblins (roomscale required). This is a magical interactive VR experience that is one of the most immersive VR experiences I have tried. It was so amazing that I literally rearranged my furniture for it.
14. Accounting. For a change of pace, try Accounting. It’s an interactive VR experience by the people who made Rick and Morty, and it’s hilariously irreverent!
15. NVidia Funhouse. This is a collection of minigames intended to test your graphics card’s performance but it’s also fun. It’s free but it only works if you have an NVidia graphics card.
16. Budget Cuts demo. This is a stealth game where you infiltrate an office patrolled by killer robots. It makes excellent use of VR, sometimes requiring you to duck behind virtual walls or lie flat on the floor to avoid detection.
17. QuiVR (Alpha). A multiplayer tower defense game where you use a bow and arrow to defend a fort from waves of monsters. You can play it single player, or you can team up with other players online in multiplayer.
18. 3D Sunshine. In this app, you can build structures in Minecraft intuitively in a VR environment, creating, moving, or deleting large areas using your motion controllers. This detailed lighthouse was made in only 20 minutes using the powerful and intuitive tools in 3D Sunshine:
It’s an incredible app even if you don’t play Minecraft. Here is a more detailed post about it.
19. Rec Room. In Rec Room, you can meet other players and play games with them in VR, such as paintball or dodgeball.
20. Trials on Tatooine. Who hasn’t dreamt of wielding a light saber? This VR experience by George Lucas’ Industrial Light & Magic is a brief VR experience in the Star Wars universe.
In addition to these free games and apps, you can also download free demos on the Steam store.
These free games and apps that become accessible with the Oculus Touch make the Oculus Touch pretty much a must-buy for the Oculus Rift! If you haven’t ordered it already, the Touch is a little bit backordered from Oculus (there is a slight delay – shipping Dec. 16-21 instead of Dec. 6) but as of now, you can still get it shipped on launch day December 6 if you buy from Amazon.
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