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    Virtual Reality Check: A look at the 10 best VR experiences

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments1203 Views

    By Derrik J. Lang, Entertainment Writer

    LOS ANGELES (AP) --

    After spending time with the recently released consumer editions of the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive virtual reality systems, here are the 10 best VR titles out now:

    — "Adr1ft": If the film "Gravity" was a video game, it would be "Adr1ft." The weightless saga for Oculus casts players as an astronaut struggling to survive while exploring a shattered space station.

    — "Elite: Dangerous": While the open-world space simulator "Elite: Dangerous" has been out for two years, a VR edition adds another level of immersion by placing players in the cockpit of their spaceship.

    — "EVE: Valkyrie": This sci-fi dogfighter — one of the first full-fledged games to be created for modern-day VR — convincingly pits online gamers against each other in out-of-this-world locales.

    — "Fantastic Contraption": In this physics-based puzzler, there's a wacky frenzy as players are tasked with constructing virtual inventions to navigate a glowing pink blob across increasingly more complex levels.

    — "Hover Junkers": Duck! The controllers for the Vive are transformed into a gun and a hovercraft's throttle, in this addictive multiplayer shooter that implores players to use their whole body.

    — "Job Simulator": This could be the first-ever VR sitcom. "Futurama" meets "Portal" in Owlchemy Labs' quirky game where players take orders from robots in such roles as line cook and store clerk.

    — "Space Pirate Trainer": For those gamers who've ever wanted to dodge bullets with their whole body like Keanu Reeves in "The Matrix," this arcade-like game will have them muttering, "Whoa."

    — "The Lab": Valve didn't release a new "Half-Life" game alongside the Vive, but they did create a dynamic "Portal"-themed mini-game collection boasting high-fidelity archery and realistic VR vistas.

    — "Tilt Brush": One of the most impressive VR experiences isn't a game at all. Google basically designed a 360-degree version of Photoshop where users can craft sculptures with everything from paint to rainbows.

    — "Vanishing Realms": In this clunky but captivating fantasy game, players are cast adventurers who must wield swords, shields, bows and magical wands as they navigate dungeons and fight skeletons.

    Tags:Virtual RealityVR



    Jules Feiffer, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Cartoonist and Writer, Dies At 95

    Tuesday, January 21, 2025

    Jules Feiffer, a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist and writer whose prolific output ranged from a long-running comic strip to plays, screenplays and children's books, died Friday. He was 95 and, true to his seemingly tireless form, published his last book just four months ago.

    Feiffer's wife, writer JZ Holden, said Tuesday that he died of congestive heart failure at their home in Richfield Springs, New York, and was surrounded by friends, the couple's two cats and his recent artwork.

    Holden said her husband had been ill for a couple of years, "but he was sharp and strong up until the very end. And funny."

    Artistically limber, Feiffer hopscotched among numerous forms of expression, chronicling the curiosity of childhood, urban angst and other societal currents. To each he brought a sharp wit and acute observations of the personal and political relations that defined his readers' lives.

    As Feiffer explained to the Chicago Tribune in 2002, his work dealt with "communication and the breakdown thereof, between men and women, parents and children, a government and its citizens, and the individual not dealing so well with authority."

    Feiffer won the United States' most prominent awards in journalism and filmmaking, taking home a 1986 Pulitzer Prize for his cartoons and "Munro," an animated short film he wrote, won a 1961 Academy Award. The Library of Congress held a retrospective of his work in 1996.

    "My goal is to make people think, to make them feel and, along the way, to make them smile if not laugh," Feiffer told the South Florida Sun Sentinel in 1998. "Humor seems to me one of the best ways of espousing ideas. It gets people to listen with their guard down."

    Feiffer was born on Jan. 26, 1929, in the Bronx. From... Read More

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