Codemasters have fulfilled their promise, and their new mini toy car game already has the announced support for Oculus Rift. We have tested it with the DK2 and the experience, despite still being a beta support, is really good.
We told you a few days ago about this Codemasters game, in which toy strollers make races in scenarios such as a kitchen table full of pots and ingredients, in the purest style of Commodore Amiga MicroMachines or Megadrive crossed with Mario Kart. The developers promised to give native support for Oculus Rift and, in the latest update of the game, they have kept their word and we already have it here.
To activate it we just have to add the classic – vr to the launch options (right click on the game title in the Library, Properties and Set launch options) of the game on Steam (beware, it only works with the full game, unfortunately it does not work with the demo). After doing this, if we launch the game it should be seen on our Rifts and we will get a screen welcoming us to the beta version of Oculus support and asking us to press F12 or the right stick of the Xbox controller to recenter the view. It’s a little strange that they ask us to recenter the view on this screen, since we don’t have head tracking at that moment (a little slap on the wrist, but we forgive it for being a beta support), but once we press enter and access the main menu, we will already have total tracking of our head movements, and if we need to recenter the view we will only have to press F12 or the right stick again.
In the settings menu we can select between two types of cameras for Oculus, the normal and the tracking. The normal one will give us a general view of the game circuit and the camera will move smoothly at a certain distance from our car, always maintaining the same orientation with respect to it, without automatic turns (only those that we make with our heads). It is the ideal option for those who get dizzy. The tracking camera places us behind the car and we will have a view more similar to a third-person racing game, but this view may make those who are not used to it a little dizzy. In the video options we can choose, among other things, the rendering quality for Oculus, if we have performance problems. We have tested it with an Nvidia GTX 970 and, with the Rift in direct mode, it goes totally smooth without dropping below 75 fps at any time. It does not seem that it is a very demanding game in terms of graphic power, which is another point in its favor.
After having played for a while we have to say that it is a real delight to see those little toy strollers running around the most friendly circuits as if we were there watching how they run around our table. We are surprised at how well virtual reality suits this type of games with this perspective, in addition to being some of the experiences that produce the least feeling of dizziness, so they are perfect for novice users or people prone to dizziness.
In addition, the game is currently on sale on Steam with a 50% discount on its price for the Christmas campaign, so we can get it for € 7.49 if we buy a unit, or for € 5.62 each if we buy the 4-pack. On Steam there is also a demo available for download but, as we have mentioned before, it does not have support for Oculus Rift, although if we add the -vr parameter Oculus options will appear in the video settings menu, but they do nothing. The demo can be used to test the game and see if we like it on monitor at least.
