Croteam’s The Talos Principle (2014) is making its way to headsets soon in a separate VR version, supporting HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. The studio now has a Steam page, including an October 17th launch date. And if you already own the PC version of the game? Croteam has decided to sweeten the deal with the promise of a discount to owners of the flat screen version.

After one Steam user mistakenly purchased the PC version of the game, which is separate from the standalone VR title, Croteam responded with the promise of an “appropriate discount” for anyone who already owned the flat version.

It’s uncertain at this time just how much previous owners will save as they make the jump into the VR version.

We got a chance to go head-first into Talos VR at this year’s Gamescom, and I walked away feeling that, although it’s decidedly a slower, more plodding experience in comparison to the flat screen version, that the game played remarkably well in VR, almost as if the game had finally come home to where it belonged.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 4,000 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • Sean Lumly

    Day 1 buy.

  • Lucidfeuer

    Paid-version of the same game? No thanks, I have VorpX. Even though I’d wilfully play this game again in a future updated version.

    • Raphael

      I punch your vorpx head. I do like vorpx though,

      • NooYawker

        You and Lucidfeuer like Vorp X??? You guys are the pickiest mofos around!! Maybe I should consider getting it. So many mixed reviews about it.

        • Raphael

          Here’s the thing with vorpx… Those who rant and hate it are clueless. Not because the software is above criticism but because they thought it would make any non-vr game just as good as native vr. It’s not easy bringing a non-vr game into vr on the fly. The experience isn’t like native vr at all and that has nothing to do with vorpx. It’s the nature of harvesting data from the frame buffer and building it into something resembling vr. Vireio perception uses the same technique and with similar end result but nowhere near as easy to use or feature filled as vorpx.

          The results you get with vorpx vary from one game to the next. Again that’s nothing to do with vorpx… just due to limitations of making non-vr games into vr.

          I haven’t been disappointed with vorpx because I researched and understood what to expect.

          I do think the developer (ralf) should have released a demo though but he never has and probably never will.

          • NooYawker

            Thanks.

          • johngrimoldy

            I think it’s only sensible to expect limits of what VorpX can do. For games not designed for VR, you can only do so much to digitally create depth.
            I do agree it’s a shame there is no demo version. Maybe with a big X across the screens or something. At least you’d have a better idea of how it worked.
            Fortunately, there are several YouTube 3D SBS vids that folks have captured with various games to give a very good idea of what to expect.
            I predict I’ll eventually get VorpX to support games I like Dishonored and Bioshock that I simply don’t expect to be ported to native VR.
            In your opinion, what’s the best VorpX’ed game?

        • johngrimoldy

          I’m considering VorpX myself. I understand that Bioshock Infinite is exceptional with it. Still need to finish Alien Isolation first.

        • Lucidfeuer

          You have to understand exactly what to expect with VorpX: it doesn’t instantly turn any game it hooks to into a perfect VR translation of said game. It’s more of a baseline that manages to find and hooks into the camera and frame component of the game, but then there can be a lot of tweaking and adjustements if not a bit of custom fiddling with files or code to get the right result. But once set right for a specific game, it usually works great and can be grandiose (Bioshock Infinite, NMS or…Skyrim, the Talos Principle etc…)

  • PJ

    I have no idea what this game is!

    Looks nice though

    • Raphael

      Mirrors and laser puzzles… force fields and sentry robots. Position mirrors to bounce laser light to activate switches to gain entry. Underlying story connects everything.

      • PJ

        Intriguing..!

    • Lucidfeuer

      Basically a mystic narrative puzzle game.

  • Raphael

    “the flat screen version” insert laughter emoji here. Or to put it another way: the tiny 2d rectangle version.

  • Miganarchine Migandi

    They already have beta support, and it looked fairly good, whats this have over the beta?, As regards VorpX it’s the only thing to give me serious headaches, I got fallout 4 working it looked good in outside areas but going in to buildings had me ripping off the headset, GTA5 looked fine though the framerate was very poor. It’s a waste of 30 quid!