Morpheus and Oculus turn heads at GDC, Assassin's Creed Unity has a revolution

Morpheus and Oculus turn heads at GDC
We've come a long way since the Virtual Boy

An lo, just as it was foretold, Sony entered the VR race. This week at GDC, the virtual took another giant leap towards reality as the Japanese company pledged its support to gaming's next big development.

Project Morpheus is the name that Sony's headset currently going by (we expect it'll just be the 'Sony Morpheus' come release time) and it's looking pretty damn special - and slightly less 'homemade' than Oculus.

Shuhei Yoshida said that it's still far from the finished product, but we took it for a test run anyway and the fact our initial impressions drew so many comparisons with Oculus Rift was a good sign. Especially as Sony's headset will be localised to the PS4, while the Rift caters for PC gamers.

It's been a three-year endeavour for Sony so far and unfortunately we're yet to hear anything about a release date or price. But that's no bad thing; if VR is going to take off this time, it's going to take a little patience from everyone.

Oculus

While we had some concerns that Oculus might come out of GDC on the back foot, we couldn't have been more wrong. Palmer Luckey and his team announced that Crystal Cove was now available for developers to order, coming in the form of Development Kit 2.

It looks a bit tidier than the Cove we saw at CES in January, but features sub-millimeter accurate positional tracking and a low-persistence, high-def display. In sum: it's by far the best Oculus experience yet. And it ships this July for $350.

  • Project Morpheus and Oculus Rift 2: Gaming Spotlight puts the headsets in the ring.

The revolution will be playable

There was a big, nasty leak at Ubisoft HQ this week as one tipster outed a whole bunch of details and promotional images for the next Assassin's Creed installment.

But rather than trying to cover it up, Ubi instead released the first teaser for Assassin's Creed Unity, which seemingly confirmed at least some of the leak.

In a press statement, Ubisoft said: "We have been working on the new Assassin's Creed for more than three years and although we weren't quite ready to show you our full vision for a next-gen only AC it seems Abstergo are trying to force our hand!"

The game will be set against the French Revolution and will hit Xbox One, PS4 and PC. The leak also claimed that Unity will be joined by a separate PS3 and Xbox 360 AC game too, but Ubisoft is yet to say anything on the matter.

Looking to E3

Now that GDC is done for another year, we're starting to look ahead to E3. So is Microsoft, and Studios VP Phil Spencer has promised that this year will be massively focused on the games.

"We are already over our 90 minute time limit and having to move stuff out of show," he said on Twitter. Interestingly, he also said, "I think you'll see very few execs."

As for other E3 rumours, we're hearing that Ubisoft will show off the first look at Far Cry 4, which will be set in the Himalayas and have - get ready for it - ridable elephants. According to the same sources, the game will be released by March 2015. [CVG]

Now saddle up and see what our Future brothers and sisters have been up to this week.

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Hugh Langley

Hugh Langley is the ex-News Editor of TechRadar. He had written for many magazines and websites including Business Insider, The Telegraph, IGN, Gizmodo, Entrepreneur Magazine, WIRED (UK), TrustedReviews, Business Insider Australia, Business Insider India, Business Insider Singapore, Wareable, The Ambient and more.

Hugh is now a correspondent at Business Insider covering Google and Alphabet, and has the unfortunate distinction of accidentally linking the TechRadar homepage to a rival publication.

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