More than seven years after early access for PC VR, V-Racer Hoverbike has recently hit a full release, competing in quests, bringing you a futuristic hoverbike that you control with your body. Please read my full review.
Speed and Control
If there’s one thing that V-Racer actually glues to, it’s a thrilling sense of speed. You must first master the controls before you can recover the engine to a height sufficient to achieve it. It starts with a simple, in-menu tutorial where players learn to enact the various control methods available on hover bikes. After learning how to use my own body, a set of virtual handlebars, or a stick on a touch controller, the game put me on the track for my first solo rap.
What is it?: A futuristic high-speed VR racing game.
Platform: Quest, PC VR (Reviewed on PC VR using Quest 3)
release date:now
Developer:vertexbreakers
Publisher: Impact Inked (Quest), VertexBreakers (Steam)
price: $29.99
I really love how I can place my bike on me before hitting the bike by grabbing the bike, moving it to a place that looks natural and perfectly aligned to my sitting position. With this extra setup before starting the race, I always lean in and ensure that I always match my bike in the most comfortable way.
Example of calibration captured by gamebixby
However, there is a slight learning curve to speed up, but that’s all part of the appeal. For virtual racers used to play with standard gamepads, the first few laps can feel disconnected, and playing this way can almost feel troublesome. However, fighting the urge to revert defaults to old ways of controlling makes sure the extra immersive rewards really pays off.
Fortunately, for players who do not want to use the body as a controller, V-Racer also supports motion controller-only play. Better yet, you can blend the control scheme by mixing chest movement with controller inputs and fine-tune your range of motion until you understand what’s best. Personally, I find the sweet spot to fly the bike by leaning over my upper body and using the controller to make small corrections.
PC VR gameplay captured by gamebixby
The third way you could control your bike, and what I thought was the most immersive and natural way at first, was to move forward and grab the handlebars in the game. In this case, the lack of touch and solidity was more than I expected. In VR games, it is never ideal for players to grab a virtual controller. This is because you can feel it when the stability of the control is not perfect. That’s very obvious when you try to operate something like a handlebar, like a virtual hotas, a steering wheel, or a v-racer.
As I tried to pilot the bike with a virtual steering column while using a motion controller, my hands and arms waved in the air leaving my arms behind, crossing them as I tried to spin them. However, the physical handlebar mod on a touch controller is likely to close that stability gap. It keeps thinking about keeping trying to create every time my hands run through the game, swaying in the air with what feels like 200 mph.
My desktop uses an Intel I9 14900K 24-core processor (up to 6 GHz), 128 GB RAM – Corsair Vengeance DDR5 (6400 MHz), and a 24 GB ZOTAC GeForce RTX 4090 AMP Extrem. This review was conducted using Meta Quest 3 via virtual desktop using Godlike Mode. I also used YAW 3 Motion Simulator and Bhaptics Tactsuit Pro for most gameplay.
you, steam page.
PC VR gameplay captured by gamebixby
Track views and sounds
Visually, the PC VR version of the V-Racer I used in my testing looks great in Quest 3 using Godlike mode on the virtual desktop on the 4090. The graphics looked beautiful across the various track environments the game has to offer.
In Quest 3, the visuals are good. However, like any other game on the headset, it is clear that fidelity and performance are suppressed by V-racers that support Aging Quest 2 hardware. The PC version is a limitation by meeting the hardware constraints of Quest 3’s Quest 2 Show when you use a virtual desktop or link to provide a sharp and blurry race experience in Quest 3. This is especially visible as a visually blurry and sparkling image.
Comparing sort graphics for SteamVR and Quest 3 versions of Vracer Hoverbike
Performance also suffers slightly from the quest. When you hit a speed ramp or appear in a pack of crowded competitors in the tunnel, there is a visible frame drop that is not present in the PC VR version. The game still offers a fun ride on both systems, but anyone with a gaming PC can get the best experience on Steam.
One area where the quest version is separated from the PC VR counterpart is a mixed reality mode that allows you to roam life-size bikes and players and interact with them via the game’s colouring system. You can create custom decals, paint your bike, and make other visual changes. It’s thrilling to see a hover bike filling the floor of my studio in real size. The ability to customize and decorate is more satisfying than I expected.
Gameplay captured by UploadVr in Quest 3
The V-Racer soundtrack also raises my sense of excitement as the hoverbike engines roar and the wind screams as the rocket rocks across Asphalt. The music in the game gains momentum and drives momentum, but doesn’t make much progress on the sound stage, losing the crucial ham of hearing bikes and rival engines shut from behind. Such details are especially important when driving at a virtual reality top speed where every ounce of visual or auditory feedback counts.
All mood modes
V-Racer offers you many ways to play. I spent a considerable amount of time in Playtime career mode. This will rise up through a series of leagues to unlock new bikes, suits and custom skins. Gradually ramp up on AI difficulty keeps things interesting and working towards the next upgrade through winning races is satisfying.
Beyond career mode, time trials and weekly challenges are available, with players heading towards just a few of the best lap times, competing with global leaderboards and ghost riders around the world. Even when I play solo game, I always feel like I’m fighting against someone. Combat races really raise the chaos, and every power-up adds tactical edges to give you satisfaction when landing clean missile shots or ducking under a barrage of explosion just before a hairpin turn. There is also a Survivor mode where the last racer eliminates each lap. That’s where tension actually breaks through and anxiety begins with each and every time the field shrinks.
If you’re not competitive or don’t like multiplayer, then the free play mode is likely to spend most of your time with V-Racer. This allows you to set the pace, select the next track, fine-tune the conditions, practice, or get in the atmosphere of the game without any pressure. No matter how you feel, there’s a way to play that suits you.
Is it a comfortable ride? For me, after exploring a strange new virtual world for over 26 years, I have very strong VR legs, so it’s hard to tell. For some people, racing sims are known to quickly induce VR motion sickness due to the sense of extreme acceleration and rotation while in a simulated vehicle.
The V-Racer offers an internal comfort option to level up the ground in the player’s view, minimizing track elevation shifts. The V-Racer has its body tilting control system, so the vestibular and eyeball system can be a more comfortable experience as it better aligns with the visual cues within the headset due to the physical movements the player is performing in sync with the game.
Metalate V-Racer Hoverbike gently relaxes on a comfortable scale, so we recommend paying attention to anyone who already tends to move when playing this game.
Full Dive Hover Bike Racing Experience
I own a yaw 3 motion simulator and a baptist device, so I wanted to go a little further down the hole in the immersion rabbit. Feeling all the small bumps and changes in elevation on the track, it’s perfectly synchronized in time with the virtual images the headset offers. While wearing Baptistic Stact Suit Pro, it provides a subtle feeling that you don’t know what you’re missing, until you play V-Racer and other racing games on a simulator with full motion support.
PC VR gameplay captured by gamebixby
Getting that kickback from extreme acceleration throughout my body really increases the sense of speed. Get a deeper level of immersion with this experience, like you’ve done many times during your test, such as hitting another player or a track sidewall. It makes me feel the internal physical sensations like my stomach and muscles and they do in the real world, just like if I was trying to crash my motorcycle at 200 mph. These are the sensations you don’t get when playing V-Racer or other driving games outside of motion rigs or haptic gear.
The sensations you get when all your senses start firing everything at once in a chair is nothing unique for me so far, in addition to doing these activities in real life. Of course, not everyone reading this can get space for such a setup in their own home. With the revival of VR arcades and attractions, we recommend looking for places where you can add immersion enhancement technology to your VR games.
V-Racer Hover Bike Review – Final Verdict
Overall, V-Racer Hoverbike offers a VR racing game that feels fast, tactical and physically appealing. This is a worthy step forward for the future racer genre, with innovative inclined mechanics that deepen players into the action and make them feel like they are in control. Add customizable content and a selection of smart designs that make thrilling races more thrilling than the next one, and you can create solid racers that offer a great rush of adrenaline every time you play.
I sincerely hope that VertexBreakers will take time for V-Racer Hoverbike to give it a worthy quest 3 overhaul. Same as content, but with slight hits in graphics fidelity and performance. If you have the ability and are ready to hit the track right now, the PC VR version offers less potholes that kill more fidelity and performance along the track, all offering the same great gameplay. There’s also a PlayStation VR2 edition, so no matter how you play, the V-Racer Hoverbike offers a fun experience.
uploadVr uses a 5-star rating system for game reviews. Check the guidelines.
