As the coronavirus pandemic rages on, more and more organizations are trying to find ways to stay alive. SXSW is an annual festival that celebrates media of all kinds, including music, film, and more, but was shut down this year when Austin banned public gatherings last March.
Rather than call the whole thing off forever, parts of SXSW live on. The organization just announced the 2020 Virtual Cinema Festival in partnership with Oculus TV running from May 22 to 31. Several films will be shown that showcase what could be the future of cinema with 360-degree views and interactive exhibits.
Head to the SXSW website to see the full lineup of shows, and if you’ve got an Oculus TV subscription (which you do if you own an Oculus product), then mark the dates.
Our first game this week tries to bring the outside inside with a virtual tour of Wakamarina Valley, New Zealand. You wake up in the middle of this beautiful forest and just walk around taking pictures to an incredible soundscape. It’s truly gorgeous and might be the only way for non-natives to experience New Zealand as international flights remain grounded.
And the second game we’re going to take a look at is… special. We’ll preface this by saying it’s from Chinese developer UG Virtual Reality Technology Company, and it appears to basically be using much of the same game assets as their previous title, Triumph In The Skies, which is a virtual flight simulator.
The game is called Trump And Virus, and you play as a poor simulacrum of the current sitting President as he flies a Cessna armed with machine guns and shoots down giant floating viruses. Does this make sense? Absolutely not. This appears to be some sort of political satire, but it’s hard to tell because it’s all so completely bonkers.
There’s also a whole lot of copyrighted music in this game that we’re almost certain the developer hasn’t paid for.
Let’s be honest, as soon as Trump finds out that his likeness is being used in a video game without his permission, this game is going to be taken off Steam faster than you can clear out a room by coughing. Enjoy this joke while it lasts.
Source: SXSW, Steam
