Last year’s show was full of virtual reality. This time, they doubled down…
New York Comic Con is pop-culture Christmas for us east-coasters. The annual spectacle is packed with everything a growing nerd needs to get his/her fill of the latest sci-fi, video games, comics, anime, etc. So it’s not a huge surprise that over the past couple of years virtual reality has quickly infected the show floor, providing some awesome new experiences to eager attendees.
This year VR isn’t just showing up at NY Comic Con, it’s making itself extremely comfortable. So if you’re like me and attending the big event this weekend, I thought i’d whip us up a nifty little rundown that includes some of the coolest virtual reality exhibits that will be present this year. They’re new, they’re awesome and they’re all at the Experiential Zone -1E of the Javits Convention Center. Lets check ‘em out!
New York Haunted Hayride Presents VR CON
One of the coolest attractions this year is VR Con’s Halloween-themed VR exhibition being presented by New York Haunted Hayride. The convention within a convention will have several scary projects on display from a handful of exciting VR developers. Virtual reality entertainment provider Jaunt VR will be part of the exhibit showcasing a variety of their upcoming horror experiences such as the pilot for their new horror series The Game as well as Escape of the Living Dead, Zombie Purge and Black Mass. They’ll also have a “VR Sampler” room full of Halloween-esque 360 experiences featuring the Netflix series Stranger Things, Hellevator, Cirque and Warner Bros’ Suicide Squad.
VR Con will feature several interesting non-VR experiences as well including two mesmerizing 360 Dome’s displaying macabre short films and The Encounter, a fully immersive experimental audio-theatrical piece currently running on Broadway. The point is, this exhibit has something for everyone.
Amazon Studios The Man In The High Castle
Amazon will be in attendance debuting a mysterious VR experience based off their popular original series, The Man In The High Castle. Using the HTC Vive, users will travel into the strange universe of the hit program, gathering clues and avoiding enemies in a high-stakes covert mission. The shows gorgeous world combined with the cutting-edge tech of the Vive should provide a VR experience unlike any other currently available. Even if you aren’t familiar with the Amazon original series you should definitely try and check it out regardless.
Lionsgate and Starbreeze’s John Wick Chronicles game
Naturally I saved the best for last. At least I’m really hoping it’ll be the best. John Wick was released in 2014 and has been running through my head ever since. So I was thrilled to see that Lionsgate Entertainment and game developer Starbreeze Studios have teamed up to bring us a first-person shooter based off the bad-ass action flick called John Wick Chronicles: An Eye For An Eye. A seven minute preview will be available to play during the convention, allowing users to step foot inside the iconic Continental Hotel and experience what it’s like to be the world’s most ass-kicking, dog-loving expert gunman. The full game will release within the same month as the films upcoming sequel John Wick: Chapter 2 and will have preorders bundled with the original John Wick in an exclusive U.S. deal.
There are sure to be a whole bunch of other amazing VR exhibits scattered around the show floor, but these are just some of the biggies I highly recommend you check out first. If you see anything we may have missed, let us know in the comments below!
New York Comic Con is happening Oct. 6th – Oct. 9th at the Javits Convention Center in New York City. We’ll be keeping you in the loop with the latest announcements all weekend long.
