Superhero 'Deadpool' opens fire in virtual reality

20 July 2017: Smart-mouthed, mayhem-prone anti-hero "Deadpool" made a virtual reality debut on Wednesday in a "Marvel Powers United" game being tailored for Oculus Rift gear.

Developer Sanzaru Games collaborated with Marvel on the virtual version based on the comic character, which was a smash in an eponymous film released last year.

The "fast-talking, butt-kicking Merc with a Mouth" joins Captain Marvel, Hulk and Rocket Raccoon in a game that lets players become superheroes fighting together against super-villains.

Game fans will get their first shot at "Deadpool" in the Oculus VR game debut this week at Comic-Con in Southern California.

More characters are expected to be added to "Marvel Powers United" by the time it is released next year. The price has yet to be announced.

"Crack wise and crack skulls as you wield katanas and hand cannon pistols - because why bring a knife to a gunfight when you can have both?" a fact sheet for the game reasons.

Players wearing Rift headsets use Touch controllers to whip semi-automatic pistols or Desert Eagle hand-cannons from holsters and blast adversaries, prompting trademark wise cracks from their "Deadpool" persona, an advance test of the game revealed.

Katanas, the traditional Japanese swords, are unsheathed by reaching back over one's shoulders, and shuriken, the sharp-edged, star-shaped weapons, are thrown rapid-fire with wrist flicks as Hulk smashes, Rocket Racoon opens fire from above and Captain Marvel obliterates bad guys with photon beams.

The ability of Deadpool to heal quickly from almost any injury meanwhile provides an edge as waves of enemies strike.

"Marvel Powers United VR" was touted as a first-person, multi-player game featuring explosive battles in settings from the Marvel universe.

- Zombies and mutants -

The alliance with Marvel represented a coup for game publisher Oculus Studios, which has been striving to build a library of compelling experiences that will get people to buy Rift's virtual reality gear.

Rift and Touch controllers got a temporary price cut this month, bundled together at a discounted price of $399.

Zombies from the television series "The Walking Dead" and other demons are coming to life for video game players in virtual worlds.

Gamers will be climbing into colossal war machines to battle high-tech armies, wandering mutant-infested post-apocalyptic wastelands and going toe-to-toe with demons in new virtual reality offerings unveiled at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) last month.

The number of E3 exhibitors involved with virtual or augmented realities more than doubled to 126 from 53 last year.

Sony built on the array of games for its PlayStation VR gear, which works with top-selling PlayStation 4 consoles.

Sony, HTC and Facebook-owned Oculus are the top players in virtual reality head gear, each striving to stake out territory in the budding market.

While Sony's VR headsets work with PS 4 consoles, competing gear requires computers that can handle the demand of processing rich, immersive graphics in real time.