If you didn’t get a chance to jump into last month’s Echo Combat open beta weekend, the upcoming online shooter expansion to Echo Arena, then you’ll have another chance soon, as the studio is opening up their pod bay doors to all Rift users starting today, August 16th.

 Update (August 16th, 2018): Echo Combat Open Beta 3 kicks off today at 10:30 AM PT (your timezone here) and ends Sunday August 19th at 10:00 AM PT. Developer Ready at Dawn has confirmed that the so-called ‘Gear Patch’ brings three new features: Arc Mine, Stun Field, and Energy Barrier. The patch also includes a range of gameplay and balance changes, as well as bug fixes. You can find the full patch notes here.

Update (August 7th, 2018): A third Echo Combat open beta is set for the weekend of August 16th, the folks at VRespawn reported. As with the prior open beta, we expect it will open sometime around 10:30AM PT (your timezone here).

According to a video on the official Echo Games YouTube channel, the August 16th open beta weekend will also usher in the ‘Gear Patch’, which we expect will focus on tweaks to equipment like grenades and abilities, possibly even introducing some new elements.

Update (July 19th, 2018): Celebrating the one-year anniversary of Lone Echo (2017) and Echo Arena’s release, the upcoming team shooter Echo Combat is getting its second open beta period this weekend, starting July 20th at 10:30 AM PT (local time here) and going through July 22nd at 10:00 AM PT (local time here). The latest open beta is said to deliver “a more stable gaming experience,” and the ability to use your weapon in your left hand.

According to a Ready at Dawn blog post, this weekend’s open beta “is the first of many scheduled throughout the rest of the year and leading up to Echo Combat’s official release. Alongside more opportunities to play Echo Combat until release, players can also look forward to new content monthly.”

Original Article, Updated (June 20th, 2018): Echo Combat throws you into a beefier combat-ready avatar with a few guns and abilities at your disposal. Offering a payload-based objective, much like the gametype in Team Fortress 2 (2007) or Overwatch (2016), you push the cart on a track through the winding maze as an attacker, or defend the advances of the cart by pushing it backwards and running down the three-minute game clock. Check out our full hands-on from the closed beta for a better idea of what to expect.

SEE ALSO
Watch a Complete 'Echo Combat' Closed Beta Match

Ready at Dawn says that players can expect continued open beta periods leading up to the game’s launch later this year. The full release is slated to cost $10, so now is a great time to find out if the zero-G shooter is right for you.

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Scott Hayden
Well before the first modern XR products hit the market, Scott recognized the potential of the technology and set out to understand and document its growth. He has been professionally reporting on the space for nearly a decade as Editor at Road to VR, authoring more than 3,500 articles on the topic. Scott brings that seasoned insight to his reporting from major industry events across the globe.
  • V Z

    In before all the dick sucking fanboys come here and start blabbering how this primitive crapware is the next revolution in VR and how they are going to cum all over their headset from excitement.

    • JJ

      um what? how can a game be the next vr revolution? that doesnt even make sense

      • V Z

        Exactly!

        • JJ

          No not exactly, What you said doesn’t make sense…
          So fuck off with that troll shit

          • V Z

            Exactly! I’m glad we are in full agreement here. I agree that those fanboys don’t make any sense. I’d tell them to fuck off too, but I’m just too nice of a person ;)

          • JJ

            I think you’re the fanboy here. plus we’d all be able to understand you better if you took that dick out of your mouth.

          • V Z

            Come on man, be reasonable. Dick is so delicious! Have you had one today? You don’t really expect me to take it out of my mouth just to talk to a pleb like you, do you? Besides, I don’t remember you complaining when your mamma spoke with dick in her mouth.

            And btw… You got me here… I’m a big fanboy of myself ;) How can anyone not love such a good person!

          • JJ

            …you just spit out random nonsense. have fun

          • V Z

            If it’s random nonsense, why did you reply to it… let’s see… 8 times? Do you just like replying to random nonsense?
            Okay. Let’s reply to this now:
            a,sdbhva,kljhfbvaskdjnvlahfbgalsiudfha;lsivbal.sdkjvcbnalsi ygbdfqawieuf;asiuvbnalisgbf;sweiufba;lwivbalsdkjvbalsiyefbqawiyegfrqa;wfjnal.sdkjbhvlaiwyuebfal;wuefjbna;sligufrlieubalsdkjfbaliygbalwiuefg;aweigf;qwoergihp;eugasdkjgfvna;fugha;wieufa;lsjdfna;lwiouegfh

          • JJ

            yeah actually i do lol. When i see people online acting dumb i say “Hey what you’re doing is stupid” so….

            Hey what you’re doing is stupid

          • V Z

            Random nonsense can’t be dumb.
            If it’s dumb, it’s not random, otherwise it’s not truly random.

            In fact, any nonsense can’t be dumb.
            Non… sense… If you can’t make sense of it, you can’t decide if it’s dumb or not.

          • JJ

            dumb is a perspective opinion so yeah your nonsense is dumb

          • V Z

            First, there is no such thing as “perspective opinion”. There is perspective and there is opinion. Google it if you don’t believe me.

            Second, in order to form an opinion, you need to develop understanding. Nonsense means that you can’t understand, therefore it make no sense to you.

          • JJ

            yes there is, my opinion is based off of my perspective, from this view point i formed an opinion that your nonsense is dumb.

          • V Z

            Yes, you are correct in saying that your opinion is based off your perspective. But that’s not what I’m disputing. I’m saying that the phrase “perspective opinion” doesn’t exist.

            Here is an example that you will understand. Remember that time recently when you smelled dog shit and said that you enjoyed it the flavor? You wouldn’t call it “olfactory opinion”, even though it’s based on your olfactory senses, right? You just can’t make up new phrases like that and expect people to add them to English dictionary. Well, I suppose you, specifically, can.

          • JJ

            lol I don’t expect it to be added to a dictionary but I do expect most people to understand I chose those words specifically to properly convey what was being said and thought. And yeah you can make up new phrases and words, Shakespear rewrote the majority of the english language into something new.

          • V Z

            If you would have said “opinion” instead of “perspective opinion”, you would have conveyed the meaning perfectly without looking like you are trying hard to be a new Shakespeare. Most people who are not Shakespeare are now called uneducated fools when they try to make new words or phrases.

          • JJ

            I think the general population would consider someone who pushes the boundaries of the English language more educated than a troll like you….

          • V Z

            LOl, making up new words and phrases is “pushing boundaries” now? This is what uneducated fools call them now? LOLOLOL Boundary pushers! Okay. Thanks for a good laugh :)

            And besides, who cares what general population thinks? McDonalds is the most visited restaraunt by general population. According to your logic, they probably serve finest food, LOL :D

          • JJ

            btw i didnt make up any new words i just used two next to each other to give more detail about what i was saying…. but you know have fun enjoy whatever drugs your on….

            Plus your mcdonalds logic isnt just a fallacy, but makes ane sense. most visited has no correlation to the quality of of food or even service, but more a relation between low affordable price and availability.

          • V Z

            “didnt make up any new words i just used two next to each” => “making up new words and phrases”
            using two words next to each other is making phrases and this is what I said.

            “most visited has no correlation to the quality of of food or even service, but more a relation between low affordable price and availability.” – Exactly.

            “most people to understand I chose those words specifically to properly convey what was being said and thought.” – similarly, what most people would consider correct, right and wrong has no correlation to correctness of anything you say, but more a relation between low intellect of general population and how close words that you are saying resemble their own stupid thoughts.

          • anony

            Nope JJ is right, you VZ are just making an ass of yourself

    • Hey man, are you having a bad day?

      • V Z

        I’m having an amazing day: good weather, birds are singing, fanboys are out and biting the hook. It’s going to be a good fishing day.

        • JJ

          So in your life, a good day is spent trolling online? fuck im happy im not you, that must be so depressing.

          I hope you find some value in your existence beyond just trolling, otherwise you’re just a waste of space and we will all be happy to hear about your death. Maybe we will even celebrate not having to share this earth with a piece of shit like you.

          Have a nice day :)

          • V Z

            Welcome to the dark side! Did it feel good trolling me back? Or did you feel depressed after typing all that? See, I knew you would enjoy it here ;)
            Now, let’s see if you can try harder!

          • JJ

            Calling you out for trolling isn’t a form of trolling…

          • V Z

            Ohh, thanks for trying harder ;)
            Let’s be honest here, I’m pretty sure you went much further than just calling me a troll. So, how did it feel? You may prove to be a useful disciple here. Don’t give up now. Try even harder!

          • JJ

            trying what?

          • V Z

            this.

          • JJ

            what is this?

          • V Z

            this is this.

            “So in your life, a good day is spent trolling online?” – don’t worry, you’ll be able to answer this question by the end of the day.

          • JJ

            lol its sad if you think you can have a good day trolling…

          • V Z

            Honest question: Why?

          • JJ

            Because only scummy people troll, there are tons of better constructive ways to live than trying to make people angry online. you’re a nuisance, a leech, a mosquito that we would prefer to be splattered and dead instead of polluting our eyes and ears with you. you are a pollution, a sickness.

          • V Z

            You should be writing novels instead of attempting to form arguments. See, arguments require some semblance of logic. Lets start from your first sentence: “better constructive ways to live” – how do you evaluate that something is in fact “better”? I’ll tell you: you can’t. What’s better for you may not be better for me.
            I’m also not sure about “constructive” part of it. What makes you think that being constructive is better than not being constructive?

            And “leach”, really? I don’t know if you’ve heard of capitalism, but that system is supposedly based on “leaching” and works better than anything else tried so far.

          • JJ

            ..”how do you evaluate that something is better.. you cant”… really? lol there are multiple ways to look at how something is better or more constructive.

            For example, not trolling would be better and more constructive towards your community but also you get nothing out of trolling aside from feeling good by hurting people. which is a sad existence for you. Thats a fact, everyone agrees on that there is no debating that trolling is a good way to spend your life or time. Feel free to try and argue the life benefits of trolling people and how that sets you up for success and happiness in life because that’d be hilarious to read. Just like your other posts, it’s all just entertainment for us readers. Our main thought is man, he must have such a shitty life to have to come here and try to make people angry.

            So yes ANYTHING is better and more constructive than trolling, but of course me saying anything means you’re just gona go !?ANYTHNIG ?! WHAT ABOUT KILLING PEOPLE?!… because you’re a troll and you’re just trying to have control in this discussion by making ludicrous and irrelevant claims.

            So i’m having fun wasting your time, want to continue?

          • V Z

            LOL, are you having multiple personality disorder? You keep referring to yourself as “we”.
            And, wasting my time? You couldn’t be further from the truth. I find you ridiculously entertaining. People actually pay money to be entertained and you are doing it for free! Isn’t that amazing!

            “how that sets you up for success and happiness in life” – I really don’t know how to explain it even in simpler terms than I already did. Entertainment brings happiness – is that not obvious? Do you like watching drama? Is so, try trolling! Trolling allows you go beyond watching drama. It allows you to participate in creating it! Perhaps comedy is your thing? That can be done too!

            Okay. Let’s summarize that: trolling = entertainment, entertainment => happiness, happiness => success.

            And I already explained you about “hurting” people, but it looks like it flew over your peasant brain, like a paper plane, without even creating a slight disturbance of thought in your head. No one is holding a gun to your head and forces you to participate in a trolling match. You chose it voluntarily because you could not resist it. It’s like saying that advertisements hurt you by making you spend money on things you don’t need. You could be right thinking that way, but only if you are an idiot.

          • JJ

            you have multiple logical fallacies in each of your arguments.

    • CURTROCK

      What’s REALLY on your mind?

      • V Z

        Your mamma. She did well last night. Made me a lot of money.

  • V Z

    On a related note, I hope the great president Trump will make a law that would stop crappy game developers like these from deceiving customers and make 30 day refunds mandatory. We love you Mr. Trump! Keep doing great work!
    – on behalf of Roadtovr readers.

    • jj

      (round of applause) wow you’re such a good troll. do you want a cookie?

      • V Z

        No, I don’t want a cookie because I don’t want to become fat and ugly like you.

        • JJ

          I’m just acquiring mass…

          • V Z

            It gets easier. When you get to black hole mass, you don’t even need to spend any more energy to acquire more mass.

          • JJ

            yupp you’d know better than anyone else about that from all the years observing your own mother. I’m surprised that at birth you actually got out of her orbit.

          • V Z

            Good one, but I have to nitpick a little. If mother was a black hole, you wouldn’t be able to observe her. No light can escape. Physics :/

      • V Z

        Hey JJ. Do you think I can help you get enough experience to answer your own question: “So in your life, a good day is spent trolling online?”

        • JJ

          when you talk its like you have diarrhea coming out your mouth.

          • V Z

            Does that mean that when you reply to me, it’s like you eat that diarrhea and then regurgitate it back, but now it’s mixed with vomit?

          • JJ

            Nah i have a splash guard that i’m shouting from behind

          • V Z

            LOL, good one! You are really improving.
            Well, I hope you see now that trolling is not actually sad. It’s like any other multiplayer game, but you can play this one when you don’t have access to your powerful PC.

          • JJ

            It is sad. I feel sorry for you. Seriously if this is what you constitute as fun, your life must really suck

          • V Z

            Again, you demonstrate complete inability of logical reasoning. How is someone having fun in a way that you don’t understand indicates that his life sucks?
            I don’t like golf and find that game mind numblingly boring and completely stupid, but I do recognize that it’s possible that it’s fun to some people and I’d never say that I feel sorry for that that they find golf fun.
            Well, it’s okay if you don’t understand that/ You don’t have to beat yourself over it. My superior intellect allows me to easily understand things that would take forever to explain to someone like you.

          • JJ

            lol your superior intellect tell you that trolling is a good way to spend your time because you think its fun…. again you must have such a shitty life then. I don’t even have to prove anything to you. its general knowledge that trolling is frowned upon because you find entertainment by bringing people discomfort, so yes WE ALL feel sorry for you and your life.

            you should keep trying to defend yourself and the way you think trolling is a good way to spend your time. Its been pretty funny for us.

          • V Z

            Ohhh, I’m not defending myself. I have no reason to. I’m just trying to gain insight into a mind of a peasant. I honestly don’t understand why you think that trolling is not a good way to entertain yourself. Your arguments basically boil down to its effect on others. But that is similar to any game where there are losers and winners. If I’d dominated you in any other multiplayer game, you might similarly feel frustrated and upset and feel that I have fun at your expense. The only difference between any multiplayer game and trolling is that you may enter the trolling game without realizing it, but that’s only because you are not smart enough to realize that, so the blame is on you.
            ” I don’t even have to prove anything to you.” – let’s be honest here, you can’t.

            Allow me to give you an example, based on historical events, to illustrate how foolish your reasoning is>
            Imagine that there is new music genre that most people finds unpleasant. A group of people listens to it loudly and obviously enjoying it, but people around them find the music annoying, therefore bringing them discomfort. Do you think it would be reasonable for those people to feel sad for the group of people that they enjoy something that majority does not? I think that’s stupid.

          • JJ

            Didn’t realize it??

            (round of applause) wow you’re such a good troll. do you want a cookie?

            was my first statement, everything since has just been me happily wasting your time. Its funny though that you think this is trolling anyways… You’re such a proTroll, you’ve been trolling me so so well this whole time. do you want a cookie?

          • JJ

            its also funny when you use terms like peasant :) you’er gona have to try harder than that to troll properly.

          • V Z

            Actually, there is no trolling when I call you peasant. Why would calling peasant a peasant be trolling? The term is actually from “PC Master race” forum on reddit
            https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/

            If you feel that someone is inferior, you call them peasant. So, you are peasant and I’m royal blood nobility. It’s just a fact and you should have no reason to feel offended.

          • V Z

            LOL, you keep delivering. Ever hear phrase “don’t feed trolls”? Do you know what would be wasting time for a troll? I don’t know if I should tell you this… Okay, what the heck, I’m going to be nice to you because you’ve been very nice to me providing all that entertainment and reveal something that would actually help you waste a trolls time if that’s what you want.

            Here it comes.

            Wasting trolls time is not responding to a troll. Yes, if I failed to evoke a response, than I’d consider it a failure.

            Saying that you waste trolls time by responding is like saying that fish wastes time by being caught on catch-and-release fisherman hook.

            You are boosting my confidence in my fishing skills to an amazing height because you are still responding, LOL, what a convenient dummy.

    • Anthony Lazarus

      You continue to be a virus to this community. It’s not clear why some of the VR community is so entirely toxic, but you really continue to be a shit person.

      • JJ

        I think hes a russian troll too his acount on Discord is vzaporozhets and a Zaporozhets is a soviet car from the 90s. so odds are VZ is 30+ years old as well and spends his time trolling online. So like i said must really suck to be him.

  • troll

    give us the Order Too