Oculus is bringing two highly anticipated Rift exclusives to PAX South in San Antonio, Texas this year: Stormland and Defector.

Stormland, a sci-fi adventure from Insomniac Games, first debuted at PAX West last summer. It was available through a pop-up installation for a one-day only affair back in August, and hasn’t publicly demoed since.

Stormland is touted for its open world narrative which lets you interact with the world through a number of ways, be it scaling mountains, jumping over chasms, or soaring through alien world ‘slipstreams’ that shift as you play. The game is said to be both single-player and multiplayer; a phenomenon called ‘The Tempest’ rearranges the world each week to reveal new challenges.

Defector, a Rift exclusive from Wilson’s Heart (2017) studio Twisted Pixel, first debuted at PAX East in April 2018. Essentially, Defector stitches together a number of action sequences in a variety of play-styles and branching pathways, promising plenty of replayability. Twisted Pixel set out to build something of a hybrid between Mission: Impossible and Fast and the Furious.

We went hands-on with Defector last year, and the action-heavy demo seemed to impress Road to VR’s Ben Lang.

In the demo I played I was given the choice of whether I wanted to jump out of the plane or fight my way out. Both choices led to totally different segments of the game: one had me clinging for my life to the outside of a plane in a sort of climbing mini game, while the other led me into a gun fight, a fist fight, and ultimately to driving a sports car out of the plane’s cargo hold.

Oculus will be also publicly demoing the upcoming battle royale shooter Population: One from Big Box. There are also a few tournaments to look forward to as well, including:

PAX South takes place January 18th – 20th in San Antonio, Texas. Oculus will be in Meeting Room 225 A/B and the VR Freeplay area.

Newsletter graphic

This article may contain affiliate links. If you click an affiliate link and buy a product we may receive a small commission which helps support the publication. More information.


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.
  • Unluckily, I won’t be there, but I would really like to try these games…