This game is out of the world good the one bad thing about this game are the vr characters and you can’t get on others peoples boats. My friend quit because we thought we could compare our reels with other people and fish on the same boat with each other if the developers see this I hope you take mine in this I’m sure there are other complaints about this but overall it’s a good game.

There were two games that competed for my purchase; Real VR Fishing (14.99gbp) and Ultimate Fishing Simulator VR (about 16.90gbp with all DLC I think?).

Ultimately what I was looking for was a fairly realistic fishing simulator that I could drink a few beers while playing and escape the real world for a bit.
I wanted a nice interface, nothing too confusing for someone like me who has fished *a little bit* in the past and has grasped the fundamentals but doesn't know much about all the fancy technology and terminology.

Everywhere I looked for reviews (which were few and far between in terms of direct comparisons between the games, so I hope this review will help someone in my shoes) people *raved* about Real VR Fishing, so ultimately this was the one I initially picked up on the Oculus store. I sort of lamented that I would not be able to ice fish, but the "cleaner" interface and rave reviews pulled me in.

Let me tell you now, if you're going for any sort of realism just forget about Real VR Fishing. Yes, the fish were modelled beautifully and the interface is cleaner and more minimal but it sacrifices a lot in favour of more of a arcade feel. Fish bite within a second or two of casting your lure and while you can make things harder, it doesn't really seem worth it due to how generic the rest of the game is, the no name equipment and so on. The maps are fairly lovely but only allow you to fish in one direction, which was the biggest killer for me.

With that in mind and my heart a bit heavy, I decided to see if the alternative was any better. Well, I've played a little and it's knocked my socks off so far. The fishing itself has a great feel, not too easy, not too hard. All the arcade type assists can be toggled on/off like in Real VR Fishing only here you have a good spread of branded equipment, large maps to explore and fish in any way you like, ice fishing and even the underwater camera which, while not realistic, is a fantastic feature and genuinely adds a lot to the gameplay.

Controls are nice and I was genuinely getting a good workout from reeling in the fish, which required quite a bit more skill than in VR fishing where you simply just let go of the line if it turned red. Speaking of skills, fish do respond to "twitching" the line to make your lure appear as a living creature, and I believe there are all sorts of other techniques that can be used in this game that are too advanced for me to talk more about.

I've only played one map so far! Haven't even attempted the ice fishing. There's plenty of other maps with various biomes and seasons to check out, especially with all the DLC included for a total cost not much higher than Real VR Fishing, which had more than a few maps but all in Korea currently, and again the fishing only in one direction really killed the experience for me in a VR game.

I'm someone who is very fussy when it comes to games, I will refund anything that isn't quite up to my standards; however in this case I have found a game that will be more than adequate for sipping a few brewskis in a lovely environment while pretending to fish. I cannot praise it enough and I look forward to the many hours ahead.

My old settings/review is at the bottom.
Its been sometime and i thought i would update on how i manage to play VR stutter free with Oculus.
For those of you using an Meta Quest to play this game and are suffering with stutters, or worse, very poor FPS, i may have some tips to help you have smooth gameplay.

Go to your Start bar, search : "graphic settings'' , and click it. Scroll down to Graphic Performance preference.
Click browse, and add the following from the oculus program files folder, use the search bar if you don't know where these files are :
OVRRedir
OVRServer_64x
OVRServiceLauncher
OculusClient

After adding these,click on them one by one, click options,then proceed to set them to high performance instead of letting windows decide.

If your on Nvidia, load up the Nvidia control panel,click adjust image with preview, and just use the slider to set yourself to performance. Click ''adjust surround, physx '' and set the Physx settings to use your graphics card instead of Auto/cpu. If you are using a Gsync monitor, click on set up Gsync, and turn it off while you play VR games, it can cause stutter. Set your resolution to 1080p 60hz while you are playing VR, don't make your windows system work harder while your playing inside vr.

Last thing to do is locate your Oculus debug tool, use the search bar to find it, it will be located in your C:\Program Files\Oculus\Support\oculus-diagnostics folder. Load it up, where it says (Pc) Asynchronous Spacewarp, turn it off. Also if you want a bit of clarity, Turn Link Sharpening to enabled. You can also adjust the Encode Bitrate to 350 if you have around 1.8gbps on the link speed test, if you have higher, around 2.6gbps on the link test you can set the bitrate to around 500 (550 if you copy paste the number in as it wont let you type past 500 ) but only do this if you have good link speeds under the oculus app, if you want it defaulting, just type 0. At the bottom you will see a tab called Huds, visable Hud, if you use the drop down menu and click performance, it will show you the FPS inside your headset and if you have any headroom to adjust graphics, always keep your self around 20 percent headroom on any game to stop stutters.

After doing all this i can play this game (and many others) in ultra detail, with my Oculus graphic settings set to 72hz 5408x2736 ( The max the resolution will go) and still be able to mess with steams Super Sampling,all while keeping a steady 72fps.

----Old review that helped people----
I hated this game in VR on my old computer, FPS was low in VR. I Hated it on my current build as well, till recently when i figured how to play this game with good fps.
Specs are : RTX 2070Super,i7 9700k (not overclocked), 32gig of 3000 hz ram, Oculus quest 2 over link cable.
This game was struggling with fps, constantly lowering its fps down. But i fixed it
Run the oculus at 120hz ( i run at 3712x1872 in oculus for this game could lower it for more solid fps but no point), Turn off Asynchronous Spacewarp in Oculus Debug Tool as with it on images will bend, will be blurry and is very unpleasant plus it lowers the fps to half of the headsets current refresh,so keep it off, put the game in its highest settings on everything, put snap turning on and have teleportation movement on. Doing this allows me to play between 80-120 fps with the odd dip to 70 when moving. This is very playable with no motion sickness and no headaches with a crystal clear image.
I'm leaving this here for myself really for a later date if i format or forget how to make it run smooth,but if it helps a fellow gamer who is struggling to get this game running at decent speeds, great. Oh and the game it self is fantastic,good way to chill out and relax, i fish in real life and this is as close as it will get in vr for a few more years.

-- VR Complaint --
- Everybody is a faceless unmoving avatar with no voice chat.
If this was actually a social fishing game you could hang with friends and fish, it would be wonderful.

- They switch camera angles when the fish is near the surface.
This kills the immersion of fishing.

-- General --
it's the best fishing game I've played so far. It goes for the realism, which is good and all.. but it loses something as it feels like a quick VR port.

It's SOO close to being a really good VR experience too. Understandably, it is more development on a game that is already made, but here would be my dream-list.

1) More interactive multiplayer.
2) Better "Fish Out of Water" animation and physics.
3) Let me grab the fish and throw it back into the water.
4) Make the radio stations an actual functional radio in the game.

This is out of this world. My brain tricks me into thinking i can feel the weight on the line as i pull slowly along the water. If you want to get away from reality. look no further. Great Job.

By far the definitive VR fishing game/simulation i have ever played. Its so head and shoulders above other VR fishing they arent even in the same league(can you tell i like this game?) i really feel like im out there fishing in RL(and i spent my entire youth fishing every day in louisiana) The graphics are stunningly crisp and you can tell it was crafted with love. They've done a spectacular job researching feeding patterns such as time of day tempature of water wind levels ect. When you hook up they really seem to understand how each different type of fish would actually fight. 5/5 for me and its still fairly early access on the VR version.. Come join me sometime in the realistic VR servers cant miss me im always on!

Slandaro

So far, so good!

I was surprised to find that many fishing techniques that I would use IRL actually translate, and that level of detail in the mechanics really sells the wohle experience as a fishing simulator. Fighting a fish feels much more reel than I thought it would have.

I'm very pleased with this game so far, and I've barely bug into the many different locations and fishing styles. Excited to play more.

There's a little weirdness with the line physics, as the physics simulates at a lower FPS than the rest of the game... kinda like reprojection, but only for the line. On the whole though, i think the line is well done and does add to a realism. Perhaps if they simulated the line at a higher FPS they couldn't achieve that realism. I would still appreciate an option to bypass this at some point in the future though, as the line plays a big role in the look and feel of the VR game and many of us have the CPU overhead.

Anyway, I can recommend this game. My gripes are minor.

"Are you done fishing?"
That's like asking if I'm done breathing!

I have bought the game as a casual relaxing time waster and for that purpose it's a nice game.

There are quite a lot of different fish in the game with a lot of equipment you can buy and upgrade after you have enough experience points and ingame money. UI and menu's are decent and easy to navigate through. It has different play modes, from sandbox mode up to realistic mode and it even has an environment creator that lets you create your own decorated maps that you can share (ingame) with the community (no integrated workshop though).

The maps/environments you play on are quite small, lakes feels more like ponds. It is not that you can grab a boat and drive for 10 minutes to find a nice fishing spot. The maps in itself are okay looking, but not ultra realistic and high quality, but good enough to feel immersed while fishing.

The fishing itself (in normal mode) is very easy when it comes to catching the common/smaller fish, fishing in Stardew Valley is more challenging tbh. I assume that catching big ocean fish like sharks and merlins will be harder, but I don't have not enough XP's yet to try that out.

There is a multiplayer mode as advertised on the store page, but it is not fleshed out at all. You can not really see other players, but they are static looking half transparant avatars that will only show you where they are standing on the map. Only real feature that multiplayer brings is a chatbox that lets you communicate with other players. And the game has an online leaderboard that lets you compare your progress with other players.

The performance of the game is okay, but not great. On high graphics setting I get around 30/40fps (GTX970) while the environment is pretty empty and mostly consists of water and some empty land with a bit of vegetation and a few props.

If you are looking for a somewhat casual immersive fishing game with decent enough quality then this game is a good choice. If you are looking for an ultra realistic hardcore fishing simulator then you might be a bit disappointed playing this game.

70/100

A simple fishing game that REALLY benefits from VR. It feels so real casting the line, hooking the fish, and the entire fight to get the fish in feels great in VR. I love that I find myself physically pulling my fishing rod toward me and over my shoulder to try to drag the fish in, then reeling in fast when I let slack back on the line. It just feels right! Early access means that I am hoping they continue to polish up an already really great game, and bring more and more to the experience.

The biggest thing that is lacking is an engaging multiplayer experience. Linking up with a friend to fish is an underwhelming event. The game doesn't seem to sync the worlds in any way that I can tell. Weather isn't the same between clients, the fish aren't the same between clients, time isn't the same between clients. You don't even get to see your friend actually fishing. All you get is a default sort of "Pill" avatar for your friend, so you can see what location they are on the map. if they are actively fishing, their pill turns green. you don't get the excitement of seeing them reel in a catch, or cast their line or anything. If they get in a boat, you won't see their boat. just their pill avatar floating across the water. The game does have a log window that will tell you if your friend catches a fish and what kind and how big. but that's it. This is the one area I would love to see a lot of improvement.