Little Cities' first update lets you play in VR without controllers

What you need to know

• A new update for VR city management game Little Cities is now available on Meta Quest and Quest 2 headsets.
• The game now supports hand tracking, allowing players to put down the controllers and play with their hands.
• The next big update for the game will be coming in September.

Cozy city simulator Little Cities received an update that gives the option to put down the Meta Quest controllers and play the entire game with your hands. This is the first update for the virtual reality title since its launch last May, and also contains a few bug fixes and improvements.

The update, affectionately named "Big Hands in Little Cities" in the patch notes, adds Hand Tracking 2.0 support to the game, allowing players to build cities and handle menus with just their hands. The Hand Tracking option has to be manually turned on from the Meta Quest or Quest 2 settings for it to work in-game. There is also an option to turn on auto switch for hand tracking, which the headset will automatically switch between the two inputs depending on if the controllers are raised up or put down.

Developer Purple Yonder showed off some of the hand tracking in the video below, letting players select options in the bubble menus, build roads, and raise multiple buildings at once.

The update fixes a few visual bugs when upgrading the medical center to the hospital, tutorial level hint arrows, and sandstorm effects after loading a saved game. It also added new hints to the tutorial level and improved the vehicle AI to reduce traffic problems.

Publisher nDreams revealed in the patch notes that the next substantial update for the game will be coming in September. It will be called "Pretty Little Cities" and add new cosmetics alongside including some suggestions from the community.

Little Cities has quickly become one of the best Oculus Quest 2 games with its intuitive approach to city management, and the new hand tracking support makes it even easier. Its engrossing, yet relaxed gameplay garnered our Oculus Quest Game of the Week when it launched last May.