Original Post

Sooo, anyone else got a Playstation VR? I started playing through demos and stuff yesterday and thought it is pretty fun. In VR Worlds there is a game called Danger Ball which is pretty much Space Squash. Kind of nice to see one of the best VirtualBoy games (that is lesser known at the same time) being redone in current gen.

Scavengers Odyssey gave me major motion sickness (the only game I had problems with so far) so I’m taking a break right now.

Anyone wanna recommend games?

15 Replies

Hi thunderstruck,

I was wondering why no one has created a thread about that so far. So, thank you. πŸ˜‰

And yes, as a VR-enthusiast, after waiting for 20 years for “real” virtual reality (Sorry, Virtual Boy) my HMD arrieved on release. And IΒ΄m very excited since. I realy like the headset, even if there are some technical limitations like the Screen Door Effect because of the low resolution. I think thats ok – VR in 2016 is still a futuristic technology and its still in a “prototype phase”. (as we know VB was even more far, far to early in the time)

I dont tried Scavengers Odyssey so far, but i will try to get my hands on it soon and leave a review here. But some friends of mine have big problems with Eve: Valkyrie, wich is comparable to S Odyssey. The only game I played from the World Disc is London Heist, which is pretty immersiv and great. 7/10

These are the other games a played so far and how I rank them:
* Tumble – 09/10 (Amazing immersion with move-controllers)
* Thumper – 09/10 (Acid trip in Space – its outstandig, try that!)
* Wayward Sky – 09/10 (Dont look like a game made for vr on the first look, but the 3D effect and gameplay is great. Love it.)
* Batman Arkham VR – 8/10 (Experienced a bit motion sickness, but it is a indescribable feeling to “live” in Arkam, beeing the dark knight πŸ˜‰ )
* Until Dawn: Rush of Blood – 8/10 (Railshooters work good on VR)
* Driveclub – 8/10 (Also great, racing games are made for VR, but i need a wheel and racing chair for the whole experience. And I have big expectations in GT Sport)
*Rigs Mechanized Combat League – 5/10 (Motion sickness. Dont work for me because of the fast movement and I dont like classic fp shooters)
*Here They Lie [Demo] – 7/10 (Looks good, I like the setting. But just played the demo)

I have been eyeing the PS VR, but find it too expensive for what it offers, especially since I don’t own a PS4 myself. I do have a Galaxy S7 with the VR goggles and a few movies are great, though Land’s End is one hell of a game to play on it! Important is to sit on a chair that can rotate and with good earbuds in that close you off from outside noise. Especially when entering a cave, it was 25 centigrade here, but I felt cold when I got there.
That really showed me the potential of VR, but it simply still isn’t mature enough for me to shell out a lot of cash, I think that the hardware and better lenses/FOV are way better in a year or five, then I am willing to spend my cash on a fully developed system and fully developed games. No matter which brand comes up with the best one, I’d buy it then.

Syder wrote:

These are the other games a played so far and how I rank them:
* Tumble – 09/10 (Amazing immersion with move-controllers)
* Thumper – 09/10 (Acid trip in Space – its outstandig, try that!)
* Wayward Sky – 09/10 (Dont look like a game made for vr on the first look, but the 3D effect and gameplay is great. Love it.)
* Batman Arkham VR – 8/10 (Experienced a bit motion sickness, but it is a indescribable feeling to “live” in Arkam, beeing the dark knight πŸ˜‰ )
* Until Dawn: Rush of Blood – 8/10 (Railshooters work good on VR)
* Driveclub – 8/10 (Also great, racing games are made for VR, but i need a wheel and racing chair for the whole experience. And I have big expectations in GT Sport)
*Rigs Mechanized Combat League – 5/10 (Motion sickness. Dont work for me because of the fast movement and I dont like classic fp shooters)
*Here They Lie [Demo] – 7/10 (Looks good, I like the setting. But just played the demo)

Thanks for the recommendations. I have to check out Tumble and Thumper. I played the demo of Wayward Sky. I thought the god-like perspective was pretty cool. Also liked the Until Dawn demo.

If you haven’t yet, check out the Kitchen demo. It’s somehow cool to see a person your size in one of these games.

It’s somehow cool to see a person your size in one of these games.

This was the most striking part of Arkham VR for me – there are a number of times where you’re just standing right next to life-size models of other characters. In terms of immersion, this is by far the best one I’ve played so far.

Haven’t honestly had much time to dive into the PSVR, but what I’ve played, I’ve absolutely loved. Feels very much like the future is here. πŸ™‚

I got a PSVR πŸ™‚

I’m genuinely surprised how immersive it can feel. I’ve avoided playing the Oculus (or other VR setups) at stores / conventions so that I could experience modern VR for the first time at home. Now that I have, I’d be interested in a serious PC setup but I think it’s a little too expensive right now.

Favorite games so far:

– Superhypercube
– Thumper
– VR Worlds

Really interested in trying:

– Robinson: The Journey
– Rogue One: X-wing VR mission

8bitmatt wrote:
I got a PSVR πŸ™‚

I’m genuinely surprised how immersive it can feel. I’ve avoided playing the Oculus (or other VR setups) at stores / conventions so that I could experience modern VR for the first time at home. Now that I have, I’d be interested in a serious PC setup but I think it’s a little too expensive right now.

Favorite games so far:

– Superhypercube
– Thumper
– VR Worlds

Really interested in trying:

– Robinson: The Journey
– Rogue One: X-wing VR mission

Man if you enjoyed Superhypercube and Thumper, you absolutely owe it to yourself to pick up Rez Infinite. It’d be #1 on your list if you’d played it.

I got a good deal on one as an early birthday present to myself 😎

I’ve mostly only played demos, so far, and not even of all the games I’d like to try. My favorites, so far, are: Statik Institute of Retention, the “Robot Rescue” level of “Playroom VR” (the free mini-game collection that comes with the headset), and – although I suck at it πŸ˜› – Farpoint (it’s also the only full VR game I currently own). I also concur with Syder about racing games being pretty fun. The Trackmania Turbo demo is definitely worth a go. It has both normal 3D levels and full VR levels, and it’s more about time-trials than actual racing (or maybe that’s just the demo).

BattleZone looks cool, but it’s probably more fun in multiplayer than against AIs. I want to play a “rails shooter”, but I’m not a fan of Until Dawn’s “horror” theme. I’m probably still going to try the demo, but are there any other rails shooters out there?

GNOG is okay, but I’m probably going to wait for a sale if I ever buy it, since it seems short/repetitive/less replayable (not to mention way less immersive than Statik).

I’ve downloaded the Spiderman “VR experience”, but I had to find (and am now charging) my Move controllers, so I haven’t tried it, yet (and I need to try things like Tumble with the “Moves”, too).

For non-game stuff, there are some cool 360 videos on YouTube. Just search for “360”. I liked the Maldives one, a roller-coaster one sponsored by Gillete, and a ride to the edge of space on a weather balloon. The pacman one sucks, though πŸ˜›

I’m really excited about the fact that someone has already written a driver to use the HMD on a PC. Combine this with positional tracking of the HMD and the move controllers using the PS3 camera, and it’s probably a pretty good PC VR setup, for no extra money. The only problem is the splintered software landscape and lack of standardization. I thought the OSVR thing was the answer, but it looks like they just want to sell yet another incompatible HMD. Anyway, that’s a discussion for another thread…

Owned it, and sold it.

I’ll try to keep myself from sounding too negative, but I get passionate when talking about this system, so please forgive me in advance.

In a nicely put way, the tech isn’t there yet for the price. And not in the same way the VB wasn’t “there yet”. It technically is a fully functional VR system, to its own credit.But there are both development and quality of life issues ABOUND that make this thing reek of 2019 bargain bin fodder.

First, the resolution is SO ridiculously low, that it often feels like I’m inches away from a CRT display, trying to make out detail in a grainy mess. (yes I know how to adjust the headset, and did so perfectly) Games like Battlezone work stylistically because of the low detail, but then the problem with that game and many others is the lack of game.

Which leads me to my other point. The tech isn’t there yet because these aren’t games. They’re expriences or glorified tech demos. I owned over 10 games, and I wouldn’t consider a single one as a full fledged game, least of all anything that would compare with the playability and depth of even some of the VB’s better titles. And after all this time, that’s really quite sad.

Once you get past the joy (and it is joy) of looking around 1:1 in a video game world, the soul crushing reality of what little you can honestly do in said world starts to dawn on you.

Then you start to notice the mechanical imperfections. First being, and most notably, the PSVR has a TERRIBLE time of head tracking. You will CONSTANTLY be resetting this in-game, and it rips you out of the experience.

Issue 2: The headset’s lights turn off when not in game mode. So if you want to watch a movie (in ultra low resolution) as if you’re sitting in a theater, be prepared to keep MASHING ON THE ****ING CAMERA RESET BUTTON a thousand times during the course of the movie, as it’ll very quickly, repeatedly, not know where center position is in relation to your head placement.

Issue 3: Setup and comfort. To say cable management feels like an afterthought is an understatement. The breakout box, the cords going everywhere… it’s all terribly inconvenient, and if you have pets, you NEED to put it all away. The repeat setup isn’t convenient, and is quite cumbersome. But once you get the headset on, you’ll also notice it’s not fun inside after a while either. It gets very hot inside, and in order to keep the headset well set I found I started to get headaches from the pressure of the strapping system (not from the display). So after a while, you’re sweating and your head is pounding, and you just want out.

I could forgive some of these issues, but at the end of the day there’s not enough power, and dev costs too high, coupled with a severe lack of prolonged interest in VR games. So what you end up with are short “experiences”, or samey-on-rails games that all feel very similar, or games that simply won’t even let you move without the screen blacking out for a few seconds as it places you in another location. I don’t FEEL like I’m in any of these worlds past the initial excitement of being able to move my head around.

If feels like a baby step from what we got from the Virtual Boy, and frankly, the crisp picture the Virtual Boy provides, despite lacking head tracking, at least is easier on my eyes than anything you’re going to see on the blurry mess than is the PSVR. The best games for the system are also non-PSVR games, and for something like this to truly be a break out success, it needs PSVR ONLY games that are in the lines of the next Zelda, Halo, etc type title. And without developers able to push the limits of VR graphically/gameplay wise, and without the developers having access to more cash to make said experience for a reasonable price (making VR games, even simple ones, is CRAZY expensive) we simply aren’t going to get that.

Couple that with the fact the PS4 Pro simply isn’t powerful enough to really do too much more to help in the matter, and games feel stifled, hardware limited, game releases limited (like many non-home-console-sony products)… and you get to a point where one day you just aren’t bothered to want to get it all setup, and that’ll likely be the last day you play your 300 dollar plus paper weight.

I just sent “Eagle Flight” by Ubisoft back to GameFly. It’s a very interesting experience, but as a game, it’s a little underwhelming. Overall, it’s about a 7/10; PSVR owners should definitely give it a try.

I didn’t complete the game, so I likely didn’t see every type of level, but most of the ones I played were very similar, such as A) collecting things by flying through them, B) racing by flying through rings, C) escaping a tunnel without crashing, etc. This is not surprising, given the simplicity of the controls (basically just boost, brake, and tilt your head to steer), but it could have been a lot better and more like being an eagle.

The visuals are quite sub-par, too. If I didn’t know better, I’d guess it was a PS3 launch title. While you’re actually flying, you don’t notice it as much (except for the not-at-all-subtle draw-in of distant objects), and it’s very fun. Even just navigating around to choose a “challenge” is quite relaxing and immersive. My biggest complaint is that the game constantly takes you out of the immersion to a black screen, followed by an explanation of the rules, which you have to click through to get another black screen, then finally go back to flyingβ€” usually starting exactly where you were when it stopped you! It would even be jarring in a normal game, and this is supposed to be immersive! It wasn’t a good design decision. There is a “free-fly” mode if you just want to fly around without distractions, though.

It was long enough that I sent it back without completing it (unlike Batman Arkham VR, which I platinum’d). If I can find it for a good price, I will likely buy it, just to have something cool to VR around in once in a while, or to wow visitors who haven’t tried VR before.

RunnerPack wrote:
I just sent “Eagle Flight” by Ubisoft back to GameFly. It’s a very interesting experience, but as a game, it’s a little underwhelming. Overall, it’s about a 7/10; PSVR owners should definitely give it a try.

That one made me motion sick in some places.

thunderstruck wrote:

RunnerPack wrote:
I just sent “Eagle Flight” by Ubisoft back to GameFly. It’s a very interesting experience, but as a game, it’s a little underwhelming. Overall, it’s about a 7/10; PSVR owners should definitely give it a try.

That one made me motion sick in some places.

I never felt sick while playing, but getting used to walking instead of flying after I stopped was weird πŸ˜€

Most VR games don’t affect me at all. I think what might have made this different was a combination of the controls (using my head instead of my hands/fingers), and the fact that the game always puts “blinders” on you when you get close to things, to block out fast-moving surfaces.

I know nothing about the Playstation VR, but is it like the VB but in color?

UHATEIT wrote:
I know nothing about the Playstation VR, but is it like the VB but in color?

Sometimes it’s like a color VB (i.e. a screen floating in black space), but usually only during loading screens, menus, etc. Games generally fill your entire field of view, and your head is tracked so that when you move, your view changes as if you were really there.

It also has positional – rather than simply stereo – sound, so you can hear where things are, even if you can’t see them.

Your controller(s) is/are (usually) also tracked in 3D space, just like your head. This allows you to interact with things in the VR as if they were really there in relation to you and your hands.

RunnerPack wrote:

UHATEIT wrote:
I know nothing about the Playstation VR, but is it like the VB but in color?

Sometimes it’s like a color VB (i.e. a screen floating in black space), but usually only during loading screens, menus, etc. Games generally fill your entire field of view, and your head is tracked so that when you move, your view changes as if you were really there.

It also has positional – rather than simply stereo – sound, so you can hear where things are, even if you can’t see them.

Your controller(s) is/are (usually) also tracked in 3D space, just like your head. This allows you to interact with things in the VR as if they were really there in relation to you and your hands.

That does sound pretty awesome! In the interim I bought a VR headset off amazon to put my phone into, but no matter how I adjust it I get double vision because it will not adjust wide enough to match with my eyes. Seems somewhat faulty if headsets cannot be adjusted to even a normal person’s face!

I’ll also recommend Batman: Arkham VR, *especially* if you’re a Batman fan. The feeling of being Batman is something that I’ve never experienced in any other medium.

Resident Evil 7 is also a must-play on PSVR, in my opinion. The game was essentially made with VR in mind, and is one of the best examples of a full-length AAA game for a VR platform. And it’s a good game to boot.

 

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