Anybody excited for VR?

Reserved for modern gaming discussions.
User avatar
VideoGameCritic
Site Admin
Posts: 18104
Joined: April 1st, 2015, 7:23 pm

Anybody excited for VR?

Postby VideoGameCritic » February 13th, 2020, 10:02 pm

For the last few years I've been seeing articles about the latest VR equipment and how THIS TIME it's going to put the medium over the top but it never quite catches on. Outside of a niche audience, people just don't seem psyched up about it.

I tried it once (PS VR), and while I was initially wowed, it's not something I'm chomping at the bit to invest in. Maybe it's like a Disney illusion ride - amazing for a day but after a few days it would get stale.

Thoughts?

Shapur
Posts: 277
Joined: July 31st, 2015, 8:10 pm

Re: Anybody excited for VR?

Postby Shapur » February 13th, 2020, 11:28 pm

I genuinely enjoy VR. More videos or experience kind of things than video games but it can be quite amazing.

The problem is at this time there is too little standardization, too little software. The headset needs to be standalone or universally compatible with various devices. Make it like a TV. Plug your PC, your Xbox your PlayStation or whatever into it.

I’m tempted, but it’s just too much money and too much uncertainty.

User avatar
VideoGameCritic
Site Admin
Posts: 18104
Joined: April 1st, 2015, 7:23 pm

Re: Anybody excited for VR?

Postby VideoGameCritic » February 15th, 2020, 8:51 am

I think you hit the nail on the head. People are reluctant to invest a lot of dough in something that will be replaced in six months by the next big thing.

User avatar
ASalvaro
Posts: 745
Joined: May 24th, 2019, 11:51 pm

Re: Anybody excited for VR?

Postby ASalvaro » February 16th, 2020, 12:06 pm

I have a cheap $39 vr headset and it's awesome with the app called Cinever..it's a free movie theater app where you can invite your friends to watch movies with you..its like your really in a movie theatre..as for games there is this interesting VR Pac Man game where your in the maze that was cool for a couple minutes but other than that nothing too exciting so far

User avatar
C64_Critic
Posts: 440
Joined: April 11th, 2015, 11:51 am

Re: Anybody excited for VR?

Postby C64_Critic » February 16th, 2020, 6:16 pm

I wouldn't say I'm chomping at the bit, but certainly the next PC I build I'm going to make sure it's got the juice to run the latest and greatest PC VR wear. I don't know that I'd use it a ton, but I do think it's a really interesting technology and I'd want to delve into it from time to time.

ThePixelatedGenocide
Posts: 1232
Joined: April 29th, 2015, 9:06 pm

Re: Anybody excited for VR?

Postby ThePixelatedGenocide » February 17th, 2020, 4:28 am

I'm excited for it.

But.

I've tried two different kinds of VR. The arcade version was like wearing a headmounted 3ds, in terms of immersion. The actual game looked like it ran on the Half-Life 2 engine, but only my head movement mattered. And the camera was just a traditional on rails game camera otherwise...there was no sense of actually being in the game. It was more like owning an impossible television that completely surrounds you.

Also, there was just one enemy type. And their fallen bodies never got the message to stop running. This combined with the ragdoll physics to provide the only suspense in the game.

Cute, but disappointing. And not even worth the 7 bucks it cost to play it.

The other style, which was a free store demonstration, almost looked like it ran on a Nuon. Although the graphics and flat textures were an impossibly high resolution, the engine was sparing polygons and lighting where ever they could, and not just for a retro feel. But it wrecked my ability to separate reality from fiction, in terms of where my body was and what it was doing.

It tracked everything. Or at least, it tracked enough to make me regret not knowing more about how VR technology works. I could have spent longer just staring at my VR hands interacted with the VR guns.

It was like being in a dream. The fight against enemy ships fighting in Star Raiders formation was a primitive pre-crash gameplay, but also more intense than anything Star Wars ever offered. And after the game finished, it was easy for the asshole developers to screw around with my flawed memory of what the actual store display looked like, and offer computer generated analogs that weren't an exact match, so I'd look completely ridiculous trying to interact with them.

My primitive meat-brain completely gave up, and to this day, insists that this experience is as important as the first time I flew to another country.

That's the kind of VR I'm excited for.

User avatar
MSR1701
Posts: 1509
Joined: April 29th, 2019, 7:53 am

Re: Anybody excited for VR?

Postby MSR1701 » February 17th, 2020, 7:11 am

VR? Virtua Racing? ;-)

Not a fan of Virtual Reality, the tech isn't there to be as immersive as they make it out to be without having the income of a small country.

User avatar
Retro STrife
Posts: 2531
Joined: August 3rd, 2015, 7:40 pm

Re: Anybody excited for VR?

Postby Retro STrife » February 17th, 2020, 2:32 pm

I have PS VR, owned it for about a year, and it is always hooked up to my PS4.. And I have about 10-15 games for it.

I give that preface, because DESPITE THAT, I have only played it 5 times or less in that entire year!

Why? Two main reasons. First, it feels like a hassle. In reality, PS VR doesn’t take much to start up and play (if you keep it connected). But I play games to relax. I want to grab my controller and start up a game. But VR isn’t relaxing. It takes 5 minutes to get your headset ready to play, and you can’t relax while wearing it. Even when I play it, it’s best for short arcade-style experiences. I don’t want to play a 20 hour game in VR.

Second reason- motion sickness. Somehow I don’t hear this complaint come up frequently, but it makes some games unplayable for me. FPS games are especially tough on me. Or any other game with walking involved. Walking around the environment in VR induces killer nausea, making me sick for awhile afterward (hours afterward sometimes) and killing my mood to play it again.

VR is cool to show friends, and fun in short bursts (for example, try Space Pirate Trainer as a showcase of an awesome experience you can only have in VR), but I don’t think it should ever become the standard.

djc
Posts: 279
Joined: September 24th, 2016, 3:42 pm

Re: Anybody excited for VR?

Postby djc » February 17th, 2020, 11:22 pm

For Christmas this year, I got my two younger kids the Oculus Go and my oldest got the Oculus Quest. I own a Samsung Gear VR which is kind of like the Go so I was pretty familiar with it. There are some good games on the Go but it's limited primarily to experiences (e.g. roller coasters, rail shooters) and media consumption. Most games are played either sitting or standing in one spot.

The Quest however is really impressive in how immersive it is because you have complete freedom of movement (within boundaries you define). Some of the games I have tried are simply amazing and I can easily see this kind of technology becoming more popular. To paraphrase EA, you really do feel in the game. On that note, I would love to see some more sports games come out for this where you play in first person as one of the players.

Gleebergloben123
Posts: 474
Joined: April 8th, 2015, 12:06 am

Re: Anybody excited for VR?

Postby Gleebergloben123 » February 18th, 2020, 8:44 am

djc wrote: The Quest however is really impressive in how immersive it is because you have complete freedom of movement (within boundaries you define). Some of the games I have tried are simply amazing and I can easily see this kind of technology becoming more popular. To paraphrase EA, you really do feel in the game. On that note, I would love to see some more sports games come out for this where you play in first person as one of the players.


Good to hear. I just got my Oculus Quest yesterday (present from my wife) and I’m looking forward to giving it a spin today. Any games you recommend? Right now I just downloaded the Star Wars games that came with the package.


Return to “Modern Gaming”