PlayStationVR: My experience

[StrickenBiged]

Hey PSNP,

 

I was lucky enough to be able to try out PlaystationVR at EGX yesterday. With the PlayStationVR launching in the next 6-9 months or so, many of us are skeptical about the technology and whether it can have an impact on our gaming habits.

 

First of all, I should state that I only got to try one game, Battlezone, which is a VR update of a longstanding game franchise by the same name. Here's the PSVR trailer: 

 

 

Now, having got that out of the way, let me share my thoughts on PSVR.

 

The device

 

PSVR is very comfortable. I was only playing for 10-15 minutes, granted, but the device felt light and was very well padded on my head. Before my demo, the attendant warned me that the blue lights at the PlayStation booth might interfere with the PS4's camera picking up the lights on the device itself, and not to panic if my in-game view suddenly starts spinning around like I was the little girl from The Exorcist. Thankfully, that didn't happen to me. 

 

The device itself wasn't in my hands for very long as the attendant placed it on my head and adjusted the fit for me. However, the plastic felt reasonably sturdy but has obviously been made from lightweight material. Like most of my gaming devices, I wouldn't want to drop it in any event, however, from what I got to touch I wouldn't rate the PSVR's chances of surviving a drop as highly as I would rate my DualShock4's. 

 

The view

 

So, once the PSVR was on my head, the first thing I noticed was a bit of double vision on objects that were "closer" to my face. I suspect that, as it was a demonstration event, the attendants wouldn't have the time to calibrate it for the distance between my pupils. This double vision abated once the "Insert Coin" text faded away and I was in the game looking at faraway objects. 

 

One other thing I noticed was that I could see the black lines between pixels when objects were "close" too. This probably occurs because your eyes are focusing on a virtual nearby object and, consequently, you end up seeing the real nearby screen inside the PSVR. Again, this effect was not present when I focused my attention on faraway virtual objects. 

 

The screen inside the PSVR refreshes at 120Hz, i.e. the framerate is 120 frames per second. Gameplay felt smooth and "real" as a consequence; there were no drops in frame rate.

 

While wearing the PSVR you cannot see the outside world unless you look down (with your eyeballs, not your head) as far as possible. When looking straight ahead, all you can see are the PSVR screens and the game world. It really is very immersive. 

 

The feel of the game - Battlezone

 

I'm not going to focus on the game itself (it was a fairly generic shoot-at-tanks game). I'm going to talk about whether and how PSVR made this game different to how the same game might be presented using a traditional console-TV configuration.

 

The game opens with you in the cockpit of some sort of mech or tank, itself in an underground hangar, about to be launched to the surface to do battle. Your character is piloting this vehicle, so it feels natural to be seated while the machine moves around the game world. There were a few, brief, moments where I felt like I was missing the feeling of acceleration when the mech would move, but once I imagined that the mech had some fancy sci-fi inertia dampener, this feeling immediately went away.

 

The game is controlled with a DS4, left stick to move, right stick to rotate camera and aim, triggers to fire, etc. By moving your head, your character looks around through the windows of his cockpit, but you still need to rotate your vehicle to aim at the enemies and shoot them. Cleverly, the game's radar was part of your mech, and you had to look down at your dashboard to see it. This is in contrast to non-VR games where the mini-map or radar is usually locked in the lower left corner of the screen. 

 

Overall, it felt natural to play and to move around in the environment. The feeling of disconnect between what was happening on screen and the lack of inertia affecting my body was shortlived but could be a problem for players more prone to motion sickness or following an extended play session. 

 

Verdict

 

It's still to early, for me at least, to tell whether I'd be interested in buying a PSVR for myself. I still want to know what games I will be able to play on the PSVR, and how VR makes those experiences unique. A game like Battlezone, at least based on the 10-15 minutes I had with the game, would not sell the system to me. Something like No Man's Sky on the other hand, might. 

 

In terms of comfort with the device, my only concerns are being able to make out the pixels in front of my eyes and whether I will be able to calibrate the screens inside the device to fit with the distance between my pupils in order to get rid of that irritating double vision effect I had with some in game objects. If that calibration isn't possible, then this won't be a device for me as it simply doesn't fit my eyes perfectly. 

 

It also waits to be seen how much the PSVR and games made for it will cost. Based on what I played, I'd have said that £150 would be a fair price that might tempt me to buy one (especially considering I'd have to buy a camera in any event and PSMove devices in order to play certain games), but with Sony making statements like "The PSVR should be considered its own console, not an accessory for the PS4", I wouldn't be surprised if they wanted to charge double that come next spring. The attendants at the Sony booth had no idea what the price would be when I asked. 

 

____________

 

I probably missed out a few things in this write up. If you have any questions, post them below and I'll answer what I can. Like I say, my experience was only about 10-15 minutes long, but I'll do my best. 

 

Thanks all. 

[soniq]

Something like No Man's Sky on the other hand, might.

Thanks for posting your impressions.

 

EVE: Valkyrie is pretty much the only reason I'd want PSVR.

[StrickenBiged]

Thanks for posting your impressions.

 

EVE: Valkyrie is pretty much the only reason I'd want PSVR.

 

Unfortunately, I didn't get to play the space warfare game that they had in the booth next door. 

 

My friend was given a go with Kitchen, and he came away from it drenched in sweat and said that he spent the whole thing screaming like a child. Horror games in VR will be something else I think, as you wont be able to just look away from the screen if it gets too much for you. 

[ultraomega22]

Unfortunately, I didn't get to play the space warfare game that they had in the booth next door. 

 

My friend was given a go with Kitchen, and he came away from it drenched in sweat and said that he spent the whole thing screaming like a child. Horror games in VR will be something else I think, as you wont be able to just look away from the screen if it gets too much for you. 

 

it would be cool if P.T/Slient Hills come out for it but that nerver gonna happen stupid konami

[damon8r351]

Nothing that changes my mind from this being the next Playstation Move/Microsoft Kinect.

[StrickenBiged]

it would be cool if P.T/Slient Hills come out for it but that nerver gonna happen stupid konami

 

I'm not so sure if a game where your character is walking would feel as good as Battlezone did. Like I say, being seated in a mech, it felt natural to be seated IRL. Making your character walk around, while your body stays still, might not feel good. I'm speculating though. 

 

This is the horrible woman from Kitchen, that made my friend freak out.

 

Nothing that changes my mind from this being the next Playstation Move/Microsoft Kinect.

 

You may well be right. It needs games that people will actually want to play in VR, not just gimmicky games like those devices got. 

[ultraomega22]

I'm not so sure if a game where your character is walking would feel as good as Battlezone did. Like I say, being seated in a mech, it felt natural to be seated IRL. Making your character walk around, while your body stays still, might not feel good. I'm speculating though. 

 

This is the horrible woman from Kitchen, that made my friend freak out.

 

 

You may well be right. It needs games that people will actually want to play in VR, not just gimmicky games like those devices got. 

 

just thinking the same thing, im just hoping some good games come out for it

[CasaDeBen]

I'm not so sure if a game where your character is walking would feel as good as Battlezone did. Like I say, being seated in a mech, it felt natural to be seated IRL. Making your character walk around, while your body stays still, might not feel good. I'm speculating though. 

 

This is the horrible woman from Kitchen, that made my friend freak out.

 

 

You may well be right. It needs games that people will actually want to play in VR, not just gimmicky games like those devices got.

Thats straight up evil dead remake

[StrickenBiged]

Thats straight up evil dead remake

 

You mean my Google-fu found the wrong image, or that this model looks like the monster from the movie?

[CasaDeBen]

Just do evil dead on google. Youll find classic and that. So yah google fu failed you

[StrickenBiged]

Just do evil dead on google. Youll find classic and that. So yah google fu failed you

 

I think you are right. Maybe there are no screen grabs because Sony don't want the experience spoiled. My bad.

Edited September 28, 2015 by StrickenBiged

[Neputyunu]

Skeptical, well, at first I was like "Eroges would be basicly the only interesting games for that." I mean, who actually cares for 3D eg? But somehow I want to try a 3D porn. But that would be a waaaay to expensive experiment. So its never going to happen.

However, I saw then a called "My eyes are up here, baka!" ...

...

...

...

SOLD!

 

Just kidding. Im not an "early adapter" aka that idiots who are buying everything day1 and are then crying a river. Why should I buy four PS4 when I can wait for a "stable" PS4 that even costs less? And why people havnt learned from lastgen? However, Im still waiting on the PS4, Im not in a hurry. PSVR can wait some years.  Maybe its then free from childillness or however you would call that in english. But to be honest, I dont see a reason for VR. Guess that would still take decades.

[StrickenBiged]

Just kidding. Im not an "early adapter" aka that idiots who are buying everything day1 and are then crying a river. Why should I buy four PS4 when I can wait for a "stable" PS4 that even costs less? And why people havnt learned from lastgen? However, Im still waiting on the PS4, Im not in a hurry. PSVR can wait some years.  Maybe its then free from childillness or however you would call that in english. But to be honest, I dont see a reason for VR. Guess that would still take decades.

 

*Childishness*

 

If people waited for there to be a reason for every new invention, nothing would ever happen. Why do we need cars when we have the horse and cart? Well, it's to get there faster and in greater comfort. With VR, no we don't need it to play games, but then neither did we need 3D worlds, near photorealistic graphics, controllers with anything more than a D pad and a jump button, etc, in order to play games. 

 

Maybe I came across as overly negative about the tech in my experience, and that may be because the game was not one which I would have chosen to try, but it really was very good at making me feel like I was there, running around this weird city, blasting tanks to little pieces. I was very impressed. My misgivings are not about the quality of the tech (apart from that double vision thing, I'm really hoping you can calibrate that out) or its comfort. My main misgivings are that the game I got to try wasn't very fun and, given that you really need to try VR in order to get a sense of the immersiveness, I'd want to try most games before I bought any of them. 

 

That, and the price, which remains a big question-mark over the whole thing.

[CasaDeBen]

I think you are right. Maybe there are no screen grabs because Sony don't want the experience spoiled. My bad.

No worries. Its a pretty terrifying picture. But i know my horror movies pretty good. Oh ps thanks for the write up lol

[Xionx]

Hm , everyone who think about future gaming (SiFi) imagine some kind of VR.  So in my opinion it is an important step to future gaming and something new.  I dont really see the compare to kinect and move , in my opinion both of them flopped because gamers dont want to jump around in the room or dont even have the space to do this . And both of these issues are not here in VR-gaming .  Price is maybe high but PS4 was expansive too and a lot ppl bought it on the first weeks/months so i dont see problem with that.

Only big problem i see is , when no games are comming out for VR (or no big games ... indy support will be big).  Even with a huge game library ppl still say that vita is dead , so i hope VR getting good AAA support so ppl dont bitch around on this topic .

[Satoshi Ookami]

Nice you posted your opinion. Too bad they didn't present Summer Lesson which is obvious system seller.

Also, I would like to ask, do you happen to know if all the games will require DS4?

I wouldn't mind, but I would want to feel true VR and I'm not sure if holding DS4 wouldn't be a bit non-VR 

 

 

 

However, I saw then a called "My eyes are up here, baka!" ...

If anyone actually uses it, it would be rip-off

https://psnprofiles.com/trophy/2680-XBLAZE-CODE-EMBRYO/22-Hey-My-eyes-are-up-HERE

 

 

 

Only big problem i see is , when no games are comming out for VR (or no big games ... indy support will be big).  Even with a huge game library ppl still say that vita is dead , so i hope VR getting good AAA support so ppl dont bitch around on this topic .

If no AAA games, Japan to the rescue

Edited September 28, 2015 by Satoshi Ookami

[Neputyunu]

*Childishness*

 

If people waited for there to be a reason for every new invention, nothing would ever happen. Why do we need cars when we have the horse and cart? Well, it's to get there faster and in greater comfort. With VR, no we don't need it to play games, but then neither did we need 3D worlds, near photorealistic graphics, controllers with anything more than a D pad and a jump button, etc, in order to play games. 

 

Maybe I came across as overly negative about the tech in my experience, and that may be because the game was not one which I would have chosen to try, but it really was very good at making me feel like I was there, running around this weird city, blasting tanks to little pieces. I was very impressed. My misgivings are not about the quality of the tech (apart from that double vision thing, I'm really hoping you can calibrate that out) or its comfort. My main misgivings are that the game I got to try wasn't very fun and, given that you really need to try VR in order to get a sense of the immersiveness, I'd want to try most games before I bought any of them. 

 

That, and the price, which remains a big question-mark over the whole thing.

 

Sorry for the longquote, but its meh to delete everything on Vita

However, I meant childsickness or whatever. You know, the problems new stuff always has

This is why Im always waiting. The price is a bonus, but its more secondary.

[StrickenBiged]

Nice you posted your opinion. Too bad they didn't present Summer Lesson which is obvious system seller.

Also, I would like to ask, do you happen to know if all the games will require DS4?

I wouldn't mind, but I would want to feel true VR and I'm not sure if holding DS4 wouldn't be a bit non-VR 

 

I don't think all games will require a DS4. The Heist, for example, requires 2 Move controllers because you will be using them to show representations of your hands in-game. 

 

The DS4 felt natural to me. Game controllers are so well developed, that even the military uses them to control IRL drones. Skip to 0:14 in the below video

 

 

With IRL uses for games controllers like this, it's east to imagine that your mech might be piloted by using something similar.

Edited September 28, 2015 by StrickenBiged