VR has arrived, and it’s only taken most of my life to get here. Ever since I was a kid and was introduced to the concept of virtual reality (mostly in books) I’ve been imagining what this day would be like.
You see, a lot of people play games to get a high score, to waste time or to interact with fun gameplay mechanics. Me? I’ve always been introverted. I spend my time day dreaming about more exciting things than can ever happen in reality. I play games for pure unadulterated escapism. Make me someone else, take me somewhere else, let me get away from just being a boring white, male, human on the planet earth. When I play games, I put sense of immersion above all else. And so, it’s been with great anticipation that I’ve waited for the day when virtual reality would come.
Is that day finally here? No… However, it’s a great first step. It’s no holodeck, it’s no “Ready Player One”, but the virtual reality of today is a huge leap in the way we game and the immersion that we can feel while we are playing.
The Playstation VR is Sony’s offering for this modern virtual reality generation. It’s expensive in Canada, but that wasn’t going to stop me. Like I said, I’ve been waiting my whole life for this.
After setting up my unit (which took a little while, there are many, many cords) I decided to check out the included demo disc of 18 games. First, I jumped in to a short demo of EVE: Valkyrie which is a space dog fighting simulator. Immediately upon being deposited in the cockpit of the fighter I took stock of my surroundings. I can tell you, there’s nothing like your first time. Just seeing things in front of you is amazing. You can almost reach out and touch them. With the 3D element of VR it emulates your real eyes enough that you can perceive depth very naturally. Then there’s the ability to get closer and further away from things. You can lean right in physically and put your virtual eyes right up to computer displays in the cockpit. You can lean left and right and look around or over things. Finally, you can turn around and look directly behind you. While normally all you’d see is whatever is behind your couch, now all you see is more of the game world. No matter where you look, you’re in the game.
As my fighter was launched into space, I felt the sensation of a rollercoaster. My stomach felt like it went up into my throat very briefly. It was very convincing. After getting in my first dog fight and chasing down a particularly elusive enemy, I felt myself getting mad. Not a “this game is too hard” mad, more of a “this pilot is really good and he’s making me look bad. I’m totally going to take him down!” mad. It was working. I was immersed. I was a space fighter pilot. When I realized that, I got giddy. Purchase justified. Another notable experience was Batman: Arkham VR. This game uses the Playstation Move controllers to simulate your hands in the virtual space. You can reach out to pick up things and it’s all fairly intuitive. Going down into the Batcave, suiting up and testing out all of Batman’s gadgets, looking at yourself in the mirror. You will believe you’re Batman.
Once you’ve played a game like Batman that has VR “hands” you’ll realize that any VR that let’s you have “hands” is like VRx2. This is the innovation that motion controls were waiting for. I always thought of motion controls like those of the Wii as a gimmick and I still think they were. Back then we would waggle our controllers and the little character on screen would emulate us. It was like controlling a puppet. Now though, we may still be waggling controllers but this time we’re also waggling our own hands. It’s 1 to 1. You move your hand up, down, left, right, in or out and it works the same as in real life. It’s hard to explain but it blows your mind.
The PSVR headset itself is very comfortable. While the Rift and Vive strap to the front of your face and feel like a weight on the front of your head, the PSVR uses a “headband/welder’s mask” design where the weight is evenly distributed around your head and the screen itself is attached to the band, hanging in front of your face rather than strapped to it.
Still, it’s not all roses. The screen resolution on PSVR (and Rift/Vive) isn’t nearly the same as we are used to with our HD TVs. But once the game starts going and the immersion begins you will quickly forget about it. Also, from time to time I’ve gotten tangled in cables but it’s a necessary evil at this time. The tech just isn’t there yet to make these things wireless.
I’m still working my way through all the games and game demos that I have, but so far this experience has been revolutionary in a way that is comparable to the first time I played a 3D platformer such as Mario 64 after playing 8 and 16 bit games my whole life. I think VR is going to give game development the shot in the arm that it’s needed in a while. I believe games have stagnated in the last two generations. Besides better graphics, there isn’t much being done on PS4 and Xbone that couldn’t have been done on PS3 or 360. We get the same genres of game over and over. With VR, this is a new way to interact with the medium of video games, and if developers are creative enough they should be able to bring us completely new and unique experiences unlike anything that could ever be done on a conventional console and television combo.
So while my dream of complete virtual escape isn’t quite here, the PSVR is a great first leap toward that holodeck future that I’ve always dreamed of.