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My Experience: Gamer/Father/Husband/VR Nut
What’s in this Review?
These are the sections I cover in my review:
- Comfort: Like Wearing a Cloud
- Experience: Creativity Is Key
- Graphics: All in Your Mind
- Wires and Set Up: Not an Issue
- Content: Lacking
- Games: My Thoughts
- Video Attached: My wife freaking out after 20 Seconds in VR
- Cinematic Mode Review
UPDATE: Drift Fix (at the bottom)
First, my previous experience:
I bought this on Launch day and have spent hours in the thing. I'm an avid gamer, and have always wanted to be an early adopter for VR but the usual price tags have scared me away. I have had other headsets for over a year (FreeFly and BoboVR) and have also tried the Oculus, and now with PSVR being affordable, I am now offically an early adopter!
So let's get into this review!
Comfort: Like Wearing a Cloud
Obviously the first thing everyone notices is how comfortably this sits on your head. My other VR headsets I could never imagine spending more than 20 minutes in them, but I can confirm that you can spend up to 1-2 hours in this before you start feeling any discomfort at all. What discomfort you ask?
- Forehead gets sweaty where the rubber piece sits, but this is manageable
- Inside the goggles start to get hot so you feel slight heat on your eyes - also manageable
- Some games strain your eyes more (Eve Valkyrie) Whereas others where your looking straight ahead aren't as bad. This actually made me stop playing a few times
I will note however that Sony are just amazing because they have a button that extends the goggles away from your eyes so you don't have to take it off to get relief from these discomforts. I found myself doing this between levels or on loading screens so my eyes could breath for a while.
Another huge benefit to this goggle extension is that you can actually interact with the real world. It's such a major plus point to able to peak around the room to re-orient myself, or to be able to switch between the tv remote/ps4 DS/Move controller/AC Remote. It's also great to quickly look around to see if anyone is laughing at how stupid you look (do you really care?).
Though it is bulky (you can feel this when you extend it and mess up the weight distribution) once its on its quite solid. No game I've played so far has caused it to shake out of position or warranted me to stop doing what I'm doing to readjust it on my head. It does not feel like any particular part of your head is in any discomfort. Afterwards your hairline in the front might feel a bit wonky, but nothing major.
Nausea. Not a single person that has tried mine so far has felt any kind of nausea. I personally get sea sick and car sick on long drives, but I have felt nothing, not even in the slightest, in PSVR. I even tried to induce it by spinning at full speed on Eve Valkyrie but nada. I'll list all my games with a short feedback at the bottom of this review.
Experience: Creativity is Key
The experience really varies based on the developer and how well they have understood the medium. Great games make use of the move controllers in ways that really immerse the user. Opening drawers in London Heist is just amazing and natural. I would be keeping my eye on an enemy, whilst opening a drawer, picking up a gun and clip and loading the gun, without taking my eyes off the enemy (Find my Amazon review for PS Worlds to see this video). This kind of immersion, where you don't need to look at something, yet know that it's still there, is just amazing. It truly pulls you into that world. Other games that are simply just ports into VR and don't make use of the 3D canvas are simply not worth it.
Jump scares are fantastic in VR. I'm totally desensitized to jump scares in Hollywood movies, you always know when they're coming. But in Rush of Blood, you'll be shooting at clowns, whilst ducking to avoid spinning razors and all of a sudden an apparition will appear right in front of you totally unexpected. Now that's good horror!
If you want your friends to try it out, I get my gamer friends to try either London Heist or Batman and my non-gamer friends I stick to Ocean Descent. All of these are fantastic in VR and exemplify the technology and its capabilities. Simple games like Thumper are EPIC in VR. You time your button pressing to the beat and when you hit the right note, it sends a signal to the end of the line with a satisfying explosion that gets your heart pumping.
Another experience that really stood out to me was doing 3D drawings in Harmonix Studio. Being able to draw in a 3D space is something that just can't be explained, you just have to experience it to understand how revolutionary it is to art. I'm not an artist, but drawing squiggly lines in 3D that pump to your music just absolutely made my night. You can spend hours in 3D drawing squiggly lines, mark my words (pun intended).
All in all PSVR is very immersive, when the developer gets it right. But can be horribly laborious and boring when they get it wrong. Loading Human sounded great on paper, but the movements just aren't right. Pulling open drawers and throwing things around just doesn't feel as natural as in London Heist or Batman. Walking just feels awkward because the character's legs move in the exact same animation whilst you move like Donkey Kongs legs on a Game&Watch (remember those?). I keep popping this back into my console to give it another chance (I paid for it after all), but really can't stand the rigid gameplay mechanics.
Graphics: It's all in your mind
So many people are complaining about the graphics being low resolution. Yes, they are. But all my friends who tried it just mentioned that as an afterthought. It really does not take away from the experience to have things in low resolution. Job simulator was just a cartoon virtual reality and it was my wife's favorite game. She had a ball of a time figuring out how to make coffee and overload it with sugar, just to chuck it at the guy in the cubicle next door.
I think the real issue with graphics is when a game is trying too hard to look realistic. Ocean Descent and London Heist are good examples of this. Yes they do a fantastic job, but because the subject matter is so "real world" it's a target for people to notice that "it just doesn't look real enough". They make up for it by having awesome shark jump scares and satisfying gun and hand mechanisms that feel natural. I remember how my friends mind simply blew when I told him he can stand up and shoot over the counter, or that he can lean out the window and shoot over the car to the other side.
Wires and Set Up: Not an Issue
Almost everyone has complained that there is too many wires to the point that it looks like snakes and ladders over your carpet. I totally disagree. If you have a smart setup for your TV top then really its no fuss. My wife is an absolute neat freak and she hasn't even once told me off (yet). The wires that come out the back of the processing unit get hidden behind your TV counter. The wires that connect from the front to your headset, you just have to remove when your done and store away. This just leaves the one wire that goes from the front of the ps4 to the processing unit, which I disconnect after each play and let it hang behind my counter. It's not enough work to make me feel like not doing it so I don't hold any grudges against Sony for this. However, if you have no TV counter to hide the wires behind then you will have at least 3 additional wires to manage on the back of the processessing unit (HDMI, Power and USB). At this juncture I'd just like to note that it wasn't too long ago that we had wired controllers and nobody complained then that wires are sprawled all over the floor from the console to the controller, so why are people getting all huffpuffed over this? I'll try to post a picture of my set up to illustrate that it is possible to have this set up without looking anything like how people have been describing it online.
Content: Lacking
I was so excited for so many of the launch titles, but unfortunately most of them have been disappointments. This is a major point and the main reason I have not given the PSVR 4 stars and not 5. The device is totally dependent on having awesome content that makes use of its capabilities. Some may say it's wrong to penalize a review for a device because of the content of 3rd party developers not being up to par, but we have to be honest here. If the content is not good, then VR will fail and none of us want to do that so we have to raise our concerns to everyone involved. Besides, this is my personal review so if you disagree with anything then feel free to leave me a comment and question and I'll respond within minutes. UPDATE: Everyone had really high hopes for Robinson which just released. Now reviewers are saying that although graphics are great, gameplay is terrible and not thought out well. Just goes to prove this point further.
Games: My Thoughts
So here is the list of games that I have bought and tried extensively.
Eve Valkyrie: The first time you launch from... no scratch that... EVERY TIME you launch from the launch pad is just an amazing feeling. The game itself is rooted in solid game play and mechanics that feel natural. You need internet to play this game. I mean even just to get it to run, you need to have internet and to be connected to PSN. If you really want to have any fun with it then you'll also need a PSN Plus account so you can play with other humans. When you play with the bots you'll just be flying in circles trying to get to them and they'll be flying in the same circle over and over. Playing with other humans online is really fun.
PS Worlds:These 5 mini games, though exemplify the technology well, don’t offer any replayability. You’ll try them once or twice and then only load it again when you have visitors. But that’s where it really shines. When it comes to showing off the technology, people want short bursts of VR goodness, which is what this offers. It’s really funny to see if people can make it through Ocean Descent without freaking out. I’ll try attaching a video of my wife bugging out when the lights in the cage go out. - MY FULL REVIEW LINK (with video): https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/R1DPHD9TW9Z5HT/ref=cm_cr_rdp_perm
Batman: Guests will be wooed by PS worlds, as for you, your first experience really should be batman. Good graphics, great motion tracking and overall a fun experience for your first dive into VR. Once again, it is quite short and can pretty much only be played once or twice before you want to go onto other things.
Rush of Blood: Okay, this is one game that pretty much did everything right. They were aiming for an on-the-rails shooter with lots of jump scares and that’s exactly what it is. Tracking is great, depth is used well and it just basically works really well for VR. This is a MUST BUY game. Nothing freaks me out normally, but this game constantly has me jumping back in fright and emptying a clip after clip in a panic stricken frenzy. Just awesome.
Loading Human – Chapter 1: Please don’t buy this game. It’s just wrong and sets a bad premise for how VR games should be. Although at times the visuals can be pretty good, the game play and motion tracking is just terrible. Your hands don’t feel natural when you interact with objects, and that’s the biggest mood killer in VR. When you find yourself adjusting the way you would normally do things, just so that your VR avatar will insert a key straight? No thanks.
Call of Duty: The Jackal Mission: This was pretty cool. Considering it’s free I would highly recommend everyone downloads a copy of this (only 1.2 gb) from the Playstore. The gameplay is fun and although it’s only 5 minutes, it does inch just a little closer to the Ace Combat style game that we’re all waiting for.
Some honorable mentions: Thumper feels epic in VR. Job Simulator is pretty cool and can keep you busy for hours. Harmonix VR drawing in 3D is a game changer. UPDATE: I bought Job Simulator after playing the demo over and over (and after convincing my wife it was the same price as a meal for 2 at Nandos). I'm already super bored; there simply isn't enough humour or creative flexibility to keep me coming back to play it.
UPDATE ON CINEMATIC MODE:
Yesterday I decided to stop with the VR for a while so I could finish Rise of the Tomb Raider. After a few minutes I thought, let me just TRY cinematic mode and see if it's as bad as people say. I played for a while and played in the Large mode, but it wasn't working out. It's simply too big and you end up having to look around too much (only the center is focused fully, peripheral vision is a bit blurry). Then I switched to medium mode and played for an hour or so. My observations were surprising:
- It does immerse you more into the game. The screen is still gigantic in medium mode and you feel more up close and personal with the action.
- The sound does something no reviewer raves enough about. It actually works like a perfectly set up surround sound. The center (voice channel) is virtually infront of you etc. This means when I turn my head when Lara's talking then it feels like it's coming from infront of me whilst the dripping of the cave and wind still comes from everywhere. So if I look left, then Lara's voice is in my right ear, simulating the center channel coming from the screen (where Lara is). This was also very impressive and immersing.
- The colours "pop" more in PSVR - After an hour I told myself, let me go back to my 50 inch LCD and surely I'll realize why people were complaining about cinematic mode. I lasted about 5 minutes playing the usual way before switching back to VR. It was simply not fun playing on the dull tiny (in comparison) TV screen.
- After this I'm a bit worried as I really don't know how I'll go back to generic gaming
- Having said so Fifa 17 was not enjoyable in Cinematic Mode. It just seemed like it wasn't worth strapping a contraption on your head since most of FIFA is about the fun of strategy and skill (and not immersion). To illustrate this point, just think that you could play FIFA without sound and it would almost equally as fun.
UPDATE: DRIFT FIX
So one thing that I haven't mentioned that nags at me every time I play PSVR is the fact that the world drifts to the left every time I play. On some games holding start will recenter the world, but on other games it permanently keeps drifting and holding start does not recenter. I found a work around this problem that I'm surprised to have not read online yet.
When this happens there's 2 methods I have used to recenter the image (after you check that there's no lighting interference).
Method 1
Move your head left and right a few times to your fullest extent. Then look ahead and the VR world will be centered again. You look like an idiot doing this but at least it helps you see straight!
Method 2
2. Walk right up to the camera and do the same thing closer to the camera. Then just back up and the world should be centered.
As soon as I have videos of the above methods I'll post them. Hope this helps someone out there!
Everything above is just my humble opinion. Does yours differ? Have any questions? Please let me know in the comments and I’ll make sure to respond asap.
Thanks for listening, and remember …*Puts on headset…*forgets punchline
