There are moments in life which really hit you, which knock you down into your seat and make you say, ‘holy crap, I’m living in the future’. Some of these moments are fairly innocuous, like when I found out I could control youtube on my Xbox using my PC, but some moments shake you to your core, and seriously make you consider the tech available today, and what’s coming next. I had one of these moments last week when I finally got my hands on a PSVR. It wasn’t at an exhibition or a shop, it was in a home and I could finally spend an extended period of time with it. A good friend of mine messaged me and said ‘Hey, I just got VR, let’s try it out’ and I was there within minutes, eager to see whether it was revolutionary, or just another fad.
Gaming hasn’t had many breakthrough moments; The core experience has remained relatively unchanged for the past 30 years. The first revolution was the introduction of the home console, and since then, while graphics and gameplay have gotten substantially better, the console gaming experience is still sitting in front of your TV with a controller.
There were a few interludes and experiments with different forms of control, like the PlayStation EyeToy and eventually the Kinect, but they weren’t major. Don’t get me wrong, the Kinect was fun, it was a cool piece of tech. I like how it recognised me when I walked past my Xbox and it said hello, I liked the voice controls, and some of the games we’re pretty fun at a party; but it wasn’t revolutionary. It didn’t rock the boat of gaming, it wasn’t blowing anyone’s mind. As soon as I put on the VR headset however, I knew this was different, this was on another level. This was the next revolution.
The level of immersion I felt was just too high for it not to be. For my first taste I booted up VR Worlds, a demo disc of sorts with 5 short experiences, four of them are proper games and one is a cinematic show, which I’ll get into with a bit more detail momentarily. London Heist was the first, an ‘on rails’ first person shooter where two PlayStation Move controllers represent each of your hands, which you use to interact with your surroundings.
It starts off with you in the dark, at a desk, with a flashlight in one hand, and a voice in your ear telling you to search through all the drawers till you find the jewels, I open the first draw and inside is a gun and some ammo. I immediately drop the flashlight, grab the ammo in one hand, the gun in the other, and slide the magazine into the gun, and nothing in all my years of gaming has ever felt so satisfying. Suddenly lights are flashing, bad guys are everywhere, and I have to shoot my way out of the situation. In an instant I’m hunched up, hiding behind the desk, sitting up to pop my head out, see where the enemies are, and holding my arm over my head to shoot over the desk, while using my other hand to search draws for more ammo as my aiming is awful and I’m expending entire magazines on single bad guys.
My heart is pounding, the adrenaline is pumping, I feel alive. I can’t get a giant grin off my face. This is the gaming experience I’ve waited so long for.
The other notable experience on the disk is called Ocean Descent. You load it up and the game drops you in a shark tank just below the surface of the ocean, and you’re told you’re going to descend to explore the depths below. Looking up and seeing the surface of the water I had a serious sensual meltdown and my brain took a moment to register I wasn’t really underwater and that I could still breath. As the cage started to descend, I was spinning around in my chair, admiring all the underwater sights as various sea life floated past me, it was sublime. Then, as the light started to fade, and I moved deeper into the murk, I remembered the caption on the main menu ‘watch out for the shark’ and I knew something was about to go wrong, and without spoiling the experience too much, it certainly did, and it was genuinely terrifying.
These two short experiences alone cemented the fact that this tech really was going to change things. The graphics weren’t mind blowing, sure, but this will only get better, and for now, it didn’t need to be, it still showed the capabilities of the tech, and the extreme potential it has. It’s early day’s still. The controllers are intuitive but still a burden, and one day I’m sure will go away for good, to be replaced with force feedback capable gloves or something of the sort, minority report style. For now it’s first generation tech, but no longer a concept to be showed at events, it’s in our homes, and it’s ready for full-length AAA titles. The crazy science fiction of the past is becoming realised.
I don’t think VR will replace all gaming, I still enjoy a split screen party experience, although these are disappearing and rare to come by. People will own TV’s for other reasons and there’s a market there to fill, but when the cost barrier comes down, and the VR market expands, there’s no doubt this will become the dominant form of gaming, and people will look back and wonder why we used to have to play games with the screen so far away from our faces.
Shay Hine @shayhine
Gamers Classified
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I'd love to be able to play with these, maybe In the future :)
It will only get better in the future :)
I know It's very exciting :)
From what I hear, about this one particular game, the tech isn’t quite there to realise it, but I would just love love love to have a stab at Elite Dangerous in VR. Especially if they get around to getting planetary variety and space legs on the go.
I am keen to see if Star Citizen is going to offer anything on the VR front too.
They would be exciting installments, that is for sure!
I want to try VR. I wonder ho does it feel to play some gmes in VR. It has to be amzing and fun.
It is definitely worth trying however it is very steep in price at the moment however exciting times for the gaming industry!
It sure is.
Hey @gamersclassified , nice article on VR , i haven't seen a lot of coverage on it beyond the basics of what it is and does. I have had a VR headset since july 2017, but have focused on free online content which is kind of lacking in my opinion, i made a couple of articles if you are interested
Virtual Reality (VR) Best Things To Do For Free
Free Virtual Reality Content is 90% porn 10% Everything Else
I feel the VR titles lack a "complete" gaming experience, but found that playing first person style retro games in a quazi VR set up actually provided a new and far more immersive perspective for these dated titles and provided a complete gaming experience, the graphics were also not as much of an issues as i thought they would be, i definitely suggest you try it.
Anyway good work on the article, keep up the focus on VR, im planning a few more articles in the near future, will be good to have some more people making commentary on this advancing technology. resteemed and upvoted.
Will check out your content! Thank you for the feedback :)
All good, i run a pretty mixed bag of articles, i have about 3-4 that are gaming specific so far, new one loaded and ready to fire within the next couple of days. definitely looking to interact with like minded people for good discussion on gaming. also followed you.
i have also VR that is pretty much beautiful.. and awsm gaming experience
One step closer to making the virtual world a reality!
Great post @gamersclassified I have an oculus rift and I love it. But don't spend enough time on it.
Thank you mate! If you have got one be sure to use every second of it :)
I play Xbox too much that's my problem :)
I wonder how much time it will take for us (human kind) to be able to develop some kind of immersive gear that will make us able to feel/smell/sense things that are on a game.
That would be amazing!
Wow, the PSVR sounds pretty cool. I've been playing the PS (2, 3, 4) for years. The graphics get a big booster but the game play is very similar. I will certainly consider trying what appears to be the next big step in gaming.
The virtual reality has taken us to another level the way to be immersed in a game, these are accompanied by accessories such as gloves, helmets and lenses that aims to create in the user the feeling of being inside the place, accompanied by images and sounds that recreate an environment artificially and that allow interactivity with that space.
How fantastic is the world of Video Games, that give us that little freedom to do unimaginable things and have for a moment the satisfaction of making our little fantasies come true. "But let's not forget this, we are capable enough to fulfill our dreams, nothing in this world is difficult, we just have to trust in us and work hard for what we want to become a reality."
@gamersclassified
This is awesome! I work at Unity and I'd definitely like to get your insight @gamersclassified. I’m wondering if you or your audience is familiar with Unity Game Engine and Development Platform. If so, from a Gaming Perspective, how would you use Crypto Currency in the Unity Game Engine?
I'd be worried about my eyes. I stare at computers very often, and my vision is already going blurry. Staring at a screen only a few inches away must be even worse.