Well VR has been a big disappointment so far, mainly because the games are not there. Another big reason is that the rift only had traditional controls which felt like playing the same games I always played but with the screen on my face. Today that changes as I get the touch, finally I can experiment with brand new controls and gameplay that makes VR even more immersive. But the games still seem to be lacking.

I did get superhot VR so that should be fun. The rest are a bunch of free games and tech demos that oculus is giving away, I am not holding my breath on the quality of those games. I should have fun testing it out, my concern is what happens a week later am I bored of it?

I'll post impressions as I go.

Lol GG.

Package was delayed, so hopefully today.

Now we are talking!!!! This is what I expected, should have just gotten a Vive, waiting nearly a year to get the reason to play in VR. So the touch controllers are amazing! Best motion controllers ever made by a mile. It fits comfortably in your hand, it hardly weighs anything and your fingers naturally fit around the buttons and triggers. When you see your virtual hands represented in VR its an almost surreal moment because these controllers can track some of the fingers in a limited sense. When you make a fist by pushing down the buttons you see your virtual hand make a fist, relax the hand and the virtual hand will open up. Move the thumb from the top of the analog stick and the virtual thumb will move. Raise up the index finger and you will point in game. It feels like hands, you finally have hands in a game, the magic of reaching out and grabbing something cannot be understated. The Wii did that at times but its hard not to notice the thing you are holding is shaped like a remote, this feels like your hand.

Oculus First Contact

My experience started with an intro program made by oculus to introduce you to the features of the touch. It takes place in an 80s inspired trailer with a flying robot that hands you floppy discs to insert into a 3D printer which gives you toys to mess with. All these games are standing now cause you get to move around a small area, in my case very small. First thing I noticed were some coke cans, I picked it up, turned it over, empty so I tossed it. Perfect physics has it bounce of the table and on to the floor. There are monitors with some buttons, i naturally reach out with my index finger and push them in, no button presses needed. I grabbed the first floppy, examined it and reached over and put it into the drive slot. These are all real life actions that are represented 1:1 in virtual land.

So these items ranged from virtual butterflies that land in your fingers to a space gun and my favorite a toy rocket with a string. Grab the rocket in one hand, grab the string in the other, pull on it and the rocket ignites. Aim and release the rocket and it flies around the room. If you are lucky it flies back at you which if you are quick enough you can snatch it from mid air.

Bullet Train

This was a fun intro but the good stuff was what I tried next, Bullet Train. This is the Epic games tech demo which will soon turn into the full game robo recall. You start in a train and learn to move by teleporting which you do by holding a button and looking at a floating orb then releasing the button, you now appear at that orbs spot. One spot has guns to pick up, so I grab a gun, look at it, cock it with my other hand, put it up to my face to aim and fire. Accuracy is now all you, not some stupid stick, not a mouse, its your personal aim. But why use one gun when I can have two, so I picked up another and starting shooting like crazy. Click, out of bullets, drop the guns grab new ones. You have two separate arms, no need to aim at the same things, so I spread my arms out wide and fire in two directions. I started to get flashy, I once threw a gun in the air, caught it and started firing.

This is still the tutorial section and I was amazed at this virtual gun. Next was a virtual rifle, you can use two hands to hold it for a more steady aim. Oh there is one mechanic where time slows down when you activate the teleport, this means enemy bullets float at you, you can grab the bullet and throw it back at enemies.

So the finally the level starts with the train doors opening and about four soldiers waiting to kill you but I am faster, I use two guns and mow them down, then teleport out of the train to one of the many preset points, each with a certain weapon to use. Enemies come from all sides, you can strategically use the teleport to move behind them and gun them down from behind. One spot had a grenade which I picked up, you have to pull the pin with the other hand and throw it. I teleported next to a enemy, took his gun from him and shot him up. There is no challange cause I dont think you get hurt but the visceral experience of picking up various weapons and moving around a room shooting enemies was an absolute blast.

VR Funhouse.

Next I tried an Nvidia tech demo which lets you play carnival games which is another great showcase for the controllers. It had a bunch of games like whack a mole which is crappy in VR. That basketball carnival game that is awesome and worked kind of well. See the issue with throwing something that has no weight is that your brain uses the weight of an object to determine the strength needed to throw that object. When there is no object the brain doest know how hard to make the throwing motion so its a sort of guessing game, takes lots of practice to get the strength of the throw right. Still it kind of feels like you are actually playing that basketball game, you are doing the same motions and can get into a flow.

There was a bow and arrow game which blew me away. You grab an arrow, move it over some fire to light it up and with your other hand hold up the bow. Align the arrow with the bow, pull back and release to fire. I cannot help but think how incredible this will be in a zelda game. I remember doing the fake arrow thing on the wii, there is no substitute for the bow being in front of you, not something on the screen.

I played another tech demo, the toy box which is just a physics based well toy box. Normally picking up objects around you is not fun, but make those objects in a virtual room and now its mindblowing. I picked up a toy robot and yanked its arm off, in a video game. I grabbed a lighter, slapped it open and lit a firework then threw the firework and watched it explode. There were no button prompts, no QTEs, this is all natural movements. My favorite thing in the toy box was a sort of futuristic boomerang, you do the side throw motion watch it fly, wait for it to come back and catch it. Once again i am thinking imagine a zelda game that can do this.

VR Sports Challenge

Lastly I tried the VR sports challenge which is oculus' wii sports. It has a football game, I love football, this was awesome. Its super simple, pretty terrible gameplay wise as it uses the most basic of motions but none of that matters cause I feel like a quaterback. You snap the ball then have to scan the field for the open man, everything is moving quickly, then you make a throw toward a receiver and the perspective changes to him, now you have to catch the ball with two hands (in slow motion). The throwing and catching is simplistic and the enter set up is has a score attack arcade feel. Still being in a fake helmet, on the field is a great experience. Once a linebacker broke free , came at me and I physically jumped backwards. My natural instincts kicked in to move because a virtual football player was going to hit me.

In summary this is what true VR gaming needs to be. Everything we know about controlling games needs to be thrown out the window and we need to rethink the way these games are played. No longer are things tied to an animation, a preset action, in these games your actions are your own. We can make games where every object in a room is interactable in a free emergent way. I still have yet to try a full game yet and I am already hooked. The content needs to keep coming or the same thing will happen again where interest fades. At least this time the experience is truly groundbreaking.

There is one problem though, the standing. My feet are killing me for standing for hours, I am writing this because my feet need a break. I miss playing and sitting.

Get the normal version for comparison.

gamingeek said:

WTF Vader. Your impressions sound like you're playing Wii Sports Resort bow aiming, Silent Hill Shattered Memories object inspection. Elebits item flinging and Nintendoland star throwing, and maybe Red Steel 2 combat.

It's motion controls so yeah. But being in the game is so much more immersive and everything makes sense.

Oh and one obvious distinction between Wii and this is the second motion controller. It's essential, I can hold a ball in one hand,  a bat in the other, throw the ball in the air and swing the bat and hit the ball. It's as essential as the second stick was for 3D games.

Your font is killing my eyes. Where are you copying this from?

Yes, you're describing Elebits in many ways. Underappreciated that game. I loved just chucking stuff about and watching the physics play out.

Combined with VR and with modern motion controls - motion control would be great. Sadly its all tied to VR and I'm not sure if VR will be a long term addition to gaming.

Sony is currently doing all right, but sales data for Vive and Occulus have been down-forecasted. And Sony don't seem to be announcing many new VR games either. Switch is rumoured to have Wii like controls though, but I doubt its going to anything that Wii couldn't already do.

Dvader said:

So one was dead and buried which you play cowboy ghosts in the old west. The game is a 2 on 2 shooter where you physically how to take cover and shoot the opposing players. You can't move, you spawn in a certain spot on the map and from there you can crouch, peak out from cover and so on. You have a revolver six shooter that you use to shoot and any other guns you happen to see around you. One match was exhausting to me, I had to be on my knees all the time, I was uncomfortable, and my aim sucks. The concept is amazing but too much realism going on here.

Amazing. Would be cool to see a video of the footage and you in a second screen playing these.

Steam VR was trolling me last night. I did the setup and tried the Star Wars experience. I was staring forward into a black space and wondering why the hell doesn't this work. My hands now had a Star Wars themed look to it so I knew the program was kind of working. About 3 minutes go by, I take off the headset and the program shows it's running. I go back in, still black, so I am angry and just turn around and boom there is the main menu, BEHIND ME.

All steam programs were running backwards. It was too late at night to fix so I turned it off.

Budget Cuts, holy shit. Thats the future right there. This room scale stuff is the real deal, its you INSIDE the game, walking around, leaning, croutching, grabbing stuff. I have this crap version of it cause I have a tiny room and oculus isnt true room scale so I had to ghetto play my way through it and I was still blown away. So Budget Cuts is a stealth game, its just a demo for now, the real game hits next year. You have a teleporter gun that lets you move , you shot an orb and where it lands it is where you can teleport. The cool thing is that you open a portal in front of you so that you can see exactly whats around the area you are going to teleport too. So say you shoot the orb into a room, you see that a robot is standing guard in the corner, so dont teleport there. Manuver your way behind the robot then throw a throwing knife at it to take it down. These robots patrol and react to sight and sound. You need to open draws for keys, unlock panels to disable cameras, duck when you are inside the celing area. You can duck if the robot is looking through a window to avoid detection (when I mean duck I mean you physically duck, then you can physicall peak over. THIS TECH IS INSANE!!!!

The Valve The Lab game is also a wonderful VR mini game collection. The best is this arcade space shooter where you stand in the middle of a small room that becomes the bullet hell shooter level and your hand is the space ship. You need to move the ship and point it at enemies to shoot and avoid the hundreds of laser orbs by moving your hand around them or you physically moving to get different angles. This could be a full game.

All of this could be full games, but the problem is almost nothing is. I feel like I am going through a parade of awesome vr tech demos at E3. I need a full game.

+1's for Vader. Thanks for the impressions.

I was thinking of going hobo with the PSVR, but now thiking of just letting this whole VR thing go by. I don;t have time to play regular games.