Vote for and explain the best times you had this year with a headset strapped to your face.
Me:
Best things: Robo Recall - High production values, a richer set of interactions than just point and shoot, and its teleport mechanic seems badass rather than limited.
(Runner up: Arizona Sunshine, which I only just picked up on sale but feels like a nice shooter so far)
Defense Grid 2 - A Tower Defense which works surprisingly well by sitting you in your field of automated death dealers.
Elite might have been in the running, but the navigation systems seemed so fiddly I’ve kind of bounced off the tutorials so far.
Have not played: Lone Echo, Subnautica, Other Suns, Fallout or Skyrim VR…
Worst thing
Not content with the ‘PC’ VR market being tiny, there are Vive or Oculus specific titles to split it further :(
Lone Echo - all the Gravity-esque EVA thrill of Adr1ft but with an actual game attached. Also multi-player Ender’s Game if you’re into that sort of thing.
Robo Recall: Best shooting gallery I’ve played, and high prodyuction values. Also free.
Batman VR, or whatever it was called. Way too short, but a wonderful glimpse into what VR couls do for high production value point and click adventures.
Worst thing: Knowing that no more high production value VR experiences are going to be made this gen.
Lone Echo and Robo Recall are definitely the standouts. Both are just excellent.
Dirt Rally is also a real visceral experience. I’m not huge into driving games myself, but for racing enthusiasts it alone should be worth the price of a headset.
I’ve only played Elite a little since I got the headset. While it is amazing, I played so much Elite it first came out (using a Track IR) that I kind of burned myself out and have had trouble getting back into it.
I just picked up Racket Fury the other day and I am so far absolutely loving it. It feels seamless and immersive. Like Robo Recall it’s also a good workout.
I am eager to hear that other games people are enjoying while the steam and Oculus sales are still on.
Any rumblings on when the next generation is likely to come out? I’m kind of on the fence on whether or not to get an Occulus and I’m wondering if it’s only going to be a year before it’s replaced by a new Occulus v2.0
No, I have heard nothing. If anything the latest announcements have all been about lower resolution devices for use with mobile. Hopefully they are just very good at keeping things secret.
feh. Elite’s navigation is fine Just takes some getting used to. Same for DCS and Il-2 controller setup. Sure its a bit of a learning curve. Playing is learning.
My favourite VR experiences are Elite, Il-2 and DCS. I bounced off the modern flight sims, but VR in them is so damn good, I got over myself, fiddled with the fiddly bits and am having whole whale schools of times with them.
The key to really enjoying Elite in VR is to set up Voice Attack and an HCS voice pack. Then you can issue commands verbally (ie, “deploy landing gear”, “engage hyperspace”) instead of fumbling for buttons on your HOTAS or keyboard. Ramped up the immersion considerably for me. Only part of Elite that’s still a pain in VR is the galaxy map, but I’m getting used to it.
In terms of Best VR Experiences (other than Elite), pretty much every cockpit game I’ve tried has been amazing. DCS, Aerofly, Dirt Rally, ATS/ETS2… VR was meant for these type of games.
I’m still playing through Lone Echo, really enjoying it so far.
@rowe33 I’d say a stick is pretty much mandatory for Il-2. You will want some modicum of precision and subtlety in your inputs or the whole driving-a-high-powered-fighterplane-from-the-forties feeling is lost on you. It just becomes terribly twitchy and kills you and any hope of enjoyment of it.
XPlane, a civie flight sim has released a VR beta last week that allows you to “grab” the steering column with VR controller thingamibobs. It is said to work remarkably well, but it is said to take a bunch of pc gamer mastery to get running right.
I dont get the hate for the Elite Dangerous map. It’s fine. Just use your HOTAS and a hat (or two, or make one of your stick’s button a shift key) to get around. It’s fine. Also Very Frakking Big.
@tomchick If you lived anywhere near me, I’d drive over and fix your fucking controls in Il-2 and DCS. It’s one evening (about two to four hours) of intense menu fuckery. After that it’s VR flight nirvana. But alas, you live exactly half a globe away, so I aint doin that. You gotta do it yourself (or get someone closer to do it for you). The fact that you find a simple flying game the best use for your vive makes me a firm believer you need to get your Il-2 on.
Lone Echo was the best VR thing this year. Brilliant zero-g movement mechanics, gameplay focused around manipulating things with your hands, and high production values. Great VR UI too.
I found Robo Recall boring after about an hour, though it was polished and full of character.
All the big cockpit games are excelllent of course and are still the main use for my device. :)
I think the joy with games like Ultrawings is they’re built around using your hands. While I love Il-2, I can really appreciate something that just lets you jump in and use the touch controllers, and press buttons naturally.
Which is why I’m keeping my eye on VTOL VR for next year, see how it progresses!
I have not played Aerofly but IL-2 is like an arcade flight sim it so easy. I play it with an Xbox controller and I never need to use the Oculus “peek” when flying.
If Aerofly is even easier than I am REALLY excited.
