VR - Is it really going to be a success? Or, thanks Time for starting a discussion!

This thread need more gameplay.

Heres Criken playing what seems a Battlefield 2-ish VR experience.

So I had a bit of a VR weekend and just wanted to put my thoughts out there because they are so important! Okay, just in case anyone was wondering.

First I played GORN and wow, that is a LOT of fun. It seems a bit silly from the videos, but after playing I can say I now understand the visual and animation styles. This is an arena game with weapons. Being VR, you get to flail about to swing weapons, but hitting anybody sends them flying. This seems ridiculous, but actually feels good in VR. Since there is no resistance, it makes sense that when you swing, your weapon sends anything flying and continues its arc. It helps match up the physical motion with the animations available. Even with this cartoony effect, the game can be a challenge. Being aware of the multiple enemies, range of the different weapons, and not smacking your hand on a wall in your gaming space is important. I will definitely be playing this more. The only problem is that with this room scale games I only have so much time before motion sickness sets in so that does limit my playtime while still building my VR legs.

Next I wanted to try some cockpit/sit down style games to see if I could play longer in that type of environment. First thing was I pulled up IL-2. WOW! VR flying is the only way to fly. I have had a TrackIR for awhile, and it was definitely useful, but just looking around and seeing everything was revelatory. While I still need to learn how to fly these beasts, even being shot down (or actually going into an uncontrollable spin) was awesome. I will definitely be playing this more.

I then decided to try some driving. First was Project CARS 2, which was fun. However, the low res of the track made it hard to see the turns in advance. I would love to find away to get the image quality higher for the track and lower most other settings. It was still fun and will play this some more. This would definitely be a reason to get the Vive Pro.

Then I moved onto the Truck Simulators, American Truck Simulator and Euro Truck Simulator 2.. After fits and starts, I still haven’t gotten ATS to work in my Vive and will keep playing with it. However, I did get ETS2 to start up in the Vive without issues. It was great! Pulling up a radio station and just driving through Germany at night was relaxing. This is the experience I am most looking forward to getting back into after work. While most of the other titles had some aspect of competition and such, the meditative abilities of just driving a truck in VR is definitely what I am looking for after a hard day at work. I am keeping my headset by my keyboard at all times.

Also, for the truck driving, I found that using the Saitek Rudder Pedals and an Xbox One gamepad was the perfect mix of realism with minimal to no setup. The pedals aren’t exactly the same motion as gas and brake, but close enough and normally already hooked up to make setup of this game minimal.

Driving and flying is what VR was built for, IMO. Imagine what it will be like in a few more years with higher resolutions and clearer image quality.

Something I noticed playing with Aircar was how much it benefits from being a ‘cockpit’ game where you can more or less look down and see the ground through the see-through nose or whatever, which is a lot more interesting than seeing the floor of your cockpit, or your lap. The hovery flight model also make it easy to observe your surroundings, which helps you enjoy the vr aspects. It’s a nice demo.

I love Gorn, definitely one of my top games so far. I’ve beaten all the champions but haven’t unlocked every weapon yet. Still hoping for a sequel or the next game of its type to hit.

Does Gorn work as a single player game? I got the impression that it was multi player focused.

Lol, the first one’s not even released yet, it’s still early access! ;)

I’ve never played it MP. It’s incredibly satisfying to jump in and destroy a gaggle of gladiators though. Looks like it’s just local multiplayer, right?

It starts off relatively slow as you only have a few weapons to choose from. But eventually you’ll have quite the arsenal and can set up some brutal custom games on the bottom floor.

Gorn works as a single player game. I haven’t even noticed if it has multiplayer.

While really simple, it is amazingly fun. The movement controls take a little bit to get used to but once over the learning curve it works well. I’ve rarely felt such a wave of satisfaction from a video game as I have when I raise both arms up in triumph after a tough battle in the arena.

It can be quite a workout. I was sweating more after a half hour of Gorn than I do after a half hour on the treadmill. Definitely make sure your play area is clear since there will be wild arm flailing.

I have been asked to post this here

Wow, that’s dark.

Hope I’m not tone deaf in posting this, but I came here to share this additional bit of Go hype from last October:

I don’t really get the Go hype. It’s basically a Gear VR you don’t need a handset for. That’s fine, I guess, but it’s not a material improvement on what already exists.

I agree; I’m not really in the market for one as I already own Gear VR. It’s more ‘well, wouldn’t it be cool for VR as a whole if everyone else bought this!’

Looks like I’ll get a chance to play with an early release HTC Vive Pro maybe, as part of a project I’m working on. I’m kind of eager to see it in action.

I could see a product like the Go being popular with social/community-driven titles like VRChat and AltSpaceVR. For $200 they will sell a lot of them.

I was blown away by The Void, loved it, raved unconditionally about it here Best VR Experiences of 2017 - #29 by Lykurgos

It isn’t something I would be super keen to repeat as it really is like an interactive movie experience rather than a ‘game’ but since you absolutely MUST experience it count me in fo a revisit if that is what it takes to get you there, seriously! :-P

This Beat Saber game looks good. Guitar Hero X Light Sabers

It does looks (sounds) amazing.

Started this up at the weekend and did a few jumps. Yet to get any ship to ship combat, other than the tutorial, but it’s basically FTL with multiplayer FPS combat as far as I can tell. Seems like a cool idea, and I love that it gives you the option of free locomotion.

I tried Robinson the Journey, and stopped frustrated. I expected falling in a planet, then slowly build a homebase. But the game is not delivered like that. Or maybe some trigger misfired and I was stuck on the tutorial. I must watch some Lets Play to see what I did wrong.