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BPX043: Virtual Horizon

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    BPX043: Virtual Horizon

    We're now mere weeks away from the release of the first Half-Life game in over a decade. It's big news even if it's not quite making the waves you'd expect thanks mostly to how Valve remains secretive of the new game but also that it's not Half-Life 3.

    Instead, Half-Life: Alyx crafts a new single player experience out of the Freeman universe in an effort to provide the first true killer app of the VR age. The tech has been on the market for a few years now and with a couple of million users out there it may not have made much impact on the gaming landscape but it has a passionate small audience that Valve is hoping to fire up with its new game and their own VR set up, the Index.

    For some, Alyx won't be their first experience of VR in the world of Gordon. Talented fans have been working away on a VR mod for Half-Life 2 for a long while now and in the area of PC VR fans have made wider efforts to create compatible experiences to offset the drought of major titles. GTA5 is now playable in VR, the recent Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners also went down well with players but at the same time the usual concern applies of what will they play post-Alyx.

    New generations of console and GPU also threaten to pull player spending away from VR tech as the focus shifts back to high end traditional graphic showcases meaning that Alyx may be something of a swansong effort until the next-gen of machines and graphics cards refocus back on the tech as the dust settles.

    Is 2020 a year of VR experiences for you? If so, via what method?
    You can select multiple options in the poll
    11
    Yes - PSVR
    0%
    6
    Yes - Oculus Rift S
    0%
    0
    Yes - Oculus Quest
    0%
    0
    Yes - Vive Cosmos
    0%
    1
    Yes - Vive Pro
    0%
    0
    Yes - Valve Index
    0%
    0
    Yes - Other
    0%
    1
    No - Doesn't Interest Me Enough
    0%
    3

    #2
    All I can say is that I jumped on the Oculus Quest train about four months ago and it's been fantastic. I'm loving where VR is going.

    Comment


      #3
      I’ll be sticking by Sony. What they’ve delivered with PSVR is astonishing (esp for the price point) ... it’s maybe the greatest leap in gaming since playing Ridge Racer and Virtua Fighter at home.

      I just hope they’re making enough £££s to stand by it and push it to the next level.
      Last edited by Atticus; 13-02-2020, 19:59.

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by Atticus View Post
        I’ll be sticking by Sony. What they’ve delivered with PSVR is astonishing (esp for the price point) ... it’s maybe the greatest leap in gaming since playing Ridge Racer and Virtua Fighter at home.
        Yep. The PSVR is in a weird state because after now having spent a lot of time with the alternatives, I'll happily say that the PSVR has the best software (gaming-wise) locked up in the worst hardware.

        (note, I should say here that the PSVR is a phenomenal achievement. The fact that it works so well at all, on that hardware, when all their tracking is visual and basically just a retooled version of the PSMove's tracking system, is really a miracle. And it works better than I or most other people suspected it would. Just it's still the worst hardware, irrespective of that achievement. Plus the PSVR is the most comfortable of all the sets).

        I used to defend it, and I still will to those who continue to discount it (basically the VR snobs, who, like with every subculture, do exist), but after trying the Quest's remotes, the tracking is just phenomenal and the wireless nature of the experience, where you're immersed in the world and can actually walk around... It's fantastic. Star Wars: Vader Immortal is an experience no fan of Star Wars should miss, and I've had some mad fun on VRChat.

        But despite all that, my best VR experience is still Blood & Truth on PSVR. Incredible, that one. Anyone with a PSVR should get it; it's basically just 5 hours of The Heist from VRWorlds with everything pushed up to the next level. It's like being inside a Guy Ritchie Movie, which becomes a spy movie, which becomes a Fast & Furious movie.

        I would absolutely love it for Sony to create a rival device to the Quest. Basically a Vita successor which is based on the same idea.

        Comment


          #5
          PSVR isn't really that bad as a headset. It has one of the lowest screendoor effects and one of the wider viewing angles. People complain its only around 1080p but that doesn't bother me. The only thing that pisses me off is the tracking, mostly when using the wands, and the drifting when playing on a flat screen. If sony can solve that cheaply next gen, then I think the headset itself still has life in it.
          VR is very much in its infancy. You can tell that developers are interested in using it, but so far only a few games really hit the mark. I think its because VR offers a different way of playing that kind of throws a lot of the 'old way' of playing games out of the window. If you take FPS for example, in VR I find it a cake walk because my head can track quicker and more accurately then I could just using a controller. Developers will need to cater for this going forward if they want FPS to have a good level of challenge.
          Also, games like Skyrim work and look great in VR, but some people don't like the idea of wearing a headset for extended periods of time, so this is a thing developers may have to take in to account. Maybe breaking large RPGs up into bitesize chapters.
          All that said I'm interested in Sonys strategy for VR on the PS5. What would be cool is if they packed a small, cheap headset in the box. Like a google cardboard style headset that just about does the job and gives the wider audience the chance the try VR and then buy the better equipment.

          Comment


            #6
            Will be sticking to PSVR for the foreseeable future as i really don't have 2 grand to get the best headset and a PC powerful enough to run on max settings but at some point i do want a monster powerful PC so i can play everything as not all VR games come to PSVR but saying that the PSVR has quite a killer library of titles. The problem with VR is it's like when the DS first released some devs just don't know how to utilise it to it's full potential yet. Some genres like FPS & racing are easy to adapt which is why there are a lot of shooting games clogging up the market but in between those there are devs trying quirky stuff, my VR library is a quirky mix of everything but i must admit i do have a hell of a lot of horror games in there for some reason. What i do love is the devs offering new content totally free of charge, there have been a lot of wonderful indie PSVR titles that devs have kept supporting and adding in new content and fixing stuff, if only the AAA devs made as much effort as the small guys do.

            When people say VR is in it's infancy and the technology isn't there i don't think that's strictly true as VR has been around way longer i remember playing on PC VR back in the 90's playing magic carpet in VR on the test machine in Maplin and it was dire. Horrible display running at what felt like 5fps and janky ass low polygon worlds it was truly unpleasant to play only a few mins and you felt ill for me that was when VR wasnt ready. Nowadays it's the first time that we have had the technology level to pull this kind of stuff off properly while Sonys headset may be the lower end of the tech market, but for what it's able to pull off and keep a reasonable framerate is nothing short of amazing it's the number one reason i got a PS4. I truly hope Sony doesn't give up on this going forward a better headset and some actual controllers designed for VR would be great, it's something that gives gaming a totally new experience i have been gaming for over 30 years and VR is one of the few times where everything feels new and exciting again, been inside a game instead of just looking at it is something i can't give up. Experiences like been inside my flying car in wipeout omga collection and my jaw hitting the floor as i raced or area X in rez been so overwhelming that for a while i genuinely forgot i was playing a game my mind was so overloaded it was just 100% concentrating on playing for me to be thinking hmm these graphics look cool for those few mins i was just inside a space floating around shooting everything and nothing else mattered.
            Last edited by importaku; 14-02-2020, 11:17.

            Comment


              #7
              The latest rumours for PS5 seem to suggest that PSVR2 is happening and given the murmurs are happening so quickly (it's not coming at launch) it seems likely it will arrive by Xmas 2021. Given the price point they aim for something like the Quest seems like a likely indicator as to what they might be aiming for with it.

              I enjoyed PSVR, it was surprisingly effective at what it does and the effect comes across well but the main issue was definitely one of content. It's fairly dependent on belated PCVR ports and the experiences are so short that it doesn't take too long to exhaust the line up.

              I'm about to take receipt of the Cosmos. It's quickly been brished aside in VR news thanks to the cost/tracking issues but apparently in real play the bety updates have largely sorted the tracking out and they will ultimately get sorted. If I do end up keeping it, it's also easily moduled and can work with Valve's new equipment so there's an aspect of future proofing to it as well. Half Life Alyx will be interesting explore but stuff like the fan mods for GTA5 will be the real treasure trove I expect.

              Comment


                #8
                PSVR is possibly the only thing that could persuade me to upgrade, at the moment.
                That's the thing that makes me feel like I'm playing the future, not voxels and ray tracing and shiny shiny.

                Comment


                  #9
                  PSVR - Cheap... but no VR pr0n

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by Neon Ignition View Post
                    PSVR - Cheap... but no VR pr0n

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Originally posted by importaku View Post
                      Will be sticking to PSVR for the foreseeable future as i really don't have 2 grand to get the best headset and a PC powerful enough to run on max settings but at some point i do want a monster powerful PC so i can play everything as not all VR games come to PSVR
                      Sadly a lot of stuff that's advertised as being compatible with VR isn't really optimised, at all. This means a lot of messing around in order to get nowhere. I've yet to find a racing game which runs without dropping frames when set on the lowest settings. Even BallisticNG that I love so much suffers from frame rate issues on some tracks. At least with PSVR Sony must have set some kind of standard with the developers.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        That said, stuff that's been designed for VR is amazing.

                        Room scale is basically next gen VR. Being able to walk around your game and kneel down to touch the ground or hide/crawl under stuff brings so much immersion. I want to get the battery pack at some point so I can say goodbye to the cable.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Astrobot is on par with Odyssey. Can’t believe how little its been talked about given how good it is.


                          Looking forward to hearing how good HL: A is as well from the 10 people that can play it.
                          Last edited by fishbowlhead; 17-02-2020, 12:26.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Originally posted by dataDave View Post
                            Room scale is basically next gen VR. Being able to walk around your game and kneel down to touch the ground or hide/crawl under stuff brings so much immersion. I want to get the battery pack at some point so I can say goodbye to the cable.
                            "How do you crouch?"
                            "Crouch!"
                            "But how do you crouch?"
                            "CROUCH!"

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by Asura View Post
                              "How do you crouch?"
                              "Crouch!"
                              "But how do you crouch?"
                              "CROUCH!"
                              I remember playing AstroBot and thinking 'Well how the hell do I see him when he's gone round this corner...oh wait...'

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