Be Excellent To Each Other

Bought one of these today... my goodness its ridiculously good fun.

Did you end up buying a VR kit then? I must've missed that, glad you're enjoying it. ☺️

IT AMAZING.

Seriously though. AMAZING.

Do you have the move controllers and do they improve the immersion much more? Shooting with the pad was just great as it was. Pew fucking pew. I was surprised how accurate I was just with the pad. I bet the Vive is out of this world.

You definitely want the Technodicks. Without them you can’t play the best stuff on PSVR (I Expect You To Die, SuperHot.)

You're playing Rush of Blood without the Move controllers? That's a mistake. With Move controllers you get a gun in each hand. Man, if you're enjoying it now...

For sure though: go buy the Move controllers, they're so much better in the shitloads of games that support them.

I’ll definitely be doing that now.

I’ve just had my folks around. My dad was going nuts for Until Dawn and my mum about had a heart attack on The Last Guardian. She was scared witness just looking at Trico! So I got her to look down over an edge and then pushed her forward. She almost shat herself. Mean, but it just proved how immersive VR is to all ages.

I've strapped most of my family into it plus a load of non-gamer mates and everyone's had a blast. Part of it's the 'Wii effect' taken to a better conclusion i.e. presenting people with a computer generated world that's easy to grasp *and* interact with. Getting used to a standard controller is rewarding but it is a very real barrier to most people.

It still doesn't take much to confuse people though. Arkham VR, for instance, generally goes down well but you still see people struggling to remember which button is grab and which is for teleport. And the levitate controls in IEYTD still annoy the shit out of me so I wouldn't expose any non-gamer to those; which is a shame because it's an incredible VR experience otherwise. Essentially, having to use interface tricks to paper over the inability to properly move within a space means it's still not properly universal.

I’ve just had a similar experience. Asking my dad to sit there and shoot things was an easy wild ride for him. Trying to communicate teleporting to different locations to my mum was an uphill struggle I’m still not sure she properly understood.

We tried a car racing game though (Tiny Trax I think) and neither could control the tiny vehicles but they both loved the experience of looking around the track, standing up, looking underwater and behind them in VR, while I moved the car around. It was fascinating to watch my dad shifting from watching it on TV and taking the piss out my mum to experiencing it himself and doing the exact same things she was (including trying to touch the onscreen obstacles).

Everyone I’ve put in IEYTD has managed the telekinesis controls, but I agree they are clunky on PSVR. (They’re far better on PC, where you drag on the controller’s glide pad.)

If you're looking for dad recommendations,* I found the Headmaster and Driveclub demos most effective. Driveclub can be configured to use the controller as a sort of virtual steering wheel using the accelerometer so if you do that and choose auto gears it becomes essentially a go kart simulator which anyone can pick up. And Headmaster is just a piss laugh in general.

*I realise that sounds a bit sexist but my dad drives and plays football, my mum is interested in neither of those things. My sister also loved Driveclub though.

Sat: Get the Kitchen "game".

What’s it called? The kitchen? Get the Kitchen? I must know.

NB: Move controllers amazoned!

The RE7 thing? But it's a pish 'experience', especially compared to the Beginning Hour demo.

Kitchen.

Actually, as a mate of mine recently asked for PSVR freebie recommendations this list might be useful to some. Apologies for the formatting, it's copied straight from an email.

The Last Guardian VR demo: https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/pro ... -st-111284

Rec Room https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/pro ... -st-111284

Demo disc 1: https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/pro ... -st-111284

Demo disc 2: https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/pro ... -st-111284

Bound demo: https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/pro ... -st-111284

Spiderman film tie-in thing: https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/pro ... -st-111284

Resident Evil 7 Begining Hour: https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/pro ... -st-111284

CoD Jackal Assault: https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/pro ... -st-111284

The Playroom: https://store.playstation.com/en-gb/pro ... -st-111284

The two demo discs between them have shitloads of contents; there is some cross-over between them but they've both got loads of stuff that's exclusive to them so well worth getting them both. the RE7 demo has a lot of content as well, it's reaqlly much more than just a wee demo and apparently has multiple endings and all that kind of thing. The Call of Duty one is a space dogfighting level that's been ripped from the most recent game and handed out for free. Rec Room is some kind of online multiplayer hub thing with loads of games you can play in there; apparently the paintball is the highlight. The Playroom is a Sony thing full of minigames, most of which are designed to be played with other people in the room. I haven't touched those but there's a single player 3D platform game thing called Robot Rescue that's just a lot of fun and is well worth checking out.

Note that some of the games on the store also have free demos that I can't find on the website as separate download for some reason. So if you just go to the VR section in the store on the console itself and browse through what's there some stuff will have a free demo.

Isn't the COD one DLC?

From that list, absolutely definitely grab the CoD thing and The Playroom for Robot Rescue as they're both great fun. In terms of full games with demos I couldn't find at that time, get Statik as it's very cool.

Also I absolutely fucking adored Bound in VR; though it seems I was kind of alone in that.

Nah, it's a level from the main game that's been spun out as a completely free download for everyone. I haven't bought a CoD game in about ten years--and certainly not on the PS4--and it was happy for me to grab it. There's no depth to it but it's slick as fuck, just like you'd expect, and the initial high speed launch into space is the sort of thing that in VR leaves you properly grinning.

I’ve got Resi 7 - is this one of the DLCs? I doubt I can be bothered to play the campaign again but if the DLC stuff is good in VR I might see how much the season pass is.

@Bamba: Yeah, I've got it. I guess they did it as DLC first.
@Sat: Just get it. It's free!

Wait, is Beginning Hour VR compatible now?

I will seek out all of these, thank you very muchly.

I might even try and finish Bound in VR too since 2D left me cold.

To clarify: all of the main RE7 game and it's DLC is playable in VR with no extra cost. What I think Grim is talking about is a very short standalone VR thing for RE 7 called something like The Kitchen which was was made for VR but that I wasn't that impressed with. Its right there for free on the PSN store so check it out. You should certainly check out the full RE7 game in VR just to see it though. I understand that you wouldn't want to play the full game through again but it's an incredibly well done VR version so worth seeing even if only for a few minutes.

Um, it always was; wasn't it? I picked it up specifically because of its VR compatibility and have never played out with VR. It's been my go-to 'look at how awesome VR can be' thing from the day I bought the kit.

Bound isn't a great game as a base experience, but I found the VR implementation honestly transformative. I'll be curious to see what you think.

Fucking hell, this thread has been such a boring fucking monologue at times. Sorry folks, I'll shut the fuck up now.

It was not. It is now. I am pleased.

On Vive maybe. They're not that great on Rift.

Oh my god Superhot was a good recommendation. Thank you Gaywood. I've spent about two hours on it and feel like I've had a calisthenics work out.

Two questions - does it autosave? I've quit out and I'm hoping I haven't lost progress, but couldn't see any menus or anything I could access.

Second, how do you throw straight? That's the one bit I've been struggling with. It could do with a shooting range or something to practice in.

Yes, it saves each time it says “Super. Hot. Super. Hot”, between each linked sequence of levels.

Throwing straight is hard. Try “pushing”, moving your hand in a straight line. Don’t put an arc on it.

Re: callisthenics, I’m told you look like you’re doing tai chi when you’re playing it!

Kern didn't. He looked like a hamster.

Ooh, can I share the pic again? Of course I can...

.

This months PSVR PS+ game is Starblood Arena. It’s a fast moving (think Unreal or Quake) tournament shooter in zero-gee environments with free movement (think Descent) with head-based aiming.

If you think you have your VR legs, it might prove you wrong.

Aw, in the pic on the left Kern looks like a baby T-Rex with really long arms!

Rawr!

The perils of thinking "hey, this is a pretty sweet opening lap, maybe I should share it".

A good advert for VR racing, though - the car is all over the road but as you can see I'm always looking at where the track is going.

I am doubleplus ungood at Dirt Rally in VR so would have ditched it much earlier in that lap. I've not really gone back to it as I've been obsessed with Superhot VR, about which...

Yes I absolutely agree with the previous statements on here that it's pretty much a must have but that *fucking* camera at times. My hands shoot away into the distance and then I can't pluck a gun out of the hands of someone an inch in front of me and then I have to restart a level that involves dodging 20 bullets with no weapons. About 50 times.

It's dead frustrating because when it works it's an expression of everything I want in VR. "Hey I would like to grab that, I CAN!. Can I get that gun that's fallen on the floor behind me? I CAN! Can I hide behind this console, peek out & fire from the side like a shootout in Police Squad? SURE THING!" followed by "Can I throw this at someone? NO! But you can throw it in their general direction. Possibly, I would just duck and punch them in the balls again if I were you"

The concept is superb, the execution let down by the hardware somewhat, but overall it's the game that has really utlilised the medium best of those that I have tried so far.

EDIT - Oh and the lack of a level select until you've finished it is twattery of the highest order.

Superhot. Move controllers.

MIND. BLOWN.

Best thing I’ve ever played. Just... Jesus. VR is fucking AWESOME.

Got an accidental trophy “Too cool to look”. I laughed so hard I died. In VR.

Remember when you came to my house, played all the wrong games and said VR was rubbish? Funny eh.

Why did you let him play the wrong games?

I bought my PSVR into the office today. Everyone really liked it.

I wasn't in the house at the time. I can't remember why.

Were you in a stream?

Not at that particular moment!

I played iRacing (cars. Meh), that platforming game (loved this), Elite Dangerous (couldn’t fathom it) and that walking simulator space planet game (freaked me out when I walked into the sea - which was great - but it was a bit slow and boring and VR had clearly been retrofitted to an existing game). I can’t ever remember saying VR was rubbish though. I thought I said it was ace and was quite excited about it.

Was that when me and you went to the shops?

Quite possibly.

I can't say I've had that. Iv'e had a couple of instances where the camera has glitched out a bit, but not frequently. I found putting the camera a bit higher up and switching the lights off made an improvement. Reading the instructions for the PSVR probably helps.



It's quite, quite brilliant. Punching someone in the face, grabbing their knife out of the air, then simultaneously punching the next guy in the face and stabbing the other one is a thing of joy. I was skeptical about the hand to hand stuff but, mostly, it works really well.



As per gaywood's response, I think there's a knack to throwing stuff, in that you don't throw it, you push it. I seem to be improving.


I'm sort of ok with that. I quite like that this is a progression through the game, it sort of lends itself to the immersion. THAT SAID, I would still like a training room/tutorial option.

Good times.