The VR Conundrum

FALLING BACK IN

Got back into F4 to try out the official Rift support properly



Having proper snipe scopes has actually proved really welcome. I mean they're really weird, they kinda envelope your head with an imaginary cowl of darkness as you pull them up, (and kinda inveigle everything with shade like a sudden eclipse if you swing your weapon too jauntily near you face). But... Spotting the guy with the rocket launcher on the roof of the minor Raider encampment, before one-shotting him with your night-vision ray gun... Yep ok, I forgot how much fun that added to sneaking in the wilds

Also good was confirming from a church roof that, yep, that's a second Deathclaw over there, and it's Legendary. That explains all the dead Supermutants about the place... (Then tormenting it to death using 70% hand lobbed grenades, and 30% running around screaming between some church pews )

All the little touches keep elevating it above VR launch games. Nick's wry dialogue 'At least the Mirelurks don't have a housing problem', as you look down at some high rise that's collapsed into a lake. The little bits of colour in the quiet moments really do make these great treks to set out on

And on the plus side, taking a break has meant I've got my base tinkering bug back. (Prior to that I fled because 'I can't leave this perfect base location without making it a 50s Rockabilly hold-out. And I can't be bothered to do that...' )

But anyways, here's a blurry look at what I'm doing to the marina place.

(Yes, everyone has sailor's caps... )



It's all floating markets on compacted trash and highly needless inter-connecting wooden walkways. This probably isn't apparent. But I like it

---

EDIT: ****ing damn, Assaultron death throe behaviours + forgotten slow mo perks = fricking ace . (Laser beams searing the air as you heart-pound your way back from your rousing nemesis, praying your next hit will be the final blow, until a slow mo explosion billows out, threatening to envelope you both. Damn )

I think what happened is: I failed to take out its legs, it lifted me into the air with some melee electro stun as I turned to run, everything slowed to treacle as I dropped to 10% health, and then the grenade I'd dropped behind him staggered him and sent his beam arcing off towards the sky . Everything else was slow-mo laser wild west

__________________
Virtual Reality chatter on a movie site? Got endless amounts of it here. Reviews over here

This is the first look at the Magic Leap AR that has made it look in any way exciting...



Graphics occluded by real life objects, bare hand tracking, eye tracking, reasonable frame rate & head tracking etc. Still limited re FOV, darkened lenses when not using, and like crazy 2k price tag. Early days. (And a longgggg way from the pseudo-realistic whales of their hype vids of the past ). But intriguing.

EDIT: That said, Abovitz's chat on their tech still sounds like a mix of woo and bollocks in equal measure.

I'm still intrigued by his claims that they're somehow tapping into the brain's perceptual system in some way with their display. But the stuff about their technique avoiding motion sickness in a way stereoscopic tech doesn't is clearly PR BS. There aren't any triggers for motion sickness in AR. You have points of reference in reality, you move amongst things using your personal locomotion. There's non of the 'No actually you're doing 100kph sideways on an inflatable unicorn over Manhattan' stuff that can trigger those issues

---

BEST BUDGET VR HEADSET?

On a more practical, budget, VR front, it's worth noting at the Lenovo Windows headset went as low as $100 recently without controllers. Then sold out straight away

I haven't looked back into them enough, but it seems like a fair take from a distance is:

WINDOWS HEADSETS:

PROS:

• They can go a lot cheaper than the Rift in sales (standard UK pricing on most is comparable when not on sale though )
• No external sensor set up. All dealt with via in-headset sensors. (Minor tracking issues as a result, both hands and head, but that's the payoff. Much more portable.)
• Their screen quality is better. (Pixel density / reduced screen door effect).
• Flip-up visor looks useful

CONS:

• Controllers aren't as ergonomic, robust or fun to use as the Rift's, going by reviews.
• Although they should work with almost any game, their control layout is directly supported less often (going by the Steam icons for supported HMDs under recent releases)
• No built-in headphones in most models.
• ?Performance? The gaming min spec is a GTX 970 for GPU, same as the Rift, but slightly higher on the CPU. I suspect whatever frame-filling tech they're using for lower spec rigs isn't quite as slick as the Rift's 'async' tech, so may put the more demanding games out of reach.
• Lenses have a smaller visual sweet spot, can be an issue for active play if headset model not the comfiest fit.

Anyways, I suspect on balance one of these, with controllers, in a sale on of the WMR sets is def the best budget route in at the moment . (But I'm still happy with my Rift . Despite a wonky right headphone, which I have to fix at start up via yoga moves :/)

EDIT: Bonus interesting little discussion of Rift vs the various WMRs. Lots of variables in the mix.

EDIT 2: A RIFT WARNING: Worth noting that my Rift is out on repairs currently because the right earphone went. And I only got a freebie fix because I got a 2 year warranty in the EU rather than one. This is a structural issue that's hitting a lot of people, only really avoidable by taping something up and not sharing your headset around (booo). I'd still take it over a WMR set currently, but I may change my mind if it fails again in the next two years . (It's not totally killer, you can just use normal earphones then like almost all other HMDs. Bit annoying though )

An even better 'hand control' mod for Elite...



From about 6.30 on you can see how the in-game stick animations work as a guide once you 'grab' it. Plus like Minority Report screens, and 'buttons on the ceiling' for your lights and landing gear and stuff. Ideal

In theory he's going to expand it for other games.

I don't see myself giving up the hotas just yet, but this a cool path. Hopefully they'll do an official version...

FALLOUT 4: REVIEW



To keep this simple. I rate it like this: (+)

Here are some chronological excerpts about why even the crazy downsides can't stop this from being absolutely immense fricking fun

---

Bleeding Edges Tech:

---

Some Mainly Entirely Positive Things (which probably explain why I played through the early tech strife)

---

What Fresh Apocalypse Is This?:

I try and express some of that in this here vid:



---


Gaming Flavours to Savour:

---

So I could say a ton more on how I've had more fun here as a compulsive builder, why shotguns are more shotgunny, companions more chummy. I tell you, stupid shadow draw-distances aside, the sun really is sunnier in FO4VR

I will add that the official Rift support added sniper fun and smoothed out a lot of the less classical Bethesda bugs.

And I'll also say, if there's any way you can play this on an even half-compliant machine, definitely do it

EDIT: More post-script here. Worth noting I'm on a 1080 GPU now, so enjoying a smoother ride.

Just a build blog, because I'm still finding it strangely beguiling to make places you then inhabit. The practicalities and aesthetics kinda hit home more when you move about them like this (even if the screengrabs look like they have two day's facial growth all over them )

The Castle:



I've mainly just slammed the walls up in metal with a 'gate house' and added four of these rocket / laser towers. My only concern is whether they can actually shoot out of their cursive 'domes'. (I've noticed NPCs don't like pathing through them. Got a terrible feeling my defences are gonna blow themselves up the first time they fire )

Country Crossing:

I had zero intention to build up CC. I was almost annoyed at it for existing. (Having just finished being annoyed at Finch Farm for existing so close to The Slog just up the road, before enjoying building a spiral structure up to the bridge that towers over it).

I just dallied long enough to build something up from the shattered house frame and... Now it's becoming one of my favourite hodge-podge retreats

*** VIRTUAL REALITY - A ONE YEAR REVIEW! ***



THE BIG PROS & CONS

Early impressions are holding true . Here's a shortened recap:

Here are some deeper dives into the core issues:

• On Nausea:
  It's a thing. Only about 20% of people seem to have major long-term issues. Dev designs are helping to overcome some of the broader issues
  
  
• The Gaming Ecosphere:
  New launches are still frequently over-priced for the amount of content & the multitude of indie options are experimental but sketchy. Some full game ports have proved excellent though
  
  
• The Best 'Budget' 6doF Headsets:
  With the Windows Mixed Reality' sets on the market there are some decent if tricky choices out there (skip to bottom).
  
  
• It's Hard to Communicate How Cool It Can Be:
  Mixed Reality filming of geeky hijinks, and maybe hand-waving within familiar games, are perhaps the best we've got.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

I could blab on forever about this really. And I have . With grandiose titles like In Space Things Are Big (but you are always the same size) and Forgetting the Fourth Wall.

But I think the main take away should be: This happened... and I'm not sure where else it could

Oculus Connect 5:

So they're launching a vamped up stand-alone 'console' headset, the Quest. Same price as the Rift, 6doF, no PC required, but lower quality graphics / performance etc with just inbuilt processing. 50 game titles at launch (like Robo Recall, The Climb, Dead and Buried, Superhot etc)



Futurology:

A cool summary here. Which can be summarised as:

Which means no major step changes from Oculus in their next high end release I'd wager. Foveated rendering (drastically reduced computing requirements) still looks like the game-changer in the wings. Everything else is going to be more QoL - screen resolution, wireless etc.

Researchers put a VR tail on 32 people. Half of them 'owned' it and were able to perform tasks.



Report from the oddlands ends

HOLD THE WORLD



This is a shot in the arm for educational VR. The venerable David Attenborough sits you down in the Natural History Museum and talks you through some exhibits, laying on information or hints as you turn over and expand the scanned items, before the museum fades out, skeletons coalesce, and they enact some arcane behaviour in their natural scale.

Having the don of natural history presentation there in both photogrammetic and narrative form is a massive plus. (And it's a bonus that the gent is now preserved like this, and not in aspic). It's not the full 360 view (of either him or the museum), but you can shift about in your seat a fair bit before they say you're out of bounds, making for a convivial history lesson over the desk. There are some artefacts to the scanning technique, so It's a bit like having an LA Noire recreation of him in front of you, just with full body capture and bonus flapping blue shirt.

It's short, I haven't finished it yet, and it could have fancier interactions. But damn, seeing a whale skeleton glide past doing its thing, followed by a Pterosaur showing off its imagined launch and glide, was properly grand

--

Rogue Indie: Tea For God

This is an intriguing indie offering. A proc-gen rogue-like that adapts to your available playspace, allowing you to use your own locomotion to move about the 'non euclydian' world. (Read tiny physics-defying corridors with the odd window onto boss fights and the occasional lift, going by the WIP vid ). Works with as little as 1.5m x 1.8m though, which has me intrigued.



Quite like the style and variety of techno-punk beasts. Could be fun ¯\(ツ)/¯

More VR = Cyberpunk + Blade Runner:

Devs can't leave Blade Runner alone. And I don't want them too . Here's a demo of a WIP game called Low-Fi...

LA NOIRE: REVIEW



It's great that Rockstar made this port, and obviously had fun experimenting with appropriate VR interactions. Unfortunately its experimental roots and hefty tech requirements have impeded what is otherwise a tantalisingly great experience.

Thankfully, what is great about it is still great:

So yeah they've got you feeding cartridges into pump-action shotguns to take on bank robbers, and scribbling in notebooks, and boxing with wrong'uns. Some of it's shonky but the intent is great. (And they've sensibly allowed for 'long reach' accessibility, not going for some un-gamey 1:1 uber-realism). Hunkering down over clues works far better in the light of all this, and the action segments also work well (even if the enforced 'teleport to cover' stuff is pretty meh).

The first real downers come under this same design umbrella though, with gameplay stunted by regular nannying attempts to head off potential nausea (from the ludicrous locomotion techniques of launch, to the almost unforgiveable 'switch to third person' bookends to locations, even though the open world very clearly doesn't need them as load screens).



After various challenges, I can finally just free-drive my car around between the destinations, strut straight into the waiting house environs, and giggle at the pedestrians in between. And at those moments this is a wonderful bit of escapism that elevates all that's good about the original, and glides over much that made it stilted. Despite the many technical challenges and flakey aspects that have got in the way, ultimately I've enjoyed dipping into the narrative growsing over a bar top one moment, and slamming the door on a requisitioned 50s clunker the next. As the car radio plays and you tip your hat to the world going by, as the bar tender sends you on your way with a believably jowly 'sheesh', it's pretty damn sweet .



++

(More pix here)

EDIT: Bonus vids

PAYDAY 2: REVIEW



Best stealth experience since bopping heads in the Thief demo as a fully immersed teen!

The great thing here is that they've spent proper time making sure the core experience just works, from gunning to sneaking to interacting. There's loads that's fun and functional, from the bespoke VR lobby, to the 'point to tag' function, to the simple two-hand toting of guns if desired. And it keeps going, with working scopes, a customisible toolbelt menu, the handy status touchscreen on your wrist etc. There's a load of solid dev crammed in here, and some of it's even notably slick.

Add in the spread of locomotion options and it's pretty much a joy to play

The fact that your head is tracked really adds to the stealthing, making crouching behind a sofa on a luxury cruise liner (while security patrol the borders of a political fund raiser) properly tense. Equally peeping out from behind a stainless-steel fridge in the kitchen, or occasionally, trying vainly to hide behind some patriotic balloons

Some purists decry the lack of complete hand interaction, but they've added excessive bonus stuff like manual reloading if you fancy it. And honestly just placing your hand over the right interaction option on an object and holding 'grab' to enact works just fine, and is particularly robust in the heat of the moment. In that context (and given I have a low ceiling) I'm also cool with the grenades being 'fired' with an artificial arc, rather than flung with real actions

Despite the Heat-style combat being robust and satisfying if a job goes all wave-shooter, the real gem here is the co-op stealth. Ultimately the hilarity comes from playing with mates (flatscreen or VR), so you do need to cobble together at least 3 others to get the full experience, but damn is it worth it when it works! (And also when it doesn't )

++

DEISIM

There's really little to say about this god sim, other than it's utterly utterly chill. The main draw is somehow the simple mechanic of lazily flinging biome seeds around you to fill out the world, increasing your civilisations, and gaining more mana and godly benevolence and banes along the way. Your main aims seem to be making sure there's enough empty plain to build on, forest to chop, stone to quarry, and water to gain succour from. (At least that's all I'm doing, I'm a pretty simple god )





Another charming godly pleasure is the act of picking up followers to inspect them, or enemies to fling them entirely off the map . This doubles up when you lift a house to get at the sneaky enemy prophet who's dashed inside to hide



So things do get more upbeat as you find yourself teleport-dashing over larger real estate to manage your flock and push back the red tide of wrong-believers. It definitely gets to a point where you don't know everything that's going on in your dominion, despite handy icons for bigger events like fires and plagues.

It's still early access, so I've never really played a 'full game' through, or even unlocked all of the powers I don't think. I couldn't say if the mechanics are ultimately deep to any degree. I've noticed more has been added (certainly trees didn't seem to die off at the same rate before, or plague strike so readily, and I do wonder if there are underlying aspects of biome placement or charachter behaviour that I'm missing).

Ultimately though: Making it rain to save your people, and having them do a rain dance to celebrate; seeing villages grow and prosper thanks to your aid and pruning; poking around the micro and the macro. These are all classic god game tropes that work pleasingly in this indie title. it's just a properly zen way to spend half an hour or so

Early Access Review: (+)

Managed to grab some Winter sales and gaming time. Have been mainly doing this...

BallisticNG



This is a great retro blast. Good to play a game with all its mechanics and modes fleshed out in VR (because, like, it's essentially Wipeout ). More on the flat-out arcade fun end of things, as your view doesn't tilt with the craft, so you just get the sense of speed more than the sense of banging down the lanes in your futuristic jet-shell. Weirdly crashes and velocity don't feel like a problem in VR at all. The 'constantly escalating speed' mode is nuts . The combat races feel on the right knife edge between fair and chaotic

For the asking price I can forgive a lot of gritty pixels

(-)

---

VR Sports Challenge

Basketball and Gridiron are the standouts here. Each sport is more a jumble of mini-games than a full match, but they kinda flow, and the feeling of being a slow-mo sports hero when it pans out is pretty spot on

The idea is that you try and hit mini-challenges each game to unlock further phases or aspects to the game. So defenders now try and block and tackle me in basketball for example, but the big selling point was definitely unlocking the slow-mo dunks



Footy is just again attack-focused, and ultimately just a set of mini-games (throw, catch, dodge), but the inclusion of the tactics wrist band adds to the 'full game' vibe, even if you're just playing Quarterback.



Get it in a deal and I'd say there's genuinely a solid slice of sporting dream fulfillment here

(++)

---

PREVIEW: Apex Construct

Been messing around with the first few levels of this walking-sim-meets-bow-and-arrow adventure. The art style is lovely...



I think I may be more impressed with the technical competence than the actual game at the moment (it's very cool that they've updated the control schemes since launch, and included full item interaction and plenty of QoL - everything felt very slick and fun to use).

Will be interesting to see if either the story or action aspects really ramp up (and there's been a lot of typing into dos prompts on giant keyboards). I'm not feeling completely called to jump back in, but in theory I'm down with all of the audio-breadcrumb and action/adventure aspects.

Puppet Fever



Super-cute little sofa co-op concept. It's essentially just charades via puppetry, with some handy computer magic sprinkled on top. Adding dress-up and emotions to your little protagonists in the 90 second limit is all good, and then bouncing them around a set or dancing a handy prop is all suitably daft too. There seem to be a decent amount of interactions between the entities (I accidentally blew up my 'car advert' with what I thought would just be a cinematic explosion).

All of the game functionality (awarding points, handing over) is pretty slick, although it could probably do with even more manipulations within the scene itself (changing item / clothing colours etc). But I suspect given how cheaply I got this, and with the last update being in June, that dev has probably stopped now

Project Cars 2

Honestly, I was won over from day one. The minute I found this mode:



These tin cans powered by madly revving motors totally do it for me. Collisions, sweeping corners of gravel expressionism, and the occasional Dukes of Hazard leap. That's it. Sold

The offroad stuff is both better and worse than Dirt's. The roads don't really have the same characterful level of internal dips and ruts, but the surface changes like puddling water and treacherous mud accruing as the rain settles in are great. The sensation of changing surfaces is flat out comical in PC2 (with the controller buzzing like an enraged wasps' nest every time you venture over rough ground), but the actual change in purchase all feel fitting enough.

The AI are widely variable, but this is probably in part due to the crazy spread of tracks and cars available. On the plus side it seems to mean I actually have a chance in some of the races, as opposed to the unrelenting professional zeal of Dirt's rallycross mode.

If I was to TLDR where PC2 excels for me though, it's: Playfulness, and variable weather. There's nothing quite like hurtling around amongst eccentric AI competitors as the fog slowly covers the landmarks you were using to gauge your braking distance...



I like that the other stuff is there too. The careers, the serious, silly and sleek car options, the lengthy practice laps and helpful race manager in your ear. But honestly I'm not a track day guy. I lack the discipline. You'll mainly find me on one of the 8 or so dirt tracks. Possibly in a retro Lotus



(+)

HIGHLY IMPORTANT INDUSTRY NEWS:

Woot...

Take that Linux

To celebrate, this can be my new avatar. NASA's 1985 VIVED VR headset, made from a motorcycle helmet

TECH NEWS: WE'RE GOING TO NEED A SMALLER COMPUTER...

Vive's Q2 2019 headset is boasting foveated rendering. (IE using eye-tracking to only render smaller bits of the screen at high detail, saving lots of lovely computing cycles).

Which, if it pans out, should mean that VR computer requirements dial down a fair whack about 2 years after launch. (Well, at launch really, but the asking price will doubtless be nuts initially )

Skip to about 2 mins in...

Just In Time - First Look

Enjoying this ridiculous indie offering. Despite a clunky teleport system, and simple stylings, the slow-mo 'save the victim' scenarios are pretty fun on balance. Some are mainly 'pluck the bullet out of there air' action exercises, while others go for a 'pick your favourite ridiculous solution' playpen, or a more classic 'figure out the one solution'.

I suspect it won't be a long game, but the core conceits are fun



Altho Noob-Neo here can sod off. Guy has shot me in the back so many times....