Oh I didn’t mention how Sony seems to be very careful with all the VR apps available on PSVR.
http://www.roadtovr.com/gdc-2016-sony-playstation-vr-development-and-innovations-live-blog-11am-pst/
This GDC event talked how they will have rules for framerate:
<i>19:09 by Ben Lang
“Reprojection is now required. You can’t drop under 60 FPS ever. If you submit a game to us dropping down to 30 FPS, you’ll probably get rejected. There’s no excuse for not hitting framerate. We’ll help you do this of course.”
19:10 by Ben Lang
“Having a high framerate and dropping down is not acceptable. 60Hz minimum required.”</i>
They are also making loads of experiences tailored to safe VR. Not one traditional FPS in sight. They HAVE to make sure that when people slap that thing on they don’t immediately get sick. Like with everything else, the console version has to be easy, plug and play and universally work. The PC guys can do the experimental stuff, the Sony stuff needs to work and feel like a finished product right away. I am glad to see them be so behind this.
TLDR
Where's the porn stuff?
I wonder who will pay for all of this. Gamers will want to play their favorite franchises on this thing, and in the same way they used to play on a conventional monitor. Nobody's waiting for 'Uncharted: ammo clip catcher', in the same way no one was waiting for Fable the Journey, or whatever it was called. If VR requires a specific flavour of games to work well, it won't cater to the existing hardcore gamers, who are the only ones who'll be willing to spend such amounts on VR. it's a catch 22. The Wii pulled something similar off because it was relatively cheap. No one is going to spend upwards of $1000 for some novelty.
Some article on EG said that VR seems best in short bursts with gameplay that's reminiscent of what you used to experience in the arcades. Which is fine, save for the fact that back then you didn't have to buy the actual arcade cabinet, you could come by on just some small change.
I want uncharted ammo catcher. Lol.
It won't be a gimmick, the entire experience of playing the game changes because the controls are totally different. It would be an immersive experince unlike anything you have ever experienced. Anyone who thinks this is just Wii does not understand what this will do to the world.
I really don't see this being anything but an expensive novelty. It'll be something fun and cool here and there but after awhile I think most people are just going to want to go back to our current traditional control methods of playing games on a TV screen. It's simply not something that can be used for all types of games. It looks clumsy and awkward for both the user and if other people like friends or whatever want to play and/or watch. I seriously question how prolonged gaming with it will affect the user. That's not even taking the price into account. It's too expensive right now but even when it eventually comes down in price there's still all my previous concerns that still come in to play.
Dvader said:I want uncharted ammo catcher. Lol.
It won't be a gimmick, the entire experience of playing the game changes because the controls are totally different. It would be an immersive experince unlike anything you have ever experienced. Anyone who thinks this is just Wii does not understand what this will do to the world.
Anyone who thinks the Wii wasn't a huge cultural influence shouldn't be making predictions on the cultural influence of coming attractions. 
Foolz said:Anyone who thinks the Wii wasn't a huge cultural influence shouldn't be making predictions on the cultural influence of coming attractions.
What? I think the wii is one of the most influencial important video game devices of all time.
Man seems like motion controls and room scale VR is the real thing and what we get with Oculus at launch is basically half assed VR. There is this RPG sword game, 1:1 motion sword combat like Zelda. Its also structured a bit like Zelda. People playing it described it as their dream come true of being in a Zelda game. But you need motion controls to play, so cant do that on oculus.
Damn it.
They made a PT like Paranormal Activity game for VR.
Scariest thing this guy ever played. I love how the motion controls have you manipulating objects just like you would in real life. Using buttons and sticks will one day seem so stupid to players.
And it is room scale vr with motion control, so no rift support till the touch. Sigh.
Dvader said:What? I think the wii is one of the most influencial important video game devices of all time.
Technically I said anyone, not Dvader. 
Dvader said:I want uncharted ammo catcher. Lol.
It won't be a gimmick, the entire experience of playing the game changes because the controls are totally different. It would be an immersive experince unlike anything you have ever experienced. Anyone who thinks this is just Wii does not understand what this will do to the world.
I'm not saying it'll be a gimmick, I'm saying it'll be a completely seperate section of gaming, due to many of gaming's most popular genre's not working well within the limitations set by VR and it's tendencies towards motion sickness. As such I am also questionning if the people who will be most enamoured by what VR has to offer will be the same people who will be willing to spend such an amount on something without any practical use, eg hardcore gamers.
SupremeAC said:I'm not saying it'll be a gimmick, I'm saying it'll be a completely seperate section of gaming, due to many of gaming's most popular genre's not working well within the limitations set by VR and it's tendencies towards motion sickness. As such I am also questionning if the people who will be most enamoured by what VR has to offer will be the same people who will be willing to spend such an amount on something without any practical use, eg hardcore gamers.
Gotcha. I still thing eventually all genres will find a place in VR. VR will have more options than normal gaming not less.
Foolz said:Anyone who thinks the Wii wasn't a huge cultural influence shouldn't be making predictions on the cultural influence of coming attractions.
Funnily enought PS VR owes its creation to the Wii remote. It's only because of that, that Sony made PS Move which was then stuck onto a head massager as a tracker to prototype VR. True story.
As for VR, I need an uber PC or a PS4 to use it. So yeah.... maybe next time. Also does no one worry about the neck ache of having these heavy devices on? I can see a lot of users suffering neck pain or poor posture.
VR can and will be awesome but its really something you need to experience first and then to have widespread adoption and uses. At the moment there is going to be this fragmented experience. A whole slew of VR games that no one will be able to experience unless they have the balls to drop like £700 on a PS4 + VR bundle to experience VR on the cheap.
How it will handle games on PS4 is another question as every other tech company is saying an uber powerful PC is needed and PS4 is not an uber powerful PC.
At least that AMD Sulon is an all in one device.
Excellent article talking about the VR skepticism.
http://www.kotaku.co.uk/2016/03/16/your-vr-apathy-is-entirely-understandable
First impression in a room full of people playing virtual reality games: these people look goofy, and the games they’re playing look dull. Then you put on the headset.
With the headset on, wow, some of them are so impressive! This is how it is with VR, and let’s not pretend otherwise. These games do not show well unless you’re playing them. Any apathy you have is completely reasonable, if you’re a bystander may wondering if VR is just more manufactured hype like 3D TVs a few years ago.
The difference between watching a VR game on a monitor or in a trailer and actually playing it is often astounding. If you watch a trailer for a VR game or watch a live VR session as its graphics are output to a TV for spectators, you might as well be looking at a postcard for the Grand Canyon and not quite understanding how incredible it is to be there.
Didn't you buy a 3DTV?
How much use is it getting? In 3D gaming terms?
gamingeek said:Didn't you buy a 3DTV?
How much use is it getting? In 3D gaming terms?
Lol I played like 3 games on it.
This is it, this is the one. The game to justify VR for me.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2016/03/18/vanishing-realms-for-htc-vive-is-dd-meets-zelda-crafted-by-a-valve-veteran/#308fc49d3547
My vision here wasn’t obscured by a UI, and I think that’s super important for VR immersion. Looking down, however, revealed icons showing my health, mana, sword sheath, and a backpack icon. Using the Vive’s touch controller, I could simply dip my hand into my backpack and pull out objects like apples to revive health, or the all-important torch to illuminate the dank darkness.
It’s fascinating how meaningful a staple gameplay mechanic like health recovery can feel in VR. You’re walking up to that apple, physically and deliberately plucking it off some barrel or surface, and dropping it into your sack. It really gives the simplest action true weight. And yep, there were giant pots to break scattered around. I felt just like Link.<b></b><u></u>
At some point I stumbled across a room with an inactive fire pit, three open areas, and one locked gate. Lighting the fire with my torch, I noticed the flames were bright red. It reminded me a red pot I’d seen in another room. Moderate puzzles like this are one of the stars of Vanishing Realms because they don’t require any explanation. In fact, nothing in the first chapter did. I was pushing forward based on instinct and exploration, and it worked like a charm.<b></b><u></u>
After scooping up some neglected treasure (literally using a scooping motion) and a few potions for later, I lifted a heavy metal key off a nearby wall and made my way down a long cobblestone hallway leading to a sword room. I picked up the sword by its handle, and then remembered I had a left hand that I wasn’t using. So I simply walked up and chose another sword with the left hand. Duel-wielding! But why on earth would I need swords?
A giant skeleton was waiting in the next area to assault me.
I say “giant” because he was staring down at me with frightening yellow eyes, and he seemed enormously wide. I say “giant” because I was literally sizing him up. The VR experience made me aware of my own height, and aware of this enemy towering over me with his imposing stance.
I struck out at him with my right sword, glancing his shield and making no impact. Suddenly he lunged at me with his sword, and I instinctively blocked it with my left. There! He was vulnerable and I slashed at him just inside the shield and took him down a few hit points. As this battle continued, I realized something. This wasn’t just some minion you easily smacked into oblivion. This was a battle with weight, with tactics, and honestly with a bit of fear. I seldom use the word, but it was a visceral experience. Perhaps this what a VR Dark Souls might feel like, or a real-life D&D game.
The game is made by one man, Kelly Bailey. One of the original members of Valve, the man who Gordon Freemans face is based on. He is working on this on his own, a labor of love. I was asking where all the modern indie games are, they are in VR.
Sadly I cant play that until Touch hits.
gamingeek said:Didn't you buy a 3DTV?
How much use is it getting? In 3D gaming terms?
Salient point!
Today was basically VR day at GDC. The big three have laid out all their cards and now its time for us to choose the winner. This is the most exciting time I have seen for gaming in a long time. A totally new era of gaming is coming, a new system war, with tech that we don't yet fully understand but damn it to hell we will try it anyway.
So lets start with the good, VR when it works, it works. It delivers experiences that NOTHING outside of actually living it can replicate. VR tricks the mind into believing you are somewhere else, heart rate goes up, adrenaline flows, and yes sometimes you get sick. We are playing around with powerful tech and devs seem to still be finding the best way to use it. As of now the sure bets are the guided "experiences". This works best with Vive room tech when you can physically walk in the virtual space. Here is a forbes writer experience with a Mt. Everest experience.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2016/03/16/the-everest-vr-experience-on-htc-vive-is-so-terrifying-i-couldnt-finish-it/#612a51761d92
Before I took the first step, I heard the wind whipping around my legs and swore I felt just a bit colder. Suddenly, for only a moment, I felt my legs weaken. With a deep breath of determination, I inched forward across the ridge, heel to toe, and struggled to stay rooted in reality. At one point I even held my arms out for balance, despite actually walking on the perfectly stable carpeted 3rd floor of the Moscone Center.
“This icy ridge isn’t here. This isn’t Class 5 exposure. It’s just carpet! This sheer cliff 4 inches from my shoes is imaginary. I’m not alone at 25,000 feet. 12 feet away a bunch of GDC attendees are watching me. Right?”
The combination of realistic audio, insanely photo-realistic graphics courtesy of Unreal Engine 4 and some of Nvidia’s VR Works wizardry, the tactility of the HTC Vive’s touch controllers and its accurate room presence, had convinced it of this alternate reality. A reality where I was legitimately terrified.
If at this point you still think VR is a gimmick, or a fad, it’s either because you haven’t tried it at all, or you haven’t tried the right experience. Screenshots can’t do this justice. Video can’t do this justice. My words, no matter how descriptive and colorful and emotional I make them, can’t do this justice.
That kind of reaction is echoed by anyone who has had a good VR experience. This also brings up the issue Oculus has, no motion controller at launch. Perhaps room scale VR is going to be the standard.
This demonstration from Sony had players and viewers laughing and having a great time. Its basically a social game hub with cartoon avatars. It shows off how the move works well with VR and the social implications
https://youtu.be/sK8tMwlZLEM
Its stupid fun, I see this like the early days of 3D gaming where devs were trying anything to see what sticks. What got me excited was when one guy threw a block at another and the guy snatched it from mid air. Pretend you are Drake and you run out of ammo, you yell to Sully for a clip and he throws one at you, you physically reach out and grab it, then manually load it into your fake gun and aim and shoot. Those are the kinds of experiences we are heading toward.
Today Oculus revealed its launch lineup with prices
That's a lot of crap. Some impressions were not great.
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/03/oculus-will-launch-with-30-vr-games-but-are-they-any-good/
Instead, I found a lot of launch-day fare that felt mostly gimmicky in VR. The Cartoon Network series Adventure Time has lent its characters and voices to a wholly pedestrian 3D adventure game. Shufflepuck Cantina Deluxe VR tries to wrap an ornate RPG and loot system around air hockey with polished-yet-boring results. Chronos freezes players' heads in VR space while making them run through a slow, badly paced quest full of key and switch hunting and unsatisfying combat. Rooms and Dreadhalls were been-there-done-that takes on puzzling and narrative-mystery gaming, respectively, that were in no way enhanced by a sense of presence. <b></b><u></u>
Growing pains of a new medium. They did enjoy the space combat games the most and were very impressed with Project Cars. Games where the character sits in something seems to be the way to go early on as it reduces sickness. Eurogamer thinks most games were not impressive either, says the Insomniac game showed the most promise.
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2016-03-16-rifts-launch-line-up-has-the-quality-and-quantity-but-is-it-too-safe
These were almost all fun games, and witnessing them in VR was inherently fun too. But you had to look to Edge of Nowhere to see where Oculus' conservative approach to software could actually hit its mark. It's another very familiar genre piece - in this case, an Uncharted or Tomb Raider-style action game with streamlined inputs, a linear thrust, and a lot of clambering around with ice picks. Its Lovecraftian influence and the clean, frosty cartoon of its snowbound look distinguish it to some extent. But Insomniac has put tremendous thought and craft into how this kind of third-person experience might work in virtual reality, and the result is something that is instantly familiar and thrillingly novel.
Edge of Nowhere also flies against convention with its perspective. It's one of the most promising games of the Rift's initial batch.
These were almost all fun games, and witnessing them in VR was inherently fun too. But you had to look to Edge of Nowhere to see where Oculus' conservative approach to software could actually hit its mark. It's another very familiar genre piece - in this case, an Uncharted or Tomb Raider-style action game with streamlined inputs, a linear thrust, and a lot of clambering around with ice picks. Its Lovecraftian influence and the clean, frosty cartoon of its snowbound look distinguish it to some extent. But Insomniac has put tremendous thought and craft into how this kind of third-person experience might work in virtual reality, and the result is something that is instantly familiar and thrillingly novel
Nausea isn't a problem, because movement is fairly slow and you can only turn the camera (and indeed, aim weapons) with your head movement. What's most exciting is how real and solid the environments feel; in Adrift, you're still conscious of looking forward through the portal of your character's eyes, as you are in any first-person game, but in Edge of Nowhere, you sense the space around you: the vertiginous drops you'll see if you look down between your feet, the glittering walls of ice to either side, the impenetrable darkness of the cavern ahead.
It's a terrific experience, and one that could convert a lot of people to VR, especially those who like their games the way they like them - experiences to sit down and have wash over you. But it is still just a better way of playing something you already have. Some Vive demos - or even the asymmetrical multiplayer hijinks of Sony's hilarious The Playroom VR - have already shown that this technology can give us entirely new experiences, too. If it doesn't want to end up playing the man in the middle, Oculus should be looking to show us some of those as well.
So games that show actual use of VR tech to do new things with gameplay seem to be getting the best buzz, as it should be. But it seems Oculus' launch line up has very little of that. Sony and HTC are the ones really pushing for new experiences.
The bad is how no matter what they do, people will get sick. And my discovery that FPS in general are going to be unplayable in their current state. The genre that best fits VR is going to be what makes most people sick. The problem is with movement and how FPS have twin sticks, the second you touch that right stick to turn your brain goes haywire. The best way to combat this is slow down movement considerably. Now some people have played many of the VR patches to existing games just fine. Some people can adapt to VR easily, many can't. Playing traditional games with patched in VR seems to be a recipe for vomit. But that is the main allure for us gamers.
Ubisoft came up with a way to help fight sickness with a field of view trick as you are turning in this eagle game.
The title from Ubisoft was shown in multiplayer on Oculus Rift with players tilting their heads to their shoulders to navigate their birds to turn through narrow corridors and avoid other eagles trying to swoop in. As the intensity of movement increased in the game — swooping left/right or turning — the field of view narrows so the player only sees a small sliver of the world. Check it out in the video above.
This is the first time we’ve seen Eagle Flight’s approach to allowing players freedom of movement in VR while reducing discomfort. Jason Rubin, head of Oculus Studios, praised the method on Twitter, saying it is “incredibly effective” and calling for praise of Ubisoft’s team.
Devs are going to learn all kinds of tricks in the coming years to eliminate sickness, again this is just the infancy. But in the mean time many are getting sick. A lot of it happened with Oculus Touch demo which tries to do room scale but without real world simulation you cant see where you are going, so some people smashed into a wall. One had some tech issues which made them sick. From arstechnica:
http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2016/03/vertigo-lives-oculus-rift-preview-event-suffers-from-vr-tracking-woes/
That's because I spent roughly four hours after the preview event feeling sick. I felt stuck in a dizziness spell the likes of which I'd never experienced in over a year of major, lengthy VR preview events. In the past, I'd used more ineffective VR tracking systems, particularly Google Cardboard, and I'd used earlier Oculus kits with more "screendoor" problems and other visual issues.
What was so wrong with this one? The answer is hard to pinpoint because it didn't have anything to do with the crisp screens or otherwise solid hardware. The problem popped up randomly throughout roughly five hours of Oculus event headset demos (which, as an aside, left a "raccoon eyes" imprint on my face). It took a developer fixing the issue on one demo for me to figure out one possible reason: the headset may have occasionally lost webcam tracking.
Oculus is having issues with the room tracking that Vive is already launching which. That could be a major problem going forward for Oculus.
Well it wouldn't be exciting if there wasn't some risk. I cant wait to jump in and try all of it, if I get sick oh well. I hope I don't.