The VR thread

[Frogacuda]

Apparently Pool Nation VR (http://store.steampowered.com/app/269170/) hit the Steam top sellers list despite requiring a Vive.

It does look pretty neat.

It's not surprised that the VR market, while small, is going to voraciously consume any quality content that comes along.

On that note, Edge of Nowhere hits Monday and I can't wait. It might be VR's first true AAA game:

[kedawa]

I saw a video of a sniper game that looked pretty neat, although I can't remember the name.
Seems like a good fit for the current tech.

[James]

My Rift is finally showing up on Wednesday. The initial ship-date was "May" so if I'm being forgiving it's only about two weeks late.

[Frogacuda]

Edge of Nowhere is out.

Roadtovr: 9.5/10
UploadVR: 9/10
Gamespot: 8/10

This sounds like the first real VR-exclusive AAA game. I can't wait to get home and give it a go.

[kedawa]

AAA as in high production value, or AAA as in barely interactive wannabe movie spoon-feeding?

[Tain]

The former, obviously, as VR already has plenty of the latter.

The more I think about it, the less I get the Vive controllers having touchpads over analog sticks. I mean, outside of it being Valve's predisposition after the Steam Controller and all that. Pretty much every VR game that uses the touch pads uses them to emulate one to four face buttons, which is obviously worse than actually using four face buttons, a d-pad, or even an analog stick.

The only exception I can think of is Hover Junkers using a circular thumb gesture to reload a revolver (which, of course, would be fine with an analog stick). Maybe something will come along and convince me in time, but for now I just think of seated VR games like Edge of Nowhere, Elite, Lucky's Tale, and so on, and how they're pretty unplayable with the Vive controllers even with Revive in action.

[Frogacuda]

AAA as in high production value, or AAA as in barely interactive wannabe movie spoon-feeding?

High production value from an established developer of respected, modern full-priced titles.

Edge of Nowhere is a $40 game and it's around 5-6 hours long by most accounts so maybe not quite, but it seems like the closest we've gotten so far.

[Tain]

Have you tried Chronos, Frog? It looks pretty neat and kind of similar in terms of production values from the brief footage I've seen of both. It's another "full-sized" game, too, at something like 10 hours.

[Frogacuda]

Have you tried Chronos, Frog? It looks pretty neat and kind of similar in terms of production values from the brief footage I've seen of both. It's another "full-sized" game, too, at something like 10 hours.

I've been avoiding Chronos because I heard it doesn't play nice with anything less than a 970, but it's high on my list of games I want to try when I upgrade.

Turns out Edge of Nowhere is also a bit out of reach for my 770. I had to use the debug tool to turn down the resolution to 75% and turn down my video card settings in the nvidia panel to get it to run smooth, and it still has some bad spots here and there. It's good enough to get through the game and enjoy it, but it has me itching to upgrade (which I will when the 480 and 1070 are out, but it'd be foolish right this second).

[Frogacuda]

I feel like you're crazy if you make a high-end VR game on anything but Uneral Engine 4. The extent to which it's been optimized for VR really shows when you play something like Edge of Nowhere (running on Insomniac Engine). Insomniac Engine runs some gorgeous games; the new Ratchet and Clank is beautiful. But Edge of Nowhere looks kinda last gen and it's still struggling to maintain framerate on a system that runs more detailed UE4 games flawlessly.

Technical gripes aside, EoN is must-get if you're a VR early adopter. It's not a reason to buy a $600+ headest, but it's one of the best things you can play right now on it. It's Lovecraftian horror, mixed with Uncharted-style action movie thrills and Last of Us-style gameplay. It's a great case for how a traditional console-style action game can work -- and be made better -- by VR. It's designed for VR in subtle ways that you don't necessarily notice (the camera never rotates, for example, but the game uses cuts, side-to-side movement, and connected areas to kind of mask the feel of walking in the same direction all the time), but it still feels very much like a familiar AAA action/survival horror game. It might not be wildly original, but that's sort of the point; it's a proof of concept that you don't necessarily have to reinvent the wheel to make a great VR game.

One of the things this game gets incredibly right is scale. It's one of the biggest things that VR can do that traditional 3D really can't. Lucky's Tale, the only other third person VR game I've tried (aside from GameCube stuff in Dolphin VR), makes everything small, as if you're a benevolent giant looking down on the world. That feels very cute in that game, and also allows you to feel close to the characters, since they're tiny. Edge of Nowhere, on the other hand, manages to pull off human scale in third person really well. Victor feels person-sized at all times, and the environments are often really dramatic. Lots of sheer cliffs and giant precipitous drops. Some massive monstrous creatures that would simply not have the same impact otherwise. It plays to the kinds of sights that feel impressive in VR. It occasionally cuts to first person, or puts your view right next to the character, which feels very intimate.

It seems like a pretty short game (I'm not done, but I reckon I'm close with probably 4 and half hours or so in), very linear, and I doubt some of its big setpieces would be as cool if you played it in 2D (certainly the ones that play to vertigo or massive scale), but it's a great argument for why traditional game genres have a place in VR. It's also the first game that's really gotten me to keep the headset on for like two hours straight, and it's good to know that can be a comfortable, fun experience.