Virtual Reality

What I'm trying to say is that there's a few now on PC all fighting for a small share of the PC gaming market and then how many of them will upgrade to get it to run.

Morpheus has more chance of taking of due it working will all PS4s but the cost might be a issue of course the PS4 will have been out for 3 years, so the people that bought the console at launch might be more inclined to pick up £300 add on then let's say now.

Also novelty's can take of just look at the Wii, of course this is more likely going be going for gamers then casuals like that. But from what I've played of VR I'm really excited for it.

masofdas wrote:

But sorry I have to on Half Life 3


But I do think Valve could do a great job but like PC gaming surely you need a PC to be able to use them & how much is that going to cost.

For Half-Life 3, do you really think Valve isn't going to have a killer app associated with Source 2? That may be L4D3 or Portal 3, but I think it's much more likely to be HL3. It's not a ridiculous idea to have.

An upgrade to your PC is no more of an investment than buying a console. A lot (I'd wager the majority) of PC gamers don't own a console - there's no bulk expense there. So, there's no huge concern about upgrading needed. I think PC gamers have a far greater interest in VR than console gamers, so there's a huge market for that product. If the market's split, so what? It'll drive the VR industry to greater heights due to competition. I think it'll succeed on PC yet it'll fail on console due to the fact it'll be seen as a gimmick.

mas wrote:

Morpheus has more chance of taking of due it working will all PS4s.......

Erm....A VR headset would work with all PC's though as all you'd have to do is upgrade it for it to work & if you are already a PC gamer then a good chunk may already have the necessary specs to use it, so I personally wouldn't see an issue with PC gamers taking to it.

Jay wrote:

I think it'll succeed on PC yet it'll fail on console due to the fact it'll be seen as a gimmick.

That is absolutely bang on!

I agree PC gamers have more interest in the VR then console owners as it's new to console market, PC has been come this proving ground for it and PC gamers are more inclined to adapt to new great things like going mainly digital with likes of STEAM.

I think it can work on a console if the software is there and myself don't see it as a gimmick but the possible future of gaming.

JayMoyles wrote:

An upgrade to your PC is no more of an investment than buying a console. A lot (I'd wager the majority) of PC gamers don't own a console - there's no bulk expense there. So, there's no huge concern about upgrading needed. I think PC gamers have a far greater interest in VR than console gamers, so there's a huge market for that product. If the market's split, so what? It'll drive the VR industry to greater heights due to competition. I think it'll succeed on PC yet it'll fail on console due to the fact it'll be seen as a gimmick.

To be fair wouldn't it likely genuinely be a gimmick?  This whole "virtual reality" movement just stinks to me of the whole "lets do something really impractical with technology just because we can, never mind the fact it's far more cumbersome and silly than the long established norm" mindset.  Not too dissimilar to the motion control fad a few years back that outside of exceptionally rare occasions simply made what was fast fluid and convenient with the original interface in to cumbersome and off-putting movements. 3d upped and died a while back as well despite how it was being pushed in much the same way this is.

I guess I just don't really see the appeal of strapping a screen to my face when I can instead be chilling in my uber comfortable recliner looking at a nice big hd tv screen, and simply look to my left for my laptop internet browsing needs.

A gimmick is just an innovation the writer doesn't like the look of. Not a fan of that word.

I suppose, I prefer to think of it as extremely bad attempts at innovation that completely failed. Although really gimmicks are actually attempts to grab mass attention, so ultimately history will write these silly headsets off as either an innovation or a gimmick by whether it becomes a norm and reinvents the norm or simply fades from public attention after a while where it's everywhere because the big powerful companies are pushing it.

Personally I believe it will be the latter. The "innovations" that tend to succeed are the ones that make peoples lives more convenient, and the ones that die or fade in to a form of obscurity are the ones that do not. Things like the Apple devices that basically made the concept of a one device to rule them all a mainstream concept to the point basically every modern device has to have multimedia capabilities are a good example of innovations that made lives more convenient. Things like the motion control fad and the 3d fad would be good examples of the latter.

Athrun888 wrote:

To be fair wouldn't it likely genuinely be a gimmick?   

Balladeer wrote:

A gimmick is just an innovation the writer doesn't like the look of.  Not a fan of that word.

Bingo. Athrun, you might see them as gimmicky or silly, but I genuinely believe that VR will enhance certain experiences in gaming. A game such as Alien Isolation would really benefit from VR's heightened immersion. A first-person shooter would absolutely be enhanced by VR, as would a racing game. Would a turn-based RPG or a traditional Street Fighter-esque fighting game benefit from VR? No. I feel that VR will be an innovation for certain games. If you don't like the look of it, then to you, it's a gimmick.

To be clear, I'm no salivating VR fan.  I feel that it will add ambience to the right games, but does little to the genres I like to play (mostly third-person), and overall, will contribute less to gaming than (say) motion controls (might have done if handled properly...).  

However, the word "gimmick" is thrown around too much nowadays, to the point where it means nothing but a keyboard-thumping "I DISARGEE [sic]".  It's a term that, regardless of any good meanings it might once have had, needs to disappear from the industry now, like "cinematic" or a certain entrance-referencing hashtag.

Also, I'd be all over a VR Metroid Prime game. Over it like a Metroid itself.

JayMoyles wrote:

Bingo. Athrun, you might see them as gimmicky or silly, but I genuinely believe that VR will enhance certain experiences in gaming. A game such as Alien Isolation would really benefit from VR's heightened immersion. A first-person shooter would absolutely be enhanced by VR, as would a racing game. Would a turn-based RPG or a traditional Street Fighter-esque fighting game benefit from VR? No. I feel that VR will be an innovation for certain games. If you don't like the look of it, then to you, it's a gimmick.

Innovation and gimmickry don't have to be mutually exclusive entities, not all the time anyway.  The definition of gimmick: a trick or device intended to attract attention, publicity, or trade.  These headsets right now are a good deal of both gimmickry and innovation.  The way they're being touted by the big companies puts them in the gimmick territory, and I strongly suspect that they'll be shoehorned in to every little thing no matter how unfitting like every other modern technological gimmick, but their potential especially if you start to combine them with other technologies could lead straight to innovation.

As for its potential positive attributes, it's funny you should mention them because I actually had axed mentioning it might have some positive niche uses in the previous post because I didn't like how I'd phrased it (don't really like how I'm phrasing all this either honestly, but that's what happens when you have missed as much sleep as I have lately).  Having said that I don't feel it will have lasting impacts in those genres either despite how it can benefit them, for much the same reason the Wii's remote didn't take out for shooters despite how fantastic it was in Metroid Prime.  

It all comes down to convenience, and it's because of that I don't believe these are going to be a big revolution in the big picture.  Putting my general distaste for them aside (as someone with neck problems they just look like migraine triggers waiting to happen for not much benefit to me, give me a 40+ inch full hd tv with a wireless controller in front of a recliner any day) for nicher areas these headsets will likely over time prove to be very valuable, but the mainstream applications are going to run in to the same long term issues motion control and 3d ran in to.  That they're not really convenient for everyday general use.  And that will likely ultimately prove to be their downfall.  It's the fate that awaits every inconvenient technology and the fate that has befallen a great many things in our society.

Athrun888 wrote:

(as someone with neck problems they just look like migraine triggers waiting to happen for not much benefit to me, give me a 40+ inch full hd tv with a wireless controller in front of a recliner any day)

I think that's one reason why VR will likely fail to make any real waves on the console market - console gamers are used to gaming in comfort, on the sofa in front of the TV, and VR takes you out of that comfort zones.

I just find it all quite exciting - I remember watching a video of someone using VR to simulate a horror game, and the immersion they experienced looked as though it enhanced the game far more than if it had been a "normal" game. Now, horror games aren't my cup of tea, but apply that same level of immersion to an FPS, and we're getting somewhere really cool. Elder Scrolls - there's another game that could really benefit from some level of VR. I don't think VR will replace traditional gaming, and I don't think anyone is suggesting it will, but I think it'll be a peripheral to co-exist with traditional gaming alongside the racing wheel and its ilk.

I don't think gaming technology is up to scratch for something like Elder Scrolls VR. I reckon that would only emphasize the dodgy bits and further break immersion

I totally think the same as Jay and why I will be buying a morpheus as long as there content.

Last Guardian to launch with it lol

andyman949 wrote:

I don't think gaming technology is up to scratch for something like Elder Scrolls VR. I reckon that would only emphasize the dodgy bits and further break immersion

How so? Like the graphics wouldn't be up to scratch?

jay wrote:

A game such as Alien Isolation would really benefit from VR's heightened immersion.

That'd be a nice way to die.

Two penn'orth: I don't hold with this moden virtual reality guff. The processing power for anything genuinely worthwhile isn't there, in my humble, unsubtle and often wrong opinion. As Athrun says, give me a telly and a controller (or a 3DS or, increasingly, a phone) and I'm set.

Jas: Have a look at this example from Alien Isolation - my heart wouldn't take it. And another.

Zero: I'd have to disagree - I think PCs are up to creating something genuinely brilliant with VR, and the Big Black Boxes of Power can likely do something great with it too. Want to see something amazing? This is a screenshot of GTA IV on PC with lighting mods and graphical mods. Couple that level of graphical detail with GTA V's first-person mode and add in some VR, and I'm hyped. As I said before, I don't think it'll replace traditional gaming, but co-exist alongside it to enhance the experience for those who wish for some heightened immersion.

@Jay

Those videos were superb and it'd definitely make me want to play Alien that way though I don't think I could do it all the time, thought it was hilarious when the woman in the second vid actually physically leaned backwards while in the locker or the others who actually stood up to peek over edges.

Just seen bit's on London Heist which is a spiritual successor to The Getaway and the demo that's being shown is you being tortured.

I would have to skip any of this technology until it works without me vomiting and/or passing out.

I still think - no matter how well they can get VR to work - it's impractical. Locking yourself into the screen like that is immensely anti-social, and probably a bit dangerous (not that I want to sound like a Victorian reaction to cinema). I have a feeling that it'll be a Wii motion sensor novelty thing.

Gaming, more often than not, isn't a particularly social hobby though, surely?

I guess not, but, if I'm playing a videogame and someone else is in the room, I've at least got a capability (and the decency) to socially interact with them. Having to sit in the same room as someone sitting in a Virtual private tunnel might be a bit weird, and potentially annoying.

Jimbob wrote:

I guess not, but, if I'm playing a videogame and someone else is in the room, I've at least got a capability (and the decency) to socially interact with them. Having to sit in the same room as someone sitting in a Virtual private tunnel might be a bit weird, and potentially annoying.

Same here, I actually do interact with the people around me when playing video games. We can all be playing our individual 3DS and talking, plus if I am playing games on the television, I usually pick a game that will amuse the family in some way whilst they are around me. It is what you choose it to be.

I guess so - I usually play games by myself though, so there's no social aspect whatsoever.