Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: “The PSVR is really impressive for VR powered by a four-year old game console, but the PlayStation Move controllers are really lame.” Chances are if you’ve ever talked to anyone that owns or has tried PSVR at any point in their life, they think the PS Move controllers are just plain lacking. They don’t have a D-Pad, analog stick, touchpad or any other movement input system and you’re lucky to get through an hour without a glitch or weird tracking bug. To make matters worse the PSVR is a front-facing only device with a single, outdated tracking camera that severely limits what you can do while immersed in a virtual world. The last thing I want to do when playing a VR game is have to worry about which direction I’m facing in real life. That means no moving around a room, no ducking or crawling, no rapid movements, and no turning around at all. Facing forward in a seated or feet planted position are your only options.
Consider me surprised then when I learned that not only is Bethesda porting over one of its most massive, sprawling, and immersive adventures (The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim) to VR, but it’s bringing it to Sony’s PSVR first with timed exclusivity. Talk about bittersweet.
While the end result is much better than it has any right to be (read our full review here) that’s mostly in spite of the PS Move controllers, not because of them. Reaching into the world of Skyrim to punch a dragon in the mouth, pick up a dagger and fling it across a room, or just beat bandits to death with a big warhammer feels great right up until the PS Move controller tracking gives out. Craning my neck up to look at a towering giant or deadly dragon really puts me in the moment right up until I turn around to shoot it and realize the camera can’t see my hands anymore. These, and plenty of other issues, are all outlines in great detail in my review.
What I’m getting at here is that Skyrim VR is a great game. It really is. But that’s because Bethesda struck gold with its original release all the way back in 2011 and its been milking that cash cow ever since with releases on Xbox 360, PS3, PC, PS4, Xbox One, PC again, Nintendo Switch, and now the PSVR. Skyrim proves that a great game is great regardless of when or where it launches and that includes VR devices.
Standing at the top of the Throat of the World and looking down at the landscapes of of Tamriel in VR literally took my breath away. I got chills the first time I got surrounded by Draugr in an old Nordic crypt. Reliving key moments from my Skyrim-laced memories brought smiles to my face. Playing a game like Skyrim VR feels both like you’re coming home and you’re in a strange new land with a strong sense of déjà vu.
Imagine what it could have been like if the first time Skyrim VR released to the public it had the full weight of a roomscale-tracked environment with proper motion controllers such as the HTC Vive wands or Oculus Touch. The visuals would look crisper and more detailed, movement could be accomplished with a trackpad or analog stick, and the power of mods would be much more likely than they are in the PSVR iteration of the game.
I’m sure Sony paid Bethesda a hefty sum to keep the game exclusive to their headset for a little while and we should eventually see Skyrim VR on other platforms like the HTC Vive, but I can’t help but think that part of me feels like the Skyrim VR will forever have a lackluster first impression for a lot of people. That isn’t to say that games should never launch first on PSVR, but a game like Skyrim that has the PC culture at its root and core and prides itself on intense, immersive realism, should really be empowered by its platform, not hindered.
I’ll be the first to admit that PSVR continues to surprise me with how much it can do. Honestly it’s my heasdset of choice a lot of the time and is still the most comfortable one to wear. Skyrim VR is a great game and easily ranks as one of VR’s best, most ambitious, and most elaborate titles to date. Anyone that considers themselves a fan of RPGs owes it to themselves to give Skyrim VR a try.
But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t have been even better from the get-go.
You don’t have to wait much longer before finally getting your hands on The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR. Tomorrow, on November 17th, 2017, you’ll finally be able to step foot into the world of Tamriel like never before. Sony is also commemorating the launch with a brand new PSVR bundle that includes the new headset with slight changes, Skyrim VR on a disc, the new demo disc, the new processor unit, a PS camera, and two PS Move controllers.
Sony sent us one for review, so you can take a look at some unboxing photos right here:
The new headset model isn’t very different at all and we updated our review to reflect the changes. Basically, it moves some stuff around and adds HDR pass-through to the processor unit. The bundle also comes with new PS Move controllers that have slight color variations and the same charging port as the PS4 controllers instead of the previous Moves that used the same port as the PS3 controllers.
For our detailed thoughts on Skyrim VR you can read our review right here and watch the gameplay videos and livestream footage included in the review. Overall this is a great package and it will cost you $449 usually but is getting slashed down to just $349 for Black Friday pricing next week.
Let us know your thoughts down in the comments below!
Ever since The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR was announced earlier this year back at E3 2017, hungry VR gamers around the world have been impatiently awaiting its arrival. With consumers drowning in a sea of half-finished tech demos and hour-long “experiences” that offer little depth, the arrival of a massive, sprawling adventure is long overdue. Despite the fact that it’s just a VR port of a six-year old game the tantalizing proposition of traveling to the vast, enormous land of Skyrim with the immersive power of virtual reality was just too good to be true. Could a game that massive and interactive really translate over to VR well? Could the PSVR’s Move controllers provide a good enough experience to be worth recommending?
After spending a lot of time with Skyrim VR we finally have the answers to these and many other questions.
Skyrim first released back in 2011 on the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC. Since then it’s received three expansions, an Enhanced Edition update on PC along with a re-release on PS4 and Xbox One, plus a handheld port to Nintendo Switch releasing on November 17th and now Skyrim VR for PSVR releasing that same day. As the winner of over 200 Game of the year Awards according to its packaging, it’s truly the game that keeps on giving.
What makes Skyrim so remarkable is that it iterated on the open world RPG formula Bethesda had been perfecting for years already at that point. Between The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and Fallout 3, Bethesda had a strong foundation to build from. As a result, Skyrim offers nearly endless replayability. Between the 10 races and completely open-ended progression system you’re free to play the game however you want. The core game plus its expansions have hundreds of hours of content for players to devour on any single playthrough.
The main story focuses on a tale of you, the player’s character, donning the role of Dragonborn. What this means is that you’re descended from the once-extinct dragons themselves that have returned to wreak havoc on the world. You’re the last hope against Alduin, the World Eater, and you must learn the langauge of the dragons, wield the thunderous power of their shouts, and become the hero. Well, you could do all of that, or you could just chase butterflies and pick flowers. Or become the leader of the Mage’s Guild. Or settle down, build a house on the river, and get married. Or pretty much whatever you want.
Want to become a sword and shield-wielding fighter that wears heavy armor and bullies his way through the world? Go for it. You’ll level up and earn new skills just by doing the things you want. Hit stuff with your one-handed weapon and that will increase your proficiency with one-handed weapons. The same goes for a bow, shield, spells, and everything else. This means that my Dark Elf wizard that moonlights as a stealthy assassin will play and progress completely differently from your warhammer-toting Orc.
Playing Skyrim is also an exercise in patience, no matter which version you play. Bethesda’s games are so large and unpredictable with countless moving parts that they’re also riddled with bugs. Even now, six years later, there are still bugs in Skyrim to find. Not as many, mind you, but while playing Skyrim VR I did come across wonky animations, objects that were floating instead of being placed on the ground as intended, and just generally lots of models clipping, popping in, and acting weird. It goes with the territory and it doesn’t really impact the experience in any kind of profound way.
For a game this large and full of options I had my doubts that it’d translate to VR smoothly. After my latest hands-on demo where I got the chance to try the smooth locomotion I was more confident, but was still unsure how the final product would fare. Thankfully Bethesda have done a solid job of capturing the vast majority of what makes Skyrim so grand.
The moment when I first blocked an arrow with my shield by raising my left hand up, dashed forward, bashed the bandit by extending my shielded left arm forcefully, then proceeded to slash him several times with full arm swings of the PS Move controller in my right hand to finish him off was when it really hit me: this is Skyrim like I’ve never seen it before.
Pulling back an arrow with my actual hand and loosing it towards an enemy’s face, bashing spiders by swinging downward with a warhammer, or blasting two different enemy’s with the two different spells in my hands are all things I could never do in non-VR Skyrim. I couldn’t turn to look around at the starry night sky or hold my breath as I peek around a corner in a dark cave. It’s in these small, intimate moments that Skyrim’s soul peers out and reminds you why it’s one of the most celebrated games of all-time.
All of the above screenshots were taken in-game, but the PSVR captures them from the TV output. The game actually looks better while wearing the headset.
Skyrim VR on PSVR has three control methods: smooth locomotion with the PS Move controllers (referred to as Direct Movement,) teleportation with the PS Move controllers, and direct movement with the Dualshock 4 gamepad. For PS Move direct movement it works by using your left PS Move controller as a sort of guide stick. When you hold down the PS Move button in the middle of the face of the controller you move in the direction that you’re pointing. This lets you move in one direction while still being able to look around with your head — just like you would in real life. Since PSVR is 180-degree tracking only you then must use the X and O buttons on the right PS Move controller to rotate the camera horizontally. You can toggle either snap turning or gradual/smooth turning. Surprisingly the PS Move direct movement with smooth/gradual turning was my preferred control scheme.
After that there’s teleportation locomotion in which you point and click with the PS Move controller. You can’t do any direct/smooth movement with this scheme and you’re forced to blink/teleport across the entirety of the game world. This was my least favorite control scheme, but I could see it being useful for those that suffer severely from motion sickness. Finally you can use just a good ol’ standard Dualshock 4 like you would if you played the non-VR version. The only difference is that you look around with your head and the UI/interactions are all ported to a VR interface. If my arms were tired or I wanted to sit back while playing then this was the method I used.
While I surprisingly had fun with the PS Move method, my gut tells me the Dualshock 4 will be the most popular way of playing. The PS Move controllers aren’t required and not everyone has them, so since the game is fully playable without, there is nothing wrong with playing it this way. In fact, if you do, you can sidestep many of the technical issues that plague the aging PS Move hardware. You lose out on the hand presence but you also gain increased control accuracy and fewer glitches.
In terms of things that have changed for the VR version I wish more care could have been given to the UI. Menus are just floating, flat boxes that you navigate as if you aren’t in VR at all. Subtitles appear the same way and dialog options with NPCs are floating words off to the sides of their heads. It breaks the immersion and it’s unfortunate, but it gets the job done for now. In future large-scale RPGs I’d love for more creative solutions, like a physical backpack instead of an inventory screen. The one exception in which Bethesda did a wonderful job is with the map. It’s a 3D recreation of the entire game world that you can freely fly around in 360-degrees as if you were a giant dragon yourself.
Going in I fully expected to just play Skyrim VR using a Dualshock 4 and call it a day. It’s how I knew the game best from past experiences and that worked just fine for Resident Evil 7, one of the best full VR games released thus far. But I actually found that, despite it all, I really did enjoy using the PS Move controllers. With that being said, they often felt janky and had issues. Sometimes my right hand would tilt to the wrong direction so I’d give it a quick shake and it would realign. Although that’s more of a hardware deficiency than issue with the game. I’d imagine when this releases on PC VR for Vive (and hopefully Rift) next year many of the issues will be ironed out.
One of the biggest gripes I have though with the PS Move controllers is that moving in the heat of battle can be a bit frustrating, but it worked for the most part. Holding up a shield made movement difficult since you can’t point the controller and hold the shield up at the same time. The same goes for drawing back the string of a bow, which requires you to hold the left controller vertically, negating the ability to move around very reasonably. I honestly spent most of my time playing Skyrim VR on Novice and Adept difficulty when using PS Move controllers for this reason. It’s very easy to get overwhelmed by a lot of enemies in VR, particularly when you can’t freely turn in roomscale or move your body very much.
The PS Move controllers still leave a lot to be desired. I’d love to have control sticks like the Oculus Touch so I could just easily move around the world, or the accuracy of the Vive’s lighthouse tracking system so I can freely turn and move around while playing. In the case of PSVR you really have to either stand still, feet planted, or sit down while playing. The single tracking camera isn’t enough to let you move around as much as you’re going to want to. I wanted to side step and dodge attacks more and spin around to hit enemies during the heat of battle, but the PSVR’s limitations are holding the game back. But the fact that I still got lost for hours exploring the same game I’ve played countless times is a testament to the depth of the game.
You can see the effects even more clearly in the visuals. Far off draw distances, like when you first exit Helgen at the end of the intro, look blurry. There’s bad pop-in on some objects like plants and environmental details. Textures like the sides of mountains, buildings, rocks, and the ground all look incredibly flat and plain. Perhaps part of the visual downgrade is because my mind is remembering a fully-modded PC version or the recent PS4 Enhanced Edition, which both outpace Skyrim VR by several miles. Visually what you get with Skyrim VR is more comparable to the original PS3/Xbox 360 release.
The art direction is still fantastic and the world is still living and breathing like nothing else in VR to date, so there’s that, but this is a downgraded port of an already half-decade old game. It’s starting to show some significant blemishes. I’m not going to lie and say Skyrim VR is better than Skyrim outside of VR, because it isn’t. It’s just different. However, I would argue it offers a much more immersive, intimate, and ambitious experience at the loss of visual quality and technical accuracy.
But in many ways Skyrim VR is like a guilty pleasure. It’s ugly compared to its older siblings, it has its share of issues, and in most ways its inferior to its non-VR counterpart, but there is just something special about the sensation of walking down the dirt road to Riverwood in VR for the first time, or staring down the throat of a fire-breathing dragon, or even gazing out upon Tamriel from the top of the Throat of the World. Whether you’re a Skyrim-veteran or one of the lucky few that get to see this world for the first time, Skyrim VR is enrapturing.
Final Score:8/10 – Great
For a game that wasn’t originally designed for VR at all and has been ported first to the least powerful of the big three VR platforms in the PSVR, Skyrim VR is nothing short of impressive. This really is the Skyrim that you know and love, but now you can enjoy it like never before with the immersive presence of a VR headset. With a large variety of control schemes to choose from and hundreds of hours of content, this is a game that all RPG fans should play as long as you can look past the sometimes glaring issues. And if you don’t own a PSVR yet, luckily there’s a new Skyrim VR bundle with your name on it.
Update: This review was conducted by testing the game on both a standard PS4 and a PS4 Pro. It was mostly played on a PS4 Pro. Visually it does look better on the Pro, but not by a significant margin. Performance seemed about the same on both consoles.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR is right around the corner with a release date of November 17th, 2017 — that’s only mere days away. With its launch this Friday it will easily rank as the largest, most detailed, and most elaborate game available in VR to date. With hundreds of hours of gameplay between the core campaign, side content, and three expansions players will be able to lose themselves once again in the frosted wastelands of Skyrim.
When Skyrim originally released all the way back in 2011 it was lauded as a landmark achievement for roleplaying games and its impact on the industry is still being felt to this day. Bethesda teamed up with Escalation Studios to port the title over to VR and rebuild many of the controls and interfacing options from the ground up. On PSVR you can play either with a Dualshock 4 gamepad or two PS Move controllers with full head-tracking and a host of movement options. Casting spells means controlling each hand individually, swinging the sword with your hand, and blocking attacks with a shield strapped to your arm. It’s Skyrim like you’ve never experienced it before.
We also got the chance to send over a handful of questions to the Lead Producer at Bethesda Game Studios, Andrew Scharf, before the game’s launch to learn more about its development and what it took to bring the vast world of Tamriel to VR for the very first time.
UploadVR: All of Skyrim is in VR, which is quite ambitious. What were the biggest challenges with porting the game to a new format like VR?
Andrew Scharf: PlayStation VR games need to be running at 60 fps at all times, otherwise it can be an uncomfortable experience for the player. We’re working with a great team at Escalation Studios, who are among the best VR developers in the industry and with their help, we were able to not only get the game running smoothly, but redesign and shape Skyrim’s mechanics to feel good in VR.
It’s definitely a challenge figuring out the best way to display important information in VR. Take the World Map and the Skills menu for example — we wanted to give the player an immersive 360 degree view when choosing where to travel, or viewing the constellations and deciding which perk to enable. For the HUD, we needed to make sure important information was in an area where the player could quickly refer to it, while also preventing the player from feeling claustrophobic by being completely surrounded by user interface elements.
UploadVR: What are the major differences with developing for PSVR and HTC Vive?
Andrew Scharf: The major difference that took iteration is the single camera that the PSVR uses, versus the HTC Vive base stations. In order to ensure an optimal VR experience, the PS Move Controllers need to be in view of the camera which means players need to always be facing in that direction. Early on, we found that this was a bit of a challenge – players would put on the headset and then turn all the way around and start going in a random direction. One solution to help keep players facing the right way was to anchor important UI elements so if you can see the compass in front of you, you’re facing in the right direction.
The PlayStation Move Controllers also has several buttons while the HTC Vive Controllers primarily have a multi-function trackpad, so figuring out input and control schemes that felt natural to the platform was tricky, but we feel really good where we’ve landed with controls and locomotion for both Skyrim and Fallout VR.
UploadVR: What are some of the ways that you think VR adds to the game? For example, in my last demo deflecting arrows with my shield felt really, really satisfying. How has VR redefined how you enjoy Skyrim?
Andrew Scharf: It’s a huge perspective shift which completely changes how you approach playing the game. Part of the fun of making combat feel natural in VR is now you have some tricks up your sleeve that you didn’t have before. You can fire the bow and arrow as fast and you’re able to nock and release, lean around corners to peek at targets, shield bash with your left hand while swinging a weapon with your right, and my favorite is being able to attack two targets at the same time with weapons or spells equipped in each hand.
You can also precisely control where you pick up and drop objects, and in general be able to interact with the world a little more how you’d expect – so like me, you’re probably going to take this skill and use it to obsessively organize your house.
UploadVR: Were there ever considerations to add voice recognition for talking with NPCs? Selecting floating words as dialog choices breaks the immersion a little bit.
Andrew Scharf: We thought about a lot of different options for new features and interfaces during development. In the end we chose to prioritize making the game feel great in VR. At this time, voice recognition for dialogue is not included in the game.
UploadVR: Was smooth locomotion with PS Move something that was always planned for the game, or was it added after feedback from fans at E3?
Andrew Scharf: There were a bunch of options we were considering from the very beginning of development. We wanted to ensure that people who were susceptible to VR motion sickness could still experience the world of Skyrim comfortably, so we focused on new systems we would have to add (like our teleportation movement scheme) to help alleviate any tolerance issues first.
For smooth locomotion, there’s a good number of us here who spend a lot of time playing VR games and see what works well and what doesn’t, but ultimately it came down to figuring out the best approach for us. There were unique challenges with Skyrim that we had to iterate on, from having both main and offhand weapons, the design of the PlayStation Move controllers, long-term play comfort, and ultimately, making sure you can still play Skyrim in whichever playstyle you prefer.
UploadVR: Mods won’t be in the game at launch, but what about the future? Do you want to bring other Elder Scrolls games into VR? And what about Fallout 4 VR on PSVR?
Andrew Scharf: We’ve definitely learned a lot, but as far as what future features or titles we will or won’t bring to VR, that remains to be seen. For now our focus is on launching and supporting the VR versions of Skyrim and Fallout 4.
Our goal with all our VR titles is to bring it to as many platforms as possible. When and if we have more information to share we will let everyone know.
During a short “Making Of” video, Bethesda revealed more details about Skyrim VR’s development and some of the updates they made to bring it to life once again:
It’s Thursday, November 16th which means there is only one more day until The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR finally releases on PSVR. But if you’re hungry for details about the game, what you can do, how it plays, and everything else then you don’t have to wait quite that long. Here at UploadVR we will be livestreaming Skyrim VR for all the world to see today, November 16th, starting at approximately 7AM PT (give or take a few minutes) and we want you to help shape our adventure by making a few choices for us.
We’ve included a link to a survey right here that will let you vote on which of the 10 races we pick, the type of character we’ll play, what we’ll focus on doing, and so much more. Our stream will only last a few hours (although it may return in the evening) but we will try and see as much of the world as we possibly can during that time. Once again, here is the link to the survey. Make your picks to help decide the fate of our Dragonborn during our Skyrim VR livestream.
WATCH US LIVE RIGHT HERE:
Prepare yourself, Dovahkin, for the time has nearly come to wield your blade, don your armor, and face off with Alduin, the World Eater. May the Nine Divines guide you with the spirit and vigor of Talos himself. I need you there, cheering me on, as I venture forth into the dangerous lands of Tamriel!
[Update] Morgen ist endlich der Tag, und Skyrim VR erscheint für die PSVR. Die amerikanischen Kollegen von VR Focus nehmen das zum Anlass, das Spielerlebnis live zu streamen. Ab 16 Uhr geht es los. Eine schöne Idee: Zuschauer dürfen vor dem Start einige Optionen auswählen und so mitbestimmen, was im Gameplay-Stream zu sehen sein wird. Den Link zum Stream findet ihr hier.
Originalmeldung vom 13. November 2017:
Am Freitag dieser Woche ist es so weit: Dann erscheint das von vielen Fans erwartete Rollenspiel The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR für PlayStation VR (PSVR). Am heutigen Montag startet Bethesda um 18.30 Uhr eine Liveübertragung auf Twitch, die mit Sicherheit die letzte Fassung des Spiels zeigt.
The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR – Live via Twitch
Vor dem Verkaufsstart am 17. November haben interessierte Spieler jetzt die Möglichkeit, in die letzte Fassung des Spiels hineinzuschnuppern. Ab 18.30 Uhr wird Bethesda am heutigen Montag das Spiel live auf Twitch streamen.
Welche Bedeutung die Veröffentlichung des Titels The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR für Sony hat, zeigt auch ein Skyrim-VR-Bundle, das der japanische Konzern in Amerika seit ein paar Tagen zur Vorbestellung anbietet. Neben dem Spiel enthält das Bundle auch die überarbeitete PlayStation-VR-Brille und Move Controller. Außerdem dabei sind die Kamera und und die neue Demo-Disc. Die lässt sich inzwischen auch bei uns im PlayStation Store kostenlos laden und enthält 13 Demos. Besonders interessant ist dabei der Mäuserich-Held Moss, der erst nächstes Jahr seinen offiziellen Auftritt auf der Sony-Konsole haben wird.
Der VR-Titel The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR kostet rund 70 Euro und lässt sich in verschiedenen Shops vorbestellen. Im Preis enthalten sind die DLCs Dawnguard, Hearthfire und Dragonborn.
Bethesda’s VR version of Skyrim (2011) is nearly here, launching on PSVR Friday this week. If you’re itching to see more gameplay before pulling the trigger on the full-priced game, Bethesda is running a live stream starting Monday, November 13th at 12:30pm ET (your time here) so you can get another peek at what’s poised to be an instant fan favorite.
You’ve probably played the traditional console/PC version of Skyrim, seen gameplay videos, or at least swam through an Internet’s-worth of memes before getting here, so you basically know what you’re getting with Skyrim VR: a giant open world that offers an impressive number of missions. As with all things, the devil is invariably in the details though, and porting a game to VR and making it work isn’t as simple as supporting a VR headset and calling it a job well done. The user interface usually has to be reworked, object interaction needs to be natural, scaling needs to be appropriate to the size of your character (you notice it more in VR than on a monitor). All of those things and much more have to work flawlessly for a PC-to-VR port like Skyrim VR to be a success.
If you won’t be able to see the livestream, there are a few recent previews from GameSpot, IGN, and Polygon worth watching to get a feel for what’s been changed to make the game more VR-native.
We’ll of course be bringing you our review too, so check back soon.
With major US retailers already greasing the wheels of their shopping carts in preparation for the yearly scramble we call Black Friday, Sony today announced on the US PlayStation blog that it’s temporarily lowering the price of all PlayStation VR bundles as well as the PlayStation 4 1TB console, each by $100.
Starting on November 19th and going through Cyber Monday on November 27, participating retailers will offer PSVR bundles starting at $300 and the PS4 1TB console at $200.
image courtesy Sony
When we first reported on Target’s price drop of the PSVR headset and PS4 console, it wasn’t certain if other retailers were participating, or if Target was subsidizing the drop on its own in a bid to attract eager customers looking for one of the most accessible VR headsets currently on offer.
This $100 off also applies to the newly announced PlayStation VR Skyrim VR Bundle, which slashes its original price of $450 to the temporary price of $350. The Skyrim bundle includes the updated PSVR headset (CUH-ZVR2), PlayStation Camera, two PlayStation Move controllers, and Skyrim VR with Dawnguard, Hearthfire, and Dragonborn DLC.
The PlayStation VR Gran Turismo Sport Bundle runs at the lower price of $300, as it doesn’t include PS Move controllers and has the headset’s first iteration (CUH-ZVR1).
Because a PSVR is useless without the PS4 console (that message was for your mom/dad/wife/husband), Sony’s $200 deal effectively brings the whole price of a working VR system to between $500-550.
Additional DualShock 4 wireless controllers, including the recently released translucent colors, are knocked down in price too, now $40.
Sony hasn’t named exactly which retailers will offer the new low price, although we’ve found the price at both Target and Walmart. We’d keep an eye on Amazon in the coming days too.
PlayStations digital marketplace is also offering 40% off selected titles starting November 21st through 8am PT November 28th. The company says they’ll be announcing more info on the sale soon.
This story is breaking. We’ll update as info comes is.
[Update] Nach dem Skyrim-Bundle veröffentlicht Sony in Nordamerika und Kanada auch ein Bundle mit Doom VFR. Es wird zum Erscheinungstag des Egoshooters am 1. Dezember erhältlich sein. Das Bundle mit Skyrim VR ist heute in den Handel gelangt – die Kollegen von VR Focus haben es bereits ausgepackt.
Im Gegensatz zum Rollenspiel-Bundle enthält das Doom-Set keine Move Controller, ist dafür aber 50 US-Dollar günstiger und kostet 400 Dollar. Die Entscheidung ist nachvollziehbar, denn alternativ lässt sich Doom VFR auch mit dem Aim Controller spielen, was die bessere Alternative sein sollte. Ob und wann Sony auch hierzulande Bundles mit der überabeiteten Hardware anbietet, ist derzeit noch völlig unklar.
Originalmeldung vom 7. November 2017:
In Japan ist die überarbeitete PSVR seit der zweiten Oktoberwoche erhältlich und legte einen sehr starken Start hin. Über eine Veröffentlichung in anderen Ländern schwieg sich Sony indes bisher aus. Zumindest in Amerika ist es nun soweit: Das Skyrim VR Bundle lässt sich in Amerika vorbestellen und enthält die neue PSVR.
Skyrim VR Bundle mit neuer PSVR
Ohne große Ankündigung von Sony erscheint das neue Skyrim VR Bundle, das sich beispielsweise auf Amazon.com bereits vorbestellen lässt. Pünktlich am 17. November zum Start von The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR soll die Auslieferung starten. Mit dabei sind die DLCs Dawnguard, Hearthfire und Dragonborn. Das Set enthält neben der Umsetzung des Rollenspielklassikers die überarbeitete PSVR: Wichtigste Neuerungen des Headsets ist die Möglichkeit des HDR-Pass-through und Kopfhörer, die sich in der Halterung der Brille integrieren lassen: Tschüss Kabelgewirr. Die Move Controller hat Sony kaum verändert. Sie besitzen jetzt einen Micro-USB-Port und einen stärkeren Akku mit 1900 mAh statt 1380 mAh.
Das Bundle kostet knapp 450 US-Dollar und enthält neben Controllern, Headset und Spiel auch die Kamera und eine Disc mit 13 Demos. Ob und wann Sony das Skyrim-Bundle auch hierzulande mit der neuen PlayStation VR anbieten will, ist derzeit noch unbekannt. Das Spiel The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR allein lässt sich in verschiedenen Shops vorbestellen und kostet knapp 70 Euro.
Bethesda’s slate of VR offerings is fast approaching. First up, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR is set to release this November 17th, less than two weeks away on PlayStation VR (PSVR). Then we’ve got DOOM VFR on PSVR and Vive coming December 1st and Fallout 4 VR on Vive coming shortly after on December 12th.
Last week at a private press PlayStation preview event in San Francisco, CA, we got the chance to take a swing at updated demos of both Skyrim VR on PSVR and DOOM VFR on PSVR. The Skyrim VR demo featured, for the first-time ever in a hands-on setting, full, smooth locomotion without teleporting on both PS Move and Dualshock 4 controllers. Then on the DOOM VFR side of things we played it with the physical PS Aim controller. You can read our full impressions at the links provided.
Now above we’ve got actual gameplay videos of myself trying each game, although each video is only a few minutes long. We’ll have more thoughts on both titles, as well as Fallout 4 VR, as we get closer to launch. In the meantime — what do you think of Skyrim VR and DOOM VFR so far? Let us know down in the comments below!
