Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation
What Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality developers are talking about
Sony has released its first batch of redesigned DualShock 4 controllers at retail, giving PlayStation 4 owners a chance to upgrade their input devices without having to buy a brand-new PS4 Slim console.
The post Redeisgned PlayStation 4 DualShock controller now sold as a stand-alone item appeared first on Digital Trends.
PS4, Sony; out 13 October
Games here move smoothly, staying fluid even at speed
Related: The Guardian and virtual reality
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4 days to go until the launch of PlayStation VR! We’re counting down to the release of Sony’s VR headset on October 13th by highlighting one game a day for its anticipated release. Today we’re raising diving into the mysterious world of XING: The Land Beyond.
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When I attended the PS VR showcase at GDC earlier this year, XING: The Land Beyond from White Lotus Interactive was a bit of a surprise. I hadn’t heard of the game before that event and sitting down to don the PlayStation VR gave me a sneak peek into what could be one of the headset’s most immersive upcoming games.
I was immediately reminded of old-school adventure titles such as Myst and Riven, or even the recent Obduction and upcoming Thunderbird, mixed with a bit of more active puzzle-solving from games like The Legend of Zelda. The entire experience is played from the first-person and you can either use the PlayStation Move motion controllers or the Dualshock 4 gamepad. XING, as noted in the game’s lore, is the land you’re transported to once you’ve died:
Your body may be gone, but your life has just begun. In death, you will find yourself on a journey across a series of mysterious lands, in an afterlife where you must uncover secrets as to who you are and why you are there. In the land of XING you are crossing the threshold between life and death.
The demo I played all those months ago was only a small, brief slice of what’s to come, but it got me excited. The team has claimed that early sessions are taking approximately 7-12 hours to complete. If that’s true, it’s not only one of the prettiest upcoming PS VR games, but also one of the longest and most immersive.
XING: The Land Beyond is currently slated for a Q1 2017 release on PlayStation VR. The game is also scheduled for release on PC with support for the HTC Vive.
Sony is making VR for the masses. To do that, the company has potentially skimped on important technology that could cause problems for a lot of people.
The PlayStation VR, which comes to the PS4 on October 13 for $400 – $500, has difficulty tracking some of its components when they are 10 feet away or more from the PlayStation Camera. PS VR is Sony’s virtual reality system that uses a head-mounted display, the PlayStation Camera, and PlayStation Move controllers to make players feel like they are surrounded by digital video game worlds. But when the headset or controller gets far enough way, all of that starts to break down. This is a major issue because it turns out that most people sit about 10 feet away from their televisions. For me, this means I have to put a chair between my TV and couch in order to take a load off while playing around in Sony’s metaverse.
I hate doing this.
The issue here is that Sony is still using the camera-and-Move-controller tech that it first built for motion controls on the PlayStation 3. This system works well a lot of the time, but it also has its limitations.
Sony previously confirmed that the PS VR “play area” comes up just short of a full 10 feet. In official documentation, the company says that the camera can track you up to 9.8 feet away.
If you start moving out of that safe zone, PS VR will give you a warning that you are not in the play area.
I can kinda get around that while sitting on my couch as long as I lean forward instead of relaxing into the back of the sofa — but that’s not exactly comfortable. But even if I didn’t mind that position, I’d still have to deal with the DualShock 4. At around 10 feet, the camera has a tiny window where it can actually see the gamepad. If I try to hold it in a natural position while on the couch, games will lose track of it and flip out.
Rearranging furniture is something users of first-gen VR hardware know a lot about. HTC and Valve ask folks to do it for the Vive. But that is for room-scale VR where I can walk around a relatively large space. Sony’s old camera wants me to move crap around in my living room so that I can sit in a spot that it finds more convenient. That’s not the same thing.
Sony’s VR hardware is definitely a product for the mass market, but a lot of those people might come away from the product frustrated that they can’t just sit in their normal chair while playing PS VR games.
This post by Jeff Grubb originally appeared on VentureBeat.
Green Man Gaming has been given a big stamp of approval by Sony. As an official reseller for PS4 game codes in the U.S., it can now sell you just about any downloadable game, often at discounted rates. Everything is now 5 percent off.
The post Green Man Gaming now offers PS4 download codes at 5 percent off appeared first on Digital Trends.
Sony’s entry into the world of consumer virtual reality is an impressive start but it’s not yet the affordable high-end VR experience some are dreaming of
Since the phenomenally successful crowd-funding campaign for Oculus Rift in 2012, the idea of an affordable – and functional – virtual reality headset has obsessed the consumer technology industry. Afterwards, we saw video game publisher Valve partner with phone manufacturer HTC on the high-end Vive headset; we saw the smartphone-powered Gear VR and the budget priced Google Cardboard – and most recently the arrival of Daydream VR as a major element of Google’s own Pixel phone offering.
And of course, the games industry has been watching too. In 2014, Sony announced Project Morpheus, the codename for its own PlayStation 4-compatible VR headset, promising an affordable high-end and easy-to-use solution. Now named PlayStation VR, that headset is ready to launch, with an impressive range of games and applications. But can it really cross the difficult divide between specialist geek toy and mass entertainment proposition?
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PlayStation VR is almost here, with its October 13th launch creeping ever closer. Although we’ve already had our paws all over the headset in our comprehensive review—a deep dive into the platform that any prospective buyer should read before forking over the $400 for the PS VR—we’re just as excited as you to play what PlayStation today revealed in a blogpost to be over 30 launch titles including another 20+ to follow in Q4 2016.
Famously missing from the list below is Resident Evil 7 Biohazard, Farpoint and Ace Combat 7, all of which are expected sometime in 2017, but no exact idea as to when.
PS VR exclusive (and visually stunning) Robinson: The Journey will be coming at an unspecified date in Q4, and no longer considered a launch title.
Official news on non-game experiences and apps are still pretty thin on the ground, as Sony has only listed a grand total of 7 to the launch line-up. The company’s EU blog maintains the list below “is not 100% final,” and that more will be added in the coming days.
Here’s the most complete list of PS VR games we’ve seen thus far:
The post PlayStation VR Launching with 30+ Games, Another 20+ to Follow in Q4 appeared first on Road to VR.
The act of console gaming has always been evolving: controllers got more buttons, then they went from digital to analog control. Games were on cartridges and then CDs, before upgrading to DVDs and Blu-ray discs. The biggest change in recent years was the adoption of motion control: Nintendo Wii, PlayStation Move, and then Microsoft Kinect.
With the introduction of virtual reality to consoles comes the next step forward, but does PlayStation VR solidify virtual reality as an integral part of the future for gamers? Or will it be forgotten by the majority of players, like the Kinect?
Setting up PSVR does take some time, but it is relatively painless. You plug the processor box into the TV, connect the PS4 to the box, then connect the headset to the box. If you don’t already have the camera on your PS4, you just add that. Then plug in the included earbuds or your own headphones to add three-dimensional sound. A quick bit of calibration and you are ready to go. Not too bad.
And the first impressions of the headset? It is pretty comfortable to wear and it is easy to position to find the sweet spot where the picture is as sharp as possible. The camera does a good job of tracking the headset, though it obviously becomes less accurate as you go too far away or to the side of the camera’s view.
But as a console gamer who has been playing since the days of Atari, I know that the worth of PlayStation VR comes down to the games. Luckily, Sony included a demo disc with PSVR that includes over two dozen demos, a huge variety to give you an idea of what is possible. So what will gamers find in these demos and amongst the launch titles themselves?
Actions fans will find the tank game Battlezone or the team shooter RIGS. Driving sim fans have Driveclub VR. Flight sim fans have sci-fi dog-fighting with EVE Valkyrie. Puzzle fans have physics-based Tumble VR and block game SUPERHYPERCUBE. Music game fans have Harmonix Music VR, the action of Thumper, and the rebirth of the psychedelic classic Rez Infinite. Horror fans have the story-driven Here They Lie, on-rails shooter and Until Dawn: Rush of Blood.
For those with more esoteric tastes there are some interesting off-the-wall experiences on the demo disc too. Job Simulator is a quirky game that uses VR and motion controls well, Hustle Kings VR lets you play pool, Headmaster has a series of games where you hit a soccer ball with your head, and then there is the beautiful dancing platformer Bound.
If you look at other launch games or 2016 games not on the demo disc, there is just as much for a serious gamer to be excited about. Batman: Arkham VR lets you put on the cowl and truly become Batman. You can explore a planet with dinosaurs in first-person with Robinson from Crytek. Ubisoft has you and three friends working together on missions with Star Trek: Bridge Crew. There is the story-based science conspiracy title from nDreams called The Assembly. A zombie title called The Brookhaven Experiment from Phosphor Games will freak you out. Into 2017 there more games to look forward to, such as sci-fi FPS Farpoint, the imaginative, Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin, and the exploration puzzle game Xing: The Land Beyond.
Sony has also worked with partners and its own developers on casual experiences for the PlayStation VR platform. Such content is great to show friends and family, to give them a taste of what virtual reality is all about without them having to know any complex controls. The demo disc includes a brief sample of PlayStation VR Worlds, which features a deep sea dive called Ocean Descent. There is also Within, the VR video app, including Invasion!, a Pixar-esque shortfilm named Invasion! about a bunny having an encounter with aliens. The demo disc includes Kitchen, Capcom’s short experience giving a glimpse into Resident Evil 7. And previously mentioned games like Harmonix Music VR, SUPERHYPERCUBE, Headmaster, Job Simulator, and Tumble VR can be picked pretty quickly by casual gamers.
For those interested in gaming with others however, choices are more limited. Overall, PSVR games tend to be single player experiences, considering the use of a single headset. But some have online multiplayer like Battlezone or EVE: Valkyrie, and some have local multiplayer, where the other players use the television, like with Tumble VR or The Playroom VR.
So there is no shortage of games worth checking out, no matter what your tastes are. But what about the virtual experience?
VR is hard to describe to someone who hasn’t tried it, but what it does well is immerse you somewhere else, giving you a sense of presence in an imaginary world. You can look all around in a three dimensional space. The camera detects how you move your head, so you can also lean and kneel and sidestep in the space. It makes you feel like you are actually there. Add in two PlayStation Move controllers, and now your hands can interact with objects three-dimensionally as well. Some games are played with the Dualshock controller, but those that use the Move have that extra layer of immersion.
The next question then becomes how does the virtual experience of PlayStation VR compare to the two other big VR headsets out there: the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive, both for use with PCs. Pretty favorably, actually. PS VR feels generally similar to the Oculus Rift, though with the Move controllers already on the market, Sony has a slight edge over Oculus in terms of pure functionality until their Touch controllers come out later this year. The HTC Vive comes with motion controllers, like the PS VR, but beats Sony’s device with its more immersive room tracking.
The real comparison is on price and power. Oculus Rift costs $599 and the HTC Vive costs $799. PlayStation VR costs $399 for the headset and wires or $499 for the launch bundle that adds the Camera, two Move controllers, and a copy of PlayStation VR Worlds. Point, Sony. The Vive and the Rift require a PC, which can cost anywhere from say $800 to $3000. PSVR requires a PS4, which if you don’t already own one, only costs $299. Point again, Sony.
Of course for the difference in price, a PC can be more powerful and the games will have better graphics than the three-year-old PS4. But the November 10 release for the PlayStation 4 Pro, which will be priced $399, will bring additional power to the PlayStation platform, resulting in games that look closer to the fidelity of a PC game (as far as we can tell with Farpoint.) So those gamers who really want to jump into VR may want to consider the PS4 Pro instead.
Whether you are interested in the PS4 Pro, or were interested in VR enough to try or buy a VR headset for the computer, there is no denying the fact that with the launch of PlayStation VR on October 13 console gaming has taken another step forward. The false start of VR arcades in the ’90s and with Nintendo’s Virtual Boy of 1995 can be forgotten. The 40 million+ PS4 owners worldwide will soon have a reasonably priced method to see what a difference VR makes to gaming.
Even if PSVR does not sell tens of millions of units and become the next big thing, it will remain a vibrant niche that game developers and hardcore gamers can become lost in. And who knows what VR will mean for consoles like Microsoft’s Project Scorpio in 2017, the inevitable PlayStation 5 years later, and even further out. VR may become part of every new console from here out. Either way, this gamer with 30 years of playing under his belt is ecstatic that virtual reality has finally come home.
You can read our full, detailed hardware review here and many of our game reviews can be found here. For more information about upcoming PlayStation VR titles, you can read the entries in our 50 Days of PS VR countdown.
PlayStation VR Worlds is, for those not in the know, a confusing package of content. When you buy a PlayStation VR headset, you already get a multi-game demo disc packed full of short glimpses for some of the PS VR’s biggest and best games. It’s appropriately named the Demo Disc. That’s literally what the box says.
Naturally, people might be a bit confused when they hear about PlayStation VR Worlds, a collection of five short experiences intended as introductory moments into the possibilities of VR. That sounds an awful lot like a demo disc, right? Well, it kind of is, except there aren’t full versions of these games waiting on the other end of a price tag and this disc isn’t free. Instead, you pay for a small collection of unrealized or unfinished games and experiences with a mixed bag of results.
Since each of the five games is a standalone experience, let’s look at them individually.
The London Heist
This is likely the one you’ve heard of or seen before. Originally, people assumed it would become a full game, but as it turns out, it was rolled into the PS VR Worlds package instead. It’s an enjoyable romp through London and lasts about a half hour from start to finish. You’re in what appears to be a gang or mob of some kind and are planning to steal a very special diamond. What ensues consists of couple fire fights, some light interactive moments, and a grueling interrogation scene.
The gunplay itself is fun and the voice work is top-notch, but I was ultimately left wishing for more. It feels like an abbreviated version of a larger story with a lot of potential, but in its current state I’d hardly recommend ever playing it more than once. It’s certainly the only one that actually consists of a narrative.
Ocean Descent
This was originally known as Into the Deep and changed its name following the inclusion in this package. You’ll go down underwater in a cage, get harassed by a big ol’ shark, and probably get a bit nervous from time to time. Since you can hear and see the shark coming from roughly a mile away, it’s not as terrifying as some of the reactions you might have seen online would leave you to believe.
It’s visually stunning and makes me want a fully-featured VR scuba diving game really, really badly. There’s also a more passive viewing mode as well.
Dangerball
This is, surprisingly, my personal favorite of the bunch. While it’s basically just Pong, but with your face, the excitement comes from the fact that each of your opponent’s has a different paddle with different abilities. Some can blast back multiple balls, others can slam them at super fast speeds. By banging your head forward you can send the ball flying with force, or by sliding your head to the side, you can enact a special curve ball.
Panels of the room come flying off the walls as the ball makes contact, making it a visual splendor to watch. Gameplay is fast, fun, and satisfying. I just really wish there was multiplayer.
Scavengers Odyssey
This one feels a bit like a scrapped game idea that never got a whole lot of traction internally. Sony didn’t bother talking about this entry in PS VR Worlds very much, frankly because many the other three I mentioned are more enjoyable. This plays out like a mixture of a mech-combat and space shooter game, with you exploring space and structures in a unique ship.
There are more thrills to be found in the free EVE: Valkyrie demo on your demo disc than in this one.
VR Luge
Last and least is VR Luge. You’ll tilt your head from side-to-side to steer your street luge as breakneck speeds as you dodge and swerve between cars. The sense of speed is great, but the limited courses, lack of real challenge (hitting cars doesn’t do much other than give you a slight time penalty) and disappointingly shallow gameplay keep this one from breaking away from the pack.
I can see why this didn’t evolve into a bigger game, but it would have been nice to see it at least polished up a bit more.
PlayStation VR Worlds feels like a poor attempt at creating a bundle game collection that could stand toe-to-toe with fully-developed games on retail shelves. The PS VR itself comes with a demo disc that’s frankly better than this collection, but if you’re getting the bigger bundle that includes Worlds already, or really want to check out The London Heist, Dangerball, or Ocean Descent, then it’s worth a quick run through. Three of the five games are pretty solid, but it’s hard to recommend as anything other than a nifty bundle purchase.
PlayStation VR Worlds will be available for PlayStation VR on October 13th, at the price of $39.99.
Read our Game Review Guidelines for more information on how we arrived at this score.
With PlayStation VR launching very soon, we’ve started compiling impressions of the launch library as its first games become available. Here are our initial impressions thus far, including our take on 'SuperHyperCube' and other titles.
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