This week we got to have a really geeky time and get our hands on the Playstation VR!
PSVR
This weekend there was an event for PSVR being held at a local shopping centre. Me, Murr and a couple of friends booked on a while back and got to try it out on Saturday. Shambolic event organising aside I have to say that I was impressed. Unfortunately we only got to try out one game each, but there was a pretty large selection to choose from – I picked EVE Valkyrie. Dog fighting in space in VR sounded and looked really awesome.
My demo was only about 5 minutes, which wasn’t really enough to get a proper grasp on VR in general, but it was a good taster. You start out in a big freighter type ship and get launched in to space and have to follow your squadron leader around. The very first thing I noticed was that everything felt a little out of focus or low resolution. I tried adjusting the headset to make it better, but it didn’t really seem to make a difference. It was a bit odd, but it wasn’t terrible.
The second thing I noticed was that VR makes your body feel weird. Doing a barrel roll is an odd sensation and I kind of felt a little dizzy at first and like I could fall out of my chair, but once I’d done a few maneuvers it started to feel less jaunting to roll and spin. I’m not sure I could handle playing too long like that though. Maybe flying in space wasn’t the best choice…
As for the game itself, it was good fun. It was really immersive and being able to look around the cockpit taking in the sights of space and the huge ships that I dodged in and out of was really, really cool. It was then time to start shooting stuff!
The dog fighting for me felt pretty simple – probably because you’re using a controller instead of a flight stick. For many people that will be fine – simple controls you can pick and up play, but for others looking for something a little more hard core I feel like you might be a little underwhelmed. Coming from playing a game like Elite Dangerous – even on a controller, makes EVE feel like a casual experience.
Having said all of this, remember I only played for 5 minutes and it was a blast from start to end. It just wasn’t enough of a blast to convince me to drop hundreds of ££ just yet.
Battlefield 1
If you didn’t know this came out last week then I’m not sure where you have been. I managed to squeeze in a bit of play time on both the single player and the multiplayer and I have to say that I’m mighty impressed.
I played the Beta and was impressed with that, so I wasn’t really expecting to be disappointed by the full game – at least on the multiplayer side anyway. The campaign could’ve easily been a different story though. But from the opening scenes you get the sense that DICE have pretty much nailed that WW1 feeling.
The opening level is bleak, it’s gritty, it’s memorable and it’s moving. It paints a picture of WW1 and it’s an ugly one.
I also really like that you can tackle missions in any order and once I’d finished the opening one I decided to play the runner missions first – which is set during the first few days Gallipoli campaign. It was pretty much what I expected it to be and I liked it a lot but I feel like there is a lot more to come in terms of single player and I can’t wait to delve in to it more.
On the multiplayer side I’ve only jumped in to conquest so far and only a few of the maps, but I love all of them. They all feel unique and offer different experiences and tactics. The Argonne Forest has been a particular highlight for me so far. It’s quite small compared to the others and has no vehicles so it offers some pretty crazy firefights in the densely packed forest.
-Will
The last week has been a particularly great one for all things Geeky. We’ve had trailers for 2 pretty big Marvel films next year in Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 and Hugh Jackman’s final appearance as Wolverine in Logan. Nintendo revealed their latest project and Rockstar provided us with the briefest of teases for Red Dead Redemption 2. Plus we also got some board games played and some PlayStation VR.
Resident Evil 7 – PlayStation VR
As Will mentioned above we took a trip to town to get our hands on PlayStation VR and also get a look at the PS4 Pro in action with Horizon: Zero Dawn. Will touched up on the organisation being pretty bad, but I was also a little disappointed as I was expecting to be given the opportunity to play more than one game when making advance bookings as per the email I received, but only got to trial one game.
That one game was Resident Evil 7.
Firstly you go through a little tutorial section where you’re requested to look left, right, up and down. Simple enough. You’re then briefed on controls how to move forward. Looking around is as expected by moving your head around to maximize the VR experience. If you can’t quite move around enough then flicking the right analogue stick in the direction you wish will move your field of view a few degrees that way. It all made sense and helped. I didn’t feel any sense of sickness or nausea during this.
The demo itself see’s you trying to evade capture in a worn down house from an insanely creepy looking old lady. There are moments when you need to duck and cover and simply bide your time while this woman wanders around the room you’re hiding in. In typical Resident Evil fashion there was one simple puzzle to solve to open up an additional door. Once again in this new area you need to wait and hide and find a good time to run past the woman. You then go under the house and try to escape only for your light to go out and be under the house in darkness. Panicking you move your head around wondering where to go, then there it is. The woman’s right in your face in an incredible jump scare that did genuinely make me shout out curse words loudly. From your capture your then sat at a table with the family as they eat some disgusting looking flesh. You move your head to the left and see an elderly lady looking dead. The atmosphere of this scene in VR is incredible. The boy across the table throws food at you and you’re ducking in real life to avoid it. Then the elderly man gets up and tries to feed you, he slowly pushes this flesh towards your face and again in reality your squirming to move. Finally he then goes and slowly pushes a knife towards your face and again the tension and atmosphere is simply amazing as you see the knife look like it’s getting closer to you. The demo in my opinion was a huge success convincing people of VR. VR definitely works in this kind of game setting. Below is the trailer for the scene I’ve burbled on about, it does not do it justice, it is so atmospheric in VR.
Board Game Night
After the VR experience on Saturday, I went over to a friends house to play some board games. We played Ticket to Ride 10th Anniversary followed by Monopoly but the Nintendo version. Nintendo Monopoly saw so many victims fall to the Mayfair equivalent of this version. Fortunately for me I owned these properties and took all the players out with my hotels on these properties. A good evening was had. Be sure to also check out our reviews from games we played last week. Pandemic, Codenames Pictures and Escape from Colditz. We’ll have more reviews up later this week.
Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2
Not much to say here, but a trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 dropped last week and kicked off a great 24 hours of geeky announcements.
Nintendo Switch
Following the above trailer, the next day Nintendo revealed their next bit of hardware to the world an hour before Rockstar would showcase their next game. Without further adieu, the Nintendo Switch was revealed. We got a post out as soon as we could with details on it.
Red Dead Redemption 2
No sooner had the dust settled, well it hadn’t settled from the Nintendo Switch announcement, Rockstar games latest game Red Dead Redemption 2 was shown for the first time.
Logan Trailer
And then to see the announcements and teasers out FOX released a trailer of Hugh Jackman’s last appearance of Wolverine in Logan.
What a week aye?
– Murr
