The big gaming news this week is obviously all about virtual reality: what Valve and HTC are showing at CES and the exorbitant, PS3 launch-like cost of the Oculus Rift.
But what I want to get into with this week’s Tell Us Dammit is the technology itself.
What exactly do you want from virtual reality? What games do you want to play? What do you want the experience to be like? What things do you want to do that you can’t currently do with video games?
There’s always been the prospect of being able to freely look around your cockpit in something like Wing Commander, turning your head in Project CARS or the F1 series, and these scenarios are where virtual reality shines best right now. First-person shooters sometimes aren’t great — although SUPERHOT is an intriguing experience — and there are plenty of games where the perspective doesn’t entirely fit with total immersion, like a third-person action adventure.
Let’s put aside the hardware requirements for now. Let’s say you’re on the fence about VR, unsure about making the investment. What would be your killer app? What would push you over the edge?
For me, the prospect of space (Elite: Dangerous, No Man’s Sky, Star Citizen) always did it for me. The chance to be entirely immersed in an environment I would (probably) never have the opportunity or money to visit myself always holds some kind of appeal, something I was reminded of at PAX last year when I demoed Earthlight.
But geez, $1100-plus is a lot of money. I could jump on board with the next NVIDIA series for that. I’ll have to upgrade anyway though: according to the Oculus compatibility checker, my dual-GTX 780 SLI rig isn’t powerful enough for the Rift. Go figure.
Comments
61 responses to “Tell Us Dammit: What Do You Want To Play In Virtual Reality?”
Call me old fashioned, but I once drowned someone for being a witch. I also have no interest in VR.
That’s really unscientific. Surely you’re familiar with Python’s witch to duck floatation/weight equivalency theorem by this point.
You know what floats? Very small rocks
Bits of wood
Apples!
Parades?
Half Life 3.
Yyyyyyyyyyep.
I’m still holding out hope that it’s a bundled game with the Vive. It’s exactly what I’d expect Valve to do.
We can dream. Of headcrabs. And a perfectly balanced shotgun.
Anything thats just exploration. Or like. some kind of virtual beach or meadow, where i can just chill…
Yep, gaming will be cool and some things will be hit and miss… but I would love to have a VR setup at home for cycling or exploring…. VR at gyms for walking and exploring etc etc.
I would totally join a gym that had VR. More importantly go to a gym that I joined if it had VR.
You’d want to be bringing your own VR headset to the gym, wouldn’t you? Pulling on the same headset that a hundred other people have already sweated in before you? No thanks.
Fair point, they could build it into the cost of your membership… 6-12 month contract which you can optionally bring an existing headset or purchase monthly through them.
Ew. Gross. I hate this idea now….
Meh, could say the same about any piece of equipment at a gym though. I wash my hands thoroughly after using the free weights and it’s disgusting what comes off your hands in the basin. BUT GAINS MUST BE MADE
Same here, re the hand washing. But getting my hands dirty isn’t anywhere the same level as sticking my head into a disgusting, sweaty headset, though. That’s more akin to rubbing your face all over those free weights instead of just picking them up 😛
It’s still just skin. And a few orifices I guess. One of which is moist… Ok I get your point…
And the VR headsets get uncomfortably warm when just used for gaming, for working out they are completely unfeasible.
Sitting back on the couch, controller in hand. No hand waving or getting up & walking.
I want a full slob mode Elder Scrolls only with slick Japanese visuals & music.
Games like No Man’s Sky, Xwing vs TIE Fighter, maybe some driving games.
Really, I want a great space-sim/combat game that is not online, but has a great single player campaign. I want to live out the scenario I wanted so much when I was a kid, to fly a spaceship on some grand adventure.
Adr1ft looks cool as well. I hope there’d get to be a big market (an install base) where an epic AAA Space RPG (with full voice acting/ cast / script / great direction) could be possible.
I’m pretty sure it’s technically possible right now (I.e. Mass Effect but with all the combat happening in space). But the market’s just not there.
I’m not really on the whole VR hype train just yet, but a Star Wars (original trilogy, of course) space combat game along the lines of X-Wing, TIE Fighter, Rogue Squadron etc would be pretty sweet. Maybe not fork-out-a-grand-for-a-VR-headset kind of sweet, but still pretty sweet.
Or hearing the perfectly replicated “vvrrrrmmm” of a light sabre as I swung it about my head in surround sound. That would be great… Hey maybe they could even make it possible to slice off your own extremities. Always wonder why that never happened in Jedi Knight. Felt like I was controlling as a hologram…
Diablo 2
Not interested in VR at all.
I’m more intrigued by the Hololense and AR. I like the idea of fighting monsters climing through my lounge room wall, or using my coffee table to play Minecraft.
Gaming in VR in general is going to be amazing, but outside of gaming, I’m really hoping things like VR seats at sporting events/concerts becomes a thing.
I’m never going to be able to see an NBA game in person, but to have a VR camera set up in the stands/courtside to watch an NBA game live through VR would be incredible.
Apply this to events like the Olympics, repairs on a space station etc, in a way you suddenly you have access to experience things you never even dreamed you could.
THIS!
I hadn’t thought of this at all, but yes this would be great.
Unfortunately it’s bound to cost a fortune. What do you think, pay per view or subscription? Ideally free somehow but that’s not going to happen.
Someone could set this up now with fixed cameras but it doesn’t currently exist…
bayonetta
It’d be great for space sims to make a resurgence but really I just want something that couldn’t be done in a non-VR environment.
One of my favourite games is Trauma Center on the DS (Under the Knife). The Wii port (Second Opinion) is just awful. The difference is simple: Under the Knife was built to do make use of what the DS could do while Second Opinion was ported to the Wii after the fact.
I want games like Under the Knife, games that are built around making use of VR.
Then again, I probably won’t end up buying an Oculus Rift.
…I never got around to trying Surgeon Simulator, with Rift+Hydra.
I’m not sure what exactly made me get on board in the first place, it probably mostly came down to Carmack’s spruicking back at E3 and the Quakecon keynote in 2012 (though I’ve always had a bit of an affinity for gaming peripherals). But once I got the DK1 and started sharing it around, there were three of the earlier demos that seemed to stand out to me as key types to show people, and everyone’s reactions to them were different – one person would find one to be the most mindblowing thing ever, while the next just kind of shrugged. But then with another demo, the reactions flipped.
The first was Proton Pulse, an arcade type game where you are playing a kind of 3D Breakout down a hallway where the paddle is panel that is guided by your head gaze. I liked this one a lot, it was really fun to play, my sister’s boyfriend took to it and played for quite a bit.
Second was Blue Marble, not so much a game as an “experience”. You’re a space man in a pod orbiting above Earth, music plays as you float out and watch a bunch of stuff fly by. I thought it was neat and all, but my friend at college had one of the best reactions ever and I HATE MYSELF SO MUCH THAT I DIDN’T VIDEO IT. His mouth was totally agape as he looked all around the place in utter awe, practically sliding off the chair and onto the floor, it was just… it seemed like I’d just witnessed his life changing before my eyes.
Third one was First Law, a basic cockpit-based space shooter. Not much game to it, you had to manually spawn enemies and such, but being able to freely look around and watch as a homing missile arcs and tracks an enemy then explodes as you fly past in another direction, look off to your side and see the other one before turning to chase them down… that was the one that made me go “this is it. I need more of this”. Eventually, Elite: Dangerous came out and I played on that a bit (though being the DK1 it was hard to read text or see distant enemies and such) and pretty much decided that’s all I need. A Rift and Elite. Anything else is gravy.
Eve: Valkerie looks awesome.
id also love to give GTA 5 or even skyrim a bash with a VR headset.
The problem with games like Skyrim or GTA is that they’re not built for independent looking & aiming which I would class as essential for this kind of tech (certainly is for TrackIR anyway). If you can use a rift with those, you’ll effectively be replacing the mouse movement with your head movement
both have first person mode. thats what im interested in, even if its just for sightseeing in game and vehicle use.
Since it cost $599 then maybe a game with giant enemy crabs.
WipEout VR please.
AKA the vomit simulator.
XvT and maybe a dungeon crawler in 1st person like D2 or D3. I like the idea of swinging a giant broadsword around my living room.
….. No one’s gonna say it? No?
Porn.
Sports game of some sort, Madden would be pretty interesting staring back at a guy who just wants to smash the living crap out of you.
Fallout. Mass exploration and getting up close to those things that catch your eye in the distance.
But after using Google Cardboard for a while I’ve realised that car racing and flying games are perfect for it. Games where the character you are playing as are sitting are ideal. Looking around as you control a vehicle would be most immersive as the tech is now.
I’m on board VR just hope Sonys is a bit more achievable than the OR.
Nothing that I *want* to play in VR, but if I were to use a VR device it would be for something akin to No Man’s Sky or Star Citizen. Being able to replicate the experience of being in a starship’s cockpit and have the controls laid out in front of me would be the ideal, even if I still need to use a keyboard or gamepad to actually interact with the environment.
The next Elder Scrolls.
The poverty game! Oh wait, that’s why I’m not playing anything with VR…
The Music Machine. Exploration focused with elements of horror and a beautiful aesthetic. Also Portal to see how quickly I throw up.
A VR version of Time Crisis. Not that stupid shitty game it became, with multiple weapons and whatnot… just you, a pistol, a static scene and the ability to dodge. And the peripheral / gun has to have force feedback, like the Namco arcade guns had!
So, I guess I want to play London Heist.
House of the Dead!
Oh man if Sega bankrolled Overkill 2 for VR I would probably wet my pants.
Duck Hunt on the NES. Oh my.
Cricket – I know niche market right … But imagine walking out at the MCG for a Boxing Day test against the Poms with 80,000 in the crowd. WOW. Can only hope I guess.
I would actually love to play third person action/adventure games with the oculus. I think being able to look around independent of where your character is looking is a cool idea – and because the oculus would take up all of your field of vision you’d be able to make out things you can’t currently, like enemies coming at you in GTA V from a different direction than the one your character is facing. I’m not sure how immersive it would be but it would definitely be good fun.
Well I have always wanted to try Warthunder Simulator planes mode and actually see what the heck I’m doing. So that be a start, if I can find the uber sim control setup (for mouse or joypad).
Also as for the power of 2x780SLI setup, it comes down to which games you want to play and if you can get 90fps out of them at 1200p, most games you can if you dial back the detail a tiny bit. But things like Star Citizen would need a dual 980Ti setup.
Titanfall would be good
Mirrors Edge, and a HD version of Jumping Flash.
Literally everything. It doesn’t have to be first person to be good VR.
Better than life – Gunmen of the Apocalypse
Solitaire in VR would be amazing.
No spoilers but Solitaire has a huge ending.
Euro Truck Simulator 2 seems perfect for it. Any simulator really. Elite, Star Citizen and similar space sims would absolutely rock.
I just want to lie down on my couch … in a valley nestled in the Swiss alps.
Maybe go for a ski afterwards. On my couch. Couch skiing. It’s the next big thing, I tells ya!
Space, flight and driving sims. It is at its best in cockpit based gaming.
It’s all about flight sims and racing games for me. If it flies and supports VR well there’s a good chance I’ll be jumping on board. I’m also very interested to see what educational or virtual tour software could offer. Free diving with Great Whites, go for a ride along on the next rocket launch, traverse ancient cities and watch any motor race in VR cam. It’s a very long list…
First though I need to get another HOTAS and probably upgrade the 2GB 770 to something more in line with the current hardware requirements. Most likely the 4GB 970…
It will be easily sometime late 2017 before I am ready to buy into VR though. I’d like to see how the Vive compares if possible before choosing. At least watching from the side lines allows some time for the tech to gain ground.
I’d like a Matrix game!
…
With that being said, I’m not sure what you’d actually do. Escape agents? Vehicle chases? Fly? Infiltrate buildings? Gunfights? The thing is that this is exactly what would be awesome in VR. The Matrix was awesome and was based on the whole concept of immersion. You could go through chateau doors and end up in the mountains, or a hallway of infinite doors. I also think a game like Alien: Isolation, Terminator and Resident Evil would be awesome. It’s not just the world that you’re in, but what you need to do in that world. Hug the back of the closet, Rescue Newt, be the mouse then be the cat, etc.
An Indiana Jones game would be awesome too…