PC/Console gaming via VR - just a gimmick?

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Is VR for gaming already past it's best? Was it just a novelty?

My son (14) had a PSVR for Xmas, he used it for maybe 1-2 months, since then it had gathered dust in the cupboard, he has a decent range of games for it, but he doesnt use it at all now.

I don't know anybody who has bought a PSVR/oculus/rift who still use it after 3months of ownership?
 
I have a PSVR, bought a fair few games for it. The majority were well overpriced for what were essentially 45minute demos.

Im sure i will use it a lot more once decent games start coming out. When they start doing full games with much longer play times im pretty sure i'll use it all the time but until then it's sitting unplugged in my cupboard.
 
It depends why you bought one. If you bought one to complement a genre you already play like sim racing or flight then you probably going to get your moneys worth. I use my rift practically every day, I've never even tried to play anything other than sim racing.
 
MikeTheNative said:
It depends why you bought one. If you bought one to complement a genre you already play like sim racing or flight then you probably going to get your moneys worth. I use my rift practically every day, I've never even tried to play anything other than sim racing.
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Bang on Mike, it's brilliant for cockpit based simulation games (racing/flight/space), but until there is a lightbulb moment that makes VR games make sense and appeal to everyone, roomscale is going nowhere. Pretty demos and the same tired old FPS stuff just doesn't cut it. I would be using my rift every day if the sensor wasn't borked. It's gone back to oculus under RMA and I've got 2 weeks at least before I can get back to it. I'm back to triple screens and honestly i can't wait to get the VR back for Project Cars, Assetto Corsa, Euro Truck 2...the immersion is amazing.

My only experience of PSVR was at christmas, Driveclub (cool but visually it looks awful). The X-Wing demo mission in Battlefront (just wow, childhood dream to fly an x-wing virtually achieved, more of this please), the rest were demos which were visually impressive but no replay value.
 
That's a good point about it complimenting genres you already play - lots of people like me are waiting for good fps & rpg games but they are slow in getting out the door.

Half life 2 vr has gone greenlight and it's fantastic. Hopefully that might get other publishers to reboot older games in vr.

Its a shake your head moment when you realise that hlvr had it perfect years ago and literally_every_fps could work on the systems if they just followed the same model (and with every locomotion method)

edit* i know not every fps, but lots of them
 
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VR is in flux and will stay that way for a long time to come in my opinion.

VR died decades ago because it was ULTRA Expensive, cumbersome, required a helmet thing and system requirements were too high for anything truly impressive.

We are still in that same place and it will "die" for the same reason. It is nothing more than a gimmick with the only people making "original" content being small Indies who are just making tech demos. Nothing fully fleshed out.

Nobody is betting big on it, everyone waiting for that "killer" app to fire the starting gun so to speak.

You then have "Wii" effect when gaming. Who wants to game for hours standing up, running round etc. Sure, good at first, but does it have lasting appeal?

Us hardcore gamers have no problem trailing cables everywhere, devoting a room to VR etc, for others though, that is not such an appealing idea.

On PC, the cost of entry is nearly three times that of a next gen console or the cost of a gaming PC and then some.

It also limits gameplay options for those with various disabilities.

LOTS of progress to be made before it gets to the big time but I do not think it will make it in its current guise.

Do I still plan on getting one though if prices were to fall, yes, yes I do :D
 
Until there's a £300 headset which competes with the likes of Oculus and Vive on PC, I'm going to wait. £499+ is simply too rich for my liking.

I've always envisioned playing regular games in VR, not glorified tech demos. I want to see native support for Fallout, GTA, Skyrim etc. I have no interest in cockpit simulators or on-rails shooters, I want to explore a glorious open-world as if I'm actually there! That's the whole point of VR imo!
 
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The lack of posts in the VR forum suggest its slowed down. I discovered I cant use VR (Rift) due to being long sighted in one eye and short sighted in the other. My glasses dont fit under it either.
It wont take off till you get rid of the helmet !
 
Hopefully Fallout 4 will help sales

I want source games portaled to VR please


Edit* VR sickness might be a factor, it can be tough going for some people, (i've heard :D)

on the flip windlands actually is helping my vertigo!
 
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Bishie said:
Until there's a £300 headset which competes with the likes of Oculus and Vive on PC, I'm going to wait. £499+ is simply too rich for my liking.

I've always envisioned playing regular games in VR, not glorified tech demos. I want to see native support for Fallout, GTA, Skyrim etc. I have no interest in cockpit simulators or on-rails shooters, I want to explore a glorious open-world as if I'm actually there! That's the whole point of VR imo!
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Until the big boys start properly supporting VR then it's not going to get anywhere other than niche stuff(simulation) + the occasional novelty game. I understand why devs are reluctant with support though with the current tiny install base. But the new gen VR is still in it's infancy and with the next set of more affordable sets out next few years hopefully more people will get them and persuade devs to give it a proper go instead of an afterthought.
 
Had our Vive for 11 months now.
We've been a lot busier in our lives since Christmas but it still gets weekly usage.
A few changes required as we have to shift the dining table and chairs out of the way to use it but it will be relocated soon.

I think the main problem is available space. If the weather was good all year round i would set it up outside.
 
varkanoid said:
The lack of posts in the VR forum suggest its slowed down. I discovered I cant use VR (Rift) due to being long sighted in one eye and short sighted in the other. My glasses dont fit under it either.
It wont take off till you get rid of the helmet !
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that makes no sense since why post on here rather than on r/vive, r/oculus?
 
Still have and use my Vive (got it a week or so after release). I don't think it's past its prime already nor a gimmick, but do agree with the points that people are saying if that makes any sense. At the moment it is a niche market (sims mainly)

Like Gimpymoo said, nobody is committing and it just needs that one killer game and then it will explode. We are just waiting for the first big studio to make that jump I guess.
 
I think the next six months will be the decider. HP, Dell, Lenovo, Asus and Acer have announced that they are working with Microsoft to produce Windows 10-based VR headsets, some of which should be out before the end of the year. Some should be around the £300 price point. Google and Samsung are also continuing with their Daydream and GearVR products respectively.

I hope that by the end of the year we should see a larger range of headsets at a lower cost on the market. The results of that will determine if the market has legs.
 
hyperseven said:
that makes no sense since why post on here rather than on r/vive, r/oculus?
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it brings an opinionated answer to the OP question. Q "Is VR for gaming already past it's best?" A "The lack of posts in the VR forum suggest its slowed down" past its best / interest slowed down makes perfect sense to me.

You could ask why has the OP posted in the PC games section and not the VR section.
 
It's just not economically to commit AAA budgets to such a small market. At best from the big developers you're going to get little supplementary experiences to AAA games (X-Wing with Battlefront), or smaller niche games (Eagle Flight, Bridge Crew, Werewolves Within). Smaller developers will cater to the specialist sim market etc.

I'm interested to see how these cheaper Microsoft MR branded headsets work out...but having used all the different tech around, I'm not that interested until the visual quality is up to scratch...whether that 4k or other rendering trickery I don't care.
 
My "go to" games are ED and DCS, both of which are simply awesome in VR. The rift could have been designed for my usage.
Also looking forward to trying HL. As a backup, als have asseto and Euro truck sim.

Ref the glasses, I do wear them and simply bought a really cheap, small framed round pair, which fit nicely into the rift. As there was no need for expensive frames or coatings, just £35.
 
shankly1985 said:
Just isn't any gaming making me wish i bought a VR headset. without the games is dead already for me.
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That's why after owning one for 7 months, I have yet to try a game that I already didn't own. None of the VR games have appealed to me, it doesn't help that I simply don't have the room to do a roomscale/moving around games.
 
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