Your first few days experience/reviews of HTC Vive

[JimboJet]

I want to believe in this tech, I want to keep it so why do I find myself considering selling it.


Had the Vive for 2 days. Not sold on the interface. Not sold on the resolution. Have returned to playing Warthunder in 2d on my monitor. Dirt Rally made me feel queasy as did Warthunder.

Room scale was great, but I fear its a novelty with the current titles I've so far experienced. Most appear to be tech/proof of concept demos more than anything else. I was very encouraged to see the deconstruction of the robot within the lab and can see some real life applications for VR as an unbeatable learning tool for engineering in the future. Simply, there need to be more quality titles that make the most of what Vr has to offer.

Throwing sticks for the robot dog at the top of a mountain was amazing. Really good and I found myself grinning in awe from the experience. The castle defence bow game was good too and weirdly physical considering you're pulling an imaginary bow that has no elastic resistance! The catapult game in the lab was great but held my interest for only a few minutes.

I felt a bit daft after I smashed my hand on the ceiling after jumping to hit a balloon I had just let go of in the lab demo. In a similar way, more than once I tried to push my hand through the floor I was standing on trying to retrieve sticks from beneath the rock I was standing on. You feel silly, in a "oh yeah, of course, this isn't real" way, but it doesn't detract from the experience, in some ways it adds to it because it reminds you of where you are and what you are really doing in the real world vs your actions and feelings created from the Vr world you are in.

It is a really great 'thing' being there and playing with objects like you've never seen them before. Vr in this regard is a fantastic advancement for everyone, and I strongly believe every house will have such devices in the future. It is hard to explain, but I almost felt like a kid again, with my jaw open in amazement. Hats off to HTC for incredibly accurate controller tracking.

In summary I suppose i'm a little disappointed because I bought the Vive primarily on its merits for cockpit and driving style games but it doesn't quite deliver because of Vr's current resolution limitations. That said, I'm more than impressed with the room scale potential for created virtual experiences.
Perhaps the best way to describe how I feel about the current capabilities of Vr is that its not as good as it should be at simulating real world environments (aka Reality). It is much more able to deliver enjoyable experiences in the virtual sense. So for me Virtual reality will now be abbreviated to "Vr" rather than "VR".

I'll persevere with it for a week or two before I decide whether its worth holding on to and will report back here. I'd welcome your thoughts and suggestions on how to get the most from Vr as it stands now.

 

[I Am Glass]

Its early days yet for proper games on each system, though the Rift does seem to have more fleshed out games than the vive. However some of these can be played on the Vive using the Revive software.
I was playing farlands last night, which is free to download from the oculus store, on my rift and it ran fine once I realised you pointed by looking at things.
Luckys tale is also free to download and plays well but I didn't have my xbox one control pad plugged into the pc so didn't get to play it.

There are some good games on their that give you a different experience than when sitting in front of a monitor, Fruit Ninja is excellent and gives you a workout, similar to the Kinect version but more immersive.

Brookhaven is a great game for some zombie killing and the occasional, oh **** moment when you turn and there is a zombie right beside you.
The pilot game is wonderful, playing on a table top looking down with planes buzzing around you, you cant get that from a flat screen monitor.
Imagine populous or something similar down the line being played like this.

The resolution is fine, as once you get into the game you forget about it and just enjoy the game for what it is, entertainment.

 

[JimboJet]

Just had a go at Pool Nation VR and that was quite good. Difficult to find your beer though! Also I didn't find anyone else online to play a game with so just had a go at freeplay and AI.

Also tried Irrational Exuberance prologue which was a cool experience (and free.)

Unseen Diplomacy looks good, may get that later.


Need to find some games the wife would like, or I may have to sell the thing anyway!

 

[lokiss]

I found Water Bears enjoyable, maybe something for the missus. It's cute, engaging, one of those polished ipad type games that works really well in vr.

Gravity lab is another tittle I'm looking forward to in a similar fashion, judging by the video. In cockpit wise, then elite really has it. I dusted off the old flight stick and throttle yesterday, it made the experience 100% immersive. You actually see and feel your hands/arms stretching out on the controls... total command.

Subnautica is another good showcase, and a polished game. Resolution seems less of an issue, you don't notice. Everything about the game is very much suited to vr.

With the pool, start as a host. Play against the AI for a bit, somebody will join in a few minutes.

 

[P3nT4gR4m]

Reminds me of any platform launch ever. Compound this with the fact that every platform launch before was pretty much doing the same thing - putting pictures on a screen and making noises.

Now we're putting gamers in a place and nobody has a damn clue what the rules are for such a thing. I keep saying this - 1st gen VR is strictly for early adopters who know what to expect from ridiculously expensive, clunky 1st gen tech. Anyone who buys rift or vive expecting the next playstation or xbox is in for a major disappointment.