Thoughts on Playstation VR

PSVRAfter waiting for half a decade, VR has finally hit the mainstream.

I remember first trying the pre-release HTC Vive at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco in March of 2013, and immediately I was blown away. If you haven’t experienced VR before, it’s a difficult experience to describe, but most describe it as the feeling of “presence”. You aren’t just looking at something, but you feel like you are in a different physical space. It is deeply immersive, and in a different way than, say, playing a game on a 100″ screen. Due to this unique experience, VR is without question one of the most exciting new frontiers both for entertainment and for the gaming industry.

At the time I first tried it, the technology was in its relative infancy: it only worked with a very powerful gaming PC, the resolution was low, the headset was bulky and heavy, and there weren’t many impressive experiences to be had. Even with these shortcomings it was clear that this technology would advance until it became convincing and cheap enough to take on the mainstream. That is where we are now in 2019.

PSVR

Just a few months ago I was in the United States during Black Friday, and saw a deal on a Playstation VR bundle for $250. Although this product was about to enter its third year of existence, I suspected that this would be the first VR device to become mainstream because it’s much more accessible than its PC counterparts. It works with any PS4, and there are 100 million of those distributed throughout the globe (making the PS4 the fastest gaming console to ever reach 100 million).  The bundle which I bought included the headset, a tracking camera, two motion controllers, and two of the best games available in VR: Beat Saber, a Star Wars-inspired rhythm game, and Borderlands VR, an immersive cel-shaded shooter RPG.

I purchased PSVR basically on a whim, in large part because I was with my father and I wanted him to experience it. I knew that without me introducing it to him it was likely to be something which he never had the opportunity to try. Before my grandfather died, my father dreamt of building a sit-down flight simulator for him, to relive his days as a professional pilot. As good of an idea as it was, it was one which was never implemented, and that makes me sad. Aside from that motivating factor, I didn’t expect that PSVR would be something that I’ve enjoyed as much as I have.

Platforms: PC, Playstation & Mobile

Oculus QuestThere are three ways to experience VR in 2019:

  • Playstation 4: standard PS4 and PS4 Pro, the latter with improved graphical fidelity on some games
  • PC: gaming PC almost certainly required, with a dedicated GPU and ideally a powerful, new one
  • Standalone: wireless headsets with internal batteries, powered by mobile chipsets

It’s looking clear, to me at least, that the mainstream will eventually gravitate toward standalone devices because they will be the easiest to use. However for the time being, provided that you have a Playstation (and maybe even if you don’t), I think that PSVR is the best way to go because it doesn’t necessitate a bulky and expensive gaming PC but it delivers the full experience of playing big, detailed VR games. It will be a long time before standalone VR headsets offer that experience, both because they are hampered by less-powerful chipsets which are designed for smartphones, and because they are operating under the battery limitations of mobile devices. PSVR has neither of those limitations, but it comes with some caveats of its own which are mentioned below.

Pictured above is the Oculus Quest, scheduled for release in Q2 of 2019 at $399. It is a standalone device powered by the Qualcomm SnapDragon chipset which powers most modern Android devices.

Comfort and Display

I’ve tried all of the major VR headsets on the market now: the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and PSVR. While PSVR is not objectively the best (it depends on the judging criteria), I believe it is the best in terms of comfort. The headset is light and well designed but most importantly, it balances its weight on your forehead rather than around your eyes. This makes it much more comfortable in sessions over 30 minutes, which is something that you really notice.

In terms of the display, the PSVR technically has the lowest resolution of all of the devices listed above. However, it functions better than the competition in some situations due to the device using a different display technology. Unlike the Vive and Rift, PSVR uses what’s called an RGB Stripe Matrix, which means that each pixel is represented with 3 sub-pixels (compared to the Vive and Rift which have 2 sub-pixels). What this means is that the much-discussed “Screen door effect” is substantially less pronounced.

Another interesting detail about PSVR is the type of lenses in the display – or rather, the type of lenses it does not use. Unlike most other VR headsets, it doesn’t use Fresnel lenses which are made with concentric circles and exhibit a “God rays” distortion effect in high contrast scenes.

VR Lenses

One shortcoming of PSVR’s graphical fidelity is that PS4 is not the most powerful driver of VR displays that you can get. For that, you’ll need to spend upwards of $2,000 on a gaming PC with cutting-edge graphics technology. Excepting that fringe enthusiast audience, PSVR looks great and is close to the best experience you can have in VR as far as comfort and the overall experience.

Games & Experiences

Any VR platform is only as valuable as the experiences available on it, and fortunately Playstation has no problem here as you’re probably guessing. Having the largest install base of any VR headset (over 4 million units) gives Sony considerable leverage in bringing the best experiences to their platform, as developers will naturally gravitate to where the audience is. Many, but not all, well-known VR titles available for PC are on the Playstation VR platform.

Some of the best games I’ve experienced:

  • Superhot VR
  • Beat Saber
  • Resident Evil VII VR (exclusive to PSVR)
  • Astrobot (exclusive to PSVR)
  • Star Wars: Battlefront VR (exclusive to PSVR)

Star Wars VR

Many of these games aren’t traditional games, but are more like virtual experiences. They typically aren’t as long or as demanding on the player as conventional games. In my opinion this is absolutely the right card for VR game developers to play, as the expectations in this new dimension are fundamentally different. The Star Wars VR experience depicted above is a good example: although it’s short, the experience of piloting an X-Wing from inside the cockpit and feeling the environment around you is completely novel.

To experience a lengthy AAA game in VR, I completed Resident Evil VII on PSVR. It was terrifying, disgusting, and felt like more of a “journey” than almost any game I’ve ever played. My memory of the game feels almost like I was physically in a different place, which lends my memory of the game in hindsight a surreal, dream-like quality. I will publish a review of my experience with that game soon, with more details.

PSVR Trailer Video

Closing Thoughts

It’s been amazing to see this technology go from a tech demo on the showroom floor to something you buy on a whim. But that is exactly what it’s done over the last five years, and I can’t wait to see what’s coming next. Sony has already confirmed that their follow-up to the PS4 will include VR capabilities, to the surprise of no one. It’s not hard to imagine a near-future where the best games are experienced in this way. Although the first generation of this technology has shortcomings, it is an encouraging first step which points toward a thrilling future in an exciting new dimension.

April 4, 2019|

Reddit’s Favorite Games <8 Hours

A year and a half ago I gave away a Steam key for The Witness, an independent puzzle game by Jonathan Blow, on the RandomActsofGaming subreddit and asked a question: “What’s your favorite game of all time?” That time I was giving away just a single game and got 138 replies, which I collected, tallied, and published in this blog post: Reddit’s Favorite Games. Recently I decided it was time to do a follow-up, so I made a new post giving away 10 Steam games this time, and posed a similar question with a twist: “What’s your favorite game under 8 hours?” My intention was to crowd-source a list of the best games which can be completed without a big time investment.

Here is some interesting data on the replies:

  • The post received 527 replies
  • 170 different games were mentioned, ranging from games which I knew would be on this list (Journey, FTL, Portal) to games I had never heard of (Bouncing DVD: The Game)
  • 47 games received multiple votes
  • 123 games received a single vote

Here are the results.

The Most Popular Games

Reddit's Favorite Short Games

Portal blew away the competition with 27 votes, followed by Undertale with 11 votes, and a two-way tie for third place between What Remains of Edith Finch and Portal 2. This list consists of games which most will probably be familiar with, although Doki Doki Literature Club is surprising to see.

Games in this list: Portal, Undertale, What Remains of Edith Finch, Portal 2, Journey, FTL, To the Moon, Limbo, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, Bastion, The Stanley Parable, Firewatch, Oxenfree, Superhot, Doki Doki Literature Club

The Still-Popular Games

These all received more than one mention, but not enough mentions to make the most popular list.

Reddit’s Other Favorite Short Games <8 Hours

Games in this list: Old Man’s Journey, Celeste, Contra, Slay the Spire, Pony Island, Sonic Mania, Emily is Away, Inside, Ryse: Son of Rome, Max Payne 3, Max Payne 2, Metroid Fusion, Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past, Mega Man X, Shovel Knight, Thomas Was Alone

The Rest of the List

There were 123 remaining submission, each with a single mention. These range from well known games to completely obscure. Here is the list, sorted alphabetically:

60 Seconds, A Way Out, Awkward Dimensions Redux, Alien Shooter 2: Reloaded, Among the Sleep, Antichamber, Aragami, Belladonna, Beyond Good & Evil, Bouncing DVD: The Game, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty: World at War, Centipede, CrossCode, Cube Escape Paradox, Cuphead, Dead Cells, Deponia, Detention, Don’t Look Back, Donkey Kong Country, Dragon Quest, Duke Nukem 3D, Eternal Senia, Evoland, Fidel Dungeon Rescue, Freedom Planet, Friday the 13th (1989), Full Throttle, Ghost Trick, Golden Axe, Great Giana Sisters, Grow Home, Hacknet, Hakoniwa Explorer Plus, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, Hitman, Hitman 2, Hue, Hyper Light Drifter, Illusion of Gaia, IQ Ball, Jill of the Jungle (1992), Kirby and the Amazing Mirror, Kirby Star Allies, Kirby Super Star, The Legend of Zelda: Link Between Worlds, Life is Strange, Little Nightmares, Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, Mega Man 2, Metal Gear Rising, Metal Gear Solid, Metro: Last Light, MewnBase, Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out, Momodora Reverie Under the Moonlight, Mortal Kombat X, Oregon Trail, Ori and the Blind Forest, Orwell, Outlast, Outlast 2, Postal 2, Presentable Liberty, Rainbow Six: Vegas, Red Faction II, Resident Evil 2 (2019), Return to Castle Wolfenstein, Rime, Risk of Rain, Run 2, Sayo no Uta, Sepia Tears, Sexy Brutale, Silent Hill 2, Singularity, Slime Rancher, Snipperclips, Sonic 2, Sonic Generations, Soul Knight, Spelunky, Star Fox 64, Star Wars: Empire at War, Star Wars: Republic Commando, Stories Untold, Stories: The Path of Destinies, Streets of Rage, Suikoden 2, Sunset Riders, Super Mario Bros., Super Mario Bros. 3, Super Mario Land, Super Mario World, New Super Mario Bros. 2, New Super Mario Bros. U, Super Metroid, Take That, Terraria, The Adventures of Batman & Robin (1994), The Company of Myself, The Escapists, The Silent Age, The Swapper, The Turing Test, The Walking Dead (2012), This War of Mine, TMNT: Turtles in Time (1994), Trauma, Ultimate Spider-Man (2005), Unraveled, VA-11 HALL-A, VVVVVV, Warhammer 40k: Space Marine, You Have 10 Seconds, You Have 10 Seconds 2, Yu-Gi-Oh Forbidden Memories (1999)

Conclusion & Complete Results Link

This was a lot of fun, I look forward to doing something like it again. Thanks to everyone who participated and contributed such thoughtful replies. I got a ton of kind private messages, too.

All of the results were tallied into a Google Doc which is publicly accessible here:

Reddit’s Favorite Short Games on Google Drive

Notes

Additionally, I had to institute a few rules for this list which are:

  1. In cases where more than one game was mentioned, I included the first mention in the results and ignored the others
  2. Games which you can’t really “complete” in 8 hours were not included. This is a bit of a subjective judgement, but my purpose for adding this restriction is so others can find highly recommended games which will not consume a lot of their time.
  3. Games which take most people well over 8 hours were not included, even though these games can be speed run by skilled players in under 8 hours. Examples (which received votes) are Shadow of Mordor, Dark Souls, and Final Fantasy Tactics. 
March 17, 2019|
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