Whether you’ve been able to afford one or not it was sort of nice to see Sony doubling down on their commitment to the PSVR at their conference kicking off Paris Games Week. That said, does anyone else think that was an awful lot of VR bullshit?
After the conference ended I had to question why my interest dipped so suddenly at each PSVR trailer on the stream. Admittedly my experience with the PSVR has been pretty limited but I don’t think it was simply that I don’t have a PSVR as I’m planning to get one this holiday. Nor am I fully convinced that the games being shown were particularly mediocre, although there was nothing there that seemed unmissable. I’m starting to think Sony has no idea how to make their VR products look appealing.
Perhaps it’s just difficult to capture bite sized moments for a trailer when the real joy of VR is being able to immerse yourself in a completely fictional environment. I think the Ultrawings trailer did the best job of making the game look like it could be fun. Perhaps I’m just bias towards seated VR experiences, but shooting a pistol from a plane sounds great.
Perhaps marketers have hit on the difficulty in relaying the interactive possibilities of VR without resorting to groan inducing composition effects. Seriously, though, you’ve got to stop inserting stock players into these trailers – it looks ridiculous. I thought the “Iron Man face capture” moments at E3 this year were bad but the vent crawl 40 seconds into the trailer for Blood & Truth might be the worst example yet. There are some hilarious cuts here:
Yep. Great, I’m glad developers are seizing the full potential of virtual reality and creating what we all wanted: a cockney geezer simulation. I actually guffawed out loud at this trailer.
Putting the goofiness aside, it’s incredibly hard to tell with these products exactly how much of this was pre-rendered. The in-game hand movements did look suitably wobbly and it’s certainly possible the game will look and move like the trailer suggests, but part of me suspects it might be over promising. I guess we can only wait and find out.
Here are the rest of the VR titles announced at the Paris Games Week conference, I’ve taken the liberty of renaming them for your amusement.
Every Mobile Game: The VR Experience
“League of War VR Arena” already sounds like a mobile title before you’ve even seen what the actual gameplay is. Lord give me strength.
CGI Nonsense
I both love and hate these trailers that give you no indication what the game actually is.
Let’s Remind Everyone About The Bad Games We Made
Let Chris Redfield go already, Capcom.
Motion Sickness: The Video Game
Make sure you attach the “sick bag” accessory to your PSVR before playing this one for extended gaming sessions.
That Daredevil Vision Effect, But Uglier
Can someone give this team some more polygons, please?
Hey Look, We Had Some PS2 Assets Laying Around
If we had one, this would get our “Ugliest VR Game” award. Hell, we might have to create one just so we can give it to them.
No Man’s Guns of Sky Icarus: VR
It’s been done before? Eh. It’s juuuust different enough that we won’t get called on it. Trust me.
What did you guys think? Am I being a cynic, or did this all come across like a stinking hot heap of rubbish. Let us know in the comment section.