If you are using VR technology, please list your favorite title, description/genre, which VR unit and Platform. I looked today and none of the sandbox games (AAR: Survival Evolved, Conan Exiles, Dark and Light) I'm playing are listed as VR, but maybe I missed that in their description. I'm creating a list n this post compiling submissions.
Updates
My Choices based on first hand experience:
Updates
- 30Sep17- Added Lone Echo, along with garnerx and Unami's choices.
My Choices based on first hand experience:
- Elite Dangerous- space sim/sandbox, PC, OR, running on GTX 970, i5 4670, 24Gb Ram, preferred controller- joystick; spectacular! Truth in advertising, I've quit this game twice based on grind.
- Eve: Gunjack- (VR:mild, available on Steam, possibly in the Occulus store?) Do you remember the early days of computer gaming and top down, scrolling shooters, where dozens of enemies fly at you in strings of various shapes? Reference these links: Defining Shmups, Best Side Scrolling Shooters. This is in essence what Gunjack is, a fast paced shooter in a VR environment as you man a gun turret in a patrol ship defending a space mining corporation's interests. Aim via head tracking and squeeze the trigger as dozens (more?) of hostile drones attack you in various formations. Besides accuracy, and notvwasting your ammo, the strategy is timing your reloads. While there is ton of action and movement in front of you, you fight from a stable platform. I've had no issues with nausea, although I did read a complaint in Steam forums about the head tracking aiming. Which amazes me because this is the prime advantage in the VR environment
- Google Earth (free, Oculus Store)- (VR Mild). OK, not a game, but impressive VR environment, with tours that take you around the world. If I have a critique, it's that the initial views of a location, rendered in 3D look more like a clay model, and it takes a long time to render, illustrating that this technology is on the edge for my hardware.
Maybe it would reach something that looks more real, if I'd wait. You have the ability to navigate around the initial view and pull up a corresponding street view. When you switch to street view you'll see a photo of the location. My computer is not nearly as fluid as the portrayal in this video.
- Lone Echo- I was not truly amazed until I launched Lone Echo, a story set in the rings of Saturn on a space based mining ship where you are a robot a helping the human Captain of the ship, discover an anomaly, deal with a power surge on the ship, and sort out a mystery, and in the process navigate this impressively large VR space, fixing systems that are broken, and I'm not far enough into it yet to say more.
However the environment is simply amazing, it is what VR was designed for. You are not looking at the interior of a ship from the flat perspective of your 32" monitor, you are frick'n inside that ship. The flight deck three dimensional, looks like it's about 30' wide and maybe 50' deep, and from there you visit different parts of the ship, the cargo hold, the hydroponics garden, which is not anywhere close to Silent Running (the movie), but it is still impressive. So far working with the Captain, I've fixed several on-board systems, and am about to examine the power core.
You move around the ship either pushing or pulling yourself (zero gravity) or using your wrist thrusters. I'm sure some of it has to do with VR being a new or even a novelty, but just being in this ship is cool. I can't wait until I go outside if I'm not too afraid to.
- garnerx Choices (post 25)
I've been trying racing games in VR...
-Dirt Rally - very nice in VR, although the default settings only gave me 45 fps. Turned a few things down to get it back up to 90. You get a 2D menu screen between races and can assign a button to reset the viewpoint if you find you're stuck inside your driver's neck. Good sense of speed, quite difficult to stay on the track when you're really going for it. Progression through the various series is painfully slow, though. It takes ages to unlock new cars, I've kind of run out of patience with this one.
-Assetto Corsa - rough in VR, you must remove the headset to navigate menus on the monitor, and resetting the viewpoint (which you have to do before every race) involves exiting to use the Oculus app. Graphics look washed out in the default settings, I had to download a visual mod and do a lot of tweaking to get it looking acceptable. Even then, it's hard to see other cars' brake lights at a distance. But it's often in the Steam sales, I got the whole thing with a ton of DLC for peanuts. There's loads of content, it's fun to drive, the sound is brilliant and it has the best force feedback.
-iRacing - I hoped to avoid this since it can get ridiculously expensive but in the end I'm glad I gave in to temptation. It definitely has the best VR implementation, everything is adjustable in the headset and the VR interface places you in the track environment, which looks great. It doesn't have such flashy graphics as the other two but that's actually beneficial in VR as it's by far the sharpest and clearest. I can run everything at maximum, and it also has proper 3D mirrors, which the other two don't. If somebody ever designs a driving game specifically for VR, this is what it should look like.
- gkarris choices: (post 2)
Star Wars Battlefront Rogue One VR Mission
EVE Valkyrie
EVE Gunjack
COD Infinite Warfare Jackal Assault
- Raketemench choices: (Post 7)
CCP's Sparc is out for PSVR now, and getting raves. It's basically Discs of Tron without the lawsuits, and should be coming out for more platforms soon.
Dirt Rally in VR is the best experience I've had so far. It's got incredible immersion and is an actual challenge -- the cars are fast, the tracks are demanding, and you have to learn the "language" of your navigator as he shouts out his notes about the track.
It's not your average racing game by any stretch, and the first time you overshoot a corner and head over a cliff in VR...
- AlvinDarkness choices: (post 12)
Headset and controllers: Oculus Rift + Touch
Favourite paid for games -:
- Robo Recall <- Favourite game so far. Doesnt take too long to complete, but hell of a ride.
- Eleven: Table Tennis <- Simple, but find I can play for hours on end, and do.
Notable mentions -:
- Lone Echo, or even Echo Arena <- The mechanics of floating in zero g and pushing yourself off walls is great. The gameplay in lone echo is just a tad tedious for my liking though - but still worth a play through.
- The Climb <- I find it fun in short bursts. Graphics could be better, but gameplay isnt bad.
Favourite free games/apps available on steam -:
- The Lab <- for the archery/castle defense alone, heaps of fun. Great intro to VR.
- Google Earth VR <- even better now with the street view update.
Favourite "experiences" -:
- The Wave VR <- live concerts with decent visuals, social gatherings etc.
- Fantasynth <- a quick (7 minute) audio/visual experience
- Senza Peso <- another quick audio/visual experience, with a bit of floating around.
- Unami (post 27)
- SuperhotVR imho the most fun PSVR game yet.
- Statik - great puzzler, great use of the playstation’s sixaxis controller
- I expect you to die - another nice „sit down“ puzzler
- Driveclub VR on PS4pro - fun racer, if you got a driving wheel, but really bad graphics on normal PS4 (they are not great on ps4pro either, but elevated to „playable“)
- Psychonauts and the Rhombus of Ruin - good looking puzzler, unfortunately too short and too easy
- Dirt Rally - as others said, pretty good game, but also pretty hard. The graphics are not too hot on PSVR.
-Windlands- not really a good game, but a good test whether you‘ve already got your VR legs: „Windlands“ (turn off any „helper“ functions)
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