Tag Archives: HTC Vive

Blog: Virtually Real – 01/15/20

1 Reply

For the past few weeks I’ve had ample access to an HTC Vive, showing it off to family and friends alike, but mostly just messing around with various physics playgrounds and breaking things.  Aside from the setup, the sweating, and occasionally knocking things over, it’s been pretty great.  There are a handful of games that I’ve been playing, some old and some new, that I thought I’d highlight.

VACATION SIMULATOR

Recently a new feature was launched on this site called Gut Check wherein I talk about the opening hour or so of a game and go over my impressions of them.  I decided to start out with Vacation Simulator, a game I ultimately ended up enjoying a lot.  Now, you can read my initial take on it here, but not much has changed from that.

I still find some of the design decisions questionable, but I’m still having fun with it and its charming atmosphere.  There’s just something fun about picking things up and throwing them around in VR.  I will say that after playing it some more, I find that a lot of the objectives are pretty rigid and don’t allow for much in the way of creativity.  It feels more like a puzzle game than its predecessor Job Simulator, but it’s still a fun VR experience nonetheless.

I EXPECT YOU TO DIE

Speaking of throwing things around and solving puzzles, I Expect You to Die is a really cool puzzle game that puts you in the shoes of a secret agent trying to escape from various traps and accomplish missions.

The first case you’re assigned on is to escape a car that’s in the back of a cargo plane that’s filling up with noxious gas.  In what’s basically a tutorial, I had to do things like disarm a bomb and dodge laser beams along with less exciting things like burn notes to find the secret note hidden underneath.

It’s a game that doesn’t take itself too seriously and let’s you mess around with everything you can reach.  My only complaint is how much it relies on trial and error, making you replay the entire level in the hopes of making it to where you died and hopefully figuring out the solution.  It just feels a little tedious sometimes, but it’s still a lot of fun.

BLADE AND SORCERY

So I’ve basically been playing Blade and Sorcery every time I put on the headset.  You play as some sort of fighter in a suit of armor, and go to different levels and take on different combat challenges.  Sometimes it’s one on one fights, sometimes you’re vastly outnumbered, but no matter what, it always feels good to swing a sword in VR and this is no exception.

For as fun as the core loop of just sword fighting fools is, I found the overall game to be pretty thin at the moment, not really offering anything in terms of progression or diversity in objectives, but it is in early access to be fair.

I also found that sometimes the movement controls just don’t work which might be a game problem or my specific VR kit problem, I can’t be sure.  But I really would like to see more sorcery from a game that has sorcery in the title.  As of now, you can only really zap people with lighting which stuns them and will kill them if sustained long enough.

But the real highlight of Blade and Sorcery isn’t what’s in the game, but what you can mod into the game.  Full disclosure, I got this game because I saw there was a mod that turned it into a Star Wars experience.  So whenever I want to hop into some action, I grab a light saber, a blaster, and mow down an endless horde of Sith and Jedi alike.  And that’s all made better when you install the infinite magic mod which allows you to have infinite slow motion.  It let’s me feel like the baddest of asses and I’m 100% onboard with whatever they add into the core game.

I really enjoy VR, but it just doesn’t have enough quality content available to move headsets.  Along with that, we’re still a few iterations away from getting a powerful, wireless headset that wont set your head on fire and somehow has a decent battery.  Till then, just find a friend with VR and experience it through them.

Blog: Anyone Wanna VR? – 05/02/18

Leave a reply

htc-vive-dktz

For the past few months I’ve had the privilege of having open access to an optimal virtual reality environment.  There’s a big studio space with a beefy computer and an HTC Vive connected to it.  In theory it’s awesome, but I’ve found my desire to take advantage of it waned more and more over time.

For context, I was part of an internship program at my college to investigate whether VR was a viable technology to bring into the classroom.  I’d weigh all factors, be it gaming, education or whatever.  If it was a unique VR experience, I was supposed to look at it and make a value judgement against it.  It was a really broad concept that didn’t really have much in the ways of boundaries, which is probably a factor in why my interest in VR has plummeted.

Let me clarify here, I don’t hate VR.  In fact, if anything I’m more excited about VR as a technology than ever before.  It really is what all the gaming outlets described it as, where you need to try it to understand it.  But that’s well worn territory.

What really fell out of favor for me was just getting myself excited to use it.  Here we had this optimal set up, the sensors were set up almost all the time, and the space was clear.  Essentially, all I had to do was put on the helmet and go.  But I rarely wanted to.

Maybe it was a lack of software that killed my drive for it.  We had some things like Job Simulator and Duck Season, even SUPERHOT VR at the ready.  Those experiences were fun for sure, but not something I’d want to do for extended periods of play.  We found some fun and interesting free applications as well which helped add variety to the mix, but it never really clicked for me.  I had fun with these games and experiences, but after the first few times in them, the fun for me really boiled down to showing it to other people and getting their reactions.

There was a sound design class that rolled into the studio that got to play around with Sound Stage, the now unsupported music creation software.  It’s a super robust and intuitive beat maker to say the least.  If you have a Vive, I would recommend it, especially considering the developers dumped the files online for free.  But that was probably the high point in my demonstrations.  Being able to see a class look at this technology and have it instantly click how cool it is was an awesome feeling.

But that was it for me really.  Showing the technology got to be more interesting than actually using it myself.  At first, I’d get multiple people asking me for demos and opportunities to play around, but lately no one really seems interested.  Somehow virtual reality got mundane for everyone involved.

Still, in the end VR is still a super exciting concept to me.  Maybe the reason for it waning in popularity in our space is on me.  Maybe people just don’t quite grasp the concept of it until I forcibly strap this helmet to their heads.  Or maybe virtual reality isn’t the thing that gets people excited after all.  Maybe mixed reality or augmented reality are the ones that will catch on.  But for now, the desire to “get virtual” just isn’t there for most people, myself included.