Not sure how many here follow or care about The Game Awards 2016. This is the first year a VR category has been added and as a Rift owner since launch I was very curious, and surprised, at the nominees for the category. The five titles (with my added commentary of course) are:
Batman: Arkham VR
- an extremely short title with little substance beyond getting to be Batman, which is certainly cool
Eve: Valkyrie
- A fast paced shooter where you've experienced the whole game in the first 2 minutes of play
Job Simulator
- Arguably an original experience as it does make great use of hand controls. But a job vs. flying in space? Really?
Rez Infinite
Thumper
- Both psychedelic, rave music fast action gimmicks who's appeal is lost rather quickly? Novel uses of the tech, sure - long term titles that continue to bring you back, not even close.
It's shocking and sad to me that Elite would be excluded from this list, I can only assume it's due to the fact the game has been out for a while and in many ways it's VR support is viewed more as an add-on than a primary VR title. That's extremely disappointing to me as I've played a lot of VR titles over a long period of time, far longer than most, and Elite is by far the most immersive and game changing experience I've had thus far. It doesn't have the brand appeal of Batman, the dog fighting pace of Valkyrie, hand controller support like Job Simulator and what I can only describe as the psychedelic pounding beats of Rez and Thumper.
What Elite does have is an extremely polished and experience changing implementation. I'm constantly asked by other Elite players what Elite in VR is like and I always sum it up the same - you're playing a great video game, with great graphics and pretty scenery. I'm flying a spaceship. It really is that huge of a difference. The experience of driving the SRV on a planet and then docking it in my ship to the take off and fly around is utterly amazing. The transition between the two implementations, both done absolutely perfectly, has to be experienced to be believed. A friend and I, he in non-VR, both drove our SRV's up a 10k mountain with near 90 degree sheer faces (the mountains next to Dav's, the abandoned mining camp). After about an hour my neck was killing me from having to look straight up and every time I looked behind me, down the mountain I got dizzy - and I have an iron stomach. After being able to get out of my SRV to stand on the mountain top to then fly/crash down to load into my ship and fly away was absolutely incredible. When players see me stand up in my ship to turn around and show them the bridge and look at the back of my seat it is always met with awes and gasps.
For those of us fortunate enough to enjoy this amazing title in VR we know what others are missing. We know how incredible the experience of seeing a neutron star is. That it's so bright you need to use the windshield bar to block the center of it. That being able to look all around from inside the SRV couldn't be a more different experience from what keyboard and mouse players get. To know that head and eye tracking is a poor substitute for the near complete immersion that Elite + VR gives the viewer. The words incredible and amazing are used far too often in our daily life as they are labeled upon things that barely live up. Elite in VR is not one of those things.
Maybe this is more a love letter to VR in Elite than it is anything else, and I'm perfectly fine with that. Elite is what showed me the true potential of VR, in fact it's what made me keep VR. The morning after my first night with my Rift I posted it to Craigslist. I was extremely disappointed with it in many ways, visual quality, the field of view (or lack of) and most importantly the games/titles I played. 2 days later I got an email offer and thought "I should try it with Elite before selling it just to see what it's like". 30 minutes after I fired up Elite I emailed the buyer and said, "I'm sorry, I've had a change of heart and have decided to keep my Rift. Combined with Elite Dangerous it's a life changing experience". After over 350 hours of Elite, 99% of which is in VR, I'm still as happy and enthralled as I was that first night. The two technologies are made for each other in a way no other title has been for me.
Elite in VR - you are absolutely my VR title of 2016 and quite easily the most incredible "video gaming" experience I've had. Thanks for the memories.
~Exigeous
Batman: Arkham VR
- an extremely short title with little substance beyond getting to be Batman, which is certainly cool
Eve: Valkyrie
- A fast paced shooter where you've experienced the whole game in the first 2 minutes of play
Job Simulator
- Arguably an original experience as it does make great use of hand controls. But a job vs. flying in space? Really?
Rez Infinite
Thumper
- Both psychedelic, rave music fast action gimmicks who's appeal is lost rather quickly? Novel uses of the tech, sure - long term titles that continue to bring you back, not even close.
It's shocking and sad to me that Elite would be excluded from this list, I can only assume it's due to the fact the game has been out for a while and in many ways it's VR support is viewed more as an add-on than a primary VR title. That's extremely disappointing to me as I've played a lot of VR titles over a long period of time, far longer than most, and Elite is by far the most immersive and game changing experience I've had thus far. It doesn't have the brand appeal of Batman, the dog fighting pace of Valkyrie, hand controller support like Job Simulator and what I can only describe as the psychedelic pounding beats of Rez and Thumper.
What Elite does have is an extremely polished and experience changing implementation. I'm constantly asked by other Elite players what Elite in VR is like and I always sum it up the same - you're playing a great video game, with great graphics and pretty scenery. I'm flying a spaceship. It really is that huge of a difference. The experience of driving the SRV on a planet and then docking it in my ship to the take off and fly around is utterly amazing. The transition between the two implementations, both done absolutely perfectly, has to be experienced to be believed. A friend and I, he in non-VR, both drove our SRV's up a 10k mountain with near 90 degree sheer faces (the mountains next to Dav's, the abandoned mining camp). After about an hour my neck was killing me from having to look straight up and every time I looked behind me, down the mountain I got dizzy - and I have an iron stomach. After being able to get out of my SRV to stand on the mountain top to then fly/crash down to load into my ship and fly away was absolutely incredible. When players see me stand up in my ship to turn around and show them the bridge and look at the back of my seat it is always met with awes and gasps.
For those of us fortunate enough to enjoy this amazing title in VR we know what others are missing. We know how incredible the experience of seeing a neutron star is. That it's so bright you need to use the windshield bar to block the center of it. That being able to look all around from inside the SRV couldn't be a more different experience from what keyboard and mouse players get. To know that head and eye tracking is a poor substitute for the near complete immersion that Elite + VR gives the viewer. The words incredible and amazing are used far too often in our daily life as they are labeled upon things that barely live up. Elite in VR is not one of those things.
Maybe this is more a love letter to VR in Elite than it is anything else, and I'm perfectly fine with that. Elite is what showed me the true potential of VR, in fact it's what made me keep VR. The morning after my first night with my Rift I posted it to Craigslist. I was extremely disappointed with it in many ways, visual quality, the field of view (or lack of) and most importantly the games/titles I played. 2 days later I got an email offer and thought "I should try it with Elite before selling it just to see what it's like". 30 minutes after I fired up Elite I emailed the buyer and said, "I'm sorry, I've had a change of heart and have decided to keep my Rift. Combined with Elite Dangerous it's a life changing experience". After over 350 hours of Elite, 99% of which is in VR, I'm still as happy and enthralled as I was that first night. The two technologies are made for each other in a way no other title has been for me.
Elite in VR - you are absolutely my VR title of 2016 and quite easily the most incredible "video gaming" experience I've had. Thanks for the memories.
~Exigeous
