5 Essentials For PSVR

With less than 2 weeks to go before the launch of the Playstation VR, it’s probably time to consider making sure you have everything needed to get the full experience, plus a few extras that are just damn right cool!

Unfortunately, there are some things required to get the headset working the way it was intended, so we’ll cover those first.

The Playstation 4 Camera 

Originally when it was confirmed that this is something you’d need to use PSVR, some people were understandably confused as to why. It’s now become clear that this is what tracks where the controllers are and also helps track head movement to give a natural feel when looking and moving around the virtual world.

The above is the new look PS4 camera which is slightly smaller and lighter but is now cylindrical. The features are all the same as the original square one and will work the same way, but is probably more targeted for those who haven’t picked one up yet.

Playstation Move Motion Controllers 

Another obvious one for those who have researched into virtual reality, but not needed for all games on PSVR. Some games like Battlezone use the regular PS4 controller, but a lot seem to require the Move controllers to give more life-like actions in games like Batman Arkham VR, or Until Dawn: Rush of Blood.

Again, for those who don’t have their old controllers kicking around from the days of the PS, you can now buy this twin pack of controllers in one box. But for the convenience of this double pack, you’ll be looking at over double the price of buying them individually or even second hand! The only new feature of these is that you can use you PS4 charging cable on them, rather than the PS3 one.

Room Requirements

This is something that personally worried me when it was brought up back in July, as I personally don’t have this much clear space free. This may have changed since it was leaked back in July, but the pamphlet image above suggests that players need to dedicate 9.8′ of depth and 6.2′ of width to their PSVR play area. This includes a two-foot dead zone directly in front of a single PlayStation Camera, which must be set up for tracking purposes, and a few more feet back to position a chair so that players can look and wave arms all around their play space.

To an extent this makes sense that you’d need plenty of room for movement, but I’m hoping that this is more of a suggestion than a necessity.

Batman Arkham VR

I previously talked about this game, because lets face it who doesn’t want to be Batman!

It was just recently confirmed that the main story of this VR experience will only last around an hour, but I imagine there will be other things you can do like Batarang practice or maybe locking Alfred in the freezer at Wayne manor. Either way this will be a short game and luckily the price reflects this at £15.99 (price not yet confirmed for the US), and will be available at launch.

Star Trek Bridge Crew

I’ve always wanted to boldly go where no one has gone before, but the local bus only takes me to the city centre (and that’s boring after using it a few hundred times), so Star Trek Bridge Crew is definitely the next best thing. Not only being the closest thing we’ll ever get to deep space travel, it’s one of the few online VR games I’m interested in as it requires players to take different roles aboard and work together to take out enemy ships.

There’s no word on an exact release date for this, however it was said to be available late autumn, but with the large amount of games available launch day, I feel this may be one that will have a few delays before it gets a solid release window.

Apparently there will be 50 games available at launch, so this is just a couple of my top games I’m looking forward to.

There is a lot to consider before investing into PS VR or any other VR headset available, as the cost can soon add up if you’re buying everything from scratch. Also it’s worth considering that most of the public haven’t had the chance to demo this yet, so is it really worth the risk and all that money, and will it be a fad that goes the same way as the Virtual Boy? I personally have cautious optimism and will be buying one which I will give some review impressions for later next week.

SNIKT!

Robinson The Journey – Jurassic VR

Ever since I first saw Jurassic Park back in 1993, I was mesmerised by the giant animals Spielberg brought to life and wanted nothing more than my own pet Velociraptor. As impractical as this was, I had a plan – find some fossilised amber with the dino DNA inside, give it to the real life John Hammond, and wait for him to present me with an egg to incubate. When I realised my “plan” ended up in me just digging in the back garden and finding worms, I did the next best thing and dragged my parents to museums or our local dinosaur park.

Years later, my fascination with dinosaurs is still in the back of my mind, occasionally drawn out when there’s a new JP film, or some sort of dino TV show, or through video games.

There isn’t much in the way of variety for games that incorporate the cretaceous period, and what is available doesn’t usually go down in the legendary games category. One game I believe will break this trend is ‘Robinson the Journey‘ for the Playstation VR, a game that literally brings you into a world inhabited by these creatures.

Created by Crytek, the game starts you off on a spaceship sometime in the future, and sees you crash land on a planet entirely dominated by dinosaurs. SOLD. And with the game making full use of PS VR, you’ll be able to get the feeling of constant danger in the comfort of your own living room…yay?

Crytek have shown some gameplay through events such as E3 and some demos which look stunning, but they’re yet to give an official release date. Hopefully with the PS VR set for October 13th, Robinson the Journey won’t be far behind.

SNIKT!