Playstation VR is launching in NZ October 13! We headed along to give some of the games a try!
I wasn’t prepared for how putting on the headset suddenly dropped me in the passenger seat of a drive-by shootout. It was surreal. For a moment, I actually thought that I could feel the air-conditioning from the car vents and then I realized that there were just subtle things that made it that immersive, like the audio changing according to where you turned your head. I also wasn’t prepared for how much it suddenly brought out the magpie explorer in me. Picking up rubbish, throwing junk at AI, pulling the car apart…these mundane things are somehow so much more fun in VR. The ultimate experience has to be suiting up as Batman in Batman: Arkham and descending into the cave. I don’t know how many times I caught myself saying, “This is amazing,” as bats flew by and a perfectly-drippy cave opened up right at my feet. I felt like if I stepped just wrong, I’d plummet to a painful death below! What a rush!
– Di
I’d had a go on another VR headset a while back but it didn’t quite fit my surprisingly small head, which meant that I had a disappointingly blurry experience. The PS VR, however, was much easier to fudge around and I managed to get unblurry pictures! Hooray! It was weird how fast you sunk yourself into the game and I almost completely forgot that I was wearing something on my face! It wasn’t heavy, and it didn’t jiggle or slide about, though we were wearing headphones so that may have helped a bit. My favourite out of all the things we tried by far was Drive Club. Driving and being able to turn your head and look out the passenger window and see your rival driving next to you. Oh, and actually using the mirrors – oh, man, it just excites that childhood dream I had of being a racer. And just so you know, I came first in my race. I won. Yes.
– Jaz
My most recent VR experience had been with one of those cardboard headsets you use with your phone. It had left me feeling extremely motion sick and kind of irritated with the blurriness of the games. Sony’s Playsation VR was literally a mind blowing experience (I use the term ‘literally’ in the annoying modern way which defies all reason – my mind did not actually explode). I was really keen to try the scariest game they had on offer, which turned out to be Until Dawn: Rush of Blood. I thought I was doing pretty well and not crying on the floor or getting frights until the Sony guy reminded me to look all around and not just straight ahead. So of course I turned right around, admired all the creepy things around me and then turned back to find a clown right in my face. I got a tiny fright ok!? Drive Club was another amazing experience. Actually getting to use my rear vision mirror and look out my window at all the jerks passing me was crazy-cool! Definitely get your hands on one of these if you can!
– Saskia
