Just wanted to give everyone a quick update as I posted I got this thing but never really said how I feel about it. Well I got this thing last week, I was wave 2 which said May and boy did they mean May - it came out of nowhere and I was excited! I have never had the pleasure of playing anything in VR prior to my vive, I have also never used an HMD for anything. I have been following VR since the DK1 and I always looked at it like this thing that was going to be the next "big" or "logical" move for videogames.
For many Mario 64 was the first real exposure we had to 3D gaming. I remember the very first time I saw that game at a blockbuster video and it blew my mind. All year long all I could think about was getting an N64 for Christmas and when that moment arrived and I plugged that game up to my 24" CRT at home I was in complete awe of the world unfolding before me. The thought of virtual reality is the only thing in my life that has come close to that experience and in my mind VR was going to be the next Mario 64 moment that gaming needed.
Opening the box and setting everything up in a rather crude fashion while reading the valve online guide for set-up was quite a site. I didn't have time for mounting things, I just had to get this thing plugged in and on my face as soon as possible! It was only about 45 minutes before I had to get to work that day and I desperately wanted to have my first VR experience right then and there. After fumbling around with wires and the lighthouses the moment came to finally place the device on my head, I clicked steamVR, slid the vive onto my face and closed my eyes.
When I opened my eyes I was greeted by the white room.. I looked up at the cieling in complete awe, this place was HUGE.. like literally it was huge, there was nothing in my mind that was telling me otherwise - VR had won, at that very moment I realized that all of my excitement and anticipation had not been for nothing, it was real. My first real blunder also happened within this time frame, the robot instructed me to inflate some baloons and my natural response was to reach up and BOOP those suckers which resulted immediately in the controller getting smacked out of my hand by my ceiling fan which to be fair did not exist within the VR space.
After what was quite possibly the longest day at work I raced home and got into a few of the games. The first was 'The Lab' and I really found myself enjoying this, the scale once again blew me away and the valve charm was oozing from every pixel. Tiltbrush was next and I had a really good time drawing on the snowman, what I realized with this game is that these controllers are awesome in a way that no other controller can be. Within the virtual space the controllers can literally become anything, looking at your left hand in tiltbrush is completely different than looking at your left hand in Windlands even though you are actually holding the same controller in both titles. Speaking of that game I don't know how deep into Tiltbrush I will go but.. there really is some magic there and everyone I demo'd it to has really been amazed by it.
I finished out my night playing around with Job Simulator, first the chef and then the mechanic. Honestly I find Job Simulator kind of one note.. the game is quite charming but in all reality it can wear thin after awhile. There did not seem to be very much difference in the two jobs I tried as it all kind of boiled down to "do whacky stuff while standing in this space!" but I was really impressed with how 'natural' everything felt. The very next day after work I got home and found that one of my friends sent me a copy of Windlands. I hadn't really had that game on my radar however after booting into the world and looking around I was really blown away and I am really glad I own it.
Out of everything I have played so far Windlands comes the closest to feeling like more than an arcade game or proof of concept. The first time I pressed on the pad to jump into the air I thought I was going to fall on my ass! There is something weird about moving forward while physically standing still but after awhile you do become accustomed to it. The sense of scale once again is amazing and I found it really interesting how your brain just accepts the cartoon reality as if it was any other reality, there really isn't any kind of disconnect there. I am currently stuck in windlands on a really high series of floating islands which requires some pretty tough platforming and walljumping. This game is a good example of a title using the strengths of this new tech in a way that makes us learn how to play within the virtual space.
I have a few more titles in my collection, audioshield, fantastic contrap etc etc but the above really stuck out to me in unique ways. I am sorry for the long read but I just had allot of things I wanted to say about this tech. Needless to say I am VERY excited for the future of VR. If you have ever watched a video of people playing VR and told yourself "they are just hamming it up" you really need to try VR for yourself to see that no in fact they were not hamming it up. VR is here and it's the real deal!