Ok, so I bought it, completely an impulse buy, here are my impressions.
I had never tried PSVR, I went to Best Buy and wanted to, but the lines were too long every time and I never got to try it. I have never tried an Occulus or Vive, and my only VR experiences were with the Gear VR, View Master VR, and I beta test Google Experiences at my school for Google and Google Cardboard. I had $330 credit at Best Buy from switching to Sprint for cell phones. So I really only paid about $100 to jump in, so the entry price was easy for me. They had like 8 of the $399 headsets, but the Bundle was sold out (which we are hearing everywhere). But I had the camera and the move controllers, so I didn't want the bundle anyways!
I am blown away. First and foremost, the image quality was much better than I was expecting just listening to what people here have shared. Even in Cinematic Mode, everything looked much better than I was anticipating. But with the right game, even low quality graphics, still has this presence that you cannot replicate any other way.
The only game I purchased was VR Worlds at the moment, and downloaded every damn demo I could. Here are some of my impressions, and those of my 12 year old daughter. We set it up at about 10pm, all the lights were out except the light coming from the TV. We had zero tracking or drifting issues at all. It felt exactly like you would think it should feel. We were sitting about 5 to 6 feet directly in front of a 55 inch TV, in a kitchen chair, with the camera on the top of the TV.
First Game was the Ocean Encounters/Shark Experience thingy on VR Worlds. We setup the headset using just the initial setup. I sat my daughter down, and just let her go. She was blown away. This is where that whole "Presence of VR" was on full display. My daughter had a smile on her face the whole time. When the shark swam under her cage, she was sitting in a chair and actually lifted her feet up, away from the shark. That is something we have never ever done playing a game with a controller on a normal TV. Very fun and very well done.
Second game we did was the Street Luge. It was my turn, just put the headset on, nothing special in the setup, just let it go. This game had some pretty shitty graphics. Your body on the Luge looks great, its right there in your face, you clothing textures are waving in the wind. That looks cool, but looking down the road, the graphics were super blocky and details were hard to make out. However, the experience and that presence was still there, but this was my least favorite experience. I told my daughter that Sony would demo this with a fan in front of you, blowing wind in your face. My daughter did take a pillow and wave wind in my face while playing, as a joke, and it really did add to the experience. It was just neat, but nothing I will go back for other than trophies.
Next we did Amulette. WOW, this was amazing. Sure it was just an experience, but being able to walk around, look in windows, get close to things, right up to them, and look at them as the story progressed. This was the first experience that I felt really showed what VR can be all about. You aren't even playing a game really, just experiencing it. But both of us where blown away by this. Another example of that "presence" was this part where the sun comes out or there is this really bright light, and my daughter put her hand up in front of the mask to shield the light. I laughed and said "That isn't going to help" and she just laughed and said "I know, but I couldn't help it" Super neat!!
Next, my daughter did the Playroom VR Platformer. She smiled the whole time, and never said a word. I kept saying "What is it like?" And all she would say is "Wow" and "Awesome" which left me very intrigued since you are basically floating above your character while playing. I didn't think this would be a great VR experience, but based on her impressions, and those on these forums, I cannot wait to check it out myself.
Next we did the tour of Rio for the Olympics in the VrVideo app. The quality of the videos aren't great, but man it is really cool to look around while you are in the middle of a street dance, or looking at the monuments in Rio. I mean, you get over the video quality very quick. Cannot wait to try more of these.
Finally, we tried out Until Dawn Rush Of Blood. I played and about 5 minutes in I was like "Nope!" She begged me to keep playing so I did. Damn, when those clown things start coming at you, getting closer and closer, I kid you not, I put my feet up in front of me, laughing historically, like my feet were going to keep them away from me. The graphics aren't anything to write home about, but they are done well enough for this medium to make you feel you are there. That presence, I said "this feels like a theme park ride" and the gun play was also pretty fun but simple. I loved this and will have to pick it up very soon.
Overall, if you can afford it, and are semi curious about this, DO IT! After reading impressions on here, and seeing them online, I was worried about image quality, tracking issues, and I had no issues with those. The quality of the experience really depends on the title and the developers. Knowing how much there is left to try, and even with my very positive initial impressions on these 4 titles or so, I instantly cannot wait for more and more titles to release. This seemed like the easiest way for me to jump into VR, and the most affordable for me since I already had a PS4, didn't have a big enough computer for other options, and had all that credit at Best Buy. I can only see this getting better and better as more titles are released and with PS4Pro releasing shortly.
