PSVR Review Thread

Just a heads-up: The quality of the Social Screen (image on TV, what the majority of footage available is right now) is lower-res and in general worse/blurrier looking than what you actually see in the headset. Several reviewers mentioned this.

The weird thing is that I look at the TV footage, or the Youtube footage, and I think it actually looks fine. Then people say it looks bad and that the headset is better. Then you get people saying that the headset image is bad too. There's so much variance in opinions of the technical aspects of this that it seems you really need to try it for yourself.
 
I've just been reminded of Sony's patent on a Move-style glove...

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Come on Sony, do it - Arkham VR would be even awesomer!

http://arstechnica.co.uk/gaming/201...-patent-points-to-finger-tracking-controller/
 
Tested said they experienced a tracking problem that resulted in "instant sickness".

Tested know their shit when it comes to VR.

correction. one of them did. the other said he had no issues with tracking of the headset what so ever.

i think there is going to be a lot of factors at play with VR. least of which is a persons own resilience to motion sickness
 
Most streams talked about a few hickups occasionally while GB talked about them for a good 80% of the time.

Most streams and review videos I've seen have jitter with the move (not the HMD) but it hasn't broken the immersion of the game, look @ gamespot's stream and you can see jittering but the general consensus is that PSVR works well (in rush of blood he was shooting behind him no problem and having a blast).
No VR device is perfect even the much lauded Vive, according the video below you can't have mirrors in the room with the vive because it causes jitter.
https://youtu.be/p6_FaVVbU4c

So no VR device is perfect all of the time but why are people surprised when a €900 VR headset works better than a €400 VR headset. PSVR is VR for the masses and it (according to most gaming jurnos) well.

As for GB it is always there narrative to be negative, they just seem to be happy about complaining about things and making mountains out of molehills (guess who first mentioned the wobbling PS4 and went to the trouble of making a video about it instead of reviewing the PS4 like every other games outlet). Jeff actually said yesterday that "I'd hate for it to work flawlessly today" instead of saying I hope it does work because it means I set it up wrong.
They seem to me to be like grumpy old men that like to complain about gaming instead of just having fun with games that happen to work in the gaming industry.
 
(guess who first mentioned the wobbling PS4 and went to the trouble of making a video about it instead of reviewing the PS4 like every other games outlet)
Uhm, I'm pretty sure you just made that up? That wobble bit was part of their PS4 unboxing video.
 
No VR device is perfect even the much lauded Vive, according the video below you can't have mirrors in the room with the vive because it causes jitter.
https://youtu.be/p6_FaVVbU4c

So no VR device is perfect all of the time but why are people surprised when a €900 VR headset works better than a €400 VR headset. PSVR is VR for the masses and it (according to most gaming jurnos) well.

This isn't exactly fair, as I don't think any VR device functions particularly well when faced with a mirror or reflective surfaces in general in the room.

As for GB it is always there narrative to be negative, they just seem to be happy about complaining about things and making mountains out of molehills (guess who first mentioned the wobbling PS4 and went to the trouble of making a video about it instead of reviewing the PS4 like every other games outlet). Jeff actually said yesterday that "I'd hate for it to work flawlessly today" instead of saying I hope it does work because it means I set it up wrong.
They seem to me to be like grumpy old men that like to complain about gaming instead of just having fun with games that happen to work in the gaming industry.

Yep, keep painting that little story. Let's ignore the hours and hours of VR streams they've done in the past, the couple of PSVR streams they did where they didn't have a problem, where they did have fun with some of the games presented. Let's ignore their gushing over Rez, Doom, Overwatch, and The Witness for example, because they're all just scrooges who hate videogames for a living. It's not like they've all said it's the best time for videogames on the podcast before.

Also Jeff made that comment in the context of wanting to demonstrate the problems they've been having with their units, because their previous streams went pretty well.

Look, it's fine for there to be positive reviews, but to just handwave away multiple outlets' experience with jittering (or whatever term we're using for that now) just because there's a majority of positive published reviews is a really dangerous attitude. If there are 50 outlets with review code and 5 of them have had a problem, that could be really fucking bad for consumers! A negative experience does not decree PSVR is dead, but it's an experience that people have had and can't just be brushed aside as "them doing it wrong" or "not having fun."
 
Regardless, I am going to be in line next week to get my headset. I love VR and want to see it bloom, so I am going to nab PSVR and hope that Sony invests in fixing the tracking issues as time progresses.
 
No VR device is perfect even the much lauded Vive, according the video below you can't have mirrors in the room with the vive because it causes jitter.
https://youtu.be/p6_FaVVbU4c

Yes and it's mentioned in the instructions. That's the issue here. GB followed the instructions and had big issues.

As for GB it is always there narrative to be negative, they just seem to be happy about complaining about things and making mountains out of molehills (guess who first mentioned the wobbling PS4 and went to the trouble of making a video about it instead of reviewing the PS4 like every other games outlet). Jeff actually said yesterday that "I'd hate for it to work flawlessly today" instead of saying I hope it does work because it means I set it up wrong.
They seem to me to be like grumpy old men that like to complain about gaming instead of just having fun with games that happen to work in the gaming industry.

I don't know what stream you watched, but when they have fun with a game they don't hold it up just for the sake of being "negative". There is a lot of laughing and joyful moments in their streams.
 
Yes and it's mentioned in the instructions. That's the issue here. GB followed the instructions and had big issues.

Well you say that, but they clearly didn't to begin with.

Jeff looked to be over 10 feet away. When they saw the problems, one read from the manual, misquoted the 9+ feet maximum for the play area as being the maximum distance you can sit, guesstimated that was probably about what they had, shrugged and carried on.

It was only when a viewer pointed out the FAQ states 5 feet is optimal and the 9.x feet figure was supposed to be the play area limit that the tape measure came out and the distance to camera put right for both setups. Their issues were definitely mitigated after this. They did not disappear, nobody is claiming that, but there wasn't nearly as much weird z-bobbing.

Another way they didn't follow the instructions was standing up, leaning forwards and reaching out to calibrate a Move, then moving back, sitting down and expecting that was going to be good enough. That should have been a big red flag that the camera distance was not correct, really simple stuff to pick up on.

I don't know what stream you watched, but when they have fun with a game they don't hold it up just for the sake of being "negative". There is a lot of laughing and joyful moments in their streams.

Definitely. When they enjoy something, you don't have trouble seeing that, they don't just draw their joy from shitting on crappy games for example.
 
I played Thumper w/o VR at a Gamestop (should be on most demo stations). The game is not joking about the violence aspect of the "rhythm violence" tagline. Every movement in that game hit like a brick and it feels amazing.

Honestly the only game I could readily compare it to is firing guns in BLACK
. Game is legit awesome. Will be picking up Thumper and REZ as my first games at launch.

YOOO!!!!! Okay, now you've done it. It's in my launch buying list.
 
I cancelled my launch bundle order. Been thinking about cancelling it for months, but finally did last night. It was one thing that led me to doing it, it's been many. Tried a demo unit a few times and it was fun-ish, but it didn't wow me. I have a massive backlog that I need to get through and a bunch of regular PS4/PC games that I'm still buying this fall as well as a PS4 Pro so the money from the bundle can be put to better use. Also for me there aren't any games I feel like I need to play day 1. I read, I think, about 20 reviews and wanted a good amount of streams because I badly wanted to talk myself into keep it, but I just couldn't do it. I understand that like 90% of the reviews are positive, but it was a bit concerning the amount of reviews, including a decent amount of the positive ones mentioned the head tracking issues and jutter. That is something I'm personally not willing to put up with in a HMD. Certainly hope each and everyone of you enjoy your launch units as I really hope this is what helps VR take off and can't wait to see what sort of thing Sony has planned for PSVR 2.0.
 
Well you say that, but they clearly didn't to begin with.

Jeff looked to be over 10 feet away. When they saw the problems, one read from the manual, misquoted the 9+ feet maximum for the play area as being the maximum distance you can sit, guesstimated that was probably about what they had, shrugged and carried on.

It was only when a viewer pointed out the FAQ states 5 feet is optimal and the 9.x feet figure was supposed to be the play area limit that the tape measure came out and the distance to camera put right for both setups. Their issues were definitely mitigated after this. They did not disappear, nobody is claiming that, but there wasn't nearly as much weird z-bobbing.

Another way they didn't follow the instructions was standing up, leaning forwards and reaching out to calibrate a Move, then moving back, sitting down and expecting that was going to be good enough. That should have been a big red flag that the camera distance was not correct, really simple stuff to pick up on.



Definitely. When they enjoy something, you don't have trouble seeing that, they don't just draw their joy from shitting on crappy games for example.

Wow.

The best thing would have probably been to set it up, figure it how it works and then start the stream.

This was just sloppy, but far better for their hits. People are still talking about their review today.
 
I understand that like 90% of the reviews are positive, but it was a bit concerning the amount of reviews, including a decent amount of the positive ones mentioned the head tracking issues and jutter.

This is the thing that has me thinking of cancelling my preorder. I can handle controller jitter, but the head tracking stuff is another story. I've tried PSVR at BestBuy once and didn't have a great experience but I wrote it off as the headset not being on right. The headset felt like it wasn't totally on right, especially with the crazy amount of light seeping in which made the fact that there was a screen in front of my face super hard to ignore. Then there was the blurriness of the picture around the edges (which I noticed in the GB stream as well). It all made me wish I could get a Vive demo somewhere for the sake of comparison.

Wow.

The best thing would have probably been to set it up, figure it how it works and then start the stream.

This was just sloppy, but far better for their hits. People are still talking about their review today.

It was still bad even after they adjusted. REAL bad. Especially during Batman. Brad and Jeff also both said multiple times that they had been having the same experience at their home offices.
 
PSVR is visually clearer than Vive?
edit: apparently the reviewers don't agree. Did Time even try out Vive, or are they only comparing this to Oculus and GearVR?
 
Well you say that, but they clearly didn't to begin with.

Jeff looked to be over 10 feet away. When they saw the problems, one read from the manual, misquoted the 9+ feet maximum for the play area as being the maximum distance you can sit, guesstimated that was probably about what they had, shrugged and carried on.

It was only when a viewer pointed out the FAQ states 5 feet is optimal and the 9.x feet figure was supposed to be the play area limit that the tape measure came out and the distance to camera put right for both setups. Their issues were definitely mitigated after this. They did not disappear, nobody is claiming that, but there wasn't nearly as much weird z-bobbing.

Another way they didn't follow the instructions was standing up, leaning forwards and reaching out to calibrate a Move, then moving back, sitting down and expecting that was going to be good enough. That should have been a big red flag that the camera distance was not correct, really simple stuff to pick up on.



Definitely. When they enjoy something, you don't have trouble seeing that, they don't just draw their joy from shitting on crappy games for example.
Wow I only watched part of the stream because it was late night here, but does that mean they had set the stuffs up and advanced through some games more than what they've showed in the stream at home without any idea on the recommended distance??
 
Wow I only watched part of the stream because it was late night here, but does that mean they had set the stuffs up and advanced through some games more than what they've showed in the stream at home without any idea on the recommended distance??
No, they checked the distance and were well within the recommended range. They even brought out the measuring tape.
 
No, they checked the distance and were well within the recommended range. They even brought out the measuring tape.

No, they were massively beyond the optimal recommended range. The tape came out only after Jeff already moved forwards to check. Even then he had to shuffle further forwards (only 6" or so) to be at the optimal 5 feet distance. Judging by how far he came forwards, I believe he was originally 10 feet away or more. The other guy said something about not wanting to move the coffee table, he was 7-feet-something away, but I think they had a lightbulb moment and moved the camera closer instead. See my post in this thread when we watched the stream live: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=219136373&postcount=327
 
Hmm, the Tested review actually made me question if I should keep my pre-order. I really loved the HMD when I tested it at EGX last year, but the tracking issues make me think twice. Maybe the Vive is enough for now, BattleZone and Arkham VR will eventually get ported to PCVR as well it seems.

Man, the comfort of the HMD though... I just can't stand loss of sync or jitter on the tracking though, particularly for the HMD itself.
 
I think he is just frustrated, that no one seems to listen to us. You know...the people who already played with a move controller for some years now.

It doesn't matter. We were all Juniors once. NeoGAF is not the place for that kind of discourse. That's why the Junior approval system and the liberal banning exists. We are all adults (well, most), we are expected to act like it.
 
No, they were massively beyond the optimal recommended range. The tape came out only after Jeff already moved forwards to check. Even then he had to shuffle further forwards (only 6" or so) to be at the optimal 5 feet distance. Judging by how far he came forwards, I believe he was originally 10 feet away or more. The other guy said something about not wanting to move the coffee table, he was 7-feet-something away, but I think they had a lightbulb moment and moved the camera closer instead. See my post in this thread when we watched the stream live: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=219136373&postcount=327
There's a lot of guessing from you in there. They also said they had these problems at home where they sat much closer. And they still had problems after getting closer during the livestream...so yeah, not sure how that changed anything.
 
There's a lot of guessing from you in there. They also said they had these problems at home where they sat much closer. And they still had problems after getting closer during the livestream...so yeah, not sure how that changed anything.

I never questioned or even commented on what they did at home - that was their account of what happened, none of us saw it, nobody questioned it.

What I did question was your statement that "No, they checked the distance and were well within the recommended range. They even brought out the measuring tape." because that never happened.
 
I find the logic I'm reading here odd. We have Giant Bomb talking about problems and we have Gamestop saying there are no problems, so what's the conclusion? 'We'll have to wait and see'.

Why?

Are those people in the wait and see camp thinking it could be a fault that made the PSVR actually work 'correctly' for Gamespot? It's not a matter of which is telling the truth because I watched a bit of both and Gamespot had no problems just like they said, just as Giant Bomb had problems just like they said.

This only leaves ONE conclusion: something was wrong at Giant Bomb's end. That's all you can take from their stream. Something can't WORK when it's broken or of low quality. Stop this nonsensical back and forth and try to work out what went wrong with Giant Bombs stream. The firmware update? The lights or set up?

If people are using the Giant Bomb stream as a reason to doubt the PSVR even though we've got others saying they had no problem ... then I'm sorry, I can't take you seriously and have to suspect your motives.

GameSpot review summary from the OP:

"It’s surprisingly impressive in some areas, but it also has some issues. ... Despite [various] little technical deficiencies, the biggest issue plaguing PSVR is motion sickness. ... As a VR fan, I want PSVR to succeed, but it trips up too many times to wholeheartedly recommend at this point."

Can we stop pretending GB were the only ones with problems/sickness/a middling outlook on this?

Waiting to see how this shakes out is a perfectly acceptable response to yesterday's coverage.
 
I never questioned or even commented on what they did at home - that was their account of what happened, none of us saw it, nobody questioned it.

What I did question was your statement that "No, they checked the distance and were well within the recommended range. They even brought out the measuring tape." because that never happened.

Yes it absolutely did.

They were at around 7 feet before jeff moved closer. If he was at 10 feet and moved to within 5 feet they would have had to completely change the stream camera setup. They didn't.
 
See it _can_, clearly, work fine. Look at chris bratters stacking blocks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XP9oIknnqe4

Insofar as selling the technology, these guys demo VR pretty well. Of course, that's not the point of reviews but... I think it kinda is what it is with VR. It's really hard to convey the immersion factor to someone who hasn't tried it. When a reviewer couldn't give less of a shit about that (probably because they've been there, done that 100 times already), their videos get really boring to watch really fast.

Can we stop pretending GB were the only ones with problems/sickness/a middling outlook on this?

Yeah, we can stop pretending that because that concern isn't exclusive to PSVR. That's a concern with VR in general and, from what I understand, that's going to vary often according to software.
 
Yeah, we can stop pretending that because that concern isn't exclusive to PSVR. That's a concern with VR in general and, from what I understand, that's going to vary often according to software.

There's a difference between nausea caused by badly designed software, and nausea caused by bad tracking.
 
I'm flip flopping on whether I should cancel my preorder or not...

Although the reviews have mostly been positive, I don't like the sound of some of the issues, and, most importantly, I'm not sure how much I'd use the thing after the novelty factor wears off...

At $200 or $300, it would be a no brainer, but at $550($600+ after tax in Canada), I have to think long and hard, especially since I'd probably rather put that money into other stuff(like another subwoofer for my home theater).
 
There's a difference between nausea caused by badly designed software, and nausea caused by bad tracking.

Yeah, and there's also differences between each individual's experience regarding this so let's keep going around in this circle.
 
I'm flip flopping on whether I should cancel my preorder or not...

Although the reviews have mostly been positive, I don't like the sound of some of the issues, and, most importantly, I'm not sure how much I'd use the thing after the novelty factor wears off...

As a general rule, if you're not sure, don't preorder. You'll still be able to buy it later, and you can base your purchase on feedback from early adopters after the first few weeks/months.
 
I wonder how many people will down play the negatives of the headset (that they purchased) so others are not persuaded to cancel or not buy. No one wants to have bought into hardware that is DOA. And as it stands, Sony won't continue to support it nor will developers if sales don't steadily increase from launch numbers.
 
Would all of these publications be giving the PSVR such positive reviews if it was a fundamentally broken experience? I'd hope not. Many of these reviews do bring it up but it was only occasionally an issue and not something that detracted too much from their experiences.

Now compared to the Vive or Rift's upcoming Touch controllers sure PSVR is obviously behind the curve but it's not destroying the experience in the eyes of these reviewers, many from the mainstream press and so not overly gaming inclined or tech. If it fundamentally works well enough for them then it seems ready enough for prime time.

Is it perfect, no. Could it, and should it be better, ideally yes. I don't get why the headset is ever drifting if it's in view of the camera. The whole point of the camera was to provide that positional anchor so surely this is a software issue that could be rectified. The Moves probably just are the way they are and Sony repurposed old tech for cheap. Still when everything's working well with them they can do pretty damn good tracking, they're just obviously far more susceptible to issues breaking that illusion. Nothing that can't be fixed with hardware revisions down the line, although this will likely only happen with a PSVR2 setup on the eventual PS5 (or maybe an improved headset working with PS4 but future proofed for higher res down the line).
 
The European PS Blog has just posted something about Job Simulator, but the important bit is that they confirm that there will be a demo to download on day one - and it's one that isn't included on the PSVR demo disc.

This, alongside the Kitchen demo which will also be up a week from now, bodes well for a good amount of content (even if they are just demos) up on the Store on launch day, and in Europe to boot.
 
Would all of these publications be giving the PSVR such positive reviews if it was a fundamentally broken experience? I'd hope not. Many of these reviews do bring it up but it was only occasionally an issue and not something that detracted too much from their experiences.
This is what people need to focus on in my mind. Instead of focusing on a few bad examples and coming away as if the core experience is broken and makes people sick, how about looking at the fact the vast majority of reviews say that if you are interested in vr, have the money, know its a new platform so the library is limited and know the more expensive pc versions that run on better hardware unsurprisingly runs better then you should buy it.

Does that mean you have to buy it? No. Does that mean every experience has been perfect? Of course not, but if the issues were as widespread or huge as some people seem to think would we have as many glowing reviews as we currently do? No we wouldn't.
 
I wonder how many people will down play the negatives of the headset (that they purchased) so others are not persuaded to cancel or not buy. No one wants to have bought into hardware that is DOA. And as it stands, Sony won't continue to support it nor will developers if sales don't steadily increase from launch numbers.
I don't know, I actually think people who're still on the fence should cancel their preorder so those who've missed it get their chance.

Imo it's worse for a platform when people buy the hardware out of hype and never buy anything beyond launch titles
 
This is what people need to focus on in my mind. Instead of focusing on a few bad examples and coming away as if the core experience is broken and makes people sick, how about looking at the fact the vast majority of reviews say that if you are interested in vr, have the money, know its a new platform so the library is limited and know the more expensive pc versions that run on better hardware unsurprisingly runs better then you should buy it.

Does that mean you have to buy it? No. Does that mean every experience has been perfect? Of course not, but if the issues were as widespread or huge as some people seem to think would we have as many glowing reviews as we currently do? No we wouldn't.


Posts like this are giving me Kinect 1 flashbacks.

Remember all those favorable impressions and reviews that glossed over its fundamental shortcomings?
 
Just heard about the lack of being able to see behind you. Thats really disappointing to me since VR is supposed to be about the immersion and feeling you're there.
 
Just heard about the lack of being able to see behind you. Thats really disappointing to me since VR is supposed to be about the immersion and feeling you're there.

Huh? Of course you can look behind you. Depends on the game of course. The Re7 vr demo shows that
 
Just heard about the lack of being able to see behind you. Thats really disappointing to me since VR is supposed to be about the immersion and feeling you're there.

Not even sure what you're talking about here? The whole point is that you're in the game world so turning your head around you'll definitely see behind you?
 
Just heard about the lack of being able to see behind you. Thats really disappointing to me since VR is supposed to be about the immersion and feeling you're there.

You can see behind yourself, but you wont be able to turn around and use the Move controllers.
 
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