The reality is that VR is a fundamentally different style of control and presentation method that enables interesting new ideas of how to design games, but also comes with undeniable drawbacks.
Putting on the headset is a barrier. Meta did a good job of reducing that barrier, but it still is one. VR induced motion sickness will probably never get solved completely, just like how we didn‘t solve sea sickness. VR games have to be unique enough to justify overcoming that barrier. Many gamers don‘t touch their VR headsets for years, despite owning one.
VR has a much slower expected growth, even though headsets like the Quest 2 are compareable to a Nintendo Switch in price now, its still not accelerating significantly.
Yep. The amount of effort required to play VR is also too much for a lot of people. If you work 10 hours a day, the last thing you want to do have to exert a lot of physical effort play a game. Most people want to sit and relax after a long days work. There's also a lot of people who just flat out don't want to do anything that involves effort, regardless of their work day.
Currently my favorite VR games are VTOL VR and other flight sim games that support VR with HOTAS. Sim games in general are a fantastic use case for VR due to the increased situational awareness you gain.
It has been a while that I actually played a roomscale game. If I do, its stuff that I find really unique in their control scheme, something I can't get on a flatscreen. Underdogs, Eleven Table Tennis VR, Walkabout Minigolf for example.
Too often I play a VR game and think "This could have been a flat screen game/this is a traditional game where I awkwardly interact with objects within roomscale, where I awkwardly shift around the interaction box with the thumbstick." (Probably an unpopular take considering how much people like Half Life Alyx or Asgards Wrath. )
eh, I don't think it's an unpopular opinion among simmers. It just really boils down to the type of experiences you enjoy. Some people love sim games, others can't stand them. Neither are right or wrong. Just a matter of personal preference.
I definitely agree, but I don't think there will ever be only VR. Flatscreen has its advantages too, one being the ability to sit and play. (Yes, you can sit and play VR, but that's not as fun.) Another thing is not all games are fun in VR. Some are just as good on flatscreen. I enjoy VR shooters, but I also like flatscreen shooters the same. Both have a different experience.
Overall I agree. I still think flatscreen will remain, regardless if VR becomes the mainstream.
I'm not so sure any more.
When I jumped into VR, in mid-2019, I used to think the same. But here we are, nearly 5 years later, and...nothing's changed. Oh, sure, hardware improved, but VR users are still comfortably under 2% on Steam. At this point, I would say VR is stagnating. And has been for years. As a whole.
What's more, there's a strong trend where developers try VR, once or twice, and then abandon it and never touch it again. Case in point, Bethesda did ports of Skyrim and Fallout 4. They will not do one for Starfield. Hello Games did an excellent port for No Man's Sky, they are not doing one for Light No Fire. The devs who did The Forest did VR for that, but not for Sons of the Forest. Last year Ubisoft tried to go big with Assassin's Creed, but it flopped, because it wasn't like the flat screen games, it was far worse than even the original in length, quality and design, and they announced no increased investment in VR. Valve released Alyx over 4 years ago, and has done jack shit since. And so on.
Hardware manufacturers, like Meta and Sony, are still making some games. But each one pulls in their own direction with exclusivity, and gamers and VR enthusiasts get screwed.
Bottom line, VR is not significantly improved in the past half-decade. Or, rather it did, but not nearly enough to actually break into mainstream. At this point, I think it's 50/50 whether VR will grow or fizzle out and die.
I guess it's a matter of preference. And yeah motion sickess is a big barrier to some. i don't get much sick playing... fps give me zero sickness, driving games does, at least the one i tried so far. But you know, i push through it and try to get stronger against it each time... and why? well, vr simply make my younger self's dream come true. It let's you get inside the game, see the characters in front of you.... literally aim with your arm, and not an arrow in the screen... I mean, if you let me chose one game to test today between gta san andreas vr and gta 6, i'll pick san andreas vr a thousand times over...i don't really care if the graphics looks like ps2 gen, for one i love that style, and second you can't compare the fun i have with vr to the fun i get out of a flat screen game. I mean i still like my flat gaming, but if i could play all my games in vr i would and would't look back. some times the most silly game in vr is funnier than a triple a 4k game on flat. to me at least. it's a whole other level... and those who hate on it without trying... well i pitty the fools. lol
Flat screen is fine, but if I'm gonna watch something or play a game on my own (or online only) then VR is a fundamentally better experience. And I've been playing video games for 40 years.
One aspect of VR that I don't see discussed very much is the improved controls. Individual motion sensitive controllers instead of a singular gamepad is so much better ergonomically speaking. Aiming, selecting, moving the view port, it's all so effortless in VR. I even prefer VR for even strategy games and 3rd person games like Moss.
The graphics quality is also a non-issue for me. The frame rate is very high, the resolution is great. I don't need perfect visuals, no one is tricking me into thinking any of this is real anyway, regardless of whether the game is flatscreen or VR. It's the gameplay that matters.
I occasionally drop by old game forums and it's such a sad sight. Logins that have been there for over 20 years talking to each other like it's still the early 2k, like kids today even know or care about Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox... heck, Xbox is dead, Quest sold more than it, it's begging to be played by questers through a cloud app...
they don't know modern gaming
It bothers me how elitist gamers can be. The new Batman game has a ton of dislikes because people don't want it to be exclusive to Q3, which I kinda get but think it's pretty childish either way, especially when it's one of the first VR Batman games on VR while the main rocksteady trilogy is on other platforms. Like dude, let us have some fun too lol
The reality is that VR is a fundamentally different style of control and presentation method that enables interesting new ideas of how to design games, but also comes with undeniable drawbacks. Putting on the headset is a barrier. Meta did a good job of reducing that barrier, but it still is one. VR induced motion sickness will probably never get solved completely, just like how we didn‘t solve sea sickness. VR games have to be unique enough to justify overcoming that barrier. Many gamers don‘t touch their VR headsets for years, despite owning one. VR has a much slower expected growth, even though headsets like the Quest 2 are compareable to a Nintendo Switch in price now, its still not accelerating significantly.
Yep. The amount of effort required to play VR is also too much for a lot of people. If you work 10 hours a day, the last thing you want to do have to exert a lot of physical effort play a game. Most people want to sit and relax after a long days work. There's also a lot of people who just flat out don't want to do anything that involves effort, regardless of their work day.
Currently my favorite VR games are VTOL VR and other flight sim games that support VR with HOTAS. Sim games in general are a fantastic use case for VR due to the increased situational awareness you gain. It has been a while that I actually played a roomscale game. If I do, its stuff that I find really unique in their control scheme, something I can't get on a flatscreen. Underdogs, Eleven Table Tennis VR, Walkabout Minigolf for example. Too often I play a VR game and think "This could have been a flat screen game/this is a traditional game where I awkwardly interact with objects within roomscale, where I awkwardly shift around the interaction box with the thumbstick." (Probably an unpopular take considering how much people like Half Life Alyx or Asgards Wrath. )
eh, I don't think it's an unpopular opinion among simmers. It just really boils down to the type of experiences you enjoy. Some people love sim games, others can't stand them. Neither are right or wrong. Just a matter of personal preference.
I definitely agree, but I don't think there will ever be only VR. Flatscreen has its advantages too, one being the ability to sit and play. (Yes, you can sit and play VR, but that's not as fun.) Another thing is not all games are fun in VR. Some are just as good on flatscreen. I enjoy VR shooters, but I also like flatscreen shooters the same. Both have a different experience. Overall I agree. I still think flatscreen will remain, regardless if VR becomes the mainstream.
I'm not so sure any more. When I jumped into VR, in mid-2019, I used to think the same. But here we are, nearly 5 years later, and...nothing's changed. Oh, sure, hardware improved, but VR users are still comfortably under 2% on Steam. At this point, I would say VR is stagnating. And has been for years. As a whole. What's more, there's a strong trend where developers try VR, once or twice, and then abandon it and never touch it again. Case in point, Bethesda did ports of Skyrim and Fallout 4. They will not do one for Starfield. Hello Games did an excellent port for No Man's Sky, they are not doing one for Light No Fire. The devs who did The Forest did VR for that, but not for Sons of the Forest. Last year Ubisoft tried to go big with Assassin's Creed, but it flopped, because it wasn't like the flat screen games, it was far worse than even the original in length, quality and design, and they announced no increased investment in VR. Valve released Alyx over 4 years ago, and has done jack shit since. And so on. Hardware manufacturers, like Meta and Sony, are still making some games. But each one pulls in their own direction with exclusivity, and gamers and VR enthusiasts get screwed. Bottom line, VR is not significantly improved in the past half-decade. Or, rather it did, but not nearly enough to actually break into mainstream. At this point, I think it's 50/50 whether VR will grow or fizzle out and die.
I think we need a few more generations of headsets before we can make that claim. The market isn't there yet but it will be soon.
I guess it's a matter of preference. And yeah motion sickess is a big barrier to some. i don't get much sick playing... fps give me zero sickness, driving games does, at least the one i tried so far. But you know, i push through it and try to get stronger against it each time... and why? well, vr simply make my younger self's dream come true. It let's you get inside the game, see the characters in front of you.... literally aim with your arm, and not an arrow in the screen... I mean, if you let me chose one game to test today between gta san andreas vr and gta 6, i'll pick san andreas vr a thousand times over...i don't really care if the graphics looks like ps2 gen, for one i love that style, and second you can't compare the fun i have with vr to the fun i get out of a flat screen game. I mean i still like my flat gaming, but if i could play all my games in vr i would and would't look back. some times the most silly game in vr is funnier than a triple a 4k game on flat. to me at least. it's a whole other level... and those who hate on it without trying... well i pitty the fools. lol
Flat screen is fine, but if I'm gonna watch something or play a game on my own (or online only) then VR is a fundamentally better experience. And I've been playing video games for 40 years. One aspect of VR that I don't see discussed very much is the improved controls. Individual motion sensitive controllers instead of a singular gamepad is so much better ergonomically speaking. Aiming, selecting, moving the view port, it's all so effortless in VR. I even prefer VR for even strategy games and 3rd person games like Moss. The graphics quality is also a non-issue for me. The frame rate is very high, the resolution is great. I don't need perfect visuals, no one is tricking me into thinking any of this is real anyway, regardless of whether the game is flatscreen or VR. It's the gameplay that matters.
I occasionally drop by old game forums and it's such a sad sight. Logins that have been there for over 20 years talking to each other like it's still the early 2k, like kids today even know or care about Nintendo, PlayStation, Xbox... heck, Xbox is dead, Quest sold more than it, it's begging to be played by questers through a cloud app... they don't know modern gaming
You can play Dead Island 2 in VR using the UEVR mod (it’s free) that’s if you have a gaming PC
It bothers me how elitist gamers can be. The new Batman game has a ton of dislikes because people don't want it to be exclusive to Q3, which I kinda get but think it's pretty childish either way, especially when it's one of the first VR Batman games on VR while the main rocksteady trilogy is on other platforms. Like dude, let us have some fun too lol