The industry is currently sitting on the precipice of the biggest new breakthrough in gaming that this generation has ever seen. There’s supporters, doubters and everything in between but like it or not it seems that virtual reality might be here to stay. The Oculus Rift has been in development for years and is almost ready for release and now Sony’s Project Morpheus is set to give it a run for its money. I was able to take some time at the Sony booth to play two of the available demos for Morpheus, Into the Deep and Street Luge, and despite my initial nay saying going in I was pleasantly surprised at exactly how immersive the experience was.
The first demo I was able to try was ‘Street Luge’. The Sony staffer on hand guided me into a bean bag chair on the floor with a fan blowing right at me. Considering the large crowd outside the booth I was a bit hesitant to enter my own little world where I would move around like a jack ass while they all laughed at me but my curiosity was going to win this argument hands down. Strapping on the VR headset I noticed immediately how comfortable it fit. I tried not to think about how many other sweaty nerd heads had been in there before me but I had a fresh bottle of Purell and an overwhelming urge to race so what the hell.
Sitting comfortably in the chair I leaned all the way back and the race began. Starting off slow and straight my velocity amped up as the hill got steeper and windier. The simple addition of the fan I mentioned really added to that sense of movement as I could feel the ‘wind’ rushing across my face. A slight tilt of the head to the left or right negotiated what little turning I had to do in the beginning. As I made my way further into the course there were tighter turns and vehicles to rip around so my head tilting became more extreme. For anyone watching me outside my bubble I was almost resting my ears on my shoulders at times so I’m sure I looked goofy. What surprised me was exactly how responsive Morpheus was to my controls. If I moved my head ever so slightly it would translate into movement on the game. Around four minutes and a small number of collisions with semis later I pulled over the finish line. Entering back into reality the only negative I could point out at the time was that despite being completely immersed in the game world I still noticed how blurry the screen could be. It felt like using a pair of binoculars that wouldn’t adjust quite right. Still, the rush of luging down a mountain was exhilarating just the same.
Next I headed over to the ‘Into the Deep’ demo which had already seen some videos released to the public. Seeing a video and experiencing it for yourself are two very different things. As my shark cage descended into the darkness I was amazed once again at the responsiveness of Project Morpheus. I could look around 360 degrees and it always moved with me. I could look at my feet or up to the disappearing sunlight at the surface. When the shark came upon me I used the Dualshock to frantically shoot off flares at it… not to chase it away but to light that bastard up so I could take it all in. Wonder turned to adrenalin as the Great White ripped into the cage, pulling it apart bit by bit. Regardless of the fact that you know it’s fake you’ll still find yourself moving according to what’s happening on the screen. In one portion of the demo the shark rockets up from below me and heads face first towards me and the open cage. Demonstrating just how immersive the whole experience is I couldn’t help but lean way back as the gnarling teeth invaded my personal space. I knew how ridiculous it must have looked because I heard the laughter outside my headphones as I awkwardly stumbled backwards.
As I mentioned earlier in regards to the Street Luge demo the focus on Morpheus isn’t really 100% at all times. It still works and with some refinement will hopefully work exactly how Sony is hoping. Whether or not the new focus on virtual reality takes hold on a major scale is obviously yet to be seen but what we’re seeing at this point in the development cycle is very promising. I know that I can speak for myself and say that stationary VR might be something I can buy into. Using one of those fancy contraptions for walking across Skyrim however, is something I‘ll absolutely say no to. Do these developers have any idea how long it would take to walk across Skyrim? Crazy bastards. In any case, there’s lots of time between now and a release for both Morpheus and the Oculus Rift so I’m certainly excited to see what else they have in store.
