Sony’s PSVR for the PlayStation 4, the first serious virtual reality add-on for a console, has done pretty well for itself. It was affordable enough, well received by gamers and critics, and received much more post-launch support than many previous PlayStation hardware efforts (RIP, dear Vita). Now, various stores have gotten their first hands-on sessions with an early version of Sony’s upcoming PSVR2 for PlayStation 5. The anticipated new VR hardware doesn’t yet have an official price or release date (just “early 2023”), but based on these impressions, is already making waves with critics. A variety of outlets that received these hands-on demos describe the experience as on par with arguably more powerful PC VR offerings from Valve or Meta. That said, Sony and other developers will continue to make exciting games, and right now the only new platform-exclusive experiences are a Horizon spin-off and a VR version of last year’s Resident Evil Village. The latter is playable for the first time in VR on Sony’s headset. There’s also a Walking Dead game and a Star Wars VR experience, both ports of previous PC/Quest VR games. Overall, reviewers sound impressed, even blown away, by the experience. Among the features listed are overall build quality and comfort, which seem to compete well with existing headphones. It’s still tethered, but the cable length sounds about right. The quality of the graphics and the overall “immersion”, in particular, attract a lot of attention. One of the bloodiest features is the headset’s eye tracking, which allows the unit to optimize performance based on where you’re looking or, in the future, lock eyes with other players. There’s also haptic feedback on the headset itself. Polygon notes that both features are used in Horizon, which is the hardware’s most advanced showcase yet. Basically, it just needs some killer apps, and the quartet of existing demos sounds like a solid start. Here are some points from the hands-on impressions of each store: “Last week, I tried out Sony’s new headset for the first time and was blown away by how impressive two of its games looked, Horizon Call of the Mountain and Resident Evil Village. They weren’t based on particles or stylized art direction. they looked like AAA console games that just happened to be in VR. The last few years of playing Quest had recalibrated my expectations of how VR games should look, and it was great to see games being visually promoted once again without the need for complicated setup.” G/O Media may receive a commission $663 Total Value Humble Bundle 2K Megahits Game Bundle for Covenant House Provide housing and support services to young people experiencing homelessnessA series of games from 2K have been combined. You can pay whatever you want to support the cause, but if you want access to some of the big hits like Borderlands 3, The Bioshock Collection, XCOM: The Ultimate Collection, and Sid Meier’s Civilizatrion VI, you’ll need to pay at least $16. But hey, that’s almost nothing compared to the $663 value you get from all 18 games combined. “But what’s it like to actually play games on PSVR2, with all its new bells and whistles? The actual PSVR2 hardware was fine to use. Like most modern VR headsets, it allows you to adjust the head strap to make sure everything rests snugly on your thread, and you can tweak the inter-pupil distance (IPD) so that the actual lenses inside the headset are the right distance for you. The screens looked great, although sometimes things looked a bit blurry around the edges, which could happen with the first PSVR as well.” “Wow. Wow wow wow. That’s the word that keeps coming to mind when trying to sum up my time with the PlayStation VR2. As an avid VR fan for many years, it’s safe to say that my first hands-on experience with Sony’s upcoming headset it blew my VR loving socks off.This sleek and stylish unit was everything I could have asked for in an upgraded PSVR headset and much, much more. “In terms of technological and visual quality, this looks like one of the most memorable console generation leaps. Experiencing the difference in graphics between PSVR1 and PSVR2 brought back memories of graduating to the shiny, crisp, high-definition games of a PS3 after years of playing PS2 games in standard definition.” “Sony has touted much higher visual fidelity for the PSVR2, which, for the tech-obsessed folks out there, amounts to an OLED screen offering 2000×2040 resolution per eye, HDR, 90Hz and 120Hz refresh rates, and 110-degree optical field. All of this sounds impressive on paper, but when you experience it in the headset, it’s a little bit magical. “The level of detail on display was really overwhelming, mostly because I didn’t expect it from a VR game. I know how dismissive it sounds of all the VR games out there, of which there are certainly more than a few impressive ones. However, there’s a clear line between how a VR game looks and a non-VR game—there’s a level of richness, detail, and polish that separates the two. Horizon Call of the Mountain blurs that line on PSVR2.” “PlayStation VR2 is fortunately a modern entry into the virtual reality landscape, with superior visual fidelity and comfortable ergonomics. Its tactile and adaptive triggers, if implemented correctly, will be a welcome addition to the immersive experience. As with all new pieces of hardware, the question now is whether there will be enough games to make it worth the investment. First-party games like Horizon Call of the Mountain certainly help assuage those fears, and while nothing has been announced yet, I’d be shocked if the excellent Half-Life: Alyx doesn’t make it to the platform.”
