VR is amazing, yet after 4 days and about 25 hours with psvr, let's be brutally honest:
- Setup is a mess. USB cable in the front, Camera attaches in the back, extra box with it's own external psu, cables everywhere. Sure you can all hide it away in an av cabinet yet the cool thing is that you can use psvr anywhere. For that though, you need to be able to easily move all the stuff around.
- Camera placement is finicky. We've just been conditioned to sit far away from ever growing tvs, leave space for Wii waggle, Kinect, Move, Just Dance etc. Now you have to sit within 10 feet of the camera which can be a problem with the camera on top of the tv. The play area isn't all that big either, especially the height of the cone you have to stay in can easily trigger the out of area warning.
- Motion control can be jittery depending on distance from the camera and lighting conditions. You might have to restart certain games after ambient light levels change considerably, games lack calibration options for move once started. Keeping them right in front of your face can confuse the camera and turned around they don't work at all ofcourse.
- Headtracking drift. Slight forward and sideways motion, noticeable when sitting still in a static scene. Again depending on ambient light and camera distance, most obvious when you're playing sitting down which is usually at the far end of the play area range. It's as if you move your head a little bit around.
- Rotational drift. After playing DC for a while I noticed that facing forward on my couch did not correspond to facing forward in the car anymore. I had to look about 10-15 degrees off center to look straight out the window of the car with no way to correct this. Can't really turn my couch.
- Screendoor effect. While it may be the least obvious in PSVR you'll still notice it in monochromatic scenes and especially darker scenes. It shows up as if looking through a fine out of focus canvas mesh.
- Narrow fov. 100 degree fov is pretty good, yet with the human eye being able to see almost 180 degrees it's as if you have blinders on. Cup your hands around your face to see the effect.
- Low resolution. 960x1080 blown up to 100 degrees. It concentrates more of the detail towards the center due to warping the image, you can compare it to 540p on a tv screen. However not all games seem to render at the full resolution, DC for example feels more like 360p. Because of the warping effect it's worse when you look near the edges out of the corners of your eyes, which will also show a bit of chromatic aberration.
- PS3 like graphics. With double the fps, triple the fov and stereographic output you can forget about Uncharted 4 or Bloodborne in VR. Think more along Outlast and Skyward sword as a good target.
- Comfort. PSVR might be the most comfortable to wear yet you'll never forget it's there. My glasses fit fine underneath although when I look straight up I can feel it pressing down on the top of them. Over the ear headphones don't fit all that well, I had to extend mine to their maximum size and they won't fit snug over my ears. It works, not great. Also you're always aware of the cable, it has some weight to it as well.
- External light. There is a gap on the bottom which can be distracting. When the sun was out hitting the floor, the glare was definitely visible inside the headset. (On the other hand, at least you can find your controller by looking out the bottom without having to take them off again)
- Unnatural focus and convergence. Looking at things up close puts strain on your eyes. Your brain wants to change focus and turn your eyes inwards, however you need to keep looking into the distance. Best to not get too close to things. Seeing the steering wheel right in front of you and the track both in focus in DC can also mess with your sense of scale. At some point I felt more like I was racing karts than going around a grand circuit.
However even with all these problems, it is the most amazing gameplay experience I've had since I first played Doom back in 1993. Once you're inside the game all these problems fade away. You naturally scan your surroundings as in real life and build up a mental picture of the environment you're in. And even with its limitations using move never felt this good. It's simply impossible to get an idea what it's like through videos, plus stereographic 3D is a joke compared to VR. I played in 3D on a projector before, it was good but VR is in a different ball park. Everything looks solid and is just there.
Rez infinite is the best VR game out at the moment. I never really got into Rez, tried it on the 360, didn't grab me. Now I can't stop playing it. It was meant for VR. It can be pretty intense though, for a gentle introduction into VR Alumette (free download) and Wayward sky are my other 2 favorites atm.
Overall, worth every penny. I usually have some buyers remorse, not this time. I've waited 20 years for this and it still exceeds my expectations.
Essay Pro