:( I wonder if I can get my Uni textbooks in VR

I didn't see Playstation VR experiences listed, I did download Litlstar VR Cinema under tv & video. It puts you in the middle of a huge omni dome theater and you can watch a couple promo surround videos. There is also Video VR free download which does the same thing except in a smaller looking theater and no restriction on videos to stream including 3D ones. Once the video plays it's the same experience, different VR UI.

It's so so. Quality is decent but you can easily spot the seams in the surround videos where it doesn't quite line up, 24 or 30 fps video is very low for this kind of experience and the 3D effect is pretty lacking compared to a game since you're stuck with a fixed viewpoint. I also find the perspective changes kinda weird, one scene you're a giant, the next you're a toddler. It is pretty cool you can look all around, however the actual screen is pretty visible with these videos (screendoor effect), much more so than when watching Netflix. I would definitely file these 3D surround videos under gimmick, fun to browse for a bit and watch 3 minute clips. I would not want to watch any full length program like that.

Netflix simply stretches the video out as if you're sitting front seat in Imax. It looks pretty good actually on the oled screen although you need to turn your head a bit to see the corners of the screen clearly. The downsampled 1080p stream looks pretty detailed. Better black level than my tv.

3D blu-ray, not supported (yet?) Normal blu-ray doesn't look any different nor better than Netflix through the glasses. It's downsampled so far that the two are practically the same quality. Back to the real purpose of these goggles, games! The 3D effect in DriveClub VR is in another league compared to 3D videos, While standing around at the start every bump in the road and the spotlights etc look and feel solid. Going from fixed viewpoint 3D to smooth headtracking 3D is a big step in the right direction.

Exchange rate sucks atm. $399 is now CAD 526. The ps4 pro is listed at CAD 499, PSVR at CAD 549. Loss on the pro, profit on the psvr.
$499 converts to CAD 658. I guess they charge 699 because they can... The camera is CAD 75 at best buy, 2 move pack CAD 130, VR worlds CAD 50. Buying all seperate would be CAD 805.

I do have a PS4 actually, but I still want a Pro. It's worth it to me for the bump in performance/graphics. My backlog is quite large as well. Many of the games getting pro patches are still wrapped in cellophane or siiting on my hard drive, so I will get to experience them for the first time on the Pro. Plus, as pointed out in subsequent posts, the Pro is actually a bit of a deal in Canada at $499. I get what your saying, the Pro just appeals to me more atm.

I watched the Jimpression of Rigs. He seems to really like it and rates it as a very good VR experience. And didn't suffer from any nausea or motion sickness.

At least until real gmaers get their hands on it Jim Sterling seems to have a credible claim on the title of Rigs World Champion.

I am not entirely convinced the game can become an E-sport. But it does seem like it can become a pretty popular online game.

3 more hours playtime later, yeah you do start to feel the weight of the headset, especially with good over the ear headphones on top of them. I also wear glasses and although they fit fine underneath there isn't much room left for any movement. And if you want to drink something while playing, bring a straw lol.

I tried out a bunch of demos:

- Eve Valkyrie: very short demo, didn't do much for me. Sitting in the cockpit is cool yet it didn't add anything to the actual flying. Won't buy.

- Harmonix Music VR: 3D painting works really well, move controllers worked perfectly with this. Cute tech demo and nice music visualizer.

- Job Simulator: Very fiddly, stand here, hmm I can't my couch stands there. Move the camera back instead. Move was a bit jittery in this one and frequent out of play area warnings, still fun for 5 minutes

- Resident Evil Kitchen: Awesome, great sense of presence, ran it twice. Funny when you stand up and walk around, your headless body stays stuck to the chair, out of body experience.

- Until Dawn: Rush of blood: Awesome haunted house ride, move works very will with this too, dual flashlights to shine around, very immersive. Not bad for an on rails shooter at all.
This one does show the screendoor effect most due to the dark nature of the game, which is weird as the menu screen and normal games/movies watched on the VR headset have perfect black borders. Perhaps a different video mode or something to do with using the full screen. Maybe the pro improve the scaling and/or black level.

- Wayward sky: Best demo so far, put a huge grin on my face while playing. It's an adventure game with graphics that remind me of Knack. You go from one fixed viewpoint to the next while guiding the character with a laser pen sort of thing, clicking where to go. It's as if you have a miniature set laid out in front of you which you can look at from different angles, bend down to get a close up etc. It's pure magic. The move controllers worked very well with this too, dunno why job simulator had issues.
It was also nice that it draws in the ds4 and both move controllers, easier to find them back on the couch next to me.

- Within: Another surround video player, skip. Surround videos don't do anything for me and the 3D effect hardly works. I guess my brain responds better to parallax than pure stereographic cues.

I played some more DriveClub VR. It's great yet they made a lot more concessions than I thought, environmental detail is toned down a lot, I hardly recognize certain parts. Pro patch should restore that I think. Driving at night is pretty awesome the way other cars light up the interior of your car.

I also played a bit of Life is Strange on the headset, theater mode. That game already looks pretty low res so was pretty much the same on psvr except front row seat at the IMAX. One big difference, on my projector I hardly notice 30fps, on the psvr oled screen 30fps is very noticeable, choppy turning around. It reprojects the virtual screen to 120fps for your head movements to keep the screen in place (you can notice a purple haze at the edge where it has to fill in the missing part while turning your head), yet whatever happens on the virtual screen stays at 30 fps.

Overall, most fun I had gaming in years. All these new experiences, many more to try out tomorrow :)

Great impressions. That last line is absolutly key. I personally havn't had this much fun I've had with single player games since Killzone 3 with 3D and Move. We have had some great single player games in the traditional gaming scene, but nothing can touch the immersion that stuff like 3D, VR, and Motion controls offeres. 

I am very interested in Wayward Sky now. It was one of the titles I didn't think I would like, but I will definitly give it a go now. I played Harmonix earlier, and that game really made me happy. I will definitly be playing around to some music in there. Still have to get to the others. 

The real fun starts tomorrow for me though. I have one roomate that has tried it and really enjoyed it, but the next three days I have a whole bunch of friends and family stopping by to see what its about, and if they want to drop some cash on the VR experience.

I just messed around with it for a couple of hours, really easy to set up, fiddly at first to get it on your head but once you've got the hang of it and you get over the sensation that you're going to pull it apart it's really easy. I've never liked things to be tight on my head, don't like closed or in ear headphones but it felt pretty good, it wasn't uncomfortable and I can definetly see myself getting used to this. Little bit sweaty on the pads, but not a major issue. It's a tad blurry, need to play around some more with positioning, but once you're stuck in you don't notice.

I tried the LittlStar VR Cinema and the video resolution was god awful, I don't know whether it was just my connection but it made it hard to judge it overall. Movement around the video was fine, in fact I'm really happy with the tracking of the headset and move controllers overall, had a few issues with tracking of the DS4 but it over the move controllers.

Played Super Hypercube demo, awesome game and awesome feeling that it gives you in that space, definetly felt a little weird as the wall comes towards you but it was an awesome kind of weird. I'm for sure picking up that game.

Played Kitchen, don't really know what to think, it looked really jaggy which kind of puts me off (I think this was the build from E3 2015 so obviously the game will have seen improvements), as I was looking around at the room you defintely get a sense of being in that space and that could work really well but as you look closely at things it kinda broke the immersion for me. Certainly didn't make me feel scared or in any way anxious (I hadn't seen anyone play the demo, I wanted to go in fresh without expectations or prior knowledge).

Played Tumble, that was fun, will pick that up too as it's cheap, definetly one that needs the tracking to be just right and it worked perfectly.

Played Headmaster, this game was fun, not enough to justify a purchase though. The tracking drifted for me a couple of times, which may be down to the quick head movements, dunno, it's easy enough to rectify by just holding down options but could be a little disorientating if you're not completely sure where you are.

I'm very happy so far with my purchase, will have a look at some more stuff after I go eat and will try it with my decent headphones. For sure once you put that thing on your head you immediately feel the potential.

Wayward sky is the one I'll get my wife to try, it's the most friendly for getting used to VR. Until dawn, never. She already dreams of axe wielding clowns since the recent scary clown sightings.

My semi portable solution for quick setup in other locations

Insert tv hdmi into breakout box, plus 2 figure 8 power cables, which I have available.
It's not pretty but it's better than making 5 trips up the stairs. Ofcourse you still need to carry DS4, 2x Move and headset with headphones.

Edit: Wayward sky, stamp of approval. My wife had no motion sickness problems at all, perfect demo material. So cool already at the start screen, look next to you and pick up the 2 move controllers (rendered in game), aim the beam and press a button to start. Then you get 2 minutes to screw around with some items on table in front of me before the demo starts. Mini tumble game included, open a chest and stack some blocks or throw some stuff around.

Second impressions after more demos played

Allumette: An animated stop motion like feature, real time rendered so you can walk through the sets and stick your head through a window or wall to look inside. Looks really nice, it's free download so downloaded the rest to experience later. My 5 year old loved the demo too, walking around trying to touch things looking everywhere. Tender required to keep him inside the play area and untangled!

Battlezone: Pretty damn cool. If it wasn't $80 here I would have instantly bought it. Sitting inside the ship is very immersive and being able to look around really helps. The simple graphics work beautifully with this.

Gnog: Cute puzzle game with a boring interface. You move an animated cursor around to interact with things with a single click. Looks nice, boring to interact with.

Headmaster: It works, it's boring. Knock balls into a goal using your head, why?

Here they lie: Very low res horror game a bit like Outlast. Very immersive walking around in the tunnels yet I wish it was Outlast, that would be awesome in VR. Here they lie needs better textures, things up close shouldn't be that blurry. You can play it standing or sitting. Sitting you can use the right analog stick to turn your body in 30 degree increments. Standing you can simply turn of course, or get a swivel chair!

Job simulator with my 7 year old: Hilarious! He's too short to look over the desk. I had to hold him up so he could plug the PC in lol. He likes crawling around under the desk anyway.

Playstation VR worlds: For some reason the DS4 tracking is pretty choppy in this one. It works and the best part of the demo is knocking the balls around. Each game has a different ball with different effects, use your head or the controller to knock them around the menu area. Where the heck is table tennis? The PSVR worlds menu was the biggest hit with my 5 year old.
The demo disc includes one Ocean descent, look very cool, non interactive however. The fish coming close was a bit scary for my youngest. And you get to play a shooting gallery from the heist. Pretty standard affair. Move is a bit jittery here, I've seen it work a lot better. It's still good enough, but eh pop up shooting gallery is not all that fun tbh.

And Wayward sky was a hit with my kids too, full version bought.

Btw Hustle kings and super hypercube don't have a playable demo on the Canadian demo disc, only some info. Other than that it is still by far the best demo disc I've ever played. No need to pick a game up right away, easily 8-10 hours of fun out of that demo disc.


The psvr is not perfect, but it's damn good. Sure head tracking isn't always 100% steady with some slight movement but you only notice it when you sit perfectly still in a static scene. (I'm sitting 10ft away stretching it) The play area covers most of the room I have to walk around, big enough. It works best with the camera below the tv so sitting and standing both work as well as when the kids want a go.

Still to try Rigs, Tumble vr, Rez, Thumper and Super stardust VR. (full games)