I tried out the HTC Vive at my Microsoft Store today.
Hey there everyone, Happy Gamer here and I've been a little weary of VR since I tried the Wii and the Occulous Riff. I've already explained why I dislike the Wii, and why it left much to be desired. However, I don't know if I ever really explained why the Occulous Riff disappointed me. Well at my college the computer club had a demo unit and I tried it out when they were showing it off, and they had this roller coaster demo video. After a couple minutes I started feeling disoriented because my eyes were telling me I was moving, but my other senses were telling me I wasn't. It was a cool experience, but a rather negative one (even though when we were talking about it in class I was the only one able to say "I tried one out.")
Well at my local Microsoft store they had a demo unit of the HTC Vive. I got in line, signed a waver, and got to try out 3 demo games. Before the demos started, there was a "get oriented" thing where I inflated balloons and punched them away. The first game was "Deep Blue," I think it's called. It was just a "walk around and look at the fish" game. It was meant to get us used to the way things work. I had some fish fly right into my face. It was all pre-rendered as all the people in front of me had the same video. It was really cool.
Now we get into the actual games. The first game was a bow and arrow tower defense game. That was really fun. You use the 2 controllers to be the bow and arrows. Where you point is where you aim and where they fire. Now this is what I was expecting with the Wii back when that launched. It was really fun. I got quite into it, and I didn't let any of the enemies even hit my fortress door. I did quite well and probably could have kept going but my 3 minutes were up.
Next was the "space pirates" shooter. Now this, this is what the HTC Vive was made for. With the 2 controllers, you get the guns that you aim 1 to 1. I got REALLY into it. I used the 3 shot automatic. I was moving, dodging, crouching on the ground, all of it. When you see VR in cartoons, this is what it is like. Like, even the VR gags you would see in cartoons from 10 years ago on Danny Phantom, this is what it was like.
So now I think I should talk about the hardware. It was really comfortable. The face pads were soft and the headset wasn't really heavy like the Occulous was. It also requires a long cable to be connected to the computer, which wasn't that bad. I didn't find myself tripping over it at all. The controllers were also very comfortable, much better than the Wii and PS Move. The screen was a little pixelated, like if I get less than 1 inch away from the TV, but that is to be expected some, I guess.
So yeah, the HTC Vive is REALLY cool, but I don't think it's 3 grand cool. The HTC Vive headset, controllers, and sensors cost $800 alone. Then you need a PC that is powerful enough to run it. The store was using a $2500 Alienware with like top of the line components. The demo unit assistant said he knew a guy that built one himself for like $1000, but you still need a rather high end gaming PC. My sack of potatoes won't be able to run it, so I would need to buy all new hardware, plus all the games. Plus, I don't know how often I would play it since it is a VERY active experience.
So will I buy one? Definitely not yet. It's a really fun experience, but it's not $3000 fun. I'll wait until the Vive is $100 and the computing hardware I need is standard computer components. Well this has been Happy Gamer, signing off, and lets see what comes from the HTC Vive.
