Can Rogue One and Call of Duty power up the PSVR?

Tin Rogue One and Phone call of Duty power upwardly the PSVR?

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Rogue One

It'south been a few months since the launch of the PlayStation VR, and the holidays were relatively quiet. Nosotros decided this dull period was a practiced opportunity to check-in on the state of PSVR. And since we've seen a few high-profile free releases pop-up here and there, that'south reason enough to grit off the headset for another round of virtual reality coverage.

When the PSVR shipped in October, nosotros spent dozens of hours putting it through its paces. The launch line-up ranged from disappointing to euphoric, merely as long as you're not easily nauseated, Sony seemed to be laying the groundwork for something incredible. Today, we're jacking back in to run into if the value suggestion has changes in any meaningful style.

Jackal Assault VR

Jackal Assail VR

What is Call of Duty at this point? A franchise that started out as yet another Globe War II shooter is now ready in infinite, and Activision has seen fit to release a free PSVR title based around dogfighting. Weird, right?

This bite-sized experience asks you to shoot downwardly as many enemy ships equally possible while fugitive harm. It's as straight-forward and uncomplicated equally you can imagine a VR game being, only it looks good within the helmet, and the controls are fine.

Playing through the game one time won't take long, but y'all can always jump back in to try to improve your skills. That might resonate with a small fraction of the PSVR user base, but most people probably won't want to play more once or twice.

On ane hand, it'due south completely costless, so there's not much to complain about. On the other, it might really take longer to download than it does to play. Information technology'south a decent demo, but it'southward probably not worth taking the PSVR out of storage.

Notice out more on IGN
Download Jackal Set on VR on PSN

Rogue One X-Wing

Rogue I: X-Fly VR Mission

Speaking of incredibly curt cockpit demos, DICE has something new in VR. Timed for the release of Rogue I, this PSVR-exclusive mission is tied in with the new Star Wars side story.

Merely like Jackal Assault, this mission takes around 15 or xx minutes to play, and does little more than ask you to shoot bad guys while you heed to some airplane pilot dialogue for flavour. It'due south seemingly okay, simply not worth writing home about.

This tiny mission doesn't cost annihilation past itself, but unlike the Phone call of Duty VR mission, information technology's not a standalone production. You'll need to own a copy of Star Wars Battlefront since this is listed on PSN as a DLC pack. Battlefront sells for $20 digitally, and a concrete re-create goes for almost $15 on Amazon. It's a big ask for this small mission, simply at least you'll get to play the full game on your PS4.

The flight feels decent, and it does benefit from a few lines from Rogue One's sassy robot sidekick, only it's disappointing that this is all EA has for us. If you lot want a real VR space dogfighting game, only purchase EVE: Valkyrie.

Discover out more on IGN
Download Rogue One: VR Mission on PSN

O My Genesis

O! My Genesis VR

The idea of a VR-focused god game is alluring — a Populous or Black & White follow-up with motion controllers and head tracking is enough to make u.s. milk shake with excitement. So when we heard that XPEC Entertainment was developing a god game called O! My Genesis VR, we immediately knew we had to investigate.

Priced at $3, it'south immediately clear that the game's scope is smaller than nosotros had hoped. And fifty-fifty with 2 boosted planets being sold for three bucks a pop, the amount of time that'south worth spending on this game is nowhere close to what you'd expect from the genre.

You'll need two move controllers to spin the globe and manipulate the environment, but the interaction with the globe has been simplified to the point of frustration. It's understandable that the devs didn't want to deal with a complicated inventory system with motion controls, but yous'll end up wasting fourth dimension just searching around the planet for that damned torch.

Information technology's likewise worth mentioning the little narrator/tutorial imp that'due south bound to bulldoze y'all mad. The unabridged performance is awkward, and non at all in a mannerly way. Much of the writing is non-idiomatic, and the vocalisation actress might as well be pronouncing words phonetically.

The head and manus tracking seemed to work fine overall, but the game simply isn't very fun. The potential of a VR Populous is still waiting to be fulfilled, so now we're waiting even less patiently than before.

Find out more on IGN
Buy O! My Genesis VR on PSN

Trackmania Turbo

Trackmania is well known for rip-roaring racing on crazy fan-fabricated tracks with dozens of your closest friends. Unfortunately, the VR fashion in Trackmania Turbo doesn't really offer any of that.

Instead, you lot become a cordoned-off VR mode that has dozens of unique offline tracks. It's disappointing that you can't brand your friends puke with completely insane custom VR tracks, but what's there is still pretty fun.

Having exclusively played the VR mode on a PS4 Pro, we think the fantabulous frame charge per unit and overall graphical allegiance brand this one of the best looking titles on the platform. Nevertheless, Trackmania Turbo simply looks amend on a big screen. Until we get a new generation of headsets with higher resolution screens, that'south just a fact of life.

If you lot accept a PSVR and already have a copy of Trackmania Turbo, the built-in VR mode is worth playing around with. But at 40 bucks, it's difficult to recommend for the VR mode alone.

Find out more than on IGN
Buy Trackmania Turbo on PSN

Jaunt

360-degree video

At launch, a few different 360-caste apps popped up for PSVR. Sadly, one of them has already closed upward shop. Vrideo shut downward back in November, and that certainly raised some eyebrows. Are 360 degree video services really doomed? Probably not. In spite of the relatively small user base, the overall choice of 360-caste video is withal expanding at a decent clip.

Within and Littlstar VR Movie theater showed up around the launch window, and they both offering a variety of short films and documentaries. More recently, Jaunt fabricated its way to Sony's platform, so PSVR owners have fifty-fifty more content to choose from.

While the novelty here is very impressive, the nature of streaming video definitely hurts the experience. Fifty-fifty when yous're using a bulky cyberspace connexion, the kickoff thirty seconds are about always likewise blurry to savour. And once the quality is maxed out, the compression is nonetheless distracting. It'd exist nice if the apps allowed for high-quality local caching, but they're neat nevertheless.

Of course, if you're on the watch for VR porn, y'all're going to need to side-load the videos into the media actor app. Information technology's not particularly user-friendly, merely information technology gets the task washed in Sony'south walled garden.