DF Direct Weekly: is PSVR2 the right hardware at the wrong time?
Or can GT7 and Resident Evil deliver the must-play games the system needs?
In this week's DF Direct Weekly, myself, John Linneman and Alex Battaglia deliver our post-mortem on the PlayStation VR2 review window, responding to points made in coverage elsewhere and tackling a big bunch of questions about the technical make-up and capabilities of the new headset. On top of that, we test out a curious report of DLSS in Cyberpunk 2077 'working' on select Nvidia non-RTX GPUs (spoilers: we think it's just a bug) while the deficiencies of Wild Hearts on PC and the quality of the Tales of Symphonia remaster are discussed at length.
In terms of lingering questions in the wake of the PlayStation VR2 review cycle, we discuss the fact that Sony has delivered a wired headset in a world where Oculus has perhaps set the standard with a fully wireless solution, while we also discuss the system's accessibility options and the quality of the screen itself.
And there's more: it's been established that the kit is pricey, but are you actually getting a viable display upgrade for regular 'flat' gaming into the bargain and does that add value to the hardware? Does it support VRR? Those are questions I had myself after watching John's video review, which is why the answers can be found in the accompanying Eurogamer PlayStation VR2 written review!
- 00:00:00 Introduction
- 00:01:11 News 01: PSVR2 Post Mortem
- 00:28:38 News 02: Cyberpunk exposes DLSS support on Nvidia Turing GTX cards - but is it the real deal?
- 00:36:01 News 03: Wild Hearts suffers PC performance woes
- 00:46:32 News 04: Tales of Symphonia remastered disappoints
- 00:51:10 News 05: Nuon DVD player console gets new lease on life with controller adapters
- 00:55:52 DF Supporter Q1: Can DF still capture direct-feed footage off an undocked Switch?
- 00:59:51 DF Supporter Q2: Why do PC games do a poor job of optimizing settings for your specific hardware?
- 01:06:53 DF Supporter Q3: Could frame generation technology be used to offload game animation onto the GPU?
- 01:08:36 DF Supporter Q4: Could DLSS 3 double the frame-rates of emulated retro games?
- 01:10:54 DF Supporter Q5: Would FSR 1 style upscaling work for backwards compatible titles on consoles?
- 01:12:51 DF Supporter Q6: The RTX 2000 series had a bit of a slow start with few RT titles, so should the RTX 3000 series have been the first to support RT instead?
In the wake of our discussion, I've been thinking a lot about PlayStation VR2 - perhaps because I've put in my own pre-order for the hardware and I can't quite decide how that decision's going to turn out in the longer term. Right now, I have zero hands-on experience with the kit and am relying somewhat on John's expert opinion to guide my purchase, but I am wondering if what we're looking at here is the right hardware at the wrong time.
Economically, the general situation is dire in the context of record highs in inflation which makes the idea of launching new hardware a big ask, let alone a peripheral for an already expensive console. I don't envy the marketing job facing Sony here, yet I'm still puzzled about what looks very much like a low-key effort from the platform holder in getting the word out about just how good PSVR2 actually is.
Back in the day, Sony held press events for its predecessor and made sure that outlets had easy access to experiencing a potentially game-changing piece of kit. It's fair to say that similar opportunities have been very much thin on the ground this time around, while preview access to games like Horizon: Call of the Mountain has also been limited. Meanwhile, key experiences have been held back for launch - we've still not played Gran Turismo 7 or Resident Evil Village in VR, a puzzling state of affairs. [UPDATE: Gran Turismo 7's update is due today!]
This is surprising to me because it's of crucial importance for Sony to demonstrate that this is indeed a next-level piece of hardware capable of delivering experiences vastly beyond the capabilities of the more price-conscious Oculus Quest 2. And that's the key challenge in selling PSVR2, right? We know that the quality of the display and the sense of immersion is a generation beyond the Quest, but it's actually really difficult for us to show it in media. However, the notion of triple-A experiences transitioning over to VR is potentially a lot more relatable and convincing.
Showing the system operating at its best and doing things that have never been seen before is key in generating the momentum in building an installed base, which is otherwise quite difficult to achieve when so many of the titles in the launch window are not new. We'll be looking at Horizon: Call of the Mountain in a little more depth later in the week but right now our impressions are that while it's a nice game and an intriguing introduction to virtual reality, it's not the killer app that the system really needs. We keep lamenting this, but it's such a shame that there's no sign of Half-Life Al appearing on the system - but maybe GT7 will fit the bill?
If this is the right product at the wrong time, would there have been value in delaying? For starters, I'm still puzzled at the concept of selling PSVR2 in February, when we're still reeling from the expense of Christmas, so I'm certainly curious about why Sony thought this was the right time to launch a high-end VR headset. Another argument in favour of a delay would have been the notion that the economic shock would have subsided to a certain degree later on in the yaer - but I'm not sure this would necessarily have translated into an opportunity to make the hardware cheaper. At least releasing now gets the hardware into the hands of early adopters ahead of the only viable alternative targeting the mainstream - the upcoming third iteration of the Oculus Quest.
Perhaps the best time to launch would have been - and perhaps still is - when PlayStation VR2 has the big titles to make the investment most appealing. It's a cliche to say it's the quality of the games that defines the success of a system but it's completely true - and we're really looking forward to seeing just how much Gran Turismo 7 and Resident Evil Village impress.