Watch: Chris and Ian experience PSVR and have a lovely time
The Lawnmower Men.
It's no secret that I'm excited about the PSVR. I've been counting the days until my pre-order arrives like it's a second Christmas, so when I popped into the Gamer Network offices on Monday I was very excited to learn that Eurogamer had been sent a review unit.
Not one to waste a good opportunity to make some video, I grabbed my sidekick Chris Bratt and together we set up our capture kit - which is thankfully very easy to do thanks to the PSVR's social screen - and took the device for a test drive. Unfortunately we only had enough time to try out two PSVR games so we chose a couple that, we hope, show off the potential of the unit pretty well.
Our journey into virtual reality started off rather sedately with a go on Tumble VR. Anyone who was an early adopter of Sony's PS Move controllers should be familiar with Tumble, it's a brilliant little physics based puzzler that's all about balancing blocks on top of one another and not letting them fall down. Kind of like a reverse Jenga. Anyway, this PSVR version requires a steady hand and a good sense of spatial awareness so I don't really know why I agreed to let Chris play it.
After that, I strapped myself into a haunted rollercoaster and braved the first level of Until Dawn: Rush of Blood. I was a big fan of Until Dawn but was a bit sceptical about Rush of Blood due to the 'on-rails shooter' nature of the gameplay. Thankfully I was proved wrong and I had a lovely, if slightly terrifying time - as you'll see in the video below.
Whether we were riding high on a wave of new gadget excitement or not, Chris and I genuinely had a brilliant time with both of these games. What I thought was really nice was the fact that the PSVR's social screen allowed the person not wearing the helmet to experience the fun as well. It felt less of an isolated experience and I really think that'll go a long way to helping VR become a part of our everyday gaming setups.
If you want to see more PSVR gameplay, we've got plenty more Let's Plays planned for our YouTube channel next week, plus I'll be hosting a big launch day streaming event on the 13th where I'll be trying out as many games as possible - as long as my pre-order arrives on time!