Was definitely going to wait (already have a DK2 for work, may well pick up PS VR if it launches cheap to get Rez) because of the lack of Oculus Touch and the price point just cements that.
Really beefy GPUs are only going to get cheaper and cheaper with time (AMD and nVidia both pretty boisterous on FinFET making for some impressive new cards this year) and that's what VR needs (far closer to the pixels/second of a 4K display than 1080p when you factor in needing to go well beyond 60Hz and never drop frames) so this may be the right time to launch commercial VR headsets but it's a bit early to get in with a cheap computer to really make the VR experiences sing.
Who knows if a second gen VR headsets in a year or two can offer radically lower prices (at this tech/experience level) or push even higher on the feeling of presence provided. There's certainly reason to wait for more software/experiences to become available.
Considering how pivotal to VR-only experiences those Oculus Touch controllers seem, and how expensive VR-grade GPUs are right now (with AMD shouting about how much more power-efficient their new cards will be, even to nVidia and their recent higher-efficiency designs), I think this is enough to make me wait for the Autumn (my current GPU does not meed the specs required).
This is a really great and considered list/discussion of the games mentioned. Glad GB manage to solicit this sort of thing for the year end.
Also congratulations to the author for Until Dawn: definitely high on my personal list of best games this year and such a great surprise after the (for a big AAA exclusive) limited PR cycle.
I don't think I've paid that much for an entire game this year. Highlights like Life is Strange, Pillars of Eternity, Cities Skyline, Just Cause 3, and DiRT Rally have all come in under that. It's felt a lot like the good old days where a tax loophole meant sales tax (17.5% at the time) wasn't paid on some products under £18 and so masses of games were available with a £17.99 price point to take advantage of this. The loophole was fixed and so the artificial line was eroded but a lot of people still remember that as a major price point for games and major expansions that didn't want to stick to premium pricing (typically £30-35). And recently a lot of games have looked to differentiate themselves (or market as "triple I") by going back towards that price point (at least in sales around or shortly after release).
So this is what eventually sells me a Sony VR. Already got the PS4 so that's not an insane expense but I had intended to stick to VR on PC.
But I can't not buy a copy of Rez. I own every other edition of it and this is very obviously the right way (TM) to play this. Sounds like a real trip.
@poobumbutt: Thanks for the link, I'd not seen it.
I don't think I took away the same impression you got from it, I think it reinforces the position that JJ is being careful with the subject matter (although the interview certainly is pretty bleak at "So he's a white man in America?"). I read it that, as part of that, it does centre the plot and characterisation around rape so it's not just inserted as filler or incidental to to narrative of a man who hears about it (the fridged woman motivation). In one way Kilgrave is larger than life but, I won't spoil it, but the dialogue choices are brutally realistic at points. You do stop thinking about superpowers and reflect on the underlying message of power, authority, and privilege.
My thing with the Jefferson stuff is that I don't think the dialogue was solid enough to sell it. I think the themes and inclusion was good but maybe another few revisions on the dialogue could have made a lot of difference for me. Bits seem hackneyed and on the nose but I definitely agree its inclusion was merited.
That article Kotaku put up does a pretty bad job of actually putting forward their case.
They want to publish leaked info and publisher wishes be damned; they also want the publisher to give them perks so they can cover their games through official channels in a timely fashion too. The case is that their audience is too important for these publishers to ignore them so they deserve to get press access/early code/preview event invites.
But they overplay it. Let's actually break down what iPhone leaks, game leaks, etc are: printing the output of development staff or publishing staff breaking their NDA contracts. The clause of employment that protects the commercial secrets of their employer who owns all that information.
Sure, journalists do this sort of stuff "for the public good" but how many weapons are in Fallout or where/when the next Assassin's Creed is set are not things the public have an important need to know. It's gutter press at worst and idle chatter at best. And it's potentially getting someone on staff fired for breaking their contract (although this rarely happens as the publisher doesn't know who leaked the info). Snowden is not calling up Kotaku because the public have a right to know. No one here has said they got blacklisted for bringing up stories of worker conditions or diversity issues (because if a publisher did that they would look real bad).
If a publication wants to publish every rumour etc they hear then go for it. More power to you. But demanding you deserve to get preferential access (to review copy) so you can run your reviews on the same day as everyone (everyone who doesn't publish commercial secrets just to get a few hits getting info out a few weeks before the publisher wants it known)? Nah son!
Shivoa's comments