VRodeo: 04: Raw Data, Edge of Nowhere, and More

Woo

Yeeeeehaw round em up doggies!

YEEEEEE-HAW

@humanity: haha I love it.

@bathala: The move where Jeff was skipping flapping his arms during the zombie katana thing was magical thanks for capturing it.

I like this feature, but why bother with the studio shot taking up a third of the screen? Surely the games being played should take up a larger portion of the screen, if not 100% with Jeff small in the corner?

Raw Data looks pretty cool.

@humanity: @tom_omb: Nice job on both of these!

Let's do this

That's some mighty fine Star Warsing Jeff!

Yeees! GIDDYUP!!!

Need some scaliness and a blue filter when Jeff goes Hologram

House of the Dead or Time Crisis VR could seriously get me to give a shit about VR.

I want to see vinny break all of these games

Edge of Nowhere seems cool but I still see zero reason to make it VR. I would much rather just play it as a non-VR game with standard third person camera controls, it doesn't seem like they'd really have to change anything at all to make that work.

These games are starting to have better production values but man... pretty much all of this stuff continues to not look even remotely worth it. If this is the trajectory VR development is on then we are easily 3-5 years out from proper game experiences that you could say "yah, stop playing Doom and play this thing instead."

@amyggen: Thanks, partner.

edge of nowhere really looks like a prototype of some uncharted knockoff that they bolted VR onto last second.

I'll say that I thought Edge of Nowhere was pretty neat. I think I played it for a couple hours straight? Didn't complete it though.

It is a very traditional/basic sort of.. Uncharted type thing. So doing it without VR would be dumb IMO.

I thought it was fairly immersive and creepy. Some good audio. Looked great.

If you look at Edge of Nowhere (or other VR games) as just a game, against all other games, its obviously not that good. As a VR game though, its fairly impressive. And I kind of do think we need to view them separately as VR is like.. on a different conceptual/mechanical/gameplay path now. It's obviously a ways behind standard games. It's going to take awhile for devs to figure it out.

Money is money though. You either want to experience VR stuff and allow yourself to enjoy it, or no matter what they do at this point, you'll be weighing your dollars spent and compare that to what else you could spend it on.

Comes down to the individual person and their interests.

@danryckert It is estimated that approximately 10% of people are left handed. Also, pistols vary in weight, some are very light, the Walther PPK is just over a pound, and some are rather weighty, the Smith & Wesson 500 can weigh about 5 lbs.

It will take time. Like any launch of new hardware it takes time for game developers to figure out the right way to make things work. I bet within the first year to year and a half we'll see more "traditional" games on VR headsets that take advantage of what VR offers. Right now everyone is playing around and experimenting with different ideas. If Sony keeps heavily pushing PSVR that could turn into a very good thing for the market as it will mean more and more developers getting on board and making games.

During that cutscene in the cockpit in Edge of Nowhere, I couldn't help wishing the pilot was voiced by John Ratzenberger.

Raw Data is dope, been playing with random people quite a bit. It's still super early but the fundamentals of it are great. There are games with better shooting and input feedback but as a whole it's just about right, just playing the waiting game on more content.

As with a lot of VR stuff, some of the fun just comes from having another person hanging around with you. When you're talking to and playing with another tracked and animated person it's pretty different to normal online play.

Raw Data looks cool but obviously still early in development so it'll be interesting to see it again later on. Edge of Nowhere should be a $20 regular release. VR doesn't seem to add anything. That little game at the end seemed really neat, maybe the one I'd actually want to check out just because it looked like it had a lot of personality and fun little puzzles.

Man these guys are definitely playing Raw Data at lower graphics settings than they probably need to. I have a 970 and was able to play with mostly high settings. Maybe it was a recording concern. Believe me when I say that the game looks pretty excellent.

I've never used a VR headset, but I dont understand the purpose of teleporting. Why isn't there just a left analog stick you can move around the environment with? Is that what causes people to feel sick?

KAZ!

That will cause a lot of people to feel sick, yes.

@bathala said:

Things like this make me unreasonably excited watch this video.

That plane crash... it was staged! They knew we'd be crashing there. They played us like a damn fiddlllllllllllllllllllllle!

That's my issue with it though. From watching it it really doesn't sem like it does anything new or interesting with the fact that it's VR, it seems like a bolted on gimmick at best.

Compared to stuff like giant cop, audioshield, spt, job sim,the gallery: star of the starseed etc I just don't see any reason to play what is essentially a bog standard 3rd person action game in VR.

And I fucking love VR, play at least 1-2 hours a day.

Stuff like soundstage and that VR 3d modeling program are the only things really getting me interested in VR. Vr art and Music seems real interesting to me.

@derangel: I don't know I feel like people have been fooling around with this tech for a few years before it was commercially released and they're still just noodling around. It's not like they only now got their hands on it.

Still I'm sure it will get better but probably way later rather than sooner.

Dan looks better with hair

Yup, VR still pointless for games.

360 degree Mr. Robot in VR is a good start, but the fact that it is only going to be available for 1 day (Thursday 7-21-2016 from 10a.m. PST till the show starts on USA) is pretty lame.

Also thanks for the VRodeo. Love watching these because it makes me want to buy VR a little less each episode.

What makes you say that? Almost all innovative hardware I can think of either impresses from the very start or never really takes off. I can't really think of any that had a shoddy launch and really came to their own later on. You sound like you're pointing out an obvious truth, but historical evidence suggests the opposite.

@oursin_360: Soundstage is great. I'm no virtual mozart or anything, but it's a lot of fun.

Same with tiltbrush. I've no artistic talent but it's a lot of fun. Very relaxing.

if it's done right and the framerate holds it's perfectly fine using the left stick or / WASD for control and very few get sick, but the key is the framerate has to remain high and smooth enough, Dreadhalls on the Rift is a great example of this and you can run like crazy in that game.

Third person in VR makes no sense to me the whole point as i see it is to be immersed in the world to feel as if your there yourself, you cant get that in a third person view it ends up being just a game with poor camera controls that doesn't look as good if you didn't have it running in VR, either have it first person or don't bother.

Yea, I guess I'd chalk Edge of Nowhere up in the vein of experimentation of traditional systems and gameplay in a VR environment.

The thing that the VR brings to the table for it, and why it can't be done as a regular flat screen experience, is just VR.

That's kinda what I was thinking as I was writing before. You either look at it as:

• "Why am I playing this in VR when it could be done as a flat screen game?"
• "Why would I want to play this on a flat screen when I've done that already?"

It comes down to personal preference as usual. At this point in time, I don't view VR as it's own whole separate brand of gaming. It's just a experimental peripheral for existing stuff. I don't think there are enough (or any) full, unique, gameplay elements out there for it to stand on its own. But good lord, there is probably no better way to play cockpit games.

I really like something like Lucky's Tale. I think it is a way cooler, more fun, and visually interesting way to play that sort of "old" or "tired" genre. Now give me other third-person games like Mario, Zelda, Resident Evil etc in VR. Other people don't feel the same. Its not that I want everything to be VR, but I'm not against more and similar stuff.

Bring on the experimentation! We won't know until we try.

jeff needs some kind of neon jumpsuit to wear during these videos.

That whole switched arm thing is exclusive to the VR games that use the UE4 engine. You can counteract it by making sure that the first Vive controller that you turn on is the left one. For whatever reason your left hand is attributed to the first controller that is switched on.

I dno @jeff I think I'm with Dan on this one. I've only ever known a pistol whip as striking someone with the butt of the pistol where the magazine is fed in.

So is Edge of Nowhere just a game version of Lovecraft's At the Mountains of Madness?

Man VR is gonna teach alot of people the wrong ways to hold guns.

Also someone should make a "Blow your hands off with fireworks" simulator. Like you have to hold the firework in one hand, light it with the other and just hold onto it until it explodes. that would be tense.

Man, No matter how they try and make teleporting seem cool/natural I don't think I'm ever going to see it as anything other than super limiting.

Also the voice actor in that 3rd person game was totally Kaz from MGS right? Can't believe Dan didn't pick up on that.

Dan never held a gun? This seems unfathomable to me.

@deadfish: If you grew up with Dan I imagine you'd do everything in your power to prevent this.

You're right, EoN is not a great game at all if taken as a standard non-VR game. But I actually wanted to play through it in VR, it does still add a lot - just not much of what the coolest things we imagine VR should and will eventually be.

Same with the VR version of BlazeRush, that game is a great, very fun throwback to Rock N' Roll racing and the like - it's awesome, but especially awesome in VR - hard to describe except it takes you there, like you're standing above an RC car track and controlling your car. The non-VR version is a bit boring in comparison. However, it too does not do MUCH with VR - and its true potential.