VRodeo: 06: Google Earth in VR, Serious Sam, and More

@eternalgamer2: while I agree with you and think in many cases this might help make a better QL it is something they've rarely done and something that likely won't change. On occasion this unpreparedness makes for a funny video but generally I too would prefer a little bit more "homework".

@humanity: This unpreparedness works fine for non-VR games specifically because they have their genre knowledge to fall back on. For example, first person shooters all control basically the same now days (for better or worse). But this stuff isn't true on VR, especially while it is still "the wild west" as Jeff says.

Also the big problem is since none of them own a Vive and haven't spent a significant time with the library, they can't just pick things up as easily. It really does make a big difference if you own one. You know your way around the offerings, you know the nuances of the hardware and work arounds.

In addition to the floor drift issue example (which most Vive owners are familiar with and there is even a program to quickly auto-reset), another example is the locking up when exiting games. As someone who owns a Vive could tell you, this happens way less often if you exit the games manually through the quit menu rather than relying on the dashboard quit. The Dashboard quit is what is unreliable. But because none of them own or have spent a signficant time with the Vive, none of them know this stuff just like they don't know about most of the cool non-shooter-y stuff. Nor do they know that what is your "left" and "right" hand has to do with which controller you turn off first in addition to hand positioning (it isn't just random nor is it pre-designated).

One thing I've always respected about Giant Bomb is they come to games with a historical knowledge of games and gaming evolution. This is what allows them to go in casual and riff and still create great content. But here in the VR space it is painfully obvious to those of us who own these headsets they don't really know what they are talking about.

That Doritos game is terrifying if you see someone play it after having recently watched The Objective.

I haven't live in Lawrence for about 8 years, but they weren't even on the right street for the Outhouse. Its 15th street out of town, and they took 11th. The road they were on curves to the right a little further from where they stopped, then it intersects with the road the Outhouse is actually on. Not sure how Dan wouldn't remember you had to go past the cemetery to get there

Talking about anti-piracy features made me realize that devs could do some really nasty, evil shit to pirates in VR.

Really think these videos are doing a disservice to viewers trying to find out more about VR games. A little bit of preparation goes a long way with VR it seems, the games people want to see are being briefly shown until Jeff gets flustered and then passes on it.

I actually had the same experience with that same Burger King in the Google Earth section, had to use the bathroom and wanted to order something but there was no one at the counter to take the order so I moved on. Before he zoomed out I was thinking "was that the same BK, it looks familar" and I'm not from the Bay Area and was just passing through but still recognized it. I do wish they had thought to use Dan or Brad's phone with Google maps to give Jeff directions on where to go in Google Earth as Maps seems to have address's and locations to a much greater degree. They got close when trying to find the original GB office but didn't carry it out further.

That Serious Sam game looks a lot like the Brookhaven Experiment game without reloads and an added store. I also wish they had prep'ed for Onward and that MMO game as I would liked to have seen Jeff's reactions to them, but I do have hope they will revisit them as mentioned by Jeff. I'm in the camp that found Account to be very annoying with all the shouting and cursing, I had to take my headset off for a minute while they tried to figure out the floor thing.

I still prefer Tilt Brush to Google Earth for my best VR program but I admit it was cool heading to the top of Everest and looking around and moving the sun across the sky to see it at night. As for actual games I think Vivecraft (Minecraft adapted for VR with Vive hand controllers) is my favorite so far, there is something about building a basic house and finding a deep cave that I like.

I've said this before but repeat it here, change out those wrist straps before one of the controllers goes flying. Plenty of reports of broken straps and the favorite replacement is a Wii remote strap as Nintendo beefed them up after the initial batch when reports came in about remotes flying around and breaking TV's, same thing for the Vive straps. Jeff whirling the controllers around at the end of the video made me think of that.

My heart sank when he did not even play a game before moving on. Onwards is worth getting familiar with before playing. I dont want this to be the only coverage. I also think another look at Hotdogs handgrenades and horseshoes might be worth it aswell.

BIG BEN !!??.......aint nobody wanna see ben afflecks dick

Weird they don't just have street view integrated.

I ran room setup 10 minutes before we started recording.

The thing that makes an argument for VR is a replication of the real world where the coolest thing to do is go look at where you are currently using VR. Man the irony is just dripping...and boy do I want one of these..

There is soothing profound about jeff zooming around where he grew up and pointing stuff out. THat google earth thing seems super cool.

the boob giving tree best?

I keep putting it off, but every time you guys to a VRodeo I'm reminded why I need a Vive.

Man, they gave Accounting no quarter.

Accounting is my problem with modern comedy. "I don't know, just be loud and swear a lot!"

@jeff: Well, the problem with those two games was definitely floor calibration. It's also might be why Onward defaulted you to like 5' "6 (it should be close to your actual height). Maybe your calibration didn't take?

A buddy of mine had the exact same problem of not being able to grab that tape in in Accounting and he ran his set up again and it worked right. I can assure you at least it isn't the game; it's calibration set up issue. Some room set ups seem to have more floor drift than others, some people don't have it at all.

It's a gradual thing and never happens in real time (like PSVR). I have to run my room set up to fix that kind of floor issue probably once every couple of weeks, but there's a little program someone built and posted on Reddit to let you recalibrate the floor settings instantly.

No Street View in that Google Earth thing? I know it would lose the 3D-ness but it's a feature of the program.

I'm starting to wonder if half of the commenters here are employed by HTC, because there sure is a lot of defending the device's 'nuances' and berating of the staff for not researching 'workarounds' thoroughly enough prior to recording. It costs $799--after calibration, barring the occasional fine-tuning, you shouldn't have to do anything beside launch the software. Everything here looked like hot garbage apart from Google Earth. Entertaining feature, though.

Yeah, I was about to make a comment about the audio levels. Glad to hear it gets better.

"Oh, I've peed on all those houses!" "Definitely peed on that house multiple times".

Dan sees the world as one imagine a dog would.

Dan: "I've peed on some churches back in my day."

*Brad shaking his head*

The menu music in Serious Sam sounds awfully familiar. I'm pretty sure it's the Tower music from The Talos Principle.

It's a shame about not getting Accounting to work... I'm not sure if Jeff would be into Justin Roiland's brand of humor though.

Shouts to anyone who played the Google Earth flight sim on the High School Library computers!?!?!

@jsnell: Same developers.

I know, right?

If he didn't pee on the cemetery, he won't remember where it is. It's Dan's version of tying knots in a handkerchief.

Not a HTC employee but as stated above VR games aren't as intuitive as normal games. Look at Jeff and Onward, he did figure out how to load that first weapon but it did take some time to do so. I agree that floor calibration issues could hopefully be resolved with a Steam VR update someday but yes the tech isn't perfect yet. It is also hard to convey the feeling of being in the VR world as opposed to watching it in these videos, so what may seem to be hot garbage on screen is actually fine in the headset.

The VRodeo videos are a lot like the Demo Derby ones whereby the guys need to get through a lot of games and cannot take the time to learn the controls for each one especially when the controls do not conform to standard 2D gaming conventions, just the limitations on time I suppose.

Jeff is far better adapted to VR movement than I am, I just got done with a session of Google Earth and tried flying like he did and have the onset of motion sickness but I stopped as soon as I felt a bit off. The comfort mode is also something I use in GE when panning the view around, again it affects me more than Jeff and not having that mode on can make me a bit jittery.

Disappointed in the Onward showing. It's the closest thing to a "killer app", something they keep saying isn't here yet. There's a reason it's the most active VR game still. Hopefully they give it another try before Dan leaves.

I'm going to echo many people here already, but a little bit of prep for these videos rather than going in hot would seem to be a good idea. Or maybe just retire VRodeo and just Quick Look the stand out games instead? I'm not sure about the general consensus, but I have no interest to see the less polished games now we are this far into it's lifespan. It's not like you covered the shovel-ware on the Wii. I'd have much rather seen 3 QL's here for Google Earth, Accounting, Onward.... and maybe another for the MMO thing if it was deemed necessary.

major Building a Bomb and Jar Time feels in this video

@owl_face: how would you suggest they prepare better? if you mean playing vr games off camera jeff at least seems to be doing a fair amount of that. and honestly there's a lot of vr product to cover already and theyre a small staff. or maybe most of these games are glorified tech demos and just arent that great?

@fierybiscuits: Hey! That's my line....

@ripelivejam: The games that he plays off camera are generally the ones that work smoothly. Here he only tried Google Earth first so he knew his way around. He knew you could turn on human scale. He knew how to navigate and tilt. That segment wouldn't have gone nearly as smoothly if he hadn't played it first.

Those of us who own Vives are frustrated because some of these are games we own and have played for hours on end but they aren't being given a fair representation due to unpreparedness and impatience.

I like the Vrodeo concept. I don't want them to get rid of it. And I agree some stuff that is fun in it wouldn't justify a more complete quick look or is better to see initial impressions along with them.

If they just at least booted all this stuff up and played around for 1-2 minutes would be enough to for them know "Hey, this is something we can show straight up" or "Hey this is something I should muck around with a bit to prepare." That way the surprising stuff that is more intuitive could still remain surprising (outside of the tiny preview) and they could familarize with the more complex stuff to give it a fair showing.

Aw, man. Accounting is hilarious. Super bummed out that their first impression was only that. :(

I hope they go back to Accounting once they get their setup recalibrated. It's really awesome

I haven't had a problem with floor calibration. I heard that if you lay the controller upside down it actually calibrates better so I did that. Excited to move house next month and have a much bigger play area, as it is now sometimes my floor becomes part of my TV stand...

jeff is right, i wouldn't understand how that gun worked at all if it hadn't been for call of duty

These other comments are commenting wrong. They should calibrate their expectations and maybe spend some time practicing commenting before they hit submit. I enjoyed this video so they must be wrong in some way.

"OOH I've peed on all of these buildings"

Yup. This checks out.

Google Earth VR is beautiful. Best VR experience of 2016.

I didn't have a problem with floor calibration for the first month or two. It's not a regular problem, but it is something I have to redo every few weeks now. I have no idea what causes it, but in general it's pretty easy to fix. It's not remotely like PSVR nightmare drift. It's very slow and gradual and easily fixed. And yeah turning them updside down can help. But I just run roomsetup the normal way and that usually does the trick.

@ehhh:

I agree that particular gun takes some practice. But most of the guns in Onward are pretty easy to use, even for me and I'm pretty gun iliterate. It isn't really a hardcore sim, despite what impression that might have given. It's really probably more akin to Rainbow Six than anything else.

I don't think it was. They went down 11th street instead of 15th street and never even got close.

@eternalgamer2: I really have to agree, at least regarding their comments on the amount of shooting galleries. I don't even own a Vive, and I've seen a plethora of weird ideas and experiences that people are talking about.

I find it curious that in switching from a QL format to this (for good reasons) they lost the important part of QLs, which is really that "I've played a little bit of this so far, it seems cool..." which means they actually have something to show in the game.

Nothing stops the rodeo.

Great episode, the Google Earth stuff looks amazing.

I tried Earth VR at work the other day and it's one of those things you really have to try yourself, actually being in it is an awesome experience. I went to the top of mt. fuji and was able to stand inside the top of it, a lot of cool places to check out and to see what they're able to do right now is amazing.

Listening to Jeff talk about his childhood days with Google Earths background music reminds me of Max and Acadia Bay in life is strange. Google earth looks amazing. I hope they try out Accounting again so I can hear their thoughts because it was awesome in Drew and Alexis's extra life steam.