After getting the PS VR2 sent by Sony in advance last week, Xiaofa locked himself in his room alone and experienced it fiercely for a week.
At present, I have almost played all the popular PS5 VR exclusive games seriously.
From the simple folk style "Resident Evil 8: The Village", to the arm strength training "Horizon: Call of the Mountain", to the "GT Racing 7" that realizes the sports car dream, none of them fall.
My mood finally changed from excitement at the beginning to calm later. Now that you take off VR2, you can finally bring this belated play experience to your friends.
First of all, it should be noted that although PS VR2 and Pico, Quest, etc. are both VR devices, PS VR2 is not an all-in-one machine, but must be connected to PS5 with a Type-C cable to use, and there is an essential difference between them.
But all it takes is a thread.
Compare PS VR1 Epic Upgrade ▼
This also means that PS VR2 only needs to focus on the display, and the computing power is all left to PS5.
Therefore, with the functional support of PS5, this PS VR2 brings a game that can be called the "next generation" of picture expression.
I believe that everyone who opens the game "Horizon: Call of the Mountain" for the first time can agree with Xiaofa's statement.
I have to sigh once again at the technical power of the Ranger Studio and the depiction of the grand scene, I don't know what words can be used to describe it except shock.
In terms of VR hardware configuration, Sony uses dual 2000x2040 OLED displays, which can provide frame rate operation up to 120 FPS and support HDR.
When actually playing, it is true that both the clarity and the number of frames when turning the head have been qualitatively improved compared to the previous generation. On the basis of increasing immersion, it is not easy to get dizzy (but when you first get started, you still have to adapt to it for a while).
Vignetting also automatically appears when moving,
to reduce vertigo ▼
The above effect is said to be thanks to an intelligent eye tracking technology added by VR2.
On the one hand, this function can play the role of "directly using the eyes as a cursor", just staring at one place and selecting a menu.
On the other hand, it can also play the role of "focusing".
This means that the part of the picture that the eye focuses on will schedule the function to concentrate on rendering and improve the accuracy of the model.
For scenes that cannot be focused by the eye, the resolution will be reduced by itself, which greatly saves the hardware burden.
This trick is actually not new, but in practice, there seems to be no particularly successful case so far, except for "if it is a man, he does not look at the challenge".
Of course, including this VR2...
Because most of the time, VR2 just keeps the middle of the picture clear and the surrounding paste, as if the clarity does not completely follow the eyeballs.
But this doesn't matter much, after all, when we notice something, we often turn our heads first, rather than just moving our eyes. This is especially true when using large screens, let alone in a 360° VR world.
On the contrary, the HDR effect of VR2 makes Xiaofa more amazing, because it really achieves "black purity, bright blindness".
The contrast between light and dark details is very high, for example, when you look closer, the fire in the dark will be bright to the point of whitening, just like in reality.
The improvements brought by the above points are visible to the naked eye, so that this PS VR2 released in 2023, at least in terms of picture presentation, can not be faulted, in line with the "muscle content" that a next-generation product should have.
Therefore, for poor friends who simply come to the picture effect, don't worry too much.
But if you want to have a more comprehensive understanding of the advantages and disadvantages of PS VR2, it is recommended that you take a look further.
In addition to the picture expression, as a new product in the PS5 ecosystem, PS VR2 also inherits the adaptive trigger of the PS5 controller DualSense and other characteristics.
In addition, a "finger touch detection function" has been added, which means that finger movements can be detected without pressing a button.
For this new feature, the addition of realism is okay, but it is also a bit chicken.
At least for now, there is little use other than moving your index and middle fingers in the game.
But I have to say that the experience of pulling the bow and shooting the gun with the handle is first-class.
The force feedback when pulling the bow and pulling the trigger, the vibration of the bowstring, etc., all give people the fun and freshness of using the PS5 controller for the first time.
What can vibrate, this time is not only the handle, but also a headset.
Whenever something happens in the game, the headset will also shake your brain with different forces.
This trick is cold and cold, it is quite present, and when I first experienced it, I had the feeling of being sprayed with water when I watched 4D movies as a child.
For example, the feeling of bumps when racing ▼
In addition, there is a controversial wired headphone design.
Many people say that PS VR2 should have a built-in external speaker, because now it can only rely on headphones to make sound.
At the same time, many people said that playing VR requires immersion, and wired headsets are the right way.
I don't know what kind of experience the poor friends support, but objectively speaking, this pair of headphones with 3D ambient sound effects is indeed good, worthy of Sony's long-standing brand.
After talking about the play experience, I finally want to talk about the wearing experience that many poor friends are concerned about.
This time VR2 is very light, the whole body is less than 600 grams, and the rubber part that comes into contact with the skin is also made very soft. Even the nose part has been thickened, almost completely eliminating light leakage.
But also because the eyes are wrapped too closed, even if the ventilation holes are set, they can't resist the stuffiness inside the eye mask.
Every time Xiaofa plays for a while, he has to loosen his glasses, not because he is tired, but because he wants to let the heat out.
In general, the comprehensive hardware experience of PS VR2 is quite flawed, and there is definitely a lot of freshness.
As far as the current Xiaofa experience of several games, especially "GT7", with a simulated steering wheel, the immersion is much better than making a curved screen by yourself, and it is a lot more cost-effective.
In VR showroom mode, you can also take a closer look at various sports cars and test rides.
Dreams that used to be adventurous and unplayable can now be realized one by one.
Especially with the headphones plugged tightly, you can even hear the whistling airplane noise and wind, which feels like actually sitting in a convertible BMW Z8 for a ride.
And "Resident Evil 8", which I have already cleared several times, is almost able to backboard, but I will still be scared to play it again in VR mode...
Because I used to play with a monitor, and the oppression after wearing VR is completely different.
It was also in VR that I learned how strong the deterrent of the sledgehammer zombie opening is.
Moreover, I finally saw how tall Madame's 2.4m height is in reality.
Like the following first sight scene, I was stunned to Xiaofa's heartbeat and cold sweat.
And the operation mode is completely different, and now you need to load the shotgun and pull the bolt for the sniper rifle like the Resident Evil 4 VR version, which is very touchy with the adaptive trigger.
But then again, Xiaofa is also afraid that PS VR2 is only fresh.
Now everyone complains the most about its lack of exclusive game lineup, which can be counted on two hands.
What's more, there is currently no backward compatible PS4 game library, and it is easy to enter the sage mode after playing for two days, and Xiao found that even Mrs. Eight is tired of watching it.
And "GT7" or "Resident Evil 8", they are also mature commercial works, the VR version is just an addition, after all, it depends on the ordinary version to sell.
A completely exclusive work like "Horizon: Call of the Mountain", although it has elements of shooting mechanical beasts, is not very outstanding compared to other VR games or compared to the open-world "Horizon" original itself.
Especially in the demo version, after the opening surprise, there are all kinds of climbing, which wears out everyone's interest, and it is difficult to drive the sales of VR2.
This makes PS VR2 a bit embarrassing, with a hardware configuration, but not many games to play.
To sum it up in a word, maybe PS VR2 is ready, but the market is not.
Because the high development cost of next-generation games will make third-party manufacturers prohibitive, and if sales cannot be guaranteed, not everyone must be like V Society to make a "half-life Alyx".
If you want to have games to play in the future, at present, you can only rely on Sony's first party to throw money and resources.
Fortunately, if you are serious, Sony's first party is completely capable of supporting the PS VR lineup, depending on whether it wants to open up this market.
But if you think about it, the pricing strategy of PS VR2 this time also seems to show that it still wants to serve enthusiast players, after all, people who are willing to spend more expensive than PS5, to buy VR2 are definitely a minority.
But well, these are also conjectures, you see that now so many Sony first-party login PC terminals, no one guarantees that PS VR2 will really always be bound to PS5.
Therefore, if logging into the PC is really done, then with the hardware performance of PS VR2, it is estimated that it will have to be out of stock.