playstation vr review

For a minute there, I was worried that virtual reality was going to be something that was better experienced on a PC, with devices like Oculus Rift and HTC Vive the obvious leaders right now.
After spending some time with the final consumer version of Sony's PS4-exclusive headset at GDC 2016, however, I can finally put those fears to rest.

• Buy Sony PlayStation VR at Amazon for £349.00

But, before I dive into the strangely wonderful world of first-person gaming, let's get a few of the facts out of the way.
First off, know that PlayStation VR hasn't lived its entire life by that moniker. Up until the 2015 Tokyo Game Show, PS VR was better known by its codename, Project Morpheus.
The headset itself has undergone a few iterations since its first unveiling back at GDC 2014 but, as of Sony's GDC 2016 PS VR event, we can now definitively say that we've touched the finished product.
The unit will start shipping in October 2016 for $399 / £349 / AUD$549 / €399, which is a bit more than we'd like honestly, but considerably less than its two rivals, Rift and Vive.

Sony Group CEO Andrew House was the one to make the announcement at GDC and added that PlayStation VR would ship with a single game for free: The Playroom in VR, a spin-off the tech demo that shipped with the PlayStation Move.
House said to expect over 50 games to become available sometime this year for the system, some of which will be developed in-house, although many will come from indie and third-party studios.
House claimed there are over 200 developers with dev kits who are actively working on titles to supplement the first 50 games, and that gamers could expect to see a good mix of genres when the unit ships in the fall.
Finally, and this is important, the PlayStation VR requires a PlayStation Camera to function, although you won't find one in the box of a new PS VR. Some games also require a set of PlayStation Move controllers – again, not included.
What you will get in every box is a headset, a processing box, power cable, earphones, dual HDMI connector that links the headset to the PS4, an HDMI cable and a micro USB cable.
It's a far cry from a complete package, but for $200 less than an Oculus Rift, I'm not complaining.

How does PlayStation VR work?

Since its announcement, we've gotten our hands on (and heads in) Sony's VR headset a few times, and each time has been better than the last. Sony has been cracking away over the past two years to improve the user experience as much as possible before release. And its early efforts have resulted in one of the most comfortable VR headsets around, even for those of us who wear glasses.
Like other virtual reality headsets on the market, PlayStation VR has the arduous task of completely immersing you in a video game by producing two images simultaneously. But unlike the competition who require expensive graphics cards to get the job done, PS VR can do it using only a PlayStation 4 and a small black box that sits between the headset and the console.
The early tech demos we've seen through PlayStation VR have impressed, too. Simply put, they're as awesome and zany as you would hope they'd be. We've been in a shark cage, we've held up a bank and we've done street luge, dodging cars while going downhill faster than the speed limit. If Sony can continue to corral this kind of massive developer support for PS VR, gamers will be in for a treat that keeps delivering when it launches.

As much as we like what we've seen of PlayStation VR, however, there are still some quirks to work out before launch and important details that Sony needs to fill in. Some of our editors encountered a bit of nausea during their time with PS VR, which is one of the biggest challenges that VR developers have to surmount.

Design

PlayStation VR isn't a wild reimagining of the VR headset, but it's one of the most attractive efforts that we've seen so far.
The head-mounted display (HMD) screams minimalism with a tag team of black and white matte plastic touches. Its most recent iteration is interspersed with seven blue lights that the PlayStation Eye picks up to track your location and head movement. It's a pretty elegant and accurate head-tracking solution.
The design of the PlayStation VR's strap looks good and. thankfully, also yields comfort, which is a crucial box that not enough VR headsets can tick.
Inside the headset is a 5.7-inch OLED screen with 1920 x RGB x 1080 resolution, which comes out to about to 960 x 1080 for each eye. The PlayStation VR offers a 100-degree field of view and a 120Hz refresh rate.

Latency is less than 18ms, which means that in theory it's less nausea-inducing than the previous model that had a higher latency and a slower refresh rate. There's also a jack for headphones and support for 3D audio, which will come into play later.
The PS VR's secret to comfort is that it hangs all of its weight at the top of your dome, putting pressure on the bridge of the nose and the forehead.
Additionally, a single white matte strap stems from the top of the HMD and wraps around your head seamlessly, coming together in the back, and can be adjusted to your liking. For games that require you to turn around, Sony stuck two more blue lights on the back of the strip bringing the total number of trackable lights to nine.
The PS VR's control scheme utilizes a combination of head movements made with the HMD, along with the PlayStation Move controllers and DualShock 4 controller that you may or may not be familiar with. The Move controllers had their first run when they were introduced alongside a few Wii-like titles on the PlayStation 3, and while they worked well there, it wasn't until PS VR that we saw a true purpose for them.

The wands felt a little half-baked on the PS3, or at least as if they existed solely to have a hand in motion-controlled gaming, but they feel right at home with PS VR. Other games with more complex control schemes – like a game called RIGS that we'll discuss in a minute – will use the DualShock 4 wireless controller that comes shipped with the PS4.
If it hasn't already been made explicitly clear up to now, I'll break the most disheartening news to you now: the PS VR is not a wireless headset. While the Samsung Gear VR and Google Cardboard can get everything they need from your mobile device, PlayStation VR will need to be tethered to your system at all times.

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