[EgoAnt]

Last night I finally got the Oculus consumer version all set up and jumped in the cockpit for some space shooting action. Let me start by saying that it took me a while to get the game running properly, and even once it was running I never did get it to stream properly. I had to start the experience on the desktop and then switch to the Oculus and back to the desktop again to get my account created and logged in. It was a little frustrating to have to create an account to just jump in and play but once I was in I understood a bit better because there is more character progression than I thought there would be.

So once I got past all that and finally got into the game I created a quick character and sat through the introduction which was... Well, it was just okay. Maybe I was feeling impatient but the whole "you have amnesia and don't know who you are" shtick was feeling pretty contrived. They finally launched me into space for some training and it is definitely a beautiful game.

After training I jumped into my first multiplayer game. I browsed the interface while waiting about two minutes for the matchmaking to find other people who wanted to blast me into space dust.

I was now probably about 30-45 minutes into the game, counting setup. My heart raced a bit as my ship left the launch tube and I saw the red blips swarming out of the enemy mothership....

Let me tell you, I've played a lot of space sims in my life, from X-Wing and the Wing Commander series to Chris Roberts' Freelancer and beyond. I have an ingrained skillset that has taken a lifetime to build. I have cleansed all of the aliens, pirates and meteors from all four corners of space (are there people who believe in flat space like there are people who believe in a flat Earth? Neither of them really has four corners... but I digress). What I'm trying to say is my space skills are strong.

Those skills are so very wrong.

As I got close to the enemy ships I could see that there were several who had better looking ships than I did. I banked to one side to put a meteor between me and the closest enemy. As I rounded the meteor, trying to flank them, I rolled my ship a bit trying to come at them on a slight angle so they'd have less surface area of my ship to hit. I locked on with missiles and sent out a volley - which they dodged. No problem! I was still coming up fast on them from behind. I dropped my speed in case they tried to slow and make me fly past. I opened up with my mini-guns and scored a bunch of decent hits on them.

I was feeling good about that first interaction. I pulled away to reposition my ship and shake off anyone who might be on my tail. I hit the booster, buzzed around another meteor while rolling my ship again. I looked up over my shoulder to get an eye on my foe - and my stomach lurched. I let off on the throttle hoping to ease the nausea a bit and the sudden change in speed only made me feel worse.

For the first time in VR, I felt nauseous, and it was all my fault. I've never considered what the impact of my fancy maneuvers would have on the pilots of the ships in all my former games, but now that I've been a lot closer to the pilot's chair I know...

I have been making pilots vomit since 1994.

In the end I scored third in the match with 4 kills and 6 assists and nobody ever tagged me. I am excited to try it again, but maybe next time I'll take some Gravol first. =)

[ldog3211]

Haha, looks like you had a lot of fun with it! That's one thing that's always concerned me about VR. I don't get motion sick easily at all, yet sometimes I'll have to take my Gear VR off after only about 10-20 min of use, since since games can be so intense! Omega Agent is one game that ALWAYS makes me sick, yet you're sitting in a cockpit while flying the jetpack. I think that as soon as the problem of motion sickness in VR is solved and once it becomes easier to use (like Oculus is planning on doing with their wireless headset), then VR will be a WHOLE lot more mainstream. I have a question though. I was thinking about getting PSVR (as I don't have a gaming computer), and was wondering if you would recommend EVE: Valkyrie with its $60 price tag. What justifies that price to you?

[EgoAnt]

What justifies that price to you?

I don't think it's worth the price for me, really. I will only play it occasionally, and I think that there are probably a bunch of other options that will be available soon. I really need to try Elite Dangerous and see how it stacks up.

[mop26921]

Your post really hits home for me! I used to play a lot of space and flight sims in my younger years and the feeling you just described... Maybe this VR is the excuse I need to start investing in a flight sim rig again

[ggendel]

Thanks for the story, it was thoroughly enjoyable. I've flown a few "real-life" simulators and know exactly where your coming from.

[Vyrlokar]

Gives you some respect for actual pilots, doesn't it?

I personally dislike flight simulators because they make me nauseous already, so in VR, it would be nightmarish for me.

[iThunderbirt]

Nice post EgoAnt.

I am looking forward to try out the demo in the future.

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[Firegold21]

Nice review, and humorous insight re the pilots in former games, lol. I do believe, however, that real pilots would have either strong stomachs to begin with or would have had that nausea tendency burned out of them. I've heard that Blue Angel pilots like to take people up and go through all sorts of maneuvers till they vomit. Which means the pilots themselves don't. ;-)

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