Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
GutBomb
Jun 15, 2005

Dude?
The closest vr racing game to Forza (Motorsport, there’s really nothing like the Forza horizon series yet) is probably project cars 3 but it’s not very good. Dirt rally is fantastic (1 or 2, they’re both good and both have VR), and Mini Motor Racing X is pretty cool too. It’s like RC Pro Am but in VR and I’m pretty sure you can do a first person view as well, but I’ve never tried that view.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Lockback
Sep 3, 2006

All days are nights to see till I see thee; and nights bright days when dreams do show me thee.

FreelanceSocialist posted:

How easy is it for a VR newbie? Wife wants something casual to play while we wait for some stuff to arrive for her Forza bingeing.


Very good, arguably the best newbie VR game.

"I expect you to die" is another good newbie VR game that isn't as popular.

CapnBry
Jul 15, 2002

I got this goin'
Grimey Drawer

Rectus posted:

Just having an extremely subtle pulse when you touch a surface with an object you are carrying gives objects a ridiculous amount of substance.
I've been playing Half Life: Alyx on my OG Vive and this is a little thing that really makes a big difference. I've remarked several times how that tiny bzzt when you touch something makes it really feel like it is there instead of your animated hand just stopping. The haptic feedback naturally makes your physical hand stop moving. There's really so much VR nuance they get right in that game, including knowing that if I see a traffic cone I'm going to want to wear it on my head and they have coded this in.

The gravity gloves (Russels) are also a fantastic way of removing that annoying minutia of having to teleport teleport teleport turn grab teleport teleport teleport turn just to pick up an item. It also hides the fact that it is really difficult to pick something up off the floor because you can just suck it up. Hot Dogs, Horseshoes, and Hand Grenades has a similar point and grab feature that is really nice but this has more Matrix style to it when there's a physical motion to yank something toward you. After you've played a few VR games where you're having to maneuver into place just to pick something up and them maneuver back you really appreciate this.

I also very much appreciate that crates that you have to smash are visually distinct and there aren't too many of them. Putting 1000 smashable crates in your level where like 60% of them contain a coin or something is not loving gameplay, don't do this developers.

I had been sitting on Alyx waiting to get a new GPU because I wanted to experience it in all the glory a RTX 3000 would bring (over my 1070) but I guess that's not going to happen any time soon. The game still looks fantastic and smooth even with this almost-minimum-spec card though so kudos to Valve for scaling it somehow. I can only imagine how much my mind would be blown on a modern VR setup.

Turin Turambar
Jun 5, 2011



FreelanceSocialist posted:

How easy is it for a VR newbie? Wife wants something casual to play while we wait for some stuff to arrive for her Forza bingeing.

I would say it's pretty easy? It isn't a hard game, in combat, puzzles or platforming. And as a VR experience is more... static, as it's the mouse what it moves, not you.

wolrah
May 8, 2006
what?
Moss is the game that sold my girlfriend on VR. It's absolutely newbie-friendly, being a seated game where the player takes a "god view" perspective the intensity level is basically zero and the player can just get lost in the experience.

Even as an experienced VR player by the time I got around to playing it I was drawn in by all the subtle details in the background.

That reminds me I need to finish it....

Rolo
Nov 16, 2005

Hmm, what have we here?
Got my TP-Link A6 set up easily and it’s working great.

Recommendation +1.

Zaphod42
Sep 13, 2012

If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.

FreelanceSocialist posted:

How easy is it for a VR newbie? Wife wants something casual to play while we wait for some stuff to arrive for her Forza bingeing.

Also - what PC VR racing games are worth getting? I think that she'll want to ditch Forza and pancake games in the near future.

Man, screw you. Now I am going to waste the weekend installing Skyrim VR and fiddling with mods.

Moss is ideal for a VR newbie because you're just watching the mouse, not moving around yourself. Its meant to be very approachable.

PCVR games that are the best - Dirt Rally 2, PCars 2 (NOT 3), iRacing, Assetto Corsa. Those are the big 4. Everything else is crap pretty much.

PCars 2 and Assetto Corsa are closest to Forza, I prefer PCars 2 since it has more of a campaign mode. Some people prefer AC since it supports mods.
Dirt Rally 2 is the absolute best if she's into Rally racing at all.
iRacing is the absolute best if you want to race against other real people (which is WAAAAY more fun than racing bots) but it costs a monthly/yearly fee since its an MMO type thing.

I'm probably also going to try modding Skyrim VR this weekend...

Baby Proof
May 16, 2009


So Alyx took in 23% of all SteamVR revenue last year... I wonder if that is from their storefront only. There's probably no good way to count Steam keys sold elsewhere.

Bloodplay it again
Aug 25, 2003

Oh, Dee, you card. :-*

CapnBry posted:

I had been sitting on Alyx waiting to get a new GPU because I wanted to experience it in all the glory a RTX 3000 would bring (over my 1070) but I guess that's not going to happen any time soon. The game still looks fantastic and smooth even with this almost-minimum-spec card though so kudos to Valve for scaling it somehow. I can only imagine how much my mind would be blown on a modern VR setup.

For what it's worth, I was playing with a 980 ti on a Rift S with high settings (even though the game warned me not to in the advanced section) and did not notice any major difference after I got a 3080. Ultra didn't look different to me visually , though I did get to increase supersampling, which was an upgrade. Frame times were a little better but visually, I would need a new headset for a real upgrade. I'm sure the 980 ti wouldn't have handled an Index well at even 90 FPS, but it was just good enough for the Rift S.

E: the section with the two electric things (tryin not to spoil anything) did tank my performance on the old GPU. That was the only section that gave me issues.

Enderzero
Jun 19, 2001

The snowflake button makes it
cold cold cold
Set temperature makes it
hold hold hold

Rolo posted:

Got my TP-Link A6 set up easily and it’s working great.

Recommendation +1.

Glad I could help, have a great time!

Doctor Hospital
Jul 16, 2011

what





FreelanceSocialist posted:

Man, screw you. Now I am going to waste the weekend installing Skyrim VR and fiddling with mods.

You're welcome.

a loathsome bird
Aug 15, 2004

Zaphod42 posted:

PCVR games that are the best - Dirt Rally 2, PCars 2 (NOT 3), iRacing, Assetto Corsa. Those are the big 4. Everything else is crap pretty much.

PCars 2 and Assetto Corsa are closest to Forza, I prefer PCars 2 since it has more of a campaign mode. Some people prefer AC since it supports mods.
Dirt Rally 2 is the absolute best if she's into Rally racing at all.
iRacing is the absolute best if you want to race against other real people (which is WAAAAY more fun than racing bots) but it costs a monthly/yearly fee since its an MMO type thing.

PCars 2 is great but pretty inconsistent. Some cars feel amazing (e.g. every Ginetta) and others seem like the physics are copied and pasted from other cars in the same class. The AI is not great which is a common complaint in racing games but annoyingly the difficulty will be wildly different from track to track and even between qualifying and the race itself.

Assetto Corsa is great, but I found it to be pretty fiddly to set up in VR, especially with mods. Not to be confused with AC:Competizione which is just GT3/GT4 cars and more focused on multiplayer, I haven't tried it in a while but last I checked you needed a pretty beefy rig to run it smoothly in VR.

Dirt Rally 1 and 2 are by far my favorites. The rally format helps a lot- you don't need AI because you're racing the clock (except for rallycross) and in VR everything feels a lot more real if you can turn off the entire HUD, which is a little harder to do with a track racing sim. The career mode also strongly encourages you to avoid restarts and you have to pay to fix your car if you break it- all of this stuff adds up to trick your brain just a little bit more that you're actually driving a car. If you're new to VR driving fast on bumpy roads might be a lot at first.

No experience with iRacing because that's a money pit but if you want to get serious about track racing, that's the gold standard.

Turin Turambar
Jun 5, 2011



Baby Proof posted:

So Alyx took in 23% of all SteamVR revenue last year... I wonder if that is from their storefront only. There's probably no good way to count Steam keys sold elsewhere.

Clearly, the initial estimation of "VR will need five years to reach mainstream!" were wrong, it's growing but it's a flatter exponential growth. If the first year the VR market was 600K people, and the market is growing a 30% every year, it will need....20 years to reach 83M.

FreelanceSocialist
Nov 19, 2002

a loathsome bird posted:

Dirt Rally 1 and 2 are by far my favorites. The rally format helps a lot- you don't need AI because you're racing the clock (except for rallycross) and in VR everything feels a lot more real if you can turn off the entire HUD, which is a little harder to do with a track racing sim. The career mode also strongly encourages you to avoid restarts and you have to pay to fix your car if you break it- all of this stuff adds up to trick your brain just a little bit more that you're actually driving a car. If you're new to VR driving fast on bumpy roads might be a lot at first.

How's the VR motion sickness with DR1/2? I've seen mixed reports that I think were referring to these two games.

Turin Turambar posted:

Clearly, the initial estimation of "VR will need five years to reach mainstream!" were wrong, it's growing but it's a flatter exponential growth. If the first year the VR market was 600K people, and the market is growing a 30% every year, it will need....20 years to reach 83M.

All it took was a global pandemic!

Rolo
Nov 16, 2005

Hmm, what have we here?
Is Alyx worth 59.99?

Zaphod42
Sep 13, 2012

If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.

a loathsome bird posted:

No experience with iRacing because that's a money pit but if you want to get serious about track racing, that's the gold standard.

It sure can be, but there is a LOT of fun to be had just for the cost of the monthly fee. That itself is still a fair reason to be scared off, but the value of racing real people cannot be underestimated.

There are several free cars and free tracks and several rookie leagues exclusively use the free stuff.

If you're trying to get real serious and competitive at racing, the last thing you want to do is hop around between different cars anyways. You want to pick one car and sit in it and get good at it, really get a feel for how that car handles. So you can actually push it to the limit, but not over, and avoid crashing out.

As a result, its actually quite reasonable to spend very little on DLC. After months of racing in rookies you can buy ONE car, and maybe a few tracks, and then again you're set for months and months.
The format is such that you race a single real life location per week per league. So even if the league you're racing in races on some track you haven't bought... if you aren't playing that week, who cares? Hop in next week and hey, they're back to another track you own already.

I probably sound like a drug dealer... and iRacing isn't for everybody. But its still so much more infinitely affordable than going to actual track day racing events is :retrogames: And racing against real people is so much more thrilling and addictive than bots.

The way iRacing gives you a permanent record really makes it feel like an actual racing simulation, not just simulating cars and tracks but simulating a career and tournaments. It just feels way more significant than getting a win in PCars or Dirt Rally does.

Rolo posted:

Is Alyx worth 59.99?

YMMV for any game for any person, but IMO if you like Half-life then absolutely 100%.

Pros:
Great detail
AAA value and polish
Good story and characters
Fairly long VR campaign, nice amount of levels
Some variety between shooty levels and spooky levels
Implications for the half-life universe
Gravity Gloves feel really nice

Cons:
Doesn't really push the envelope in VR locomotion
Mostly concepts we've seen before in half-life (combine, headcrabs, antlions, etc.)
Single-player and story driven so once you've beat it, not a ton of replay value other than shooting combine on Hard

More than most VR games, Alyx to me felt like I was stepping into another world. Its like walking around in a Half-Life theme park. Steam says I have 13.8 hours played. I really enjoyed that, but don't feel too driven to play more. Good game to show friends.

Zaphod42 fucked around with this message at 21:41 on Jan 14, 2021

Zaphod42
Sep 13, 2012

If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.

FreelanceSocialist posted:

How's the VR motion sickness with DR1/2? I've seen mixed reports that I think were referring to these two games.

Personally I don't have an issue with it at all, and smooth locomotion games make me feel pretty ill pretty fast. The menus are pretty comfortable in VR as well.

In general car VR games feel fine for me, I think because I race cars IRL and my body is already used to feeling momentum moving in a different direction based on my car rather than my body's direction. But YMMV with VR so its hard to say. I did see someone say they felt funky after Rally ITT, but I don't know if that goon had played stuff like smooth locomotion games yet or if they were just getting into VR.

Definitely check your performance and frame rate as with all VR games, you need it to be tip-top or you'll feel bad regardless of how good your VR legs are.

Enos Cabell
Nov 3, 2004


I always assumed cockpit based VR games would be fine for everyone, they don't phase me at all. My wife can spend hours in Beat Saber or Gorn, but nearly puked after about 3 min of Dirt Rally 2.

explosivo
May 23, 2004

Fueled by Satan

Yeah I had a real bad time with Dirt Rally 2. Something about the combination of sorta fuzzy graphics and being jostled around in a rally car while actually sitting perfectly still in your chair IRL did a number on me. I love the game and think it'd be awesome in VR so if you can handle it, go for it, but I had a real bad time with it.

Brownie
Jul 21, 2007
The Croatian Sensation

explosivo posted:

Yeah I had a real bad time with Dirt Rally 2. Something about the combination of sorta fuzzy graphics and being jostled around in a rally car while actually sitting perfectly still in your chair IRL did a number on me. I love the game and think it'd be awesome in VR so if you can handle it, go for it, but I had a real bad time with it.

I've never been as sick after VR than I was with Dirt Rally 2. It was like reading inside of a moving car, only an order of magnitude worse.

I suspect that if you do not get sick when reading inside of a moving car (which happens because your inner ear detects motion while your view is mostly stationary) then you won't get sick from Dirt Rally.

CapnBry
Jul 15, 2002

I got this goin'
Grimey Drawer

Rolo posted:

Is Alyx worth 59.99?
I think it is. It is an actual AAA VR title that's roughly 12 hours long so if you fee like fun is worth $5/hr then jump right in. I think it is the best VR game that exists if you only consider traditional style games. It isn't just a room-scale VR "experience", or a rhythm-based game, or a social VR game, or a low-fi dungeon crawl, it is an actual single-player FPS that takes place in VR and uses the opportunities that opens up. There's good game design that never leaves you feeling hosed by the developer but without just following a big OBJECTIVE arrow on a minimap. It is 100% linear though-- you can't go any direction other than to the objective apart from a short hall or couple side rooms. That's the case with most single player modes in FPS games anyway, but I don't mind it because it would be frustrating as gently caress if you had to wander building after building of samey rooms opening every desk drawer looking for a key or doing inventory tetris to carry a hundred different tools and items that you might or might not need.

I'll tell you what it does do though is make me wish there was like a Star Wars: KOTOR or Dark Forces built the exact same way from the ground up as VR. I'd love to swing a lightsaber and fire a blaster and force push a stormtrooper over a ledge with grip-based force powers or gestures or something. I feel like I'm already doing that when I use the gravity gloves to grab a live grenade out of the air and throw it back right in some dude's smug face.

Tom Guycot
Oct 15, 2008

Chief of Governors


I wonder if peoples problem with dirt rally has something to do with the fact that for most people all the subtle feelings of a car are ingrained and second nature, and having them completely absent is causing a disconnect stronger than normal, unlike cockpit mech, or space games where no one has real world experience with the sensations.

FreelanceSocialist
Nov 19, 2002

Brownie posted:

I've never been as sick after VR than I was with Dirt Rally 2. It was like reading inside of a moving car, only an order of magnitude worse.

I suspect that if you do not get sick when reading inside of a moving car (which happens because your inner ear detects motion while your view is mostly stationary) then you won't get sick from Dirt Rally.

Welp, she'd be hosed then. She gets sick sitting in the back seat. Guess she'll have to stick to pancake racing for now.

Nalin
Sep 29, 2007

Hair Elf
HIGGS is such an amazing new mod for Skyrim VR. It adds so much world presence to the game. Since I've spent like 2 hours fixing my Skyrim VR install and installing HIGGS, I took the time to improve my mod guide:

https://pastebin.com/L1GS3bSU

It now lists all the mods I personally use. It includes a bunch of VR improvements, bug fix patches, and some generally lore-friendly texture and model improvements. It is very much a list on getting the best out of vanilla Skyrim VR without too much performance loss.

Nalin fucked around with this message at 01:39 on Jan 16, 2021

Doctor_Fruitbat
Jun 2, 2013


Is there slot car racing or something top down like Micro Machines? That'd be pretty fun in VR, you could have it set on a table in an attic/basement.

Zaphod42
Sep 13, 2012

If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.

CapnBry posted:

I'll tell you what it does do though is make me wish there was like a Star Wars: KOTOR or Dark Forces built the exact same way from the ground up as VR. I'd love to swing a lightsaber and fire a blaster and force push a stormtrooper over a ledge with grip-based force powers or gestures or something. I feel like I'm already doing that when I use the gravity gloves to grab a live grenade out of the air and throw it back right in some dude's smug face.

There's two star wars VR games (and one of them has 3 parts) that are basically this, but they're Oculus Store exclusive. And they're a little short.

explosivo posted:

Yeah I had a real bad time with Dirt Rally 2. Something about the combination of sorta fuzzy graphics and being jostled around in a rally car while actually sitting perfectly still in your chair IRL did a number on me. I love the game and think it'd be awesome in VR so if you can handle it, go for it, but I had a real bad time with it.

Did you check your performance settings and look at your frame rate to make sure you were getting full fps and no dropped frames? Try turning on the SteamVR Developer -> Advanced Frame Timing graph and look at it after playing a bit.

Do you have all the vr comfort options set to off? And turn down the camera shake in the gameplay options?

Have you tried setting all graphics on LOW and turning off things like SSAO?

Also the levels in Dirt Rally 2 DO have comfort ratings like 1 did, I couldn't remember if it did or not. So obviously stick to the friendly green tracks first.

FreelanceSocialist posted:

Welp, she'd be hosed then. She gets sick sitting in the back seat. Guess she'll have to stick to pancake racing for now.

I really wouldn't assume that. And even if you don't like Rally 2, that's only one of the many VR racing games, and the only Rally one. The others are track racing and so are smoother. Rally is on dirt or gravel.

Zaphod42 fucked around with this message at 23:23 on Jan 14, 2021

Lozareth
Jun 11, 2006

I got my elite strap + battery for my Oculus 2 today and, wow, I did not expect it to fix all my blurriness issues. I guess I never had it in the sweet spot before. I have a massive head and long hair I keep in a pony tail so it's a bit tight even all the way out but still pretty comfortable to wear (I'm 6'2" but have the head of someone like 6'8"). All I really wanted was the battery to stay in VR longer when I'm playing Phasmophobia for 15 hours straight and I'm drat glad to have that too. Must...resist...using...up...my...remaining...vacation...days...

Beve Stuscemi
Jun 6, 2001




Which battery did you wind up with?

explosivo
May 23, 2004

Fueled by Satan


I didn't do any of this, the game itself is pretty hefty in size so I raced through half a track and felt sick so I quite and uninstalled it. I may come back to it again someday but I won't be extensively playing the game in VR either way so I'll take the ~120GB of real estate back for now. I appreciate the tips though, I'll be sure to check back if I do dive back in.

Edit: Any tips from anyone on cleaning the lenses? I know don't use liquid cleaners, I have a microfiber cloth and have been doing a circular wiping motion but I think I still have some smudges on it. It's kind of annoying when I'm not sure if it's smudges on the lens or the vision on the periphery just being blurry.

Zaphod42
Sep 13, 2012

If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.

Tom Guycot posted:

I wonder if peoples problem with dirt rally has something to do with the fact that for most people all the subtle feelings of a car are ingrained and second nature, and having them completely absent is causing a disconnect stronger than normal, unlike cockpit mech, or space games where no one has real world experience with the sensations.

I just remembered, I race with a wheel instead of a controller. I wonder if your sitting position and if you're holding a wheel or not could have a psychological impact?

That said, any VR game will feel awful if the performance is spotty. I think some gamers just don't know what all the graphics options mean and how to ideally configure it for VR, and are just not realizing the game is rendering at 50fps instead of 90fps since reprojection can help hide it. You're gonna feel sick though if you're dropping frames regularly.

E: The thing about games like Dirt Rally 2 and PCars 2 is they're designed for flatscreen too, so the graphics options can be pushed to levels that no PC can render smoothly in VR. Flatscreen Racing games are expected to look exceptionally photoreal these days. The defaults are not VR friendly like in other VR-first games you may have played, so that could surprise you. You seriously need to turn everything to LOW settings, it'll still look beautiful in VR and will be comparable to other VR games or even look better even at that setting.

Zaphod42 fucked around with this message at 23:49 on Jan 14, 2021

Rolo
Nov 16, 2005

Hmm, what have we here?

Lozareth posted:

I got my elite strap + battery for my Oculus 2 today and, wow, I did not expect it to fix all my blurriness issues. I guess I never had it in the sweet spot before. I have a massive head and long hair I keep in a pony tail so it's a bit tight even all the way out but still pretty comfortable to wear (I'm 6'2" but have the head of someone like 6'8"). All I really wanted was the battery to stay in VR longer when I'm playing Phasmophobia for 15 hours straight and I'm drat glad to have that too. Must...resist...using...up...my...remaining...vacation...days...

Me and my friend got in Phasmophobia last night for the first time in VR after playing it on PC all the time.

It’s really funny how scared we were the whole time.

Zaphod42
Sep 13, 2012

If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.

explosivo posted:

Edit: Any tips from anyone on cleaning the lenses? I know don't use liquid cleaners, I have a microfiber cloth and have been doing a circular wiping motion but I think I still have some smudges on it. It's kind of annoying when I'm not sure if it's smudges on the lens or the vision on the periphery just being blurry.

I bought one of these bad boys and its so great for this

https://www.amazon.com/Nikon-7072-Lens-Cleaning-System/dp/B00006JN3G/

Brownie
Jul 21, 2007
The Croatian Sensation

Tom Guycot posted:

I wonder if peoples problem with dirt rally has something to do with the fact that for most people all the subtle feelings of a car are ingrained and second nature, and having them completely absent is causing a disconnect stronger than normal, unlike cockpit mech, or space games where no one has real world experience with the sensations.

I experience nausea whenever the camera is rolled, pitched or translated sideways in VR. After about two months I was able to use arm swinger in H3VR and now feel pretty comfortable in that game. I still feel uncomfortable using twin stick movement, or when falling, being raised by the cover, etc

House of the Dying Sun makes me feel ill after about 10 minutes.

I’ve been playing VR since March and have tried many times to gradually introduce additional artificial movement, but it’s usually been pretty unsuccessful which bums me out. Part of the reason I bought my index was hoping I’d be able to use it for racing or flight sims but both make me want to throw up so quickly.

Boneworks is the most aggravating game I’ve ever played because it not only made me feel sick, but also called me a caveman for feeling sick :jerkbag:

Brownie fucked around with this message at 23:39 on Jan 14, 2021

explosivo
May 23, 2004

Fueled by Satan

Zaphod42 posted:

I bought one of these bad boys and its so great for this

https://www.amazon.com/Nikon-7072-Lens-Cleaning-System/dp/B00006JN3G/

Oh hell yeah, done and done.

Zaphod42
Sep 13, 2012

If there's anything more important than my ego around, I want it caught and shot now.

Brownie posted:

I experience nausea whenever the camera is rolled, pitched or translated sideways in VR. after about two months I was able to use arm swinger in H3VR and now feel pretty comfortable in that game. I still feel uncomfortable using twin stick movement, or when falling, being raised by the cover, etc

House of the Dying Sun makes me feel ill after about 10 minutes.

I’ve been playing VR since March and have tried many times to gradually introduce additional artificial movement, but it’s us usually been pretty unsuccessful which bums me out. Part of the reason I bought my index was hoping I’d be able to use it for racing or flight sims but both make me want to throw up so quickly.

Boneworks is the most aggravating game I’ve ever played because it not only made me feel sick, but also called me a caveman for feeling sick :jerkbag:

That's a bummer. But this is exactly why I keep arguing for standing or teleport-friendly games. This thread turns into the hardcore-vr-kids-club pretty often but I don't think "you'll get used to it pretty quick" applies to everybody and its important to remember all kinds of people have all kinds of biology.

That feels distinct though from people who can handle artificial locomotion otherwise but have issues with car games. I think if you just can't handle the camera being artificially moved at all, that's pretty easy to understand.

Your brain just really needs that Eustachian tube input to be accurate!

Brownie
Jul 21, 2007
The Croatian Sensation

Zaphod42 posted:

That's a bummer. But this is exactly why I keep arguing for standing or teleport-friendly games. This thread turns into the hardcore-vr-kids-club pretty often but I don't think "you'll get used to it pretty quick" applies to everybody and its important to remember all kinds of people have all kinds of biology.

Yes, we agree on this point. I also think people underestimate just how strong a deterrent nausea is for many people. My nausea lasts for the rest of the evening usually, so I've started feeling dread before I even boot up a new VR game.

Nocheez
Sep 5, 2000

Can you spare a little cheddar?
Nap Ghost
I've never experienced motion-induced nausea before VR and it suuucks.

Bad Munki
Nov 4, 2008

We're all mad here.


Anyone know of a face interface part for an index that is made to fit smaller faces (specifically kids) better?

3D printing something and sticking foam on it is totally an option, but I’m also not opposed to fixing the problem with :homebrew:

Jokerpilled Drudge
Jan 27, 2010

by Pragmatica
yeah be careful with the nausea... many people report that it can last for days, let alone hours

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Turin Turambar
Jun 5, 2011



I finished Mare. I wanted to write a positive write-up to help the devs, given I won it in a giveaway, but... I really can't do it.
It's a game with a pretty art style and... yeah that's it. There is barely no gameplay and barely no story.

About the second point, I'm sure the devs will refer to it as 'minimalist environmental-driven story' or some other euphemism to make up some BS about it. The true is there is no dialog, no world building, and also nothing worth mentioning happens for 90% of the game, with the exception of the start, the end, and a point in the middle. More about the story later.

The gameplay is based on clicking some 3-4 hotspots on screen. In fact, that's how the movement works too, clicking those hotspots to direct yourself there. Around 70% of the game is the equivalent of a walking simulator, where you have go forward, or the solution of what you have to do to go forward is so trivial (just a pair of clicks) that is hard to call it 'puzzle'. Only the other 30% is slightly more complicated. Here it's how the puzzles works, and the entire game is like this, there is no variety really: your companion, the little girl, follows you around, but she can't fly like you, so her path is slightly or very different. So because of that, clicking on point C being on A is different than clicking on point C being on B. So you have to guess the correct order of clicking the hotspots, that serve to guide the little girl. Near the end there is a pair of points that serve to scare the child, instead of attracting her.
That's it.

So what's the game about?
You are some kind of magical-steampunk? mechanical bird, some kind of sentry part of an automated defense system? You shot down some aerostatic globes. There is a globe you don't totally shot down and there is an accident that grounds you with it. From the globe there is a little girl that doesn't seem to know anything.
Dunno how little girls make up for good explosive ammunition but hey, imagine there is a wizard-alchemist that uses slaves living energy as living bombs or some poo poo... This, like the rest of the whys you have to make it up on you mind because there is no explanation.
So you advance with the girl through an abandoned city, guiding her.
And here it's the kicker (what my theory was at 60% of the game)

I don't think you are guiding the girl, helping her, which is why most people would think looking at the marketing material or taking similar games as reference (ie Ico, The Last Guardian). You are using her, because you need her to open some doors for you. There is a point where if you think about it, you are using her as a bait and have to hold doing nothing while she is attacked to progress. On the next level she doesn't follow you around, like she lost her trust, in fact, you have to engineer a situation where she is in danger to 'save' her and then she starts following you again.
To cement this concept, the devs put on that level a zone where you have to scare away some wild horses to manipulate them to open the doors. The horses are a temporal replacement for the girl. Because... that's it, that's what the girl is for you, just like a mare (title drop!), a work horse. A tool that can look beautiful, but that's it.

and the ending

you were indeed using her, I was right. Because: plot twist: the mechanical bird was possessed by the same (malevolent? is a black smoke tentacle, that's a visual shortcut for evil right?) entity that were the smoke spirits and the smoke crows. The game shows you a kind of strange flashback of previous areas seen from the pov of the entity, which was looking from the strange orbs you find sometimes. It seems you used the girl to reach a point with a strange device. You attack it by possessing a bigger mechanical entity found in your way, and it finally explodes in a super big (thermonuclear like) explosion.
Obviously it kills the girl. And you? Maybe it doesn't because you were a spirit? Dunno. The end.

I think there is a secret ending if you do a collecthaton, but I only did 70% of them.

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply