Having spent a few weeks beneath the helmet, I’ve had a chance to gawk at some of the best treats to force-feed your eyeballs on Sony’s PS VR2, and they truly are more game-changer than gimmick. The first raft of titles for the wallet-sweating headset includes a glut of puzzlers - a genre ripe for some razzle-dazzle as your brain meat simmers, and one less likely to have the motion sickness-prone reaching for the barf bag. Here’s five of the best...
Rez began as an art project-music game-rail shooter mash-up back in 2001 and there's never been anything quite like it since. In VR, Rez Unlimited recreates all the chemical joy I may have endured as a student from the comfort of a middle-aged man's couch. Rez has always been a good time, and its trippy on-rails targeting can now be controlled with your mere eyes while its prototype Area X offers the kind of free-floating trip the Chemical Brothers must dream of.
Sounding like an eye condition caused by fizzy orange, Fantavision was conceived as a tech demo to show off the PS2's particle effects, and the Missile Command-with-fireworks gameplay now crackles in VR as players link like-coloured rockets across the night sky, detonating firecrackers in psychedelic shower. No damp squib, VR lifts Fantavision from the realm of sparkler to veritable skyrocket.
VR doesn't bring much to the gameplay table in Tetris Effect: Connected, which marries classic block-stacking with Zen vibes for puzzling in what looks like a series of New Age album covers. With a trance soundtrack and trippy visuals, it's also a lot less 'Russian', which can only be a good thing.
For those after something more meaty, some of the PS5’s heaviest hitters have been given the VR treatment. The one drawback to Resident Evil Village was that, while brilliant, the 2021 survival horror wasn’t particularly scary. VR changes all that. Getting up close and personal with its mutations in the virtual flesh is leagues ahead of the flat-screen version, and the first time Lady Dimitrescu stares into your soul is truly knee-knocking – if a teensy bit erotic.
Instead of menus, weapons are selected with hand movements – its handgun and ammo are attached to your waist, while the shotgun hangs over your right shoulder. Even the map is a physical object to be unfurled. Miming reloads is a slower, more involved process, but that just raises the fear factor in the most immersive horror experience out there.
Fittingly, though, it's with racer Gran Turismo 7 where VR clocks the most mileage. Director Kaz Yamauchi said it was actually designed for virtual reality from the outset, and it shows with this free update that not only stuffs players into hundreds of lush cockpits but makes it easier to read the track.
Apart from the headset, you’ll still use a controller - this isn’t a game where you compromise on precision just to flail your arms about. The definitive PS VR2 experience, GT7 offers all the fun of sitting in a fancy sports car without having to pretend you're a millionaire to some bloke in Charles Hurst.
The only thing missing is that new car smell – though you could just hang a Magic Tree off your nose.
