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Today Sony took to the stage at EGX 2015 to talk about the advancements they have made with their own Playstation VR system.
Like Valve’s similar panel yesterday they started off with a little history, tracing the roots of their Morpheus headset way back to the Sony Glasstron headset which was released to markets almost 20 years ago with little LCD screens and a limited frame of view. More recently we’ve had the Eyetoy and Playstation Move controller that laid framework for what Playstation VR is now.
With the Playstation 4, Sony feel they finally have enough computing power in a machine to push the high-grade experience of Playstation VR they want – teaming up the Morpheus headset with the Playstation Move controllers or the Dualshock 4 as well as the Playstation Camera to form an entire experience package to allow for placement in the world as well as being able to interact within it.
Sony felt that triggering natural responses to the situation simulated was the big aim of successful VR and to that effect showed off some of their pre-built experiences – one called The Deep that had participants in a diving cage viewing beautiful fish and an angry shark, as well as a series of them collectively entitled “The London Heist” in which character interaction, virtual object manipulation and then finally both at once in a high-octane situation were simulated for the player. They were adamant that The London Heist was not just a demo of VR or made as a ‘proof-of-concept’, they went through and made it as they would any other triple A game to make it as enjoyable as possible to sell people on the idea that VR could work and work well. Already they say third-party studios have had a “hugely positive” response to the package.
They have also said that right now they’re putting huge consideration onto the limited space people will have to play within their own homes and that they have been working with their designers to make sure that the headset will be comfortable for those players who wear glasses to use for longer periods of time. They also say that since playing a VR game is controlled in such a natural manner for us that VR could be the thing to remove the entry barrier for those people new to gaming.
Unfortunately though the panel didn’t bring any details about when we can expect to see the headset device released or what price we can be expecting; as well as our being told that because virtual reality gaming is such a different concept to the traditional gaming now in order to be backwards compatible games would need to essentially go through re-development.
In terms of the presentation as a whole though, Sony did make virtual reality seem like a fun, entertaining and over all very interesting new step in the world of gaming. Showing off the gameplay and how it worked did a lot more for me then just hearing someone talking about the specs of the hardware would have.
The first day of EGX 2015 saw Valve’s Chet Faliszek take the stage in an attempt to try and clear up confusions some people might have on virtual reality and what it is.
The talk started with a little history lesson on Valve’s development of their own virtual reality technology beginning back in 2013. They also experimented with augmented reality technology around the same time, before eventually beginning to push more for the virtual reality when HTC entered the picture. Of course, the two are currently working together on the HTC Vive headset and controllers.
There was then some talk about the Vive, specifically what Valve had done to make sure that it was the best it could be. The cables connected to the headset were explained by saying that so far wireless hadn’t developed enough to give a consistently high enough bandwidth for the video so wired connection was still needed to provide the best experience. Valve hope that they should be able to hit somewhere around the region of 90FPS on a high-end computer this way. Audio was talked about, with 3D positional audio and binaural audio being mentioned. For the Vive simulated binaural audio is being produced to help players position the sound in the ‘world’ around them, through use of filters.
A lot of time was spent talking about the ‘input’ into virtual reality though, with Faliszek saying that the reason Valve, Oculus and Sony have all developed similar means to bring the hands into the virtual world being because the technology used was already around in a sense with the WiiMote (although he stressed it wasn’t actually a WiiMote) being in use as well as the traditional controllers that most gamers are familiar with. It’s simple to pick up and failure of a task is understandable for the player, they realise how it happened. However while eye tracking is being looked into, Faliszek doesn’t think proper full-body tracking will become a proper input for a while yet.
Finally the one thing we were told to take away from this talk was that VR didn’t need a full-size room to work, right now developers should be working to minimise the space needed and also to minimise any disconnect between natural movement input and the visual movements to stop motion sickness. Faliszek said that there should no longer be any excuse for VR to make players motion sick anymore.
That’s about standard for one of Steam’s free weekends, but Sega has used the occasion to add some new content to both games.
The original Dawn of War is receiving a new, official multiplayer map, while its sequel is offering up some extra gear. Here’s a rundown from Sega of what’s included:
“The Temple of Cyrene is a brand new, official multiplayer map we’re adding into the Dawn of War I rotation. This map will be playable in DoW I, as well as the Dark Crusade and Soulstorm expansions. The Temple of Cyrene sits on the blasted landscape of a world scoured clean by the Exterminatus of the Imperial Inquisition. Homeworld of Gabriel Angelos, Cyrene is now a ghost-world of ruined cities and ashen fields. Fight for supremacy amidst the remains of Cyrene’s once-mighty temples. Claim the three critical locations at the heart of the ruins or drive into enemy bases and deliver annihilation.”
Dawn of War II is getting some love aswell:
“In Dawn of War II, we’re giving away four free sets of Wargear; The Vanguard, Sniper, Sternguard, and Destroyer, to equip in the main campaign that were previously only available as pre-order DLC, or as rare loot drops. Now everyone will be able to equip items like the Veteran’s Grenades, Blade of Ulyus, Armor of the Destroyer, and many more to complete your sets!”
Day 1 of EGX 2015 kicked off yesterday and while sat this morning with my aches and pains (I’m getting too old for this, I’m sending Cyborg next year), I was sorting through what games I saw there that I wanted to write about first and there was a stand out winner in that regard
Tears of Avia is a turn based tactical RPG with a core focus on build crafting. We want to make a game where the party composition, skills, items and strategy that you design are just as fundamental to the game play as the battle itself. We are coupling this with a dynamic story system that delivers a unique experience each time you play.
It’s Kickstarter started a couple of days ago and, as of writing right now, has 26 days left on it. BUT, it has already been Greenlit on STEAM, so thats a great sign of the games popularity already.
Now, I love a good JRPG, I’m a long term Final Fantasy fan (7, 8, 9 and 10 especially), and Tears of Avia gives me a FF7 vibe off the bat, but it changes things up with a slick RPG combat system, a fresh take on skills and beautiful graphics and effects
The game looks stunning, even the prototype build the team from CooCooSqueaky, the system was slick and it was beautiful to watch other people play the game and get excited about what they were doing.
So, whats the game about? Well, lets head over to the kickstarter page and get the info:
Over 200 years ago a war was waged against the floating city of Avalon lead by the demonic overlord Vylenkine. A powerful mage stood up against his evil forces and cast a spell that would seal the portals to the demonic realms forever. Except… there was a problem. The city froze and crashed along with the love of his life, Avia. For hundreds of years he has been seeking a way to free Avia with little success. That is until you came…
The trailer is gorgeous and tells the story in suitable anime way and the character models and enemies look like they were dragged smoothly from some of the best animes to come out of Japan
In fact, if this story isn’t picked up by Manga, they are missing a trick
Tears of Avia is set for a Jun 2017 release so far, with kickstarter backers at certain levels getting beta access (£30 or more pledge) and lots of other perks
EGX 2015 kicked off today with Total War: Warhammer. Over the course of the presentation, the developers at Creative Assembly provided new insight into several aspects of the game. Starting out, the team showcased the Lord, Hero and Legendary units. These units can be used to bolster your troops in combat, to plot on your behalf on the campaign map, and as fearsome combatants in their own right. A lot of time was spent discussing the customization available for these characters. They have their own skill trees and items that they can equip to be used in a variety of different ways.
The presentation then moved on to a live gameplay demonstration, and it was impressive to say the least. The battlefield was massive, with hundreds of units moving about. For me, one of the most impressive moments of the demo was the seemingly simple entrance of a giant. This massive unit lumbered into the battle and swung his axe, sending an entire line of dwarves flying through the air like ragdolls. Considering that it was happening in engine in real time, it was an impressive moment. Artillery individually load and fire, flamethrowers spew arcs of incendiary death over the heads of oncoming greenskins. Visually, Total War Warhammer is turning out to be very impressive. Its a promising game with a strong license and Creative Assembly are clearly devoted to bringing the authentic Warhammer experience into the game.
For more on Total War: Warhammer stay right here on Sanitarium.FM
