On Friday, I took the train to Birmingham and went to EGX Rezzed at the NEC. I'd not been to a game convention before so I was pretty excited and happily it didn't disappoint.
The developer sessions were very interesting. Particularly Volume by Thomas Was Alone creator Mike Bithell. He is an excellent public speaker and the demo of his new stealth game was very inspiring. My friend and I were grinning in the front row for the best part of an hour.
But the highlight of the show was trying out the Oculus Rift, virtual reality headset with 2 excellent games, Dream and Ether.
Trying out the Oculus Rift and Dream.
I played Dream first and it was quite an experience. The demo level featured high ledges, long staircases and Escher-like perspective tricks. The low resolution of the dev kit was immediately noticeable but I got used to it very quickly. Not so easy to get used to was the unnerving feeling of sensory deprivation in the middle of a crowded convention center.
I have to say though, I was very impressed. With this very non-linear, visually driven exploration game, I could really see the appeal! Even with the low resolution, the experience was jaw dropping.
Ether was also fantastic. All the developers I met on the day were very open and friendly but the Ether guys were particularly welcoming. Even though it was approaching the end of the day and people where starting to pack up. It's not much but it's the little things that make the difference.
Ether allowed me to try the Rift with a more stylized world. While the experience was not as immersive as Dream, Ether embedded an idea in my mind that I haven't been able to shake.
Immersion does not equals fun.
Let me explain. Earlier in the day I'd played Titanfall and Alien: Isolation. Both on over-sized monitors that spanned most of my field of view.
Titanfall, while massively good fun and very well made, was completely overwhelming on the big screens.
Image Credit: Edge Online Titanfall Review.
I'm going to sound worryingly like my dad here but over-the-top effects, rapid movements and the sheer overload of information presented on screen was mentally tiring. In virtual reality, it would be utterly exhausting.
In competitive games, players want whatever is going to give them an edge. They want efficient, fast player input and precision. In this respect, the headset in it's current iteration feels like a sidestep similar to motion controls rather than the next giant leap forward in gaming. This realization initially dampened my enthusiasm some what.
Alien: Isolation is another example. In the alpha demo, you play as Ripley, trying to avoid an alien while trapped in a space station. I didn't find the gameplay particularly compelling but worst of all was the death cinematic. Once discovered, hiding behind the nearest space sofa, you are treated to a first person view of an alien eating your face. Every single time.
So the question is, do you really want to experience death by alien face chomping in virtual reality?
I think if you're at all sane, that notion sounds very unpleasant.
It's nice to know what all the fuss is about though. With Facebook announcing their purchase of Oculus last week, I've barely heard about anything else. And now I've tried it for myself. I think both Facebook and Oculus understand that the most appropriate and popular application of this technology will be virtual experiences, not games. Which is in some ways, even more exciting.
The path to mainstream adoption of virtual reality is selling experiences. Maybe even social, shared experiences.
And with that in mind, Facebook's acquisition makes a lot of sense.
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