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Oculus and CCP Games, the developers of Eve: Valkyrie, announced that all Rift preorders would ship with a free copy of the game. This is going to go over extremely well with most anyone who has played the game's demo in VR, considering Valkyrie is frickin' amazing.

Every bit I discussed terminal summertime, playing Eve: Valkyrie is immersive in a way I've never experienced in any infinite gainsay or flight simulator. Positional caput tracking lets the thespian actually look effectually the cockpit, following a bogie as it rockets out of your field of view.

PCWorld has an extensive write-up on how CCP'due south implementation of VR has evolved over the past two years and the lessons the team has had to learn on everything from menu design to button placement. Every attribute of the role player experience has to be idea out once again when working in VR, often with surprising snares and pitfalls. Even every bit a thespian, yous sometimes find out that things are jarring in places where you didn't look it.

Eve-Valk

Equally an case: I had an opportunity to demo an HTC Vive headset last week every bit function of AMD'south Radeon Technologies Grouping coming together in Sonoma. In the VR demo for Arizona Sunrise, I had to physically kneel and reach out with a disembodied hand to pick up my chosen weapons. In previous VR demos, I've never been bothered past non having hands — after all, most FPS games put weapons in your field of view, non body parts. Once I had on-screen, disembodied easily, I suddenly found not having artillery visually disconcerting. Issues like this are going to crop up a lot as VR evolution continues, so it's proficient to hear that CCP has been steadily iterating on edifice improve environments for players.

The VR question

As great every bit Eve: Valkyrie looks, I'thousand not sure I'd go leaping out the door to society an Oculus Rift. Early VR content is going to go far in a deadening trickle, rather than a overflowing, and I await almost of what we'll come across will be smaller-scale demos, games, and a bare handful of larger titles. The demo versions of Arizona Sunshine, for example, doesn't permit the player to explore the environment — you shoot an area of the screen to move from Point A to Point B, with waves of zombies attacking at each new point. Solving the basic question of movement within the game world is an issue that has plagued unusual controllers before (Exhibit A: Kinect).

Arizona Sunshine.

The zombie shooting was fun, even if the game looked a bit similar an old Source title.

The lesser line is that VR titles will tend to either offering express movement and exploration compared with current open-globe environments, or volition limit their scope and size while studios and researchers figure everything out.

At an expected price betoken of roughly $400, and coming in on top of already-steep PC requirements, the Rift is going to require a substantial investment, and I'm not certain a bundled game is enough to really convince people on the argue about it — but if Eve: Valkyrie is a tenth as good as it looks, already-committed buyers are going to go a slap-up game to prove off.