Once a upon a time, I was a true believer in the power of virtual reality.
Sure we bump into a few walls and have some motion sickness, but we also had some good times exploring ancient caves, fighting robots, and creating 3D work of art.
I was a textbook early adopter pre-ordering both the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive on day one.
And it's gonna be heavy, expensive, and clunky.
In the meantime, you could always try strapping the VR computer to your back.
These backpack PCs are as ridiculous as they sound, but I have to admit, it's always kind of fun to try them out.
Just don't forget your battery belt pack.
But the biggest issue holding VR back, it's the games.
The vast majority are simple low budget indie projects that are frankly forgettable.
The big guys like EA and Activision, they've dipped a few toes in the water but they haven't followed up.
Props however to Bethesda for making VR versions of Skyrim, Fallout 4 and Doom but they still feel like the VR part is too horned in.
More of a proof of concept than anything else.
Before we get too down here Shout outs for some of the best VR games out there.
Robo Recall from Epic.
There's a great free indie paintball game called Rec Room that I love.
I like the VR version of a first person shooter called SuperHot.
And then there's GORN, the gladiator fighting game that we tested with HP's backpack VR machine.
The future of VR looks like it belongs to mobile headsets, like the Oculus Go, Gear VR, and the VI Focus.
they're less expensive and easier to use, but they don't have the power of PC-based VR, and most of them won't let you walk around in virtual space.
If the future of VR is dependent on less powerful, less immersive hardware, I'm not sure I like its chances.
We may have to wait another generation or two for the holodeck of our dreams.
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