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Star Wars Battlefront Rogue One: X-wing VR mission (which possibly needs a streamlined name) was pretty great. It’s an example of the kind of fun stuff you can do in VR. It also, after I spent about fifteen minutes gamely trying not to throw up, finally convinced me that VR isn’t for me. My problem with VR games seems to be the best bits of VR, which obviously puts a dampener on my desire to get a headset.
Sitting in the cockpit of an X-wing is great.I looked down and saw I was wearing a rebel pilot orange jumpsuit just like they do in the films, which made me giddy. I had a service droid called Blue Two (or quite possibly BLU-2) and my callsign was Red 4 – the fact that I almost immediately forgot my callsign being further evidence that I am not suited to being a fighter pilot. The issues came with the speed and movement, which are sadly hallmarks of flying a jet. I was quite happy flying in near enough a straight line quite slowly and admiring the starscape before me, but obviously I was forced to swoop about and shoot things.
In Battlefront VR you fly through an asteroid field and protect a transporter ship from the terrible grasp of the empire. Your lasers go pew pew and the other pilots in the squad ask you to watch their back because there are three TIE fighters tailing them. It’s very authentic and very cool, and it made me feel very very sick.
Initially I thought I’d be alright with VR. A couple of games made me a bit iffy, but the first batch I tried were mostly alright. With VR I’m alright in the games that move slowly, like the Resi 7 demos; the ones where it’s not POV, like Thumper; or in the ‘experiences’ where you stand still and jellyfish or be Batman as things happen around you. Sadly, anything going faster than the average mobility scooter gives me a turn. In real life you feel motion sick because you’re moving but the horizon isn’t; in VR the horizon moves but I’m staying still, and it’s downright unnatural.
Apparently women get this reaction in VR more, opinion currently divided on whether that’s because we naturally wobble about more, or because we’re quicker to notice when our movement in relation to the horizon is all weird. I got dreadful motion sickness when I was younger, even throwing up all over myself on a school coach trip to Europe in year eight (the coach driver had to haul my case out so I could change at the side of the motorway at approximately seven in the morning, which was a low point). I still can’t read in cars or on buses without getting nauseous.
I’d liked the concept of PSVR enough that I’d wanted to get a headset (the associated issues of me not having enough money aside) but for people like me, who have to take off the headset to go and heave their guts up every ten minutes or so, there’s clearly no point going in for the fast-paced games like the Battlefront Rogue One mission. I had to nope out of Driveclub VR after about 30 seconds. This sucks a) because it was cool to pretend I was fighting for the rebels, escapism being one of the key thing that brought me to games in the first place, and b) because these have the most replayability.
They’re the shooters and racers where you can challenge yourself to improve each time. Being Batman or standing on top of a virtual mountain is great, but you have to leave it a few weeks before that particular experience feels novel again. I understand the argument that VR experiences can be thought of the same way as going on a ride at an expensive theme park, or spunking a bunch of money at an expensive restaurant, but even my feverishly impulsive brain can’t justify spending hundreds of pounds on a gaming platform that I’ll use for 15 minutes every few weeks. I could look at getting the Vive, so I could actually physically stomp around at the same time, but like many people I can’t currently run it, don’t have the space, and couldn’t afford it even if I did.
Battlefront VR is well cool, but I couldn’t enjoy it because I was preoccupied by feeling like I was about spew up the last cuppa I had like a tea geyser. So I’m just going to give up on VR. I understand that people are prohibited from getting VR for many reasons, and being barred because it makes you feel a bit sick isn’t really a noble one. But there are dozens of us. Dozens!
