Just the $400 standalone unit

Did you just spend a month's rent on an Oculus Rift (less than a month's if you're in San Francisco, too)? Perhaps you'd like to pay in advance for a standalone PlayStation VR? It's "o??nly" $400, which is definitely less money than its competitors.

However! Be mindful that you need also need a PlayStation Camera if you don't have one. Plus a lot of PS VR games seem to use PS Move controllers. While the standalone hat is available for pre-order ahead of its October launch, you might want to wait for a bundle that gets you truly VR-ready. We have a guide for that here.

You also might want to wait for Sony to announce the new, more powerful PS4 that will likely improve VR experienc??e and could come bundled with PS VR.

All these caveats aside, if you still must pre-order a standalone PlayStation VR face mask, try Best Buy, GameStop and Walmart. It's already unavailable through Amazon at time of writing.

The post PlayStation VR is up for pre-order appeared first on Destructoid.

The virtual reality headset apparently isn't married to PS4

PlayStation VR apparently isn't just a PlayStation 4 peripheral. According to Sony Computer Entertainment executiv??e vice president Masayasu Ito, his company has bigger plans for the virtual reality headset -- like, perhaps, one day bringing the technology to personal computers.

Speaking with Nikkei, Ito explained that Sony is ??considering plans to enable PlayStation VR to function with PCs in the future, but was quick to caution this possibility is still a long ways off. 

"Since Playstation 4 shares a lot of its internals with PCs, the possibility is there," Ito said. "At the moment we are focused on games and we are not ready to make any announcements at this stage, but I'd say there will be an expansion into ?various fields."

PlayStation VR will be available worldwide this October for $399/€399/£349.

ソニー「プレステＶＲ」、399ドルで試すヒットの法則[Nikkei via Reddit]

The post Sony may bring PlayStation VR to PC someday appeared first on Destructoid.

Coming to PlayStation VR

Today at a Sony Computer Entertainment media event in South Korea, a local studio Roi Games showed off an impressive-looking PlayStation VR project by the name of White Day.

It appears to be a remake of White Day: A Labyrinth Named School, a Korean horror game released in 2001, where players take on the role of a boy who becomes trapped in his school after sneaking into the building on the eve of the eponymous Asian holida??y to leave chocolates for a girl he likes.

There's no word o??n whether this will ever see a western release, but I certainly hope it does.

[Thanks, Ryan]

The post Korean horror game White Day looks fantastic appeared first on Destructoid.

Don't get squashed

There was but a whisper of Robinson: The Journey back in June, and ?now developer Crytek has shown off a bit more of it during the virtual reality portion of Sony's Paris Games Week? press conference.

The trailer features not only the boy protagonist we've seen before??, but a Wheatley-esque floating ball eye thing directing him safely through the dinosaur stampede. Strangely, the duo is moving against it, toward whatever the animals are running from. That doesn't seem smart.

The post Crytek shows off its VR dinosaur? game Robinson at Paris Games Week appeared first on Destructoid.

Free story DLC coming to Sony consoles

We may not yet know an exact date for the launch of PlayStation VR, but we do now know at least one piece of software that will be playable on the hardware ??on launch day.

Volume: Coda is a story expansion for Volume, indie developer Mike Bithell's modern, top down, s??tealth game retelling of the Robin Hood story. The DLC will apparently tell the story of a master puzzle solver called "The Troubleshooter." It contains thirty new missions, and features a new plot that is set after the event of the main game with a different cast.

The DLC will apparently be free for all PS4 Volume owners, and will also add VR support to the main game on PS4. Existing story content, user generated maps, and the new DLC will all feature PlayStation VR supp??ort.

Volume: Coda's DLC campaign wi?ll also be coming to the ?currently unreleased Vita port of the game, but obviously without the VR support.

Now to quietly sit and wonder if developer Bithell has played The Beginner's Guide recently. Hmmm, Coda.

The post Volume: Coda is a launch title for Playstation VR appeared first on Destructoid.

On rails, VR, and Wendigos

[Update: Rush of Blood was announced as a stand alone VR title at Paris Games Week. Told you inter?net, it's legit].

According to an email received today by Destructoid, verified and confirmed through a second independent source, Sony is currently performing market testing in the UK on a piece of Until Dawn DLC, tentatively titled Rush of Blood.

Th?e DLC, which appears ??to be an on-rails first-person shooter, is being designed to work with PlayStation VR.

Well you get transported around inside a mine cart; it's very literally an on-rails? experience. There are a few scattered jumpscares, as you'd expect, but I played the same 20 minute secti?on twice (once with DS4, once with dual Move controllers), so I'm hoping the full DLC is a lot more padded out. I didn't see which character I was playing as, I'm not sure if it's specified, but no names were mentioned at all. 

It starts off shooting targets in the snow, then moves toward a house and as you get deeper into the house, enemies start appearing (I believe they were Wendigos). The frequently reused jumpscare is the 'ghost' from inside the house in Until Dawn, who you end up figh?ting for the final area I played. Upon killing the ghost, the game would crash every time.

While it's currently unclear how far along this ?DLC project is, it seems like it's set in the same areas as the main game, and relies heavily on motion controls.

So, how do you feel about the prospect of on-rails, virtual-reality Until Dawn DLC?

The post Rumor: N?ew DLC coming for Until Dawn t?itled Rush of Blood appeared first on Destructoid.

That horror tech demo was just the start

If Capcom plans to mix Resident Evil with virtual reality, you can sign me right up.

In its 118-page annual report, the company described what its various development groups have been up to lately. Development Division 1, the group running Resident Evil, ?has begun "focusing [its] energy on challenging the virtual reality game market," according to head Jun Takeuchi.

"In this terrifying world, you can twist and turn as you like, but there's no escaping the creatures closing in on you... until you remove your VR headset and return to reality, that is. We delivered this very experienced with our 'KITCHEN' VR technical demo at E3 2015. The response was excellent. Currently, we are building a new game development engine able to support VR, which is the hottest market right now, while simu??ltaneously developing titles for current game consoles. We have just set sail on our latest voyage."

Takeuchi's division "aims to create games that users want to play over and over agai?n." Games with "strong global demand." He says their hope is to be "a half-step ahead of users expectations -- expectations which aren't readily apparent in marketing data."

There's also this amaz??ing quote: "As we are setting out into unexplored territory there are plenty of obstacles to overcome, but we do this togeth?er and enjoy the adventure; in this sense, we have to create a team similar to a band of pirates."

Annual Report [Capcom]

The post Capcom building new engine with VR support appeared first on Destructoid.

VR demo for PlayStation 4

Summer Lesson is a "VR character communication demo" for Project Morpheus (now simply PlayStation VR) developed by the Tekken team. There's a?? new trailer out of Tokyo Game Show.

Unlike Josh, I will probably never interact with this experiment, but I do share his curiosity having tried other up-close-an?d-pers?onal virtual-reality demos. Exiting VR and returning to the outside world can leave you feeling real weird even when the subject matter is less, well, you know.

"So... you're my teacher! Um, I mean, my sensei, right?"

I can't be the only ?one who lau??ghed hard at that delivery.

The post Tekken team’s Summer Lesson returns for TGS appeared first on Destructoid.

The name change finally happened

The Sony PS4 Morpheus VR headset today saw a name change. Say goodbye to Morpheus, and say hello to the very plain??ly? named Playstation VR.

Y?ep, that's a pretty straightforward and self-explanatory name that tells people what the produc??t is.

Still no release date, but now we know it has an official name as a ??market product at least. 

The post RIP Morpheus, long live Playstation VR appeared first on Destructoid.

Tech demo for Project Morpheus

Spike Chunsoft has been playing around with Project Morpheus, and Cyber Danganronpa VR: Class Trial is ?the result. As that subtitle indicates, it places players? directly inside of a class trial.

The tech demo was shown this week at Ani-Com & Games Hong Kong. Lucky for us, someone was there to grab some off-screen footage. It doesn't look terribly ex??citing, but that's often the case when viewing virtual-reality content outside of a headset. Need that sens?e of presence.

Love that little "Whew!" at the end.

Sony an?nounces new Project Morpheus Technical Demo, "Cyber Danganronpa VR: Class Trial" [Niche Gamer]

The post Cyber Danganronpa?? VR: Class Trial c??ould be the start of something neat appeared first on Destructoid.

Though its lessons may cross over

"Though its lessons may cross over," get it? Crossover, like the soccer move? (We kicked it and I scored, soccer game). Because Headmaster is (sort of) a weird soccer game and not about giving virtual blowjobs (you'll only get porn on Oculus' open-ended, hahaha, Rift), though these neck actions may overlap.

Ok, but seriously, Headmaster looks pretty funny. The Stanley Parable/Portal of soccer VR games or something, once you get 30 seconds or so into the trailer. It's n??ice that some people can have a sly and surreal sense of humor while others make blowjob jokes.

The post Headmaster is NOT a VR porn game for Morpheus appeared first on Destructoid.

Probably, I think

Sony's sure taking virtual reality seriously. It wasn't long ago that we weren't completely positive if Project Morpheus was meant for a retail release, or if it were just a research and development project to show off emerging trends. Now, we know that the PS4 VR headset is definitely coming out, a??nd it'll happen sometime in early(ish) 2016.

Judging by some recent job listings, it seems as if Sony's also intent on creating its own games for this platform, rather ??than let third-parties do all the work. Sony's opened up North West Studio in the UK, the name likely being an homage to the daughter of the great Kanye West, a genius and voice of a generation.

It appears as though Sony's putting together a small team, but one that'll probably have a lot of influence over some of the earliest Morpheus titles. Anyone who fits the bill and is okay with living in England should apply and give the world the Kanye West first-person simulator we've always needed, or other ga?me??s that aren't as good.

Vacancies in North West [PlayStation Jobs]

The post Sony opens first-party VR-focused studio, names it after Kanye’s baby appeared first on Destructoid.

Summer Lesson, a 'communication game'

Along with the Pokemon fighting game Pokken Tournament, Katsuhiro Harada and the Tekken team are working on a game for Sony's virtual reality hat Morpheus.

Summer Lesson is a PS4 game bi??lled as a "communication game." We'll bring you more, hands and eyes on time in a couple weeks at Tokyo Game Sh??ow.

The post Tekken team working on Morpheus game for PS4 appeared first on Destructoid.

The Verge's Joshua Topolsky demonstrates

Jimmy Fallon always did videogame related content around E3 on Late Night, and it looks like he is continuing the tradition in his first year on the Tonight Show. Last week, h??e in??vited Joshua Topolsky on to demo Sony's Project Morpheus.

He and Channing Tatum each donned a headset and two PlayStation Move controllers, jumping into roles of medieval knights in a training yard. After flailing wildly at a straw dummy for a?? minute, things start to look a bit more dire. Naturally, Jimmy Fallon goes nuts with it.

The post Jimmy Fallon and Channing Tatum played w?ith Project Morpheus on the Tonight Show appeared first on Destructoid.

Muscle memory got me typing 'Valkyria'

Destructoid's Brett Makedonski is over in Iceland for EVE Fest contributing to the over fishing and extinction of whales. He also brought us a meaty (not whale) preview of EVE Valkyrie and I'm not sure if I'll ever write it enough to overwrite?? my desire to type 'Valkyria.' Keep up the great work, SEGA.

Anyways, all we had to go on that the PS4/PC (Project Morpheus/Oculus Rift) looked great in Unreal 4 was Brett's word and should we really believe him? Well, he seems t?o have been truthing this time, as the pre-alpha footage shows.

The post Can you EVEn handle footage of EVE Va??lkyrie on Unreal 4? appeared first on Destructoid.

There's a lot of shared problems to work out

Speaking to GamesBeat about Project Morpheus and virtual-reality gaming more generally, Sony's Shuhei Yoshida had good things to say about Oculus VR. "When I look at VR, it's still very early," he said, drawing a comparison to the rise of real-time 3D rendering with the PS1. "It's not even starting in a real way. When we launch Project Morpheus, or when they launch Oculus as a consumer product, I can see another 20 years of progres?s for all kinds of things."

Yoshida went on to say that on a technical level, "At this stage, we're helping each?? other and trying to find solutions to a lot of problems that we're trying to so?lve." In terms of creating awareness, Sony has kept Morpheus mostly behind the scenes while Oculus created a proof-of-concept that let people realize VR is attainable. "That awareness and outreach to developers are really helping us as we introduce the Project Morpheus dev kit," Yoshida said.

With two main platforms -- Morpheus for PS4, and t??he Rift for PC -- and more on the way, there's the added benefit of reduced risk for game developers looking to support VR. And that's what it'll take to make these devices compelling -- good games, "wherever they can come from." Probably from indies. Yoshida is less concerned with attracting "big brands and successful games" as those don't "transfer well" without spending significant time to create a new VR experience.

Virtual reality: Sony’?s refreshingly honest ?thoughts on Oculus Rift, not needing triple-A, and similarities to the Wii U (exclusive) [GamesBeat]

The post Sony’s Yoshida on how the Oculus Rift is helping Project Morpheus appeared first on Destructoid.

Project Project

Slightly Mad Studios has announced that Project Cars will work with Project Mo?rpheus. The sensation of "speed, distance, perception, changing focal points, and physically-accurate cockpit and helmet vi??ews" will all be simulated in the virtual reality space.

"Virtual reality is a perfect fit for racing games since the?? game world literally comes rushing towards you from the distance and the increased sense of depth and speed that stereoscopic vision affords you makes this incredibly real and tangible. So when you’re racing you get a much better perception of distances and position and you feel far more enveloped by that world rather than just looking through a window at it."

This shouldn't come as too much of a surprise as Project Cars will also support the Oculus Rift. I do w?onder how sickening it will feel playing a racing game in virtual reality though. There will be much barfing, probably.

The post Project C?ars is one of the first games to support Project Morpheus appeared first on Destructoid.