Forum - View topicNEWS: Bandai Namco Filmworks Reveals Gundam Silver Phantom Feature-Length VR Anime
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Deacon Blues
Posts: 401 Location: Albuquerque, NM |
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So... buy a ridiculously expensive headset for what will likely be a 20 minute (if that) "immersive" experience? Uh... Bandai, didn't you get the memo? NFT/Meta flopped hardcore, and no one wants that.
For claiming to want a global audience, they sure are chugging along the wrong path yet again... |
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LinkTSwordmaster
 Posts: 561 Location: PA / USA |
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Black Friday sales have decreased the price of the Quest 2 enough that experiencing VR is honestly pretty feasible right now at half the cost of a PS5. If you want some pretty high-quality experiences, you can go $500 for a Quest 3 and you will have a really good time of it.
I'm interested to see where this goes - I'm expecting it is probably intentioned to turn out like those Spice and Wolf interactive OVAs that they did. Both were relatively well-received from what I could tell? A Gundam rendition of that could certainly be interesting, but I do agree with Blues in that something that only lasts 20 minutes could wind up being a tad underwhelming. There's a series called ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos for VR systems that would probably be a fair representation of what I would expect this Gundam project to look like. For $30 it's gotten solid reviews. After the Gundam Metaverse app turned out to be enough of a dumpster fire that it had to be taken offline, I'd hope that a proper VR Gundam OVA/visual novel experience would at least have parity with ALTDEUS. |
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MFrontier
Posts: 14216 |
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I'm not into VR but I'm morbidly curious how this will turn out.
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DangerMouse
Posts: 4006 |
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Wish I could see it on my PSVR2. Though understandably since it's probably funded by Meta we probably won't be able to get it.
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Connor Dino
Posts: 354 |
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Or you can just skip the VR scene and buy a Steam Deck OLED with that money instead. The best handheld on the market. Period. Why waste any dosh on VR? |
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LinkTSwordmaster
Posts: 561 Location: PA / USA |
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I totally get that vibe, the prospect of taking some of the best PC games on the go is definitely worth the cost. If you don't already have a primary gaming rig or console, then buying a VR setup doesn't really make a ton of sense since a lot of stuff that has VR compatibility right now tends to be shorter or very social/circumstantial, versus being able to sit in front of an Xbox for 5 hours and just grind out some Destiny progress. If you don't have someone that can either let you try theirs or some sort of a setup at a local mall to try a demo, seeing flat footage of VR in motion doesn't really do it justice. What's worse, is you have Facebook screwing around and trying to market their garbage version of what VR apps should look like when the really good stuff doesn't often get the sort of attention it deserves. Trying to stream or record footage while in VR is also a bit of a nightmare unless you already have a streaming setup and do so professionally. BUT, games like Resident Evil 4 become incredibly deeper the moment you have your whole body to work with as a controller. I've gone through that game multiple times, and even expecting what sorts of things are set to jump out at you next, the sheer physical intimidation of an entire town chasing you and yelling is intense. Suddenly, you're not just planning your route around the enemies, now you're having to make split-second tactical decisions about how to physically navigate the obstacles around you with your own body, while taking into consideration how well you can execute a reload as you reach for the ammo and physically re-insert it. "But why would I want to make something more overly-complicated than a single button press?" Because the possibilities it opens up like dual-wielding, aiming in multiple directions at the same time, tossing things that weren't originally intended to be thrown, or tactically-conserving ammo adds layers to the game that clumsily spinning around with a joystick never allowed. In short, it raises the skill ceiling. If you have good coordination in VR with RE4, you can rest your gun over your left arm with your right hand, while holding your knife in your left - toss the knife to stagger the enemy as you retreat and give yourself cover fire, and then lob a grenade (while still firing) and level the enemy crowd. The adrenaline bump from a game that was released on the Gamecube is astounding. Even just being able to load up the Breath of the Wild plateau and just kinda.... exist and explore there with your own body is a pretty insane experience ("BOTW in VR" or "NES Zelda VR" search on YouTube). Someone has slapped together a rough port of Silent Hill 2 and while it's janky as jank can be, even just being able to explore the town and experience its "dungeons" and some legitimate scares is a ride that won't soon be forgotten. Reviews are coming out now for the new VR Assassin's Creed and there's a good chance that's going to be a pretty remarkable physical challenge as well. All of that obviously goes out the window if you get motion sickness quickly or walking/standing and moving fast/precise isn't something that comes easy. I'll still argue to the death that you haven't fully experienced Mario Kart 8 until you've physically flipped upside-down during the anti-grav portion of the track and rammed your friend off & heard them scream IRL because they feel like they're gonna legit fall to the ground and splatter. |
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Fluwm
 Posts: 1058 |
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Even at the "reduced prices," VR is still way too expensive. No way am I tossing $500 on yet another hunk of plastic that'll likely spend most of its life gathering dust.
I think we're still very much stuck in the rut of VR being too expensive to have mass appeal, and too little mass appeal to be worth getting for most people, and that doesn't seem likely to change any time soon. One thing that might make that change, though, would be like a full-on Gundam VR Game -- like a version of Gundam Senki that puts you directly inside the cockpit. These tiny little "experiences" just ain't enough to do more than appease folks who've already bought into VR. |
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LinkTSwordmaster
Posts: 561 Location: PA / USA |
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I honestly think it devalues the platform the same way Wii shovelware did back in the day. Bandai just spent a crapton of money on their Metaverse (cr)app and projects like that just dilute & hide the cool stuff that already is out (and largely free sans hardware expenses). If a game is bad then you can call it as such and move on with your life, but a tech demo that is unique and brilliant.... but also short, is torture. I'll restate, if you already have an RTX 3060 PC or newer, an extra $250 over the holidays just to give Alyx and either the classic RE4 or one of the RE remakes on PC a run in VR is a good time. If your interest doesn't lie there, then there's not really anything that can change it. But, if the issue is that you haven't had a friend let you try theirs or try an in-person demo of one of the actual game games at a store, Digital Foundry has been teasing a look at exactly what I've been proselytising that should be up on their YouTube in the near-future. Hearing their one content guy talk, peeling back the existing VR onion has been surprising him left and right. |
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