E3: Virtual Umbrella’s Oculus Experience

With all the excitement of E3, we had some tech demo’s that we were really looking forward to trying out. Of course Oculus was high on our hit list. We booked in our demo for the last day of E3, so the excitement had been building for a few days.

We were ready!

The Oculus team that assisted us were great, allowing Bertie and I to experience the demo in the same room at the same time. On entering the room, we got to see the CV1 for the first time, the design and shape was what I expected from the pictures that Oculus had shared online.

The first thing that stood out to me was how light the headset was, from using DK1’s and DK2’s for many events, it was refreshing to experience the weight. This instantly transported me into the VR world. Ensuring immersion with VR is a huge aspect to overcome, of course the headwear plays a massive part in this.

We had a selection of games, shown to us in the Oculus Home section and were allowed 7 minutes in an experience.

I chose Chronos – A first person RPG in which I had to adventure through an ancient labyrinth. The game reminded me of Rouge Legacy, in that when you failed, you returned  to start with varied character stats. This kept the game interesting and I’m sure given the opportunity, I could have played it for hours.

Bertie had the opportunity to try two games, Edge of nowhere and Eve: Valkyrie.

“Edge of Nowhere was amazing! A bit confusing to begin with as it was my first time playing VR from a 3rd person perspective but it was really engaging and I felt much more involved than I would playing on a normal screen.

I wasn’t able to experience Eve fully as the sound was broken on the demo I played, however I knew what was going on, as the demo was the same as the video shown in the Oculus press conference.”

Once the game was selected, the Oculus assistant pulled down the headphones over my ears. The headphones now attached to the sides of the headset, with up and down motion. I found this an interesting concept, integrating the headphones to the kit – No more tangled headphone wires to deal with.

Within the seven minutes, I played and admired the game, but I also really enjoyed the experience. I took everything in, and at one moment forgot that I was sat in a chair with three other people watching my reactions. I had become the character. When my time was up and reality was calling, for the first time in my VR career I felt very comfortable, my eye site wasn’t blurry and my head didn’t feel heavy from wearing the headset. There were no lines to be seen around my eyes. Bonus!

We had time to talk to the team about the dynamics and tech side of the headsets, we then had the opportunity to get up close and personal with the Oculus Touch (well, as close as we were allowed) the controls are small, sleek and easy to hold for gaming purposes. I look forward to hearing more reviews on them in the upcoming weeks.

So in summary, no embarrassing lines around my head to be seen, amazing weight difference and visually clear. I truly disappeared from the E3 madness that afternoon.

Sammy
Client Director