Games
A run-down of the games we want - nay, demand - on Sony’s VR headset.
We all know that Sony's got something big planned for E3 to do with Project Morpheus, its own virtual reality Oculus-Rift-a-like. But so far, we've heard next to nothing about which games we can expect to make the leap from the dull, analogue present into the glorious virtual future. So, don your speculation caps and join us on a journey through the ten games it would be actually downright illegal for Sony not give us - and we should know, because we asked a lawyer (no we didn't).
1. Uncharted
Granted, to get the best out of the Morpheus headset, Mr. Drake would need to consent to shifting the action in the next inevitable Uncharted sequel into first person - but we think that's a fabulous idea. Uncharted is already the closest thing humanity has to virtual tourism, with its globe-hopping adventures taking players from gloomy south London streets to lost jungle temples. Nathan, Sully et al might technically be the stars of the game, but the locations are a very close second - and with a Morpheus headset strapped over your eyeballs, they'd be yours to examine in even finer detail. Maybe you could do some actual archaeology, instead of just wandering around a succession of dig sites shooting at other visitors.
2. Crash Bandicoot
Before there was Temple Run, there was Crash - charging through the jungle jumping rolling and spinning straight into the hearts of kids with their PS1s everywhere. We wouldn't even necessarily need a fancy-graphics-reboot here, either. Going back to Crash's colourful, polygonal world would be like revisiting a cherished childhood home. With more giant crabs and polar bears, obviously, and fixed hit box detection.
3. Mirror's Edge
The first Mirror's Edge was a mixed a bag - specifically, a bag filled with awesome freerunning segments and a whole lot of other rubbish that should have be tied up in said bag and kicked into a canal. The story was dull, it had too many inside-y bits and the shooting was unforgivable - especially from the studio that gave us the Battlefield series. But oh, boy, those parkour segments were good: running, sliding, vaulting and ziplining over the roofs of a sparkling white city, dodging guards and attack helicopters.
4. Sniper Elite 3
Another game that would have to make the switch from third to first-person. While we're just fine with another eight hours of staring at the back of protagonist Karl Fairburne's head as he goes around bumping off enemy officers and hiding their bodies behind piles of rubble, an alternate first person mode would make the challenger even harder. Searching around frantically for enemy combatants without a magical invisible camera floating above your shoulder giving you a heads up would only ramp up the tension as you reload and search. The game's signature kill-cams that trace the path of every killing shot Fairburne fires would also take on a rather, um, visceral perspective in first person, but we can’t imagine most ratings bodies enjoying this aspect of VR too much.
5. Evolve
We're already a little bit over-excited for Evolve, the four-versus-one first-person monster hunter from the studio that brought us Left 4 Dead. But the idea of charging around its dark jungle planet in full VR, keeping one eye on the monster's tracks and craning our neck around looking for disturbed flocks of birds makes us feel all warm and funny. Imagine stalking through the undergrowth, constantly checking behind you that there isn't a monster with its jaws around a team-mate, or jetpacking up to the top of the tallest rock and scanning distant foliage for signs of movement. Imagine Predator, basically. It would be like Predator.
6. Outlast
There's surely not a person alive who could finish a tour of Mount Massive Asylum in full VR without screaming - or worse. Outlast's most terrifying mechanic is protagonist Miles Upshur's video camera, which packs a battery-hungry night vision mode to let him navigate round the asylum’s machete-wielding maniacs - a natural fit for the Morpheus headset. To be honest, we'll probably just lie and tell people we played this. And that we lost all our achievements due to, um, a firmware update or something.
7. Portal
Enterprising internet types have already hammered out a way for you to play Portal and its sequel with the Oculus Rift headset - with some quite nauseating results you can check out above. See, one of the biggest worries about the future of VR in gaming is motion sickness, specifically the queasiness some people feel when their brain thinks they're moving but their body's staying still. If you're concerned you might be part of this affected minority, try popping on a Morpheus headset and flinging yourself through dimensional tears in floors, walls and ceilings against a ticking clock. If you're not sick all over the room, congratulations: virtual reality might just be for you.
8. Driveclub
Driveclub's creative director Matt Southern was positively rhapsodic at the game's reveal during the PlayStation 4 conference last year. "Have you seen the carbon fibre weave we've done on the bonnet? What about the grain of the leather seats? Or the body of this tiny fly we've painstakingly squashed against the windshield, scanned over a period of weeks from the body of a real fly for absolutely total realism?" He didn't say that last bit, but it will definitely have come up at a design meeting. Which is all a long and slightly snarky way of saying that Driveclub is a very, very good looking game. Add a VR headset into the mix and we might not bother racing at all, content just to sit in the driver's seat of our supercar and marvel at the fidelity of the dashboard.
9. EVE Valkyrie
Valkyrie's being built by the same guys who make that space-faring life-sink EVE Online, so once you strap yourself into its cockpit, expect to not be leaving any time soon after. On PC, the game is being developed as a launch title for the Oculus Rift, meaning that this spaceship dogfighting simulator is being built from the ground up with virtual reality in mind - but given CCP is no stranger to PlayStation 3, a Morpheus port seems like a great fit. We don't know much more about it than that, but from what we've seen you can expect a flight sim that's like all the best parts of Star Wars and Battlestar Galactica being beamed directly into your eyes.
10. Flower
Virtual reality doesn't have to be all spaceships, racecars and barrelling marsupials in denim cut offs though. And that's why we're rounding out our list with Flower, a lovely game by the studio that made Journey about, well, being a flower. Or more precisely, a breeze that blows flowers about. Flower is already the most relaxing experience you can have with your PlayStation before a firmware update teaches it how to give hot stone massages - but controlling Flower in first-person, with a virtual reality headset... Well, that must be a bit like being a god.
What games would you most like to see on PS4 with Project Morpheus? Tell us in the comments below!
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