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REVIEW: SKYRIM VR (PSVR)

28/3/2018

14 Comments

 
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GUEST REVIEW by SUPER BAD ADVICE
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If you were looking for somewhere to go for tea and saw a restaurant review that said ‘Fabulous food, but we guarantee you will turn your buttocks inside out with the runs tomorrow’, then chances are – unless you’re astonishingly constipated and see this as a boon – you’d give it a miss and go elsewhere.
 
This guaranteed bum cloud to VR’s silver lining is its biggest problem: you know it’s an experience that more often than not is going to make you feel mildly queasy at the very least.
 
In fact, Mrs SBA was chatting to a friend the other day whose husband used to work as a games tester, and he mentioned when his team were bugfixing VR games – for whole days at a time – they all had sick buckets installed next to them in the office. And worse still, they all had to make use of them.
 
Say what you like about the glamour of stacking shelves in Lidl compared to playing videogames as a job, but at least needing a spittoon to periodically regurgitate into isn’t part of the deal with the former.
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DIY VOMIT
This this DIY vomit comet effect is why I’d held off on buying Skyrim VR for ages because it tends to be games such as this, where you have full and free movement, that are the worst for bringing on ‘the pukes’. After all, why buy a game you can barely play before chucking up?
 
But as it’s currently on sale, my curiosity and eye for a bargain won out over my desire to not fleck my lounge carpet with stomach acid. So with scant regard to my oesophageal safety, I donned my absurd electric hat to bring you this review.
 
First off, yes: I was sick, but only a bit. Although that’s damning with faint praise really, as any level of being sick is still unpleasant – it’s about as preferable as being gently stabbed rather than run through.
 
To be fair the queasiness did improve over time, but if you find you’re particularly prone to the VR heaves I’d weigh up whether the perseverance is worth it: this may just not be the game for you.
BIT OF A RETCH
​What’s it like though when you’re not retching? Well, I’m not going to go into too much detail about Skyrim itself: that’s the same game it’s been since 2011, huge map and weird graphical glitches and all. This is more about whether VR brings ‘milkshake’ to Skyrim’s ‘yard’, or just a load of rancid curds in a slop bucket.
                                          
To that end, it’s certainly immersive. Walking through forests, villages and dungeons and having them all around you is amazing, and this is still VRs big, undeniable wow factor. You just don’t get the same sense of ‘being there’ wonder from a regular game, no matter how detailed or pretty it is.
 
Combat is also the same and yet much more; swinging your move controllers about to use your swords is hilarious (though of course, makes you look like a total clod in the real world). Using magic is the best though – whack out a few fire spells and you’re essentially doing virtual ‘Hadouken!’s all over the place.
 
The game in VR also has a very different feel. A skeleton with a spear popping out from behind a dungeon wall in regular Skyrim is a bit ‘Oh!’ if you weren’t expecting it. In VR, that ‘Oh!’ becomes a ‘Fffffuuu-waaah?!?!?’, followed by much panicked flailing. It essentially turns the world, and how you react to it, up to 11.
 
There are issues though, and quite a few of ‘em. Even though it’s an older game it’s still bloody ambitious for VR, and as it wasn’t built for it originally the transition has had some hiccups. 
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CLUNKY TRILLIONS
​For example, menus – of which Skyrim has about a trillion – can be clunky to navigate with your two bulbous wand controllers. Waving your arms about like a demented conductor just to try and select an option gets annoying quite rapidly. Especially if, as I did, you accidentally boop the cat on the nose while doing so and he then claws your hand. Actual wounding is too much realism, thanks.
 
Movement can also be a bit imprecise. Granted, you do get a choice – a sort of ‘click and hop’ approach where you move to a set waypoint, or a more free-moving option where your character ambles off in whatever direction you waft your controllers – but neither have the crispness of using a joypad. Consequently, finding yourself smacking into walls or stuck in doors is common.
 
As a result, you’ll more often than not be unable to enjoy the immersion as you’ll be blundering about with all the grace of a one-legged kangaroo who’s just eaten a bottle of hand sanitiser. This is especially true in combat, and fairly quickly that fun sword swinging will be ditched entirely in preference for much more effective (i.e. you can actually hit something) ranged attacks.
 
The visuals suffer too. The game works best in darker, enclosed locations simply because the PSVR doesn’t have the juice to render the world in high-res.
 
Inside is more or less fine. Outside, things at a distance can be blurry and opaque enough that it feels more akin to some sort of medical student training device to show them what it’s like to be a person living with cataracts.
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UNABRIDGED TO FAR
​I hate to use the term, but even though Skyrim VR is the full, unabridged game (and that deserves credit – no watered-down VR lite version here) it’s not best enjoyed as a game: it’s an ‘experience’. I’m a good few hours in but I can’t see myself finishing it as, even setting nausea aside, it’s just too cack-handed.
 
That makes it a bit of a waste, because you almost certainly won’t see anywhere near everything the game has to offer – and if playing Skyrim is what you want to do first and foremost, there are much cheaper and/or less bilious ways of doing it. Not least of which being the recent Switch port, which graphically runs rings round this version and has its own ‘immersion’ factor in its motion controls.
 
Plus of course you can play Switch Skyrim on the loo, whereas this version will have your head down the loo instead.
 
If you want to show off your PSVR and have a few spare coins knocking around, and can live with ALL the shortcomings, then sure – give it a go. There is fun to be had here, and doing stuff like having a tavern brawl in first person never gets old. Just be warned that actually getting to that virtual pub might make you vomit a lot more than a whole night spent on the gin in a real pub would.
 
SCORE: Blee and a barf (three and a half) out of sicks (six)
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14 Comments
Craig Graham
28/3/2018 08:37:21 am

This game made me sell my Psvr. I was already getting fed up with the faff of setting the thing up. When I got Skyrim, one of my favourite games, playing it made me have extreme barf feelings.

I decided to cash in and buy a Switch. Maybe a new generation wireless psvr with higher resolution will tempt me again

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Craig G
29/3/2018 10:31:35 am

Now Wipeout is in VR I'm instantly regretting my sale

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Spindarella aint a fella she’s a girl DJ
29/3/2018 06:18:17 pm

Wipeout in VR is absolutely the best thing in gaming ever. Me no lie.

Paul
28/3/2018 09:40:20 am

I think we need a live stream of Biffo playing this, with a small inset of what he looks like in the real world at the same time. We could turn it into a drinking game - you drink when Biffo hurls!

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Steve
28/3/2018 10:56:06 am

Another review written by someone who finds VR sickening. It's an issue for some people but many people get their VR legs after a few days. I have played Skyrim with smooth movement for hours at a time and really enjoyed it. Having someone who gets sick in VR writing reviews of the games makes no sense. The sickness in Skyrim is the same sickness you get in most games in VR if you are one of the people who is affected that way. It isn't a criticism of the individual game, and for a VR owner who enjoys VR this review and the hundreds like it don't tell you much. Why send someone who feels sick in VR to review VR games? It's like asking someone who hates coconut to choose the best coconut.

Now, the menus. Yes, they are unwieldy and bloody awful. That for me was the worst thing about Skyrim.

I wish the whole review industry would start reviewing VR games from the point of view of a player who enjoys VR. If you get sick in one game you get sick in them all. PSVR came out 17 months ago and we know it can make some people queasy. For everyone else it can be mind blowing and it is annoying to read a review of a game only to find the focus of the review is that the reviewer doesn't do VR.

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Super Bad Advice
28/3/2018 11:06:22 am

I've played quite a few VR games now Davis, and my legs are packed with VR thanks. As I said, it did get better with time and I was only slightly sick (in my mouth, should you wish to know). Crucially I've also had no pukey issues whatsoever in other VR games. Indeed, I reviewed SuperHot VR for Digi as well (which was bloody brilliant), and there's nary a mention of vomiting. So I do enjoy VR, and your suggestion that if you're sick in one VR game you'll be sick in all of them is this: a great deal of guff.

However, this game undeniably made me feel a bit queasy. So it might well make other people feel a bit queasy - equally, they may be other people who are fine in t'other games. You know - the average person, as opposed to someone who feels rotten the moment they do anything in VR, or someone like yourself who obviously has a cast-iron constitution and no inner ears and thus isn't thrown off by anything. Knowing it could make them a bit gurgly where other titles don't is the sort of info that people would find useful, so I mentioned it.

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Nick
28/3/2018 12:54:43 pm

Stop ducking the important issue Mr Advice... Which was the best coconut?

Spiney O'Sullivan
28/3/2018 01:37:47 pm

Does Superhot VR use point-to-point motion, or actual motion?

Super Bad Advice
28/3/2018 02:10:22 pm

Best coconut is...Coconut 7B.

Mark M
28/3/2018 11:19:35 am

I've had a few goes of VR and it just makes me feel dizzy. I feel like I'm going to fall over at any moment. Not sure if it's the refresh rate,. FOV, the enclosed feeling of the headset or a combination of the three.

Sod Skyrim menus in VR, sounds too much like a Mr. Motivator workout.

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Spiney O’Sullivan
28/3/2018 11:55:36 am

I never bought Skyrim because it seems to consist mostly of giant spiders.

I’m definitely not buying a version where the giant spiders are an inch from my eyes.

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Gaming Mill link
28/3/2018 04:58:45 pm

I bought Skyrim. I've never got past the first opening part. Why? I just got bored within ten minutes or so. I don't think even VR would entice me enough (I've got loads of Oculus and other VR gear).

Give me Chuckie Egg in VR - I'd buy that.

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Geebs
28/3/2018 11:23:01 pm

Well, VR seems to have the “Chuck” part sorted...

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Spindarella aint a fella she’s a girl DJ
29/3/2018 08:04:37 pm

Dear mr super bad flatus reviewer sir,
Please can you now review wipeout VR - just because it is the most awesomest game on these new swimming goggle things and people need to know that this really is the way we will be playing games in future space time.
Seriously, soundtrack is not so great but game itself is phenomenal- the port to VR is flawless and lots of bits just bring a smile to my varnished old face. Just the fact that its the full PS4 game running at top speed with full multiplayer capability is impressive enough but the feeling of immersion when sat in a cockpit and banking round corners full speed whilst firing at competitors is better than the best egg you’ve ever laid. It’s assumed the crown of best demonstration of VR capabilities yet- just a shame sony didnt launch the VR headset with this game- woukd have done them as much credit as the first wipeout games did when PS1 launched...

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