(gentle upbeat music)
- We've known the PS VR2 has been in the works for a while,
but we actually got to have some hands-on time
with the headset and demo a few upcoming games,
like The Walking Dead, Resident Evil Village,
and Sony's own big launch title,
meant to show what the PS VR2 is capable of,
Horizon: Call of the Mountain.
But first, let's go through the hardware.
(light music)
The PS VR2 keeps a lot of the original's adjustable design.
It's easy to put on,
and there's a knob in the back
that you turn to adjust fit.
That's great, as you can easily accommodate
a lot of different head sizes.
And I like that it didn't snag on my hair
like some other VR headsets I've tried.
And of course, you can also adjust your IPD
so you get the best image possible.
As far as design goes,
it's been updated to match the look of the PS5,
and altogether, it's pretty slick.
The headsets, headphones, and new VR2 sense controllers,
they just look like they fit together.
Compared to the original,
the PSVR 2 is also way more streamlined.
For starters,
you don't need to set up a finicky camera stand.
Instead, there are four cameras embedded directly
into the headset that tracks your movements.
And in the games I played,
it actually worked pretty well.
You also don't need a ton of cords
or the extra processing unit like before.
You can just plug in a single USB-C cable into your PS5,
which is helpful since you're not as likely
to get tangled up in cables,
but a part of me still wishes this wasn't a tethered device.
So is it immersive?
That depends a lot on the game,
but Sony's added a lot of little touches here and there
to help you feel like you're in another world.
The headset now has 4K HDR,
a 110-degree field of view,
and something called foveated rendering using eye tracking.
Basically, it's a rendering technique
where you reduce image quality in your peripheral vision
while enhancing it in the direction you're actually looking.
And I gotta say, it works pretty seamlessly.
Quick disclaimer:
We weren't allowed to capture our own gameplay footage,
so what you're seeing in this video
is all provided by the publishers.
As for image quality,
Sony says you can get 90 hertz to 120-hertz refresh rates
on a 2,000-by-2,040 OLED display.
And while a lot of the games looks great,
it did feel like there was a bit of a textured layer
between you and the game.
The best way I can describe it is if your contacts get dry.
You can still see clearly,
but everything is just a tad hazy around the edges.
If you're familiar with VR,
you'll know what I'm talking about.
That said, I didn't think it distracted from the gameplay.
Trust me, I was plenty immersed
when some Resident Evil zombies got all up in my face.
Okay. (heavy breathing)
- That was really good.
- Oh, okay, (chuckle)
Sorry.
That was a lot.
(light music)
Overall improvements in the displays
do make the whole experience a lot more enjoyable
and far less tiring.
It didn't feel like I needed a long break
before jumping back into the frame,
massacring hordes of walkers with a chainsaw.
My favorite part
was actually the haptics.
There's now a motor in the headset
and the new controllers also vibrate during the game,
and not just when you stab a katana into a zombie's head,
which is really fun, by the way.
(light music)
But when I was rock-climbing
in Horizon: Call of the Mountain,
you could feel little vibrations when you grip the rocks.
Just added an extra layer of physicality
that was really neat.
Speaking of the controllers, I really liked them
once I figured out which way to hold them.
The controls are easy to use,
and it borrows a lot of the DNA
from dual-sense controllers, like the adapted triggers.
The sense controllers also have finger detection,
so your character can do a lot more
than just grab onto items or weapons.
Unfortunately, it wasn't available in every demo we tried,
but it worked fairly well on Horizon.
That was definitely the most technically sound game
of the four that I had the chance to try out.
It felt like the world was more interactive
and less pre-scripted,
making it a much more immersive experience.
For example,
you can feel your hand bump into virtual objects
instead of just getting lost in an invisible wall of pixels.
You can break plates, toss boxes,
and chuck apples around you if you want.
Hell, you can bang a gong
if you want, just for the heck of it.
When I was using a bow and arrow,
I kept one eye closed
like I presumably would in the real world.
So to answer to the question, "Is it immersive?"
Well, it depends on the game,
but my answer would be a big yes.
- And then, and yeah
yeah, there you go.
Okay, okay you did it, you did it.
- Oh, oh I did it, okay.
(laughs)
The virtual world was loading seamlessly,
parallax effects felt true,
physics in the games also felt real,
and even the sense of height felt terrifying.
Overall, the PS VR2 isn't revolutionizing VR gaming,
but it's miles better than Sony's first stab
at VR gaming in 2016.
You'd expect and hope a lot of things would change
in nearly six years,
and they do, all the way from the simplicity
of the hardware to performance.
We don't know the pricing or availability just yet,
but color us intrigued.
Yeah, that drink would be nice.
That was fun, but also-
- What happened?
- It's scary, man.
It was scary.
They were screaming at you,
and there's ladies with makeup and
(sighs)
(chuckle)