Why would you want to play virtual reality games? After all, we can escape into our favorite games by sitting in front of a TV and pressing buttons. Our standard controllers provide luxury inputs that grant us near total control over our digital worlds. They transport us to distant lands and grant us magical abilities. What more could we ask for?
Well, gamers crave the ability to take control and experience the best games through their own eyes. VR would make players feel like Spider-Man, complete with motion sickness and all. Gazing out over the longest of vistas, literally placing themselves in the heart of the action, and physically leaning in and examining the tiniest details of intricate environments. If players are feeling up to it already, they can hit one of the best PC games while in their HMD, and they’ll see what we mean.
Sure, players might have to take into consideration issues like how bashing monsters into walls and off buildings would surely displace their molecules and warp the very fabric of time and space. But they’ll have to endure that risk for the chance to properly yell at their Mass Effect crew like the jocular space dad that Commander Shepard really is, or embrace that Commander Shepard energy themselves. Hell, they’d even put up with the pants-wetting horror of jumping off floating islands and plummeting through the sky in a VR version of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild for the exhilaration of victory.
So help us out here, as we all have ideas for perfect virtual reality experiences. Here’s what we’d want to see in reality – but with many games, we’d take what we could get, meaning VR but. For example, if the best Bioshock ending can only be shown through our own eyes and not haptically, we’ll at least have the decency to nod respectfully to the ingenuity of that solution. Anyway, plenty of points where we just go overboard with VR puns in the hopes that someone will read this on VRchat.
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Who wouldn’t want to yell at a child in the first person? We’re talking about a gruff dad simulator VR experience here. We can’t talk about the perfect VR game without mentioning Breath of the Wild, an action-adventure game which takes the best parts of open-world games, adds in a little bit of Zelda magic, and produces one of the best games of the last decade. Recklessly leaping off clifftops at the game’s beginning would give way to more careful climbing, but the game’s combat plays out beautifully in VR.
Yes, battling Goombas in Super Mario Galaxy would be pretty special in VR too, but Breath of the Wild would put a lot more space between you and your foes than a tiny galaxy, so it’s the safer bet. Besides, we’re all thinking of the pants-wetting horror of jumping off floating islands and plummeting through the very world around you – silence for a moment, and contemplate the majesty of that.
VR really makes you feel the danger of leaping into unknown territory, and the exhilaration of victory. It’s not just about the awesome action though; when you burst into a cabin and begin asking questions, it’s because you’re the vehicle for the hilarious lines. A new version of Chrono Trigger in full 3D VR would also be incredible, despite the possibility of getting obliterated by Lavos in the first person.
God of War
Hey, we can yell at a child in VR. Who’s with us? Let’s do this. A gruff dad simulator VR experience for God of War would ensure that we hit the right tone – pissed off dad, but loving dad. Sometimes. Sometimes you’re terrified, other times you’re just disappointed – it’s important nuance we must strive to achieve. And of course, we’d have the god-smacking battle done and dusted before you know it, but what about teaching the boy to boomerang foes at range? That part would take a few hours.
VR versions of…
Mass Effect: Andromeda
Chakats, krogan, quarians, geth, vorcha… all more relevant than ever. Now cue a three-hour rambling about how this one lonely egg in a fetch quest would go on to be Shepard’s best pal, before eventually taking her to the Hades Nexus, officially making
