PlayStation VR: everything you need to know about Sony’s virtual reality headset

There are things you do at a concert that you wouldn’t during your everyday life. When thousands of people are pumping their fists in time to the beat, you do it, too. When they chant “encore” in unison, so do you. I did all of those things while attending my first concert from Hatsune Miku, the holographic vocaloid pop star who’s appeared on late night talk shows and toured with real, live human bands. My arms are still sore from pumping them along to the rhythm of her songs, and my throat hurts a bit from when I yelled “konichiwa” from the front row.

The weird thing is I did all of this from my living room with a PlayStation VR strapped to my face.

Virtual reality offers up plenty of potential for completely new kinds of experiences. Games where you can use your hands instead of a controller to interact with the world, and where the added immersion of VR can make you feel like you’re truly somewhere else. But one of the things it’s best at is immersing you in a place — and that turns out to be a great fit for games that induce a zen-like state of mind.

Today’s launch of PlayStation VR includes a number of new games, ranging from intense action experiences to whimsical adventures. But the best launch games for PSVR are titles that help put you in that almost trance-like state through a combination of music, trippy visuals, and rhythmic action. That includes games like the entrancing rhythm game Thumper and the beautifully retro puzzler SuperHyperCube. But the best one of all might be a title that was originally released 15 years ago: Rez.

Do you want to replace all your worldly possessions with a virtual reality headset, specifically one made by Sony for the PlayStation 4 gaming console? October 13th is your lucky day — that’s when the PlayStation VR ships and hits store shelves.

To be clear, there are reasons to hold off on PSVR, whether that’s for a few months or a whole generation of hardware. Sony promised 50 games by the end of the year, but only around 30 of these are out at launch. The Move motion controllers are distinctly subpar. Sony has promised that the upcoming PlayStation 4 Pro will give PSVR a performance bump, but it’s not coming out until November 10th. VR in general is an unproven, experimental format. And even if it’s cheaper than the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive, the PlayStation VR still costs several hundred dollars.

As recently as last year, you could position virtual reality headsets sort of like runway fashion designs: as abstractly stylish and futuristic things that the vast majority of people will never have to even consider purchasing, and could therefore admire from afar.

In 2016, that’s changed. VR might not be mainstream, but companies are starting to pitch it that way. Take, for example, Sony’s PlayStation VR, coming out on Thursday. In honor of the release, Sony has published a three-part, 8-minute instructional video series for installing and using PSVR. Turns out the whole thing is a little more complicated than this fantastic GIF from last year:

In the early days of virtual reality games, experiences can largely be divided into two categories: those built explicitly for VR, and those that tack on VR like a promotional bullet point. The latter is a great way to get people interested in the medium — hey, it’s Final Fantasy in VR! — but because of a lack of investment, both in time and forethought, these experiences range from forgettable to terrible. When VR is an afterthought, you can tell. Unfortunately that’s the case with “Blood Ties,” the latest downloadable add-on for Rise of the Tomb Raider.

“Blood Ties” is a curious thing. It feels sort of like an epilogue to a larger story. Instead of the action-heavy intensity of the rest of Rise of the Tomb Raider, it’s a much more relaxed experience that has you exploring the crumbling Croft Manor, reading old journals and inspecting ancient artifacts in an attempt to prove that Lara is the rightful heir to her childhood home. It’s a great way to dive deep into Tomb Raider lore.

Earlier this week, I got to tell the world what I thought of PlayStation VR. I liked it, and I’m excited at the prospect of more people trying virtual reality. But more than any headset so far, it’s made me confront a difficult fact: it makes one of my favorite ways to play video games almost impossible.

A few months ago, I moved in with my husband for the first time in our relationship. (It’s New York; housing is complicated.) Gaming is a job and a hobby for both of us — in fact, it’s how we met — and we devote long hours to completely different genres: he organizes local multiplayer tournaments and supports arcade games, I review virtual reality headsets and play old role-playing games over and over. But at some point in our relationship, we came together around the PlayStation 4.

Next week, PlayStation 4 will become the first console to play virtual reality games with the release of PlayStation VR. Sony is a bit late to the VR game — both the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift launched earlier this year for PC — but the company is hoping to make up for its tardiness with ease of use. PSVR is cheaper than the competition, more comfortable, and works with a console that tens of millions of people already own.

Of course, cost and ease of use only matter if PSVR is also supported by worthwhile games. I’ve spent much of the past week with a large chunk of the PSVR launch lineup, and while I haven’t been able to play everything yet — including notable games like Rez Infinite and RIGS: Mechanized Combat League — I can already confidently say the headset’s software shows promise.

This was supposed to be the year virtual reality broke out. The Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, the first two high-end consumer devices on the market, arrived this spring to critical praise and preorders that sold out within minutes. Then… they plateaued. Despite some great experiences, months of near-total unavailability dulled the post-release buzz for both headsets, particularly the Rift. Neither the Rift or the Vive ecosystems produced a killer app that was big enough to push VR out of the margins, especially given the high cost of a headset and gaming PC. While 360-degree video has at least gotten a toehold in popular culture, the dream of sophisticated VR gaming — which arguably resurrected virtual reality in the first place — remains far away for most people.

But there are three months left in the year, and one thing that could change that: PlayStation VR.

Ahh, unboxings. The methadone substitute for the heroin high of buying new gadgets. They don’t completely scratch the itch, but they give some relief. And if you’re jonesing for the upcoming PlayStation VR (out October 13th), the folks at Sony have something to help. The video above takes you through everything you get with the $399 PS VR Core Bundle, including the headset itself, the Processor Unit for video passthrough, headphones, various cables, and the PlayStation VR demo disc.

Verge Video: PlayStation VR’s launch lineup