Road to virtual reality has just been lit up as we’re awaiting for first mass available VR devices to become available. One of such is HTC Vive – virtual reality kit born of cooperation between Taiwanese tech giant HTC and Bellevue-based video game veteran developers Valve. Needless to say, video game industry is set to profit the most out of this event. Come April 5, most of Vive proud owners will be able to experience something new and largely different in the field of gaming.
Launching of new technology is never easy as certain time frame is often required before the tech itself takes momentum. 50 or so initial games should do the trick for HTC Vive, however. It’s no mean feat really, since gamers will have plenty to choose from straight from the gates with more to follow afterwards. Of course, some of the games designed especially for Vive will bring entirely new and different experience to gamers. Trio of free HTC Vive games coming bundled with Vive set: Job Simulator, Fantastic Contraption, and Google Tilt Brush should ease things up for everyone, but probably won’t pique too much interest. It’s games like Vanishing Realms: Rite of Steel, The Brookhaven Experiment, Call of the Starseed: The Gallery and Elite: Dangerous, that’ll warrant most of the VR hype. It comes as no surprise really. First person shooters, space simulations and adventures should be HTC Vive games that works best with virtual reality sets – at least initially. For everything else, we’ll have to wait and see how things develop.
But how will games generally fare on Vive. By looking at the initial game library, one can see that most of them come with goofy graphics, and that’s not coincidental. Extremely high Vive requirements are forcing developers’ hand, and before the issue gets resolved, we won’t be able to enjoy the extreme graphics that are emanated from gamer-spec computers’ monitors. Not all games will be goofed up, however. Some will be as realistic as they come these days, and that’s exactly what people are expecting from virtual reality headsets in general. High quality graphics, real, up-close and personal experience, and lots of fun along the way.
As time progresses, developers ready to embrace the VR challenge will only grow in number. This promises more complex games in the future – not only in graphics, but in other departments such as gameplay, longevity, overall quality and even uniqueness. If neither of initial games doesn’t manage to offer that unique feeling that happens to grace a game every few years or so – rest assured that one of the future ones will certainly manage to do that. Just remember Playstation. It didn’t take too long for the games like Crash Bandicoot, Resident Evil and Tomb Raider to appear, and they have certainly elevated console gaming industry at the time. We’re counting the days before HTC Vive gets on shelves around us and eagerly anticipating to experience the hype ourselves. How about you?
