Sony next-gen PlayStation5 VR 120Hz 4K oled hmd (=PSVR2) - can now be used for PCVR too!

Synapse just launched and looks awesome, I'm downloading it right now. Here's the launch trailer:

Note that Synapse like Horizon Call of the Mountain is exclusive to PSVR2, so you need a PlayStation 5 to run it. 

Synapse is a 9/10 to me - Sony just release a new trailer for about 45 min ago, so the trailer below is very fresh 😉

The game is repetitive like having to complete 3 sub-levels to proceed (or having to complete 3 mini-levels without dying). It's not that easy, at least not for me. You do feel like having real Jedi powers, really strange that other VR games never really exploited that. I took a few shots while playing the game to show you details you cannot see in the trailers:

Sunlight and the sea - the waves look quite good

You do have very high-res textures (see also the sand in the first image):

- but the Jedi powers are the most awesome part of the game:

The boxes are very hard - and can crush both stone and enemies. You can basically use a box like a hammer - lift it up and bring it down on an enemy repeatedly until the enemy is dead. 

You got nice dynamic shadows and reflections are great too - see how the box is reflected in the ground surface:

View distance can be vast:

I'm not fond of the black-white color theme, but you're inside another person's mind, and it's said we dream in black-white, so maybe the lack of colors for environments is ok-ish...

I died approaching an enemy to give you these close-ups 😇

You have a gigantic number of upgrades available, and this is the game I'm playing right now. Maybe because it's physically exhausting swinging the sword in Undead Citadel and Grimlord... 🙂 

I could not understand why Synapse was so hard - replayed the same levels quite a lot of times - until I realized I've forgotten to activate my upgrades! 😬 Well, I feel like a semi-god now with all my new powers, got quite a few 😅 - The game is much easier when you don't have to use precision shooting, but can just use eye-tracking to pick up enemies with your Jedi powers and throw them 100 meter away to their deaths. 

Synapse, together with Call of the Mountain, may be the finest VR games this year (so far) - even if I do have much love for the Undead Citadel, Vertigo 2 and District Steel, but none of these games match the god-like gameplay of Sony's main PSVR2 exclusives, excluding GT7 and RE8 VR. 

I met my first Behemoth today - and died:

Kinda feels like Quake with Jedi powers. The game is way beyond normal VR games, and really understands to give you powers that create and support a virtual reality.

Here I'm holding an enemy in the air while shooting:

 - also got a medal killing 4 enemies with one explosive, lol:

I think Synapse, Call of the Mountain, GT7 and Resident Evil 8 VR are sufficient reasons to get the PSVR2. And RE4 VR may be a 5th reason. 

I could see a nice future for PSVR2 as the tech matures.

Synapse is still growing on me - might be my new Beat Saber - a relatively simple game that does everything right.

I only notice the sum of the parts in Synapse. I don't notice the 3D sound, the mura, the haptics nor that I use eye tracking to pick things I lift and throw with my Jedi powers - all these things become perfectly integrated into a grand experience unlike anything I've seen before.

Foveated rendering is used to lift the res, and it does look nice and very sharp - and I don't notice the 60 fps with reprojections much, if at all.

You'll play the same levels many times, until you're good enough to complete them - and more experience provides more upgrades, so you constantly become stronger. The game is much harder than Alyx, also when you have to beat  many levels straight without dying to advance.

So with Synapse + foveated rendering + eye tracking we're finally seeing some kinda new VR milestone reached.

Still spending my time in Synapse - seems to be the best VR game available at the moment. I've beaten the first behemoth, and now these heavily armed dudes will occur in other levels too. I just died here:

Here I'm taking bullets from a behemoth in front of me - and getting laser-grilled by a sentinel in the air 🙂

Also got my dear and highly beloved grenade launcher 😍

Some prefer shotgun parties, but there's nothing better than grenade launcher parties 😁 Like here, where I'm giving a few grenades away for free 🤓

There's also nothing like holding a flying sentinel in your hand and preparing a grenade 🙂

Some of the awards are rather amusing

You can of course also grab more common enemies and shoot them, but I'd rather save grenades for bigger and better things 😇

Some new environments, but Synapse is not much about sight-seeing - get Call of the Mountain for that instead:

All levels are handcrafted, not randomly generated - but you'll start at a random location when revisiting a map. Doom VFR is quite good too, but having been there and done that, I guess Synapse is the next best hardcore shooter. Like Alyx and Doom VFR, Synapse is a first person shooter with big guns and tons of explosion (also some enemies seem inspired by Serious Sam, like some suicidal enemies running fast toward you and about to explode). 

Switchback had a major (8GB) patch enabling foveated rendering to massively increase performance and image resolution:

Unfortunately, some of the great dynamic shadows also got cut - this is before the patch:

- and this is after the patch, note the missing or reduced shadows:

That said you do get nice dynamic shadows in the game, although I am suspicious some shadows are now using lower res than before.

The trade-off is worth it though, I think the res may be twice as high as before - or at least 50%.

Maybe the biggest news - to some - Vertigo 2 is now officially coming for the PSVR2:

https://store.playstation.com/en-th/concept/10009050

UploadVR recently rated Vertigo 2 the next best PCVR game of all - with Alyx being number one:

https://www.uploadvr.com/best-pc-vr-games-25-steam-oculus/

Quote: "Vertigo 2 is one of the best PC VR-exclusive experiences available and a masterclass in enthralling, VR-first game design. What's even more impressive is that it's largely put together by one solo developer – Zach Tsiakalis-Brown from Zulubo Productions.

The game pays homage to Valve classics and seminal VR releases, but doesn't fall victim to copying them. Instead, it forges ahead to create an impressive solo gaming experience in the same vein as Half-Life: Alyx. Featuring tactile weapons, creative enemies and an engaging narrative-driven campaign, it's a shining example of what PC VR still has to offer in 2023."

If you can't have Alyx, I guess Vertigo 2 will be the close to the next best thing. 

Green Hell VR is coming to PSVR2 in about 2 weeks:

EDIT: Seems the jury is still out whether or not this is a massively upgraded Quest port or a downgraded PCVR port. Guess we'll have to await some reviews! 

I can't even get 90 fps using Index res 100% with the RTX 3090 if I max out in-game PCVR graphics - so might be a great challenge running the PCVR version even if down-scaled.

I do not agree with Ryan McCaffrey from IGN on this subject:

https://twitter.com/DMC_Ryan/status/1689033750704005121

You could say that Valve made a hmd, and then only one game, while Sony made a hmd and already 6 exclusive games: Call of the Mountain (AAA), Resident Evil 8 (AAA, but 2D ported), GT7 (AAA, but 2D ported), Switchback, Synapse and VR Skater. VR Skater launched a few days ago - and is the first PSVR2 exclusive to use 90 fps (I think):

Also, what may be the best game in a long time is coming only for PSVR2, namely Resident Evil 4 Remake (AAA, but 2D ported). I do not think Sony is burning customers, but making great content takes time, and the users willing to adopt to VR no matter the panels may still be limited.

There are about 100 games for the PSVR2, including great ones like Hubris. There are many awesome games for the PSVR2. There's a difference saying "there are no PSVR2 games" and "there are no PSVR2 I haven't already got for PCVR or Quest that I want to play" - and McCaffrey may be saying the first but meaning the latter. 

New game trailers this week:

Sony just introduced 9 PSVR2 games coming this fall:

I think Heroes of Forever and Teardown are exclusive to PSVR2 - for the VR versions. Teardown is available in 2D too. 

I'm not much for playing with Legos, but Teardown does look awesome (voxel-based):

Heroes of Forever reminds me of the old great arcade Sega shooters - and even models look crude, there still are quite a lot of polygons, and real-time shadows - more here:

https://blog.playstation.com/2023/09/28/announcing-heroes-of-forever-a-multi-dimensional-arcade-cover-shooter-for-ps-vr2/

"For instance, our key aim is to evoke nostalgia throughout the player’s journey. With the help of PS VR2’s 3D audio, we’ve developed immersive soundscapes that transcend familiarity, adding a unique sense of wonder to every scenario. Dynamic lighting also enhances the low-poly visuals of our game, granting a fresh feel to the retro-inspired scenery for players to enjoy."

Seems Heroes of Forever won't be here this Autumn though: