Virtual reality has been in a weird spot. From the fact that it's difficult
to convince people it's awesome without real hands-on time along with the cost
of high-end VR headsets to the fact that while there are cool experiences, the
basic versions most people have tried like the Gear VR frankly aren't that
great. And even at the high-end where the experience is much better, there
aren't exactly a ton of killer apps. Enter the PlayStation VR. Sony's
solution that sits squarely in between putting your phone into a folded piece
of cardboard and dropping over $1,500 on a VR PC gaming solution.
Massdrop has teamed up with Sennheiser to bring you their all-new HD 6X
headphones. Check them out in the link below. The PSVR at $500 for the whole
kit or $400 if you already have the camera and move controllers is cheaper
than both the HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift. But the big kicker here, maybe not
for you and for me, but for the gaming consumer base as a whole, is that it
works with the PlayStation 4, which has sold over 40 million units in the last 3
years, making it the most popular current generation console and therefore
inherently more likely a Christmas present for holiday shoppers this year.
Let's start with the headset itself. It is the heaviest of the current major VR
headsets, but it makes up for it with some awesome mounting implementation. It
feels more like you're just naturally putting on a helmet or a hat due to the
automatically retracting plastic strap that is fixed around your head. To
tighten things up, you can use the dial on the back and there's a release button
as well for uh emergencies. The Tether
has inline controls for volume, mic mute, and most importantly, power along
with a headphone jack on the side. These little tweaks improve ease of use more
than you might expect. Though it's not the first time the PC solution has felt
more designed by engineers for engineers
compared to the console one. The only downside here is that these little
features add a little bit more weight to the cable, increasing the anchor effect
that it creates. Not a huge deal, but
noticeable after a while of being immersed in VR. As far as the screen
goes, it's a lower resolution than the Rift and Vive with a single 1080p panel.
not one screen for each eye like the others. But it must be noted that this
is an OLED panel. Meaning that while you'll definitely notice jaggies or
aliasing, the screen door effect, the the black lines between pixels is
noticeable, but not nearly as prominent as you might think given the difference
in panel resolution. I would say the screen is really solid overall. Moving
on, you don't need the PlayStation Move controllers. can just use the
PlayStation gamepad and for most things that's going to be fine. They can even
track in VR thanks to the light that's on the back of it and it can be used for
some basic in-game hand presence. That being said, there are experiences that
really do need them and having individual hand tracking definitely
boosts your immersion. It's a shame, however, that they haven't made any
improvements since the Move's original release in 2010 as an accessory for the
PlayStation 3. They're just so far
behind the hand controllers for the Vive and Rift. Not only in ergonomic design,
the shape and button placement, but in terms of tracking. The tracking of all
these items, including the headset, isn't great. In my testing, I did
encounter some jittering and a few tracking issues, but it wasn't that bad
overall. But that being said, Nick Light and Colton Potter had motion sickness
that left them queasy after about 40 minutes of using it. This is a your
mileage may vary type of thing, however, so it may be not as bad for you, or it
could be worse. All of that being said, you can help the tracking along. You
simply need to dim the lights or even better yet turn them off altogether.
This will help the PlayStation camera track the LEDs on your gear. The
brighter the room, the worse the tracking will be. These things are very
dependent. If you want the best tracking experience, play in a very dark room.
And then we have the ever misunderstood breakout box. I want to set the record
straight here. The box is not responsible for asynchronous time warp
or reprojection or anything like that. The PS4 handles reprojection itself.
What the breakout box does is grab sensor data, manage 3D audio, and split
the image. All of which is good and useful. There just seemed to be a lot of
people who thought it was doing something else. Finally, we get to the
experiences and how it all comes together. Stuff like Batman Arkham VR is
great, but it only lasts for about an hour. Sony's ownership of IP like this
gives them a ton of options for the future. But right now, I really don't
feel like they're using it to its full potential. Go further with it. Make an
awesome Batman game that makes people really want to come to the platform.
Make it go a lot deeper than just pointing at things and holding a button.
And I know looking at yourself in the mirror as Batman and going, "I'm
Batman." over and over again is amazing.
But when that's all the depth to the game,
I want more. Overall, the system could
be described as good enough. At least
for what they're trying to do. If you already own a PlayStation 4, the cost
might not be an insurmountable obstacle, especially if your little sister already
talked you into buying a PlayStation camera and move controllers. That that
would be helpful. The experience is not as mind-blowing as the Vive or the Rift,
but the cost is proportionately lower. But thanks to its ability to project the
TV natively automatically from the box right away, others in the room can have
fun along with you, which is great. It can also accept any HDMI input, and it's
potential for more immersive experiences with superior headtracking given
appropriate lighting compared to like a Gear VR or something like that. It's
pretty cool. If you already own a PlayStation 4 and you're looking for
something new to try, I don't think the price is unreasonable. So maybe it's
something to consider. The Chefeps Jewel is a sousie tool that
helps you cook perfect food every time without the stress. By cooking at a
precise temperature, you cannot over or undercook your food, which makes cooking
things like fish, chicken, and even steaks a breeze. To use it, place your
meat or fish in a normal Ziploc freezer bag and seal it with all the seasonings
that you'd like inside. Fill a pot with water and then place the Juul in the
pot. Open up the Juul app on your phone and select what you're cooking and how
you want it cooked. My favorite feature that the Juul has is visual dness, which
makes this you can see exactly what the meat will look like when cut open at all
of the various temperatures, which is really helpful even if you are a very
skilled cook. The Jewel is available now for holiday gifting. Check it out in the
link below. All right, guys. Thanks for watching this video. Like it if you
liked it, disliked it if you disliked it. Get subscribed. All that kind of fun stuff. I know it's a VR headset for a
console, and most of you guys are PC guys, and I am too. But it is cool to
see the whole spectrum of devices as they come along. And it is exciting
because it's actually not that bad. And having actually not that bad be a thing
in VR and hopefully more people buy it. That could bring more development costs
to like PC. I don't know. So, it could work out in the end. If you want to
discuss all the things I said and debate consoles versus PCs, hopefully
non-aggressively, you go to the forum link in the video description down below. While you're there, check out the
link for the shirts and stuff that are here. If you want to buy a PSVR or
something like that, there's also an Amazon link for you as well. If you'd
like to see another video on the HTC Vive or the HTC Vive versus Oculus Rift
video or the Oculus Rift video itself or
whatever Taran decides to put here, you can click on that. And uh yeah, I'll see
you next