Gadgetory

2016 is the year that VR broke into the mainstream full-motion VR like what oculus rift and HTC vive offer are really expensive getting set up with one of those from scratch will likely set you back well over $1000 and now there's another option it's PlayStation VR this is the most accessible full VR out there and it's also the cheapest even if you don't already own a ps4 what you do need for psvr the entire package will run you around $800 now if you do own a ps4 and there are over 40 million of them sold it's even more affordable so before I show you how to set this all up let's look at what you need to use psvr and what comes in the box the standard psvr that sells for $400 gets you just the headset and the wires needed to connect it to a ps4 but you'll also need a PlayStation camera and to move controllers to be completely set up if you don't have any of those laying around sony offers a $500 psvr bundle that packs everything in except of course for a ps4 the whole setup process doesn't really tell you how much space you'll need to play but the included manual says that you'll need roughly a 10 by 6 foot area now I don't have that kind of space in my apartment but I was still able to get it to work pretty well now because PSV are only has one camera for tracking movement I found it doesn't always give you the sense of freedom that the HTC vive does I've also found it's tough to gauge when you're wandering out of the sweet spot of the camera and also I experienced some issues when I completely turned around some games also don't tell you whether or not to stand or sit but I found that if you stand to play most games it's the safer bet speaking of games there are a handful of titles hitting PS we are at launch we've played Batman Arkham vr super hypercube job simulator and a bunch of others overall the gameplay experience is solid even if a lot of these games are less substantial than a regular ps4 game wearing the headset can be awkward and getting it the fit right can kind of be a pain it also feels a bit cheaper than I'm totally comfortable with which is another reason why you may want to opt for a stand to sit it on when you're not using it I've also found it's tough to play psvr for more than 30 to 45 minutes at a time not from getting dizzy or anything like that but just because wearing the headset that long starts to get uncomfortable so how does it all compared to HTC vive and oculus rift well let's talk to the guy who helped review them both for CNET oculus rift and HTC vive both connect to more expensive gaming PC's each of them does full motion tracking in a room vive has it already with its controllers and rift will get that by the end of the year now if you want phone-based VR like this gear VR on my face it doesn't do any hand tracking all you can do is move your head around which is not great for gaming at the end of the day psvr can get you pretty close to what's available in these super high-end VR offerings out there now when you consider the price and the attractiveness to someone who already owns a ps4 it definitely presents a compelling proposition of course there's also ps4 pro on the horizon which will likely improve the graphics and performance of this entire thing bringing it closer to what's possible with a high-end PC graphics card I'm very curious to see how that effects psvr especially when you consider that for just $100 more you may improve the overall experience substantially we will update our review when we've tested psvr with the ps4 pro