Sony shared eight chunks of its early VR vision at its second annual PlayStation Experience event in San Francisco on Friday.
The game console maker has embraced two several possible futures. One is streaming PlayStation games and the other is virtual reality, a gaming revolution set to kick off next year with Facebook's Oculus Rift headset and Sony's own PlayStation VR (formerly known as Morpheus).
The VR games Sony and its partners showed off at PlayStation Experience ran the gamut of meh and mediocre to promising and provocative.
There were games that, on first look, appeared as if they'd get old in short order but have the potential to start a cult or leave a mark on someone's childhood. There were the toes of big publishers and developers dangling in VR's shallow end. And there were also ones that could, for all their rough parts, make us declare they were ahead of their time when VR starts to mature.
Warning: rogue prognostication ahead. A few grains of salt.
'Golem' (PlayStation VR)
Golem is Highwire Game's first game ever. Players get to control golems, some as big as buildings and others small enough to stow under a bed.
Highwire Games went all cinematic with Golem's teaser, but it made its point. This one should be sugary sweet to the eyes, but we'll need to know more about its story and any innovations in the control department.
'Job Simulator' (PlayStation VR, Oculus VR, Steam VR)
More Surgeon Simulator than Euro Truck Simulator, Job Simulator looks like a load of skips and giggles. Some player may skip this low-texture gaggish game, while it might invoke giggles from others.
It's essentially a meta job simulator. In a world ruled by robots, nostalgic humans get to remember what it was like to work.
'100 Ft. Robot Golf' (PlayStation VR)
What it has going for it is the fact that it is founded on a popular pastime: golf. That could help with its replayability, but it needs some twists to take it beyond merely being palatable. Yes, having 100-foot-tall robots is a twist. But for gamers used to titans falling from above the clouds and blood dragons with laser eyes, jaded hearts may have little room for this one.
'The Modern Zombie Taxi Co.' (PlayStation VR)
Starting off as a demo where players shuttle around rag dolls, the move to make the dummies zombies doesn't seem too much of a stretch. It's Crazy Taxi in VR. However, Crazy Taxi had the advantage of being the first of its kind.
If there's enough content in the core or accumulating in its pipeline, the novel game could gain some traction — for a while at least. That is if people will be able to stop thinking about Unjammy Lammy and Parappa the Rapper when playing it.
'Eagle Flight' (PlayStation VR, Oculus VR, Steam VR)
For those who have wondered what it feels like to dive off an Assassin's Creed viewpoint and then pull up, Ubisoft is offering an answer. Eagle Flight gives players the wings of a bird and sets them loose in Paris. It should offer a nice change of pace, plus the inclusion of multiplayer should give it some replayability.
'Rez Infinite' (PlayStation VR)
It's Rez for PS4, but this time, it's going to be launched in three computer-generated dimensions. Rez Infinite will likely serve the same purpose as the original title.
'Psychonauts in the Rhombus of Ruin' (PlayStation VR, TBA)
Just days after Tim Schafer announced that his Double Fine studio was working to follow up on one of the greatest action adventure games of all time, his company announced a VR bridge between Pyschonauts and Pyschonauts 2.
This should be good, but we have that sneaky feeling that this will be about as filling a serving as Fallout Shelter was for Fallout 4.
'Ace Combat 7' (PlayStation VR)
This game may be one of the prettiest and more fleshed out of the lot, but it isn't built from the ground up for VR. But then again, this is Bandai Namco wetting its toes with a new title from an old franchise.
