The Oculus Rift VR headset is officially out this week, and there are a bunch of games to play on it. One of the most well-known is the outer-space dogfighting game EVE: Valkyrie, which is about as impressive a technical showpiece for virtual reality as I’ve seen.
Here’s a video of me playing a round (and actually doing pretty well!):
What It Is: Valkyrie casts you as a clone pilot who controls space fighters through a VR apparatus. As you play, Katee “Starbuck” Sackhoff will occasionally give you directives or yell at you for making mistakes. So, basically true to life. There are only a few maps and only a few modes, and there’s no real “story” mode. The meat of the game is in deathmatch, which you can play solo or with teammates, against bots or against other players. I play with a flight stick and throttle, but you can also just play with a regular controller.
Throughout the week, I’ll be posting a series of short videos like this one to give an idea of how these VR games work. For more thoughts on the Oculus Rift itself, check out my full write-up.