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Posted October 9, 2014 by Ryan Villanueva in Tech & Gadgets
 
 

OCULUS RIFT: THE FLIPGEEKS EXPERIENCE

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One of the most memorable experience for the whole Flipgeeks team at this year’s Philippine Game Festival was trying out the Oculus Rift. Yes, we’ve seen it online, read about it but this was our first hands-on experience of the actual unit.

To those who are not familiar, Oculus Rift is a virtual head-mounted display developed by Oculus VR.  It’s a device that’s strapped on to your head and you’d be viewing the game through the lenses inside the device. It gives you a feeling of actually being part or inside of the game. We were able to try out the developer kit version of the Oculus Rift. Currently, the Oculus is only made available to developers and has yet to announce when a consumer version would be made available. Oculus_Rift_-_Developer_Version_-_Front

 

Personally, it was a mind-blowing experience for me. I’ve been a gamer since I learned how to hold an Atari controller but this is something totally different. When I first put on the Oculus I felt a sense of fear and excitement as I don’t know what to expect.  The experience was actually fun. It felt different at first but once your eyes adjust you’d be comfortable like you’re playing any other video game. The only difference is that Oculus Rift gives you a feeling of being right in the middle of the game, where the action is. It’s different from your regular first person games where you’re looking at your monitor a feet or two away, this one’s right smack in your face experience, add a surround sound headset and you’d lose yourself in an instant, temporary removing yourself from reality.

If there’s one thing that the Oculus Rift would need to improve on would be motion sickness. I only played games for about 5 minutes and it got me dizzy.  Gamers spent hours playing video games and if playing for a few minutes gives you head-ache or dizziness then players might not even pick-up an Oculus Rift. In its early stages I think that this is fairly acceptable as is new technology. I’m actually lucky enough and privileged to try the Oculus rift in its early stages I can wonder how far this technology could take us.

Here’s what my fellow Flipgeeks’ Mac and Chloe have to say about the Oculus Rift:

MAC: “I was hesitant to play at first after seeing one of the games shown by our exhibitor. The game was titled “Freakshow” and the moment I saw clowns on it I immediately shifted my attention to happy thoughts (I suffer from Coulrophobia). Playing horror games with the ‘Rift’ would really set the bar a notch higher. No matter where you look, you won’t be able to escape the world you’re at. This time you won’t be able to cheat by looking away at the screen as I always do! When you remove the device, it’s already too late hahaha!”

CHLOE: “Using the Oculus Rift was one heck of a fun experience! When coupled with well-detailed environments, realistic sound effects, and noise-canceling headphones, the Oculus Rift can really take you away into a whole different dimension. You feel deeply immersed in the game because of the 360-degree view that allows you to further explore and experience your surroundings in-game. Plus there’s no means of escaping the screen – it’s as if you’re really trapped in that game’s world.

If game developers are able utilize the Oculus Rift’s technology to its full potential by creating realistic surroundings and unleashing their creativity with surround sound effects, we’ll be in for an amazing gaming experience someday (hopefully soon)!””

 

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Overall, the Oculus Rift has a lot of potential; it definitely brings your gaming experience to a whole new level.  The Oculus Rift couldn’t be great with the technology alone; of course the technology lives on with its games. We’re very fortunate to meet the awesome people, the developers behind games that use this technology. We’re thankful that you let us try your games. We hope that you continue all the things you do and we wish you all the best. We look forward to your games and the whole Flipgeeks team would surely love to give it a try.

For now, we can only imagine what the future brings.


Ryan Villanueva

 
Your resident all around Flipgeek, from comics,movies,games,toys,music and even sports. A big Spider-man fan raised in the ways of the Jedi,who listens to punk rock and a sucker for chick flicks.