From: stormreaver
Written: 2023-05-20 23:17:23.123571
Subject: Playstation 5 VR
Written: 2023-05-20 23:17:23.123571
Subject: Playstation 5 VR
Playstation 5's are now readily available in many stores, so should you get one to play VR? I bought one with the VR addition for my family from Best Buy, and I have done little else than regret it from day one. Despite all the press about how powerful it is, there is little to nothing available in the VR space that justifies all the hype. And the VR games available are hardly better than (and many times identical to) what I've gotten on my Quest 2, so the gameplay experience is absolutely not worth the price tag. I have no reservations whatsoever in concluding that the console and its VR games are horrifically overpriced.
And I would be remiss if I didn't at least mention Sony's terrible customer experience. With Steam and the Quests, I can refund the games after a short time (2 hours of playtime or 2 weeks after purchase, whichever comes first) if it sucks. With the PS5, you are only allowed to refund a game within 2 hours of purchase, provided you haven't downloaded it yet. Even if you don't play it, or you play it and hate it, you're out of luck if you have so much as even STARTED the download. Even if you cancel the download at 1%, and haven't played it for even one second, you are locked out of a refund. Period. End of story. You may be able to haggle with Sony during the chat time window, but you're completely on your own.
I've bought two games for my kids (one $25 and one $60) that they hated immediately, but Sony's refund policy was, "Too bad! So sad!" They are enamored with what they see as the potential of the PS 5, so they don't want to return it; but I am completely disillusioned with the reality of the PS 5's VR, and I would happily return it in a heartbeat.
Plainly put, the PS 5 VR sucks.
Badly.
It is, by far, the weakest Playstation offering ever from an actual gaming perspective. The Quest 2, even with its much weaker GPU and CPU, offers a far better VR gaming experience than the PS 5. This is in part because it does VR much better than the PS 5, and partly because Oculus (I refuse to call it Meta) handles buyer's remorse ten thousand percent better than Sony, and does so for a third of the price.
I would highly recommend skipping the PS 5 if you're after a VR experience, and spending your money on something worthy of the purchase price.
UPDATE 10/6/2023:
The Quest 3 is about to be released, and my kids eagerly sold their PS 5's to raise money to buy the new Quests. They hardly played their Playstations, and had spent the vast majority of their time playing their Quest 2's and their Linux PC's. Their reticence to selling their PS 5's evaporated at the promise of upgrading to the Quest 3, and I couldn't be happier. They will get much more mileage. The Quest 3 price tag is substantially higher than the Quest 2, but the former is a substantial upgrade over the latter; and still much lower than the PS 5.
I'll buy my own in a couple months, too.
And I would be remiss if I didn't at least mention Sony's terrible customer experience. With Steam and the Quests, I can refund the games after a short time (2 hours of playtime or 2 weeks after purchase, whichever comes first) if it sucks. With the PS5, you are only allowed to refund a game within 2 hours of purchase, provided you haven't downloaded it yet. Even if you don't play it, or you play it and hate it, you're out of luck if you have so much as even STARTED the download. Even if you cancel the download at 1%, and haven't played it for even one second, you are locked out of a refund. Period. End of story. You may be able to haggle with Sony during the chat time window, but you're completely on your own.
I've bought two games for my kids (one $25 and one $60) that they hated immediately, but Sony's refund policy was, "Too bad! So sad!" They are enamored with what they see as the potential of the PS 5, so they don't want to return it; but I am completely disillusioned with the reality of the PS 5's VR, and I would happily return it in a heartbeat.
Plainly put, the PS 5 VR sucks.
Badly.
It is, by far, the weakest Playstation offering ever from an actual gaming perspective. The Quest 2, even with its much weaker GPU and CPU, offers a far better VR gaming experience than the PS 5. This is in part because it does VR much better than the PS 5, and partly because Oculus (I refuse to call it Meta) handles buyer's remorse ten thousand percent better than Sony, and does so for a third of the price.
I would highly recommend skipping the PS 5 if you're after a VR experience, and spending your money on something worthy of the purchase price.
UPDATE 10/6/2023:
The Quest 3 is about to be released, and my kids eagerly sold their PS 5's to raise money to buy the new Quests. They hardly played their Playstations, and had spent the vast majority of their time playing their Quest 2's and their Linux PC's. Their reticence to selling their PS 5's evaporated at the promise of upgrading to the Quest 3, and I couldn't be happier. They will get much more mileage. The Quest 3 price tag is substantially higher than the Quest 2, but the former is a substantial upgrade over the latter; and still much lower than the PS 5.
I'll buy my own in a couple months, too.