De Oculus Rift reviews stromen binnen. De consensus is over het algemeen buitengewoon positief. Ongelooflijke diepte en gevoel van schaal + headtracking zorgen voor een fantastische beleving. Qua software omschrijven de meesten EVE Valkyrie als de "system seller". Wat je echter ook in bijna alle reviews tegenkomt is dat het ontbreken van een pass-through camera maar vooral tracked motion controls een enorm gemis is. De meesten gaan zelfs zover dat ze aanraden te wachten tot Touch daadwerkelijk beschikbaar is.
Een overzicht
Polygon's review is zonder twijfel de meest uitgebreide en alles omvattende. Ze hebben over de Rift release zowaar een heel boek geschreven.
Enkele van de meest opmerkelijke citaten;
"The Rift headset feels both high-quality and unusually subtle, especially in contrast to almost everything else you’ll find connected to a gaming PC. The Rift is, in a word, beautiful."
"While the headset feels fine over glasses once you get everything situated, the act of putting it on and taking it off while wearing glasses remains a consistently awkward affair."
"There is also no pass-through camera of any kind, like the sort of thing you see on the HTC Vive, so good luck trying to find the controller on your desk or take a drink without partially removing the headset. The act of getting everything on my head feeling great, and then forgetting where I put my soda or my controller, was a common annoyance."
"In terms of the screens themselves, the image is crisp and bright, with next to none of the "screendoor effect" that was so annoying on the earlier versions of the hardware."
" It often feels like looking through a window into another world, and after a few moments of getting used to wearing the headset it's easy to forget it's there"
"There is a certain streaking effect that happens in high-contrast scenes, such as white text on a black background. Think lens flare, but even more distracting."
"The Oculus Rift, in many ways, heightens the emotional reaction given by games and experiences, but for now you'll be exploring these virtual worlds using very traditional tools."
"Without any way of seeing the outside reality when wearing the Rift, you better be very comfortable with the controller. That's not a problem for most people reading this review, but telling a player to hit the X button without a way of letting them look at the controller could be an issue."
"If Oculus was the only headset game in town, a barebones software platform might be easier to write off, but the imminent VR competition just so happens to run on Steam, Valve’s impossibly popular PC storefront. That puts the Oculus app’s shortcomings into particularly stark contrast. The Vive simply uses Steam’s Big Picture Mode, which means viewing your desktop and chatting with other gamers is available now, even if it’s not perfectly tailored to VR. Oculus is going to need to catch up, and fast."
"The Rift is designed, in its current form, to be played while sitting or standing directly in the front of your PC. There's no warning when you leave the boundary of the sensor, nor does anything happen if you try to walk out of "frame" and pull the cable out."
"The problem: I’ve noticed players who aren't aware of the boundaries of VR or the limits of the technology want to stand up and walk off to enjoy the environment."
"The Rift desperately needs an in-world and universal way to warn players when they wander out of range. It’s a safety issue as people begin to use virtual reality hardware for the first time without someone knowledgeable to guide them through the experience. Trying to walk away puts both the $600 investment in hardware, as well as your own health if you trip and fall, at risk."
"The sensors in the back of the headset mean you'll be able to turn completely around without losing tracking, although in our testing doing so led to a few finicky moments of positional tracking."
" I placed [the sensor] behind my computer desk and a bit to the right, pointed down. This may not be the most pleasant solution to look at, but it greatly expanded the amount of space in which I could move. The only problem with this approach is that, unless the game or experience offers a way to re-center your screen (and most do!) it can appear as if you're laying on the floor, looking up at the visuals."
"The limits of the hardware are understandable, and the Rift succeeds at delivering what it promises: Standing or sitting virtual reality with a wonderful positional tracking unit kept on the desk. The problem is that the system does next to nothing to effectively communicate its own limits to the player."
"The store is organized by Featured Titles, which are anything Oculus would like to spotlight; Games; Entertainment, which includes narrative experiences in VR like Invasion! as well as Dreamdeck, which allows you to meet a T-Rex, or see the inside of a submarine; Concepts as described by Oculus are “experimental projects that push the bounds of VR,” even explaining why you should download and try them; Early Access, which are “playable VR experiences that are still in development;” Apps, where you’ll find Oculus Video, Twitch and Vimeo content, 360-degree photos and the 360-degree video app Jaunt, ..."
"The organization of content is fascinating: It's an admission that the Rift may be sold as a gaming device for now, it can and likely will be so much more. The launch lineup is, if anything, a bit overwhelming, and it should put to rest the idea that virtual reality is just for first-person games or any set demographic."
"Facebook bought Oculus for over $2 billion. Facebook sees the Rift launching today as the first step towards the metaverse, an online social platform with implications in everything from media to content creation."
"But for now it's a gaming platform, and the selection of games available at launch is strong and varied ... but often familiar. "
"Retail virtual reality is here. It was worth the wait."
In alle reviews worden ze daar zwaar op afgerekend, waarom konden ze op 2 jaar niet wat HTC op nog geen half heeft geflikt?