Layers of potential complexity removed, I suspect, to serve that all important immersion. Left trigger for machine gun, right for missiles, bumpers to roll, left stick for direction. The controls are designed to be simple – every function of the gamepad makes sense. Your fighter is ejected through the launch tube with a force you can almost feel, then the real fun begins. Then Katee Sackhoff off Battlestar Galactica tells you to go and kill some folk. Immersion is the keyword, the goal, the entire design philosophy. Looking around more, seeing the seat behind my head, the requisite sparking cables hanging from the ceiling overhead (why are spaceships so poorly maintained? You’ll never find exposed electrical cable on the HMS Invincible), sold it even more. From that point on, I was completely sold on the idea that I was inhabiting the EVE universe. It’s probably the most understated “wow” moment in video game history, but it’s the most potent one for me. Specifically, looking down at my legs, and seeing virtual legs in their exact place, clad in futuristic flight gear and nuzzled under a nonexistent sci-fi dashboard which my brain immediately insisted was actually there. I say this not in a disparaging way – but this calm before the storm may have been the most memorable moment in the ten minute demo. Headphones blasting and controller in hand, I had a minute or so before take-off to admire the innards of the capital ship from which I was about to be launched. After a short presentation from CCP about their immediate plans for the EVE universe, I was sat down to have an Oculus Rift strapped to my face. That’s not to say there isn’t something very eerie about the experience. When controlling a ship, however, where you’re supposed to be sitting down and looking around the battlefield through cockpit glass, it absolutely works. It neatly sidesteps the disconnect that’s present when you use an oculus rift to play, for example, a first person shooter – there’s something about controlling where you walk without actually moving your legs that spoils the illusion in those types of games. But CCP have a plan – as David told me, they want Valkyrie to be the “killer app” for virtual reality.Īs it turns out, space dogfighting is a perfect fit for virtual reality. There are far more 2D screens in the world than there are VR headsets, and videogames, like any other entertainment medium, are all about getting bums on seats. “Could Valkyrie run without a headset? Yeah, we could certainly work and do that technically.
![can i play eve valkyrie without vr can i play eve valkyrie without vr](https://cdn.mmohuts.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Welcome-to-the-next-life-EVE_-Valkyrie-Main-Image.jpg)
When I asked David Reid, CCP’s Chief Marketing Officer, whether or not people will be able to play EVE: Valkyrie without a VR headset, his answer surprised me.