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PlayStation VR Thread 2: Reloaded

Grinchy

Banned
After 3 hours, here's my quick Firewall summary: With some tweaks, this game is going to be fucking awesome. It's going to be the SOCOM of PSVR.


Longer positive impressions:
  • The guns feel really good to shoot and the controls are all intuitive.
  • There are a good number of guns and the progression of unlocks is satisfying.
  • There are a lot of customizable options you can unlock and use.
  • The visuals are very good. The look reminds me a lot of Rainbow Six Siege.
  • You can physically hold your gun at an angle and physically peer around corners.
  • There are a good number of maps already. The maps are intricate and very nicely detailed.
  • The game mode is fun and easy to get into.
  • Friendly fire is turned off and it really needs to be.
  • Since the mic is built into the headset, almost everyone I played with was using their mic. It reminded me of the SOCOM days.
  • There are already enough people online with a midnight launch that I had no trouble playing full games (You can ONLY play full games. This might be an issue down the road).

Negative impressions:
  • There is almost no single player aspect whatsoever. The "training" mode doesn't even train you to play the game and the AI is brain-dead
  • The tracking kinda sucks. It's much worse than Farpoint, which had some consistency issues. I didn't think it could be worse, but it is. Your gun will sway from one side to another while you hold it in place making it frustrating to hold down a point. (Yes, I know all the tracking tips)
  • They really need to change it so that you play one round as Attackers and one as Defenders before going back to the lobby. It takes a long time to get into a game and you can win that game in a minute if you're good. This is slightly less of an issue when everyone stays for multiple rounds.
  • There are a lot of disconnection problems. While playing with a buddy, we were getting very frustrated with having to create new parties over and over again every time a room crashed or a joining failure occurred.
  • When using party chat, the game chat audio still comes through. You can hear people, they can't hear you. If you change your priority to game chat, you can't chat with your party friends during loading screens so you can't even communicate joining issues until it's too late and someone is in a game you can't join. A small annoyance that turns into a lot of wasted time.
  • The camera when you die is pretty bad. It never seems to be in a good place to watch the action no matter which one you switch it to. I assume they don't want to give you any kind of player view because of motion sickness but I wish it was an option for those of us who aren't effected.
  • I wish I could increase the turning speed. I like a really fast turning speed for smooth turning in VR. That's just me.
 
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After 3 hours, here's my quick Firewall summary: With some tweaks, this game is going to be fucking awesome. It's going to be the SOCOM of PSVR.


Longer positive impressions:
  • The guns feel really good to shoot and the controls are all intuitive.
  • There are a good number of guns and the progression of unlocks is satisfying.
  • There are a lot of customizable options you can unlock and use.
  • The visuals are very good. The look reminds me a lot of Rainbow Six Siege.
  • You can physically hold your gun at an angle and physically peer around corners.
  • There are a good number of maps already. The maps are intricate and very nicely detailed.
  • The game mode is fun and easy to get into.
  • Friendly fire is turned off and it really needs to be.
  • Since the mic is built into the headset, almost everyone I played with was using their mic. It reminded me of the SOCOM days.
  • There are already enough people online with a midnight launch that I had no trouble playing full games (You can ONLY play full games. This might be an issue down the road).

Negative impressions:
  • There is almost no single player aspect whatsoever. The "training" mode doesn't even train you to play the game and the AI is brain-dead
  • The tracking kinda sucks. It's much worse than Farpoint, which had some consistency issues. I didn't think it could be worse, but it is. Your gun will sway from one side to another while you hold it in place making it frustrating to hold down a point. (Yes, I know all the tracking tips)
  • They really need to change it so that you play one round as Attackers and one as Defenders before going back to the lobby. It takes a long time to get into a game and you can win that game in a minute if you're good.
  • There are a lot of disconnection problems. While playing with a buddy, we were getting very frustrated with having to create new parties over and over again every time a room crashed or a joining failure occurred.
  • When using party chat, the game chat audio still comes through. You can hear people, they can't hear you. If you change your priority to game chat, you can't chat with your party friends during loading screens so you can't even communicate joining issues until it's too late and someone is in a game you can't join. A small annoyance that turns into a lot of wasted time.
  • The camera when you die is pretty bad. It never seems to be in a good place to watch the action no matter which one you switch it to. I assume they don't want to give you any kind of player view because of motion sickness but I wish it was an option for those of us who aren't effected.
  • I wish I could increase the turning speed. I like a really fast turning speed for smooth turning in VR. That's just me.

This is a shame. Was hoping that the game could live on with bots after the online players are gone, like RIGS.
 

Grinchy

Banned
This is a shame. Was hoping that the game could live on with bots after the online players are gone, like RIGS.
Yeah it definitely makes you worry about what will happen when there aren’t enough people online. I was at least impressed with how many people were around for a midnight launch tho. It was the most active VR game I’ve ever personally seen.

And almost every game has someone on the mic who couldn’t stop going on about how amazing everything was lmao. It was fun.
 
Played for 1.5 hours.

+Graphics is really good. Probably the best Ive seen on PSVR.
+No motion sickness for me (playing with original setting ans snap turn)

-Your weapon is constantly about 15 cm higher then it should be, its like its levitating over your Aim. It feels unnatural and I don't like it, I want it to be 1:1.
-I'm having drifting problems with both the Aim and DS4. It works good from the beginning but after a while you have to aim at a different location and the more you play the separation between your aim and the in-game weapon becomes greater. I tried restarting the Aim and it didn't work. Only shutting down the game and restarting the game worked.
-Several times we were 7 people in the lobby and we had to wait for several minutes for an 8th player to join. The game needs bots now!
-Matches are way to short, you sit in the lobby for like double the amount of time than playing the game. They should make it at least 3 matches before returning to the lobby.
 

Grinchy

Banned
I was having a ton of problems with Firewall tonight. Constant match deaths, joining failures, ect. I had a party of 3 who didn't once get put in the same room in over an hour of trying over and over again. The party matchmaking is completely fucked.

And if you're lucky enough to get in the same room on the same team, the host leaves and you're all back to the main menu with potential game crashes and having to re-invite. Very frustrating night.
 

Reallink

Member
Played for 1.5 hours.

+Graphics is really good. Probably the best Ive seen on PSVR.
+No motion sickness for me (playing with original setting ans snap turn)

-Your weapon is constantly about 15 cm higher then it should be, its like its levitating over your Aim. It feels unnatural and I don't like it, I want it to be 1:1.
-I'm having drifting problems with both the Aim and DS4. It works good from the beginning but after a while you have to aim at a different location and the more you play the separation between your aim and the in-game weapon becomes greater. I tried restarting the Aim and it didn't work. Only shutting down the game and restarting the game worked.
-Several times we were 7 people in the lobby and we had to wait for several minutes for an 8th player to join. The game needs bots now!
-Matches are way to short, you sit in the lobby for like double the amount of time than playing the game. They should make it at least 3 matches before returning to the lobby.

Unfortunately it can't be 1:1 since they're using real world gun models. The Aim controller would occlude the headset 's tracking when you held it up to sight if it were 1:1. Farpoint's fantasy guns were all specifically designed to avoid that. Drifting issues are clearly inherent to the PSVR's sub par hardware, the tracking is problematic (to say the least) and the forehead pad digs the hair into your scalp and itches like crazy.
 
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Grinchy

Banned
I actually like the way they put the gun model above the real Aim controller so you can aim down the sights without blocking headset lights, but the tracking in Firewall is quite fucked. It's way worse than any other Aim game I've played. I'm hoping they can fix it with a patch.
 
I picked up Firewall after work last night and wanted to give my impressions. I did the install and eagerly awaited for the 6GB download to complete, ironically enough I had learned just before I got home, my internet was down for several hours prior *narrow miss*

By no means is Firewall Zero Hour a perfect game out of the box, theres definitely calibration issues, I disconnected from the host and was booted back to the lobby frequently, on the bright side it was only day one, theres alot that can be fixed with the communities feedback for inevitable patches and the other thing was everyone I chatted with was super chill.

I made the mistake (during the training) to swap my movement controls with my camera controls to match the default controls of Farpoint, don't do that, it definitely feels more natural within the default controls, minus all the quick turn/ blinder stuff. Someone mentioned the turning speed earlier and I agree a tad faster would be perfect. I wouldn't hate it if in the future more modes were introduced, basic things like team death match and maybe capture the flag or disc (seeing we're going with a contract/ hacker theme)

There are subtle little things I learned playing my first multiplayer FPS in VR and a couple things I picked up last night from new friends met through chit chat in the lobby. One thing someone mentioned to me walking up stairs backwards is important to cover whats below you but to also angle yourself to make sure you don't get picked off by someone upstairs. In a flat FPS you might also consider doing this but probably not with as much attention as you'd need too in VR as you have a 360 degree view. This would prove itself later on to be pretty solid help as I would get the last kill in a match on the Shoot House map catching a player going upstairs to the platform while just starting to turn his back. I also learned that when you're in a position to bank grenades or smoke off the wall with the opposing team taking cover and using blind fire in a tight space like a multi-level stairwell, that will open things up nicely and force them either forward or back.

Visually I felt with all things considered and all the moving pieces this is probably one of the better looking PSVR games, its just the attention to detail, whats infront of you, its the designs of the levels themselves with Shoot House and District being my fav's so far. Its also about the super highly detailed back drops be it a city or container cranes. Every part of the visuals in this game feel very well thought out and being in a full locomotion multiplayer FPS it comes across as extremely impressive.

As far as the solo play goes, it is there plain as day "Solo Contracts" but you're likely going to get bored quick, sometimes you'll find cryptocurrency laying around so exploration is welcomed on top of the overall goal but the AI is not great and in particular defending I was able to camp and just pick off enemies who would spawn/ approach from the same areas, it'll get your feet wet before you head online to learn the maps abit though. I know we all worry about a RIGS type situation where its fun to play but the online multiplayer is dead and make no mistake about it the meat of this game is in multiplayer but I also feel this game is good enough to keep the PSVR masses going with Firewall Zero Hour as their chosen shooter. The feeling of moving out with your squad clearing room by room as a group or in teams of two feels bad ass, if everyone is communicating.

And finally overall there is something truly wonderful to be said about a full locomotion FPS in VR, you're no longer pressing a button to aim down the sights, you're lifting your aim controller and looking down the sights (seated or standing, your choice) you're not strafing about to find cover or tapping a button to duck, you're naturally leaning around a corner to take cover and that corresponds with what you're doing in-game, you're in that firefight. When someone sneaks up on you, being shot in a Call of Duty or Battlefield type shooter vs being surprised by an enemy with a shotgun blast at point blank range in VR are two very different experiences.

I would recommend that this game needs to be in your collection, even if you're the quiet type when it comes to the chat, it will be hard not to find yourself wrapped up in whats going on not to communicate with your team, the whole experience just sucks you in. The VR community as far as I experienced isn't a bunch of little shits playing Call of Duty and starting flame wars, its adults like you and I who have been waiting for a VR experience like this since we adopted the first gen of VR.

I wonder now if VR did reach the masses are we taking a peek into what games like Call of Duty and Battlefield will evolve into at some point? or will offer side by side with the traditional experience... it all feels like a pretty big jump for the genre once you've sat down and put some time in. One thing I can say for certain, the PSVR has found its new king of shooters, have fun!
 
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I found a way that fixes 95% of the drifting problem with the Aim. When the game is loading before a match, hold your hand around the ball on the Aim so its not visible to the camera, only remove your hand when the game has started. You have to do this before every single match, but it works for me.
 

Grinchy

Banned
I’ll try that ball trick later but what’s even worse than the tracking for me is the completely broken party system and lack of host migration. Those two things make playing with people an enormous chore. And it’s weird that it worked better during the midnight launch than it did on the first actual day.
 

Grinchy

Banned
Man, Firewall is one fickle beast. Even with only one person in my squad, it took us 26 minutes one time to get into the same room and same team while matchmaking. Then, the host left after 2 games. Then it was another 8-10 minutes to get into a new room together. The broken party matchmaking is ruining the game for me.

The tracking today was also the worst it has been for me so far. There are like 5 problems that all combine in different ways to make this an incredibly frustrating experience. But when you win the low budget indie VR title lottery and it all actually works, the game is so damn good. I might have to just not come back to it until I see a patch.

I'm just a little bit surprised that Sony decided to do a peripheral bundle for this game and didn't actually help them nail the absolute basics of online gaming like the party system, host migration, ect. For people who are buying PSVR just for this game, they're going to think the Aim controller is completely broken and will never try the other games that have it working much better.
 
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Grinchy

Banned
What kinda perplexes me about Firewall is that it had been in development for quite a while and it's an online-only MP game with a single game mode. So, how did they not realize that the rounds were too short? How did they not realize that party/squad system was broken? How did they not realize that host migration is necessary in a peer-to-peer online game? How did they not think of the long list of simple improvements that regular players could point out within their first 10 matches played?

It almost just feels like the absolute basics were lower on the priority list than making skins and camos that they can sell on the store for extra money. When they finally fix it, it's going to be one killer VR game. Until then, it's just such a frustrating thing to try to play (especially if you are trying to play with friends).
 

Guileless

Temp Banned for Remedial Purposes
What kinda perplexes me about Firewall is that it had been in development for quite a while and it's an online-only MP game with a single game mode. So, how did they not realize that the rounds were too short? How did they not realize that party/squad system was broken? How did they not realize that host migration is necessary in a peer-to-peer online game? How did they not think of the long list of simple improvements that regular players could point out within their first 10 matches played?

It almost just feels like the absolute basics were lower on the priority list than making skins and camos that they can sell on the store for extra money. When they finally fix it, it's going to be one killer VR game. Until then, it's just such a frustrating thing to try to play (especially if you are trying to play with friends).

With errors and omissions like that, it must have been business reasons. Hopefully they get it fixed eventually. Sad, but that is increasingly gaming in 2018.
 
I will say I had much better luck with connecting and staying connected in matches last night. I'm not sure if they've changed or updated anything but I only lost connection to the host once last night. Then for the rest of the time I played I managed to play with the same group of guys for the whole time I played, we strung together a bunch of wins too. I love that Shoot House map, the highlight was pinning 2 of the oppositions team up on that platform in the middle of the map and me and a teammate approaching on opposing stairs and just mowing them down in the middle, that was just brilliant and felt really satisfying.
 

Toe-Knee

Member
What kinda perplexes me about Firewall is that it had been in development for quite a while and it's an online-only MP game with a single game mode. So, how did they not realize that the rounds were too short? How did they not realize that party/squad system was broken? How did they not realize that host migration is necessary in a peer-to-peer online game? How did they not think of the long list of simple improvements that regular players could point out within their first 10 matches played?

It almost just feels like the absolute basics were lower on the priority list than making skins and camos that they can sell on the store for extra money. When they finally fix it, it's going to be one killer VR game. Until then, it's just such a frustrating thing to try to play (especially if you are trying to play with friends).
I imagine it was tested either synthetically or in tightly controlled environments so the host migration wouldn't show up.

I get the feeling most of the development was spent specifically for tuning the actual vr feel.

I haven't dove in yet as I'm on holiday this week but I can't wait to. Hopefully the issues will be mostly ironed out.
 

Grinchy

Banned
I imagine it was tested either synthetically or in tightly controlled environments so the host migration wouldn't show up.

I get the feeling most of the development was spent specifically for tuning the actual vr feel.

I haven't dove in yet as I'm on holiday this week but I can't wait to. Hopefully the issues will be mostly ironed out.
They've created a really cool game, but the actual networking aspect of it feels like Firewall: Amateur Hour. It just blows my mind that they knew all along that it was online-only with a single game mode and didn't nail the online aspect of it. And Sony even bundled their VR gun peripheral with it without ever sending over support to make sure the online works? It's insanity to me. It's like no one cares how their biggest VR game looks.
 

Toe-Knee

Member
They've created a really cool game, but the actual networking aspect of it feels like Firewall: Amateur Hour. It just blows my mind that they knew all along that it was online-only with a single game mode and didn't nail the online aspect of it. And Sony even bundled their VR gun peripheral with it without ever sending over support to make sure the online works? It's insanity to me. It's like no one cares how their biggest VR game looks.
I get where you are coming from. Maybe it was just more popular than they expected pushing the issues to breaking point?

Like I said I haven't tried it yet so don't know the exact issues.
 

Grinchy

Banned
The Firewall devs made a blog post.

Well, the patch came out. Supposedly, you have to re-download the full game if you're on a base PS4 and it's 130MB if you're on a Pro (strange, I know).

All I know is that I was able to get into the same game with my party and be on the same team on our first try instead of spending up to an hour-long circus full of load screens and yelling.
 
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The Firewall devs made a blog post.

Well, the patch came out. Supposedly, you have to re-download the full game if you're on a base PS4 and it's 130MB if you're on a Pro (strange, I know).

All I know is that I was able to get into the same game with my party and be on the same team on our first try instead of spending up to an hour-long circus full of load screens and yelling.

This doesn't sound good:

"Host performance:
We currently use a peer-to-peer format, so please be aware that it is possible that quitting early may affect everyone else's game. We are working on improved in-game messaging and a way to protect the loss of progression (crypto and XP) for players when this happens."


So they're not actually working on fixing the host problem.
 

Grinchy

Banned
This doesn't sound good:

"Host performance:
We currently use a peer-to-peer format, so please be aware that it is possible that quitting early may affect everyone else's game. We are working on improved in-game messaging and a way to protect the loss of progression (crypto and XP) for players when this happens."


So they're not actually working on fixing the host problem.
Yep it doesn’t sound like there’s anything in the works on that. They must not be able to do host migration for some reason and the chances of them switching to dedicated servers seems slim.

The only good thing is that it seems to always put my party into a fresh server of our own and we let it run for hours. The bad thing is that the patch made it so every squad immediately creates a new lobby....so now there's a ton of lobbies with 2-4 people waiting for solo players to fill it because squads aren't put in the general matchmaking pool. Games used to fill up incredibly fast and now they are crawling.
 
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Geki-D

Banned
Seems like a classic case of a small dev biting off more than they can chew. Firewall should have done with way more budget and manpower behind it but besides these smaller dev teams, no one seems to really be willing to make VR games. Sony sure as hell aren't putting their triple As on the job. I hope sales were stellar and Sony who are the publisher actually step up and help out with improving the game. Or at least shove some more money the devs way to hire more staff to work on it.
 

alienator

Member
Purchesed Firewall and an aim controller last sunday, i was hesitant at first, because im ancient (42) and mp shooters like cod and battlefield and stuff are not my cup of tea anymore (getting shot every second and being teabagged by 12y olds), but the numberous positive reviews and media online, made me very curious about it. And my god how awesome is this, the slower gameplay is perfect but yet so intense in vr, also i was kinda put off with the always on voicechat (i like my games silent) but u have to use it in this game to survive, at first i was shy, but at the end of the evening i was shouting tactics like a goddamn drill instructor from full metal jacket.

This game, is a friggin blast to play, (ofcourse if u are into this type of games) and the aim controller is absolutely a killer controller for that.
 

Grinchy

Banned
I've been playing a ton of Firewall lately myself. The way that squads get their own lobby has made it so the people I play with are guaranteed to be in a long-lasting room and we control when it's over.

I just got done with a run where we won over 20 games while losing only a single one. We even had a defending team try to pull the cheesy thing where they all kill themselves at the beginning of the round so that we only have a minute to find the firewall, get to the laptop, and take out their mines and signal jammers. It didn't work. We still won.
 
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I've been playing a ton of Firewall lately myself. The way that squads get their own lobby has made it so the people I play with are guaranteed to be in a long-lasting room and we control when it's over.

I just got done with a run where we won over 20 games while losing only a single one. We even had a defending team try to pull the cheesy thing where they all kill themselves at the beginning of the round so that we only have a minute to find the firewall, get to the laptop, and take out their mines and signal jammers. It didn't work. We still won.
pm me ur sn and lets squad up
 
Played Firewall for 6 hours yesterday. This is coming from someone who usually plays PSVR 2-3 hours a month.

But I felt the waiting time was a lot worse yesterday. I think its because of all the squads being sent to new servers and not enough lone wolf players to fill them up. Everyione should just stop with the squads until they fix it.
 

somme

Member
Hello! I've been away quite a while (health conditions - blegh) and having had to take a break from work I can dedicate my days to reviewing PSVR games again.
I have only released a few over the last year (most in the last few days) but plan to release one or two a day from now on, if possible.

Anyway, were there any games that haven't been reviewed, or games that people are wary of purchasing, that they'd like reviewed? I don't mind playing the rubbish ones. :messenger_tears_of_joy:

https://psvr-reviews.com/
 
Hello! I've been away quite a while (health conditions - blegh) and having had to take a break from work I can dedicate my days to reviewing PSVR games again.
I have only released a few over the last year (most in the last few days) but plan to release one or two a day from now on, if possible.

Anyway, were there any games that haven't been reviewed, or games that people are wary of purchasing, that they'd like reviewed? I don't mind playing the rubbish ones. :messenger_tears_of_joy:

https://psvr-reviews.com/

I just checked out your reviews and enjoyed reading over a few of my favs to see how they stacked up opinion wise, pretty spot on! I was surprised there was no Skyrim review, have you maybe considered throwing in a couple captured videos of you playing? and I'm sure you'll get to reviewing Firewall soon, for me I wouldnt mind seeing Arizona Sunshine, haven't picked it up yet but only a matter of time, I wish there was a physical copy.
 
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somme

Member
I just checked out your reviews and enjoyed reading over a few of my favs to see how they stacked up opinion wise, pretty spot on! I was surprised there was no Skyrim review, have you maybe considered throwing in a couple captured videos of you playing? and I'm sure you'll get to reviewing Firewall soon, for me I wouldnt mind seeing Arizona Sunshine, haven't picked it up yet but only a matter of time, I wish there was a physical copy.

I have Firewall arriving tomorrow actually! It's taken me this long to get a ruddy Aim controller. I've got a half-finished Farpoint review I can complete now. Arizona Sunshine is definitely on the list - been wanting to play that for a while!

I never got Skyrim as I didn't think I'd have the time but that'll probably change now.

Just uploaded a review for Light Tracer. Think the review is about a year later but might still be of interest to any puzzle-platformer fans (with two motion controlls). https://psvr-reviews.com/2018/09/08/light-tracer/
 

Grinchy

Banned
I just can't stop playing Firewall. When everything is working as intended, it's so hard to put down. The way it handles the progression of unlocks is a nice way to keep you grinding since the game itself is already so fun to play. I still want to see some tweaks in the next patch, but damn they really nailed the basics.
 

Grinchy

Banned
Don't forget to update your PSVR firmware. I don't know if it prompts you to do it when you play a game, but I manually updated mine with the new PS4 firmware. I wonder if there are any good new changes/improvements for VR?
 

Nikana

Go Go Neo Rangers!
Hey gents and ladies. Ive been super busy and havent touched my PSVR in weeks.

I wanted to throw it out there that if there are any games coming out soon and people are curious, I can reach out to try to get some review codes and give people some impressions. I am super behind on what is coming out so I figured this would be a good way to help some people out and get reacquainted.
 
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Paperboy

Member
In games where you use the move controllers you move from one stationary point to the next. In those cases, is it possible to use the PS4 controller instead and move more freely/smoothly? I don't own VR, yet.
 

Grinchy

Banned
In games where you use the move controllers you move from one stationary point to the next. In those cases, is it possible to use the PS4 controller instead and move more freely/smoothly? I don't own VR, yet.
Do you have any specific games you're curious about? Some games have teleporting and smooth walking movement for the Move controllers and you can choose which you like better. There are also some games where you move between pre-determined nodes, but those are more rare.
 
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