With PlayStation VR 2, Sony attempts to bring PC-level performance to its console-based virtual reality platform. Namely, PS VR 2 for the PS5 has a higher resolution than its predecessor and runs smoother thanks to the addition of eye trackers that allow for improved rendering.
We’ll talk more about fove rendering later, but it essentially allows the headset to dedicate more processing power to the area where your eyes are looking and less processing power to the areas that you’re not focusing on.
Also impressive is the fact that PS VR 2 doesn’t need the PlayStation Camera or PS3 Move Motion controllers that the original PS VR used. The new updated PS VR 2 controllers feel better in the hand and can be tracked by sensors on the headset itself, solving two of our biggest problems with the original headset with an elegant solution. This could easily be one of the best VR headsets yet, at least for console gamers.
We’ve got our reservations about the headset, which is a bit unnerving considering the hefty $549 price tag, but fans of next-level VR experiences on consoles have a lot to get excited about when PS VR 2 comes out in mid-February. .
PS VR2 price and release date
The PS VR2 will launch on February 22, 2023, with pre-orders available for the headset now. In terms of price, you’re looking at $549.99 / £529.99 / €599.99 / AU$879.95. That number can be a bit of a shock; After all, the PS5 is only $499 here in the US. That’s a bit pricey for an accessory for a console, and that number is worth keeping in mind as you continue reading our thoughts below.
PSVR 2 Skin
The PS VR 2 is a wired VR headset with 6 degrees of freedom movement and inside-out tracking. The second part might sound confusing if you don’t read much about VR headsets, but all it means is that PS VR 2 doesn’t need external cameras for tracking and will follow you in all directions. At 560g (1.2lbs), it’s only about 60g heavier than the Meta Quest 2 (1.1lbs), but nearly 100g heavier than the HTC Vive (1.03lbs).
The PS VR2 has a 110-degree field of view and two 4K HDR displays with 2000 x 2040 resolution in each eye. That’s a huge improvement on the PSVR, which had a 100-degree field of view and a 1920 x 1080 OLED display.
Until now, PS VR used an intermediate connection box to connect the headset to the console, but thankfully, PS VR 2 doesn’t need one. It can be connected directly to the PS5, which should hopefully prevent some of the HDR passthrough related issues that people had with the original PlayStation VR.
To prevent you from moving outside of the play area, PS VR 2 now uses a guardian system of blue grid lines that will appear when you get close to the boundaries you set. It’s similar to what we’ve seen on the HTC Vive and Meta Quest headsets, so it makes sense that Sony wouldn’t try to reinvent the wheel with this feature.
In terms of specs, the PS VR2 has a 110-degree field of view and two 4K HDR displays with 2000 x 2040 resolution in each eye, a huge improvement over the PSVR, which only had a 100-degree field of view. degrees and a 1920 x 1080 OLED display.
If there’s a problem with the specs, though, it’s that there’s no audio from the headphones themselves; you will need to plug in a pair of headphones to get sound. It might not sound like a big deal, but when you plan on wearing a headset for hours at a time (especially one as heavy as the PS VR 2), you’ll wish you didn’t have to wear a pair of headphones, too.
PSVR2 Performance
For the PS VR 2 demo, Sony used Horizon Call of the Mountain, one of the headset’s biggest launch games.
They walked me through a quick calibration process where my interpupillary distance (IPD) was measured and set, and then the camera inside the viewfinder went to work tracking my eyes. The whole process took around 3 minutes, something that probably annoyed everyone behind me in line waiting to play, but it didn’t take nearly as long as setting up a PC VR headset for the first time.
While Call of the Mountain takes place in the same world as the other Horizon games and is filled with the same dinosaur-robot hybrids, it doesn’t star the series’ protagonist, Aloy. Instead, you’re a person from the captured tribes who, coincidentally, also knows the way around an arc.
The in-game visuals, right from the start, looked great. PS VR 2’s 4K HDR Fresnel OLED display really does display an exceptional amount of detail; however, since there is no way to get the lenses very close to your eyes, you will still see some black around the edges of the lenses. This is also where we can see fove rendering happening. Wherever you look, you will see more detail in the image. Hold an object close to your eyes, such as a book, and you will be able to read everything that is written in it. PS VR 2 does this by increasing detail in the areas you are looking at and reducing detail in the areas you are not looking at.
To move around the world, press the X and Square buttons and move your hands up and down. It’s a weird system, and we’d rather warp it, but it gets the job done. Once near a wall with white chalk marks, you can start free climbing.
The only major problem I had with the game, and my experience with PS VR 2 in general, was that looking up to climb put a lot of pressure on the bridge of my nose. The headset carries almost all of its weight in the front, so looking up puts pressure on your neck and nose where the headset rests.
Perhaps the weight of the earphones will become more natural over time, but after spending half an hour with them, it was one of the biggest issues I experienced.
PS VR 2 game lineup
What we played, Horizon Call of the Mountain, leads the charge as the flagship PS VR 2 title, but it’s not the only game to be available on the headset.
Some of the other blockbuster titles coming are Resident Evil Village, which will be a free VR update to the PS5 base game, as well as No Man’s Sky and the most popular VR game of all time, Beat Saber. .
Aside from these blockbuster titles, PS VR 2 will have a number of other games to come, though many of them have previously released on other headsets, so they’re a little less exciting. Games in this group include Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge (which launched in Meta Quest 2), The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners, Pistol Whip VR, After The Fall, and Cities VR – Enhanced Edition.
Of all the titles announced so far, Horizon seems to be the only one exclusive to the platform. That might not matter to some people, but others may feel a bit uncomfortable shelling out so much for Sony headsets when they can play 99% of the same games on another, cheaper option like Meta Quest 2.
PSVR 2 Perspective
When the original PS VR headset came out, I felt like there were a lot of opportunities for console VR. It wasn’t quite as good as PC VR back then, but its price point made it affordable, especially once Sony dropped the price by $100. While it’s now on par with PC VR, the price of PS VR 2 is a big hurdle to jump over. It’s more expensive than the console you’re playing it on, which could make it harder to sell.
Still, major upgrades to the headset – including a higher resolution and wider field of view, plus no longer requiring a camera or old PS3 controllers – mean there’s good reason to be excited about PS VR. 2.
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