Oculus Rift – What’s it good for?

The Oculus Rift has been in developers hands for at least a few months now. Where they have been putting it through its paces to get a feel for what they can do with it.

If you’ve not heard of the Oculus Rift then to sum it up, it’s essentially a head mounted screen which reacts to movement from your head. It also has speakers in for audio naturally.

You cannot go anywhere with it by moving your head. So you can look up, down, left right etc but you have to use other means to move like a joypad.

Those old enough to remember Lawnmower Man and the TV Boy will know that this is not the first time this type of technology has been tested. However, it is the first time its a realistic price. The developer kits, which are traditionally more expensive then they’re release units are around $300. Funded by their kickstarter campaign it quickly met its goal and units were created and shipped.

This got me thinking though, without the option to move without a controller, what’s it good for? Well, here’s my list of game titles I would live to see created:

A Mech game, if they existed, its likely you would sit in a cockpit to control them. This means you’d have to use something else to get the thing moving. Like joysticks and pedals. Perfect for the Oculus. Your be able to look all around you and down and see out of the windows.

So, a cockpit, which means any type of aircraft game would be great too.

Or even a car gaming, looking around to see who is catching up on you would be amazing.

I can see FPS games being played too, but the moment thing would no doubt cause some odd feelings.

Whatever comes out, I hope its as cool as I’m expecting. And even if it were $300 on release, that’s a bargain for totally immersive video gaming.