Is Virtual Reality the Future of Sports Games?

Since we are winding down on 2015, I thought it would be fun to look into our collective crystal balls. To peek into the not-too-distant future and imagine what our sports gaming lives will look like in VR!

I bring this up because two particular games have piqued my interest as of late. On the heels of the wildly successful car soccer mashup up Rocket League, I thought, “what games could supplant this wacky title and what would it take to make them different?” To do so it would have to be easy to play, have a pretty simple control scheme, and also be a lot of fun.

Three games that instantly came to mind are Headmaster from Frame Interactive, VR Sports Challenge from Sanzaru and 100ft Robot Golf from NoGoblin. 100ft Robot Golf is a crazy looking title where you control huge robots in destructible environments while playing golf. Imagine how awesome a combination of Hot Shots Golf and Voltron would be! From their PlayStation Experience announcement trailer, they are going all out on the zany factor. As they state on their website:

“100ft Robot Golf is a real time golf game where you get to control impossibly large robots on their quest for par. Never get your ball stuck behind a pesky tree or skyscraper ever again! Just swing your golf club to smash even the tallest buildings out of the way – or into the way of your robot golfing buddies.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wkuoPRFo_8

Now, this already sounds pretty damn fun with just a controller in your hand, but imagine doing all this from the cockpit view of one of these monstrous robots with a virtual reality headset on. I think having PlayStation VR attached to this experience will just make it even more immersive.

Next up is VR Sports Challenge which looks to be a launch title with Oculus Rift. 

Sanzaru looks to be bringing the variety sports pack here with versions basketball, 

football and hockey to the virtual arena. What I’m actually most excited to see in terms 

of this title is how it incorporates Oculus touch into the games control schemes. The 

ability to use objects that mimic real world items is where sports games in VR will really 

shine. Having things in your hands can do nothing but raise the levels of immersion.   

VR Sports Challenge brings 1st person hockey to the Oculus Rift

Lastly is Headmaster, you star as a player sent to a football improvement center to work on your header game. You put on your PlayStation VR headset and you’re transported to this empty field surrounded by the barbed-wire silhouettes and spotlights. A distant voice barks instructions to you from a loudspeaker while you focus your eyes and steady your forehead toward a soccer goal in front of you. Your job is to “head” virtual soccer balls at targets with score markers on them. The more points you gain, the closer you get to your goal and therefore closer to the next level in your progression.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQ8fj8gdBSE

What makes Headmaster a must play is what the game does in terms of making you feel like a physical object is screaming toward you and making you react as if you were feeling this in real life. I’ve played very few virtual reality games that get this feeling right. It’s a new version of the uncanny valley but less in terms of “reality” and more in terms of “believability”. Believability will be the mark that VR games will have to shoot for and Headmaster through its use of light, depth of field, and physics creates what I think is the must play game for PlayStation VR. It is hilariously fun and made me a believer in my short time with it. Enough so that I thought about how awesome the experience was days after.

 

These three titles are ones that I’m looking forward to playing and sharing not only for the fun factor, but for the ability to show off the new universe of home virtual reality. I’m excited for myself but all of you too. Let us know what you think of VR Gaming in the comments and on social media!

Is Virtual Reality the Future of Sports Games?