Surgeon Simulator is all about struggling. It’s about the fight to save someone’s life while also coming to blows with a control scheme that doesn’t want you to succeed. It’s about picking up a saw and possessing the mental dexterity to position it over the patient and carefully lower it into a rib cage without destroying vital organs and killing him. Then again, it’s also about losing and laughing at your failure as lungs leap out of bodies and pieces of bone get lost down the back. It’s about taking game design in the other direction and the glorious results that can come from doing so. Surgeon Simulator: Experience Reality is not about these things. Surgeon Simulator: Experience Reality screenshot
This is the natural progression of the demo that developer Bossa Studios first revealed alongside the HTC Vive virtual reality (VR) head-mounted display (HMD) back in March 2015. Surgeon Simulator has long been a supporter of the Oculus Rift, but here VR support becomes the focus and is bolstered by the latest breakthroughs in the position-tracked SteamVR controllers. Now it’s a full title, set to arrive on both the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive which at once completely changes the game and yet (ironically) keeps its heart intact. With position-tracked controllers, the Surgeon Simulator experience is no longer concerned with tying your fingers in knots and dropping sharp tools inside a mess of intestines. Instead, operations become quite possible, as you rely on the controller’s (in this case Oculus Touch) incredibly precise tracking to pick up an object and use it in an entirely natural way. It can actually prove to be quite a liberating experience going from, say, the PlayStation 4 version of the title in which the buttons, tilt-sensing and analogue sticks of the DualShock 4 are used to confuse you to these impressive controllers that provide unparalleled accuracy. But here’s why the comedy still works so well: you might have the right tools both in and out of VR, but you still don’t know what you’re doing, especially in the case of operating on an alien. That’s exactly what VRFocus got to try, having to remove a spherical organ from deep inside an extraterrestrial being. You pick up an axe, you know how to use it, and you take it to a ribcage like a mad doctor; it’s no less fun than it was when it released years back thanks to VR. In fact it’s even better. Surgeon Simulator: Experience Reality screenshot It also helps that the challenge is still piled on elsewhere. You’re working against a timer here, and it adds a sense of desperation to the proceedings that make mistakes and rush jobs inevitable. Combined with the brilliant zero gravity effect, it’s not long before bits of alien are floating through the air along with tools and, amusingly, the body’s own hands. It’s one of the most convincing VR experiences yet to have to bat away a pair of thing scaly fingers that pesteringly insist on floating just in front of your face as you try to get the job done. Surgeon Simulator: Experience Reality is radically different from its predecessor, then, and yet it keeps the tone and hilarity intact. You might expect the slapstick nature of this beloved franchise to serve more as an excuse as to why it isn’t a polished piece of entertainment, but this isn’t the case whatsoever here. Surgeon Simulator has always been a great showcase for the diversity of videogames and the laughter they can provide. Now it’s about to do the same for virtual reality.
With EVE: Valkyrie confirmed not only as one of the launch titles for the upcoming Oculus Rift head-mounted display (HMD), but also offered as a free pre-order bonus for early adopters, CCP Games is keen to show off the latest build of its space combat simulator at every opportunity. After a detailed hands-on with the team-based multiplayer modes last month, a new build has been brought to CES showcasing the single-player gameplay.
A mode referred to as ‘Convoy’, the intent implied is an escort mission. However, this isn’t a simple case of staying beside a defenceless AI ship as it poodles along at a snails’ pace attracting every enemy bullet and laser blast in the area. While at first the player is informed to stay close to the ship they are intended to protect, once the enemies arrive the same freedom is granted as in that of the multiplayer gameplay modes.
The visual design is most certainly one aiming for spectacle. A leisurely cruise soon gets interrupted as dozens of enemy drop ships burst onto the scene, spewing from within a seemingly endless stream of small fighter ships. Luckily, these AI ships are ill-prepared to take on the might of their human-controlled adversary, and what ensues is a 5-minutes killstreak designed solely for empowering the player.
Unlike the multiplayer build VRFocus recently got hands-on with, there is no choice of ship class or loadout in the build. Obviously designed with the intention of running a lot of people through it in a short space of time, this new vertical slice is all about getting into the action, making use of the longstanding headlook-based missile system and the various other abilities the basic fighter ship is equipped with. In that same regard, the mission ends abruptly as a large Death Star-alike ship enters the map and charges up a massive blast, ending the player’s run regardless of whether or not they’ve sustained any damage up to that point.
Despite being a very quick and brutal taste of EVE: Valkyrie‘s single-player gameplay, this beginner-level mission was very much enjoyable. It showcased a number of the highlights of fast-paced action EVE: Valkyrie will offer: tight controls, detailed weapon systems, aggressive combat, high quality visuals. The lack of depth certainly doesn’t hinder this latest build as a showfloor showcase of what EVE: Valkyrie will offer the Oculus Rift early adopters in 2 months from now.
Exactly where this mission fits into the final videogame is not currently known. CCP Games has stated time-and-time-again thatEVE: Valkyrie is not intended to be a single-player videogame, but yet are offering a small slice of the experience as such to be a training ground for the multiplayer gameplay. While it would be easy to assume that this mission is a piece of that content, it’s more than likely to have been adapted specifically for the CES showcase. It’s only a matter of months until Oculus Rift early adopters will get to see exactly how deep the single-player content will go in the final build of EVE: Valkyrie.
The promise of truly immersive, virtual reality headsets for the masses is just around the corner with Oculus Rift launching its consumer version in 2016. In the meantime, a number of alternative solutions have been introduced including Google’s Cardboard, Samsung’s GearVR, and Carl Zeiss’ VR ONE headset. We’ll be taking a look at the latter to see if one of the world’s greatest optics manufacturers has what it takes to jump into the virtual reality space.
I typically do not write reviews while dizzy or while experiencing skull piercing headaches; however, that is what I must do today. I have spent the last few minutes with the Carl Zeiss VR ONE headset in one last attempt to try and enjoy the virtual world. This is not my first encounter with the VR ONE, but I do hope it is my last.
Putting Carl Zeiss aside, I have also played with Samsung’s GearVR headset in the past. As soon as I heard the company was offering an affordable version of virtual reality, I ran down to my local electronics store to test the display unit. It was exactly what I expected: a low-resolution version of Oculus Rift. Low resolution does not mean boring – I wanted a GearVR as soon as I tried it. However, my iPhone was not compatible and I didn’t fancy shelling out $200 for a temporary solution.
When the folks at Carl Zeiss announced that they would be producing a consumer product for Apple and Android users alike, I was ecstatic. Even better, the VR ONE would only cost $129 and promised to be compatible with a number of readily available applications in the App Store. Naturally, I jumped on the opportunity to take the headset for a test drive. I was ready to experience 360-degree videos, immersive panoramas, and of course, exciting games.
The Zeiss VR ONE showed up in subtle packaging that was quickly thrown aside to access what was inside: a Zeiss VR ONE headset and tray modeled for the current iPhone 6. In addition to the headset itself, you will have to purchase a ‘tray’ that holds your device. Available trays and supported devices include the iPhone 6, Samsung Galaxy S4, S5, S6, Nexus 5, and LG G3.
The design of the VR ONE is exactly what you would expect from Carl Zeiss: high quality and sturdy. Some have looked down upon the headset for using plastic, but it helps to keep the weight down and doesn’t feel like it would crack or chip easily. The design is minimal and futuristic featuring a monochrome color design minus the small Carl Zeiss logo.
I took out my iPhone and launched the App Store to grab the applications that Zeiss promised. Only three were present: an augmented reality experience, a virtual cinema, and a media launcher. I immediately downloaded all three and assumed that the majority of goodies would be within the media launcher. All applications were free to download.
Once everything was installed, I fired up the VR ONE Media Launcher, slid the smartphone tray into the headset, and strapped myself into the unit. That is the exact moment all my high hopes began to die. Everything I viewed through the headset was extremely blurry and I could instantly feel my brain rejecting the experience. Luckily, headsets like these usually include an adjustment option for iris differences; this exact model, however, did not.
Zeiss decided to ditch the adjustable lenses and aim for a ‘one size fits all’ experience. Sadly, one size does not fit all. In fact, my experience was not isolated. I had four other individuals try out the Zeiss VR ONE headset with half of them confirming that they felt dizzy or sick after the experience. Despite this fact, I continued my attempt in reviewing the included applications.
The headset was extremely comfortable despite the strain the lenses were having on my eyes. Wonderful padding, along with three straps, kept the device firmly planted in place without digging into my skull. Many headsets tend to place weight upon the bridge of the nose, but the VR ONE did not have this issue.
The augmented reality application provided by Zeiss was interesting for a few minutes as a tech demo but quickly lost its appeal. The Cinema app was also very fascinating, but due to the blurry quality one would have to wonder why they wouldn’t just watch directly on their smartphone. As for the Media Launcher, it merely linked to a few recommended applications from the App Store.
It is also worth mentioning that Carl Zeiss did not choose to integrate Google Cardboard’s magnetic button, so a number of the available virtual reality applications on the App Store are incompatible with the unit. We love minimalism, but not when it cuts out major functionality.
Needless to say, my reviewing was cut short when I had to remove the headset and pop some Tylenol to feel a bit better. My disappointment for this headset doesn’t seem to be expressible in words. I had used virtual reality headsets with smartphones before and had wonderfully enjoyable experiences, but the VR ONE simply was not one of those headsets.
The Samsung Gear VR is now available for $99. It's not a bad price, considering it is the very first virtual reality headset designed for mass consumption. But is virtual reality ready for the masses, and are the masses ready for virtual reality? The new Gear VR is actually the second version of the headset. The first version, which Samsung calls the Innovator Edition, is a developer version designed to attract app developers to build content for the platform before it comes out for the general public. If you have never tried out the developer version, as most consumers may not have, you might find the Gear VR unwieldy to set up, despite the changes Samsung made to the design. You'll need, first and foremost, the headset itself, one of Samsung's flagship smartphones, an ear-cupping headset (preferably wireless) for fully immersive sound, and a wireless gamepad. "The Gear VR wasn't easy to set up," says Anick Jesdanun of the Associated Press. "I had trouble figuring out where all the Velcro straps and hooks were supposed to go. I couldn't get the phone to snap into place. I needed the manual to find a lever I had to switch because I had a larger phone, the Note 5. Many consumers might need help from a tech-savvy friend or kid." For all the trouble you may go through, however, the Gear VR may still be worth it. As expected, the consumer-ready version features a lot of major improvements over the Innovator Edition. The very first thing you'll notice, if you've tried on the developer version, is how much lighter and more comfortable the Gear VR is. Specifically, the headset now weighs 0.64 pounds, compared to the full pound weight of the developer version. In fact, as Will Shanklin of Gizmag says, majority of the headset's weight actually comes from the phone that serves as the screen. It also now has a bit more padding and more room for people wearing eyeglasses. Unfortunately, as with all other VR headsets, the Gear VR is not without discomfort. Users can expect varying degrees of dizziness, motion sickness and nausea, depending on their tolerance. The problem comes from the discrepancy created between what your eyes see onscreen and what your brain expects to see. Samsung deals with this problem by incorporating more motion sensors into the headset and promises a 20-millisecond motion delay, but the problem is not completely eradicated. "After maybe 40 minutes of gaming, I noticed my forehead beginning to get sweaty from the heat of the screen, the bridge of my nose aching," says Ben Popper of The Verge. "VR is funny that way. I didn't find the headset too heavy, but its physical, visceral effects came at a cost. Each half-hour session left me with a slight headache and disorientation that bordered on nausea." Samsung and Oculus address this problem by including a comfort level indicator for each of the apps in the Oculus Store, with some apps labeled as "Comfortable for some" and "Comfortable for most." It's important that users deliberately adjust to their surroundings as they slip in and out of VR instead of fully jumping into the experience. "As far as what you can tolerate, take it easy," TechCrunch's Drew Olanoff says. "If you're made dizzy easily, just try something light out like a Netflix movie. Get used to blocking out everything that's around you for a little while. There's nobody judging you or anyone scoring you on how 'VR cool' you are." Speaking of apps, you will find a relatively huge variety of content from the Oculus Store. One of the early problems for virtual reality was the lack of content to make it truly consumer-ready, but the Oculus Store contains around a hundred apps and games as well as some 70 films from Lionsgate and 20th Century Fox. And while some of these may be the short, gimmicky trailers you'd expect from a new platform (you can watch Netflix and other films on a virtual TV screen on a virtual couch), several pieces of content showcase just how far into the future VR can take us. Land's End, for instance, is a Zen puzzle game that has you floating over a gorgeous beach setting while solving puzzles. Popper describes how it feels like to walk and float about in VR while part of your brain knows there's another kind of reality out there. "I knew the 'presence' it produced was strong when, standing on the edge of a cliff, I found myself unable to move my feet toward the edge — the lizard part of my brain insisting that the drop was real," he says. "Moving my feet wouldn't actually move me in VR space, there is no positional tracking, but I still couldn't do it." Partly, it's because the Gear VR is not yet so technologically advanced to provide a really immersive experience. For instance, most reviewers have mentioned a light flickering on the side of the screen that's caused by the relatively low resolution of the Galaxy smartphones. As standalone handsets, the S6, S6 edge, S6 edge+ and Note 5 have a phenomenal number of pixels, but as VR screens, they're only fair enough for the price. "You won't mistake what you see in there for reality — you can clearly make out pixels, like when you'd sit too close to an old tube TV," says Geoffrey A. Fowler of the Wall Street Journal. "Yet using the Gear VR for a week, I frequently found myself getting wrapped up in its virtual worlds, for longer and longer stretches." So, is it worth picking up the Gear VR at the nearest store where it is available? If you already have one of Samsung's flagship phones, it is definitely a must-have. And since it's a less-than-$100 addition to your smartphone, it shouldn't be too much of a burden on the pocket. However, non-Samsung users will have to shell out $99 plus at least $650 for the price of one of the Galaxy flagships. If you're considering spending several hundreds of dollars for a VR headset, you might want to consider waiting it out for the Oculus Rift or the HTC Vive next year. Sure, they are going to cost so much more (since you'll need a powerful PC that'll at least cost $1,000), but they are also expected to offer so much more as well, including hand-tracking to allow you to interact with VR objects. Still, the Gear VR is certainly an important part of VR history, and it will be written down in the books as the first headset that launched accessible VR for the masses. "Gear VR reminds me of the Atari 2600, that affordable game console that brought Pac-Man home," says WSJ's Fowler. And the Oculus Rift is expected to be the SNES of VR.
Samsung Gear VR Review: The Future is Now
Virtual reality has always been one of the most elusive aspects of modern technology. We’ve had motion controllers that do a decent job of replicating things like tennis, and 3D TVs can make you feel like you’ve got snowballs flying at your face for a few minutes before your eyes hurt too much, but we’ve never really been able to tap into that true sense of immersion and presence of self that is required for actual virtual reality to work. That is, until now. I’m not going to waste time in this review boring you with the technical details about the device – you can look that up in the product details on your online retailer of choice’s website – but I will instead focus on what you need to know from a practical gamer’s perspective. How does it feel when you wear it? Is it easy to control? Are there any good games on it worth downloading or paying for? And most importantly, should you buy it? Well, the short answer to all of those questions is that the Samsung Gear VR is a beautiful device that I can hardly stop playing. Samsung and Oculus were smart when they designed this to be as consumer-friendly as possible because you don’t even really need to spend more than a minute or two in the instruction manual. Once you plug your phone into the front of the headset, it walks you through the entire setup process and even teaches you how to control everything. The right side of the headset has a touchpad for swiping, a back button for navigation, and volume toggles. Those controls, the wonderful display, and the motion-detection technology are all you need to get going with some great VR experiences. The Introduction to VR video, BluVR, some of the 360 photos, and the Battle for Avengers Tower are all great starting points for someone new to the device. Once you feel comfortable and don’t think you’re going to pass out, you can move on to some of the games like Smash Hit, the first Anshar Wars, and Temple Run VR – all of which can be played for free without a controller. Then once you get a compatible bluetooth controller and start dropping some cash on games, you can enjoy even more great stuff. And they’ve been doing a decent job of adding new games and experiences steadily over time. 
As someone that requires glasses to get farther than two steps from my bed every day, the Samsung Gear VR is actually incredibly versatile. For games that don’t require reading a lot of text, I found that zooming the focus wheel all the way in was sufficient to enjoy most games and videos. If I absolutely needed to wear my glasses however, the headset was just roomy enough for me to wear them, although I wouldn’t recommend it if you can at all avoid it. Scratching your glasses or the high-quality and delicate Gear VR’s lenses are very real concerns. The stock straps that come with the device could be better. The velcro isn’t the most resilient and they don’t do much in the way of improving the wearability of the headset. I have a comparatively large head, and it was difficult for me to get it to fit properly at times. And as someone that often gets a sweaty forehead, I can imagine the head padding being less than clean after a while. If you’re intrigued about the idea of smartphone-powered virtual reality, then you should get one of these headsets. If you want to experience cutting-edge technology from the comfort of your home, then you should get one of these headsets. If you’re unsure about whether or not the Samsung Gear VR is for you, then you should still get one of these headsets and realize your reservations are misplaced. If you get motion sickness easily, dislike amazing things, or genuinely aren’t interested in a more immersive way of consuming passive and interactive media, then sure, maybe don’t get one. But even then, at least find someone that has one and give it a try. 
With the release of the Samsung Gear VR headset, true virtual reality is not only a thing, but it’s widely available to the public – as long as you’ve got a compatible Samsung smartphone, of course. And it’s not a long list of compatible phones at this time, just the S6, S6 Edge, S6 Edge+, and Note 5. That’s it. But if you do have one of those phones, or are thinking about upgrading to one of those phones, then the Gear VR is an absolute no-brainer at only $100. Virtual reality is here, it’s beautiful, and it’s waiting for you to dive in head-first.
SAMSUNG GEAR VR
At a glance
Gear VR (+) A lot of varied content; social VR adds a sense of presence; resolution is surprisingly good; only $100!
Fear VR (-) Overheats and drain's phone's battery life; some motion sickness present depending on experience; can get heavy and cause eye strain after a while
Competent virtual reality on the go
We’ve been dreaming about virtual reality for years, but up until now, those dreams have been pretty well disappointed. While we’ll have to wait a bit for the release of the crème de la crème of modern VR —Oculus Rift and HTC Vive—you can get a good taste of it now with Samsung’s Gear VR.
Made in partnership with Oculus VR, the Gear VR is essentially a headset attachment for modern Samsung phones, with support for the Note 5 and S6 series devices. We tested ours with Samsung’s Edge 6 Edge, which is one of the lighter options. It’s also a pretty good phone for VR with its 557 PPI screen. While the headset is made mostly of plastic, inside are optics that magnify and refocus your eyes on your phone’s screen. The phone locks into place via a Micro USB connector, and there’s some foam padding surrounding the face plate. The Gear VR also has an IPD adjuster, to accommodate for varying pupil distances (everyone’s is different), and a volume rocker. You secure the headset via a horizontal strap that wraps around the back of your head, and there’s an optional strap that goes straight down the top-middle of your head. Once you lock your phone in place, it automatically engages VR mode and you can navigate menus using the headset’s physical back button and 4-way directional touchpad on the right. But perhaps the niftiest feature of the Gear VR is that it retails for $100, which is a steal if you have a compatible Samsung phone.
If you have a compatible Samsung phone, you have to get this.
What does the Gear VR feel like? Inside the headset, you have access to roughly an 80–90 degree field of view, which seems a little more narrow in comparison to the Oculus Rift, by about 10 degrees or so. Within this view, you can look around with the help of the headset’s accelerometer and gyroscope. Tracking is pretty much 1:1. When VR experiences are done well, the headset is able to trick your brain into believing that your body is somewhere it is not. Of course, the experience isn’t perfect. With the S6 Edge’s 1440x2560-resolution screen, the “screen door effect” wasn’t bad, but you can still make out some of the pixels if you try. Also, sometimes the headset will be disoriented and will get out of whack. The view will go off axis, but by holding down the back button, you can bring up the menu to reorient the screen to the direction that you’re looking. This whole process can take a few up seconds with loading times, so we would have appreciated a one-touch button that did this more quickly. We also wish there was a separate button for the headset’s Passthrough Mode, which is a mode that enables you to see the real-life environment around you using the phone’s camera. As implemented now, it’s much faster to simply lift up the headset to look at your surroundings than to go through the menus to enable it.
We were pleasantly surprised by how many apps there were at launch. There’s a wide variety of content, ranging from games to movies and beyond, and there's tons of free content. While most games are compatible with the headset’s simple swipe gestures, you can also pair a Bluetooth controller to the device. In terms of games, most of them have you using your head to look at targets in a shooting gallery. This can quickly start to feel shallow and tiring. Because Gear VR is running on Android, it inherits the platform’s cheap quality games. And because it’s running off a phone, don’t expect Crysis-level graphics. There are some fun VR games at the moment, however. Land’s End makes you feel like you’re a floating wizard in a fantastical land trying to solve puzzles. In Omega Agent, you feel like you’re floating through a city using a jetpack. Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is a great asymmetrically designed game in which one player wearing the Gear VR has to defuse a bomb while other players have to flip through a manual to help them figure out how to do it. There’s also an arcade app that, as the name implies, throws you into a virtual arcade and allows you to play old-school games from Sega, Midway, and Bandai Namco.
Even if you aren’t interested in games, the Gear VR has a bunch of other experiences to sift through. There are a ton of 360-degree photos from all around the globe to view, a healthy dose of 360-degree videos to watch (including all the 360 videos on Youtube), and you can even watch 2D movies in a 3D environment. There’s essentially a movie theater app that allows you to watch any movie you have on your phone in various three-dimensionally fleshed-out environments that include the aforementioned movie theater; you can even watch movies on the moon. Netflix also has a VR app that allows you to watch your favorite content in a virtual cozy cabin. It seems kind of silly to watch Netflix this way, but it works surprisingly well. Virtual tourism is another big component of Gear VR and there’s a healthy amount of 360-degree videos to watch that take you scuba diving with sharks or ringside at a fight. You can also watch Paul McCartney perform live in 360 degrees, or check out a futuristic-themed Muse music video that allows you to see something new every time you view it. Surprisingly enough, perhaps the most compelling aspect of Gear VR is the social app. Here, you choose an avatar and can sit in a virtual theater and watch live Twitch streams or online videos with strangers from across the globe. We virtually met people from Australia and Europe and legitimately felt like we were in the same room with them. Because Gear VR has a gyroscope, it can also track head movements, and coupled with the directional audio, it really feels like you’re looking at someone and talking with them. There is a certain sense of “presence” there, and it's pretty trippy.
VR can take you to virtual worlds...
That’s not to say that the Gear VR is without flaws, however. The biggest issue here is motion sickness. It’s better than the Oculus Rift development kit 2, but if the experience isn’t well optimized, chances are you’re going to get a little dizzy and/or motion sick. Your mileage will vary, of course. We suspect that its 60Hz refresh rate has something to do with it, as Oculus has stated in the past that 90Hz and above is what’s comfortable for most people. We also suspect that a lack of a positional camera doesn’t help, since the headset doesn’t accommodate for when you lean in or around objects. In our experience, dizziness occurs when your eyes don’t line up with what your brain expects to see. Gear VR does try to mitigate this issue by providing comfortability ratings for each app. Another gripe we had with Gear VR is that it quickly drains the phone’s battery and tends to overheat the device. There were times when games would judder or crash as a result. While you can’t really mitigate the heat issue, you can charge the device while using it. Another obstacle that Gear VR faces is that many VR apps take up a lot of space, so your phone can quickly fill up with VR programs. Some 360-degree videos try to deal with this by using compression, but the end results are generally blurry. The screen also tended to fog up when we had it on a little too tight, and we encountered several audio incompatibilities using a Bluetooth headset. To top it off, the Gear VR can cause some eye strain and be a bit heavy after extended use, even though the headset itself only weighs .62 pounds. Add to that the weight of the phone coupled with experiences that force you to constantly look up, and it can cause fatigue.
Despite these problems, however, if you have a capable Samsung phone, getting the Gear VR is a no-brainer at $100. There’s a decent amount of content already and we’re confident it will only continue to increase. The big question is whether people who are currently content with their non-Samsung smartphones should jump aboard. Unless you’re a die-hard VR enthusiast, we’d suggest holding off until gen two. Hopefully by then it will have a faster refresh rate, wider FOV, and perhaps some integrated speakers. This additional time will also allow the Oculus store to make some UI improvements and bolster its library. If you have a compatible phone and are at all interested in VR, though, gear up for a good time!
