The Oculus Rift: My Thoughts & Pre-orders Start Today!

     Last summer I attended 2D Con (aka Digital Destruction) here in Minnesota and was lucky enough to try out the Oculus Rift.  It's pretty damned amazing.  Which makes me very glad to know that pre-orders start today.

     I got to watch a short video of a roller coaster ride through a living room from the perspective of someone or something that was really small.  After that, I played Dangerous Elite on the system.  Let me tell you, flying a 3D space craft is quite disorienting without major planetary bodies to anchor yourself to, and it feels a little easy to get spun around and feel lost.  Even though the graphics might not be the best yet, and the programs run less smoothly than they could, it still fully achieves the simulation effect for the user- and that is the most important thing for virtual reality.

     But that fact is a testament to how effective the device is at simulating the 3D effects.  It gives the feeling of motion through visuals and sound.  Though the rig I played on seemed a bit sluggish, as technology improves the systems should get quite a bit better for the upcoming 3D games, and I really look forward to seeing what people can do with it and how they can push the boundaries of it's uses.  I'm looking at you Hideo Kojima!

     I want to see creative and innovative uses, things that wow me while maintaining a fun factor.  Because virtual reality is still early on, it's very exciting to see what will be coming of it in the next few years.  This is going to be a literal game changer for everyone.  Can you imagine how epic a fully 3D Elder Scrolls, Fallout, or Borderlands game could be?  There's infinite potential with this type of technology.

     The Rift is currently priced at $599.00 (USD) and will begin shipping on March 28th, with a few select retailers in "limited locations" having them in store in April.

     The specs to run this beast:

• graphics card: NVIDIA GTX 970 / AMD R9 290 equivalent or greater
• processor: Intel i5-4590 equivalent or greater
• memory: 8GB+ RAM
• output: Compatible HDMI 1.3 video output
• input: 3x USB 3.0 ports plus 1x USB 2.0 port
• operating system: Windows 7 SP1 64 bit or newer

     If you are unsure if your system can handle these specs they've provided an Oculus Compatibility Tool to make sure if it'll work or not for you.

     Personally, I won't be able to afford the hefty price tag for the Oculus, but it's amazing to see the list of games coming out for it.  Although I think their estimates might be a little exaggerated- but then again, they say there'll be more than 100 titles.  I'll certainly be saving up for one of these bad boys for a while.

     To pre-order [ Oculus Rift ]