16
Products
reviewed
1027
Products
in account

Recent reviews by Trace Projectile

< 1  2 >
Showing 1-10 of 16 entries
7 people found this review helpful
12.1 hrs on record (12.1 hrs at review time)
Great base game; great setting, great writing, even good graphics for the original release. Bioshock dialogue and story is so iconic you could make almost every line a quote, even if the trilogy's endings are a bit samey.

My negative review is over the 2K publishing side, this 'remaster' looks barely better than the original, that is to say it does look better, but not to a degree that'll wow you. It looks like a HD update made about a year after release, or a mod made a couple years after. Not a near decade of gaming progress and an official release. It's clearly still in the same engine because it feels dated and clunky, and has lots of old gaming jank such as tabbing out being a dice roll for if the game crashes, and plenty of stretched UI and unusually slow loading times for not being a busy open world.

Your bugs and crashes will vary, some people claim to have finished the game without seeing issues while some people refunded by the first level. Every copy of Bioshock (&2) Remastered personalised!
Myself, it was largely stable but performed worse than much better looking games, a couple areas really chugging the game despite looking normal, and in the final area it crashed the first few times which sucked because autosaves are only a few per long level. Oh yeah, I also had my saves get corrupted and unreadable in both Bioshock 1 non-remastered, and Bioshock 2 Remastered. Hard drive health is fine, no other games affected.

You may see a spike in negative reviews right now, that's because 2K have rolled out quote "quality of life" updates to older titles, that literally just add a launcher with a store section. No idea why they chose to do that now, other publishers are giving up on their launchers (i.e. Bethesda) but I've long been saying companies do less market research than I used to for school projects. As for why the launcher exists... Um. Hmm. So they can save a little money over DLCs being bought on Steam? Maybe a legal manoeuvre behind the scenes over NBA, that they crammed into older games cause why not?
I've also heard that the launcher is crashing for some users and has no Linux support, I generally edit reviews when things like that are fixed, but yeah, I'm sure it's as high priority as crash logs from 2016.
Edit 2023: True to my word I do edit, and 2K claim to have fixed the Linux thing.

Seriously though it shows when they want to they can update their games pretty much overnight, make of that what you will when considering the years-old bugs.

I'm really doing this review to thumb down 2K as Bioshock is near-essential gaming, it almost feels wrong to potentially dissuade someone from experiencing Bioshock for the first time, so I guess I'll let you decide how to proceed with the 'Bioshock good 2K bad' thing, it's really only my advice and adding my voice to this situation.
Posted 5 September, 2022. Last edited 17 March, 2023.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny Award
7 people found this review helpful
2
0.0 hrs on record
I played Cyberpunk 2077 and Fallout 76 on release day, and this is buggier.

Bugs range from getting flung across a planetary surface and menus acting strangely to uncompletable missions, crashes, and disconnects.

Even if you can force past the bugs it sucks in other areas:
  • Planets, planetary settlements and stations look and feel extremely samey. Including in high-traffic landmark systems and capitals.
  • There's a thousand reviews about the performance so I won't even go into it. Even outside of first person mode the game performs worse too.
  • UI has been tweaked and is somehow even worse. I can't figure out the galaxy map any more, getting it to other views such as the powerplay coloured map mode is a chore since I'm clicking it and nothing happens. There's many gaping holes in the quality of life, like you can't do a quick tag onto an active mission location from its screen, or you sorta can but it's not as good as selecting it in system list.
  • Doing missions can be extremely boring. You wait as you fly there, wait to orbit and land, 5 minutes actual FPS mode then go back to waiting as you head back... If your game didn't bug or get you instakilled. This honestly might be good for roleplay but many casual players will almost fall asleep between missions. The mercenary bot match mode* is more direct at least.
  • Dying on a mission fails it, which is sometimes harsh but fair, however sometimes you spend 30 mins on something, get interdicted by pirates, die... Now you pay ship insurance, lose all your inventory, your current location, you fail the mission and have to discard it, and lose a little reputation for failing.
  • You can't walk around on your ships which is probably the best use of space legs one could ask for.
  • Almost all of the (pretty limited) cosmetics are locked behind premium currency, just like the base game because Frontier are going whaling.
    I preordered so got a cool black and orange outfit set (when the menu feels like displaying it) but anyone who didn't preorder will lack suit options.
  • Weird bugged oversights like one type of suit missing flashlight functionality for many players.
  • Upgrading gear is really odd, you need to find a shopping list of obscure parts and it just doesn't feel accessible.
  • The odd feeling you're paying money for a feature the game itself needed: space legs. Some things obviously do feel more 'DLC' such as xenobiology, bounty hunting and mercenary contracts which are more what you expect of an expansion.
  • Social functions are lacking; there's no RP-like activities, I was constantly desynced from my partner, sometimes jumping systems put me into a solo instance without explanation, and co-op is mostly absent aside the mercenary mode.*

What finally pushed me over the edge to review was taking a mission to repair a base and fend off. I jump a couple times and it takes time to even reach it and land of course. Me and my partner fight for a while, take our time to do it right. Do the optional objectives and explore thoroughly. Wait on some very slow optional loot to open.
And then, on my way out, I tried to download some data for cash before we escape, and the menu sticks on my screen. I try practically every key to leave and eventually have to return to menu to reload. When I go back on I'd lost all progress and had to go back and do it, and an enemy I'd already killed once shoots my grenade out of the air, instakilling me so I fail a mission I'd basically already beaten, and I teleport to an Omnipol penal station without my ship (even though I was killed by a raider.)

The positives, in the interest of being fair:
  • A whole new avenue of career. Be a bounty hunter, mercenary e.t.c. sort of role. Distinct feeling from hauler, explorer and other ship-based careers.
  • You can basically be a common pedestrian, leaving your ship behind to fight in war and hang around stations.
  • New suits and customisation.
  • Elite is a little more alive, with more settlements, NPC contacts, mission boards and now ground-based warzones, such as when I totally by accident stumbled upon a worker faction and corporation fighting.
  • *There's a mercenary deployment mode I've hinted at, and it's really good IMO. Pays great, gets you right into the action, works well as co-op, fairly decent pace, good for roleplayers, and makes the world feel alive.
  • Sometimes a mission goes right and it feels awesome, like distracting guards to break into a warehouse and steal an object, then escape.

I'd generally allow comments but I don't want to host any arguments below right now. Just know I'll gladly flip my review around when my negative points are gone. I've deleted or revised reviews before, and easily can again.

TL;DR/Summary - Potentially great product but lacking in polish, quality of life and content. Fingers crossed for walking around on ships one day.
Posted 22 May, 2021. Last edited 22 May, 2021.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny Award
3 people found this review helpful
77.7 hrs on record
As wide as a puddle, and as deep as a puddle.
I'm clearly in the minority, maybe it's just not "made for me" since most reviews are positive from people with thousands of hours (somehow) but hey, can't be worse than those people who play a $5 game for 2000 hours, it doesn't even get an update but they feel compelled to make a negative review just saying "bad".
I do have more hours especially on Battle.Net. Destiny 2 used to be published under Activision, hence it was on there. It was often hinted at by Bungie and defensively exclaimed by fans that mistakes in the price model or story were due to Activision meddling, though funnily I think the game's gotten worse overall if a little better written when they went solo.

At least it's free now, fits the live service "feels like free to play" thing better when it actually is free, so I'll give them that.

Anyway what pushed me over the edge from not really caring to negative review? The recent decision to patch out.. Almost everything. Entire locations, the base game story, and even DLCs which used to be paid. Plus the gear, enemies, stories within.
Oh and almost most the multiplayer maps because you know, we weren't already sick of the same few Crucible (PvP) maps even before one of the developer's young children brought that idea to a meeting.

To me this is one of the worst things I've seen in gaming, and a truly alarming sign of 'Live Service' games and what they mean: The fact that you can pay for DLC and come back, and they're no longer there. They were not cheap back in the day, and if you're a patient gamer of some form, maybe you paid a lot but waited on PC upgrades or were hoping for an update to make Destiny's gunplay less like Fallout 3 minus VATS, well you missed your chance.

The idea that this genre of hybrid MMOs can just patch out vast swathes of content is honestly scary and I'm glad live service seems to be dying out. That is the primary thing my negative review is over. I had things to do, a friend was nice enough to buy me content to play for the story, but now it actually can't be accessed.

Oh and I'm sure patching out old DLCs and the base game campaign is surely unrelated to the release of an expansion which starts at $45 but goes up to $80 if you want... One gun, an emote, some skins and banner-type unlocks. Wow that's some value right there.
As I like to tell my friends, you spend long enough under Activision you become them.

My issue with Destiny 2 is the amazing level of content drought, but patching the game out of the game is supposed to make that better? Bungie said it was because they weren't happy with what they had made but that's even more laughable to me, how about don't create years of content [if you can call it that] if you weren't happy with it? By all means don't try to fix the Fallout 4 tier writing, just delete the whole thing and make more DLC where you try to do better.

Combined to your usual standard live service 'stop doing this' features like one-use skins, a real currency microtransaction shop, being nudged to buy more DLC to play everything you want, seasonal unlock progression (ugh), fetch quests, requiring you to play the same content repeatedly and have high replay tolerance if you want more than maybe 150 hours, a UI where it's more important to have that 2010's square look than to be easy or likeable in any way, meta weapons which can hand you PvP matches on a platter at others' expense... and probably more I don't remember right this moment.

I get that nostalgia changes a lot, seems most people I know who can stand Destiny 2 had bright memories of Destiny 1 on console, but I was moving to PC so didn't get that, so it's amazing what you can pick out when not wearing rose tinted glasses. I do have nice memories of who made it, 'Bungie', but it just makes me sadder honestly as a massive Halo fan.
Really I think out of loyalty to Destiny 1 more people should be critical because it looks like this game has less to do, with less distinctive classes and worse level hubs. Though it seems some things like the Destiny 1 social space are returning over time which I highly approve of.

I generally allow comments on pretty much anything I post on Steam but I don't trust the sunken time/cost fallacies on this one, sorry. Though I do truly want Destiny 2 to get good, I certainly have minimal beef with the fans so it's not personal to other gamers.
Posted 12 November, 2020.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny Award
786 people found this review helpful
13 people found this review funny
2
2
2
0.0 hrs on record
Hey I'm early enough to make a difference, neat! Lithoids is the third species pack for Stellaris, kind of the fourth if you count the machines in 'Synthetic Dawn'.

I'll quickly go over positives and negatives in a list format because it's easy for me, readable for you, and if things change I don't have to reword paragraphs around it.

_________________
Edit: I have edited months later to reflect the patched state of the game and DLC. I was unaware my review was still high up so never bothered. This is no longer a borderline negative: If you want Lithoids then just get it, at the price you agree with.
_________________

POSITIVE
    - The first asymmetrical shipset in the game. I'm really in love with it, it's easily the most alien set in the game in my current opinion. I feel it actually adds something to the game's diversity so if you enjoy zooming in, taking screenshots or designing your empire it's a good fit. If you mainly watch from galaxy view or zoomed out, you may not care.
    - A bunch of portraits. They're okay? I mean they're not a negative, but I'll mention them again later. I do think some are really cool, plus there's a robot that looks like the Vex from Destiny. They're again, very alien. +1 positive for the cool ones.
    - Slight gameplay alteration with Lithoids! You consume minerals rather than food, and your species is slower breeding but hardier.
    - The audio is really good in this pack. First off a pretty decent advisor, nothing to rant about but it's well mixed with good lines and it fills the 'gruff male xeno' role not really attempted yet. What I want to mention is the ambient and ship sounds added. Lithoid ships have rumbling rocky engine audio, stations have new Lithoid ambience, et cetera. They didn't have to do these details, but I appreciate it as an audio guy.
    - The development of this DLC opened up new modding features which have been shared with us, like new ways to implement per-species traits. I haven't looked for myself, but a nice bonus.
    - There are unique megastructure and build site textures. Almost a given, but they seem more unique than anything before, featuring carved stone and crystal panels.
    - Edit: There's a room background texture included, that I thought was absent from release at first. A very small but appreciated extra, moved to 'positive' now it's confirmed included.

NEUTRAL
    - Number and variety of portraits is alright? I like some of them but many are designed to be freaky, and there are niches left unfilled like say, a stone humanoid race (insert Thor: Ragnarok reference here).
    - The ship parts themselves aren't all very distinct or different. In fact a few seemed to be the same model but with edits. This is going in neutral rather than negative because they're still gorgeous to me personally.
    - Edit: More information. The terravores (type of Lithoid devouring hive mind) are super weak. You have to colonise a planet, then devouring it is actually a decision which nerfs the planet in exchange for some resources even while pops grow on it. Feels half-finished. Moved from 'negative' as it doesn't seem to be outright broken any more.
    - The price is... Not outright insulting. It depends how you think of these packs. If you see a species pack as a cumulative boost to the potential random generations a galaxy can give you, and a new avenue of species to grow/conquer, then even full price would be worth it. As this is a positive review I'd say *do* get it eventually though, it'll be on sale for like $3 eventually.


NEGATIVE
    - Not much variation in the portraits. (Again). Wouldn't be too hard to do a few crystal shape variations, palette swaps and so on. Edit: In fact I made a mod to do so.
    - This pack seems to be for crystal AND rock creatures but only about two portraits go full 'crystal' which kind of leaves gaping potential.
    - Almost every other negative has been patched, so I edited in fairness.

All in all, a pretty decent species pack. Humanoids had some cool stuff like more combinations of creatures than this, but Lithoids has a lovely shipset and actual gameplay changes for people who don't care for the roleplay and visual sides.
I do wish there was more variation and portrait archetypes filled, but this is my favourite of the 3 species packs so far. As the first non-metallic shipset, it does something cool for the game.
_________________

Edit: I've edited a couple times since the review has reached more than expected. (Thanks.)
I hope I helped a few people decide. I'll be editing again as the pack is patched to reflect the current state.
It is thankfully being patched pretty much entirely fixed.
_________________

See you all next time for the Piscoid/Fish Species Pack, and the Gaseous Pack.
Posted 24 October, 2019. Last edited 14 April, 2020.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny Award
1 person found this review helpful
1.3 hrs on record (0.5 hrs at review time)
Aircar is a cool free VR tech demo type thing about... An aircar. It seems to have Blade Runner influence but looks a little more inspired and sci-fi than a straight up copy.

Positives:
- Gorgeous graphics and decent detail for a vehicular game.
- Supports VR controllers as well as USB normal controllers.
- Runs very well for how it looks and being a VR game. Decently optimised throughout.
- It's a tech demo that doesn't pretend to be a full game with unneeded feature bloat.
- It's free!
- Great example of VR to show friends and family. Especially if they like vehicles or cyberpunk.
- Refueling and boost power-ups add a tiny bit more 'game' to it.
- Inspiring glimpse into future gaming where I'm sure this would be a side activity to full titles.
- It's not very large in file size.
- Relaxing thematically suitable music that you can pause at will.

Negatives:
- High risk of motion sickness when you change angle with, obviously, no change in G-force. I think this is unavoidable on current VR technology but be aware if you have a weak stomach.
- The city hasn't been increased in size since the game was first concepted. Personally I'd like a dense corporate area, like the shots in Blade Runner where skyscrapers fill the gaps between other skyscrapers.
- The flight model is basic. It's not too bad because you're a big hovering vehicle and there is still a *bit* of momentum.

It's small, but it's free and fast to install - Sometimes it's nice to have a nice little tech demo type title that just wants to show you something.
If you have VR and you like the screenshots, I suggest installing it right away rather than reading more reviews.
Posted 13 August, 2019. Last edited 13 August, 2019.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny Award
7 people found this review helpful
0.1 hrs on record
Early Access Review
[My playtime didn't log the first time I played it, so the ~6 minutes is only the last time I checked it.]

I'll keep this brief as not many people happen across this game. Nightstar is an indie game that looks pretty good from the store page, but on playing it it feels like a PS3 port in both graphics and gameplay. Also to a lesser extent performance.

The game is/was Early Access but was only updated actively for a few mere weeks after release, gradually slowed then was never touched by the devs after about mid-2017. This makes me think of this product as abandonware.
It does have an interesting premise, and PC has a severe shortage on space dogfighters like this, but it's barely a game. I genuinely feel bad not many people bought this, but maybe it was going to be abandoned no matter how many people paid.

As I read in a discussion post, developers *seem to have* taken down the store highlighted 'update coming soon' news post, almost covering up there was a 'major' update on hold almost two years... But at least they didn't do that scummy thing of "releasing" from Early Access when they abandoned a product like some have done.


I'd refund if I could - it wasn't expensive but I just don't want the game and my money would have had better use as trading cards or something. I feel guilty owning it.
If the game was finished to the image described, I'd happily pay like eight times the price and not refund, but I don't endorse abandonware at all. I will remove this negative review if the devs ever stir from hibernation.

Unfortunately the very nature of waiting over a year for an update means that I'm no longer elligible for Steam refund, and a part of me wonders if that's intentional. At least I can review.
Posted 20 January, 2019. Last edited 28 February, 2019.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny Award
4 people found this review helpful
2.0 hrs on record
Sword With Sauce is a very basic Unreal project entirely composed of placeholder assets that as of March 2018 was discontinued.

It was mildly promising in Early Access, but essentially reached a buggy alpha stage and stayed that way until death. The stealth system was somewhat intriguing but it's not enough to sell a game on. The stealth wasn't even that advanced as enemies had a tendency to detect you through walls or gravitiate to your position regardless of how well you hide.

The developer can maybe show it a future employer as I'm just assuming this was a college project. I don't wish to be too personal as I recognise the difficulty of a first solo project.

At least it's quite cheap as abandonware, but there's so many better indie stealth games out there made from passion.
No hatred from me or anything, but it's still not something you may want in your Steam library unless you collect discontinued alpha products.
Posted 21 October, 2018. Last edited 21 October, 2018.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny Award
348 people found this review helpful
3 people found this review funny
8
3
2
0.0 hrs on record
Edit March 2023: I'm mostly going to leave this review from 2017 as-is but I noticed it getting attention years after posting, so I just want to say in fairness humanoids have gotten more portraits in several small increments since posting this. I'd now say I was quite brash, and the pack is in that category of Steam reviews that would ideally have a neutral or mixed verdict since it's improved a little, it does go on sale these days, and the humanoid shipset is one of my personal favourites.
Onto the original review from 2017:
--------

I want to preface this that I wanted to make it positive with an 'on sale' warning, but it's not going to go on sale for a while and I'm not really okay with how basic the portraits are.
I'm a big Stellaris fan, but really want to give my feedback.

Now, this is like £/$0.20 more than Plantoids. That price difference *IS* worth it to me, because they threw in VO options, and even some music tracks as a bonus which I do like.
But the base price of the species packs is just too high for what they are!

The game was £30 when I got it, so if you bought this DLC it kind of implies that it's 1/6 as big as the entire game? Not likely.
(I know that's not exactly how monetary value works but it's just one point.)

Now, you might have seen why so many people on here, the forums and Reddit are speaking out: The portraits are utterly minimal. The bare minimum of number, skin tones and dimorphism.
Paradox, you know why the humanoids are the most played category? Because humans have DOZENS of possible combinations. The cyclops portraits here? Two. The male and female. The female of course being the same dude with different cheekbones.
Also, the base game already included humanoid portraits, so there looks like there's more species than was actually added.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pros:
- The ships are already very popular. I love them personally! I admire their sleek yet utilitarian look.
- More fantasy races. (if lazily done)
- Three mild but very useful voices for your AI if you own the voice changer feature in Synthetic Dawn.
- Pretty cool city set, though individual city sets aren't worth much.
- They threw in three remixed soundtrack pieces as a bonus.
- Help fund future updates.

Cons:
- Literally the bare minimum number of portraits to make it look like enough.
- Minimal visual diversity in each species.
- At this point modders can, and *literally do*, make better content.
- This DLC should be like $5 max, and $4 of that is for the ships.
- Kind of getting annoying that Paradox keep getting mixed reviews and literally don't even notice it. Or worse, they make passive-aggressive comments to customers in the forums like they did after Plantoids. Like it's our fault we don't like it.


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Stellaris if my favourite game, but I don't want to be an obedient fanboy - Paradox should know they have to try harder with their DLCs. The bonus audio is nice, but the visual aspects are utterly barebones.

I'm not trying to hate on a studio or join a bandwagon... Stellaris is my top game, and I spend hours modding it myself. I just *need* Paradox to see feedback. The ships are good, and the portraits are good but so damn sparse for the price.

I just cannot buy the excuses like "well the ships took a lot of work so the portraits are basic!" unless the devs are trying to admit their entire art department is one person who makes both 2D and 3D art. Which I doubt.

I do like what this pack has, it should just be cheaper and have more portrait variety! Thanks for the bonus audio at least.
Posted 10 December, 2017. Last edited 17 March, 2023.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny Award
2 people found this review helpful
3.4 hrs on record
-VR REVIEW-
Note: I played this with an Oculus Rift, using keyboard for input. I assume it's similar with a Vive or using a controller/Oculus Touch, but dramatically altered on a monitor.

However the above leads onto an important note - This may be a MUCH better experience in VR than a 2D screen.

If we wanted to be kind of harsh, this game is like much shorter, much calmer SOMA. That would be noticeable on a monitor and barely registerable on a VR headset. This may be why people's on Oculus/Vive reviews say "absolutely loved it!" while 2D players regret even the Halloween sale price.

So anyway, yes I enjoyed this game. I played through it in a day, I think I did most the things in the game. It's not especially long really, it was much slower due to being in VR, and the slow character movement.
That's really my only gripe with the game... I want to see more of pretty much everything. More of both indoor and outdoor, more hallucinations, more deep sea creatures.

That said though, VR games are infamously short and minigame-like so if you play this as a VR title it'll be noticeably longer. Which is good! It's about damn time I played a game in a headset that didn't feel like a paid tech demo, or a full game that tires my body in five minutes.

I wanted to choose one horror game to play in VR for Halloween. A feeling of fright is getting exceedingly rare in my gaming collection lately so I needed VR, and needed something that clicks to me.
The deep ocean setting is certainly what gets to me. I know it doesn't for everyone, especially since I was talking to a friend who somehow doesn't find the concept scary [likely lying].
But to me, deep sea creatures and supernatural-seeming hallucinations were exactly what I find spooky. Jumpscares and slashers do nothing for me.
So this is one of those few delights.

Now for that easy to read Pro-Con list that everyone skips right to. They're easier to write anyway.

Pros:
- Decent graphics in places, even more immersive in VR
- A ton of options
- Slick interface in my opinion, though in 2D mode the HUD is apparently bulky...
- ...But not in VR! The HUD becomes a physical helmet around where you sit, I found that very intuitive and believable
- Great writing in my opinion
- Doesn't rely on slasher villains or throwaway Cthulu references like many games
- The main voice actor sounds like Paladin Danse.

Cons:
- The game is short. It just is. I have 3.4 hours and a chunk of that was tabbed out, another chunk was appreciating the game environment, and another chunk was me being lost or stuck, for my own fault.
A lot of the length that is there is due to the character moving slowly, or times when you are forced to move through a room multiple times e.g. due to hallucinations moving the door.
- Some triggers and interactables don't seem to work right away, or from a good enough distance
- The oxygen, in my personal opinion, drains too quickly when not under attack. This stops the player looking around, and a lot of horror is lost just looking for more little green bottles.


Horror Types Included:
1. Darkness
2. Hydrophobia (and most variations thereof)
3. Isolation
4. Asphyxiation
5. Arachnophobia (via imagery, not actual spiders - crabs of varying sizes and nope levels)
6. Hallucination
6a. Supernatural scenes (hallucinated, not really a spoiler)

Horror Types Not Included:
1. Zombies
2. Aliens
3. Elder Gods
4. Slasher/Gore
5. Body horror / mutation

If I had to give a rating, I'd say maybe 8/10 VR experience, 6/10 monitor gaming experience. I did genuinely like playing through Narcosis, though I must disclose, I may be biased due to it fitting my horror preferences snugly.
Posted 31 October, 2017. Last edited 31 October, 2017.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny Award
No one has rated this review as helpful yet
1.8 hrs on record (0.2 hrs at review time)
[I've used slightly longer than above time, I once had weird issues with SteamVR and ran standalone.]

Google Earth VR. It's a free app, yet has been the core of many YouTube videos and virtual reality showcases.
Honestly I'm only reviewing to show support and build my review roster, because let's face it, if you have a VR headset and you like the planet Earth you're going to own this app at least for a time.

However, if you're reading seriously I could at least explain what this feels like. I've seen it on Vive and personally use it on Oculus. The controls are similar on both, pretty much just change the trackpad for a stick and you've converted from Vive to Oculus.

The controls aren't immedietely obvious. That's like the only con of the entire app, seriously. For me I had to load a location before I was able to move, but you're going to want to start from a landmark anyway so, no issue!

This game takes a lot of steps to be comfortable and reduce motion sickness. For example it has this signature ring of viewing when you pan the camera (your viewport essentially). That can be turned off, and I chose to turn it off myself, if you'd rather have high FOV than an extra layer of motion sickness prevention.

The way it handles scale is very notable. When you move from the ground, you don't just become a floating human-sized head, but it seems like both your height and the world's scale change.
This sounds minor, but in VR scale is *very* apparent. With this system, say you zoom ten storeys next to some houses, it won't feel like you're dangling above a road but rather that you grew... The buildings next to you will feel like doll houses rather than things you could fall from a height onto.
This reduces vertigo, and ensures a very wonderous and playful scale adaptation where your favourite cities can feel like toysets at mid-zoom.

The graphics will look strange close up, but it's impressive there is 3D at all: Google run a very advanced telemmetry program across the globe to bring buildings and mountains into 3D. That's what causes the signature paper mache visuals.
Major landmarks, universities e.t.c. will have better graphics because they will have been modelled and submitted to Google by human artists.

You can zoom very far out or in. To zoom out, keep scaling away from Earth. Vertigo warning though: When you're large enough the view can switch from ground-anchored to standing in space.
Check the options to allow human scale travel! It is off by default, likely to prevent motion sickness when scaling that far.

I think that's all I can say really. In a simpler format:
- Very positive experience
- Works on both Vive and Oculus
- Graphics can look strange close up, but landmarks or simpler shapes are much better rendered. Still impressive!
- When you move, you also scale.
- There are preset locations to visit various human and natural landmarks.

Oh, also dynamic music sorts of things. Congratulations if you read this far, though you're likely going to download Google Earth VR anyway: It's free!
Posted 6 September, 2017. Last edited 6 September, 2017.
Was this review helpful? Yes No Funny Award
< 1  2 >
Showing 1-10 of 16 entries