Would a bigger television get me back into Pancake gaming?

[RedRizla]

I really like VR, but the lack of AAA games is making me feel I also need to get back into pancake gaming. I currently have a 42" television and I'm just wondering if I get a 55" or 65" television, if this will get me more immersed in a game like VR does? Since VR came along I've struggled to get back into 2D gaming and there's some really good pancake games that will never come to VR.

So do you think a lager screen would get me more immersed in a game or not?

[snowdog]

One of my favourite films! Land Of The Giants was a great TV series too. I downloaded and rewatched The Incredible Shrinking Man a couple of months ago! I've also downloaded The Incredible Shrinking Woman too but I haven't got around to watching it yet.

[WhiteSilverWORK]

snowdog said:

One of my favourite films! Land Of The Giants was a great TV series too. I downloaded and rewatched The Incredible Shrinking Man a couple of months ago! I've also downloaded The Incredible Shrinking Woman too but I haven't got around to watching it yet.

Those are some great movies. Good taste!

[RuneSR2]

snowdog said:

One of my favourite films! Land Of The Giants was a great TV series too. I downloaded and rewatched The Incredible Shrinking Man a couple of months ago! I've also downloaded The Incredible Shrinking Woman too but I haven't got around to watching it yet.

Maybe 5 years ago I watched The Incredible Shrinking Man for the first time - I was amazed of the quality and story, it's no coincidence it's rated 7.7 on IMDB. 

But back to big screens - yesterday, my son and I watched two episodes of Fawlty Towers on DVD (remastered/restored edition), and sadly even the Marvell QDeo chip in my blu-ray player and the Sony X1 processor had to give up - DVDs are truly DEAD on very large TVs. 

So while this commercial may be true for 1080p and even 720p, DVDs are certainly a no-go 😄

https://youtu.be/iyR4kqDi8EY

We continued to watch some Blackadder episodes (First Season) - also on a DVD - and I found a new use for the tiny 51" plasma  😄 

A few days ago I got Dead Cells  - had to see that Metacritic top-rated pancake game in action. Played it close to the plasma, and yes it would have been the most awesome game on my Amiga 500 in 1988, but for now it didn't get me back to 2D gaming at all. Note that with a Metacritic rating of 89, according to reviewers Dead Cells is just as good as Lone Echo  😄 

https://youtu.be/KV6fBYuuPMg

Don't think I'll pay $40 to test Ashen - but maybe I'll give Rage 2 a go on the plasma later, because the plasma is connected to my VR rig. These are indeed the only two pancake games I'd consider playing right now:

https://youtu.be/pqvDr7P6OL0

https://youtu.be/glaTVhA2kf0

I doubt I'll get 60 fps in Rage 2 in 4K using my GTX 1080, testing that game later on the plasma may not be bad idea. 

[RuneSR2]

Gave pancake gaming another try and tested Ashen. I get solid 60 fps in 1080p with maxed out (=Ultra) graphics settings (XBox One and XBox One X only support 30 fps no matter the resolution). The game still looks too soft, and I'd be surprised if 4K would make much difference in this game (textures are quite bland due to the game design). I ended up setting antialiasing to low and motion blur to off to increase sharpness, and the game did look nice. I sat 50 to 100 cm (2 to 3 feet) from my 51" plasma, so the screen did take up much of my visual field. 

Ashen is another 3rd person action RPG where you have to hack'n slash your way through enemies. You can find many items and weapons, and quests for now consist of going to location A to find item B. It's all been done before, but the world feels fresh and unique to some extent.

Now had Ashen been in VR, it could have been one of the best VR games ever, but now it's more a semi-mediocre pancake action RPG. The problem isn't the graphics, graphics are nice, but no matter how close I sit to the screen I don't feel present in the game. I'm outside the game. When I press a button, my in-game character does some specific movements, but it doesn't feel real. I'm not really immersed, my brain isn't being fooled to believe I'm inside the game. Even unmodified Skyrim VR is so much better than Ashen that there really isn't any comparison. 

But try to imagine this - in VR 😉

https://youtu.be/gMmosiR8Suk

[snowdog]

Yup, this is why flat gaming has been dead to me since I got my Rift.

As the ladies say, once you go VR you never go flat.

At least I think that's pretty close lol 😛 😄

[RuneSR2]

Maybe we should write to the devs - "if you want to see your families again, we want this in VR, and we want 1st person!"  😄











I guess we've got Windlands 2... Somehow... Ashen does feel much more interesting than Hellblade though. 

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/ashen/home

[snowdog]

I'd be fine if they kept it in 3rd person, 3rd person games work surprisingly well.

[RuneSR2]

snowdog said:

I'd be fine if they kept it in 3rd person, 3rd person games work surprisingly well.

3rd person would be great too - come to think of it, I don't recall any true 3rd person action RPG on the Rift, but I may be wrong? Chronos may be close, but it's not really the same, and the environments are static. 

Oh well, I hope I didn't just make a fool of myself by asking what may have been discussed before and by posting in the wrong category :blush:

I don't put all my eggs in the same basket - just sent the same message directly to the devs too  o:) Now we just need all Oculus' forum members to do the same!  😄  

[RedRizla]

I've got back into 2D gaming since playing Red Dead Redemption 2. I can see VR taken over 2D gaming at some point in the future, but VR needs more games that are AAA and have a good story. The stories in 2D gaming is enough to get me interested for now. I find 2D gaming is a bit like reading a book and taken part and VR hasn't stopped people reading books.

[RuneSR2]

RedRizla said:

I've got back into 2D gaming since playing Red Dead Redemption. I can see VR taken over 2D gaming at some point in the future, but VR needs more games that are AAA and have a good story. The stories in 2D gaming is enough to get me interested for now. I find 2D gaming is a bit like reading a book and taken part and VR has stopped people reading books.

This is one of the reasons why I don't participate a lot in discussions about how upcoming HMDs like Rift S/2 should be. I don't think there's anything wrong with CV1, it's awesome, instead we need more high quality CV1 content. Personally I don't mind more ports if that's the only way - games like Hellblade, Transference, Skyrim, Elite, Obduction, DiRT, Ethan Carter and more have shown that it's possible to make great 2D games available in VR. It's a difficult balance, but Oculus should be careful not to poison the well with too many super-short low-quality CV1 indie games and apps.