Paranormal Activity VR
It’s safe to say that most VR games are going to make you look pretty stupid to the people looking on at you wearing your goggles, lost in your own little world. Paranormal Activity, though, takes it a step further since the player will more than likely end up shrieking in horror and flinging their pricey headset onto the floor.
Putting you right into the popular horror movie series, Paranormal Activity VR’s all about getting tormented by a demon. Sounds like the perfect spectator sport, if you ask me. Prepare to have friends and family watch you soil your pants in fear.
Waltz of the Wizard
Wizard’s Waltz is a game that hasn’t been shoved into the VR limelight all that much recently. Putting you in the role of a Wizard in a medieval world, you’ll use the motion controls of the HTC Vive to control a pair of disembodied hands on the screen. You’ll mix potions, cast magical trails in the air, and be the most bad ass wizard in the realm. At least you will be as long as you don’t watch a video of yourself playing the game.
Let’s be real. This is a seriously cool idea for a game, but having a VR headset clinging to your face and flailing your arms around, stirring an invisible mixing pot, and smiling like a child who’s eaten too much candy while you’re doing all of this… not so much. At least you’ll feel like Harry Potter, just maybe play it behind closed doors.
100 Ft. Robot Golf
100 Ft. Robot Golf just screams eccentric and crazy from the title alone. You’re playing a round of golf with your friends. In a city. And you’re a giant robot. And you can destroy the city and fight one another. Sounds like the perfect game to make you look like a complete maniac in your room.
You see, it’d all start off innocently enough, your family smiling as you try out your new game. You professionally step up, teeing up your shot, gauging the wind and the trajectory of your ball. You let fly and the ball flies straight into a building. “No problem,” you say, as you storm over to the building and flail your arms wildly to knock it down, just as your friend’s robot comes in and gives you a haymaker to the face. Next thing you know, you’re shouting abuse at your friend as you flail all of your limbs, beating the lights out of one another. Everyone looks on as what they first assumed was a golf simulator has turned into some deranged robot wrestling match.
Everest VR
Everest VR promises to put you at the top of the tallest mountain in the world, if you can make it there on your own. You’ll have to connect ropes to make it across narrow edges, pulling yourself up the mountain’s side and keep track of your oxygen levels.
Of course, watching someone throw their arms rhythmically in the air above one another as they attempt to climb up a virtual mountain in the middle of their home is quite humorous. If it’s not the wild movements of their arms above their head, it’s probably the way that they seem all so panicked about what they’re doing. The level of immersion brought about by the HTC Vive as you navigate your way to the top of the mountain makes every step and climb up the mountain just as nerve-wracking as the actual thing. Which, of course, makes it the perfect spectator sport.
Save the Cat or Die Trying
Earlier last week, Bandai Namco opened VR ZONE Project i Can, a demo and display center in Tokyo allowing members of the public to put on an HTC Vive and, hopefully, bring the technology to the masses. So, what better way to attract the attention of the masses than cute kittens?
Save the Cat or Die Trying will task players with clambering across a wooden plank and grabbing the cute little kitten from hard-to-reach places. As you can see in the image above, these aren’t just difficult places to reach, but have a pretty high chance of death. Therefore, watching people flap around as they attempt to balance on said non-existent wooden plank, before crouching down and picking up an invisible kitten is going to be all too hilarious to watch. Don’t believe us? Just watch this video. You can quite literally see the fear in their faces and nervous steps… or crawls.
Project Cars
Project CARS and many other racing games are definitely going to bring many racing fans the closest to the heart-pounding feeling of being behind the wheel of some of the world’s most powerful cars on open tracks. The sense of realism and added immersion that comes from playing racing games in VR is particularly accentuated as you turn into corners, but that’s also probably going to be where you look the most stupid.
Imagine it; you’re turning into a tight hairpin corner, the wheel jostling against your turn. The roar of the V8 engine quiets down as the screech of the torture tires begins. You move your head around, looking into the corner to make sure you’re getting the angle right and all of a sudden you find yourself leaning way out the side of your chair as if you were really in the car. To you, it’ll feel like the real deal, for anyone else, you’ll look like you did when you were a kid, pretending you’re in a race car once more. We’d advise against making the engine noises, though.
John Wick: The Impossible Task
If you’ve watched John Wick, then you probably already know exactly why you’d look damn ridiculous playing an HTC Vive VR game based on it. Throwing you into the universe of the assassin, you’ll be blasting your way through hordes of enemies, dual-wielding MP5s, slapping clips into the bottom of pistols, and if you’re anything like our Senior Editor, staring down in sheer panic as you drop a grenade at your feet.
Now, a lot of VR games have already placed virtual pistols and submachine guns in our hands, so what makes John Wick all the more entertaining to watch? Well, thanks to HTC Vive’s room-tracking, you’ll have to throw yourself to the ground and crawl about if you’re going to avoid the lasers searching for your body. It’ll get the adrenaline pumping for the player, but you’ll also look incredibly stupid crawling around on your bedroom floor.
Surgeon Simulator
If Job Simulator has you doing everyday tasks and looking really stupid to anyone looking on, then Surgeon Simulator is going to make you look even dumber. If you’ve every played Surgeon Simulator or watched a video of someone playing it, you’ll probably know why, but for everyone else, let me explain.
Surgeon Simulator’s later levels require a pretty accurate hand. You’re going to be cutting a virtual person open, after all. You can forget about the wild flailing of arms of the other games. Here, you’re going to look a little bit obsessive. Nothing is ever as easy, or as straightforward as it seems in Surgeon Simulator. So moving your hands ever so slightly during a heart transplant is more than likely going to lead to screaming out obscenities as you accidentally break the patient’s face. Sound unrealistic? Trust us, it really isn’t.
Budget Cuts
Budget Cuts has recently started getting a bit of a buzz around it, putting you in the role of a stealthy agent breaking into your rival’s base of operations. You’ll have to cover your tracks like a proper spy, and be quick and agile in everything that you do. You’ll be armed with a number of gadgets, throwing knives and some sort of crossbow to help you complete your mission, which means you’ll probably leave your room in a complete mess.
Your pretend flings of throwing knives are almost guaranteed to bring another wave of remotes going through TVs, quick glances around the room to look out for enemies coming up nearby will result in you looking a little too paranoid, and you’ll just look a little shifty as you pretend to hoist a disabled robot in a bin. It all sounds like great fun, if not a little dangerous for our surrounding area and personal image.
VR Sports Challenge
It was only a matter of time before someone did what is essentially the VR version of Wii Sports. VR Sports Challenge allows players to virtually play sports such as football, hockey, baseball, and basketball all from the comfort of their living room. This one should be pretty self-explanatory for a looking stupid list.
You’re in your room, VR headset on and VR Sports Challenge running. You’re at the bottom of the ninth and you’re the last batter up. You wave the imaginary bat in small circles behind your head, anticipating the pitchers throw. It comes in and you swing with your little motion controller like your life depended on it. The ball soars through the virtual night sky and there, in your room, in the middle of the day, is you. Jumping around, in your sweats grinning like a mad man. Baseball not your thing? How about basketball instead where you’re tasked with scoring as many points as you can before the timer runs out. You give yourself a little jump in real life, thinking it gives you an additional advantage. It does not. And everyone in the room is wondering why you’re flicking your hands above your head and jumping around.
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