Messing with PlayStation 4 PSVR Headset - Day One
I've been interested in getting a Virtual Reality headset for a while, both to experience some of the videogames exclusive to VR but also the social aspects, having done various VRChat hang outs every so often, but there's always been a massive barrier of entry for me...cost.
I had briefly messed with PSVR around when it launched in 2016 at a friend's house for an Xmas party, but at the time the PSVR cost £349.99 and that's not including if you wanted PSMove controllers (even with the original PS3 models being made compatible, those prices shot up to match the new PS4 PSMove controls), and I didn't have a Windows PC even around the time the HTC Vive and others had come out in the years since.
Well fast forward to 2026 and while browsing eBay for something completely unrelated, I get recommended a listing for an almost complete in box PSVR in good condition and the bidding price still low. Seeing that most sold/to buy listings were around £30-40 I put a maximum auto bid somewhere between that on a whim, assuming I'd be outbid. Welp without even trying I was not outbid and managed to win the auction. Honestly this worked out because I've been wanting to play Resident Evil 7 in VR, specifically hoping to do so for a stream on my Twitch channel, plus there's software to get it working on PC and I'm thifty enough that I don't mind using a past generation headset as my starter. I thought it would be fun to recount my experiences, getting to properly deep dive into VR for the first time, discover all the oddities and how the PSVR was supported, or wasn't supported, throughout its lifespan.
Initial Setup & hardware impressions
As mentioned, the PSVR came basically complete in box, missing only a camera stand and possibly a pack-in game. It's funny the headset is clearly somewhat used, hard to say how much but some of the coating on the front head cushioning gloss is partially worn and flakey but maybe that's also just showing its age? But some of the cables didn't seem to have been used at all, still packaged in cable ties. I later find out I specifically got the updated revision model which got some minor improvements, HDR passthrough when using the output processor box, slimmer, more streamlined cables, the stereo earbuds now clip onto the headset & volume/mic control buttons are built into the headset instead of on a cable and a new camera model which supposedly has the same specs & functions as the first PS4 camera but people do seem to report differences between the two. But hey nice I lucked out getting the slightly improved model, I don't think most eBay listings even specify which model they're selling.
After getting the processor box and cables set up with my base PS4 (straight up the PS4 I've had since I got one in early 2014 shocked it's never broken) I go through first time setup. I'll say off the bat the headset is decently comfortable and doesn't feel that heavy, though it is something you still need to get used to and most headsets nowadays are less bulky and lighter. I do however run into an issue, one that made me unsure if the headset was busted at first (or my eyes were, more on that later). During first time setup the instructional text they mention at a point "If you're wearing glasses you can keep them on". This is wrong, at least in my case. While there was no physical discomfort and the glasses did fit while wearing the headset, the lenses output does not mix well. One of the setup tests has you adjust the headset's position on your head and the distance between your eyes and the headset scope until the text is clear without any blurriness or displacement and with my glasses on, I could only get the text & image clear when looking directly in the middle of the image. So yeah despite what the setup and manual says, I don't recommend using glasses. Maybe if you have different visual impairment than me it works fine, but it seems better to not use them. Besides I have contact lenses and I am near sighted enough that I can mostly see a fine, focused image if I'm using the headset casually without contacts in. The only other physical aspect which I found a bit weird is even when you have the main front of the headset scope slider as close as it gets, the rubbery light shield never quite fits flush with my face, which is most noticable at the bottom where you can real the real world peeking through. While the headset isn't designed with that range of FOV, it is a bit of a shame you can't completely immerse your vision inside the headset, though who knows maybe I have a weird head/face shape causing that. Maybe I could adjust the light shield or maybe buy a 3rd party one that covers better. Maybe that's required to make sure the headset is breathable?
I'll also briefly mention the stereo earbuds that come with the model 2 headset seem decent, and it is really nice they clip onto the back band of the headset and has holes to store each earbud in when not in use. Audio quality seemed fine but you can certainly do better and use your own headphones with the headset's aux port. Personally I find almost all earbuds uncomfortable especially the longer they're in, though I'll say these are some of the more comfortable ones I've used, though I mostly prefer to use over-ear headphones, though it's more work to put on and remove. How well the 3D audio works when using different headphones though I need to test honestly, as I've only used headphones while listening to my capture card audio and I still need to work on what audio channel type captures said 3D audio best.
Lastly I should mention the actual lenses. The PSVR lenses output at 1080p (with horizontal 1920 pixels split between each eye) and 100 degree field of view OLED screens. By the standards today and even some years after this is quite on the low end and dated but honestly, I can't complain much for the price and this was a very affordable headset for 2016. This means that at times you can see the resolution, though that depends a lot on the game and the visual style as some will render at 720p and upscale to 1080p, or their art style makes the resolution more or less noticable. The relative low FOV is small by today's standards and means to look around you're more relying on moving your head and your eyes, as you'll see the limits of the lense views when looking around with for eyes, but it's easy to adjust to and as I'll get into next, possibly a good thing for someone starting out with VR
Getting my VR Legs
I've been following the Youtube channel The Virtual Reality Show for a while to learn more about VR as I've been interested in it for a while and I rewatched their most recent video on VR sickness, knowing how it's common (reportedly 4-in-5 people will feel some sort of motion sickness when using VR at some point) and I already deal with some motion sickness in some vehicles, to get some tips on how to get used to VR. After watching I also saw a comment on the video mentioning starting out with watching 2D video in VR is a good way to start before diving into being in full 3D space and moving around them. Turns out there's a VR specific YouTube app on PS4. It wasn't clear if it was different ui built for VR, or just a version that can play VR enabled videos though after some research I found out it's the latter. This was a fine enough experience, it is cool you can replicate the feeling of watching videos on a cinema size screen, though the display resolution (on base PS4 at least) means some elements in videos can suffer. Random pull but I was watching some Minecraft guess the build videos and any in-game text was at times illegible. Also turns out some update kind broke the VR version of the app it will random freeze watching videos. But as mentioned the regular YouTube app is basically the same and works fine. I'm curious to try watching some DVDs or Blu-Rays in VR at some point, but after this it was time to get into the games. As mentioned earlier the PSVR as a relatively small FOV of 100 degrees, but this might unintentionally help with lowering the chances of VR sickness, as vingette settings can help with this and even though some specific games have support for vingette modes, this also means the headset has a sort of built in vingette, but I could see someone who's used to higher spec headsets having trouble going back to this. Something mentioned as well is making sure your headset is adjusted to the exact distance between your eyes. Most headsets adjust this with a physical slider that moves the lenses apart but the PSVR lacks this. Instead there is an option in the firmware settings to set your pupillary distance and if you don't know it you can use the PS4 camera to place markers on your eyes and get a figure. How well this works I'm not sure, but I imagine physical lense adjustments is the better method if that's the standard now.
The Playroom VR
First up is The Playroom VR, this is the free game everyone with a PSVR headset gets access to download without it being a pack-in game. This is actually the second Playroom game on PS4, the first being built around the 3D camera that launched with the system. Most PS4 owners probably know it as the game you're not allowed to remove from the system. But if you've ever seen Astro Bot on PS5, that series and characters started all the way back in 2014 in said mini-game collections. The Playroom VR is also a mini-game collection, though interestingly it's not focused on one player. While being a tech showcase, Playroom VR is built around probably PSVR's most under utilized feature, being able to output a different image from the PSVR's POV on your TV. This seems almost all of the mini-games are multiplayer only. This is one of the interesting things to see in retrospect because this local co-op, social aspect of VR did not seem to take off, I'm honestly not sure how many other PSVR games even utilize this feature, if it's even been cataloged. When I originally tried the PSVR this was at a friends Xmas party so this aspect was what I got to try back then though my memories are vague, but it is fun, being able to control little Astro Bots in games that directly interact with the PSVR player. Now I think about it this is kind of one of main gimmicks Nintendo's Wii U tried to do, though held back massively by the gamepad screen and TV Output both being rendered by the underclocked low spec system, instead of the gamepad screen having a separate output processor (like the PSVR has).
I was on my own this time so I only had a few one player compatible modes to try. First thing I tried was a crane game. By playing the other mini-games you get coins you can use to claw out capsules with little models that over time fill out an active doll house esk model. I however, messed up my first attempt and picked up a bomb which completely wiped out the starter coins they gave me. So I moved on to one of the proper mini-games, Toy Wars. Funny enough this was actually post-launch free DLC that later got patched in, which is cool but does highlight an odd aspect of this being the free download is you brought the PSVR without a game, without this update there was only one proper mini-game in the collection you could play solo, it was really built around you playing with people in your living area. Toy Wars is a turret shooting game where you control a chaingun using your Dualshock 4. As the PSVR is a 3D camera, light tracking based system and the PS4 controllers have a tracking light as well as its own gyro sensors, it's honestly pretty cool how the Dualshock 4 can interface with VR games and be a trackable controller. In Toy Wars case, the controller is "placed" into the mounted chaingun and aimed with physical movement, while using a trigger to shoot. After a brief intro showing a backstory of pixel based aliens invading (did the movie Pixels steal from this, or vies versa?) and seeing the giant Astro Bot mechs local players can use if they join in, you're brought up to a living room, where you're small and on the ground. You're locked in place and shoot at waves of block based enemies with different behaviours that spawn in. You have about a 300 degree field to work with meaning enemies can spawn from the front, left and right. By having headtracking and a separate controller tracking your aiming this means you can shoot while scanning the playfield, or use the 3D audio to follow audio cues when enemies spawn in or get close to attacking you. It is fun, something that seemed pretty obvious to me when seeing VR when it became affordable and available to mainstream markets is how well it would work for gallery and rail shooters. I will say however this is honestly a very hard mini-game to beat as you have one life, and can only take one hit. I really wish you could take maybe 3 hits. Maybe this is balanced on when you have co-op players but that means there's less balance for when you're solo. If not that, letting you have AI buddies control those co-op players when solo could be nice. Also because I've tried and failed the mini-game a few times, I've seen another small issue that the intro and failure sequences aren't skippable on repeat plays. It was good of them to add a singleplayer mini-game that has you stationary though as that is reportedly the best kind of VR to start with to get your VR Legs.
Afterwards I tried the other mini-game that's playable singleplayer, Robot Rescue. This is a single level, 3D platformer mini-game where you play as an Astro Bot, rescuing other Astro Bots. Yes this is what eventually lead to that PS5 game. One of The Playroom VR's other gimmicks is rendering the controller in-game as it's tracked, which is already neat (something I've not seen in other PSVR games I've tried since) but they have a fun visual flair of rendering different shells onto the controller for different mini-games, which is best showcased here. Gameplay is simple enough here, you're overlooking the level from above while controlling the main Astrobot with the left stick and you can jump, hover and do melee attacks. Levels are laid out kind of like PS1 era Crash Bandicoot levels but on a bigger scale, a track you follow forwards. As you walk your bot through the level when you get a certain distance forward, your POV will also move forward to follow. I'll say this was a very odd feeling, despite technically being something you control it feels like you're being moved in 3D space instead of moving yourself. This was the main thing where I felt any sort of dizziness or weirdness in VR on my first day. It's also a bit annoying for gameplay because the playfield scrolls automatically when you push too far forward with the bot, you can unintentionally move forward and make the POV of the level you want awkward. As far as I can tell there's no way to move backwards, even if I run the bot towards my POV it will just run past you. I'm not sure if they expect you to 180 physically IRL to look behind you, but they primarily say the vast majority of PSVR games are intended to be played seated so I'm stumped. As you progress through the level there will be other bots dotted around the level that need to be rescued. By running up to them your bot kicks them in the behind which sends them flying into your controller's touchpad, which opens up to collect them which is fun. You also collect coins but I think in this version they're just for points. At points in the level you'll see grabble points which unlocks a gameplay feature, by aiming the controller in 3D place and flicking forward on the touchpad you launch a grapple hook that will attach to the grapple points and creates a tight rope which you can then jump onto as the bot to reach spaces. As this is attached to the control you can also adjust the angle in 3D to reach more spaces which is a fun gimmick. As you progress through the level the bots you need to rescue will start to be in more out of the way spaces, where you use 3D audio and properly looking around the space to find, though as mentioned if you shift the POV too far forward this can be awkward. I didn't manage to rescue every bot in my playthrough where I finished, there was a point in the level where there was a crane with a bot connected to it via a far away zip line and I didn't figure out how to interact with it at the time. There's also a few instances where objects in a level can interact with your head, early on this is brushing past some vines, good showcase of the 3D there. I decided to do my due dilligence here and it turns out there's specific areas, coins and bots you can only rescue when playing with a local co-op player. Again really showcasing how this game is intended for a local multiplaer experience. Maybe this is where people thought the market for VR was going to go or Sony in particular really wanted to show off their second screen experience but it does seem not long afterwards it was recognised the vast majority of multiplayer VR was going to be online. I did decide to give one more game a go, even though the auto scrolling in Rescue Bot felt a bit weird. Sony were really pushing PSVR so a lot of games got VR support or modes throughout its lifespan and one I happen to have is...
Gran Turismo Sport
Ahhh yes, the odd step-child of the Gran Turismo series. This always sounded like a weird one so I didn't get a copy until around the last year of its lifespan (the online servers are now offline though all the singleplayer gameplay content is intact) partly because it seemingly launched unfinished? Anyway Gran Turismo Sport has a VR mode and as you'd expect, much like the rest of the game that isn't FIA competitive racing, it's half-assed! VR mode is a separate section in the game, meaning that none of the main game modes can be played this way. This section has 3 modes. First there's a car viewer, where the VR compatible cars can be seen in a virtual showroom. Neat idea but it's implemented pretty basic here. You can move around the outside of the car and toggle the flashlights. That's it. Couldn't open the doors, get inside, open the hood or trunk, a very limited mode even compared to most showroom modes in most racing sims. Maybe the devs thought just seeing the cars in 3D was mindblowning enough. It is not.
Next are two racing modes, a casual drive and a time trial mode. I've only tried the casual drive mode. Though oddly you're still racing a CPU opponent in this mode. There's a selection of cars here, though I didn't thoroughly check through them all there seemed to be a decent list of car types, I don't think you need to unlock any for this mode. A lot of tracks to use as well, though if any of the tracks from the main game are missing here again I'm not sure, I'll have to check in the future. I picked the first car and the Kyoto Racing Park track and had a go. My first impression was it was very immersive being in the cockpit of the car and driving, being able to freely look around. There was a specific part of the track where you go up a short hill that then goes downward on a longer stretch and this was a wild sensation to feel, in a good way though. You can tell the details of the track and environment are downscaled here but the performance is stable which is the more important factor. This however related to an overall issue with these VR modes, the entire game feels downscaled. Unless I missed something in the setup, the driving physics and handling is very simplfied in this mode, feels like a Forza Horizon game with full assists on. You don't really need to slow down for corners and the starter car at least was super drifty without even trying. I'm not sure if this was done to make the gameplay more casual friendly or if the physics simulation had to be simplified for this mode to run. As I mentioned there's also a CPU opponent on the track. Yes, one. This modes feels like a lot of compromises had to be made for it to run at the locked framerate and in VR. This is something I found out later and will get to in a future blogpost, but a lot of games on PSVR are held back no so much by the PSVR hardware, but the PS4 itself. However it seems most PSVR games got PS4 Pro patches and possibly even general performance (resolution and/or refresh rate) boosts when running on PS4 Pro in performance mode, so that's something I'll check out with GT Sport in the future.
Closing Thoughts
Considering this was my first proper day messing with VR and I was misled into using glasses with it I decided to take a break for the day here as I was getting a small headache, though if that was the glasses, not setting up pupillary distance correctly, getting used to wearing the headset and the extra weight on my head or just getting my VR legs I'm not sure, but as the VR Show video recommends, it's better to not try and power through. So I spent some time double checking my PS4 digital library for PSVR compatible games. This is an aside but it is a massive pain browsing your library. There's no filter options besides seeing just PS+ games. If you want to filter those out, browse by genre or PSVR compatibility, nope.
Anyway while double checking this list I noticed that a few games I did not buy digitally were in my library, and not labelled with the PS+ symbol (I haven't had an active subscription in years it's pretty expensive these days and Sony got rid of 12 month redeem cards at some point). This might be region specific but at some point it seems like if you use a PSVR on your system, a few games will just unlock on your account for free. These were Astro Bot Rescue Mission (The Playroom VR's Robot Rescue spun into a full game), Moss and Rez Infinite. Weird how this isn't shown to you unless you manually browse the "purchased" section of your library, though these were still treated as free PSN purchases when I activated them, even got receipt emails for them. So strange but big props for giving PSVR users a better mix of free games to start out with, even if poorly advertised.
Next time will be covering more games, such as those given to me for free and others I had in my collection, plus trying out games using the PSMove controllers!