I’m still fairly new to the VR gaming life and a tad bit late in catching up on titles. I will admit VR never truly grasped my attention. It never convinced me that it’s the future of gaming. At least that is what I thought before I played Arizona Sunshine.
Before I continue, I would like to thank Newegg for providing a great experience at PAX East 2017. John Snedigar from Newegg provided a HTC Vive for the VR session that changed my point of view. Typically when playing games through VR I feel as though the games provide a unique perspective but have limitations. For example most of the games you are locked into a zone and make the game come to you. Arizona Sunshine uses the optics to move you outside that barrier.
Not only do these controls let you navigate the character but interact with objects like never before. Press the buttons on the side simultaneously to pick up ammo or interact with objects/obstacles (such as doorknobs). What further intrigued me with those interactions is that they were not only initiated by the simple touch of a button. When you reach for a gun it won’t magically appear in your hand from the distance you are to walk to the item and sometimes will have to bend the knees a bit to be able to reach down. The accuracy provided by the device and the game were spot on.
Arizona Sunshine refreshed the zombie apocalypse for me. From the way you navigate to the way you slay. Taking aim and shooting feels natural. It reminds me of arcade shooters with a bit more detail. For instance, to reload you reach at your utility belt while holding an action button and grab a magazine reload. You must be careful when doing this because you can end up dropping the ammo. It’s easy to do when you are surrounded by zombies and panicking and want to make sure you survive. The thing is, this is not like the typical shooters in which you can really load at any time without any repercussions. When you reload early you lose the remaining bullet on the old clip. Yes, it’s a pain but it really gets you to ration your ammo and memorize the bullet count per clip. The fundamentals of the zombie apocalypse.
The title of the game lets you know what to expect from it. Intense yet beautiful like that of the sun in Arizona. The use of the optics was impressive. I enjoyed Arizona Sunshine. By my reaction, you would have thought that this was a deep session but this all happened in a matter of ten minutes. Shows how much of an impression it made. Thanks, Newegg!
[label]Oz Chimes In[/label] Huge thanks to Newegg for providing this demo, It was definitely fun checking out Arizona Sunshine and some of the other cool products they had set up for us to check out. For example a Predator laptop with eye tracking technology was amazing to witness. Clicking with a blink of an eye is something that would be a game changer for a gamer with a disability. Then we got a look at a Nvidia Geforce GTX 1080 Ti. Lastly, we got a look at a drone. There is a huge market opening up with the Drone Racing League where your drone is equipped with a camera and you’re racing/flying around in first person wearing VR type goggles. Check out the images of all of this below.
