The hydraulic purr of the crossed S-foils. The scream of a Tie-Fighter inches from your cockpit. The dazzling blue of a jump to hyperspace.
There have been few moments in cinematic history to have simultaneously been both so out of reach and to have inspired so many dreams as the prospect of piloting your own X-Wing fighter. But now, thanks to the PlayStation VR headset and EA’s Star Wars Battlefront game, that dream, almost 40 years in the making, has become as close to reality as it’s ever likely to be.
Star Wars Battlefront: Rouge One – X-Wing VR Mission is not only the best virtual reality experience I’ve had, but one of the most enjoyable things I’ve ever experienced – and I got married last weekend.
As a Star Wars super-fan, it’s only fair that I temper expectations a little at this point. After all, to sit “inside” a fully-realised X-Wing cockpit is to satisfy a decades-old wish for some Star Wars fanatics. But the experience built by the teams at EA and developer Criterion is more than just fan-service – it’s a great VR showcase in its own right.
The X-Wing VR Mission is, remarkably, a free-add on component for the hit first person shooter Star Wars Battlefront, exclusive to the PlayStation VR. At only 20 or so minutes long and covering just a single mission, you can understand why it’s being offered up free of charge – but the quality is so high that it could easily have justified a small price tag, and is a sure sign of things to come.
Red Five standing by…
The mission sees you become a member of the famed Rogue Squadron, the elite X-Wing fighter pilot fleet. Starting off in a serene Rebel convoy on the edge of a nebula, you’ll eventually make the jump to hyperspace to rescue the stars of the forthcoming Rogue One film from an asteroid belt – and an inevitable Empire attack
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This is despite the series being so perfectly suited to the genre, with its iconic ships and varied flight locations, as well as being home to some of the most well-loved flight sim games ever. 1994’s X-Wing: Tie Fighter in particular stands out as being particularly well realised and full of depth, letting you pilot a Dark Side fighter, while the original vector based Star Wars arcade machine was one of the most influential of its day.
It was a fine tradition that saw the heady heights of the Rogue Squadron games from the N64 through to the Nintendo Gamecube, until developer Factor 5 fell foul of an exclusivity deal with PlayStation and went bust.
But with renewed interest in the Star Wars universe fuelled by the latest movies (as if it ever really died down) and the VR technology finally able to realise the dream, the time is right for a Rogue Squadron revival.
The Force is strong with this one, and to have just a taste of a full game with multiple missions and craft like this is as tantalising as it is cruel. Do or do not, EA, there is no try.
Source: TechRadar