Methinks they protest too much, though, since some of the actual reviews are somewhat less effusive, once you read down the pages a bit.
Por ejemplo... The Verge:
For every thoughtful design decision, though, there’s a reminder that PlayStation VR isn’t a totally novel gaming system, but a patchwork of various weird Sony experiments that may have finally found their purpose. It’s a new headset inspired by a personal 3D theater from 2012, paired with a set of motion controllers that were released in 2010, plus a camera peripheral that’s been around in some form since 2003.
On one hand, Sony deserves credit for seeing the potential in all these things. On the other, it’s saddled PlayStation VR with the worst motion controls of any major headset. The PlayStation Move controllers are painfully limited compared to either Oculus Touch or the HTC Vive remotes, simply because their interface is a bad fit for VR. They’re pimpled with four miniscule face buttons that are almost pointless for anything but menu selections, with inlaid, difficult-to-find options buttons along the sides. The only useful elements are a single trigger and one large, awkwardly positioned button at the top. The Move was originally paired with a second, smaller peripheral bearing an analog stick and directional pads; without it, navigating menus (including the main PS4 interface) involves dragging your controller like the world’s clumsiest mouse.
The most commonly overlooked element of virtual reality is headtracking. Having two displays cover your peripheral vision is just one part of the equation. Tracking head movement, and replicating it on-screen with as little delay as possible is absolutely pivotal to immersion.
The PlayStation VR relies on the PS4 Camera, which has effectively inherited the internals of the PlayStation Eye with minor adjustment. In other words, it's an outdated piece of tracking technology that was originally intended only to track the PlayStation Move hand controllers.
The problem is that every minor flaw of the PS4 Camera's technology is amplified when it's used to track your head movements at over 60 frames per second. Missed frames and delayed response of hand movement was a mere inconvenience when it came to tracking PlayStation Move. These technical shortcomings are dramatic when it comes to headtracking.
Or VG24/7:
It’s a lot of money – you could buy a console and a bunch of good games for the same price – and you need to accept that this isn’t the future of video games. It’s a new direction, and an interesting one, for sure. But it’s not going to replace your console and TV set-up anytime in the next 10 years. At this stage there’s a lot of fun to be had with VR and the games I’ve played so far show variety, with a handful offering up a genuinely new experience. But as with any launch, some games are great and others mediocre.But I think the site that eventually came closest, at least so far, to my own assessment of PSVR may be Gizmodo:
Selling VR tech with actual games people want to play is a big problem for not just Playstation VR, but VR as a whole. There’s a distinct feeling of impermanence to the concept. Games are all brief and feel more like technical showcases than experiences meant to consistently entertain. Outside of Battlezone, which has a major online competitive mode, and the puzzle titles, which are replayable by nature, none of the games I played had much lasting value. Spending $20-$50 for a very short game feels excessive.
Not a single VR system has a game I’m thirsting to return to again and again like I might to Witcher 3 or Overwatch, and support for games from major game developers is still relatively sparse. They seem to be playing the same game consumers have played up until now—waiting to see how the tech will pan out before jumping in with both feet and investing their dollars.Is PlayStation VR interesting? Yes. Should you try it out, if you have a chance? Sure. Do you need to own one? Not at all. Seriously, just save your money. Or, at the very least, try it before you buy it.
There's a lot more to all of these reviews than the excerpts I've presented here, obviously, so if you own a PS4, have US$500 or so burning a hole in your bank account, and have a hankering to drop a chunk of chedda on a whiz-bang gizmo that you'll only barely use for a month or so before going back to playing games with gamepad and HDTV just like you have for years, then by all means, check them out -- there's lots of detail about the set-up experience, the games they've tried, and so on. Kotaku, for example, says that PSVR wins out over the technically more impressive HTC Vive and Oculus Rift entirely on the strength of "the best line up of games on any VR system. Ever." (Which may well be true, but considering that there are almost no fully-realized, VR-exclusive games for any of the current-gen VR systems, it's clearing an awfully low bar.)
UPDATE: I'd originally misidentified Giznodo's review as being from their sister site, Kotaku. This turns out to be much, much more important than you might think, because Kotaku's review is... well, see for yourself:
UPDATE: I'd originally misidentified Giznodo's review as being from their sister site, Kotaku. This turns out to be much, much more important than you might think, because Kotaku's review is... well, see for yourself:
Let’s cut to the chase: PlayStation VR should be better. At its best, Sony’s new virtual reality headset manages to conjure the astonishing, immersive wonder of modern virtual reality. Just as often it is frustratingly held back by outdated hardware that can’t quite do what’s being asked of it.
PlayStation VR is Sony’s answer to cutting-edge VR headsets like the Facebook-backed Oculus Rift and the Valve-backed HTC Vive. On paper, it offers much the same experience as its competitors at a lower price, powered not by an expensive gaming PC but by a somewhat less expensive PlayStation 4 console.
I’ve been using the PSVR for the better part of a week and have played a handful of the games that will be available at launch. I’ve been impressed by some things, turned off by others, and made nauseous by a few. Throughout that time I’ve also been disappointed. Sony’s lovely, well designed headset is consistently undermined by inferior motion controllers, an underpowered console, and a lackluster camera.Harsh, but fair. The Kotaku review is easily the best I've read so far, with tons of detail (and video clips) about their experiences with specific games like Arkham VR -- it is a MUST READ, if you're considering buying a PSVR.