At the Tokyo Game Show last week, thousands of people were introduced to some of the world’s most cutting-edge technology. Naturally, virtual reality was a big part of the show. We already compiled some of Palmer Luckey’s best moments during TGS for you, but now we want to shift gears to something a bit different. Amidst the jump scares, creepy simulators, and bizarre new VR experiments, there were more serious forms of artistic expression as well, such as Rez Infinite.
This upcoming reboot of the Rez franchise is coming exclusively to PlayStation VR once Sony’s headset launches next month. At TGS, people were treated to a brand new area of the game, never before seen, known as Area X. You can see the trailer for it below:
While it may go without saying, I’m going to say it anyway: It’s absolutely gorgeous. VR may not have made tears roll down my face quite yet personally, it has been known to have that impact on people. Oculus’ own Callum Underwood and Palmer Luckey himself both admitted as much from TGS specifically:
Yesterday I cried in VR
— Callum Underwood (@DevRelCallum) September 18, 2016
Same. That was incredible. https://t.co/rQFvC56PsZ
— Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey) September 18, 2016
It’s still unclear what they were referring to there, as some people have already started speculating on Reddit, and while it very well may have been Rez Infinite, it also could have been LIFE’s VR content, which was unveiled this week as well. Or something else entirely. We now know that they were in fact referring to Rez. More detail is in an update at the end of this story.
Regardless, one thing is certain: Area X is already causing the game’s creator, Tetsuya Mizuguchi, and Ars Technica’s Sam Machkovech to cry. In that interview with Ars, Mizuguchi admits that he is “crying all the time” while playing and watching people play Area X.
In a recent PlayStation blog post, the mode is detailed more specifically. As you can tell from the trailer above, it shares many of the same stylistic patterns as the core game itself, it’s still something new. Mizuguchi writes that, Area X is a designed to be a focused, replayable experience, that uses simple shooting mechanics as a means to induce ‘synesthesia,’ an effect where perceiving something with one sense triggers another sense – like you can ‘see sounds,’ or ‘hear colours.'”
We haven’t had a chance to go hands-on with this new Area X content yet, but it’s shaping up to be one of the best reasons to dive into the game once it releases on October 13th. You can read more about the game from our 50 Days of PS VR countdown series, in which we spotlighted Rez Infinite for our very first entry.
Have any VR experiences evoked tears from your eyes yet? Let us know down in the comments if so!
Update: Palmer Luckey has confirmed via Twitter that Rez was in fact the game he alluded to in his previous tweet:
It was incredible. So glad I got to try this. The feelings of this writer are not unique. https://t.co/snyKScuWXg
— Palmer Luckey (@PalmerLuckey) September 22, 2016
Callum Underwood confirmed as much as well.
